Gotta have a sense of humor at work at 2 a.m.
Month: January 2011
Oh yes I did.
Categories
On Cold Showers
So looking at the title a lot of you are probably thinking I’ll pass. I’ve found that my recent foray back into working out has left me rather sore at times. Looking around online I noticed people sometimes mentioning contrast bathing as a way to help with the soreness.
This reminded me of something I read when I was skimming the 4 Hour Body. Tim Ferriss mentions that taking a cold shower can help stimulate weight loss via bat thermogenesis. The technique he uses actually seems relatively close to taking a Scottish Shower. After searching around some more it seems that people tout cold showers for a lot of random stuff like a stronger immune system, clearing of allergies, etc.
I figure…why not. If anything I’m saving on heating and probably wasting less water as I’m much more motivated to finish my showers now. So for the past week or so I’ve been trying out this cold shower technique. I start off with hot water and at least let myself enjoy it for the shampoo. It’s during the soap portion where I hit cold water. I’ve come up with a few techniques that make it bearable.
- Hide from the water and wash yourself off piece by piece (arm first, then other arm, etc) Soon it’s not quite as bad and you can jump in and finish it off
- Slowly turn the water from hot to cold. This does work, but I think the first technique works better for me.
- Just do it. Worth trying at least once for the shock value haha.
I can’t really say whether or not it’s had any effect other than the obvious ones of saving on heating, making me shower fast, and waking me up. Whether it helps me avoid colds, alleviate muscles soreness, live allergy free, live longer, burn fat, etc…I’m not sure I’ll ever know as I have no good way of measuring. But in the interim I think I’ll stick to it for a while longer. While I know many of you enjoy your hot shower, it’s actually not all that bad and I’d say give it a try. If you’re a morning shower person I guarantee I’ll wake you right up so there’s an added bonus. It’s less useful if you shower at night and want to sleep early though =)
I’m sure many of you have heard of Amy Chua…no? What about the online Wall Street Journal article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”? Now maybe that rings a bell or piqued your interest. The piece is an excerpt from her new book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” and it’s pretty controversial regarding her opinions on child rearing. I can see why people are getting all riled up as raising children (I have no experience) is a touchy subject and everyone’s experience will be different. Mostly, no one likes to be told you’re raising your kid wrong.
That being said I read the article last week, heard the NPR interview this morning, and thought that maybe everyone should just chill out a bit. Sure in the WSJ piece she sounded pretty rough, but parts of the article did strike chords that resonated with my own experience growing up. I don’t know why Asian parents love string instruments so much (I played violin primarily). In the NPR interview one of the callers mentioned he was locked in the bathroom until he could get his times tables in Chinese right. Me too! Except I was in the backyard (it was during the day). Anyways I digress, hearing all the criticism heaped on Amy Chua just made me think of my parents (especially my mom), and how I wouldn’t think it fair to judge how they raised me (even though I judged them at the time…”I’ll never do that to my kids”…classic). And while I can say that I’m glad I won some battles with them, I wish I had lost some of the others. Overall, I look back and am amazed by how they raised the 3 of us the way they did with what they had.
So to my parents: Thanks for all you’ve done. I think you did a pretty good job if I don’t say so myself =Þ You guys always said I’d understand when I was older, and you were right (mostly).
Mom, I know you’re on the Facebook now and can see my status and as such will probably probe into this page. So here’s a special thanks to you for believing in me and pushing me to always be at my best. One more note Mom, Vibrams can be used for running so stop worrying.
This post may be a bit long, but I just wanted to write a bit about my experiences in changing around how I eat and maybe someone else can gain something from it as well.
As I mentioned in my 2011 Goals post in the past few years I’ve gotten more interested in trying out various changes to my diet to see if they make a difference and also just because. Who knows why, just to try maybe. I tend to avoid fad diets that give you little nutrition and prefer to focus more on the more holistic lifestyle change type things as they seem more sustainable and healthier. I tend to go on and off these diet changes as I feel like it and maybe that’s why I keep changing it around. Just to keep things new.
This started out with just recording what I was eating and guesstimating the caloric content. This actually worked pretty in making me watch what I ate because well…I would hate to drink that soda then have to write down the 160 calories I wasted on it. I’m actually pretty sure it drove some people crazy because I can get a bit OCD sometimes about these kinds of things. I believe this was a good exercise to start with because more than anything it made me more aware of the “cost” of eating certain foods and since I tend to eat certain foods more I got pretty good at guesstimating without looking stuff up all the time. Sure I may be off by 500 calories at the end of the day…but isn’t that better than not knowing at all?
The next diet that actually piqued my interest was after hearing about how a New York Times food columnist lost weight. Mark Bittman’s Vegan before 6 approach was interesting to me for two reasons:
- I’ve never tried being vegan before.
- I can eat whatever I want for dinner which is actually generally my largest meal (I know I know, but sue me it’s how I grew up)
I tried it for about 3 months and found that it’s amazingly hard to be a true vegan. My breakfasts always consisted of oatmeal with agave with maybe fruit. Lunches were always salad of some sort or cooked veggies and maybe some sort of starch like rice or potatoes. To be honest, I like meat and was pretty hungry by 3 or 4. There aren’t many pastries or breads to eat because they tend to contain butter, eggs, or honey. Then I found hummus and pita. Apples and peanut butter were also great. After the initial adapting phase I got used to it. Near the end of my experiment I happen to have a blood panel done. The results were pretty good. BP good, fasting glucose levels good, cholesterol awesome (I had more HDLs than LDLs and an overall low score), but considering I’ve never done a blood test before (at least that I can remember) I couldn’t say it was directly related to my diet. But I wouldn’t discount the diet completely either. Either way it’s not a bad way to eat since you have dinner to curb your cravings, but still a bit difficult if you’re not prepping your own breakfast and lunches. Again milk, egg, honey…they show up everywhere.
Finally to my most recent venture inspired by the very popular Paleo Diet trend right now. I remember hearing about this maybe a year ago and thinking that it was interesting…but alas I am Asian and love my rice, and so was not ready to embark on the experiment. Now that it’s gained a bit more traction and there’s a bit more study around it I’m ready to give it a shot. At the very least I can have my beloved meats (sorry animal lovers…I like my meat). Paleo itself is a pretty strict diet, but I’ve found many people do paleo spirited diets. I say in the spirit of paleo because they allow small cheats like the occasional milk product or legume. In the interests of being flexible, which ultimately leads me to stay sane and stick to it more, you’ll find me eating in the spirit of paleo with the occasional total cheat meal/day as I come from a family of carb eaters. We loves our man tou and butter. I’ll be posting my daily intake so as to be honest to myself on my eats page and just for record keeping. There is no greater motivation than to see your track record and to aim to do better than you did the day before.
Looks like posting the 2011 goals have been useful as I’ve hit the gym more often than not as of late. Recording stats is also probably helping. It must be the RPG nerd in me.
So today’s run has been the longest run in the VFF’s so far. Ran a 10k split at 2 paces. First 5k@10 min/mile and 2nd 5k@~9 min/mile. I say approx because I tried to push a faster pace and then ended up having to slow it down a bit. So I just did the math and found it averaged to just about 9. To protect the rubbing areas I turned to bandaids which actually worked really really well. Unfortunately I think I’m feeling what may be a new callous forming around the ball of my feet. Maybe this is just part of what’s needed to push distance in the VFFs?
Finally, the Bio Impedance fat meter came today. After trying it a few times I think I can get pretty wild readings. So I think in the interest of keeping things consistent I’m going with an average right after waking and an average right before bed. More than anything I’ll be tracking the trend over time since the actual % can vary depending when you use it, how hydrated you are, and even how you hold it.
Categories
Safety Errands
I was hoping to work out today, but seeing how I’m still sore I decided to get some errands done instead.
I’ve been putting off getting the smoke detectors for the rooms since I still don’t think it’s necessary given I’ve got one in the hallway already. But according to code each room has to have one so I dropped by Lowe’s and installed them all. Happy now Santa Clara? Now I’ve got 4 smoke detectors within 12 feet of each other.
The other item was my car’s parking lights were busted. After figuring out where the side marker was in the darn car I wasted a good hour trying to pry it out without seeing it. They stick these thing in the hardest to reach places and say you don’t have to take anything apart. Well it’s true you can get it done, but my left hand looks like i decided to play patty cake with a cat. I actually ended up having to make two trips out to Kragen (oh wait it’s O’Reilly now) because I didn’t realize my car’s signal light and parking light were the same, just with 2 filaments. So pulled that out and replaced that too.
It doesn’t seem like a lot, but that basically took half the day. Oh yea, I got distracted by a rabbit that randomly showed up in the backyard. It needed a haircut. And then we’re back to the grind tomorrow. Soreness go away by then.
Categories
Welcome to 2011
2010 thanks for the times. I can’t say I’m too sorry to see you move on though. Looking forward to 2011. I don’t usually do the resolution thing so I’m going to call them goals. The important thing for me is that they’re measurable, incremental, and will address more balance in my life…also having it down on here means it’s harder to cheat or say I forgot.
Diet:
It’s been a while since I went off the Vegan before 6 so it’s probably about time to jump back into something. I’ve been looking at Paleo/Primal and the slow carb diet from 4HB. I’ve found them to be similar in many aspects and will be trying to follow the spirit of them. Basically high protein, good fats, low carbs, avoid grains and dairy when possible. I may also include some of the concepts from 4HB like the cheat day since I prefer flexibility in my choices.
Sleep:
On a regular sleep cycle get at least 6 hrs a day…or at least 6 hours average. Luckily I have a flexible company that allows me to consider the stretch goals as well.
(Stretch Goal) Polyphasic sleep
(Uber Stretch Goal) Uberman Sleep Cycle
Workout:
3 times a week (Any physical activity counts lifting, running, cycling, sports, etc)
Body:
I just purchased a BI meter so unsure what current bodyfat % is. Goal is to 12% or lose 3% whichever is more % points
(Stretch) Get to 10%
Stretch:
Stretch for at least 5 minutes every day.
Social:
Let’s do more of this.
Eat 2 meals a week upstairs…sitting down not standing.
Image:
Don’t be a lazy bum everyday. By this I mean shave and fix my wild morning hair when applicable.
(Stretch) Get haircuts more often (Really Stretch) Update the wardrobe.
Physical Exam:
Do one yearly
Progress: Done. I actually already did this, but it took almost 8 years of me talking about doing it so I had to put it down.
I’ll be tracking my progress locally and may post updates once in a while.
Debated for a while about running since it’s still in the 40s and chilly, but decided to F it and man up so I went running around the neighborhood. Based on yesterday’s rubbing I put on some tape on both feet just in case. After the run I checked and while the tape took a rubbing my skin is still intact. Still unsure about a long term solution though. I really hope that I won’t have to tape every time I want to head out for a longer run.
I’m also wondering when I’ll be able to start doing longer runs more consistently. I’m still feeling the calf soreness from these shorter runs, but it seems like my recovery is getting to the point where I think I could do a run everyday if I wanted to.
Wanted to go for longer, but it seems that those blisters kick in right around the 3 mile mark. Will try with band-aids next time.