Ides of March, Training and Detox, and the Futility of Seeking Serenity

The harsh reality about how unfit I've been rendered by this winter came to me Tuesday. Armed with my new heart monitor, I burned around the track for a five kilometer distance as a trial session for getting to know what my actual peak heart rate is when I run. I shamefully admit that after two and half years of running, I still didn't know what this was yet. I confess that I pushed it a little harder than I should have; my average rate was recorded at a terrible 169 bpm: way too high, and my pace wasn't even anywhere close to my personal best for my high pace five click running. What was even more distressing was when I exited the steam room afterward. I realized that another thing about this winter compared to the others since I lived here is that I haven't found time to make better use of the sauna, or sweat properly. When I walked out of there I was not just looking red, but almost purple as I shocked myself passing a mirror, a worse looking sort of sickly hue than when I come out of a heavily chlorine-saturated swimming pool. 

The common thing about the lungs and the skin are that each have direct contact with both the air in our environment and the body's blood supply simultaneously. It stands to reason that if my lungs are still crappy and full of toxic junk, it's quite likely that it will reflect on my skin that has been exposed to it as well, especially when it's put through even a mild degree of environmental stress, like the steam room. The dryness, plus not being able to expose the skin and open the pores and sweat freely for this especially long winter season probably doesn't do much good for any body. Neither does constantly being indoors, inhaling recirculated air, with the dust and fungal/mould spores, and whatever other viruses, germs and household product chemical residues are in it. I'm sure that the shockingly ghastly and unnatural colour of my skin after that session was a sign that I'm due for some hard core form of spring detoxification.





Some Homemade Sealer Salads for the week
 Energy/Nutrients Value per jar: Calories - 231.3
Total Fat 17.4 g, Cholesterol 0 g, Sodium 272 mg
Potassium 411.3 mg, Total Carbs 18.6 g
Dietary Fiber 7.0 g, Sugars 5.3 g
Protein 5.0 g, Daily Recommended percentage of
Vitamin A 93.2%, Vitamin C 102.3 %
Calcium 13.0 %, Iron 22.0%

I've been already taking measures for such a detox, and commiting to it for least for a couple of weeks. I've started to automate things enough in the kitchen to do the following:

• eat more raw greens/chlorophyll
• eliminate sugar and white flour/starch
• use more leaner simple proteins (fish, chicken, nuts, eggs, and beans)
• limit salt
• increase antioxidants and vitamin C (lemons, grapefruits, onions, ginger, turmeric, garlic, berries, mushrooms)
• increase dosages of vitamin D
• consume more fibre
• gobble up those multivitamins
• limit milk intake (except for cottage cheese, buttermilk/kefir, and yogurt)
• water, water, water, water . . . at least four litres per day
• stop drinking alcohol (Boooo!)

I'll try to steam/sauna everyday throughout, then I should get a massage after the first week of this, and another after the second.

Despite all the good intentions, there was nothing but a road to hell before me, no matter which I turned. I'm talking about yesterday. The ides of March weren't just bad for Caesar. I completed my circuit at the track, only to have my sports watch display crap out on me, rendering it useless: my new monitor, which I was so proud of for getting at a great discount a few days before, also rendered useless. I was beginning to fume with frustration. Walking out of the track building (into more bloody blowing snow) didn't improve my mood any either; but I tell myself to think progressively, baby steps, etc., and I drove to the Future Shop to assess the price of a replacement (not buying anything, nothing in stock, thus wasting my time). I could (should) have opted to use the exit from the parking lot that took me directly home, but I reflected a bit, upon looking at more of this goddamned snow coming, and thought to myself that it might be better instead to go the other way out to Dutch Growers greenhouses. Why this decision? Probably because the core of me was (is) so desperate to see something floral and verdant after this long, dreary, wretched season. I tell myself: "Remember, be progressive man, seek out the better, SERENITY NOW!" As I was driving away from the shopping centre, waiting for my chance to try to cautiously turn onto the road in drifting snow conditions, BAM! An idiot in a truck* rear-ends me.

My day of trying to work progressively for training better and trying to mentally endure ten more new centimeters of this oncoming white hell only resulted in a damaged watch, a wrecked car, and few other unwelcome scenes and issues waiting for me when I arrived home. I should have just stayed in bed. I chose to say "Screw it!" to the detox for rest of the day, and drank wine and feasted on bread and sugary sweet baklava at a function later that evening.

Yesterday for me was only proof that the road to hell is paved with the best intentions. Perhaps I should be observant of the fact that today, according to Mental Floss, is World Sleep Day. A day to stay home, draw the curtains, shut down and go into some kind of coma, and stop the rest of the world from biting at my ass.

*- A stupid big-ass Dodge half-ton. I hate these friggin' trucks, and the most of the typical dimwitted and foolish personity types and demeanor of the young men around this neighbourhood who drive them.