Getting started, part 5: Get to know the food you eat

OK, so you've started on this journey. You are properly motivated, you're exercising at least 30 minutes a day, 3 or 4 times a week, and we still haven't even begun to talk about your diet.

Until today.

But first, we're just going to talk about it and think about it, because if I've learned one thing in my experience, most of the stuff you hear is wrong.

If you are looking for a crash diet to lose X-number of pounds in X-number of days, you are looking in the wrong place. If you are looking for a secret pill or juice or vitamin that will melt away that extra weight you're carrying, you are looking in the wrong place. If you're looking for that magical gadget or exercise video that will tighten your tummy or shrink your butt or get rid of your flab in 3 minutes a day with absolutely no effort, you're looking in the wrong place.

But if you are looking for a simple formula to becoming healthier and happier, with the extra bonus of losing weight along the way, then this might be the place for you. I have a simple two-step plan that will accomplish all of those things. Get ready, because here it comes:

Get off your butt.

Stop shoving junk down your piehole.

See? Simple!

OK, so that's a joke ... sort of. It's also true. If you want health, there is no substitute. Every other gimmick, gadget, fad, solution, craze or secret you've heard in the past works in one of two ways:

Either it achieves a temporary solution to a symptom, without tackling or even addressing the underlying problem, or

It doesn't work at all.

So, we've already been talking about exercise, and I hope you have begun to work on that. If so, you might already have noticed changes in your appetite. I know that when I first started, after I had spent an half-hour huffing, puffing and sweating away on my bike, the last thing in the world that I wanted was a greasy cheeseburger.

Still, exercise alone will not help you meet your goals. You might crave healthier food once you begin exercising, but if you don't know what that is, how do you know what to put in your body?


We'll get there, but not quite yet. For this step, all that you need to do is start forming new habits to educate yourself. To do that, keep eating the way you have been (for now), but start looking at the food labels of what you're eating. Get familiar with what you are putting in your body. In particular, pay attention to the serving size and number of servings in the package and compare it to how you actually consume it.

A lot of times, food companies use the serving size to mask how unhealthy their products actually are. You might pick up a 24 oz. bottle of Pepsi and see "100 calories" and think, "Well, that's not too bad, especially since I just walked for an hour and burned 200 calories." But if you look a little closer, you'll see that it actually says that there are 100 calories per serving, and there are 3 servings in a bottle! So now, even with your 200-calorie-burning walk, you're 100 calories in the hole! That might not sound like much, but a month of 100 extra calories a day means about one extra pound on the scale.

Another example: The other day, my wife asked me to stop by the store to get some sauerkraut for a country dinner she was preparing. I looked at the label and saw that it appeared to be very low-impact on my diet. I have been particularly concerned about the amount of sodium in processed foods lately, so I took special note of that category and saw that it contained only 5 percent of my recommended daily allowance of sodium ... per serving. My eyes then went back to the top of the label to see that there were -- HOLY CRAP -- 14 "servings" in this itty-bitty can! Wow! So not only was sauerkraut low in calories, it was truly a miracle food! And by "miracle," I'm talking about the fishes-and-loaves variety. Imagine, feeding 14 people from one 16-ounce can of sauerkraut!

But seriously, I'm sure there are plenty of people who could put away half of that can by themselves, and in so doing would be wolfing down one-third of their recommended sodium intake for the day from one side dish!

These are the types of things you learn if you simply pay attention to the food labels. And while I've told you to not bother making changes to your diet yet, I can't imagine how anyone could not be affected upon seeing exactly how unhealthy some of this stuff is.

In many ways, this is simply the same advice that financial experts give to people about their money, when they tell them to keep a journal of everything they spend their money on, with the same results. Little by little, they don't see how much money they are wasting on, for example, a bottle of soda from the pop machine at work. A dollar here, a dollar there ... who cares? But when they see the grand total at the end of a week or month and realize they're spending the equivalent of that month's water bill or a new outfit, they begin to think of ways to cut back on those bottles of pop.

It's the same way with nutrition labels. Start keeping track of what the food you are eating contains. Do this by examining the food labels on everything you eat, or by asking for the nutritional information at restaurants. If you are feeling especially motivated, you can keep all of that information in a journal. Then, after awhile, you should begin to notice some patterns ... too much of this, too little of that, WAY too much of that.

I have a feeling that once you begin to see exactly what you are putting into your body, you will be ready to start making changes for the better.

For more information about how to understand food labels, the Food and Drug Administration has a great guide available online here.

It's all in how you see it

It's no secret that one's outlook makes all the difference when tackling any task, and that is especially true of exercise. If you are dreading your workout, then chances are it's not going to be very fun and it's going to be a lot harder. But go into it with a positive attitude, and suddenly it's no longer work. If you're having fun, it's practically effortless and immensely more enjoyable.

I've known this all along, but I never knew quite how true it was until the other day. On Monday, I was not looking forward to that evening's run at all. It wasn't much, just 3 miles. But it might as well have been 300. I just wasn't in the mood.

But I did it anyway. I grimaced and grunted and made myself go, and as a result, every step along the way was pure torture. I felt the pavement pounding into my legs, rattling my bones, jarring my knees and seemingly ripping apart my shins. It was pure hell, and every mile -- heck, every half-mile, every quarter-mile -- I kept telling myself, "Just a little further and then I'm going to abandon this run. I just don't have it today."

But I stuck it out anyway and managed to finish. Not that I was happy about it. I seriously began questioning whether I should continue my marathon training at all. How could I ever run 26.2 miles, if this little 3-mile run was kicking my butt?

When I got home that evening, after dinner my wife and youngest son were getting ready to go for a run, when my oldest son chimed in that he wanted to go, too. Then their eyes turned to me: "We're only one person away from having the whole family ..."

At first, I thought, "No way. I've already done my running for the day." But the more I thought about how it might be fun to run with my family, and about how I could maybe cross another day's run off the list and get another rest day this week, the more I was convinced to go.

As we got started, we made the decision that I would run with my older son, while my wife hung back with our younger son. And then my older son took off without me, so I started running a little faster than usual to catch up to him, but being in a playful mood, I sprinted on past him. He's every bit as competitive as I am, so sprinted to catch back up and pass me again. We laughed, and a little later I did it again, and again he responded. And then again, with the same result. Finally, I saw him looking at a passing car, so I sprinted around the other side of him and got a good lead before he ran me down again. And we laughed the whole way.

That got us through the first mile, and afterwards I noticed how dramatically different I felt on my second run of the night. And although this was a 4-mile run, I wasn't tired, there was no pain in my legs, and to top it off, I was running a much faster pace than normal. I ended up sprinting the final five blocks and ran my fastest time ever (which isn't very fast, but still ...).

In his books, Lance Armstrong describes a similar feeling on the bike as "riding with no chain," describing the feeling of riding seemingly without effort. I suppose the best way to describe my second run that night would be as "running without road," because it really did feel like I was airborne. My legs didn't feel that pounding from the pavement, and I couldn't even hear the usual "clomp" of my footsteps as I ran.

It was simply magic.

So what changed? How could a 4-mile run be so effortless, after an earlier 3-mile run was such punishment? The only answer must be "attitude."

During that first run, it felt like work because it was work, and unwanted work at that. I really didn't want to be there, and my body responded by trying to give me every reason to give up.

But the second run was playtime. I was having fun and laughing. There was no "work" involved, so my body responded by giving me no reason to quit.

It all sounds so simple, but I realize it isn't. I know there are going to be days when I don't want to run, and I'm not going to be able to simply flip a switch and change my attitude about it.

But maybe the knowledge that those perfect runs are out there, that it really is possible to "run without a road," will be enough to keep those dreaded days at a minimum. The effortless run truly is a marvelous experience, and one that is worthy of pursuit. Hopefully, continuing to pursue it will help me view my upcoming runs with anticipation rather than dread, and thereby make it more attainable.

Trying a different number

If you watched the Biggest Loser last week, you couldn't have missed the repeated suggestions from Dr. Huizenga and others to "know your number" by visiting the Biggest Loser website and clicking the Know Your Number link. Basically, this is supposed to be a way of determining your overall health my giving you a number that represents how "old" you are physically. In other words, if you're 30 years old and have a lot of health issues, such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes, your physical condition might have your body more in the shape of a 50- or 60-year-old. Likewise, if you have none of those issues and you're taking steps to maintain and improve your health, then your score might be more like 20.

OK, I know this is sort of a gimmicky kind of thing, but it piqued my curiosity. But I must say I much more interested in knowing my number before I knew theirs -- $89.99.

This is exactly why the Biggest Loser has started rubbing me the wrong way. While I still enjoy the show immensely, it seems more and more like the show is devolving into a two-hour infomercial for weight-loss products, and in some cases the tie to weight-loss is tangential at best. ("To curb your snack cravings, try chewing Brand X sugarless gum! Then wash the cancer-causing artificial sweetener out of your mouth using this Acme water filter!")

To be fair, this does seem to be a little more than a super-expensive online quiz about your health habits. I noticed that you actually send them a blood sample during the process, so hopefully you actually get some worthwhile information (perhaps cholesterol or blood sugar analysis) for your hard-earned money.

Still, in this economy, shelling out $90 for a questionable health analysis is something a lot of people, myself included, might shy away from. So, today I thought I'd offer the cheapskate's way of obtaining questionable health info.

First, keep on the lookout for health fairs sponsored by local hospitals and clinics. A lot of times, these events will provide such services as cholesterol and blood sugar screening for free, and you'll have the added bonus of having a health professional right there with you to answer questions about your results. This will be much better, much more personally relevant information than you could get from Know Your Number.

But if you're really interested in assigning an age or score to your body's health, you can always check out Real Age. This is a website that offers an online quiz, during which you answer questions about your health and habits. Then, by adding years for bad answers and subtracting years for good answers, the site gives you a "Real Age" to let you know how healthy you are.

Best of all, the site is completely free, which is a good thing because I don't know how much value there is in it, other than as a general reminder of things you should and shouldn't be doing. I mean, it's OK in the sense that it will tell you whether your diet needs more fruits and vegetables, or that you need to quit smoking, or that you're doing a good job in exercising. But it's also not exactly an authoritative picture of your health.

For one thing, if you really want to know how healthy you are, go see a doctor ... preferably one who recognizes health does not consist of taking pills to mask symptoms.

Secondly, the main problem with an online quiz for the masses is that health really isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. For example, the Real Age quiz treated my heart rate as a negative, saying it was too low. But here's the deal: The average "normal" resting heart rate is between 60 and 80 beats a minute. Back before I changed my diet and started exercising, my heart rate would generally range from 80 to 90 beats a minute, which was just starting to get bad, but not really a huge concern. However, exercise will cause your resting heart rate to go down, because your body becomes more adept at transporting oxygen to its cells, and therefore it doesn't need to beat quite as often to get the job done. And as a result of all the cardiovascular exercise I've done over the past three years or so, I've watched my resting heart rate fall consistently as I've gotten healthier, dropping from a high of 90 three years ago, to an average of 48 now. So is that really something that should be considered a negative? If so, then poor Lance Armstrong must be on the verge of death, because his resting heart rate is around the 35-beats-a-minute range.

Still, the Real Age quiz does have some value, in that it can point out some unhealthy behaviors you might be unaware of, or give you some new ideas about improvements you can make. And you certainly can't beat the price.

Just cold incorrect

It's been cold across much of the country lately, including where I live. As a result of this fact, and my decision to go through Hal Higdon's marathon training program as a way to keep in shape this winter, I've been doing a lot of my running when the temperature is in the teens and 20s.

Now, my schedule is pretty tight, and during the week I usually change into my running clothes at the end of work and hit the streets before heading home. Of course, my coworkers notice this, and their response is pretty much universal: "You're going to get pneumonia!"

Really, it's kind of annoying, especially considering that the strongest warnings come from those who smoke ("You're *cough* *cough* going to *HACK!* catch pneumonia!"). Maybe I should jump up and confront them every time they get up to head outside for a cigarette: "You're going to catch heart disease, emphysema, COPD and cancer!"

Anyway, as a rational, thinking adult, I know that infections of the human body, including pneumonia, are caused by bacteria and viruses. A change in the temperature being responsible for producing illness would be an act of spontaneous generation, much like rotting meat magically turning into maggots, or dirt becoming plants. In other words, a total fallacy.

But while I know this, I also know the reason people used to believe in those other examples of spontaneous generation was ignorance of the full process in play. Rotting meat appears to turn into maggots because flies lay their eggs in rotting meat. Dirt appears to turn into plants because there are seeds in the dirt. Perhaps there is some larger mechanism at work that makes people exposed to cooler temperatures more susceptible to infection, creating the false notion that cold weather causes disease. So I decided to check it out.

First of all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pneumonia is a serious matter, resulting in 1.2 million hospitalizations and over 55,000 deaths in 2006. But all authoritative sources I've been able to find note that the illness is caused generally by bacteria, although it can also be brought on by viruses, fungi and chemicals (CDC, American Lung Association, WebMD).

WebMD comes right out and explicitly addresses the concerns about cold weather, saying, "You do not catch pneumonia by not dressing properly for cold weather or by being caught in the rain."

But what about the belief that cold weather, while not responsible for illness, could make one more susceptible to it? Turns out there might be an element of truth, albeit remote, to that fear. A 1996 article by Dr. Alan Greene investigating any potential link between cold air and the common cold notes that cold air does cause mucus to thicken, which may make it slightly more difficult for the body to prevent bacteria and viruses from entering the lungs.

As a counterpoint to that article, however, is this one, which reports on a number of studies that appear to show that brief periods of moderate exercise immediately boost the immune system over the short term, and engaging in such activities on a regular basis may prolong the effect over the long term. "During moderate exercise immune cells circulate through the body more quickly and are better able to kill bacteria and viruses," the article reads. "After exercise ends, the immune system generally returns to normal within a few hours, but consistent, regular exercise seems to make these changes a bit more long-lasting." It is important to note, however, that another study suggests that longer (e.g. 90 minutes), more strenuous exercise in the cold might actually weaken the immune response for up to 72 hours.

And then there's this article by Amby Burfoot, which appeared in Runner's World in 2004, that specifically explores whether there are any hazards to running when it's really cold, like 40-below-zero kind of cold. Told anecdotally, the article can find no real dangers, as long as proper precautions are taken to avoid such maladies as frostbite.

So, in summary, it appears that the old wives' tales about cold weather causing colds, the flu or pneumonia really have no basis in reality. In fact, while cold weather might inhibit the body's ability to prevent some microbes from entering, the immune system boost provided by exercise should actually mean that one would experience fewer illnesses of lesser severity.

As long as you take proper precautions to keep warm and don't overdo it, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to continue enjoying your favorite outdoor activity in the winter. So, much as my sore legs and tired body might protest from time to time, I'll continue my training.

As for my smoking friends, maybe it is for the best that they be so concerned about the potential for pneumonia ... not for me, but for themselves. This 1999 Science Daily article reports on a study that year showing that those who smoke at least a pack a day are "almost three times more likely to acquire pneumonia than persons who never smoked." Maybe it's from all that time they spend outside in the cold.

Getting started, part 4: Chart a course to move and build

One last note about exercise, before we turn our attention to diet. We have already established that you need to find something you love, and you need to start doing it slowly. But you are not going to stay there.

You must channel your spirit of competitiveness, and in this instance, your competitor is you. At the first week or two of exercise, after your body has begun to adjust to the new demands you are placing on it, you need to keep upping the ante. I suggest whatever form of exercise you are doing, you begin keeping a journal of your progress. Start charting each workout and how long, how far and/or how many times you did it. For example, if you are cycling, running, walking or hiking, you want to know how far you went and how long it took you.

Now, when I started keeping a record of my workouts, I went the old-fashioned route of using a pen and paper. But the problem with that is that you might not always have your notepad with you when you need it.

Then I discovered MapMyRide.com, which I think began for cyclists, but has expanded to include other types of exercise, such as running, walking, hiking and even swimming,
sports and gym workouts. For the outdoors activities, you can draw your routes on a map and get the exact distance of your course, and even changes in elevation. Then, when you enter your time and weight, it will even calculate the number of calories you burned.

You can join MapMyRide.com for free and have more than enough features to keep track of all of your workouts, although they do offer premium subscriptions that give you access to some pretty nifty features, such as printable maps with turn-by-turn directions and workout plans.

Anyway, however you keep track of your workouts, once you have built up enough to begin seeing patterns, start challenging yourself. Push yourself to go longer or faster or harder or more often than you have in the past. You always want to be improving.

Why? Because the body is a miraculous machine that is able to adjust to the demands placed on it. This is a good thing, because it means that if the workout you start doing is killing you, it will get easier over time. But the bad thing about that is that it will become less effective over time. Let's say that you choose running as your exercise, and you eventually build up to running 3 miles, three times a week. You will probably lose a few pounds and you'll be thinking, "Great! I'll just keep this up and I'll continue to lose weight." But that isn't quite what happens. Eventually, your body becomes accustomed to the exercise you are doing and begin making adjustments accomplish the same task more efficiently. That means you will need to burn less energy (i.e., fewer calories) to complete your workout, rendering it less effective.

There are several ways to avoid that. The simplest is to always be setting new goals. Turn that 3-mile run into a 4-mile run, and start doing it four times a week. And then keep building. Another trick is something called "muscle confusion," which operates under the principle that if you constantly change up the types of exercise you are doing, your body won't fall into a routine that renders your workouts less effective. In essence, this is sort of the same principle as cross-training, and that means that as you progress, you will need to be on the lookout for other types of exercise that you enjoy doing. If you are a cyclist, you might start adding some running, hiking, swimming, rock climbing, aerobics or weight training into the mix.

But that is on down the road. For now, as you are just getting started with fitness, one type of exercise will suffice. All you really need to remember for now is to keep track of your workouts, so that you will constantly be pushing yourself to do a little better.

Building healthier communities

I work as an editor at one of those "newspapers" you might have read about in history books, and one of my duties is to write editorials from time to time. Thankfully, I have a lot of freedom about what I write, so a lot of times I get to write about things such as fitness and nutrition, as they relate to social policy.

Here's one I wrote back in November. It was a response to a series of unfavorable health statistics regarding my community, but I think many of the ideas can be adapted to just about any community in need to a health makeover.

A healthier community can begin with small steps

As we wrote Wednesday, a report that labeled Eastern Kentucky's fifth congressional district as the nation's "unhappiest" might sound inflammatory on the surface, but it is actually a compelling wake-up call for a region that has fallen behind the rest of the nation in just about every significant health statistic.

When you look at such factors as smoking, obesity, heart disease, diabetes and depression, Eastern Kentucky ranks at or near the top in all the wrong ways. We have known these facts in isolation for some time, but the Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index is unique in lumping them all together to paint a picture that is more concerning than the sum of its parts.

Obviously, something needs to be done, and for the most part, it is up to us as individuals to do the heavy lifting -- by making the choices to quit smoking, get some exercise and eat better.

But local government -- county, city and school district -- can help promote the transition to healthier lifestyles, and there is good reason to do so. According to the World Health Organization, a concerted focus on tackling the three major risk factors -- smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise -- could prevent 80 percent of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and strokes, as well as 40 percent of cancers.

And government can help promote healthy behaviors while neither intruding in personal lives nor breaking the bank. Simple, low-cost, minor improvements can help a community.

To get the ball rolling, here are five suggestions we can offer:

Making public spaces more active. One of the most effective ways to encourage exercise is simply to give people convenient, equipped places to do it. Communities can encourage walking and running by providing trails in parks and other public lands, complete with benches and functioning water fountains. Floyd County, its five cities and local parks boards could also expand upon the idea of Second Sunday, simply by closing off a street once a month to provide residents a safe, convenient location to walk, run and bike.

Creating bicycle-friendly communities. Simply put, there is no healthier, cheaper or more environmentally-sound form of transportation than a bicycle. While Floyd County already has a small but dedicated cycling community, some who might otherwise ride a bike are discouraged by concerns over safety. Local governments could promote cycling and improve safety by painting designated cycling lanes in high-traffic areas, reducing speed bumps on city streets to allow unobstructed bicycle passage, posting "Share the Road" signs throughout their communities and providing convenient racks in which to park and lock bicycles.

Developing year-round adult intramural sports leagues. Mention the word "exercise" to sedentary people, and many will roll their eyes and envision sweating and hard work. Use the word "sports" instead, and they will conjure more positive images of fun, games and competition. But for most people, participation in sports ends in high school, if not sooner. Exercise should be a lifelong activity, not a childhood one. Local parks, churches and schools could organize adult-oriented sports leagues and trick people into exercising by letting them engage in regularly-scheduled, active fun.

Providing consistent and frequent nutritional education to students -- in the classroom and the lunchroom. Schools do educate their students about good nutrition, but a lot of times that education is infrequent, confusing and completely undermined when they reach the cafeteria. When students are taught to choose low-fat, high-fiber, fresh foods, those lessons are lost when they go to lunch to find pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and French fries. It is a classic "do as we say, not as we do" scenario that almost always fails. Schools not only need to provide more frequent information about what to eat, they also need to provide menu options that rely less on highly refined and processed foods that are high in fat, sugar and sodium, and more on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and lean meat choices that aren't deep-fried.

Expanding the smoke bans. Prestonsburg is already a leader in this regard, and it is time for Floyd County's four remaining cities and the fiscal court to follow suit. A report released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that simply enacting smoke bans in public places can reduce the number of heart attacks in a community by up to 47 percent. And to tackle the problem at its source, we would like to see any smoke ban improved by offering first-time violators the option of taking part in a smoking-cessation program in lieu of paying a fine.

-- The Floyd County Times, Nov. 20, 2009

2009 in review

So, I just finished looking back over my stats for 2009, and it's a little disappointing.

All told, I managed just 2,063.21 fitness miles during the year, including 1,885.55 on the bike and 177.66 running. All told, MapMyRide.com tells me that I managed to burn 144,742 calories during my workouts.

There was a time when those numbers would have left me feeling satisfied with myself, but now they're far less than what I had wanted. For starters, I had set a goal of 2,500 miles cycling for 2009, after tallying about 1,700 in 2008.

But there were some victories over the course of the year, beginning with the fact that I'm running! Just a year ago, I never would have dreamed that I would ever run again, except perhaps away from hungry wolves or something. About a decade ago, a doctor had told me that my right knee was pretty bad in terms of osteoarthritis, probably from getting whacked around a little too much in football practice and bike wrecks as a kid. As I got older, I began limping more and more, and approaching weather or long car rides would render me nauseous with pain.

But a funny thing happened. As I rode my bike more and more, my knee got stronger and, probably more importantly, I began to shed some weight ... and the pain got less and less. Last spring, when thunderstorms were on the forecast, I noticed that my knee wasn't hurting, even though it normally would. Then I realized that I could not remember the last time it did hurt.

Now, I won't say that I'm healed, because if I overdo it, I do get some pain. But not as much. Certainly not as often. And what I do get is either easily tolerated or blasted away with a little aspirin.

Then last summer, I was looking over the activities calendar at the website for my local fitness center/bike shop, Pro-Fitness MultiSports, and I happened to see a duathlon on the schedule for October. Since there aren't really any bike races held in my area, I figured this would be as close as I could get ... as long as I could handle the run.

I didn't think it would be too hard. It was just a 5K run, 18-mile bike ride and 3K run. As long as I trained a little bit beforehand, I should be able to work up to that.

So, about mid-July, I went to the local college 0.6-mile walking track and ran one lap. A couple days later, I came back and did two laps, then a two more a couple days after that. Then, one night the following weekend, I took the whole family down and we all walked and ran. I ran three laps, then retreated to a bench to wait for my wife, who at the time was running much more than me. As I watched my wife and sons run, I was feeling pretty happy. Here I was, at long last able to run with them, and getting ready for a duathlon to boot! I was already up to nearly two miles, with very little effort, and I only needed to get up to five miles over the next three months! Life was good.

Until I tried to stand up. My left leg wouldn't quite hold me. At first, I thought maybe other knee was developing osteoarthritis, but the pain was actually more in the shin, right below my knee. "Oh well, these things happen," I thought. "Probably just tried to do a little too much too soon. I'll rest a couple of days and it will be alright."

Except it wasn't. Not the next day. Not the day after that. Not the next week. If anything, it was just getting worse those first couple of days, and then it just stayed that way. I could not place any weight on my left leg, and just laying a finger on my shin would result in excruciating pain.

I started Googling "knee pain." Looking over common running injuries, nothing quite seemed to match up. The symptoms didn't quite match up to runner's knee, or shin splints, or any of the exotic maladies I discovered. The only thing that seemed close to what I was feeling was when I read the symptoms of a stress fracture, but even then I couldn't be sure.

I didn't bother seeing a doctor. As I told a friend at the time, the only things the doctors around here would do would be (A) tell me to stay off of it as much as possible, which I was already doing, and (B) give me a prescription for painkillers, which I would throw in the trash.

After a few weeks, I was ready to bike again, but I figured I was done with running. There was no way I wanted to hurt myself again, possibly worse. Still, I was really bummed. I couldn't run with my family. I couldn't compete in the duathlon.

Over the next few months, I focused on riding my bike and, thanks to simultaneous transmission problems in both my cars, but funding to repair only one of them, that focus got a big boost from my sudden need to commute to work by bike.

Then, September came, and the duathlon loomed large on the horizon. I really wanted to compete, and since I'd had no more trouble with my leg, I thought I could maybe give running one more try. A couple of weeks before the duathlon, I started running again, and worked my way up to three miles before the day of the race. So I entered.

I awoke the morning of the race after getting only four hours of sleep. I was nervous, no doubt, but there was more. I was also puking and had diarrhea. Maybe that was just nerves, too. Whatever, I was not going to miss out on the duathlon. (I would find out over the next week it was actually the start of a stomach virus.)

And it was raining outside! Perfect!

After a slight rain-delay, we lined up and began the 5K portion. There were only 10 competing in the duathlon, but there were a lot more who were simultaneously competing in just the 5K, so we had a pretty good crowd to start the race. And during the first half-mile, I felt like I was going to own the race. I was passing all sorts of people! After that half-mile, though, they all started to pass me back. I finished the 5K in just over 29 minutes, last by a good lot among the duathlon competitors, and ahead of only a few mothers and their children in the rest of the field.

Oh well, so I was not the second coming of Steve Prefontaine. I didn't have time to mope about it. I jumped on my bike for stage 2 and started pedaling hard.

The course was a straight up nine miles out-and-back around the local lake, and I was relieved to see that I didn't encounter the leaders coming back until I was almost six miles in. I was still far behind, but maybe I could finish somewhat respectably. Plus, I could always blame my finish on riding the only hybrid in a field of race bikes.

But then I rounded a curve and -- what! -- another rider! In front me! And I was catching up! And I passed her! (OK, so it was a female. I was just happy to no longer be in last place.)

That gave me a bit of a boost, but it also left me in a panic. I thought the other rider was just resting up and would soon be breezing past me again. I'd look behind me from time to time, and I wouldn't see her, but that did nothing to allay my fears. And I was using so much energy just trying to stay out of last place, I was certain I would be passed once we got to the last running leg.

Speaking of that last leg. It came much too soon. And although it was a full 2K shorter, it was over a bunch of hills. I hit some of those hills, and even though my legs were pumping and my breath was harried, it felt like I was standing still trying to climb.

Then the course flattened out a bit to circle a small city park and head back, when I passed another racer! This time a male! Now, not only was a no longer last, I was also no longer the last man! I felt bad passing the guy, and even tried to run alongside him for a little bit, but he was apparently feeling even more spent than I was, and he kept dropping back, no matter how much I tried to stay with him, so I just went back to my normal speed.

Finally, the race ended and I finished 8th out of 10. I was happy to have finished, and especially glad not to have finished last, but I was especially proud of the fact that I did not stop or walk even once!

After the duathlon, I decided to start running even more. And after Daylight Saving Time ended and it became too dangerous for me to ride my bike to and from work (unlit, rural roads and all that), I decided to run full-time through the winter, rather than languishing when I couldn't ride my bike.

One day, upon advice from a friend who runs marathons and ultras and is training for the Louisville Ironman event, I was looking at Hal Higdon's website for running pointers. I was looking over the novice marathon training program, noticed it covered 18 weeks, quickly did the math and realized I could do the training program all through the winter and finish it just in time to start riding my bike again. Plus, I figure if I do that, I won't pack on the 15 lbs. I normally get from not riding all winter long.

So, now I'm in a marathon training program, although I'm not really training for a marathon. I'm just doing it to have something to do when I can't ride. Then again, it would be a shame to do all that training for a marathon and then NOT run a marathon, so ... maybe. We'll see. I won't commit to anything until I make sure I don't injure myself again.

And I even entered a running-only race. On Thanksgiving morning, Pro-Fitness held a Turkey Trot, and I ran the 10K portion, while the rest of my family ran the 5K. This time, I did finish dead last, but I have only myself to blame, because I didn't scout the course first. I was under the impression that there wouldn't be a lot of climbing, so when I got to the first hill, I tried to gut it out and power over it. Bad mistake. I had next to zero energy the rest of the way, and this time I did have to stop and walk ... numerous times. Lesson learned.

All in all, 2009 had its share of achievements and disappointments, just like any other year. But in the end, I feel like I've reached a point where I'm really going to start hitting a new stride and making a lot more progress soon.

And the year ended with at least one bit of truly good news -- I ended 2009 10 lbs. lighter than I ended 2008. There's still a long way for me to go, but I'm getting there. And I'm not going to be in a rush to get there. All I can do is just keep trying to improve my fitness regimen, and my goals will be met along the way.

So, for 2010, I'm setting a New Year's resolution of 2,500 combined miles of cycling and running as a minimum, but I'm really hoping to get to 3,000.

BL9: Still going strong

I know I said yesterday I was looking forward to watching last night's premiere of the Biggest Loser, and I was, but I was also starting to wonder if this would be the point in time when it started getting old.

I mean, honestly, how many times can you watch pretty much the same story? Despite their attempts to freshen it up with new wrinkles and each recruiting "the heaviest contestant ever," it's all really just fat people sweating and crying, as their trainers scream and plead and offer a sympathetic shoulder. It's all about making progress and slipping back, and ultimately, hopefully, succeeding. Could the show really continue to hold the viewer's interest after basically repeating the same plot over and over and nine times over?

Answer: You betcha!

I was actually surprised about how quickly I fell into watching this new season. Usually, I fall in love with the cast over time, and when a new season starts, it takes a few episodes for me to really get into it, because I'm still wrapped up in the previous season.

Not this time. This season, I'm feeling captivated right from the git-go.

I think a lot of it has to do with Mike, this season's "heaviest contestant ever." Mike -- who in real life is Michael Ventrella, of Chicago -- genuinely seems like a genuine helluva guy, but one who just seems lost. I admit, upon first glance, I was thinking there was no way he would last. But as he began to speak, one could hear the sincere pain and the longing in his voice. He simply needed help. "He just might do it," I said to my wife.

But, anyway, enough about TV.

New season of the Biggest Loser

I always get excited when it's time for another season of the Biggest Loser to start. So I guess I'm excited today.

BL will always be special to me, because I discovered it around the time I decided to make changes in my life, and it served as early motivation. Now, several years later, I don't feel like I can learn much from it anymore, and the product placement segments irritate me to no end, but I still tune in.

I watch because it helps keep my mind focused on fitness. I watch because I enjoy watching people reach the same "a-ha" moment that I did a couple of years ago. But mostly I watch because it helps keep me motivated. Anytime I start feeling lazy or like I want to indulge in some unhealthy snack, those messages to stick with it, to keep moving, to not give up that one hears every week on the show begin playing in my mind and, most of the time, give me enough willpower to overcome.

So, when that familiar chorus begins tonight -- "What have you done today, to make you feel proud?" -- I'll be tuning in, ready to see what unfolds over the course of the next four months or so.

But since we're on the subject of TV, I have found another show recently that does seemingly teach me something new every week, You Are What You Eat, which airs on BBC America. The show features Gillian McKeith's attempts to teach, sometimes crudely, obese Brits what their unhealthy lifestyles are doing to them and, more importantly, how they can change for the better.

Now, McKeith has come under fire for trumpeting some questionable credentials, and there is no doubt that a few of the things she espouses are a bit batty, but I've found her to be right on track much more often than not. Each week, it seems like she reveals some fact that I never knew before.

One thing about the show: It will definitely force you to re-examine how you fuel your body. Give it a look, sometime.

A healthy way to beat the chill

It's cold outside!

I mean, isn't it bad enough that the short days and long nights mean that it's dark when I go to work, dark when I get home and there's no time for riding my bike? Must I freeze my tail off, too?

I don't know about you, but on days like this, I start craving a cozy spot on the couch, a warm blanket to crawl under, and a nice big bowl of some sort of comfort food. But when you're trying to eat better, a lot of those comfort foods suddenly become big no-nos. Those biscuits are most likely full of trans fats. The chicken and dumplings you love don't love you back. And you might as well forget about ever letting fettuccine alfredo ever pass your lips again.

But then there's chili. Even the chili you grew up usually isn't too bad. As long as you choose a lean hamburger to cook with and drain the excess fat, chili generally won't blow up your diet ... in moderation. It's got quite a few healthy veggies, like tomatoes, onions and garlic, in there to give you all sorts of good nutrients, the beans are an excellent source of fiber and the fat generally isn't off the scale, at least the way most people make it.

But nuts like me are always on the lookout to make a good thing better, so when I found a recipe for a turkey chili in an issue of Nutrition Action last year, I had to give it a try ... and then I gave it a few tweaks to, in my opinion, make it even better. This recipe improves upon the classic chili in two ways. First, it really ups the ante on the amount of vegetables and involved. Second, as the name suggests, it ditches the red meat in favor of much healthier ground turkey, without sacrificing taste or quality.

Now, I know quite a few people will be skeptical of that last statement. I know I was a little hesitant to put the first spoonful in my mouth. But when I did, wow! I didn't even bother to tell the rest of my family that the turkey contained chili instead of beef, and they never even suspected a thing. In fact, I handed my wife recipe to show her what I fixed. "You fixed this?" she asked. "The turkey chili?" I told her yes. "But you didn't use any turkey!" she remarked, a little puzzled. It took some time, but I finally convinced her that she had eaten turkey chili.

So, if you're looking to supercharge the nutritional value of your foods, but you're still stuck wanting the tastes of "non-diet" meals, give this recipe a try, and even pull the same trick on your dinner companions. You'll be surprised at the results.

Here's my somewhat altered version:

Turkey Chili

1/4 cup canola oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
About a cup of finely chopped fresh mushrooms
2 (or more, or less, or no) fresh jalapeños, sliced and quartered (I find 2 jalapeños gives the chili just a slight kick, which is about all my younger children will tolerate. You can add more for a spicier chili, or eliminate them completely if you prefer tamer fare.)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey breast
2 12 oz. bottles dark beer (The dark beer does give the chili a fuller-bodied taste, but in a pinch, regular beer works almost as well.)
1 oz. dark chocolate, chopped or grated
2 15 oz. cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes
2 15 oz. cans no-salt-added kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups corn, cut from 2 to 3 cobs or thawed from frozen
1 tsp salt

(1) Heat the oil in a heavy large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, red pepper, mushrooms and jalapeños and sauté until they begin to brown, about 10 minutes.

(2) Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin and whole wheat flour. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

(3) Add the turkey, beer, chocolate and tomatoes. Break up the turkey with a wooden spoon. Simmer until the sauce thickens and the turkey is fully cooked, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.

(4) Stir in the beans and corn. Season with salt.

Serves 8.

Nutrition info
(This is for the original recipe. My altered version might add a few calories, carbs and fiber, because I added the mushrooms, jalapeños and cumin. But the fat content should be the same.)
450 calories
14 g fat
1.5 g saturated fat
31 g protein
470 mg sodium
40 mg cholesterol
46 g carbohydrates
13 g fiber

Thanks to all the fiber provided by the wheat flour, this is a very filling recipe. A one-cup serving should leave most people fully satisfied. A family of four could probably get two meals out of one pot, making one nice weekend dinner, plus an extra for one of those hectic nights through the week when you might be tempted to hit a fast-food drive-thru.

Best of all, the entire dish can be finished in about an hour, food prep and all, though letting it simmer longer only improves the flavor.

Inspiration

Rang in the new year with a pretty nasty chest cold that has had me sidelined and crazy bored this entire year (read: four days), so I spent a lot of the weekend trying to catch up on a lot of the reading I've been pushing to the side during the holidays. Part of that process included flipping through the latest issue of Bicycling magazine, and I happened to stumble upon this article, which is a great story about one man overcoming a lifetime of obesity.

If you've never heard of Scott Cutshall, here's the rundown: A lifetime of inactivity and reckless eating saw him hit a peak weight of 501 pounds. He was so heavy, he could barely move. He rarely left his house and doctors told him he was at risk of imminent death. His experience of life was confined to staring out his window, until one day he saw a cyclist ride by. That set in motion a chain of events in which he made the types of wholesale lifestyle change I've been writing about, and he ended up losing 330 pounds.

I suppose I was attracted to this story because, even though his circumstances were far more extreme, I can see parallels to my own life: Gradual weight gain, health issues prompting a decision to change, cycling as a primary form of exercise, a reliance on old-fashioned diet and exercise. Of course, I've only lost 45 pounds (and counting!), but it's good to see that the same type of regimen I've been preaching about has been successful for someone in far worse shape.

And that is why I'm sharing the article with you. Even if you have yet to begin the journey toward a healthier life, here is proof that it can work, even for someone who had been told that weight loss would be impossible without surgery.

These are the types of stories with which you need to populate your consciousness. Forget about all the failed diets and miracle drugs in your past. Focus on the people who have found true success in the simple equation of doing more and eating less (and better). And then realize that you are the next success story waiting to happen. It can be done. In Scott Cutshall's case, it was done with a vengeance.

New year, new start

OK, I fell off the planet for awhile. Totally my fault. I apologize.

No, I didn't go back to my formerly sedentary ways or start chowing down on pizza and cheeseburgers once again. If anything, my resolve is stronger than ever. My absence began with me not having a lot of time for a short spell, grew with an unfortunate cycling injury (more on that another time), and continued just because I had fallen out of the habit.

Now, though, it seems like a good time to get started again. I'm sure there's a lot of folks hoping to stick to some New Year's resolutions who could benefit from the experience of someone who has tried to take the whole diet and exercise thing seriously for a few years now.

So this is just a quick note to let folks know I've not given up and that I'm ready to start rocking the blog again. Hope to see you back here soon. I know I'll be here.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone