...And Then I Got Hungry! Coping With Increased Exercise and Some Dehydrator Goodies

Ordinarily, I have a pretty small appetite. And although my digestion is much-improved now, thanks to all the work I've been doing with the ND over the past year, I tend not to feel good if I eat a large amount at once. I'm also identified with these beliefs about myself.

And so, when I start to exercise a whole lot more and find myself HUNGRY when I think I 'shouldn't' be, or think that I've had enough already, I freak myself out. Dry, dense things that are not usually very appealing to me suddenly go down by the handful. Like kale chips. (More on those in a moment.)

Worse yet, remember that chocolate chip hummus transmogrified into cookies I mentioned earlier? Even though it didn't taste particularly good, I found myself eating one, then two at a time, then picking the chocolate chips out of the third and discarding the rest. After which, I didn't feel so good at all. So unusual for me, not the me I want to be, icky and repulsive to me: I must remind myself, so human--whom am I calling names? (Can I believe I'm confessing to this?)

Freaking out over increased hunger due to increased exercise has been the downfall of many previous fitness endeavors in my life: this time, I intend to do better. Both yesterday and today, I rode my bike hard to town and back, rowed on the rowing machine twenty minutes, and went for a twenty-minute run, plus crunches, planks, pushups, etc. I'd been mixed about running: it has harsh connotations for me, but it may be the only form of cardio available to me at my residency that starts so soon, so I need to get in the groove.

So, to do better with all this, I powered up my remaining hummus-dressed potato salad to make a hearty lunch today. I culled a gorgeous mix of lettuces from our garden, chopped in some remarkably sweet cherry tomatoes and a quarter of an avocado (I hadn't been eating them, and had forgotten how delicious they are!), poured in some homemade kim chee, sprinkled on some spirulina, nutritional yeast, kelp powder...

 It was hearty and good, and I didn't mind eating an orange and some blueberries too.

Speaking of kale chips, I've made some more (pictured above) and discovered that I may even prefer them with a simple lemon juice or vinegar and olive oil massage, rather than a creamy dressing. I did straight apple-cider vinegar and olive oil with a dash of salt, and I also did lime-ginger chips--the juice of half a lime and about an inch of ginger, freshly grated. For that batch, I used just the minimum of olive oil (still being fat-phobic, apparently) and discovered that it really works best if all the kale is massaged with some oil: without that coating, it gets dry without the real crispiness.

Also in the dehydrator:

They're not very pretty, but they're very yummy! It's my first attempt at a banana cookie.
3 tablespoons coconut butter
2 tablespoons coconut sugar
1 mashed banana
3 tablespoons flaxseed meal
4 tablespoons lucuma powder
2 tablespoons mesquite powder
~1/2 cup water
mixed all together, then add a handful of raisins.
Even when pretty well-dried, they have a lovely, moist texture and a lingering, but not overpowering, sweetness.

This last trip to Anchorage also afforded me my first opportunity (i.e. leftover rice from a Thai restaurant) to make Phil's rice crackers in the dehydrator rather than our toaster oven!

When the sun shines in through the kitchen window, it can be almost impossible to take a photo in there!

I was able to get them super-thin and crunchy, just how Phil enjoys them most.

And they're so much lighter in color than the oven-baked version--lower temperatures, I guess.

Well, I'm getting ready to go on my first MFA residency and have my world shaken, or possibly turned upside down! I'm just starting to realize how 'different' things are going to be for this brief two-week period fast-approaching. Obviously, the "living-breathing-speaking writing and literature" part will be awesome and I can't wait for it. The social dynamics and also the food part cause me some trepidation. I'll talk about that more as I prepare to leave, and will also endeavor to post my first "make someone else's pleasurable recipe challenge before I head out.

How do you handle increased appetite, for exercise or other reasons?
What are you looking forward to in August?