Nutrition and transitioning
I spent last weekend and early this week at the American Dietetic Association’s annual conference in Boston where I facilitated a workshop on vegetarian nutrition. I usually don’t talk about my professional world here, but I’m in the process of transitioning to a new blog that combines both. Links for that coming soon, but I’ve already started using this: twitter.com/truelovehealth. One of my tweets included this photo of dietitians in line for free soda at the expo:
Yes, you read that correctly. Dietitians getting free soda at a nutrition conference. This is the world I work in. We have a long way to go. Fortunately my ‘Corporate influence = huge problem” post was picked up and re-tweeted by a number of people who feel similarly. The photo has been viewed nearly 600 times.
This is the sort of topic that makes me nervous professionally. Will this affect my work with the ADA? At the end of the conference they posted a thank you to all of the twitter users at the conference and my name was not listed….
Anyway. If you don’t stay true to your own ethics what are you left with?
Start following me on twitter for more.
Eat. Sleep. Read.
(first) 24 hours in Cambridge MA
4-mile run along charles river
free yoga
sudo vegan shoe store
clover food lab chickpea fritter sandwich
family hang
cold late-night track bike ride search for famous whole foods vegan carrot cake (unsuccessful)
Bicycling to Los Angeles Airport (LAX)
Ever try to park your bicycle at LAX? The LA World Airports site has no info and an online search gives you this LAist article which does not say much.
Rolling along 104th st toward the airport. Tower in distance! I had a long weekend flight and work not far from the airport before and after so I decided to ride my $100 Craigslist bike and leave it. The best advice I got was ‘lock it up with the motorcycles’. So I rode into the airport and followed signs for departing flights and then to parking garage 1. Was it sketchy? Honestly, inside the airport felt safer than the sprawl-land madness that surrounds it.
I wanted a better place than this bike I came across.There are a few concerns when locking your bicycle in an odd place. One is the usual re theft and vandalism. The other is that some overzealous pseudo-authority figure will notice your out of place transportation choice and make it his or her mission to teach you a lesson. I’ve had my bike locked by security guards, friends have had locks cut by them. It seems to be their business when you leave, but never when you ask them where to park. Anyway, I wouldn’t leave my bike locked like the above one out of fear of security guards messing with it.
I circled through the garage and found the motorcycle parking on the first floor- where arriving flights let out. There is no rack here, but there are locks on this ledge railing, so I assumed it was safe. I was also able to double lock it and include both wheels.
The morning I was leaving I had the realization that I couldn’t bring my tools on board and I hadn’t planned to check anything. What to do with the tools in my seatbag? I didn’t want to just leave it because it’s too easy to undo the velcro and walk away with $50 worth of tools (half the value of the bike!). My solution? Cover the seat with a plastic bag a la it’s raining out style therefore covering the seatbag and hiding it from view (and less sketchy than hiding the tools in a planter- which I’ve done successfully!). Foolproof? No, but I felt pretty confident that most people leaving an airport have little interest in multi-tools and tire levers.
Confident in my locking and tool hiding job I headed to Terminal 1. Guess what I see! Yep, a bike rack. 
In all of my years of flying in and out of Terminal 1 (Southwest!) I have never noticed this rack. Is it new? Now I was stuck with the dilemma of moving my bike or not. One, I really didn’t have much time and two, if anyone in all of LAX would steal a seatbag filled with tools it would be someone on a bike….so I left it with the motorcycles.
Four days later I returned and my bike was (seemingly) untouched. Seatbag and all! And serendipitously the plastic bag kept my seat dry from the sprinklers just below. Score.
So when you ride your bike to the airport you have a few choices. I don’t know if there are bike racks at other terminals, but you always have the Terminal 1 option. Be sure to enter the terminal area on the ‘arriving flights’ level to ride right to the rack or to the motorcycle area of Terminal 1 parking, if you choose this option. Riding out of the garage no one looked twiced at me and I made my way to Veggie Grill for an early lunch…
Business cards? What what.
Mini cards from Moo Cards. Yes, those are photos of bike trips/races
on the back. Keeping it totally professional!
What my friend Cache is up to when he’s not killing mountain bike trails
Why chickens?
’cause they are no different than humans, we control their lives after they were free and wild .. Kind of what the system is doing with us …I read a book by carlos castaneda that talked about humans living in ‘humaneros’ or human chicken coops for our minds..and cause they are funny, hahaha.‘
In case root beer wasn’t already straight edge
From everyone's favorite soda pop shop, Galco's. I've never liked
root beer or sarsaparilla. I think my straight edge-ness has been
questioned because of this…
fuck Ironman
World Triathlon Corporation, who put on Ironman(tm), the events I refuse to go to because they are insanely expensive- $550 for a one-day race- and pride themselves on exclusivity just started a program to get early entry in races that costs $1000 a year. A thousand dollars just to register early. Some have called it the Country Club program.
Is anyone surprised? I’m not. This is capitalism at it’s ugliest- exploiting those with more resources to line your own pockets- at the expense of those with less. And because they are so big it makes it harder for smaller race organizers to put on events. If they kept doing what they do- taking money from rich people to make themselves richer I wouldn’t care as much. I still wouldn’t go to their fucking races, but I wouldn’t be as mad about it. But it affects any of us who want to do a long-course swim, bike, run because there are fewer and fewer alternatives. And those of us without thousands of extra dollars.
I put off doing an ‘iron-distance’ because of the association with Ironman-trademark and I’m wondering if I ever want to do one again. There need to be more events like Vineman .
This video nails it. Thanks Treystone!
http://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/jwplayer.swfhttp://www.xtranormal.com/site_media/players/embedded-xnl-stats.swf
this is what it’s all about
I’m not sure who took this photo. I searched all over the ESPN BMX page (yes, you read that correctly) but cannot find the original story. Ends up the guy heard about these concrete structures in England and had to hike and wade through water to get there with his BMX. Only had a few minutes before security busted him. This is what riding bikes is about- whether it’s a BMX, road, mountain, fixed or city cruiser. Remember this feeling. It’s what cyclists try to describe when asked why they ride.