First and foremost, it is one week until the third anniversary of my 25th birthday. I just wanted to let you know so you could go ahead and stick all those gifts of diamonds, caviar, and Belgian chocolate in the mail. I would be so embarrassed for you if they arrived late.
Also, I will accept cash donations and personal checks so I can get my hands on Kate’s fantastic Jimmy Choo sandals. I would donate a kidney for one night in those.
Swooooooooooooooooooooooooooon straight to the floor. Anyway, I’m kidding about the presents. Gifts make me uncomfortable. So just send me a pony or two because I need them to pull my kayak to the bay.
Anyway, on to less important things. As I’ve mentioned, over the past couple of weeks I’ve been constantly hungry and I haven’t been exercising. As the exercise ceased and the hunger flourished, I noticed a fun new trend:
When I’m going to work out in the evening, I make healthy and sane choices during the day so I don’t puke in public. Working out at night also takes time that I would have spent sitting on the couch fantasizing about the jar of peanut butter and the box of cinnamon graham crackers in the pantry. After working out I”m in a good mood and less prone to eating a jar of peanut butter. Additionally, why the hell did I just spend an hour sweating and dying just to come home and eat 3200 calories of creamy peanut goodness.
I cannot get enough peanut butter lately. It’s probably a protein deficiency, so I should probably go ahead and eat it for medical reasons. Obviously. Anyway, I recently finished the book Spark by John Ratey which was recommended to me by my Crossfit coach with the comment “Since you’re really nerdy, maybe this book will help you understand why you need exercise in your life.” And he was right, I finally got it.
I always kind of thought the exercise high was BS. I mean, I do feel better after working out, but I rarely actually want to do it. I realize that after running I am less likely to stab someone, but I was missing the big picture effect of it. If exercise makes me so happy, then why do I loathe it so much? I mean, Dots candy makes me happy, and I have no problem committing to them. So why not the positive association with exercise? Probably a personal problem.
Anyway, this book was incredible. The author goes into great detail and presents peer-reviewed research on how exercise affects the chemistry of our brains and bodies. He reviews how early morning exercise programs dramatically impacted the scores of students in reading and math as well as the negative correlation between those students who participated in the program and behavior problems.
The sections I found most interesting were those on how exercise affects anxiety, depression, ADHD, addiction, aging, hormonal changes, and inflammatory diseases. He really delves into the details about the brain’s structure, chemistry, functions, and processes that are affected by adding exercise to your day. I’m not naturally drawn to things that are overly technical in the fields of biology and anatomy (because I have no idea what any of it means), but Dr. Ratey presented the information in a compelling and conversational style that was easy to digest without being overwhelming. Anyway, if you are interested in why exercise makes us feel the way we do, I highly recommend this read.
The point of that tangent is that I didn’t really truly grasp the degree to which exercise impacts my mood and general level of satisfaction with life. I was significantly more hateful over the past few weeks when I was just eating junk and parking it on the couch after work. So, I’m going to get back into the habit of eating better and getting my butt out the door more often. But, obviously, I have no plans to stop whining and complaining about anything exercise related. Regardless of how it makes me feel. I still don’t want to do it, but I will.
Additionally, I also need to start building up mileage because I would really like to run the Houston Marathon next January (or if I don’t make it through the lottery, run in Austin in February). In sharp contrast to the non-existent base I had when starting training last June for Chicago, I would actually like to start this cycle without the added difficulty of having to simultaneously dig out of the hole of laziness while increasing mileage. So that’s my big plan this weekend, create a training schedule based on the Furman Institute three day training plan I used for Chicago while incorporating Crossfit a a few times a week. I’m off to celebrate starting an exercise regime.
(source)God I love Big Ang.
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