Day Four

Yesterday I finally decided that lingering chest goop or not, I was going to ride my damn bike.  I didn't want to push it of course, but living in Santa Cruz limits your options for "easy spins."  I settled on a nice out-and-back to Scott's Valley Cycle Sport, a super rad shop up in, you guessed it, Scott's Valley that was having their Grand Store Opening after moving into a bigger location.

But riding means fueling.  Deciding on what to eat sans sucre when you're lounging around is one thing, but when you are going to get after it, things are a bit more complicated.  I ended up eating half a sandwich and some roasted veggies from the local Organic Vegan Health Food store.  I rode for about 1.45 hours with one nice easy climb.

When I returned, instead of eating the usual cookiefest, I had the other half of the sandwich and some soy crisps and a banana.  I didn't eat ON the ride because it wasn't long enough.

Today, same thing.  I went out for a longer ride along the coast, I just wanted to do a longer than short but shorter than long easy spin to shake the legs out before the week.  But again.  Food.  Brown Sugar Oatmeal was out.  So was parfait.  I decided on half a bagel with egg and ham and a banana.

During the ride, I had another banana.

After the ride, I had a sandwich and some strawberries and a string cheese thing.

Dinner tonight was another Trader Joe's Salad supplemented with extra lettuce, cheese, and chicken.

Ok, now you can ask me why I feel it necessary to compose the above list.

Because, if you look at it, what you won't see is any extraneous choice.  There wasn't one thing on that list that didn't in some way actually nourish my body.  And I don't even like that word, "nourish," it sounds like I'm going to run away to one of the many Santa Cruz mountain retreats and shed my clothes and live in a Yurt.

But it's the most accurate one I got.

I'm seeing that sugar, and sweets in general, don't do anything more for you than a quick burst of WHEEE! like pleasure.  Which is awesome of course.  But as with almost any WHEEE like experience, the more you do it, the less WHEEE you get out of it, which is why you need more and more of it to get the same response even though it's doing a lot of harm to your body and sometimes even your life.

In fact, I think there's even a term for this very thing....  hmmm.....

Oh yeah.  Addiction.

I haven't even gotten through a week and already I'm craving it less.  Even better?  I'm craving actual FOOD even more.

So while I still look longingly at the cookies and chocolates at the store and gas station and work and (my god aren't those things in a whole F-ing lot of places?), I can also see them for what they are:

Occasional treats.  Not the everyday staples I made them.