WILL WALK FOR FOOD

It's always surprising how reluctant people from spread-out cities and places that don't have convenient public transportation are to walk anywhere. Downtown San Antonio is a pretty walkable place, at least in the daytime, and parking is not only hard to find but requires the sale of an organ to be affordable.  But when I ask whether a location is walkable, the frequent reply is a horrified, "Oh, no! It's a good half mile away!"

Half a mile is nothing, people, not if you're in good health and you've got decent sidewalks. Plus, walking is the best way to see a city.

If we hadn't chosen to walk approximately a mile and a half to breakfast this morning, we would have missed the leisurely views of this beautiful old neighborhood (loved this house with four lazy kitties lounging on the porch. Having an old Victorian with a wraparound porch --- and enough money to keep it up properly --- is a dear fantasy of mine).

We would have whizzed by fun neighborhood kitsch like the above.

And we certainly would not have stopped to chat with the volunteers of the San Antonio Fire Museum Society who were working on these cool vintage fire trucks, and been invited in for a closer look.

Plus, there's something about walking about three miles round trip for your breakfast that makes you feel less guilty about eating so many carbs. Heck, if I walked three miles every time I ate a carb, maybe I wouldn't have to worry about them at all!

Now, our dinner reservation was five miles away, and I draw the line at five miles in high heels and a hundred degree weather, so to get ready for that I made sure to do my Kenpo workout in the afternoon. It's a fun workout. Usually, for the kicks and punches, I find myself targeting this poor little stuffed Dachshund that sits on top of the TV. I always feel remotely guilty. Nothing personal, it's just at the right height. Today, however, I kicked and punched an air conditioning unit on top of the River Center Mall and, as always, indulged in ridiculous fantasies about using these moves to defend myself in a street fight. Whatever it takes, right?

At the half-price bookstore the other day, I picked up a copy of Michael Pollan's Food Rules, which I've thumbed through before. I enjoy his writing and his way of looking at food. The book's introduction alone has some very useful words of wisdom. One that I really like and think has a broad application is Pollan's explanation that these aren't so much rules as personal policies. "Policies are useful tools," he writes. "Instead of prescribing highly specific behaviors, they supply us with broad guidelines that should make everyday decision making easier and swifter."

Personal policies are what we need when it comes to conquering our issues with food. Language matters. Ways of thinking about things matter. And the term "personal policy" implies ownership. It implies that YOU'RE the one making the rules, choosing the behaviors. For me, that makes all the difference in the world in helping me make GOOD decisions about my health. I truly think a big part of the problem with the whole diet industry, and the reason why dieting doesn't work, is because of all the shaming and the complicated plans and misinformation that's out there.

There's another particular nugget of wisdom in the intro to this book. "The more you process food, the more profitable it becomes." Processed food, fast food, food pumped full of artificial ingredients --- all of these are big business, and they are terrible for us and for the environment. And this is the gist of Pollan's philosophy (and, incidentally, mine): eat real food. Eat food that looks like its source. (I love Pollan's name for that crap that inhabits the inner aisles of the grocery stores: edible foodlike substances).

I ate plenty of real food today and so I'm particularly glad for the three mile walk and the Kenpo.

Comments

[Cindy]

Many cities away from the East Coast are simply not that walkable, and they do tend to be spread out. (Boston is a GREAT city for walking, as is Chicago; I haven't spent enough time in Philly to say). But LA, Houston, and most smaller cities aren't laid out for walking, except in certain areas like downtown. Sure, there's public transportation, but it's often slow and not very reliable.

I have to tell you, though, San Antonio has plenty of beautiful neighborhoods that aren't downtown. Urban living isn't for everyone --- it's not for me. I much prefer my suburban home with the extensive greenbelts and no highrises in sight! And yes, I have to drive pretty much wherever I need to go, but it's not inconvenient. It's different. In NY, I hated having to always carry stuff wherever I went, especially schlepping stuff up and down the subway stairs. I always had a backpack, a cart, or a whole bunch of bags hanging off me, and it was tiresome. Chacun a son gout, I guess!

[Dalila Valentine]

I could pontificate for hours on that first paragraph. I was born in Brooklyn, and moved to Manhattan as an adult, and am what I refer to as a "New York Yokel" which means that I have reached the age of 61 without ever having learned to drive.

When I visit anyplace in the country other than Boston, Philly, or Chicago (or, surprisingly, Portland OR) I am stunned by the fact that people have to get in a car and drive to do something as simple as buy a quart of milk.

I often laugh and say that I feel at home in Paris or London but when I'm in someplace like Houston I feel like I'm in a foreign country and we're not even talking about the politics (LOL!) just the layout.

And speaking of San Antonio, which I've visited often because my partner was born there, I was quite shocked to find that no one lives in the magnificent, historic, downtown area, but rather people choose to live in outlying suburbs which are mostly ugly, and at an inconvenient distance from where they work and shop.

I suppose I never realized how much extra avoir du poid I have avoided by all the walking I have to do.

On the other hand when I'm certain shops here where the largest size is a small size 10 I feel rather huge. (Paris was worse. Their size "large" is a U.S. size 8.)