Running while away? No excuse here!

I’m drawing to the end of a week away from home due to a work trip. Its been an interesting  week, with busy days and early nights, but at least my running – or to be more accurate – at least my keeping fit hasn’t suffered.

Living in a hotel for any length of time can be a challenge, when it’s not a holiday trip. The first day or so can be a little exciting with the change of scenery, pace, people and getting to know your surroundings. However, this can quickly wear thin and you are left counting the days until you return home again.

I don’t go away all that often, but I’ve found that my attitude has totally changed from a few years ago when I was totally unfit. What do I mean? OK here are some examples:

Food: You can easily eat a lot more than usual whilst away, and the food tends to be a lot richer than you might normally eat. Theres also the temptation of spending as much of that daily allowance as you can, which again, can result in taking in far too many calories, much more than your body needs.

For me the real killer used to breakfast! A few years ago I’d go mad on the cooked breakfast pretty much everyday. And we’re not talking small portions here. When I finally got fit I suddenly realised that eating loads of food wasn’t making me any happier, in fact it did the opposite, when I realised how much weight I’d put on. Nowadays my hotel breakfast will be a glass of OJ, fruit and yoghurt and a cup of coffee/tea. I enjoy this much more than eating the fatty slop alternative and you feel like you’ve accomplished something by looking after yourself. ‘Good stuff in, good stuff out and all that!’.

Exercise: Even in my fatty days I used to get quite a lot of exercise in whilst I was away simply by walking everywhere. Quite a few trips were to London and walking was a great way to see the sites and explore in the evenings after work. Nowadays I carry on that tradition and always make sure I book a hotel that’s far enough away from my trips work destination to give me a good walk. For this trip, for example, I have a car with me, that I used to travel to the hotel from home. However, the car has stayed firmly in the hotel car park and I have walked from the hotel to work instead of driving, which is about a 6 mile round trip. See my ‘Why drive when you can walk to work‘ post.

Would driving be quicker – Hell yes! If I drove would I get a sleep in – Yes, about an extra hour a day!

So why walk? Simple, I enjoy it, it gets me out, it keeps me fit, it clears your head and sets you up for the day. The return walk is also a great way to unwind and I often look forward to it. A lot better than sitting in a car! There also the obvious environmental benefits to leaving the car behind also. We all need to do our bit don’t we!

I’ve also learned that when booking a hotel to always try and find one with a gym. As some of ScribsBlog regular visitors know I normally hate gym’s and much prefer the great out doors, but they do have there uses on occasion. Its also a bonus if you can get a hotel with a gym and swimming pool.

I’ve said before, in previous posts, I always take my running kit with me when going away (work, holiday, etc), and this is also the case on this trip. But due to a potential oncoming knee injury I’ve purposely reduced my running this week and mixed up my exercise between walking (daily), running (back from work to hotel) and using the hotel gym and swimming pool (daily). This has been a good mix and has worked out well to help sort out my knee. Don’t get me wrong, I would have much preferred to do more running and explore the area, but I also don’t want to exacerbate the knee. So this week has been a sort of rest from running and more walking, elliptical equipment in the gym and swimming.

So remember, just because you are away from home doesn’t mean you can’t keep yourself in shape. Eat sensibly and use the time to your advantage. Try and get a hotel a few miles away from your destination and walk or use the hotel gym and/or swimming pool.

The only person stopping you is you!

Scrib.

Running baby steps – Part 2.

Baby Harry running

I did a brief blog post a while back about ‘Running Baby steps‘ and after talking to someone in the Runnersworld forums, who had just taken up running to loose weight, I wanted to add some more meat to the subject, based on my own experiences from when I started out a few years ago.

I won’t go over my weight loss and get fit story again (but if you’re interested read my story via the Runkeeper blog, who did my story, or read the older posts in ScribsBlog) but I took up running to loose weight and it worked as I went from 14 stone to 11. The one thing I remember, and it brought the memories flooding back after talking to the newby runner, was what it was like to start running!

O MY GOD! I look back now at my early running attempts and I can still see myself running (or perhaps to be fair ‘wobbling’) down the street, reaching the end (it wasn’t far, perhaps less than quarter of a mile) and having to sit down, exhausted! If you’d told me then that I could run a half marathon or a 40 mile event I’d have politely told you to stop taking the mickie as that was impossible for someone of my physical stature!

But I did it, and I did do those things but, and there’s a lesson coming, it took time, patience and work!

We are ‘lucky’ enough to live in a society where we’re used to things being done for us with little input on our parts – the ‘instant society’ as I call it. Can you imagine life without your car, washing machine, dish washer, etc and having to perform the functions those items do ‘manually’. It might take a little longer to do the laundry and lets face it, all we have to do today is load the machine, put in the detergent and press the ‘ON’ button. Can you imagine washing each item of clothing by hand?! Unfortunately getting fit has no short cuts and that is what puts people off.

The future instant Fitness Pod?

The machine doesn’t exist – yet – where we can walk in, select our fitness level, press ‘GO’ and we’re instantly transformed into the selected body configuration. To be honest would you want such a machine? Yes it sounds like a great idea but such a device would miss one important side effect of doing it the ‘old fashioned way’ and that is the sense of achievement when you’ve completed your chosen fitness session and you think ‘YES!’.

Getting fit takes work, patience and determination (sweat, blood, tears!). Obviously the more unfit you are the more work will be involved but the sense of achievement can be a driving force for your motivation. I gave up a number of times, but looking back I know why:

1. I tried to do too much, and expected to become fit almost over night:  There’s the ‘instant society’ attitude for you. There was zero chance of running 10 miles on my first trip out and I expected too much to soon.
2. I then gave up too quickly & didn’t give it a chance: As soon as it became hard, with no instant results, I gave up.
3. Self doubt: I thought I couldn’t get fit because it was just too hard! “Being fit just isn’t for me”, “I can’t do it!”, “I’m not built for it!”.

The above three ‘failure’ points are interesting in the fact that they feed and lead into each other. One leads to two, leads to three and BANG you’ve failed. Fix point one and two becomes less of a threat, which in turn annihilates point three! Do this and you’ve got a much better chance to achieve your goal.

We’ve all know someone (or done it ourselves) who has bought a load of new fitness kit only to give up a few sessions later – I talk more about this in my ‘Running Kit‘ blog post. I’ve done exactly the same thing myself, I remember buying a weight bench and dumbbells some years ago. The bench came flat packed so I spend a few hours one Sunday afternoon putting it together. Once finished I stood back and admired my hand work. That was the last time I ever touched the bench or dumbbells, until I sold them. Just because you have the kit, or an expensive pair of running shoes it doesn’t make you an instant runner, muscle man, super fit person, etc (‘instant society’ again).

So how do we fix this? How did I fix it and pushed through to loose the weight and more importantly keep it off? Easy, although hindsight is a great thing!

B A B Y   S T E P S !

What the heck are “Baby steps?”.

A baby does not learn to walk straight away, it takes time and patient (sound familiar?). One step leads to another, to another, to another and before you know it little junior is walking. Its the same with getting fit. What would happen if you tried to get a baby to walk across a room before they were ready? They would fall, fail, possibly with tears.

Instead of trying to go for long runs I set myself goals of short runs and built them up slowly. Try it!

Remember, before taking any exercise, if you are not used to it, if you feel you might have medical difficulties talk to your doctor BEFORE hand!

Start off with a small five – ten minute walk. Do this three to seven times a week, perhaps do it instead of taking the car to the shop down the street? After a couple of weeks increase the speed and time of the walk. As you get used to it keep increasing the speed/time/distant. Try to throw in some hills and different terrain to your route. After four to six weeks of doing this try breaking out into a slow jog. Perhaps mix in a burst of jogging with your walking. One good idea is to walk for 10 minutes and run for 1 minute and keep repeating. Over time increase the jogging time and you’ll soon find you can jog for longer as your body becomes stronger and fitter. Keep this up until you can run for 100% of your activity. Don’t forget to mix up your route so you don’t get board of the same surroundings.

Notice that I didn’t suggest you start running straight away. That’s one of the key lessons I learnt. I started by walking to work, which was about a 6 mile round trip. I did this two-three times a week and increased my walking speed, over time, as I got fitter. I then extended the route on the way home to increase the mileage. After doing this for a few months I started to run in the evenings and found the transition a LOT easier than if I’d tried to run from day one.

Build it up, take baby steps. Yes we can all be impatient at times, but do you want to fail or achieve? You’ve not super man and you need to build up your body and to do that you’ve got to take baby steps. I did and it worked out for me after numerous failures.

Good luck,

Scrib.

Runkeeper blog does ScribBlogs story

The Runkeeper blog has just published my fat to thin story. See it here:

http://blog.runkeeper.com/fitnessfreaks/fitness-freak-paul-scribbans

Incorporate not Decimate!

Life can be busy and this can be a real pain for training. Its all too easy to come up with excuses why not to train, and one of the best excuses is ‘Oh, I’m too busy’ or ‘Something important (not really) has come up’. I’ve always found the best way to combat this is to have a fixed schedule of training that MUST not be changed!

What I mean is, finding the gaps in your normal weeks schedule and slotting training into those gaps and then make them a permanent fixture. It sometimes helps to make a calendar of your week to help you identify these gaps. If something unexpected crops up, then tough! You’re busy! It’ll have to be done on a different day! NO EXCUSES!

Think of it this way, if you have kids and they do Football (Soccer to my American friends) on Monday, Karate on Tuesday and Swimming on Thursday, you wouldn’t necessarily miss an activity when a little excuse comes up, especially if you pay for those activities. These are fixed events in your week’s schedule. So why do it for your training?

In the above example, assuming you wanted to train three times a week,  you could fit it into Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, remembering that there is the opportunity to train early mornings (my favorite time is early Sunday morning before everyone is awake) or later in the evenings,  or why not train whilst going to or coming home from work, as I do.

I use the above rule to make sure I stick to my training. There is the odd occasion when something comes up, but I have to put my foot down and say “No, I’ve got something on then”. It soon becomes the ‘norm’ and it isn’t really a problem anymore.

Incorporate not Decimate! What does that mean?

Last weekend was Fathers day and we had a busy day lined up visiting parents and grandparents, I also fancied having a lie in for a change. But I normally train on a Sunday morning so the plan was to get up extra early and forget about my lie in. The thing was my son had a football tournament on the Saturday in a town 10 miles away. It suddenly occurred to me on the Saturday morning, a few hours before the tournament, that I could simply run to the event and still get my lie in on Sunday! Brilliant! I was still going to get my training in, all be it a day earlier than normal, and I’d have a different & new route to run which can really make a difference. In fact I was quite excited at the prospect of doing a fresh route which I’d never done before!

So that’s what I did. My wife took the kids in the car with a change of clothes for me – problem sorted!

Incorporate your training into the stuff you have to do, don’t Decimate your training!

Why drive when you can walk to work?

I was walking to work this morning. It was a fresh clear morning, the sun was coming up and the birds singing. It was a bit breezy, but otherwise a pretty nice start to the day! Soon, as I made my way along the road towards work, Runkeeper announced the second mile and I heard a ‘beep’ as someone I knew drove past on their way to the same destination. Waves and ‘good morning’ nods were exchanged as they drove past. People know not to stop and offer me a lift anymore, as in the past I have thanked them for the offer but explained that walking to work and walking/running home was part of my exercise routine.

Towards the end of my journey, as I approached the steps to take me over the dock bridge, I pondered why people, who worry about their weight and/or fitness, drive to work when they could easily walk. I walk to work out of choice because it’s free exercise and it helps keep me fit! I tried the gym years ago, but the only pounds I seemed to loose were £’s and I quickly got board. I purposely don’t own a second car so I don’t get tempted to cheat (it also helps me feel like I’m doing my bit for the environment).

I much prefer to walk/run or cycle to work and back, why? As I said, not only is it free exercise, it gets you out in the fresh air, helps clear your head (especially after a hard day at work), gives you a buzz and the feeling that you’ve done ‘something’ fitness related without really going out of your way. I mean, you have to go to work anyway, right? So you’re in affect killing two birds with one stone.

Of course the downside is that it takes longer, in some cases. My walk is a shade under three miles and it takes me about 40 – 45 minutes each way. Running isn’t normally that much quicker because I normally take a longer route to bump up the miles, but running the same route takes me about 15-20 minutes. Cycling can take about ten minutes, depending on wind and road conditions, but again I like to take a longer scenic route along the coast, if time allows. I’ve also noticed that cycling is not much slower than driving, once you take into account that you don’t get as suck in traffic jams as much and you can cycle pretty up to the office door (in my case) rather than parking in a car park and then walking the final stretch to your desk.

Now, we all live busy lives and some people can’t afford the extra time it takes to get to work under your own steam. For example,  the dash from dropping the kids at school to getting into work on time. Others live way to far away from work for it to be practical although, I do know some people to cycle 8+ miles each way to work every day! Rain or shine!

But keep in mind that if you are in the position where you could simply get up a little earier and walk into work and/or walk home again, then give it a go. You’ll feel good for it, especially once your fitness levels increase.

If you commute to work on the bus/train/tube, if feasible, get off a stop or two earlier and walk the rest of the way.

Oh, and the old ‘its raining’ excuse. Get yourself some waterproof trousers and jacket. Personally I enjoy walking in the rain, its only water!

Give it a go, what have you got to loose? It might not be your thing, but at least try it.

Keswick to Barrow 2011 – The results.

The Keswick to Barrow (K to B) results came out on Wednesday and came 64′th out of 2014 which I’m really pleased with!

Its been a week since the Keswick to Barrow last Saturday. Things have returned pretty much to normal, what with work, the kids, recovering, etc! As expected my body has been on a massive ‘give me food!’ protest. With last weeks exertions my body has gone into mad repair and recharge mode. Whilst I’ve been obeying these requests I’ve also been mindful of not over doing it. Having enough to satisfy me without being too stupid, but with the odd treat, considering the circumstances. This can be an important point. An analogy I sometimes use is that ‘it might be great exercise to go on a 10 mile hike but if you come home hungry and stuff down 5 potions of curry’s and rice you haven’t really achieved much! In fact you’ll probably end up putting more weight on!’ OK, maybe a bit exaggerated, but you get my point. You need to refuel with whats been lost and whats required for repair. The trick is knowing how much is too much, and how much is too little. My tip for this is to eat sensibly and then wait a while (20 – 30 minutes or so) if you’re still hungrey then have a little more. You’d be surprised that once you let your food settle you often don’t need anything else. You’ll notice I said ‘sensibly‘, if you eat sugary foods (and drink) your more likely to feel hungry sooner.  I talk about this further in my ‘How I lost weight’ sections.

So a week on since the K to B and the stiffness has gone now, I’ve taken it easy and haven’t run since the event to allow my body to ‘reset’. I’ve still kept things ticking over by walking and cycling to work, with the odd detour to increase the mileage. I’ve also kept up my daily stretching and exercise routine. However, next week I plan to start my running again. I looked at my Runkeeper running stats the other day for the last three years. I noticed that every year during January to May, my training period for the K to B, I do more training than in the previous year.

This is certainly reflected in my K to B results for the last three years, with my times getting better each year.

Keswick to Barrow score card 2009

Keswick to Barrow score card 2010

Keswick to Barrow score card 2011

I also noticed that my recovery time is less and less each year with this year having hardly any post event limps at all and no BLISTERS! In 2009 I spent the entire Sunday walking on my hands and knees, much to the amusement of the kids who thought I wanted to play horses!

The Runkeeper stats also show my training is a little erratic between June and December, something I plan to correct this year. I have the Newcastle Great North run coming up in September theres something to aim for.

Finally, I noticed this week a huge buzz at work and in my personal life with people suddenly wanting to get out there and be more active. I couple of people have started running and another has dusted off their hiking boots and started walking. Some of these people are wanting to do the K to B next year, others just want to get more active. I think this is fantastic! And it goes to show that being active can rub of on people, which is the main reason I write this blog in the hope that some people might be encouraged to get off their backside’s and ‘get out there!’.

I had the pleasure of listening to someone the other day shortly after they had finished their first long walk, they were absolutely buzzing with excitement due to their achievement. I just sat there, smiled to myself and thought ‘ yep, you got it!’.

Running Kit

It occurred to me the other morning whilst running through a lonely, peaceful and quite country lane with nothing but the sound of sheep and the quiet twitter of birds about running kit.

Like with any sport or hobby you can spend a little or a lot of your hard earned cash on equipment. One thing to keep in mind though is that spending a large quantities of money on expense kit doesn’t make you and expert or the job necessary any easier! It might make you feel better, retail therapy is a well known quick pick me up and you may feel geared up for those miles and miles of tarmac, but it won’t suddenly make you an Olympic athlete.

Lets face it, at the end of the day to go out for a run, especially when you’re starting, you need:

1. Lite sports type clothes (shorts, T-Shirt/Track suite).

2. Socks.

3. Trainers.

AND THAT’S IT! Let me just check that list again to make sure, yep! that’s all you need! I bet most people already own the items listed above. Come on be honest! And that’s the beauty of running to keep fit, its basically FREE! No member ship fees and no expensive equipment.

I’ve heard many excuses over the years of why someone can’t run and one of them is that they haven’t got the kit/correct kit/new kit/up to date kit/fashionable kit/etc. This excuse amused me because I think I used it myself once when I first started out, but its an excuse none the less.

-’But my trainers are too old!’

-Excuse!

-’But there is a small hole in my T-Shirt’

-Excuse!

humm it seems there is no excuse there then to get out for a run!

So what kit do I use to run in now I’ve been doing it for a few years. Your running kit may change over time due to increased distance & wear and tear but also because you find things that you feel more comfortable with. Not just comfortable to wear, but comfortable to work with.

So what running kit do I have? OK, just to be clear when I started out I had the simple three items listed above and these served me well for quite some time and still form the base running kit for me. But I soon found as I got fitter and my distances increased that my needs changed slightly.

Hydration

This is very important as performance drops off significantly as you get more dehydrated. When I first started out I was only doing a few miles so I never felt I needed to take a drink with me. As my miles slowly increased my needs changed and I found I was becoming dehydrated and my performance was affected.
The thing is, I hate carrying anything while I’m running so a bottle or a running bottle (where the bottle is shaped into a handle – pretty cool idea) was out of the question (for me). I also needed something that i can carry things in for time to time

After a bit of research I found the ideal piece of kit that ticked all the boxes – the North Face running belt named the ‘Photon’. If you Google ‘Northface Photon’ you’ll soon find it.

The Photon suits be perfectly because I’m able to carry my iPhone (see ‘RunKeeper’ section below) and a few small items (i.e. a key, etc) in the zipped meshed pocket and it has the water bottle neatly tuck around the back in the holster complete with stabilizer to stop it jumping about.

I generally only use the Photon on a longer run – i.e. more than six miles – as I generally don’t get dehydrated enough as I always make sure I have a drink of water 30 minute to an hour before a sub six mile run.
The only other time I will wear the Photon on a shorter run is if its raining, then I can carry my iPhone and keep it out of the wet. This isn’t because the Photon pocket is water proof, far from it as its mesh! Its because I found a really cool way to keep my iPhone dry, in even in the biggest down poors! And believe me I’ve been out running in some serious floods and down poors. This surely must be an expensive water proof iPhone bag of some kind? Well, no actually it isn’t! I looked around on the market and found plenty of waterproof bags/cases for the iPhone, but they made the footprint of the iPhone far too large to fit in my Photon’s pocket, or many other runners belts/armbands for that matter. So after a bit of head scratching I came across a forum entry where someone used a zip lock bag. Yes a cheap plastic zip lock bag that you might keep food in!

And better still you can buy about 100 of them for the price of a bottle of water! I normally get mine from ebay.com, but there are plenty of other places online like Amazon.com, etc.

For extra safety I do put my phone in two zip lock bags, just in case! Also, I generally don’t have my head phones plugged in, in case water runs down the cable and into the bag. However, I think this would be OK if you were careful and made sure the cable entered the bag on the underside on the zip lock bag.

So there you have it. A way to carry your water bottle, phone/mp 3 player in any weather and still have your hands free!

Arm band

So, if I’m not wearing my Photon on short runs and its not raining how do I carry my iPhone? Come to that, why are you carrying your iPhone on a run in the first place? We’ll come onto the ‘why am i carrying my iPhone’ question in the next section.

If I’m doing a shorter run I use a Belkin sports armband to carry my iPhone 4. The Belkin Sports armband model I bought for my iPhone 3 is a few years old now and I’ve since upgraded to an iPhone 4, which still fits in the armband perfectly.

The armband has a little pocket for a key and is comfortable to wear. Its not totally water proof and I wouldn’t trust it in a heavy down poor, why is why I switch to the Photon. However, if you get caught out, as I have, I’ve found that as long as the top of the arm band is inside your T-Shit sleeve (assuming you wear a T-Shirt and not a log sleeve shirt) then the exposed top of the iPhone will be protected from direct rain drops. However, I wouldn’t stay out in the rain in this situation for too long.

Runkeeper

Last, but by no means least is Runkeeper and this is why I carry my iPhone! See I told you all would be explained But what is Runkeeper? And why is it so important to me that I have to take it, and my iPhone out on my runs? Well, to be totally honest I don’t think I’d still be running, or be doing as many miles as I can now, if I hadn’t started to use Runkeeper when I first start out.

Quite simply Runkeeper helps to give you motivation by tracking your runs (or ‘activities’) and storing a copy of them on the Runkeeper website in your own personal area, which you can then access. Why is this cool? Well by having your run data stored on the Runkeeper website you can then easily see you overall stats, how your doing, what your trends are, how many miles you’ve done this week/month, calories burnt, average times, best times, etc. As you improve you can see the improvement, if you’re not improving you know you might need to push that bit harder. It takes the guess work out of monitoring your performance and to top it all off its FREE! (well as long as you own a supported smart phone like the iPhone, Android, etc).

I have been using Runkeeper since the first version was released and I absolutely love it as perhaps you can tell! Not only will it track your runs it will also support walking, hikes, mountain biking and even gym activities, swimming, etc. And no, I wouldn’t advise taking your iPhone swimming in a zip locked bag. Runkeeper allows you to enter activities manually (i.e. gym sessions, or when you didn’t have your smart phone available).

You can see some examples of Runkeeer in action in my Hiking Routes and Mountain Biking Routes sections. I also used Runkeeper on last years Keswick to Barrow 42 mile walk (which I ran). This was particularly useful as the App allow you to broadcast your activity live via the Runkeeper website, so during the Keswick to Barrow my support team knew exactly where I was and where able to make sure they were available.

One feature I’ve recently started using on the Runkeeper web site is ‘street teams’. Here you can add friends (with their permission), who are members of Runkeeper to your own ‘Street team’. This allows you to view each others stats, see when your street team members have completed activities and see how many activities they’ve completed this month. At first I was a bit skeptical on what useful feature the Street teams feature provided, but I soon released it was a great way for extra motivation, to see what your friends are doing and encourage each other. From a competitive standpoint, it may help you to get out and do some exercise when you see your friend/s has done more than you this month. At the end of the day it leads to the same result – motivating you!

The only negative comment about Runkeeper I did have was with GPS signal dropouts. This did affect some older versions of the App which were quickly corrected. But, to be fair, I also think there was a limitation of the iPhone GPS hardware. I had a few signal dropouts with the iPhone 3 (the first version 3, not the 3g), but I’ve never had one with the iPhone 4 and I think this is simply down to improved hardware in the later iPhone model.

If you have a supported smart phone give it a try, its free after all so you’ve nothing to loose and lots to gain.

Trainers

Finally, I said above that you should wear your current pair of comfortable trainers (if you own any) and not to bother buying new ones – yet. One important point here is that after a few runs, if you feel that you are going to continue running and start increasing your miles I would recommend getting down to your local running shop and getting advice on your current pair and whether you should ‘upgrade’. Many good running shops will put you on a tread mill and analyse your run and advise you on a suitable trainer type and support. Getting the correct fitting trainers may help prevent injury once your mileage increases.

So get yourself kitted up, you don’t have to what for the shops to open, just get some trainers on and get out there! Be positive! Start slowly and build up! Good luck! Go for it!

How I lost weight and kept it off. Part 2

Continued from part 1.

Me – Then and now!

OK so what was the next step? I’d figured out what was going on with my bodies energy usage, but what to do? How do I fix this? There is still more to understand……..

Food addiction?

It may sound daft to someone who’s never had a problem with their weight but food can be addictive, very addictive. Some people eat/drink too much or the wrong things for many reasons:

• As a way of handling stress or depression.
• To be social.
• Simply because they enjoy it.
• Or all of the above

Lets face it eating/drinking nice things is a nice thing to do, even if you sometimes do feel guilty if you’ve had too much. Anyone for a cream cake?

Other foods can be addictive in a more basic way. Some foods can cause an addiction in a more drug like way! Don’t believe me? OK, if you drink more than 5-6 cups of tea or coffee a day, try stopping for week but make sure you drink something else that doesn’t contain caffeine, hot or cold water is best . OK, so you may achieve this easily, but at any point during that week were you ‘dieing’ for a cup of tea or coffee? Be honest! If the answer is yes, as I’m sure it will be for most people, you have to asked yourself why you would have this feeling for a simple drink, when you were not particularly thirsty. If you’ve ever given up smoking you might a liken the feeling to the need to nicotine, all be it not so intense.

So food can be addictive, but what else? Why do some of us have this need for eating too much? Time for ScribLogic I think?

ScribLogic lession – The bodies food yearning:

Now believe it or not humans are animals, all be it clever (although i sometimes wonder) ones. Like all life forms we have basic instincts to survive and no matter how ‘clever’ we have become these instincts will always we with us.

Feeding our bodies is one of the most important basic instincts, its a core part of our ‘programming’. If we do not feed (eating and drinking) we die – simple! Lets call this ‘Food instinct’.

It was not so long ago that humans were scratching out an existence, living off the land and struggling to find food. In these early days many populations of humans would have died out during difficult periods, such as drought  and famine, caused by low rain fall or winter i.e. the climate. Obviously this did not affect only humans, all life form populations will be directly affected by the environment and food availability and supply.

The seasons played an important part in this, during the summer food may have been plentiful, in the winter not so. Have you ever noticed that you put on more weight during the winter. I only realised this recently, but its true, even for me. I will be a few pounds heavier in the winter as apposed to the summer even though I exercise the same and don’t consciously eat any different. Is this some instinct to fatten up during periods when food might not be so readability available? Interesting isn’t it, maybe its just a coincidence? Is it that our bodies seem know these things without us consciously realising it?

Understanding this makes all the difference!

Currently, large parts of the human population have all the food they want, some unfortunately don’t.

So, let us break all this down:

• a) We have this ‘core programming’ to survive, including food instinct.
• b) We may have addiction to food or some foods.
• c) There may be a seasonal aspect to this also.
• d) We have all the food we need.
• a + b + c + d = higher risk of loosing control of our weight?

So does this mean the instinct will know or even care if the above 4 factors are in place (a + b + c + d) at the same time? Or to put it another way, are we going to eat more than we need to because our instinct is to take on and store as many calories as possible because our instinct assumes the worse, that food will not always be so readily on supply. Take a dog, for example, if given the opportunity a dog will eat until its full enough to be sick. If you gave it a limitless supply of food, you’d have a fat dog. The dog is just following its instinct.

Knowing these things gives us the tools to understand and to work out whats going on. With this knowledge we can learn to live and work with our bodies and instincts and overcome the vicious circle of over eating.

I’ll discuss the next step in Part 3. To keep posted and up to date please link to this blog via the RSS feed. If you’d like to share this blog please us the ‘add this’ buttons at the bottom of each post to link to Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Kewswick to Barrow Training: 28 Feb 2011

Training continues but has had a set back. By daughter crashed her bike and spent the night in hostipal, so no training this weekend or today.

She is doing fine and thing should be back to normal in a few days.

Kewswick to Barrow Training: 20 Feb 2011

I Did 12 miles today on my ‘Sunday morning run’. I’ve been slow building up over the past few weeks, doing a extra mile per week. Its interesting to look at my ‘activity’ map on Runkeeper and try and work out how to add an extra mile. You often see a road loop taking you that little bit further out of your way, and thus adding extra milage.

So next week its 13 miles, but that’s unlucky, so I might have to push onto 14 miles.

The Keswick to Barrow is not until May and I’m glad I’ve started pushing myself this earlier. The last two years I left it to much later which wasn’t a good idea.

I’ve also started swimming again once a week to help build stamina, which I really enjoy and regret stopping. What with a busy family life sometimes keeping fit can take a back seat, but I believe there is always a way to keep your exercise levels up, although it might mean going out side your comfort zone, which isn’t a such a bad thing.