The New Guy

Check it out: My first blog post for SICFIT is up!

After close to 1,500 posts here on FITBOMB, I'm in shock that I'm getting paid to write about the stuff I love. How sweet is that?

I'm Not a Unique Snowflake

M and I aren't the only CrossFit Palo Alto members who blog relentlessly about eating Paleo and lifting stuff. We happen to work out at an affiliate that's a veritable hub of social media -- which shouldn't come as a shock, given that we're smack-dab in the middle of Silicon Valley.

Expand your horizons. Go check out my CFPA homies.

(Besides, I know you're tired of looking at the stupid workout video clips I've been posting.)

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I started this blog as a personal workout log. When I started P90X, I took to heart the advice in the P90X Fitness Guide to share my experiences with others, and to hold myself accountable to working out every day. So that’s what I did -- in blog form. That’s how Fitbomb was born -- way back in the fall of 2009, when I thought no one would visit the site except a few friends and family members. Happily, I was wrong.

But in the past eighteen months, a lot has changed. And now, I'm reevaluating what I want to do with this site and with my blogging.

Continue reading after the jump...

I Like to Read Stuff

There are a few newly-added sites on my blogroll, and if you haven’t yet checked ‘em out, you really should. Here’s why:

Free the Animal

• I long ago bookmarked Richard Nikoley’s site and have been a regular reader for a while now, but just realized today that I’d neglected to add him to my blogroll. Nikoley is – along with Robb Wolf, John Durant, Melissa McEwen, and a few others – one of the most prominent voices on the Paleo scene. Yes, he can come across as a little cranky at times, but he’s never, ever boring. Plus, he manages to keep his man-parts clean without soap or shampoo, which is kind of badass.

Fathead

• Tom Naughton is a comedian-slash-documentary filmmaker who released a movie called “Fathead” last year. The film is a parody/response to Super Size Me, pulling back the curtains on Morgan Spurlock’s slippery claims and debunking what common wisdom has pounded into our heads about good nutrition, dietary fat, and the causes of obesity. Naughton’s mission to debunk bad food science didn’t end with his documentary; on his blog, he continues to level a critical eye on all sorts of nutrition and food-related subjects. It’s a fun read.

Cholesterol and Health

• When M got her labs back last month, she discovered that her HDL – “good cholesterol” – was way up, but so was her LDL. Was this a problem? Nope. Nutrition PhD candidate Chris Masterjohn lays it all out on his website – an easy-to-read clearinghouse of information about the true nature of cholesterol. Masterjohn is another big name on in Paleo circles, and it’s easy to understand why. (Also check out Jimmy Moore's podcast interview with Masterjohn here.)

Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger.

• Raj over at HBFS is one of my new favorites. His writing is witty and insightful, and his experience mirrors mine: Couch potato to runner to P90X grad to CrossFitter and Paleo eater. I’m intensely jealous of Raj's ability to dig into the science behind nutrition and fitness. (For example, check out his Twinkie Diet takedown, which is infinitely better written and analyzed than my weak attempt.)

This Week in Paleo

• I’ve found Angelo Coppola’s podcasts to be a great way to quickly expand my knowledge about all things Paleo. He does a thorough job of mining the blogosphere for information about ancestral eating, and frankly, it’s nice to be able to tear myself away from the computer screen and just download Angelo's podcast and listen to him chat about his week’s Paleo-related discoveries. And I’m not just saying this because my site has been featured as a "Blog of the Week" on TWIP, either. Honest.

Nom Nom Paleo

• Nepotism be damned. Nom Nom Paleo is my better half's food blog, and she regularly posts all sorts of good, meaty stuff -- from full-blown (but simple) recipes to tips on staying Paleo when dining out. Plus, she cusses like a sailor. What's not to like?

Going forward, I’ll try to continue highlighting new sites that catch my eye – and please let me know if there are others I should check out. Happy Friday, folks.

(Image: inju)

Apropos of Nothing

Internet memes are brain-sucking leeches, but just like everyone else, I find 'em irresistable. The latest to come across my screen is "I Write Like," a statistical analysis tool that purports to tell you "what famous writer you write like" by examining "your word choice and writing style and compar[ing] them to those of the famous writers." Despite the dubious provenance and accuracy of this tool, my curiosity was sufficiently piqued (my standards are kind of low, though), and I dumped a bunch of my blog posts into the thing.

It told me that I write like David Foster Wallace.

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I kept pasting different blog posts into the tool to see if I'd get a different response, but nope -- every single block of text I submitted came back with the same result. (With the exception of one: Evidently, I have a little H.P. Lovecraft in me as well. Especially when I write about dietary supplements.)

On the plus side, this might mean that I have a writing voice like DFW's, featuring "a postmodern mixture of high- and low-brow linguistic traits." That sounds pretty cool.

On the minus side: (1) DFW killed himself, (2) I've never managed to finish any of his books due to my lack of requisite mental firepower and short attention span (although I've enjoyed a bunch of his essays -- in particular, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" and "Consider the Lobster"), and (3) this confirms my long-held suspicion that my writing style is utterly derivative and unoriginal. FANtastic.