Advantages and disadvantages of actually eating like you should normally eat because you're an adult.

This morning I got the joy of doing a little brick workout in the humidity and heat of what was going to be a freaking hot day.  For all that heat out there in my way, the bike and the run turned out pretty good.  Although I have to say I could see the heat waves coming off my body whenever the wind was at my back.

This looks all artsy-fartsy but I'm really trying not to hurl.

You just know it's going to be a scorcher when sweat is dripping from the front of your helmet by mile 5 and you feel a touch queasy at the end of the run.  Here's a close-up of how drippy I was after all that brick-ing and after I stopped thinking I might be throwing up so I better stay outside just in case.

I'm glad the nausea subsided, because I've been eating pretty well these days and I was looking forward to lunch, which consisted of salad, strawberries, and no-bread turkey wraps with cheese, mayo, and bacon (I finally succeeded in getting them to actually wrap and stay wrapped today...the answer is toothpicks, for all you wrap-challenged people out there like me).

While I have enjoyed eating like I should eat because I'm a grown adult for crying out loud and should be eating this way anyway, I've noticed that there are distinct advantages and disadvantages of eating real or close-to-real food.  Allow me to list them out for you because, you know, I have nothing better to blog about tonight:

Advantage: You get, like, nutrients your body needs and stuff.  Food is fuel, especially when you're training.  This seems a little crazy, but every time I eat a real food item I didn't used to eat on the regular, I remind myself of the specific nutrients I'm taking in and how this will help me run and bike faster (even if it's not true, because I'm good at lying to myself).  

Disadvantage: You hit the grocery store more often.  To get fresh fruits and veggies, I find myself at the store 3-4 times a week.  Well, I tell myself it's for fruits and veggies, but somehow an iced coffee from Dunkin always makes it into my hands before I leave the store somehow.

Advantage: You feel way better during your workouts.  It might be all in my head, but the workouts haven't been feeling so hard these days...even while running in some hot heat.  And 

Disadvantage: I feel like my life revolves around food prep.  Just when I think I can relax, I remember that I have to cook some food--either for immediate consumption or so I can have good food during the week.  While the effort is worth it not to eat crappily all the time, I feel like my kitchen and I have developed an enormously co-dependent and very weird relationship.  

Advantage: Guilt-free eating.  Gone are the "oh I can eat this crappy stuff because I'm training" excuses and, along with them, the guilt I felt afterwards about eating that junk.  

Disadvantage: Hubbs keeps eating your food.  This is one of the main reasons why I have to go to the store 3-4 times a week.  Who said he could eat healthy too?!?

Advantage: Hubbs keeps eating your food.  This is my unintentionally sneaky way of getting him to eat better, too.  Because I need him to keep on living so he can watch the dogs while I'm away at races.

Disadvantage: The cats could care less about any of this.

Hyooman.  Go away.

Aaaaand one last advantage: Desserts look like this:

And learnings look like this:

• Eating real food is really, really filling.  I get fuller much faster.
• Eating real food is hard.  I've never spent this much time searching for recipes.
• Biking and running in the heat is hard.  But not as hard as not being prepared for your half duathlon.
• Ending blog posts sometimes is hard.  So this is the end of the post now.  Scram.

Tomorrow's workout:  My Run Plan app says it's 2 miles.  So that's what it must be.