ride on the weekend and trying to do 2-3 rides during the week of 5-6
miles each
cut

When I roll out of bed for an early a.m. ride during the week, I can't
get going.
cut

I figured I'd try a banana
before my ride and it helps. Not sure how many minutes the body needs
to pick up the pluses of a banana. I've also put a 50% water/50%
Powerade mixture in my water bottle and drink that up during my 30
minute ride. Now the big question (for me): Would a Clif bar (or its
lower calorie and lower carb sister, the Luna bar) really be that
disasterous. I figure I'd eat one before I set out. For a long weekend
ride, perhaps one during the ride too.

You on the path to disaster as it is. Banannas are high carb and Powerade is a
major no-no. For your 25-30 mile ride you could have either the bananna OR one
very watered down poweraid dring DURING the ride, but if your consuming alll
that before the ride your not in keytosis. That would explain your lack of
energy when you get up in the morning. Ive never been a morning person, it
would take me about an hour to where I was coherent. Now I can jump out of bed
and be ready to go.
If you can still be eating that and loosing weight at the same time, you may
want to continue, but if you have stalled, you may have too many carbs coming
in.
Ive been on the diet for 6 weeks now and am still loosing weight, the only
problem is while I can still ride 25-40 miles, my average speed has dropped
2mph. I feel thats a fair trade. Most people buy things for their bike because
they weigh 2 grams lighter, Imagin shedding 30 pounds!

Troy