Mikefooord!

I entered my first road race at age 11 in April of 1980. Over the years, on and off, and to various degrees, I’ve kept running.

Due to various health problems, by January 2011 I carried 232 pounds on a 5’10″ frame. I could not run a half-mile and it took over 7 minutes to not do it. I swore to my doctors that I was a runner but I had no proof that I could be again in any meaningful way. Then, instead of resigning myself to a life of prescriptions I began to turn my back on medicine and face the discipline of living healthy. It’s a journey, not a destination.

As of this writing I weigh 175 pounds, a loss of 57 pounds so far. By comparison, my 13-month-old daughter is about 19 pounds. So I’ve lost three good-sized children. This spring (2012) I ran my first 5K in forever but it didn’t take forever– just 29:56! Putting down all those babies makes a real difference.

But this blog is not about how great exercise is and how everybody should do it. It is not about diet or healthy living in general. It is not even about me, although being the writer and subject of said blog it’s going to sound like it’s a lot about me. At heart, it’s going to be about change.

Change is exciting! And scary, sometimes. Still, it’s the only way I know how to grow.

You thought maybe I’d have some advice for you. Sorry, bub. I’m going to do what I feel is right for me, then tell you about it. Some of the stuff I’ve done and will do may turn out to be terrible for me, let alone you. You’re gonna choose your own path. Follow the blog if you like (yes, please) but don’t follow in my footsteps, as it were– you follow?

No, you still want advice. Ready?

Here is the only advice I can give you: Surrender only to the good impulses you have. To live a healthier, happier, longer life all you have to “give up” is any thing you love less than living a healthier, happier, longer life. White bread, cigarettes, Celebrity Apprentice, Bejeweled Blitz, a thousand strenuous acquaintances– the things you think you should quit– are, in fact the things you should quit RIGHT NOW. Find something else to get you through the “right now” that is less destructive to you than the bad thing you think you “deserve”. Treat yourself to being a better self!

That’s it for advice and counsel. Down the line, we’ll get into what’s going on in my body during training and races as I try to push the needle past 6mph on some runs. We’ll get into the music that plays in my head, too, the stuff that drowns out the Critic in my head. Maybe we’ll get into my past as a runner and as an all-around human being. Maybe we’ll have a dialogue in the comments. Anything is possible.

And that’s what this blog is about!

Music notes: The fine Joan Osborne song “Strenuous Acquaintances” refers to “a hundred strenuous acquaintances” but was written in the late 20th century, well before Facebook and the emergence of “friend” as a verb.

I have been faster. And slower.

I have been heavier. And more skinny.

I have been healthier. And veeery not healthy.

I have been on track and cross-country teams. And in the back of the pack.

I’ve run sub-6:00 miles. And topped out over 14:00.

I have pushed, paused, pressed on, pulled back, paced, and plodded.

But I never. Ever. Stop. I don’t know how.

I run like this now.

The Higgs-Boson particle has been discovered! It has a producing deal at A&E, an offer to host SNL, and several tweets from Katie Holmes.

Dear Dr. Oz: My baby’s gurgling sounds eerily like that of a Sleestak from “Land of the Lost” which leads to only two possible conclusions: either my beloved wife has had relations with a prehistoric beast from a fictional TV show OR … I am a Sleestak. Please advise. Thanks.

Upon further review, the neutrino’s attempt to surpass the speed of light was wind-aided.

In five years the Big East Conference will have fewer members than a parent-teacher conference.

The purpose of the Kindle Fire is not to take market share from Apple’s iPad. It is priced as a loss leader to get people into the mothership Amazon store in the next 90 days before Christmas.

Paul Krugman lays out the stakes for the next election and they aren’t the stakes for a big tent. Extremists on the right are taking over the Republican agenda while those on the left are grumbling, perhaps correctly, that the Democrats are moving too close to the center in an attitude of appeasement. Meanwhile, the distortion created by extremists pulling on both sides is warping the center beyond recognition, though it appears to be drifting rightward. To identify centrists in either party these days look for the ones waving their arms trying to maintain their balance in the shrinking center.

The same dynamic is occurring in the populace of America. The middle class is disintegrating. The simultaneous rise of both “dollar stores” and luxury brands in the last few years speaks to this. The number of families living below the poverty line and the number of millionaires are both increasing, the former more than the latter. Here’s a hamburger seasoned with gold that is not found in the pantries being inundated by the needy, including those left jobless by recent financial and natural disasters.

It is easy to see that the poor can’t afford lobbyists, and that money is going to protect itself in the halls of power. No one expects most in the ivory towers and mansions on the hill to get sentimental about the rest of us. However, Congress has to know it is working against the country’s long-term interests by indulging its short-term interests in political gain.

It is coming down to a fundamental choice, the choosing of sides, not just for an election cycle but deep into America’s future. A debate about what we as taxpayers will continue to support and how we pay for it is, when civil, an ongoing and welcome debate, both locally and nationally. What needs to be addressed, though, in a national conversation over the next 13 months before election day is why we support certain programs and agencies over others.

The very term “government agency” can conjure a boondoggle wrapped in red tape. The Internal Revenue Service is the best example of a Gordian knot begging for a powerful, swift sword. But the IRS started as a simple plan to generate revenue from taxpayers to fund projects and policies that were too cumbersome for local and state governments, to act as an agent for “we, the people”. With real reform, the ideal of taxation with representation would work in the national interest and not as a bully shaking us down for our lunch money.

First, though, the conversation and the questions that might start it.

• Where are we going? We can agree on a way to get there, but where is “there”?
•  Are we going to be a tough-love nation that cuts holes in safety nets like Social Security and Medicare? Are we going to leave FEMA’s work to a hash of NGO’s? Are we putting up fences and taking down lighthouses?
•  Are we outsourcing exploration and innovation to other countries? Are we for greener resources and utilities, and if so, do we leave it venture capitalists and garage experimenters?
• Is education important, from preschool to retraining of workers? Are teachers more important than corporations in the creation of jobs over time?
• Who do we elect to represent our diverse interests? Who are the government agents for each of us and all of us?

I really hope the people who kept Elizabeth Warren out of the consumer protection agency she coaxed to creation are gutted when, in 2013, instead of being a Princeton professor/bureaucrat, she’s sworn into the legislative branch of government.

We’ve told the Martians. We’ve told the Red Lectroids. And now we say to greedhead lobbyists for the moneyed class– Don’t. Mess. With. New Jersey!

Here’s the Elizabeth Warren quote every American needs to see.

And here’s video!

The fight against communicable diseases continues with changes in medicine, nutrition, and infrastructure. But it is worth thinking about these changes in the field of non-communicable diseases. As we try to end death and suffering from malaria, we need to keep an eye on the horrific effects of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer in the developing, developed, and over-developed world.

Fighting non-communicable diseases with Jamie Oliver