Input

My morning mass endoggenment
I have the ipad and coffee right there,
but it takes two hands to pet two dogs

As our world is burning down around us, I've been thinking a lot about modifying my consumer behavior - both where I spend money and where I get news and entertainment. I've had a ritual for a number of years now, in retirement, where I rise relatively early, let the dogs out while making coffee, and then settle down with my ipad to check in with the world. (First the dogs pile on me for a morning pet fest, topping up my oxytocin levels that decline overnight.) I have my routine: texts (they don't wake me up if they come in while I'm asleep), emails, blogs of people I know in real life. Then, a deep breath and the news. 

The news is bound to upset me, and I've learned to meter my input, checking my arousal level, and sometimes just walking away for a while. But this morning checkin is where I decide on my civic actions for the day. I write or call my federal representatives, or my state and local ones, almost every day first thing. (Not many calls, while I know they are supposed to be more important than emails, but I am very thoughtful in my phrasing in emails.) I might enter comments on some federal or local issue that has a public comment form available. I have a weakness for having to actually research a topic before commenting on it, clicking through to read source documents and think about it, so this is time consuming.

This is my main ipad screen with my news sources,
recently enhanced and rearranged so I can get at my most used
Links to email reps at the bottom

I have subscribed to the New York Times and the Washington Post for years, and since I got the ipad, I actually read or at least skim them every day. I am disappointed in their performance right now, but I still believe they have legitimate investigative journalists doing good work. (Their headline writers, on the other hand, suck.) Not only am I reluctant to deprive myself of these papers' content, but I am willing to pay to support them. I am working with many additional news sources as well, and increasingly I'm paying for them as well.

 I subscribe / pay for Vox, Pro Publica, the Baltimore Banner, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, New York mag, Heatmap, Wired and Rolling Stone. These last two have a surprising amount of relevant investigative journalism right now. I'm considering contributing to the AP - I only just realized it's not-for-profit. Heatmap is a climate newsletter someone I know writes for, I only read it sometimes. I subscribe to a large number of newsletters, most through SubStack, and I pay for a few of them.

I never watched TV news, ever. But I used to live on public radio. I've been contributing since right after college (the tote bag and coffee mug collections have finally been whittled down.)  I owned a radio for every room in my house. On weekends, I would turn them all on to the local station (WAMU, Shout Out!) while I did chores and projects. Now, I have Amaz** Alexas in many rooms, and I can with a voice comment turn them all to the station and hear it as I move throughout the house. But I want to meter my input of upsetting news, not allow random voices to appear and hit me in the gut with something with little warning. And so more often I tee up a podcast from my list, or a book, using the devices as bluetooth speakers for my phone. 

I will also play music throughout the house, either directly with a voice command, or again bluetoothed to  my phone. I also still have my big, dumb, ipod, loaded with many LPs and CDs I loaded into my computer as MP3s. Its battery has no staying power, but I have it plugged into a charger, and wired to a high quality speaker. Often I will put it on random shuffle from my entire collection of songs (about 100 hours worth!) and play it loudly while going about my business. It's pretty much guaranteed that every song on the ipod is something I liked enough to own at one time, and sometimes there is an unexpected pleasure from hearing something I remember only from long ago. Sweet!

Book options

Books are my big thing. I have a kindle and a kobo which are "epaper" readers. I much prefer them to long reading on the ipad - the screen is easier on my eyes and the device is much lighter to hold, and it's a great battery life for travelling. I find the epaper devices seamless to read on, a better experience than the printed page because I can adjust the font size and backlighting to the conditions. I'm trying to unwind myself from Amaz**, and it's hard. The public library offers a kindle option for most of their ebooks, and I usually go that route. In addition, a Prime membership gets me a couple extra free books (limited selection) every month. And many independent authors, self-published, are only available there. The kobo has fallen into dis-use. Recently, Bookshop.org has offered another alternative for buying ebooks. Their website allows you to choose an independent bookstore to profit from sales to you on their site. I've designated "Loyalty Bookstores", located in DC and Silver Spring. But their catalog is not extensive - especially in a back catalog if I find an author I like and want to catch up on all their books. And books bought through them have to be read on my ipad currently, though apparently they are in discusssions with Kobo. I have discovered there are some untethered chrome-operating system generic ereaders made. I was excited, until I researched on Reddit and found they are mostly made in China, system messages are in Chinese, and they require some savvy shenanigans to use. I'll stay tuned, but not ready to purchase yet.

I also listen to books a lot. Audible is the obvious choice there, and I've been on a subscription there since I bought my first ipod. Now the app is on my phone, but I can also download to my kindle, which can save phone battery while traveling. The Audible subscription level I'm on gives me access to a lot of no-extra-cost books, mostly back catalogues or indy authors. The library audiobooks are Libby, which works very well on the phone. I also use Libro.fm, which is affiliated with Bookshop.org and has the same deal of designating a local bookstore to share profits. I am currently also subscribed to Libro, but it has the same issues as Bookshop's ebooks in terms of fewer choices and no back catalog.

I use Goodreads to keep track of my reading, and to get updates from other people. It is owned by Amaz**, and when I finish and rate a book on the kindle, it automatically is registered in Goodreads. Books read elsewhere, or audiobooks, require entering manually. There are other social reading sites, Fable and StoryGraph, which are frankly better. Except, they don't have the automatic updating. I am a voluminous reader, and I like the convenience of the automatic updates. So I'm still on Goodreads for now. If my kindle reading declines, perhaps the convenience factor will too. (Both StoryGraph and Fable allow importing a Goodreads export, which captures all your history up to that point. But, that's a one-time thing and all future books have to input manually.)

John Scalzi has an excellent post that covers the nuances and pains of trying to disentangle from various Evil Empires run by oligarchs.  Two notable quotes: "Boycotts are a fuckin' slog, y'all" and "No ethical living under capitalism is a real thing". I'm sorting my way through the mess. I'm on Facebook and Instagram regularly, where I see posts from people I know in real life and want to keep up with (I post very rarely). But I'm not on Twitter nor Threads, though I have IDs there. I've been a Prime member, and I'm not turning that off right now. But I'm trying to go to other sources for things, with mixed success. Covid tests available for same-day delivery via Amaz** took eight days to arrive when ordered direct from the manufacturer. A maintenance item I needed was only available via Amazon - the manufacturer's website pointed only there. Whole Foods has been my major grocery store (visited more than once a week last year). I've joined the local food coop and checked out Mom's Organic Market (local chain, twice the distance). Both are less convenient - I often would drive to the WF parking lot, where I could also go to the farmer's market, hardware store (employee owned!), CVS, and library all in one trip. Shall I spend more gas driving around for errands? Nuance and trade offs, guys.

BlueSky has definitely hurt my sleep. I've turned on controls on my ipad - BlueSky is limited to 25 minutes a day, and the whole ipad turns off at 10 pm. Controls are easily over-ridden, but at least it's a conscious decision. 

Recreational Sailing Allowed in Maryland!

Read Aloud:

On a day

when the wind is perfect,

the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty.

Today is such a day.

My eyes are like the sun that makes promises:

the promise of life

that it always

keeps

each morning.

The living heart gives to us as does that luminous sphere,

both caress the earth with great

tenderness.

There is a breeze that can enter the soul.

This love I know plays a drum. Arms move around me;

who can contain their self before my beauty?

. . .

On a day when the wind is perfect,

the sail just needs to open

and the love starts.

Today is such

a day.

— Rumi

Differences are Already Noticeable

I went shopping today, for the first time in quite a while (aside from ducking into the grocery store). I made a pass through Kohl’s, PetSmart, Target, and Home Depot, all clustered together. For the first time ever, there was no wait for the cashier at any of them. Only Home Depot was showing any signs of life. The other three stores were nearly empty. People are staying home. The people that work there, probably can’t afford to stay home.

Time to make sure my elected federal representatives are clear that any extra corporate subsidies to make up for lost business need to be strictly pass-throughs to the employees. How can that be assured? I’m sure there are policy wonks that have that figured out already.

I was disconcerted today to find myself grouped by the way newspapers reported CDC recommendations into the “at risk population”. I decided I’m basically healthy, and except for washing hands and being conscious of touching my face, I’m not going to modify behavior much. I don’t feel old. But there was a very amusing segment on The Daily Show where the very young guy referred to “old people like you” as the only ones that should be worried. When Trevor Noah protested, “I’m not old” the guy laughed and said, “I guess we’ll let ol’ Rona Virus decide that!”  Indeed.

Me and My Devices

Aaron Carroll, a health blogger and NY Times columnist I follow, wrote an article covering a study that looked at how a tracking device helped (or not) with weight loss and increasing activity.  The study results were negative.  I had already tracked back and read the original publication some time ago, and so I commented on it in the NY Times on-line.  This morning I looked, and my comment had risen to the top of the "readers picks" in comments. How about that? (Internet fame is so fleeting that it maybe won't be at the top anymore if you go look.)  Here is the article - if you have a subscription you can get to the comments.

https://nyti.ms/2lZULns

NY Times explains DIY Diet Buddy

Combined support with semi-anonymity. Plus Instagram. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/health/instagram-diets.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

(I need to double check link works)

Math

It's no secret I love the numbers. I find them very motivating. I love beautiful graphs. I love how meaning and insights can be gained by rearranging numbers, sorting them, using them to draw pictures, teasing out meaning by emphasizing one part of the data with color, intensity, or size.

But sometimes its the most simple recording of numbers that is all that is needed.  Once I stopped trying to lose weight, the weight started going back on. I still weighed in every day, but somehow the numbers I saw there were disconnected from my behavior during the day.  But then I hit a truly alarming number - the highest in over a year.  So back to the most simple and easy tracking system I've found - Weight Watchers. The commitment I made to myself was only to track, to meticulously enter everything I eat.  I did not make a commitment to even stay within the allocated points, only to write it down.

Look at how this impacts my weight:

The lesson to be learned here is so obvious, it's smacking me in the face.  TRACK. Keep my behavior front and center all the time. Do not eat unconsciously.  Last night, with a stressful week behind me, I ate ice cream. But I tracked it - I even used the cool tool where I could scan the bar code on the package and load it into the WW tracker automatically. So easy, and it so makes a difference - because I will eat less today to keep the weekly numbers down where they need to be.

Here is an interesting article from the New York Times about how mathematical analysis can shed light on messy real life. And here is the last bit from the article:

"There’s no magic bullet on this. You simply have to cut calories and be vigilant for the rest of your life."

A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity

My Family Qualifies

I don't think you need to test my family to know where we are on the genetic pre-disposition to weight continuum.  But this article from the New York Times holds a kernel of hope - get moving.  Which I am very overdue for doing this morning!  No more computer!

When Fat Runs in the Family

Drinking Coffee: I'm doing it right!

From the Well Blog: drinking coffee is correlated with less depression in women. I'm thinking about all those depressive Norwegian ancestors of mine, and thinking this must be why enough of them survived to give me my existence.

http://nyti.ms/oRyTwp



Sherbert update

Why Diets Fail

Jane Brody's New York Times column this week talks about a series of articles  in The Lancet, a medical journal.  Three of the four articles are focused on public health and the obesity pandemic. The third, of greatest interest to me, focuses on quantifying weight changes based on energy in versus energy out.  (I'd like to save the world, of course, but how about me first!)  Because I am a geek and because I wanted to avoid all chores and other problems for a while, I flopped on the couch this morning and read the actual Lancet article on this quantification.

So guess what? Existing projections of how much weight you should lose by cutting calories or upping exercise are wrong, and overestimate weight loss.  Well, duh. We knew that, those of us out here in the trenches of the weight wars. The sophistication they have added to the calculations isn't overwhelming:  very fat people lose weight more quickly than others for a given cut in food or increase in exercise, simply because it takes more calories to maintain their body weight (they burn more calories while lying on the couch) and because they burn more calories during aerobic exercise (it takes more calories to move those big bodies). As your weight declines, you lose that effect and so it takes cutting out more calories or upping exercise even more to continue to lose at the same weight.

(They do not include in their model any assumption that exercise leads to greater muscle mass which burns more calories - they include the relative burns of fat versus muscle, and assume the fat goes away as weight loss occurs, but explicitly do not include any increase in absolute muscle mass. They say it's probably not a big deal for aerobic exercise. Very fat people have to have muscles just to move, of course. I know I've added muscle, not just relatively but absolutely, but I do quite a bit of weight training.)

An additional conclusions they reach which I have to quote because I can't follow all of how they got there:  when there is a lot of fat to lose, you will lose faster by adding exercise, but after a certain level of exercise has been added, there is more benefit to cutting food than to adding more exercise.  Going beyond the math, they suggest it does make sense to "go on a diet" - have a big, artificial restriction in food - at the beginning of a weight loss program, because otherwise their model's predictions of how long it will take to get to goal is very discouraging. Most books I've read of popular diets follow that approach - lose, then taper off towards maintenance.

They spend some time looking at plateaus. They note that many dieters reach a plateau after eight months, and speculate on why.  Apparently no in-patient studies go beyond six months, and they say only in-patient studies are accurate for food intake and exercise records - "diaries are notoriously inaccurate". Because there is no change in the math they have calculated during the six months, they don't think there is a sudden change at month seven or eight to account for the plateau. Instead, they note there is a lag between adding food and gaining weight back, and they hypothesize most "free-living" (their term) dieters stop being rigorous in their diets after a few months, but the weight loss continues and so they think they are ok doing that, but it finally catches up with them and they plateau on the scale with no additional cheating going on. This is a second answer to "why doesn't what I do now work the way it used to?".

There is a side-bar on whether diet composition (eg high carb versus low carb) makes a difference.  There is a very grudging tone to any discussion about whether low carb works - there really is a prejudice out there - it's not just purely scientific. They say several studies support that low carb leads to greater weight loss, "at least in the short term". They offer some possible reasons for this: (1) physiology at the cell / molecule level means (I think they say just like Atkins et al) that carbs take less energy to turn into fat; (2) eating protein means you feel more energetic and thus burn more calories; and (3) high protein, low carb may lead to more satisfaction with your diet and therefore fewer calories consumed. They go on to say that since diet logs lie there is no way to tell what people are actually eating. They go on to conclude that any effect from composition doesn't matter over the long term (based on what?) and so they say it doesn't matter over the short term either and a calorie is a calorie is a decent rule of thumb. I don't exactly get this.

So how might I use this information? I don't know. The very short takeaway for me is that if I want to lose weight, I have to keep up the exercise, but I really have to cut calories, and even then it will take a long time.

Sigh. I think I actually knew that already.

Decision Fatigue

There is a particularly interesting article in the New York Times about making decisions. Basically, it's really tiring, you have a budget of how many you can effectively make during the day. Exersizing willpower is effectively making a choice, like going to the buffet and restricting yourself to salad instead of the yummy orange chicken. Carrying your lunch in a bag eliminates the need to make a decision and thus conserves your willpower. A shot of sugar helps you make more effective decisions. Eating an apple on the way home from work should help me make better dinner decisions. My interest in cognitive behavior therapy and needing to have some structure in the diet and exercise world makes sense with this perspective: making a rule not to eat doughnuts means "no choice" and making an appointment to exercise means "no choice". It also explains what I know so intuitively about days with lots of meetings. If I am running them, they are very very tiring.

I'll link to the article when I get the regular computer up and running later.
UPDATE: Here is the link

Sherbert update

Location:Topsail Beach

Exercise in the News

Today's New York Times says that exercise, even moderate exercise, staves off brain deteoriation as you age. It buys five years. That seems worthwhile.  And I even like it, so why not?

But the best part was my brother's comment on facebook:  "This might explain a lot, like my Mom"

Link to NYT article