Well, my old buddy (Fred Woodward) and his lovely wife (Emily) were in town overnight. Emily was running our local KC half marathon. No. I don’t know why anyone would do that to their body. Perhaps they should be reading my blog….or, better yet……www.marksdailyapple.com…and/or Mark Sisson’s book, “The Primal Blue Print”. Mark spent the better part of his youth as an endurance athlete…which, as he explains in his book….means that Mark spent the better part of his youth in chronic pain and with an almost ceaseless upper respiratory problem that is a mainstay problem of almost all running and cycling and triathlon endurance athletes. Your body doesn’t like that kind of non-interval, over-done endurance aerobic exercise. (It most certainly does not create muscle.) Think about the body type of any of your friends who have ever been a serious cycling or running athlete……would you rather have that body type or the one you would normally associate in your head with any person that was seriously involved in sprinting on that same bicycle or on foot? Your body thrives on low-duration, high intensity exercise….like sprinting or CrossFitting. And, doing this kind of exercise won’t make your chronically ill or put you in chronic “overtraining” caused pain….(unless, of course, you overdo it……like I have been doing lately….exactly contrary to the teachings of Mr. Sisson…and, I have made my bed and am going to have to sleep in it for just a little bit. )
Anyhow, the point is: (1) If you want to look like you just survived a Nazi concentration camp …and feel like it too…. get out there and start doing some low intensity, long duration type of endurance training…daily…if 
not twice per day if your time allows. (2) If you want to have the kind of body that screams “healthy” or “statuesque physique”….(think racehorse)…..you might want to “86” the endurance stuff and go for some high intensity interval type training instead. If you are going to bike, do vigorous intervals with rest spins….not two hours of even effort time trialing. Please note that the guys in the pics above are both at the very top of their field….you guess which one is the endurance runner and which one is the sprinter……..?
(3) The final fact is that Fred and Emily were here. And, living in our home for about 20 hours. We were very glad to have our old friends in town (since we almost never get to see them these days…thanks to kids and geography differences.) But, the presence of any overnight guests on the weekend means skipped exercise and schedule changes. And, to make a very long story short, that means that the 2 hours I should have experienced on the bicycle this morning didn’t happen. And, it also means that….thanks to the fact that we cannot have our normal afternoon cheat meal tomorrow since we will be busy all day long with CK’s First Communion….we went ahead and had our Cheat Meal at Houston’s today…with our good friends…before they headed for home. (After running 13.1 miles, please know that you can throw anything you want into your body. It needs it! And, about a year of rest to boot.)
But, before all of that, I started the day with another one of my morning Protein Shakes. You know the recipe by now. And, you know why and 
how often I drink them. And, it is a LOT. And, there is good reason for it…Yes. They are quick and easy. But, they also cover all the bases of nutrition a LOT better than most anything else you can consume. A lot of hard core Paleo folks would say “You have to get more
Food down your throat” David. And, I appreciate what they are saying…..it is just that they are wrong. The world has advanced a bit since Grok was running around with the loin cloth thing. And, UnDenatured Whey Protein sourced from New Zealand Free Range Dairy Cattle who have never seen growth hormone OR antibiotics IS AN EXCELLENT SOURCE OF
NUTRITION! Period. Plain and simple. And, pairing that with a big whopping serving of Raw Organic Almond Butter and a bunch of Organic Blueberries
and Strawberries creates a breakfast that I would have to argue is second to none in its glycemic and nutritional perfection. (Let’s consider it: An unimpeachable protein source, some raw organic almonds crunched up and mixed with absolutely nothing to make butter, and organic berries. Yeah. That sounds pretty much perfect.) Yes. Even perhaps better than an omelette made with farm fresh organic eggs and organic veggies paired with that same bunch of berries. Now, that is not to say that I would tell someone that was craving that omelette and berries plate to not eat it and to eat my shake combo 
instead. No. If you want the omelette, I don’t think you can
do much better than that combo either…..you could even throw a couple of pieces of Free Range Pork Bacon there on the plate next to it. And, really, you would have a long home run preparing to head 
straight out of the park. There are many ways to skin this cat….one of them just doesn’t happen to be cereal, toast, and orange juice!!! (Wow. Think about that glycemic spike!)
After having my protein shake, I really didn’t have time to think about wanting anything else until our late lunch. I watched a bit of the running dead go by on Ward Parkway….the marathons always go down Ward Parkway just a block away from our home. (Just the 10 minutes I watched was enough to remind me why I am no longer a long distance runner……I quit about 35 years ago!) Then, I had time to watch 
my daughter’s tennis lesson and start thinking about meeting my buddy and his exhausted wife for lunch at Houston’s. Oh wait. They are at our home. I drove them there. You can probably guess what I ate there. Houston’s Signature Spinach Dip, a club sandwich, french fries, and buttermilk garlic for french fry dipping. Oh. And, I topped it all off with a Diet Coke. Yeah. I wanted one. So, I had one. Yes. I know I just totally freaked my body out of its norm. But, I actually think THAT is 
potentially good for your body and mind too….even if you didn’t really “need” a cheat meal. And, as it happened, I LOVED my entire meal. And, so did my lovely wife. And, don’t worry. It didn’t cause me to take complete leave of my sanity and just start eating everything in sight for the rest of the day and/or weekend.
In fact, I didn’t ingest another calorie until about 6 pm this evening. I wasn’t dying of starvation or anything….since I probably ate about 3 million calories at lunch….but, I knew it was getting to be that time to put something into the old body. And, I didn’t want to go into Saturday evening “on empty”. Being “on empty” is how I think a lot of 
folks end up getting themselves into trouble with food binging and/or just eating what they shouldn’t be putting in their bellies. So, to avoid that potential eventuality….and, since I didn’t really feel like a big dinner meal….Oh. And, since Angie was in no mood to prepare one anyway. ….I made up another one of my Protein Shakes. (I made this one with about 6 ounces of Unsweetened Hemp Milk mixed in with 6 ounces of water. The stuff unfortunately messes with my digestive system. But, wow. I love it. Turns your protein shake into an ice cream shake. Really.) Down the hatch and back to the triplets!
You know what? I just stuck with that same theme a little later in the night. I thought about cutting up some Trader Jack Dry Colby Jack Cheese and a little free range Wild Deer Sausage. But, in truth, another Protein Shake sounded best. I probably didn’t need any more protein….or, calories (for that matter)…. for the day. But, I knew this would leave me “full” with a nice flat glycemic level for the 
remainder of the evening and nothing but a craving for my old friend, Mr. Water and his protective shell, my BPA Free Camelbak Water Bottle!
That is it. Over and Out on another Day of Just Eating What I Eat!