Healthy choices

176.4
9:46, 1.22 miles bicycling
55 minutes Zumba

I'm so cool and fit that I rode my bicycle to the library for a free Zumba class.  What could be more green and hip than that?!  Ok, so really I'm not cool or hip, I just wanted to have fun.

The relentless heat wave that has kept us under its' thumb for weeks didn't show up today.  It was a really beautiful evening for a ride, and no one even honked at me!

I think this was only my 4th attempt at Zumba in all of recorded history (my fitness journal starts in September 2010), but it was my best by far.  To say that I am not naturally graced with dance would be an understatement.  But tonight I was able to keep up more and felt like I was getting a good workout.  It is fun to dance, even when you can't.

After I got home I finished reading Eat & Run : My unlikely journey to ultramarathon greatness by Scott Jurek.  I love reading about ultramarathoners, and I dream impossibly big dreams of one day doing what they do (Impossible dreams are the best kinds to have).  The book was interesting and focused a lot on food.  Jurek is a vegan which is exceptional because of the distances he runs.  It would take precision to get the right food balance for an omnivore to achieve what he does, and even more so for a vegan.  At the end of each chapter is a recipe, and some of them sounded amazing.  Will have to try some of them out, especially the ones for Xocolatl Energy Balls and 8-Grain Strawberry Pancakes!

Actually this book just reinforced my instincts lately that I need to change what I eat.  I spent some time on the Daniel diet in 2009 and felt amazing.  It is based off of what Daniel ate in the Bible, and is vegan but with more restrictions such as nothing artificial or "corrupted" (fermented) by man and no leavened bread.  I don't think I will go all the way Daniel again, but I am leaning towards an almost vegan diet for a while.  Not sure about giving up my post workout chocolate milk....

As a part of a family that includes a very picky 5 year old and an even more picky 29 year old, it is likely impossible that I could maintain a vegan diet without civil war, but I would like to see our menu stop being arranged around meat and cheese so often.