Monthly Archives: April 2014

Confessions of an accidential caveman #3: Time for spring cleaning

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Tidal Basin at sunrise, Cherry Blossoms in full bloom.

It’s finally spring!

Warmer temperatures, nicer breezes and more pleasant faces on the street. Most important, I can wear my shorts and no one is going to look askance. Thank God for that!

Of course, it’s time for spring cleaning. Get into the closets, give away the old clothing and for me, give up caffeine and sugar.

Say what?

This started during the Whole 30 challenge. Aside from my struggles with fast food and having a consistent eating schedule, coffee (medium roast, please!) and sugar are my biggest addictions.

I love coffee. Love. It. I started drinking coffee when I would have my dad push start his beaten up Honda that had one  tail light perpetually out. We called the car “The Terminator” because one side of its face was jacked up but it still kicked ass.

He would always leave a cup of coffee for me after I went back into the house.

My friends and I had a comedy troupe in high school and we eventually manufactured a coffee drink.

It was as follows: Strong coffee, 10 packets of sugar, 5 gulps of milk. Per cup. Man, it was good. We would drink that stuff and practice our Monty Python ripoff skits.

We were men, I tell you.

Coffee holds a special place for me. I’m always on the quest for the perfect coffee house (right now, it’s a tie between this one and this one) and the best blends. I’m a total snob, preferring a French Press to automatic drip, even though those Clever pots seem mighty enticing these days. It’s communal, it’s solitary and it’s a common string through so many of my life experiences.

I drink a lot of coffee, at all hours of the day. Although my age and wisdom now prohibits me from getting quad mochas at 7 p.m., I easily drink 3-4 cups a day. Start with two in the morning, then one stop at the coffee shop on the way to work. It doesn’t matter if I “need” the extra coffee, it’s part of the routine.

Last year during my Whole 30, I gave up coffee in addition to the food detox. It’s not required but I knew I needed to do it. It was the first time I stopped drinking coffee since I was age 13. No doubt, it hurt. The headaches, sensitivity to light and the inability to focus was on the docket for the first few days.

Then, combined with the detox itself, was a foggy blur for about two weeks. A near-dream like state, the body is trying on new ways to have energy while reminding you of what you’ve been using as fuel all these years.

After that experience, I wanted to do a caffeine holiday at least once a year and this time, it’s not a moment too soon. I consumed so much coffee during this painful winter that I’m up to 4-5 cups a day by the afternoon. That’s too much.

Then, there’s sugar.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a major sweet tooth and have used sugar as my mode of emotional eating for as long as I remember. Candy, cake, sweets galore: All of it, I ate it.

Sugar is the drug of choice in most newsrooms these days (although I’m sure there are other substances around somewhere) and it’s so readily available and permissible in our culture.

Now, I’ll stop here and say this: Sugar and caffeine like most things are not bad in and of itself. It’s meant to be enjoyed. Most addictions are distortions of something that is good and coffee and cookies are no exception. The issue isn’t having a cup of coffee or eating a cupcake but rather creating dependency on them to cope.

Also, when I say sugar, I mean refined and artificial sugars. Natural sugars found in fruit and other foods is healthy and good for you. (I also note that some in the paleo community don’t agree with eating those kinds of sugars but those are natural and unavoidable and not chemically induced, so I see no problem with them.)

I gave up sugar as well and that was a game changer.

So, it’s April and it’s time for a holiday. I’m about 15 days in and well, it’s been mixed.

Instead of going cold turkey on coffee, I aim for one cup of decaf, then will go no coffee for the rest of the month starting on the 14th. Even cutting down to decaf was a struggle. The headaches and lethargy were all there but really, it was the lack of concentration and focus. I was focused on my head, my sinuses, how much I hated doing this work shift, how much I hated the winter, why I slowed down toward the end of the race, how this shirt doesn’t fit as it should…..

Yeah, a bit of a struggle.

Sugar was even worse. I transferred my addiction from regular cookies to vegan cookies and my god, they are sublime. So, those are out. Candies in general, which I have been pretty good at, were out. And ice cream. I love ice cream and got the point of eating a pint without a second thought. Hell, I probably didn’t give any thought to it in the first place.

The biggest issue are protein bars. I’m on the fence on this one and because I’m still training for the Relay at the end of the month, I’ve been going with them. They do have sugar in them and I’m burning through it quickly.

Aside from a major relapse at Menchie’s over the weekend (damn you frozen yogurt!) and a Snicker’s bar today because the the cafeteria were out of Clif bars (most likely because I ate them all) it’s been okay. As the folks at Whole9 point out, sugar is everywhere in various forms and it’s hard to figure out what items has sugar and what doesn’t. I did get the BBQ sauce for dinner two nights but other than that, I’ve been sweet-free.

And most importantly, no ice cream.

This often means a switch from sweet to savory. Instead of cookies, it’s salty almonds and seeds. More fruit gets into the mix, with an emphasis on berries with anti-oxidants. The counteracting helps the body’s desire for sweets and tries to balance it out.

I feel the change already. I am sleeping better during the night and having to take some naps during the night because I realized how I tired I was despite being hyped up on coffee. The sugar spikes are dissipating, as well as the crash.

The holiday lasts a month. It’s good to recalibrate the energy levels and remind yourself that you don’t need coffee and don’t need sugar. It’s not necessary to get through the day and live a healthy life. It’s a good reminder to forgive out what exactly you need to live a healthy life.

Let’s talk: Have you taken a food holiday? How did it go? Were you sitting in the back screaming, ‘Are we there yet!!?’ or was it okay for you?

 

 

 

Rock and Roll Marathon: Homeward Bound

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Note: I’m late on the recap as this past few weeks have been swamped and I also spent a good chunk of time working on this piece for the Post. This is the last element on my list so I can say I have fully recovered.

I still remember when my good friend Greg asked me if I wanted to go running with him. He was picking it up, running from his house to the place where we both worked. He wanted to do a 5K and wanted to see if I would be interested.

I wasn’t. Not even close. He started running and continued when he and his then-pregnant wife moved to Missouri about three years ago.

Imagine our good fortune that he and I would run the D.C. Rock and Roll Marathon together. He stayed with me and my place and it was a wild and crazy weekend. If, of course, one defines wild and crazy by me making healthy food and he talking with his wife and two-year-old daughter.

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Me, on the left, and Greg. From his phone. Spoiler! We both finished the race.

Indeed.

This was his third marathon and my second. Our goals were to go a bit faster. I’ve focused my training this winter and speed and consistency and we had great weather to make it happen. My individual goal was to start at 9:30, and eventually get to 9:00 mile pace. With luck, that would get me to close to the 4:00 mark.

The second marathon is tougher than the first. The first is the experience: You run to run, aiming to finish but really to experience it. Of course, you want to do well but you have nothing to base it on, so just get going. Really, the point of the first marathon is to do it, then decide how serious you want to get about running or move on to the next item on the bucket list.

After Argentina, I was hooked and I wanted to become a better runner. Training through all the bitter cold was a bit of a crucible. Aside from using the training to help endure the season, it provided a backdrop on how seriously I would take the training.

When it was time for the marathon, I felt stronger and better. And I felt smarter about the course, perhaps a little too smart.

The tricky part with the Rock and Roll Marathon is that everyone runs the first 12 miles together, then splits off to their respective destinations. The first part of the race was well-known, as I run much of those streets often. It was a thrill, albeit a crowded thrill.

The second part was different. A good different but different. Crossing by the Capitol to the Expressway, getting to the Waterfront, going by Nats Park, then the long stretches in Anacostia and Minnesota Ave on the way.

I run the first stretch of the course often and since I ran the half in 2013, my confidence was high. I knew going into the marathon that this would be two different races: One with all the people and one without.

It’s great to see friends cheering for you, especially having charging Rock Creek Parkway up to Calvert St in Adams Morgan. By the time the half and full runners split, I was in good spirits.

Then at about mile 18, it got hot. Coming through Anacostia Park, it’s a long stretch of trails and grassy knolls. And no shade. No, none, nothing. The weather was all over the place that morning; Cold and windy, calm and serene, then hot.

I intentionally passed on the early water stations because I wanted to avoid the crowds. Even though I had my own water, I was struggling to get hydrated enough. My legs were hurting and I was losing energy, so I had to take some walking breaks.

My trick with walking breaks is pretty simple: Once I start walking, I count from 20 down. The point is to make the break finite, give myself enough time to catch my breath but not enough time to lose the rhythm and make it harder to start running again. There was a few times where 20 seconds was 30 seconds but that trick really helped.

Those hills on Minnesota Avenue toward the end of the race were a killer as well. It was the Wall, of sorts. Mostly hydration and energy and somewhat psychological. I knew this course because I live here. But yet, there was so much of the course that I didn’t know that I could have strategize a bit better.

At any rate, I caught my last wind and ran the last few miles full stride and made it to the end.

Times:
5k: 28:35
10k: 57:17
10 miles: 1:32:23
half: 2:01:05
20 miles: 3:07:52
chip time: 4:11:46
avg page: 9:37

As you can see, I started well and maintained about a 9:15 pace toward the half mark, then slowed to about 10:15 pace toward 20 miles. I finished about 10 slower from 20 to 26.2 than my first 10K, thus how I ended up at 4:11.

Me, finishing the race. Care of MarathonFoto.

Me, finishing the race. Care of MarathonFoto.

For my first marathon that I care about my time, this was a rousing success. I ended up nearly 40 minutes faster than my Buenos Aires time and more so, got to run the race with one of my closest friends in the city we both love.

Up next for me is the American Odyssey Relay at the end of April and then, we shall see what is next in the quest to join the Seven Continents Club.

How I Met your Mother finale — We tell stories to let go

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And now for something completely different…

It’s been a week and most people have gotten over the shock of the How I Met your Mother series finale. There are gazillions of opinions on the internets about the show and whatnot but this was one of my favorite shows and it resonates with me. Thus, my $0.02.

Hindsight is 20/20 and hindsight can be a real bitch. Many things are a real bitch, but clarity on things past is one of the nastiest known to humans.

That type of clarity can be cold and unforgiving. Regrets, miscues, missed opportunities and saddest of all, broken relationships. Life is lived forward and understood backward but that understanding often comes as the second chance at living correctly.

In How I Met Your Mother, the series ends up being (and where the digital wailing and gnashing of teeth begins) of the father reliving stories about his wife who has passed on and when called on it by his daughter, reveals he wants to ask out their Aunt Robin. The ending circles to the beginning with Ted outside Robin’s apartment, blue french horn in tow.

Ted and the blue horn.

Ted and the blue horn. From CBS.com.

Type in #HIMYMFINALE on twitter and the responses are beyond amazing. Mostly negative, some positive but all personal, it’s CBS’ biggest dream come true to have that type of emotional response to a show.

The most interesting word in many reviews, for me, is betrayal. Fans and critics feel betrayed that the show turned out the way it did. Some say the finale betrayed the ideals of the show, others claim it betrays the fan’s relationship to the Mother, who was just introduced, then taken away. Right or wrong, that’s quite the word to use for a television show finale.

Betrayal comes from a failure to keep a commitment or expectations. Promises and vows that were sealed are unsealed. In this case, did the show turn back on its commitment in telling the story of how Ted met the mother of this children?

Well, no, with more major caveat.

Most shows, movies, book and etc work under the idea called suspension of belief. This means that by watching the show or reading the book, the reader/watcher agrees to the narrative framework set up by the writer. One will buy into whatever is coming his/her way to be in the story. The only trick is that the writer can only do this once, if there are too many “suspensions,” then the reader won’t engage.

With HIMYM, audiences were fully engaged with the characters and with the story. However, where much of the betrayal is coming from is audiences not engaged fully with the most influential character on the show: Not the Mother, but time.

In order for HIMYM to fully work, the watcher has to accept time on the show’s standards. Thus, the present day was 2030, and in our present day of 2014, Ted and the Mother (her name is Tracy McConnell but it’s hard to call her that since she was the Mother for so long. For me, that is one knock on the last season.) are together with baby Penny on the way.

With time, what’s true that one time is true that one time, but it isn’t true all the time. (How’s that for a little blog wisdom?!). Meaning, in that moment, that’s what happened, that’s what was felt and that’s what mattered. So, in 2005 when the show started, Ted and Robin did meet and did try to make it work and eventually couldn’t make it work. Then, Barney fell for Robin and during that time, they tried to make it work. The same is true for the Mother, who lost her first love in 2005 it took her years to regain a sense of finding companionship again.

For the ninth season that was the weekend of the wedding, in that moment, Ted did have feelings for Robin but let them, and her, go. It meant leaving for Chicago but that’s what the times called for. And, despite the last-minute hesitations, Barney and Robin did get married.

It’s tough in translating these movements of time in a linear format such as television and that’s where most folks are getting lost in translation and thus, the sense of betrayal. Of course, if we spent most of this brutal winter watching Robin and Barney get married only to have that fall apart within the first 15 minutes of the finale, there is a strong sense of cognitive dissonance. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if the creators aimed for that to a certain degree.

But, in the eyes of the narrative, it was three years and for them, that was enough.

In my opinion, embracing all the narrative (time and all) helps to recognize what the show was really about: HIMYM is a story about letting go.

For me, the key part was in season nine in “Vesuivus.” The Mother tells Ted that she’s concerned, saying “I don’t want you to live in your stories forever. I want you to move forward.”

It was subtle but that’s the key. Ted is telling the story of how he met his mother to remember and preserve her memory but also to let her go to face the future. Ted tells all the stories about everything the gang ever did: The slap bet, Robin Sparkles, the pineapple incident (Whatever did happen with the pineapple?) and one of my favorite episodes, The Leap, because they are all a part of his memory and what makes him who he is at that present time.

And when that time passes, it doesn’t make him that person anymore.

It’s not that Ted has been in love in with Robin all this time and the Mother was a placeholder. The title of the show might be a fake-out, as actor Josh Radnor put it, but I think he really did let Robin go and full fully in love with Tracy. That seems to be Ted’s way, all in with no pretenses or excuses.

It just so happened that all of this was shown in a 44-minute setting. Time-wise, that’s pretty jarring. Then again, isn’t that true of all our stories? Our stories about funny events with our friends are often, well, short. But the reality of them, the life that’s filled with time that we try to encapsulate in a small moment, is both long and deep and there’s no way to bring it back We just hold it for a moment, then let it go.

I think that’s what allows the kids to tell their father that he should move forward. In the time of HIMYM, it was six years since Tracy’s passing. The question isn’t if that is an appropriate time to move on or not but rather, was it the right time? And for Ted, it was.

The characters are roughly the same age as me, so I feel I’ve grown up with this show. I did leave during some of the latter seasons (because seriously, I couldn’t stand Zoey and Barney’s antics were often a little too much) but I watched faithfully this past season and I’m glad I did. I haven’t met the mother of my children on a train station in a fictional New York town but I have lived my 20s and 30s in an urban environment with many of my friends and I can relate with Ted’s quest for love.

So, like the show says, it’s time to take the leap, get to the station and say hello.

*Also, you gotta applaud Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for playing out with the Walkmen.*