I know it's common sense that not eating ≠ healthy way to lose weight, but I know that in the calorie counting world, there's always some sort of satisfying victory feeling when we come in under our calories/points (or just exactly within them) for a particular day. I know we'd never dream of intentionally shooting for a 600 calorie day, but you know what I mean.
That said, that's one of the positive things I'm taking from being ill all weekend. Yesterday, in fact, I did have a 600 calorie day. Since I had a stomach bug/food poisoning, I couldn't really get myself to even choke down more than a few rolls and a bowl of chicken noodle soup, so I ended up with half my daily calories to spare. I'm not saying this in a "Woo! Victory!" sort of way, but more as a "this is why eating so few calories is bad." This is why:
This morning, I finally woke up feeling like myself again, ate my normal breakfast, made myself a cup of tea and then forgot about it... You know, the usual. Then, I threw on my running gear, laced up my shoes, and went to meet Helen for our first run together in a long time.
After just starting to run, I immediately noticed a difference, rather than starting out faster than my goal pace and forcing myself to slow down, I looked down at Mr. Garmin and he was already hovering around 12:00-12:30, my slow LDR pace... and even THAT felt fast. I'd like to say it got better from there, but the whole run was a struggle, with me plodding along and feeling tired just trying to maintain my normal LDR pace. It took a few walk breaks/water stops, but we did make it to our 3 mile goal (Thanks, H for staying with me), but I still felt like the entire run was a battle.
Even though this run wasn't "satisfying" at all, I am glad it happened. Not only does it keep me on track for meeting the remaining goals for this week, but it also showed me first-hand the importance of properly fueling your body, not only for runs, but in general. I went into the run thinking I'd be perfectly fine since I ate a normal breakfast, but I completely discounted what not eating/being sick had done to my energy stores and how that would effect my performance. Just like the difference you feel in your body when you start eating healthy, it was interesting to see the difference in my body's abilities after not eating... makes me appreciate what I put into my body so much more.
On that note, I'm off for a post-run shower and then to get some lunch with a few friends. Here's hoping after a day of normal, healthy eating that tomorrow's workout will be a bigger success!
Oh and one last thing:
8 days till my man gets here!
Oh, and what's better than one Jon? TWO! (and a weirdly photoboothed me).
