Besides listening to Nickleback, I'd venture to say the push-up is one of the most hated activities by both men and women.  I say that, of course, not as a dig at Chad Kroeger and his recent divorce from Avril Lavigne (which will undoubtedly give Avril fodder for at least 2 more albums)....but to state the obvious: Nickelback ruins Thanksgivings.  Sorry, but it's true.

Oh, and push-ups are pretty tough too.

Anyway, the push-up is not only a test of upper body strength, it's a measure of *total* body strength.  And, while I've written about this subject before, I realized that I left a few things to be desired.  

Plus, I now have a few additional readers than simply my immediate family.  (You're the best, Mom!!)

I can hear the groans already....another post about diet and nutrition?  Ugh.

Well, in some ways, you're right.  This IS another post about diet and nutrition, but it's a bit different.  Rather than simply talking the talk, I've decided to show that I walk the walk, by taking a picture of my weekly grocery shopping cart.  And messy apartment aside, this isn't a tale of deprivation - it's how I shop every week.  

I want to get to the heart of the action this week, as I continue with Part 2 of "7 Rules of Highly Effective Weight Loss."  

Of course, now that I typed "heart of the action" I can't stop singing the Huey Lewis song, "Heart of Rock and Roll."  If you love ol' Huey like me (or just the 80's in general), you're welcome.  If not, I'm sorry I'm not sorry.

Anyway, why am I writing about this topic - as opposed to deadlifts and lolcats, which are the real meat and potatoes of this blog?

There are a few things I'm not too fond of: astrology, personality tests, bicyclists that fail to abide by traffic laws, and "light" squats.  The reasons, of course, are that bicyclists can hurt themselves or others when they're not careful, heavy squats are time off purgatory (Catholic humor high five!), and astrology and personality tests can be somewhat arrogant.  After all, aren't we all different people?  For instance, I like to think that I'm a one-of-a-kind delicate, deadlifting snowflake. (That's gotta be some type of oxymoron).

However, I was pleasantly surprised when I took the Myers-Briggs personality test a few weeks ago.  Not only did reading the description of INTJ's really make sense to me, but I was shocked at how much I matched the description.  I learned that not only would I rather lift heavy things than talk about my feelings (and really, who wouldn't!?), but the following sentence really clicked with me: "INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know."

Where all of this extraneous blabber comes into play is in the field of nutrition. I don't know much about nutrition, but I do know how to help someone make better choices and overhaul their diet.  So, this week I wanted to lump together two thoughts I've been kicking around recently - the recent debate of carbs vs. fat, and why the term Superfood is really super rubbish.

Wowsa!  A LOT has happened this past week.  

First, the Boston area has been blanketed in snow - 40.5 inches in 7 days will do that to anyone. While it's not Buffalo, I'm now reneging on what I wrote last week about this snow not being a big deal.  Old Man Winter has obviously never had to deal with street parking, and the ridiculousness of saving your space by putting a lawn chair/garbage can/life-sized teddy bear in it. (In fact, I'd like to argue that these parking space shenanigans are literally the Tragedy of the Commons....just on a different scale.) 

In fact, I'm pretty sure the 3 year old in the following video accurately sums up New England's collective feeling towards this snow: