I’m So Tired…
Gluten is a favorite target lately, at one time it was coffee, then it was MSG, then we couldn’t microwave or freeze food in plastic containers because doing so would transfer something into the food that isn’t even found in the plastic in the first place. A while ago whole wheat was the answer to flour, now I guess it’s bad again. Not too long ago, juice made from a rare fruit was the answer to eliminating free-radicals because that juice contained the highest amount of free-radical eliminating antioxidants – more than any other food! Unfortunately they worked their way around coffee in the way they wrote out their language on the bottle because coffee contains 10 times the antioxidants at 1/30th the cost per serving. Vegetarians are still trying to convince us that not only is meat bad for human consumption, but that we actually were not designed to eat meat in the first place – an idea so profoundly ludicrous one struggles to beat back the dumb with something other than “oh shut up, and keep your hands off of my meat”.
First there was saccharin, that was bad, then it wasn’t. Then it was sugar! Then, shock of shocks, it wasn’t so bad after all… Now it’s heart poison or something. Butter, it was good, now it’s not, now it is, now it isn’t, now it is again.
Let’s look at the reality behind organic food, just for a hot minute, without the hype… Or better yet, milk! Now there’s a fun topic right there! First milk was good – hell it’s even veggie (but not vegan) somehow – then it was bad, then it was good, then it was bad unless it was cut with 50% water and called “Fat Free” (and still the same damned price), then the vitamin D milk was good again, now I think it’s bad once again but 2% is OK… In between, Soy Milk took off. Now it’s really, really bad, but Almond Milk is OK. Also whole, unpasteurized milk is all the rage and people are pissed that the government is shutting down the market… C’mon folks, the reason they pasteurize it in the first place is to kill bacteria! You think pink slime in your ground beef is bad, one false move with that milk, say it sits one day too long, and you’ve got some bacterial infection that only a smorgasbord of penicillin will fix! Then you’ll be griping that the government didn’t do enough to keep those evil milk sellers from selling their evil milk in the first place!
Peanut Oil is bad, that much we know – or maybe it isn’t now, but we know that vegetable oil is definitely bad, or was that good? But we know for sure that Olive Oil is good, as long as you don’t actually cook with it (which is it’s only f@cking use anyway) in which case it causes cancer or something – instead we should use Coconut Oil, because we know for sure (at least today we do) that it’s really, really good.
White bread was the best thing since whit…er, uh… Sliced white bread used to be the cat’s meow, then it was paste in your gut, now it’s really not so bad again as far as I heard – so what the hell is it?
I’m so tired of being told that anything I do, including breathing for God’s sake, will kill me, give me cancer, or both…
Of course, I’ve gotta wonder, why put faith in the study in the first place? Whatever they come up with, they’ll reverse it in two years anyway.
Some Fantastic Weather We’re Having
I went out for my daily ride yesterday and it was eventful for several reasons… First of all, we’re just getting into an excellent weather pattern here in Michigan. The temp was around 72 and sunny yesterday, today is supposed to be a little cooler at 65 with a chance of some drizzle, but after today it’s supposed to be fair to slightly awesome – temps in the 70’s and sunny as far as the eye can see. Since that very early spring we had in March, where temps were in the 80’s, it’s been rather hit and miss since and it was starting to get a little old. It was nice to get out in shorts and jersey only.
Second, since I started in with the longer rides – 35.5 at least once a week, 38 miles every other Tuesday, the 63 I did last a couple of weeks ago as examples – I decided that my normal 16 mile route is just a little too short for everyday rides now (just last fall, 13.5 was my normal ride and my longest were in the 26 mile neighborhood). I’ll still keep that route handy for short days where I’ve gotta squeeze in a sub 50 minute ride, but I decided to broaden my horizons just a little bit… I picked out a new handy-dandy 25 mile route. While there’s a lot less traffic on the route, it is faster moving traffic (55 mph as opposed to 45) but I’ve only got one left turn on the whole ride and it actually cuts my stop light encounters in half… Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how I want to look at that), the longest straightaway stretch heads due west – six miles directly into the prevailing wind followed by another five into a cross/head wind. Yesterday’s wind was pretty rough and I actually contemplated running the route in reverse – even with all of the left turns – but in the end I decided against that, figuring I’d get a better workout trying to keep my speed up into the wind. I wasn’t disappointed, and I still managed a 19 mph average overall.
The fun part of the ride started right at the 18 mile mark when I turned heading east. With a decent tailwind, I was able to keep up with traffic in the 30 mph zone through downtown Swartz Creek and actually passed a couple of cars. While it’s obviously quite dangerous and I have to watch my surroundings closely, nothing quite puts a smile on my face like passing a car while I’m in the bike lane.
I hit the main three zones on the ride last night and ended up having a blast – even if that 11 mile stretch was a little rough.
The Cinnamon Challenge… Really?
Approaching “old fart” status has it’s challenges. I can remember the first fad that I passed on – the “I need a belt baggy jeans” fad. I can remember thinking, the first time I saw a kid who’d decided it would be a good idea to pull this stupid fad off – without the much needed boxers underneath – at the local mall… There he was, lilly white butt with his jeans riding half way down his ass, walking around like he was the coolest thing since John Travolta in a white suit and black shirt, looking about as foolish as you possibly can in public… My wife and I laughed about that occasion for more than a year, on and off. I also saw another kid at work, attempt to run up a flight of metal stairs to the break room in said baggy jeans – sans belt of course – only to have his baggy jeans fall down to his ankles on the fifth stair, causing him to trip and smash the bridge of his nose on the raised grate of the metal stair tread. It was bloody and one of the funniest things I’d ever seen at the same time.
That notwithstanding, there are a few things that are stupid and very dangerous at the same time, but are just too damn funny to avert my eyes… One would be the cinnamon challenge. Before I get into explaining said challenge, it must be noted that it is very dangerous. A girl who attempted it accidentally breathed in during the attempt and got cinnamon in her lung, which caused an infection and collapsed it… So don’t freaking try this at home, because it’s stupid – on the other hand, all of the people shown in the video survived unscathed, so feel free to laugh hysterically.
The challenge is: Take a tablespoon of cinnamon and eat it, water is cheating. From what I understand, it’s near impossible… It is funny though:
Fit Recovery 