HASAY: Perilous times for patriots

Great news! Casey, fearless leader of Club HASAY (Half As Small As You, a blogger fitness group) has announced members can reduce their post frequency to once a month instead of every Monday. Given the pace of my next 40 days, traveling all over the USA, I appreciate the change.

Now to the moment I've been dreading - public confession that I am not yet ready for the Ironwoman competition. Not even the Aluminum Foilwoman competition. We'll see how I fare tomorrow when we begin hiking in Glacier National Park. Suffice it to say that we won't be doing more than a couple of hours. And there will be no massive elevation gain.

I blame the fourth of July. It is all the fault of Independence Day eating. Never mind the years prior to yesterday which contributed to my fitness level. First I took Super Son to the incredible Vancouver Farmers Market, where he met up with friends and I succumbed to the temptation of the tiny doughnut booth. These little gems can fit in the palm of your hand, hot off the handmade batter-filled fryer. Warm, greasy ectasy. You can keep your Krispy Kremes. It'd be really super easy to forget that they are a kajillion calories - FAT CALORIES - apiece, and eat, say, an entire dozen while talking to a friend at the market.

Yeah, it would be real easy.... it was, in fact. Bad me.

Then it's back to the 'hood, for a fun-filled barbecue with all the families. This could be a terrible weight gaining event, except the other mothers are all really smart about limiting what people bring. I was assigned watermelon. That's a good, healthy choice, right? Yay, me! One neighbor made this amazing homemade potato salad, though...and I had a large buffalo burger. Still, we were pretty restrained. Just one plate of brownies with ice cream, and the portions were really really small to keep everyone from getting too sugared up. So what could have been a pound-packing extravaganza was kept to a very moderate meal level, thanks to the smarts of my fellow citizens.

Now the challenge will be eating light while we sit on our butts several days during this road trip. I'm determined to keep it down as much as possible while still enjoying regional specialities. We stopped in The Dalles, Oregon on the way to Idaho today. A billboard for the The Dalles Burgerville is a warning sign to drivers that it is the "last Burgerville for 24337 miles."

We had to stop.

The fam just listened to an audio book version of Fast Food Nation, and we've all vowed to try to stay away from fast food places. But Burgerville is different. It's got lots of locally sourced food, really good quality stuff, and engages in sustainable business practices, including treating their employees a bit better than the average burger place. Even the kids' meal toys are better than other places' - Daring Daughter got a little pot no, not that kind! and tomato seeds.

And they have Walla Walla onion rings!

I will have to hike a LOT the next two days to make up for these tastes of goodness, but it's well worth it.

My name is Fantastic Forrest, and I am a foodie.

But hopefully, I'll be a more fit foodie after this summer.