Sometime you just have to stop and eat the pancakes...

With my new found motivation I find myself wanting to get out of the house more.

Yesterday it was one of those Saturday mid-morning and afternoon drives. The best drives are when you get lost and see stuff you've never seen. It's a bit of an adventure and it happened, we got lost down near the Niagara wine country in the back roads.

Along the way we drove past this all day breakfast restaurant called "the pancake house". We drove by but it was like a magnate. Something told me we should stop in. It was a quick U turn and we were inside and I had a craving for pancakes. Which among some eggs, bacon and sausage I ordered.

No guilt. Lifes to short and my new motto is portion control and variety.

I'm pretty much sick of hearing about the low carb diets vs the high fat diets vs the no sugar diets vs the gluten free diets vs the paleo diet vs weight watchers vs fit for life.

I've done them all except the gluten free diets. Gluten free to me is too earthy. It's like recycling or knowing how to order those crazy sounding special coffees from Starbucks. I still have to figure out what a Venti size is when I go to starbucks and most often just tell them I want a large coffee. They look at me like I'm strange that I haven't ordered one of those fancy drinks.

The reason I know all these diets are wrong is because whenever I'm on one of them solely my athletic performance suffers, especially high fat and paleo.

There is no doubt in my mind that our bodies need ALL types of food and it benefits from ALL types of foods. Even junk foods. Chips are great for salt and everything has a benefit.

The key is portion control and variety. It's so easy to over eat. Portions that we have become used to are large.

I hear about these people that say we should eat meals 6 times a day. Basically that is another word for portion control.

There is also another key. Eat for what you doing. If you are going to be doing some long training, you need carbs. If you are tearing down muscle you need protein. If you are relaxing there is nothing like a beer. Post training you need protein and carbs.

The world has created a multi-billion dollar diet industry based on two basic principals that will never change, "eat less and exercise more".

I'm more into listening to my body. Yesterday I heard it say, eating pancakes, syrup, eggs, bacon, sausage and toast makes you retain water and get bloated. The upside is bloating is water retention and helps the body heal if you think about the positive. Some of the bloating came from the pepperoni sticks I was eating later in the day.

I was going to run, but I ran out of sunlight and then got caught up spending the night watching comedies and laughing my a$$ off. I LOVE pranks, I watch them on You Tube all the time. I just love seeing what happens during a prank. The movies we watched was Bruno (Pranks) and Bad Grampa (Pranks around a story). I can't remember how many YEARS it's been since I laughed so hard. Then it was Kingpin and half of Dumb and Dumber.

It was a fun night. It reminded me of years gone past. Something as simple as Alice and I watching a movie together is like going back in time when we were living together in our early 20's and would spend the weekend going to the video store, rent movies and spend the weekend doing nothing but watching TV. Something so simple and something all of us can do ends up becoming one of those rich experiences you remember.

Another rich experience for me is showing up to running races.  I'm talking half marathons and under. That early morning wake up, that find a parking spot, that bib pick up and that waiting until the gun goes off. BUT that isn't the most funnest part of the race memories. Nope. It's the afterwards feeling of complete giving it your all and the endorphins are flying around your body. The after effect and glow lasts all day.

So I started trying to figure out, what are the main things that are most fun and gratifying to me? Here they are in no particular order.

- Family (of course), it's my tether. Without Alice and them I'd be totally out of control and rudderless.
- Family travel anywhere.
- Going to movies and eating movie popcorn.
- Going out to eat.
- Eating at really cool places - Homestyle cooking or iconic places.
- Running and biking.
- High intensity short races (triathlon and running)
- Weekend cycling rides on a super hot and humid day.
- Post workout feeling after "pushing" myself out to train because I didn't want to. There is no greater sense of accomplishment. You can't turn back time so either you do it or you never get that moment in time back again.
- A late night long run.
- A run in the warm rain.
- Watching rental type movies
- Comedy shows
- Weighing 185 lbs or less.
- Living simple in a smaller house. (Can hardly wait to downsize)
- Car Travel from place to place and stopping randomly along the way with no plans. (Route 66 was awesome)
- Bar hopping in NYC on a warm Saturday afternoon with Alice, random stops.
- Feeling like I'm eating healthy
- A long run or bike ride with a friend and talking the entire way.
- Blogging
- Proving some people wrong
- laughing and not taking life to serious
- Stretching myself and growing personally and professionally.
- Being stuck in your house and when the city shuts down because of a snow storm.

Funny thing, when I look at my list, none of it has to do with having lots of money. Most of it is just getting out of the house.

On our drive yesterday we passed some really nice houses, some on the lake front, others in secluded areas and all of them super beautiful. The one thing I know for certain is it might seem your life would be better in a bigger house, and the romance of it is great, but the reality is a nice house don't make your life richer. Getting OUT of your house and doing stuff does.

The other thing I've noticed is the more you can live in the moment the richer life is. I used to do that everyday when I was a kid. I'd wake up on a Saturday, head out and not know how the day would unfold. There was no pre-planning. No play dates. There was just wake up and knock on a friends door and see if he wants to come out and play. If he couldn't you moved on to the next door. That's when it all unfolded. The night / day before I had no idea how the world would unfold the next day.

Again, the greatest moments of my childhood were never preplanned and I can't remember one that was not created from a random series of events. It's when you let life unfold that you have the greatest times.

It's the old finding that special someone before you met that special someone. If you go out looking to find that special someone, you never find them. You go out just to have a good time it's funny how that special someone just appears.

As I've gotten older I'm pretty certain I've gotten wiser and if not wiser I've at least gotten to he point that I have a better understanding of what is important to me.

Some of the things I don't like
- Going to business related after work functions. Strange part is I've NEVER met someone at one of these events that turned into a great long term business relationship. I always find these events like I have to be on my best behaviour and most of the time having beers gets me through it.
- Golfing. Period. I don't know how people do it.
- Having to be politically correct or at least associating myself with people that understand my political incorrectness is in good humour and nothing deeper.


What intrigues me most right now
- That there is people in this world that are truly sociopaths and psychopaths. That they truly only care about what they can get from others and don't care who they hurt during the way.

What is hard for me to do
- Not trusting or wanting to trust people out of the gate. I'm one of those people that allow all people to start in my circle of trust and then work their way out. Most are you are outside the circle of trust and you have to work your way in.
- Accept feeling out of shape or looking to fat.
- Not being brutally open and honest.
- Not having a goal and achieving that goal.

So back to training. Today I ran.

I have my regular route and I never get bored of it. Part of it is through my beautiful safe neighbourhood and then through other safe neighbourhoods. Heck, this is Burlington, it's super safe. I think this has to be the safest city in Ontario. There is definitely a reason Burlington is voted one of the top cities in Canada.

It was colder today at about -11C, but in seconds after running you warm up. I've run in -40 C and so long as you are running you stay warm and I never, even in -40C wear a face mask. Not necessary. I see it at -5C in Ontario and people are all bundled up with a face mask.

The run was awesome. Slow. Fresh air and nothing but thinking time. I solve so many problems and get so optimistic when I run. In the past I remember Alice suggesting I go for a run, she knew I'd come back a different person and in a much happier place.

Now for the rest of the day, the endorphins are pumping and I'll be back to spreadsheets and planning for the next phase of my business career with preplanning and visualization.

Run - 1:08:23 / 11.24 km
207.2 lbs