Friday Five #49

[ornoth]

Sigh. The predictability hurts us.
What was your biggest accomplishment this year? Probably the thing I’m most proud of is succeeding at raising $3,555 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through my participation in this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge ride. Other noteworthy

Comments

[awfief]

I will say that I find it disappointing that although people always ask what new resolutions you’re making, they absolutely never ask how well you kept your old ones. As someone with some actual strength of will, I find it sad that most people fail to control themselves and honor their commitments. I think I’ve kept all my resolutions for the past three years (and they haven’t been “gimmes” at all).I usually do look back. I think people also don't make good resolutions. A resolution is a goal, and a goal should be something achievable and measurable, with a specific plan. People say "I want to lose weight" but have no plan about how to do it. And then the next year they are the same (or a few pounds heavier). I wouldn't say, "I want to build an e-mail system" and then not have a detailed plan on how to do it. So, yeah. Most resolutions fail because they're not specific enough

[ornoth]

I agree, but only to a point. At the consultancy I used to work for, we were all about quantifying goals and plans and measuing our performance. Those are sometimes useful techniques, particularly when you have a large, complex project and don’t trust the people doing the work to tell you the truth

[angelovernh]

As for reducing red meat.. well, just repeat this several times a day - "Mad Cow, Mad Cow, Mad Cow!" I know you don't watch tv, but perhaps you have seen on some internet news report that they found a case of Mad Cow disease in Seattle in the last few days. ::shudder:: You know, just switching to organic meat or "all natural/no added chemicals" would 'improve your diet' because you'd be reducing a lot of extra additives and bovine growth hormones, et. al.

[ornoth]

Well, I’m really not that concerned about the chemical and hormone content. I’m a little concerned about BSE, just because, like HIV, its incubation period is long enough to allow an outbreak to spread unchecked for years. But the biggest factor in my consideration is simple nutrition. Most Americans far exceed their protein needs, and red meats are fattier than white. Now that I’m taking my cycling seiously, I’m particularly concerned about my fat intake, which is also the reason for some of my previous years’ resolutions (cutting down on cheese, ice cream, whole milk, et cetera).