Having an expensive bike doesn't mean you will cycle up hills any easier and any quicker. You can, however, start by losing some weight, buy a run of the mill bike and then use the money you saved buying your partner a present.
"This post is intended for those new to cycling and want to get in to shape"
One step at a time; you may have to lose weight first, to avoid hurting your knees, or you may not be enjoying cycling and then give up! (This will depend on your weight and the last time you cycled or done any type of physical exercise)
"Exercising & diet speeds up your metabolism and makes it easy to lose weight"
Diet is over 80% the way you will lose weight. Cycling in time will help burn off the stubborn fat around your belly, tone muscle/preserve muscle and increase your cycling performance.
Sleep and rest days are more important than riding days, your body needs time to recover after being stressed. Have a day or 2 of rest between riding, in fact, recovery is crucial to building you a leaner body.
"Losing a bit of weight before you start cycling will make it easy on the hills and on your legs, making cycling more enjoyable"
Losing weight and getting fit - Needs to come from your vision, the right attitude and making sacrifices. By that I mean; if you plan to go for a bike ride Sunday morning, but you go drinking with your friends Saturday night! - If you don't change then in 10 years time things will be the same.
Preparation
Before jumping straight on to a bike
Diet
There are so many diets out there it can get confusing, I have studied many of them and the only one that will not only get you to your optimum weight it will also build/heal your health. It's the Weston A Price Diet .
Eating a healthy diet is 80% to losing weight and maintaining health. Cycle/exercise, sleeping, and reducing stress is the other 20%.
Start by removing one or two of these items and adding whole clean foods.
Wheat should be the first thing you stop eating. (That's bread, pizza, pasta, bagels and cup cakes) As wheat increases insulin levels higher than sugar, that results in storing fat and a high risk of disease.
Eat all foods in moderation, increase portion intake using vegetables, then from meats, eggs and cheeses. (Do not over do protein as your liver needs to work harder and that go's for coffee intake on your kidneys)
Educate yourself:
What not to eat:
What to eat:
Don't:
Give time from your body to change to running on fat and not storing it. This should be while you do moderate excursive and build up slowly. Make it a life change and not a fad!
Exercises
After a few weeks of walking you can move on to these two exercise:
TIP: I don’t advise using weights on your legs unless you can recover in time for your cycling workouts.
Get riding more
And start to see a difference