Day 66 Hadley Springs Well Water and The Wild Meatloaf

Day 66

Hadley Springs Well Water and The Wild Meatloaf

Today was a wonderful day, although I could have done a little better on my water consumption. I usually do real well, but recently I discovered Diet Mt. Dew, and it's really good. Eventually I would like to totally cut out all pop completely. I did give up coffee, what has it been? A couple of weeks now? Haven't missed it really. OK, maybe I've missed it a little, and on some mornings, a lot. But I haven't had one sip since I gave it up! I drink hot green tea, and some days I just stick with flavored water, and then days like today I take the 2 liter of Diet Mt. Dew to work. I need to stop that! Water, water, water! That's what I need! Maybe if I say that over and over it'll actually stick in my head. I need to drink more water! I know about all of the benefits of drinking water, how it helps speed your metabolism, how it cleanses your body, how it keeps you hydrated. I know it's good stuff, I just have to convince my taste buds that it doesn't always have to be flavored. I fell in love with water when I was a kid, the only problem was it wasn't our water I was so in love with. It was my Great Grandpa Hadley's water. He had a well, and it produced the cleanest, best tasting water ever! Someone in the family should have bottled that stuff years ago, could've called it Hadley Springs Well Water. One taste and everyone would've been hooked. Every time we had a get together, which was at least once a month back then, sometimes more, I would make sure I had a big tall glass of that water straight from the tap-no ice. It was that good. I have never had a bottle of water that has duplicated that well water. Of course cold water always taste good when we're hot and sweaty. The Y's ice cold water fountain is awesome after a hard workout. I guess you could say I have a circumstantial love of water. If the circumstances are right, I love it, If I'm lounging around watching TV, can't stand it. Right now I'm drinking ice tea with Splenda, see! I can't even drink it when I'm writing about how much I need it! Tea is water based, so there, that's how I justify my two gallon a week habit. At least I'm not justifying, manipulating, or rationalizing my food intake, because you know that ice cream is loaded with essential calcium and Vitamin D. I'm kidding.

OH! Speaking of Ice Cream, tonight we found the most amazing little treat in the ice cream section. Just perfect for the holidays and it's only 140 calories! Are you ready for this? Egg Nog flavored ice cream sandwiches! Blue Bunny makes them, you too can find them in your grocers freezer section. We like to keep treats like this handy for those calories left over at the end of the day. It's a controlled way to have a taste of indulgence without the giant calorie tab. The great thing is, a box last way longer than it use to around our house. If the old Sean were in command, that box would be almost gone already, I guar-ron-tee!

Tonight for dinner I tried something exotic. Yes exotic! I made a venison and wild hog meat loaf. A good friend of mine is a real outdoors type of guy. He processes his own deer, and when a friend of his shot a wild hog, he processed that little piggy too. He brought me some really lean ground venison and some surprisingly lean “hog burger.” I knew Irene would be almost impossible to convince, but I was going to give it my best shot. So I cooked some diced onions and green peppers and turned that wild meat into a “wildly” delicious meatloaf. A meatloaf that had about 35% less calories than beef according to one calorie database I found on the internet. Some garlic herb mashed potatoes and mixed veggies rounded out the meal. I set it all up on the table, hot and ready to go, then I rung the dinner bell and yelled “come and get it!” OK, there's no dinner bell, and I didn't yell that, but I did say “dinner is ready and on the table!” Irene was resting before her all night shift and Courtney was with me admiring how much it really looked like a big delicious meat loaf. Irene sat down and started putting food on her plate, potatoes first, then veggies, then she reached for the meatloaf. At that moment I had to make a decision. Do I not tell her? Maybe I'll wait 'til she's finished and complimenting the meal before I tell her she just had a bambi/porky pig loaf. It was just too risky, she might have freaked out, so I told her what the beautiful meatloaf was made of. She made a disgusted face and refused to eat the loaf. Her dinner consisted of potatoes and veggies. Courtney and I enjoyed the wild game loaf, and after dinner we gave the leftovers to some relatives down the street who were really excited to try it! I can't hold it against Irene. As a little kid she ate exotic wild animals all the time and hated it. One time she stayed a few days with an uncle of hers who killed and cooked her pet rabbit, then put it on a plate in front of her and insisted she eat it, when she refused, he would put it back in front of her the next meal, after refusing to eat her pet over and over, and missing several meals along the way, little Irene resorted to eating dog food. How horrifying! My heart broke when I first learned of that story from her childhood. So I have to cut my buddy some major slack when it comes to trying anything exotic and wild. Just recalling that story makes me want to give her a big hug. I love you buddy!

Our workout at the YMCA tonight was intense. I'm convinced that a mile on the treadmill gives me about the same workout as two miles on the open trail. That treadmill makes me wanna quit early! But I can't! I have to do at least a mile on that thing when I'm there. And that racquetball court is another animal all together. It really felt great in there! If it wasn't so challenging then it wouldn't feel as good right? And the feeling of accomplishment at the end of a hard workout is right up there on my list of awesome feelings.

I'm really looking forward to next week and Thanksgiving, seeing Amber and KL, being with family, and cooking some great food...and eating an extra 1000 calories that day, and I'm really looking forward to tackling Boomer Lake Trail, all three miles plus of it, but we'll talk more about that as it gets closer. Until tomorrow evening, good night and...

Good Choices,
Sean