Today my family and I rode our bikes about 25 miles. Though we hadn't planned on it, we all started bonking (biker term for losing energy) 1/2 way through and needed food. The nearest/cheapest food was a food court at an amusement park on a boardwalk. I got a vegetarian burrito, basically just tortilla, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, guac. Here are a few NEW things I noticed about this excursion:
1. I really wanted to stand during the meal as I had been sitting on the bike. We found a table that had had all its chairs taken so it worked out well. But me wanting to stand after a ton of exercise? Who am I?
2. I was really disheartened looking around at the people in the food court. I would say 80% were obese or larger. It was clear that food courts cater to the obese crowd. It made me profoundly sad and also uninterested in ever visiting a food court again. It's just not scene.
3. Even after biking 12.5 miles and being famished, I only had interest in eating 1/2 of the burrito. When I gave the other half to my kids (who themselves were splitting a burrito), I felt no remorse, really almost relief to get rid of it.
4. For dinner, my dh had accidentally (as in, he blindly put it in the cart) purchased a cheesy bread instead of the whole bread baguette I had requested. I served up one portion for myself (it was within my calories), but when I sat down, I really didn't want it. It had a lot of sodium and was kind of oily looking. It didn't seem nourishing at all and I craved nourishing. Instead, I got up and toasted 2 pieces of Ezekiel sprouted bread to go with my soup. Then, though I'd biked 25 miles today, I only really wanted half my soup. There was a time not too long ago when a long work-out would have meant unbridled access to anything I wanted to eat. Today, I just wasn't all that interested in the food part of our activity.
I guess I am pointing these out because it's all so new and interesting to me. Even during phases of great weight loss in the past, I never got to a point of disinterest in food. I might have given up half the burrito, but I probably would have perseverated on my loss after that. There was none of this today. I didn't even feel deprived when declining the cheesy bread. In fact, I felt so much happier to have the Ezekiel. It was so satisfying.
I have been discovering little changes like this throughout this journey. Like, I no longer constantly think about food. I really look forward to exercising. I really enjoy exercising hard -- it's not a chore to church out anymore. All this makes me believe that this time is IT!
Thanks for listening.
