Johnson Wins at Sonoma....but should he have??

Hey guess what! An actual post about NASCAR on nascarkyle.blogspot.com! (I think I have maybe had two others.)

Jimmie Johnson captured his first ever (yes folks there was something he hadn't accomplished) at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. The casual observer of this race would come to the natural conclusion that Johnson won the race fair and square, without controversy, with a little help from a Marcos Ambrose mistake. This however is not the case. In 2007 Greg Biffle was awarded a win at Kansas Motor Speedway under caution when he was actually the third lead lap car to cross the finish line. Similar to Ambrose today, Biffle was attempting to save fuel by turning off the engine and coasting. In this process he would fall behind his competitors, only to return to first with the engine back on. Unfortunately Biffle did not get back up to the first spot before the checkered flag, crossing the finish in third. Nascar awarded the win to Biffle. This made many people angry, including me because Biffle clearly surrendered the lead, caution or not. However, when NASCAR made the decision to award the win to Biffle the sanctioning body set a clear precedant allowing this type of action.

Three years later, Ambrose uses this technique and NASCAR takes away the opportunity to win. Was it the right call with no precedants? ABSOLUTELY! But with the 2007 precedant? NO! NASCAR director John Darby was quoted as saying the Biffle situation was different because Biffle's car continued moving and the two cars behind him sped up to make the pass. Sorry Mr. Darby, the situations are the same, and if there is a difference, Ambrose deserved to be restored his position more. At least he had fuel. The only reason Biffle was still rolling at Kansas was because it was at the very end of the race. Ironically the driver that had the win stolen that day in Kansas when Biffle surrendered the lead was none other than Jimmie Johnson.

Thank you NASCAR for once again for your inability to make consistent calls and for ruining an otherwise fantastic race.

Calories and your food

Hey all,

Its been awhile, I know, sorry about that, but today I have something I have been meaning to blog about for some time now. Recently, in an effort to create for myself a more balanced diet I began counting calories. I have never been overweight or in bad health but my diet wasn't too balanced and this may not have been to negative now but in ten years habits developed and continued now will have significant effects then. At first I was just going to count calories and not worry about anything else, and I don't count up any other areas specifically such as sugars, fats, carbs, etc. but I do pay attention when selecting foods and WOW it can be tough to find food.....or at lease that is what I thought. It turns out there is lots of good food that is healthy. A couple awesome snack foods are Wheat Thin crackers and popcorn (with canola oil, no added butter or salt). In addition to these, when you begin watching calories it is amazing how many foods you can eat just by paying attention to serving sizes. Even Doritoes aren't out of the question. Just add up the calories and eat a serving.

A typical day of food for me will include 2200 - 2500 calories on a non-running day while on a running day I will go up to 2500-2800. I could probably even eat a little more but this allows me to go over every now and then without worry and allows me to be more carefree on the weekend.

Breakfast:

Serving of Orange Juice

Serving of Rasin Bran

Lunch

More Cereal! (But this time a sweeter brand)

Apple (Or other fruit)

I will typically have a soda pop, All-in-all my daytime calorie totals usually end up around 1000 calories.

At night I still have 1200 to 1500 calories to eat! I will typically eat a meat dish, most of the time chicken because it is leaner but will have Pork or beef occasionally with a vegetable side and a glass of skim milk. Usually totaling around 470 - 500 calories.

Obviously you would notice that this doesn't add up t0 2500 or even 2200 and if I only ate this I would be very hungry and malnourished, but don't worry after dinner I may have another snack, I can have a beer if I want, some more fruit, anything that fits into the 700 - 1000 calorie range. The important thing to note is that counting calories doesn't eliminate your ability to eat as long as you eat smart. Fast food is great example. I will not eat fast food a lot because it is a ridiculous amount of calories, most of which are empty. But that said I do eat fast food on occasion, I mean seriously how could I turn down the occasional McGriddle, Arby's Roast Beef, or BK Double Cheeseburger, just eat these sparingly and wisely.