Training Part 2: Diet

Know what I like to eat when I exercise?

Everything.

Seriously.  It is like my body says, "Why am I sore?   Do I feel sweat?  Was that...was that exercise?  I don't exercise.  At least I don't any more.  The last time I regularly exercised was when you were a swimmer in high school.  Is that what we are doing again?  OK. The calorie count that we were on back then was over 4,000 calories per day.  I am going to make your stomach ache and your mouth water until you deposit that amount of food.  Now,..what would be good with cheese?"

I do one thirty minute bike ride (I took four minutes off of my route from yesterday) and I become a hobbit.  Breakfast?  Of course.  2nd Breakfast?  Don't mind if I do.  Elevensies?  Sure...I'm exercising.  Lunch.  I earned that one.  Afternoon snacks?  Dinner?  Supper?  Midnight snacks?

I know that I am not going to whip myself into peak physical form in a week.  But it will be helpful on my ride if I have not gained another 10 pounds while training.

My appetite is an unintended consequence of my exercising.  Unintended consequences show up everywhere.  A good deed or action ripples across our community, leading to other deeds and other actions.  Sometimes the results are everything we could have hoped for:  a steady stream of people paying it forward for the betterment of all.  Sometimes the results are not what hoped for or intended:  I give an employee a great review and we talk about where they could grow next which leads them to think about their future in a new light which leads them to look for a better opportunity which leads to me losing a great employee.

Life with kids is full of unintended consequences.  I was going to qualify that to say "Life with special needs kids" but I am pretty sure it is true for them all.  Hosting a play date for the 4 year old leads to deputizing the other two in order to help clean the house a little bit.  That leads to the 12 year old criticizing the work of the 14 year old which leads to him trying to work harder and faster and then tripping over the 4 year old and dropping a mug which shatters on the ground and everyone being kicked outside so that a grown-up can clean up the pieces which leads to everyone being mad/sad when the play date shows up.  Then the play date is great.  The 4 year old has a blast.  The big kids are praised for their help and given some new big-kid privileges.  Everyone is still a family and still loves each other and life goes on.

Life is full of actions and reactions, challenges and victories, causes and effects.  Nothing happens in a vacuum.  Don't be shocked when unintended consequences arrive.

Just don't eat an entire block of cheese in one sitting because you are hungry from exercising.

 That is never a good idea.