Log #45: Random Musings, Take 2.

This morning I biked very hard for 50 minutes. Big whoop.

What I'd like to ramble about today is more nutrition stuff. This morning, I happened to walk past the cafeteria in the building I'm working at, and I smelled french fries. The physical reaction I experienced was absurd... I immediately NEEDED french fries and started drooling. The smell was intoxicating, and I could literally taste the damn fries.

Of course I didn't go buy french fries, and as soon as I was out of "nose-shot" of the smell, my urges went away completely and instantly. This is something that I've really been more aware of lately. Food urges are so powerful, but as soon as you remove the temptation, the urge just vanishes. What's even stranger, is that although I had a very real physical desire to eat french fries, as soon as the urge passes, I had no remorse for not eating them.

Another thing I'm doing right now is bringing my lunch to work every day. Normally, a menu gets passed around and we all order and buy whatever we want. Panera is a mainstay on the lunch schedule, and I LOVE Panera. I used to get the "healthy" stuff from Panera, like a turkey sandwich on wheat bread. The problem with even "healthy" foods from restaurants is that the portions are just gigantic. That turkey sandwich from Panera probably had 1000 calories. It also came with potato chips. So right there is a 1300 calorie lunch. What if I went ahead and got the grilled panini with spicy mustard sauce and provalone cheese? We're talking more than half of my daily calories in one lunch. No wonder I would go into a food coma every day around 2:30. The scary thing is that Panera was one of the healthier choices. Sometimes we'd get Pizzeria Uno's. I'd usually order this pasta with alfredo sauce dish that came with a huge cheesy breadstick... I can't even fathom the calories.

My lunch today was a yogurt, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a granola bar, and a plum, probably 800 calories or so in total, and much healthier than a 2-pound sandwich. The rest of the office ordered from the Ground Round... do I miss not having junk for lunch?

Actually... not even a little. It's that strange phenomenon I was talking about. At the exact second that I see or smell something yummy, I want it. If I don't eat it and just walk away, my body immediately forgets that it was even an option. I don't ever eat something healthy and then think, "Wow... I really wish I went with something tastier and junkier." I just don't... and I am FAR from a health food nut. I enjoy the occasional food orgy and beer marathon just as much as any other red blooded male. The difference is that I think I've realized that the choice to eat healthy can have absolutely NO bad consequences... not even a little remorse. When I go out to a bar and don't drink, and the next day all my friends talk about how hung over they are and how much fun that was... I NEVER feel bad that I didn't drink.

My whole point to this ramble is that those cravings you get when something tasty is around are fleeting at best... if you don't eat a donut from the box that someone brought in to work, you will NEVER look back and wish you'd eaten it. I promise.

Tomorrow is a ridiculous speed workout. In the book it's written like this:

2 x (6 x 400m @ 1:35, 1:00 RI) 2:30 RI

This translates to:

Run 400m in 1:35, rest for 1:00, then do it again.
Do this six times in a row.
Now rest for 2:30.
Now do that same nonsense again.

It should be an interesting morning. It's getting coooooold up here in the mornings... today I saw my breath when I walked out to my car at 6:30. Yikes!