Stuff on my mind

Running
The usual Tuesday evening session was swapped to the AM today as it is a Public Holiday on Melb Metro due to the Melbourne Cup. The agenda for today was as follows:
500 mtre 800 mtre 1K 1K 800 mtre 500 mtre. I have said it before, I find these sessions the most challenging but also the most enjoyable, perhaps I am a masochist.

Because the govt in their infinite wisdom have decided that the Melbourne Park area needs yet another sporting venue (because The Tennis Centre, Vodafone Arena, the MCG and Olympic Park are not enough) our 2 lane track has been torn up to make way for a soccer pitch or rugby ground or some such. By the way I have no issues with the aforementioned venues, they are what make Melbourne the sporting capital of Australia, but really with the exception of Olympic Park (which also gets used for Rugby) they are all about the ball sports. A meager 2 lane track for public use should not be too big an ask should it??

OK, didn't mean to get side tracked with a rant. But due to the loss of our track we were on the grass in Fawkner Park this morning. I didn't take my splits myself because the conditions were not ideal, cold, windy, on grass etc. However I do remember the splits that were called out and I managed to run both 800s and 1000s within about a second of each other, and my last 500 was 5 seconds quicker than the first. It was a tough session but I was helped immensely by the presence of the indefatigable Eddie on my shoulder keeping me honest, this is probably why I ran such nice even splits.

Checking the race calendars looks like my next will be the 4Km Spring into Shape at the end of the month and I have decided on the Sri Chinmoy in Williamstown on the 10th of Dec for a crack at a 5Km PB. This is currently 22:56, I'd like to get this down to around 22:30.

Rambling
I lost 900grms last week, and yes it was a deliberate effort, very pleased with myself. In a fit of post half marathon indulgence I managed to gain about 1kg, I blame it on Rocky Road, butter on my bread, red wine, cheesels, apricot danish, Guiness and Spanikopita (not all at once mind you), basically getting stuck into the things that I love but generally avoid.

Now I changed my mindset drastically last week and this made all the difference as I wasn't "on a diet" as such. We are extremely lucky in the West in that we have an embarrassing abundance of food available to us. Therefore we have the rare luxury of being able to eat for pleasure, not just for fuel. Couple that with all our cars and desk jobs and there is a pretty simple explanation for the woeful levels of obesity and lifestyle diseases that dog us.

So where am I going with this?? Last week, instead of thinking "I am on a diet" which automatically dooms me to failure I decided that I was going to re-connect with what it was like to feel hungry. No I was not on some mad starvation plan, rather instead of just eating because I felt I had to, I waited until I was truly hungry. That is, that tummy rumbling really gotta eat now feeling AND stopping when I am full. Worked a treat really, also I kept a food diary and looking back on it I found that I was snacking heaps less last week, also I was eating much less in the evenings too. So that is my simple interpretation of the problems we have here in the West, we have forgotten what it is like to be hungry.