Who's afraid of the big bad Kate?

More than once in the past week it has come to my attention that some of my readers and real-life friends feel intimidated by this little bloggity blog, for one reason or another. Yes, I run a lot. But that's just for ME, not something you have to do to make clean eating a success. Yes, the recipes I blog are (mostly) clean, but please understand that's not all we eat. I drink wine, I like beer. And I don't always wait for a special occasion to have a drink. Sometimes The H saying, "Want some wine with dinner?" is occasion enough for me. The fact that I drink less than once a week has more to do with a medication I take than the clean-eating factor.

I don't mean to be misleading when all I post are cleaner recipes, but I don't think a clean eating blog that blathers on about how many times we ate leftovers and/or fast food (yep, we do) in a week would go over so well. We're not perfect. There have been times when I'm simply too lazy--oh yeah, it happens--to prep a CrockPot meal on a Tuesday, so we've blasted through the Burger King drive-thru on the way home from running group. Sometimes I feel bad about that, but mostly not.

If you've been reading me for any length of time, you know that I believe a peanut butter cup flurry is a vital part of my long-run training. Oh, and last week I bought a box of Trader Joe's assorted holiday "Joe-Joe's" cookies (for the uninformed: chocolate-enrobed Oreo-like cookies with various flavored fillings, like peanut butter) just for myself. I have recently developed an insatiable taste for Indian food, particularly chicken tikka masala and garlic naan.

These are rare instances, indulgences, that round me out (haha!) and keep me from losing my mind or being a complete stick-in-the-mud, inflexible, hard-nosed clean eater. That works for some people. But, and I don't know if you know this about me, I HATE being told what to do. That's part of the reason that following a strict training plan for my marathon in October was so hard for me. Of course I like running, that's no secret, but I don't like being told WHEN and HOW FAR to go on my runs. Likewise, I don't like being told I CAN'T eat certain things. If I want fries, I want FRIES already. I won't get a large, and I won't make it a daily habit, but I will eat them. Sometimes my indulgent cravings come back to bite me in the rear, but overall I believe that moderation has been the key to my continued success.

There are times when I need to pull back and rein in my indulgences because I see them becoming more habitual than I'd like. Days when jeans that fit fresh out of the dryer last week are a wee bit snug this week, even on their 2nd wearing. That's when I really dig into my books and magazines and create a solid, clean meal plan for the week. That's when you see a higher weekly-post average from me. It's when I'm quiet about it that I'm stuffing my face with flourless chocolate cake, Andes mints, and flamebroiled goodness.

Now you know my secret... I'll try to give a more accurate representation of our habits, even the not-so-clean ones, if you promise to send more comments my way! Please. :) And now, I'm off to lunch at a Mexican restaurant with coworkers, where I will proceed to order whatever speaks to me at the time. I'm thinking super-spicy beef burrito, actually...