This story is awesome. These high school friends have been playing a game of tag for 23 years now, only with some special rules. A great anecdote from the article:

One February day in the mid-1990s, Mr. Tombari and his wife, then living in California, got a knock on the door from a friend. “Hey, Joe, you’ve got to check this out. You wouldn’t believe what I just bought,” he said, as he led the two out to his car.

What they didn’t know was Sean Raftis, who was “It,” had flown in from Seattle and was folded in the trunk of the Honda Accord. When the trunk was opened he leapt out and tagged Mr. Tombari, whose wife was so startled she fell backward off the curb and tore a ligament in her knee.

“I still feel bad about it,” says Father Raftis, who is now a priest in Montana. “But I got Joe.”

I’m not even bothering to link to the article because it is completely unimportant for the point I want to make. Here’s the quote:

Yesterday over at Grantland, my friend Jonah Keri…

“My friend.” Those two words add nothing to the story. They don’t add clarity, they don’t add insight. All they are meant to do is remind the reader that this author circulates in a much more rarified air than do we. The author, because he knows Jonah Keri [1], is important.

I hate it when people do stuff like this. If you ever catch me doing it, please call me on it.

—

[1] Whoever the hell Jonah Keri is.

I love airports. I’m flying today and I love flying into some random airport and listening to all the places planes are going. Sometimes I daydream about jumping on a different plane and just going somewhere. No plans, no reservations. Just go.

I have had a weird relationship with food all of my life. When I was young I was a fairly picky eater. I ate a limited variety of things and had a very simple pallet. I was resistant to trying new foods. As I got older and had to cook for myself, I found that I ate horribly because I had no clue how to cook and had no patience for doing so. I would be so pre-occupied with whatever I was doing (programming, schoolwork, etc) that I wouldn’t realize I was hungry until I was past hungry and then I’d eat whatever was handy. I’ve come to realize that  “whatever food is handy” generally means garbage, because anything that can be made in a few minutes in a microwave is not particularly good for me.

None of this bothered me, though. I was naturally thin. When I graduated high school I was 6’1″ and weighed 155 pounds. Skinny was an understatement. I could eat anything and never gain a pound. I think that compounded my dietary problems as I never thought twice about what I was eating.

By the time I reached my late 20s/early 30s, though, all of that caught up with me. At one point I had ballooned to almost 220 pounds. Then I started to bike ride and go to the gym and have managed to stabilize my weight between 200 and 210. I’d like to be between 190 and 200.

My eating has improved over the years as I  married, had kids, and started working harder to eat better balanced and less pre-made, microwavable meals. (My wife made this a lot easier as she does the evening cooking.) I don’t drink much alcohol or pop because I don’t want the calories.

I’m happy with my exercise output. Now I need to work more on my intake. I tend to snack, but only in the evenings when I watch a little tv before going to bed, which happens to also be the worst time to snack. I’ve started trying to control my intake not by limiting the amount of food but limiting the amount of non-fruits and vegetables during snack time.

Meals, too, are a problem for me. Because I never gained weight when I was younger I could always eat until I was full. Now, though, eating until I’m full is too much food. So that’s my next task: try to take smaller portions.

I know myself. If I try to go cold turkey on some of these things I’ll never succeed. But if I dial down the intake a little at a time, over time, I’ll be able to control my eating for the long term. In the meantime, though, I try to be patient with myself. I’ve always been really good at taking care of my brain. I can do a better job taking care of my body, too.