HARIBO!

It has been a busy and chaotic year as I have now completed the first year at my current job as the Track Coordinator with the Canadian Cycling Association and I can honestly say that it has combined the skills of all of my previous jobs and schooling – and there have been many – as well as my passion and excitement for the sport. There have been many challenges along the way and as the National Track Team prepares for the 2012 Olympics the challenges will keep on coming – those games are coming up fast, and like all Canadian sports, we don’t have the funds that we need to really help the athletes reach their potential, so I will need to tap in to my creative side and see how well I can make a dollar stretch.

One thing that I have not had difficulty stretching this year is the waistband in my pants! Having a job that I love means that I put in a lot of hours that I don’t get paid for and working from home means that the fridge and “party drawer” are just steps away. I am a stress eater, if things aren’t going well I eat, if I get stumped while working on a project I eat, if I get 200 e-mails in 20 minutes and just can’t keep up I eat. This may not be the recommended way to deal with daily stress, but I also know that I am not the only one!

The funny thing is that the more I exercise, the less I crave bad stuff, I stop hearing the cookies in the “party drawer” calling my name and the silky smooth voice of the ice cream becomes muffled. As my body starts to take back control from my head, the no-nutrient items that my spouse just has to buy because “they were selling 6 bags of potato chips for $1.99 each” are left to go stale on the shelf. I have a theory, if you listen to your stomach, and feed it what it wants and craves, you are going to make smart choices. If you listen to your mouth and what it wants to taste, you may be in a spot of bother, the mouth is not your friend. If your stomach and your mouth agree, then chances are you have been living with smart choices.

So how tight are my pants now? Well, I’ve been away for work for the past month and normally will come back lighter as I am so busy that I don’t snack and will often miss meals simply because I forget to eat (I don’t recommend this practice either); however, on this trip to Holland and Denmark I discovered Haribo. Before I go any further I would like to point out that in the picture, Two Time World Champion Tara Whitten is riding past the sign for a sponsor, Haribo, on the velodrome in Ballerup – and I like to do my part to support the athletes. Well, do my part I did! Haribo is a candy manufacturer and they make licorice wheels and gummie bears and wine gums and delicious sugar of all shapes, sizes, textures, and flavours. The choices that they have are so numerous that I failed in my attempt to try all of them, though I did try a new one every day.

So this is where I stand, I’m not going to feel guilty for my indulgence, it happened and it happened with the support and encouragement of my roommate during the month I was away, and I wanted to feel like part of the group who are also Haribo supporters. What’s done is done, and sometimes it’s okay to break away from the monotonous schedule. Now that I am back though, and don’t see much travel in the next few months, it’s about getting back in to routine, cooking the foods that nourish me and please both my stomach and my mouth. The weather is getting nicer and the race season has begun, which I am super excited about, not only for the physical effects, but also the social ones. And I am looking forward to feeling less of a “stretch” on my waistband – time to refocus and get back on track!