Beginner's Luck

Life is strange, sometimes. Three years ago, I never would have guessed that my wild-eyed, emotional, live-wire Aaruba would be retired from endurance and giving riding lessons.


Who'd have thought that such a sensitive and high-strung animal would carry a beginner more quietly than he carries me? So quietly, in fact, that we had to wake him up a bit to achieve a decent clip down the trail.


But then, it isn't so surprising. Horses read hearts better than most humans do. They understand innocence and goodwill, respond to honest intention, abhor egoism.

Maybe that's why I like them so much.
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Shot in the Dark: Trust

The road to trust is paved with time and shared adventure.
Even if there were shortcuts, we would be unwise to take them.

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Related Posts
Shot in the Dark: Partnership
Shot in the Dark: Trust
Shot in the Dark: Friendship
A Moment of Silence: Communicating with Horses
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Oy, Presents!

Oooooh, look what just arrived in my mailbox!


It's from Stonewall. I have a sneaking suspicion about what's inside... Yes! New toys -- I mean saddlebags!


Stonewall Saddles has teamed up with Snugpax to offer pommel bags designed specifically for the Stonewall. As you can see, these packs provide considerably more space than my current pommel packs (which I'll move from my sponsorship saddle to my older Stonewall because I really like them, too) and include a new strap that attaches to the Stonewall's rigging and should prevent the bouncing problems I had with my old Snugpax pommel bags.

Consolation is enjoying one more recovery day after a 30-mile weekend, but we'll test drive these packs tomorrow evening.

Oh! Didn't I mention that we did a 20-mile conditioning ride on Sunday? We averaged only 5 miles per hour, but finished in fine form. Milady Consolation is coming along, ladies and gentlemen. She's coming along. I'm feeling good about her first LD at Old Selam come September...
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Shot in the Dark: Wildness

Wildness,
unbridled exploration of one's own nature,
is a tendency to treasure
in horses, rivers, dreams, and men.

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Introducing Inara

Sandstorm's filly has a name.


This is Inara (in-ARRA).


Of Arabic origin, her name translates along the lines of "ray of light" or "heaven sent."


The "In...", of course, is in tribute to her sire, Insider.


I couldn't be happier with this filly.


Welcome, little Inara, to In the Night Farm. You do us proud.
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Insider Edition
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Primal Riding, Anyone?

Happy Monday!

Those of you who have been following my Fit to Ride series may be interested in the Primal Blueprint Health Challenge starting today over at Mark's Daily Apple.

Over the past two months, I've done a tremendous amount of reading about the paleo/primal lifestyle. Though I don't agree with every aspect of the primal blueprint and its premise, my experiments with it thus far have been particulary beneficial in terms of fuel intake (I'm already there on the activity side). I'm leaner, stronger, and more energetic than ever before -- and loving every minute.

I'm signed up for the challenge as BarbeyGirl. Anybody want to come along for the ride? (If you do, feel free to share your user name in the comments here so we can follow each other over at MDA.)
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Not Quite Tough Enough

...for Pink Flamingo.

Today is Day 2 of the 2009 Pink Flamingo Classic endurance ride. Held in the forested mountains of Cascade, Idaho, it's a beautiful, challenging, and irrepressibly silly event. Last year, Aaruba and I earned the Bad Day Award -- a set of magenta polo wraps -- by getting lost on Day 1, then rallied on Day 2 to score 3rd Place Best Condition.


I'd hoped to make Pink Flamingo 2009 Consolation's first Limited Distance race, but it turns out that life circumstances conspired with my hamstring injury to ensure that she wouldn't be quite fit. So, I find myself following the event vicarious via Facebook updates from friends.

And riding, of course.

Consolation and I trotted a hilly 15 miles yesterday under a blazing sun tempered by intermittent breezes. Having run part of the same route earlier in the day, myself, I was pleased by how well she handled the rolling slopes -- particularly as she, unlike me, had to haul along a load of rider and tack.

Speaking of tack, I was again impressed by how well my Stonewall endurance saddle fits Consolation -- so well that I can ride with the cinch loose enough to slip my whole hand beneath it. The tree doesn't shift on mounting or dismounting, or on hills, though I do take the safety precaution of using a breastcollar, just in case.


Anyway, Pink Flamingo is a fantastic ride and it pains me to miss it. The good news is that I fully anticipate being ready to go for Old Selam at the beginning of September. Then, there's the Owyhee Canyonlands multi-day, followed by the new Owyhee Hallowed Weenies race on October 31.

Maybe I'll be a flamingo for Halloween.
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Insider Edition

In the Night Farm has four, new feet this morning. Insider's first get arrived in the early hours -- a hale and healthy Barb filly out of Sandstorm, the lovely mare in The Barb Wire's header.














Congratulations to Crystal Gray, who commissioned this breeding and has big plans for this little horse! May your hearts travel many miles together.

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Cute Couple
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Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?

One of my many, annoying traits is curiosity. I am intensely, incessantly curious about almost everything. Fortunately, I am also on the shy side -- a characteristic that spares the rest of the world from what would otherwise be my natural tendency to behave like an overgrown three year old, tugging their sleeves and insisting on knowing, "Why? Why? Why?"

The downside of inquisitiveness is that there will never be enough time for me to cover all the material that interests me. The upside is that I can still cover quite a bit and put it to good use. Nutrition and fitness, perennials in my self-guided researches, offer myriad opportunity for testing theories on my favorite guinea pig -- myself. Over the past few years, I've intensified my focus on these issues and made discoveries that led to dietary changes that most of society considers fringe at best -- and often downright barmy.

Well. Call me crazy if you like, but there's no question that I'm leaner, stronger, and fitter today, at thirty-one, than I've been since the day I was born. Good thing, since I believe that as an endurance rider, I'm honor-bound to be every bit the athlete I ask my equine partner to be.

I've already shared three of the significant, dietary shifts I've implemented, in the form of three rules for eating clean. These are the non-negotiables:

1. Don't eat anything with a barcode.
2. Sugar is the devil.
3. Eat mostly plants.

As I said before, Eating Clean Rule #1 is almost enough, all by itself. Remove all barcoded (that is, processed) "foods" from your diet, and you'll be left with the fuels your body was designed to ingest: Vegetables, fruits, meats, grains, dairy, eggs, nuts, seeds, and plant oils. If 95% or more of your daily intake comprises these foods, you'll be better off than 95% of Western civilization.

However, for those who are really serious about eating clean and getting lean, there are many issues among these non-barcoded foods that merit discussion. I'll touch the surface of the most prominent here, then hook you up with sources for additional research. Let's start with dairy:

Now, I just included dairy in a list of foods our bodies are designed to ingest, and so they are...or at least, they were. But when was the last time you saw a yearling foal nurse? A three-month old kitten? A six-month-old lamb?

Hmm. Seems they grow out of it. In fact, a little research reveals that their bodies -- and ours -- are clearly meant to grow out of it. Lactase, the enzyme that enables digestion of lactose, ceases to be produced in animals over weaning age. Continued consumption of milk, formerly the perfect food for Junior, thereafter results in gastrointestinal distress ranging from bloating to diarrhea.

Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about; those who don't are the lucky (?) recipients of a mutant gene that permits continued lactase production. Being one-quarter Swedish, a heritage that predisposes me to said mutant gene (and perhaps a few others as well), I am not lactose intolerant -- unlike about 25% of the U.S. population and 75% of people whose heritage is African, Asian, or American Indian.

But, I still avoid dairy.

Why? Well, let's go back to our fellow mammals: How often do you see a rat drinking hamster milk, a bear cub nursing from a cougar, or a goat suckling a fawn? Yes, photos of such anomalies make their way around the web periodically. The last one I saw involved a mama dachshund and a litter of piglets. (Or was it the other way around?) Regardless, the only reason photos like that are so popular is that cross-species nursing is downright weird!

Surely I'm not the only one who finds it bizarre that we humans habitually consume large quantities of a substance custom-made to transform an 80-pound calf into a 1,800-pound bull. (And we're supposed to believe that drinking milk will make us lose weight? Excuse me?)

Besides that, the vast majority of the dairy products in your local grocery store are highly processed remnants of what might once have been a marginally acceptable food. Factory farms don't squeeze milk right out of the cow and into a carton, you know. Not by a long shot. First, they heat the milk to kill off bacteria (including the beneficial kind), a process which also reduces its vitamin A, C, D, and E content and destroys B6 and B12 outright. Then, they force it through a strainer with tiny holes, breaking up the fat molecules to prevent separation -- and bastardizing the natural hormonal delivery system of the milk, whose steroids and proteins are now able enter the bloodstream in a manner that nature never intended, triggering unnatural growth the body is unable to control.

Sounds to me like a recipe for cancer.

Those are just a few of the crazy reasons I rarely consume dairy. Feel free to pop a couple Lactaid pills, fetch a bowl of (barcoded, sugar-laden) ice cream, and take potshots at them at your leisure. When you're finished, I dare you to go read this series over at Fitness Spotlight. Allergens, antibiotics, and osteoporosis, oh my! (If you're horrified at the prospect of sacrificing dairy, be sure to check out the section on raw milk, wherein you may find some consolation. The nuances of aged dairy products such as yoghurt and cheese may interest you, as well.)

Okay. Take a moment to digest the truth about milk -- which, thanks to the Dairymen's Counsel and its well-funded friends in government, may be even more difficult than digesting the milk itself -- and in the next post, we'll move on to meat and eggs. (Don't worry. I promise not to advocate giving them up.)
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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal
Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice
Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean
Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender
Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green
Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders
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Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green

Whew! It's been a long week. My apologies for the delay in continuing this series. You may recall that we've been talking about the importance of fitness for endurance riders in particular. My goal, as I stated in Part One, is to achieve leanness, cardiovascular endurance, and a high level of functional strength supported by whole food nutrition.

In Parts Three and Four of this series, I posted the first two rules for eating clean, which I defined as fueling your body with the substances it is designed to ingest. Since I interrupted myself with a few days' worth of unrelated posts, here's a quick reminder:

Eating Clean Rule #1: Don't eat anything with a barcode.

Eating Clean Rule #2: Sugar is the devil.

Between these two rules, we eliminated the vast majority of what most people in western cultures eat, leaving behind a short list of foods that can be mixed and matched in an astonishing array of delicious, healthful meals: Vegetables. Fruits. Legumes. Meats. Eggs. Nuts. Seeds. Plant oils. Grains. Milk.

Obviously, this list can be divided into two, major categories: plant matter and animal products...which leads me to...

Eating Clean Rule #3: Eat Mostly Plants



Don't panic! I said mostly.

Many of you know that I've spent the last three years as a "flegan." That's a contraction I invented in a facetious moment to describe my diet of flexible veganism. (Hey, the flexitarians are allowed their oxymoron!)

As I explain in this post on Nightlife, fleganism was a lifestyle into which I fell somewhat by accident. When a summer's bounty from my home garden crowded most other foods off my plate for nearly three months, I experienced such obvious improvements in my health that I never felt the need to return to my old habits of basing meals on meats, poultry, and cheeses.

What health benefits, you ask?

Improved body fat ratio, for one. Compare these photos again:

Both represent times in my life when I had a farm full of horses and a house full of pets to keep me active. However, the first photo was taken when I still based two meals a day on chicken, pork, beef, or pasta; the other was snapped after about a year of fleganism.

Note that the second photo was taken last summer, six months before I started bodybuilding (NOT the steroid-ridden, appearance-based, fake stuff you see in magazines, but genuine body conditioning to increase my functional strength -- a topic I'll address later in this series.) Now, I'm not preparing to make a case for vegetarianism, but I will tell you this: About 80% of leanness (and the muscle definition that goes along with it) is the result of diet, not exercise, and certainly not endless cardio routines!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to those health benefits I experienced when I started following eating mostly plants. My new practice of basing meals on vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains -- to the exclusion of all animal products, including dairy and eggs, with rare exceptions -- resulted in total elimination of my seasonal allergies, which had been severe, and dramatic reduction in the frequency and intensity of the arthritis pain caused by my bunions.

Miraculous? Unbelievable? Not really. (Hell, allergies are nothing. Some people have cured cancer through nutrition alone!) All I did was give my body the nutrients it needed to heal itself.

Note that the key point here is what I added to my diet (piles and piles of produce)...not what I removed (animal products). There are plenty of strong, lean, healthy people who eat animal products, and plenty of strong, lean, healthy people who don't. Depending on what one is trying to accomplish with regard to strength, however, the latter can be a challenge. I've recently found it necessary to add two eggs per day, plus some seafood, to my diet in order to meet my body's protein and energy demands in the face of ongoing body conditioning.

Regardless of one's opinion on vegetarianism, the point is that a healthful diet must be primarily plant-based. "Primarily," of course, is a relative term. Opinions abound on what percentage of one's daily calories should come from plant foods -- vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, nuts, seeds, and plant oils -- let alone from each of these sub-categories.

Proponents of Primal/Paleo eating, which I think has a lot of merit if followed correctly and consistently, particularly with regard to the reduction in carbohydrate consumption, emphasize a considerably higher percentage of animal products than I tend toward, but still maintain a foundation of plenty of vegetables and some fruit. I also agree with the Paleo People's emphasis on fats (natural fats, that is, from real foods -- not the man made fats that, along with man made sugars, turn processed "foods" into poisons.) For those who want to know more, Mark's Daily Apple and Fitness Spotlight are excellent blogs that will tell you all you need to know about going Paleo.

One thing is certain: the diet that is best for one person is not necessarily appropriate for another. However, any predominantly plant-based diet that also complies with Eating Clean Rules 1 & 2 is beneficial. Do your homework, experiment with what makes sense, and choose the diet that best helps you achieve your goals. Just be sure you're basing your decisions on physiological needs, not psychological desires. "I can't live without ice cream" is not a good reason to insist upon dairy as a regular feature on your table! (No more is "I avoid dairy" a valid reason to avoid the very-occasional scoop of Moose Tracks.)

As you experiment with your personal diet, here are a few things to bear in mind:

• The great benefit of plants is found less in macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, all of which plants also provide), than in micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients). Micronutrients are critical to survival; they're the necessary components that enable the body to identify and rectify those external threats and internal errors that will, if left unchecked, lead to disease. The more micronutrients you put in your body, the better it will be able to defend and heal itself. In the process of obtaining all those micronutrients, of course, you'll taking in most of the macronutrients you need as well.

• Plants shouldn't have barcodes. Fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, legumes, and grains are vastly superior to their canned, dried, or frozen counterparts. Grains should look like they were just shaken loose of their chaff, and maybe run under a roller. They should not reach your mouth in the form of loaves, rolls, wafers, or flakes (check out that link for the alarming history of your breakfast cereal!) Nuts and seeds should be raw, not roasted and salted. Plant oils (which most of us cannot obtain outside a barcoded bottle) should contain no additives.

• Fresh is better. As soon as a plant is picked, its nutrient density begins to decrease. Therefore, it is ideal to concentrate your produce consumption on varieties that are locally grown and in season. Organic produce, which generally has the opportunity to grow in richer soils than does conventional produce, and which is proven to contain more nutrients (which comprise the plant's own defense system and are therefore more concentrated in plants unshielded by man made pesticides) is preferable as well. That said, conventional, out-of-season produce grown in a different hemisphere is preferable to no produce at all...for nutritional purposes, anyway. See Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life for an engaging and intelligent discussion on the merits of eating locally produced foods.

• Fresh and raw is best. (Some would argue this point. See this post for details.) A bit of creativity is all it takes to ensure that you consume at least half your daily produce in an uncooked state, without overdosing on garden salads. I'll share some of my ideas for doing so in a future post.

Speaking of my personal eating habits, anyone who has spent significant time in my presence knows that I eat a lot, in terms of both volume and frequency. You've heard the USDA's recommendation that you eat 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day? Yeah. It's not uncommon for me to eat that much produce before lunch.

Indeed, one of the benefits of a smart, plant-based diet is that it's almost impossible to overeat. Your body's satiation center will stop you before you can consume an overabundance of vegetables, fruits, or legumes, particularly if much of the produce is raw. (It is wise, however, to remain attentive to the volume of whole grains, nuts, seeds, and oils in your diet.)

For those who are already lean and are working on building strength, the inclusion of some animal products is likely to prove beneficial. Part Six of this series will cover some of the issues related to meats, dairy, and eggs. I'll also discuss grains in further detail, as they are the source of much debate among the lean, the strong, and those endeavoring to become so.
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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal
Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice
Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean
Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender

Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?
Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders

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Independence Day?

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield

and government to gain ground."

...maybe that's why...

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time
with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Smart guy, that Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Paine wasn't half bad, either:

"When men yield up the privilege of thinking,
the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."

Here's something worth thinking about today.

Observe. Conclude. Act.

Or lose.

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Related Posts
Shot in the Dark: The Mutual Pledge
Shot in the Dark: Liberty
Shot in the Dark: Vigilance

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Shot in the Dark: Partnership

Love me, please, I love you;
I can bear to be your friend...so ask of me anything.
I am not a tentative person.
Whatever I do, I give up my whole self to it.

~ Edna Saint Vincent Millay

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Setback...but Back

News flash!

This photo was taken Saturday morning last, as Consolation and I prepared for our first ride since the dog attack that sidelined me for nine weeks with a torn hamstring.


Almost everyone to whom I mentioned that I was finally back in the saddle said something like, "That must feel really good!"

Well...sort of. The truth is, Consolation and I ran into a spot of difficulty almost immediately. Here, we're discussing whether she'll cross a weedy trench.


It was a long conversation, but she finally agreed to give it a try.


See, that wasn't so bad!


The ride that followed was...interesting. (Read: Frustrating and exhausting. Lord have mercy, the balking issue is back.)


But, I wouldn't have traded those four miles for the world.
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By the way, I'm really happy with my new riding helmet. I went with the Tipperary Sportage again.

This is my third Sportage. The previous two suffered ignominious fates -- one from a header off a bolting greenie that hit the brakes a few years ago, and the other from that fall on my back in April. I survived both tumbles with no apparent brain damage (though, admittedly, it's hard to tell) -- so why mess with success?

Tipperary has made a few changes to the Sportage since I bought my previous one. I find that the new model fits better, has a slightly lower profile, and is more attractive in matte charcoal than the previous, shiny version. Looking for a helmet recommedation? This is mine.
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Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender

You all know by now what I'm up to.

I'm in the middle of a series spawned, somewhat accidentally, by my belief that an ideal endurance rider is one who does his or her best to achieve leanness, cardiovascular endurance, and a high level of functional strength. Only by being committed athletes ourselves can we be worthy partners for our horses. Endurance is a team sport. Play it lean and strong.

While strength is primarily the result of exercise, leanness is about 80% diet. In Part Three, I introduced "eating clean" as a major factor in a rider's ability to attain and maintain a low body fat ratio. Eating clean means fueling your body with the substances it was designed to ingest -- a lifestyle so simple that maintaining it requires only that you follow a few, simple rules. Eating Clean Rule #1, you'll recall from Part Three, is: Don't eat anything with a barcode. Today, we move on to Rule #2.

Eating Clean Rule #2: Sugar is the devil.

Uh-oh. You knew I was going there, didn't you? Congratulations -- you guessed it. I'm going there, and I'm going all the way. Sugar is the devil. It is poison. You shouldn't eat it. Despite what those ludicrous HFCS promotions say to the contrary, sugar is not acceptable, even in moderation. Except in its natural combination with fiber and multitudinous nutrients, such as in fruit, sugar is nothing but bad for you. Period.

I could end this post here. You've already read the critical information. But, I suspect a number of you, like me, aren't satisfied with what when you could have why. So, I'll carry on a bit and give you some resources with which to follow up on your own.

First of all, since we're discussing leanness, you need to understand that sugars are simple carbohydrates. The body converts all carbohydrates to glucose, which is a useful fuel. Unfortunately, most people eat far too much carbohydrate and wind up with an overabundance of glucose in their cells. Because glucose is toxic in large amounts, and because your body is designed to store energy in case of later starvation, you come equipped with a means of dealing with unburned glucose: you turn it to fat.

"It's not fat that gets stored in your fat cells," explains one of my favorite nutrition blogs, Mark's Daily Apple, in this post, "-- it's sugar." The post goes on to explain how too much carbohydrate (sugar) in the diet eventually leads to insulin resistance, which everyone knows is half a click away from diabetes (read: obesity, cardiac disease, nerve damage, blindness, and early death). High price to pay for that afternoon Pepsi.

Prefer an alternative method of payment? How about cancer? As Dr. Patrick Quillin explains in his inexpertly-written, but highly informative, book Beating Cancer with Nutrition, "sugar feeds cancer." It's the perfect meal for mutant cells. Considering that cancer cells form regularly in all our bodies throughout our lifetimes (and are usually conquered by our immune systems) I am disinclined to offer them a welcoming buffet.

I should clarify here that sugar, like processed food, is found in more than the obvious sources. As far as your body is concerned, simple starches are virtually indistinguishable from those white granules you put on your (barcoded) Wheaties. White flour and its many children (pasta, breads, crackers, etc.) are all, essentially, sugars. You've heard that "muffins are for people who don't have the balls to order cake for breakfast?" I'm afraid it's necessary to extend that statement to encompass your morning bagel, English muffin, and toast as well.

Then, there are the hidden sugars. Variously labeled as high fructose corn syrup, rice syrup, dextose, fructose, glucose, sucrose, and everything else gross, an astonishing quantity of sugar hides in supposed "health foods" such as yogurt, fruit juices, salad dressings, smoothies, energy bars and beverages, frozen entrees, soy milk, peanut butter (of the Jiffy and Skippy variety), and just about everything else with a barcode. Even whole grains impact the body as sugar, though in a less dramatic fashion than do the dreaded "simple carbs." Low-fat and fat-free products are almost always packed with sugar, not to mention a horrifying array of additives that don't come from anything so natural as sex or seeds.

By the way, you don't still think you're getting away with anything by choosing diet drinks and other products featuring artificial sweeteners, do you? Good. Because saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, and their evil cousins are well-documented carcinogens, allergens, and wreakers of general havoc on organs from skin to kidney to brain. As a special bonus, many of them enhance your appetite. Just what you need when trying to get lean! (For an excellent discussion artificial sweeteners and other food additives, check out a book called Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills by Russell Blaylock.)

Note that your friends at the FDA, who are well aware of the complications associated with artificial sweeteners...and the USDA, who are acquainted with the damaging effects of over consumption of carbohydrates...still merrily approve and recommend their use. Just another reason I don't take Big Brother's advice.

Here's the good news: While sugar and its man made relatives are addictive substances, addictions can be broken. All it takes is a healthy dose of willpower applied without exception for a sufficient period of time. For most people, 14-28 days' effort will break the strongest bonds, leaving you free, over time, to transform into one of those annoying people who is genuinely un-tempted by the office chocolate bowl, Friday donuts, and the Coke machine down the hall.

Incidentally, much of these health nuts' seemingly-ironclad commitment is based in their bodies' heightened insulin sensitivity due to low sugar consumption over the long term. That's a fancy way of saying that they know a small slice of birthday cake will leave them feeling like crap for the rest of the afternoon. (It'll make everyone else feel like crap, too, for different reasons...but most of them won't realize they feel like crap because, sadly, they always feel like crap. And to make themselves feel better, they 'll buy another soda. Which will make them feel like crap. Recognize yourself? Check out Dr. Neal Barnard's book Breaking the Food Seduction to better understand -- and conquer -- food cravings.)

Of course, if you're following Eating Clean Rule #1, you don't need to worry about any of this. Nature doesn't overload you with sugar any more than it prints barcodes on itself. Some would argue that fruit is an exception. While it's true that sedentary people should not overindulge, as the carbohydrates in fruit do need to be burned lest they be stored as fat, fruit offers myriad nutritional benefits and is, by far, the best source of sweetness in a clean diet.

Right, then. Many of you have made the clever observation that these two Eating Clean Rules eliminate almost all the products that fill most westerners' grocery carts and kitchen cupboards. Some of you are staring at your screens in horror, wondering what in the name of Kellogg's Frosted Pop Tarts is left to eat. Surely, you say, if she really lives by these rules, she'll drop dead before finishing this post!

Not so. I assure you, eating clean (and getting lean) has nothing whatsoever to do with starvation. "Eating clean," you'll recall, means fueling your body with the substances it was designed to ingest. Here they are:

Vegetables. Fruits. Legumes. Meats. Eggs. Nuts. Seeds. Plant oils. Grains. Milk. Period.

Science and human nature being what they are, there's plenty of room for debate even within the above categories. I'll address a couple of the most prominent issues in upcoming posts, and then we'll move on to the strength part of the equation. For now, suffice it to say that most honest nutritionists and researchers would agree that following Eating Clean Rules #1 and #2 would eliminate the vast majority of our collective roadblocks on the path to leanness and longevity...and as endurance riders, isn't longevity what we're all about?

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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal
Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice
Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean

Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green

Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?
Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders
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Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean

All right. We've talked about why I believe an ideal endurance rider is lean and strong. We've established that my goal is to to achieve leanness, cardiovascular endurance, and a high level of functional strength supported by whole food nutrition. We've concluded that the only people whose advice is worth taking are those who can prove their theories with indisputable results.

Now, it's about time we got down to business, beginning with nutrition. What, exactly, does a lean, strong rider eat?

Good question. I can't answer it for you, but over the past several years, I've come a long way in answering it for myself. What follows is my own set of conclusions, based on extensive self-study of books, websites, and the experience of people who are making these theories work in real bodies, in the real world. These conclusions represent the best way I know (so far) to achieve not only leanness, but such lifelong wellness as is increasingly rare in developed countries today.

I'm pleased to report that good nutrition can be summed up quite simply in a concept I call "eating clean." Eating clean means nothing more or less than choosing, on a consistent basis, to fuel your body with the substances it was designed to ingest -- that is, with actual food.

What was that? Did somebody just say, "Well, duh?"

You'd think, wouldn't you, that I shouldn't need to take up cyberspace advising you to eat food. Think again. Have you read an ingredient label lately? Go ahead, pick a few items from your pantry and study the labels. I'll wait...

Finished? Good. How many of those ingredients do you fail to recognize as products of nature? I don't know about you, but I can't think of anyone who has a sodium benzoate tree in their backyard.

So, in the interest of identifying what qualifies as "food"-- the necessity of which activity is appalling enough to take my breath away -- I've come up with a few rules on the subject of eating clean. Conveniently, if you apply Rule #1, you'll find that most of the subsequent rules take care of themselves. Drumroll, please...

Eating Clean Rule #1: Don't eat anything with a barcode.

With few exceptions, "food" items that come in barcoded packages are the processed remains of formerly nutritious substances. That is, they are foods altered from their natural state, often to such an extent that the human body cannot recognize them as fuel. The implications of consuming such products are enormous.

In the short term, processed foods fill your stomach but fail to signal your body that its nutritional requirements have been met -- because they haven't. Before long, these unmet requirements make themselves known in the form of hunger, even if you've already consumed enough calories for someone twice your size. Naturally, this starts you along the road to becoming twice your size.

The long-term implications of processed food consumption are so numerous as to stretch beyond the scope of this post. One of the most alarming, however, is also related to the nutrient-depleted state of these products. In the absence of sufficient vitamins, minerals, micronutrients and phytonutrients, your body becomes increasingly unable to manage its own maintenance. Damaged cells go unrepaired and mutations unrecognized, resulting in accelerated aging and malignant cancers.

Twinkie, anyone?

Incidentally, processed food manufacturers are well aware of the nutritional wasteland they've created. A glance at their packaging makes clear that they've spent huge sums on marketing designed to convince us not to worry about it. "It's fortified!" they announce, without mentioning that "fortification" means they've added artificially high doses of certain vitamins they know we'll associate with Mom's good advice. I suppose they think we won't notice that the phytonutrients necessary for our bodies to actually process those (often-synthetic) nutrients remain absent. And they aren't about to tell us...because if they did, we might stop to wonder if it isn't better to spend our cash and calories on actual food instead.

Back to Rule #1. Permit me to make myself clear. In warning against processed foods, I'm not just talking about the obvious culprits like cheese puffs, Twizzlers, soda, and German chocolate cake mix. Anyone with half a brain and a modicum of willpower is already avoiding those. (You are, aren't you?)

In case you haven't noticed, my friends, an awful lot of perceived "health foods" also have barcodes. Breakfast cereals. Granola bars. "Diet" snacks. Frozen entrees. Crackers cleverly labeled "all natural" or "whole grain." Canned vegetables, soups, and fish. Soy milk. Tofu. Sports drinks. Pasta. Need I go on?

Yes, yes. I know. Some actual food is sold in barcoded packages for the sake of convenience. Apply Rule #1 with a dose of common sense. Consider whether the item has ingredients (if it does, it's questionable) or is an ingredient (in which case, it's probably okay...subject to other Eating Clean Rules, of course). If you can't identify a product's natural source by simply looking at it, you probably ought to wonder whether it's really edible.

I believe it was Dr. Mitra Ray, author of From Here to Longevity*, who wrote, "If you can't pick it, hunt it, fish it, or milk it, don't eat it." CNC Kelly Hayford puts it even more simply in the title of her high-level book, If It's Not Food, Don't Eat It.

In other words, don't eat anything with a barcode.

Part Four of this series will take us on to Eating Clean Rule #2, which plugs a few loopholes left by Rule #1. In the meantime, I'll leave you to ponder what's left once you've eliminated barcodes from your diet. Those are the foods I'll discuss further in Parts Five and Six.

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By the way, many thanks to all who have participated in this discussion through comments and in the wider blogosphere. Frankly, I'm surprised and delighted by the apparent resonance of this topic. If you have specific questions you'd like answered or experiences to share -- or if you'd prefer I shut up and went back to training and riding! -- please feel free to make your thoughts known.
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* I can't leave this post without mentioning the fact that you won't find Dr. Mitra Ray's best-selling book From Here to Longevity for sale on her website. Why? Because her recent research has led her to the conclusion that she gave some harmful advice (particularly with regard to recommendations for the consumption of meat and dairy) in the original text. In what I consider to be an eminently honorable move, Dr. Ray has ordered her staff to cease publication of the profitable title until she can complete a revised edition containing what she now believes to be accurate, scientifically-grounded information. That, my friends, is a woman worth listening to.
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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal
Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice
Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender
Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green
Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?
Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders

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Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice

In Part One of this series, I defined the following goal for myself as an endurance rider: To achieve leanness, cardiovascular endurance, and a high level of functional strength supported by whole food nutrition. I believe that continual striving toward this goal is a critical component of being a partner worthy of my horse. (For more on my reasoning in that regard, see this post.)

In brief, an endurance rider should be both lean and strong. Despite popular assumption to the contrary, the two do not necessarily go hand in hand. A lean person is not necessarily strong, nor is a strong person necessarily lean. Furthermore, leanness and strength are primarily influenced by different components of the fitness equation with which we are all familiar; that is, the combination of diet and exercise.

Strength is primarily the product of exercise, while leanness is influenced most heavily by diet. Any rider who wants to be both lean and strong must commit to excellence in both areas. Let's start with diet, shall we?

You don't need me to tell you that the world wide web is already rife with dietary suggestions. Some nerds, like me, actually enjoy sifting through this material in search of answers; however, there's no question that the plethora of contrasting views can be overwhelming to the point of frustration and, all too often, defeat.

The good news is that a significant portion of the confusion swirling around dietary recommendations (or anything else, for that matter) can be eliminated simply by examination of their sources. Whenever I look at a proposed dietary plan, supplement, or other product, I first consider by what its creation was motivated. More often than not, I discover reasons to be highly skeptical of the proffered information.

Here are a few of the most prominent information sources I have come to regard with deep mistrust:

1. Big Brother

You know that USDA Food Guide Pyramid you had to color in 1st grade? You know the revised MyPyramid the USDA released in 2005? You know how hard entities such as the National Cattlemen's Association, the Sugar Association, the National Milk Producer's Federation, and other trade associations lobbied to prevent those guidelines from including any reference to overwhelming scientific evidence that we all ought to replace a huge percentage of our meat, dairy, grain (yes, grain!), and sugar intake with fresh produce? You know that agribusiness and "food" manufacturers make massive contributions to political campaigns and expect favors in return?

If you don't know these things, I suggest you do some homework. Because the USDA, FDA, DHHS, and similar are a lot more interested in politics than in your well being. I can't think of a single reason to trust the word of anyone who is willing to compromise his declarations of truth for personal gain.

2. Anyone Who is Selling Something

...especially if it's a product offering rapid weight loss or other, miraculous health benefits. Because products making such claims occupy such a large share of the "health and fitness" marketplace, I think the topic merits further discussion:

First, rapid weight loss. Believe it or not, a lot of those miracle products really can help you drop 7 pounds in 7 days. What they fail to mention, however, is that you won't lose 7 pounds of fat in 7 days.

How do I know? Because that is, quite simply, impossible. The human body is capable of metabolizing up to 3 pounds of fat per week -- and 3 pounds is very, very good (1-2 pounds is far more typical and a perfectly respectable rate of fat loss).

If you're losing more than 3 pounds a week, ladies and gentlemen, you're losing things you ought to keep. What are you losing? Water and protein. Protein? Yes. You know, lean muscle mass such as organ tissue and muscle. Great. So much for being strong.

As an aside, permit me to discuss cellulite for a moment. You'll be happy to know, ladies, that it doesn't exist. The fat that makes your thighs look lumpy is structurally identical to all the rest of the fat on your body. What should this tell you? How about this, for starters: If someone tries to sell you a product to eliminate something that doesn't exist, they're taking you for a ride. Go saddle up your pony instead.

On to miraculous health benefits. You've seen them, haven't you, those pills and potions that claim to do everything from increasing energy to decreasing blood pressure to reversing aging? Here's my advice: Anytime you're tempted by one of these products, ask for proof of their claims in the form of independent, published, peer-reviewed research. (Be warned -- almost nobody will be prepared to provide it. I've found a grand total of one company that can do so.)

Usually, they'll send you a few papers extolling the benefits of the key ingredients in their product and expect you to make an illogical leap. For example: Blueberries are good for you. Our product includes blueberries. Therefore, our product is good for you. Right? Wrong. If they don't have research demonstrating the effectiveness and bioavailability of the actual product, don't buy it. Your local grocery has fresh blueberries. Spend your money there.

You know, I still can't think of a single reason to trust the word of anyone who is willing to compromise his declarations of truth for personal gain.

3. Most Doctors

Few people realize how little training most physicians, from general practitioners to neurosurgeons, receive in nutrition. (Think 1-2 credit hours in the course of 8 or more years of study.) Modern medical education focuses almost exclusively on the use of surgical and pharmaceutical intervention to cure disease, rather than on the use of nutrition to prevent disease in the first place.

Frankly, this baffles me. Does nobody think anymore?

Ahhh, wait a moment. The pharmaceutical companies do. In fact, they came up with one of the most brilliant business ideas of the past thirty years: CME sponsorship. It seems that at least 50% (statistics vary) of continuing medical education courses for our physicians are put on by pharmaceutical companies. I'll leave you to ponder what the common side effects include.

Funny thing, I still can't think of a single reason to trust the word of anyone who is willing to compromise his declarations of truth for personal gain.

I could go on to discuss unsustainable weight loss programs, those neat little medical PSA's they run on the news (I'll give you two guesses who produces those beauties), and all manner of other, unreliable sources of dietary advice. But, perhaps it would be most useful to stop ranting and move on to the subject of who you can trust.

If you were in the market for an individual to start your coming four-year-old endurance prospect under saddle, who would you choose: The trainer whose personal mounts are unmanageable at the start, fail to settle at vet checks, and whose tails are bedecked with red ribbons...or the one whose energetic but compliant partners regularly complete races in good form and are greeted with a smile by vets and volunteers alike?

Here's the point: Go with the guy who's getting the job done. If you want to be lean and strong, listen to people who are lean and strong. Heed experience (which is not the same as anecdote) and imitate those whose results prove positive over the long term. Believe only those who can prove their claims.

Part Three of this series will beging to cover the dietary guidelines I've gleaned from such people and applied to my own lifestyle to demonstrable, positive effect. Stay tuned.
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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal
Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean
Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender
Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green
Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?
Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders
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Fit to Ride, Part One: Going for the Goal

Eleven years ago, I thought I had fitness all figured out.

At 5'3" and 115 pounds of camp-counselor-suntan, I looked pretty fair in my wedding dress. I knew how to put four food groups on the table in the form of a tuna casserole with white pasta and cheddar, plus a side of canned green beans dressed up in vinegar and minced onion. Every weekday, I attended at least one aerobics class at the local gym. People at the office, to which I ran or biked in almost any weather, considered me a "health nut." All I can say is, Good heavens! What would they call me now?

I've learned a lot since then, you see...including that I was neither well-nourished nor fit during that time. I was merely young and genetically blessed with a mesomorphic body type. In those days, I believed fitness was about burning enough calories to make a pair of jeans look good. I hadn't a clue about the impact of micronutrients on long-term health, the nutritional nightmare that is processed foods, the benefits of high intensity interval training -- or, for that matter, just how sexy a little muscle can be.

And it showed. This embarrassing photo was taken in the spring of 2005, when I was 27. Was I appallingly overweight? No. But I was a far cry from the leanness and strength to which I now aspire.

Between then and now, I've put hundreds of self-study hours into an attempt to understand nutrition and fitness. Though my formal qualifications on the subjects amount to approximately zero, I have at least managed to identify my goal -- always a good first step.

It's a simple goal, and one that's critically linked to my beliefs about fitness for endurance riders. Here it is: To achieve leanness, cardiovascular endurance, and a high level of functional strength supported by whole food nutrition.

Why this goal? I believe that an ideal endurance athlete -- the human half -- must be both lean, that is, have a low body fat ratio, and strong, which I could casually define as having the muscular and cardiovascular capacity to exert maximum power during productive work. (Note that, as discussed in the comments precipitated by this post, "lean and strong" looks different on different people. I'm not talking about preparing for a beauty contest here. This is about contributing my fair share in a team event.)

So, how does a person become lean and strong? As you can see by the above photo, the answer is not to be found in a "healthful" diet of barbequed pork chops, roasted potatoes, and asparagus with lemon butter, plus an hour of step aerobics or a jog at dusk. That level of effort may hold you around average -- but in case you haven't noticed, "average" these days comes equipped with devastating rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and myriad other degenerative, disruptive, deadly, and largely preventable diseases.

Pharmaceutical companies love "average."

I, on the other hand, am not a fan of mediocrity. My horse can't be "average" and strive for a 20,000-mile endurance career (like the equine half of this admirable pair. Note especially the rider's fitness program -- Hint: it ain't step aerobics)...and neither should I.

It has taken me a few years to figure out how to leave mediocrity in the dust. I'm still learning, of course, but over the next week or so I'll attempt to codify my most important lessons in a series of posts about workouts and nutritional concepts that may strike some readers as extreme. For those who are interested, however, I hope to offer a jumping-off point for your own pursuit of ideal fitness -- for your horse's sake.

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Related Posts

Fit to Ride, Part Two: Vice and Advice

Fit to Ride, Part Three: Eating Clean

Fit to Ride, Part Four: Sweet Surrender

Fit to Ride, Part Five: Eating Green

Fit to Ride, Part Six: Milk Got You?

Straight Sailing: Thoughts on Fitness for Endurance Riders

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