Food. Notorious Food.

For those of you who wish to read this, please beware. You may suddenly become hungry, and have thoughts of attacking your refridgerator. Therefore, please read at your own risk.
Today started on a downward slide. Typically, most runners can usually get away with packing in a few more calories. This is because the aerobic exercise of jogging will burn off more calories than just about any other activity. However, there are limits, as to what you can burn off, whereas the sky is the limit with how many calories one could consume.

Unfortunately, I just don't learn my lesson.

I try to have no more than 1500-1800 calories per day. A body weighing roughly 155 pounds will burn about 75 calories per day. Multiply that by 24 hours, and voilá! You get 1800 calories burned.

After a nice weigh-in after my Brooklyn Half last Saturday, I thought that if I could get to around 140-145 pounds, that I would then be at an optimal mass. However, I love to eat. And therein lies the problem. My weakness of eating. My stomach. My taste buds. They are all part of a non-stop machine. My stepmother Cristina calls me "Hooverito". She is Cuban, but one does not need much imagination to know why she calls me that. First of all, it means the vacuum of the same name, but only in Spanish. For me, there are more marathons than just running. Keep me from eating for too long, and watch what I'll do at an Italian restaurant.... What a disgrace!

And speaking of rampant and uncontrollable urges, today was no exception. For breakfast, I had not 1, but 2 bagels. And they were loaded with real Breakstone butter. At some point I will have to learn NOT TO BUY OR EAT THESE THINGS ANYMORE!!!!

But that was nothing. The assault continued later on in the day. I actually did a run at noon. But it was to my car. From there I drove on a flat road. But to tell you the truth folks, it was all downhill. You see, there's this
little deli called "Suburban Eats". It's right on route 110 in Melville....and their food is really, really good. And I was really, really hungry.

A foot long chicken parmagiana hero, a prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato and basil sandwich, and a bag of Garlic & Herb Roasted "Dirty" Potato Chips later, I felt as if I was in my third term. But let us not forget the Diet Coke. For we ARE watching our weight, right?! Yeah, sure. We are watching it all right. Watching it rise, like a bread in the over, to be sure.

The icing on the cake came later. Literally. The food truck (that damned food truck), which comes around every couple of hours by my office, honked his horn. "Coffee Truck is here", was announced over the PA. I was not going to go outside. No sir-ree! Heck, I ate enough already, didn't I? At least 2000 calories today, and it's only 2 pm!

But then I remembered...I owed Ken (the driver of that damned food truck) money for food from last week. I can't let the tab slide, right? I mean, I had to pay him. All I have to do is just march right out there, pay up, turn my ass around, and march right back in.

And that's exactly...what I almost did.......Till I saw them. The Hostess Cupcakes....Mmmmmm.
Hadn't had those in months. I fought and I fought. I circled the truck like a shark. I even started to mutter to myself, being careful not to let my co-workers see me (cause that might not be too cool). But the mind was too weak, and the digestive engines too strong. My stomach, like the plant in the movie, "The Little Shop of Horrors", had yelled to his rightful master...."Alex, Feed Me! Feed me Alex!!!" I pleaded with my brain to ease the sensations, but I caved. Then, I even rationalized, that "Hey? What's 350 more calories anyway?" I bought my sinful little treat, and then washed it down, with a Vitamin Water. LOL.

As penance, I went tonight to the gym, and just got back. 12 miles. After the first 6, my lower, inner part of left leg (about 4 inches down from my knee) was talking to me again. I got off the treadmill, and got on the elliptical machine, a non-impact exercise. I did this for about 20 minutes, then went to another treadmill. I'm glad I did this too because as it turned out, the second treadmill was in much better shape than the first.

I can't wait for the weather to finally warm up over here. I need to run the streets and the parks. All this treadmill running is taking it's toll on my legs.

Anyway, the lesson for tonight: Eat every 3 hours, eat small amounts, stay away from bad carbs, and if you must eat bad, be prepared to repent!

Remember.......to run like this:
you must not eat too many of this: