Wednesday, March 7, 2007

The Fat Monster

Nytro's Post about Cadbury Eggs has me thinking. I've been keeping track of calories off and on on fitday. Ironically, the days I'm trying to keep a lid on it are the days that the fabled Feeding Frenzy kicks in around 5:30 and I proceed to, seemingly without control, eat everything within a ten mile radius. Well, not everything - I tend to stick to plan as far as what I eat, just now how much. And I've been eating cereal again - which is not in the plan. And a few other things not on plan - like the occasional cookie or piece of chocolate. And way too many nuts and raisins. None of that is life changing, none of it is really causing the scale to creep up. Its not making it go down, but there is no real tragedy here. I'm on the low end of a healthy weight. I would love to lose some body fat before my uniform gets here. At the very least, before my first race. I'm at about 20% right now which is not unhealthy, per se, but its not real pretty either. Still, why am I so worried about this? As long as I'm eating the healthy stuff with very occasional forays into the sweet stuff I love, shouldn't my training take care of the rest?

I guess the real issue here is motivation. I'm very motivated to train - I enjoy it and I don't want footprints on my back come race day. I'm very motivated to eat healthy food - I also enjoy it and I like the way I feel when I eat "clean". I'm not so motivated to be hungry. Even a little bit hungry sucks in my book. Especially when my brain pipes in: "What's the problem? You're not overweight. You look pretty good in those jeans, if I may say so. And you are working that body like a crazy woman. So have a cookie. I like cookies." I'm not sure a perfectly ripped body is worth going forever without chocolate. Or even going without chocolate for a week. Or skipping a couple of glasses of wine on the weekend. And it definately doesn't feel worth being hungry. I may change my mind on race day when my "famine insurance" is spooging over my shorts but I'm just not feelin' it now.

Crazy? Reasonable? The first time I've sounded sane since I started all this? I dunno. I'm going to have a cookie.

4 comments:

Bolder said...

first off, linking Nytro is genius... she'll be here in 20 minutes... you may get your subscribership to 4!

hmmmmm... kind of what i was getting at in my Phase III... i eat healthy, i have low body fat... but, i don't want to 'undo' the efforts i am putting in... sounds like you are angling for a new phase...

so, how can i improve the timing of the good stuff... for example, take cookies... could i put them in a back pocket in a jersey and reward myself at the turn around point, and then not feel deprived. or, when i am carb'ing up for an activity, or reloading... as opposed to say 9:00pm when they are not going to serve any purpose, and i truly should satiate my hunger with proteins.

but, bottomline, in The Paleo Diet for Athletes they make a great point -- some endurance athletes think they are healthy, but, eating like a trash can, and trying to offset it by exercising it away, does not make a healthy person!

because of family history of heart disease, i've got away from looking healthy, and into being healthy -- that's my motivation for me, but i have no choice!

Jeff said...

Have a cookie! Enjoy it. Just make sure you eat something healthy to offset it. I like cookies too. And chocolate...I especially like those new Cadbury exploding mini eggs. YUmmmmy

Larissa said...

Exploding mini eggs! OMG - I'll wait for Easter for those. That's been my rule with the Easter candy - on Easter (and Easter only), I can have as much as I want!

Cookies in the jersey sounds like a great idea, Bold. And I agree that "eating like a trash can" is pointless - we're working out to be healthy, why ruin it with garbage.

So, I had my cookies (two little ones from the cookie shop down the street from where I work - about 50 cals each, so no biggie) and for dinner I'm making my favorite - Green Machine. I'll post my recipe for it later.

Thanks for the feedback, gentlemen!

Anonymous said...

http://www.cadbury.co.uk/EN/CTB2003/product_info/