How Frank Bruni Inspired Me (but was just off the mark)

First things first-- I ran 5.5 Brooklyn miles today (from the house to Prospect Park, the loop, then back) and it felt pretty darn great. The weather today is low 70s-- perfect for running. Slight breeze, too. But today I want to talk about Frank Bruni. I promise not to spoil anything for those of you who wish to read Bruni's "Born Round," but if you haven't gotten around to it yet and want to go into the book with zero knowledge of his life, I suggest you stop reading now.

The truth is, for roughly the first hundred pages of Bruni's book, I related to the guy more than I can explain. Sure there were differences-- I mean, it seems his family really did eat twice as much as the rest of us, but I too was a second son who fought to keep up with the portion size of an older brother (especially mac and cheese. Jamie, I get HALF. You know the deal, you split, I choose). Bruni says he felt like he had a bottomless stomach-- I thought a third slice of pizza always sounded like a great idea (even in first grade). I don't need to get into the details too much-- but the way he describes his childhood obsession with food-- it was all me. And my favorite sport is still late night snacking. I'd be a first round draft pick.

I admire his courage for putting it all out there. And again, for the first hundred pages, I really believed that the stigma that eating disorders were exclusively a female phenomenon (other than for wrestlers and other athletes with weigh-ins) was starting to break. Then he introduces sexuality into the equation, and his story no longer fits my own. His book becomes a fair amount about date prep, and we just don't share that experience:

"He calls two days later," Bruni writes. "You're thrilled. You're panicked. When he asks if you have plans for the coming weekend, you tell him you have an out-of-town friend visiting, even though you don't. You just can't see him this weekend. More accurately, you can't let him see you. The weekend is only three days away, four if you sign up for Saturday as opposed to Friday night, and that's not enough time. In four days you might be able to lose three pounds, tops, and that's assuming several five-mile runs. You'd like to lose four to five."

Though I still greatly enjoyed reading it, I no longer related to Bruni in the way that I wanted to; we are simply too different, and that's fine. I applaud his efforts and thank him for sharing his experiences. His excellent writing kept me interested, no doubt, but I'm still waiting for a straight male role model to join him and help to break the mold and talk about male eating disorders. Frank Bruni helped us to take a step. But for now, we'll have to settle for Mike Golic talking about the NutriSystem diet in ESPN infomercials.