happy 100th birthday to Kim Il Sung and I'm a Vegetarian.

The North Koreans gave me a headache all morning.

And when I came back after being out for hours - running stairs at my friend's, at the gym, and a Wal-mart run, they were still at it. Banging chairs, clapping, hollering, and singing off-key in unison. The amount of beer outside their doors is amazing. But all I can think of is how those calories could go to better use feeding their people.

I swear CNN should film this crap. Forget interviewing an anonymous defector, get inside this dorm and tape the real deal. Intoxicated, loud, obnoxious, skinny, beady eyed NK's are my neighbors. (can you tell I'm feeling a lot of love for the international community tonight?) I just want some peace and fairness. If the Americans were to throw a 4th of July party we would be shut down, but those isolationist turds were allowed to party (and freak out my cat) all day. This is unfair treatment of students. Someone should pass out tylenol when students move into this dorm. "You're gonna need it for the NK holidays."

I know I should have a well of compassion somewhere within me for these people. But all I can think of is that they have no common courtesy. One day I'm going to blast, "Born in the USA," at 2 am once they fall into their drunken stupors. And then give them some rice or something.

Anyways. My NK induced headache did not help my afternoon workout. I met Jess at her apartment and we ran the stairs in record time. Only my mind started to go down the path to negative town really fast and I never recovered.

I have gained about 4 pounds in the past 2 months since India. Basically, I just gained back the weight I lost in India. Which is fine, because that weight loss was most likely diarrhea-induced and not true fat loss. But with the half-marathon only a month away, I do not feel at my fittest and I am nervous. Every time I work out I feel....big. This is very different from a few months ago. I know it is mostly a mind issue. That my body is strong, has made amazing improvements, and should be loved and cared for. But I want to make some changes to my routine so that I can amp up my performance factor and my confidence heading into this race.

I want to feel like this the whole time...

The change I am making this month is fitness and nutrition related. I've been about 80% vegetarian for about a year now, but I am planning to go full-monty for a month and see how it feels. My mom recently sent me pot roast slow cooker packets and I gagged. (sorry mom, love you). I knew after that that I am ready to make the switchfrom 80% to 100% veg.

I'm not going to get all reachy about it - I believe that eating meat is a fine thing to do, that people (especially in developing countries) need the meat of animals to sustain themselves when there are not other protein options available because of crop availability. (explaining vegetarianism to an average Chin.ese person is funny. They think if the pieces of meat in a dish are small, they don't count. haha). And in India I thought to myself, "someone feed that damn cow to these hungry kids!" (I'm very culturally sensitive 100% of the time;) )

But I do have other options as a middle-class first-worlder and I personally feel stronger with less flesh in my body. So I am testing the vegetarian waters for a month - just to get my body running on clean energy before the race. I might eat meat again after the race- I might not. And I probably won't post it either way, but I like to journal my training thoughts, so these are going here today. :)

I just really want to feel strong and powerful when I hit the Great Wall next month, and I can't go in there feeling the way I do now. Nothing changes is nothing changes, so I'm changing my eating. (I'm also watching sugars, but you don't need a play by play of my nutrition, booooring).

Everytime I go to Walmart I am encouraged in my vegetarian endeavors....

That is seriously gross and sad.

But then I was leaving the gym tonight and was reminded of my own hypocrisy when I saw this billboard for fried chicken at McDonalds and was like...I WANT THAT NOW.

I broke a deal with myself and settled for a 50cent ice cream cone.

I almost included this nightshirt in the deal because it seemed too good to pass up.

But I saved my 5$ for another day. I'll need it for imported lentils this month. Maybe I'll share with the NK's.

Cheers.

walk slow. xoxo.