Hungry, Hungry Hippo Part Two

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that due to this running, I am HUNGRY all the time. Well, that has not changed. Not one bit. I get hungry even on my rest days, the same kind of hunger I have when I run. It's crazy.


But the crazier thing is how my eating habits are changing and the weird cravings I'm having. For example, the other day husbandly joined me on a six mile run. I was THRILLED, because he normally goes in for shorter, faster runs and this was neither short nor fast. So, we're running along (and he's naturally ahead of me by a few paces...he's a good runner) and my mind starts to drift. Where does it drift you say? It drifted straight to a fantasy of me buying powdered lemon-lime gatorade, pouring the powder in my hand and eating straight out of my hand. No water, just the powder. I think I started this daydream at around mile three and on mile six I was ready to run to HEB to buy it. I shared this with husbandly at one point and he said I was weird, but it's all I wanted.

This craving was weird for two reasons: one, I only drink Gatorade when I am sick and even then it's only G2, the low calorie stuff. Two, I haven't drank lemon lime gatorade since I was 12 years old and my Uncle Jack made it for me and my cousin after we played basketball. In the end, I did buy a big thing of powdered lemon lime gatorade and husbandly said I could NOT eat it straight, that I must put water in it. I think I was dealing with some sort of sodium deficiency that day, because now in my handy dandy water belt one of the little bottles has water and the other has lemon lime gatorade. And the craving really hasn't come back. The belt by the way, is awesome, and husbandly doesn't seem to think it's so dorky when he takes sips from it.


Couple of other weird things I am doing now that I didn't do before running long distances consistently: I eat a lot of citrus fruit. I can't get enough of tangerines, oranges, grapefruit, tangelos, you name it, I want it. Normally I eat a banana and an apple a day as part of my fruit intake, but lately I am eating both of those plus two citrus fruits. Delicious.


Also, I never, never drank milk before. Now, it's one of the only things that sounds good after a really long run (that and water). I have to be really tired to drink it, but it tastes so good and cold after a long run.

I have also been cutting way back on dirty foods. They just don't sound good to me and I think it's because subconciously I don't like the way it will make my stomach feel during a run. I guess that's good, right? Now, instead of considering what a food will do to my figure, I think about how it might impede my run that day. I know all about that, especially after eating a turkey burger on white bread and trying to run three hours later. I don't like thinking about it.

While reading runners rambles, I learned about this stuff called GU that you eat while you run. It's glucose that is broken down so it gets to your muscles faster to help them recover. I bought some because I do start to feel tired towards the end. I will say this: I do feel it works, but I think I will know better when I start my long long runs (10 miles). However, I will say that GU=EW. They might be good for running but the taste buds really have to battle swallowing them. I have only tried the Triberry, so maybe when I start to branch out, I will find others that taste better.


That's what I have right now. I do have some awesome, non-running news that I will share. In my last post I mentioned we were going to look at a townhome on the southside to rent and that we were going to wait a few more months to buy. We got to the townhome and we loved it, and we also loved the neighborhood and the part of town it's in. We also looked at all the homes for sale in the area, all the homes were new and cute and unique. One thing I can't stand are those neighborhoods where all the homes look the same. It gives me the creeps. Anyway, on the way home from looking we talked about buying vs. renting and decided we would love to buy, but hey, our lease is up in four weeks and we could never close on a house that fast. Best to just rent. So then, we get back to our apartments and decide we need to give them notice that we're moving at the end of the month. The gal at the office said that was fine, but did we know our lease isn't up until the end of May? After the initial shock of having to live in these crapartments for another month, we decided to jump in and buy. So, we contacted our bank and filled some stuff out and we are officially pre-approved for the amount we wanted. This weekend we are looking at homes and our hope is to close mid-May. How awesome is that?