Wow, It’s Been A Month Since I Posted Anything

A week after my last post, my wife and I took off for Bavaria to meet a new grandchild (who is adorable, but has nothing to do with fitness). The weather was hovering at zero most of the week we were there (Celsius, since we were in Germany), but I did get in a couple of nice four mile runs, out and and back on an asphalt trail that followed the river as it left town. (This photo is from last year, when the photo doesn’t look like a black and white because there are no leaves yet)

I saw the funniest thing, during my second run, but couldn’t get phone phone out to take a picture. I saw this guy, on a motorcycle, coming slowly toward me on the path, with a dog running next to him. As he got closer, I saw he had this huge bushy beard, like an old-time sailing captain in a movie. Then he got closer, and I realized he had a large blue parrot perched on his shoulder! Remember, I’m in Germany and it’s freezing, and he’s on a motorcycle with a parrot, just sitting there. It squawked at me as he went past. And I…couldn’t…get…the…picture. Oh well.

I wondered why my times were about one minute per mile slower than I had been running, and first thought it was the the fact I been running indoors a lot. But then I looked up the elevation and saw I was at 1,450 feet and I live at 300 feet elevation! So then I got happy with my speed.

Then we came back, and while I picked back up with my training routine, I found myself swamped at work – hence no posting. I have now gotten my training pace down to 9:45 minutes/mile, and can keep that pace for about 4 miles before slowing down. I have a 5k coming up the end of April, where I want to again try and break 30:00 minutes, and then an 8k in the middle of May.

I have scaled back my two weekday runs to 30 minutes, because I am beginning to spend those extra two thirty minutes doing strength training in the Wellness Center. Everything I read says “strengthen your core to run better and safer” so I am working on this. Also working on arm and shoulder fitness, to help in swimming.

I Can’t Believe I’m Eating Yogurt

After putting on several pounds over Thanksgiving, setting my weight loss back a couple weeks, I decided I should man-up and try some of this Chobani Greek Yogurt I keep hearing about.

I bought a Plain and an Apple Cinnamon, and I have to tell you, the Plain was like eating Elmer’s glue. But I had already bought the Apple Cinnamon, so I tried it the next day. Maybe because the first attempt had set the bar so low, this one was edible – but not enough to buy it again.

But then I saw on the Chobani website that every flavor had a “likability index”. Non-fat Plain got a 291, and Apple Cinnamon got a 350. But Black Cherry got a 412, and I used to love Black Cherry Jello, so I bought one…and it is awesome! Stir all the fruit from the bottom and it is a smoothie right out of the cup. And it’s 0% fat.

So then I tried the 2% fat Pineapple (it got a 413) and to pump it up I added a Dole Pineapple Tidbits cup, and it’s great also.

Here’s the cool part – the nutrition benefits. The Black Cherry has 140 calories in a 170g cup, with no cholesterol, no fat, 70mg of sodium, 22g of carbs, 21g of sugar, 14g of protein, and 15% RDV of calcium.

To compare, a 6″ Subway turkey sandwich on Italian wheat bread (the lowest in sodium) with no cheese or condiments, has 280 calories in 221 grams, with 20g cholesterol, 810mg of sodium, 46g of carbs, 7g of sugar, 18g of protein, and 30% RDV of calcium.

Half the calories of a Subway turkey sandwich, a tenth the sodium, and a third the cost. Yup, I’m hooked.