Experimenting with Life

Where are you and where are you going?
suomalainen
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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by suomalainen »

Wow, tough crowd...but I get some of the feedback. FWIW...I'd say blog for yourself, not because you think it's a money-maker or change-the-world-er, cuz most likely it's neither of those. I skimmed your blog post linked above and I agree that you'll have to tighten up your writing, find a hook, etc. if you want to hold an audience's interest. It is an extremely crowded space. Otherwise, enjoy your travels.

JCD
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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by JCD »

@unemployable

Thank you for a really thoughtful response. It helped me understand some of the misunderstandings and perhaps my explanation, brief due to time constraints will help.

I think I got some inspiration from reading your thoughts. Okay, I think the problem is a issue of translation. You see this as a sort of lean-FIRE travel blog. I see this as a search for potential places to live, that inherently, as a web of goals, involves travel. That is to say, the travel is a second order goal rather than the primary goal. I think I've not captured that well enough in part because I wanted to just capture some general concepts and document the day to day aspects more. ERE, in a over summarized way, is about building up skills to replace usage of money. In some real sense, we are trying to use skills to research places to live, we are trying to use skills to limit travel costs (such as cooking at the places we stay in) and in general just plain be efficient. ERE, along with Permaculture is about systems thinking and I think this would count as systems thinking as well. That is why I ascribe this to being more ERE like than you do. I can see how it also has other aspects, which is why it feels genuinely different too.

Around quitting work, the entire plan is dependent on what works. I simply don't know what will work. I know that I'm going to try some different activities and see if any stick. If they don't I may choose to go back to work in a lesser or greater degree, depending on where the winds take me. Rootless wanderer is not too bad a description.

Regarding weight, it is really idiosyncratic and I'm not sure it is that useful to others not that interesting. Basically, go read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/ ... e_disorder Add to it, dealing with human beings is rather stressful and one response I have to it is over eating. A very rough proxy measure for calorie intake is to assume every 100lbs of human needs 1000 calories a day. So a 350 lbs person needs 3500 calories a day to maintain weight. There is about 4100 calories in a pound. That means I roughly ate 100 calories too many per day or 3600 calories to gain the last few pounds I gained. In theory, if I had 20 years to wait, I'd simply cut my food consumption by 200 calories and I'd be good. Since I don't have that long to wait, I have to be more extreme. At 4100 calories per pound, and at roughly 3500 calories consumed a day, I can hope to lose no more than 6 pounds a week, which will fall as I get smaller. Obviously if I starve too long I end up with other physical aliments, so it really does have to be carefully guided.

Given that the body's system also tends to works as a one way ratcheting lever (think something like https://www.hardwareandtools.com/dutton ... -1041.html ), bodies don't like to lose and keep it off. So the best and only way to fix such as thing is to starve and then deal with the slow gain back up by starving again. For me starving involves not being all that civilized or smart, so I really can't work and lose weight at the same time. In case your wondering about exercise, I did try that. The last time I tried that I ended up getting surgery and being told by the doctor to do less. I'm just not a particularly robust human. At this weight, the only thing I think is safe is swimming. Again, I could do that, but it takes access to a swimming pool, which takes spending money. Also, reducing weight by exercise takes years, and as some have noted, I may not have that many years. I prefer retiring and simply not eating. I have not started this process yet, in large part due to driving and needing awareness. I plan on doing it in Europe. There are other reasons for that, like changing life allows changing habits, but I simply have run out of time to explain further.

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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by unemployable »

You will not have many readers if you try to moralize to them on things such as calories in/calories out from your standpoint. I always thought it was 3600 per pound anyway. I want to read your story because you make it interesting and you find an angle that resonates with me. All that stuff, at least the way you've written it, just sounds like excuses.
You see this as a sort of lean-FIRE travel blog. I see this as a search for potential places to live, that inherently, as a web of goals, involves travel.
No, I see at as three posts trying to cover a lot of (literal and figurative) ground but without any (literal and figurative) direction. I got absolutely no sense of you looking for permanent places to live though, so there you go, new blog topic!
Regarding weight, it is really idiosyncratic and I'm not sure it is that useful to others not that interesting.
The posts to this thread say otherwise. No one is asking about your trip to the Mall of America.

If you were to start losing weight, and merged the endeavor into the philosophy of ERE -- they're pretty similar, getting rid of unnecessary stuff and all that -- people would root for you. And this is rare in RE-land! From the outside, all these people with $90k IT jobs and $700k or whatever in the bank have it made. Who cares about most of their "struggles" when they can just write a check? But weight loss... mine has certainly fluctuated over the years and I'm in the middle of trying to lose 20-30 lbs myself. Personally I've tied it into tackling my food spending, which had drifted upward.

I'm about as big a misanthrope as it's possible to be without being in school-shooter territory. I'm a million miler on a major US airline. I get much of where you're coming from. But I've used my body to climb some 450 peaks in Colorado over 13,000' since quitting, so carry the pretense that I understand how it works pretty well.

JCD
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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by JCD »

You will not have many readers if you try to moralize to them on things such as calories in/calories out from your standpoint... All that stuff, at least the way you've written it, just sounds like excuses.
I suppose if you are purely looking from an agency standpoint, it could be. If you are looking at it from a mechanics standpoint, I'm simply describing what I've learned, no moralizing or excuses intended. Literally just mechanics. Part of why it is mechanical in my head is I see the universe that way (and while slightly off topics, I don't believe in free will(*)). I simply see the problems I have had as being directly related to my work. When I was in my early 20s, I worked 40 hours a week running around, I lost 15 pounds in 3 weeks. It was a temp job and that was about the last time I seriously lost weight. No doubt moving helps, but it is hard to dedicate 8 hours of hard labor to lose weight. When I was in my mid 20s I walked about 8-10k steps a day, 7 days a week and continued to gain 10 pounds a year. I actually did this most of the time from 8ish until my late 20s, but I had harder data in my mid 20s (first cell phone with step counter).

As for eating, I ate cheese pizza (usually 1 a day) for about 20 years, straight. I did vary it a bit, I did change one day here or there, but more or less that is an accurate description. Maybe 300 days a year. If I switched meals, to something else, I had a good 90% chance of being sick. I could get use to another meal by eating it over and over again, but that is about the only thing I could do to change. Incidentally, I have done just that.

If I didn't eat, I would develop shakes. If I didn't eat after the shakes, I started to get stupid, to the point I wouldn't consider it safe to drive. Now if you want to call that normal eating patterns, fine by me. It might be. If you want to say that mental and physical illness is a excuse, fine by me. [*] If it is simply a moralization, those who work out more are more moral, I totally get it. Some people think weight is all about will power. I don't think that is your intent, but I think many people find that to be the case. On the other hand, others wish to ascribe everything to bacteria in the gut. It could be. In that case, literally random chance affects you and there is no other control besides taking in different bacteria. I have had my gut colony utterly killed at least twice because I'm so prone to major infection(**). I have no evidence that had an impact either way. I'm not on either of those camps but somewhere in between.

Calories in/out is a useful proxy measure. That is to say, a measure that is useful, but not a direct measure. We don't have direct measures or none that are cheap enough to bother with. We have nutrients as a measure, but that doesn't really measure weight gain/loss. What else is there? I suppose I'd say the in/out model is like using P/E ratio, useful for first examination, but not nearly the whole story.

I have a few more topics already written for my blog, but I'm going to take your suggestions seriously. Thanks again.

[*](*) It starts to be less off topic at the [*], but it's a huge subject, best left alone for now.
(**) I have had staphylococcus in my bone once, as a major infection 3-4 times, MRSA twice and pneumonia once... and I know I'm missing some things. At least twice I've had high risk, could die, situations.
...Mall of America.
A shame too, there were interesting sociological things to be seen in comparing malls, like how morals and social priorities appear in malls. Like how the Indy mall had a lot more art attached to it while the MoA was clearly child driven, with attempts to display different identities. But alas, that may never be a topic :)

JCD
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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by JCD »

That is a bit of a complex question. I think the question is, how do you break old habits. If you ever read about Target sending baby coupons to a family whose 15ish year old daughter was suspected of being pregnant, the father getting angry over said baby coupons then learning his daughter really was pregnant, then this will connect easily. (Worth a read: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/maga ... =1&_r=1&hp ). Basically, target was going after someone who had a dramatic change in life, just when buying habits are most pliable. In fact, most habits are more breakable when moving. They are even further breakable when your entire lifestyle changes.

Well, I'm basically changing everything all at once. It seems likely that if there is any time I'd successfully change or break habits, now would be it. I think I mentioned I thought I might be 20 lbs lighter. Well, last I had a scale, I had lost ~15 lbs. I'm simply projecting out to now in my guess of 20 lbs. Of course, it could be temporary, it is only ~5% change. It could be that habits will come back. It's also not like I don't still suffer some of the problems I mentioned above.

For example, I could easily get sick again, and that might have a deep impact on me while traveling. I simply don't know how to eliminate that risk. I am taking fairly extraordinary precautions, like using hibiclens soap on a regular basis (Doctor recommended BTW). I could have a heart attack, but is that much different than if I have it at home? Is that not a risk all travelers take? I'm also sticking to Europe, which should be relatively safe regarding medical technology, so isn't it perhaps even safer than some areas in Asia?

I see this as managed risk, just like investing and retiring in incredibly high valuations. Its just another risk. If you can manage one, you can manage another. I suppose for those who don't think death is normal, who really fear death, it probably feels like a bigger risk than the financial. I simply don't have that luxury. I spent 6 months in the hospital when I was 5, near enough death to know it isn't too bad. I had a less, but still close call in my 30s. I've also been very nearly run over, having the good fortune of clumsiness, slipping and falling just at the two trucks hit each other. I was under them. I've had enough hospitals and near death views that death is not as big a deal. Just a risk to be managed. I think others would find this to be the biggest risk in traveling, but the problem is, it is a risk that doesn't go away, since the primary risk is exposure to staph, not weight.

Finally, I think it fits well in the web of goals view. I just don't see weight loss as any different than any other web of goals. That basically is jacob's entire point of making a web of goals. I admit it isn't the situation jacob specifically imagined, but he certainly does talk about diet and eating. Travel, particularly the slow kind, doesn't take as much braining. I budgeted that this year I'd make $0 dollars. So outside this little tour of the US, quick in fashion, I basically plan on dedicating ~40% of my time to starvation, even if it is painful.

My current plan (flexible though) is to eat 2, off 5, eat 2, off 5. Any longer and I invite problems. Any shorter and it might not be effective. If I simply went with my current change in eating, it will take ~2-3 years to get anywhere near success. It isn't even like I'm not still hungry, I am, just above the threshold, so 2-3 years feels like too long risk wise. The stave method I estimate might be closer to 6 months. Entirely within acceptable range of time.

Also, even outside of breaking habits, I hope being elsewhere to be something of a distraction. It might also help me ignore the feelings of breaking an addiction. An addiction one simply can't ever stop, but can only change.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I want to wish you good luck with your effort. Like unemployable, I am once again in the midst of attempt to lose the same damn 30 lbs again (sigh.) I think it is important to note that only you can know which goals will be more or less heterolytic. I mean the laws of physics do not demand that dealing with a stressful work environment will cause you to overeat, but if that is your pattern, so be it. You got to play with the hand you were dealt.

JCD
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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by JCD »

@7Wannabe5 Point well taken, however, there is some debate about that. I'm not insisting this is universally true (as in all people with stressful jobs overeat), but it is possible that the nature of the universe is such that anyone who was configured exactly as I was, would do so. Predestination vs free will vs agency. Lots to unpack around that and most of it is a forever controversy with no scientifically acceptable way of testing it. All I can point out is, if free will does exist, it is unclear where it comes from sans a greater power, outside of our current understanding of the universe. Currently our understanding says there are two major fields of play:

* Randomization (e.g. quantum level stuff over my head)
* Mechanistic (e.g. Laws of physics, math)

I agree that there are idiosyncratic reasons why I am what I am. It's why I'm not sure it is that interesting, although it appears people find it interesting. I'm even willing to agree to agency--in rough summary, that I feel like I make these decisions. But I see no mechanism to imply I have actual free will. I might. It is possible, but I reject that we have solid evidence for this today, but we do have evidence mounting in the other direction.

Instead, what I'm doing is studying the obvious mechanisms we know about humans, studying my own mechanisms and then manipulating them as best I can. For those pro-free willers, you can think of it as using my free will to impact that parts of me with less free will. Trying to find pliable, manipulable points is all I'm doing. I can't claim it will work, I have no idea if it will work. Thus I'm experimenting with life. :)

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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by unemployable »

JCD wrote:
Wed Jul 24, 2019 9:43 pm
I ate cheese pizza (usually 1 a day) for about 20 years, straight.

Now if you want to call that normal eating patterns, fine by me.
I do not consider a pizza a day for 20 years, not to mention what you're drinking with it and whatever other snacks you indulge in throughout the day, a "normal eating pattern". But those 7000 pizzas were your destiny, I take it.

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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by thrifty++ »

In terms of the issue of whether being overweight and travelling are inconsistent, I actually find that whenever I go away travelling I get incredibly slim. I dont often carry much extra weight but am sometimes carrying about 3/4kgs more than I would like to. But when travelling it all comes right off.

I think its for a few reasons. Firstly, because I am earning much less income, so I get anxious about spending. That exceeds hunger and I end up wanting to spend very little money on food. But you are working full time while travelling is that right?

Secondly, I become very active. Because I am not chained to an office. So loads of walking, as well as continuing with normal workout regimes, and exploration and hiking etc.

Thirdly, I think eating can happen more when your life is boring and has less pleasure. A little bit like the rat experiment with a rat in a cage by itself with nothing to do other than suck on a bottle of water with heroin in it. When travelling with more time and not doing 50 hours plus of work a week, there is lots of time to explore more enriching things, so less inclination to seek pleasure from food

Do you think you might experience these types of benefits?

Jason

Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by Jason »

JCD wrote:
Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:48 am
But I see no mechanism to imply I have actual free will.
So it was sheer determinism that put Domino's on your speed dial.

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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by jacob »

Man, you guys are horrible. Be nice!

Maybe we should have another burpee competition to highlight the other side of the bell curve? Wheaton levels ...

Jason

Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by Jason »

Sorry, I apologize.

I'm just saying there's something about bringing metaphysics into a discussion about dieting that's suspect. But even if one decides to go that route, determinism is not tantamount to fatalism.

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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by unemployable »

jacob wrote:
Thu Jul 25, 2019 3:37 pm
Man, you guys are horrible. Be nice!
You don't seem to disagree though

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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by 2Birds1Stone »

Deleted, out of respect for Jacob

JCD
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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by JCD »

@Jason

I can totally understand why determinism is not the typical way to go within dieting. If one simply pulls out victim cards, blames it on the universe it feels like it invalidates your personal struggles. I'm not trying to invalidate struggle, I'm simply saying that the architecture of my brain and life have been such that they couldn't have gone any other way. At the end of the day humans are pretty well prebuilt to reject and hate that perspective. I know it, I accept it. However, there are a fair number of studies that seem to show that determinism around weight gain and loss:

https://www.self.com/story/biggest-lose ... ing-weight
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ ... t-071615#4
(to name a few)

It is hard to see it any other way than to see such struggles of losing weight long term as luck of the draw. 1 in 210 for men, or 1 in 1290 for men with a BMI over 40. I'm not counting on success, I'm counting on going down and up and down and up over my lifetime. The best I can hope for is cutting 10 years of weight gain off in a few months, then riding up for a few years then repeating. The big cost is I won't be productive during that time, as it impacts me mentally. The biggest risk is that I might impact my long term body chemistry. I was hesitant to try major diets in part because of the long term impacts, but I think at this point I have no choice.

Perhaps you think the personal responsibility is in the getting heavy rather than the weight loss. While there is evidence that this is questionable, it is less clear. What is at least clear to me is for my own experience, so called self control was not enough. Consider how we have determined self control to have a limited reserve: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/arti ... have-limit . I have not disagreement with what Jacob wrote in his day 3 description. I agree that eating a greater mix would have been better for me.

The fact that I'm broken in some way leads to interesting questions about "personal responsibility". I'm not dismissing the fact that I am defective in this way. I'm noting that the makeup of me, with the environment the way it is would, up to this point, always have made the same choices. If you think I freely choose to make those choices I think you should consider the solider who comes home with PTSD and tell them to just cut it out. Just choose to not have PTSD. A soldier that then behaves badly, say pointing a gun at a child who happens to have PTSD still does get punished though. Complex issues, for sure.

You might argue this is all about psychological distancing. I think that is more or less what the harsh responses are, a very American and puritanical response. That I should just own it. Well, I own my brain. I am my brain. I own my brain is broken. I own that I should try to change it, find ways to manipulate it. I own that what made me successful (OCD) is also what made me fail. If you want to see that as a label of behavior rather than a medical description, then you can say that I simply choose to be OCD and now I need to find ways to unchoose that. Given I have tried that many time and failed, you are free to moralize about that as you wish. Instead, I'm trying to use my OCD to my advantage.

I suppose at the end of the day, you see a past version of me as a moral failure. I don't blame you, it seems to me, you have no choice in the matter. I see that former me as someone to have empathy for, to see how his prioritization of not feeling sick and not eating the in-brain equivalent to saw dust 7000 times (Try eating saw dust some time, it is about what most "foods" are like to me). Having enough self control to choose saw dust over and over again is hard, it takes lots of self control. It seemed like a shitty set of choices then for that guy, and it seems like he did his best to live with in the confines of his head. But maybe he just had poor moral character and should admit it.

@thrifty++

Yes, you are spot on. I think you've captured some additional elements I had thought of at one time, but simply forgot about. Given my final paragraph to Jason, I think distraction is a big part of it. Vacations require less responsibilities, thus a larger pool of self control to deal with the less enjoyable aspects of life.

@jacob

It's okay, I forgave them before they even responded. I knew it would bubble up anger, particularly since it seems to take away from others struggles. It is why it isn't a road I was really planning on going down, but it came up and I'm nothing if not honest to a fault. I'll try to be less controversial in the future. :)

I will try doing some Burpees. It is probably not a bad place to start.

@7Wannabe5

I didn't mention this earlier due to time, but I really did want to thank you. Your unique systems-thinking thought process and interesting life were a large reason why I joined. I value your thoughts and hope I didn't sound dismissive.

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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I didn't mention this earlier due to time, but I really did want to thank you. Your unique systems-thinking thought process and interesting life were a large reason why I joined. I value your thoughts and hope I didn't sound dismissive.
Thanks :D I didn't think you sounded dismissive. I wasn't expressing myself very well. I understand that 80% of behavior is unconsciously motivated and will power as commonly imagined is a delusion.

One thing I was thinking about was that the way some of the forum members are talking to you reminds me of the time when I accidentally ended up dating a Dom and then he made me lose 30 lbs. in 3 or 4 months. It was sort of like XXX Opposite-of-Nice-Version-Supportive Weight Watchers. The funny thing was that I stated an initial goal of losing 50 lbs, but I was already getting big girl version slinky after 30 lbs., so then he lost interest in "coaching" me.

So, the confusing thing is that on one level my above use of the phrase "he made me" is not correct, because it's not like he locked me in a closet with no food, but is it also not correct to say something like "he imposed his strong will upon my behavior?" Seems like a rather complex happenstance otherwise.

Jason

Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by Jason »

I have empathy, just not on the internet. And I don't look at your weight as a moral failure.

I myself am in therapy trying to rewire my brain on certain fronts. It's difficult and takes a lot of work.

I wish you well in your endeavors. But damn, I thought I ate a lot of pizza.

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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by JCD »

Let me see if I can capture my own thinking around strategy. I'll describe limits I currently experience and why as well as a plan. This is just a sketch of ideas that have been sitting around in my head for years, so I'm surely missing some bits.

Present Limits & Workarounds:
1. Eating issues all listed above.
- Trying to insert more veggies into mix by "sneaking" them in.
2. Wrists are weak and tend to give a great deal of pain.
- While driving I won't risk them, but in Europe that is less of a concern.
- Use wrist braces at night to limit sleep related damage (rolling around)
3. Ankles & Arches issues - Lots of weight...
- If I walk more than a mile, I use a cane to try to limit walk impact.
- I wear special socks to help maintain arches.
- Aspirin, sadly.
- Low impact/weight modifications. Picking things involving remaining on the ground. Limit jumping.
4. Historical limits to Weight loss - Exercise doesn't help
- The only time I lost weight was when I worked 4+ hours a day.
- Everything else just caused more eating which did not create weight loss in my experience.

Plan:

Pre-Europe
- Limit intake of less health foods. Example: Pizza every 3rd day. Example replacements include: Veggie Sandwich and Suddenly Salad/Mac-Cheese with a pound of broccoli.
- Eat less overall. Be hungry more often but use distractions. Chew gum.
- Walk around more.

During-Europe:

- Attempt to limit eating to only 2 days a week for a few months (3-6 months). Hopefully lose 100 lbs.
- With lowered weight, some aspects improve.
- Continue to limit intake of less health foods. Example: Pizza every 3rd day.
- Find alternative meals
- Hope to break habits of eating too often and too much (recognizing it is likely the chemistry that makes one hungry will not abate and thus this is way more emphasis on hope=be lucky).

As weight loss occurs:
- Move into more exercise
- Limit or eliminate 2 day a week eating schedule.

JCD
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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by JCD »

For those interested in my previous diet, before reading about ERE and making efforts to change:

Breakfast:
1-4 bowls of cereal (99% chance of cheerios or rice crispies)
Lunch (Work):
Mini bagels-about 6, 1 pound of carrots
Dinner:
pizza (often eating out)

Misc:
- 1 scoop of ice cream (Carton would last about 1.5-2 weeks)
- Sometimes candy

Drink:
- Diet Pepsi (Water is terrible tasting; Diet was not about weight loss, it is about taste)

Post ERE:

Breakfast:
1-4 bowls of cereal (99% chance of cheerios or rice crispies)
Lunch (Work):
Mini bagels-about 6, 1 pound of carrots
Dinner:
pizza (often hand made or frozen, depending on tiredness) or Suddenly salad/mac&cheese with broccoli or Sandwich with Romaine + cheese or Lentil soup (yes, seriously :) )

Misc:
- 1 scoop of ice cream (Carton would last about 1.5-2 weeks)
- Sometimes candy

Drink:
- Diet Pepsi
- Trials of various water-found "drinking" shaved ice can work. Did that occasionally.

Post retirement/pre trip:

Breakfast:
Carrots, Suddenly Salad with broccoli, Sandwich with lettuce + cheese, Lentil soup
Lunch:
Sandwich with lettuce + cheese, Nothing
Dinner:
pizza (often hand made) or Suddenly salad/mac&cheese with broccoli or Sandwich with Romaine + cheese or Lentil soup

Drink:
- Diet Pepsi
- if I eat out, I only order water.
- Had shaved ice daily until trip. Couldn't take equipment with. Looking for alternative still.

Post trip only changed in that I eat out more often due to driving/kitchen constraints.

Post Europe, Diet Pepsi goes away, I know this. It's also part of the plan.

horsewoman
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Re: Experimenting with Life

Post by horsewoman »

bigato wrote:
Sat Jul 27, 2019 5:35 pm
eating only 2 days a week sounds harsh, huh? do you think it is a good fit for your level of willpower? is it hard? i only fasted for something like two days at most, and it was several years ago.
what about traveling through a country where the type of food you would find would be healthier? Like somewhere without pizza easily available?
Eating healthy is (IMO) a lot easier in Europe than in the US for example. I'm basing this on a few weeks spent in New England compared to living in Germany and having visited several European countries.
Fast food (pizza, too) is expensive in most of Europe. You can always buy healthy groceries for significantly less than a meal at a burger joint. When we treat ourselfs to pizza it is about 30€ for the 3 of us. I feed my family for 4 days with this amount on a healthy, organic diet!

While fast food places or restaurant chains have gotten more present in cities, in more rural areas you'd need to drive miles to find a McDonald's or something like that.
I was amazed about the ubiquitousness of places to buy ready made (greasy) food even in small town settings in New England.

Supermarkets are very different, too. I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of choice one has in US supermarkets of unhealthy food. Healthy stuff like unprocessed staples and vegs were either hard to find or pretty expensive.

So yes, I think it is easier to loose weight in Europe, if one puts his mind to it. But eating only 2 days a week seems to be a needlessly hard thing. I went from eating 5-6 meals a day to 2 plus intermittent fasting. It took me 6 months of feeling hungry all the time to get there. I only pushed through it because a GERD condition forces me to eat less or suffer from severe reflux all the time.
So I think the OP sets himself up for failure with a goal like this!

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