The Gist:
- For a year of my life I lived by some pretty helpful rules.
- I’m reviving the experiment in preparation for my next marathon and to apply what some of my students are learning about food.
- Once a week, I’ll be writing about my progress here.
- Many of the rules this time around are from Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food.
The Whole Deal:
When I turned 27, I set some rules for myself.
I’d moved to Philly in a whirlwind the Fall before and still hadn’t regained my bearings in life. The rules were social and wellness based. I eliminated high-fructose corn syrup, I pledged to run 27 races within one calendar year, I worked to cut my use of plastics as much as possible, etc.
It worked. I felt better and life gained some semblance of order.
That year, I ran both the Philadelphia and Chicago marathons within a few weeks of each other. That was a mistake.
Chicago was one of the sunniest, hottest races I’ve run. In Philadelphia, we had to be careful at the water stops because the spilt water had created ice patches on the course. I didn’t really run for a year after.
Now, I’m signed up for the Ocean Drive Marathon in my attempt to get to 10 marathons in 10 years.
Add to that the disjointedness of my eating habits since returning from Africa, and it’s time for new rules.
Not one to do anything boring, I’m adopting Michael Pollan’s rules from In Defense of Food:
- Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
- Avoid food products containing ingredients that are A) unfamiliar, B) unpronounceable, C) more than five in number, or that include D) high-fructose corn syrup.
- Avoid products that make health claims.
- Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay our of the middle.
- Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.
I’ll also be running every other day w/ the ole Nike+ attached to my iPod to keep track of my ramp up to the race (and those that follow).
As of right now, that’s all I’m working with. I’m open to any suggestions.
The plan is to blog once a week on how it’s all working out. I realized it’s going to be a bit of an adjustment when I couldn’t put the pre-shredded cheese on my eggs this morning.
Tim Best and Matt VanK worked with our seniors on a food unit throughout most of the first quarter. I’m hoping to pick up where they left off and explore the applications of what they learned.