Using your Intuition

in·tu·i·tion noun \ˌin-tü-ˈi-shən, -tyü-\
1: quick and ready insight
2a : immediate apprehension or cognition b : knowledge or conviction gained by intuition c : the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference

The above definition was taken from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intuition. Let's take a look at it a little closer, shall we, as I am a bit confused. And I love to share my confusions with others (don't I, Sweetie?). To me, "quick and ready insight" means that it takes little or no time or thought to figure something out. Like when you walk into a room and open the door REEEEEAAAALLLY wide because you just know' that your little sister is there, ready to pounce on you like a panther sprinkle you with glitter. With all of the 2a-c, that part of the definition is really lost on me (i am from the backwoods of Vermont, remember) and it doesn't really impact my rant explanation of my confusion. Just wait and see...
I bring this up because of some recent attention to "intuitive eating" (IE), both in the blog world and IRL. Seriously. Strange tie-ins like that have been happening all week. I overheard some people at the grocery talking about it, read the transcript from #fitbloggin, and have had some personal experiences with intuitive eating. Or so I thought. The name is catchy, for sure, but i've oft wondered if it was the best term to describe it. As my lovely wife can attest, i am a stickler for the correct use of vocabulary, (especially by others!), so I have been mulling this over for a while now. The time, i feel, has come to investigate. All in the name of #nomorebs.
My understanding of IE is that you eat what you know agrees with you so that you don't feel sluggish, bloated, hyper-motile (not hypermoBILE. that's ok. hyper-moTILE isn't always good), etc. etc. I first heard about it while running through the woods listening to @twofitchicks podcast about a year or so ago. Miz and Shauna were talking about it, and I sensed some apprehension at the name from Miz, but I'm not going to speak for her on that. It was just my take. I started to think about MY food intake and how it made me feel, and came to the realization that I had been eating intuitively for a while without even knowing it. Amazing! Here's a brief version of my story with food:
Growing up I ate whatever was put in front of me. Dinner was dinner. We all ate together, and we ate the same food. We had a "take what you want but eat what you take" mantra. This meant that you didn't get up until you ate it. All of it. Even if that meant that you were still sitting there long after the dishes were done. Was it the right thing to do? I dunno. Worked for us, so who am i to judge? In '86 I went to Japan as an exchange student. I ate all kinds of things that most people wouldn't: at least not most Americans.
There was eel, octopus, umeboshi, seaweed, so many different fish, veggies (yama imo!), and other things. I don't think that I ever refused to eat anything that was presented. Including ram and beef tongue. One thing that I learned about their food culture is that they consider it rude to leave ANY rice in the bowl at the end of a meal. Their reasoning, I was told, was that the farmer worked very hard in all kinds of weather to get that rice to your table, and that it was very disrespectful to waste it. WOW. I had never looked at it that way, and it changed the way I have looked at food ever since. i went from being 'afraid' of not finishing my food (and anyone elses' at the table) to finishing it to avoid disrespecting the 'farmer' or even the cook. But then something happened when i hit my mid 30's.
Stress. Anxiety. Bad personal decisions.

More Chins than....you know the rest.

Mostly self-induced, but my life became very stressfull. And my eating went haywire. I gained a buncha weight. This picture is bitter sweet. It was taken on one of the most fun days of my life, and i look like CRAP in it. This crapiness is magnified by the fact that I am in Uniform. Disgraceful. It hangs on my office wall as a reminder...but I digress. IE is the topic here....SO.....during this epoc, my...ummm...'system' kicked into overdrive. like 4-5 times a day. TMI? read on. I eventually went to see a gastroenterologist who I worked with, but not until my late 30's. I just couldn't take it any more. I thought it was a parasite. I thought I had some disease. As an RN, i have just enough knowledge to be dangerous, as they say. At one point during the exam the doc said, "well, I don't think that you'll need a colonoscopy, THANK GOD!" we both had a good laugh. He said that many of his collegues would diagnose me with IBS, but he wasn't going to do that.
I asked him point blank, "Do you think IBS is BS as a diagnosis?" He replied that he felt that it was becoming an overused diagnosis, but that it did have its place. I then said, "Do you think most cases, like mine, are more mental than physical?" He made some smartass comment about yes, for me, it was mental, because i was a bit 'off' anyway, but that also yes, symptoms can be aggrivated by both stress and DIET. Well....i didn't think that i could control the stress in my life (still working on that, actually), but i could control what i put in my pie hole.I started looking at what was going on food/drink wise on the days when i was most 'active'. I noticed a trend. Milk, candy, coffee, and chocolate were all big culprits. I have eliminated all but the coffee. (don't touch my coffee. seriously. if that ever gets taken away....) Except for chocolate chips in some ice cream, I haven't had ANY candy since OCT 31, 2007. I rarely eat ice cream. Creamies/SoftServe on the other hand, is different. yes, yes, yes, all chemicals, but...NO REAL MILK, so...no worries! yum. I have also identified other foods that work 'wonders' on my body in some way or another. My discovery of those things, going by the definition above, was not at all....intuitive. So the PROCESS leading to IE is trial and error, introspection, journaling, investigating....and the RESULT is INTUITIVE.
so....
again. Cave Lector. and of course, #nomorebs

breakfast (aka funny photo friday)

A few weeks ago someone gave me a coupon for a free cuppa oatmeal from the golden boobs arches. I carried it around for a while, then one day, in desperation, I went to that 'place' on my way to work one day. I was really, really anticipating a bowl full of crap, to be honest. I mean, have you seen the way Subway advertises their subs? And have you ever bought one that was even remotely similar? Me, either. So my expectations were looooooow. My decision to try it may have been inspired by a news story from the night before. Or from just pure hunger.

All in the name of science.

So i ordered one of these:

Cute, innit? see all that cruchy fruit on top? I was getting pretty psyched as I waited in line, looking up at all of the delicious looking food-products. Imagine my surprise and dismay, then, when I got back out to the truck to discover this in my bowl:

That's right. Slop. It appears that they plopped all of the wholesome goodness right on top of the steaming hot oatmeal somewhere behind the couter. Given that I also stopped in the vestibule to look at tourist guides for the area (in which i have lived a total of around 30 years, so...why, again?), the little apple chunks and whatever else was in there began to cook. Yea. In hospital, we refer to this type of diet as a "mechanical soft diet". Yum.

Needless to say I was disappointed. My advice, if you are still willing to give the oatmeal a try, is to ask if they could NOT put the fruit on, and let you do it when you are ready to eat. Maybe that would help.

Today I stopped at the same place and had one of their $3 specials: TWO bacon, egg, cheese sammiches on a biscuit. Lemme just say here that you can save a TON of money on special cleansing diets by ordering this breakfast instead. I don't suggest that you eat it at work, unless you have your own bathroom in your office, or if it is like right across the hall. 

Have a smooooth afternoon!!!

In which i am no longer intimidated by cheese

Not a running post per se.....
This past New Year's weekend we were lucky enough to spent the time with my wife's brother, his wife, their darling daughter, and about 50 other people. We went to Baltimore-ish to be part of a Christening, and it was a wonderful time! I say this with an exclamation mark mostly because I truely had a good time, and i usually don't do well in groups larger than 4. Seriously. I get all anxious and blah blah blah.
This time, though, I went at it with a different attitude: i decided that i would branch out while i was there and do at least ONE thing that I don't normally do in these situations.
On NYE, the subject of wine came about. I used to enjoy wine quite a bit. I had been 'intimidated' by it, but went on some tasting tours and such while in Sonoma Valley, and grew to have a deeper appreciation for wine. I am not a wine snob, by any stretch, but i do like to play the part as the situation allows......
My SIL and I were talking about it, and I said something to the effect that I used to be intimidated by wine, but now I am intimidated by CHEESE.
Only a few readers know my SIL, and for those that don't, all you have to do is give her an opening like this, and BAM! she fills the void. Mention that you think jet-skis are cool? BAM! She'll take you out. She'll say things like, "ever thought about trying the trapeeze?" BOOYA! Happy Birthday. (not me, our middle dude.)
So when i made the comment about cheese, her eyes lit up and she said, "well, then, tomorrow i will give you a cheese flight!" (apparently that is what it is called when you start out with one type and move into other types, much like you would sample beers or wine.....)
In the afternoon of NYD, we set out some cheeses:


Click to make bigger and see names of cheeeeeeeeses.

I was instructed to try the cheeses working my way from left to right, or from milder flavors toward the stronger flavors. Makes sense to me! I tried each with a small piece of bread, and even tried some wine. (you may or may not recall that I get HIVES when i drink alcohol. more on that in a post next week!)
Each cheese was distinctly different from the next, and I enjoyed every one.
Thank you for stopping by!
*crickets*
HAHAHAHA....ok, ok. Here's what I thought about the cheeses. Had you going there for a sec, didn't I? Hello? (thump, thump. feedback) Is this thing on?
Brie: NOT AT ALL what I thought it would be. I expected it to run all over the place once we opened it. It did no such thing. It is soft, to be sure, but mildly flavored. As I kept coming back to it, I noticed that it produced an interesting taste AND sensation at the back of my mouth. Not unpleasant, but noticable. Three Stars awarded to Brie.
Chevre: Again, not what I expected. My only exposure to goat cheese has been Feta, and I never could get past the strong flavor and the odd textures. This, however, had a pleasant taste, and was smooth. It was stronger than the Brie (remember the order/reason for the flight), but didn't leave the aftertaste that I half expected. Two Stars to Chevre.
Gruyere: "Full of flavors!" according to my BIL's FIL (follow? that would be my SIL's Dad) It is firm, almost like Cheddar, but has a depth of flavor that Cheddar didn't. Almost smokey, almost fruity (but not sweet).
FOUR Stars to Gruyere.
Almost like a Chiraz when compared with a Merlot. Or French Vanilla when compared to Vanilla. Or not. It is CHEESE for Heaven's sake. You need to try Cheddar and Gruyere side by side. Now. Go. I'll wait.....In the mean time, here is an action photo from the testing....

Cheddar: I have grown up with cheddar, so it was like, well, cheddar. The interesting part was to compare it with the other cheeses (which, again, is the purpose of the flight). I only had a few pieces, and it was ok. I prefer mine EXTRA Sharp, or, as they say in the UK, "mature". (one of us should be....)
Three Stars to Cheddar.
Bleu Cheese: you know, the moldy kind. Lemme tell ya. This.was.GREAT! I had a buncha bleu cheese. It was nothing like the chunks in salad dressing. The flavor was strong, it carried well, and combined well with the crackers AND bread. And wine. I was on my second box of wine at this point (not really), and all i could taste were the tannins anyway. HAHAHAHA. Honestly, the bleu was my favourite.
FIVE Stars to Bleu.
Here's a cheese tasting tip: keep kids away from the table at all costs. As you can see here, if they get too close, they'll shoot laser beams at you. SEE?????

All in all, it was a GREAT opportunity to try something new and be taken through the steps and be given explanations by people who are really passionate about their cheese. SIL, her Dad, and his wife were great. Laughs were had, serious explanations were given, and bellies were filled. Fantastic way to start the year.

So far in 2011, have you stepped outside of your box and tried something that had seemed 'intimidating' to you? Hit me up in the comments!

#fitblog answers

I didn't attend #fitblog chat on Twitter last night. Instead, i cuddled with my sweety and watched some tv. it was a chilly evening, and it was time very well spent!
Here, though, are my answers to the questions that were posed. Nothing earthshattering here, but I wanted to post it and try to get some feedback. The topic was "Food is Fuel - How do you Fill Up?"

TOPIC QUESTIONS
Q1) Does when you exercise or how much you exercise impact what you eat? How?
On days that I plan to exercise, I try to plan my meals/snacks around the time i have set aside. I find that this helps with digestion, comfort, and energy levels. As for amounts of food, increasing the amount typically depends on how far i plan to run.
Q2) What do you eat before you work out?
 I typically eat some yogurt with granola about a half an hour before i work out. I used to eat a bagel with PB, but that just sat too heavily in my stomach, and it made me 'tired' of running too soon. For longer runs, or when i have eaten not so well, i'll pop a loperimide (Immodium) just for added 'insurance'. And i drink drink drink. Lately I have been triallling Generation UCAN's products, and will review them by the end of the week.
Q3) What do you eat after a work out?
After a workout I try to eat a buncha protein. Sometimes this is in the form of picking at meat leftovers in the fridge, or if i can't get home right away I will eat a Clif Builder's bar (20g of protein). If it was a short run, i might just eat half.
Q4) Do you eat more indulgently if you have exercised or plan to? What's your treat meal?
I don't usually eat indulgently. That said, last weekend I ate an entire large pizza by myself. It was a free one that we got because the pizza place goofed. YAY!..... My treat meal is usually something that involves seafood, but only while dining out. noone else in my family likes it, so i won't cook it at home. we only go out to places that offer real seafood once every other month or so, and that's when i'll eat those kinds of foods.

I am looking forward to tonight's #SFCFIT chat, where @mizfitonline will talk about Vision Boards. Interesting topic, to be sure. If you are on Twitter, follow the hashtag #SFCFIT at 730 CST this evening!

Be well,
Gene

Yasso 800's and Fast Food Review

a coupla days ago (was it Monday???) Jeff from www.jeffg-runningthroughphoenix.blogspot.com tweeted that he was going to do some Yasso 8's. I replied asking what the plan was, he sent it, i told him i'd join him. see? comeraderie! misery loves company! all that stuff....
thing is, HE's in Phoenix, and I am....not. I am in New England, right along the VT/NH border. Some say the NH weather is worse than the VT weather, but..well, there's a joke there, but i'll save that for some other day. At any rate, I couldn't get to the track on Monday (little dude has had a cough, so we went to the Pediatrician's office...) so i planned to go on Tuesday after work.
I got to the track around 3 because i played hookie and set up Christmas Decorations some time in the afternoon. Not a sole in sight. Wind at my back on the front stretch, in my face on the back stretch. Walked one lap as Teri tried to find out where she was. Jogged a lap, then started the sequence of 800 run, 400 jog, repeat x4 800's. I'd never done them before, and here are my lap results. The first one is skewed b/c i forgot to hit the lap button before i started. whoops.

800 #1 3:30, 1:46
800 #2 1:43, 1:52
800 #3 1:45, 1:52
800 #4 1:42, 1:53

HOLY CONSISTENCY OF PANCAKE BATTER *mmmmmm paaaancaaaakes*, BATMAN.....
this effort translated into a PR for 5k!!! (24:05) now, with this knowledge, if i had jogged the middle laps a bit faster...then the PR would have been even sweeter! good to keep in mind for a race....maybe integrate Yasso 800's during a race????

&&&&Fast Food Review&&&&

(more correct title: review of fast food)

recently it was annouced that Wendy's would be offering a NEW FRENCH FRY. yes, folks "Natural-Cut Fries with Sea Salt" with the tag line "Discover Real Fries". The fries are "Naturally-cut from whole russet potatoes" Stop right there. "Naturally-cut"? What the heck does THAT mean? As opposed to "Artificially-cut"? does naturally-cut use bamboo knives or flint arrow heads instead of Ginsu knives? Seriously. Take some grammar classes, Wendy. sheesh.

Ok. the product description page goes on to say that they are "cooked with the skin on, and served up hot and crispy with a sprinkle of sea salt for a taste as real as it gets". sounds reasonable, but the person who made my fries must have been ABSENT from Wendy-School (naturally) when they defined SPRINKLE.

The only difference the Sea Salt made on my fries was that I could SEE IT! Someone must have poked holes in Bubba's Sea Salt Shaker.

Here is what my Real Fries looked like, fresh (naturally) out of the bag:

Here is how Wendy's would like you to think they look fresh out of the bag:

Bah! Oh, right. Flavor review. Meh. Not bad, not great. I prefer sweet potato fries to regular fries, but if Dave Thomas (rip) and crew wanted to sprinkle OLD BAY on these instead of crusty sea salt, well.......

Disclaimer: No potatoes were hurt during the making of this post. Remember, french fries are made (naturally) from already dead potatoes. Also, any reference to persons real or imagined named "Bubba" was not intended to cause harm, defamation of character, or a desire to work in the fast food industry. Naturally.

"Let's start..the Family Fooooood!"

ahh....remember the original Family Feud? With Richard Dawson? THAT show had it going on. How many hosts has it been through since then? Too many to count, that's for sure. Who wants to get a kiss from "Mr. Peterson", anyway?
Anyway, this post is about family FOOD, not feud. This week my wife decided to create a menu for the week to help streamline things at dinner time. One thing we have figured out that we don't like is the daily question, "what do you want for dinner?" Last night, it was home made pizza! Welcome to our kitchen:

Fresh home from Zumba, Tracey measures out the ingredients for the dough. I can't bake. You shoulda seen her measure out the flour. taptaptap, scrapescrapescrape. i would be like, scoop...hmmm...that's close enough. (notice i am not the one making the dough....)

Next it has to be needed. it is nice to be needed. errr..umm...KNeaded. that, too.this is actually the second dough. the first one is rising in the bowl on the stove. one for the kids, one for us.

Once the dough was set, it needed to sit for a while, so T jumped in the shower while Bryce, Zach and I watched some AFV. That's right, America's Funniest home Videos. Love watching that show with the boys. Makes me realize how 'normal' our kids are...


That's Zach in the background. He was wondering why Mom uses a 'target' to roll out the dough. Note the hair-net. I think that OSHA would approve. And yes, those are jammies. No, it isn't late at night, but why not get into comfortable clothes whenever you can, right? Right.

 here we are, adding toppings to the second pie. that little pile of read things are my sundried tomatoes and roasted red peppers. YUM! All this writing and posting  is making me hungry for more. Is 930 in the morning too early for left over home made pizza? I think not. I'll be right back...

Bryce couldn't wait to get his hands on his slice(s). Yummy, to be sure.

see my little slice of heaven over there on the right? YUM! it was fun to make, it was fun to watch the kids interact during the process, and, of course, it was fun to EAT!!!! Loving the family food time.....now where's Richard for that smooch??

Gene's Test Kitchen

As i am certain that most of you know, I have been spending quite a bit of time on Twitter these days. Not at night, just during the day. And not on weekends, just during the week. What does that mean? Yes, I tweet while working. While this might not be the BEST use of my time, I can assure you there are some work things involved. How can that be? Simple.....I am one of the most active (pun intended) people on our Wellness Committee, and have taken on a project (ok, not just taken on. I came up with the flippin' idea) of putting together a cookbook of healthy foods. Well.....a quick walk through the halls should have clued me in that I wouldn't be getting very many healthy ideas, if you know what I mean. So we opened it up to just be a cookbook, 'sponsored' by the Wellness Committee.
Being the nice guy that i am, i tweeted that i was looking for some good recipes for the cookbook. why not share some tweetie, blogger love, right? Cathy from Planet Veggie and Jog-Blog sent me a recipe for some great peanut-butter bars which i reviewed here. Those will be included for sure. She also sent me a recipe for some great soup, which I made but didn't review. Suffice to say, it was GREAT. Even our 13 year old liked it. WIN~
Then one day I got caught up in a conversation between @MMNorthDallas and (i think...) @hotlegsrunner about a Pita Pizza. (note to people who don't tweet: start tweeting. ok, more serious note: the "@" is how twitter identifies it's users. you could type ClifBar in a sentence to talk about a bar, but if you type @ClifBar, you are talking about the company, or the user. clear as mud? moving on now...) Since i am interested in pizza, and different kinds of pizza, i jumped in and asked for the recipe. Jason was gracious enough to send it to me, and I was very excited to try it out. TWO WEEKS LATER, i did.
Jason has a tab on his web sited called "Athlete's Plate". Head over there for the recipe (if you have trouble, either tweet me (@boutdrz) or email me and I will get it to you) and give it a try. Very basic, very tasty. I altered it a bit, but it was pretty much the same. I have no way of grilling chicken (HORROR!), so that wasn't on it. I don't like the smell of broccoli in the oven, so that was off. Instead of using a bunch of the single ingredients, I opted for some fresh Taboule (my new BFF). Next time, though, I'll need to squeeze some of the water out so that the pizza is crispier.
Are you dying to see it yet???? ok. here are the before and after shots that you have been salivating over:

BEFORE it went in the oven.

the 15 minutes that it takes to make this were excruciatingly loooong. i was hungry. i had already made chicken wings for Z, nuggets for B, and nachos for T. T had made brownies in the middle of all of that, and now it was my turn. whew. we had been shopping, and for almost 2 hours after our return, T and I never left the kitchen.seriously. good times, and no one got hurt (although we did put the hurts to some FOOD!)

ok. without further ado, here is the after. it says it all, i think. give this a try. YOU WILL LOVE IT!

about 10 minutes AFTER it came out of the oven.

So if you have some good ideas, feel free to send them along!

Of Biggest Loser and Chocolate Mousse

We had a small amount of heavy cream left over from the Bread Pudding we made last week, and i hated to throw it away. so, hmm, what can i make with it...? I KNOW! chocolate mousse!! why the heck not?? wellll, the 'why not' turned out to be that we didn't have ENOUGH cream. called for 2 cups, only had hafl a cup. so let me quarter it! nah, T says, just go get more cream.
so i did.
and it worked out just fine. made enough for a serving of 8, but looks to me more like a serving of 2. recipie called for espresso, but i just used some strong coffee from my bodum ("it's just a widdle guy!"). also needed..umm..what's that orange liquer? yea, anyway, don't have it, so i used Kahlua.
melt melt melt, whip whip whip, fold fold fold, mix mix mix, place in fridge.
oh, that last sentence took about an hour. while we watched NBC's "the biggest loser". nom, nom, nom. seems odd to be making that kinda rich, dense, yummy food while watching those folks struggle. but hey! that's all good.
got up to run this morning, but then remembered that I didn't get the milk last night, and needed to get it this morning. so run has been postponed to take place while Z is at practice. I am going to try to use the gym at the middle school, but if that doesn't pan out, i will go to the VA. i am fortunate to have it to use!
tossing around goals and race choices for next summer....must try to remember not to dream TOO BIG. (have we met?)

the good thing about me sinking like a rock when i try to swim is that i don't see any triathlons in my future. good to know my limitations! (which is counter to one of my favourite quotations, "find your limits and exceed them.")
alright. back to work!