The Food and I

It has taken me no fewer than 43 years to admit that I don't "just eat the food that tastes good" but, in fact, am quite a picky eater.  There's lots of things that have caused me to make The Yucky Face, of which I surprisingly don't have a digital photo, but involves me squinching up my entire face, much like a child eating beets.  Or, this:

With the eyes all squinchy too.  Certain things are just . . . gross.  No matter how you slice it, stuff like . . . okra, for instance . . . is just slimy and doesn't taste good and I see no reason why I should eat it.  This makes me picky?  I'd rather think it makes me, say, the possessor of a delicate palate.  Discerning.  Able to state my preferences.

OK, so I'm picky.  There are certain foods that I would rather not eat.  Until a month ago, two foods that were definitely on that list were Yogurt (oo! Slippery! Sour! Curdled! ALIVE!) and Honey (oo! Sticky! Sickly Sweet! Remembrance of the childhood hate of Bit O'Honey candy! Gloopy!).  Never would either pass my lips in an unaltered form (seriously mixed with plenty of other foods? maybe).  Just, instant Yucky Face.

And then.  Then!  While I was in Greece, I was presented with (certainly did NOT order, oh no) a breakfast of Greek yogurt -- just called "yogurt", mind you -- drizzled with honey.  Omigod, not one but two! foods that I don't like, mixed TOGETHER in a bowl for fuck's sake, that I'm supposed to consume for breakfast, a meal I don't even eat.  WTF?  Tom's just like, try it! and -- with a sense of vacation adventure, but fully prepared to make The Yucky Face -- I DO!!  And, holy shit, my immediate thought is WHERE HAS THIS FOOD BEEN ALL MY LIFE????  And that is how this:

has become a daily staple in my diet.  I am right now counting down the hours until it won't be unseemly to stuff my face with some more.  Seriously, if you haven't tried this particular combination before, go right out and get yourself some because, like properly prepared fiddleheads, this is the food of the gods.  Mix in a little granola and I see no reason to really ever have to eat anything else.  It's that good.  Low calorie, full of protein, the definition of deliciousness.  You can even buy it with the honey in a cute little sidecar, all ready for the mixin'.  

All of which leads me to wonder . . . hmm, if I mix some other of Gross Foods together, might the same thing happen?  I'm thinking . . . banana and eggplant? cooked fruit and offal? marmite and fruitcake?

Living and breathing

What's been happening?

I returned from GREECE ON JUNE 2.


I ran the Reno Tahoe Odyssey 178 mile relay RACE ON JUNE 3-4.  I am damn sure my 11 teammates, especially the 5 in Van #2, thought I was certifiable, for I did not sleep nor shut the fuck up for 27 hours.  Someone saw fit to give me a cowbell, a move they surely regretted.  WooHoo, go runners!  Woohoo! CLANGCLANGCLANG!

Somehow, my team adopted my standard race outfit of tutu (and various other pink items) and we were called the Truckee Tutus.  They were awesome.

And, lo and behold, I ran . . . fast!

Leg 8: 4.6 miles, 51:21

Leg 20: 4.2 miles, 37:03

Leg 32: 3.9 miles, 32:05

No, I'm not going to tell you how much elevation loss change there was, either.  Let's just say I have found that I'm really NOT a slow slow runner, I just need to run downhill more often.

I ran another maybe three miles in support of a lagging teammate.  So maybe 15-18 miles all together?  After I was done, and for the next day and a half or so, I swear I felt like I had run a marathon.  Joe Cocker-ing all over the place, stairs one at a time, gimping around like an old lady.  I was not expecting that!

ON JUNE 16th, the SNOW finally FINALLY melted from our yard, assisted by a prodigious amount of shovelling.  Yes, in Tahoe we shovel our yards.

Also ON JUNE 16th,  I returned to work.  Quite a chore after 6 weeks of, well, NOT working.  The time off has seemingly done the trick (so far).  As far as I can tell, my raging case of burnout has lifted, because I no longer seem to hate everyone for simply breathing in my airspace (fear not, funderson, I still hate everyone for plenty of other reasons ;-), and once again  I look forward to going in to work and can leave 12 hours later with a smile on my face.  Hopefully this state of mind lasts at least until a month or so before my next vacation in December.

ON JUNE 21, I WEIGHED 145 pounds. down from my all-time OMG! high of 158 what, 2 1/2 months ago?  I did my little detox diet thing, and haven't dieted or anything since then.  What I DID do, however, is cut almost all refined sugar out of my daily diet.  No candy, no sweets and, most importantly, almost no coca-cola.  The last is a huge one for me, the drinker of usually 3 cokes a day.  I haven't sworn off cokes (or sugar, for that matter) absolutely completely forever, because I don't think I could actually do that.  I just try to make decent choices, mindful choices, and go with that.  This means maybe 1 coke a week? and a dessert or whatever if I really want it.  Mostly, somehow, I don't.  Funny enough, once I made it through the 3 weeks of no sugar, all of those cravings kinda went away.  I am very, very happy with the food I am eating these days.  I've been keeping to Crossfit two times a week (and oh jeepers that's a fucking killer of a class, I always suck, I'm always gasping, I'm always last, I love every minute of it (at least in retrospect) which no doubt has helped with the weight loss (or muscle gain).  I'm fitting into clothes I haven't worn in a while.  I have a sort-of goal to be under 140 by August.

Running?  Yes, I've been running.  This year, for the first time in a looong time, I don't really have any plans.  No upcoming races, no goals, no nothing.  I THOUGHT that I was going to do a couple few 50k's this year at the very least, in preparation for my 50 mile goal of next year.  My knee injury in December, and the looong wait for my mojo to return (has it? maybe.) have made me toss the 50k distane (and, seemingly, races all together) out the window for now.  You know what?  I just don't care. I am perfectly happy going out 3-4 times a week, running 5-7 miles a go, taking my sweet old time and not following any kind of schedule at all.  This is a first!  I'm just plodding along and not telling myself this week it's 20 miles, next week 30 and I must increase my long run right now!  LONG run?  What's that?

Funny, I don't feel at all lazy or unmotivated or pressured to do more, do better.  Not that I've ever done better, but you get the drift.  I'm . . . content.  Just running 20-25 mile weeks, slow as I ever was, trotting out there and back.  This is pretty comfy.

Having said that, I'm considering a 50k in October, and still want to run a 50 miler next year, so I'll have to whip together some plan sooner or later.  Right now I'm just a-cruisin'.  Do I want to run today? Yes? No? My only rule is, make it at least 5 miles a pop.

I should make an adjunct rule of, run, then Come Home and Blog About It, because then maybe I'll have more than one post a month.  Thanks for hanging in there!

An excellent question from The Mayor

Found in a guidebook in Milos, our next destination after Santorini.  This has provided us with, quite literally,  hours of entertainment.  But we are slightly odd ducks.  Your milage may vary.

Please don't mind me, I'll just be over there, trying to block air in a skin bag.

Return to Normalcy

I've returned to "normal" (as evidenced by my lack of posting, hee hee).  I have fixed the previous post, which was simply FUBAR'd, but is now all legible and matched with photos and all that fancy stuff.  And worth going back and taking a look at, if'n you care to.  When it posted for the umpteenthh time all jangled up, back when I was still in Greece, I just kinda lost all tolerance and stopped blogging while intoxicated international.  I've been home now for a number of days, and lots of stuff has happened in that time.  I'll be working on a post soon.  However, there was one important enough thing that happened, relayed in that previous FUBAR'd message that prolly no one read, that bears its own little bit of repeating.

Back in ol' Santorini, an island famous for its sunsets, we was hanging out under this sunset:



and Tom proposed to me, and I said Yup!

More posting, coming soon,

Thanks for hangin' in there.