‘ Links ’ category archive

Aug
04

A Quick Story, and What I’ve Been Reading (Hint: it might be your blog)

Note to Almost Fit readers: This photo is, surprise surprise, ME, from a while back. I rarely post photos of myself, but I think I’m going to try to change that over the coming months to increase my level of accountability. At any rate, this is what I looked like – 4 years ago after having run 13.1 miles ;) .

half-marathon-finishThat’s not physically possible for me to do

When my wife and I trained with a group for a 1/2 marathon a few years ago, part of our motivation was to spend time together. That worked sometimes, but the truth be told when we ran together, my wife was always holding her pace back a little, and I was usually pushing harder than was healthy for my body at the time. Essentially I was trying to “catch up” even though my body really wasn’t ready for it.

When we trained, I was put in a slower pace group. When I expressed my wish to catch my wife’s pace group to our coach through extra training, she looked into my eyes, put her hand on my shoulder, and quietly said, “I hate to break this to you, but…you’re not going to. I know you think that if you just work harder you’re going to get there, but the truth is? Not possible.”

I was rather shocked.

I mean, wasn’t she supposed to say, “Great Goal, Big Guy! You can do anything you want to do! Why, you can be President someday if you just put your mind to it! Go Team Go!”

But realistically? She was right. Part of me thinks that given a longer stretch of time and some really consistent training, I could eventually have caught up with her. But one obvious problem with the aspiration was that our event was only 3 months away, and there simply wasn’t time for me to get there in that short of a training window. But beyond that, I had to remember – my wife was literally less than 1/2 my weight, and in good shape. Secondly, for every hard run with my slower pace group, she was logging a hard run with her faster group. In other words, with every day we trained, we each got faster and stronger.

So what was the lesson? The coach was trying to help me to see that overtraining would not help me accomplish my goals, and with such a limited timeframe, my goal was truly unrealistic. If I wanted to complete the task, I was going to have to forget about the competitive aspect of trying to catch up with someone much faster than I, and just focus on where I’m at, and where I’m going.

Lesson learned.

Catching up – on Reading: Part 1

Read the rest of this entry »

Sep
18

How to get an entire nation cooking

Welcome to Almost Fit. Almost Fit focuses on improving your health by eating real food in moderation. If you enjoy this post, please consider subscribing. It’s free, as always. Thanks.

jamie oliverOne of my goals with Almost Fit is to demonstrate that you don’t have to be a world-class chef to improve your health by eating quality meals at home. Neither my wife nor I have been through culinary training of any kind, but we do possess a passion for food, a desire to learn, and a spirit of adventure when it comes to what we eat. To me, those are the simple prerequisites to learning how to cook. You don’t have to be an Iron Chef to prepare meaningful, tasty dishes that you aren’t embarrassed to share with friends. Well, unless you hang out with Mario Batali, in which case you might want to have a culinary spotter when you prepare supper. Read the rest of this entry »

Aug
28

Thursday Resources: Health and Fitness Finds for 28 August, 2008

Metroknow in the Santa Barbara Half Marathon

Welcome to Almost Fit. Almost Fit is about losing weight and improving your health by eating real food in moderation. If you enjoy this entry, please consider sharing it with StumbleUpon. Thanks.

I am amazed at this, but apparently I have not posted a link roundup in nearly a month. Without further adieu, here are some links to articles that I’ve personally found interesting this week.

[And in case you're wondering, that big fella in the picture in this post is me, running in the Santa Barbara Half Marathon a few years ago. :) ]

I recently came across this article on MSNBC: French lessons: Eat petite, take your time, which describes some of Paul Rozin’s work on identifying the differences in habits (particularly portion sizes) between the typical American diet and the French, and the correlation to obesity rates. The article is a decent, if lightweight, treatment of Rozin’s incredibly practical findings (as opposed to many University-driven studies that are often reflections of scientifically interesting results, but have little practical value on a daily basis for most of us). Read the rest of this entry »

Jul
30

Health and fitness finds this week

crowd of runners in los angeles“Correct. Sugar, honey, and high fructose corn syrup sweeteners are all considered natural food ingredients under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s definition of the term, “natural.”"

Somehow I missed this, but the corn lobby is on the slithery move again, trying to convince the wary public that high fructose corn syrup is actually good for you since it is “all natural” and all. Although I’m a little late (her article was published in June), I just found  GoFrolic (http://food.gofrolic.org), where writer Debs walks you through the latest creepy campaign from the guys in the suits and explains what’s really going on. And in the process, she admits that she may have inadvertently suggested this campaign ;) – but that’s kind of like suggesting that you’re the one who told the guy with the horns that maybe taking something from someone else is good for a larf or two…I’ll go out on a limb here and say that I think Debs is off the hook. :) Read the rest of this entry »

Jul
16

Great blogs for health and fitness writers (and readers, too)

If you enjoy Almost Fit, please consider subscribing. If you’ve arrived from Kirtsy.com, Welcome – have a look around and please let me know what you think! Thanks – Metroknow.

After our camping trip and subsequent reintegration into society (oh how it pains me to say so), stepping away from the beast for a while reminded me that I owe a huge debt of gratitude to so many of the writing compatriots that I read regularly. I have mentioned a few in the past, but today I’m sharing links from my top 10 daily reads, blog help for those new to this sport, plus a few new folks that have left comments which in turn led me to their sites.

I have dozens and dozens of subscriptions that I review regularly. Many are focused on health and fitness, many on technology and the business of blogging, and still more are just plain great writers. Food blogs are also a large contingent without question. Here are a few of my favorites. Read the rest of this entry »