01/18/2012 Paleo Challenge Day 12

Rediscovering Taste

So apparently most of my adult life I’ve been using food to deliver sugary sauces into my mouth, drink coffee to taste dairy and more sugary flavors, and consume vegetables only for the sake of consuming sugary salad dressings. 

I’m finding that there are flavors beside sweet, and intensely salty, in-between their is a spectrum where apparently a whole array of flavors exist. 

I used to get coffee wherever it was convenient, so going to Dunkin Donuts to get an ice coffee was no big deal.  The photo below is my reaction to drinking Dunkin Donuts ice coffee black.

 
It tastes like shit, in fact the only thing it tastes like is a Korean Herbal medicine called “Han-Yak”, which is essential some amalgamation of roots, dirt, deer horns, and other random shit only found in a witches brew.  Clearly Dunkin Donuts makes their coffee for the purpose of delivering Sugar.

I’m also finding that meat tastes differently, I can actually differentiate between chicken, pork, and lamb.  Now that it’s not drowned in a particular sauce to muddle the flavors, and also because I’m choosing to buy higher quality meats those that are pasture raised, after reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma I made a vow to only buy Organic or pasture raised meats, but got lazy towards the end of last year, but I am now recommitted to eating the good stuff.

If you have the time and are interested hear one of his talks here…

I highly recommend reading his book.

In the end the challenge has been great because I am rediscovering the taste of food, I just hope afterwards I don’t go back to my old ways of drowning my food in sauce. 

Tipping and the Fucking Newspaper Man

I’ve never seen or ever met my Washignton Post Delivery man, but I did get a nice card from him right before Christmas.  It was a generic card that said “Merry Christmas” signed "Muhammad", with a self addressed envelope inside, and no stamp.

The message by itself with printed name of Muhammad as the signer was funny enough, but then I went into this internal dialogue was I impressed by this or miffed by it.  On the one hand I think way to go guy, "get your tips", on the other hand I’m thinking fuck you ass, what have you done so extraordinary that I should give you a tip?

I didn’t give it much thought afterwards, and I left the card on my countertop until after New Year’s at which point I threw it away.  As a result starting a week ago this guy has started to passively aggressively show me his displeasure in my non-tipping.  He keeps placing the newspaper just beyond the front door, so I have to get fully dressed to grab the newspaper.  See the photo below:

So rule of thumb, apparently you’re supposed to tip the newspaper guy.  Fuck me another person to tip.

WoD

This morning during the WoD I felt pretty fucking awesome.  My energy level was high, I felt strong and powerful, it’s a sensation I haven’t had in years, perhaps never truly experience because this time it wasn’t fueled by sugar and caffeine.  I had a natural source of raw power.

 It felt good, I was lighter on my feet, and was ready to push the weight with my jerks.  The work was to do 5 sets of 2. 

I was able to do all the work above my previous weights, 165 lbs twice, 175 lbs twice, and 185 lbs on the last set which is a personal record for me.  Here is video from the first 175 lbs jerks, and the final set at 185 lbs.

The Metcon today was something different; all the movements were things that we don’t normally do, so it was a nice change.  A 10 minute AMRAP of 10 ground to overheads with a 45 lbs plate, 1 farmers carry of 100’ holding a 53 lbs kettle bell in one hand, and holding a 45 lbs plate in the other using a pinch, and then jumping over a 24” box.  I couldn’t get past the mental block of jumping over the box so I stack a bunch of plates to just over 20”. 

I didn’t record this Metcon because it was chaotic; I ended up doing 5 rounds plus 10.5 reps. 

Meals

You can read about my meals here…