What's the best thing about running 10 miles?

Eating.

I am proud to announce that I completed the Austin 10-mile run. And I'm equally proud that I got to eat, drink and celebrate with guilt-free abandonment afterwards.

Here is a pic from the race site. I'm not sure why a part of my head is cut-off, but since I sort of lifted the picture from the site, I guess I can't complain.



I looked energetic, no? Well don't let the picture fool you. I was exhausted. My running pace, at 12.5 minute mile, is nothing to boast about. Especially since in my younger days, I had managed to complete the New York City Marathon at a sub-11 minute mile and the half-marathon at a 10 minute mile. In contrast, this time around, I found myself walking for stretches at a time. Not to mention the fact that my hips and lower back were shot for days after the race. What can I say, this gal is getting old. Years of prancing around in heels, schlepping around lap top bags and two child-births have wreaked havoc on my body.

Anyhow, enough about the running, and onto the part about eating and drinking. According to my trusty calorie counter, I burned a little over 3,000 calories during the race. But amongst the 3 margaritas, the two glasses of beer, the burger, fries, other fried munchies and ice cream from Amy's, I probably ended up in a calorie-surplus situation. But who cares. Just LOOK at this delectable goodie I got to enjoy! It made the pain and agony of the race all worth it.

Wordless Wednesday

Juicing

While I was at a work conference recently, a group of us gathered around during one of the breaks making small talk. As with all small talk, it was bland – the obligatory weather-talk, a bit of griping and a few rounds of polite laughter every now and then. In a word: yawn. To my surprise, however, the energy level skyrocketed the moment that I casually mentioned that I had recently bought a juicer. One of the guys—generally quiet and not excitable—leaned forward and with a glean in his eyes, said: “You. Are. Juicing?” His voice was low, but had a passionate tone. It was almost as if he had found the only other Christian at a Satan-worshiping convention: “You. Are. Saved?”

And with that, a few other folks excitedly proclaimed that they, too, were juicing. Some of them quite seriously, in fact. More than one of them said that they to do periodic detox regimens, where they ingest nothing but juice for a week at a time. Some juiced once a day to get antioxidants into their system. Very quickly, the conversation became animated, passionate and nearly fanatical.

Yes, juicing has really struck a chord with many people. I am one of those folks who have become obsessed about its benefits. My new nightly ritual includes pulling an assortment of fresh vegetables and fruits from the fridge, firing up my Omega J8004 Nutrition Center Commercial Masticating Juicer and liquidizing it all into a finely-pulped brew.

My juicing obsession began after I watched "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" on Netflix. This documentary followed an over-weight and sickly Aussie as he drove across the U.S., ingesting nothing but raw veggie juice along the way. The plot was contrived, but I couldn't help but be inspired by the incredible transformation that the guy went through: he dropped more than a few waist sizes, his skin cleared up and his steps became more energetic.
 
While I generally don't prescribe to extreme forms of diet, I very much believe in the benefits of supplementing your diet with fresh juice. Although K is not as enthusiastic as I am, he plays along on a nightly basis, drinking the sometimes green, sometimes puce colored concoction.

K about to enjoy a midnight snack of apple, pear, collard green and pineapple juice



Looks like Guinness but has the goodness of kale, beet, cucumber and apple

I have only been juicing for a few weeks, but already have some "Do's & Don'ts" that I’d like to share.

(1) Don’t juice the peels of an orange. Orange rind essence is so strong that it makes your juice sharply bitter and taste exactly like what you would imagine that liquid from a potpourri warmer tastes like.

(2) Do not drink too much raw beet juice. You can get very sick. A coworker got sick within minutes of drinking the juice of an entire beet—nausea, chills and other unpleasant side effects that I don’t care to write about here. Apparently, beets are such a powerful diuretic that a very little goes a long way. If you want to juice beets, juice only a quarter of a beet and mix it up with other veggies and fruits.

(3) Do continue to eat whole veggies even if you are juicing. Juicing is great, but you will miss out on the roughage that intact veggies provide. Here is a picture of all the pulpy goodness that gets spun out of the juicing machine. If you know of a good use for this stuff, please let me know!

Cocktail Party

The other day, I went shopping with a work acquaintance, whom I will call Laura in this post. Laura, a fashion-aficionado and childless, convinced me to buy a pair of sleek, rather shimmery black shorts--"perfect for summer cocktail parties!" she gushed. This made me laugh out loud, because I can't remember the last time I attended a fabulous cocktail party, or any party for that matter.

As a case in point, here is a video clip of how my Saturday night went. After a fun-filled day of frolicking in the park, the kids decided to take a train down to meltdown central.

After K and I managed to calm, feed, bath and sleep the kids, we decided to have a little cocktail party of our own to calm our fraying nerves. Cheers!

I am committing myself . . . to a 10-mile race!

I have decided to run in the Austin 10-mile race with a couple of friends in April. It's been a long time since I've committed myself to any form of organized running event. For one, there's this work/kids thing, making it hard to find time to train. Second, I probably have one of the weakest immune systems on this earth. Ever since I've had kids (i.e. germ-spreading rug rats), I've fallen sick at least once every six weeks. This means that just as I start making progress with my training, I have to stop to recuperate from my ailment of the month.

But I am determined to make it work this time around, and just spent a few hours arming myself with the tools I need to train for this race.

1. Proper footwear

I've been wearing this worn-out pair of New Balance shoes for quite some time now, so I decided it was time to invest in a new pair. I walked into the New Balance store, where I was greeted by a very knowledgeable sales guy. I quickly spotted a pair that I liked, and as I was being fitted, the sales guy casually asked how long I had been using my current pair. That was when I realized that I had no idea how long I have been wearing these shoes. Has it been four years? Five? Surely there's no way I would've let more than five years slip by without investing in a new pair of running shoes. I told him that I couldn't remember, to which he commented: "Well, it must be older than two years, because we don't make this model anymore."

After I got home, I searched through my photo files to see if I can find old pictures of me wearing this outdated model. And then I came across this picture, labeled "2006 Little Rock Marathon Relay."

 Here I am in the picture, covered in finish-line foil. I would not have been able to tell what footwear I was donning, if it were not for the little bit of gray peeping out from under the foil. I zoomed in on it, and here it is, to my shock and dismay. I was wearing this exact pair.

And that's when I realized that I had bought this pair when I was rafting in Maine, back in the fall of 2004. This pair of sneakers is over 8 years old!!

No wonder my back and ankles hurt like hell after my runs.



2. Immune booster
I know a ton of folks who do not like to take medication. Me, I'm the complete opposite. Got a headache? Take ibuprofen. Got allergies? Take Claritin. Can't sleep? Take Ambien.

So naturally, I figured there would be immune boosting supplements that I can take to ward off the germs. I marched into Whole Foods and after comparing and contrasting six different types of herbal remedy, settled upon this one:

I had thought about buying an herbal formula composed of 200 mcg of "whole Reishi mushroom powder," but something about taking pure mushroom extract didn't settle well with me - Would I get sick? Would I get high? Would I get healthy but grow a third eye? (Ed. note: This sounds like a Dr. Seuss rhyme). This Wellness Formula, however, has a combination of vitamins, minerals and herbal powders; kind of like East-meets-West thing -- best of both worlds.

I am now properly armed and ready to go. Let the training begin!

Angry Birds: Recycled Edition

K helped with EB on her very first science project this weekend. The theme this year is "recycled goods" -- the project was to take unused objects from around the house and make them into something fun or useful. K had the ingenious idea of making our very own "live action" Angry Bird game. Useful? Probably not. Fun? Definitely. And there are millions of Angry Bird players that would attest to that.

Here's the cast of characters. The disgruntled protagonist is made from a plastic softball, and the pigs are constructed from cardboard taped to Activia yogurt cups. For the facial features and coloring, they used a lot of poster paint and Sharpie markers.

And here's the most important component of the game--the sling. This is made from two training-wheel struts, a piece of particle board scrap, a cut-up jelly jar and a generous amount of duct tape. For the propellant, they started out with an old elastic strap. After a lot of very scientific trial and error, however, they switched to some thick rubber bands that I suggested. It's not the prettiest, but it does the job of launching the Angry Bird.

Here's the finished product in action!

The Farmer in the Dell, Production and Marketing

Here's a video of EB singing "The Farmer in the Dell" to B-Boy. I think it's adorable, but be forewarned: EB has a very strong set of lungs. She very possibly damaged B-Boy's hearing, but as you'll see in the video, he was totally into her serenade, pumping his legs and arms as if he's her number one fan. If you can bare a couple of minutes of her shrill singing, click on play. But don't say I didn't warn you....

By the way, I never quite understood what "The Farmer in the Dell" was all about, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, the most totally trust-worthy source on all of the Inter-Webs. If you're not familiar with the song, the lyrics go something like this: The farmer takes a wife, then the wife takes a child, so on and so forth, until you get to the last line--"the cheese stands alone." Evidently it originated in Germany and there are several interpretations of the song's meaning. The following is by far my favorite:

The farmer in the dell nursery rhyme refers to age old production. a farmer (historically) needed children to help with help hence he took a wife. The wife took a child in order to fulfill her duties as a mother the child took, or needed, a nurse during birth and early life. The nurse took a cow in order to help sustain the child quite possibly to supplement the wife's (mother) breastfeeding. The dog is needed to help manage the cattle (think a working border collie here). The dog (a stretch on this one) needs the cat for entertainment purposes. The cat obviously needs the rat as sustenance as does the rat need the cheese (the rat takes the cheese).

In the end the cheese stands alone. The nursery rhyme is a relationship to production and economy. The cheese represents the theoretical beginning of the production line.

Interesting, no? But I think EB took the production interpretation to a whole new level. If you were able to have make it through her entire performance, you'll notice that EB added a few twists of her own: The cheese takes the baby, then the baby takes the milk, then the milk takes the cookie, and finally, the cookie stands alone.

So, if the cheese represents the theoretical beginning of the production line, the baby signifies that the larger the population, the more necessary it became to automate and increase production. The baby needs the milk for obvious reasons, but in the end, milk needs the cookie. This signifies the fact that production is further accelerated by the advent of marketing. As us marketers are all-too aware, marketing creates a need that no one knows existed--remember the ads for Oreo, the "Milk's Favorite Cookie"?

In EB's version, The production line begins, making it possible to feed more and more people with less effort. Marketing takes it further, creating the need for more production. Brilliant, actually.