Hunger

I finally hit the weight room again after an embarrassingly long hiatus.

There’s a hunger I get sometimes if I’ve worked out really hard weightlifting, and it feels better than other hungers.

Much is made of the nutrition that brackets a workout for the weight lifter, as well one should!  You can’t out-train a crappy diet.  (God knows I try.  You’d think I’d do better since I know better.  Ah well…)

While all meals should have some protein and some carbs, the pre-workout meal should be slightly higher in carbs.  I don’t mean like a bunch of bread.  I mean like a bowl of porridge or something.  I suppose the Celtic blood I have shows when it comes to good pinhead oatmeal, because that really, really is a good, tasty breakfast.  (I often have an egg with this.  Protein, you know).

But my favorite meal, the meal that is viscerally satisfying, that makes me feel good emotionally, and that I’m most hungry for is the post workout meal.  It’s always simple — just meat and veggies.  If I have time I usually just chop everything up and saute it with some soy sauce in a pan with a dribble of olive oil.

I sometimes wonder if that meal feels good in a way that might be wired into the hindbrain.  God knows I’m mostly primitive, and perhaps heavy exertion before a meal with meat satisfies the hunter programming in my brain, even if truth be told, I’m no hunter and would likely starve if dropped in the woods to survive.

I bribed myself into the weight room today, and said if I was a Very Good Girl and worked out, I could soak in the hot tub afterwards.  To be honest, while it’s a pleasure and I’d do it just for that, it’s also to prevent what I know is going to be a very sore morning tomorrow.  Because of the hiatus, I was lifting about 20 lbs less than I had been at the top of my game.  Rule One, you know.  I’m really too busy to be benched by stupid.  Even though I was lifting less, I was still shaking after the workout, so I got the right amount of physical challenge.

Instead of doing the long swims, as much as I love to say I’m swimming a mile, I’m doing shorter, more intense workouts.  They do better for body-changing, and I really do want to take off a bit of adipose tissue.

I think, though, I’m still going to indulge in the hot tub after swimming, too.

Hedonist, that’s me.

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