A friend of mine used to run a blog called "I Run So I Can Eat". The blog detailed her personal running journey, and it was filled with wisdom and fun. However, it is the title that stuck with me, as it basically describes me and my fitness journey.
I'm not the kind of guy that gets up in the morning motivated to push myself and put my body through its paces. I don't really care about having massive muscles (I'm big enough as is), and all I want is to get rid of the last few pounds of excess belly flab that keeps me from wearing shirts one size down. I love martial arts, and it helps to make exercise fun. However, if I didn't HAVE TO do exercise, I don't know if I would.
For this reason, I think it's good that I'm stuck with the extra weight around my midriff; it forces me to work hard. I know that I have to push my body hard, as that's the only way that I can look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and reassure myself that "I am one sexy beast!"
Is this mentality wrong? I think not!
Many people have this mentality of "running so they can eat", and it's actually what helps to make dieting and weight loss easier. Granted, you're not going to lose weight and get in shape with diet alone, so exercise is a must, but exercising is the key to being able to enjoy your diet just a bit more.
I like to call it "cheating intelligently". Basically, it means being able to cheat a little bit on my diet simply because I've burned more calories. By tacking on an extra 15 to 45 minutes of exercise per day, I "run" so that I can "eat" the good things that I just don't want to say no to.
So, when it comes time to have a small slice of chocolate brownies (my Kryptonite), I know that I already burned off the calories with my extra minutes of running for the day. When I feel like I need a bit more steak ("for my muscles" of course), I can afford to eat it because I've done my workout to burn it off - or I will later that day.
If you want to eat, run for your dinner! Burn off 100 to 200 more calories, and enjoy eating food that most diets wouldn't allow. As long as you have control over what you eat and how much you burn every day, your diet doesn't have to make you suffer.
