How to basically survive Thanksgiving

After years of being vegan, then vegetarian, then eating meat in an effort to balance my health and stomach issues, then going back to vegetarian and working again towards veganism (whew, that's exhausting, isn't it?), Thanksgiving is basically the worst. It stands for the positive remembrance of a systemic genocide that began with an act of goodwill on the part of those sonata slaughtered. It is celebrated with the slaughter of animals that would be a genocide if they weren't bred specifically to be tortured and killed for this holiday. We give thanks for all we have, hopefully, and yet waste so much on food and poor nutrition and sleep it off, avoiding awkward conversations with relatives.

Americans eat an average of 4,000 calories in one sitting, then make a vague Facebook post thanking their family for supporting them through this or that, before passing out in front of the parade or football game on TV. There have been a number of articles this year on how to curb that calorie count, so I won't get into them here (you can find some helpful tips here or here, though). But I will tell you how I survive the holidays.

First, I try to not think so hard about what the holiday stands for, and instead truly, honestly reflect on how thankful I am for all I have in life. I am so fortunate. In addition to the things beyond anyone's control such as race, nationality, able-bodied status, and other things that put my at a general advantage in the world, I am loved, and have the ability to love. And it's all mutual! That's the best part about it. The people who I love are the same as those who love me. I'm also sheltered in a home I don't fear losing, and it's warm (right now the dog is laying by the heater sucking up all its warmth, so it's not at warm as it could be). I'm also on track to do what I want in my life, with my time and my energy, and that is such a truly rare and wonderful thing. I have an imagination and despite the beginning of this blog post, a hearty dose of optimism flowing through my veins. I'm thankful to have so many places ready to serve me food today.

But that food. This is where the trouble starts for many people. They want to have one of everything, to be polite, then go back for seconds of what they enjoyed because hey, it's Thanksgiving, why not indulge a little? A few hours go by, some drinks are slung back, and that stretched out stomach has had a chance to burn off just a bit of that food, just enough to give the feeling that more can— nay, should— be consumed. So turkey is picked at while the pies are brought out, and the whipped cream is dolloped on, and maybe ice cream. People pass out at 7 p.m. or sooner, then wake up at 11 and make a small plate of leftovers, feeling justified since they'd only really had one meal that day. But that one meal was over twice the caloric amount of an entire normal day.

Quick tips:

• Make the focus truly on mindfulness and giving thanks. Focus on all the love you feel around you, and if you're celebrating alone and indulge out of a feeling of loss, focus on your love of self and the other things in your life that are positive, or that you hope to make positive. Spread that love into the world.

• Make a plate the size you ordinarily would. Don't gorge yourself needlessly. But if you make a plate that looks on the light side, mentally you'll have an easier time justifying seconds, thirds, and fourths.

• Only eat the things you actually want and enjoy. If you don't really like mashed potatoes, you don't have to eat them just because Aunt May made a big bowl. 

• Start with the vegetables and fibrous foods and work around from there. They are more nutritious and filling than what else may be on the table, so you'll be less inclined to eat extra stuffing.

• Bring a healthy dish. If you can't be sure there will be anything healthy at your Thanksgiving meal, if you know your family is the type to completely drown everything in butter, salt, and sugar, then bring a dish you know you'll enjoy eating and that has a high nutrition value. No one else likes your roasted quinoa pilaf stuffed squash? More for you, and that means less pressure to eat poorly. Even better, some of your relatives may actually enjoy that dish, and you could start a new tradition of having healthier foods at your holiday meals.

• Get moving. Tag, touch football, ultimate frisbee, or an active video game will get the blood flowing while still bonding with family. If that isn't an option, go for a walk. I take my dog with me to my mother-in-law's house. They love each other and he's part of the family, but an added bonus is that when I start to feel stuffed and lethargic, I can take my pooch for a quick walk around the block. It gives us an opportunity to get some exercise and fresh air, plus he can relieve himself of his doggly duties.

• Be selective. If there are a bunch of desserts spread about, choose one or two to sample. Make some rules for yourself if that's helpful, such as only eating home made desserts, or only eating holiday specific desserts. Going in with a plan ahead of time will make it easier once you see the dessert table and your sweet tooth starts salivating.

• Don't take the day too seriously. It is, after all, just one day. While you'll thank yourself later for being mindful of how you treat your body, one day of indulgence isn't going to make you unhealthy, just as one day of exercise and calorie counting isn't going to make you healthy. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope you truly have a wonderful holiday.

Icecapades

Well, the last race of the season was yesterday. Soon we'll be back to reports of my running up stairs and complaining about the cold, and maybe some more boxing or P90X (...we'll see...), but let me just tell you about this one last race first, m'kay?

In classic Pittsburgh style, it couldn't decide whether it was a warm day or a cold day, so it did what any decent weather pattern would do, and gave us the worst of both. Freezing rain, ladies and gentlemen. At 32 degrees, it was the warmest day we'd had in about a week and a half. The course was frozen in unexpected ways for me, being only my second muddy race and my first totally frozen race. The grass, as usual, was as close to velcro as one could find on that course, but it was still slick with the dew that was slowly melting under our tires and the frozen mud we tore up as we skirted around bends.

There were two technical sections of the course, both of which caught me by surprise and one of which caught me by the skin of my knee. There was a felled tree right before a steep run-up. Ordinarily, the slightly more skilled riders could have easily ridden over this tree and maneuvered the sharp right turn to ride up the hill, but the dirt in front of the tree was rutted and frozen, the tree itself was covered in a slick glaze of ice, the dirt that would have been the sharp right turn was an icy sheet covered in a thin layer of deceiving dust, and finally the run-up was slick, frozen mud that denied any cleats from digging in for a firm grip. I saw skilled rider after skilled rider race in front of me, only to get taken down by that sorry piece of dead wood. The very skilled managed to ride halfway up the dirt slope. But if anyone managed to ride it successfully, I wasn't around to see it (and therefore it didn't really happen. I didn't hear that tree fall, by the way, so I think JR just placed it there when he made the course.).

The second technical part of the course was a series of tight switchbacks on pavement. As the rain came down, it made an increasingly slick surface on the pavement. People were falling all over the place. Along my personal journey, I passed riders peeling themselves off the pavement, looking baffled at how this typically trustworthy surface could prove so two-faced and hurtful, or using a chainlink fence to stumble up from the grass, unsure how they managed to get so far off course. In particular, by the pool, we were herded in and out of a gate system. As the race continued, the weather seemed to warm up and the rain let up a bit. It felt in the clear, which is always a bad sign, I now realize. I tried to sprint a bit harder on the straightaways, dig a bit deeper in the grass, and by that dreaded pool entrance, I was cautiously optimistic as I took turn number three. It was my last lap and I had nothing to lose.

Sure as I knew it, I, too, was peeling my own sorry self off the pavement while the single speeder were lapping me for the eighth time, this time instead of cutting me off at a steep and muddy descent that fed onto more pavement and a steep ascent (idiots), they were asking if I was okay (thanks, fellas). I was, but my bike wasn't, and I rode awkwardly the rest of the lap as Mary Boone, whom I'd managed to keep behind me since she was flung like a star across the parking lot earlier in the race when she slipped on some icy grass, passed me and kept me in her metaphorical tail lights.

I didn't win the race, but I tied for fifth in the series with my Scurvy Dogs Racing teammate, Kitaira. I left before the podium, but she was nice enough to hold up a shirt in my honor.

That night, I wore the lowest cut dress anyone has ever owned and went to my friends' beautiful wedding. I drank, I stuffed my face with cookies and salad (I'm a complicated woman), and sure, I was celebrating the brilliant love of two amazing people who were destined for each other, but also, secretly, for my first full race season, my first bike race crash, and surviving my first ice slip of the season with no more than a scabbed knee and a swollen leg.

Today, of course, is 67 degrees.

Roadside Attractions (to be or not to be)

I drove to Washington, D.C., yesterday for the Women & Biking Social Event, sponsored by Rose Physical Therapy and headlined by Molly Hurford and Peter Glassford. I'll get to the event (which was awesome) in a moment, but a big problem so many people have with road trips is maintaining nutrition. I both passed and failed at this, in the way life is a series of grey areas, and maybe talking it out will help us all learn together what can be done differently. Truth be told, I did know what I was doing wrong as I was doing it - the lesson is in listening to that voice that say, "you can just walk away now and no one will know you were here."

So I left the house around 7:30 and the drive was beautiful. Before I left, I uploaded some new music onto my phone, made a bunch of coffee, concocted a quick shake, and threw a few sports bars in my bag, knowing nutrition would be an issue for the long day of driving and seminars.

The good news is that I didn't need to stop at Starbucks or pick up some crappy and chemical breakfast food on the go. I also stopped halfway through to grab some fresh air, relax my eyes (and bladder), and do some quick calisthenics. Sitting in a car for that long - sitting anywhere, especially at a slant - really upsets my tailbone and getting up and moving can relieve some of that pressure from my spine and make my muscles relax. I'm starting to figure out that when my tailbone hurts, especially now that I'm also coordinating with an injured shoulder, and the weather is colder, it affect other parts of my body, including the middle of my back. When the muscles in the middle of my back are tightened, they pull at my spine and make the stenosis painful, and it's easy for my to feel the debilitating pinched nerve I so fear. I should have done more, stopped more often, but I was nervous about potential traffic in DC and didn't want to try my good luck. I stretched out some muscles and got the blood flowing on the side of the highway, and that's at least a good start.

A couple moves I like to do that aren't too distracting to other travelers: cross-legged jumping jacks (with or without arms, depending on how my shoulder is feeling), one-legged squats, and jump lunges. These can all be done next to the car without having to touch the ground, which can be covered in broken glass or other unpleasantries, and don't attract too much attention. On longer trips, I've also carried a kettle bell.

We had a lunch scheduled, and I had timed my shake and half bar so I'd get hungry right at 1, so that I wouldn't be snacking on unhealthy bits or too ravenous at lunch. This kind or worked out, as I was hungry right around 1 p.m., but lunch was significantly (from my stomach's perception of time) delayed, and I started to get hangry. Luckily, I still had the other half of the bar left in my bag and no heads rolled, nor were tears shed - a legit victory. 

As a group, we went to Shake Shack, another sponsor of the event, but they didn't have anything that was both vegetarian AND gluten free, so I got french fries. Having a whole day in the car, being stagnant, fries wasn't the best option, but I was in a bit of a bind, as everyone else was already eating. So that was the first misstep. I will say, though, that those fries were damn good and definitely filled me up, despite the small portion. I suppose an immediate injection of ~1000 calories will do that to a body.

Fortunately, Rose PT had an incredible spread of food, including a warm bean dip, hummus, tortilla chips, and fresh vegetables. This was a great switch and a healthy provider of aminos, fats, salt, carbs, and more. The second misstep was that they also had candy spread around the room. I took a couple modest handfuls of jelly beans and kept my distance from the rest. Then the pumpkin custard was brought out. By the time I needed to hit the road for the long drive back to the 'Burgh, Claire, the owner of the center, had filled a cup of caffeinated tea and another of jelly beans and chocolate covered espresso beans. That's when I knew I had officially failed the "healthy travels" portion of the blog post I was previously excited to write. On the drive home, I was slightly disappointed with myself for the snacking, and mainly driven to get home and not freeze my butt off. The temperature had dropped to 23 degrees, according to a man at the Somerset rest stop who just announced that to the air as if his divine watcher had asked. When I come up with a series of exercises that can be done inside without causing total embarrassment, or even in the car, I will certainly let you all know.

Road Trip!

Tomorrow I'll be headed to DC for a seminar on women's cycling hosted by Molly Hurford and sponsored by Rose Physical Therapy Associates. Molly came to visit in Pittsburgh this past summer, and I couldn't attend because of.....work? Laziness? Enuit? I think in all likeliness it's because I've been a female cyclist since I was 5, not including Big Wheels, and a lady cyclist since Jr. High. What did I have to learn? The reviews of that presentation were less than stellar, unfortunately, largely because of the questions asked. I feel like us writers put ourselves out there to tell our stories, give our advice, offer feedback, because no one else has. But that doesn't necessarily make us experts. And when someone is a good person, they have the good sense to say, "I'm not a gynecologist, and this might not work for you, but.." before giving a lesson on cramping and numbness. But that can leave for an awkward exchange when the audience is in attendance precisely because their own gynecologists have failed to answer the questions, take the questions seriously, or create a safe space where such issues can be explored.

This time, Hurford is bringing an arsenal of knowledgeable professionals to help break down those barriers to information. I'm sure not every question, nor questioner, will be satisfied, but when in life is that ever the case?

I'm also proud of Hereford for having a poor event and using it as a learning experience to keep on going and have a more dynamic presentation. I'm eager to see what new insights I'll gain from the experience. I'll be sure to report back on my findings, so stay with me.

In other news, E. loves me and made gluten free peanut butter cookies last night, and I'm skipping my race tomorrow in order to go to this conference, so the race to obesity is starting early this winter. It's important to keep ahead of schedule whenever possible. To keep pace, though, I'll be bringing some Vega Protein & Greens shake powder and a few of their Sports bars. I'll be dancing in my car and singing to Bratmobile for the whole five hour drive, so I'm sure I'll work up a sweat.

Can't win 'em all: oatmeal edition

I don't think this story is exactly what that xoJane column is looking for, but: it happened to me. I subscribe to Vega's various e-newsletters, one of which has recipes for different vegan power meals, usually breakfasts. A lot of them are just interesting takes on a smoothie, many of which I already "sort of" do, but last week was a recipe for slow cooker pumpkin oatmeal, and it turned out that I had all the ingredients already in house. Since it didn't quite work out as intended, I won't post the recipe, but you can certainly see it here if you'd like to give it a shot.

I'm thinking now that maybe there was a typo. I certainly should have used my common sense in thinking to modify the 1:4 ratio of oats to water. But I was making them at 1 a.m., as I am oft to do, and wasn't really at my prime. As you may have seen from the photo, these oats look INCREDIBLE. They are in adorable cups, and topped with walnuts, and the lighting is beautiful.

The night I made them, I had an awkward dream that amounted to sitting at my friends' house, who'd just broken up, staring at them as they sat on opposite sides of their couch, and watched the sun set between them out the window. Very long, dull, awkward dream segment. But when I woke up, I immediately remembered the breakfast waiting for me -- put your kitchen to work while you sleep! The Vega post cajoled -- though I was a little confused by the specific lack of warm pumpkiny smell coming from down stairs.

I won't post pictures, because they would make you want to just drive to McDonald's and purchase the least food-like substance available, so safe. The edges of the crock pot were burnt, and there was scummy looking brown water capped with what could have been a kombucha mother, had science failed me. The burnt edges were surprising, considering there was so much water still in the pot. The bottom was also burnt, and there was an oat paste about an inch thick.

I didn't even know what to do with it, it was such a mess. So I did what comes most naturally to me, I let it sit on the counter all day and occasionally looked at it and frowned, and maybe gave it a stir or two. Then a miracle occurred: It became food again. Just like Jesus rising from the dead and exiting the cave, so too were my oats. They were pretty bland for how much flavoring I put in, and a little gooey, but they had absorbed the water and looked edible!

I did what any disgusting human who really didn't want to throw about about $5 worth of oats, pumpkin, and spices would do, I heated some up in the microwave, poured some Vega  all-in-one powder on it, and topped it with a ton of almond milk, some roasted flax seeds, and some chia seeds.

And, I'm not gonna lie. It was pretty decent. I won't make this recipe again, at least not without some serious modification (though I'll post the modified recipe if it works out better).

I finished a marathon!!!

Okay, it was a poetry marathon, but give me some credit! It took years of training, lots of support from my friends and family, and a lot of digging deep into myself to find the ability to keep going when I was tired and sore and psychologically drained.

Now that it's over, I've taken a shower and a very long nap, I'm starting to recover. Today I drank some apple cider vinegar with water and maple/agave syrup (it's better than it sounds, trust me). I also made some incredible granola. I posted the recipe earlier, so I won't clog your feed with it again, but this time I cut down on the sugars and made the apple juice fresh, and added more of it. Apple juice is a lot thicker when it's straight from the juicer, so I used it to supplement some of the maple/agave (it's also a lot cheaper). For the add-ins, I used chia and flaw seeds, cashew bits, dried cranberries, and banana chips. Here's a photo:

As a public service announcement, since it did HAIL today (ugh), I will let you fine people know that So Delicious brand Coconut Nog is now available in stores, and it is divine. So go ahead, turn up that oven to 300, and let your house warm up just a few degrees while you slog some nog and wait for your warm granola to be oven fresh.

I came, I rode, I got muddy

Today was my first muddy cross race, my first muddy bike race (not counting Dirt Rag's Punk Bike Enduro), and the first time in a long time that I've wridden in the mud. I hate riding in the mud. I hate sliding on slimy roots, feeling my wheels lose traction at each turn, having my line turn to mush within seconds, and not feeling like my body can work up to its potential just because the trail is so impeding.

Or though I thought. While those things all stand true, I had a great time trenching through the seemingly endless miles of course tape. My goal was first to just finish a lap (which I wasn't all that committed to, anyway), which changed to finishing the race, which changed to slowly passing people. I didn't do all that well, but I didn't lose, and I didn't crash, and I didn't cry.

At one point in the course (which degraded as the laps went on), there was a steep muddy descent followed by a run-up with build in steps. I decided to just run the whole thing, since I'm good at running but have a real mental block with mud (some people are afraid of death or spiders or being alone, I'm afraid of slipping in the mud and getting a boo-boo, or dislocating my shoulder again). It actually worked well in my favor and I made up some good time. There was also a crowd cheering me on, and I appreciated that everyone found merit in my strategy rather than belittling my riding fears. After the race, we all congratulated each other, and spectators approached me to tell me they liked my unorthodox style. 

As I said in my last post, one of the things I'm growing to really appreciate about bike racing is the comeraderie.  I went from feeling sore from the rain (arthritic pains in back shooting down to my feet, as well as in my fingers and jaw), tired from lack of sleep, sick from too much halloween candy (no one should do that to themselves, but here I am, as an adult, making healthy life choices), scared of the mud, and really just unenthusiastic about the whole race, to feeling really proud of myself and the other women with whom I raced (most of us are beginners) for toughing it out. I came back to my team tent to find a beer waiting for me, and I can't wait for next weekend when I get to do it all again. Sports!