Welcome to Almost Fit. If this is your first time here, Almost Fit focuses on losing weight and improving your health through eating real food in moderation. If you enjoy this post, please consider subscribing – it’s free, as always. Thanks.

To begin this post, I have two choices for an opening sentence – I’ll leave it to you to choose which you like better:

“It was a dark, stormy, sawdusty and bloated night…”

- Or -

“Once upon a time, in a far away land, I was an overweight cabinetmaker.”

(I’m leaning toward the latter.)

During college, I worked as a cabinetmaker in a small shop in the San Juan islands. One of my shining moments as an apprentice (and by shining, I mean horribly painful and incompetent) was during one of my first installations.

As the apprentice my job was primarily to fetch tools, carry heavy things, and clean up, leaving the real installation work to the more experienced installer I was helping. On this fateful day however, things went slightly different.

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I want to let you in on a little secret:

I love thrift store shopping.

And not just to save money.

In addition to being pretty frugal on certain things, I enjoy shopping at thrift stores for more than just the savings. Don’t get me wrong – I love finding that amazing deal, but that’s not quite enough to keep me coming back to the mysterious color-coded tagging systems, “vintage” kitchy glassware, and dusty late ’80s electronics bins. And although you might question how this is connected to improving my health, I assure you there are logical reasons.

There are also a few gigantic, impossible, James-Cameron-like stretches of reason – but hear me out.

Before I get into that, let me be clear that there are a few things I don’t buy ever at thrift stores. Old non-stick cookware is out. Old electronics? Very rarely, if ever. Underwear? No way ever ever ever. And the king of things to never buy? Intimate items for your significant other, which amazingly they do sell (never never ever, gentlemen).

Reasons I love shopping at thrift stores – oh yeah and that health tie-in thing

Here’s a list of some of the reasons why I love shopping at thrift stores when you’re trying to lose weight.

- Rewarding yourself with clothes that fit – on a budget. One of many great tips I come across repeatedly (and use to my advantage) is to “reward” yourself with clothes that fit as you get in better shape. Similarly, you can set up a goal by buying something that you love but that is a little too small – Its a great motivator for me.

However, clearly this could get expensive if you’ve got a lot of weight to lose, and especially if you’re eating higher quality food that may force you to rethink your budget priorities a little. And that’s where thrift stores come in.

Case in point: The pants in the picture.

I bought these pants today knowing full well that they do not fit – YET. They are about a size too small in the waist, but the quality was too good to pass up. So, these pants become a great weight loss tool: they are an affordable source of motivation to get down another pants size.

And these pants are luscious. Yeah, I just said “luscious”.

They are pants that normally retail for easily more than I’d spend on 3 pairs of pants, but being a find at the thrift store means they’re within my inner cheapskate’s boundaries. And the best part? Today was blue tag day at the thrift store, so they were marked down by an additional 50% to $7.47 – an almost 95% discount off of retail, and never worn as far as I can tell. But they will be soon, proudly.

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Ed. Note: Welcome to Almost Fit. Almost Fit focuses on enjoying real food in moderation as a core weight management principle, rather than common diet methodologies (a.k.a. “fads”) for weight loss. This post is a check-in on my goals for the year, which include losing 75 lbs through moderation, intermittent fasting, and a varied combination of eating methods. Thanks for reading – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

It occurred to me this morning that we are now in the “teens” of February, and I have yet to post anything on Almost Fit this month – not exactly in alignment with one of my year’s goals of regular posting, but so it goes. Time to get back on track.

Illness finally finished – I hope

As I mentioned in my last post, I fell ill to the flu at the end of January – illness of the swine variety apparently. It knocked me down much more  than I expected, considering nobody else in our family had symptoms as severe (we each got sick to some degree, but it really hit me the hardest especially in the lungs). I felt like I was recovering a week later, but even walking up a flight of stairs made me have to stop and sit down, sweating and out of breath. As it has turned out, it has only been this week that I feel that I’ve completely returned to normal. And hopefully that means a short run – my first in February – is on my itinerary today.

I decided to go easy on the diet and exercise while I recovered, which as you might imagine was pretty darn easy, right? Actually that is not strictly true – while doing “nothing” is certainly easier than working out regularly, for me it was frustrating to be making such progress in the “feeling good about exercise” department only to be held back by my own health. It’s a good lesson though – I can’t afford to take my health for granted. I plan to use that as a key motivator.

Ahem – did I just say “go easy on the diet”?

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At the beginning of this year I described 3 major goals for 2010 with regard to my overall health and fitness (“2010: Setting them up and knocking them down“). So how are things progressing? I will do a summary post after the month is over, but with about a week to go I want to check in to give myself enough time to push a little if I’m coming up short. Here’s a quick summary of my goals, sub-goals, and the milestones I’m shooting for.

• Year goal: Complete at least one major running event this year.

Sub-goal: Beat my aversion to running in the Oregon rain.

Milestone for January: Return to running 3 miles 3 times per week, with one 5 mile run by the end of January.

• Year goal: Lose 75 lbs this year – and if I lose it early, keep it off.

Milestone for January: Lose 10 lbs this month.

• Year goal: Start writing at least one meaningful post per week for Almost Fit.

Milestone for January: you guessed it – 5 Almost Fit posts.

So how am I doing so far?

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Ed. note: This is part 2 of a series that was written after a day of trying intermittent fasting, or IF. As I explained in part 1, fasting is not starvation, and is a discipline that has been practiced for thousands of years by cultures around the globe. Here’s how it went.

On Saturday I decided that it was the right time to try intermittent fasting (IF). As I explained in part 1 (“20 hours without eating: the intermittent fasting experiment“), IF is essentially giving your body a break from food for a set period of time, and then eating the calories and nutrients you need during a specific window. If you are trying to lose weight, the key is during your eating times you take in the appropriate nutrients while maintaining a reasonable and healthy caloric deficit.

In my case I chose to fast for 20 hours, starting at 9PM the previous evening and having only water (and a cup of coffee) until 5PM the next day. I also asked my wife to make dinner for the family to be ready at 5 or so, just so that when the fast was over I could actually eat something substantial and more importantly, planned (in my mind, no plan might equal disaster food-wise). I also asked her to make something extra tasty .

Of course, I wasn’t sure if I could even make it that long mentally. Could I actually last 20 hours without giving in to cravings of, well, anything? How would I do physically and more importantly, emotionally? I decided to go for it, knowing that if things got too out of hand I could always stop. The results were pretty surprising.

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Ed. note: This part 1 of a post that was written on Saturday after a day of trying intermittent fasting, or IF. Note that fasting is not starvation, and is a discipline that has been practiced for thousands of years by cultures around the globe. That said, I approached it as an experiment, with some pretty surprising results.

The idea of intermittent fasting (IF) has intrigued me for some time. I am a big fan of the website Fitness Spotlight, and have read their exhaustive research on the subject of IF several times, always wondering whether it is realistic for me. Today, I gave it a shot.

A little context: Before I tried the fast I had a doctor’s appointment at which I discovered a) that I had already lost two pounds on the year at that point, and b) my blood pressure was surprisingly good (122/78) despite increased stress right now. This was great news since it was a significant improvement from borderline high blood pressure a year ago, and made me feel as though my longterm dietary changes have helped my overall health. Of course one measurement is not enough to establish a trend, but I’ll take it until the next BP check. Although I am far from in ideal condition weight-wise, my other vitals appear to be pretty good.

Good news at the doctor’s office, even a little, is a great energizer.

Second, this morning I got up with the kids at around 7:00AM, and felt motivated to go hard after my general dietary goals. I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything last night after about 9:00PM or so. Having been reading about the paleo/primal methods of eating over the past few days, and the use of intermittent fasting in combination with it, it occurred to me that I was in an ideal state to give it a try. I knew that I had a 3-mile run scheduled for the afternoon, so I was curious to see not only how I would deal with it throughout the day, but how it would affect my energy levels.

Why fasting?

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With the flipping of the 10-year digit from zero to one, the thought of a new decade brings a lot of positive momentum for me. I’m in the midst of completing my first personal annual review (the idea courtesy of Chris Guillebeau at The Art of Nonconformity), and it is definitely filled with positives and negatives. I feel like I’ve spent an awful lot of time on the negatives lately here on Almost Fit, so I’m going to keep that part of the summary short.

Equally as important, with the new decade upon us it’s time to set a few goals, and start knocking those pins down, one at a time if I have to.

The Good

On the positive side, I’ve done one thing really well: I’ve maintained steady income for a year – though the impact on my diet hasn’t been so great. For some this idea of having a consistent income is an assumed fact of life, but for many of us it is far from assured. Along the lines of work I’ve also greatly downsized the number of side projects that I was pursuing at the beginning of the year (in January of last year I had 9 personal, full-time projects/business beginnings – and was coming up short on all of them). Taking a quick mental inventory I’m down to 3 enjoyable part-time projects, including Almost Fit.

This is progress.

Another positive includes dramatically improving my cooking and prep skills (in my opinion at least); my wife and best friend is an excellent cook, and I’ve been under her culinary wing for a few years now. I feel that in the last 6 months I’ve really started to develop stronger culinary instincts – meaning I pair food together better, I cook more efficiently, I burn or overcook food much less often, and have good ideas on how to improve a dish I’m cooking by taste. I’m getting to know the flavor profiles of foods and seasonings much better, and I have a clearer understanding of herbs and spices that balance flavors.

These advances in cooking have made cooking at home that much more enjoyable. Of course, it also makes overindulgence a bit too easy at times, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Other positives (that are no less important) include keeping up with my ever-changing children – solving problems and setting them up for success (no small feat); remodeling my wife’s painting studio from bare bones to finished product (finishing this weekend); several small family vacations; and I’ve greatly improving my photography skills and knowledge – as well as starting a new project on the subject.

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Welcome to Almost Fit. Generally Almost Fit focuses on one simple thing: Eating Real Food in Moderation. However, I’ve been a bit dormant lately, and I felt that an explanation might be in order. This is a personal entry on where I’ve been, however I’ll be returning to my regular format soon in one way or another, as I’ll hopefully get to in this post. feel free to skip this article – it’s not for everyone. Thanks for reading.

Let me start out by saying this post is not about food, moderation, eating, exercising, or just about anything else that normally appears on Almost Fit. In fact, this post has more to do with the state of this site, and some non-food inspiration that seems to be working it’s way into my mind.

To be brutally honest, over the last few months or so I reached a burnout point as the sole writer of Almost Fit, and I didn’t even realize it until it was in full swing. And to take it a step further, the burnout goes beyond this site: although I haven’t abandoned the principles of eating real food by any means, I’ve certainly let a lot of things through the gates that I have not allowed in quite some time. Quantities have crept back up, types of foods that I’d normally avoid have slipped back in (read: too much bread, beer a little too frequently, and more than a few restaurants and food carts that I’d probably do well to moderate, if not eliminate for a while).

So what does that mean? Have I given up? Failed, even?

It means, I think, that I’m human. Just don’t tell my kids quite yet – I still would like them to think of me as exceeding that bar at least for another year or two.

“So there’s this thing called Work/Life balance. Ya’ mighta’ heard of it.”

I think the heading here says more about where I’ve been than probably anything else. In the current economic climate, you don’t need to be reminded about how things are, but sufficed to say I do not take anything for granted with my current contract work in my day job. I am focused, effective, but more than that – mildly obsessed with exceeding expectations. I work many more hours than I should (and than I bill for), but these days I think it’s what you have to do to stay valuable when there are a dozen others in line behind you who would gladly fill your shoes. I freely admit I might be wrong, but frankly, the consequences of failing are not worth the risk of giving less right now. You have to hustle, no two ways about it.

However (and this is a BIG however), I also realize that things have gone a little too far. Too much work, whether it be the actual doing of the work in front of the computer, or continually solving problems in my mind in the “off hours” of the day. Too much working, not enough living. My ultimate fear is that I will burn myself out on this contract by working excessively, and it will be at the sacrifice not only of the income but of my health as well. And of course, above all else, to the detriment of my family, which I cannot ever afford.

So, it’s time for a few changes. Minor adjustments, but changes nonetheless.

The first thing? Take weekends off. I haven’t really done that in months – at least not mentally. I am one of those people who checks their work email at all times of the day and evening 7 days a week, fearing that there will be a minor disaster (and amazingly, there never is). Well that needs to change.

Second, I have GOT to renew my focus on exercise for mental health. Exercise helps me to keep things in perspective much more so than any other activity. Sadly, it’s also the hardest to do for me and the first thing to go when a deadline is approaching. My exercise plan is to start small of course, but I have an idea on how I’m going to get myself back on track – but more on that in an upcoming post.

Third, of course, is diet. Getting back to the basics of moderation and proactive choices. I’ve got a pretty big library of ideas here on this site to review; I’ll be doing that in the coming weeks and hopefully sharing what I find with readers.

Inspired – again

When I started Almost Fit, I had many inspirations, but one or two blogs in particular really convinced me of the value of creating something meaningful in this format. As I’ve mentioned many times, Zen Habits is certainly one of those sites. In some ways I think Leo (the creator of Zen Habits) and I have developed different views on specific subjects (I like Apple products, but I don’t believe they are the solution to simplicity necessarily, nor do I believe they’ll be shaking Microsoft’s hold on the personal computer any time soon – but I digress), but it is still essential reading for me daily.

Another site that absolutely continues to inspire me is Chris Guillebeau’s site, The Art of Nonconformity, which energizes me like few others. Chris is attacking his business in incredible ways, and is consistently hitting the ball further and further out of the park. I subscribe to his site via RSS and email so that I don’t miss a post.

But where I’m really headed with all of this is a specific post on one of my essential reads: Get Rich Slowly. The particular post to which I’m referring is titled simply, “Failure is Okay.” In it, J.D. describes his experience trying to ice skate, and relates that to his experience with Get Rich Slowly. This particular section really hit home:

It’s never too late to change direction, to start making smart choices. If you’re 40 and don’t have retirement savings, you can start saving tomorrow. If you’re 30 and staggering under the weight of credit card debt, you can cut up your cards and make a commitment to change direction. The wonder of the future is that it can be built upon the ashes of the past.

I have reread this article several times, reminding myself that leaving Almost Fit dormant for a while does not constitute permanent failure; it has been a chance for me to recalibrate my views, and now to build upon the ashes.

Hopefully this is the beginning of great, new things in these parts. I hope you stick around to find out.

Best to you,

Metroknow

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Editor’s note: This post is a “Real Food” recipe that follows the core philosophy of this site: Eat Real Food in Moderation. The idea is to find delicious, practical, seasonal alternatives to industrial food products. Of course, the recipes do not focus on low fat/low carb dietary ideas, so the key as always is moderation. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to my feed. Thanks.

Green corn tamales are a seasonal favorite in the American southwest, various areas of Mexico including Sonora and Veracruz, and even a few islands in the Caribbean. If you’re unfamiliar with green corn tamales, one of the hallmarks is the texture: where a traditional, well-made tamale is moist and cake-like, a green corn tamale is generally a little “wetter”. Depending on the version, the texture can range from nearly a creamy corn salad to somewhat like a thick custard. They are best made when corn is in season, generally from May to October in northern regions.

After doing some digging, it’s clear that there are a variety of theories on why they’re called green corn tamales. I’ve read ideas ranging from the use of the green husks to wrap them, to the fact that some include a non-traditional whole green chile (I highly doubt the latter as the reason). The theory I find most likely however is the use of fresh corn straight off the cob. Where “traditional” tamales rely on corn flour (masa) as the primary ingredient for the dough, green corn tamales generally use fresh corn as the main ingredient. The physical difference is obviously the moisture content in fresh corn, but I’ve also found that the flavor is (usually) slightly sweeter (particularly if the corn is ripe). The flavor also has an “earthy” quality to it that I don’t seem to get as much of in corn flour tamales. I also tend to think that the use of fresh corn for the tamale probably predates corn flour, but I don’t have any proof – it’s just a hunch.

Are green corn tamales worth the effort?

When I decided to try to make green corn tamales for the first time, I received a variety of responses from folks I knew who had made tamales before. But mostly it seemed that each comment echoed two themes: a) It is a LOT of work, and b) what time should I come over for dinner? Read the rest of this entry »

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…a nasty little virus knocks you down.

No, not swine flu thank goodness, but something toxic that took up residence in the back of my throat for a week. I came down with a virus shortly after my last post (same day), and after fighting it for days finally gave in and went to the doctor. It turns out it was part bacterial (treatable with a mild course of antibiotics), and part virus (not so treatable – my body just has to do it’s thing).

The good news is I’m on the mend, and the worst seems to be behind me – the fever has been gone for days, and my throat is now functioning again. The bad news is the virus moved from my throat into my eyes and lungs, so I now look like I’ve been smoking an illicit substance or two, and have the hacking cough to go along with it. Believe me, when my throat felt like I had an angry, adamantian claw-fisted animal trying to gnaw and scratch his way out of my gullet horizontally, I would have considered just about any solution. Fortunately, my doctor had a fix that did not require me to take up a new vice.

Because let me tell you, I really don’t need any more vices. Bread, refined sugar and Doritos are enough.

At any rate, I just wanted to post a quick note to let readers know I’m still hanging in there, and should be back to normal this week. I’ve got a few posts in the queue including one on my adventures into the land of making fresh green corn tamales from scratch, another round of suggested reading, and hopefully a significant post on healthy food options (and that’s all I’ll vaguely say for now). And if all goes well, a surprise or two.

Thanks for reading.

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