Lemme Work It: 10/12/09

When I was in college, I had my heart broken and it led to the most epic downward spiral I could have imagined. We joke about it now, but really, I was not OK. Julia would come home and find me in our room, in the dark, usually crying, and making my way through a season of “Grey’s.” Then the weekend would roll around, and I’d decide I needed to go have fun, so I’d go out drinking; then the next day you could find me in my room, in the dark, hungover, and surrounded by some form of 7-11 cuisine, plus a few empty takeout boxes. It was a great semester. But then the next semester, I dealt by really not eating anything at all. Not good either!

Needless to say, this is why my friends keep a careful watch over me if there is any boy drama in my life.

While I may have done 10 miles on Tuesday, for today’s run, I had to dig deep. Sometimes you want to run, and, well, sometimes you want to sit in bed, feeling sorry for yourself, eating Stacy’s Pita Chips and Sabra hummus.

I don’t know what started the Stacy’s craving today. I think it’s because they are on sale at the grocery store and I keep seeing them. They are just so good! And carby and salty…yeah, there could be some happiness at the bottom of that bag. A bottle of red could go well with it too…

But…I don’t want to get back into my “Grey’s period” so I was resisting! Seriously resisting! I mean, I was resisting everything that didn’t involve a stack of magazines. I didn’t want to run or shower or eat or not eat. (OK, I kind of really wanted to eat the pita chips.) So I decided that I’d do my run and on the way home I could stop and get the pita chips and some red wine. I never cheat, and, well, red wine and pita chips is what some people have for dinner every night, so it couldn’t really kill me, right!?

[This is the argument I made to my friend Lauren. She wrote back, "I'm putting my foot down.  There is absolutely no reason to drink a 'bottle of red'...you can have 2 glasses of red, maximum.  May I remind you that alcohol is a depressant?  And what size bag of pita chips are we talking about here?  I'm just trying to keep you on track".]

Fine. I agreed to the wine limit. I didn’t plan to drink the whole bottle; I just planned to drink as much as I needed to not feel sober. And I said that I was getting the normal size bag of pita chips. Not the size anyone should eat in one sitting, admittedly, but not like the Costco-style family bag either!

So, despite the awful weather in NYC right now — definitely not helping my mood — I managed to complete three miles. Fine. Done. I felt a little better, mostly from the fresh air. Then I headed to the grocery store. And as luck would have it, Stacy’s Pita Chips come in a snack size bag! At 200 calories, I felt pretty good about this. The store didn’t have wine, but I had a craving for something…juice! I never drink juice, but running, especially in cold weather, makes me crave it. And then, despite the carrot cake, cookies, and cupcakes, I just got one square of dark chocolate. Just in case I needed it later.

So I had half the juice, the chips, some hummus, and that was all. After a three-mile run. NBD. I have to say, I’ve come a long way — this is one of the most “in moderation” things I’ve ever done. And despite the fact that Aaron has several seasons of “Grey’s” on DVD, I’ve totally managed to resist them all!

Tagged as: boys, Food, healthy snacks, running