I’m almost certainly going to upset someone with this, which isn’t my intention. I feel that it needs to be said anyway.

There are many quirks of language use that I find irritating. One among them, I find irritating for the implications it carries. That’s the phrase “that doesn’t work for me” or the variant “that might work for you, but…” ( Read more... )

Let’s talk about weight loss for a bit.

Ever since I first learned of the Hacker Diet, I’ve been a proponent of the idea that calories in < calories out = weight loss. It makes intuitive sense. Your body is a giant furnace, requiring fuel. You provide it that fuel in the form of food, which it burns if it needs and stores if it does not. It doesn't ( Read more... )

I saw a lot of people glad to be done with 2010. The general feeling seems to have been that 2010 was a less-than-satisfactory year. For my part, I’m inclined to disagree: in March, I got a new job at an awesome company working with awesome people on an awesome project; in July, my groomsmen took me to Atlantic City; in August, I got married and ( Read more... )

I originally caught this at Lifehacker, which posted from the NYT. I’ve paraphrased the list and condensed it, with explanations below.

1. Don’t eat egg salad from a vending machine.
• Or eggs from a carton.
2. You can’t leave the table until you finish your fruit.
3. Meals prepared at home, served at the table, are more appreciated and more healthful than food ( Read more... )

In March of 2008, I made a commitment to start losing weight.  At that time, I weight 206 pounds (and had already come down from my all-time high of 215, which I only reached through lots of drinking and junk food during college).  My goal was to get down to 175 pounds, which was 5 pounds less than my lowest weight during high school.  Once I ( Read more... )

Let's talk about weight loss.

Cody introduced me to the Fat Flush Plan, a diet championed by nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman. At first, I was a skeptic. The Plan struck me as New Age bullshit. This opinion caused no small amount of discord. However, I could not argue with the diet's results, as embodied by Cody after a summer on it. My ( Read more... )

I'm feeling much better today than yesterday. A number of things happened to promote this renewed sense of vigor and gusto.

• I got the car back from the body shop. Knowing that my car is in good condition is very much linked to my mood, and the longer it's away being worked on, the worse my mood tends to be.
• I budgeted what I think is a very ( Read more... )