Monday, May 5, 2008

Time for a change

Starting now no more M&M's for the rest of the summer, I'm going to run regularly, and I'm going to eat better in general. No more eating like I'm a bear preparing for hibernation. I don't need to my fat stores to increase, I will live without so much junk food. Oh yes, it is going to be hard, but I signed up for the Walter Payton 16726 yard run and I need to be able to finish. That is 9.5 miles; much, much farther than I have ever run in my life. Yes, I know people run that long all the time, some do marathons, but I was never a long distance runner, even when I was in the best shape of my life I struggled to do three miles.

Besides the run, I'm not getting any younger. I'm going to be (gulp) 40 next year; I want that to be less than the halfway point in my life.  One hundred would be a good round number. Actually, just yesterday my mom showed us pictures of her aunt that turned 100. Unfortunately, she is her aunt by marriage, so I don't have the ultra-long life gene in my family. I want to be driving my Porsche when I'm 85 years old. Sure, at that age it is more likely I'm going to drive it into house or a pool, but at least I'll look cool doing it.

I say starting now because I had some cookies for breakfast. I blame my sister. She made enough chocolate chip M&M cookies to feed a small school. I have no choice; I have to eat them so my kids don't. I don't want them to develop the bad habits I have. It's all for the good of the children.

So...what's for lunch?


5 comments:

Florinda said...

What was for lunch?

At least you ate something for breakfast - but tomorrow, it can be something other than cookies :-).

I guess you can consider giving up M&Ms for Lent as a test run for this. Good luck!

Mike said...

Florinda: I had a Lean Cuisine chicken meal of some sort. The only problem was I was hungry as soon as I got home. I won't say what I ate...it wasn't M&M's though.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on signing up for the 16XXX yard run (the 9.5 miler - I've forgotten the exact number due to sleep deprivation). Running your longest distance ever is always a big, intimidating deal, whether it's an 8K or a marathon. Taking achievable steps along the way to help you finish strong (in addition to just improving your training schedule) can really help reduce the fear factor.

My wife and I switched to 90% pure dark chocolate bars for a while to deal with chocolate cravings. They're a little bitter and take some getting used to (or a lot of getting used to), but they do help with the need for chocolate. They don't do anything for the sugar cravings, though. Good luck.

Mike said...

Unfocused Me: Thanks for the words of encouragement. I need them. I like dark chocolate, but I've never had the 90% stuff. I'll give it a try.

Anonymous said...

It's an acquired taste -- once you stop eating much sugar, you get used to it.