Dear Hat, I Love You

I love my hat.  When I first started getting serious about this whole endeavor of exercise and weight loss, my first purchase was the hat.  Sports Authority, $20.  I picked it because it was black, stretched, lightweight and fairly low key.

And since then, beneath my hat I have endured.  I have had injury and disappointment, frustration and pain, suffering, self-doubt...and of course all of the good stuff those things bring.

When I bought the hat I couldn't run 1 mile, I couldn't do two pull ups.  I weighed 275 pounds (had already lost about 25).  Now, wearing the same hat, I do 5 sets of 10 pullups, run two miles as a way to stretch an injured hamstring, and am still over 200 pounds, but around 15% body fat.  I'm going to train for, and run my first marathon in this hat.

Never before has a material item been with me through so much.  When I pack to go somewhere for a weekend, I throw the hat in the bottom of my bag so I can take it on a run.  Every time I go the gym, I have the hat.  Every summer run I take, the hat is on.  It's a very rare event that I'm running without it.  If I could figure out how to wear it under my helmet, I'd ride my bike with it too. 

I lose my keys, have lost my wedding ring.  I misplace my belt regularly.  But the hat, it's never misplaced.

So when I'm told that the hat should be burned, tossed out, or that I need a toxic waste handling permit to wear the thing, I'm a little put-out. 

Maybe I'm missing something.  You decide.

 

Today, Tuesday, I did a lot better eating.  I haven't done a fancy excel spreadsheet yet, but finish in around 2,400 calories.  According to Garmin, my ride burned 1,200, plus I ran three miles today.  I'm exhausted and can't believe it's only day 2.  I'm so pumped about making all of the early morning workouts that I wake up several times a night thinking it's time to go!  

Last thing:  Granola Bars Recipe (We have flax seed and chia seeds, whatever nuts are around and a tiny bit of chocolate chips in ours).

Granola Bars

Tastes much like Woodstock Cookie Company Granola Bars.
From Bonnie Chase, Adapted by Jessica Bickford

Mix together dry ingredients:
2 C oats
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C wheat germ or wheat bran
1 t cinnamon
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C whatever (chocolate chips, cranberries, pecans, etc., etc., etc...) (I often use 1 cup ground nuts and ½-1 cup chocolate chips)
3/4 t salt

Optional Nutritional Additives: 1/4 C soy lecithin; 1 T gelatin; hemp, chia, or flax seeds (I use ¼ to ½ cup ground flax seeds.) ; steel cuts oats...use your nutritional imagination! 

Now mix in wet ingredients:

1/2 C oil
1/2 C honey or maple syrup
2 eggs
2 t vanilla (I’ve been known to omit this without any major disruptions)

Mix well and press into a well-greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool 5 minutes and cut bars, but do not remove them from the pan or eat them until they've cooled COMPLETELY.