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 .

That’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

It has been months since I’ve made the time to really catch up on what folks around the Web are writing about, particularly when it comes to health, fitness, and overall well-being.

That ends today.

To all of my fellow writers, bloggers, and scribblers (you know who you are), this is for you. This is part one of a list of my favorite articles over the past couple of months, as well as some blogs that readers of Almost Fit will probably find interesting/inspiring, as I have. Note that most of these are diet and fitness related, but there are some great food blogs in here too – they may require an extra bit of moderation though, so consider yourself warned.

Fit Bottomed Girls: My Own End to Overeating (Well, for the most part)

Mark’s Daily Apple: How to Render Bacon Fat (Plus a Fennel and Dill Omelette Recipe)

Kelly the Kitchen Kop: Ten Tips for Building a Healthy Immune System

Fitness Spotlight (formerly Modern Forager: Are Low Carb Diets Overrated for Health and Longevity? The Kitavan and Okinawa Diets

Wine Guy World: I’m feeling super, man

Andrew is Getting Fit: A few questions answered [or, the secrets of one of the most inspirational fitness bloggers I've ever read]

Get Fit Slowly: Where I’m at

60 in 3: How Far are You Willing to Go?

FertileHealthy: Taking it to the next level

Cranky Fitness: Evil Non-Dairy People

Bohemian Revolution: How to send back food at a restaurant

Go Workout Mom: Beware of Limiting Labels

Gym Junkies: The Quickest Way to Build Muscle and Lose Fat

Gourmeted: As Basic as Choux Pastry, As Classic as Julia Child

Health Bolt: The Keeler Migraine Method Q and A

John is Fit: My Visit to a Sleep Clinic: Overnight Sleep Study

MizFit Online: Spotting 101 and Losing the Guilt

What’s Cooking: Blackberry Flan Ice Cream

Orangette: The whole point [and a recipe for salsa verde for potatoes]

Food Blogga: Healthy Cherry, Banana, and Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

Food Wishes: Dry-Aging Steak at Home – The Final Chapter: I think it worked

That concludes part 1 – I’ll be back in a week with part 2. Again, thanks to everyone who has stuck with Almost Fit through some down time. I think things are finally back in gear.

Thanks for reading.

Bookmark It

Related posts:

1. Secrets of a thrift store shopper Thrift store shopping can be a great way to save...
2. Using Your Dieting Experience to Your Advantage Use your dieting experience to your advantage....
3. 20 hours without food: The intermittent fasting experiment Intermittent fasting involves limiting the times during which you eat....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

One 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.

I think that is one of the reasons why we have always liked Jamie Oliver’s approach to food. Since the first time we saw him on Food Network his cooking has always resonated with us as attainable. I think he approaches cooking as if it is a game; in some sense when he cooks he is always trying to pass Go, collect his $200 dollars, and land on Chance to get the Get Out of Jail Free card, all in the course of one roll of culinary dice. I am by nature a puzzle solver; I used to do Sudoku puzzles at night before bed to fall asleep, I love crosswords though I can rarely finish them these days with attention-sharing requirements of children, and I may even have a pocket-sized Rubik’s Cube that goes with me when I travel.

Jamie Oliver is now trying to solve a new puzzle: How to get a nation of people motivated to start eating better before it’s too late for their collective health. The UK is the third most obese nation in the world, and it doesn’t appear to be improving. In response, Jamie has started The Ministry of Food, a throwback to World War II when the nation was in a different kind of emergency: Food shortage. These days, it could be said to be the opposite. An overabundance of convenience food is resulting in a general loss of knowledge in basic food preparation, which almost always leads to a loss of healthy eating habits. In general, people who cook more eat better, and in turn have less problems with health. (You can read more about the history of the Ministry of Food on the site.)

The first campaign of the Ministry of Food is the Pass It On campaign which will hopefully encourage a nation of people to start cooking more, and to share with others what they learn. This sounds like a great idea, and a principle that my wife and I believe in as well. Here’s a quote from the site describing the goal of Pass It On:

“The idea behind Pass It On is to inspire people who have never cooked to give it a try and then, once they’ve learned a recipe, to teach two other people how to make it too. We also want to mobilise anyone who can cook to pass on their skills by teaching their friends, family or workmates how to cook good, honest, affordable food.”

Although the Ministry of Food sounds terribly official, what I like most about this concept is that it has nothing to do with politics. It is focused on sharing thoughts and ideas with one another on how to improve our collective health through good cooking. In Jamie’s words, “Great Britain is the third most obese nation in the world, and we’ve got to sort it out. We’re not going to wait for the Government to do it; We’re going to do it.” I love this idea because it starts with personal responsibility, and taking action. Although his “campaign” is targeting the UK, I think it’s something we here in the U.S. can learn from greatly as well, so I’ve signed up to be part of it. I don’t know that the television program will be shown here in the U.S., but I’m certain that there will be a lot of information on it on the site as things progress. 

Certainly this is all just kind of entertainment on one level; And it won’t hurt his book sales either. But I’m OK with that. I think that raising awareness of eating fresh, locally grown organic food is a great use of celebrity status. One of my favorite Portland local blogs is Portland Food and Drink, where their slogan is, “Throwing Ourselves on the Grenade of Bad Food to Save You.” In a sense, this is kind of what Jamie is attempting to do – And if you’ve ever eaten some of the boiled meat dishes common in the UK, you know what I mean. 

The campaign kicks on on September 30th, so it will be interesting to see what tidbits we get outside Great Britain. Hopefully it will also be broadcast at some point in the U.S., but regardless, I think it’s a great idea, and a concept worth thinking about. The site is JamiesMinistryofFood.com, and is worth a visit.

Bookmark It

Related posts:

1. A Quick Story, and What I’ve Been Reading (Hint: it might be your blog) Setting realistic goals is key to accomplishing the tasks at...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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).

Over at Health Care for All, this article, South Beach or Another Fad Diet, takes a good look at the validity of the suggestion that glycemic index (GI) is the best identifier of foods that dieters should consider. I actually did the South Beach diet for a while, and I did indeed lose weight. But as with every other diet I tried, the weight returned with a vengeance when the momentum was gone. I know that South Beach does work for many folks, but their reliance on processed foods (and the sale of their own highly processed foods) takes it off of my list.

A reasonably new site to me, but one that has been around for a while, is Pasta Queen. This week she has a great conversation going on in her post, Wednesday wondering: Do you pay attention to what other people eat?. Swing over and check out the comments – and join in the conversation. One of the things I love about Pasta Queen is her unabashed love of food, and the fact that if you really want to lose weight, you shouldn’t view good food as an all or nothing proposition. She is frank and honest about things like eating half a Dairy Queen cake for her Birthday, which created a bit of a stir. And possibly some indigestion.

Deb over at GoFrolic has published an article that is going to be a printout for me – she’s written a wonderful piece on how to recognize berries of the Pacific Northwest (A Pacific Northwest Berry Primer). It’s a really concise summary of some of the most common berries you see here. I know for me, I’m always hesitant to just pluck berries off the nearest shrub and start chomping away – I guess all of that childhood messaging about deadly berries and mushrooms has kept me alive to this point . But Deb’s article really helps to demystify which berries are safe, and she provides some great ideas on what to do with them!

DR over at Health Habits (one of my favorites) has a great post on motivation and understanding the components of moving from contemplation to action. His post is Obesity: How to Motivate the Un-Motivated. He includes a great set of videos from around the Web on the subject, as well as a simple breakdown of the basic steps to accomplishing your goals. Well worth a read, as always.

From one of our resident Dietitians over at Iowa Avenue comes this really informative summary on the value of Hemp – that feared plant that people incorrectly associate with stoners everywhere. Hemp is one of the most important natural resources that we continue to overlook, simply out of misplaced fear. Diana’s article, Hemp: Get Your Facts Straight, is an excellent summary of the benefits of hemp, and how we have a surprisingly long (and dare I say conservative) history in this country of using hemp as a practical, ultra-renewable resource. But somehow, we’ve forgotten that history. My favorite quote from this article:

“Presidents Washington and Jefferson both grew hemp. Americans were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic. The federal government subsidized hemp during the Second World War and U.S. farmers grew about a million acres of hemp as part of that program.”

NOTE: If you have an article that you’d like me to feature in an upcoming link roundup, please send it my way. And if you sent me one and I somehow missed it, PLEASE don’t misinterpret my disorganization this month as a lack of interest in what you sent – just resend it to me and I’ll get it in. I’m getting it together, albeit in a crazy, frenetic fashion, so please bear with me.

Personal note of thanks to Almost Fit readers

It’s been an odd month for me with a lot of ups and downs, but I feel like I’m finally starting to get with the program again. Yesterday was a good day, and in large part that was due to some of the advice that I received in the comments on my post about a lack of sleep, and about the dilemma of whether to purchase home exercise equipment. I saw an immediate impact in that I successfully took the first steps of restarting my exercise routine. My goal was to do 3 simple things, and I’m happy to say:

3-mile run? DONE.

100 crunches? DONE.

Restart week 3 of the 100 Push-up challenge? DONE.

Thanks to the readers of Almost Fit for all of the support. Your comments and emails were just the kick-start I needed to get motivated and enthused again. Thank you!

For today, I am repeating the same routine, but I’ll be bumping up the crunches and moving to day 2 of week 3 on the push-up challenge.

As a tiny token of thanks to those fellow bloggers out there, here are some links to folks that really helped me out with this – each one of these sites is well worth a visit, and please, if you are so inclined, help them out too by leaving a comment or giving their articles some Social Media love. I know I truly do appreciate it when folks do the same for me.

• Fit Bottomed Girls
• MrsBeasely.blogspot.com
• Kelly the Kitchen Kop
• Andrew is Getting Fit
• John is Fit
• Whole Food and More
• The Dieting Ninja
• Quick to Fit
• ThoughtsFromMillerManor.blogspot.com
• Steve v4.7

(and if I missed your link, I do apologize – please send it to me and I’ll add it to this list)

Best to you,

Metroknow

Bookmark It

Related posts:

1. A Quick Story, and What I’ve Been Reading (Hint: it might be your blog) Setting realistic goals is key to accomplishing the tasks at...
2. Personal Entry: Building upon the ashes Almost Fit focuses on eating real food in moderation to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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.

“So what exactly do I eat? Looking at FitDay again” was an excellent summary of Scott’s experience with FitDay for tracking dietary consumption. I use the online version of FitDay to track weight loss, but I haven’t gotten into it from the nutrition angle. I like some of the features of FitDay, but it should let you do some basic user-ish things, like letting me choose a date range for my weight change report rather than using the preset options (this is about a 5 line code change). The tool is free with an Adsense revenue model for the online version and a $20 PC download, so it’s not a bad tool at that price, but it could be much better. Opportunity for my developer friends out there, actually…

Kelly over at KellyTheKitchenKop.com sent out a note on Twitter to check out an article that I also missed from months ago. And I’m really glad she did. It’s a great summary of milk options, because believe it or not, some studies are showing that low fat milk may actually cause you to gain weight. Her article is simply, “Healthy Milk,” and she’s done a thorough job – well worth a visit.

For a good dose of humor mixed in with some excellent observations, check out http://healthhabits.wordpress.com/. DR excellent writing style keeps you reading from one line to the next, absorbing his take on fitness while getting a good laugh. I’ve added HealthHabits to my list of regular parousals. His most recent article, “Exercise: How much is enough” was a great read.

Finally, I really enjoyed Gal’s article, “A Day at the Gym” over at 60 in 3. I’m not a big gym person as I’ve said numerous times before, but I’m slowly trying to talk myself into it. Between Gal’s list of thank you’s addressed to all of the decent people at the gym and JD’s discussion at GetFitSlowly on the same subject (“Mr Muscle“), I’m really considering checking out a few local gyms.

Thanks to all of you writers out there – you are making a difference. If you have an article that you’re particularly proud of, old or new, please don’t hesitate to email me at metroknow [at] almostfit.com.

Ed. note: Almost Fit is about losing weight and improving your health by doing one thing: Eating Real Food in Moderation. No low fat gimmicks or low carb hacks, just eating simple, whole foods. If you enjoy Almost Fit, please consider subscribing. It’s free, as always. Thanks.

Bookmark It

Related posts:

1. Real Food Recipe: Green Corn Tamales Green Corn Tamales are a seasonal favorite that is made...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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.

Top 10 Almost Fit reads

• Eat. Drink. Think. One of my favorite local blogs – BB is an excellent, entertaining writer, and really knows food.
• Andrew is Getting Fit. I love reading about Andrew’s progress, his ups and downs, and his honest assessments of his progress. He is also a true inspiration because he has lost so much weight (103 lbs with 17 to go, as of this moment). He hails from New Zealand, and includes photos of the country, for which I also have a weakness.
• Get Fit Slowly. I mention J.D. and Mac quite a bit here, but for new readers I’ll say it again: their blog is worth a good, in depth look. They really are one of the inspirations for what I do here.
• Healthy Lifestyle Bloggers. This site is actually an aggregator, but I find all kinds of useful topics and inspiring writers here. My only trouble is trying to keep up – it is a tremendously active community, and again, well worth some time spent investigating. Healthy Lifestyle Bloggers is also linked to Iowa Avenue, which is one of my daily stops as well. I strongly encourage you to check it out – Iowa Avenue is one of the best online health communities I’ve found, period. You can also find additional info about me there – I often supplement Almost Fit articles with more details on my blog there.
• John is Fit. John is also very honest with his ups and downs, which I really appreciate as well. It takes guts to lay it out on the table the way John does. Nice work, John.
• Fat Man Unleashed. Israel at FMU to me represents the “get off your butt you lazy dude and do something with your life” approach to fitness. I think we all need that once in a while – and apparently I like it. Who knew?
• Go Workout Mom. Cindy is really committed not only to reaching her goals, but to creating a community of folks who help each other. I really enjoy the “up” spirit there, and the practical advice from bloggers all over the place who comment on her posts. Good stuff.
• MizFit Online. MizFit is kindred to Israel at FatManUnleashed, but I think in a cage match Israel would have to yield. MizFit owns her space in no uncertain terms, and her readers love it. Myself included. And while she really tells it like it is with some great humor and a pace that Lance Armstrong would be forced to respect, she also dignifies her readers. MizFit is in my top 10 for a reason.
• She Just Walks Around With It. Did you ever wish that you could be “in” on the next big thing? Well in my opinion Christy, the writer at She Just Walks Around With It may be that thing. Her writing is addictively funny. She has a great sense of timing, and manages to pull off a conversational quality that keeps you hooked.
• Gourmeted. While this really isn’t a fitness and health blog, it certainly qualifies as “Real Food”. The descriptions are insightful and entertaining, but maybe more importantly the photography is definite, if you’ll pardon the expression, food porn. If you are trying to lose weight, the pictures of food at this blog may cause you to have to find a confession (confection?) booth no matter what your denomination.

The Everything you need to know about blogging category

In addition to food, health, and fitness blogs, I also read blogs on, well, blogging, voraciously. Having your voice heard on the Web takes not only tremendous dedication, consistency, and attention to quality, but you really do need to know the “tricks” of the trade. Here are my top blogging 101 reads, currently:

• Josh’s Unconventional Marketing blog. Not only does Josh have incredible suggestions and great insight, but he really goes the extra mile to help his readers. I can’t say enough good things about Josh. Check it out.
• ProBlogger. If you are new to blogging, start here. If content is King, Darren Rowse is Rasputin. It is required reading.
• CopyBlogger. Like ProBlogger, if you are new to the blog world or a seasoned pro, this is a must read. Brian Clark at CopyBlogger is on the other side of that Content king, whispering into the king’s ear the specific tactics on how to take over the world.
• Court’s Internet Marketing School. Court is rapidly becoming my favorite resource. He makes his suggestions so incredibly easy to implement, has created an ongoing video series that starts from the very beginning of the blog creation process, and is exceptionally interactive with readers.
• Freelance Writing (ChrisBlogging.com). Excellent resource for writers who are freelancing. Chris also discloses his income from writing, which is incredibly useful to me as I’m now on my own.

The new friends and favorites category

Finally, last but certainly not least, here is a list of folks that I really believe are doing good things at their blogs, and I’m anxious to see how they develop. I’ve found them primarily through the comments left here at Almost Fit, for which I am very grateful. They are all worth a visit, a comment, a subscription, and a donation (hey you can’t blame a guy for trying…). Check them out.

• Steve 4.7
• Catapult Fitness
• Cheap, Healthy, Good
• Amelia’s Healthy Life
• FitBottomedGirls (It’s a health blog – where is your mind???)
• Family In Shape (SpinDiva is good people.)
• Beyond A Diet

Again, to say Thank You is the very, very least I can do for all of the inspiration out there. But for what it’s worth, I’ll say it again. THANK YOU.

Best to you,

Metroknow
AlmostFit.com

Bookmark It

Related posts:

1. A Quick Story, and What I’ve Been Reading (Hint: it might be your blog) Setting realistic goals is key to accomplishing the tasks at...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.