Day Seven - The Treck Back

Wednesday, June 20th
 
Albany, NY to Wernersville, PA: 255 miles, drive time of 4 hours and 30 minutes.
Potty breaks: 1; Gummies: breaking the habit; Tears: a few shed over "angry birds"; Exercise: push-ups, crunches, planks and plyometrics.

For the return trip, I was going to drive further on Wednesday to make it half-way back to South Carolina, so that Thursday's trip time would be shorter and I could be back in Atlanta on Thursday evening. As I thought about it more, though, I wanted one more evening at my Gram's house and I knew my girl wouldn't mind stopping one more time to play with all of those vintage toys.

By this point in our week, the too-good temperatures were starting to give way to the uglier side of June. It was not even the first day of summer, yet the thermometer steadily rose to the point where you just want to hide inside with the AC blasting and all of the curtains drawn. I knew there would be no run for me this evening.

Fortunately, we were able to take a break along the way back down to PA where we could enjoy our "picnic" indoors. We had a fairly healthy - and most importantly cool and refreshing - snack of yogurt (Chobani for me), Mixed Berry Nutragrain, and our summer staple, lemonade.

"Wait, Mommy! You need a picture of me, too!"

Silly girl's already getting the hang of picture-blogging.

Once we reached Gram's, we were both a little stir-crazy but not wanting to risk a heat-stroke or sun burn, we remained indoors. I did a quick circuit of basic body-weight exercises, including high knee step-ups on the unusually tall stairs in the 120-yr-old house (give or take a decade or two), and this cool leg + oblique exercise from BexLife (the first exercise of this video) that combines a squat with a side leg/knee lift. It's kind of like doing a sumo wrestler stomp... or that's what my daughter does, when she tries to exercise along with me. She also tried to help me with my crunches by laying across my belly, which didn't really work, so I turned over to let her crawl on my back as I attempted to do a couple push-ups with the extra resistance.

I can do exactly TWO, push-ups with her, by the way... and they have to be modified. Youch!

Time for dinner.

My Gram was a Locavore before it was cool. While the area she lives in has had its fair share of suburban sprawl over the past ten years, there are still farms galore and tons of roadside stands where she gets a lot of her produce. And having such deep German roots in the area, the European mentality of shopping nearby and often to get what's available and fresh - vs. doing a huge shopping trip of packaged goods once a week - is prevalent. I enjoy shopping this way too, as I feel I'm more likely to use the produce I buy before it goes bad if I only buy a few of something at a time.

For our meal tonight, we had asparagus, red potatoes, cucumber and tomato salad, berries, and Italian-seasoned wings.

The best part of this meal? My girl tried everything, and actually ate all of her asparagus first. While her love of veggies and fruit has more to do with her tastes than anything else, I can't help but feel like I've done something right when my daughter dives into the greens on her plate first.

I wished I could have stayed in Wernersville for a whole week and actually take my daughter to the farms and markets myself. After the success of this trip, though, I know I'll be back. I was happily reminded of how nice it is to just sit around my Gram's house and I can't wait to drive back up and spend more time there.

Does your area have good local produce? Do you travel anywhere where the local food can't be beat?

Soapbox of the Month - The Diet & Exercise Debate

I just read a very interesting article titled "Why We Are Fat" because that's what I do when I see such an enticing title shared by a friend on Facebook at 11:00 PM.

The article starts out with the featured biochemist, Barbara Corkey stating that she does not feel that diet and exercise alone are the answer to the obesity epidemic in America. Now, I am no biochemist, so I read the rest of the article, but my initial reaction was bullshit it's not.

I've operated under the simple understanding that if you consume the proper amount of calories to support your basal metabolic rate plus any additional activities one might participate in while not at rest, you should not gain weight. I believe one should take it upon his or herself to understand about how many calories he or she needs in a day, which in the age of the interwebs, isn't that difficult to do. And just to be a jerk and offer a completely contradictory article to the one posted above, let's not forget about the man who lost 27 pounds on The Twinkie Diet.

Now if you know me, and especially if you're related to me, you know I'm a wannabe know-it-all when it comes to health and nutrition. I tell people the first step to making changes to their diet is to only shop around the outer aisles of the grocery store, avoiding all the packaged and processed crap in the middle. Get your produce, get your lean protein, get your dairy and whole grains, and GTFO before the 2-for-1 Keebler cookie promotion starts hollering your name. Sure, you can eat Twinkies and lose weight but really, that's just gross.

I will add here that I am also a bit of a hypocrite, which I can only justify by the fact that I'm firing on all cylinders for the majority of my day and that when I do things like make homemade Snickers bars it's because I am totally of the same caliber of athlete as Michael Phelps and therefor I really do need 5,472 calories a day.

It's not because I was with him when he smoked up and got the munchies.

Back to the point... there was one somewhere, I promise...

If you read the whole article about Dr. Corkey (who is a PhD) you'll find she is a fascinating and super intelligent woman and I would not want to say anything that would begin to question her findings. Like I said, she's the expert, I just have my opinions based on, well, me. What I love about her research is how careful she has been in conducting it to find the keys to these metabolic problems that seem to be plaguing our country. Clearly, there ARE other factors at work than just whether someone is simply eating too much. The important thing to note, I think, is that people in general just aren't admitting that they are eating too much junk.

Think of it this way: If you eat fries until you are full or eat apples until you feel full, which will have you consume more calories?

The thing I'd love to see Dr. Corkey do with her research when she reaches a point where she feels she can publish her findings is to collaborate with the health and medical communities to create a comprehensive plan to fix our obesity epidemic. I don't think it would only be focused around curing the diseases associated with obesity, per say, but curing our mental disconnect with the food we have been putting into our bodies.

If I were part of her brain trust, I'd call it the "Stop Being Stupid and Pay Attention to the Shit You Put In Your Mouth Plan."

We're a society that tells itself, "It's OK, I had a rough day. I deserve to not think about what I'm gonna eat for dinner and just order what I want." We look for the shortest path from point A to point B. We spend too much time in our cars and in front of computers. Sure, some of us may be genetically predisposed to develop metabolic diseases, but the best thing we can do is to take steps to prevent it from happening, not scramble to treat it once it rears its ugly head.

Lastly, we can not afford to discredit exercise as a very important part of the big picture. I'm not talking about being skinny. I'm not talking about getting beach-worthy 6-pack abs. I'm talking about being fit and strong. Your heart is your most important muscle; you have to give it a workout just like any other part of your body. The impact of aerobic exercise and resistance builds bone density which will help prevent osteoarthritis. Your body will, regardless of fitness or diet, begin to lose muscle mass starting at the age of 40, so it's vital to maintain a strength routine to make sure the remaining muscle fibers can pick up the slack for the ones that die.

Am I saying don't ever eat ice cream, or that you can't take a day off to lay around and blog and catch up on "Top Chef" and "Modern Family" (me)? Absolutely not.

Simply put, if we are fat because of our genes and the additives in our processed foods, then we can definitely change one of those things. Certainly, it wouldn't hurt us to pick up a pair of dumbbells while we're at it.

Now that I'm done rambling, please share your thoughts and reactions!