The Food Conundrum

Today has been an interesting day.  For no real reason in particular.

It started with a 10 mile rain-soaked practice with Team in Training.  My 6:30 am Saturday alarm got me up and headed out to Lincoln Park in West Seattle, carpooling with Jason and Erica, in an utter downpour.  Hopes of West Seattle looking less rainy than Seattle were squashed as soon as we crossed the bridge.  While the rains let up a little during the first half of the run, by the second half the rain was back to a pour, with bouts of wind thrown in.  The sideways rain that pelted our faces on streets where we were closer to the water's edge were especially enjoyable.

Despite this, Erica and I managed to average a 9 min pace over the course of the dreary 10 miles, with a few stops included.  I think this is a great pace for us on our long runs, although I can imagine the voices of a few coaches telling me that this is probably too fast.  Nonetheless, I was happy with it.

After practice, we dragged our soaked bodies to one of our coach's West Seattle abode to eat some delicious breakfast and listen to Nutrition Clinic Part 2.  Nutrition Clinic Part 1 took place last weekend, and let's just say that it didn't exactly hold up to what we were expecting from the presenter.  So we gave it a re-do with our own coaches today, and it went much better.  It got me thinking even more about my food intake choices lately.  This week, I've been thinking a lot about my food choices--but we'll come back to that.

After breakfast, I came home to an empty apartment.  Well, not exactly empty.  Of course, this lovely lady was still here:

Cute as ever.

But my brother was gone.  He headed to the airport while I was at practice, after a month here working and sleeping on my couch.  Lucy and I are both feeling a sad absence right now, but I could write an entire other post about that.  Perhaps I will soon.

So instead of feeling sad about my little bro leaving, I cleaned the apartment, did some laundry, and was generally productive in the home department.  I walked Lucy and then headed out to hit the neighborhood streets and collect some gift certificates to raffle off at my upcoming fundraiser.  I was pretty successful in begging local businesses for donations and have a great start on collecting goodies.

**SHAMELESS PLUG: Seattle readers, come to my Seattle Sports Trivia Night at the Ballard Station Public House on November 14 @ 6:30!!  $20 gets you a beer, 2 raffle tickets, and entry into trivia.  More raffle tickets can be bought in addition to that!  Come and have some fun!!

Then I went to the grocery store.  And herein lies the problem.

Food has been really confusing for me lately.  I used to love cooking.  Second to running, cooking a good meal at the end of the day was the thing I looked forward to most.  I find cooking to be relaxing, satisfying, and all-in-all a pleasurable experience.  

But lately, cooking hasn't been on the list of things I love.  As my precious "free" time seems to become occupied more and more by other things (like running, captaining my running team, fundraising, work, etc.), cooking has been pushed to the back of my agenda.

I've been stuck in a rut with my meals lately.  A peanut butter and soy sauce rut.  I love my peanut soy sauce spicy noodle stir fry, but I've been making it 3-4 times a week lately.  Because it's easy and good.  

I'm not exactly sure how I've dug myself into this rut.  I used to make it a point to not cook the same meal twice in one week.  But that has changed drastically.  And lately, I've been questioning my food choices.  Not because they are unhealthy, but for other reasons.

My latest audio book that has been accompanying me on morning walks with Lucy is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  I've always loved Barbara's fiction, and this is the first nonfiction of hers I've read.  It is an account of Barbara's family's journey through a year of sustainable eating.  They decided to make it a project of theirs, after moving onto a farm in the Appalachian region of Virginia, to eat only foods that are grown locally or on their farm.  This means no shipped-in, out of season fruits and vegetables.  And so far throughout the book, Barbara Kingsolver and her family members (her daughter and husband contribute chapters to the book as well) tout the importance of buying foods in season to reduce the environmental and monetary cost of shipping things across state and country borders just so we can, for instance, have tomatoes in our grocery stores in February.

And then combine all of this with today's Nutrition Clinic about how to properly eat pre-, during, and post- long run marathon training.  Talk about taking in enough electrolytes, carbs, and protein, preferably through whole foods, suddenly has my brain spinning.

How do I get the nutritional aspects I need while buying foods only seasonally?  When fresh fruits are one of the best things a runner can eat regularly, what am I supposed to do through the winter, when seasonal, locally grown food consists of tough greens and tubers?

And so, at around 6:00 this evening, I found myself in the grocery store after a day of productivity, trying to figure out what to buy in order to accomplish 3 goals:

1)  Expand my too-narrow eating preferences of late

2)  Buy fresh foods that will provide my body with what it needs for marathon training

3)  Buy in-season fruits and vegetables

Suddenly my brain felt like it was going to explode.  The more I learn about eating healthy and earth-consciously, the more I realize that there is so much more to learn.  I shouldn't be surprised by this.  I generally consider it to be a rule of thumb that the more I learn, the more I want (or feel I need) to learn.  Why wouldn't this rule apply to health-conscious, earth-conscious eating?

So in a confused fog in the produce section of Fred Meyer, here is what I ended up with:

An odd mix of "healthy" and "in season" deliciousness.

Honeycrisp apples, locally grown and in season.  Some Carnival and Delicata squash (I couldn't get enough of either of these last year).  Green, out of season, mentally-and-nutritionally-necessary-for-running bananas.  A random tomato.  Some shallots, white onion, and red onion.  Are these in season?  I don't know.  And some garlic and ginger because my food must have flavor.  Not pictured are brussels sprouts, red leaf lettuce, broccoli, and green onion.

And this:

A persimmon.

Seriously? A persimmon?? I have no idea what possessed me to buy this thing.  I have no idea what to do with it.  It is staring at me in my kitchen.  I don't even know where to put it.  In the fridge?  In the bowl with the rest of the on-the-counter fresh foods?  And then, what on earth do I do with it?  I typed "persimmon recipes" into google and a plethora of cookie, cake, and sweet recipes came up.  So apparently this thing is a fruit.  That requires baking.  One aspect of cooking which I don't do.

I foresee that this awkward, cloudy-headed ridiculous grocery store buy will stare at me hauntingly for the next week or two until I finally admit to myself that I went in way over my head and toss it in the compost bin.

This food situation has me turning circles in my brain and I can't quite level out.  I successfully made myself a meal this evening that included lots of good veggies, some of which are in season.

Salad with chopped baby carrots, red onion, tomato, slivered almonds and
balsamic dressing.  Roasted acorn squash with butter and brown sugar.
Sauteed brussels sprouts with garlic, shallots, and parmesan.

How do I feel about this meal?  It tasted delicious.  It did not include soy sauce or peanut butter.  It included some in season veggies.  It is healthy.  And balanced...I think?

I'm still confused though.  With not many resources to turn to.

So now I am spending the rest of my super-exciting Saturday evening happily boycotting Halloween (because I was reluctant to put together a Halloween costume, venture out into the rain, and was looking forward to my first night in my apartment sans couch inhabitant).

Everyone I know is out having fun dressed in varying degrees of fun costumes.

Even Lucy was creative enough to come up with a couch-
towel-inspired costume.  You may interpret as you wish.
I did.

But I am here, happily blogging away about my not-so-important food conundrum.  And as with most things in my life, I am totally OK with that.

I'm curious, does anyone have the same neurotic food conundrum as me?  Or maybe your own?  How do you remedy the contradictions?  Let's comment!