Knowing a lot of science of nutrition is like knowing a lot about physics for billiards—it probably indicates poor behavior. I think pool reminds people of high school physics problems. They often ask me or presume I’m good at it. But knowing physics doesn’t help you play. What helps you play is practice. There’s physics in pool but there’s physics in everything. Knowing where you should hit the ball doesn’t[…] Keep reading →

Have you put everything you had into something? Have you tried as hard as you possibly could? Have you run until you dropped? Skied as fast as you possibly could, risking injury? Decided to lift a weight you couldn’t conceive of lifting and done it? Have you run sprints in the rain, alone? Have you put your name and reputation on the line for all time? Have you said no[…] Keep reading →

How can we see these chairs in the waiting room I was just in as anything other than a statement of our times? The middle chair is about double the width of the chairs to its side. At first I had a hard time believing what I saw. Then I resigned to accept that’s the world I live in. Without double-width chairs, many people couldn’t sit. What we call food[…] Keep reading →

When were you last out of breath? Not just winded. I mean completely, thoroughly, can’t-speak-for-a-minute, can’t-think-straight out of breath? Was getting there glorious? Painful? Fun? In competitions, sprinters get there in ten seconds, though they recover fast. Kids do it a lot. Dogs seem to do it. Did it happen to you because you were doing something fun? Playful? Was it within the last week? Month? Year? Decade? Do you[…] Keep reading →

New York City has a sunny, breezy, dry day in the sixties. Yet another perfect day for running. How could I resist. I’ve made a Memorial Day weekend tradition of my first long runs of the year to start the summer. Some details that make running fun The saltiness of the sweat mixed in the water when you shower after The exhaustion on finishing Continuing to run when your body[…] Keep reading →

As far as enjoying life goes, I see it like running a marathon, though you can substitute any challenging activity with a specific goal. You might think the glory is in the step across the finish line, but every step is as important as every other, be it the first step, number 1,234, number 2,341, or whatever. Realizing every step is as important as any other lets you enjoy every[…] Keep reading →

NYU emailed me to make sure the athletes in my class are doing well. I understand that some athletes pay more attention to sports than academics than the school wants. I have no problem with their checking in. It makes me think, though, about the relative value our society puts on the mind and body. I understand why a school would want to make sure its students succeeded academically. Maybe[…] Keep reading →

This morning was beautiful in New York City. I was thinking of a running, but when I saw how nice it was I couldn’t stop from taking the train to Central Park and running in my favorite place in the world. A mile in it started drizzling. It turned into a downpour, for roughly the second mile. You rarely want to run in the rain but once it happens, you[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been avoiding buying food with any packaging. I started April 20. I updated my progress with pictures in “Buying no food with packaging, eighteen days and counting“. Saturday evening I bought some onions in one of those net bags. Onions make you cry. Today I’m scheduled to get a shipment of vegetables from my farm share and that comes in a box so the experiment would have ended today[…] Keep reading →