is chipotle more delicious after a layoff?

Recently, however, I took a break - and not for any reason other than I just didn't go there (as a matter of fact, I ate my way through the 2015 e-coli outbreak - corporate sabotage that it was - on a daily basis, but we'll get to that in a minute). I've been trying new restaurants as well as expanding my own cooking repertoire, and as such, old flings have had to be temporarily pushed aside. But everyone knows that the flame of a first love never truly dies - instead it merely flickers along, wistfully, until one day you happen to run into each other on the street and, in the blink of an eye, the passion of a thousand suns that had lain dormant for what feels like an eternity erupts to the surface and that wistful flicker bursts once more into an engulfing blue flame - full of energy, full of life, full of love. For me that happened this past Tuesday when on an unrelated evening excursion I happened upon my old friend and first love, Chipotle. 

It had been a while, many months in fact, since I had indulged in a delicious Chipotle concoction. I opted for a bowl this go around as tortillas are undoubtedly terrible for you (tangentially related funny story: I used to get my burritos wrapped in 2 tortillas, and as I'm sure you know their tortillas are pretty fucking big, but more on that that later). 

White rice; both beans; throw on the fajita veggies; chicken please........actually could you make it double.

 (You have to ask for a single serving of chicken first, wait until the server is ready to move on, and then ask for the second serving, otherwise if you ask for it all at once they will skimp out on the portion, trust me). 

Corn; mild and medium salsa; sour cream; lots of cheese; and lettuce please; could I also get chips and guac on the side? Thank you. 

...right?

But then I thought about it a little bit longer. I remembered the old days. I read a blog post a few years ago about some amateur who ate Chipotle every day for something like a year. People were amazed because he had abs while eating Chipotle every day. Me and my buddy had a good laugh about it because we worked a 3 year stint together and we used to get Chipotle for lunch, every single day, without fail...for 3 years. Sometimes I would eat it for dinner too! Several nights a week actually. For 3 straight years! The more I ate the more I craved it. I consumed so much goddamn Chipotle they should erect a fucking statue for me. 

This is when you don't even have to place your order anymore because as soon as you walk in the door they already know what it is. They even had a designated girl who had to wrap all of my burritos because she was the only pro there and the burritos I would get were so goddamn big no one else could wrap them without tearing the tortilla to shreds. On days where she wasn't working though one of the amateur wrappers would have to sub in and they would automatically just slap 2 tortillas down onto the foil to make the wrapping process go more smoothly. It was generally the lunch rush so I guess they couldn't afford to have a rookie on the line failing to wrap the same burrito 5 times. Eating that much tortilla wasn't my favorite, but forcing that modification on them was a bit of a badge of honor so I wore it proudly regardless. I think those double tortilla days are behind me now though. 

I can compare the two extremes directly now. My chance run in this past Tuesday after a long layoff, which was freaking delicious in its own right, to the best lunches I had years ago when I was eating the shit every damn day. And as amazing as the former was, the latter was still better! The high of this past Tuesday cannot compare to the highest high of years ago. It's counter intuitive and it makes no sense but it's simply the fact of the matter. 

So the answer to the question posed in the title is no, it's not more delicious after a layoff like I initially thought it would be. But uhhhh, what the fuck? Was this whole thing a euphemism for sex? Drugs? Was it really just a random blog post about my weird relationship with food? To be honest, I thought it was at first, but then as my thoughts came flooding out onto the screen I realized I wasn't talking about food at all! Chipotle is fucking delicious, to be sure, but it's just food, man. I don't live for the hedonic but base pleasure of stuffing things down my throat. That's a bonus, duh, but no - I live to challenge myself. To see what I'm capable of achieving. That's what gets me out of bed every day. 

Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. That's what training is all about. The man who puts in the work day in and day out, without fail - when he's tired, when he's sick, when he's bored, when he hurts, when he doesn't have the time - in the end will be rewarded with mastery and all of the visceral satisfaction that comes along with it. A feeling that nothing else in the world can replicate or compare to. 

Mastery. 

And no matter what happens to your body or your mind, no one and nothing can take it away from you because you've already achieved it. You've already earned it. Those hours you spent training are a testament to your will and your craft is now your trophy. That is training. There is an innate value to it; there is great honor in it. And anyone who can commit themselves to the process has earned respect and admiration and should be commended for it because they've taken something raw and they've cultivated something that can only be cultivated through hard work, unrelenting effort, sheer will, perseverance, patience, vision, and lots and lots of time. So go train! I'm going to go get some more Chipotle.