Team S.J.G.R. Post-Thursday Huddle: 3 Rapid-fire Randoms

What's up, Team? My mind is all over the place this week. That explains my belated huddle. And the fact that it's going to be a hodge podge of random things.

Like to hear them? Here they go!

"Skinny" Pop?

 

Watch out for some of these things that seem super "skinny." My best friend called me one day in snack nirvana singing the praises of this super skinny snack. 

Uhhh yeah.

So the package says "39 calories per cup." Which is good, right? But a serving is 4 cups. And the whole bag is a whole lot more than 4 cups. If you're like a lot of people, you start eating this and thinking that it's like SO delicious to be so low in calories. Which is true if you only eat one cup. Or four cups. But eat the whole bag and you're looking at more than 500 calories. 

And can I tell you something? It's really easy to eat the whole bag of this. Which ends up being not so skinny.

Podcast Exercise and Running

Do any of you listen to podcasts? You know. The things you can download from your favorite journals (if you're a medical nerd) or from lectures, sermons, or whatever? If you don't, I'd highly recommend looking into them.

So check it. There's this guy named Andy Stanley who pastors a fairly large church here. And by fairly large I mean really large. Well his church is in Alpharetta somewhere (which is far from where I live) and also I like my own church. In fact, I love my own church. But. Andy brings a good word, man. And he usually does it in a series of four or five thirty five minute sermons. So thanks to technology, I can still be a part of my church and never miss any of Andy's sermons.

Going on a long run? For me, this has made a world of difference. I stack up an entire series of Andy's podcasts and listen to the whole thing. Those ten miles fly by and I learn something. Or feel convicted. I also like listening to them on the treadmill or elliptical. Thirty five minutes is perfect. 

Not into religion? No worries. There are crap-tons of podcasts on all sorts of things. But if you get tired of listening to your music and want to shake things up to get your mind off of the exercise? Try podcasts.

Permissive Eating

The week of my last half marathon I gained about four pounds. And do you know why? Because I kept allowing myself to eat things that I knew I had no business eating. All in the name of carb-loading or just "girl, you can eat this!" And I stepped on the scale and had to tell myself:

Cut. It. Out.

Proof again that nobody can outrun a big ass if they don't put down the fork. Fortunately, I put the fork down already this week and have noticed that two of those pounds have left already. Maybe it was water weight, although I don't believe in that so much. 

My point? No regularly exercising person will be at their ideal weight if they keep letting themselves have everything they want to eat. There just has to be a "NO LIST." We've talked about this before. The list of "hell no, not worth its" that must, must, must be almost always adhered to. If not, you will do something like run 13.1 miles and then gain four pounds. Which is ridiculous, right? Who does that? Answer: A LOT OF PEOPLE. 

Put. Down. The. Damn. Fork.

It's the only way to unload the junk accumulating in your trunk. We exercise for heart health and yeah, a little bit of bonus comes from how our bodies look afterwards. But weight management is a dietary issue. Mostly, if you ask me. Are you exercising like crazy and still not losing weight? It means you're eating too much. Or the wrong things. Or drinking your calories. Or taking too many bites, licks and tastes. 

And trust me--I am stepping on my own toes, too. I am. So allow yourself some yummy pancakes after that big race, sure. But then? Put down the fork and get back on it. Because the shit always stays real and the reality is the reality. 

Oh, forgot the reality? Well let me refresh us.

Our hearts don't like it when our bodies and visceral organs are covered in fat. Our hearts need exercise--150 minutes per week or more--and it also wants us to work our asses off to get close to a decent BMI. If you are reading this, heart disease is the most likely thing to take your life or disable you. And no matter how much it offends someone to hear this reality, the truth is that it is up to each of us to do something about this if we want to fight back. 

Period. End of story.

So let's put up our dukes and fight. Let's step back out of la la land and get after it. Not just the exercise but the fork management. 

That's all I got. 

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Happy Huddle.