I may not have trained a lot for River to River, but you can’t say that I’ll show up unprepared:

I’ve been working on eating more intuitively, namely eating when I’m hungry and not eating when I’m, you know, not hungry. Oddly enough, this is a deceptively difficult concept!

I eat dessert almost every night, though usually not in excess. I’m pretty sure two conflicting schools of thought are at work here. On one hand, I want to enjoy myself and eat a tasty treat in the evening, especially after I’ve done homework and gotten settled in for the night. On other hand, I’m not particularly hungry when I eat dessert (most of the time). Moreover, the dessert serves no nutritive function, so I’m mostly eating out of habit or desire to nom-nom something delicious.

(Post-race blondies? Don’t mind if I do!)

I think that overall, I have a very healthy and normal approach to eating, though I do often eat past the point of fullness for reasons that I have yet to identify. I don’t deny myself foods because that seems like a dangerous and unpleasant path to start upon.

I’m pretty sure that I will continue to eat dessert on a regular, if not daily, basis. Nevertheless, I would like to approach it in a more mindful way. For example, if I’m feeling full, eating a cupcake is not a logical decision, nor will it be terribly enjoyable. (I am very good at convincing myself that eating dessert is always the answer!) If I’m going to eat dessert, I should enjoy it, right? When I was little, my dad always told me that we should “savor the flavor.” I used to find it maddening that he could eat a cookie in so many small bites, when I was more inclined to shove the whole thing in my mouth, but like most things, my dad knows best. Let’s savor the flavor, okay?

I’m not sure what kind of impression people have of me from this blog, though most of my readers actually know me in real life. Maybe to some, I give off the false impression that I never think about my weight or what I eat, and that’s not always true. I wanted to be honest and write that like almost all women I know, I sometimes struggle with my weight and with the way I approach food.

And with that, I will leave you with a picture of chocolate chip banana bread.