 LUNCH TIME AT MY JOB IS LITERALLY A COMMUNAL FEAST ON SOME DAYS! job is ultra secretive about everything (once you get on the premises, they only let you outside unless you are leaving!), I won’t mention where I work, but let me tell you, there is never nothing to do. At first, I was quite skeptical about the amount of so called “leg work” I would be putting into this job everyday, but let me tell you one thing, it is starting to hit me.
The last couple days (where I worked a combined 20 hours) were the moments when I started feeling my body getting a little worn out. On the days in question, it is not like I was doing a whole lot of lifting or moving, but by the end of the day, I could feel the residual pressure from being on my feet. When I got home, my quads felt absolutely rock hard. On Tuesday night I was fiddling around on the computer when I actually started feeling cramps? You heard that right! Cramps! Now I was contemplating on doing some running but opted not to, so I was extremely glad to have taken the night off after an 11+ hour shift. But the next day I had to get in a run. While I may have been feeling the leftovers of my Monday “Two-fer” (I ran four miles in 86-degree heat in the morning and then did a 70-minute workout session in the late afternoon) I felt good enough to at least pulverize a four miler. Well, I did, and it was a pretty good in spite of some quad tightness. Now granted, this was at Reid Park which is more or less a speed track, but I still busted out a 9:48 per mile average over 4.13 miles. Either way, the heat running and the fact I have been conquering my home course more often definitely helped me power through that run. If anything, running the harder course may finally be helping me! Eventually I want to run the course that runs between Valencia and Silverlake (roughly 11.5 miles) but I have to take baby steps. Plus one other thing that has been hitting me since starting my new job is the reduction of my calories. The trouble with working a job like the one I am at is the mental fatigue. Now my body can handle the wear and tear I am taking on a regular basis, but here is the really tricky part. The job is so mentally exhausting that I just feel like wolfing down a Chipotle burrito during my main break and my lunch break. And trust me, some people at my job actually do this, eating like a Hobbit in the process. I’m not gonna lie, while I kept my caloric intake low during breakfast and lunch, I came home a couple times and just pigged out. It wasn’t something I necessarily wanted to do, but I knew I wasn’t working out or running (a 12-hour shift can do that to you!) and thus would eat a little too much. Truth be told, it is an old habit of mine, where I would eat light during the day and then pig out at dinner, doing some carb loading for the next day. While my first couple meals would certainly justify the need for a big dinner, I’m pretty sure this is not a good idea. But I look at it this way. During the two years I was still an electrician after going to Parsons Training, I would adhere to this kind of regimen and it worked pretty well for me. Of course, it set up some bad habits for me, because when I found myself unemployed, I started eating three full meals a day! During this time I maybe gained back 25-30 pounds that I had originally lost, going back up to 288 pounds as late as November 2014. I can honestly say that I’m probably under 260 pounds right now, but I’m going to have to find an accurate scale to help me on that front. Either way, the compulsion to pig out at night has already hit me a couple times, especially this past weekend when I pretty much did nothing but work. The ultimate key for me will be to fight my urges during the day at work. With so many people eating hearty meals, it is quite compelling to me to actually join in. I mean, I see their happy faces in spite of the difficulty and discomfort and rigidity of the job (I literally got chewed out for putting shipping labels on wrong!). Anyway, this all reminds me of the old days for me, when times were easily made from the joy of eating. I’m talking about Binge Eating, which thank goodness there is now a public campaign that is starting to bring this subject to the masses! http://www.bingeeatingdisorder.com/ While this campaign has been going for a couple months, I sure as hell would have never known because I don’t watch television. But thanks to Youtube and Epic Rap Battles of History, I saw this commercial before watching the newest battle between Lewis and Clark and Bill and Ted (by the way, Bill and Ted totally whooped them!). For years and many times on this blog, I have been aggravated by the idea that being a heavy eater is a sign of respect in this weird culture of ours. I would become enraged, even when I was really heavy, when ESPN would show professional eating events like the hotdog eating contest on the Fourth of July, which is disgusting gluttony at work. I’m talking ancient Greece gluttony. Now the only real problem I have so far is the fact this campaign is geared toward women, so the sexism indicator in my head is certainly going off. And with the recent debate about women supposedly liking the “dad bod,” men seem to be getting a free pass so far on the two commercials I have seen about this subject. I won’t go too far about this, for maybe there are some male centric commercials on the horizon, but so far this seems a bit fishy to me. Either way, I should be thankful that the subject is being discussed, even though the very idea of binge eating is really a more convenient way of softening the blow of labels like “overeating” and “stuffing your face.” The Mayo Clinic defines Binge Eating as an uncontrollable urge to keep eating without stopping, going further than simply getting seconds at the potluck or holiday meal. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/binge-eating-disorder/basics/definition/con-20033155 Now here is the sad kicker about the problem. There really is no one reason or physically defined reason why so many people can’t help themselves. Now I wrote a blog a couple years back in regards to science figuring out that certain mutations to the DNA strand may have a reason for making us want to eat more. http://blog.parsonstrainingtucson.com/2013/11/fat-loss-pills.html But here was the caveat to that article…this mutation only occurred in 2% of the subjects, so the chemical imbalance that so many people (including the Shire group which is promoting the Binge Eating website) are almost specifically trying to blame. Now this is only privy to myself, but I have mentioned that eating was more of a drug addiction, for the effects of the casein in cheese and the salts and fats in meat most likely hooked me since I ate a diet high in both ingredients (sometimes I would only eat those two staples). Food pretty much replaced everything in my life, and it was much easier to eat a pizza and fall into a food coma than actually deal with personal issues. This was my story. This was the reason why I binged pretty much every day. At the end of a work day I was happy because the joy of choosing what I would stuff my face with made up for all of the nonsense of the day. It helped me forget the electrical shocks I might have gotten or the disgusting level of sweatiness I suffered through while digging a ditch I could barely do by myself. I was definitely an emotional eater. http://blog.parsonstrainingtucson.com/2014/06/stress-eating-or-just-bad-habits.html But I have illustrated several reasons why we may be eating too much. With our busy world encapsulating all of our senses, a hearty unhealthy meal by ourselves may contribute to the beginning of a binge eating disorder. http://blog.parsonstrainingtucson.com/2014/08/obesity-and-alone-time-match-made-in.html And of course, one of my more controversial subjects was how some parents might be ignorant or just flat in denial about their kids, creating a degree of behavior over a child’s life that may take years to overcome. http://blog.parsonstrainingtucson.com/2014/09/living-in-ignorance-living-in-denial.html I’ve touched on this subject many times, where possibly letting your kid become obese is child abuse! http://blog.parsonstrainingtucson.com/2014/09/obesityis-it-child-abuse.html And don’t get me started on school lunches, which is looking more like menu items form a sports bar or a greasy spoon rather than a menu (and then compare it to our peers!). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/25/school-lunches-around-the-world_n_6746164.html Of course, another issue we face is the fact the American diet (and the western diet in general) is chucked with too much junk. Look at the American families! http://www.viralnova.com/different-country-groceries/ The trouble with Binge Eating Disorder is the fact it is so vague to define and this presents some trouble with the subject, because one man’s binge eating problem is one man’s meal. And I do mean men, because while the subject is so far geared toward women, men are equally in trouble in regards to the issues of bad eating and weight problems. Heck, I insinuated the reason why no one truly cares what men eat and do is because entire industries are hoping men stay unhealthy and out of shape (especially insurance companies, erectile disfunction pill distributors and miracle muscle creators). Right now, I will continue to focus on the addictive nature of food and how it changes us mentally. I’ll admit, I still have some problems the subject, but at least I have managed to control it. It was kind of funny when I mentioned on Monday after doing the second half of my two-a-day workout that I would go to a local pizza joint called Pionic for what I called a cheat meal. Jon and Christa were quick to correct me, for they knew I was only going to get one little pizza with no meat or cheese. “A cheat meal for you would have been multiple pizzas and chicken wings” Jon mentioned. “You’re just eating a big meal after a long day of working out!” And when I really thought about it, he was right. I had burned 1,600 calories that day and I probably ate less than 2,000 calories in food. So yes, a good vegan pizza was needed to fill up the stores. I will still call it a cheat meal since I have such a sordid history with pizza, but it still felt so good just to eat it, especially when I put some good olive oil on top, letting the oil soak the thin crust and give it warm taste. But the difference now is I only ate one of their pizzas and left, and consider it was Happy Hour and the pizza was only five bucks, I could have eaten more if I really wanted to. I’ll admit, the thought did cross my mind, but that is the struggle I have t deal with constantly. The only thing I can be happy about is the general public is now being made aware of the subject, and that is always the first step in fixing a problem like our country’s obesity epidemic. About Parsons Training Parsons Training is a Tucson leader in fitness and personal wellness training. Every personal trainer with this company designs and implements effective fitness programs for their clients; these programs serve as the foundation for good health, fitness, and wellness. Additional information about Parsons Training is available at http://www.parsonspersonaltraining.com Any views or opinions presented in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.
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