![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redroanchroniclesFor a few months now, I've been on a bit of a health kick. And I don't mean that I've given up my Twinkie habit -- I mean that I've been changing my life, utterly and completely, into something better.
It all started with a confluence of events. I stepped on a scale and realized that what had been a bit of extra weight had become a weight of over 200 pounds. I needed new jeans and had to face the fact that the only way they were going on was if I bought up a size. I adopted a dog named Trudeau who strongly encourages frequent exercise by begging for walks (and rewards running with an immense, tongue-lolling, joyful stride that is uplifting just to watch). I bought a pair of really crazy-looking shoes -- more on those and my newfound status as a runner in another post later on -- which turned exercise from a chore into a momentary return to youth. I decided that I was tired of being tired, and I was sick of being depressed, and I wasn't going to let my life pass me by thinking about how I wish I looked, the things I wish I could do, the life I'd lead when I found the time for it.
I'd like that life now, please.
One of the most difficult parts of this transition for me has been changing my diet. I never thought it was that bad to begin with; I ate fast food maybe once every few months, tops, and usually only in moments of desperation for sustenance. I'd long since cut out soda, and for a couple years I'd been living with a general rule that if I picked up something off the supermarket shelf that listed any form of corn syrup as an ingredient, I'd put it back down again. But it wasn't really enough. I started logging my meals on SparkPeople and started looking what was really in the food I was eating: it most mostly a lot of calories and not a lot of nutrition. So I started being more careful, buying more produce, trying to teach myself to cook, and here's what I found: in the average neighborhood supermarket, there is hardly anything on those shelves that is good for you. (Michael Pollan, author of such fucking incredible books as The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, puts it even more simply: stick to the edges of the supermarket. Supermarkets put all of the fresh food -- meats, produce, bakeries -- on the outside edges of the store, closest to the loading docs, where it's easiest to rotate in new deliveries.) I've utterly confused and confounded myself with the array of fascinating and opposing ideas of what constitutes healthy eating, but for the most part I've just settled into Michael Pollan's simple advice for a healthy diet: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."
A big part of educating myself about food has also meant educating myself about food systems overall, about how we got into this mess and how we can get back out of it again. So in case you're also interested in these topics, I want to recommend a few video resources (I'll have some books to recommend later on):
Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach Every Child About Food
Jamie Oliver (who I have been informed is in fact TV's The Naked Chef) gives an outstanding presentation as part of the TED Talks series about the relationship we have with food, and how we need to change it. You can watch the full presentation online at this link, or just watch the embedded video below (they're the same thing).
I was really struck by the video he shows of a classroom visit where children can't even identify fruits and vegetables -- and we're talking tomatoes here, not anything too exotic. It seems almost too incredible to be true, but having been one of those children (having been one of those children well into my mid-twenties) I can tell you that it is a fact. In fact, it's kind of still my reality. I tried to buy parsnips just a few days ago and walked away with rutabaga, and until you've been there you have no idea quite how horrible it is to realize that you're nearly 30 and you don't have the first idea what a parsnip looks like. Also, it's kind of humiliating when the checkout guy says, "Are these rutabagas?" and you're all, "Er, I think parsnips?" and he's all, "Uh. No. These aren't parsnips."
LOOK, I CAN'T RECOGNIZE A PARSNIP, OKAY? Maybe I should get a smartphone. I'll bet there's an app for that.
In any event, the filmed segments he shows are clips from his new show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which premieres March 26th on ABC. I'll definitely be tuning in.
We Feed the World
Years back I saw a film called We Feed the World. It's about the globalization of food, the ways in which our food systems have gone absolutely mad, and the brink that all of this is driving us to. This film is one of the most incredible documentaries I've ever seen; all my love to Food, Inc. and every other film on the subject, but We Feed the World is a film that has haunted me since the first time I watched it. There's an image early on in the film that's really stuck with me: a dump truck dumping a load of perfectly good bread -- harvested, baked, and then wasted -- while millions of people across the globe are undernourished or outright starving. This film will educate you not just about the global issues concerning food -- from GM crops to factory fishing to the damages of import/export foods -- but also about what exactly you're putting in your body.
You can watch the documentary in its entirety -- thereby completely blowing your mind -- for free.
Anywho, I'll be posting more about food and fitness and my crazy shoes and all that nonsense as time marches forward. I know there are some fantastic chefs and fitness nuts reading, so hopefully you'll all help me out. We don't want a repeat of the Parsnip Incident.
It all started with a confluence of events. I stepped on a scale and realized that what had been a bit of extra weight had become a weight of over 200 pounds. I needed new jeans and had to face the fact that the only way they were going on was if I bought up a size. I adopted a dog named Trudeau who strongly encourages frequent exercise by begging for walks (and rewards running with an immense, tongue-lolling, joyful stride that is uplifting just to watch). I bought a pair of really crazy-looking shoes -- more on those and my newfound status as a runner in another post later on -- which turned exercise from a chore into a momentary return to youth. I decided that I was tired of being tired, and I was sick of being depressed, and I wasn't going to let my life pass me by thinking about how I wish I looked, the things I wish I could do, the life I'd lead when I found the time for it.
I'd like that life now, please.
One of the most difficult parts of this transition for me has been changing my diet. I never thought it was that bad to begin with; I ate fast food maybe once every few months, tops, and usually only in moments of desperation for sustenance. I'd long since cut out soda, and for a couple years I'd been living with a general rule that if I picked up something off the supermarket shelf that listed any form of corn syrup as an ingredient, I'd put it back down again. But it wasn't really enough. I started logging my meals on SparkPeople and started looking what was really in the food I was eating: it most mostly a lot of calories and not a lot of nutrition. So I started being more careful, buying more produce, trying to teach myself to cook, and here's what I found: in the average neighborhood supermarket, there is hardly anything on those shelves that is good for you. (Michael Pollan, author of such fucking incredible books as The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, puts it even more simply: stick to the edges of the supermarket. Supermarkets put all of the fresh food -- meats, produce, bakeries -- on the outside edges of the store, closest to the loading docs, where it's easiest to rotate in new deliveries.) I've utterly confused and confounded myself with the array of fascinating and opposing ideas of what constitutes healthy eating, but for the most part I've just settled into Michael Pollan's simple advice for a healthy diet: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."
A big part of educating myself about food has also meant educating myself about food systems overall, about how we got into this mess and how we can get back out of it again. So in case you're also interested in these topics, I want to recommend a few video resources (I'll have some books to recommend later on):
Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach Every Child About Food
Jamie Oliver (who I have been informed is in fact TV's The Naked Chef) gives an outstanding presentation as part of the TED Talks series about the relationship we have with food, and how we need to change it. You can watch the full presentation online at this link, or just watch the embedded video below (they're the same thing).
I was really struck by the video he shows of a classroom visit where children can't even identify fruits and vegetables -- and we're talking tomatoes here, not anything too exotic. It seems almost too incredible to be true, but having been one of those children (having been one of those children well into my mid-twenties) I can tell you that it is a fact. In fact, it's kind of still my reality. I tried to buy parsnips just a few days ago and walked away with rutabaga, and until you've been there you have no idea quite how horrible it is to realize that you're nearly 30 and you don't have the first idea what a parsnip looks like. Also, it's kind of humiliating when the checkout guy says, "Are these rutabagas?" and you're all, "Er, I think parsnips?" and he's all, "Uh. No. These aren't parsnips."
LOOK, I CAN'T RECOGNIZE A PARSNIP, OKAY? Maybe I should get a smartphone. I'll bet there's an app for that.
In any event, the filmed segments he shows are clips from his new show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which premieres March 26th on ABC. I'll definitely be tuning in.
We Feed the World
Years back I saw a film called We Feed the World. It's about the globalization of food, the ways in which our food systems have gone absolutely mad, and the brink that all of this is driving us to. This film is one of the most incredible documentaries I've ever seen; all my love to Food, Inc. and every other film on the subject, but We Feed the World is a film that has haunted me since the first time I watched it. There's an image early on in the film that's really stuck with me: a dump truck dumping a load of perfectly good bread -- harvested, baked, and then wasted -- while millions of people across the globe are undernourished or outright starving. This film will educate you not just about the global issues concerning food -- from GM crops to factory fishing to the damages of import/export foods -- but also about what exactly you're putting in your body.
You can watch the documentary in its entirety -- thereby completely blowing your mind -- for free.
Anywho, I'll be posting more about food and fitness and my crazy shoes and all that nonsense as time marches forward. I know there are some fantastic chefs and fitness nuts reading, so hopefully you'll all help me out. We don't want a repeat of the Parsnip Incident.
Via the network, hoping that's okay
Date: 2010-03-16 08:06 pm (UTC)*g* My crazy-looking shoes are Vivo Barefoot ones. I was all forlorn because I seem to be the only person on DW with "barefoot shoes" as an interest, so I will keep an eye out for your post about them!
Btw, if you are a runner, have you found
Re: Via the network, hoping that's okay
Date: 2010-03-17 12:29 am (UTC)Re: Via the network, hoping that's okay
Date: 2010-03-17 10:26 am (UTC)Oh yes, I think when you find the barefoot shoes that work for you, you do not want to leave them.
(Ironically, I do have Vibram soles -- on my climbing shoes. So for me, Vibram is associated with squishing my toes into tiny constricted downturned shoes for dancing up walls on my tiptoes *g*.)
Re: Via the network, hoping that's okay
Date: 2010-03-17 04:35 pm (UTC)I've always wondered though, could you climb in Fivefingers? Like, would it be an advantage to have independent grip and whatnot with your toes? Or would it just lead to breaking your toes? :D
Re: Via the network, hoping that's okay
Date: 2010-03-17 05:13 pm (UTC)Re: Via the network, hoping that's okay
Date: 2010-03-17 06:25 pm (UTC)There's a local climbing gym here and I've always been tempted to go, but I just don't have the time (or money) for an additional hobby. Plus, there's always the possibility that I'd get to the top of the wall and then cry like a little girl at the prospect of getting back down again. :D The same local company does canopy tours in the redwoods too, though, and one of these days I've got to man up enough to do that.
Re: Via the network, hoping that's okay
Date: 2010-03-17 08:47 pm (UTC)*tempts*
Bouldering is cheap! You just need shoes and chalk (and a pass to the climbing gym)!
Plus, there's always the possibility that I'd get to the top of the wall and then cry like a little girl at the prospect of getting back down again.
Well, if it's a regular climbing gym (rather than bouldering-specific), the way you get down is by being lowered on your rope while you sit comfortably in your harness, so that's the low-stress bit *g*.
Seriously, if you're at all interested or curious, I recommend
Re: Via the network, hoping that's okay
Date: 2010-03-23 02:14 am (UTC)I do kind of want to try it sometime, though. I feel like I've gotten cowardly in my old age... in the days of my JROTC youth, I rappelled off a tower and jumped off a zipline that simulates parachuting out of a C130. Surely I can handle a little bouldering. :D
no subject
Date: 2010-03-18 02:29 am (UTC)I can cook. And I live where there are little independent groceries where the food doesn't suck. The worse food is for you, the more it costs there. My diet was never the problem. I don't like exercising.
Then about 3 weeks ago I picked up some 2 pound hand weights and "pumped iron" because I wanted to watch cartoons and there was too much guilt. I'd been storing them under the sofa for years so they'd be right there if I needed them. Imagine my surprise when I felt jazzed and awake and happier afterward!
I put some time into thinking about why I might dislike exercise. I realized a lot of it was psychological. There are rewards for being the quiet child who doesn't run around like a crazed monkey on crack. There are incentives for being bigger than your enemies-- even if the bigger isn't in muscle but just in inertia-granting poundage. And exercise is dull and hard--- athletic people actually told me that walking doesn't count, so I stopped doing it and drove more! Most athletic people will say that 2 pound weights don't count and I shouldn't even bother... but they'd be wrong because my arms look awesome comparatively. Basically the stuff that "counts" as "real exercise" only counts because it's hard and makes you sweaty and sore. If you can exercise without getting sweaty and sore and bored enough that your brain wants to spend the week on Fiji without you... someone will tell you it's not good enough to matter.
Jeans really are the hallmark of weight problems!
I saw that Jamie Oliver video. I had this long post about how I remembered school being about the peer pressure. It's been more than 30 years since I was that age and I still remember how you'd get beaten up on the playground if you looked smarter than the popular kids. So if Jamie Oliver called on someone ranked in the social strata first and that kid didn't answer, the rest of them are going to play stupid no matter what. But on the other hand I've met children who don't have any clue that horses and cows are different animals. One kid thought "chicken" was a kind of fish because it looks the same on his plate at school--- comparing chicken fingers and fish sticks I can actually understand that.
Good luck with your attempts to be healthier...