Am I getting in shape, or killing myself slowly one day at a time?

July 23, 2003

I went out to lunch today with my Mom and my sister to a local McMenamin’s (they’re all over, you see), and I had an interesting beer. I started off with a pint of Hammerhead (same stuff I had on Sunday with my Dad), but then I saw that they have a whole lot of other fresh-brewed beers, as well. I tried a “London Brown” ale, thinking that it would be like my revered Newcastle Brown ale–some of, if not the best ale in the world, by the way–pbut it turned out to have the color of Guinness. It wasn’t as thick as Guinness, but it sure had the same color and smell. Bah. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was good nonetheless.

My friend Heather was supposed to be here today, but she decided to stay an extra day down in San Francisco to see a little more of the city. I was going to make reservations for the two of us to go out to dinner at a place she likes around here, so I’m glad I didn’t since she won’t be here until tomorrow afternoon. I asked my friend Michiko if she wanted to have dinner with Heather and me when she will be up in Portland with her boyfriend Thursday night, so maybe I can kill two birds with one stone and go out with Michiko and Joe AND go to the place that Heather likes. Plus Heather said she’ll probably be pretty tired from driving, so dinner right after that would be tough. I’ve had days like that. Gee, when was that? It seems like it was pretty recently, but I can’t be for certain. My Dad and I had our first real “Remember when?” conversations on Sunday when we were out at lunch about our trip, and it was fun going back over some of the stuff we did. They day we drove from Wall, South Dakota to Billings, Montana still stands out as a day of driving hell, though it did end well with that great dinner and nice hotel in Billings.

I am looking forward to Heather being here, though. She always requests a dinner of beef cubelets and corn (plus onion rings that I love, but she’s not as big a fan), so that means that sometime while she’s here we get to do a “double-dip” night as my Dad likes to phrase it. A night of dipping a lot of food into hot oil. Not exactly a healthy meal, but it gets done maybe twice a year. I think that’s acceptable. If I go out to dinner with Heather and Michiko, I’ll probably have a steak, so this may be a weekend of beef for me. That’s OK. I’m almost off my rotation of exercise/not exercise, and it seems to me that the days I don’t exercise and even eat stuff high in fat, I still trim down. I’m no expert at muscle building, but it seems to me that the body does need some fat, and I tend not to eat a lot during the week when I exercise. Maybe I’ll do an experiment this weekend and eat a LOT of fat and see how much I trim down after that. Or…not. Beef cubelets are yummy, and my physique can afford them twice a year, even if onion rings come with them.

Speaking of physique, I’m surprised at how quickly my body is changing since I took up jogging, even for fairly short distances (a mile and a half is nothing to sneeze at, but it sure isn’t marathon material). Different parts of my body keep hurting, though, even if I duplicate my workout. My sister said it’s not the workout that matters, just how your body reacts to it. I guess that would explain when my calves hurt today but not yesterday, even though I did the exact same route and at nearly the same time, as if that had anything to do with it. Before that, my knee would hurt, but that hasn’t happened in awhile. I’ll say one thing: exercising in the evening sure makes for nice sleep. If I exert myself and shower before I go to bed, I’ve found that I sleep a little better. Well, that’s been the case since I started doing this, at least. One other thing, though: I sure don’t want to do anything for the rest of the night. Not that I do anyway, but you know what I mean.

Well OK, I guess that’s it for now. Night all.

Posted in Beer, General