Posts Tagged ‘food’

Funny thing happened on the way to Saturday’s race that I neglected to mention:  While we were driving there, still in Philly, we passed an older Asian couple on the sidewalk chasing a duck.  The poor duck looked totally confused -  the man and woman were making menacing noises and threatening to throw a blanket over it until it wandered back inside their place of business.  Hilarious – until I read the sign over the door: Poultry Supplier.

On a less morbid food note, I’ve mentioned my latest evening snack is cereal, dry or with a little yogurt.  A few days ago I bought a box of Kashi Go Lean Crunch – great stuff, like grown-up people’s Sugar Smacks.  That evening, however…I started farting.  And farting.  And farting.  And not just any fart, the stinkiest most noxious farts you’ve ever smelled.  It wouldn’t end.  Nick told me I farted in my sleep for hours that night, leaving a cloud in the bedroom.

The next night, not yet connecting the farts to the cereal, I once again enjoyed the crunchy goodness of Kashi Go Lean.  Yum.  Two hours later, farts, farts and more farts.

I began to suspect it was indeed the Kashi, so I did a search on Google for kashi go lean farts and sure enough, pages of fart-infested stories about Kashi turned up.  For the next hour or so, Nick and I laughed hysterically reading some of these websites.  Our favorite is this one. Not only is the initial post entertaining, but the comments are hilarious.  Everyone’s so relieved it’s not just them spewing poison outta their asses.

On another website I found the perfect description of  the Kashi fart scent: “Smells like a mixture of raw sewage, rotting corpse, and lacquer thinner.”   Until reading that, I hadn’t been able to put my finger on it, but yes, that’s exactly what it smells like.  Too bad it’s so damn tasty.

So I won’t be eating it any more.  However, I am saving the rest of the box for whenever Nick pisses me off.  Now that we’ve established I can sleep through my farts.

Remember a few months ago, when I was going on about losing weight for racing season, instigated by the few pounds I lost from the flu? I never did update this, but after 4 days of noting everything I ate along with a meticulous calorie count, I stopped. Stopped weighing myself and stopped worrying about it.

After all, one of the utmost joys of running is being able to eat what you want with just a modicum of moderation. So why take away such a glorious, valuable gift? Let my speed increases come solely from training – I don’t want to deny myself anything yummy again!

Beyond the power of choice, losing weight can be a no-win game for us gals in our 40s. There is a (very true) saying that women my age must sometimes choose between our asses or our faces.

In case that isn’t immediately clear, it’s because as we age, we need fat in our faces, it’s what keeps things from drooping and sagging. So accepting a big butt may be the price you pay for a more youthful face. Now, I don’t want to get fat (been there, done that), but I also think losing weight could backfire on me…so bring on the candy!

I have candy pretty much every night after dinner and have for years. I go on streaks, but I’m always up for jelly beans and their cousins, Mike & Ike, though Jelly Bellies are my fave. The problem with chewy candy, however, is that in its clutches, I become a bottomless pit. It takes a shitload of jelly beans for me to feel “done” – I’ll eventually stop because I know I should, but not because I want to.

So I take occasional breaks from the chew-licious crack and buy chocolate type candies for awhile. My latest favorite is this mix: Reeses Pieces and Mighty Malts (or Whoppers if I must). Behold my delectable bowl of baby poo.

I love these bowls, too. They’re about as big as your fist and perfect as an alternative for sitting there with an open bag on your lap. It’s my one nod towards portion control.

But enough of this sugar, the most sweetest thing just happened and no candy was involved:

Nick’s dad, 91, lives downstairs with his springy 70 year-old wife. She’s been in Germany for 2 weeks and will be returning tomorrow but Nick’s dad is utterly lost without her. Nick just looked in on him and he’s been sitting there today, all dressed up, because he was convinced today is Saturday and she’d be coming home. The sweetie!

Devoid of religion as I am, this year I celebrated Easter the best way I know how: stuffing my face with Robins Eggs, Whoppers (because the Robin’s Eggs coating seem mildly toxic, an opinion I established after eating the entire bag), Reese’s Pieces and to cap a wonderful Saturday date-night with Nick, we stopped at our local diner for a slab o’ German Chocolate Cake.

A thoroughly satisfying holiday.

Friday night was happy hour with our friend Yvonne and the groupette of the week (she’s our resident event planner, always creating a party out of her huge list of friends). We went to a hipster bar where a couple of Jameson Whiskey girls wasted a couple hours of their lives going around the room offering shots and letting the patrons roll dice for a prize. I won some Jameson branded breath-strips. Seriously.

Saturday was a 5-mile recovery run after Friday’s intervals, then later the fabulous Date Night occurred. We’ve decided to make more of an effort to have them, because we really do have a good time out with each other – dressing up a little, talking about the people around us, eating good food and then going home for some drunken antics.

The latter bit caused me to tweak my hip a tad, though (why do I get all my injuries this way?) so yesterday’s long run was interesting. It was a 14-miler that I decided to do as a progression run.

I started the run at 9:15 pace and finished at 8:28. Felt really good about it, despite my niggling hip. Additionally, I came to the conclusion that my 2130s are not the fab shoes I want them to be – my suspicions were confirmed when my right arch started smarting, as it usually does after about 10 miles. I’ve tried lacing them tighter or looser but alas, it’s the way they are (or my foot is).

Luckily, I have 3 other pairs of shoes with varying degrees of mileage so I can use my 2120s for long runs, but I need to get fitted for a different shoe soon since a couple pairs are nearing the 400 mile mark.

But what was interesting about this run was that belly breathing thing I keep yammering on about. I didn’t pay much attention to it at the first half of the run, but when I started speeding up, my hip and arch were beginning to really irritate so I moved my attention to breathing which turned out to be a smart move.

I felt myself straighten up, get less tired of all things, and it wasn’t long until I did a body check and realized my arch and hip weren’t hurting anymore! I’m cynical enough to know that it wasn’t the magic of breathing per se, more likely the simple distraction of thinking about something else, but that’s cool! Whatever it takes.

I finished the run on a high note and today, even though I don’t feel my hip at all, I’m taking the day off before tomorrow’s tempo run. I want to be more prudent with rest so that my quality runs are full-on qualitastic from here on in. No tired legs for me.

So that’s the weekend in a nutshell. Hope you guys had a good one, too!