Monday, 6 June 2011

Active Recovery and My Love of Chocolate

There is only one word to describe how my body is feeling today - stiff!  I definitely pushed myself during my ten mile run yesterday and I can feel it in every part of my legs.  Sitting down at my desk job all day didn’t help either, and by the time I finished work my muscles felt really tight.

Obviously after such a tough workout yesterday, I had designated today as a rest day.  However, as my legs were feeling tight I thought some light walking might help to loosen them up a bit.  So instead of getting the bus the whole way home, I got off about two miles away and walked the rest of the route.  It felt really good to get my legs moving and the blood flowing.  I also did some light stretches when I got home.  I am a great believer in active recovery and hope that the walking and stretching will help to relieve the tightness.  I would like to do a short run tomorrow but I need to see how my legs are feeling before I can commit – ten miles is unchartered territory for me and I need to see how my body reacts to such longs runs.

With regards to my food I am still eating pretty healthily.  It isn’t perfect but it is definitely in the desired 80:20 ballpark, which is fine as I could never be a perfect eater.  I do sometimes think it would be nice to be somebody who never gets a craving for chocolate, cakes and candy but unfortunately that is just not me.

Case in point, I craved chocolate today.  I could have just rode the craving out, ignored it and eventually it would have gone away.  However, I gave in and ate a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk after work.  Now I know that in the grand scheme of things one chocolate bar every once in a while is fine but I always feel a slight sense of failure when I eat treat foods.  I know it is ridiculous to feel this way because after all, no single food is unhealthy, and what really matters is the balance and variety of the overall diet.  I suppose it is hard not to feel a bit guilty when you read so many healthy living blogs whose writers never seem to have such cravings.  It makes me think that if I didn’t give in to my cravings for sweet treats then eventually I would stop craving them.

There is no need to dwell on it though.  On a positive note, it didn’t lead to a binge and I haven’t overeaten in ages so I feel I’m doing well.  I don’t think I should try and suppress my desire for sweets because that will most likely backfire so I am going to continue to eat them mindfully and only when I really want them, which seems like a good compromise to me.

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