You Tell Me

You tell me, future self - what does this mean to you now?




Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Health Tools - Calorie Calculator for Goal Weight - New York Times

Health Tools - Calorie Calculator for Goal Weight - New York Times: "You should consume about 2173 calories a day to reach your goal weight of 245 pounds by January 7, 2009."

CSA Week 3

Our third box from Culinary Delights Farms - from left, snap peas, spinach, red lettuce, green lettuce, ???, green onions, baby potatoes and radishes. 

This time I washed everything and wrapped it in Ziploc bags and put it in the refrigerator. I was washing the baby potatoes and suddenly I thought of how a box like this would look to the father and son in Cormac McCarthy's book "The Road". I ate one, trying to picture what the feelings would be like to find something like that in the midst of such a dead world and have its life become part of you. I know - more overthinking. Here's what you should do to store these vegetables:

To Store	Do this	Wash first	Use by
snap peas	Remove strings and store in plastic bag or blanch and freeze	No (too late)	7-14 days
spinach	in plastic bag in crisper	No (too late)	3-4 days
red lettuce	Bag in refrigerator (don't store with apples, pears or bananas	Yes	a few (?) days
green lettuce	Bag in refrigerator (don't store with apples, pears or bananas	Yes	a few (?) days
green onions	Bag in fridge	Doesn't seem to matter	5 days
baby potatoes	Indeterminate - dry and dark , 45-50 degrees but do NOT store in plastic (too late)	Yes	2 weeks
radishes	Remove tops and store in plastic bags in refrigerator	Indeterminate	2 weeks

Did I mention how much I hate tables in Blogger?

Sources:

• http://www.foodreference.com/html/artradish.html
• http://www.merexfoodcorp.com/cons_nutrional.html

LIFE final checkin tomorrow

Well, Monday is your final LIFE check-in (we'll see what happens with work). I think you will be net -20 from your starting point after 2 years. Your peak was -46.

Reflecting back on the process, I am not thrilled with the result on my behalf but that's largely a matter of my own failings, not the program. (From my last post, Jesus would probably tell me to pick my butt up out of the chair and take it outside for some non-keyboard exercise).

That's the key for me. I think I have made fundamental changes to my diet and that's been what's kept the weight off for this period - I don't feel like I'm on a diet so much as I'm just being responsible for what I eat. It's not bad deprivation, it's resisting the urge to do what thou wilst in the world.

Now if I could just do the same thing with walking/exercising I think I could get another 20-30 off. But it's time, and not just time (scheduling being the last rampart of avoiding an unpleasant task), it's inclination. Walking with the dogcast was OK but it got lonely at some point and now I have a real distaste for it. Working out early is good but when I get to work early I want to actually work in order to have a chance of being able to go home before sundown.

So it's a challenge for me. I think when this is over I am going to finally complete that project to summarize the LIFE modules and reassess what I'm doing and what I need to do.

For you, older self, this is what I learned in the LIFE program:

• Weight is nothing but biology, which is nothing but physics and chemistry, the most fair judges in the universe. They do not care if you're happy or if you're sad or if you're just doing it this once. If you eat more than you need you gain weight. If you eat less or need more than you eat you will lose weight.
  
  
• Weigh yourself regularly, in the morning. Doesn't have to be every day but if you shoot for every day you'll do better than letting six months go by and then wondering who's that bloated buffoon in the mirror. Track the numbers - CalorieKing was good but I like The Hacker's Diet trend mapping.
  
  
• Nothing good happens between midnight and 4 AM, diet or otherwise. Caffeine makes things happen between midnight aand 4 AM.
  
  
• Take responsibility for your daily calorie budget. Plan. Count calories. Calories count. You know damn well what three ounces of chicken looks like and that three bowls of crunchy corn bran is not a serving.
  
  
• Nothing wrong with a big breakfast (especially when followed up by a smaller lunch) but remember -more protein and less carbs/sugar for breakfast means fewer furtive trips to the substitute bagel lady at 10 AM.
  
  
• Body weight x 12 = number of calories you need to maintain. This stopped working for you earlier this year, unless you are seriously underestimating calorie intake. According to my measure with CalorieKing I should weigh 250 and let's just say I don't.
  
  
• 3500 calories in a pound - 7 days in a week - 500 less calories than your base requirements per day - should result in ABOUT 1 lb loss. It will usually time that 1 lb until just after you weigh in for the 7th day and then stomp off to work in a funk.
  
  
• Non-starchy vegetables (not corn, peas, potatoes, etc) are your best dietary friend. You can eat a bag of them for a penny a calorie and throw them into anything BUT...
  
  
• The more you eat - of anything - the more your body expects to eat. A few tiny meals spread out through the day gets you used to eating tiny meals.
  
  
• If you are going to skip a meal, skip dinner.
  

Where Would Jesus Get His Oil Changed?

Saw this in the local paper:

What would Jesus read? If you're looking for beach reading with purpose, here's a guide to what's hot at religious bookstores.

I have always been a little bemused at the "What Would Jesus (Do/Wear/Drive/Drink/Think/Watch/Read)" business.

Probably not news to anyone, but we are not Jesus - we aren't the only begotten Son of God.

Doesn't it seem kind of presumptious to try and put oneself in the place of a being who was both man and God? What does that say about the people who make up these lists?

I think the question is actually - what would Jesus *want you* - you as a person, as someone Jesus has known all of your life, not whatever group you're a member of, not Republicans, not Democrats, not your Facebook friend circle, but you, to read? Or not read?

When Peter struck the slave in the garden with his sword, Jesus didn't say "Whoa there, that's not what I'd do.". He said put your sword away, because Peter was the one with the sword, not Jesus. Jesus would have never drawn a sword in the first place.

And so it is with all of us - we've all drawn swords of various kinds and asking what Jesus would do with that sword is missing the point in a very fundamental way.

What would Jesus tell you to put away? Or pick up? That seems to me the real question.

And the answer? When I figure it out, I promise I will share. But it's probably going to be a while; I only have the student copy of the Bible, not the teacher's copy with all of the answers in the back.

CSA Part II - July 2nd

Our second box arrived from CSA and this time because my better half was home, more of the contents were utilized. She made a great salad with bacon and most of the greens, with the strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Excellent. Shows what a difference actual culinary talent makes.

I tried wilting the beet greens with garlic and onions....ugh. Not a hit. Even tried it with a hamburger bun. Should have used bacon with it, maybe, but that's like putting chocolate on lettuce - skip the denial and eat the chocolate.

Still trying to figure out what to do with the asparagus - ATK cookbook has a recipe for broiled asparagus, maybe I will try that.

Community Support Agriculture, Part I - June 23rd box

We signed up for a Community Supported Agriculture farm share (well, half a share) from a farm near our house. This is the first box we received, June 23rd 2008. We picked it up at a house in our town where all the boxes are dropped off.

The farmer sent an email saying the wet spring had slowed the crops down and so this wouldn't be the best set of produce, but it was still a nice package.


The box as we recieved it - picked up from a location not too far from our house.




...and the contents of the box. I didn't store these properly due to ignorance (need to wash them and store them between moist paper towels in the refrigerator) and most of it spoiled except for the spinach. I wilted that in a pan with some garlic (with a recipe from the America's Test Kitchen family cookbook) and it was pretty good.

The real long term stuff

So, future self, this is another note to you, this time about finance. You have that money in that Latin place that's about doubled in value over the last 10 years. I am thinking of doing some rebalancing - the funds are getting old and the Europe thing seems to be playing itself out. According to their portfolio advisor you're looking at 45 stocks, 40 pct bonds, 10 pct international and 5 pct short term. My options are:

1. Rebalance to a new set of funds to meet this allocation mix;
2. Dump it all into a lifecycle fund.

I think #2 is the no-brainer but I don't trust the aggregate asset mix - not as many comparison basis. The key is the progress in bonds - rates are in the tank right now and I just don't see where it will change when our gov't is having a fire sale on Treasuries every week.

You should have joined an investment club, but the ones you've seen are not all that great - lots of very nice people and commiseration over the general confusion but not much in the way of facts. Basically set it and forget it for a year.

Hope it worked out for you.

Requiem for a Tree

This was a tree in our garden which blew over in a intense windstorm. He was one of a pair, and they had been in our garden for at least 10 years. Now he is no more, and his partner stands alone in the night. I read an article that plants can detect the proximity of nearby relatives and since those guys were about the same age and similar type I bet they came from the same nursery and so were probably related.

If you think about it, in the existential sense, if it's true that plants can sense proximity then these trees 'knew' each other and the other plants and trees in my garden. Do you ever wonder what names they have for each other? We call dogs and cats "Louie" and "Spot" but the animals obviously know each other as well - do they have referent names to label each other with? What about plants? Do they use pheromones, or positions, or what?

So how does a plant access the details of a being it "knows" about?

Yes, I think too much. And that's a common problem in the world - too much contemplation. More mindless, thoughtless action is surely the cure for what ails us.

I cut off a piece of the standing tree and threw it in with the remants of the old tree. Maybe silly, but I wouldn't want the dead one going away without some part of the tree it had spent all of its life with.

I guess I should leave a piece of the old tree with the survivor as well. One thing is for sure - the ecosystem of the garden has changed. Wonder what that will mean.

National Ride Your Bike to Work Week

This week is National Ride Your Bike to Work Week. I decided to ride my bike to work but I wasn't sure of the directions so I decided to take my bike to work and ride home.

It was a nice ride, and except for a couple of lights I made good time. The ride was about 10 miles and it took me about 75 minutes. The only problems I had were the seat and the position for riding - most of my weight was on the handle bars and my wrists are pretty sore.

I enjoyed it, though, future self, and I hope I will be able to do a few more rides home and then try a round trip.

Your personal roadmap and New Year's Eve

I've been thinking about an issue that's come up at work, specifically the idea of a feature roadmap. We've been discussing it for the system I work on, and I started wondering..why can't we do that for ourselves?

I don't mean accomplishments like reproducing or climbing Mt. Everest or learning to self-loofah, but adding new capabilities or enhancing old ones.

You could almost make it like they used to do with new cars:

+ Lonstar, new for 2008 with a new XX-inch waistline and management analysis capability!

Or...

+ Lonstar Model 30.X will include a 5 mile run capability, new color-coordinated wardrobe and complete Java certification.

Maybe instead of setting goals to punish myself for not reaching, I could look on self-improvements as developing or adding features to my system. That would allow you to develop a roadmap, right? (channel Kathy Sierra and insert an entertaining graphic here).

And...we should get 2 New Year's every year - one on December 31 and one on the night before one's birthday. Take stock, memorialize those who have passed (sometimes I think I hear him even when I know better) and plan for those future features.

So, older self, looking back on this time, what features am I adding? What features should I be adding? Do you still believe, as I do now, that you gotta keep believing and acting as if your best features - and best days - are ahead of you.