The Things We Eat

According to an NPR story even though Americans are exercising more, more Americans than ever are obese.

Americans are again one of the most obese countries in the world. This strikes close to home for me, as I have have been overweight since the age of six. A quick survey of my father's fridge, freezer and pantry leads to one very obvious problem. Even though my dad has a mostly healthy diet since his stroke several years ago I found only ONE fresh vegetable anywhere: the broccoli I bought. There is more fresh fruit than I would expect, apples, oranges and bananas. There is also a tomato and an onion and some garlic. He has lost about ten pounds in the years since his stroke, and that's after quitting drinking. So what's the problem?

If you aren't eating vegetables, you are filling your stomach with something less than spectacular. Pita chips and hummus is my weakness. My dad enjoys tortilla chips. In order to lessen the effect of random acts of food I have moved to a five meals a day plan.

Of course, I still don't eat enough vegetables.

It seems to me that one of the main causes of obesity is the average portion size of an American meal.

Solution: (1) Five meals a day, smaller meals at each mealtime. (2) Three to five servings of vegetables per day.

Obstacle: Fewer local growers than ever before. Americans are supermarket fanatics. Our fridges are generally bigger than our European counterparts. The ideal situation would be having a corner store, like in Italy.

My solution: If I don't have fresh vegetables in the fridge I will walk to Albertsons to get some. This way I get fresh vegetables and exercise too.

This is NOT a Test

Time to step it up and work on my physical health.

So here's the deal. I have studied enough improvement and motivational books to be an amateur life coach. Of course, who wants to live an amateur life? Regardless, I clearly have an interest in this sort of product or service, and most of the time I can talk to someone and recommend one of a hundred books, programs, seminars or other related technology that will help them get from where they are at to where they want to go. More importantly, I actually enjoy helping people find an honest road to goals in tune with their life situations. Is this something I can do seriously or professionally? Not yet. Why? Good question.

First of all is my physical shape. I am overweight at best and obese at worst. In my teens this was a problem because it made me seriously depressed. In my twenties it was a problem because it meant I had fewer sexual partners than I would have liked to have (this is subjective of course). On the edge of thirty I am starting to be more concerned with the health issues of carrying around over a hundred extra pounds of weight. My knees have been injured in the past and they are getting worse every step I take. I am getting back pain for no apparent reason. But worst of all are the things I can't see or feel - fat deposits around my organs, diabetes risk, heart disease risk.

Having taken a quick but ruthless self-examination this is one of my biggest barriers to having a healthy balanced life (I believe balance is one of the most important aspects of a life well lived, and I will go into my ideas of what balance means in the future). In order for me to achieve success on every level I have to strive to step up the parts of my life that out of synch with the rest of my life. The first of these parts was my financial health, and since I now have gainful hourly employment and the starts of a business as well the next major goal is to get my physical health up to par.

Project P90X

Vision: I am committed to this program. I will work the program every day in the morning with the proper equipment. When it comes to individual exercises I will give my best, but not push myself to the point of injury or health risks. I will also get enough rest every night, getting at least seven hours of sleep. I have used a training nutrition program before, and I will use this same program (which I will describe later).

Next Action: Procure the proper equipment by July 1, 2010. On this date I will start the program and post my before pictures.

An Unalterable Commitment

I will go into the title of this post a bit later on. As of right now I am detailing a new project: the books I will read before I hit 30. Based on this list I found on this list. Both very good lists.

When I read the 30 before 30 list I was depressed to see how many fine books escaped my attention throughout the years. Some of these books I have read part of, but very few I have finished. I was also surprised that I have a B.A. in English focusing on Contemporary Literature without having read War and Peace.

So here they are in the order I plan on reading them, and a few notes about each:

Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
I've read most of this one already, so it's a slam dunk first book. Complicated poetry? No problem. Eliot's The Waste Land was the subject of at least four papers (all with different theses) at Berk.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau
NOT EASY, NOT SHORT. I've tried reading this wholly twice now, and failed both times. But the rhetoric contained in this book is very prevalent in a green society.

1984 by George Orwell
Read all but the last thirty pages in Jr. College. Good recovery from Walden.

To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
No problem.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
I don't know much about this one. I expect it to be complicated and full of satire and allusion.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The beast. If I finish this before September I will consider myself on track.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
Great book, on my list because it's been like fourteen years since I have read it.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Great book (again), and I've read bits and pieces. I know it will be hard tog et anything from this one without some kind of analysis.

The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton
Never heard of it.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Two never "heard of it" in a row. It's a gamble on this one.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickins
The magician?

Catch 22 by Joseph Helley
Looking forward to this on.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
How have I never read this? I must be afraid that I am a Manchurian candidate or something.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I have read this book. But it was for school. So I skipped around a bit >>:)

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
As above >>>:)

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Like the Salinger, again, how?

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Read this one about ten years ago.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Never heard of it.

The Republic by Plato
Why am I ending with what will likely be the most difficult to consume text on the list? I can only imagine War and Peace being more difficult than Plato's masterwork.

If I finish all these before February 23, 2011 (thirty.. shit...) I will come up with some sort of amazing achievement award. Sex in a library sounds appropriate. With the cougar librarian who is staring me down as I read Plato's Republic? I think so.