How do you define running? I never thought much about that until well into my running career but in the beginning, running was just whatever was faster than walking. For me, running wasn’t (and still isn’t) a fixed concept. If I was moving my arms and legs like a runner, I was running and I still think that’s true.
But, to tell this story well, I must back up a few steps and talk about diet. Four days after I started walking, I started making diet changes. Health gurus, doctors, well-meaning friends and family always told me that diet and exercise was the key to weight management. They are right about that. Where I went afoul was failing to realize I needed weight management. I also didn’t really know anything about diet and exercise.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I didn’t play any sports and I don’t recall having a formal education about diet, excepting, perhaps the food pyramid (which has been widely criticized since its adoption in 1992 for resting on shaky scientific evidence). I was 9 when the food pyramid became part of the diet lexicon. Other popular diets at the time included the SlimFast and the Atkins Diet. I won’t speak to these programs as I never used them, but I would encourage people to research them critically if they plan to.
Food messaging in the 80s and 90s informed my diet choices. I remember seeing cereal commercials like this one growing up:
The pertinent part of that commercial comes at the end, when an actual apple is replaced by a bowl of Apple Jacks. In the same frame, you see a glass of what is probably apple juice, a glass of milk, and a pitcher of milk, presumably for pouring over the cereal. This was the ideal breakfast to my young self and I strived to make it whenever I could. Reveling in the joy of seeing my spot at the table laid out just so. In a later post, I’ll try to explain why this diet was and is problematic for me and many others too but for now, back to my early diet changes.
I knew a lot of people who used different mobile apps to track their diets so I downloaded one called MyFitnessPal. Most of you have probably heard of it by now. It’s a relatively simple application that can be used to track what you eat. You must decide what to do with that information though. Most people use it to count the caloric value of their food but others use it to track things such as how much sugar they are consuming.
When I first opened the application, it prompted me to select a goal, gain weight, lose weight, or maintain weight. Lose weight, of course! After that, it asked me how much I’d like to lose a week. All the extra wasn’t an option so I went with 2 pounds per week, the highest possible amount the app permits. I was nearly 120 pounds overweight so this was a good goal for me. I did not know that at the time though and sometimes what you don’t know hurts you. In my next post, I’ll talk about some of the early mistakes I made and how increasing physical activity was both helpful and harmful. For now, I leave you with this video of a Hi-C Ecto Cooler commercial.