Wednesday, June 5, 2019

WWU - 5.6 For 56 Years? Or, 56 For 56 Years??

After last year's 5.5 mile run where I nearly passed out from heat exhaustion, I decided to retire doing a run to celebrate my birthday.  Instead I figured I'd do something at BCS Fitness...maybe pull 56 calories on the skier machine, or row 560 meters on the rower, or do 56 reps of something.

Well, none of that is possible at the moment.  So my birthday fitness pictures, which previously looked like this:

Starting at age 49, finishing at age 55, having run the corresponding distance in miles (with a decimal point thrown in between the first and second number as I'm not capable of running 50+ miles, in case you didn't already know that, haha).

 Now look like this:
Potions and pills.

Between the brain fog from taking pain meds plus taking so many pills, some in the morning, some at night, some both - I had to get a pill organizer so I could make sure I was taking everything correctly without questioning myself partway through the day.  At least I found one that is a rainbow, so it makes me happy when I see it.

Anyway, back to my new age number - 56.  With nothing athletic on the table, I was inspired to eat 56 different items on my birthday.  The idea came to me after Jeff suggested going to brunch at the new Casa do Brasil restaurant in town - they are known for the gauchos who bring skewers of different types of meat to your table and slice off a portion of whatever you choose, but they are also known for their extensive salad bar, and I love a good salad bar, so I figured this challenge would be a piece of cake.  Also, there would be cake.  We ate light on Saturday and didn't eat anything on Sunday until we arrived at the restaurant, so our stomachs were ready for allllll the food.

I was already one plate in when we remembered to take pictures:
Eating 56 items sounds easier than doing 56 pushups, right?
Jeff - I wonder if he could do this for his birthday?  He's six years older than me, so it's that much more challenging...
First trip to the salad bar - there are 17 items on this plate.  I wasn't counting as I was choosing food, I was just picking what looked good.
Second trip - 7 items.  Plus I had a bite of an egg dish from Jeff's plate and also a quartered little potato that was rosemary roasted - yum!
I spooned a small amount of Greek yogurt plus some passion fruit mousse into a little bowl and topped it with toasted coconut and some granola.
These are the side dishes that are brought to your table once you flip your cards to green, signaling that you are ready for meat.  I had a forkful of mashed potatoes, one of the french fry-looking item that was a type of Brazilian cornbread, and I didn't have the last dish, which was caramelized bananas.  Jeff did and said they were good.

I took pictures of each piece of meat but just random slices of meat on a plate are not particularly appetizing looking, so I'll spare you those shots.  I was getting pretty full and tried several kinds of meat - the parmesean-crusted pork tenderloin was really good, as were the Fraldinha - bottom sirloin - and the Picanah - prime top sirloin.  Jeff had the Beef Ancho, which is prime ribeye and he said it was excellent, but by then I was really full, and I knew there was more to come.
Chocolate mousse cake!  Free because it was my birthday - I could choose any dessert from the menu, but let's face it, if it's chocolate, I'm going to pick that.  I don't know if you can see from this angle, but there's a candle burning in the whipped cream so I got to make a wish and blow it out!  Jeff and I shared the cake; it was delicious and I really enjoyed it.

After we'd gone home and rested for a bit, I added up everything that I ate, sure that I was close to 56 items.  I was shocked when I saw that I'd only had 38 items - I thought that for sure with the salad bar I'd be near 56 with that alone!  Nope.  So it was a challenge for the rest of the day to eat 18 more things considering I. Was. Full.

I scrounged enough items, like a pretzel stick, a Goldfish cracker, a couple of pieces of popcorn - you get the picture - to hit the magic number of 56, ending with a chewy Tums, which probably was the best thing to end this challenge with, don't you agree?

This birthday, I was feeling pretty bummed that I couldn't do my usual run or workout to mark the occasion, so finding something different and crazy like eating my age was uplifting and fun.  Plus Jeff and I really enjoyed our entire experience at the restaurant, and now we have a new restaurant to add to our list!

16 comments:

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    1. It was...you can't go wrong with good food and a chocolate mousse cake!

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  2. When you said what your challenge was my first thought was ‘that is going to be difficult!!’ I love the idea!!! What a fun way to celebrate!!!!

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  3. That's a fun way to celebrate this year. But it does sound challenging. I'm not sure I even eat 56 different things lol.

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    1. I just added up what I've had today - five items (and two were espresso and the milk I frothed so I could have a latte). I bet on a normal day I might get 15 items...

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  4. I'm sorry you couldn't do your usual birthday run, but it sounds fun thinking of other was to honor those numbers! So was it 56 different food items or just 56 pieces of food. So like 3 strawberries would count for 3 pieces or was it strawberries in general just count as 1 item?

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    1. My rules were that it needed to be 56 different food/drink items, which is why it was quite the challenge!

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  5. This was a great idea! I've never been to one of those Brazilian meat joints and now I want to go.

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  6. I love this challenge! :) It doesn't always have to be fitness-related as long as it's fun! I went to a beer festival on my 33rd birthday with the goal of trying 33 different beers (and succeeded AND managed to get on the right train to go back home, amazingly).

    I LOVE those Brazilian steakhouses, but definitely save them for special occasions. I feel like the salad bars there are the hidden secret of those places, they have such good stuff! And the parmesan pork tenderloin is my favorite meat that they have! Yummm!

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  7. A great alternative activity to mark your 56th. Made me laugh that the last item in was a Tums! The food looks delicious, too. And you could achieve your goal in one day, which wouldn't have been possible with my idea that you could knit 56 socks LOL Happy belated birthday, Shelley!

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  8. That sounds like a fun challenge, but maybe over the whole day and you can get it done rather than the last meal. And then you will have one more food bite to fit in next year :D

    I've always wanted to try one of those meat places, but that's a little hard now with John being a vegetarian LOL.

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  9. Ha! What a fun challenge, and congrats on meeting it! It sounds really hard!

    That kind of restaurant sounds fun :)

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