Oh what a weekend

I had a great weekend.

It was kicked off on Friday with our Family Night/Open House at school.  Over half of my students showed up with their families, which is a huge success in my school.  It was great to meet their parents and learn a little about their lives outside of school.  I even had a few parents and students from past years pop in to say hi.  Overall, a great night.

Saturday, we had our second TNT practice for Winter Season.  We listened to Coach Shelby at Run26 give advice on how to choose the best shoes and gear.

I've heard Shelby's spiel 3 times now, but still learn something new every
time.  He knows his stuff.

After practice, I rushed out to meet some friends and head south to the Puyallap Fair ("the largest single attraction held annually in Washington State").  I'd never been, and my students talk about it every year, so it was nice to finally be there to get a visual of all their excitement.  And the scones are DELICIOUS.  And so are the fried onion blossoms.  And the piroshkies are kind of OK.  And by the time we left, my belly felt like it was exploding with friedness and butter.

So it felt great to wake up Sunday morning and do this:

7.63 wonderful, hilly miles, with an average 9:09 pace.

I ran the first 3.5 miles with Lucy (who got left alone at home the day before while I ate my way through the fair).  Then I dropped her off and finished the rest on my own.  I aimed for hills, which aren't hard to find in Seattle, and I definitely didn't fail to find them.  I felt great at the end, came home and quickly got ready to go watch the Seahawks with some friends.

Love these ladies and don't see them often enough!  Disturbed-looking, hands
covering mouth man in the background is associated with us as well.

At the bar, I consumed a couple Bloody Marys and a few different kinds of beers, which spanned about 8 hours (we all decided to stay to pretend to watch the primetime game, but really just to hang out longer).  I ate a delicious garden burger slathered in cheese with jalapenos and pickles, and a large portion of tater tots for my post-run lunch.  On the way home around 8 pm, I stopped at my favorite Thai restaurant to get some Panang tofu curry with jasmine rice, then came home and ate the entirety of the large portion.

All in all, a great weekend full of horrible eating.  So today, when I headed to the grocery store after work (because I "watched football" instead of going yesterday), I fully intended to buy overly healthy foods.

The problem is, I absolutely hate grocery shopping.  I hate that I have to go once a week even though I don't want to.  I hate that it takes up so much time.  I hate that I can walk in knowing exactly what I need, but it still takes a half hour to get through all the aisles and gather it.  I hate waiting in line because the person in front of me doesn't believe the cash register when it names the price of an item.

I wish I could say "poof" and have all of my food necessities restock in my kitchen each week.  And yes, I know all about things like FreshDirect and Amazon Fresh, but from the experiences I had with FreshDirect in NYC, it really wasn't so fresh.  I'd also love to be able to join a CSA and have a box of yummy fruits and vegetables delivered every week, but I live by myself.  It would be impossible to eat all of the deliciousness before it started going bad.  A long time ago I had a hope that CSAs would catch on and start making boxes for us single-dwellers, but I've since given up that hope.

But really, the reason I absolutely despise grocery shopping is because I am tired of having to make the choice between healthy foods and inexpensive foods.  I want to buy Annie's Naturals and Amy's Organics, and all the other A-named healthy food products.  But when I look at my bank account, I just can't do it as often as I'd like.

I've made sacrifices to eat the way I do.  I switched from my steadfast and wonderful JIF peanut butter to Adam's All Natural (one A name that is actually reasonably priced).  I've basically quit eating any kind of meat at home.  I buy only fresh vegetables (nothing frozen or canned).  It's been years since I bought a box of pasta that wasn't 100% whole grain, or a box of rice that wasn't brown.

But what I really want to buy is organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables.  I want to buy the organic frozen lunches instead of my SmartOnes and Healthy Choices (sorry, I just don't have time to make lunch).  I want to get the organic milk and the cage-free eggs.  I want to buy the less processed oils, the Mirin that doesn't have high-fructose corn syrup in it.  I want to buy locally produced products, like Tilamook cheese.

I want to buy the wine that tastes good and the local micro-brews.  No wait, that still wouldn't be any healthier...but I still want it.

In general, I want the healthiest food to be the cheapest choice.  People wonder why our country is so obese, but all you have to do is walk in the grocery store to see.  The cheapest things on the shelf are the worst things for you.

But I'm not here to rant and rave about the condition of the food industry in our country.  I know things are getting better.  The price disparity between organic and non-organic produce is no where near as huge as it used to be.  But we still have a long way to go before the healthy food is affordable for everyone.  Including me.

So until then, I'll continue trying to eat healthy (aside from weekends that include fair food and Seahawks Sundays of course), knowing that I'm still putting chemicals in my body that I don't really want to be there.  I'm going to do the best I can, which in reality is all I can do.

But that doesn't mean I won't keep complaining about it (mainly to myself) until the ideal world finally exists.  I just might be silently complaining for a long time to come.

And then I'll come home, and see this and forget about it all anyways.

Curled up puppies make everything better.

How do you manage eating on a budget and keeping it healthy?  Where's the balance?

I won't ask you to give me money for healthy food, but I will ask you to donate to a really great cause: my TNT fundraising website.