My cat was performing the hokey-pokey on my face this morning, the feline variation. Put your left foot in (PastaQueen’s eye), put your left foot out (on her neck), put your left foot in (her ear) and shake your tail in her face. Since I was up anyway, I decided to try running/walking in the morning.
One of the things I learned is that it’s cold in the morning! I suppose the earth cools off overnight and in the morning it’s still preheating the oven to whatever the high temperature will be for the day. However, this does not stop some trail denizens from running around like they’re in Miami Beach. I was running around with twice the insulation on my body as these people in their shorts and sleeveless shirts and I was still chilly in my jacket and track pants. I may be on the South Beach diet, but at least I realize I don’t actually live there.
Second, if you go walking/running four and half miles in the morning, you shouldn’t be surprised when you eat your normal breakfast plus all your snacks for the day before lunch and still want to chew on the corner of your desk. I felt like I’d forgotten to fill up my gas tank before a cross country trip. If I start doing this regularly I’m definitely going to be eating a bigger breakfast. Chickens beware, I’m coming for your eggs.
Third, I don’t know if it was the running or the not eating enough in the morning or the raspberry vodka my brother brought over last night as an apology for eating my last piece of salmon (or perhaps a combination of all three), but I got really tired right around 3:00pm. It was like the old days when I ate poorly and always got the afternoon munchies. I did some stretches to try and get my blood going, which helped a little. But mostly it just reminded me of how much better I feel now that I eat healthy.
Barbara says
September 15, 2006 at 6:52 pmYou know, I got up early this morning to exercise (much earlier than normal) and felt the need to hoover myself through the day afterward. REALLY hungry. Granted, my activity level has been high lately but, sheesh…when you eat breakfast at 5 and get hungry again at 9, what’s breakfast and what’s lunch – or maybe I can eat Hobbit style and have first and second breakfast – or could the first count as a delayed midntight snack??? :)
Barbara says
September 15, 2006 at 6:52 pmYou know, I got up early this morning to exercise (much earlier than normal) and felt the need to hoover myself through the day afterward. REALLY hungry. Granted, my activity level has been high lately but, sheesh…when you eat breakfast at 5 and get hungry again at 9, what’s breakfast and what’s lunch – or maybe I can eat Hobbit style and have first and second breakfast – or could the first count as a delayed midntight snack??? :)
christie says
September 15, 2006 at 10:41 pmExercising in the morning always makes me hungrier too – but one thing I’ve heard is that people who eat most at breakfast, medium amount at lunch, and light at dinner, lose the most weight and keep it off. “breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, dinner like a pauper.”
Someone also told me that in many european countries where most people are thinner, they consume 60% of their calories at breakfast.
Greta says
September 15, 2006 at 11:04 pmI always walk for 1-2 hours before I eat breakfast. Before I leave I cut up 2 apples or 2 peaches and put that into a rice cooker with 2/3 cup old-fashioned oats and 4/3 cups water plus cinnamon and it makes a breakfast that fills me up AND gets me to lunch. Of course I am not like Barbara above who eats breakfast at 5am. ANYONE would get hungry before lunch eating at 5am!! Because I walk first, then eat, there are usually only about 3-4 hours between my breakfast and lunch so maybe I am not such a great example afterall. If you have 7-8 hours between breakfast and lunch you NEED another MEAL in there and not just snack food.
Laura says
September 16, 2006 at 10:53 amOne thing I have read is that exercising in the morning before breakfast kind of kick starts your metabolism, causing you to burn more calories faster during the day, so it makes sense you’re hungrier. One thing I found out, though, was that although I was hungrier in the morning, I was hungry for good stuff, not junk. Be careful about wearing too much insulation in the morning, though–it can make you overheat. This is hard advice to give, because I hate the cold myself, but if you’re a little cold at the beginning of the walk, your body may have to burn more calories to heat you up–and by the time you finish, you’ll be warm enough. Until you get your mega-insane regional winter weather, anyway.
AND–you get to enjoy those positive exercise endorphins throughout the day–not that you seem like the depressive type!
Julia says
September 17, 2006 at 6:47 pmIf you are actually running, your body heats up more than if you’re only walking, which is why runners tend to dress with less clothing. It’s much better to start out with less clothing and then heat up than to wear more clothing and then have to peel it off and wrap it around your waist.
ps: exercising in the morning also speeds your metabolism up just a bit more :-), hence, the hunger…
Mark says
September 19, 2006 at 10:32 amWow, Greta’s recipe sounds good! But I wonder if it will make the dinner rice taste like cinnamon?
I don’t run, but what Julia says is true for both hiking and swimming: you may be cold at first, but you get hot fast.