Thank you for sharing this, Jonathan. I don’t know how many times I need to remind myself of this stuff. Ultimately, being injured is rubbish, I want to run healthily into old age, and running under-fuelled feels horrendous, so eating properly wins. But there’s always that niggling thought that - yes! - comes from the language we’ve grown up with. And yet also! “You can’t outrun a bad diet”, so we’re needlessly telling ourselves we can justify/we have earned fish and chips anyway! Oh what a pickle. Running is the reward, you’re absolutely right 💚
It’s so tricky and I don’t get it right and don’t know what the answers are.
Quite rightly, eating disorders and Red-S get attention (though perhaps not enough), but I think there’s also a more subtle unhelpful relationship with food and exercise that affects so many people. Not enough to cause serious, life-threatening problems, but enough to get in the way of fun and enjoyment.
Yes, we need to be aware of eating well, and avoiding crap food, but (like running) it often gets framed as a chore, effort, less pleasurable.
I’m not entirely sure what my point is, or what I was trying to say in the article, but basically I don’t want to spend time feeling even a little bit stressed about it, and I would bet that there are plenty of other people who feel the same, and so I felt like it was something I needed to share.
Yes! I quite agree. It's sort of good that plenty of people do fall in love with the sport as a result of trying to lose weight, but I wish it was framed more as overall health and wellness. For that reason I completely respect when people say they find running dull, and do X, Y, Z sport instead, because they find it more enjoyable. Fantastic. We need to be moving, but for reasons that have longevity and benefits beyond the physical. It shouldn't be punishment!
Thank you for sharing this, Jonathan. I don’t know how many times I need to remind myself of this stuff. Ultimately, being injured is rubbish, I want to run healthily into old age, and running under-fuelled feels horrendous, so eating properly wins. But there’s always that niggling thought that - yes! - comes from the language we’ve grown up with. And yet also! “You can’t outrun a bad diet”, so we’re needlessly telling ourselves we can justify/we have earned fish and chips anyway! Oh what a pickle. Running is the reward, you’re absolutely right 💚
It’s so tricky and I don’t get it right and don’t know what the answers are.
Quite rightly, eating disorders and Red-S get attention (though perhaps not enough), but I think there’s also a more subtle unhelpful relationship with food and exercise that affects so many people. Not enough to cause serious, life-threatening problems, but enough to get in the way of fun and enjoyment.
Yes, we need to be aware of eating well, and avoiding crap food, but (like running) it often gets framed as a chore, effort, less pleasurable.
I’m not entirely sure what my point is, or what I was trying to say in the article, but basically I don’t want to spend time feeling even a little bit stressed about it, and I would bet that there are plenty of other people who feel the same, and so I felt like it was something I needed to share.
Yes! I quite agree. It's sort of good that plenty of people do fall in love with the sport as a result of trying to lose weight, but I wish it was framed more as overall health and wellness. For that reason I completely respect when people say they find running dull, and do X, Y, Z sport instead, because they find it more enjoyable. Fantastic. We need to be moving, but for reasons that have longevity and benefits beyond the physical. It shouldn't be punishment!