Let me be clear about the question I’m trying to answer: Which nutrients—and precisely how much of each nutrient—do I need to be healthy? Because the FDA is in charge of food labeling, they were my first stop. My immediate focus fell upon the DV (Daily Values) and RDIs (Recommended Daily Intakes), both of which have everything to do with the information presented on food labels.

Then I found this statement, attributed to Christine Lewis, director of the division of technical evaluation in the FDA’s Office of Food Labeling: “They’re not recommended intakes. They’re really just reference points to help people get some kind of perspective on what their overall daily dietary needs should be.” Continue reading

I’m feeling particularly fit today. Looking younger, too, if I’m any judge. Then I walk into the market and some punk stocking shelves calls me middle aged. He means no offense, and it’s true (I looked it up)—but this is a first for me, and it rankles. I consider calling him a slobbering infant, but think better of it. Instead, I go home and hit The Machine. Continue reading

So today I decided to find out which nutrients I need to stay healthy, and exactly how much of each I should be getting. I mean, I know by now that there are doubtless scads of unlisted (and unsuspected) nutrients I should be getting (or would be, if I ate a halfway natural diet)—but I’ve got to start somewhere, right? Besides, I’m a professional researcher. How hard can this be? Continue reading

Today’s workout has a different soundtrack. Or, I should say, an additional soundtrack so loud it all but drowns out the first. This one sounds like a 400-pound, waterboarded rodent: squeak-SQUEAK-squeak-SQUEAK-squeak-SQUEAK-squeak… It almost hurts my ears, and definitely grates on my nerves. Continue reading

The search begins. The first thing I need to do is get out of the supermarket, as there’s really very little food of any kind there, much less real food—which (when present) seems an afterthought. The first places I discover are Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Continue reading

Kind of settling into the faster-pace, shorter-time thing now. The more I don’t think about exercise and don’t check the time, the better I seem to do, pace-wise. When I feel my endurance fading, I try pedaling backward, figuring this will use different muscles. Continue reading

Yet another Michael Pollan book, The Botany of Desire also has a “companion” PBS Botany of Desire documentary. Subtitled A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, both volumes approach things from an unconventional perspective. Being masters of the universe, we tend to think of ourselves as manipulating the world around us—but what if we (and other creatures) are the ones being manipulated, by everything from potatoes and marijuana to tulips and apples? That may seem absurd. After reading this book, or watching the dvd, it won’t. Continue reading

After 31 days—a mere 15 workouts—I’m down almost 7.5 pounds and 10 beats on my resting pulse rate. Which means I’m dropping about half a pound per workout, or about a quarter pound per day. And I’m not exactly starving myself. Coolness. This is turning out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be. Continue reading

I step outside to harvest a few more of those wondrous peaches from the tree in my yard, and discover to my horror that some unprincipled perfidious neighbor has pilfered my peaches. There’s not one left. Not one. Which means they even took the ones that weren’t yet ripe. What kind of psychotic neighbor pilfers unripe peaches, right off the tree? Continue reading

Still have the lower back thing going, and a knee wonked up from moving furniture yesterday, but The Machine’s elliptical motion strains neither. One day soon, hopefully, I’ll be able to take my socks off with my hands instead of my feet, and resume those toe-touches (okay; attempted toe-touches) and warm-up / cool-down routines. Continue reading