it's only food

As some of you are aware two summers ago I had challenged myself to complete a 100-mile diet for 100 days. I learned a lot about food over those 100 days and I cannot lie I often found myself hungry in the early weeks until I had figured out viable sources of local food. For those of you who are unaware, a 100 mile diet consists of eating only food that is grown withen 100 miles of where you live with the exception of when you are eating at someone else's house. The premise sounds simple until you arrive at the grocery store the first time. Quickly you realize that the food being sold has traveled great distances to make it your plate. Looking back I think I was able to get maybe a handful of vegetables and one specific brand of grains that I was able to trace to withen 100 miles, also I learned that nothing packaged is 100 mile diet friendly.

From that point on I had to rely on the farmers market, but only after talking to every vendor and inquiring about every aspect of their food, and on friends and neighbours who had grown fruits and vegetables or hunted.  Suddenly buying food was a community event for Chelsey and I. by talking to each farmer at the market we not only learned what they had where they grew it and their proximity to us but we began to learn about the people who provided the food and the lives that the animals lived before becoming food.

It would be lying if I said the three months were easy, there was definitely foods that we missed, foods we got really sick of, and the fact that our 100 mile diet went through Chelsey's birthday. Starting in April with little preparation meant that all we ate were root vegetables and flat bread for the first week and a bit, but when we did get established often times we found that the grocery store foods just didn't compare to the flavours of the market food.

I bring this up because food is often taken for granted, unless it is no longer readily available. Society also has a huge disconnect with our food system. As athletes we constantly monitor what it is that we put into our bodies but how many of us look at where it comes from and the environmental impact of our diets. After talking with Chelsey about food for some lengths we decided that we will for the month of June (not her birthday this year) be partaking in a 100 mile diet again in Vancouver and I am offering an open invitation for anyone to join me.

Sihing Craig Janzen

Year of the Dragon in a nutshell

As this years UBBT is beginning to wrap up I find myself looking back at this year. It was tough one where I was thrown a couple curve balls like moving out of the province, finding out about the torn cartilage in my knee, having my kung fu bag and weapons stolen, and probably some other things. The biggest one was moving and being away from the kwoon. Without the structure of classes my my self discipline towards my training went pretty quickly. On top of that I was not keeping up with my blogging and am still not great at it. This further isolated me from the kwoon and my fellow teammates.  These are things that I really have to work and have to make my self more accountable for.

Another thing I realized this year is that keeping track of numbers in a purely digital form doesn't work at least for me. I thought having set up a spreadsheet that was accesible from my computer, my phone, my ipad, or basically any device with internet would make it so that I was alway up to date and seeing the numbers would have me always aware of them and keeping them up to date. I never made it effortless effort which is really what would have kept the numbers up to date. Another problem is that in a purely digital form I am able to detach myself and skip updating my numbers. In my case it would have been better to keep a hard copy and transfer the numbers weekly to see my running totals.

Finally one of my biggest hurdle which was self made, the snooze button. Instead of getting up and starting my day off with pushups it is usually a mad scramble out the door to get to work, school, or insert destination on time. Not only does this mean that I am not doing my kung fu but that I am also not properly nourishing myself. It is my goal for the next year to eliminate the snooze button from my habit and wake up and get out of bed.

It wasn't all negative for this year. I did keep my commitment to go on two dates with Chelsey a month, something that can be tough given the amount I work and my schedule mixed with her schedule and amount of homework. Another Success was that I am now actively learning a new language. One of my classes is mandarin. I also rebuilt a relationship with my cousin who I haven't talked to in more then two years.

Sihing Craig Janzen