French Fries - they're veggies right?

Dieting with Jimbo

Since I have been running, I have done pretty well at keeping pounds off - in fact I have lost about 30lbs since I started this madness. Mainly through exercise, but I have come up with a couple of dieting concepts.

First we have "Jimbo's Breakfast Bowl Diet". It's very easy - eat what you want, but it has to fit into a breakfast bowl. It sounds quite a clever way of contolling portion size, but there is one slight problem: You would be suprised at how many pieces of fried chicken fit into a breakfast bowl, or bratwursts, or slices of pizza etc. etc.

So the next idea, was "Jimbo's Canclellation Diet". This came about as a joke rebuttal to when someone once questioned my sanity for eating a bacon-cheeseburger washed down with a diet coke.

"Oh, this is the cancellation diet. The diet coke cancels out the burger"

"Really, I didn't know that?"

"Yep really, honest"

So this became the norm - have a salad with your steak - yep, zero sum gain, therefore cancelled.

A burrito - a cancellation diet all wrapped up. The meat is cancelled out by black beans, the cheese cancelled out by salsa.

Pizza - sauce cancels the dough, jalepeno peppers cancel out the cheese, mushrooms cancel out the pepperoni.

Perturbed by breakfast? No problem. An orange juice and a yoghurt will cancel out the bacon and eggs.

I have even had someone question this theory seriously. "You look like you've lost weight Jimbo". "Yep, it's the cancellation diet - as long as you cancel out the bad food with some good food, the pounds will fall off". "Oh, does that work? I will have to try that, thanks."

Prior to Umstead, I had decided to let my appetite be my guide - if I was hungry, I would eat. I certainly didn't want to suffer on any training runs for lack of fuel. I mainly stayed away from the "really" bad stuff, but in the month or so preceding Umstead, I probably put on 6 or 7 pounds (it was all muscle, honest). Between now and Laramie, I will try to get rid of that, plus another couple. If the calculators I have used are correct, this will mean I will burn 500 less calories not having to carry that extra [errr, muscle] mass for 24 hours. That's 5 gels at $1.50 each. We're taking real cash savings here ;)

Which brings me up to my next great diet plan - it is "Jimbo's-combination-cancellation-breakfast-bowl-diet". Fairly simple, you can eat what you want, as long as it fits in a breakfast bowl with an equal amount of food to cancel it out. I mean you can't fit that many drumsticks into a breakfast bowl if you have it half filled with steamed brocoli now can you?

Back to the original question - I travelled through Greenville SC on Monday. Greenville is home to in my opinion the best BBQ restaurant there is, Henry's Smokehouse. Their ribs are out of this world

It is fairly small, and you would probably drive right past it, but if you do find it, the food is delicious, it is friendly, you can smell the hickory smoke in the parking lot, I love everything about the place. They proudly display a Playboy feauture recommending it as one of the best places to get BBQ (see some people DO buy the magazine for the articles)!

For a little over $8, you get ribs, pulled pork, french fries and beans. Heavenly, but try as I might, I can not get the meal to cancel out - unless I call the french fries "vegetables". Yeah, that'll work.