Constant Cravings

For the past few days, I've been craving greek yogurt (honey), nutty granola and dark chocolate chips.
Breakfast, lunch (except for one day of thai curry), and dessert. Heck, I'd be eating the same combo for supper too, if not for the rest of the family.

Then, this morning, I'm feeling a bit out of sorts, so opt for a slow lope with the dogs, instead of a tempo run. When I get back home, pour my coffee and put together my yogurt/granola/dark chocolate combo, I sit down at the computer to this at MizFit:

MIZ. What do you eat when you have your period and crave sweets. Lots of sweets. I cant do treat days through my whole cycle. HELP!

Ahhh, that’s me (and many of us) to the proverbial T.

I used to think it was all in my head but, the older I get, the more I realize it isnt. My body truly craves sugar during that time of the month.

Interesting timing, no?

And then, part two of the post:

Miz, I’ve heard you talk about active rest and I wondered if you could define this for me. As a former overexerciser I tend to use the term active rest to pretend to myself I am taking a day off (doctor’s orders) when I am probably still doing too much. Suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

I loved this email because active rest is a concept which took me a while to wrap my training-brain around as well.

I tend toward the other end of the spectrum from our emailer and, when I was following a set program/training for competition, wanted my days of active rest to be more the latter word than the former.

By definition active rest is when we do lightlight activity (walking, slow swimming etc) in order to spark the RECOVERY process and not in an effort to calorie burn or tax our bodies in any fashion.

What?! How did MizFit and her readers get into my head this morning?

In all seriousness though, there's great information in the post and comments about the connections between particular cravings and missing essential nutrients they signal, along with discussion of active rest and recovery exercises.