Chris Reimagined

So the tiredness continues.  I think I finally succumbed to my wife’s cold.

But I still did the Wii Active and frankly I feel worlds better now than I did before.  I think that’s a good thing.

Still, this Friday, the scale will not be my friend.  But it’s my own fault.

And in some ways, it’s good.  Eating like crap the past few days in the name of my food blogging has given me some perspectiveon how bad I can make myself feel by eating too much sugar, cream, butter, and all the things that make exquisite food so good.  While I would never advocate that you shouldn’t eat a great meal, I’ve eaten out 9 times in 5 days and I feel yuck.

I can get TMI-tastic on how I feel yuck or we can leave it at yuck.

Basically, since Sunday I’ve just been off.  I’ve been sluggish and lethargic and grumpy.  My motivation has gone to zero.  And I am pretty sure part of that is the cold, but it seems worse than that.  When I was eating well, even with my cold I had energy.  Tonight I could barely get past my workout.

So I keep asking myself, if this is how I feel now, how was I before when I ate like this pretty much all the time?  How could I be at my best?  What was I doing to myself?

The past five days have also taught me a thing or three about portion control and nutrition

Portion Control

Ohhhh….Portion Control…oohhhh (Sung to Prince music.)

And Nutrition

I had a big lunch on Sunday.  They had dim sum at Bo Lings.  So I ate dim sum.  A lot of dim sum.

Then I went to dinner at Zest because we had Restaurant Week reservations.  I had a full course meal.

I could barely walk out of there I was so full.  Which was bad.  What was even worse was that I had to work out that night and all I wanted to do was lay there in a food stupor.  It was then that it really slammed home why I had to have to get my eating under control.

Sure, I need portion control because I need to lower my calories, but I also need portion control because overeating makes me feel bad.  (See above.)  Having a grossly full belly saps my energy and really makes it so that all I want to do is sit.  Plus, I am about 99% sure that it wreaks havoc with my blood sugar because the more I overeat, the more I want to overeat and I live dangerously close to a Ben and Jerry’s retailer.  Just saying.

None of this is in any way profound.  I am sure a lot of you are saying “Well, duh!” But I don’t know.  Portion control used to feel like penance or something I had to do because Calories are EVIL!!  Now I’m starting to see health and fitness as being a whole lot more complex than just “Eat calories bad, burn calories good.”  For once in my life, I truly get that food is fuel and I need to give myself high octane petrol.

But don’t worry…I’m not one of those “food is fuel” guys who is going to advocate eating twigs and berries (though a raw vegan diet is pretty darn healthy.)  Food still has to taste good, but I am going to concentrate more on the nutrition part.

Again, it’s kind of an obvious “ah ha” moment, but now I see why Darya was so intent that I get rid of pretzels.  It’s not enough to eat to keep my appetite going, I need to eat good to keep my body running.

Okay, more tomorrow!