Exercise (238) Finding time to exercise

The difficult part of finding time to exercise in the beginning even for 20 minutes is that it actually takes more than 20 minutes to return back to normal life routines. I would say initially, the whole process will take about an hour. So for me mentally, I had to prepare an hour amount of time to exercise for 20 minutes. As time went on, I was able to streamline some of my steps to maybe 45 minutes.

To me, I plan it kind of like a flight. Although the air time is 2 hours, you have to schedule time to pack, travel to airport, and wait prior to the flight, then wait, travel to hotel/home, and unpack after you land. For exercise, I have to dress and warm-up before exercising, then cool-down, shower/freshen-up, and re-dress after exercising.

This takes longer initially because there are some factors that you don't initially prepare for like weather, temperature, gear, etc. But after a while, you can start preparing ahead of time.

Anyways the point is that I found it much easier to be more consistent with exercising when I plan to reserve more time than the actual exercising, otherwise, after preparing I find that I do not have enough time then eventually aborting the plan to do "more important" things (which ultimately really is not that important but because you already planned it; the appearance is that it is more important at that moment).

On a side note, I have been able to maintain a sub-240 weight on a consistent basis now (including my high ranges). This is not just from exercising, actually exercise had little impact to this round of weight loss because I just started this week. A big factor was my diet which I did know but was difficult to control. I would like to say it was my will-power, but actually is due to combination of many factors outside of my raw will-power.

Moved away from my parents who are very concerned for my weight but does not care to consider my views on weight-loss because clearly I do not have a good track record (which they are somewhat correct). Moved away from work because I would eat out with coworkers. This was more primarily in combination with my parents because they did not like the idea of me eating out. So I ate two meals because I also hate wasting food and too shameful to tell my parents that I went out to eat. I had to eat their food because I had to return the containers on my way home. The last factor is that I live with my wife. I seem to naturally cook for two people. Maybe I could have cooked less, but it was probably due to my laziness. I didn't like to just cut half of an object, so I would cut a whole onion, tomato, chicken breast, etc. So I would just end up eating the whole thing also because I did not like having leftovers. So even though I did cook quite healthy, the sheer amount of food was not good for weight loss. At least this would explain why I am still relatively healthy for my size. Naturally, my wife now eats half the food I cook. My wife cooks a little more as she likes more variety of dishes but that is still way less than what I was eating before.

Not sure how this will last because one other major factor is that I work from home majority of the time. I have "gained" so much time without my 2 hours commute per day, preparing for work, logging back on, doing more work at the office to avoid rush hour, etc. On top of that, I get more work done in less amount of time.

Sorry to those who are looking how to change your mentality, but do not give up on hope. Change still starts with you and that is important. I went through most of my life on my own, so I had a chance back then. But some times there are external factors that impact you, and those factors will feel very daunting even if they aren't in hindsight. I have argued with my parents a lot on stop making me food, and they continued to ignore me. I could have refused not to go pick up food, but to me it was not worth a lifetime's worth of disappointment (I would rather be fat and content than unhappy and fit).

Leadership Pitfalls: Don't eat/take your subordinate's treats/food/etc

Do you have people at the office that have bowls of snacks or candies to share for the office?

It's a trap

This is not an intentional trap. This is not the intentions of the givers (unless it's me). But you will have people like me who witness those who take things.

The trap is not a single incident infraction. The problem is when you abuse the (unspoken) system... the peer judgment of others. The main problem starts when you take a larger portion of the goods.

Lack of Compassion

The goods are not free. Out of the goodness of the giver, they are sharing to help those around them. But when the taker starts to feel entitled, this just hits the wrong nerve in me.

For example, there is a lady who always keep a variety of sweets in her area. Several people enjoy the treats. But each day after she's gone, a group of people takes a noticeable amount of sweets from her desk. Because I am usually one of the last people out of the office, I notice this group.

Although she does not mind, this action by that group is just wrong to me. I have also heard the same from others. Some of them have also started to use more racial biases because of this.

So not only does this make it appear poorly for those who take too much, but it also also reflects poorly on whatever prejudicial group the observer makes.

Unfairness

I am one that occasionally leave sweets/snacks on my desk to share. As a person who has bought food to share and even though I am not poor, these foods are not cheap. 

Because I am further back in the office, I do not get as many visitors. I do regularly get a director who is very friendly with a colleague who sits next to me.

Although I am ok with those who take a treat each time they visit, his visits started to irk me when he said (somewhat playfully) that I need to restock my treats (when I haven't restocked for a while). Not only restock but a specific request of candy that I brought in once. I don't mind when someone at least at the same corporate level as me does this because they never do. Yes, that sounds odd but there is an unspoken understanding that these are treats, not entitlements.

I also know this director eats other's treats. And there are similar complaints from those people as I have in my mind. We are the bottom of the hierarchy. A director is 2-3 levels above us, so easily makes twice as much as us (which means he has the potential to save way more than double). Over 5 years, he has never given anything back... not even a thank you. 

If it were just me, I would just chalk it up to my bad luck. But for others, the very least he can do is do something nice (and something unselfish) in return. Even if we have poor directors (I work for a fortune 10 company so extremely unlikely), he could at the very least "promote" them in some ways. I do not even mean a professional promotion. A simple this is a great person, kind person, or if I even have to drudge the bottom of the barrel.... a very simple thank you. Or even, even lower.... at least do not criticize (like not enough plates, utensils, etc). 

Optics

Ultimately, there is nothing technically wrong with taking or even accepting treats. But because the visual is very subjective, this is just not worth the optics that this behavior projects for a manager or executive.

If anything, I even give back to those that share their kindness even if I do not take any or much. This does not have to be food or materials. I have assisted or aided in other ways, although food is the simplest way. 

People see, people judge, but they won't share their thoughts especially if you are in a leadership position. In my opinion, those who cannot even balance simple human compassion do not deserve my respect for there position. And if his peers cannot at least recognize this, I also have lowered respect for all of leadership.

Reference

Personal experience

Cost of a Smoothie

Banana (8 oz) - $0.79 / lb = $0.40
Strawberry - $2.50 = 4 of 16 = $0.625
Kiwi - 4 for $1 = $0.25
Yogurt - 1/5 of $3 = $0.60
Pineapple - 1/8 of $3 = $0.375
Some orange juice ~ $0.10

About $2.50 for ingredients.

Takes only a few minutes to make and a couple minutes to wash.clean.


So spending about $5 - 6 for smoothie seems somewhat reasonable.

Cabbage, Nappa, Carrots - Dish not good

I had some leftover cabbage, nappa, and carrots. This did not make a good dish. There was some odd flavor that I couldn't place... maybe the carrots. It was also a little sweet. At least it was edible enough for me to finish off.

Food: Chakri/murukku (First Impression)

chakri/murukku

This was the first time that I've tried chakri. It was a cracker with indian spices. At first, the texture and flavor was a bit foreign and would give it maybe an 'eh' rating. But then the flavors started to kick in, kind of like an after-taste... or my tongue is retarded.

I probably wouldn't go out of my way to eat it, but I'll eat it if its sitting in front of me as munching food (which I should not be doing as I am trying to lose weight). It definitely adds some kick to your munchies if you are looking for something to change things up. It is worth trying if you hadn't had it before.

Food: Shrimp sandwich with brown mustard taste experiment

I was at the supermarket and passed freshly made potato and egg salad, but did not really feel like eating just plain potato/egg salad. Later, I found that shrimp was on sale and thought to it give a try with the potato/egg salad.

This turned out really good. But for some reason, I did not put two and two together when I bought about a pound of potato/egg salad and two pounds of frozen raw shrimp. So, I ended up with a lot of extra shrimp.

Since I didn't have anything else besides bread, I just decided to just eat shrimp sandwich. Ketchup and BBQ sauce did not sound very appetizing. Brown mustard also did not sound good, but I figured I'd give it a try. Surprisingly, this turned out a lot better than I had thought it would.

Interestingly, I also realized why food places like to mix the shrimp with other things to make them stick together like mayonnaise. If I did not hold the sandwich perfectly horizontal, the shrimp pieces kept falling out. I didn't have this problem with I had mixed it with the potato/egg salad.

Makes me wonder if I could use the remainder of my shrimp into some sort of shrimp cake. At least, brown mustard with shrimp sandwich turned out pretty well.

Life: Zagat's NYC Top 10 Burgers

I'd like to try one or two of these restaurants in the future. I've had shake shack in the past and thought it was pretty good. I had thought it was kind of pricey to pay $5 for a burger, but clearly on the cheaper end for this list and really not that more than today's fast food burgers of comparable size. The line is usually pretty long but it moves rather fast.



http://www.zagat.com/best-burgers/new-york-city/?zagatbuzzid=aug14week4&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newyorkcity20140827

Life: NutriBullet and Blackberries, Watermelon (First Impression)

I finally got around to using my Nutribullet. It is quite simple to figure out and use. It does not quite crush ice very well. It leaves small chunks of ice.

I enjoy blackberries except for the seeds in them so I thought that it would be mulched in the bullet, but unfortunately it did not so, my "drink" ended up with the same seeds in them. I had also included some blueberries and raspberries. This became just mush because I did not add enough water.

I did not need water with watermelon. Adding some ice made the drink instantly cooler. This was great as I had to finish half a watermelon leftover from a party. I kept the seeds in, primarily because I was feeling lazy.

Life: 6 Fruits You're Eating Wrong (kiwi, pomegranate, watermelon, orange, mango, strawberry)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_wDZnypJTA

This video shows how to cut Kiwi, Pomegranate, Watermelon, Orange, Mango, and Strawberry.

I knew pomegranate (half then hit) and strawberry (with straw), I learned a little more for the others which was pretty neat as I have eaten them several times.

Cooking: Bitter Curry - bleh

I was interrupted while cooking curry, so I had put it on lower heat. The call last longer than expected. After the call, I continued with my lunch and it tasted awfully bitter. It was more of a bitter aftertaste because I won't taste it if I continuously stuff my mouth (of course until I ran out of food). BLEH!

I thought I'd give a try to fix it. Quickly, I found the link below that attempted to correct curry (also learned that you can overcook curry). I tried that and it tasted a little better, but I think I totally overcooked it because I was also trying to cook the food with the spices to see if I could infuse the flavor into the onions and potatoes. Well, that part worked.

I'll have to pay more attention next time.

Reference
http://www.ehow.com/how_8367624_fix-bittertasting-curry.html

Life: How long to keep frozen foods

For some reason, my mother likes to keep foods in my freezer and forgets that it is there.

Summary

According to some online articles, toss anything more than a year old, toss anything cooked more than 6 months old, toss any cooked vegetables more than 3 months, and toss any processed meats more than 2 months. This is just a guideline for myself on not thinking twice about throwing away food. This does not mean that the food has not already spoiled within that time period.

Shorten the period of time if there is freezer burn. Discoloring is not a good sign. Bad smell is also not a good sign. Seems like some comments state that you could cut these parts off. I am not a food expert so I take the safe side and just toss it (with a lot of mental pains).

Also included a link on defrosting frozen meats.

Personal Experience (Anecdotally) [Updated 2024-07-24]

I have definitely ate things much past the recommended duration, so not sure how accurate the durations are. I am also skeptical because I have read many things about how companies "fidget" the "expired" dates. Of course, I understand there are liabilities and most of the dates are reasonable. Maybe the big question I have is "how bad is it really after the expiration date."

Like is it life threatening bad? Or is it just upset stomach bad? Or is it just it doesn't taste as good? Or is it just that they are not sure and they just want to have a date for liability reasons?

Reference

http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/storagetimes.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/freezing-meat_n_1367941.html
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/ResourcesForYou/HealthEducators/ucm109315.pdf

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/preparation/how-to-quickly-thaw-meat-00000000049864/

Life: Satis-'fried' my BK Curiosity

After driving by the Burger King's latest Satisfries ads several times, I finally gave in last night before my flight home. Actually, it was primarily because it was free. Overall, I like them better than their previous fries. If memory serves, I prefer their very original fries but that was a long time ago (maybe I had happier memories back then :D).

The fries are crinkle-style. I taste more potato. I think it is because of this that it is "healthier" (by being less unhealthy) than McDonald's fries. I like that it tastes less greasy and less oily, but it is a bit drier so I really wanted a drink afterwards (but didn't because of my ego).

I don't think I have any particular inclinations toward the new fries compared to Wendy's and McD's if they were all unsalted. I liked Wendy's previous fries because they were less salty. The sea salt seems to make it taste saltier. McD fries are still the same McD fries. If all were placed in front of me, I'd eat whichever one my hand happens to pick up especially if they were unsalted.

Review: Dried Cantaloupe

Summary: Good

My story:
I'm going to start by apologizing as this is probably going to be a run-on blog. By that, I mean that I am just going to be typing wherever my thought process takes me so it may jump around quite a bit.

I finally got myself to the farmer's market, or rather I stumbled across it. I was looking into the mortgage process and the market was right in front of the bank. There was a bunch of fresh fruits and vegetables.

I am so used to super market and produce for the masses that I forgot how to select regular farmed fruits and vegetables. They look like the rejects that you wouldn't get from the supermarket. A bunch are slightly bruised and have small gashes in them. They also do not look shiny with whatever stuff they put on in the supermarkets.

50 cents corn is a bit pricey for me but I got a bunch anyways since it has been a while. So used the July fourth sale where I can get a dozen for a dollar. No regrets, they came out awesome. I think prefer cooking them with the husk on. They seem to come out juicier if corn could be juicy, or I guess I could also say that it comes out less dry(?). Either way, I like corn and I could eat them all day.

Also bought some plums. I saw some peaches but I've been disappointed with the local peaches this summer so I didn't get any. The plums were not much better. The texture was ok but not sweet... at least it was not sour either.

Tomatoes were super awesome. The supermarket tomatoes are all so bland. They lack that tomato sour-like flavor. But these farmer market's tomatoes, surprisingly tastes like tomatoes. These were also difficult to pick since they do not appear so perfect, but still totally worth it. Somehow I bruised a couple in transport, so I cooked those. At least, I think I bruised them because they were kind of soft in certain spots and I am pretty sure I would have noticed them when I bought them. Either way, they still turned out great. My eggs and tomatoes dish tasted so much better. I didn't even need to add vinegar.

Next I stopped by the pickled food station. I saw giardiniera so I got some of those. I miss them as I used to have them occasionally back when I was in the midwest. There were also sweet pickles which were really sweet, unfortunately, too sweet for me. There were a whole variety of dill pickles and pickled olives. I didn't know quite how to use the olives so didn't get any of those.

Finally, I stopped by the dried fruits and nuts. For some reason, I've always avoided dried fruits even though I've never tried them. I think a couple years ago, I finally tried them for the first time and was surprised that it tastes almost like candy. I always thought it bizarre why people who do that to fruits since I've always enjoyed them in the original form (i.e. uncooked, undried, un-whatever-is-done-to-them, etc.). The vendor said there lots of people enjoyed the dried cantaloupe which I've never tried before so I figured I would give it a try. I like good cantaloupe at a certain ripeness. It is one of those fruits where if it is not ripe enough, it is too hard and not sweet. If it is too ripe, then it is too mushy (which is more tolerable than crunchy) and too sweet which I prefer not sweet. Ultimately, I prefer not ripe enough over too ripe.

Back to the dried cantaloupe... it turned out really tasty. A little too sweet which I find most dried fruits to be anyways. But it does make a nice treat in the mid-afternoon or mixed with other snacks like nuts or trail-mix. It is a bit pricey for my taste, $4 per pint, $6 per quart, and $8 for some larger size (sorry, I didn't pay attention by that point). It'll probably be cheaper in the grocery store though, maybe.

Review: Yogurt, Yoplait vs La Yogurt vs FoodTown vs Others (not a nutritional review)

Yoplait vs La Yogurt vs FoodTown vs Dannon vs Activia (not a nutritional review)

I have only started eating yogurt for the last couple years. I had a friend introduce Greek yogurt to me and it turned out ok. Mine was mostly fruits, granola, and honey. I tried it again later and found that I do not like plain Greek yogurt. I am still not used to the texture of it.

Because I heard of the health benefits of yogurt, I did not quite give up on it yet. I started with the other yogurt. I think it is referred to as regular yogurt? I will just call it regular yogurt or just yogurt. These are the ones you find in the supermarket not under Greek yogurt. At first, I also did not enjoy these either but kept at it and eventually it became more bearable.

Now I can eat them without any problems and on a regular basis. I buy whatever is cheapest in the supermarket which tends to be Yoplait, La Yogurt, and Dannon. Recently, I just bought some the generic Foodtown brand.

Overall, all of them tastes pretty much the same. Foodtown is clearly the lowest on taste but I still enjoyed it. Foodtown has the least amount of fruits in it. Yoplait and Dannon are usually on the top of my list. La Yogurt is a far third because I always seem to struggle opening the container (maybe that was why it was discounted?).

The 6oz size seems to be a great serving size even though I still try to compare sizes in the supermarket. Yoplait appears deceptively larger because it has a bump at the bottom. I really like that one 6oz can carry me through breakfast.

Even among the regular yogurts, I like the lighter version if the brand carries them. I do not like the whipped version which I find worse than the regular one. I think I was tearing as I reached the bottom of the first one.

I couldn't help looking at the health portion. In general, even the unhealthiest yogurt is a better option for me from my previous diet. But as I attempt to move towards a healthier life-style, I should start looking at the nutritional facts. I noticed that Yoplait has a lot more sugar which is probably how that was more tolerable for me, while Foodtown has 11g (less than half of Yoplait). Now that the other brands are now in my tolerance, I should start leaning towards those brands.

Although the link below says that Yoplait has as much sugar as a Snicker's bar, yogurt is much more filling. It usually can last me for an entire meal and it surprisingly helps with digestion (which I am going to assume a candy bar is not going to do that). I rarely have any digestion problems, but it seemed to help even when I feel a bit bloated from overeating the day before.

Now that I started cooking, the amount of sugar is now making more sense to me. Now when they say that Yoplait has 28g of sugar (about 7 tsp of sugar), I can relate more to those numbers now. I use about 1-2 tsp of sugar for an entire dish, so 28g is a lot of sugar... although I find it odd that 2tsp tends to be too sweet for me, so how am I able to eat 7tsp of sugar without it being terribly sweet?

I suppose I should start eating less Yoplait. We'll see how that turns out. It should not be too hard since I now typically have enough in stock to last me to a week that one of the other brands are on sale.


Reference:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources/lifestyle_community/food/restaurants&id=9020555

Life: Why we enjoy certain foods but not others?

For a long time, I could not understand why I like certain foods for the same reasons someone else does not like the exact same dish... and vice versa. A lot of it explained in the article I read (provided below). It does not quite explain some exceptions. I think there is also non-food psychological reasons to those.

For example, I do not like root beer. I think the reason is that the first time I had it was because I thought it was Coke or Pepsi, and it just tasted completely "wrong" that I just cannot shake that experience.

On a similar note, 粽子 (zongzi) has always been savory. The first time I had a sweet one, I literally bleh'd the food out of my mouth the instant it landed on my tongue thinking it went bad. Fortunately, no one saw me do this as I was a guest at someone's house. I politely asked my aunt what it was, and she laughingly explained that it was supposed to be sweet (common to that region). I did grudgingly eat the rest of it... but it was so difficult to do so with a straight face. A month later, my aunt found a place that served the savory version and served it to the same group. To watch the faces of everyone was exactly how I thought mine looked like when I tried their version. I haven't quite reached 10 times, so I still struggle eating the sweet version. It'll probably be a lot more since I prefer savory over sweeter foods in general.

I also have a cousin who hated vegetables when he was a kid. He had a natural regurgitation if vegetables entered his mouth. My mom had a way with kids and disciplining them (including myself). The only time he ate any vegetables without problems is when my mom was around. Once she is not around, he reverts immediately back to throwing up the food. My mom's trick was that if you didn't like it, you had another serving... and repeat until you ate it. Today, he eats practically anything and way more nutritionally than his younger version.

For me, I learned to eat mushrooms, garlic, bamboo shoots, and 木耳 (mu er, wood ear) after high school. I've had them on several, several occasions before and not exactly sure when I started not disliking them. I still remember when I did not like mushrooms. It still puzzles me how I can have two totally different experiences with the same texture and taste. That fascinates me to no end how there is so much my brain cannot comprehend about the body.


Reference:
http://io9.com/the-psychology-of-hating-food-and-how-we-learn-to-love-476720251