National _______ Day

Yesterday was National Running Day. Some may think that I celebrated this to the fullest and went out, ran my hardest, ran my fastest, smiled, waved, pranced around lovely Winston Salem encouraging the rest of the city to get out, run, and have a great time as the fun colors and exuberance of the website may exert ( National Running Day ). However, I did nothing of the sort. I did run. Go me. I ran a miserable 5 miles. It was more of a run/walk/die. My body recently has not been agreeing with me and its been making running very difficult/not fun. It was hard to put one foot in front of the other. And there was no way I was smiling at any other runners as they passed by. In fact, I am pretty sure I heard one of them run by and say "wow, she looks like shes struggling" ... maybe I am hearing things.

On another note...I am glad that we have a National Running Day. While I am pretty sure I don't know how many people knew about it (admittedly, I did not even until Jerry sent me the link) and I think next year they should plan in more strategically as to not be in the beginning of June when it was 90 degrees and humid as all hell, I am glad someone has taken the initiative to try and get America up and moving. Hm...while on that...who makes those up? National Event maker-uppers? Where do I get a job like that? I have lots of great holiday ideas in mind. National Wednesday off Work Day. National Free Krispy Cream Day. National Free Cheeseburgers Day. National Pigtails Day. National Re-runs Week. National Diamonds for Girlfriends Week. I could go forever.

There have been more of these folks trying to get America healthier...and I am looking at evidence of that currently as I sit at Panera (working on writing my thesis, clearly). Up on the menu board, next to my beloved Asian Chicken Salad there is a little number...410. What does that mean? Why, 410 calories of course. Looking at the rest of the board..there are numbers next to everything on the menu. Horray and Hallelujah. Now we shall have "Burger King Bob" think twice before he goes for the Panera Macaroni and Cheese (delicious) at a whopping 900+ calories (but not so nutritious) over a Fuji Apple Chicken Salad (equally delicious) at ~500 cals (and much more nutritious). I was intrigued by these numbers and looked it up. Seems this was passed at the national level and now (well as of Jan 1, 2011) every chain restaurant has to have calorie counts next to everything on the menu. Bottom Line: McDonald's menu just got a lot bigger in order to make room for all those numbers. And Subway just got a lot more appeasing. And Starbucks just got depressing....just wait til you see how many calories are jammed into a cafe mocha. May be making the switch to Herbal Teas*? So again, I am glad to see that there are other people out there that have taken the initiative to beating this obesity epidemic that has begin to take over....and whats even better...is that today I got an email with an article in it ( Dieting for Dollars) that is about companies actually PAYING their employees to WALK and lose weight. While the end results aren't to impressive yet, it's a start... and one that I am pretty pleased about.


*I recommend these by the way, TraderJoes especially has the BEST teas in all the best flavors...and at about 5 calories a cup and some caffeine, I would think it makes an excellent substitute for that java java some need every morning...and it wont stain your teeth.