Want to eat well? Ask your favorite Locavore
This post is Thursday’s Real Food Resource, which is a weekly spotlight on books, sites, and relevant media that helps you to identify what real food is. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to Almost Fit. Thanks.
Every once in a while I stumble across an entirely new, personally unexplored pocket of the Internet that really inspires me. I don’t know why I’m surprised by the discovery, but each time I find an unexplored corner of the Web, I feel like I’ve landed in a new self-contained community filled with thousands of original and interesting perspectives that no one from my tribe has ever seen. Yes, its geeky, but it’s not unlike what I might imagine exploring new galaxies would be like, if I were, you know, to geek out (assuming of course, that we are not…..Alone…..[cue the doom music]…..).
Not that I ever have that mental picture of myself, in a space suit, or anything.
I will admit, however, that in my mind I visualize myself exploring tide pools filled with strange and interesting things.
When I started Almost Fit my inspiration began with a combination of physically local blogs (which I still read) and a handful of widely scattered favorites. The Portland locals included Get Fit Slowly, Portland Food and Drink, and Kevin Allman’s blog for just plain great writing (although Kevin has since moved from Portland to his hometown on the Gulf Coast). My wider net of favorites at the time included Orangette, ZenHabits, and the Sartorialist, among many others, most of which I still read voraciously. Over time, that list has of course grown beyond all rational and reasonable levels of control and safety.
So why stop now?
Thursday’s Real Food Resource
For this week’s Real Food Resource, I’m highlighting a thriving hub of the Internet that I literally had not stumbled across until last night:
http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/
Eating locally is one of the core tenets of eating Real Food in Moderation, although I don’t insist on making a virtual “religion” out of it. I tend to lean away from the extremes in diet and fitness, as I think for the most part, unless you have a medical mandate to do so, they are short-term solutions at best and sometimes unhealthy practices in the long run. And even the medical mandates should be questioned.
I think that is why I was so excited to find this site - their suggestion is to take your food selection seriously, do your best, but be reasonable. It is not a Cardinal sin to eat a tomato in January - but you should consider including locally grown, seasonal options.
What is their focus? Here is how the writers describe themselves:
EatLocalChallenge.com is a group blog written by authors who are interested in the benefits of eating food grown and produced in their local foodshed.
Spanning the United States, the group is committed to challenging themselves to eat mainly local food during a specific period of time during the year.
In this article, “A few tips for the May 2006 Eat Local Challenge“, the Locavore pledge is cited with the last line as a humorous addendum, which I felt really boils things down on the question of how to shop for food:
If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.
If all else fails, at least don’t eat at McDonald’s!
I also really appreciate the site’s candor, with articles like, “About four days ago, I decided to quit the Eat Local Challenge” - not something I expected to see on a site that is dedicated to the polar opposite of the article’s title.
For me however, the greatest benefit of this site is all of the incredibly useful links to other sites that touch on the subject of eating Real Food. In a quick glance through their list, I only recognize one or two - the rest are completely new to me - and there are literally dozens of them. In the few I’ve explored so far, I am already engrossed in a wide array of completely different perspectives that are both new and intuitively familiar.
If you have some time for exploring, be sure to check out http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/. It’s well worth the stasis period during interstellar travel. But there I go again with the geek thing. To which I say:
Live Long, Eat Local, and Prosper.
(Wow. That was dorky even by my own standards.)
Related posts:
not dorky at all—-tho the last line made me laugh.
Fascinating! My online community of support evolved in exactly the opposite manner. When I started to get fit and healthy, I stumbled upon one or two not-local-at-all sites and have built my community from there. What still shocks me today is when I stumble on someone (like Get Fit Slowly) and they turn out to reside in my own backyard.
If you’ve ever lived abroad, it’s a bit like being an ex-pat and running into someone from your hometown on the streets of Harajuku.
In any case, glad I found you!
Hi DeDe!
Yeah you know I think that it is fairly unconventional to start out local these days. I think JD’s GetRichSlowly was probably the first link in the local chain that really solidified, which ultimately led to GFS.
On living abroad, I actually do know what you mean — I have lived in Guam off and on at different points in my life (among many other places) and it was surprising how often I’d run into folks from the Pacific Northwest. While Guam isn’t exactly “ex-pat” being part of the U.S. and all, a 28-mile long island is a pretty point on the world map to run into folks from your neck of the woods!
I also checked out your blog, and I am a Team in Training alum - I ran a half marathon a couple of years ago in Santa Barbara. And let me tell ya…if you are planning on a 1/2 marathon next year at all, Santa Barbara is THE place to do it. Gorgeous, gorgeous run with almost always perfect weather, a breeze, and a reasonably flat course. There are a few hills around mile 8 or so, but WOW was it a thrill.
Thanks for the comment!