Here’s an update on my progress with using the Ride Your Way Lean program to lose weight. Selene Yeager’s program works, but it’s pretty intense. The good news: a combination of the eating program, the exercises and the cycling drills will certainly enable most people to get leaner, lighter and stronger, and cycle faster than ever.
A few weeks ago I blogged about starting Selene Yeager’s (aka Fit Chick) get fit/lose weight program, as described in her book Ride Your Way Lean: The Ultimate Plan for Burning Fat and Getting Fit on a Bike. I threatened to take the book out for a looooooong test drive – and I have, in spades. I even have the injuries to prove it.
My first mistake was forgetting I’m no longer 25. (I do that a lot.) I plunged right into a new workout and speed intervals on my bike, on top of my usual bike-commuting miles. Within nine days I blew out both my knees, and could hardly walk for a couple of days. I think it was the squats (possibly combined with the speed intervals on my bike). Maggie has been telling me not to do squats for years, and I’ve been resolutely ignoring her for years. But after this last humiliating experience of hardly being able to walk, I’ve decided to listen to her – and to my body.
But I do think the exercise program is an excellent program for cyclists, provided you leave out any exercises that you know don’t agree with you.
Thanks to my BionX-assisted bike I was able to get back on a bike a few days later, and eased right back into regular cycling pretty quickly. I have also eased back into the exercise program – but not the squats. Already I see a really big difference in my mid-section, thanks to all the boring core exercises that I am forcing myself to do. I’m definitely sitting and standing taller and straighter, and feel taller on my bike too. Always a good thing.
Do you lose weight on the Ride Your Way Lean Diet?
Yeager said the exercises would make me look slimmer instantly, but I can’t say that happened. However, after a few weeks there is definitely a visible difference, and my pants are way looser. I’m not sure if that’s because of core strength or because I’ve lost about 10 pounds.
Losing 10 pounds means that the Ride Your Way Lean program has so far taken me 20% of the way towards losing 50 pounds!
What is the Ride Your Way Lean eating program?
The Ride Your Way Lean eating program is not a diet. Rather, Yeager describes it as a quantum shift in the way you think about food. To me, this seems to boil down to eating as healthily as humanly possible. I was already eating very well, but following some of Yeager’s recommendations enabled me to take it up a notch.
The Top 10 Bike Your Way Lean Eating Rules
- Eat breakfast (preferably including an egg or two).
- Eat often (keep the furnace burning!).
- Eat real food (foods that you “recognize as part of an animal or plant” – what part of what animal is a doughnut?)
- Eat more protein and fat, and relatively less carbs (although it’s definitely not a low-carb Atkins kind of diet): carbs – 50%; fats – 30%; protein – 20%.
- Good fat does not make you fat!
- The carbs you eat should be fibre-rich, such as fruits and veggies.
- Nix carbs that end in “ini” – such as fettuccini, linguini, rotini, etc. (and pasta in general).
- Ditch the all or nothing thinking – one mistake should not lead to a “well I blew it so let’s go crazy” kind of day.
- Maximize your macro-nutrients (the foods your body really needs).
- Time your eating intelligently (there’s a whole lot of really good stuff about timing eating around workouts).
After a couple of weeks of following the program as much as my body would permit, plus cutting right down on the less-than-good foods that I love (basically frozen yoghurt, dark chocolate and wine), I had lost all my Christmas weight and was feeling really motivated. Then I decided to take it up yet another notch by following Matt Fitzgerald’s recommendations in Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance – but more about this in another post. Net result however has been a highly encouraging ten-pound weight loss.
Bottom line here: Yeager’s program works, but it’s pretty intense, so if you’re no longer in the first flush of youth, approach with caution – ease into it, don’t dive in (as I stupidly did). The good news: a combination of the eating program, the exercises and the cycling drills will certainly enable most people to get leaner, lighter and stronger, and cycle faster than ever! Plus the cycling drills bring in some variety, causing you to push yourself a bit harder on your bike. So my advice would be, go ahead and buy Yeager’s Ride Your Way Lean: The Ultimate Plan for Burning Fat and Getting Fit on a Bike – you’ve got nothing to lose but your belly.
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paddyanne says
Just the other day I was thinking of your first post on this subject and how it was going – thanks for doing an update! I have a steel plate in one knee, so gave up things involving deep knee bends a number of years ago. Since then I even wonder at anyone of any age, doing them and whether its really a good idea. I’m glad you are seeing results with this – now I’ve got to do something to loose some weight myself!
Average Joe Cyclist says
Hi Paddyanne. I am also very stoked about the Racing Weight book – I will write about it next post. For me it’s about 2 things – optimizing health and losing some weight (which of course improves health as well). Racing Weight is about optimal diet quality, rather than deprivation – which is an approach I really like. Come to think of it, so is Ride your Way Lean … I like that they are both ways of healthy life, not temporary periods of extreme deprivation.
Clark says
Yeah, that’s the only way really. To design your lifestyle to just keep you in shape normally as a byproduct of doing your things.
Alex P says
I think it really works… at about the same time, I moved out of university dorm and therefore no longer ate the fatty fried cafeteria food for all 3 meals, and also bought a bike to get to class and work faster. Within months, people said they barely recognized me!
Hiroko says
I used to be an avid bike to work guy until last year I ended up on the wrong side of a bicycle mvaiinn collision. The driver pulled out from a stop sign directly in my path. She never saw me, I was wearing an orange sweatshirt, it was the brightest thing I owned at the time. Thankfully didn’t get seriously hurt, bike was a loss, and did put a good scare into my family and friends, enough so that I don’t bike to work anymore. After my accident I went to a sporting goods store and bought three of the brightests shirst and jackets I could find I just saw your product thru the post-gazette and ordered two new shirts for myself. I’ve taken some good natured ribbing from my friends about my new bright attire, and will probably take a bit more due to the unique design of your product. Honestly though, you have to be pretty naive to believe you look good in bicycle clothes, period. I hope your company is a success financially and ideologically.
Jenny Schirmer says
Thanks for the great comments about Ride Your Way Lean. I bought the book last year, read it, didn’t try it yet. So now I’m ready (after reading your blog). My question to those that have used the program is ‘How do I ride the planned rides in a suburban setting? I think I will have trouble doing the intervals as prescribed in the program due to traffic lights, traffic, and not being able to find routes that will allow for the intervals. I could do intervals lasting 1-2 mins but not 5+ minutes. Plus I live in a very flat area (Virginia Beach, VA) and an overpass counts as a ‘hill.” So any suggestions would be very helpful. Thanks!!
Average Joe Cyclist says
Hi Jenny; I am glad to hear you have been inspired to start the program! You’re in a tough situation for the intervals. I am lucky to live 5 minutes from a long off road track, so I go there and go back and forth pretty well – the only time I may have to slow down is if there are pedestrians. You might want to invest in a bike rack and take yourself out to something suitable, if there is anything within an easily drivable distance. I wrote a review on a good bike rack, the Thule Helium, here.
As for the hills, I think you’re out of luck there … I wonder if you could achieve the same effect with heavy weights in your panniers?