SmarterFitter Blog Less diet, more brain

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“Grrrrrrr… half the price.”

That was Tim’s response when I told him the lowest price on a pair of Mizuno Wave Alchemy Running Shoes according to ransacker.co.uk, “the running shoes comparison website that save you time, money and benefits charity.”

Ransacker’s lowest price was £39.99, half of what he spent in New Zealand in February at a running shop. True, did get his foot analyzed by a “pro”, but he didn’t get that nice warm feeling of knowing he got a good deal. In fact he emailed me later that he “felt sick” by the purchase. A happy consumer he was not!

If only he knew about Ransacker, recommended to us by Carl who runs the site. Racksacker makes runners happy by saving them money on shoes, but also makes the charities happy by donating 50% of its commission to the charity of the shoe-buyer’s choice. Tim and I both agree that this is very cool. We wish we thought of this idea! But we were too busy making chains and planning meetings. So thanks to Carl for building this site! I will use it when my current Salomon XA Pro trail running shoes lose their steam.

Do you have a website you’d like to recommend? Then click here to send us a link. If we like it, we’ll post it! And we usually do like it, so why not, eh?

ransacker.co.uk

Just Bento is a blog dedicated to healthy, simple, bento lunches to suit the hungry grown-up.

What’s a bento? A bento can be anything from a simple lunch box to an elaborately designed work of art; it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend considerable time and energy producing artfully-packed bentos. But most bentos are simple containers divided into sections, usually with a convenient carrying device and the essential cutlery (or chopsticks).

Maki, the author of Just Bento, has hundreds of wonderful recipe suggestions for healthy bento lunches. Her bentos are about 80% vegetarian, often use brown rice as the base, and always have a good mix of carbs, protein and vegetables. She also has a wealth of information on selecting the right bento box. All of this makes Just Bento an awesome resource for anyone who wants to pack their own lunches.

Why go bento? With its nifty dividers, a bento box can help you keep food portions in control. The author herself lost 30+ pounds after going bento. She claims that bentos can keep your mind off of calories on what really matters: good food in appropriate portions.

But more important than the calorie count is that the bentos focused my attention on variety and portion size. Assembling a meal that will fit tightly and attractively in a small box requires a higher level of attention than laying food out on open plates. It’s also rather fun, once you get used to it.

On top of the health benefits, bento lunches are also cheaper than eating out, and way better for the environment than disposable stuff.

Where can you get a bento? Bentos are already popular in Japan, and only starting to get some global attention thanks to the (in my opionion, highly overrated) Laptop Lunchbox.

Amazon carries a stainless-steel Zojirushi Mr. Bento that gets get reviews from users. UK dwellers can buy bentos online from Japan Centre. For the largest selection, visit J-List, a Japanese shop that ships worldwide.

Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless-Steel lined Lunch Jar, Silver

It’s the little things that inspire me. This week has seen some small but powerful milestones for a few bloggers out there charting their path to smarter-fitterness.

NCN of No Calories Needed wants to learn how to enjoy running. Inspired by his sister, he walked-ran a mile last Monday:

Did I have fun? Ummmmm..

Kinda, sorta? I almost died, but now I feel great!

So, thank you little sister, for inspiring me and pushing me forward.

JoshP of fitfilter kicked his candy habit… and shares a priceless photo of him “cramming half a package of peeps into [his] mouth”. His advice:

What small tweak can you make to move you closer to your goal instead of further away? Start small and start today. Make a commitment just to do it today. Then try again tomorrow.

JD of Get Fit Slowly started the Body For Life program AND took up writing full time. Today was his first interval session:

I had forgotten how good exercise can make a person feel. An hour of intensity can produce a day of good vibes.

Inspiration comes in big giant steps, too. Rosie Swale-Pope is running around the world. From her website:

On 2nd October 2003 my 57th birthday, I’m going to set off to run around the world. Making my dream come true… My dearest wish anyway, is just to do a complete circle of the earth…

The death of my husband Clive from prostate cancer last year, taught me more than anything about how precious life is; How short it can be, that you HAVE to grab life, do what you can while you can, and try to give something back.

Give something back, eh? If only Josh could give back all those Peeps… in a way he is I suppose. Who ever thought a sugary blob of fluorescent marshmallow could re-manifest itself as inspiration? It’s pure genius!

This might be old news for some of you, but I have to post an excerpt from one of JD’s posts on Get Fit Slowly. It’s a little bit on some cycling he did over the weekend…

On Saturday, I worked in the yard and didn’t get a chance to take a spin. Today, though, Kris asked me if I could go to Trader Joe’s to pick up some bread and some parmesan cheese. “Gladly,” I said.

This time I rode through Milwaukie, up toward Sellwood, over the three bridges path, and then up 39th to Trader Joe’s. I had to dismount once (climbing from the bike path to 38th — that’s a steep incline), but otherwise muscled through.

At Trader Joe’s I also picked up a Greek salad and some ginger limeade. On my ride home, I stopped at Sellwood park for lunch. I ate olives and feta cheese and onions and peppers and lettuce (no dressing — I don’t like dressing), rosemary bread, and limeade. Those who know me well understand that the fact that I chose to eat a salad is the most amazing part of this story. I never choose to eat salads.

As I was eating, the seagulls stood nearby and begged. They wanted my bread, but I didn’t share.

The ride home — in the glorious sun — was fantastic. Again I made it up the hill on River Road without dismounting.

JD doesn’t talk about “exercise” or calories. He talks about the simple joys that arise when you choose to get on a bike instead of into a car. It illustrates that

• You can learn to like physical activity (and salads!)
• You can incorporate exercise into your daily routine
• Exercise doesn’t have to be a chore

Huge congrats to JD on making such a huge step on his path to fitness.

Link to 20 Miles on the Road to Physical Fitness

Two years ago I attempted to go 30-days straight eating only raw food. I only lasted three, but hold out more hope for productivity guru Steve Pavlina, who kicked off his 30-day raw vegan diet trial on January 1st.

His diary is compelling: he’s tracking his weight (5.4 pounds lost), workout routine (six days per week), meals (mostly fruit), and the inevitable ups and downs of change:

Have you ever had that grossed-out feeling from eating too much of the same food, like too much chocolate, and you can feel this greasy puddle in your stomach? I started feeling a sensation similar to that, like I ate way too much of something that didn’t agree with me. Maybe it was the 11 bananas I ate this morning.

I glean some comfort in the fact that Steve also only lasted three days when he first attempted to go raw ten years ago. Since then, he’s completed two successful trials, both of which left him feeling so elated that he’s starting again. In this trial, he’s hoping the results will convince him to keep eating raw after the 30-days are up.

My fascination with the raw food diet reminds me of the Dr. Soran character from the movie Star Trek: Generations. Once he experienced the bliss of the Nexus, he wanted nothing more than to return to it. After I experienced the incredible energy and vitality of my first 30-day raw trial, I’ve always wanted to return to it.

In addition to his daily progress, he’s also posting articles and information about raw food in general. For example, did you know that Steve Jobs was a fruitarian during the 1970s? Hence the name, Apple (and Macintosh).

More interesting are the commentaries on his research:

There’s very compelling biological evidence that a high fruit diet is optimal for human beings…one of the more convincing points is that the nearest animal species to human beings, including gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and bonobos all naturally favor a high fruit diet, meaning that when fresh fruit is readily available, they’ll get the vast majority of their calories from fruit… Another clue is that when people do eat a high fruit diet, they tend to reach their optimal weight, get sick much less often, and feel fantastic. Even I’ve noticed that when I have an all fruit breakfast, I feel much more energetic, assuming I eat enough calories.

Like all science, his should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, it’s food for thought that makes me want to learn more about raw food and human nutrition (though I’ve suddenly lost my appetite for bananas).

To read more, I suggest starting with these two posts: 30 Days Raw and Raw Foods.

Additionally, you can read his daily progress on his blog.

Link

In light of this very merry season, I’ll be featuring members of the blogosphere who are embracing the No Year’s Resolution philosophy (whether they call it that or not). These are people who are taking daily, consistent action to improve their life and be happy. Hopefully they’ll provide you with some inspiration, or if nothing else, an interesting point of view.

Sally Parrott Ashbrook may be one of the few people out there who lived up to her 2007 New Year’s Resolution: last January she decided to focus on “taking good care of her body through food choices and exercise”. Since then, she went from 203 pounds to 175, and she’s still going.

During this time she also found out she’s crazy-allergic to a whole bunch of food, including dairy, eggs, gluten and casein. She’s been writing about the journey on her blog, Approvchar (her made-up word which means “getting all the pleasure we can out of something, without being greedy or miserly and without going over the edge into excess”). The result is a blog that’s full of wisdom, not only about diet and exercise, but mental health as well.

These days she’s been writing about the holidays. While most articles on baking and celebration would make me cringe with cynicism, Sally manages to write about the “warm fuzzies” without losing her sense of realism:

…there is no sense imbuing [the holidays] with an enormous sense of importance when they are, in fact, just a few days out of my life each year. They don’t have to be the best days, and they don’t have to be the worst days of the year. I have tons of great days when I get to do exactly what I want when I want with the people I want while experiencing only happy emotions. I want the holidays to be my ideal, but without hurting other people (family, primarily), that may not be possible. Part of being an adult is finding healthy boundaries, and that’s not always easy. Do I do what I want, which can make me happy but be selfish? Or do I do what my husband/mother/friend/siblings wants, even if it’s not necessarily easy for me? It’s a balancing act.

What I like best about her blog is her overarching view that we can get pleasure out of life in the face of any obstacle by being fulfilled with what we have. In that way, life’s limitations don’t have to be limiting.

Sally describes this better than I can in her first post. I encourage you to check it out, and the rest of blog. She also takes wonderful photographs of food!

I can reach and maintain a healthy weight by eating foods that taste great and make me feel good. I can reach and maintain a healthy weight not by punishing myself, but by taking joy in taking care of myself.

Link

Today I tried to purchase bicycle tires online. It turns out there’s a myriad of sizes and shapes that fit my wheels, which which one do I choose? Naturally, I turned to Google, and in my search, I found Sheldon Brown.

Sheldon Brown is an avid cyclist, traveler, and writer. His site contains a bunch of useful articles on bicycle maintanence, including a page which explains which tires will fit safely on a particular wheel!

Sheldon also had a journal where he writes about his journeys in cycling, books, movies, politics, travel, and health (he is living with gradual nerve deterioration in his legs). The guy’s got wisdom. And humor. On June 14, 2007, he celebrated 39 years since his last cigarette. He shares his technique for quitting:

I quit in 1968 by applying pure logic to the situation:

While there’s much about the addiction process that is obscure, one thing that is known for sure is that quitting smoking is harder the longer you have been a smoker.

Looking into the future, I really couldn’t see myself still smoking in 1978, so I knew I would be quitting sometime.

Given the above conditions, it will be easier to quit today (June 14, 1968) than tomorrow. I took the easy way out.

Link