Brown rice

I am a creature of habit, especially when it comes to the restaurants I frequent.  For instance, two roast beefs w/o butter and a small diet coke at the Lions Choice located on St. Charles Rock road cost exactly $7.27.  the point is that I tend to go to the same places and get the same things....I'm wild I know.

One of the restaurants I frequent is Sansai.  A friend at church asked if I was going there for lunch, and of course I was, because that is where I tend to go on Sundays after church.  I've been trying to spice my life up a bit and mix up my order at Sansai...I've been doing this by ordering brown rice with my chicken breast bowl instead of white.

Being aware of what I tend to pay for orders I make time and time again, I noticed I was charged a bit more than usual.  I asked and I was told it cost an extra $.50 for brown rice.

Lets think about this for a moment.  All rice starts off as brown.  In addition to the removal of  the husk found in brown rice, white rice has had its bran, and germ removed.

So when you think about it, I am paying more for a product that has been processed less.  Its true that white rice keeps longer than brown, but it seems backwards that I would have to pay an additional $.50 for rice that has actually gone under less processing, not to mention its healthier for you.

Smart Ones guy

Isn't it amazing how we fall into the same patterns day after day?  We, as humans, love routines and tend to dislike change or surprises.  This is met head-on by the fact that we are in a new year and many of us are out to "change" something about ourselves (often in the form of a resolution).  Why did this thought come to me today?

I was walking in the grocery store on my lunch break today to pick up my weekly supply of lunch.  Typically, I eat Weight Watchers Smart Ones for lunch.  I like them because they give me the amounts of sodium and preservatives I need to make it through the day.  Heck, I fully expect not to decompose for centuries after I'm dead because of all of the preservatives...but I digress.  As I was walking down the frozen food isle (before I made it to the freezer mind you), the guy restocking the freezer looked at me and said "Hey Smart Ones guy, I haven't seen you in awhile."  I have become so predictable in what I have for lunch that I'm simply known as "Smart Ones guy"

This also begs the question if routines are inherently good or bad.  I'm known as someone who buys low calorie lunches.  If I were called "gym guy", "running guy", "hot guy", or "climb up a tree to rescue a kitty guy" these would be names and routines I would like to be known for.  What is your routine?  What are you known for?  If you complain all the time, perhaps you are known as "complaining guy".  If you push old people down stairs, perhaps you are known as "democrat guy".  Regardless, figure out what makes you who you are, and if there is anything you don't like about yourself, chances are you have the power to change it.

To find out something I did for the first time this week, stay tuned for my next post.  I look forward to hearing if you think what I did is an "improvement"  (that is, what we call in the blogging business, a tease :) )

Sickness

As I crossed the finish line of the Indy half marathon last year, there was a part of me that knew I could run a full marathon. I set a goal for myself then and there to run a full the very next year. I trained some, not as much as I should, signed up for the race, and with Victoria, went to Indy this last weekend. The morning of the race, I woke up in the hotel with a tickle in my throat. It was very cold at race time, and I figured the air was going to be hard to breath. At around mile marker 10, my legs started to lock up in a way I wasn't used to. I was very achy and in a lot of pain, believing I had pulled a muscle in my right upper quad. I saw Victoria around mile 12. She had this awesome sign made up to cheer me on. As she saw me, she could tell I was in a lot of pain. I had a hard time getting warm after the race. She drove my car back to Belleville and hung out with me. We had a very late dinner, and I didn't have much trouble going to sleep. The next morning, I woke up at around 5 AM and felt very strange. I decided to take my temperature, and I had a 102.6 fever. I stayed in all day (the lovely Victoria hung out with me and helped take care of me), and I stayed home from work and class on Monday as well. I went into work yesterday, went and had dinner with Victoria and her dad on Tuesday, and gave a presentation on email routing within Google apps to facilitate email archiving to a tech meeting today. Since Monday, I have been having an issue with dizziness, and I had a very strong dizzy bout today. I left work and went to the doctor. The doctor told me I had bronchitis as well as the possibility of some other secondary infections (which could be causing my dizziness). I basically was sent home from work and slept for hours upon hours on my arrival at home. I still feel a bit out of it, but I hope I'm on the road to recovery. Along with the meds, the doctor gave me this kickin' mask to help prevent the spread of whatever I have.

When geese attack

I have been having some issues with my neck lately (trapezius muscle if you are technical). I've been going to the chiropractor for adjustments, and we have been trying to figure out why this keeps on happening. Essentially, it will spasm, I will get an adjustment, it will be fine for a few days, and the cycle will repeat. While I'm not sure what has caused most of these, I know what caused the last flare up.

I have been running of late preparing for my two marathons later in the year. I went home this weekend, and my running route at home takes me by the two reservoirs of my hometown as they bank both sides of the road. As I was running by the first time, I noticed the geese were out with their little babies. Because the babies were there, the geese were very territorial and they all hissed as I ran by. Not wanting to provoke any type of action, I wanted to be extra careful when I passed by on the way back. On the way back, I moved to the very center of the road as there were geese on both sides. Not only did the geese hiss at me again, one started coming after me. It flapped its wings as if to take off in flight and put quite a show. Not wanting to get my butt kicked by a goose, I hit the afterburner, but as I was looking behind me to see what was happening and wondering how silly my tombstone would look as it described the cause of my death, I felt my neck tweak. I knew I had hurt it and the chiropractor would be in my very near future. I would like to thank Dr. Jay Enyart for fixing my neck and not rolling on the floor laughing when I told him how I hurt it.

Medicine to the music of Benny Hill

I had a rough day today health wise, as I woke up and I could not move my head and I still had the same infection on my chin that was not getting any better. I took a half sick day to attend to my health by making arrangements to go to an MD for my face and a chiropractor for my neck. The chiropractic care was excellent (thanks Jay), but the medical care was a little bit strange.

There were two people at the doctors office: the up front guy and the doctor. The up front guy was a Puerto Rician who had a strange concept of personal space and a doctor from Tiwain who was no fan of the computer system he had to use. I got a lot of fun drug scripts from the doctor for my bad chin, and some happy pills for my neck. I think this guy would have perscribed me birth control pills if I had asked for them. The funniest part of the whole visit was watching these two guys try to figure out the medical coding computer as I was being diagnosed. They had a hard time spelling the word "folliculitis". Their debae could only be best described as a quarrel between an older and oddly matched gay couple. Fortuantly, I had my phone with me and I was able to google the spelling of the word. I felt a little bit too involved in my own medical care at this point. The whole point of going to the doctor is to have someone look at you that has all the confidience of that medical speak. I'm at least hopeful that my scripts will help me heal up.

21 Day Fast

Well there I was, laying in my bed back home one night over break, puttering around my beloved facebook. I saw a Christian friend of mine (we'll call her Kari because that is her name) come online, and I started chatting w/ her using FB's somewhat unreliable chat system. I asked her something like if she had and new year's resolutions, and she said that her and her husband were going to participate in a 21 day fast to start off the year. The original document that she sent me can be found here http://www.worldprayercenter.org/images/stories/Fast/2008.pdf.

Like many things, I'm going to take the concept and make it my own. One of the modifications I'm going to make is that I'm only going to eat certain foods during the fast and not give up everything completely. (Maybe I should call it a Moderate, and not a Fast...waka waka). I've consulted with a dietitian friend of mine who seemed to give me a balanced view on the concept of fasting between her personal beliefs as a christian and her training as a dietitian. She seemed to agree that my very simple food choices would do the job. Right now, the only foods I'm planning on eating during this time are rice, nuts, and berries. I will be supplementing this with water to drink and vitamins for other nutrients.

You may be saying to yourself "What's wrong Dan, don't you have what it takes to give up all food?" Let me respond by saying that if you don't like the way I'm going about this....TOUGH TACOS TUBBY! :) In all seriousness, the reasons someone would undertake something like this are varied. For me, I have some personal things I wish to pray about in my life, and I am hoping that this period of time provides me with some clarity on those issues. In addition, I'm hoping to use this time as a springboard for a strong spiritual, physical, and emotional 2009. As time progresses, I may reveal some of the things I will be praying about, but I'm not going to right now (I guess you'll have to check back to find out ;)

Regarding what this will do to the physical me, I plan on tracking what effect this has on my weight and appearance and I go forward. Something I hope to do with this blog is keep a running total of what my fitness status is. I plan on posting before/after pictures of myself throughout the year as I work towards some larger fitness goals that I will enumerate in a later post.