When strangers start asking you how the training is going and why there haven’t been any updates, you know it’s been too long since you’ve seen the inside of your website.
Training is going WELL dear readers! I officially have Thighs of Steel.
Yeah, just like those except bigger and steelier.
The big advancement this week has been the move from 3 running days a week to 4. That means one day is back-to-back running, which was scary, but seems to be just fine. Four shorter runs that focus on either speed, hills, or form, and one long run that just focuses on the distance.
Three days a week I’m also at the gym working upper body and abs so that the rest of my body doesn’t completely atrophy as I build up the legs of an Olympian. That would look weird, right?
As for my Nutrition Plan, well when you burn over 1000 calories in a workout, there is a VERY STRONG desire to eat lots and lots of food afterwards. I could easily throw back 2500 calories post-long run and end up actually gaining weight. Huge bummer but not uncommon and I wrote about this danger HERE.
So, I am being as careful as I can to log everything I eat over at sparkpeople.com and to stay in line with my actual calorie requirements, as well as macro and micro-nutrients. I keep telling myself ”Whatever you eat extra, you’ll have to carry with you for 42.2K.” That tends to dampen my desire for over-eating. But sometimes I still goof up and I’ve got the story to prove it:
One day, perhaps I was pms-y, but I really wanted to eat a lot of chocolate. I bought myself a 100g Vered HaGalil Dark Chocolate bar and portioned it out for myself over the course of a day. Sounds reasonable, right? I thought so at the time, even though I could read as plain as day on the label that my little treat contained 500 calories. I burned at least that much in my workout so I “deserved” this and could “absorb” it.
Well, next day I went out for a run and had a horrible time of it. Total Bonk-City. And for the Brits who think bonking means I had whoopie while running, in Yank English, a Bonk equals terrible joint pain, legs slow and lead-filled, racing heart, gasping for breath. I mean, seriously unpleasant. Not at all like British Bonking. Or maybe… nah, I’m not going there.
Anyway…
I reviewed my previous day: Sleep? great; Rest? plenty; Back-to-back workout? no; Mental state? fine; Nutrition? all fine except for that big old Bar o’ Bliss! I started thinking “I really enjoyed that chocolate bar, but seriously, I used 500 calories on pure junk, nothing at all that my body could use and probably quite a bit that caused it harm. I wonder how this run would have felt if I had eaten 500 calories of something healthy like protein, complex carbs, veggies, greens, sprouts…?”
At that moment I promised myself that if I feel the need to eat 500 calories, then I will, but I’m not going to waste it on crap when it can mean the difference between a great run and awful pain and suffering.
I don’t know how many of you can see it, but that is a pretty huge mental leap forward. When you start looking at the long-term effects of your food BEFORE you put it in your mouth, you are well on the road to a healthier body and life.
Back when I first began my weight loss journey, I remember making that mental shift from “ooo, this is so good and so tasty and I just LOVE eating it!” to “Hm, so this is going to taste great for like 20 minutes, but then there is going to be too much sugar in my blood, which is going to start damaging my organs for Pete’s sake, not to mention giving me a tummy ache and heartburn and that sinking sense of disappointment in myself for throwing my plans and goals away yet again…” Whoa, Bummer Train!
I am not saying that food should not equal pleasure! Eating is delightfully pleasurable and I’ve got a recipe index on this website to prove it. But you must look beyond the immediate pleasure and evaluate what you put in your mouth for more than just it’s immediate return.
There’s definitely a time for chocolate. You just have to be prepared to carry it’s bags.
Hi Emily
I’m really not there yet – and am still very much all about the ‘instant gratification’. It frustrates me as I ruin a lot of the good work I’ve put in over the rest of the day or week.
I hope that my mindset is able to change, as yours was.
Deb
I am SO glad you didn’t write something along the lines of “but a square or two tastes exactly the same as a whole bar”. I sort of understand people who say that, but nobody really seems to acknowledge the urge to eat a portion large enough to satiate whatever your particular hunger may be. (I like healthy food, I just like ALOT of it…)