I had an interesting conversation with my cousin recently about the phenomena know as Orthorexia and have been doing some research on it ever since. Orthorexia is an obsession with maintaining a healthy diet, in the obsessive way an anorexic tries to restrict to lose weight an orthorexic tries to maintain a pure diet. Same level of obsession. When I look back on my gluten-free, vegan days I see that I exhibit alot of the characteristics of such obsessive behaviours of orthorexia. It is just as dangerous as anything else that lacks moderation. It can drive you easily into the ground.
I am back in a place of moderation now, but have definitely gotten some heat about my decision. I wonder sometimes what made me fail at being vegan, because my body definitely didn’t work right. How can other people thrive? Alot vegans/raws foodist would like you to believe that one size fits all, but it doesn’t. Some can be any combination of vegetarian/vegan/raw. I still have my own dietary restrictions, but I am no longer defined by them. And nobody should be, Tom Billings writes:
“Don’t let your diet determine your sense of self-worth. Don’t make diet an important part of your self-identity. “I’m a worthy, though imperfect human being, surrounded by other, similar human beings” is the attitude, not “I’m a 100% raw vegan surrounded by ‘inferior’ consumers of cooked foods or animal foods.” In my opinion, the latter attitude is based in ego and hatred, and is what (unfortunately) drives some extremists. Such negative attitudes also promote social isolation (a real problem for rawists), and polarize one’s experience of society by dividing it into “us” (“good” rawists/vegans) versus “them” (“bad” meat-eaters or cooked-food consumers). The egotistical elitism that divides society into “us” versus “them” directly contradicts the compassion that is supposed to be at the heart of veganism.
Another way to look at the above is that “I’m a person” should be first in your mind, not “I’m 100% raw,” or “I’m a vegan.” Those are just dietary labels: your status as a human being is more important than dietary dogma (i.e., what your lunch is). This point might seem unnecessary, but in my opinion, the email lists (Raw-Food and Veg-Raw) have seen some prime examples of extremists who appear to place dietary dogma above the rights, humanity, and even the existence of other people. People come first, before dietary dogma–unfortunately, certain extremists appear to think it should be the other way around!
Let’s return to the question of what to do here. Examine your attitude toward diet, and your personal relationship with food. Does the judged quality of your diet by itself play a large role in determining how good you feel about yourself, in the same way that daily body weight determines how an anorexic feels? (It should not–your feeling of self-worth should not be determined by your diet.) If you go off your diet, do you later do “penances” like fasting to “atone for your dietary sins”? (You should not.)
Do you think people with other diets, or no particular diet, are mere animals behaving unconsciously toward food, or are less than fully human? (You shouldn’t.) Do you think that someone who eats meat is a murderer because “meat is murder”? (You should not–others have the right to choose their diet. Those who regard themselves as superior to others because they eat a “better lunch” are practicing “lunch-righteousness.”) Does your diet make you feel superior in any way to those with other diets? (It shouldn’t.)
Has your diet become your religion, or a functional substitute for religion? (It should not.) Are you looking for happiness, or the meaning of life, in your diet–i.e., on your lunch plate? (If so, you won’t find it there.) Do you think that your diet is the one true way, the only good or “natural” diet on the planet? (If so, you are suffering from delusions, or are in denial of reality.) Is food the most important thing in your life? (It should not be.)” (Source: http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/orthorexia/orthorexia-1a.shtml)
I was reading a very interesting article on Beyond Vegetarianism called Beyond Denial, that further broke down that idea of moderation. The article is by Tom Billings, a vegetarian and he falls into the class of vegetarian “realism”, as does the site. He says to strip away the lies, the dogma and the dietary snake oil. I really resounded with his earmarks of a healthy and unhealthy diet:
Earmarks of a healthy approach to diet
Returning to the definition, most extremists are in very deep denial that they are dominated by dietary dogma. The issue of dominance is critical here, for it distinguishes whether an approach to a diet is ultimately healthy or not. Some of the characteristics of a healthy approach to diet are as follows.
* Moderation in style and attitude.
* Tolerance and respect for others with different diets.
* An attitude that the diet must serve you, and a willingness to switch diets if a particular diet does not work.
In a healthy approach, results (health) are what count, not dogma, i.e., health dominates over dogma. Of course, this is ordinary common sense.
Signs of an unhealthy approach to diet
In sharp contrast, an unhealthy approach (i.e., an extremist approach) to diet may include some of the following features.
* Strident demands that one absolutely must follow a difficult, narrow diet (e.g., 100% raw vegan), often coupled with claims that all other diets are inferior or “toxic” (thereby introducing the emotion of fear).
* Dietary racism: claims that the diet makes one “superior” (introducing egoism and hatred).
* Demands that one endure painful detox for an indefinite period or “massive raw foods suffering” (to parody the language of one group promoting raw veganism) to succeed on the diet, i.e., you must follow the diet at all costs, even if it costs your health! Note that the latter result is often an unconscious action by the extremists. It follows from the fact that extremists will rationalize away all problems as detox, even when the person is seriously ill, and has followed the “expert’s” advice but it has not worked. Here logic and common sense point to a different explanation, namely: the diet does not work as well as claimed, and a different diet should be instituted.
The last point illustrates that in an unhealthy extremist approach, dietary dogma is more important than results, i.e., more important than your health. Needless to say, that is anti-common sense, and you should quickly dump any/all dietary promoters who reveal themselves to be extremists by this definition.
The negative emotional basis fueling dietary extremism. Such an unhealthy basis for dietary extremism is further revealed in the negative emotions it is based on. In the case of raw zealots, the emotions are fear (of cooked food, protein, mucus), egoism and hatred (dietary racism), and obsession with dietary purity to the point where it can become an eating disorder: orthorexia nervosa (see the site article “Health Food Junkie” [7] for details).
Most extremists are in deep denial, despite the widespread failure of long-term, strict, 100% raw vegan regimes, because they have convinced themselves that the diet they promote is “ideal” (even if they personally can’t follow the diet, a situation that is probably far more common among the 100% raw vegan advocates than they will ever admit in public), and they have a long list of rationalizations to use to explain away the poor results, or in other words, to blame their victims.
(Source: http://chetday.com/billings.html)
I have to keep this short, but am planning on going back and reading more about the psychology of an idealistic diet and many other articles on his site. He is a vegetarian and yet is still realistic about it and trying to strip away the dogmas. He is all about what I keep saying: Moderation is key. If you are bordering on the extreme of anything, obsessing with dietary purity in a way that is as much of an eating disorder as anorexia, make sure you check yourself (and read this!) Stay informed but never take too much stock in any dogma. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.
I was recently interviewed by the Napa Valley Register about my upcoming return to the Napa Valley Marathon, pretty cool article written by Marty James. Check it out here.
Also, my friend (aka Bestest Everest) Jonathan and I have created a funny running tshirt, check them out and buy one today here. I will also be trying to add more funny running related shirts soon.
Extreme Library: Devon, Sam and Jonathan ready to head out
We all met up at Sam’s house well before 9am, our expected start time and got our aid station bags situated in Linda’s car and got our packs ready. My hydration pack had sprung a leak, which thankfully, I discovered before we left. The library had agreed to let us in early to stamp us so we had a total of 11 hrs in order to go the distance. We set off into the cool morning at a good clip and headed towards Sam’s local branch, Broadview. We started joking that we should also tally the number of times we did illegal things and jaywalked. In the end we would log more illegal maneuvers than miles.
All the necessary items: Moeben Sleeves, Atayne Shirt, Vespa, Nuun & my library cardsIt was instant gratification getting to Broadview within 5 minutes and we spent about 5 minutes in the branch, chatting, stamping, etc. I got talking to some librarians I had known, since I worked (actually work, since I am still tech. employed by Seattle Public Library) and as we left, I said to the guys, “You guys are going to have to not let me get talking and telling my story at every branch (of my librarianship). Or we’ll lose too much time.”
Sam had expertly planned the route and carried turn by turn directions with him for the later branches which were less familiar to him/us. We hit Lake City Way and as we went around to the staff entrance I said, “It’s like trick or treating” (as we were ringing the back bell). We got to Northgate just as it was about to open and both Linda and a photographer from the P.I. were there to meet and greet us.
Ultrarunning Librarian Power! Me and Linda at Fremont
We were all feeling good and clipping along at 7:30ish pace. Spirits were up and we made excellent progress. Zigzagging across the Northeast we hit Greenwood, Greenlake, Northeast, University, Wallingford and Fremont in rapid succession. Linda was there again to fill our bottles and fuel everyone up. Every library and their staff were excited to see us and enthusiastic. It was such a great experience. We headed out to Ballard, where I use to work and I got to see my old branch. At this point the branches were more spread out and we headed up to Magnolia, where I saw everyone I had worked with at Ballard (the Magnolia staff had all been working there). Linda had got us coffee and we took a few minutes rest. We were averaging 5-10 minutes per library. We wouldn’t see Linda again until West Seattle, so we took our time before heading out to Queen Anne.
At Queen Anne, Thomas Tan another local ultramarathoner joined us and we headed down to the Central Library (after going past Columbia to say hi to Jonathan’s coworkers). We had the warmest welcome at Central and I got to see more of the librarians and staff I worked with. By that point, the majority of the librarians were following us on Sam’s Twitter and anticipating our arrival. After Central, the libraries would call ahead to the next branch to tell them we were coming. We spent a bit too much time at Central and it took us a while to get warmed up again. We hit International District and then prepared ourselves for the long haul out to West Seattle.
We made it through the 50k point in 4:17 running time, but had already lost a good bit of time with the stops. We truly were running against the clock with the closing time of 8pm.
Sam and Jonathan at the Admiral Way Lookout
My favorite children’s librarian and mentor, Shannon & I at DelridgeBy the time we reached SouthWest we had a good amount of miles down, but many more to go. I was feeling really good and enthusiastic, invigorated by being in my core. Our pace was still great but dark started setting in soon after we left SouthWest, shortly after 4pm. We donned our headlamps and settled in for the long dark miles to South Park and then around Boeing over to Rainier Valley. After hitting up all the libraries in the Rainier Valley, we made it to Beacon Hill and realized that we wouldn’t be able to get to all of the last 4 libraries. We reassessed what we could do, as it was just after 7pm and decided to get the next two libraries and call it a night there. We picked up the pace again and got to Douglas-Truth and finished off at Madrona. We made it to 25 out of 27 with no time left to spare. We average under 8:30 pace for the whole day and achieved our goal of supporting the library and getting the word out about the passport program. All in all we logged just over 60 miles. And a big thanks to my sponsors! My Moeben sleeves not only kept my stylish, they kept me warm! My Atayne shirt was amazing (and didn’t poison me: www.igottrashed.com) and apparently it is the record for longest run in an Atayne shirt. And of course for my hydration and nutrition, Nuun and Vespa. I even figured out my 73k “bonk” issue and enjoy never hitting the wall, this experience served me so well in prepping for my next 100k effort.A great day, a great run and a great cause! What a day!
What a nice welcome!
Double Fisting PB Pretzels at Rainier Beach
Jonathan getting his last stamp of the day at Madrona, 2 mins before closing
Sam getting stamp #25 at Madrona
Getting my last stamp of the day, 2 mins before closing
All smiles after 60+ miles, 25 libraries and 1 great day!
Article in the PI: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/397061_needle23.html
Sam’s Blog: http://www.seesamrun.com/blog
