This week I’ve been working on tuning the look, feel, and direction of Almost Fit – The new design is not ready for prime time yet, but it’s getting there. As part of this process, I’ve been looking through my posts, analyzing the areas of focus that seem to really interest people, and trying to approximate the shape of Almost Fit in the coming months. I’ve had some reasonably successful articles, a couple of big hits, and in truth, some real dogs.

Hibernating, possibly catatonic dogs.

With that in mind, I’m going to share both the good and the bad – but there’s a catch – A little question or two for the readers of this site:

What would you like to see covered on Almost Fit? Which articles do you find most interesting? Which entries bore you to tears? Go ahead – be brutal.

Here are a few ideas to get you started. I’m going with a margarita theme today, as the sun is out after weeks of gloom, and I’m feeling like kicking back on the deck with a salt-rimmed glass and a pitcher of goodness.

The high fructose corn syrup “a little better than sleeping pills” margarita articles

11 ways to lose weight using good table manners: Personally I kind of liked this article. From the comments, I was fairly alone in that opinion.

30 days to form a new habit? On the moon, maybe: I didn’t think this was too bad, but it was definitely a sleeper if the comments are any indication…What do you think?

The House Margarita with the cheap tequila articles

23 benefits of eating real food in moderation: I enjoyed writing this one, and the facts still hold true.

33 tips on how to lose weight without dieting: This article stimulated a fair amount of discussion here and elsewhere, which was great.

The Cadillac Margarita with the Patron Reposado articles

Can you make artisan bread like this? In only 5 minutes? This article is by far my most read. It was picked up by Reuters among other sources, and is far and away my most widely distributed.

Did Cereal make me fat? You decide: I think this is one of my better pieces, though it is not read nearly as much as I would have thought. I think it’s a problem with the title. What do you think?

The French tradition – Give us our daily baguette: This may be my favorite article, as I got to indulge my love of Paris even if only for a few paragraphs.

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I just wanted to take a moment to thank the readers of Almost Fit. So far this process has been thoroughly enjoyable. In particular, I’ve met “virtually” so many interesting, passionate, and intelligent people all working toward a similar goal. If you have suggestions on articles you’d like to see, or improvements, I’d love to hear your suggestions. Please feel free to leave them in the comments, or contact me via my contact page.

Thank you again.

Metroknow

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Welcome to Almost Fit. If you’ve just arrived from GetFitSlowly, an extra welcome to you as well. Almost Fit is about one thing: Improving health by eating real food in moderation. No low fat this or low carb that, just healthful eating with weight loss being a satisfying side effect. If you enjoy Almost Fit, please consider subscribing. Have a poke around and let me know what you think. Thanks.

Have you ever wondered why it seems that the French can get away with eating everything we’re told not to eat, and still live 3 years longer on average, without exercising more than we do, taking 6 week vacations, and 2 hour lunches?

I’ve written a guest post this morning for the good guys over at GetFitSlowly.com. I mentioned their site briefly yesterday as one of my inspirations for Almost Fit, so it was really exciting when J.D. agreed to post one of my pieces.

If you have a few minutes, check the article out: Food, Drink, and Decadence: How the French Stay Thin.

If you haven’t already, you should also become a regular there if you are at all interested in improving your health. J.D. also writes GetRichSlowly, which is tremendously successful not only because the advice there is so sound, but his well-rendered honesty always shines through. He talks about his successes, failures, interests, and frustrations with great candor. Well worth adding to your RSS feed. Both are in my top 10 daily reads.

Thanks guys!

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Life, these last couple of months, has been a gel-filled stress-ball’s squeeze-frenzied nightmare.

Here’s a little something about me: As I’ve said before, when the pressure is on, simple carbohydrates are my lifelong addiction buddies – the ones I hung out with when I was younger and more metabolically advantaged, and in whose company I dove head first into the shallow end of the dietary trouble pool. Simple carbs are the overly accepting old friends that I have to avoid if I want to “stay on the wagon” with real food.

Some people take a walk with Lassie to regain their center of gravity; I on the other hand, tend to take a drive to Taco Bell, hoping that they’ve finally figured out the Holy Grail of fast food: the lascivious matrimonial union of sugar, preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, and dirt-cheap meat.

Pulling around the finely crafted drive-thru arc of asphalt and concrete curb that says, enter dear friend, but know that there is but one way out, I think to myself: “What sweet and savory surprise awaits me on the shimmering ordering board this time, my old corn syrupy compadre? Is it a newly-conceived melding of steaming hot “cheese-ish” sauce, oddly and excessively chopped ground beef-like meat, and powdered jelly donuts? All wrapped in a freezer-burnt artificially-colored tortilla? Maybe I’ll be greeted by the hearty handshake of yet another Blast flavor of soda-lovin’-in-a-bucket, calling my name when I roll up to the crusty drive-thru microphone?”

I’ll go out on a limb here: If there is one place in the world that can stick just about anything into a tortilla and turn disgusting into sellable, it’s Taco Bell. Believe me.

So have I given up this whole real food thing? Am I now indulging in mystery beef bathed in succulent cheesy goo? Say it isn’t so! Read the rest of this entry »

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As part of my effort to eat more locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables (the “real food” part of Real Food in Moderation), I’ve now changed my pattern to follow what I consider to be a French approach to grocery shopping. Rather than stocking up on tons of food that will keep for weeks, if not months (or for Twinkies, years), I shop every few days for the fresh things that I should be eating, including (gasp!) bread, which should really be eaten fresh, without preservatives. This goes for cheese, milk, and meat as well, and its working – I got on the scale this morning, and I’m now over the 22 lb mark for the year, all while eating what I would have considered indulgences before, like fresh bread, high quality full fat ice cream, and good bacon, all in moderation.

(Little Ed. side note: While you may consider the Twinkie shelf-life thing to be a bit of an urban legend, I had a writing teacher who had a packaged Twinkie in his garage from his time in Vietnam – and after 17 years, it remained mold-free.)

I learned this practice of shopping for less quantity but more often firsthand on a visit to Paris, which I’ve briefly described here, and have since confirmed it time and again with friends who have lived in France for long periods and in different locations. For example, in France it is very common to make a daily stop at the local bakery (boulangerie) on the way home to pick up a freshly baked baguette. In fact, often the neighborhood boulangerie will have a line out the door a little after 5PM, when the evening’s selection is fresh out of the oven.

The best part of this practice? The French have an informal custom of twisting and tearing off le quignon (literally, “the crust”), or what we think of as the heel of the loaf and eating it on the way home, freshly warmed by the baker’s oven. (For a great article on the joy of le quignon, see David Lebovitz’s wonderful description, here.)

So rather than opening that .99 cent oversized “single serving” of Doritos and a 44oz fountain drink of Pepsi, they satiate all of the senses with a bit of bread – incredibly delicious bread, warm and indescribably soft, with a crackle when its is torn off that to me, is the sound of comfort for the centuries of my ancestors literally breaking bread together. When I twist and tear off that heel, and then begin to savor it, I can hear the collective satisfied sigh of hundreds of years of my predecessors who had the same sense of overwhelming satisfaction when eating bread.

Once home, the baguette is generally immediately eaten as part of the evening meal since it is at its peak of freshness. If the whole loaf is not used, the remainder is wrapped in a towel and saved for the following morning to be toasted and spread with butter or soft cheese.

There are few more sumptuous things than a small bit of fresh, crusty baguette with butter, brie, or camembert, accompanied by a warm cup of coffee with cream.

Of course, I can already hear the readerly clamor: “How do you have time to do that? How do you afford it? Do you not have kids? A life? A job?” — All valid questions. To answer those and many more, and to provide suggestions on how you can implement this in your life (and why its important), I’ll be posting a series of articles next week on how to shop for better quality, more often – without breaking the bank.

It is much more possible than you might think, and you may actually save money.

Ed. note: I took these photos this morning of a baguette from Grand Central Bakery in Portland. Grand Central is one of the best local sources of breads and baked goods in the Pacific Northwest, and well worth a visit.

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One of my current favorite sites for quality health discussion is IowaAvenue (IowaAvenue.com). There are a lot of excellent contributors who have a passion for helping others through diet and exercise suggestions.

This morning I was reading one of their forum discussions and ended up identifying some of the core reasons why I’ve decided to try, once again, to head down this road to improving my health. My health has become increasingly important for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are my two children. Here’s what I said:

“My children have probably been my biggest motivator. My goals with respect to my children are to:
- Help them to grow up with better habits than our culture encouraged when I was growing up so that they don’t have the same obstacles to weight management that I do (less TV, little if any fast food, exercise for fun, etc.)
- Set the right example in eating well
- Be able to play with them on the living room floor, or run around with them outside without risking a heart attack
- Be physically comfortable with myself so that they don’t pick up on my insecurities, and make them their own
- Be around long enough to see them find their own path, and hopefully be part of that.

The second part of my motivation, sad to say, is fear…I have diabetes on both sides of my family, heart disease on both sides, and a history of cancer on both sides. So far, I’m fine. But that will change if I don’t.

The third part is more selfish — I know that with a history of diabetes, I am doomed to have to give up the foods I love sooner or later if I don’t adjust my habits. I think I can stave off the onset of diabetes with diet and exercise, at least for a while, which means I still get to eat those foods – but in moderation. So far so good.“

I stand by these motivations, and think that they are all sound reasons to change my life for the better.

In some ways I was extremely lucky growing up – I didn’t develop any substance addictions like smoking or alcoholism, a fact for which I am very grateful to my parents for having guided me away from such things. However, I have developed an emotional addiction to fake foods that I believe have the potential to shorten my life. I believe that if I can get a handle on the healthful habits of good food in moderation, combined with working on the emotional aspects, I will finally, finally succeed.

There are of course no guarantees in life, but I’m doing what I can to increase my chances of being around for a while. Hopefully, a very long while.

What motivates you to improve your health?

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Editor’s note: This post will eventually be the information that lives on the About page. For now I’ve duplicated it there, but rest assured that this should be the last of the duplicate pages. If you enjoy reading this article, consider subscribing to my RSS feed. Thanks.

Welcome to Almost Fit.

So what’s this all about, anyway? Don’t you mean ExtremeFit or something?

In terms of fitness, Almost Fit describes how I have felt about myself for most of my life. Not quite fit. Just about there. Working on it. Starting over. Gonna’ keep the weight off. This time for sure. Oh well, I guess I’ll give it another try. I can do it, for the millionth time, again…I hate this, but I’m so close this time…

You get the idea. Always seeking and failing to find that magic cure that lets me be the person I envision in my head: Calm, confident, and thin. And as it turns out, I’m not the only one.

However, for the first time in my life I think I may be onto something that has the potential to solve my weight problem for good.

Read the rest of this entry »

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