I'd have preferred for this to be a race day post. As I had deleted the race's original SVG design, last night, I grabbed a screenshot off Cricut so that I could trace bitmap an approximate to post here.

It's a simple design and CLEARLY DERIVATIVE of STRANGER THINGS, which IT SHOULD BE for it couldn't be anything else! Sure, it's in terms of taking place on Halloween, but more significantly, it marks not only a 500-day diet streak, but the successful streaks that came before it via the shirt's back.

front of shirt:

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STRANGER THINGS has been a companion across this weightloss ride, whether my playing the synthwave genre throughout or even season 3's, "One Summer Can Change Everything" poster that once hung in my gym.

It seemed befitting that for Race 1, the event I looked toward to for YEARS, would feature a STRANGER THINGS theme. When I kicked a keto diet off in June 2020, I didn't know where I would land 500 days later or that it would EVER be CARNIVORE for in context, my absolute PRIDE at that point was a low-calorie vegan diet that got to 116 days, breaking the previous record by 22 days, something special before it was squashed by this MONSTER TRUCK RALLY BIGFOOT BEHEMOTH MEGA-DIET—this current streak OBLITERATES all of my past high scores COMBINED.

back of shirt:

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At what point does a diet become: it's just what I do?

Well, it's food for thought...for now, we're on to Cincinnati. Up next: Thursday's weigh-in for The 24th Expedition's results.

The 2021 WOLVERINE Cup Series kicked off this morning at the University of Memphis with the The 500th Night Diet 5K. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day with a sunny, 48° F start.

I had some trepidation entering the race as my body was in a detrained context—I had a fear that I'd stop running: it's like an anxiety that runs over me that I would give up and quit. I've always been that way, even when I was 16. Thus, with a Rocky-themed playlist along for the ride, I declared that the one thing I REFUSED to do was quit. And once I hit the corner of Goodman and Spottswood, I began my roadwork toward the University:

Course Route

The biggest challenge of the race came right at the beginning with four-flights of stairs to hit the pedestrian bridge followed by the descent. Most of the race thereafter was running through my memories, seeing all the faces that have moved on, building up to a swing around Patterson as I smiled toward those in MA and study abroad programs. Of course, at whatever I weigh right now and this nearly 200-day beard, I'm hardly recognizable to those 2009 & 2011-2012 folks. Now, for those from 1996-2001 or still others from 2003-2006, there are some similarities.

Today, I did not stop. I kept enough in the tank to release my best pace in the last leg to close things out. My time, 56:37, is merely a benchmark for me to beat in the next race. Back in 1998, I thought my 3-mile time in 29 minutes was atrocious. But, I know what I've accomplished to get to this point, so I won't be hard on myself. But, that time OUGHT to be the worst of the 2021 season! For this week, it's the best time of this year!

The next competition is a week from now: The Ram & the Bear 5K at Ellendale Park on November 7.

In the past, few days, I've pitched "just a bit outside" regarding my calcium intake—it wasn't on purpose! I've read where a single teaspoon of ground eggshell is 800-1,000 mg of calcium. And what have I been doing in recent days? About 2-3 TABLESPOONS of that superior absorptive egg shell a day! For those of you playing at home, that's a whopping 9000 mg of calcium!

My digestive track sent a rather cross interoffice memo on the subject. Whether it's the irritation from what might be typified on a jobsite as concrete silica or from the actual calcium itself, I do not know. Neither do I really know how much calcium I am absorbing—or how much I WANT! In 2020, I questioned whether I absorbed the entirety of my optimized RDA-to-calorie diet. There's also a context of government authorities being unwilling or unable to provide the actual reqs. Even if we knew (we do not) what we need, what about customization: Present Me just ain't the same as Twenty-Nine Years Ago Me, even at the same height. There was a reason why once upon time, I could knock back a tray of freshly fried apple pies on my breaks at Piggly Wiggly when that same behavior today vaults me past 300 lbs!

And yet, we're still just talking about me, somebody who is far more relevant as an analog than that oddly-shaped, androgynous Walmart shopper, a hopped-up-on-Pop-Tarts-and-Pixy-Stix middle schooler raging down the aisle or that old man in the overalls catching flies on a bench. Nevertheless, it's "recommended" we all eat the same. You can see my departure aboard my keto-to-carnivore flight, as I completely disregard those silly, little Nutrition "Facts" beyond chuckling at what shell game sugar is playing this time. And this flight is arriving soon!

The whole RDA thing was kicked off in the first place by just examining what people ate in the 1940s. I don't know if cigarette consumption made the list! Remember when doctors used to prescribe them? It's not unlike Coca-Cola's medicinal emergence. That said, if today people were more like that WWII generation, we'd be far better for it—somebody gimme a Lucky Strike, stat!

Who am I kidding? Be human. What did we eat before we got too big for our britches? If I may misappropriate this quotation:

Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed.

After reading my own Nutrition Facts, there's a strong push to simma down na on egg shells.