In case you haven’t noticed with my references to software analogies, occasional odd conversational mannerisms, and interspersed star trek/star wars/80’s TV quips, I am a bit of a geek. While my wife has worked hard to reform my lifelong social and fashion ineptitudes, at heart, I still want a lightsaber.

I may also fly stunt kites. And know a thing or two about 3D animation.

As part of this curse, I also tend to like to read the stats of my blog, even down to the nitty bits of mindnumbing server data, looking for clues about well, you all. Don’t worry, I don’t know anything about what you did last summer.

That is my other hat - the security software engineering hat. But I digress.

No, for Almost Fit, what I find most interesting is [geek alert!] a) errors in the logs [and thus why I am leaving my current hosting company soon], and  b) [geek alert at DefCon 5!] patterns in the configurations of the computers that visit the site. Again, nothing personal is to be found there - it’s all fascinating minutia like the number of Windows computers vs. Macs that visit, and so forth.

So here’s the apology: Somehow, for months now, it has escaped my attention that 76% of the visitors to Almost Fit have a screen resolution of 1024×768. Being geekish and all, all of my computers at home (yes, multiple - I had as many as 6 not long ago, that I actually USED…I may need an intervention) had the biggest screens I could afford, with resolutions set to extremely high numbers. Prior to today, this site’s layout was not ideal for 76% of the people stopping by. OK, let’s be honest - it looked like crap, and was difficult to read. For this, I sincerely apologize.

But I am changing my ways. If you noticed that Almost Fit looks slightly different, it’s because I’ve essentially reduced the size of the header image and moved things around a tiny bit (whoops - there goes that geek gene again). I hope it helps. And I’ll try to do better in the future. In the coming weeks I’m hoping to complete an overhaul of the site, and hopefully it will be received as an improvement. And if not, I may have to sponsor a “big monitor” contest.

Photography on Almost Fit

I wanted to mention a word about the photographs on this site, as I’ve had several folks comment on them (favorably). All photos on the site were taken either by me or by April, unless otherwise cited/noted. We are both artists, so photography is one of many manifestations of that.

At any rate, if you are interested in reusing the photos on your personal blog or purchasing high resolution versions, please see this page on our photographs. I’ll be setting up a portfolio site soon as well, which will show a much broader spectrum of photos that are available.

Back to the salt mines. Thanks for reading.

Bookmark It

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”
-Alan Keightley, as quoted from A Brief Guide to World Domination by Chris Guillebeau

Regular readers of Almost Fit know that I have been mentioning the words World Domination for a few weeks now. Have I gone mad? Do I think that eating real food in moderation will create a position as Potentate of some small nation state? Maybe. But if such a seat were ever offered, I would have to pass - The aspirations that are already on my list are more than enough, and do not include the title of Magistrate. But anything is possible.

For me, Almost Fit is much more than just a hobby - it’s part of a much larger life picture. With Almost Fit, I have two distinct purposes:

1. To improve my health before it’s too late. From my perspective today, losing weight and getting fit is a critical first step in accomplishing my greater goals. Writing Almost Fit inspires me to continue down that path. Writers like Walt Whitman and Thoreau have explained with much greater skill and dimension than I the connections of body, mind, spirit, and the world around us. These are ideas to which I subscribe. For me, my physical state has a very direct impact on how I see myself, how that perception is communicated to others, and my sense of place in the world around me. It affects both my physical ability and my emotional momentum to do the bigger things that I want to do, whether it is to run a marathon, invent something revolutionary, or climb El Cap.
2. To improve the lives of others on a grand scale. I’m one of the many who have spent the majority of my life trying to get or keep my weight under control. This has all sorts of implications, as I mentioned. I have tried everything short of drugs and surgery, with varying degrees of success. Now however, I think I am on to the best solution of all - eating real food in moderation. My hope is that I will be able to help get the word out and impact the lives of others who have struggled with this as I have. And I am doing so, thanks to the Internet, on a global scale.

And this is just phase one.

Inspiring minds want to know

We all have our own aspirations of course - and some of us are still trying to figure out what those are. Whether your goal is to set a lifelong, positive example for your children or to lead a mora of Spartans into battle armed to the teeth - The biggest prerequisites for success in any endeavor are that you must be moved, committed, and determined to accomplish the task. And as important, you have to do the work that is required to get there. For me, getting a handle on my physical state is part of that work.

I am a big believer in finding inspiration in others, which always helps me to get started on the task at hand. For bigger life questions, I look to people who expect more out of life than to pass the time, standing still in a job for 8 hours a day for the best years of their life, until the time is up.

Chris Guillebeau is one such inspiration. Chris’s site is called The Art of Non-Conformity: Unconventional strategies for life, work, and travel. He recently wrote a report for which the timing, for me, could not have been better. He is no guru or prophet; he is simply an excellent writer who is striving to change the world by whispering the unheralded death of mediocrity through a global bullhorn.

With this, I identify.

Chris has published his manifesto which is entitled, A Brief Guide to World Domination (and other important goals): How to Live a Remarkable Life in a Conventional World. The report is spreading like wildfire thanks to a virtual army, myself included, who are enthusiastically fanning the smoke signals of change in a digital age.

Think Global, Act…Global?

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The message of World Domination is simple: Each one of us can live a remarkable life - we just need to choose to do so. Changing the world for the better does not have to be a product of circumstance. If you want to change the world, the most important thing to do, is to start.

But there is a catch.

If you aspire to greatness, you have to think on a bigger scale than you might be accustomed to thinking. In fact, you have to think of your impact for good on a global scale. Thanks to nearly instant, worldwide communication technology, stimulating positive change in global terms has never been more possible. The good news is that accomplishing your goals does not have to be at the expense of a greater good. In other words, you can do great things for the world while you accomplish your own goals. They are not mutually exclusive.

The bad news is, there is a whole system of conventional thinking that will tell you otherwise.

What are your dreams?

To determine our own goals and to live a life that our children and our children’s children will call extraordinary, Chris has distilled the process down to asking two basic questions that those of us who want more out of life have to answer:

#1: What do you really want to get out of life?

#2: What can you offer the world that no one else can?

The questions are simple, but for many the answers may not be. If you are one of the fortunate few who already know your life’s answers, my sincere congratulations. If you are one of the rest of us who are striving to figure this out, don’t panic. You’re not alone. But don’t analyze it too closely. The single greatest mistake that most of us make is not failing in the process; the critical error is never starting in the first place.

For me, the journey is underway. At the time, I didn’t even realize it was starting, but looking back, I’m now approaching month 7 of doing the work (with Almost Fit being the cornerstone), even if I don’t know where precisely my path is leading. I don’t have my final answers yet to questions one and two. But what I do know is they both involve work, trade-offs, and a willingness to sacrifice a degree of comfort for a while in favor of accomplishing truly great things.

The choice is yours - no strings attached

If you are interested in living a life that is remarkable, making changes that will ultimately benefit both yourself and others on a grand scale, and living a life that is uniquely your own, consider reading Chris’s manifesto. It is only 29 pages, it is without charge, and is well worth an afternoon of exercising your rods and cones.

I read it camping on the North Umpqua River.

To be clear, Chris is not selling anything; the manifesto, as I said, is free. There are no MLM schemes behind door number three and there is no commitment required, though I do recommend subscribing to his blog (I do). Operators are not standing by, and there is an unlimited digital quantity to go around, so take your time. This is simply the opportunity to read a thoughtful piece of work that may open your eyes to your own potential, and may spur you on to achievements that you did not think were possible for an army of one.

One last thing…

Chris is a busy guy. In addition to reading the posts on his site, I follow his broadcasts on Twitter. I love the sense of global connectedness I get when I read one of his messages about being lost somewhere in a province that I have no idea how to even pronounce. In fact, in a recent message, he was relieved to be in the familiar comfort of a major airport in Asia.

How many people from this country do you know who would say the same?

Ed. Note: This post took me a while to compose because it is important to me. I hope it sparked your interest. The photos, by the way, are all shots we took in Paris. If you enjoy Almost Fit, please consider subscribing or sharing the posts with your friends. Thanks.

Bookmark It

Ed. Note: This post is a personal checkin on my weight loss progress using the simple technique of eating real food in moderation. If you’re interested in how I’ve lost 26 lbs. so far without dieting, surgery, or supplements, read Food, Drink, and Decadence: How the French stay thin, which sums it up nicely. Thanks for reading.

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
- Picasso

Since the beginning of the year I’ve made some big changes in my life. At the top of the list are the following:

1. I have fundamentally adjusted my dietary habits away from packaged and fast food to eating real food in moderation. Goodbye, old Twinkie friend. Au revoir, Coca Cola and Mountain Dew - we made a great team for a while, but our relationship was clearly becoming destructive. Sayonara, my happy-go-lucky Cheetoh buddy - how I will miss your humor and salty witticisms, but your services are no longer required.
2. I left my corporate job behind a few weeks ago in pursuit of my own projects, including Almost Fit of course, as well as several others that are in the works. I’ve also started picking up freelance writing work already, though I really haven’t started pursuing it much yet. I am trying to launch at least one more site by the end of next week and then yet another in August. More details to come, but I can tell you that the second site is related to Almost Fit, and the third is focused on my technology background. And those are just the projects I’m talking about here…Fascinating, ain’t it?

Lots of other random things as well, things that are too boring to mention, but all of these changes have meant one thing:

My weight loss goals have been slithering quietly into the backseat - and that has to change.

To be clear, my eating habits with regard to quality are still intact for the most part (camping not included), which I am proud of. I still eat well, avoid fast food, and haven’t had a soda of any kind in months - but it’s the moderation and balance parts that have slipped into the shadows. My real food habits have been leaning much more toward the carb side of life (albeit good carbs) rather than the vegetables, and that has really ground my weight loss to a halt. I’ve been holding steady around 25 lbs lost for the year, give or take.

But standing still is not what I want out of life.

Regular exercise plus healthy diet equals…..?

One other note to my credit: Regular exercise has definitely taken root. I ran another 3.5 miles this morning, which makes another 3 sessions this week, including 1 running substitution of shoveling dirt for 3 hours (I know shoveling is not “training”, but it is definitely a workout). Another small goal accomplished. I am reaching the point where I am starting to crave running again, and I hope to fit in a longer run this weekend.

My year’s goal is to lose 50 lbs total by December which is very attainable if I just get back on the wagon.

Well friends, the wagon has returned. Now if I can just keep the wheels on.

My interim goal for this month is to lose 4 lbs by the end of July, and another 6 by the end of August. 10 lbs in a month and a half should be more than doable with exercise and moderation.

Are ya with me?

If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing (RSS, or delivered to your inbox) to Almost Fit. Thanks.

Bookmark It

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.

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

Ed. Note: This article focuses on the benefits of eating together for families with children. I believe that families come in all shapes and sizes; I just chose families with kids for today’s article. Thanks for reading Almost Fit - I really do appreciate it.

With the pace of life building at an ever increasing rate, for many of us, sharing meals at the dinner table is becoming a lost art. Often times if families eat together at all, it is in the car after having placed an order in front of an illuminated board of “value” options, yelling through a cheap microphone, trying to make it to the next activity only a few minutes late for once.

For a while we were sucked into this vortex of squeezing meals in between the “more important” things (as if meals were not critical to life!). Here’s an example.

“Would you like to super-size that, little man?”

When we sold our house to move to Oregon, we were between homes for a couple of months. We traveled and vacationed quite a bit, staying with friends and family, and then living in a temporary rental until the deal on the new house closed. As a result, we ate fast food much more than we normally would. And this began to rub off on our 2-year old son (my wife was 7 months along with our second at the time).

One day, in the drive-thru line at a ubiquitous coffee stop, my son asked me to roll down his window so he could talk into the microphone.

In his tiny toddler-sized voice, he lowered his tone and loudly said, “Uh yeah ok…I want a cheeseburger, ansom’ french fries, and a coffee, and uh yeah, OK.”

My toddler, barely able to speak, knew how to order drive-thru.

Oh Boy were we making the grandparents proud.

Should you eat together, at, you know, the dinner table?

In a word, YES.

In a study that was published in 2004 (Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, January issue), children at 31 Minnesota schools were asked questions on how often they ate together as a family, how connected they felt to their family, and to describe their general eating practices. They also recorded their body mass index (BMI) measurement and tracked their progress over 5 years. The study showed significant benefits to gathering together daily for mealtime.

Recent studies published in the Archives of Family Medicine and in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association broadened the list of reasons why a focus on the family should include eating together.

For adolescents, the following benefits, among others, were observed:

• Fostered better nutrition and encouraged healthier eating habits. This included greater overall intake of fiber, iron, calcium, and vitamins B6 and B12, C and E. Children also tended to consume less overall fat.
• Decreased risk substance abuse
• Decreased risk for eating disorders such as bulimia and other unhealthy weight loss practices
• Consumed more fruits and vegetables
• Consumed less prepared/packaged snack foods
• Improved school performance

Obviously, this short list of benefits alone makes it worth the effort. No one wants their kids to have any of these challenges growing up. Eating together is of course no guarantee, but if it helps to increase our chances of simplifying the teen years even slightly, I’ll take it.

Good for the whole family - not just the kids

Eating and cooking together also establishes a family food culture.There are many cultures globally that have made the concept of family synonymous with eating meals together. In my experience, Asian families, Latino families, Italian families - all great examples in general of cultures that have fundamentally incorporated eating together as a family as a culture standard. And there are many, many more. I’d love to hear your experiences as well - please feel free to leave a comment!

Here are a few benefits for the family as a whole:

• Cooking meals together gives you greater control over what you eat and encourages healthy eating habits for all (if you are conscious of those habits for your kids’ sake)
• Trains your children on and how much “normal”actually is, vs. learning this from ad campaigns
• Prompts parents to set the example, which benefits both the kids observing and the parents (if they strive to set a good example)
• Creates your own unique family food culture that builds unity
• Encourages a broadening of the palate and a desire to try new things (in my opinion)
• Creates lifelong memories of eating together that you and your children will cherish later
• Trains children the value of table manners, and reminds parents to use them too (believe me, our 4-year-old watches us like a hawk!)
• Helps kids to be involved with each other lives, building the family unit and familial loyalty, which can be in short supply these days
• Trains children to be gracious when they are away from you: For example, a very “gracious” thing to do is to offer to help to cook or clean up when you share a meal at someone else’s home. If your kids are trained at home, they will know “how” to help.

Food activities you can do as a family

So where do you start? Each family determines there own practices of course, but here is a short list of 10 starting points:

1. Cook together! Young children love to be part of the process, and you will build habits and a closeness that may help later in the “harder” years. In theory, working together with your kids shoulder to shoulder can help to build a strong bond later in life.
2. Teach your kids how to set the table
3. Do the dishes together. Don’t make doing the dishes a punishment - make it part of “what we do” as at mealtime
4. Keep meals simple - cook healthy and easy family meals and teach your kids how to cook them
5. Plan ahead for the days when you don’t feel like cooking. Cook a double batch of a meal, and then freeze the rest so that it can be reheated later. During the preparation, explain the concept to your “helpers”
6. Don’t treat meal times with the TV Dinner mentality. When you eat together, share the same main dishes.
7. Save the discipline and correction for outside the dinner table. Mealtime should be a “safe” time for the family. Dignify your kids by respecting their opinions and ideas.
8. Be consistent! If you are consistent on eating together, it’s not nearly as difficult to convince your kids to sit down together.
9. Be realistic: Your toddler may have a pretty tough time sitting for a half hour at a meal. The important thing is to establish the routine of eating together at the table, even if it is only briefly. In our case for example, with our 3-year old we trained him to sit with us at the table by rewarding him with playing a game of flash cards together after we were done eating. He loved it!
10. Be focused: Time at the table should be treated as a time to really focus on building your family’s culture. Focus on your children’s interests and daily activities. Focus on working together to make the food that you are going to eat, together. You’ve heard it before: Focus on the family.

Big huge disclaimer - “family” doesn’t mean “kids required”

Although this article focuses on families that include children, I firmly believe that you can have a family culture even of only one or two in a household. I think that many of these benefits and healthful practices apply to us as individuals and as couples, children or not. Taking time to eat in a sit-down setting, creating an atmosphere that honors meal times, eating a meal that you have prepared either by yourself, in the company of a partner, or friends and extended family, all yield a greater sense of unity with others globally. More on this in a future article.

Personal note: Some of the most memorable and important meals of my life were had in the company of my extended family, meaning my closest adult friends. April and I will never, ever forget the soulful, life changing evenings of hours spent eating, drinking, laughing, and feverishly debating with those closest to our souls. Spending these moments in the company of our soulmates had a profound impact on me - in fact, those times were part of the inspiration for starting Almost Fit, where I learned what it really meant to enjoy your food on every level, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

J., S., P., and S., we miss you terribly! You know who you are!

Now it’s your turn: What is your family’s food culture?

I’d love to hear from Almost Fit readers on what the portrait of your family eating habits looks like. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

• Do you eat together as a family?
• What do you define as your family?
• What does eating as a family mean to you?

Thanks again for reading. If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to Almost Fit. Thanks.

Bookmark It

Ed. Note: If you enjoy this post, please consider having Almost Fit delivered to your inbox. Thanks.

As is our habit, we stopped by the Oregon City Farmer’s Market on Saturday to pick up much of our week’s produce. The Oregon City Farmer’s Market is smaller than many other markets, but we are slowly getting to know the vendors and have found that the size of the market makes it a little easier to recognize familiar faces.

We definitely believe that getting to know where your food comes from, how it’s grown, and supporting the local economy by purchasing from local farmers is a critical value for our family. By both word and example, we hope that these concepts are passed along to our kids who go with us week after week and observe our pleasant conversations with local farmers and vendors.

And nothing is more satisfying than freshly picked berries in berry season here, as our kids know well.

Without further adieu, here are a few photos of this weekend’s spread. And believe me, the food tastes as good as it looks.

As the sign says…Fresh Garlic

Hydroponically grown heirloom tomatoes

“Specialty” beets grown with no chemicals

Flats of blueberries….We are eating them by the handful in the heat.

Raspberries and blackberries

Radishes

Though these little guys were not for sale, Jonah and Rima enjoyed watching them, as well as looking at the eggs. The booth is maintained by the local 4H club.

Bookmark It

As part of our family experiment with sustainable living, we are putting our money where our mouth is and growing our own fruits, vegetables, and herbs. We supplement our crops with what’s in season at the Farmer’s Markets in our area, namely the Pacific Northwest. I hope this report doesn’t bore you to tears - we are having a blast with it, and wanted to share our progress. Thanks for reading Almost Fit.

The weather in Northwest Oregon has finally turned to hot summer days, with no end in sight. As a result, our garden is going crazy. Rather than a long and boring diatribe of the finite details, here’s a high level list of what’s been happening:

- We had our first harvest of strawberries in the children’s garden - And it was Rima, who harvested and “processed” them. She LOVES strawberries.
- Tomatoes have gone from blossom to the beginnings of fruit just in the last couple of days
- Radishes are reaching a nice edible size, and really pack a punch
- Celery stalks are in full regalia
- Garlic and onions are filling in
- Turnips are moving along nicely
- Corn is growing about an inch a day
- Spinach has gone to seed at 4 feet high or so
- We have our first cucumber on the vine, with squash blossoms soon to come
- Carrots and potatoes are taking off
- Raspberry bushes will not produce this year, but they are growing rapidly
- Blackberries surrounding our yard have berries all over them, waiting to ripen
- Mesclun is at it’s peak, as is the red leaf and romaine
- Swiss chard is nearly ready for the first harvest
- Sweet peas are bearing delicious fruit
- Green beans have sprouted
- Basil, mint, and a variety of herbs are all in full swing
- Roses are in full bloom, as are the lavender bushes

And that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head. With the heat and no rain in sight, we are watering about every other day, and shading some of the more tender plants during the peak sun hours.

Here are a handful of photos.

This weekend we also created yet another raised bed for a new patch of blueberry bushes. The bed is about 14 ft. by 12 ft. or so, and will be raised a foot above ground level. We spent the first few hours shoveling and wheelbarrowing the dirt into that bed in 95-degree direct sun, but we were relieved from duty when our neighbor offered to bring his tractor over and finish the job for us. He did a parallel amount of work in about 5 minutes.

How to get rid of Aphids without chemicals

So far we’ve had very little trouble with pests. Beyond a few slugs here and there, our biggest challenge has been aphids. we had aphids in our herb garden, happily chewing away.

The solution? Apparently ladybugs have a hankering for aphids, so we picked up a package at the local home and garden store. It cost about 5 bucks for a bag of a hundred ladybugs, and they quickly solved the aphid invasion.

Bookmark It

Ed. Note: This is a reprint (with a few changes) of an article I wrote a while back as a guest post for the guys at GetFitSlowly - Mac and J.D. are some of my principle inspirations for writing about this process, and their site is highly recommended. I’ve had several requests to repost the article here, so I am doing so today. If you enjoy it, please give it a vote via your social networking tool of choice, such as Digg or StumbleUpon. Thanks. Oh, and if you’re new here, welcome to Almost Fit. Please leave a comment and introduce yourself.

When it comes to food, exercise, and our obsession with obesity, the French appear to break all of the rules of Western thought. By and large those who live a traditional French lifestyle eat for pleasure and satisfaction, they often smoke (arguably a stereotype), and they drink regularly. Despite a diet proportionally high in things like saturated fats, the French have remarkably low rates of heart disease and obesity. Welcome to the French Paradox.

On a visit to Paris with my wife and our 7-month old son, I experienced this firsthand. When you walk the streets of Paris, you are tempted with the most sensual culinary delights imaginable: Delicately handmade pastries, beautiful chocolates, freshly baked bread from ovens that have been used for sometimes hundreds of years, full fat, unpasteurized cheeses, and fresh crepes. And that’s just what you can see in the window displays. When you see overweight people in Paris, they are almost never Parisians; in fact, in my experience it was the easiest way to identify my fellow Americans!

Those who practice a traditional French lifestyle seem to break our most commonly accepted dietary notions. They typically:

• Consume 60% more saturated fats than we do in proportion to our overall intake, primarily through dairy. This includes rich cheeses, real butter, whole milk, and yogurt.
• Do not eat low fat products or use or chemically derived sugar substitutes.
• Eat fresh bread daily that is made from refined white flour.
• Regularly consume both lean and fatty meats including pork, duck, beef, chicken, and a few others (someone hide Mr. Ed), as well as fish.
• Drink alcohol with lunch and dinner, and the alcohol is often unregulated. Meaning, where we have a soda fountain, they may have a cask of wine available for refills.
• Smoke cigarettes. As I mentioned earlier, this is a bit of a stereotype since the French typically smoke less than several other European countries, and only a few percentage points more than Americans, on whole. That said, we found in Paris that the smell of cigarette smoke was abundant, yet for some reason we didn’t mind (neither of us are smokers).
• Eat late at night, much later than we do - Often eating heavier foods for supper at around 9 or 10, followed by a dessert course.
• Do not go to the gym or exercise much more than we do (the reasoning being why waste your life in such a way, when you could be enjoying it?).
• Do not obsess about the chemical composition of the foods they eat, and they do not rely on science and industry to tell them what is good or bad. That is what Mother is for.

With all of this dietary rule-breaking, the French simply should be dying off like flies from heart disease. I mean after all, high fat foods? Simple carbohydrates and sugar-filled deserts? Cigarettes and alcohol? No Stairmaster for 3 hours a day? According to our experience, our industrial and governmental science, and our gigantic devotion to every miracle-cure product and approach we can turn our eyes to, their collective hearts should all be congealed, seized up like French-made Peugeot diesel motors full of hardened, varnished sludge.

The truth is that the French typically live 3 years longer than we do, with only an 8.3% rate of heart disease, and a low occurrence of obesity (though sadly this is increasing as Western ways infiltrate French daily life).

So how do they do it?

According to folks like Dr. Will Clower, Michael Pollan, and Mirielle Guiliano (and place me squarely in this camp, by personal experience), it comes down to this: The French simply eat real food in moderation. They eat good food, just less of it (they eat until they’re full, and then they stop). They generally don’t eat the overly-processed, low fat, low carb, hydrogenated chemically substituted well-preserved food-based products that we do. Dr. Clower’s catchphrase: “If it’s not food, don’t eat it.” Michael Pollan? “Eat food. Not Too Much. Mostly plants.”

How to eat rich foods and not gain weight

How can you implement the French approach? What do the French do that allows them to eat what they want, when they want, and still not gain weight?

Here is a list based primarily on the writings of the three authors cited above. Of course, their books provide much more detail on the scientific (and anecdotal) evidence that supports the effectiveness of these ideas, and provide specific techniques on how to implement them. Here’s a sample of the guidance they provide:

• Identify honestly what you eat, think about it, and make changes very slightly and gradually. Remember that you are changing these dietary habits for the span of a lifetime, so they have to be simple, livable adjustments. From Mireille Guiliano, “The answer to weight gain is never dieting.”
• Eat only real food, not processed food alternatives, “faux foods”, or food-like products (particularly high fructose corn syrup).The good news is this means you get to eat butter, bread, and chocolate again.
• Eat for the pleasure of eating, rather than as a means of fuel. Treat your mouth more like a sensory tool and less like a Flux Capacitor.
• Eat at regular times. In France, they maintain a social stigma against between meal snacking. In fact, many of their cars do not have cupholders.
• Eat seasonally, locally, and shop several times a week. And as Michael Pollan says, don’t buy your fuel at the same place you buy it for your car.
• Don’t rely solely on “Nutritionism” to tell you what is good for you; use common sense, and eat real foods. If Great-Grandma wouldn’t recognize it, don’t eat it. This is a simplification here; read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan for a much deeper explanation of the dangers of relying on science and industry alone to tell us what we should eat.
• Your dietary emphasis should be on green leafy vegetables, or animals who are fed those vegetables.
• Eat fat! Just the right kinds, particularly dairy and naturally occurring fats in plants (think avocados not corn oil). In fact, the lack of fat intake may actually be one of the root causes of many of our health problems like heart disease and diabetes.
• Quantity does not equal quality. Buy the best you can afford, and be willing to spend a little more (although I’ve found that the cost levels out when you’re eating less).
• Train yourself to eat less by enjoying your food more, eating slower, putting less in your mouth per bite, and eating for sensory pleasure. Realize that portion size has grown 3 times what it was 50 years ago!
• Don’t eat mindlessly or be distracted when you’re eating by things like television or the computer.
• Incorporate wine into your diet in moderation.
• Don’t stuff yourself. Learn the often forgotten feeling of fullness with practice and patience. For example, eat half of what you normally would, and wait for half an hour. If you’re starving, you know it wasn’t enough. If you feel physically good, that is the feeling of being full. Practice identifying that feeling, and it becomes second nature with time.
• Try to get all of your nutritional needs met through whole foods rather than supplements whenever possible (there is an ongoing, raging controversy as to whether supplements actually have much benefit out of the context of the whole food from which they were derived. [Update: After reading further, personally I believe that they DO have benefit, but only the right kinds. Industrially produced, synthetic supplements are not only worthless nutrition-wise, they can be dangerous. Whole food multivitamins, on the other hand, are a proven source of nutrition. For the “real” thing, and to gain a better understanding of the issues involved, see Robin’s blog, Whole Food and More.]).
• Learn to cook, and make time to do it. We often say that we don’t have time to cook, but in reality in the last 15 years most of us have somehow made 2-3 hours time for other things like surfing the Internet. It is ultimately a matter of choosing our health as a priority.
• Make ethical choices in what you eat. Develop a relationship with what you put in your body, understand how it affects you, and recognize that your choices impact the environment. This is an interpolation of the French diet in a sense since it is not a conscious concern of theirs, generally, but in a world of genetically modified foods and questionable shortsighted farming practices, it helps you to identify “real food.” The French concept of the Terroir reflects a profound respect for the land that provides the good things in life - it is a principle that helps when trying to make wise choices.
• Don’t view your weight or your choices as a pass/fail situation. View it as a commitment to improving your life over the long haul.

All of these steps, for me, boil down to this: Eating real food in moderation simply works. It may very well be the solution to the French Paradox.

Bookmark It