gingerninja

Seduction of the Cloud

I use an old school radio for radio, a kitchen timer for quick tasks. I've got an MP3 player and wired earphones for jogs. And I have all my socials on my older phone, an Iphone 6.

Am I mad? Well yes, that's known.

[Intentionality]. go to spotify. Go to onboard MP3s for phone. Everyone's phone is CLOGGED.

Always

You go into the cloud, you get disoriented. In-out in-out slow lag reboot in-out.

It's a tenuous tether. It's distracting. It doesn't help that your bog-standard modern smart phones are not made for human beings. Yeah, I said it.

Maybe I'm old. But when I was not old, we did not stare at a cloud interface for hours. That is simply

Gen X is very good at being chilled out when there's nothing to do.

We had cigarettes in our hands instead.

BBC: 1st thing: share on socials. Then news from socials, about socials. It is default digital commons, arguably a semi-voluntary one. You can decline to participate (as do the very young and old).

Unregistered users.

Memory aids / comfort aids. feeding / praying to the cloud is our work now.

If a time traveler could see us, they would say we are praying.

Diversify your approach to the cloud. If a little voice says 'suck it up kid, it's not hard to use your phone' – sure it is.

Who doesn't have a phone clogged full of crap? Who doesn't get distracted flipping between apps? Who doesn't get confused having the sum total of human knowledge but only allowable at a 9 x 11cm window?

We all found out how hard it was to use phones at home, with our computers, with tons of time. It's less ideal because contemplating the, ah, godhead of the Cloud directly is not an easy task.

Working regularly in the cloud means not only doing your work: it also means committing to learning apps, programs, as an intermediary and requirement for your work. In some respects (depending on the job) it may be 'skimpflation'.

Also, your job is to defy your common sense. 'It's just typing on a computer, how hard can it be.' 'Getting an upgrade / a good keyboard / a big screen is

Working in the cloud is not back breaking manual labor. But it is labor, and a significant part of it is items that we previously identified as 'fun'.

The manual language of touch and swipe would be utterly befuddling to an office worker from 2006. That's 15 years ago, long for us but not far away in historical time. Many people learned touch and swipe, screenshot, copy-and-paste for personal use. For fun.

Work and personal identity has collapsed.

When You've Lost All The Weight

After eating tons of salad and vegetables, I realized I'd reached my target weight. I'd reached 135 pounds, the number I'd hovered around for most of my adult life.

Weight loss is kind of a religion, particularly in the west. (Especially fast weight loss.) I'm good at it now. I can take my weight down by two pounds in a week, if I set my mind to it. (Totally not advised or recommended.) Part of this is familiarity with calories, some of it is willpower; some just good old horse sense. It's easy to raise the number of vegetables in a meal.

It can be hard to transition from 'losing weight' (and thinking about it all the time) to 'eating healthy'. I would encourage a 'get more healthy' approach rather than 'I must lose all this weight by summer to look good in a swim suit.'

Now I can pretty much eat without worry, now that I've figured out the rules. I'm still a little wary of some foods now that I'm more familiar with their calories and content. But it's nice to be able to say 'what the heck' and have whatever my friends are having while they ask me 'what's your secret.' Most people have a clearer idea of how much gas is in their car's tank, than how many calories they've had that day.

For many people that works! Our bodies are meant to be self-regulating. But as we get older, our metabolism slows so that can fake us out.

My hobby now is taking food I like and making it more healthy. Indonesian Mee Goreng noodles? How would they work with whole wheat noodles? Tandoori Chicken? Maybe I can pair that with some brown rice. Breakfast burrito? Yes but with egg whites for me, thanks.

I also snack all the time. One recommendation: 'apple a day' really works. Fruit is a great snack, and really filling, and not super calorific. In the past I'd really crave cookies, crackers, leftovers for a snack. But I'm happy to put fruit first; it's full of natural sugars which mean quick energy.

One of my go-tos is cashews in the freezer, which make them extra crunchy. I have managed to transition to hummus, tzatziki, cut vegetables – but also I don't mind peanut butter from time to time.

My idea of a good snack or dessert is to go to a nearby bakery and get a gigantic, freshly baked, preservative-free chocolate chip cookie. I don't have this treat very often; if I'm going to have a cookie why not make it a premium product?

I am also mindful of my 'macros' (carbs/fat/protein). I try to hit a minimum protein target every day based on recommendations for moderately active people my age. The great thing about protein is it 'satiates' you, makes you less hungry. Most people don't realize that fruit and vegetables are, well, fibrous carbs. I'm now looking at more healthy fat sources like hummus and avocado.

Weight loss is a good catch-all goal if you want to be more fit, feel better, avoid larger health challenges. But if you are doing vigorous exercise you may actually build a bit of muscle at the same time. Keep at it. Muscle is good; building and maintaining muscle has a wide host of health benefits.

Most athletes alternate between cardio and strength training. Even athletes that are mainly doing endurance work (running, swimming) will do some standard weight training. Muscle fiber will add to your body mass and overall weight. Don't worry too much about it.

So now I'm interested to watch the scale as as my ability to do various exercises increases and my weight creeps up. I'm not in a hurry to achieve a superhero physique, but it's fun to grow and evolve.

Celebrity Health Secrets

Paul Rudd: it's possible to look in good shape at 50.

Frank Grillo: He's 55. He trains every day, loves it and has always trained. He pays particular attention to 'core' body strength.

Penn Jilette: be prepared to eat lots and lots of vegetables and fruit.

Al Sharpton: He lost lots of weight over years. Now he's eating salads and smoothies. But these are store-bought smoothies. You can make your own (with less calories, more volume and variety) rather easily.

Kevin Smith: Going vegan helped him lose weight.

Coffee and Booze

So you've made that resolution to lose some weight. Good for you. Here's a simple way to maintain a consistent daily deficit of 100 to 300 calories (or more) before you even lace up your gym shoes.

Give up coffee and alcohol.

Coffee (as most consume it) is usually full of stuff you don't want: tons of added sugar. Flavorings. Fancy extras like whipped cream.

And while coffee has no calories if you drink it black, alcohol is full of calories. (Mostly dreaded carbs.) So: if you 'go Mormon' that will make a significant change.

Many people simply aren't conscious of how much caffeine they load themselves up in the daytime, and how much grog they need to wind down in the evening. I recommend you try taking one weekend day to cut both out, cold. That's your body, which you inhabit, in its natural state. You live there. You should be able to handle a day without these extras. That's where you will be, if there's a crisis of some sort.

I did not drink coffee regularly until I was 30, then got sucked into the sugary world of store-bought coffees. A 'venti' frappe from Starbucks? You might as well get a chocolate shake and just tip a cup of hot coffee in.

In Southeast Asia it was harder to get fancy coffees, but there was plenty of cream and sugar, and now we are largely at parity for caffeinated wizardry. I began making my own frappes using zero-calorie sweetener. After a few months I thought: 'I can make one of these any day, why don't I try it black.'

So now I'm largely making my own cold-brew coffee and drinking it black. An occasional dollop of almond milk. I go light on coffee overall because it can affect your sleep. And I've got a minor history of Ulcerative Colitis – I'm not keen to have big doses of something that pushes your body to poop.

Side note: I did get some caffeine content from caffeinated drinks. Again, one or two of them per day can really add up given the sugar in them. Switch to diet drinks or better yet, tea.

For alcohol: most of my friends can't seem to handle the evening without a 'sundowner' in their hand. Try this: get any app that scans barcodes for calorie counts. Scan your usual tipple of choice.

That's right. There's a reason they call beer 'liquid bread'. Or why a wine cooler should be viewed with the same apprehension as a piece of chocolate cake.

You can save tons of calories by simply not drinking. Fortunately it's never been a big habit for me largely due to how my family viewed it. I have a drink maybe once a month, almost invariably with friends. If for some reason I had to leave booze behind I wouldn't shed a tear. It's simply not a huge part of my life.

But for some people it's massive, due to the lifestyle they've chosen or had sold to them. Look at the aisle in the supermarket with alcohol. It's the most heavily-marketed item in there usually. It's got to be marketed because people have to overcome their natural instincts.

When I was given a beer as a child, I instinctively spit it out. You have to be acculturated to like alcohol. (Though it's not super hard.) Again, I had good fortune as an impressionable youth. As a disc jockey I had to be sober. After unloading a truck full of records and speakers at 3am, a drink seemed rather pointless when I could go directly to bed.

Here in Cambodia (and in the broader art community I'm familiar with) I know tons of people with drinking issues. Often they post on social media about how they are proud to be sober for months or years. I cheer them on.

If you want to court danger, I would suggest you don't do it via drink. There are plenty of other worthwhile challenges for you to take up in this day and age. Save your strength.

I tend to drink my coffee black these days and when I do have a drink? It's usually a fancy stout. Both of these are bitter. In the morning: Aaah yes I'm having my coffee now. When I have a drink: Damn that's bitter. I guess I know when I'm having it, and unlike sweet drinks, they are hard to chug down.

So there you have it: a way to lose weight by simply NOT doing something. The biggest challenge is really changing habits and behaviors that are familiar and comfortable to you.

The tale of the Estonian Tactical Pants

Everyone wants to lose weight, no one wants to get fit.

Blotter

What if you had a choice, eat healthy or face a heart attack? The elderly watch their diets in painstaking detail. Maybe do that now and have some more latitude down the line.

tracking your health is like tracking money in the bank.

Apps are handy but really it's you doing the work. People budgeted before computers and apps.

Arnold: skip dessert. (Pic of dessert).

Brown bread brown rice. https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/guide/glycemic-index-good-versus-bad-carbs

What happens when you've lost all the weight?

Eat more, lose weight

http://www.fitnesshashtag.com/img/58/100-calories-of-oil-vs-chicken-vs-vegetables-healthy-eating/

Belly full of vegetables

https://homebase.org/media/Caloric-Density-FINAL.jpg

My Uncle

When I moved to work in Portland, Oregon, my Aunt and Uncle helped me land and localize. My father had grown up in the area.

My Uncle Dick had recently retired, and was the most happiest, amused retired person I know. As a child of the depression era he took little for granted in life, and as a result much of what he received he viewed as a gift. His good humor and curiosity enveloped everything he did.

Having grown up on a dairy farm, he'd had plenty of cholesterol-rich food. His doctor cited that as a particular worry.

Uncle Dick took the news with characteristic good humor. He was genuinely amused to change his diet. His rationale seemed to be: change now or life gets harder right away; and you have less of it, too.

So he did. His approach was simple: 'let's enjoy trying healthy new food' rather than 'look wistfully back at old habits'. If he regretted his changes? I didn't hear much of it.

And that's the crux of both losing your weight and improving health overall: behavior change, habit change, lifestyle change. It's easy to start, much harder to follow through.

My realization, many years later: a similar talking to from my doctor was on its way for me. (Maybe I'd already had it, to some degree.) I really owe a lot to his approach.

Workout Is Chillout

OK, yes we have all established beyond a doubt that I tend to gravitiate towards unconventional things, roles, stances. (Whether it's a good thing or not.)

If I'd known how many miles I would walk when I started exercising in earnest in 2019 I probably would have given up and ordered in a large pizza.

My miles are currently at 1500. That's about half the continental USA. I have no doubt I'll hit 3000 by the end of this year.

protect the workout

Good to have a hour for yourself before work.

I am a 50+ year old man. I've got a degree of privilege there.

And I cultivate a low-friction approach; I look like a jogger. Everyone knows what a jogger is.

Tools

You only need a consistent calorie deficit of 300 calories a day to lose weight; that’s what professional body-builders recommend when they are cutting their fat ratio. Why push yourself harder than an athlete? 300 calories is the equivalent of two beers or one fatty dessert. Eminently do-able. If you throw in just a little exercise, that can really put you over the top. But first you are going to need some simple tools.

DIGITAL WEIGHT SCALE: A key part in health management is simply logging your daily weigh-in. Your weight will vary depending on hydration and other factors. A big meal full of low calorie vegetables is high in weight, but that's mostly water. I recommend you hop on the scale first thing in the morning, you’ve just had a long fast. On completely normal, identical days with identical food, I have seen my daily weight vary by over a pound. So never worry about one day’s weight, look at the average over a week or so.

Food Tracking App: these are used by weight watchers and Olympic athletes alike. 'My Fitness Pal' has a handy feature to scan barcodes for food. And a strong database that tells you calories for your meals. (As well as the breakdown of 'macros' – carbs, protein, fat.) I credit this app with giving me good metrics, and it also nudged me into good healthy food choices like ‘overnight oats’. So My Fitness Pal gets a big thumbs up from me. If I am having mackerel from a can, all I need to do is scan the barcode. If I am eating a restaurant meal, the app can ballpark the calories and nutrition. (You’ll never look at peanut butter the same way.) I logged my food for seven months and after that I was good at eyeballing calories.

FOOD SCALE: I’m not super strict these days. But I find a food scale really useful for quantities. I eat chicken for protein a fair bit, but I want to try more lamb, clean cuts of meat. If I can weigh them it eliminates a lot of guesswork. You can also total them in MyFitnessPal. People also use them to measure their carbohydrates: rice, potatoes, noodles. Me too. Remember that carbs are your friends. They give you energy to use your muscles. You need carbs and if you’re apprehensive about them after all the trash-talking they get, try getting them through some healthy fruit or oatmeal.

YOGA MAT: Have bought a few of these for my friends who are interested in getting fit, it’s an essential. It’s particularly useful for sit-ups. I have one at home and at work. I use it maybe once a week at work now. But I like to have it there. If I need a little break I go and do a plank for a minute. Planking is hard! That’s a great ab exercise. And I’m really big on little breaks that don’t require caffeine.