My favorite feeling is perhaps the empty hollowness of hunger. That statement, in itself, is a declaration of the privileged life I’ve led; it is borderline obscene to boast of such a thing in a world where 842 million people don’t have enough to eat. Nevertheless, being lucky enough to have been raised in America and just competent enough to hold down a job, I find myself in the enviable position of needing to invoke “discipline” in order to experience this sensation.
All that aside, I love feeling hungry, both physically and metaphorically. Physically, being hungry brings something primal out in me; there is an edge that awakens which feels dormant when I’ve eaten. I’m sharper, more alive somehow.
When I eat or drink too much, I feel it in my flesh; I feel the lethargy that comes with food everywhere. I feel it on my back, I feel it in my limbs, I feel it in my eyes – everything is weighed down and blurred. When I am overweight, I find I can go all day without eating and hardly give it a thought. When I’m training and riding well and my weight is down, I can eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner and never feel sated. That is the feeling of hunger to which I refer; not a desire to starve, but a physical condition where sustenance feels impossible to achieve. This is a beautiful state where everything feels alive and there is a sharpness and precision in every motion.
There is also a metaphorical hunger, which I don’t think we can achieve without the physical sort. The metaphorical sort is borne of desire and need. This is what drives us to achieve more than we normally would. Sean Kelly talks of this hunger in his book by the same name; in his opening chapter, he says he would rather fall into the any of the greenhouses below the sweeping hairpins along the descent from the Poggio into Sanremo than face defeat by Moreno Argentin. That is hunger in the metaphorical sense.
I am a better person when I feel hunger; I have drive, I have humility, I have courage. When hunger stirs, we come alive with an urgency we don’t otherwise find. Without it, there is no compulsion to act, to fight, or to endure.
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Inspired to start again reading Racing Weight and then perhaps "unlearn what I have learned" this past year.
I hunger to eat right whenever possible, hence Bob's Red Mill:
[ Facebook ] We know it's important to you and we are proud to say that Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods is officially enrolled in the Non-GMO Project. We have always been committed to identity-preserved ingredients and worked closely with farmers to ensure our raw materials are not bio-engineered, but this strengthens our commitment to our values and to you, our customer.
@eenies
No, that was me that said that. I was referring to Kate Moss though, she feels excellent. Truly outstanding. Really, you've got to try it for yourself. Way better than she tastes.
FWIW (with apologies for continuing the focus on physical rather than metaphorical hunger), my experience with weight loss has been interesting (to me, at least). When I was 97 kgs (sorry, 'Mericans, I dunno what that is in lbs) I dropped to a steady 83kgs by riding 4 or 5 times a week, cutting out beer and never eating dessert or sweets (lollies). Then when injury and work kept me off the bike and a thorough-going reacquaintance with beer and ice cream had seen me head back perilously close to my previous weight, but I was still not riding (yes, poor form, but Oprah-esque confessionals of this nature require honesty), I took a different tack: drop dessert and sweets again, drop pasta, rice, potato and bread, but don't drop beer. The result: a consistent weight of 80 - 81 kgs. (All blood tests good - no systemic issues/deficits apparent. The doctor has, though, suggested no more weight loss.) Ron's (?) prescription for then matching caloric intake to anticipated depletion (based on nature and duration of exercise) is then not a headache, as it is not complicated by a desire to also use the exercise for weight loss.
A few thoughts occur to me as a result of this. (1) It may not be for everyone. Listen to your body. And get it checked with comprehensive blood work after a while to ensure it is not doing you harm. (2) I rarely feel hungry. Presumably because protein and fat satiate far more effectively than carbs. (Occasional hunger is fine. But diets which make people constantly hungry strike me as foolish in the extreme.) (3) Dinner and lunch are easy, as is dining out - I just don't eat the rice/potato/etc, and have additional broccoli/etc instead - but it does take a while to get used to tuna or egg for breakfast. (4) It helps set a tone in the family of moderation when it comes to things like sweet drink and the other sugary crap kids like. That is no bad thing. (5) Most importantly, I have not had to give up beer. This is good, because I love beer, and my brother runs a brewery so my beer is relatively cheap. It seems I can eat carbs or drink carbs but not do both. Conceived of in those terms, it is a simple choice.
@V-olcano
I'm not suggesting you skip a meal after riding; you have to recover and provide your muscles fuel to do so. What I'm saying is this fucking bullshit that's floating out there that if you don't eat four fucking power bars on your ride, your body will eat muscle instead of fat.
@unversio
Go for the muesli instead, which is what I thought you were referring to. I didn't realize they make a granola. The muesli rocks and has no sugar, to @ChrisO's point.
@G'phant
Great to hear from you again matey. Welcome back. Question whose answer eludes me in your excellent prose: are you or are you not actually riding your fucking bike now?
@frank Next order: Old Country Style Muesli, Gluten Free Apple Blueberry Granola, Natural "No Fat Added" Granola, Whole Wheat Farina [cereal], Golden Flaxseed [gluten free] w/ clear containers.
@frank Kelly was a badass, and racing was so much better before team race radios.
@frank
That pretty well hits the nail on the head. I agree completely, and I think @Puffy would too. That's all I was getting at - you were both getting to the same place via different roads.
@unversio
I don't care a fig where your Granola comes from - you were the one plugging avuncular suppliers of breakfast cereals.
My general point was that anything you buy from anywhere is more likely to have more sugar and fat than anything you make yourself. Whether it's "all natural" or "nothing added" is irrelevant.
Many supposedly healthy or low fat foods are packed with sugar - muesli is one of the worst, as people buy it thinking they are doing the right thing and would actually be better off with something like Cornflakes. When you spend a bit of time in the supermarket picking up and comparing the dietary values of different items it's quite an eye-opener.