Idiotprogrammer Blog

Category: Health & Nutrition

  • In Praise of Canned Fish (Some Kinds)

    Changing gears for a moment, I want to recommend a food source.

    This cheap product sells for $1.60 at Walmart

    Before I talk about that, I want to refer you to my long essay about breakfast.

    When I embarked on a plan to lose weight in 2008, I rethought my approach to food. I’ve since adopted the philosophy of eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.

    Breakfast posed an unusual challenge. I don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking or preparing anything, either because I’m headed off to work or doing some early writing. I’ve tried to avoid processed meats, but I need protein in the morning.

    Therefore, I settled upon canned fish for breakfast. It’s cheap, nutritious and convenient. I don’t eat it every day, but usually every other day. Originally I used to eat Crown Prince kippers. Really, I have probably bought over a thousand cans of this product over the last decade. By some bad luck, my supermarket (HEB) stopped carrying this product, and so I had to do some searching to find another place to buy it from. Eventually I found it at certain Walmarts, so everything was fine. Then I learned about the Seasonproducts of sardines which is even better than the Crown Prince kippers in every sense.

    Introduction to Canned Fish

    Most people have eaten canned fish at some point in their lives. Canned tuna was popular when I grew up (and frankly I didn’t care for it). Sardines have always been always available, but had a bad (and stinky) reputation. In the 1990s I read a book about fish nutrition. It covered absolutely everything you needed to know about fish (fresh and canned).

    Here are some things I learned from this great book.

    1. The amount of Omega 3s in fish varied wildly across fish. Whitefish like flounder had practically none. Salmon had lots, but so did sardines, kippers (herring) and mackerel.
    2. Whether you eat fish fresh, frozen or out of a can, the nutritional content is basically the same (except noted below).
    3. Canned fish packed in water offered more nutrients than fish packed in oil. The oil absorbs the omega 3s, and when you drain the oil, you are also losing the nutrients. (Also, oil adds calories).
    4. Some types of canned fish add sodium/salt for flavor. (This is often true for water-packed products). Also, smoked fish (which involves curing or pickling) keep the omega 3s and other nutrients, but also have high sodium levels.
    5. For both fresh and canned fish, mercury contamination is a concern — for woman of child-bearing age, but if you are not in that demographic, it’s not really something to worry about. According to the National Defense Resource Council, you should avoid a few key species: King mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tilefish, ahi tuna, and bigeye tuna all contain high levels of mercury. Women who are pregnant or nursing or who plan to become pregnant within a year should avoid eating these fish. So should children younger than six. (Read more).

    Since that time, I have learned about sustainable fishing and carbon impact of various fishing methods:

    • Generally the smaller the fish, the less of a carbon impact it has when eaten. (Smaller fish can have more Omega 3s — horray! and be less in demand — and therefore cheaper).
    • Terminology: A Herring, also known as an older and bigger Sardine, is eaten either pickled and fermented or raw. A Kipper, is whole herring that is lightly smoked and split into a butterfly cut. Finally, a Sprat is a Sardine that is smoked for about 3 hours.
    • There are varying certifying bodies for seafood. Many types of fish are subject to overfishing. Aquaculture or aquafarming are seen as viable/sustainable alternatives, but standards vary (even though US aquafarming is supposed to be good).

    Sardines: A Primer

    It’s possible to buy sardines fresh (and actually it’s delicious), but people mostly eat it canned. Here’s a great article I found about sardines (here’s a two part article, the wikipedia page and the Monterey Bay Aquarium watch page for it. Let me summarize.

    First, there are different kinds. Their name and taste characteristics may differ slightly according to where they are from. Brisling sardines are from the Norway region, do not have any mercury contamination. Generally they are at the bottom of the aquatic food chain, so they generally don’t accumulate mercury anyway. In Europe, sardines are called pilchards. Two other types are Brazilian Sardinella and Pacific sardines.

    The bones are small enough that you can eat them easily. You should also eat the skin! (According to this NY chef — see video!)

    Overfishing and sustainability. Generally, the Monterey Bay Aquarium recommends eating only Pacific sardines and urges consumers to avoid Atlantic sardines and Pilchard species because they are overfished:

    European pilchard (aka Atlantic sardines) caught in the Mediterranean region are on the “Avoid” list. The status of many populations is unknown, and others are depleted with overfishing still occurring. Also, there are serious concerns about other species that are caught with sardines, and management is highly ineffective. Sardines are an important forage fish (prey for larger predators), and there are concerns about how these fisheries are impacting the food web and ecosystem.

    At the same time, Monterey Bay Aquarium might have a kind of bias towards North American fisheries which have applied for its certification. The Season brand has received a Friend of the Sea designation, which is a certification of the World Sustainability Organization (and seems more geared towards Europe and other continents). (Here’s more detail). The FAQ on Season brand says, “With their seal of approval, target stock cannot be overexploited, fishing method cannot impact the seabed and waste management must be in place. All-in-all, it should give you peace of mind in our role as we try to make a difference in the world we live in.”

    Generally I have seen very cheap Pilchard sardine cans from Morocco and Mediterranean, and the fish quality is variable — even bad sometimes. Season brand has pretty consistent quality levels. The Pacific sardines are about 50% more expensive, have a firmer consistency and have a so-so flavor. According to Tiana Matson (who loves the Wild Planet Pacific sardines over Crown Prince, King Oscar, Brunswick and Season),

    The (Wild Planet brand of sardines) is sourced in California coast which is famous for being a house of sea creatures. The other thing that makes the sardines adorable is that since they are whole, they hold together in the can. This feature is best for those who love seeing what they are eating.

    I should note that Wild Planet sardines is also sold at Walmart (hurray Walmart!)

    Other Considerations

    Here are some other things to think about when consuming canned fish.

    1. The Smell. Some kinds smell worse than others and are hard to dispose of inconspicuously. I have gotten used to that fishy smell, so it doesn’t bother me, but a lot of people react negatively, especially at work or in a shared kitchen. When possible, I have even tried to go outside and drain the can over some bushes or the grass so as to minimize the smell in the garbage or sink.
    2. Packaging. The old-fashioned tins used to be hard to open by hand. Sometimes they would even break. That was my biggest complaint about the Crown Prince kippers. About 10-20% of the cans would have defective lids, making it a chore to open. I’d use a can opener or a knife, and inevitably it would cause a mess and sometimes even cut my fingers.
    3. Taste. Some brands try to add flavoring (usually curry, mustard or tomato flavoring). I used to avoid flavored fish, but occasionally I will buy one of these products, just to try it out. (They’re really not bad — though the cheaper products are not as good). The main problem with these flavored brands is that they often increase the odor for others to complain about. Also, one gets the sense that these flavors are intended to mask the overall fishiness of the product.
    4. Price. On my budget I wanted something cheap, cheap, cheap while also being reasonably nutritious and convenient. The Crown Price kipper product costs $1.30 at most stores, but the price can vary wildly. If I were to throw out numbers, the high-end products (tuna, sardines, salmon) cost 2-3$ (although salmon and tuna can get even more expensive). Sardine products can go under $1 — although the quality is not good. Often these products will have oil or flavoring to compensate. Be careful!
    5. The basic nutrients. Probably the two things you care most about are the Omega-3s and the amount of protein. The Crown Prince kippers was 92g, 160 calories, 16g of protein, 350mg of sodium and 1.9g of Omega-3s. That’s a really good amount of protein and Omega-3s.

    Walmart Alternative: Seasonproducts Sardines

    I don’t normally shop at Walmart, but I have started going there specify to buy my Crown Prince kippers. Then I saw a variety of canned fish, some I had never seen before. Then I spotted the generically named Seasonproducts. One can is 85g, 22g of fat, 1.7 g of Omega-3s, No added salt or oil, 170mg of Sodium. Wait, there’s more! The product has a lid which is very easy to peel off and dispose of. It costs $1.55, and had good understandable nutritional information. It even mentions the species and country of origin (Morocco).

    I went to its website and found an abundance of products and nutritional information. They had about a dozen products with oil and some packed in water (which is what I wanted).

    Look at the stats for this product!

    Now for the review!

    (Here is the product I reviewed). I have now eaten about 50 cans of this product — and I’ve even tried the oil-based version for comparison.

    Generally the can is easy to open and contains about 8 small sardines which have been evenly cut. So you get smaller pieces of fish, but almost all of them are from the entire (miniature-sized) fish. The consistency of the pieces are high, and they are relatively easy to scoop out of the pan. (You can even shake them out if you wish).

    There is a higher than average amount of liquid to drain off, but it is easy to do so. The fish has a bland but distinctively fish flavor, and doesn’t smell particularly bad. Although I’m happy eating the product alone, it would be relatively easy to combine this into a recipe without it overwhelming the recipe.

    Sometimes the fish has been been a little too moist and soft for my liking, but there will always be variation from can to can. At 22g of protein, it provides just enough protein to make me feel full.

    Compare to a MacDonalds Quarter Pounder with cheese which has 30g of protein, 26 g of (saturated)fat, 1080mg sodium and 520 calories and 199g serving size. I know, I know, we’re not comparing apples to apples here, but the point remains you get comparable amount of protein for 1/3 of the calories and 1/4 of the sodium. Even if you look at a plain McDonalds hamburger, you’re talking about 12g of protein, 8g of fat, 240 calories and 510mg of sodium.

    I’m not trying to rag on a MacDonalds hamburger here — I love the Big Mac on occasion. I’m merely suggesting that you can get a good protein source from canned sardines –without the risks associated with a “fast food diet.”

    Difficulty of no-effort meals

    One problem with US life is that often we are preparing food for ourselves under time constraints. As much as we would like to eat healthy, it takes time to prepare meals and sometimes a lot of time.

    Probably the best invention against that is the microwave. Suddenly, you can bake a potato or reheat vegetables (or frozen vegetables) with little effort. Frozen dinners have come into being. Perhaps they are not that filling, but they serve a need.

    The problem with these kinds of meals is that they involved processed meats or extra sodium.

    Extra — How Chefs use Sardines

    A Michelin chef offers some ideas to use canned sardines with peppers and paprika for a nice salad. Mark Bittman has a recipe for using canned sardines with pasta.

  • Health care in Houston (2018)

    A month ago the HHS-commissioned Health of Houston Survey issued its 2018 report. Unfortunately the key information is locked up in a PDF. So I made screenshots of the most interesting charts:

    (more…)

  • “Perrycare” defined

    For better or worse, the Affordable Care Act (the new health care reform law) has been dubbed “Obamacare.”

    Here’s  another neologism: Perrycare.  It is  is defined as health care inside a state which has refused Medicaid expansion despite generous financial incentives to do so. It is characterized by skyrocketing health care premiums and overall costs for individuals who fall below  138% of the federal poverty line. Named after Texas Republican governor Rick Perry. 

    Even though this graph doesn't take into account that many kids go on their parents' plan until 26, it is still an alarming amount of people

    Here are some other characteristics:

    • The population between 19-26 have the highest level of poverty. On the other hand, they are still eligible to be on their parents’ plan (that is, if their parents have a plan!). In general, people in this age range are healthy and would require care mainly for emergencies (or giving birth).
    • The population between 26 and 30 have high rates of poverty. They are no longer on their parents’ plan; on the other hand, it is assumed that their income will have risen a bit depending on how long they have been in the workforce. Females are particularly at risk here because these are generally the child-bearing years.
    • The population between 30-65. More likely to have savings, but on the other hand, more likely to have serious conditions and require several visits.

    The Kaiser Foundation has prepared a health care rate calculator. Note that it provides two estimates: the estimate under Obamacare and Perrycare. According to the site’s FAQ, “The federal poverty level varies by family size. In 2013, it is $11,490 for a single adult and $23,550 for a family of 4. The poverty level is estimated for 2014 based on Congressional Budget Office projections of inflation.”

    On a positive note, medical underwriting  will be prohibited on Jan 1 2014 under Obamacare, so very low-income individuals will be able to purchase a plan without having to go through underwriting; they just won’t be able to afford it!

    Update: Here’s a cost estimate from Kaiser about just how much money Texas is not going to spend and not going to receive:

    TEXAS (population: 26 million) 

    Without Medicaid expansion, between 2013-2022, feds would spend 228 billion and TX state would spend 159 billion on Medicaid for Texans.

    With Medicaid expansion for 2013-2022, feds would spend 305 billion and TX state would spend 168 billion on Medicaid for Texans.

    In other words, spending 9 billion dollars more on Medicaid in Texas will prompt the feds to spend 77 billion more dollars on health care for Texans over the next decade.

    New York (population 19 million)

    Without Medicaid expansion for 2013-2022, fed pays 468 billion, and NY state pays 451 billion for New Yorkers.

    With Medicaid expansion for the same time period, feds pay 553 billion, NY state pays 433 billion for New Yorkers.

    In other words, because NY already  pays a greater amount  into Medicaid,  Obamacare will cause New York to spend 18 billion dollars less on Medicaid,  while the feds will spend 85 billion dollars more on health care for  Medicaid in New York.

    A Rand analysis estimates other effects from deciding to opt out of Medicaid expansion.

    If 14 states decide not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act as intended by their governors, those state governments collectively will spend $1 billion more on uncompensated care in 2016 than they would if Medicaid is expanded. … In addition, those 14 state governments would forgo $8.4 billion annually in federal payments and an additional 3.6 million people will be left uninsured… “State policymakers should be aware that if they do not expand Medicaid, fewer people will have health insurance, and that will trigger higher state and local spending for uncompensated medical care,” Price said. “Choosing to not expand Medicaid may turn out to be the more-costly path for state and local governments.”…

    …
    Researchers also outline how failing to expand Medicaid could have more than financial consequences. Based on earlier research showing that past expansions of Medicaid has led to decreases in deaths, the study estimates that an additional 19,000 deaths could occur annually if the 14 states studied do not expand Medicaid.

    My rough  ballpark estimate is that Texas accounts for a third of the population of those states opting out of Exchanges and Medicaid  expansion. Therefore, applying the Rand’s data to Texas, we could say that Perry’s decision not to expand Medicaid will cost Texans somewhere in the range of  $300 million and result in 6000 more deaths.

  • Health Insurance Rate Hikes

    Ironic Postscript: Hours after I wrote this, I received a note from Aetna informing me of another price increase for health insurance.  Until January 2010 my total price for a $5000 deductible health insurance + dental plan  was $148. Starting January 2010, it bumped up to $184. Starting April 2010, the price is $207.  This seems certainly to be a death spiral.

    What happens if you delay passing individual mandates on health insurance?

    The prices go up, up up! In a Noam N. Levey piece on health care, he notes:

    1. Profits for health insurance co. went up 56% in 2008.
    2. The major insurers covered 2.7 million FEWER people than the previous year.
    3. Health spending as % of GDP went up to 19.3% (it was 13.7%) in 1993.

    The individual health insurance market has gone haywire. My own individual health insurance went up 25%, and in California Anthem’s individual policies had increases up to 39% increases.  When I posted an article about it on Facebook, two people chimed in rate increases of 23% and 50%. Robert Reich notes:

    WellPoint’s profits rose to $2.7 billion last quarter. Even if you subtract one-time-only financial maneuvers, WellPoint is still fat and happy, which makes Anthem fat and happy. Everyone is fat and happy except Anthem’s policy holders, who are being skewered.

    Anthem’s argument is even more questionable when you consider that Anthem has been among the most aggressive opponents of the health-care bills passed by the House and Senate. If Anthem were sincere about why it’s raising its rates, it would be embracing the legislation. The Senate and House bills would add tens of millions of Americans to insurance pools – thereby spreading the costs over more people and avoiding the very problem Anthem says is now forcing it to raise its rates so much.

    Even more troubling is the fact that Anthem obviously believes it can raise its rates by as much as 39 percent without losing every one of its remaining customers with average or even somewhat above-average medical needs. The only way it could possibly raise its rates so high and expect to keep its customers would be if Anthem’s customers have no other choice. In other words, Anthem’s strategy makes sense only if Anthem faces little or no competition from other health insurers.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the case. Insurers, remember, are exempt from the federal antitrust laws. And WellPoint, Anthem’s parent, is the largest insurer in America.

    Caveats are in order. A health insurance spokesman says that the comparisons with when companies were in the middle of recession are not quite fair. Also, average profit margins for the insurance industry are historically low (3% on average).  Rick Newman provides more numbers.

    The problem I have with health insurers is not that they make money, but they that they claim the right to refuse customers while at the same time benefitting from tax subsidies for employer plans. A private insurer can reject a person without answering to the public. Health insurers don’t need 100% coverage; their goal is simply to maximize profits (even if their business plan to cover only athletic 22 year old billionaires). What happens when there’s too much cherry picking and the public has to pay the tab? "Privatize the profits, socialize the losses" seems to be the strategy for the health care industry. And it gets worse:

    Insurance companies last year continued to try to purge their most costly customers, which are often small businesses with older workers, said Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for Health Care for America Now.

    Another reason for the robust profits, Mr. Kirsch said, is that the companies reduced the percentage of their premiums that they spent on actual medical care and devoted more to administrative costs and profits.

    A third factor, he said, is that the insurers continued to attract more customers to public programs like Medicare Advantage, in which the federal government pays private insurers 14 percent more than it pays Medicare to cover the same people.

    The report said that the insurance industry’s long-term strategy was to shift responsibility for the care of millions of older, sicker and lower-income customers to taxpayer-supported programs, like Medicaid and the state Children’s Health Insurance Program. Those programs in turn are increasingly hiring the big insurance companies — and paying them — to manage the coverage.

    (The full PDF report is worth reading; full of good analysis of facts).

    In addition there is a power imbalance here. Multibillion dollar companies can refuse coverage secure in the knowledge they have a huge legal department and generally sympathetic regulators to prevent the individual from complaining or suing them.

    The justification for the privatized system was that private insurers will step in and provide private insurance for the public. Over the years, this coverage has been declining and becoming massively more expensive. Therefore, the justification for relying on the private system to fulfill a public concern is becoming more suspect.

    My preferred solution (if you take the privatized system as a fait accompli) is individual mandates. Generally people on both political sides agree with that, but disagreed with implementation details (subsidies, tax breaks, etc). Also, libertarian obstructionists have used the failures of the private system as a reason to justify even further use of it. (I’ve written about that here).

    That private strategy is also costing taxpayers a lot of money. We as taxpayers have a right to demand oversight for an industry that is increasing costs 5-10% per year (or 25% increases in the individual market). It’s easy to say, let the market offer better services. I’m sorry, but that hasn’t been happening; not only are costs increasing, but the number of companies offering services is decreasing.

    Update: Kevin Sack reports on the outrage in California.

    Medical costs have typically risen by 5 percent to 10 percent during each of the last five years. Mr. Poizner said he was starting to see significant increases for individual policies sold by some of Anthem’s competitors, and double-digit increases have been reported in other states.

    Several insurance analysts said it was possible, but not necessarily likely, that such increases would become common, at least while the economic downturn persists. Insurance brokers in Los Angeles said they had never seen jumps of such magnitude.

    “It’s more astonishment than irritation,” a Pasadena broker, John W. Barrett, said of the reaction from his customers. “Irritation was last year and the year before. Now they’re astonished.”

  • Health care reform and medical bankruptcy: Answering the Libertarian Argument

    Nicholas Kristof on how a system based on private health insurance frequently results in spouse impoverishment, sometimes leading to fake divorces. Here are reader comments about the article which turn out to be more interesting than the original article. This argument has not frequently been cited, but it shows how the health care debate has far reaching implications on society. It has already been shown to reduce employer competitiveness, but wrong decisions about health care can also be catastrophic to the financial lives of a person.  Health care reform will introduce its own problems to the system, but it will also limit overall risk and provide a system of public accountability for  health care providers and insurers. Let me say now that these organizations already  use  discretion to decide how much charity care and  discounting to provide to individuals. The people who run these organizations are not beasts. At the same time, we have no guarantees that these organizations will act compassionately or in the public interest. We just don’t know.

    Kristof’s later piece shows that Medicare and VA have generally received passing marks on delivering quality health care. (Comments here).  (Update: The point about VA providing superior care seems to have been debunked).  By the way, health care reform is a great issue where anecdotes matter  (perhaps even more than economic analyses). You really need to read the comment thread on these articles to appreciate the problem. Anecdotes don’t help you to understand the magnitude of the problem, but they help you to understand the nature of it.

    Milt Shook relates some anecdotes which reveal the corrupt/inadequate nature of health insurance. He has been one of the most forceful and articulate proponents of health care reform. Here’s one:

    A 60-year-old woman is diagnosed with gallstones by her HMO plan doctor. That doctor asks the insurance company to approve a specialist, and the insurance company does so. The specialist wants to use shock-wave therapy to break up the gallstones, because it’s far less invasive and dangerous than surgery. The insurance company refuses to cover the procedure, calling it “experimental,” despite the fact that it’s been in use for almost 20 years, and has become a standard procedure when treating kidney stones. She appeals the decision by the insurance company, but during the appeal, she has a gall bladder attack. She lives nowhere near a hospital, so her husband drives her 40 miles and she undergoes emergency surgery to remove the stones and repair her gall bladder. The surgeon who performed the surgery made a mistake, however, which led to a second surgery to repair the damage from the first surgery.

    Two years later, the same woman was diagnosed with cancer. Her physician proceeded to scare the hell out of her, and he told her things about the cancer that were patently untrue. She requested a change of physicians, to someone who actually knew about her cancer, and her insurance company refused. They advised her that she could change her primary care physician during open enrollment, but most of them were full, and that once they assigned a specialist to her case, she was pretty much stuck with that specialist.

    He concludes by attacking the freedom argument used by libertarians to justify the private health insurance plan:

    How free is a society, when an ever-increasing segment of its people can be ruined, financially and otherwise, by illness or injury? How free is a society when health care is seen as a privilege, reserved for those with the cash on hand to pay a doctor? How free is a society in which those who want to start businesses can’t do so, because they can’t afford to pay for its workers’ health insurance, and therefore can’t afford to hire the best workers? How free is a society in which a worker is forced to stay at his current job to keep his current health plan in force, because a change of jobs puts his coverage at risk? And how free is a society in which a person can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars into the health insurance system over the course of 30 years, lose a job, get sick or injured a month later, and be forced into bankruptcy court? How free is a society in which that same worker can continue working, but be denied coverage, should the insurance company decide they don’t wish to continue coverage?

    Shook has correctly identified the problem with the libertarian objection. Even the libertarian has to concede that there is a hierarchy of needs which at some point trumps freedom. Can a completely private system address this?  Here’s how we can counter the libertarian argument.

    1. present cases where individuals are constrained by the current system, showing that the argument for more freedom does not imply keeping the status quo.
    2. present evidence about  how bad choices of certain individuals ends up hurting all participants in the overall system. (i.e., emergency room visits, vs. prevention)
    3. compare dollars and cents. You can say you oppose higher taxes, but if reform results in lower costs, will the libertarian objection to it disappear? Suppose I presented a plan where health care costs would rise 1% per year rather than the current 10% but with comparable success outcomes. (Comparable,  but not superior). If this plan imposed certain limits on freedom (say, limiting the doctors you use), but still had comparable outcomes, I doubt most people would oppose it (never mind the libertarian purists).
    4. Compulsion works if it results in minimal intrusion on people’s lives and applies to everybody. Look at two examples. Requiring that people wear seatbelts  and requiring that people buy auto insurance.  The true libertarian would object to both proposals. But the seatbelt rule just doesn’t intrude on people’s lives that much, and it has an obvious social purpose. The auto insurance is different because you are dealing with finances and also the liability risk for harming someone else. One can argue that society has an interest in making sure that all individuals are prepared for handling liability, so that scofflaws don’t get away with murder. When another person is compelled to buy auto insurance, I benefit because it reduces the possibility that I will have my car damaged without the other driver paying for my harms. Everybody benefits as a result. These are simple cases and health care reform affects many decisions; my point is merely to show that compulsory measures can receive public acceptance if the public regards the intrusion as minimal and beneficial.
    5. The religious/values  argument. Religion can be a bipartisan phenomenon, and very persuasive to members of the Republican Party.   Many religious people don’t care about the nuts and bolts of health care reform; they focus more on moral issues of tangential relevance (like abortion treatments). The Bible teaches compassion and helping your fellow man – a completely different system of values from the freedom-loving individual who wants government off his back. Opposition to health care reform is not inherently Republican (especially to a “Values Republican”). The real opponents are the “free market Republicans”  who believe the private system works better than a public system over the long run.
    6. The When will you compromise argument? Libertarians often adopt an absolutist position which admits no exceptions. You have to be that way, or else you are not being consistent. (Libertarianism is concerned with methods, while paternalism/utilitarian is concerned with outcomes).   The problem is that humans are used to making decisions about individual  people where exceptions are frequently made. The libertarian argument says, sure, anyone can freely choose to buy additional care for those who cannot afford it. But is that the way most people think about social issues?  Ordinarily we like to look at individual cases and then designate one party to provide a solution. That is paternalism…no doubt about it. Take the case of a homeless man with a life-threatening illness (and receiving no medical care).  The libertarian would say that  if individuals or groups become aware of this injustice, they are always free to be part of the solution. But there are no guarantees. But we will never have absolute certainty that these individuals will intervene (or more importantly, to intervene soon enough).
    7. How can you be sure that sufficient information exists for individuals to make intelligent decisions? In the case of the homeless man with the medical problem, perhaps a charitable person exists….but how will the homeless man locate him?  Libertarian solutions  depends on the needy individual being able to find assistance during times of need. It also depends on humans finding good information about the consequences of their action and knowing how to make good decisions? This kind of information and cognitive skill may not exist; it may never exist. To use a trivial example: last month, I realized that my health care provider did not cover 100% of my dentist’s services. It shocked me because I thought I read the insurance policy carefully. It turns out that the health care policy claimed to cover 100% of certain costs for out-of-network dentists, but that 100% only applied for certain procedures. This was not obvious information to me; and I am the kind to be careful about insurance. Just think what would happen if 200 million people had to make financial decisions on the basis of their understanding of health insurance. You’d have miscalculations galore, many of them with serious and devastating consequences.  For the system to work, each individuals would need to hire an independent agent to  counsel the individual about how to make health care decisions. But that is just saying: “I don’t trust a group of bureaucrat to make a bunch of decisions on my behalf; therefore I will hire an individual who can make a bunch of decisions of my behalf.” Those opposed to paternalism may find that individuals will need to rely on advisors to make decisions on their behalf.  In my mind that is not much better than paternalism. (I write about this issue in greater depth in my Free Market Can Be  a Time Sink essay).
    8. The 75,000 deaths argument. I’ve seen statistics quoted estimating that 75,000 additional people die each year as a result of no health care reform. Maybe that figure is an exaggeration, I don’t know. But if a libertarian points to the economic superiority of the private insurance system, all you have to do is to trot out the 20,000 deaths. Most people would say preventing premature deaths is a more persuasive argument than maintaining the efficiency of an economic arrangement.

    See also: Health Insurance and Amenable Mortality (which has some further thoughts about libertarianism at the bottom) and the Free Market is a Time-Sink (where I argue that free advocates often underestimate the value of their time).

    March 2010 Update. Matt Yglesias points out the amazing fact that libertarian  economist Friedrich von Hayek actually supported government intervention in health insurance. Here’s the money quote:

    Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance, where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks, the case for the state helping to organise a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong. There are many points of detail where those wishing to preserve the competitive system and those wishing to supersede it by something different will disagree on the details of such schemes; and it is possible under the name of social insurance to introduce measures which tend to make competition more or less ineffective. But there is no incompatibility in principle between the state providing greater security in this way and the preservation of individual freedom.

    Quote #2:

    Once it becomes the recognized duty of the public to provide for the extreme needs of old age, unemployment, sickness, etc., irrespective of whether the individuals could and ought to have made provision themselves and particularly once help is assured to such an extent that it is apt to reduce individuals’ efforts, it seems an obvious corollary to compel them to insure (or otherwise provide) against those common hazards of life. The justification in this case is not that people should be coerced to do what is in their individual interest but that, by neglecting to make provision, they would become a charge to the public. Similarly, we require motorists to insure against third-party risks, not in their interest but in the interest of others who might be harmed by their action.

    Finally, once the state requires everybody to make provisions of a kind which only some had made before, it seems reasonable enough that the state should also assist in the development of appropriate institutions . . .

    Up to this point the justification for the whole apparatus of “social security” can probably be accepted by the most consistent defenders of liberty. Though many may think it unwise to go so far, it cannot be said that this would be in conflict with the principles we have stated . . . It is only when the proponents of “social security” go a step further that the crucial issues arise. Even at the beginning state of “social insurance” in Germany in the 1880’s, individuals were not merely required to make provision against those risks which, if they did not, the state would have to provide for, but were compelled to obtain this protection through a unitary organization run by the government.

  • Robert Ebert on AA

    Roger Ebert writes a long memoir about being an AA member:

    In those days I was on a 10 p.m. newscast on one of the local stations. The anchor was an A.A. member. So was one of the reporters. After we got off work, we went to the 11 p.m. meeting at the Mustard Seed. There were maybe a dozen others. The chairperson asked if anyone was attending their first meeting. A guy said, "I am. But I should be in a psych ward. I was just watching the news, and right now I’m hallucinating that three of those people are in this room."

  • Note to a seriously obese woman

    A 530 pound  woman complains about being treated like a social pariah:

    It’s not just the super-obese like me who have to take this punishment: There are people out there who are literally no more than twenty or thirty pounds overweight, yet they have to put up much of the same crap that I do.

    There’s nothing Satanic about cake and pie. There’s nothing Hitleresque about a roll of fat. I wish fat-bashers would think about this, and stop being so damn malevolent. But they don’t, because the bigots have ruled the day and the masses of ordinary Joes and Janes go along with them. That’s the way it will continue to be, until we can get our voice into the public’s ear. I have high hopes that that is beginning to happen now, and that it will gain traction in the years to come.

    I responded:

    Teresa, that was an interesting comment (and a little sad). Thank you for sharing.

    On the one hand you said you are comfortable with the medical consequences of being obese. On the other hand, you disapprove of the social consequences and the bigotry. At some point, the two things have to converge; I’m not talking about public ridicule; I’m talking about lifestyle differences and having to accommodate people of different sizes. Inevitably the need to make these accommodations  will stir resentment. It’s a worthy goal to want every individual to be full participants in  society, and I fear that at your weight, it will be  hard.

    I think most people are motivated not out of a desire to castigate obese people, but to make it easier to keep a moderate weight. In my city (Houston), everyone drives. Walking is rarely possible. Simple principles of urban design can increase exercise and make fast food less easily available.

    Teresa, I’m glad you are comfortable with yourself, and I suspect that your size may be the result of more than mere gluttony. From your standpoint, the difference between 400 and 500 pounds may seem insignificant, but please get some help! You are still young. It is still relatively easy to change habits and prevent long term health effects.

    Seriously, everybody reading this article is rooting for you!

  • Sustainable Seafood: Eat More Sardines!

    Jim Carrier writes a long piece on the shrimping industry:

    The industry acknowledges that 5 percent of the world’s mangroves, hundreds of thousands of acres, have been destroyed creating shrimp ponds. In some estuaries 80 percent of the mangroves are gone. A commons was privatized, ruining artisanal fishing and driving indigenous fishermen to work raising shrimp. By removing the thick coastal barrier of trees, shrimp farms have undoubtedly aggravated damage from hurricanes and tsunamis. And salt intrusion has sterilized once-fertile estuaries.

    Even in the best-run farms, two to four pounds of sea life is caught and ground up as feed for every pound of shrimp raised. Mortality rates of 30 percent are common. The dead shrimp, shrimp excrement, and chemical additives are often flushed into coastal waters.

    More about efforts to improve the system:

    The Food and Drug Administration, responsible for imported food safety, samples less than 1 percent of the 1 billion pounds, a “sorry” record, according to U.S. Representative John Dingell, who in 2007 chaired food safety hearings before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Mindful of consumer fears fanned by poisoned seafood arriving from China, the Global Aquaculture Alliance—an industry group underwritten by Wal-Mart, Red Lobster, and multinational seafood importers—has written standards that, if enforced, could produce clean, safe shrimp without damaging people or the environment. But that will take years, admitted GAA president George Chamberlain. Only 45 shrimp farms are certified by the alliance—out of more than 100,000 worldwide.

    This came from a NYT discussion about sustainable seafood development .

    Here’s a downloadable pocket guide about which seafood to try and avoid. Summary: avoid imported fish and seafood, avoid most tuna, sardines and lobster are ok (in general, US raised fish is more sustainable), Here’s a set of sustainable alternatives to popular seafood. Here’s a table summarizing the findings.  Maritime Stewardship Council has another database.

    As a general observation, I am beginning to conclude that consumers have a hard time processing all this information. It is far easier just to go to a supermarket with minimum standards. Whole Foods is basically the flagship store for these kinds of standards. My attitude has always been, “gosh, if only I could afford their pricey products!” (especially at a time when I am out of work). We are receiving lots of conflicting messages. Medical articles say, “eat more fish” and “sustainable seafood” is at least 2x the cost of imported seafood. So instead of compromising on our dietary choices, we compromise on our ethnical values with regard to production. I’m not justifying, merely trying to explain.

    A few years ago I learned that there were massive US tariffs on imported shrimp. I was outraged. Why shouldn’t we have the right to eat cheap and large  Indonesian shrimp? Nowadays, though, the current account deficit is a sign our economy is tanking. I never thought I would be so buy-American, but I admit that I spend a lot of time searching for an American (or Irish) alternative rather than a foreign brand.  (Remember: I have dual Irish citizenship). The competitive advantage our domestic agri-industry seems to have is better harvesting/growing methods. I realize that this statement is outrageous. Chicken and beef, for instance, are notoriously bad examples of industries which are dangerous and unsustainable. But if we wanted to, American beef/chicken growers could improve their standards in no time at all..provided they could be sure that Americans would buy American.

    I doubt that consumers can keep all this information in their heads about particular brands and types of food. Who really can remember all the certifications (and how to distinguish them from the meaningless  certification labels corporations affix to their products ). Even farmer’s markets –considered the holy grail  of local food enthusiasts  –is inconvenient for many and requires a certain level of consumer sophistication. The answer is not educating consumers but having retail outlets that  set better minimum standards. For example, Whole Foods sets a certain standard, and Walmart sets a certain standard. I go to HEB, but I really don’t know what that “means” in terms of food quality.

    I don’t buy too much gourmet food – I can’t afford it – but I try to avoid processed foods and things which are more natural (whatever that means). But supermarkets don’t market themselves in terms of food quality; they market themselves in terms of price and customer service. Hell, I’d sit through Walmart’s crappy lines if I knew their organic food was cheap and high quality.

    I talked with a man yesterday who was writing a book about a Houston nonprofit education group he works on dedicated to educating children about food and nutrition. It’s a great organization (and this man was a real foodie). He was compiling a set of photos about all the food he has been eating for the last year. It’s a fascinating project until I realize that I eat the same food day after day after day! For a while, I was a foodie and liked preparing foods I am not really complaining. After all, this strict boring diet has helped me to lose 20 pounds. Maybe when you cook for a family you can splurge or think about food as an event. For me, food is something that provides energy and messes up my kitchen.  If I become a RAW food enthusiast, it is not because of deeply held beliefs but laziness.  (Don’t get me wrong; I love trying new foods; I just don’t love preparing them).

    Here’s a tip about eating canned fish. Always buy canned fish packed in water –not packed in oil. A Whole Foods page explains:

    Choose water-packed tuna rather than oil-packed. The added oil used in canning mixes with some of the tuna’s natural fat. When you drain oil-packed tuna, some of its omega 3 fatty acids also go down the drain. Since oil and water don’t mix, water-packed tuna won’t leach any of its precious omega-3s.

    (I originally found this tip from Anne M. Fletcher’s Eat Fish Live Better).

  • Fat Robert, Meet Skinnier Robert (How I lost 20 pounds in 6 months)

    On June 13, 2008 I weighed myself and was totally shocked. I weighed 220 pounds!  I had gained a lot of weight, most of it over the past year.

    fatrobertsmall Fat Robert, 2007

    Skinnier Robert, 2008 Skinnier Robert, Oct 2008

    When I was in college I weighed about 170 pounds, and when I went to Peace Corps I weighed about 195. During Peace Corps I kept the weight down (despite the junk food I ate, the fact I was walking everywhere kept me from gaining weight). At my last month in Albania I stayed cooped up in the capitol city (waiting for the political situation to improve), and when I took a physical at the end of service, my weight was 202, which also shocked me.

    After that point (in 1997), I kept an eye out on my weight. Between 1998 and 2001-2, I fluctuated between 202 and 210 pounds, usually around 206-7. I remember having lots of difficulty losing any weight, so I concluded that my weight had reached an equilibrium (and I stopped weighing myself, except for once every few months). As long as I was staying healthy and eating healthy, I did not worry my brain too much about it.

    In June 2008 I was researching sleep apnea (I have weird sleeping patterns and wondered if sleep apnea were the cause). The research depressed me; it seemed like a long complicated illness; just the diagnostic tests would cost a lot of money. Then I read that a strong risk factor for sleep apnea was being overweight.  The consensus in the  user forums was that reducing weight would significantly help, or at least make clear whether it was the primary cause behind the sleep problems.

    On June 13 when I saw 220 pounds, it was a shock to the system. I recognize that BMI was an imperfect gauge of health, but my BMI stood at 29.8, fractions away from obesity. I knew I had gained a few pounds, but obesity…I just couldn’t square that data with my image of myself. I was not a fat person and never would be. I had been overlooking the spare tire I was carrying and had dismissed it by saying, I could lose it, it was seasonal fat, etc. And in fact, during summers I swam a lot, so I was still in relatively good health. But  I was at a vulnerable age where middle age health problems start to appear. Also, I was still at the age where I could change personal habits. I couldn’t predict whether I’d still be able to do this 5 years from now.   Being practically obese meant higher risks of heart disease, sleep disorders, impotence, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. It was a very scary realization; I had been deluding myself; I had blamed this on shot-term factors in my personal life, but this pointed to a longer term problem. Just coasting along with moderately healthy habits was not enough.

    Here are the things I blamed: living in Houston, the fact I was taking care of a sick parent, the fact I have a high tech job, the fact that I am a writer (and have little free time), the fact that my bicycle sucks, the fact I had to rely on “quick food” at fast food restaurants when short of time, the fact my mom keeps a lot of junk food in her house, the fact that my job provides free snacks. Actually all of these things were contributing causes. But they were not primary causes.

    So I came up with a goal, a timeline and a plan. The goal would be 200 pounds by January 1, 2009. The plan was to keep a webpage devoted to my daily weighings, and in addition to changing my diet and lifestyle, I would need to have a plan for sustaining it past January. I made this webpage my home page on both my home and work computer, and the daily weigh-in was a ritual I tried to do. I know it sounds like a bother, but if weighing myself daily ensured that these 20 pounds were gone forever, that was a small price for me to pay. Here are some lifestyle changes I made:

    1. I totally stopped on fast food except  very rare occasions. (I was already 75% there).
    2. I carefully monitored my intake of chocolate (a comfort food for me).
    3. I totally restricted my free samples at supermarkets (sometimes you can really fill up on those things).
    4. I totally eliminated frozen dinners from my diet, including frozen pizza. (This was very hard, because frozen dinners saved me a lot of time).
    5. I bought individual frozen portions of raw fish, which I used for quick meals. (Microwaved fish is really easy to fix, and doesn’t taste that awful). One advantage of these individual frozen portions is that I know exactly the portion size.
    6. I vowed to do exercise videos more regularly (I  improved on that, although not as much as I had hoped).
    7. I totally refrained from eating nachos at restaurants (it was hard to keep track of what I was eating).
    8. I tried to make do on exactly one carbohydrate snack per day (later on, I refrained from doing that, although I’m not sure I can keep it up).
    9. I started eating lots of frozen blueberries. (I eat them in a bowl. Because they are high in fiber, they decrease appetite. They also taste sweet and are a guilt-free snack).
    10. I continued my habit of eating 8 almonds a day.
    11. I vowed to seek out activities involving walking or physical activity (not really successful at that).
    12. I vowed more self-control on the holiday splurges (I was only partially successful at that).
    13. I vowed to follow Michael Pollan’s advice to eat only food with ingredients my grandmother would recognize (and with no more than 5 ingredients I did not recognize). That meant substituting shredded wheat cereal with oatmeal.  I drastically decreased my intake of bread. One treat for me was fresh baked bread at HEB. But when I looked at the ingredients I saw that it was laced with hydrogenated fat and other hard-to-identify ingredients. I couldn’t believe it. How hard is it to get a decent loaf of bread these days?
    14. I’ve started making breakfast the most important meal of the day, with light lunches and modest dinners. (Note: my work schedule is more flexible than most people’s. If I have to rush off to work during rush hour, I doubt I could continue this wonderful habit).  Ironically I prepare fewer home cooked meals because I worry about my ability to keep portion sizes down.
    15. I was willing to pay more for health (such as better bread, healthy snacks like blueberries and exercise videos) because I knew these expenditures would pay off in the long run. Sometimes, if you eat higher quality food, you eat less of it. (This is not always true).

    It was not easy to implement these steps or lose weight.  But after a while I got used to that “decelerating feeling” where my body was downsizing itself. It was mildly uncomfortable, but once you realize what’s happening, you have to resist the tendency to compensate. Once I reached 210, I was ecstatic; I vowed to move on and prepare myself for my European vacation (whose effect on my weight was not yet known). As it happens, my Europe trip had an enormously beneficial (but  short-lived) effect on my weight. I lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks, but within weeks I had gained most of it again. But it reminded me what it was like to be under 200 pounds again. It felt great!

    How does life at 200 pounds differ from 220 pounds? I feel less lethargic than before, more in control of myself, a little more self-confident, a little more wary of the American tendency to overeat. I feel a little healthier (not a lot), and I certainly sleep a lot better (that was my main reason for starting this strange campaign in the first place).

    This week because I am trying to compensate for the Christmas weight gain, I’ve been trying to lose weight rapidly, which is generally not a good idea. If you work hard, you can lose 2 or 3 pounds a week (at least in the initial stages). But this rapid weight loss is hard to sustain, and eventually you resume normal diet patterns.

    It’s easy to gain 5 pounds within 2 weeks as well, so when I’m now at 200, I really think of my current weight as 205 (my absolute ceiling). In fact, I won’t think I’ve truly gotten to 200 until I’ve settled at 197 or 198 for several weeks.  My next goal is to reach 190 by July 1, 2009. I think that is attainable and desirable, but if I don’t reach it, I won’t feel that bad. I’ve passed the main obstacle; everything past this is a smaller obstacle.

    In November I bought a pedometer and learned a lot of things about my walking. A healthy person is expected to walk about 6000 steps daily, with the ideal being 10,000. When I recorded my daily steps, I was shocked to find that on some of my days at work I would walk only 3000-3200 steps.  It’s true that I would do exercise videos in the morning, but it made clear to me that without this video workout,  the “normal Houston lifestyle” would be deadly. Unfortunately I had no solution to the  problem – at least one that didn’t take away more of my already scarce free time. I will be obtaining a dog in the next day or two, and I expect that doing that  will easily increase my daily steps to 5000 (although it’s unclear if it will simply reduce my time for exercising).

    Another factor in the equation is that I don’t socialize as much as most people. If that were to change (and I had less energy to concentrate on keeping my weight down), I don’t know how it would affect my weight. A lot of people  are parents or actively involved in volunteer groups. They would never have the attention span to concentrate on weight loss.   Spouses can  have dramatic effects on your diet; they whittle down willpower and often bake and cook lavish things in an attempt to make you happy. I wonder if the self-control I have won at such cost will be tossed out in a few months of living with a woman who is a great cook. Also, when you have a significant other, you tend to eat out more. Unfortunately spouses reinforce one another’s bad habits (but with weight gain, I think it’s the other way around; men’s bad eating habits rub off on the wife).  To my future wife who is reading this: I will keep my daily weight journal every day for the rest of my life  to track my progress (forward or backward).

    After reading several essays by Gary Taubes, I completely accept the Atkins thesis that carbohydrates contribute to weight gain because it increases appetite. The jury is still out, of course, and calorie reduction should remain the ultimate goal, but Taubes makes a convincing case that reducing appetite is probably the best way to reduce weight.  I also buy into the notion that obesity is contagious and dependent on what kind of people you hang around with. Unfortunately, in the geek world, lots of people have sedentary lifestyles, so there is the tendency to judge yourself against your peers rather than  against some objective benchmark. But BMIs do not lie. Also, the fact that median caloric intake among Americans have increased from 3300 calories in the 1970s to 3900 calories in 1997 is a very revealing (and damning) statistic.

    By the way, if you intend to lose weight, I highly recommend taking photographs of yourself before you start (just like those crazy ads in the newspaper). I have almost no photos of Fat Robert; perhaps I was trying to hide facing  myself.

    I know my weight will fluctuate over time, and I’m sure I will revisit this post in the future to indicate how successful each strategy has been in the long term. But this is my collected wisdom as of January 2009. Happy New years everyone!

    Postscript Jan 19, 2010. Some bad news. I have done some back sliding. Although I basically kept most of the weight off for about a year, over the last 4 months the numbers have gradually been increasing. I finally returned to a semblance of control at 210 and am bringing it down slowly, and now I’m arrived at a long term goal (which I feel is attainable). Keep my weight under 205. It means having to face the fact that 20 pounds may have been unrealistic (given my penchants and lifestyle). On the bright side, I’m going to get a dog soon, and I have high hopes that the extra exercise will have a positive effect.

    P.S.S. March 29, 2021. Crisis time again. In 2016, my weight went up to 230, and then after a long hiatus and multiple financial crises, I ended up living at my mom’s — and in my first visit to the doctor in 4.5 years, shocked to discover that my weight is 270. (I hadn’t weighed myself since 2018 and I hadn’t visited a doctor since Feb 2017).  I’ll write about  the causes of this increases and my action plan; suffice to say here that this time there it’s not just an self-improvement  exercise in narcissism. I am literally trying to save my life! 

  • What’s for between-meal meal?

    Michael Pollan writes:

    But the biggest threat to the meal-as-we-knew-it is surely the snack, and snacking in recent years has colonized whole new parts of our day and places in our lives. Work, for example, used to be a more or less food-free stretch of time between meals, but no longer. Offices now typically have well-stocked kitchens, and it is apparently considered gauche at a business meeting or conference if a spread of bagels, muffins, pastries and soft drinks is not provided at frequent intervals. Attending a recent conference on nutrition and health, of all things, I was astounded to see that in addition to the copious buffet at breakfast, lunch and dinner, our hosts wheeled out a copious buffet halfway between breakfast and lunch and then again halfway between lunch and dinner, evidently worried that we would not be able to survive the long crossing from one meal to the next without a between-meal meal.

    I may be showing my age, but didn’t there used to be at least a mild social taboo against the between-meal snack? Well, it is gone. Americans today mark time all day long with nibbles of food and sips of soft drinks, which must be constantly at their sides, lest they expire during the haul between breakfast and lunch.(The snack food and beverage industry has surely been the great beneficiary of the new social taboo against smoking which used to perform much the same time-marking function). We have engineered our cars to accommodate our snacks, adding bigger cup holders and even refrigerated glove compartments, and we’ve reengineered food to be more easily eaten in the car. According to the Harvard economists’ calculations, the bulk of the calories we’ve added to our diet over the past 20 years have come in the form of snacks.

    His book In Defense of Food talks more about the social aspects of eating. Fascinating read.

    Pollan has a lot of things online already. See Unhappy Meals and an Open Letter to the Farmer-in-Cheif.

    See also his answer of NYT reader questions. See also the recent Bill Moyers interview:

    BILL MOYERS: I will make a confession that will show you how hard this is because there is so much human nature at play here. I mean, I like to take my grandkids to McDonald’s because it enables me to cheat a little, right. So how do you convince us that we’re contributing to climate change, we’re contributing to a precarious national security, we’re contributing to bad health? What do you say to us that moves us?

    MICHAEL POLLAN: Well, the first thing I would say is, I’m not a, you know, I’m not a Puritan about food. And I’m not a zealot about it. And there is something called special occasion food that we have in our house. And it’s kind of understood that sometimes you go, you enjoy your fast food. You have your Twinkie, whatever it is. People have done this for thousands of years. There’s nothing wrong with doing it. Our problem is we’ve made special occasion food everyday food and that one in three American children are at a fast-food outlet every single day. And that’s where you get into trouble.

    Fun fact: Michael Pollan used to be an editor at Harpers.

    The interview covers a lot of things, including school lunch programs. It just so happens that a month ago I heard about an amazing nonprofit called Recipe for Success that helps elementary schools around Houston  start gardens to grow vegetables. Then they invite chefs from restaurants to give guest lectures about preparing fresh vegetables. What a great idea! (I saw their outreach coordinator give a talk about their group, and saw some amazing videos about what they’re doing.

  • Minimum wage is now $6.55

    According to Tony Pugh, the federal minimal wage rose yesterday to $6.55 (It has been in the $5 range for over a decade).

    Robert Reich thinks the problem lies in depressed worker productivity:

    But there’s also a limit to how many hours Americans can put into work, so Americans turned to a third coping mechanism. They began to borrow. With housing prices rising briskly through the 1990s and even faster from 2002 to 2006, they turned their homes into piggy banks by refinancing home mortgages and taking out home-equity loans. But this third strategy also had a built-in limit. And now, with the bursting of the housing bubble, the piggy banks are closing. Americans are reaching the end of their ability to borrow and lenders have reached the end of their capacity to lend. Credit-card debt, meanwhile, has reached dangerous proportions. Banks are now pulling back.

    As a result, typical Americans have run out of coping mechanisms to keep up their standard of living. That means there’s not enough purhasing power in the economy to buy all the goods and services it’s producing. We’re finally reaping the whirlwind of widening inequality and ever more concentrated wealth.

    Stephen Dubner interviews an agricultural economist Daniel Sumner:

    Farm subsidies that lower prices hurt farmers in poor countries by helping consumers in these countries. My best estimate in the case of cotton is that the world cotton price would be about 10 percent higher if U.S. farm subsidies for cotton were eliminated. The impact is likely smaller for most other commodities. So the impacts would be a modest improvement of farm incomes, but as we show in our paper for Oxfam, cited in my introduction, even most improvement of farm prices can make a measurable difference to the living standards of the very poor.

  • Does Socializing Help the Elderly (or Does Reading)?

    Tara Parker-Pope on whether socializing helps elderly people healthwise. Actually the comments are much more interesting that the blog post itself: One Barbara writes:

    I am growing weary of these studies and how valid the results are. There is a huge bias in our society that being social is better than being a loner. I have seen children pushed into an unhappy social life. What about introspection and studying – are they no longer positive?

    Over the years I have moved around a lot to different countries and parts of this country but as people age it is increasing difficult to make new meaningful relationship. Like most young people I choose to be social online rather than stand around mouthing platitudes and polite but extremely dull ’social chat’. I have tried social groups like that and frankly I would rather be home with a good book.

    Also the statement that playing Bridge will keep your mind sharp is nonsense. I was bored by Bridge in college and I am now.

    Americans are constantly coming up with new schemes to make us all ‘normal’ and too much alike. How completely boring. Socializing isn’t the the answer for everyone. What about all the very social people who develop dementia and Alzheimers. Nobel Prize winners develop the same. I think going for a nice long hike alone in nature will do just as much for you. Introverts Unite. — Posted by Barbara Crowley

    A friend of mine (Michael Barrett) writes:

    These comments seem more interesting and thoughtful than the study. I hope I’m warding off dementia with this time-consuming surfing.

    Barbara (#13), I very much like your provocative and articulate post about the American prejudice for socializing over solitude. I hope you won’t mind a little friendly provocation back at you, but when I look carefully at some your statements, I get the impression that you think of interaction with others in terms of mouthing platitudes with boring people. Why is that? Don’t you know anybody as smart and interesting as you? At the risk of mouthing a platitude, people who find activities with others boring might be the boring ones.

    Since you obviously know how to express yourself, are well read, and don’t mind pushing others’ buttons a little, let me make a suggestion that could make your next oppressively enforced social interactions bearable. If others don’t read or don’t like the same books as you, we can at least assume they’ve had a life. So forget about being polite and ask them if they remember their first lover, or how they lost their virginity. What did they do in the war (whichever war)? What was their first job and how much did they get paid? What person have they hated the most? Who loved the most? Did they ever have an abortion? Did they ever have a homosexual encounter, or know anyone gay? What comic strip did they love as a child?

    If they can’t rise to questions like these and others, I give you permission to give up on them. But in order to find other people interesting, you must first be interested instead of perpetually thinking “I’m wasting my time that could be spent hiking or reading.” If you’re not interested, then others have permission to give up on you.

    Don’t take this personally. I speak entirely as a person who would usually rather read than hang around others, which may be why I’m online, so I know where you’re coming from. I also know that my solitude isn’t necessarily a badge of honor.

    I say something:

    To make the obvious connection: book clubs and reading groups are a good activity for introverted book lovers. Some studies of youth who play videogames show that it is a socializing activity (despite the fear that it leads to cocooning). Books, like videogames give people new things to talk about, and the perspective of different generations about a book is always appreciated.

    Another brilliant remark by Doug Terry:

    In regard to the separation of cause and effect, some events can be both cause and effect, closely intertwined. It isn’t necessarily “either/or”. In general, however, I have no doubt that social engagement has great benefits at all stages of life. One aspect, in fact, of longer life in Mediterranean peoples could be, beyond diet, the fact that they live in a social structure which allows frequent interaction with others. In contrast, we have a social system in the States which places value on isolation from others. As soon as anyone comes into a significant sum of money in the U.S., what do they do? They build or buy a big house on a big lot, away from others. The most “exclusive” residences feature long driveways and even locked gates to keep people out. One pays for “first class” on airlines, in part, to avoid talking with those seated around you. The executive suites of major corporations are quiet zones, guarded by executive assistants, where the actual business of the corporation, and its people, can be presumed to be a distant, unknown world.

    In Europe, it is common to see older and younger generations dinning together in restaurants. Here, they must remain separated, except for a few special occasions. It is presumed that the very young live in a world unknown to their parents and the clash of these worlds, and values, must be avoided. What is actually avoided is calm social interaction and the sharing of values as well as the experience and wisdom of older people.

    The practice of shipping old people, or them shipping themselves, off the Florida for the last decade or so of life is, in part, a reflection of social denial of death. To look on the old is to see where we all will one day reside, if we live long enough.

    The study of older people, memory loss and other related health issues, is something that is clouded greatly by our conditioned attitudes toward aging. As one example, it has been confirmed that tissue studies done on aged brains included those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In other words, the studies were biased by contaminated samples. This, however, fits in with the notion of prejudicial assumptions about the effect of aging. It is widely assumed by many that older people are bumbling idiots. In this case, those with serious dementia issues are taken by younger people, including doctors, as representative samples.

    We are in a new age in regard to aging. People are living longer on average and many more people are healthy well into their 70s and 80s. The effects of aging are stark and undeniable, but we haven’t begun to understand what could be consider “average” or “normal” effects.

    Phil adds:

    While social activities are important for any age group, especially the elderly, this is basically “feel good” research. As such, many people can associate with the theme, but can’t use it to get any results in the real world. If it were possible, a survey of persons over 80 years of age, i.e., actually elderly (not 50’s or 60’s) would likely show that many persons with dementia had very active social lives prior to their current condition.

    The problem with research of this type, even when it comes from Harvard, is that it takes up valuable discussion time which could be used to “definitely” PREVENT a significant number of “future” dementia cases. That discussion should be on “drug-induced dementia”. Every day, an elderly person is given prescription drugs at home or anesthesia during major surgery which induces a dementia. Unfortunately, some medical personnel have a sudden “memory loss” and forget that the drug or anesthesia is the problem and proceed to prescribe “Alzheimer’s drugs”. Given that the patient is elderly, expectations quickly build that this is a case of dementia. Solving the problem of drug-induced dementia won’t solve all of the dementia problems, including Alzheimer’s. However, it should be able to prevent a reasonable number of elderly patients from being admitted to a nursing home for a problem they don’t have. If the Harvard researchers and the other Alzheimer’s organizations are truly interested in the mental well-being of citizens, why not focus on this problem and solve it. Don’t be surprised if the remaining pool of patients with confirmed dementias will be much smaller.

    This question affects me directly on several levels. First, my dad has Alzheimer’s and our family is never sure whether social causes aggravated its onset. Getting old and retiring can be a isolating activity. My dad, normally a very social guy became hard of hearing and didn’t stay active during retirement; we have to wonder whether it may have contributed. My mother, who is very socially engaged, nonetheless lives in a retirement community. At first glance, that sounds like a good option, but these segregated neighborhoods might not offer the  variety of social contexts you might  find in a mixed neighborhood. Finally, as someone who has been single all of my life, I have to deal with solitude on a daily basis, and writing only makes it harder.  It removes lots of opportunities for meeting people; I just don’t have the chance to hang out with people (though I do enjoy it). I try to stay very engaged, both in life and friendships and families and organizations. But it’s not the same.  I consider my life uneventful, and not particularly prone to depression or mood swings, but isolation increases the self-focus (and therefore the stress). There is no feedback from others, no stress buffers, no people to intervene if you feel overwhelmed. In fact, single people are usually counted on to “help out” couples and families with the “burden of raising a family.”). I’m not really complaining. In fact, if viewed in a certain way, single people have a much more interesting network of friends and acquaintances in a way that married people can’t imagine.  Married people make lots of contacts by necessity. Babysitters, teachers, day care workers, neighbors. They just don’t have time to make the acquaintance of a random person in the supermarket.  Single people have lots of freedom in making and keeping friends  (and they don’t need to ponder the consequences of their actions on their significant other). For remarkable insight into living alone, see Barbara Feldon’s remarkable book Living Alone and Loving It.  As an aside, many religious people (especially Catholics) have insights into the solitary contemplative life.

    (Conversely, as Leslie Kaufman reports, they also now are developing  insights about loving partnerships).

    Conversations with real people may be more therapeutic than reading (or videogaming, etc), but it can also be very boring. Why hang around real people when you could be hanging around Flaubert or Kafka? Generally, no one can stay socially engaged all the time. They have to replenish their energies alone. For me, the problem is lacking time to do these solitary pursuits. Does that mean having to push away family and friends….just to finish that 3rd novel by R.K. Narayan? The choices are stark and confusing. 

    On a related note, I am trying to lose weight and  logging progress at this URL  (public, but not so public that readers will remember to follow it).

  • My Strange Campaign (Tips for Losing Weight)

    Started June 13. Goal is Jan 1, 2009=200.  That’s about a pound to lose every 7 days. I expect to get to 210 without major effort, but under that will be tough going. Google, curse you for archiving this for eternity! For those random surfers, this refers to the weight naked on my bathroom scale at 7 AM in the morning (before eating).  See also the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s guide to controlling your weight). See this BMI calculator and how to measure the waist-to-hip ratio See also my musings about the real cause of weight gain.  Here’s CDC statistics on the percentage of obesity by state and here is a listing of median BMIs by age and gender. Webmd  (a health/nutrition site where MDs review all content)has good articles about exercising to keep lean and dieting the smart way. From an article about Flab Over  40,  “your metabolism tends to decelerate by about 5% for every decade of life past age 40, so that if your resting metabolic rate is, say, 1,200 calories per day at age 40, it will be around 1,140 at age 50. At age 40 to maintain your weight, that is to not gain weight, you’re going to have to eat 100 calories less a day, and that has nothing to do with anything other than the natural course of aging.” From the same article:

    Muscle is far more “metabolically active” than fat, meaning that lean, more muscular people have an easier time burning calories at rest than to people with higher proportions of body fat. “Let’s say I’ve worked out at the gym and I have a new pound on board, or, for that matter, I take an old muscle mass on me that’s untrained and now I train it and preserve that pound. That muscle mass may now burn between 35 to 50 calories extra a day, versus the same pound of fat, which would burn anywhere from 5-10 calories a day.

    Here’s something fun: a description of height-weight ratios with photos from real people! See this diet blog. See also this list of exercise do’s and don’t for losing weight.

    I recommend this book about the psychology of successful weight losers. Thin for Life: 10 Keys to Success by Anne M. Fletcher. Instead of focusing on nutrition, she focuses on lifestyle and motivation (which is the hardest part). This is the best book I’ve found so far.

    I’m not an eat-all-the-bacon-you-want Atkins devotee. But the science piece by Gary Taubes about low carbohydrate diet seemed very convincing. (His piece was attacked by critics, but Taubes responded adequately).  Here’s a one hour video by  Gary Taubes which goes over everything more methodically (highly recommended). Here’s the money quote: “The amount of fat consumed has been steadily climbing, as has consumption of all calories. Individual caloric consumption jumped from 3,300 calories per day in 1970-79 to 3,900 in 1997, an 18 percent increase. Per-person consumption of fat grams increased from 149 to 156, a 4.5 percent increase.”

    See this June 2009 study suggesting that being  slightly overweight (i.e., BMI between 25-29) might confer health advantages over being average or slightly underweight.

    See this August cover story by John Cloud about why exercise may not reduce weight as well as once thought because it can increase appetite. Mike Howard writes a detailed response to the Time article, saying  that

    In the meta-analyses (compilation of studies) regarding exercise and weight loss, exercise typically has a “modest” effect on weight loss. Again, it’s not going to do much in the absence of dietary change. On studies that have a diet only, exercise only, and exercise plus diet groups, the exercise plus diet groups (with scant exception) come out on top when it comes to weight/fat loss. Diet only, almost always beats out exercise only…. One very well conducted 12 week study by Kramer et. al., which included both aerobic, strength training, and a dietary control, showed the following results. Fat mass losses – diet only: 6.7kg, diet/cardio: 7kg, diet/cardio/resistance: 10kg. Most noteworthy – the D+C+R group lost almost no lean tissue whatsoever, whereas the diet only group lost almost 3kg worth of lean tissue.

    Mike Howard writes another response about how to avoid binging after exercise and ranks the importance of various strategies: 1. Diet, 2.Strength training 3. Higher intensity cardio training, 4.  Lower intensity cardio training and 5. NEAT and other day-to-day movement (i.e. walking). Gretchen Reynolds summarizes exercise vs. diet research in April 2010. Although the evidence doesn’t suggest firm conclusions,  the link between exercise and weight maintenance seems a little stronger.

    Lately, I’ve started wearing a pedometer. Here’s some advice about daily walking. From an advice site:

    The recommended number of steps is 6000 for health, 10,000 for weight loss when you count all steps during the day. For weight loss, an uninterrupted walk each day of 4000-6000 steps is recommended.

    I’ve been looking into the concepts of glycemic index and glycemic load as it relates to weight loss. Here’s a list of glycemic loads for most food and a recent analysis suggesting that a low glycemic load diet may only result in weight loss for people with certain insulin patterns. (More about the study).

    Here’s a fascinating study suggesting that exercising before breakfast tends to help with weight reduction:

    “Only the group that exercised before breakfast gained almost no weight and showed no signs of insulin resistance. They also burned the fat they were taking in more efficiently. “Our current data,” the study’s authors wrote, “indicate that exercise training in the fasted state is more effective than exercise in the carbohydrate-fed state to stimulate glucose tolerance despite a hypercaloric high-fat diet.”

    Just how exercising before breakfast blunts the deleterious effects of overindulging is not completely understood, although this study points toward several intriguing explanations. For one, as has been known for some time, exercising in a fasted state (usually possible only before breakfast), coaxes the body to burn a greater percentage of fat for fuel during vigorous exercise, instead of relying primarily on carbohydrates. When you burn fat, you obviously don’t store it in your muscles. In “our study, only the fasted group demonstrated beneficial metabolic adaptations, which eventually may enhance oxidative fatty acid turnover,” said Peter Hespel, Ph.D., a professor in the Research Center for Exercise and Health at Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and senior author of the study.

    At the same time, the fasting group showed increased levels of a muscle protein that “is responsible for insulin-stimulated glucose transport in muscle and thus plays a pivotal role in regulation of insulin sensitivity,” Dr Hespel said.

    In other words, working out before breakfast directly combated the two most detrimental effects of eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet. It also helped the men avoid gaining weight.

    Here’s some interesting research about green tea and weight loss: The antioxidant catechin in green tea raises resting metabolism by 4% (that’s about 80 calories per day). Yet another reason to drink that green tea!

    May 2012 Update. Here is a java-based weight loss simulator. It helps you estimate the daily calorie targets and more importantly the targets when trying to maintain the weight. It takes a while to load, but it’s full-featured. Here’s an interview with the mathematician who created this simulator. He states:

    …the conventional wisdom of 3,500 calories less is what it takes to lose a pound of weight is wrong. The body changes as you lose. Interestingly, we also found that the fatter you get, the easier it is to gain weight. An extra 10 calories a day puts more weight onto an obese person than on a thinner one.

    Also, there’s a time constant that’s an important factor in weight loss. That’s because if you reduce your caloric intake, after a while, your body reaches equilibrium. It actually takes about three years for a dieter to reach their new “steady state.” Our model predicts that if you eat 100 calories fewer a day, in three years you will, on average, lose 10 pounds — if you don’t cheat.

    Another finding: Huge variations in your daily food intake will not cause variations in weight, as long as your average food intake over a year is about the same. This is because a person’s body will respond slowly to the food intake.

    June 13, 2008: 220 pounds (100 Kilograms). 29.8 BMI (This was my starting point).

    Jan 1, 2009 goal: 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms); Actual Weight: 202 (See my post about how I tried to meet this goal).

    July 1, 2009 goal: 190 pounds  (86 kilograms); Actual Weight: 202 (91.8 kilograms)

    Jan 1, 2010 goal: 195 pounds (88.4) kilograms. Actual Weight: 210 (95.2 kilograms)

    July 1, 2010 goal: Having a hard ceiling of 205 pounds. (A hard ceiling is a number I will never go over, even during the normal fluctuations of weight. To achieve this, my normal weight would need to be 202-3. Actual Weight: 215.5 (97.7  kilograms)

    Jan 1, 2011 goal. 205 pounds (with a hard ceiling of 210). Actual Weight: 224 (102.1 kg) 30.4 bmi.

    July 1, 2011 goal. 205 pounds (with a hard ceiling of 210). Actual Weight:

    Jan 1, 2013 goal 220 pounds (with a hard ceiling of 212).

    Change in BMI (I’m 6′ 0″”). June 2008: 29.8, January 1, 2009 (target: 27.1; actual= ), July 1 2009 (target: 25.8, actual=)

    • Just a test
    • Oct 29, 2012. 229 (For the record, these last 2 weeks I have been weighing myself with minor increases and decreases, but only got around to posting things now).
    • Oct 11, 2012 229. (For the record, if the number is the same, I will not normally add it here).
    • Oct 6, 2012 230. I will start measuring again regularly. Time to improve that BMI!
    • May 15 2012. I am guessing that I am 220-225. I have not been able to focus on weight and exercise, but now is probably a time to resume this. I won’t weigh myself as conscientiously as before, but frankly this is a good time to begin again.
    • Wed June 29 2011 222. After a weekend of overeating, I have settled on a regular exercise schedule. (finally!)
    • Wed June 22 223. (6100 steps) Started exercising again. Horray!
    • Tue June 21 223. Went off diet over weekend. Watermelon, kind of sick.
    • Fri June 10 222. (8400 steps). Ate grapes, cafeteria lunch.
    • Thur June 9. 220. I calculated that with my new living arrangement, I walk 6400 steps (about 2.8 miles).
    • Wed June 8. 221. I’m actually glad it’s not worse. A lot of things have happened. First, I am working downtown,  with a more regular workschedule. That means taking the bus (and doing a lot more walking!) confronting the temptation of a bottomless candy jar 10 feet away from me, lots of running-around-meals and no time to do formal exercise. My place isn’t even set up for that yet.  I can work down from that, and frankly I’m looking forward to it. I’ve hated being at this weight.
    • Tue Feb 1 218.5. Still unemployed…still losing weight!
    • Wed Jan 19 219.5 The new unemployment diet seems to be working! Life without chocolate seems strange.
    • Fri Dec 23 223
    • Thur Dec 23 222.5
    • Wed Dec 22 223.5
    • Mon Dec 20 225 I’ve stopped eating chocolate. I might resume that once my weight hits a certain target (200? 210? Let’s see how long I can hold out).
    • Thur Dec 16. This has been a period of great stress for me, and weight loss is not something I can concentrate on. I’m focused now on damage control with the hope that I can have a fresh start in 2011.  I won’t be weighing myself for the rest of the year — although I will start doing it regularly in January.
    • Tue Nov 30 227. It could have been worse! (2 thanksgiving dinners this year). Have two gigantic meals on Friday and Saturday, so preparing.
    • Fri Nov 19 226.
    • Thur Nov 18 228. This is very confusing. Aside from peanut butter, my diet hasn’t changed that radically. My exercise has declined to be sure, but not by that much. By the way, the infrequency of measurement does not imply lack of attention to weight. It usually means that my eating or sleeping schedule is erratic and I am not able to give a good/accurate reading.
    • Sat Oct 30 227. This has been a weird 3 weeks, but this is inexcusable.
    • Thur Oct 7 222
    • Mon Oct 4 226.5
    • Sat Oct 2 224
    • Fri Oct 1 222.5
    • Sat Sept 25 224. Not sure what’s going on. (Ate Thai Spice yesterday; sort of an off day).
    • Fri Sept 24 222.5 I expect the first 10 pounds or so will be easier to get off. I have learned how to lose weight and what missteps to avoid.
    • Thur Sept 23 223.
    • Wed Sept 22 223.5
    • Tue Sept 21 224
    • Mon Sept 20 224 I need to explain a lot  of things. I’ve been busy working on a book project that has consumed my time and disrupted my routine. I could not weigh myself in the mornings mainly because I could never come up with a standard time to do it that would be comparable.  (If dinner is delayed and becomes a late night snack, it’s hard to keep track of calories).  After some reflection, I think the causes of my weight gain could be attributable to 1)the schedule-disrupting effect of this work project, 2)the schedule disrupting effect of my dog and 3)eating too much peanut butter.  My diet hasn’t really deteriorated too much; I still eat food of fairly high quality — i just eat more of it…and without really being accountable for the amount.  I spend a lot of time in front of the computer screen, and I graze an awful lot. The good thing about a routine is that you have a sense about how much and how often you should eat.  My dog AJ has gotten me out of doors a lot more, but I end up doing a lot less exercise. The time for AJ collides with the time for exercise in the morning, and I say that as someone who has the luxury of working from home. Perhaps the underlying problem is having an unstructured schedule.  I think it will help to get back into weighing myself every morning.  Finally, the thing about peanut butter is that it’s hard to do portion control for it. (I have a similar problem with chocolate).  I tried to fit peanut butter into my diet in moderate doses, but it’s pretty clear that it won’t work except on rare occasions.
    • Sun July 11 216.  Yesterday found a lot of cheap fruit. Yippee! Talked to a nutritionist about high glycemic loads. Sigh, one more variable to worry about!
    • Fri July 9 216.  Wed I ate a lot of cheese!  Am getting back to working out though.
    • Mon July 6 217.5 Holy moly!
    • Thur July 1 216.  This has been pretty typical.
    • Fri June 11 215. Weighed in a little late in the day.
    • Thur June 10 217.5 I am sorry to report this, but I think that working from home is taking its toll. Not enough activity, too much easy access to food. I bought peanut butter yesterday, and am beginning to conclude that peanut butter + bagel may never be a part of my diet. Shucks!
    • Wed June 9 216. Grapes overdose.
    • Mon June 7 215.5 .Ok, cutting down on the peanut butter!
    • Sun June 6 217.5 surprising, but I’m sure we will be going down for the rest of the week.
    • Sat June 5 217.5 I’m not sure what’s going on. Yes, I ate a bit more than usual (mainly fruits & fresh peanut butter) and even exercised. I expect this to go down quickly but the fact it reached this high is really really scary.
    • Fri Jun 4 215.5
    • Thur June 3 214.5 I knew this would go up a bit, but yesterday was a very good day. I expect trends to go down for the next week.
    • Wed June 2 213. I didn’t deserve this, having slacked off on exercise and diet. However, I am back on track now. Hurrah!
    • Sat May 29 215.5
    • Fri May 28 215.5  Did housesitting at mom’s house for a week. Lots of junk food, no exercise. I’ll be working extra hard to get these off.
    • Fri May 21 212. Interestingly i practically starved myself yesterday (no reason). Before I ate dinner at midnight, I weighed myself (212.5). So after eating a small meal and sleeping 7 hours I am now 212. That’s how much sleeping time burns calories.
    • Thur May 20 213
    • Sun May 16  212.5 I’ll be going up over the next few days, but at last I feel like I’m regaining control over my life.
    • Sat May 15 213.5
    • Fr May 14 214
    • Thur May 13 213. Last week my father died, and so my diet was crazy. I did not work out for almost 2 whole weeks. This week I am getting back to normal. For the rest of the year, my diet will be on a tight leash. If I lose a pound a week, I could get back to 200 in no time. Watch me try.
    • Fri April 30 213.5 I knew a might be a little high (maybe it’s because of my recent splurge in Mexican food and my recent Austin weekend/wiener dog splurge). I’ve identified 2 areas: exceeding the chocolate dosage and pouring too much honey on my oatmeal. Also, on shopping days, I tend to get stuffed on peanut butter. But generally, I  haven’t been eating a lot or big meals. I expect this to go down to 210 in a week, but still this only underscores the collision between perception and reality.
    • Sun April 19 209.5 parents yesterday, shopping. peanut butter, yeah!
    • Sat April 17 209 Over the last few weeks I’m sure my weight has fluctuated, but I’m getting it under control.
    • Fri March 26 210.  This is encouraging news. I haven’t totally improved my diet and lifestyle, but I’m starting to exercise more regularly.
    • Fri Mar 12 211.5 This is hopeful, but I know yesterday I had several big meals. It will bounce back, but I think SXSW will knock a pound or two off me.
    • Wed Mar 10 213 I hope to get under 210 by the end of next week. (I’ll be at sxsw conference)
    • March 1 213.5 I am still not getting onto a normal schedule, but at least I am aware of the enormity of the problem.
    • Thur Feb 25 214.5 I am shocked, but this is a teachable moment. First, in my opinion my diet has not changed all that radically (although occasionally I will eat too much chocolate on one day and eat too much when visiting family). Second, having a dog has disrupted my schedule. It has made it impossible to do the daily exercises although I thought it was being offset by all the dog walks I am taking. Third, my work schedule has been intense lately, and I have disregarded certain things and become a night owl. Fifth, I have actually gone from a 3 meal day to a 2 meal day, so that is why I am surprised at the sudden jump. I can’t really say which is driving my weight up; suffice to say, I will be weighing in a lot more regularly from now on.
    • Thur Feb 4 211.5
    • Wed Jan 20 to Wed Feb 3 I’ve been busy on work deadlines and trying to adjust to living with my new dog. Truthfully, I’ve been ODing on chocolate and my sleep schedule has been upside down; I wonder if that had anything to do with it.
    • Tue Jan 19 210
    • Mon Jan 18 210.5
    • Sat Jun 16 211
    • Tue  Jan 12 211.5. I’m back on schedule. Also, I’ve thoroughly cleaned my living room which gives more room for exercises. I need to mention that the reason I skip days is not that I’ve “played hookey” (although sometimes it’s true). The main reason is that there is something unusual about my eating or waking schedule so that the reading wouldn’t be a fair comparison.
    • Sat Jan 9 213. This is extremely discouraging. I knew there would be a weight increase — just not that much! (I don’t feel enormous!) Last Wednesday was a big festive occasion, but I returned to diet immediately after that. On the bright side, I have done spring cleaning (well, winter cleaning) in my apartment in preparation for my dog. Suddenly the living room is roomier and easier to do daily workouts in. Also, the dog should get me out walking more. (It has been cold all week, and I’ve stayed indoors a lot).
    • Jan 1 2010 ???????? I’m guessing 210. I’ve been unable to weigh myself
    • Fri Dec 18 to Thur Jan 7. Wow, I didn’t weigh myself once!  I’ve had a few unusual and very appetizing few weeks. Lots of parties. Yesterday for example attended Trinity U.’s annual job networking party. Those shrimp with bacon things were divine!
    • Thur Dec 17 208.5 . All right! We’re on a roll! I want to reach 205 by Jan 1!
    • Wed Dec 16 209.5 Settling down to normalcy.
    • Tue Dec 15. 210. This really concerns me. My goal is to hit 205 by New Years.
    • Tue Dec 8 to Mon Dec 14. Took a break. Big party at parents. Weekend of Lost episodes, etc.
    • Mon Dec 7 207.5 This is somewhat low (yesterday I fasted). But it’s notable that I decided to remove beef from my diet.
    • Wed Nov 25 to Sun Dec 6. Thanksgiving + 6 days of the flu. Didn’t weigh myself at all. Ate weird stuff. I wasn’t myself.
    • Tue Nov 24. 211. I knew I had slacked off, but this is surprising. Oh well.
    • Tue Nov 17. 207. Lucky.
    • Fri Nov 13 to Mon Nov 16. 208. Dinner at mom’s house Saturday. General weekend laziness.
    • Thurs Nov 12 208.5. Black-eyed peas plus a ton of oatmeal.
    • Sat Nov 7 to Wed Nov 11. Fluctuates. I think I went down to 207 before rising to 209 again on Wednesday. Curiously, my diet was fairly normal (as was my exercise routine).
    • Fri Nov 6 207.5 Oddly I fell asleep before eating dinner. But I still think the number will be descending anyway.
    • Thur Nov 5 208 Catching up. I’m skipping lunch permanently now.
    • Wed Nov 4 209 inexplicable. Maybe because no exercise?
    • Sun Nov 1-Tue Nov 3. 207. biking 2 hours yesterday.
    • Sat Oct 31. 209.5 This was shocking; o dietary detours.
    • Thur Oct 29 – Fri Oct 30 208.5 Progress is slow but steady.
    • Wed Oct 28 209. Thus begins the descent from the weekend splurge. (I started my contract job yesterday also).
    • Tue Oct 27 209.5. I expect this to plummet over the next few days, but still a  worrisome development.
    • Fri Oct 23 to Mon Oct 26. Weekend party in Dallas. Totally off diet
    • Tue Oct 13 to Thur Oct 22. Fluctuates. Haven’t been good. 207.5
    • Mon Oct 12 207
    • Wed Oct 7 to Sun Oct 11.  207-8 Erratic diet. Quite worrisome. Lots of grapes! steak!
    • Tue Oct 6 207. Lots of exercise today, but ate several tortillas with avocados (which are supposed to be healthy, albeit high in calories).
    • Mon Oct 5 206
    • Sun  Oct 4 207
    • Wed Sept 23 to Sat Oct 3. My diet has not been maintained, especially during my DC trip.  207
    • Tue Sept 22. 206.5
    • Sat Sept 19 to Mon Sept 21. Way off diet (High school reunion!).  Too afraid to weigh myself!
    • Fri Sept 18 206.5
    • Thur Sept 17 207. Frankly I am shocked that the weight hasn’t gone down. I have pretty much reduced calories by at least a third since Sunday.
    • Wed Sept 16 207.5
    • Tue Sept 15 207
    • Mon Sept 14. 206.5 I expect this to go down over the next few days, but I’m still not close to the 200 range anymore.
    • Sun Sept 13. 208. This is shocking. I had strayed from my diet, but not by THAT much. (I was 204 early in the previous week).
    • Tue Sept 1. 203. Frankly I am relieved.
    • Sat Aug 29-Mon Aug 31. 204? Includes my daylong marathon of watching Lost episodes.
    • Fri August 28 205.
    • Mon Aug 10 to Thur Aug 27. 204-5. After one relapse, I’ve been steady at 204-5, unable to get out of that rut. But I’ve started exercising more religiously.
    • Sun Aug 9. Getting caught up. I’ve decided that exercising out of bed is the only way to guarantee I’ll actually do it.
    • Wed Aug 5-8 203-4.  Big meals, general laziness.
    • Tue Aug 4. 202.5 I skipped a meal yesterday (breakfast) with a slightly larger dinner than usual.
    • Thur July 30 to Mon Aug 3. Hi, in the 204-206 range. But on Monday finally I exercised and getting on schedule again!
    • Wed July 29 204.5. Shocking!
    • Mon July 27 203
    • Friday July 24 202.5
    • Thur July 23 202.5
    • Wed July 22. 204. Owww. (This will be going down tomorrow I guarantee).
    • Tue July 21 203.5 Oops.
    • Mon July 20: 203. This was kind of disappointing. Slight overeating at parents; also Sunday OD on cherries.
    • Fri July 17 to Sun July 19: 201.
    • Thur July 16. 201. Job interview today. Early morning workout gave me energy!
    • Wed July 15 201. A welcome surprise. I really cut back on Monday, but Tuesday was back to normal.
    • Tue July 14: 202. Morning workout, bicycle errands.
    • Wed July 8 to Mon July 13. Unknown. Slight overeating on Saturday (family event), lots of grapes. Sunday, no exercise, but by Monday I was caught up.
    • Tue July 7 202. Finally, caught up on housekeeping and exercising and eating.
    • Mon July 6  202.5 I don’t seem to be budging away from this number.
    • Sun July 5. 202.5
    • Sun June 28 to July 4. Jumping  between 203 and 204.
    • SAt June 27 203
    • Wed-Fri June 24-26: 204.5
    • Tue June 23 204  The trend is good, but today I sort of broke my diet. Curse that Wisconsin cheese!
    • Mon June 22 204.5 Ate big shrimp creole dinner. I should be coming down from that.
    • Sun June 21 205. For dinner I ate nothing but brussel sprouts (a day of strict dieting). Oh well.
    • Sat June 20 205
    • Fri Jun 19 204.5
    • Thur 18 205. Yesterday with niece and nephew + exercise. Big Vietnamese dinner at Pho24, lots of blueberries, one scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins
    • Wed June 17 205.5 This is pretty shocking. I think it’s water weight from all the watermelon I’ve been eating.
    • Tue June 16 204.5
    • Mon June 15 205.5 Birthday party at brother’s house, babysitting at mom’s house, no time for exercise = disaster.
    • Sat June 13 202.5
    • Fir Jun 12 201.5 Ok, I don’t feel that I “deserved” 201 so that’s ok.
    • Thur Jun 11 201. Yabba dabba doo! I am excited because yesterday I didn’t workout and didn’t feel hungry for some reason.
    • Wed Jun 10 202.5. Lots of exercising yesterday. Gosh, if only people were out of work all the time, they would have no problem finding time to exercise!
    • Tue June 9 203. Slow but steady progress
    • Mon June 8. 203.5 Ok, it’s official. I’m backsliding! My goal is to get down to 200 by July 1.
    • Tue June 2 to Sun June 7. Fluctuated between 202 and 204.
    • Mon June 1 204. Had buffet at Thai place with Linda. Even though we worked out, one buffet was still enough to ruin things.
    • Sun May 31 203.5 getting better.
    • Sat May 30 204
    • Fri May 29 205 still in recovery mode
    • Thur May 28 206. Yes, I knew this would come.
    • Sun May 17 through Wed May 27. I’ve had several notable slips, especially Tue May 26. In the first week I think I maintained my wait; but I’m very worried about this week. I will know tomorrow!
    • Sat May 16 202.
    • Fri May 15. 202
    • Wed May 13. 204. Definitely a glitch. Watermelon + fried chicken. Eek!
    • Mon May 11 200.5. A miracle. Ate a delicious piece of cheesecake (actually half a piece for both days). It was divine, and I expected to see repercussions. Maybe it will show up tomorrow.
    • Saturday May 9 201.5 Getting to more sane levels. Yesterday was a very light meal day. It’s looking clear that I’m not going to get to 190 by July. However, I’m going to try to get it comfortably into the 190s.
    • Friday May 8 203. Watermelon the culprit?
    • Thur May 7 202.5 Wow,  ODing on watermelon. I’ve always found watermelon to be a weight gainer.
    • Wed May 6 201. Perhaps Tue was a fluke, with all those grapes. Still my body feels flabby. Need to work out more!
    • Tue May 5 203. Wow, depressing. Yesterday my diet slipped (eye of beef at mom’s house), but the other days didn’t seem so bad.  Also, I’ve been eating a LOT of grapes recently. Could that be fattening?
    • Thur April 30 201 KFC yesterday, but so good!
    • Thur April 23 to Wed April 29. between 200 and 201.
    • Wed April 22 200.5 Aftereffects of Sunday. I should be going down.
    • Tue April 21 200.  Getting back into the swing of things. (Oh, also, I skipped a meal yesterday! Need to go shopping too).
    • Mon April 20 201
    • Sat April 18 to Sun April 19. 202 I haven’t had a regular schedule of anything recently.
    • Fri April 17 202
    • Thur April 16 201.
    • Wed April 8 to Wed April 15. fluctuated between 200 and 202
    • Tue April 7 202.5
    • Mon April 6 202.
    • Sun April 5 203 Absolutely shocking. True on Thursday night had a party at Tom’s house, Friday night 2 Vietnamese sandwiches and refreshments at the storytelling event, but egad, can’t I go off diet for a single day! On saturday I ate practically NOTHING!
    • Sat April 4 ?
    • Fri April 3 ?
    • Thur April 2 198.5
    • April 1 199
    • Tue Mar 31 200
    • Mon Mar 30 201
    • Sun Mar 29 203. Wow! Yesterday ate dim sum breakfast and chinese food for dinner. But extreme portion control! no exercise! no oatmeal! fluke but….
    • Sat Mar 27
    • Fri Mar 26 200
    • Thur Mar 26 200
    • Wed Mar 25 202. This is the max.
    • Tue Mar 24  201.5 This has been the week of backsliding
    • Mon Mar 23 199
    • Sun Mar 22 198.5 This takes into account the splurge on Friday.
    • Sat Mar 21 197.5 Honestly I have no idea how I lost this weight.
    • Thur Mar 19 199.5 ate a lot of junk food yesterday. Returning to Houston.
    • Wed Mar 18 199
    • Tue Mar 17 198.5
    • Mon Mar 16 197.5
    • Sun Mar 15 199. 14000 steps at SXSW. Barbecue + soup .
    • Saturday Mar 14 198.0 Eat tacos last night in Austin–ugh!
    • Friday Mar 13 197.5
    • Thur Mar 12 198.5 I really have been exercising and reducing diet. Hoping to get below 198, but oh, well!
    • Wed  Mar 11 198.5 Ate a LOT of brussel sprouts yesterday.
    • Tue Mar 10 198 (I have been cutting back quite a bit).
    • Mon Mar 9 199
    • Sun Mar 8 198.5 (this might be a misreading).
    • Sat Mar 7 199.5
    • Fri Mar 6 200
    • Thur Mar 5 199.5
    • Wed  Mar 4 199.5 Ate very little yesterday.
    • Tue Mar 3 201 My last day at work!
    • Mon Mar 2  202
    • Sun Mar 1 202.5 Whoopsie. Strangely I missed a meal yesterday.
    • Sat Feb 28 202
    • Fri Feb 27 202. Making up for Tuesday’s splurge.
    • Thur Feb 26. 204.5 Truly alarming, went to a nice dinner Tuesday night and then ended up skipping exercises for 2 days. Yikes!
    • Wed Feb 25 ?
    • Tue Feb 24 201.5
    • Mon Feb 23 200 Sorta fasted yesterday.
    • Sun Feb 22 201.5. I sorta OD’ed on carbs yesterday. Today was movie watching night.
    • Sat Feb 21 202.5 Ok, I had an off day yesterday.
    • Fri Feb 20 200. Aha, if I weigh  myself AFTER exercising, I can reap the advantage immediately!).
    • Thur Feb 19 200.5 (catching up on workouts, plus recovery from that awful/terrific chicken night!)
    • Wed Feb 18 didn’t weigh. I had fried chicken last night!
    • Tue Feb 17 202.5
    • Mon Feb 16 203.5 This has got to stop. Aside from not exercising as much as I should, my eating hasn’t changed all that much.
    • Sun Feb 15 202.5 Whoa Nelly!
    • Sat Feb 14 201.5 Not really!
    • Fri Feb 13 201 I bet I will lose a pound over the weekend.
    • Thur Feb 12 201.
    • Wed Feb 11 202 Ate hamburger last night and did not exercise. Slacker!
    • Tue Feb 10  201
    • Mon Feb  9 201
    • Fri Feb 6 203.
    • Fri Jan 31 to Thur Feb 5. I haven’t weighed myself and seem to have gone off diet.
    • Thu Jan 29 201
    • Wed Jan 28 200
    • Tue Jan 27 201
    • Mon Jan 26 201.5
    • Sun Jan 25 200. (See, I told you so! I told you so!) Did a lot of bike riding on Saturday.
    • Sat Jan 24 201.5 (A fluke, I’m pretty sure the next few days will be going down).
    • Fri Jan 23 200.5
    • Wed-Thur Jan 21-22 I think I hovered around 200 or 201
    • Tue Jan 20 200 Day off yesterday.
    • Mon Jan 19 201.5 Biking yesterday really helped!
    • Sun Jan 18 202
    • Sat Jan 17 202.5
    • Fri  Jan 16 202
    • Thur Jan 15 202.5
    • Tue Jan 13. 201.5. I’m mystified. I went off diet last weekend, and even OD’ed on tortilla chips last night.
    • Friday Jan 9-Mon Jan 12. I have forgotten to weigh myself or weighed myself at wrong times. Sorry!
    • Thur Jan 8 Unknown. Attended a dinner party for my college. Great food, a feast. I ate two plates of vegetables before the main course (and no carbs). Kind of curious what effect if any this would have.
    • Wed Jan 7 200.5 Strangely at 5:00 AM, I weighed 200 and at 7:00 I weighed 200.5 (even though I hadn’t eaten anything and just finished exercising).
    • Tue   Jan 6 201. Yesterday overdosed on grapefruit from someone at work. Oh, the excess!
    • Mon Jan 5 201. More wacky readings. 198.5, 200, 201. Maybe it’s time to buy a new scale?
    • Sun 201  My bathroom scale was giving all sorts of wacky readings. Maybe the roaches were playing a practical joke?
    • Sat Jan 3 201 (Ate homemade bratwurst and lovely rosemary bread from Whole Foods. Delicious, but a little much. 1 workout and 1 hour of bike riding didn’t compensate for that. Oh, well.
    • Fri Jan 2 200.5 (Actually I dipped to 200 yesterday, so I sorta made my goal).
    • Thur Jan 1 202. Wow, disappointment, I’ve been watching my diet all week. Perhaps my body wasn’t ready to adjust. (But now I have time to exercise at least).
    • Wed Dec 31 202. This is very wierd, but I expect this is an anomaly. I’ll be down to 200 in no time.
    • Tue Dec 30 201.  2 workouts yesterday, with strict controls on my diet.
    • Mon Dec 29 202.5 I could have lost more weight if I exercised this weekend. But I’m back on track for the next few days as I try to starve myself for Jan 1!
    • Sun Dec 28 203 Instead of exercising, spent the day reading articles about diet by science writer Gary Taubes. Wow, that was strenuous!
    • Sat Dec 27 204.5 I have found a culprit for weight gain: going to parents’ house!
    • Friday Dec 26 206. This week has been crazy.
    • Mon-Tue Dec 22-23. Unfortunately a malfunctioning refrigerator and a day of phone calls have thrown my diet out of whack. ON Monday I was 202.5, but I feel sure that on Wednesday it will be at least 203.
    • Sun Dec 21 204. This is profoundly disturbing. Eating junk. The last two days I’ve been cleaning up house, doing errands.
    • Fri Dec 19 201. This went down, but last night I od’ed on chocolate! Expect it to rise.
    • Thur Dec 18 202 This will go down
    • Wed Dec 17 201.5 Steak last night, but did exercises. I can handle it (I think).
    • Tue Dec 16 202 Took the bus to work, which meant more walking.
    • Mon Dec 15 202.5 Still trying to reach 200 by New Years.
    • Sun Dec 14 203.5
    • Sat Dec 13 203.5
    • Tue  Dec 9-12 204. I overate on 2 consecutive days.
    • Mon Dec 8 202.5 Mondays tend to be good for my weight measurement.
    • Sun Dec 7 203. Fallout from Xmas party.
    • Sat Dec 6 202.5 Say what?
    • Fri Dec 5 201. I’ve been cutting back.
    • Thur Dec 4  I’ve been cutting back.
    • Wed Dec 3 202. Ok, Tuesday night I od’ed on potato chips and worked late. This is a fluke, and I’ll be paying the price in the next few days.
    • Tue Dec 2 203 Finally on the exercise routine
    • Mon Dec 1 203.5. Finally, and I’ve been starving myself.
    • Sun Nov 30 205. Still recovering from the Birthday/Thanksgiving Fiasco.
    • Sat Nov 29 205.5 Well, I’m not surprised at least.
    • Fri Nov 28 204. I knew bad news was a coming.
    • Thur Nov 27 201. Well I was ready to take on the worst.

    (Note, when I first did this list, I started from earliest to latest. I decided to put latest on the top for convenience. Here is the remainder of my journey/struggle/goal).

    • June 13: 220
    • June 14: 221
    • June 15: 219.5
    • Mon June 16: 219.5
    • Tue June 17: 219
    • Wed June 18 219
    • Thur June 19 219.5 (damn that thunderstorm that prevented me from swimming!)
    • Fri June 20. 219 (luck)
    • Sat June 21 218.5 (I totally did not deserve this. Last night I was a slug).
    • Sun June 22 218. (almost forgot to eat dinner; also played midnight tennis!)
    • Mon June 22 219 (sorry, I fudged; forgot to weigh myself; this is a guess)
    • Tue June 23 219.5 (lazy)
    • Wed June 24  218 (day off, exercise day)
    • Thur June 25 217
    • Fri June 26 217
    • Sat June 27 217.5 (stupid #&$#$ cake! even 20 minutes extra swimming didn’t make up for it)
    • Sun June 28 217.5 (still punishing me for Friday’s cake–yes it was delicious).
    • Mon June 30 219 (!) Gaming group’s wife offers homemade brownies fresh out of the oven. How could  I have refused? Delicious though. (I ate only 2).
    • Tue Jul 1 218 (No exercise, but really I did not merit yesterday’s increase. I ate a minimalist Jack in Box hamburger too. Why are restaurant hamburgers always jumbo-sized?)
    • Wed Jul 2 217.5 Totally did not deserve this. Telecommuted yesterday, lots of random bored munching. Vow to walk around more. Do you burn cals when driving?
    • Thur Jul 3 216.5. Atypical but encouraging. Ate 2 small lunches, then for dinner, a plate of broccoli! Cleaned refrigerator. Lots of disgusting produce had to be tossed out.
    • Fri Jul 4 215. Probably a fluke. Ate extra large dinner, but I jumped on trampoline for 20 minutes!
    • Sat Ju 5 216. OD’ed a bit on chocolate and watermelon. PS, there are roaches in my scale!
    • Sun Jul 6. 216.5 More watermelon. Extra water weight. Not worried. Luckily, I swam before the rain fell.
    • Mon Ju 7. 218. Accidentally ate entire chocolate bar. Odd fact: Quakers sold chocolate bars to ward off impure thoughts. (This time I don’t think choco was 100% responsible for the backslide thought).
    • Tue Jul 8 218  Yesterday was no exercise day…but accomplished a lot of writing. A connection? Hmmm.
    • Wed July 9 218. No time to exercise. Arrived late.
    • Thur July 10 217.5 Slow progress. Alas, time to swim finally!
    • Fri July 11 218. KFC dinner. Ok, I slipped. If only more healthy fast food places were around my neighborhood!
    • Sat July 12 219. This backsliding hurts, but I had a semi-emergency to deal with.
    • Sun July 13 217.5 217.5 Rode my bike, carrying about 15 pounds of books in my backpack (from a newly opened bookstore).  That’s a workout!
    • Mon July 14 216.5 Another ride to the library (forgot to return a DVD). Maybe I should forget library books more often.
    • Tue July 15 217. Would have exercised, except I spent 2 hours troubleshooting my OLPC and Vista 64 install. Arrgh!
    • Wed July 16 217.5 . Wow, three bagels yesterday (P. from work brought them). Delicious.  Wow, even 45 minutes of swimming didn’t make up for it.
    • Thur July 17 217.5 Might have been lower if there weren’t dog poop in the swimming pool. Note to self: have backup exercise method.
    • Fri July 18 (a weighing on this day would be invalid, so I am skipping. Rest assured that the official count would probably not be reason for optimism)
    • Sat July 19 218.5. Honestly, yesterday was a bad day for my diet. A one pound gain is not bad, all things considered.
    • Sun Jul 20 215.5 Misleading. I fell asleep before eating dinner! Good way to lose weight is to skip meals. (By the way, I am very hungry).
    • Mon Jul 21 216.5 Cleaned house. I feel optimistic about how the rest of the  week will go.
    • Tue Jul 22 215.5 Finally making progress again. Also resumed my Sue Hitzman exercise vid which is great.
    • Wed Jul 23 215.5 Lately I’ve been liking vegetarian hamburgers… but where is the broccoli I thought I had in my fridge?
    • Thur Jul 24 215. Noticed something interesting. Weight tends to go down when I telecommute — even though I don’t maintain my diet very well on those days.
    • Fri Jul 25 216. I seriously think that backsliding on your diet takes 24-48 hours to show up on the bathroom scale! Wed I slipped, but Thur was pretty good.
    • Sat Ju 26 216.5 Yesterday was major backslide. Free kolaches at work, plus a scanning party (don’t ask!) with all sorts of refreshments. Plus arrived home–exhausted and too late to swim.
    • Sun Jul 27 215. Doesn’t make sense. The last two days my diet has been erratic, can’t explain the decrease. Ate very late. Does it take time for the food to “show up” on scale?
    • Mon Jul 28 215. Funny, my scale gives a different number depending on which part of the floor it is on. The number you see is in fact an average of multiple weighings at several locations.
    • Tue Jul 29 213.5 I fasted  a bit yesterday and did exercise. Expect backsliding, but still encouraging that I could make it to this point. I think I need a week to really arrive there.
    • Wed Jul 30 215. Jump does not worry me; diet still going strong. Friend points out that it’s best to compare today  with other Wed numbers to see trends.
    • Thur Jul 31 215.5 Oh no! Setback! But those Vietnamese sandwiches were delicious!
    • Fri Aug 1 213.5 Exhausted from work deadline last night. Off to Austin to swim at Barton Springs!
    • Sat Aug 2 ? New Braunfels tubing, 5 hours!
    • Sun Aug 3 ?  Barton Springs, swimming 3.5 hrs!
    • Mon Aug 4 212.5 Recuperating from massively entertaining Central Austin aquatic trip.
    • Tue Aug 5 213 Madness at supermarket b/c of “hurricane.” Still recovering.   Maybe some of my “tight” clothes will be wearable again.  Body ached from weekend swimming extravaganza.
    • Wed Aug 6 214 Growing complacent. Yesterday learned that portion control is very hard with home-cooked recipes. I’ll recover.
    • Thur Aug 7 213. Best way to cheat on your daily weighing: weigh yourself later & later each day!
    • Fri Aug 8 212 Method #2 for cheating on daily weighing: skip dinner (honestly I wasn’t hungry).  For breakfast today: yesterday’s basa fish!
    • Sat Aug 9 212 Despite skipping lunch yesterday, still no weight loss!
    • Sun Aug 10 213 Confusing.  Ok, I OD’ed on grapes, but rest of the day was fairly normal (at Barcamp Houston, etc). Today I’ll have to work extra hard!
    • Mon Aug 11 213 Wow, I was a total mothball yesterday. God is smiling. Fun fact: 1 jelly belly has 4 calories.
    • Tue Aug 12 212.5 Wow…this was a 3 cookie day!  Power outage, but still lost .5 pounds. Defies human explanation.
    • Wed Aug 13 212 Working out in the morning has its perks…but really, who has time to do this every day?
    • Thur Aug 14 211 Stayed up late last night ordering my Lumix DMC-TZ5A camera. I wonder: does staying up late reduce weight?
    • Fri Aug 15 210.5 Welcome surprise. I actually had a  large (albeit very healthy) meal last night.  Plus, Randalls had a special on blueberries.
    • Sat Aug 16 211.5 Went off diet. Restaurant for lunch, a tootsie roll, lots of blueberries. Arrgh! At least I swam a lot.
    • Sun Aug 17 213 Another off-diet day. More blueberries! No time for exercise, but time for takeout Chinese food. Arrgh!
    • Mon Aug 18 213.5 I practically fasted yesterday, but Saturday’s pigout is catching up with me.  (Tomorrow should improve). Still, the magnitude of this setback gives pause for thought.
    • Tue Aug 19 213 Expect further improvement tomorrow.
    • Wed Aug 20 212.5 The funny thing is, I had relatively full meals yesterday, but I also exercised and slept very well.
    • Thur Aug 21 210.5 A fluke. Yesterday was nothing special. My metabolism must be extremely confused; maybe it should see a therapist?
    • Fri Aug 22 210.5 Definitely not a fluke. My coworker insists that Diet drinks are the cause of my weight gain. Nah, nah, you’re wrong!
    • Sat Aug 23 211.5 Because eating/workout habits remained identical yesterday, I’m convinced today is just a normal fluctuation. Today will be hard: 3 potential pigout opportunities (PPO).
    • Sun Aug 24 212.5.  I survived 3 potential PPOs yesterday successfully. This weight gain is a normal fluctuation (though still a bummer)
    • Mon Aug 25 211  Purely through being busy, I ate very little yesterday (but also exercised very little). This sounds about right.
    • Tue Aug 26 211 Was up until midnight fixing a friend’s hard drive and ..AOL mailbox. Ugh!
    • Wed Aug 27 212 Last night I was hungrier than unusual, ate a bit more…and guess what, I didn’t care!  Yesterday was relaxing. Today woke up to roaches in my cereal. Arrgh!
    • Thur-Fri Total Disruption. Someone stole my car! I’ve been too busy to even think about dieting or weighing myself.
    • Sat Aug 30 211.5 Today I get a haircut and learn how much long hair adds to your weight.
    • Sun. Absent. Busy.
    • Mon Sept 1 211. I have not been exercising. That half pound might be the result of haircut!
    • Tue Sept 2 208.5 Although I skipped a meal yesterday, I think this measurement or the ones from previous days are clearly in error.  It must be the haircut!
    • Wed Sept 3 207. Decelerating for my trip. If I can keep this (or near this), I’ll be happy).
    • Mon Sept 29. 197.5 (Back in USA). A shocking bit of good news. I expect my metabolism to increase a few pounds when adjusting to US life. But still I can manage it.
    • Tue Sept 30 198.5  Back in USA, catching up with things (finding my stolen car, getting back to work, etc).  I had two big lunches, but you know, that’s ok.
    • Thur Oct 2 198.  I’ve been feeling a little under the weather and still getting caught up.
    • Fri Oct 3 198.5 Most of this weight gain must have been grapes!
    • Sun Oct 5 200.5 This has got to stop! (I think today I will have time to resume my healthier lifestyle).
    • Mon Oct 6 200.5 I’m not really trying. Just catching up on sleep. Expect progress from this point on.
    • Tue Oct 7 202.0 This increase is getting scary, but I’m catching up on stuff.
    • Wed Oct 8 199.5 Not sure what’s going on here, but at least I’ve started working out again.
    • Thur Oct 9 199.5 Wow, it’s amazing how much better you feel on the day(s) after working out!
    • Fri Oct 10 200.5 A bit lazy yesterday. Oh well.
    • Mon Oct 13 201.5 Went off diet over the weekend.
    • Tue Oct 14 202.5 Scary, but not entirely unexpected. I’ll lose it.
    • Wed Oct 15 201.5  Have added a handful of blueberries to my diet (every evening). Frozen blueberries make a  lot of things possible.
    • Thur Oct 16 202. No exercise day. Bahhh!
    • Fri Oct 17 202.5. Lots of free food at work, including those famous Vietnamese sandwiches (of which I had 2). Definitely an off-diet day for me.
    • Sat Oct 18 203. I expected this.
    • Sun Oct 19 202.5 Ate junk food at parents house.
    • Mon Oct 20. 201.
    • Tue Oct 21 202.5
    • Wed Oct 22 204.5 Weekend splurge finally hitting.
    • Thur Oct 23  206.5 Splurged at local Lupe Tortillas. Fajitas to die far! Car flooding. Crazy night!
    • Fri  Oct 24 205. Trying to get my bearings back. Still spooked by how quickly this weight came back.
    • Sat Oct 25 203. Wow, loaded down on Snacks!
    • Sun Oct 26 202.5 This must be opposite day. Didn’t work out yesterday, but played Spore all day with nephew.
    • Mon Oct 27 200. Finally caught up on working out. Very sedentary day, felt like I would be 205 today. Opposite day is continuing….
    • Tue Oct 28 200.5 Falling very behind.
    • Wed Oct 29 200.5. Still falling behind. No time to exercise
    • Thur Oct 30. 203. Pizza day at work. The horrors!
    • Fri Oct 31 201.5. Starting to resume previous habits.
    • Sat Nov 1 202.5 This seems more realistic a measurement, but I think I can get it down now. BTW, last night I went to a social event and ordered brisket;  I swear 80% of the dish was pure fat.
    • Sun Nov 2 201.5
    • Mon Nov 3 201.5
    • Tue Nov 4 202
    • Wed Nov 5 202
    • Thur Nov 6 204 pizza day at work.
    • Friday Nov 7 203.5 trying to recover.
    • Sat Nov 8 204. Mabel’s birthday party yesterday.
    • Sun Nov 9 203.5
    • Mon Nov 10 203.5
    • Tue Nov 11 202. Strangely I seem to lose weight when I am home, whether working from home or on my day off. (When I am busy with social events, I gain weight).
    • Wed Nov 12 202. Might be cheating. Weighing myself a little later than usual.
    • Thur Nov 13 202.5 Oops. Payback from Tuesday. I expect to lose this.
    • Fri Nov 14 201.5
    • Sat Nov 15 203.5 House of Pies, what can I say?
    • Sun Nov 16. 203 MOm’s pepper steak.
    • Mon Nov 17 200.5 (I cannot explain this, although I did eat a lot less on Sunday).
    • Tue Nov 18 201 (I expect this to go down tomorrow).
    • (strangely, almost a week of posts were deleted. I moved from 201 to 203.5
    • Mon Nov 24 202. (Not bad after an out-of-town trip. Might gain tomorrow).
    • Tue No 25 202.
    • Wed Nov 26 201

  • Larry King Saves the Heart

    Wow, I just watched 30 minutes of a great PBS documentary on heart disease.

    Here’s a discussion between cardio experts. It includes the transcripts so you don’t actually need to watch it.

    Here’s some transcripts with interviews.

  • 8 Nuts a Day for Good Health

    Medical research about the health benefits of eating nuts (specifically hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts).

    I’ve known about this research before (though not its depth apparently), and I’ve tried eating nuts on occasion. The main problem I’ve had is that the jars or bags I buy don’t seal or are in sizes so big they invite you to overeat. I would love a nut company to sell nuts in more reasonably-sized packages (and NOT peanuts!) Alternatively, I eat a few, and forget to eat the rest, only to have them go rancid. If you eat too many nuts, they don’t settle well in the stomach; I always feel slightly queasy.

    Finally, a certain percentage of nut packages have already gone rancid when you buy them. I can’t remember if these packages have dates on them, but don’t hesitate to return them if they taste bad.

    This medical reporter offers sensible advice: eat 8 of these nuts a day. That means any container you buy would last for a week or two. Perhaps I could keep the jar in the fridge and count out 8 nuts each day. I’m going to try–will report about how long this idea lasts.

    Nuts are filling–even 8 of them. I keep an eye out for nut-based recipes, but as I said, I hate having to buy a $3 jar just to add a Tablespoon of almonds for a recipe. The best thing about nuts is they are portable protein sources–suitable for breakfast, lunch or on the road.

    Andrew Weil weighs in on nuts and nutrition.  Here’s some more comprehensive information about walnuts

  • Reviews of Exercise Videos

    I’m going to keep a page detailing my reactions to various exercise videos. (See also my previous post about exercise ball workouts). You can also read reviews (and sample video clips) on collagevideos.com. I’ll update this over time. Vids without comments are things I’ve bought but haven’t used yet. They include vids which seem to have the highest ratings and meet my exercise goals. See also consumersearch.com’s review of Exercise Videos. They round up recommendations from several publications and highlight the top rated picks.

    To get started with exercise vids, you need to have a exercise step (apparently the Fanny Lifter–which consists of two steps– is the most versatile–). Most recent vids combine cardio training with low intensity weight training, so you should have light hand weights. Don’t make the mistake I did of starting with 8 pound lightweights. Most vids use 3 or 5 pound weights. I try the routines with 8 pound weights, and it is absolutely exhausting.

    • Ultimate Fat Burner (Denise Austin). Austin is bubbly and chipper and always talking (“You can do it!”) The exercises aren’t that much fun, but they are well-organized and make for a great workout. Highly recommended, especially the circuit training. Also, is by far the best produced. I get exhausted very quickly from this, and my only complaint is that there is a bit too much emphasis on upper body stretch (biceps, etc). The exercise using the step bench is among my alltime favorites! Finally, the camera prominently show you the foot movements. Note: you need free weights and a step bench. Highly Recommended. (I own). Update (one year later). This still is my favorite video, but if you want to get a lot of mileage out of it, I would buy a sturdy step bench.
    • 10 Minute Solution: Fat Blasting Dance Mix. Low intensity cardio exercises with Jennifer Galardi, with lots of complex dance moves. I didn’t get particularly winded, but the dance routines were complex and yes, fun. For what it’s worth, the three girls in this video are gorgeous.   BUTT & THIGH BLASTER  is an extremely mediocre workout, but the rest are ok.  Recommended with caveats but  fun.
    • Crunch: Fat-Burning Dance Party (Jennifer Galardi). This low intensity workout featured lots of rather intricate choreography and got me somewhat winded. The moves were never monotonous (a danger in these kinds of videos), and at the same time the choreography could be learned after several tries. I found it challenging but not impossible; probably one of the more enjoyable vids. By the way, I really enjoyed the background music by techno artist Daveed.
    • Crunch Boot Camp Training with Sue Hitzman. Rigorous fast-paced workout with lots of weird moves. Some emphasis on upper body strength. I didn’t like the camerawork; spare me the quick cuts, I just want to follow the moves! Personality-wise, Hitzman is a little too tough for me, but she’s an effective trainer. I don’t love this workout (too many pushups!) but I used my entire body for this one. Btw, this title was highly recommended by Consumerssearch.com Highly Recommended. (I own). (Update: After 6 months, this video still works great!).
    • Karen Voight’s Burn & FIrm. This low key workout doesn’t seem that special, but I found it effective, especially for cardio.  Although the cuing and camerawork are first place, some of the cardio (especially the side-to-side cardio) have complicated choreography. You’ll trip up a lot, but this exercise is very satisfying. Update: I still like this video, but the choreography is extremely complicated!  Definitely points off for that.  recommended
    • Billy Blank’s Tae Bo Cardio Circuit 1 Tae Bo is boxing/kickboxing with an emphasis on cardio. It was started by Billy Blanks. This workout is really fast, not too complex and only 36 minutes. Highly Recommended. (I own)
    • Tae Bo Get Ripped 2: Get Ripped Advanced Workout: (Billy Blanks). This is a fast and really intense workout; unfortunately the video production itself sucks. First, there are way too many people onstage, and the cameras are always changing to different people. Second, typically Billy models the exercise two times, and then turns around and helps other people, so we have our back to him for a great percentage of the time. I really need to see the moves modeled, and I need several repetitions before I get it. Third, I’ve been told that Billy Blanks forgets to do both sides of the body for this video, so one side of the body gets a greater workout than the other. I still think this workout will be great, but you have to get past the extraneous details of the video production. By the way, this is the only exercise routine so grueling that several people actually take a break (either for water or just to catch their breath) while the video is going on. I would take Billy Blanks Cardio Circuit 1 (listed above) before this one, but this one isn’t bad (I own). Update Dec 2008: This workout has grown on me. It is grueling and intense, but some days you need something like this.  Highly Recommended.
    • Tamilee Webb – Tight on Time: Body Blast, 3 10 minute workouts, plus a 10 minute stretching/balancing with the ball. The third set Abs to the Core are floor exercises which emphasize balancing. Challenging, but not impossible (watch out for the airplane!). The Buns exercise was good, and the cardio exercise was good (it requires a step btw). Highly recommended! I like Tamilee’s personal style. Not in-your-face, and full of helpful suggestions throughout the video. I especially like the time box on the lower right hand side; why don’t more DVD’s do that? There is a 4th exercise for ball exercise which is a bonus section.  Recommended. (I own). Update: after watching this video and reading the accompanying article about the right way and wrong way to do core exercises, I’m beginning to think Tamilee’s video is worth revisiting.
    • On the Ball Pilates Workout for Beginners with Lisbeth Garcia. Supposedly one of the most challenging Ball videos out there. Recommended. (I own)
    • Cardio Boot Camp (Tracey Mallett). Tracy is a tiny firecracker, and she runs three well-designed cardio routines that are dancey fun. She uses boxing, Tae Kwon Do and even throws a little Pilates in. A short period with light weights. Great latino rhythm, and Tracey is great! I love the music in the first segment. Highly Recommended but it is more recreational than intense. Also, there is a dance movement which requires a lot of room, so watch out.  (I own)
    • Minna Optimizer Balanced Blend. Lots of stretching and yoga on the part 2 (strength). At first glance, the workout looks pretty typical, but this 90 minute tape packs a lot in. I like how they do 6 minute circuits, alternating between cardio and strength. Minna is a real no-nonsense fitness trainer; not much dancing or cheerleading going on. However, this tape accomplishes a lot! Recommended. Aesthetically, the exercisers are gorgeous, and the video production and cuing is fantastic. So far this video is the best one I’ve worked with. The stretching exercises are challenging too. The music is only so-so. Update one year later. This is still a good workout, but it was probably not as intense as I would hope. Denise Austin’s workout is much better.
    • 10 minute solution : series of 10 minute workouts: boot camp, ballet, pilates and 2 others. Tough and not particularly fun, lots of free weights. Might be better for strength than cardio. The female host seems a little too tough; also some of the routines seem really ordinary with little attempt at choreography.
    • 10 Minute Solution Carb Burner:  This is probably the only low intensity cardio workouts that really gets me out of breath. Highly recommended.
    • Fat Burning Workout for Dummies , Gay Gaspar. I don’t love this video, but Gay Gaspar is really fun and peppy. She does lot of complicated dance steps, and I can still hear the instructions in my mind (“Single single double!). She explains things well (and the Dummies production is sometimes helpful, mostly annoying). Unfortunately, the camerawork makes it hard to follow the dance steps. Update: Last time I did this video, I didn’t even get winded. You have to really try hard to make this work. (I own)
    • Kathy Smith’s Latin Rhythm Workout . A mediocre cardio workout (and awful video production), but I had fun with it. Her other dancers were so hot looking! Also, the petite Latino female instructor was fun to watch. Unfortunately, there are lots of turns and things that are hard to follow on the video.
    • Simply Ball with Pilates Principles . Very contemplative workout that is satisfying, yet intense. (I own)
    • 15 Minute Fitness for Dummies I love Gay Gaspar; this vid consists of lots of 15 minute sessions of sculpting/strength. I think Ultimate Fat Burner does what Gaspar is doing here..only better.
    • The Firm – Body Sculpting System 2 4-Pack (untried). Bargain at $16. Uses the   body bar and two level steps. In general this series is not very good (I own the whole series) but Total Sculpt Plus Abs is a very intense workout and almost makes the whole series worth getting.  Total Sculpt Plus Abs is highly recommended, but the rest of the series is unremarkable.
    • The Firm Complete Body Sculpting is a great 45 minute workout which combines cardio with weights and the typical step you find in Firm videos. The queuing and choreography was great, and the music was awesome. Highly recommended.
    • The Firm Transfirmer Workout System 4 Pack. (Included with the two level steps).  Out of the 4 DVDs, only the Firm Supercharged Sculpting is a great workout. Recommended, but only for Firm Supercharged Sculpting.  By the way, the two level exercise steps are very high well made and high quality. Update: I still like this workout vid, but when I use 10 pound weights, I can sometimes hurt my back. I use only 5 pound weights now.
    • Maximum Cardio Burn Plus Abs. Good floor exercises, but I didn’t get winded at all in the aerobics. Also, camera was somewhat confusing; director shouldn’t be switching the angles all the time; hey, I actually want to see the footwork! No quick cuts or fancy angles please!
    • Super Slimdown Circuit, Kathy Smith (untried). Compilation of best Kathy Smith aerobic vids. I bought it mainly for the cardio workout Functionally Fit: Peak Fat Burning. (I own). I’ve looked at the sculpting/toning exercises. The first two exercises for upper body and lower body look simple and easy. They look well-designed and targeted, and Kathy Smith is a good narrator. It’s a good all-in-one exercise package. My complaint is more aesthetic than athletic. The music is extremely bland jazz, and I find myself bored by the presentation.
    • Jane Fonda’s Complete Workout & Stress Reduction Original video that launched an industry. Interesting and innovative, but ultimately a poorly constructed workout program(I own).
    • Gilad: Getting Fit in Jerusalem. Israeli personal trainer does some intense aerobic workout outdoors (with belly dancer and camels!). So-so cardio workout, and the second part (with cooldown and floor exercises) are mediocre. Outstanding live music performance with Middle Eastern flavor, and Gilad is a fun (though traditional-minded) kind of guy.
    • Crunch Fat Blaster: The Next Step: First, the library copy of this vid was defective, so I can’t say I gave it a good chance. The music and the personal trainer was great! But his cuing was awful, and the choreography was too confusing. The video producer took way too many liberties; this is NOT a music video; we don’t need those quick zooms to the drummer; we need more static shots of footwork.
    • New Method 20/20 Cardio Kick (Tracey Mallett). I ordered this by mistake instead of Cardio Boot Camp. It isn’t bad; in fact exercise 2 comes directly from Cardio Boot Camp. The great thing about Tracey Mallett is she knows how to make exercises fun and employs a lot of dance techniques. It feels less like a cardio workout than a crazy Bollywood video. (I own)
    • Billy Blank’s Tae Bo Cardio Circuit 2 doesn’t give anywhere near as satisfying a workout as Cardio Circuit 1 (See above). Still not bad.
    • 10 Minute Solution Target Toning for Beginners: series of 5 toning/stretching exercises, divided by muscle area. Not bad, lots of floor exercises. The best part of it is the segmentation of the routine into different parts.
    • Denise Austin Pilates for Every Body : Denise Austin has inventive exercise routines, and this one has lots of stuff with balls and pilates stretching.
    • Cardio Pilates with Ana Caban. A somewhat interesting pilates workout with cardio thrown in. Nothing remarkable about it, but some of the pilates things were pretty wierd and challenging (have you ever tried clapping like a seal). Ana Caban is pleasant and lowkey, and that’s what I liked about it.
    • 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels. I bought a 3 pack of Michaels videos, and I am very impressed. This one is intended for an advanced workout, and it has three different ability levels. I like the organization of the workout and the competent camera work and the fact that none of the workouts are too hard. But I don’t like the fact that Level 2 and 3 seem to use a lot of planks, an exercise which I find unbelievably strenuous and painful. I’ll confess. I can do a Level 1 workout and come close to doing a Level 2, but Level 3 is way out of my league. Still, highly recommended because it’s a targeted and efficient workout.