Running Commentary

The metaphor that came to me on my morning run is inexact, but because it has stuck with me I'll write about it anyway. During my recent involvement with the Stephanie Atwood Belly Fat Blow-Out book / eating program, I've spend some time contemplating the nature of processed foods (the program is against them). Here's how I see it. First we put a basic food (be it plant or animal) in a machine to smash it to smithereens and leach out most of its natural, healthy components. Then we add in a few artificially created vitamins and minerals, mix the results with some guar gum (a binder made from beans stripped of their nutrients by dehulling and smushing), ascorbic acid (a preservative made by fermenting sugar with black mold), lotsa sugar or carcinogenic artificial sweeteners, plenty of salt, and artificial color. Then we pour the goo we've made into some kind of mold or container, slap a clever wrapper or label on it (Animated characters anyone? Cute, anthropomorphized...

Day one of learning how to reform my eating habits: tofu-spinach scramble with grapefruit bits and pomegranate green tea. Yum! When someone says "In all honesty..." or "To tell you the truth..." I usually figure he or she is about to tell me a whopper or at least to bend a few facts. That said, I want to tell you about two aspects of my running life (so what's new), nutrition and inspiration. The in all honesty part is that I have hesitated to write this post. Why? Because it involves two (really three) books about fitness that I've read recently that have influenced my thinking in big ways--and I count the author, Stephanie Atwood, as a friend. I even did some editorial work on one of the the books, so I grant that my praise here could seem suspect. Those who have known me for a while can report that I have whined in the past when I've had to edit books and any other copy that I haven't liked. So you know I would never gratuitously praise b...