Got some catching up to do!

Before I get into the food accounting, I have to say this: Buy/borrow/steal and then READ Born to Run. This book has changed my life as an athlete, runner and a human being. Christopher McDougall is a phenomenal writer with a gift for making complicated subjects accessible to his reader. Throughout the text, he delves into the history of mankind and its parallel (and he later shows, necessary) relationship to running. He introduces the (willingly) lost tribe of the Tarahumara, deep in the recesses of Mexico's Copper Canyon, a hellhole ridden with drug cartels, deadly animals and a "masochistic spirit of the canyon" that breaks down the will and logic of its visitors, often with fatal results. Yet through this landscape of violence and desolation exist the world's best runners. The book tells of their culture, and their discovery by anxious Americans looking to capitalize on their wisdom and skill. In conjunction with the narrative lie of the most enlightening pages ever to be penned on the subject of running. We as humans, he writes, were literally born to run. Google "persistence hunt" to understand how homo sapiens triumphed (read: survived) over our much stronger and bulkier cousins, the neanderthals. It's fascinating.

Right, enough book review. More on that later. So on a scale of one to ten of my approval of what I ate throughout the last four days, I would give myself a six. There's no need to laboriously include every morsel from the missing days, especially because in my amateur efforts at blogging, I have forgotten to photograph almost everything. Granted this comes with some arrogant assumption that the reader is heavily invested in appearance and presentation of what I am eating. Arrogant indeed. So I will give you the 5 Best and 5 Worst:

5 Best: (in no particular order)

1. Veggie burger w/sweet potato fries while out my brother and his friends.
2. Ziti with tukery meat, veggies and light cream sauce.
3. Discovery of seltzer water as a substitute for soda that even my dentist would be proud of.
4. York Peppermint Patties instead of chocolate en masse. (see note below)
5. General abstinence from Eggo's.

and now, the 5 Wost: (also in no particular order)

1. 7 (or was it 8?) beers with several Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies.
2. 3 popovers with specially fattened maple butter the following morning.
3. 1 1/2 Pepsi with aforementioned veggie burger.
4. Pigging out at B-May's family BBQ on too much bruschetta and ice cream.
5. Indulgence of 3 Eggo's yesterday morning due to laziness.

Whew! Got that off my chest. So I had some serious ups and downs. My excuse this time: having just moved into the Portsmouth area and my first apartment I am all too eager to show off the place and its many fine drinking establishments to frequent visitors. Perhaps I should post photos of those adventures as they would be much more interesting than a bowl of oatmeal, no matter how many fruits and sugars inside...

So, on the matter of Yorks (forgive my conversation with myself here), I have theorized this favorite mint candy of my youth to be an excellent means of taming the craving. Like many, I have an inconsolable sweet tooth after a particularly lip-smacking meal. I now turn to Yorks for a combination of dark chocolate and the minty after-taste of just brushing one's teeth. It's a great way to curb further hunger and satisfy that desire for chocolate. Try it out!

Okay, so yesterday was beautiful. B-May had an interview in the city, so I pigged out on three Eggos for breakfast. Weak, I know. But then we took off for a hike/trail run up Mount Agamenticus in Maine! Awesome place, gorgeous summit with the ocean to one side of you, the White Mountains looming in the distance just opposite. We're planning on heading back every season, so when the leaves start to turn, I'll post some foliage photos.

So on the way home, we stopped at a store for When Pigs Fly bread. Amazing. A woman behind the counter was all too eager to let us try every style and flavor that we almost got full. Ended up purchasing a six-grain pumpkin seed loaf:

Wonderfully fresh and flavorful. It formed the basis for my lunch, this excellent sandwich:

I guess it would be better called a panini but in this monster, I've got spinach, mushrooms, two slices of cheese and some turkey meat. Filled me up (with some applesauce, comme toujours) but didn't put me over the edge. Thanks to When Pigs Fly for a great product and no thanks for the headache I got from too many fine choices at the store. I wanted them all.

Enter another bout of amateur blogger excuses for no photo of my dinner but it was a cheeseburger casserole I'm pretty sure I'll be finishing tonight at work. I'll put up the recipe tomorrow - very good and filling for my often-empty stomach. I topped it off with some Yorks and a granola bar later in the evening in an attempt to hold me over till bed.

Failure.

You know much I wanted this knowing full well it was bad for me, and that I not only heated up this amazing and deadly cake but took the time to photograph it as well. I probably should have had milk instead of beer but I am a terrible pushover. B-May helped me eat the cake so it's not entirely my bad.

At last! Today for breakfast, I enjoyed more of the bread from yesterday, making toast, for the first time since college, the centerpiece of my meal.

I didn't particularly dig the shredded wheat like I assured B-May I would. Even with milk, it sort of sucked. Lesson learned. Lastly, so it wouldn't go bad, I had to heat up the last popover and sather it with butter. I get weak for popovers. But you would too.

That's it and that's all for now. Out for a run with Christopher McDougall's revelation ringing clearly in my head. I'm greatly looking forward to it!

Later!

Summer Reading

Yesterday was the gorgeous afternoon of quiet, reading time I was hoping for. I walked down to the ocean as planned though foolishly anticipating swells from Hurricane Bill. Little did I realize that swells are only on the open ocean and I was simply in the bay. Ooops, but a wonderful setting regardless. I got in a long, hot walk and had an opportunity to feel the grass under my feet, something I've been lacking since I moved into the city and all around me is concrete. I decided not to sit at the table but rather in the shade. It was a good move.


Ugh, I am feeling uninspired writing this. I think it's because I'm wrapped up in Born to Run and the fact that it's so damn good, I can't stop reading/thinking about it. Anyways, here is a sliced peach that was too early for consumption as it had the consistency of an apple but i ate it anyway. Delicious despite my ignorance. B-May later told me how to find the good ones. But I thought they all were good ones?

Anyways, she got home from work and before we set out to see Grease in the park, we agreed on making gnochhi with ricotta, tomato sauce and a helping of veggies. It was also DELICIOUS and I was filled so much that impossibly there were leftovers. Thankfully, it was my only opportunity to photograph this delicious dish, so here it is:

Got rained out of the show and had a few cookies (they're almost gone!) and a beer before reading well into the night. This book is fascinating. Really.

Right, so for breakfast today, after an invigorating four-mile run, we prepared oatmeal with all the fixin's! Added some peanut butter, half a banana, brown sugar and a pinch (or three) of cinnamon. Quite good and a possible departure from waffles on a more permanent basis. We'll see. Washed it all down with frigidly cold milk and have been nursing an Arizona Iced Tea for the majority of the morning. It's not tea actually, it's half lemonade with half-tropical. Whatever that is. But it's not tea.

Off to a BBQ at B-May's folks' tonight to mark the end of their summer before returning to school as teachers. Should be a very colorful meal as they never disappoint!

A man of his word!

So I didn't get too drunk last night! Great fire and excellent beer with new friends made for a pretty good night. I should thank the birthday boy for letting me on this record I'm listening to: Freddie Hubbard's Straight Life. Awesome stuff. So let's do a little recollection work here...

Lunch was not the hummus wrap I was anticipating. Rather, with the two leftover pieces of bread from yesterday's french toast, I threw together a turkey and cheese sandwich per usual. Then of course, I got thinking about this blog and in an effort to balance it out with some veggies, I added quite a bit of spinach. B-May is not the biggest fan of this particular type from Hannaford but I don't mind it much at all. Just for good measure to make the piece come together I included a couple dabs of BBQ sauce and set it up on the George Foreman. God bless that man. What an invention, and what a delicious sandwich! It totally held me over until I got to dive into this:

Yep! Ziti with spinach, zucchini and summer squash (and maybe some tomatoes? I forget). Quite good and had all the vegetarians at work turning heads until they saw the substance of the dish: turkey meat. Excellent, filling dinner that prepped me for a little lot of drinking that night.

So while I ate all sorts of little snacks from cookies, to crackers to Oreo combinations, I did not get out of hand on that front or the beer consumption. We heard some more jazz from the fellows in the basement of the party and set out soon after to start up a little fire which attracted party-goers like moths. Interesting...

Which brings me to now. Just got back from peach picking with B-May and her folks and we took home just over eight pounds of peaches for pies and fruity snacks. Before that put down two Eggos and a bowl of dry cereal with a tall glass of milk, none of these things worth the effort of uploading (or even photographing). I should have pictured a cider donut that I had two of with her folks and the Vitamin Water (hangover solution #34) also but I am lazy on this Sunday. Hot and humid all over again with a chance of showers. So before that happens, I'm going to set off to the ocean and consume a little bit of this new book I picked up from a co-worker: Born to Run by Christopher MacDougall. Book review to be posted soon.

Serious Grocery Run

Despite the title of this blog, I should note that willpower has never been a difficult virtue for me to maintain. As a practicing Catholic for many years, I would regularly give up with ease the things I now crave and am trying to distance myself from - be it chocolate, ice cream or meat. Some years it was all three. Yet now that I have started training for serious athletic events, I find I am just hungrier than usual and my sweet tooth is insatiable. Thankfully though, B-May and I went on a serious grocery run today before breakfast. But first...

Yesterday was plagued by hot and humid weather and boring eats. I did manage a quick run despite the heat - just over 20 mins at a good clip. I had to stop with a heaving chest and a foolish case of early dehydration. Poor planning on my part. For a fix after the run, I had another hummus wrap - this one with spinach and...wait...nothing else. Poured myself a helping of applesauce and fried one egg without most of the yolk to hold me over until dinner.

For dinner I think I deserve either a pat on the back or an intervention to stop drinking cheap, cheap beer. Even though Thursday saw the intake of about six pints, I still had some spare cash set aside for the bar. Yesterday it would be used for the salad bar! Hooray finding leftover cash/using it for something 100% healthier than beer. Unfortunately, the salad bar was horrifically picked over and even for this newbie, the greens looked dry and bland. Thusly, I settled for a prepared salad which was decent but probably only because of the chunky blue cheese dressing. Here's a photo so all can avoid it if possible:

I honestly tried to find a vegetarian option but there was nothing but turkey or bacon. Now, I'm not a vegetarian but I don't eat any beef and I try to limit my general intake of animal as much as possible. Turkeys are an exception as they are incredibly stupid animals. They are so dumb that roofs must be built over their heads so they don't look up at the rain and drown.

True story.

Got home after a vicious and awesome thunder/electrical storm during work and made two more cookies and a glass of milk disappear. Oh, and another beer...

But now the tide turns in the direction I had been hoping for! During commercial breaks of Survivorman we sifted through some Cooking Light cookbooks and methodically planned out our meals for the next week or so. On the horizon, for example: BBQ chicken pizza, Gnocchi, sweet potato soup and stuffed eggplant in a concerted effort to have me learn to enjoy this elusive vegetable. We walked to the grocery store and for just over fifty bucks picked up all the necessary ingredients including a couple extras for me. (York Peppermint Patties to satisfy sweet tooth and store-brand granola bars for fallbacks to keep in my locker at work).

But then we got back and had FRENCH TOAST WITH BANANAS FOR BREAKFAST! WOO!

Now of course, lunch is approaching and I forsee another hummus wrap with the requiste applesauce and a cookie or two. But I am walking to work instead of riding so it should take a little longer and with this heat and humidity I'm sure to arrive five pounds lighter.

Tonight is a birthday party for the jazz-man we saw on Thursday and I am excited for two selling features in particular: a fresh keg of Red Hook ESB and a firepit. Can't be beat! Can't also get too drunk either as 1.) it is bad for the adherence to my training and 2.) B-May and I are going peach picking in the morning with her folks! Blueberries have been in season for sometime but peaches are where it's at! Back with photos of that for sure.

What the Hell is Tempeh?

I've been meaning to post this but have been sidetracked and a million other excuses. Anyway, two nights ago, B-May served me a peculiar dish called tempeh. We did it up with some veggies - summer squash, zucchini, green peppers - and salsa to form little soy fajitas. This was my first big step towards what I am calling alternative eating. I should admit I was not too surprised to find that it was delicious! Hooray for tempeh and here's to another (soybean based product)! We munched on this stuff after a particularly hot and sweaty (keyword: sticky) day. I did manage to get a little 5k run in though. Though I didn't complete the loop entirely, it was probably for the better that I didn't try to willing succumb to heat stroke.

Okay, just wanted to make a special note of tempeh. Yesterday (I am already trying to catch up with this endeavor...) I spread out my breakfast choices and came up with this:

Here's my excuse: I worked in the morning knowing that I would not get lunch until at least 2pm. Tack on a bike ride to work (daily occurrence) and I get pretty hungry. Now I realize of course one scrambled egg, two slices of toast and a bowl of dry cereal is the course of a lousy diner but I found it quite reasonable for the order of my day. Half a banana is pretty weak also but I hate throwing food away so I perhaps I just ate it out of principle and not for potassium...

Regardless of my carb-itarian breakfast (just missing bagels, really) I brought along a blueberry muffin which I'm fairly certain held back no fatty anything because it was that good. Whoops, there's a glowing point of controversy that I am finding to be untrue: healthy foods are not all bad-tasting. I accept I sound like a third-grader refusing whole wheat crust on his grilled cheese but regarding my healthy living maturity I've got a long way to go. (Just re-read that, who says "bad-tasting?" Not. even. a. word.)

Lunch was especially delectable! It was so simple I can even post the recipe!

-a whole wheat tortilla
-liberal amounts of Garlic Lover's Hummus
-remaining grilled veggies from "What the Hell is Tempeh" night.

Add a whole bunch of applesauce (another third-grade connection...) and I was blissfully content with my first lunch in I don't know how long that didn't contain cheese, chicken or soup.





Notice the spork. That thing rules. It's made by Light My Fire and I've put it in near boiling water and it's not melted enough to make me delusional with plastic poisoning. The knife doesn't cut my mouth when I use the fork and it's red! Red is so visible at the bottom of my bag. Truly: simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.


Here's where it gets tricky for me. I'm trying to tame the crave (translation: mostly chocolate). I have a difficult time finishing a meal without some sort of chocolate fix. In my weakness I bought a Clif Mojo bar at work and ate half with my lunch and the other half before my ride home a few hours later.




Anyone who hasn't, by the way, should check out Clif Mojo bars. They are a very satisfying mixture of sweet and salty (this one with chocolate dipped on the bottom like cheap granola bars) and a perfect complement to a day-hike or cool-weather bike ride. Highly recommended.

Ugh, then the day went downhill. But not all of a sudden. B-May and I got invited over to a friend's for a BBQ and we brought along a couple veggie patties by Gardenburger called "VeggieMedley." Top it off with some grilled zucchini from Saturday's farmer's market and knock the whole effort down with a slice of American cheese for me. Burgers were quite good, zucchini was delicious and end scene for better living. Do a 180 and crack open two tall boy PBRs followed by three/four freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Repeat PBRs four more times and toss in two more cookies right before bed (with a liter of water, of course) and now you've arrived at my present desire to go for a run. I must say the night was accompanied by some top-notch jazz standards at the bar and made it all worth while. That and the fact PBRs are $2 a pop. Overpriced but this is not the venue for that debate.


Cool, I'm all caught up. Woke up without a hangover (huzzah water!) and just general lethargy. Perfect entrance for my breakfast staple: Eggo's with giant glass of skim milk. Does that really need a picture? You bet it does.



Yea, three Eggo's a day...is definitely one of the objectives of this blog. Rather, to break free from it. More on that later. Right now, I'm sipping leftover orange juice from a Dunkin Donuts run I don't know how long ago before attacking Mount Dishes that has been accumulating for a few days now. Time of attack:


now.