Arguing Against Moderation

My mother, in all her infinite wisdom, has one thing wrong.  She always used to tell me, and probably still will, that I should remember to do everything in moderation.  Too much of a good thing, she would likely argue, turns it into a bad thing.  I, respectfully, disagree.

Here's why.  If you don't like something in excess, why waste your time doing it (or eating it) in moderation?  I hold the firm belief that the fastest way to figure out if something is worth doing is by doing absurd amounts of it.  Country music songs for example.  Sophie and I have a habit of listening to songs on repeat.  Some say this is stupid.  The nay-sayers argue that we will "just get sick of it faster."  But if it really is a song I will love for the rest of my life, no amount of listening to it will make me sick of it.  So, listening to it in excess is the best way to determine which songs I really love.  Easy.

Two things I love in one picture: Pink AND maple flavored things.  I made this cake for a little dinner we had at the Caldwell's.

 Using this logic, I've discovered I really love the color pink.  I have a ridiculous number of pink outfits.  It's girly, stereotypical, and always in excess.  But I like it.  And every day I wear pink, I feel just a little happier.  Same goes for maple.  There can never be enough maple flavor in anything.  And the only way I figured out I love maple is by putting it in everything.  Like the above maple bundt cake with maple whipped cream frosting.

Megan and me probably at mile 45. We got really tired, but still managed to get the biking done in under 5 hours! Cruising.

Smiling after 100 miles.. excessive miles but loving every one (except for mile 67-not fun for me).

 Road biking.  In the past 8 days, I think I've done 11 hours of road biking.  This is a little above normal levels, due to my participation in the prouty, a 100 mile bike ride starting in Hanover.  100 miles is in excess--but I was still smiling after 100 miles, so I must really like biking (although I did have a sore bum).  Just yesterday I did a 3.5 hour road bike with the SMS training group, and I can honestly say I enjoyed the entire thing.  We had a great group with a lot of people, so conversation was never dull and never absent.

The Carins!  Soph, Packer and I built one.  It wasn't nearly as cool as some of the other structures, but still pretty neat to help the cause.

 Rocks (hi Isabel).  Although I hold no where near the love of rocks Isabel holds, I can appreciate them.  On Route 30 in Vermont a man started building carins (the stone structures you see above) in memory of his dog.  He would spend hours building them, and eventually the Bondville population caught on and started helping him.  It was truly amazing and inspiring, and a great example of something in excess being completely necessary and happy.

Red looking for some breeze during the "hot week."  I, like Red, don't like heat in excess.  And having a week straight of it was a pretty fast way to figure that out.

 But not everything in excess is good.  A prime example of this is the absurd heat wave we experienced last week.  Every day was practically a million degrees with 2000% humidity.  I could take one day of this, but having it every day for 5 days proved to me that tropical climates were not my thing.  Training was sweaty and gross, and I couldn't walk any where without breaking a decent sweat.  Luckily, there are ways to combat excess.  We started workouts at 8 in the morning to try and avoid the worst parts of the day, and at night we made a plethora of summery meals (i.e. a lot of grilling and cold salad type things).  It's raining today, which is also not good in excess, but one day here and there is much appreciated :)

Henry being goofy.  This is immediately following his successful remembrance of his Exeter email password.  Val intelligently pointed out that most passwords are case sensitive, something Henry had evidently forgotten.

 But back to positive excess.  I miss my Minnesota family, and because I'm not experiencing an excess of it I miss them even more.  I recently facetimed (I can use technology.. yes) with them, and they are doing very well.  Henry is attending Exeter Academy in the fall for a PG year, and I'm really excited to have him out East next fall.  I still won't get an excessive exposure, but better than nothing.  Absence, as it turns out, really does make the heart (hart...punny) grow fonder.

Isabel and Soph.  I've also had a lot of exposure to them this summer, and because I still want to be with them I'd say an excess of Caldwell's is something I like.

GET IN MY BELLY

GET IN MY BELLY (Megan style).

 Probably the biggest argument against moderation comes in the form of blueberries.  Sophie, Isabel, Megan and I went blueberry picking yesterday, and probably picked around 20 pounds among the 4 of us.  For the first part, I had a "pick one, eat one rule."  This morning, I swear, I woke up with a little blue tint to my hair.  Yet even after eating probably 5 pounds yesterday, this morning Soph and I made waffles with a blueberry topping.  So, I obviously love blueberries.  And no better way to figure this out than eating 7 pounds in two days.

Erika, Soph, and me before some really hard level 4 uphill striding intervals.  They were really hard.  

Rudy project helmets (and safety)..both things better in excess.

Finally, training and friends.  If I didn't enjoy training and my training buddies (and best friends) so much, there is no way I could be doing the amount of training I've done the past two weeks.  We've had a big two weeks of volume and intensity, but (most) every day I leave the workout really happy.  And, this week we have an easy week.  Recovering is part of training, so I will probably do a lot (maybe even an excess) of recovering this week.

Good things don't always need to be in moderation.  So with that, I probably will go snack on some more blueberries.

hugz and kissez