Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Gastritis

A couple months ago, if I had been asked who my biggest enemies were, I would've probably jokingly said something like cars, or bad drivers, or inattentive drivers. Something having to do with the people I have to watch out for while biking around. For the last month or so, however, I'm going to change my answer.

Why am I changing my answer? Because my current enemy doesn't seem to be a big fan of either coffee, or bikes. I started this blog to ramble about coffee I've drunk, with the side notion that maybe I'd find a way to sneak bikes into it as well. And now, I've got very little to talk about either.

For the last month, I've basically been kept from both by gastritis. Basically, something caused me to develop a hole in the mucus membrane of my stomach causing a bunch of pain and difficulty eating. One big dietary change everyone says is to cut out coffee, so that was gone almost right away. Followed by a nasty few days of more head pain, as I had to force an immediate caffeine withdrawal on myself.

Biking went along with the eating difficulty. Normally, I was eating about 2,600 Calories to maintain weight while cycling. Now, 2,000 is a pretty good day, and 1,800 is average, and 1,200 is survivable, but miserable. The exercise just isn't sustainable. Previously, I was at 20 miles a day, commuting to work, running errands on the weekend, for fun, for transport, and just because I felt like it. Now, if I just feel like it, I have to be prepared to feel tired and exhausted for the rest of the day. I can't physically eat enough to maintain my body, and add the exercise.

So, for now, I'm taking it one day at a time, adjusting everything as need be. Eating the weirdest, and at the same time, most boring diet I've ever had. I'll probably have to pivot to sharing interesting bike content and weird recipes I've found or made work.

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