NORTH WESTMINSTER — I learned about chia seeds from my daughter Asia, who learned about them from Born To Run by Christopher McDougall, a book about the long-distance running ability of the Tarahumara people of Mexico.
The Tarahumara use chia seeds to enhance their endurance, enabling them to run from place to place throughout their high-mountain abodes. They run in 100-mile marathons, easily finishing before all other competitors.
Of course, I already knew about chia seeds from those Chia Pets that were advertised in comic books when I was a kid. Of course, I had bought one, rubbed the water - soaked seeds into the ceramic “pet,” and watched the green hair grow.
But it had never occurred to me that they could be anything other than an amusement. Reading Born To Run changed my view of them, and I joined Asia in consuming them daily.
At first, I got the chia seeds at the health food store, but they were a bit pricey, so soon I found a bulk distributor online. A friend and I split a large order, and I was set for a long time.
But that supply outlasted my dedication to daily consumption of this natural energy - enhancing miracle. Life being what it is, things happened to interrupt my routine, and chia seeds were one of the things that fell by the wayside.
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Then, recently, I found myself facing the need to be at Johnson State College at 8 a.m. on two consecutive days. Other obligations prevented me from staying over, so for two days running I would be faced with five hours of driving with full days of seminars stuck in the middle of all that road time.
I'd have to get up way before the time my routine-oriented body was used to, and I was a little worried about making it through the days with all my senses intact.
I complained about the situation to Asia. I guess she didn't know that my chia use had lapsed, because she didn't think I had to worry.
“Just make sure you have plenty of chia with you, and you'll be fine,” she advised.
After we'd hung up, I decided: What the heck, it's worth a try. I poked around in my cabinet and found the bag of chia I'd abandoned halfway through. I didn't want to bother mixing it up in the canning jar; I couldn't even remember the right proportions of seeds to water.
So I just poured a tablespoon of the seeds into a pint bottle of flavored water, shook it up for a while, and then stuck it in the fridge. It would be ready by the next morning when I stumbled out of bed for my first long day.
At Johnson State, I carried the bottle around with me all that day and a similar bottle the next. I sipped from it in moments of thirst, moments of inactivity, and moments of boredom.
Asia had certainly been right about one thing: people's attitudes had changed. Back a couple years ago when I would be in public drinking what looked like water full of slime, people would ask me what it was and react with squinched-up noses and gagging sounds.
But now people were asking things like, “Where do you get your chia? And “Have you tried it on your cereal in the morning?” and “I always sprinkle the seeds on my salad.” Even people who didn't know what it was were less apt to react with disgust in the presence of such positivity.
But the best part is - it worked.
I made it easily through all the driving, all the seminars, and all the driving back with nary a hint of the drowsiness I'd been worried about, and when I got as far south as Springfield, I even felt the urge to stop at the Holiday Inn for a little swim to stretch out the kinks from all that driving.
I don't usually enjoy swimming, only doing it as required exercise, but that day I actually had a wonderful time in the pool, coming out feeling refreshed and energetic.
Chia is now back in my life and soon - I hope - to be once more so routine that it becomes automatic.