Why the milk?

           I'd like to use my first post for this blog as a way to explain why I chose this name for my blog. Well, I (sometimes) enjoy running, but what I enjoy even more is the chocolate milk I drink after I get done with my runs. For you runners/athletes out there, most of you know what I'm talking about. But for those of you who may not run that often, you might think that this sounds very bizarre. I know I did at first.

I first started running regularly when I joined my high school’s cross country team my senior year (about three and a half years ago). As I went through all of the grueling summer practices, my teammates would frequently tell me how great a glass of chocolate milk sounded whenever we got done with a hard workout. I personally thought that that sounded repulsive at the time. Sure, I didn’t mind drinking a glass of it every once in a while when I was sitting at home. But never had I desired it after putting my body through an extremely strenuous activity. So I just ignored what my teammates said about it and never tried it throughout the summer.

Eventually summer came to an end and it was the day of our first race. I still hadn’t tried chocolate milk after a workout. But we crossed the finish line of that race and there they were. Coolers filled with small bottles of chocolate milk. My teammate grabbed one for himself, and one for me, and he told me to drink it. I reluctantly followed his order. I was expecting my body to reject it. I expected it to say “I just ran 3.1 miles, give me water or Gatorade!” But something magical happened. As the liquid poured into my mouth, I experienced a sense of euphoria. My taste buds screamed for joy at the taste of the chocolate milk. My extremely dry throat experienced a great sense of relief after it received a thick coating from the milk. This wonderful drink that I used to despise the thought of after a hard run, was now making the pain I went through over the last 3.1 miles all seem worth it.

Ever since that moment, as I have kept running competitively and “recreationally”, chocolate milk has been my drink of choice after a hard workout. While the descriptive details of my “first time” might seem a bit strange, they were necessary to describe how great chocolate milk tastes after a hard workout or race. And not only does chocolate milk taste wonderful after a workout, it also happens to be extremely nutritious for your body after the workout too (I’ll get into to more detail about this in later blogs). So for those of you exercisers who haven’t tried chocolate milk after your workout, I highly recommend that you try it. And for those of you who don’t enjoy working out, maybe this will be a good incentive for you to start doing it. It has been one for me!

- Feb. 16, 2016