Hunger & Self Awareness

Too long no blog!

In responding to someone else's blog I had some thoughts on hunger: Hunger is such a tricky thing...I can set myself up with BUSHELS of veggies for snacking and later still find myself "hungry" for calorie-dense foods of some sort. Yet, if I stop myself and reflect on whether or not I'm hungry I realize I'm stuffed to the gills with veggies! How can I be "hungry?" When I think it over I realize it's not true hunger, but a "mouth" hunger or "habit" hunger and with a pause and a little self-awareness I can side-step it, although it isn't always easy!

I've been reading a little bit about intermittent fasting lately and thinking this might be worth trying short-term as a means of shaking things up in the food department and was further surprised over the LACK of hunger during my 24+ hours of fasting earlier this week. One after-effect of fasting for me is a greater investment into sticking with a healthy eating plan afterward: how can I allow myself to slip and cancel any benefits from my fast by choosing an unhealthy food or too large a portion? I'll see how this goes.

I'm still off the bike...anti-coagulant paranoia is keeping me away from road cycling so far. But it is not without a struggle and a yearning as I read about my bike club's outings. I may consider allowing myself some shorter, safer routes with less potential for mishaps. Not that my rides have ever been fraught with trouble. But one slip, cut, bump could potentially land me in the emergency room...all-too-sobering a thought! A senior member of the bike club at least recruited me to SAG for the Great Finger Lakes Bicycle Tour in early June (ALWAYS a great time, super riding and super price! Check it out: www.southerntierbicyclec
lub.org/greatfingerlakesto
ur.html ) It will feel good to at least be a part of things. In the meantime I've been getting a lot of Spinning and elliptical cardio with my 3x weekly ST AND, shifting to the outdoors for...

Preparing for my upcoming one & only 5K of the year at the Binghamton Bridge Run early May: www.binghamtonbridgerun.
org/

As I know I've said many times...not a runner, but I feel that dedicating myself to one 5K yearly is at least a way of "mixing it up" with my workouts and hopefully catching up with some other local Sparkers! Plus another great thought inspired by VHALKYRIE: Let's keep Boston in mind during our running efforts and channel our outrage over such horrific behaviors and fuel our runs with defiance and celebration of our freedoms and our drive to be as healthy as possible!

Keep The Spark!

Don