While it's not my main motivation when I work out, sometimes at the end of a really long and challenging workout the thought of how good the food I plan to eat afterwards will taste seems to be what keeps me going. I can recall one such time many years ago possibly the very first time it happened on a bike vividly.

About a year or so before, I had been advised by doctors to stop running because of degeneration probably genetic and not a direct result of running 50 to 70 miles a week for five-plus years in my kneecaps. As a result, I had decided to start lifting weights more like a bodybuilder and less like a runner to add some muscle mass.I would use some form of bicycling indoors or outdoors to augment that and provide some form of aerobic exercise.It didn't take long, however, for me to realize that my body was not genetically predisposed to adding the amount of muscle typically found on serious bodybuilders and I still had the desire to do some form of athletics seriously. Since I was finding the time I spent on the bike outside more and more enjoyable, I began to consider bicycle racing.I decided to use the upcoming Saturday ride as a test.I'd ride harder and ride farther than I had ever ridden before. Then I'd see how I felt riding the next day and decide whether or not to start training like a cyclist.I didn't know much about cycling, but realized it would be quite an investment of time. Whereas I would only run for more than two hours if I was specifically training for a marathon, for instance, I knew cyclists who considered three hours the average time of a weekend ride.I also knew serious cycling would be a significant financial commitment. Back then I could have purchased 10 pairs of high-quality running shoes for the cost of an entry-level that's right, entry-level racing bicycle.The ride that Saturday went as well as I could have hoped for the first 65 miles.But I hadn't had enough to eat and drink before and during the ride, so with 10 miles to go I bonked big time. Pushing down on the pedals with any force made the deep meaty insides of my leg sting as if bees were inside me. Climbing any sort of hill spread the sting to my upper back and upper arms.I should've stopped and gotten a ride home, but this was years before cyclists carried cell phones; therefore, I slogged on with one thought spurring me forward: how good that fruit salad I had prepared before the ride was going to taste afterwards.And did it ever.The chilled juices of the honeydew and the watermelon and the strawberries and the blueberries had commingled perfectly and packed each fruit slice with a succulent sweetness that I truly savored. I remember licking the salad bowl to get every last drop of the juice and then being startled when I stood up to wash it.The stinging had left my legs. In fact, when I walked the degree of effort seemed remarkably close to normal.Fruit salad to the rescue.I felt as if I had discovered the optimal recovery meal for an over-the-top bike ride until I hopped on the bike the next morning. My legs felt dead, my whole body devoid of any sort of energy.The fruit salad had given me a false sense of recovery. I did some research and found out why.Simple carbohydrates, such as the sugars found in fruits, do not replace glycogen the stored energy kept in muscle cells as quickly or efficiently as complex carbohydrates. And one of the primary forms of fruit sugar fructose really doesn't help recovery much at all.And after a relatively small amount of fructose is processed by the liver to be used as energy primary by the brain, the rest is likely to be stored as fat.In fact, one of the articles that I read called fruit nature's candy, and its author urged bodybuilders wanting to attain the lowest body fat percentage possible to avoid eating any fruit whatsoever.I knew that a low percentage of body fat would help a cyclist climb better and realized that even if I didn't decide to race competitively that I wanted to carry as little body fat as possible. From that day on, I eliminated fruit from my diet.So why the trip down memory lane all of a sudden?No, I haven't uncovered some sort of research that would make me start eating fruit again, but close.There has been work done with grapefruit that should interest just about anyone who reads this column since just about everyone who reads this column is interested in maintaining a healthy weight or losing some to get healthier. The details of the research and how they apply to you will be the crux of next week's column.