links I like - 07-17-12

links I like - 07-17-12

This was a great week for reading - I had a hard time narrowing down my list to just five that I wanted to share. in fact, I'll probably reach back to this week a few more times in the weeks to come. In the meantime, here are five articles which are definitely worth a read...

Autism: A Brain or Whole-Body Disorder, from MarksDailyApple. Autism changes more people's lives, more profoundly, than anything else I can think of. I really liked seeing somebody who isn't personally affected by autism write such an objective piece. I also really liked seeing how much more research is being done on the nutrition front.

Dedicated but Balanced, from ZenHabits. I've talked with friends quite a bit, but haven't written a post yet, about something similar to this. It seems there's a trend to be "more healthy", to the point of fanaticism. What's wrong with just being healthy, and enjoying life? You don't get bonus points for health martyrdom. A quote from Leo's article: "This is something I have grown tired of – especially the endless promotion of obsession as health, exhaustion as virtue and suffering as dedication." Well put.

Are we Born to Run? a video of Christopher McDougall from TED.com. a 15-minute video of McDougall sharing the highlights from his bestselling book "Born to Run".

How to Calculate Your Body Fat Percentage, from Steve Kamb at NerdFitness. Steve writes a detailed piece (as he usually does), explaining all the various methods by which you can calculate your body fat percentage. But then he goes one step further (as he usually does), and shares the "eyeball test" - lots of pictures of people, men and women, with different body fat percentages. Look at yourself in the mirror, and then look at these pictures, and you'll have a pretty good idea of your own body fat percentage.

Adidas Sued for Barefoot Running Claims, by Justin Owings on BirthdayShoes. The one knock I hear about people who have had difficulty switching from fully padded running shoes to minimalist-style shoes is that they hurt their feet. Usually it's a case of people still using a heel-striking form. Occasionally it's a stress fracture in the foot or toe bones, maybe when the runner's foot is too atrophied from not using its muscles. But in the case of this article, a person wore Adidas Adipures, and then got a compound fracture (where the bone sticks through the skin) - and he's blaming Adidas..?! Hmmm.

I hope you enjoy these.

-Chris Butterworth

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