Tag Archives: health

Soylent Begins

So I jumped on the <a href="http://www generic crestor.soylent.me” title=”Soylent”>Soylent thing awhile back. I’m superficially interested in the quantified self stuff and the Tim Ferriss stuff and so on and so forth. So I got in on the pre-orders and forgot all about it unless I got random email updates on the status. Well after all of whatever, I finally got my month of the stuff.

I’ll start by saying it’s a lot. A month of this stuff, for some reason I was thinking would be like some huge tub of powder, powdered protein style. Instead it’s a huge box of four big boxes, each full of seven large pouches of powder and seven vials of oil. And an additional box containing the pitcher.

Second point, this air tight pitcher they send, umm, not exactly air tight. Mixed up the stuff per instructions in the pitcher and shook for the 30 seconds recommended. It didn’t fly out everywhere, but there were leaks from the seal in the pitcher.

Those are my initial impressions. I suppose I’ll track my weight (privately), energy (publicly), mood (partially publicly), and food intake (if I eat on top of the Soylent), even if informally, once I start drinking the stuff tomorrow. And I guess I have decided to start tomorrow. I considered starting immediately (i.e. tomorrow), July 1 (for a regular calendar month, even though I only have four weeks of the stuff), or July 7 (giving the holiday weekend of gluttony it’s due).

For a variety of life things, I have fallen off my weekly weekend short runs, but will try to get back into it with the Soylent fuel going, because nothing like putting together a ton of different new things all at once to know what’s really working.

(I’m strongly leaning toward getting a Vitamix, so am looking forward to making up batches in that instead of the pitcher. Also, should I mix in some kale to make it like fake green juice?)

I don’t think I’ll post daily about it, but at least weekly, and maybe ad hoc on twitter.

Marathons

I’m one of those people who are ambivalent about marathons.  It’s something I’d like to do, but it’s not one of those “I have to do once in my lifetime” type things.  And honestly, the thought of running for like 4-5 hours straight is troublesome.  I’d have to have the perfect mix on my iPod, no skipping required.  Of course with a lot of marathons “banning” them, who knows.  At any rate, here’s a list of marathons to run in 2008 courtesy of Runner’s World, via AOL Body.

Marathons to Run in 2008.

I don’t know if I can mentally reconcile a marathon sponsored by PF Chang’s.

But I’d definitely run in (my namesake) marathon: Eugene Marathon.

Is this really a solution?

Bariatric surgery to cure diabetes. – MSNBC

Two groups.  One with surgery.  One without.  Surgery group lost an average of 46 lbs over the 2 year study.  The control group lost an average of 3!  It is a surprise that the group who lost the most weight had higher incidences of diabetes remission?  NO.

I know obesity surgeries force a life change in the subjects.  But there’s also plenty of evidence to show that people learn to eat around those changes and still be overweight.  Is overweight more healthy than obese?  Yes.  I just don’t think this is a realistic treatment.  Yes it’s hard to lose weight.  Yes it’s harder probably to change your life to be healthy.  And harder still to keep it off (trust me I know, even though I’ve done a fairly decent job of it).  But learning those skills HAS to be better than surgery right?

Looking good?

So here are two articles on the new show on Lifetime, “How to Look Good Naked”.  I’m not going to comment on the show as I’ve not seen it.  I likely won’t watch it, especially if what’s written about the show are true.  Suffice it to say, yes media have given women a false ideal of perfection.  Yes, women (and men) as a result suffer from body dysmorphia.  Yes, not hating yourself is a step in the right direction.  But no, some people are overweight and they need to lose some.  They don’t have to be stick thin, but they have to get healthy.  Okay, I’ve already commented more than I wanted to.  The links for you to read and ponder:

TV Squad’s Jay Black’s commentary.

NY Times review.

It’s not as healthy as you think

Healthier than McNuggets though.

Caloric information for sushi.

Let’s see, on the list I get spicy tuna (290 cal, 11g fat, 26g carbs), tuna nigiri (240 cal, 1g fat, 27g carbs), salmon sashimi (164 cal, 6g fat, 0g carbs).  I eat much, much more than just these three things, but even if I ONLY ate this (which would never happen), that’s 694 calories, 18g of fat, 53g carbs.  Sheesh!