I’ve visited Al Boccalino, a small family-run Italian restaurant in Seattle’s one-block Little Italy neighborhood (1 Yesler Way in Pioneer Square) three times now to take part in owner Luigi DiNunzio’s evening cooking demonstrations. Every time, I walk away with a new skill, revelation, ingredient, or “a-ha!” moment that reminds me of all that we gain by eating the highest quality foods and preparing them well, instead of dulling our palates with yet another fast-food McWhatever eaten on the run.

We took my mom on our most recent visit over the December holidays. The menu: a tomato-vegetable soup, bruschetta with peppers, polenta with mushrooms, sausage, and a poached apple in a wine-based simple syrup. Along the way we tried five different kinds of salt (including truffle salt – wow, what a flavor) and tasted real Parmigiano Romano – the cheese that costs $20 a pound but wakes up a dish with just a light shaving. The twenty bucks’ worth of cheese will last you a while. The tastes are outrageous and yet simple to acquire – all of the dishes are cooked in front of us, with an audience member assisting – so this is basically idiot-proof cooking. Luigi’s main point is to get us to understand why quality matters so much. It allows us to really appreciate each dish and each flavor. It makes us eat slower – and, as such, eat less but truly feel satisfied with the meal. A great way to start honing your palate, or to continue to hone your own culinary skills.

The Details: Al Boccalino, 1 Yesler Way, Seattle WA (Cooking class available intermittently via Groupon – $39 for two people (a $100 value) for a 2-1/2 hour demonstration and a meal of four courses – wine not included.) Portions are smallish but eminently satisfying. Mon-Sat. 7 p.m., with an additional class on Saturday afternoon. Arrive 20-30 minutes early to get a good seat.

A quick dispatch from Bellevue, WA on a rare sunny winter day. Three years ago this week, I was training for the Vancouver (B.C.) half-marathon, to be held the first weekend of May, 2009. It was to be my second half-marathon since getting back to distance running after an eight-year hiatus and a forty-pound weight gain. On February 27, 2009, I had just joined a local Weight Watchers meeting the previous week. The health issues in my life were now quantifiable. I had a bunch of weight to lose, and I wanted to break two hours in Vancouver.

Fast forward to May 2009. I ran 2:00:09 in Vancouver, having dropped 22 pounds. (Yes, I thought about those nine seconds for quite a while – but it was overall a fantastic race.) I kept running. I kept showing up at Weight Watchers. I made a commitment to myself.

Three years ago, I wanted nothing more than a sub-two-hour half-marathon. Today, I ran a 1:58 half-marathon. In practice. Alone. And on a hilly, tricky course.

I’m 17 pounds lighter than I was in Vancouver. And I’m training to kick butt at the 2012 Boston Marathon on April 16.

Never stop working towards your dreams.

I shoulda known better...

Ah, those little mustard-flavored pretzel nibs looked so good in the picture on the bag. At a store known for healthy choices, even. Only when I brought them home (after eating a bunch of them in the car on the way home, that is) did I discover that a one-ounce serving of said nibs – 140 calories’ worth – is about enough to fit into a thimble. A small one. And I had just eaten a tad bit more than a thimble’s worth of them in the car.

Look closer. Read the label, Nicole – the same thing you talk about in all of your presentations. A bunch of fat grams for such a little serving – ugh, discovery! They’re fried. They’re full of interesting ingredients, like flavors I didn’t know existed – stuff they make in laboratories. They’re actually kind of oily to the touch. Yikes. I saw “pretzels” on the label, and figured they were what my body was craving that day, after a 15-mile training run: salt and carbohydrates and not a lot else. And I got done in by the sexy packaging and flavoring and all the rest. Tricked by the label.

And I’ve been at this for a while. What must it be like to be just starting out, trying to clean up one’s diet in the midst of a processed-food culture that rewards our every hedonistic desire?

I think back three years ago this week, when I made the commitment to finally get healthy. Did I clean out the pantry on Day One? Nope. I’m positive that for at least the first several months of learning how to fuel my body with proper nutrition (or, not to put too fine a point on it, beginning the process of shedding forty excess pounds that had weighted my 5’4” frame to the ground and kept me from living fully for years), I still ate a bunch of stuff that probably wasn’t very good for me. It was just better than what had come earlier. From too much chocolate, I moved to portion-controlled chocolate, to organic chocolate, to organic dark chocolate, to very occasional organic dark chocolate. From cookies, we went to organic cookies, then to portion-controlled organic cookies, to “I can’t remember the last time I had cookies in the house.” From white pasta to multigrain pasta to my pantry today:  whole-wheat pasta and quinoa and faro and brown rice.

These changes take time. It takes time to shift our palates to crave the healthiest choices. And then, when you think you’ve got it down, sometimes you have to go clean out the pantry – again.

The last of the mustardy pretzel nibs hit the compost pile a few minutes ago. My tummy is sore from the oily stuff in them, but that will pass – and I have learned my lesson. Read labels. Don’t shop when famished. Know what a good ol’ fashioned pretzel, no fancy stuff adhered to it, looks like, and feels like, and tastes like. And then, no more angst. Call it a vegetable and move on.

Welcome to BE WELL, the Wellness Playbook blog. Check back here often for commentary on the latest and greatest news in health and wellness, recommendations for new books and resources, and news on our programs. The blog is named in honor of Martin Duffy, a 40-time Boston Marathon finisher, superior advocate for healthy lifestyles, husband, father, and friend to many – he embodied the idea of wellness and signed every one of his emails “Be well.” He lost his life to HPV-engendered squamous cell carcinoma in November 2010. Please take the time to have your sons as well as your daughters vaccinated against this deadly virus, and enjoy the spirit of this blog as we highlight the best tools you can use to life your healthiest life.