Debby asked about my new shoes. Tennis shoes, that is. Is it weird that I've always called all athletic shoes "tennis shoes," whether designed for tennis or no? I suppose I could use the British term "trainers," or maybe get cutesy with every sport: "runnies", "hikies", "b-ballies." No? Oh well.
So I went to see the podiatrist, and he said to not use my old stand-bys, the Target Champion athletic shoes. I loved them - at least, the men's I loved, because they had a generous toe box and were so comfy. My feet are wide and long (AmazonGalOfTheForest, remember?), so the men's regular in this brand did nicely. Mr. Handsome-and-Handy said they had a good rating on Consumer Reports, too.
So what did the podiatrist recommend? Either the Brooks Beast or the New Balance 1123. Ai caramba, there goes the end of the era of inexpensive shoes. Both are really chunky-looking shoes. They are designed for maximum motion control. (I found the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine to have several articles about selecting sports shoes).
I've never tried on either shoe, so I went to a shop in San Mateo that carried both. It was a bit more expensive than ordering online, but not so much as to justify the hassle of ordering multiple sizes and returning the ones that didn't fit. I ended up trying on quite a lot of shoes before I found the right length and width combo, so the service was worth the extra...I think it ended up being $20 extra with sales tax, the sticker price was only $10 more than most of the online retailers. Oh, plus an extra 50 cents I didn't need to, because I'd forgotten that parking is free after 6 p.m. downtown.
I ended up going with the New Balance. Both were super comfortable, once I got the right size and width. It was a touch choice! Were I not getting custom orthotics, I might have gone with the Brooks Beast, because it had a little more arch support.
(I'm so dating myself with this, but doesn't the "wedginess" of the sole remind you of those Cherokee sandals of the early to mid 1980s? I think I'll throw on some leg warmers and go for frozen yogurt....)
Breakfast: Tomato-cheddar omelette, flax toast with butter/canola spread and sugar-free apricot jam, 3 cups of the usual decaf coffee.
Not shown: I was still zonked, so I stopped by the coffee company and got their biggest mug of fully leaded stuff. I mixed their Autumn Spice, French Roast Decaf, and something else, I forget the name. Yum! The Autumn Spice kind of reminds me of the pumpkin spice coffee I'd gotten at Ross (and which, sadly, is gone).
Pre-meeting lunch: I had a long meeting scheduled for the lunch hour, and I wasn't sure if lunch was being provided, so I ate a bag of kale crunchies. Here's the first portion.
Here's the rest of the bag.
Post-meeting lunch: Whew! Glad I ate something before the meeting. Here's what I followed up my veggie with: pork and bbq sauce and grapes.
I also ate my roasted bean croutons! (To answer your question, Lori, I think the cannellini beans would probably work really well for a sweet roasted bean snack. They haven't much flavor of their own. You might try whipped egg white as the "binding" for the cinnamon and sweetener, or simply use a wet sweetener, like agave syrup.)
Afternoon snack: 4 squares of dark chocolate raspberry Chocolove.
Dinner: I had some nuts while waiting for my burger.
Mr. Handsome-and-handy made me a cheeseburger with grilled onions and a green salad. Yum!
But I felt snacky. I had a serving of canned pears (no sugar added syrup).
And some more nuts.
...Double uh-oh...
*sigh*. I guess the bright side is that I didn't plunge face-first into the leftover candy box. I sniffed around it a couple of times, though. I *know* it won't taste that good, I'm *getting* sweet stuff in my day, so I don't know what the attraction is.
After the kids went to sleep, I hopped on the exercise bike and did a 30-minute hill program. My movie wasn't quite done, so I stayed on another 20 minutes on the "cool down" setting. This made for a particularly nice fasting number (95!) the next morning.
Ooh, nice shoes! But the weird thing is, I have a pair of Sauconys (my favorite brand) that have a similar sole, and I don't like them at all for running or even walking. I find them 'clunky.' I use them for work, so as not to waste them. So its interesting to me that a doctor recommended that type of shoe. I guess it just depends on what your foot needs.
ReplyDeleteYummy looking burger. Funny, on my walk, I was thinking about the sandwich I got yesterday, how I always thing I 'want' the sandwich. And then I end up picking it apart and leaving 3/4 of the bread on the plate. And I was thinking, why don't you just get it like Pubsgal does?