Renovating Kaeti

Because it’s Friday — and I can barely get my butt out of bed, let alone write a coherent blog entry — I’m happy to announce the inaugural “Friday Favorites” column. Every week on Friday, I’ll post a list of some things that are awesome. Because who doesn’t like lists and awesomeness??

This week, I’m reliving my glory days of the 90s and offering my current tracklist of favorite workout jamz. With one caveat: I only strap on my iPod when I’m forced to run inside because of late days at the office — or because the wind chill dips to 40 below (gotta love Minnesota). When I run outside, I leave the music at home for safety reasons (ladies, you can find more running safety tips here).

Here are some of the songs that keep me motivated:

1. Pump It by The Black Eyed Peas — I realize that I’m probably embarrassing myself by admitting that I like this song (strictly for exercise purposes, of course), but it makes a great warm-up tune.
2. Bottle Rocket by The Go! Team — The peppy, fast-paced beat makes this a perfect song for the beginning of my run (those first 15 minutes are always the hardest for me).
3. Babymaker by Dance Band —Dance Band is a local Minneapolis group that is exactly what their name denotes. This song must be effective because when I listen to it, I always want to “shake my babymaker.”
4. Lucky Star by Dizzee Rascal — This song is perfect for tempo runs. I like to match my pace to the beat.
5. Hey Ya by Outkast — Another guilty pleasure song. It’s just so catchy!
6. SexyBack by Justin Timberlake — You won’t catch me listening to JT outside of the gym, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I have a total soft spot for his music. This song was on my very first workout mix last summer because, well … I’m bringing healthy back? Haha. Wow, I’m lame.
7. Bam by Atmosphere — This track from longtime independent hip-hop artist Atmosphere always comes on right when I’m getting restless or distracted. It also reminds me to check in with my body and evaluate form, pace, etc.
8. Queen B–ch by David Bowie — I’m usually starting to enjoy my run by this point, so I tend to put some of my favorites on the back end of my mix. You can never go wrong with Bowie.
9. Da Doo Run Run by The Ronettes — I have a thing for this 60s girl-pop group, and the song has the word “run” in it.
10. Any number of songs by Mates of State, Balkan Beat Box, M.I.A., The Kinks, Supergrass, Basement Jaxx, Kanye West, etc. — My only criterion is that the music have a strong, fast beat.

Got any suggestions to spice up my jams? I usually get sick of a mix after about a week and have to shake it up; I think my mind adapts to the music, much like my body adapts to a stale fitness routine.

In other news, last night I tried out a fantastic recipe for beet burgers that I found at The Jew and the Carrot. The recipe is from Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables (Gibbs Smith, 2006). They were fantastic — despite it looking like someone had been horribly maimed in our kitchen (beets may help keep blood pressure down, but they definitely make a mess). The recipe made more food than anticipated, so I’ll be finding creative ways to deal with leftover beet batter for the next week (beet quiche? beet couscous? frozen beet Popsicles?). I’ll be sure to keep you posted on whatever culinary atrocities I come up with.

Sometimes my body seems to (miraculously) work with me rather than against me. For example, when I’m sick I’ll often crave protein-rich foods — which totally makes sense because your body needs additional protein when you’re sick. So in those cases, I’m like, “Hey, thanks Body! I think I will eat that block of cheese!”

But then there are those other times when I get it in my mind that I absolutely must eat mass amounts of chocolate for no reason whatsoever. I’m sure Dr. Hyman (author of UltraMetabolism, one of our favorite books around the office) could offer some physiological explanation involving insulin and blood-sugar levels, but thoughts of pizza, ice cream, or so much bread you could build a warm, soft house with it tend to take precedence in my mind over analyzing why I might be craving these things.

Why is it that when we get cravings, it’s so hard to think about anything else? My friend Sara captured the situation perfectly in an email the other day:

I’ve decided donuts are my downfall food. Like, I can walk away from a cookie, and ice cream, and a chocolate bar, and Cheetos, and pizza, and tacos, and all that other stuff. A donut, however, I cannot leave. If I do, it’s all I think about. I’m like, “Oh god, why didn’t I eat that donut? I should go back and get that donut. I hope that donut is there. If anyone else ate that donut, I’ll kill them. I hope there was a second donut I didn’t see because then I could have two donuts. No, I should only eat one donut. No, I should only eat half a donut. No, a quarter of the donut. Okay, a quarter of the donut…[eats quarter of donut, walks back to desk]… god that donut was good. Who invented donuts? I love donuts. I really want another quarter of the donut. No one else will eat just a quarter of a donut and donuts get dried out really fast. And I have to walk all the way across the hall for it so I should just do it…[eats second quarter of donut, walks back to desk]…donuts are so good. I love donuts. Every kind of donut. Man, I should get those Old Home donuts that come in the little yellow boxes. Those are always so dense and sweet. I even like it when the powdered sugar gets stuck in your throat…. [eats third quarter of donut, throws last quarter away, walks back to desk]. Donuts are so good. I’m so glad I showed such will power and didn’t eat that last quarter. But that’s such a waste of food, maybe I should have just eaten it [digs last quarter out of trash, eats it]” and so on and so forth. Donuts are the bane of my existence.

It’s like she can read my mind. Seriously, who hasn’t been there? Fortunately, there are things you can do to come out on the other side — ideally, without eating enough sugar to fall into a diabetic coma. Actually, according to research published in the journal Appetite, talking about cravings instead of trying to ignore them is a much more effective way to get over them.

Moral of the story? By writing an inane blog entry about how much I want one of those cupcakes Jamie brought in for Valentine’s Day, I should be able to resist the temptation to eat 10 of them. Yeah … at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

While I’m not sold on this whole “talk therapy” concept, the most efficient way I’ve found to undermine my unhealthy eating habits is to avoid buying any food I don’t want to eat. If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it. Simple enough, right? And that works marvelously well— until I’m faced with the free food dilemma. It always appears when I’m hungry, it’s ridiculously unhealthy, and it’s just sitting there in the breakroom or meeting waiting for me to validate its existence. It would be untoward for me not to have just a little something. We ran an article on these “food traps” a while back that has some helpful tips.

Food is one of those things in my life that I’m still wrestling to take greater ownership of: being conscious of the food decisions I’m making, paying attention to how what I eat affects my body, and eating to nourish and energize my body. I’m thinking of doing a sort of “reboot” in this arena, starting off with a detox.

Anyone feel like joining in on a weeklong detox? We can be crabby together. And by crabby, of course I mean “awesomely fulfilled by our amazing new food choices.” In the meantime, I’ll look into a couple different programs and keep you updated about what I find.