As many of you know, the Portland Marathon was held this morning. I spent most of the spring and summer training for the race, suffering a series of injuries, and learning how real runners run. My goal was to run 26.2 miles this morning.

I didn’t do it.

I didn’t walk the race, either.

But I did go to the gym for an hour of upper-body lifting, followed by twenty minutes of intervals on the treadmill, and finishing with some stretching. It felt great.

I know that I’ve done the right thing, foregoing a mediocre race this year for a well-prepared race in 2009. I have a year to get ready, and my physical fitness is already way ahead of where it was when I started this year. (I’m about where I was in late June, I think.)

My legs still give me pain when I run, but it’s mostly minor stuff like shin splints. And because I’m only running twice a week for about three miles, it’s not a big deal. I take a day off when I need to. If the pain gets too bad, I walk, or I stop to stretch. I’m not pushing myself. I’m getting fit slowly.

About time, huh?

Congrats to Mac’s wife, Pam, for running this morning, and to everyone else who participated in the race (or any other marathon this year).

I’ll be on vacation this week, so my posting may be light (or non-existent). Have fun!

The thing is – I think (and please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) you guys view food much like a best friend that is always there to comfort you when you need it. You’re moving away from your best friend and now your future seems bleak and gray.  No one says you have to eliminate your relationship with food – it just has to be modified so it doesn’t play such a major role in your life. It can take a lot of time, but it can be done.

No corrections from me Brigid!  Lots of people have made comments such as these here in the past.  The best thing about Brigid’s comment is that it that it succinctly states a very real problem for me AND it does so constructively.  Thanks a lot Brigid!

Sally, writes well (and often) about her relationship with food and how she’s physically transforming her body and psychologically transforming her mind.  If you haven’t read her blog, you should check it out.  Recently, she commented the following:

Love the idea of eating to enjoy. Admitting to myself that I not only adore food but that I think it’s entirely okay to adore food was a big step in me moving toward a healthier relationship with food. What’s not to love? It’s pleasurable, it’s cultural, it’s sometimes passionate, it’s homey—food is at the heart of who we are. When I focus on making food to celebrate all of that, I realize I can make generally healthy food and thoroughly enjoy it while bringing myself closer to a healthy weight.

These two quotes beautifully sum up some ways about how to have a healthy relationship with food.  It seems that lots of people are moving away from dieting in the traditional sense of concentrating on foods that you can’t have.  Instead, they are now focusing on healthy foods that they can have.  Many people have even found that the healthy foods do taste good and that they don’t even miss the foods that they used to love so much.

I recently found an article over at NYT.com about this sort of thing.  Here are a few of the points from the article that hit home for me:

• People with weight problems are figuring out that diets don’t work.  They’re shifting away from deprivation diets and instead concentrating on “positive eating.”
• In just 3 years, from 2004 to 2007, the percentage of people on diets has decreased from 33% to 29%.
• 53% of consumers are cooking from scratch more than they used to.  This is possibly due to the increase in costs of processed foods and also from the “slow food” movement and the “whole foods” movement.
• Organic food sales have increased and the number of farmers markets has doubled from the mid 1990’s.

All of these things suggest to me that people are analyzing their diet habits.  They’re thinking about what works for them and what doesn’t.  And in most cases, dieting doesn’t work.  Sure, it works short term.  But in the long run, unless we change our perception of nutrition and fitness, we’re bound for failure.  I don’t want to fail and I still have a lot to think about and work on.  But I’m getting there.

I did not eat anything else that afternoon.

In the evening, Kris and I joined Mac and Pam for dinner at a nice restaurant in Salem. Again, because it was my free day, I ordered what I wanted. I had an appetizer of three pork ribs in a sort of soy sauce. (And sampled some of Kris’ salmon fondue.) My entree was “penne diablo”, a pasta dish with crab and pork sausage in a spicy tomato sauce. It wasn’t subtle, but it was tasty. For dessert, I had apple pie and ice cream.

As we ate, Kris and Pam admitted they could not understand the struggles that Mac and I face every day with food. For them, eating sensibly is natural. For us, it is not. Pam asked about my current regimen, eating six small meals a day.

“Do you feel this is sustainable?” she asked. I admitted that I did not.

“Six small meals a day means about 300 calories per meal,” I said. “And it’s difficult for me to find interesting food. Spinach is fine, but I don’t want to eat spinach salads every day. That’s the challenge, I think: to find a way to make lasting changes with food.”

For me, those changes include creating sensible, balanced meals that satisfy my sense of adventure and my craving for food that tastes good. But more than that, I need to learn to eat in moderation. For Kris, one chocolate chip cookie is enough. Not for me. I want three or four — but eight is better.

Discovering this balance is a process, though, and I’m working toward it.

Craig, shucking oysters before book group. That’s me in the background,
taking a picture from a different angle. Photo by Courtney Cronk.

On Sunday, our book group gathered for dinner. We discussed M.F.K. Fisher’s The Gastronomical Me. Fisher was a gourmand, and The Gastronmical Me is a book devoted to her life-long discovery of food and the pleasure food brings. Reading her descriptions of honest wine, honest fish, honest bread, and honest cheese made me really very hungry.

Because I knew in advance we’d be eating well for dinner, I was forced to make a decision: Should I stick to the Body for Life six-small-meals-per-day plan, or should I do something else to prepare for the evening meal? I had no desire to limit myself to only 300 calories.

I chose to eat two small meals for breakfast and lunch, and then nothing between noon and six. This was a conscious choice, though it may not have been the best one. Actually, I did very well, sampling the pancetta-wrapped halibut, trying two oysters (my first two oysters), enjoying the asparagus, and limiting myself to two glasses of wine. (I did very well, that is, except for the bread. I ate too much bread.)

As we discussed the book, I tried to articulate the psychology of eating. “I think there are three types of people,” I said. “There are those for whom food is an experience, a thing to be loved. I’m one of those. For another type of person, food is merely nourishment, a source of calories. And a third type doesn’t notice food at all.”

Those weren’t my exact words, and in retrospect, I’m not making the distinction as clearly as I’d like, but I still believe it. I love food. I love to eat. While it’s true that I eat compulsively, and that this is a very real problem, it’s my love of food that will always make dieting a challenge.

“What you need,” Kris told me the other night (as she’s told me many times before), “is to learn to practice moderation. It’s fine to love food. But you need to do it in a way that makes sense.”

As always, Kris is right. While I continue to exercise on the Body for Life plan (which is going quite well, by the way), I need to think about ways to combine my love of food with a healthy diet in ways that are sustainable. I believe that moderation is going to be key.

It’s easier to be sedentary than to make time to exercise every day..  It’s easier to eat at Sonic, Outback, Denny’s, and Taco Bell than it is to shop for and cook healthy food for your family every day.  And it’s definitely easier to go with the flow of the group that is doing these things than to stick to your guns and make the right choices when you’re out of your routine.

This is the situation that I found myself in this past weekend.  Every year for as long as I can remember, the men in my family–my dad, uncles, and cousins–spend a few days on a bird hunting trip in Arizona.  We get up REALLY early, stop at Circle K for coffee and doughnuts (I had a powerbar instead) and hunt until around 11:00.  On the way back to the hotel, we stop at one of those aforementioned restaurants for a VERY healthy meal.  Then, we take a nap, eat dinner at another one of those restaurants, go to bed early and do it all again the next day.  Oh yeah, there’s lots of beer involved  and an occasional trip to DQ for a blizzard.  Of course, there’s no exercise in sight, unless you count walking from the truck to the place where you set up your stool in the field for the morning shoot.

It’s really hard to make good choices when everyone around you is making bad ones.  None of the men in my family are skinny, a few might be considered normal weight, but most of them are overweight or worse.  It’s easy to see where I got my eating habits and body weight issues.  Unfortunately for me, my problems started earlier in life than the people in the generation above me.  This is why it’s so important for me to get my lifestyle under control.  So that my kids see a two healthy weight parents every day for as long as they can remember.  So that they know being inactive is not a choice.  So that they know that eating healthy is very important and something that can be done most of the time instead of only when life cooperates.  These are the things that I must continue to work on and can never give up on.

So, after a summer of moderate exercise, moderate diet control, and lots of time spent away from the house, I have allowed myself to gain a few pounds.  I’m back up to 192 this morning.  Eating and exercise is a struggle for me right now.  I’m allowing myself to make poor choices in both arenas.

We’ve got one more small trip planned for this weekend.  Pam’s running the McKenzie River 50K trail run this weekend.  The whole family is going down to support her.  We’ve got a cute cabin booked for the weekend and then next week, it’s back to school.

I’m looking forward to getting back into the routine of school and kids’ activities that start up again next week.  My diet and exercise habits thrive when we’ve got the daily schedule made up for us in advance.  I’m excited to get down to my goal weight by the new year.

There’s new research from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (the same folks who publish the awesome Nutrition Action Health Letter) suggesting that some of the so-called kids meals found in fast food restaurants contain more calories than most children need in the entire day!

Ninety-three percent of 1,474 possible choices at the 13 chains exceed 430 calories—an amount that is one-third of what the Institute of Medicine recommends that children aged four through eight should consume in a day.

Losers (and a winner)

• Chili’s–94% of 700 possible kids meal combinations were too high in calories and one had more than 1000 calories.
• Burger King–A “Big Kids” meal has 910 calories
• Kentucky Fried Chicken–a “laptop meal” with popcorn chicken, baked beans, biscuit, Teddy Grahams, and fruit punch contains 940 calories.
• Subway–Really, there’s only one winner when it comes to fast food for kids, or anybody for that matter. The “Fresh Fit for Kids” meals (a mini sub, juice, and apples,raisins or yogurt) contain about 420 calories–just right for 1/3 of an average kid’s daily food intake.

What’s a parent to do?

Obviously, families should stay out of fast food restaurants whenever possible. But for a lot of us, that’s easier said than done. Here are some suggestions to help bypass the drive thru and start making healthier choices for your family.

• Get the family involved in meal preparations–I spend a lot of time in my kitchen with my kids–and they’re real young. My toddler runs around and plays on the floor while my three-year-old tosses ingredients together, mixes them in the bowl, and helps to set the table. It’s one of the ways that I get stuff done without setting my kids down in front of the TV. It also makes for great together time and leads to lots of fun discussions
• Get a slow cooker–Spend 15-20 minutes in the morning chopping and adding ingredients to the slow cooker and head out the door. When you come home from your day’s errands, the house smells awesome and dinner’s ready for your family. Just dish it up and serve it to the masses. I don’t actually do this but it’s something I’m interested in trying. I hear great things about slow cookers from lots of my friends who have busy lives.
• Cook ahead–There are lots of ways that you can cook for the future. Not only does it save you time, but some say it helps with losing weight. At least one reader of GFS has suggested cooking ahead for the week so you don’t have to think about the food you’re eating. And just look at all those diet programs that ship you your food so you don’t have to worry about it. There are lots of great ways to cook ahead. You can intentionally make leftovers so that you can have the same diner twice, or even three times in a week. Reheat the leftovers and you’re good to go. Personally, I would rather make a double recipe and freeze one of them. That way, even though you’re eating leftovers, you can eat them a week or two later than the original meal. This helps to eliminate the boredom that comes from repeatedly eating the same thing.

There are lots of ways that families can help themselves when it comes to staying out of the fast food trap. The trick is to find what works for your family, then practice and refine it until it becomes a habit. With a little patience, and some dedication, you can change eating out back into what it was when you grew up–a special treat for you and your family!

After Saturday morning’s aborted attempt at a sixteen mile run, I was feeling miserable. It wasn’t just that my physical condition was poor — my mental condition had fallen off a cliff.

“We’re going out to eat,” I told Kris on Saturday afternoon. “We’re going to Buster’s barbeque and I’m going to eat whatever I want.”

But we didn’t go to Buster’s. I had a little more sense than that. I did pick up Safeway Chinese food, though, and a package of pre-formed chocolate chip cookies. Kris frowned. “You’re not going to be happy,” she told me.

“I don’t care,” I said.

At home, I ate half the Chinese food and threw the rest away. I made the chocolate chip cookies, but they sucked. I still ate too many (ten? twelve?) but most of those ended up in the trash, too. A waste of time, money, and food. And I still wasn’t in a good mental space.

On Sunday, I had okay food, but too much of it. On Monday and Tuesday, I ate whatever I wanted. Again, portion size was okay, but food choices were poor: donuts, soda, etc.

Meanwhile, I wasn’t exercising. From the end of my marathon training run until Tuesday night, I didn’t stretch, I didn’t bike, I didn’t walk. All I did was Monday morning’s pushup routine.

To top it all off, I didn’t write. I played computer games. I watched videos. I read comic books.

For four days, I turned into a wallowing mass of self-pity.

The whole time I was doing this, I knew that it was a mistake. I was even trying to put brakes on myself, limiting portions, not giving in to the worst of my impulses. But I was still eating compulsively. I was still avoiding exercise. I was still shirking my responsibilities. And all because I felt like my body had betrayed me.

None of these choices were conscious. They were just reflexes. I was doing what I felt like. I was the old J.D.

Fortunately, I woke up Wednesday with a better attitude. I ate a sensible breakfast (oatmeal and berries and a hunk of cheese). I did my pushups and then spent an hour doing my upper body workout at the gym. I got confirmation of my physical therapy appointment (which I’ll go to in a few hours). And then I began to tackle the enormous backlog of work for my web sites. (When I ignore them for a few days, things get out of control!)

In the past, I might not have been able to correct my course once I’d lost my way. This time, I did. But how do I keep from losing my way in the first place? How do I prevent setbacks from moving beyond physical and into the mental realm?

I don’t know.

I’m learning, of course, though slowly. My body actually craves exercise right now. It’s been five days since I did anything aerobic. As soon as I finish typing this, I’m going to get up from my chair, stretch, and then go for a run. I want to be able to tell the physical therapist exactly what my body feels like right now…

So before dinner, Megan and Pam made the brownies–mixing and stirring and frosting and sprinkling and of course carefully placing a few “M’s” on top. All was fine and dandy until dessert time. We all had a brownie and the kids went to bed. And then every time I walked past them for the rest of the night, I took a small nibble. A bite here and a bite there added up to at least another portion of brownies on the evening. I even had a bite this morning at 4:45 as I was leaving to go to the gym. Yep, I went to the gym this morning–before my family woke up. I did it on Monday too!

So you might think that I’m tempting myself today every time I walk by the brownies in the kitchen. But, I did the smart thing and set aside two brownies for the kids and painfully put the rest of the brownies on a plate for Pam to take to work so that her coworkers can get fat. Victory! At least for me.

What’s the moral here? You don’t need to deprive yourself of all the treats in the world. But you do need to recognize your weaknesses and exercise moderation. Then get your butt up early and head to the gym.

For the second Saturday in a row, I had to cut my marathon training run short. The pain in my knee was too intense to continue. Today’s three-mile walk back to the car was excruciating. I had a lot of time to think about my progress, my current physical state, and my goals.

When I started Get Fit Slowly, I did a poor job of motivating myself. I groused a lot about my condition, but I did nothing about it. After a reader scolded me for my inaction (and rightly so), I set some goals for myself. These goals weren’t important in and of themselves, but for what they meant for me: they were a reason for me to get out and exercise.

I’ve been fairly successful at working toward my goals. Things haven’t been perfect, but I’ve been slowly achieving a level of fitness that would allow me to run a marathon or to do a week-long bicycle tour of Oregon.

Now, however, my age and lack of base fitness are beginning to take a toll.

I am 39 years old. I’m not old, but I’m certainly no longer young. My body is not as resilient as it once was. Moreover, I’m starting from a base of almost no fitness: years spent sitting in front of a computer and rarely taking more than 2,000 steps a day.

While my exertions were lighter, my body could handle it. Now, however, it seems to be saying, “Whoa, cowboy — let’s build some muscle first, shall we?” I’ve experienced shin splints, IT band syndrome, and now a pulled groin. (Last night we played kickball with some friends. On the very first play of the game, I lunged toward third base. As I did, I pulled my groin. I wasn’t happy.)

If I’m suffering physically, it’s nothing compared to my mental gyrations. “I quit!” I told myself as I was walking back to my car today. “I’m done.” But that’s bullshit. I don’t quit. I’m not done. I may, however, need to reevaluate my priorities.

I’ve spent the past two hours trying to decide what it is I want to do and why. Here are the things I’ve come up with:

• I want to run a marathon. I recognize this is not a sign of fitness. It is, however, something I’ve always wanted to do, and something that will require me to be in peak physical shape. But do I need to run the 2008 Portland Marathon? What if I changed my goal to the 2009 Portland Marathon? What if I gave myself an extra nine months to allow my body adapt to running and, especially, to lose weight.
• I want to reach a healthy weight. Most of my physical problems can be directly traced to my weight. Though I’ve lost nearly twenty pounds since I began on January 1st, I’m still at least twenty pounds too heavy. This extra mass causes extra strain on my body. Every time I run, every time I do pushups, every time I do anything, my bones and sinews have to work harder.
• I want to continue my weight training. Through this entire process, my weight training has been the one thing I’ve done constantly well. I go to the gym a couple times each week and do the Body for Life program, carefully noting my perceived effort, and gradually increasing the difficulty of the exercises. My body has changed noticeably as a result. Earlier this year, I stopped my lower-body weight training. I felt like it was interfering with my running. I want to resume the lower-body lifting.
• I want to become more flexible. Years of sedentary living have made me rigid as a board. I’ve spent the past month stretching for ten minutes three times a day. That’s good, but I’d like to do more. Maybe it’s time to find a regular yoga class. I don’t know. Whatever the case, I think that developing flexibility is going to be key to allowing me to run regularly in the future. As Pam has said, some people need to stretch, some don’t. But those that need it, really need it. I’m one of those who need it.

So what does this all means in terms of the actions I’ll take? I don’t know. On Monday, I think I’m going to try to set an appointment with a physical therapist. This is the last step I’ll take before deciding whether or not to attempt this year’s marathon. If that goes poorly, or if the therapist recommends against it, then I’ll shift my focus to 2009. I have no idea what I’ll do about Cycle Oregon at this point.

Meanwhile, I’m going to make another pass through the Body for Life 12-week program. While I followed it last spring, I was focused and happy about my progress. I liked the variety. And it’ll let me get some running in, even if it’s just quick bursts.

Who knows what the future holds?

This is sometimes difficult for me since it’s well documented that when given a choice, I’ll choose to eat something (OK, anything) other than fruits and vegetables. However, I am getting better at this. In fact, I’m starting to enjoy reaching into the fruit bowl for a snack, or having a nice salad for a dinner.

There are lots of ways to incorporate fruits and vegetables into a meal plan. Searching the frozen food section at the grocery store yields a plethora of vegetable options. And it’s certainly easier to open the freezer and pull out a bag of already prepped peas, corn, carrots, or broccoli. But is easier the better option? What about the nutrition of these frozen vegetables? Are they just as healthy as their fresh counterparts? And what about canned veggies?

Fresh
One of the things I love about living in the country is that we have ample room to grow our own vegetables and fruits. We have cherries, peaches, pears, apples, and tons of berries. Lettuce, carrots, peas, tomatoes, corn, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, and asparagus are some of the veggies that we have been known to grow. There’s nothing like going outside and picking what you want to eat for dinner. Straight from the garden to the table is definitely the healthiest way to eat your produce. But just how fresh are those veggies at the megastore? The minute they’re picked, they start to lose nutritional value. How much time has elapsed from field to floor of the store? You never know.

Frozen
In 1998, the FDA confirmed that frozen fruits and vegetable can pack as much, if not more, nutritional value than their fresh counterparts. Since they’re picked, blanched, and frozen within hours of their harvesting, they have little time to lose nutritional value. Also, they’re picked at their peak of freshness–which only enhances their nutritional value.

Canned
Canned veggies and fruits on the other hand have been shown to have the least nutritional value because of the extensive heating during the canning process. This heating can sometimes cause a leaching of the vitamins and minerals out of the food and into the cooking water. Unless you’re drinking that water, you’re not getting as much nutritional benefit from those canned vegetables and fruits.

So, if you want to max out your fruit and vegetable nutrition, grow your own or buy from the local farmer’s market. If you can’t do that, buy frozen. But canned is still better than a box of doughnuts!

A couple readers were taken aback. “Do you have a full time job? How can you afford a whole lot of exercise?” Juan wrote. And Mike said, “How do you fit all this exercise time into a day if you have a 9-to-5 job?”

The simple answer is: I quit my job.

Big changes lead to big changes
Sometimes in order to make big changes in our lives, we have to completely alter our daily habits and routines. For years, my biggest excuse for not exercising was that I didn’t have time. Between work, writing, and Real Life, there was no time for physical fitness.

When I quit my job in March to become a “professional blogger” (a term that, while accurate, sounds ludicrous, even to me), I no longer had any excuses. But I didn’t need them.

My first day as a full-time writer was also my first day of regular exercise. The results have been astounding. In the past four months, I’ve developed a dedication to physical fitness that has surprised me.

Small changes lead to big changes, too
Though I had to quit my job before I could make time for fitness, that’s certainly not a requirement. You don’t need to go to the same extremes to make big changes in your life. You don’t need to quit your job to make time for regular exercise. The key is to analyze your own life, to know your strengths and your weaknesses, and to change your habits in small ways that lead to big results for you.

In 1997, for example, I lost 40 pounds by making a few simple changes to my lifestyle. When I got up in the morning, instead of reading the paper, I spent half an hour walking (or, eventually, jogging). I began to bike the six miles to work. During lunch, I’d go for a walk or ride my bike instead of loafing in the break room. I also began to track my calorie consumption. Individually, these changes were only minor alterations to my lifestyle. Taken together, they yielded 42 pounds of weight loss in six months.

More recently, my wife, Kris, has begun to make small changes to her habits. She’s going to bed a little earlier so that she has more free time in the morning before she leaves for work. She uses this time to go for a walk or to practice yoga. (Since our Wii died, she’s been unable to use the Wii Fit for her yoga fix. Instead, she’s developed her own routines which she does in the kitchen while listening to NPR.)

Together, Kris and I are trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, and we’re making an effort to have fish a couple times per week. (We both like fish; in the past, however, we’ve never thought to prepare it.)

Eight easy ways to change your habits
It can be difficult at first to determine just where you can squeeze exercise and healthy diet into your life. But I’ve found that, with time, it’s surprisingly easy to make the small changes that lead to big results. (And which lead to bigger changes of habit down the road.) Here are some techniques to make this process easier:

• Do what you love. If you don’t like to run, then don’t force yourself to run. If you don’t like broccoli, don’t force yourself to eat broccoli. Find exercises and healthful foods that you enjoy, and then make them a priority. You’re much likelier to stick to a new habit if it’s something that brings you pleasure instead of something that feels like a chore.
• Remove barriers from the things you want to do. If you bring home a bag of carrots, don’t stick it in the produce drawer. If you’re like me, you’ll never remember it’s there! Put it on the top shelf. Better yet, open the bag and dump the carrots into a ziploc bag or other easy-to-access container. Make it easy to do the right thing. Here’s a real-life example: I used to keep my bike and helmet in the garage. Makes sense, right? But that small thing was a huge barrier, which meant I rarely rode it. Instead, I brought the helmet inside and chained the bike to a tree in front of the house. Now it’s easy to go for a ride.
• Create barriers to prevent poor choices. On the other hand, it’s vital to make it more difficult to choose those things that are counter-productive to the life you want to lead. For me, that means not bringing crap food into the house. If I have cookies or ice cream or cold cereal close at hand, I’m going to eat them. If Starcraft is installed on the computer, I’m going to play it. If you, too, struggle with self-control, make it more difficult to do those things that sabotage your goals. (Developing self-control is, of course, the key to long-term success. I’m still working on that.)
• Devote space to the good stuff. If you can, set aside space for your exercise equipment or for your healthy food. Nickel at Fit 36 created an exercise room in his home in which he installed a rowing machine, some dumbbells, and an elliptical trainer. Though we never set out to do so, Kris and I have been gradually converting one room in our house into a yoga/Wii studio. (Yes, we really think of the Wii as a piece of exercise equipment. Dance Dance Revolution is very good exercise.) Meanwhile, I’ve devoted the top shelf of the fridge to healthy food.

• Tap the power of groups. Peer pressure can be a marvelous thing. If I had tried to trainf or the marathon on my own, I would have failed by now. But Pam, knowing her student well, suggest that I train with a group. This has made all the difference. My sister-in-law does Pilates with a group. Jim at Journal of Healthy Living even lifts weights with a group. Many people, of course, play team sports. Others seek group support to develop healthy eating habits. Working with other people can be a powerful motivator.
• Make use of “dead” time. Have a little extra time in the day? Go for a walk. Prepare a salad for the coming week’s dinners. Since my doctor prescribed stretching several times a day, I’ve learned to squeeze my routine in at odd times: while talking with friends after a meal, while waiting in line, while helping Kris in the garden. You might find a way to exercise while watching Lost, or during your lunch break, or first thing in the morning. (For me, using Saturday morning for a long marathon training run is a great use of “dead” time.)
• Don’t sweat mistakes. Everyone takes days off from fitness and diets. We all indulge ourselves now and then. I used to view a couple bad days as failure, and this made it even more difficult for me to return to my healthy habits. This isn’t the case. Diet and exercise are not “all or nothing”. If you make a mistake or take a break, enjoy the moment, then move on. Return to your new routine as soon as possible.
• Get fit slowly. Don’t try to do everything at once. This is difficult advice for me to give — I am the King of Compulsion. When I begin a diet or a fitness regimen, I want to do it full bore. But I’m beginning to learn this isn’t always the smartest technique. Change your habits slowly, starting with manageable chunks. Make more changes as you master the easy stuff.

The best way to begin eating healthy food or to exercise regularly is to make these choices habits. Sometimes it’s possible to make big changes to your lifestyle that yield impressive results, as when I quit my job and suddenly freed time to work out whenever I wanted. But it’s also possible to develop good habits in a normal nine-to-five world. It just takes a little planning and a willingness to make small changes to your lifestyle.

This was easy at first. Water is fine for a week or two, and I don’t crave alcohol under normal circumstances. But the last few days of the project were a trial. I began to crave jazzier beverages. I wanted a Diet Pepsi. Or some fruit juice. Or, especially, a glass of wine.

Actually, I only craved wine on two occasions, both of which were social gatherings with friends. Since then, I’ve come to realize that nearly all of my alcohol consumption comes in group settings. I use it as a social lubricant.

The results of my water-only experiment were great. I felt healthier and more alert. I lost weight. As Lazy Man noted recently, drinking water is an excellent weight-loss aid. Water is non-caloric. It’s essential for proper body chemistry. It helps to encourage a feeling of “fullness”. It doesn’t contain sugar or caffeine or man-made chemicals. And when you drink water, you’re making a conscious choice not to drink something else.

Ugly bag of mostly water
I’m ready to try this experiment a second time. During the month of July, I plan to drink only water. Though my fitness has been improving steadily for the past few months, my weight loss has slowed to a crawl. That’s fine, but I’d like to jump-start it a little.

“You get a lot of calories from drinks,” Kris told me the other day, and I realized she was right. By drinking only water, I have an easy way to reduce my calories and resume my weight loss.

I’ll make a couple specific exceptions to my water-only rule, but they’re minor:

• I have three chocolate protein shakes in the fridge that expire mid-month. My frugal nature doesn’t want to see these go to waste. I’m going to drink them. (Or maybe give them to Mac, if he wants them.)
• On my weekend training runs, I may drink forego plain water for sugar water.

These exceptions shouldn’t affect the overall experiment. My primary goal is to purge the caffeine, alcohol, and sugar from my beverages. This is going to be a challenge, but I know I can do it. I’ve done it before!

Image by Bohman.

I think this is fascinating. It’s fun to look at these photos and say, “Yeah, that’s worth the money (and the calories).” Or, “No way!”

For example, bananas are cost- and calorie-effective for me. There’s no way I’m going to eat more than one banana at a time. If I remember right, they average 105 calories each and, according to Health Assist, they cost about 40 cents a piece.

Olives are also a pretty good deal. I love olives, and 300 calories can buy me a lot of them.

I used to eat a lot of potato chips (mainly for the salt). As you can probably guess, they’re not very calorie-efficient.

Potato chips are cheap, however. For the same price as a single banana, I can get 300 calories of food (instead of 105). Water-packed tuna in a can also looks like a relative bargain (in terms of calories):

But gummy bears? Not so much.

It’s a little sad — though perhaps unsurprising — that in general it’s cheaper to get calories from processed foods than from fresh fruits and vegetables.

A few years ago, my brother used Dr. Howard Shapiro’s Picture-Perfect Weight Loss to effectively lose weight. Picture-Perfect Weight Loss uses photos to demonstrate calorie-equivalent portions of various foods. Here’s one of the book’s most famous examples:

Looking at that, even I would choose the fruit. There are several other examples at the book’s web site. The trick, however, is being able to make these sorts of comparisons when there’s nobody there to spell out the differences…