Jogging, kayaking and self-indulgence

Cher and I went away for a few days at a friend's cottage in Kearney, ON. This was our annual "Round the World" weekend, attended by four couples, including the hosts. Each couple chooses a country and prepares a meal from it. This year we did Spain; other couples did Italy, France and Greece. It's the one weekend each year when I have to completely ignore my diet and just indulge myself. That being said, this year's meals weren't too bad - not too heavy on the fat, and only some of the desserts had too much sugar for my taste.

Our meal - Sunday brunch - consisted of tapas: red peppers stuffed with minced pork, onion and Spanish rice; boiled asparagus wrapped with salmon, Spanish omelette (eggs, of course, potatoes, onion and herbs), plus an apple and walnut salad with mayonnaise dressing (half fat olive oil mayo). A little starchy - due to the rice and potatoes - but plenty of protein, healthy fat and fibrous carbs.

I always try to balance the culinary indulgence with some exercise. As I expected, I was awake long before everyone else in the cottage, so I went for a run around town. It's pretty small - population: 800 - so I pretty much covered every street, which took me about 45 minutes. Because I've been trying to take it easy the past few days, I didn't really run as fast as usual, but there are plenty of hills, so they were challenging.

Lake Perry, Kearney, ON

When I got back, I had some oatmeal - oats, milk/water (my usual semi-skim wasn't available), raisins, ground flax, and apple sauce - then one of the other guys wanted to go kayaking. I've never done this before, which was obvious due to my complete lack of direction with the oars. I'm also scared shitless of water because I'm a weak swimmer. Even though I was wearing a life jacket, whenever the kayak wobbled slightly from a slight wave, I thought I was going to roll over (never even got close to happening - just my fear) and it was then that I realised I had no idea what to do if I ended up under water. We were kayaking for about an hour and even though I wasn't paddling quickly, I must have done some work as my pecs were pretty sore the next day. Perhaps I might start kayaking down the Nith!

I started to go for another early morning run on Sunday, but about 10 minutes in, my left knee started to hurt a bit (OMP), so I walked the rest of the route.

Overall, the weekend was a good balance of culinary treats and self-discipline.