Live to Eat, Run to Live, Run to Live to Eat.

Was poking around to see if there were other people like me who live to eat and run to sustain it, it's no surprise that a lot of people do that.

There's no doubt that we need to eat to live, where by the word "live", placed at the end of the phrase, shows the final goal to achieve. Others, like me, prefer to reverse the phrase, where by "eat" is the end goal in life.

The Initiation

I first started running middle of 2008 before I was with Xinn. It started out as a personal goal to lose weight but it didn't really take off that well...in fact I gain even more weight when I was *gasp* with Xinn come end 2008. =P

The goal to start running came when I hit 63kg. That was my heaviest back in 2003, which I conveniently lost and dropped to 56kg when I did my attachment in Conrad. It was quite depressing going from 56 back to 63 again when I got out of the army, that's a good 7kg jump!

Back in 2008

Currently 2011

I then got back again and started running. First it was 3km..then slowly 4km...it worked, I lost weight...slowly of course, but it did. I rarely did the 6km routes back then.

Before I knew it, a few months had passed, and I had reached 59 by September 2009.

What next? I couldn't just stop there right?

Goal Shift

It's normal for one to shift goals, you don't always take the same path all your life. I had completed my initial plan, to lose weight. That's done. Now what?

Me in 2004

I didn't want to go back to 56, looking back at 2004, I was a seriously scrawny looking kid. I certainly enjoyed eating, but I didn't want to gain back the weight I've lost from all that running...and I certainly wasn't going to kill off enjoying good food, so that's when I made the decision to run-to-eat...my long term goal.

End game? Enjoy eating. Simple and easy.

Why Not Slow Carb?

Though I know a few people who have gone down the route of adopting slow carb as their diet, I've yet to seriously put it into consideration. Don't get me wrong, the slow carb diet works, in fact a personal opinion is all diets work, you just got to stick to it. Key phrase: Stick to It. Note that I didn't say all diets are GOOD, certainly anyone looking to diet needs to read up on the pros and con.

The good thing about going Slow Carb which gives it an edge over other diets, is that it comes with a reward in the form of a weekly cheat day...other diets make you feel miserable for the most part and once you lose all that weight, you've become so starved of good food that you immediately spring back into "holiday" mode and before you know it, you're back to your regular weight again.

Sure you may say that the Atkins diet allows you to pig out on bacon, beef etc all the way and still lose weight, but have you considered the health effects? Heck even the Atkins website now sells low carb products that are healthier, so even they're not promoting the whole "eat bacon and sausages to lose weight" diet themselves.

The SC diet can also be altered to become part of a training regime, which is what Colin and Al are currently using it for, this diet not only allows them to benefit from losing the fat they want and gaining the mass they need from their training sessions, it also rewards them with cheat day to keep them satisfied on a holistic level.

I didn't go that route because 1) I didn't need to diet anymore, and 2) I wasn't training for anything. My end game was different...my end game was to enjoy food...and if I had to compromise 6 days so that I can only enjoy 1 day of binge eating, it didn't fit into my philosophy of "live-to-eat". Enjoying 1 day of good food a week meant I was only enjoying food for 14% of the time....that's not a live to eat motto I wanted to stand by.

Binge eating wasn't the way for me, I can't enjoy food when I'm on a half full stomach, it just doesn't taste as good than when you're hungry...and with the body being hungry at least twice a day, 7 days a week, that's 14 opportunities a week to enjoy something I truly love.

Live to Eat

This philosophy was drilled into me when I was 17 and studying in SHATEC. I had a professor once said "The French love their food, so much so that they'd die enjoying it, because to them, if all they had to eat was steamed vegetables and poached meats, then life isn't worth living"

Ok so it wasn't those exact words...it's been 10 years, can't remember what he said exactly. But since then I've stuck to this motto...life is too short to compromise on indulging in the stuff you love. For some, it's the passion to run and be at your fittest...for me it was to eat and die with a smile on my face.

I enjoy eating so much, I not only have albums on Facebook of food places I've been to, I also have 3 album dedicated to just random munches I've had so far!

Maintenance

So how does running fit into my philosophy?

With the Slow Carb diet + Running routine, you get to ultimately lose weight, with the bonus of enjoying good food on a weekly basis. On the other hand, running regularly for me meant that I get to...well...ultimately enjoy food, with the bonus of losing weight some times. The latter works for me

Running now allows me to eat what I want...I tend to indulge in at least one thing daily...be it lunch, or dinner, or maybe a snack (I'm munching on a small stack of potato chips right now as I type this).

Running ensures that I don't fall into the deep end and become unhealthy. Of course, health is also based on what you eat so although you do get to indulge in food, moderation is still key...good food need not necessarily be unhealthy, or expensive, so as long as you pick your foods correctly, you will enjoy what you eat, and at the same time not fall into the unhealthy category.

New Goals?

I had mentioned before that I didn't enjoy running marathons, it isn't part of my ambition, yet with me getting to know more runners through Newton and perhaps through New Balance, perhaps the new reason to run would be to hang out with friends? It was my main decision back during POSB Run that since Alron was taking part, I might as well join in and it can be considered a kind of group activity. Soloman might have been something worth trying especially when Colin and Al are taking part in it, but work commitments meant that it wasn't possible.

POSB Run 2011

Will I join marathons in future? I'm afraid to say "highly unlikely", but I do think that if I ever do take part, it probably won't be due to personal ambition, the more likely reason being that a whole group of friends are taking part in it together, that might be the motivation that will eventually make me consider picking it up...if I ever do.

For now, since I've managed to pass the 10km barrier a few times, I might as well take advantage of it, and just see where it takes me...running clubs seems like a good way to discipline myself to try and maintain such a distance while at the same time allowing me to eat more =P

Who knows where the future will take me? For now, I'll just cruise along this road, and stop every now and then to smell the roses, eat laksa, drink bakut teh, and indulge in french fries.

=)