Times have changed, and dramatically doesn’t begin to describe these changes. I no longer have to wait, nor do I need Scotch and cassette tapes or have to deliberately overwrite content on ‘removable media’. We live in the digital age and music and information is freely and readily available. I thought back to those days sitting on my bedroom floor this morning as I drove to work. Instead of tuning my radio to a favorite station I simply unlocked my iPhone, opened my last.fm app and started playing “Shinedown Radio”. There’s no DJ and I can choose virtually any artist imaginable. The service aggregates music tastes among its users and then plays similar songs to the bands you like.

In the recent past, music was exclusively available stored on records, cassettes tapes and over the airwaves. The advances in technology have changed the music landscape in terms of its recording and distribution. Think Napster, Grokster, Kazaa, Limewire. I’m not advocating you illegally “file-share”, but what I am saying is that music is increasingly prolific. A more legal approach would be over-the-air music distribution via live-feed like Pandora and last.fm.

$5 Well Spent?

If you’re already playing Health Month then you probably know Buster Benson (the site’s founder, creator and sole-developer) doesn’t allow more than three rules unless you’re a paid player. I spent the first quarter of this year (January – March) playing three rules a month, for free. In March I played disastrously, spending two days out of the month catching up ten missed days each! I decided to renew my commitment, pick myself up and play better this month; unfortunately that hasn’t happened as I would have liked.

Click here to read the post in it’s entirety.

As has been the case with many other areas of my life, I tend to change and change, and change some more before going back to the default. I recently read a book that talked about how important it is to establish a default that works for most people. The book is called Nudge and was written by two economics professors, Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. It’s an excellent read and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in delving deeper into the human psyche. It made me feel stupid as I begun to realize how easily influenced I am by defaults, advertising and the media.

I’ve done an about-face type reversion in the past with other blogs. I have also done this repeatedly with operating systems, desktop backgrounds and layouts, my iPhone (before that my Blackberry Curve 8900) and other devices. As I’m writing this I wish I had a default I could revert to in my personal life. For instance, I wish my house was by default, very clean. If I got tired of how it looked, I could simply push a button and it would default back to being immaculate and spotless. Unfortunately that’s not how life works.

Every weekend I am reminded of the challenges of maintaining “stuff”. I work Monday through Friday, like clockwork, and know I won’t have to work on the weekends. I’m always thinking and wondering about what to do with the time I have outside of the office. We don’t live in a pigsty, but our house gets used and worn out like any other. This weekend I took the trash to the dump, cleaned our rats cage, relined the trashcans with bags, unloaded and re-loaded the dishwasher, and kind of helped my wife start the laundry. It’s a never-ending battle, at least in this life, between clean and dirty – organized and, well…not. One day I will master the art of organization and time management such that every moment of every day will be productive, proactive and I will no longer be a slave to my emotions and carnal desires for instant gratification, ala. avoiding doing what needs to be done for the things I want. One day.

I started Day 2 (of 7) with renewed vigor. I woke up late and missed my first serving which was supposed to be, as scheduled, at 5:30am. I didn’t get in the first 300 calories until 9:20am. This time I tried honey, but not just any honey. Last year we bought clover honey at the Roanoke Farmer’s Market. It was still good, although mostly crystallized. I added approximately 2tbsp along with 1tbsp (measured) of butter and a few cranks on the old salt grinder. Mmmm. I think I could actually get used to this.

My wife and meandered, poke, piddled, and otherwise wasted most of the morning. I didn’t get in my second 300 calories until after 12:00pm. It was just as good, if not better than the first. I prepared this round of oatmeal in the same way and enjoyed every last bite. (I didn’t think this was possible after my first few experiences.)

Later that day we went to my parents house. While there my mother told us all about ‘sour dough starter‘ and her new kitchen / food projects. I was impressed with her diligence in getting educated and practicing new methods and recipes. At the same time I told her about my oatmeal diet about which she read (briefly and in passing) on Facebook. She seemed to think that there was some real science behind it and asked where I had heard about it. I told her I’m doing it just because and there’s no scientific basis for my odd choice of diet food. It was then that she explained phytic acid.

I’ll post a few links to the technical definition(s) of phytic acid and what it does, or doesn’t do for you. As I understand it, phytic acid exists in most grains and in rather high amounts (or concentration) in oatmeal in particular. It inhibits the absorption of most of the nutrients and minerals contained in the grains we eat and therefore limits their nutritional value. For this reason, my mother suggested I quit the stupid diet and eat real food – in this case, sourdough cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven. Mmmm.

There are ways around the phytic acid element in grains. Most of the research I’ve done recommends a 7 to 24 hour soak in some type of culture like yogurt, buttermilk, water with whey or vinegar. There are, as always, different opinions on the level of phytic acid and the real benefit obtained from soaking. I think it’s especially worth doing, regardless of the risk (or lack thereof) if you’re eating nothing but oatmeal. It couldn’t hurt and should only improve any existing nutritional yield from oatmeal and/or other grains.

I may give this one last go after carefully planning in what and how to soak my oats. I’ll let you know what I decide. In the meantime, here are a few articles for your reading pleasure:

• http://www.phyticacid.org/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acid
• http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/03/nourishing-practices-soaking-grains-2.html
• http://www.suegregg.com/about/c.htm

And finally, the oft quoted and seeming experts on all of this rigamarole, Sally Fallon and Mary G Enig, PhD book Nourishing Traditions:

• http://www.westonaprice.org/book-reviews/thumbs-up/393-nourishing-traditions.html

I woke up, as scheduled at 5:30am and prepared Serving One. This time, instead of stove-top cooking all five servings the night before I decided (per my wife’s instructions) to microwave each serving as it came due. According to my rules I’m allowed one flavor, although I bent that to include both salt and something else as you’ll see below. The other four servings were prepared in the same way as their time came, and each included at least 1/8 tsp of salt.

5:30am, Serving 1:oatmeal, salt, butter; 300 calories (not including butter).

9:00am, Serving 2: oatmeal, salt, 2tbsp (2 servings) strawberry jelly; 380 calories.

12:30pm, Serving 3: oatmeal, salt, 1tbsp (1/2 serving) peanut butter; 400 calories. (Whoa! Not a good idea. The peanut butter essentially disappeared into the oatmeal with the exception of the small pieces…it was chunky. I had a hard time getting all this down, but I made it!)

4:00pm, Serving 4: oatmeal, salt, 2tbsp (2 servings) blueberry jelly; 380 calories.

7:30pm, Serving 5: oatmeal, salt, butter and 2tbsp (2 servings) strawberry jelly; 380+ calories. (I had less than 1tbsp of butter, so it couldn’t have counted for too many calories, right?)

All-in-all, not bad, nearly 2,000 calories in total. I bent Rule 4 by having my Gatorade after Serving 5 instead of just after the gym. I also broke Rules 3 & 4 by drinking Diet Mountain Dew (although I had 8 ounces +/-). I’m coming off of Mountain Dew and anticipated a killer headache today. I felt a little uneasy towards the end of the day, and had a minor headache, but I attribute that primarily to “the Fridays”. I drank this particular serving to stave off an impending headache, but it never got out of hand. Whew!

Tomorrow I’m at it again, Day 2 of 7. I plan to add a little more butter as this project gets underway. It helps with the taste and consistency. As it is, the oatmeal is somewhat thick and sticky which makes it a little hard to swallow. I’m a little hungry, but that’s to be expected. For days 2 through 7 I’ll add my weight and more details on the type of exercise I’m doing, and why not? – I’ll tell you when I go to and how much sleep I’m getting. Psst. I normally go to bed between 10 and 11:00pm.

Thanks for reading. Comment as you’d like. I’ll see you tomorrow.

At 8:55am my iPhone alarm reminded me it was time to re-heat my second serving. I was in a meeting at the time and brought the oatmeal with me. As I slowly picked and poked away at my bowl of mush I started to feel a little uneasy. The lack of flavor and the denseness of the oatmeal left me feeling like I could throw up. I had to stop eating and wait for a few minutes before another bite. I threw in the towel with about three bites left and let the other servings rot on my counter.

I called my wife and confessed that I wouldn’t be able to get through a week of eating flavorless mash. She advised me, again (as she had before I started) to add something else to jazz up the taste, and with that advice I’m going to try this again. I’m modifying my rules to allow for flavor beyond pure, plain oatmeal. Ewww.

Rule 1: Eat oatmeal with one added flavor.
Rule 2. Available flavors: peanut butter, strawberry / blueberry jelly, salt, butter, honey.
Rule 3. Drink only water, with one exception.
Rule 4. Exception to water: Gatorade (1 daily after workout).
Rule 5. Consume exactly 1,500 calories daily from oatmeal. (I’ve decided against calculating the number of calories from flavoring.) *Side note – I then changed my mind and added them too, where available. 04/01/2011, 9:23pm*
Rule 6. Eat at specific intervals: Serving 1, 5:30am; Serving 2, 9:00am; Serving 3, 12:30pm; Serving 4, 4:00pm; Serving 5, 7:30pm
Rule 7: Don’t stop before it’s over.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t make it all the way through my second serving, but I’m confident this time will be different. (Don’t people always say that before they undertake (usually for the second time) some unreasonable challenge? ) I feel like I have a better plan, but as before I don’t have a particularly good reason for doing this. I just want to. If all goes as planned I’ll be writing about my progress here. Please comment as you’d like and ask any questions about my sanity if you’re wondering whether or not I’m crazy.

Throughout the day I’ve been thinking about my family, the choices I have made and trying to connect the dots as I think back over the memories of my past. I remember my Mom as organized and my Dad as a hoarder and disorganized. I used these terms rather loosely, but it wasn’t until now that I realized I defined my parents by these terms. I didn’t know what to call it, it’s just what I did. Dalton changed that when he introduced me to the term “Master Status”:

[...] a perceived characteristic that colors the way everything else about a person is viewed. It becomes the first thing that someone thinks of when that person come to mind. Examples of master status include being completely bald (particularly for a woman) or having hair down past one’s buttocks (especially for a man); being a Kennedy, HIV-positive, or disabled; having won the Nobel Prize in literature.

He goes on to say that  most of us do not have a master status, at least not in society at-large, in my opinion. As children we look up to our parents and inadvertently create a sort of perception of who our parents are and by this perception we know them. When someone asks me about my Mom I tell them she’s organized. Likewise, when asked about my Dad I tell them that he has a tendency to keep things and is seems to be most comfortable when things are in disarray. My daughter has cerebral palsy, her ‘master status’ with which I have a tendency to define her.

I continued to ponder on what this meant in terms of other people’s perception(s) of me. What do people think of me? What is my master status? I took it a step further, heavily influenced by my unborn 30-week old baby, and began to consider what my daughter does, and children will think of me. I have lived a rather chaotic life with little consistency and regularity and I can’t seem to identify a single characteristic or attribute that I would use on myself.

I guess as my children grow older, whether I want them to or not, they’ll develop their own master status of me. It’s possible one child will develop a different master status of their father than another, not likely, but possible. I say not likely because siblings tend to have a strong influence on each others perception of their parents, at least that’s how it is in my family.

I haven’t come up with my desired master status, but I can’t stop thinking about it and will likely share it when it comes to mind. Beyond a defining characteristic we also tend to have many other minor, or slave statuses – consistent behaviors or idiosyncrasies on which people rely to describe us. For as long as I can remember, my Dad would always fill the gas tank of all cars on Saturday night. This was to avoid the need to buy gas on Sunday, aka. honoring the Sabbath. This behavior was something my father did out of respect for the Lord, but developed in me a bizarre sort of trust in him. I knew I could count on his filling the gas tank, although his reasons were irrelevant, it was consistent and it encouraged me.

My mother and I are very alike in that we both flit from one all-consuming activity to another. I have a harder time isolating any ‘minor statuses’ of my hers although I know I can depend on her master status of organization. In each of her endeavors she carefully plans, and masterfully executes – in both of which I can trust and appreciate.

I realize there is no magic pill, or secret food tucked away in some cave on an island in the Pacific that contains all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals we need. I also realize that oatmeal is lacking in a lot of ways when it comes to nutritional value. I want to know what it’s like to eat nothing but oatmeal for a week. I’ve also wondered what it’s like to count calories and know exactly how how much I consume. In anticipation of any nutritional deficiencies I’m continuing my daily supplement regimen which includes a multivitamin, Zinc, Vitamin B12, Glucosamine/Chondroitin, Vitamin D3, and St. Johns Wort. (I’ve been doing this for the last four or five weeks.)

I have a few rules I’ll be following as I undertake this challenge:

Rule 1: Eat only oatmeal. Pure. Plain. Oatmeal, cooked but void of anything, even salt.
Rule 2. Drink only water, with one exception.
Rule 3. Exception to water: Gatorade (1 daily after workout).
Rule 4. Consume exactly 1,500 calories daily. This equals 10 servings of Quaker oatmeal, or five 2-serving portions.
Rule 5. Eat at specific intervals: Serving 1, 5:30am; Serving 2, 9:00am; Serving 3, 12:30pm; Serving 4, 4:00pm; Serving 5, 7:30pm
Rule 6: Don’t stop before it’s over.

That’s it. My “Oatmeal Diet”. When this is over I’m going to write a book and have big plans that it’ll top the charts of both the New York Times and Amazon.com bestseller lists.   Not really. I’m just a guy trying stuff and telling the world about it. I’ll keep track of my progress here.

It didn’t take long for me to realize I wasn’t cut out for the 100m dash, or any other track event for that matter; I thought I would give cross country my divided attention. Inspired, at least in part, by the fact that a large portion of our sprinting workouts were long distance runs, I thought I could do it in competition as well. Enter cross country. I joined the team not so much to compete, but to push myself to new limits and try something I’d never done before. It was there that I found my passion for an activity that brought (and brings)  me joy, centered my emotional balance, and helped me to stay in shape.

As an adult I’ve ran in a few local 5Ks, spent hours on different treadmills both at home and in the gym, and trained for a marathon. I’ve ran on the road, off the road, up and down hills, in and out of buildings, across highway bridges, and within a secure perimeter on an Air Force base in the Middle East. I’ve ran a lot, but not nearly enough.  I’ve enjoyed my fair share of injuries from shin splints and plantar fasciitis to bloody nipples after a really long distance run.

Recently, I have been re-introducing myself to the act of running (I really don’t like calling it a sport). I joined Planet Fitness nearly two weeks ago and have there spent four early mornings getting sweaty, and hoofin’ it on the treadmill. At this point I’m just walking in order to build my leg strength and to avoid any knee problems (which I began to have after 12, 13 and 15 mile marathon training runs). I’ll spend the next month just walking and slowly add running by no more than one quarter mile at a time.

Many runners have switched to barefoot running for relief from chronic injuries.

It was around this same time that my sister-in-law showed me her pair of Vibram FiveFingers. I had seen these before on the feet of a fellow student at Virginia Tech, but I thought they were just some bizarre nightmare a designer had scribbled on paper after waking in a cold sweat; I was a little shocked at the appearance. I got used to them after she let me hold me them, flex the soles and wiggle the toes. I went home and started reading about them and the barefoot running movement. Evidently we weren’t born to run with our heels slamming into the ground first and remaining positioned higher than the balls of our feet.

I have my concerns, but the more I read about the benefits of barefoot running, the more curious I get. As with any type of change in running, the advice I’ve read discourages you from increasing your mileage by any more than 10% per week, although you have to have a starting point (which I guess will be different for everyone). I don’t see myself walking proud into Planet Fitness and tossing my shoes to the side as I mount the treadmill and start slapping my naked feet on the machine. I do, however, plan to give completely barefoot running a try before I invest any money in these shoes designed to protect my little feet and avoid raised eyebrow stares by passersby.

The human mechanics of running are changed quite significantly when shoes are used – with natural, shoeless human running, the lateral edge of the forefoot is the part which strikes the ground with the most force. Running in padded shoes typically alters this as more emphasis is placed on the heel and the area towards the back of the foot.

I believe there’s some truth to getting back to our roots (pre-footwear) and I’m excited to try and dial back the technology of running and try something new. In other words, I’m not going to shut down the idea of barefoot running until I give it a try. For now, I’m working to build my strength (and lose weight to support my fat frame) and prepare to run, so I can increase my mileage and take my shoes off!