2014-07-05
in
4 min read
With Hurricane Arthur right off the coast our previously oppressively hot and muggy weather has turned almost spring like. What better way to enjoy the weather than with some running and then watching Fourth of July fireworks with friends.
My new breakfast routine of sauteed greens, eggs and bacon was continued today. I actually was torn on whether to eat breakfast or not, which is a common thought that runs through my head anymore. I don’t need breakfast, but at the same time I don’t want to set myself up for a gorgefest at lunch. I also prefer to workout fasted so on days like today where I’m going to potentially workout in the morning it’s hard for me to schedule when I’m going to be eating.
With breakfast down the hatch I got my day’s worth of work done, which nowadays is mostly trying to run some financial projections and get some modicum of organization done. By about noon I was a little fidgety and was really looking forward to enjoy the outdoor weather. First I did a 15 minute sunbath on the deck to get some Vitamin D in. Next, I sprayed on some SPF 30 sunscreen and let it absorb into my skin. I then got outside exercising, doing this week’s “long run” of 6 miles. The heat was just above 80 degrees but the sun was very strong. Even though I was intentionally running in a very low heart rate zone I still sweat buckets. My body is just not used to exercising in that heat and my fitness level from slacking off in the first half of the year are causing me to suffer more for it.
When I got home from the run it was already 3 pm. I couldn’t wait until dinner, even if we were eating early, so I made myself one of those giant salads of greens, tomatoes, jicama and carrots. While I was doing that I also drank a 12 oz cane sugar Coca-Cola. In days past that beverage had the perfect balance of bite and sweetness, unlike Pepsi which I found to be almost sickeningly sweet. After a month of avoiding all refined sugar, and not even having products sweetened by honey or maple syrup, I found Coca-Cola almost as sickeningly sweet as I used to find Pepsi. Despite that it did start creating some cravings that eventually succumb to.
I ate my salad over an hour period of time while getting some more computer work done. As I was eating I was overcome with the urge for yet more of that supposedly sickeningly sweet Coke. I can’t say I was overcome by the urge as much as I allowed myself to indulge in it by breaking my artificial sweetener fast and consuming a Coke Zero. I actually tried a sip a few days ago and the flavor just tasted horrible to me. Now that I had a mouth full of flavorful salad however all of the artificial flavors that I picked up before were gone, and I just got the crisp sweetness and the fizz that I was looking for.
Because we were attending a party tonight we wanted to eat dinner a bit on the early side, so I actually was only done eating for half an hour by the time I got started on making dinner. Dinner was going to be simple: a grilled flank steak with sauteed vegetables. Now, I had been drinking water throughout the time I had been back. I didn’t want to keep drinking it continuously so I had some red wine with dinner. Two sips in however I was really craving some hydration, but not from water or even seltzer water. I was instead craving a Coke Zero. Yes, two Coke Zero’s and a regular Coke all in one day. I didn’t mind rationalizing having a soda after long runs, but the zero products were another matter. I’ll have to get back to being religious about it tomorrow.
The Fourth of July party was at a friend’s new apartment in downtown DC. You actually could get views of not only DC and the monuments but also Northern Virginia. We were waiting for and watched the national fireworks, but when you looked out you could see another half dozen fireworks displays going on around the area. That was more fireworks than I’ve seen at one time before. The food at the party was mostly stuff on the verboten list. It had either dairy, corn, beans or grains. I did munch on some delicious marinated olives, the crudite, a pile of freshly sliced prosciutto and some homemade guacamole. I won’t say that guacamole on a slice of cucumber is as tasty as having it on a tortilla chip, but it certainly was delicious enough for me to try it again.
A couple of glasses of wine and several hours later we headed home for a bit of a late night rest. My original plan of finishing off the evening with some cherries didn’t come to pass. I wasn’t especially hungry at that point anyway.