Lovin' It Low Carb

I have been low carbing a lot longer than I have been motorcycling, but today the two intersected really well.

My First Ride on my Honda Shadow

I bought a motorcycle last Saturday, and this morning after I called my insurance agent to add it to my policy, I wanted to go for a ride. I live in Los Angeles, so I chose to ride up the Pacific Coast Highway a little ways.

I was thinking about going up from Santa Monica at least as far as Malibu, and ended up going all the way up to Point Magu, about 50 miles from where I started.

A nice motorcylist at Point Magu took this picture of me on my bike:

I started the ride late in the morning, when it was almost lunch time. I usually keep a couple of pepperoni sticks in my backpack in case I can’t find anything low carb to eat, but I ended up stopping for lunch at McDonalds in Malibu.

Low Carb Lunch at McDonalds

I was very hungry, and was going to be riding for at least a few hours, so I got, not one, but TWO Big Macs! In lettuce wraps instead of buns, please. And iced tea.

The counter person who took my order had never taken an order for a lettuce-wrapped burger before, but the kitchen made them for me: Two all-beef patties, special sauce, onion, cheese, (hold the pickles), in a lettuce wrap…

And, here’s my happy face as I am getting down to my last few bites…

Not the same quality as grassfed or pastured beef, I know, but probably better than some of the high-carb things I could be getting on the road. Another concern is the vegetable oil that is undoubtedly in the special sauce. Most likely it is full of the vegetable oils I try hardest to avoid, like canola or soy.

Nutrition Update:

ONE bunless Big Mac contains: Calories 330, Fat 26g, Sat Fat 9g, Carb 6g, Sugar 3g (2 in sauce, 1 in cheese), Protein 18g. The main ingredient in the special sauce is (I guessed it!) Soybean oil. And the sugars listed in the ingredients include: sugar, corn syrup AND high fructose corn syrup.

When I eat at McD, which is actually pretty rare these days, I usually have a plain double cheeseburger without the bun, and save myself from the garbage in the special sauce!!

Going Grassfed

I have some really good grass-fed beef jerky from U.S. Wellness Meats, that I plan to take with me on future rides. But I’m going to need to add some kind of fat to make that a meal. For riding, it might have to be macadamia nuts or coconut butter.

Today it was McDonalds.

 

The rest of this post is about my motorcycle and scooters. Please skip it if you’re not interested …

 

A Brief History of my Motorcycles

I was laid off a few months ago.

The thing is, I was told about it 22 months before it was going to happen! So, I had A LOT to time to prepare. Most of my preparations were related to saving money, and one of the things I decided to do was to buy a scooter, so I could stay mobile without spending a fortune on gasoline.

I didn’t know that I had just created a monster hobby that would use up all my disposable income for the rest of my life! Now I know.

I started out with a fun little orange scooter, called a TNG Lowboy (150cc), in October 2008.

(This was me about 40 pounds ago, in December 2008.)

By the end of the year (2008), I had taken the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Basic Rider Course, and was ready for something bigger!

In January 2009, I bought this 2007 Suzuki Burgman 400 from an ad on Craig’s list:

My Burgman had about 10,000 miles on it when I got it, and I put on almost 5,000 more.

Then in February 2010, a clutch repair was needed that was about to cost almost as much as I paid for the whole bike… and involved several weeks of backordered parts. I wanted to tour the States on my Burgman, but I decided that I will not tour on a bike that cannot be repaired more easily and more cheaply than this!

Mid-repair, I bailed on the Burgman, and and bought a Honda! Honda has thousands of dealers across the nation. Having a more mainstream, non-scooter motorcyle gets me into a more mainstream market. Bigger batches of spare parts. Third-party spare parts might even be available in a pinch. I am pretty confident that I can find a mechanic in any major city in the U.S. who can get me back on the road in less than 6 weeks, and replace my clutch for way, way less than $2,000.

My Honda Shadow has 2,100 miles on it, so it is almost like brand new! After a four-hour ride, my clutching and shifting muscles are a little sore from the sudden increase in useage, but I expect to get used to that real soon!

You can tell I’m excited!!!

So, you won’t be surprised that I can’t resist just one more picture of my bike…
This is at McDonalds in Malibu:

If you are actually interested in following my motorcycle adventures, I have set up a separate blog for that: lovin it on 2 wheels

 

Lovin’ It Low Carb
Ramona Denton