Smoking Mad Men...

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

I got up Tuesday morning feeling like I’d been feeling for the previous three weeks – bloated and slightly nauseous with no interest in food.  I had some sample indigestion medication, an over-the-counter product the doctor had provided and was to take for the next fourteen days.  I had nothing to lose and so swallowed a pill with my banana.  I blended a fruit and vegetable smoothie and drank half on the way to work saving the balance for lunch.

I did more digging and hole patching on the parking lot and service roads throughout the day.  I was hoping the physical activity would make me feel better and to some extent, it seemed to be working.  I came home after work and climbed aboard the trainer, spending 60 minutes riding hard and taking in another episode of ‘Mad Men’.  If you have not seen this series, it is set on Madison Avenue in the advertising industry in 1960.  I almost gag watching all the actors sucking on cigarettes and drinking constantly.  Why didn’t they all die early?  This would be my parents’ generation.  I did watch both parents chain-smoke and thought it completely normal as I grew.  In 1965 however, the Surgeon General came out with strong statements about smoking, the warning appeared on the pack and my dad, to that point a smoker who lit his next cigarette with the stub of the previous one, quit cold turkey.  My mom continued to smoke the same brand in the house and in front of him, but he never waivered.  Though only nine at the time, I realized already the iron will and strength of the man.  He would demonstrate the will and stubbornness many times and in many different fashions as I grew into and through manhood.

I made a batch of French toast for dinner, smothered it in butter and maple syrup and sat down to eat thinking one of my favorite meals would be what it would take to get me eating again.  I ate half and deposited the remainder in the trash.  So much for that theory.

Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  135 bpm.

Calories burned during workout:  850.