The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-344 – Ellen Jaffe Jones – Eat Vegan on $4 a Day!  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4344.mp3] Link epi4344.mp3 MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Hello my friends and welcome to episode 4-344 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we talk with a fascinating and successful woman – Ellen Jaffe Jones – about how to eat healthy on the cheap!  .  I connected to Ellen because my daughter brought home Ellen’s book How to Eat Vegan on $4 a Day. I started looking at it and saw that Ellen had a cool back story and was now a practicing endurance sports addict as well as a vegan and an author.  She has escaped from being a broadcast news personality on a fast track to an unhealthy and early demise by eating better and living a healthier life.  Whether you are vegan or not you can pick up some tips on how to shoehorn some healthier food into your busy life. She’s also one of those people that we talk to a lot who take control of their story and change directions mid-life.  That should give all of us hope that the only thing stopping any of us is the decision and action to make the change we want and start telling a different narrative about our lives. I am not vegan but I do like to eat clean-ish.  I get a lot of fruits and vegetables and nuts in my diet.  The thing is, I like fruits and vegetables and nuts.  You have to make these decisions for yourself but there are simple ways to eat a bit healthier.  One is to get your fruit and veg and nuts.  Another is to ease into eating less of the bad stuff.  It has been consistently shown that there are a small set of lifestyle inputs that have an outsized impact on your health, quality of life and longevity.  Going all the way back to episode 97 in 2010 with Dr. Monte we talked about this: In no particular order: Number one:  Eat a healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables nuts (fiber).  Number two:  Don’t smoke. Number three:  Exercise consistently.  If you’re listening to my voice here on the RunRunLive Podcast you probably have most of these covered.  All three is great.  If you can’t do all three, two is good and even just one of these is better than nothing.  It’s not black and white.  We’d all like to be perfect but just remember your goal is progress not perfection.  This is just for your physical health.  There’s probably a similar list that includes cultivating a positive attitude, working on your self-awareness and having an attitude of abundance.  There’s no winning the game.  We all end up in the same place. What you get is a few more good years.  A better life and a better legacy, maybe.  Anyhow – in summary – Eat Kale!  Heh…I actually see that bumper sticker when I’m commuting.  “Eat more Kale!” like it’s some sort of political protest. I do have some Kale in my garden.  And some chard.  My squash were making a wonderful display of prolificness this week but, much to my ire, Mr. Woodchuck has dug a burrow directly under my squash bed and is browsing his way through the plants.  And so another battle is pitched.  Man vs nature in a dance played out each summer season for the last 8,000 years.  Chaos want to have its way with our taming of the world. And this is 100 feet from where Buddy hangs out in the front yard! Brazen woodchucks and bunnies and squirrels! I guess Buddy is more of an observer than an interventionist.  A Laissez-faire border collie. He had a big week this week.  He had surgery to remove a couple of the large lumps that were accumulating.  He’s an old dog, but there was one under his back leg that seemed to be restricting his range of motion.  He made it through the surgery fine and is now recovering.  He went out for a quick run in the woods with me yesterday and seems no worse for wear. I’ve been trail running like a maniac.  I signed up for a trail marathon in Indianapolis July 30th – yes nex