Loutfard's journal

[guitarplayer]

Hope it works for you @loutfard!

You might also try high intensity interval training before eating anything, other than it being an exercise it also bumps count of calories burned by the body for I think at least 24 h.

[loutfard]

Short evaluation of alternate-day fasting after just one week. I was curious how it would be to cycle to work, return after midnight and get to bed. This seems to be working really well. Significant gains already: lost weight, lower expenses, eating time freed, less snoring according to my wife, better sleep already. I somehow also feel distinctly more alert. Not sure if that is related, but literature seems to suggest a possible link.

In other news, I finally started reading "Antifragile", by Nassim Taleb. Highly recommended reading for ERE minded people! Also, lots of old intuitions of mine that I considered oddball confirmed, expanded and placed into a very useful practical framework.

[delay]

So you managed not to eat for 24 hours for multiple days a week? Congratulations! That's a giant step in weight loss.

[loutfard]

So you managed not to eat for 24 hours for multiple days a week? Congratulations! That's a giant step in weight loss.

Thank you for the encouragement. This is so much easier to me than consciously having to somewhat limit my eating intraday. My mind would then just be too busy with other things to notice I had helped myself to another serving. To me, intermittent fasting is not zero mental effort, but close. I just don't eat on odd days. Zero mental accounting.

Other observations. The fasting day seems to naturally limit my appetite on the eating day. Also, a week in, the fasting seems to have gotten easier rather than more difficult.

Alternate fasting even feels like a bit of a discovery of something tailored to me. It seems I am actually very good at this specific way of dealing with food. My past should have given me some hints in this regard. I often just forgot to eat.

[loutfard]

Changing habits

Three weeks of intermittent 24h fasting has resulted in 6kg of weight loss. Not zero effort, but as close as it gets. Almost immediate positive effects on concentration and enery levels.

I also cut and reoriented my information intake. The most important change is I stopped consuming non-actionable news. I've replaced it with more in-depth reading. I tried just cutting news before, but that was incredibly hard. The substitution therapy seems to work much better. My wife saw these changes. She agreed a used e-reader would be an appropriate christmas gift. I might be tempted to try intermittent internet fasting soon...

The ultimate goal of all this is to get more happy days out of my finite body. Not everything is fine and dandy yet, but I feel like I'm making a lot of progress!

Two books I've read
- Antifragile, by Nassim Taleb. Entertaining and food for the mind at the same time. My main take is to trust the time-proven. Taleb doesn't explicitly mention what that means applied to social democracy, but that's a huge one. It will take some time for me to digest.
- How to survive without a salary, by Charles Long. Joyful and playful. Very ERE compatible. Dated in a good way. An unassuming post-hippie, pre-internet era perspective. No great theories. Does points at a few foundations.

Our summer house/holiday rental

Our contractor acquaintance will soon restart finishing work. I'd join him on-site for long weekends, were it not for the distance. Enjoyable, but not very sensible neither from an economical nor an ecological perspective.

My wife would love me to build a sauna and a hot tub there. She'd have loved to have them near our pond at the back of the garden. Luckily, we both are careful just spending money, so that was ruled out early on. My mind started to wander the problem space.

The sauna. I'm quite confident in my straw bale construction skills. I went to a hempcrete workshop and skimmed a few books about hempcreate construction. Essential hempcrete construction, by Chris Magwood, is not bad. The hempcrete book, by Alex Sparrow and William Stanwix, is really good. I looked at premade sauna kits. These are relatively expensive. The diy alternative is not exactly rocket science to build, but still not free, and both require quite a lot of maintenance. After giving things a bit more thought, I realised we'd better not tack on yet another maintenance burden. Instead of a traditional sauna, we'll probably go for an infrared cabin. We have plenty of space for one inside the house, and it's cheaper, simpler and faster to set up and maintain. I'll either build one with wood from the neighbour and infrared panels we already have, or look for a good deal on a (used?) kit.

The hot tub. I'll probably start by experimenting with a metal bathtub and a loam and used firebrick rocket mass heater underneath it. The next experiment might involve a used IBC container, some coiled copper tubing and more loam and firebricks. Come to think of it, no need to wait with those experiments. I could have those experiments in our little city garden!

[loutfard]

Weight down 9 kg. BMI at 28.7. I notice plenty of improvement: better sleep, cycling uphill is so incredibly much easier, more alert. 20 kg to go.

Comparing real estate pricing in preparation for our wedding paperwork, it seems my place has appreciated so much more than I anticipated. If I get the right selling price and we move to the summerhouse, we're very close to a 4% safe withdrawal rate! This is really unexpected news. Also, my wife got a nice little promotion at work. More interesting, less stressful work and paid a bit better. What's not to like. We'll have to slowly digest this information together and come up with a plan of action.

Also gaining a much wider perspective of the renaissance aspects of ere. Slowly seeping in. Thank you again Jacob for your book.

Off to my dear wife's native country for a week soon for a well-deserved holiday.

[frugaldoc]

Weight down 9 kg. BMI at 28.7. I notice plenty of improvement: better sleep, cycling uphill is so incredibly much easier, more alert. 20 kg to go.

Great job with the weight loss. I am trying to implement one meal a day fasting and am seeing some results. Not sure if that is mostly water loss from decreased sodium intake though. If I remember correctly, you are only eating every other day. Have you noticed any changes in your energy level (increase or decrease) while cycling (other than the increased ease of uphill cycling) now that you are fasting?

[loutfard]

Noticing change in energy levels is hard because several parameters have changed almost simultaneously: BMI, energy intake and sleep. Some observations:
- Physical effort does not feel more difficult on fasting versus eating days. Some fasting days I cycle 25km commuting to work. Not a problem.
- I feel more alert, as mentioned before. This might or might not be related to the fasting process.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8470960/ might be an interesting read.

[loutfard]

Interesting experience today. The car we share with friends near our summer house caught fire. Got it for free as a hand-me-down from my parents four years ago. The engine compartment caught fire just when arrived. I tried to extinguish it with the car's fire extinguisher and failed. My wife got two more extinguishers from the guesthouse after calling the emergency service. I succeeded to extinguish the fire on the third attempt. Police, ambulance and fire brigade arrived shortly after.

We're both safe. I've spent most of my time the past few hours selling the wreck, organising a cheap rental car for our two remaining days here and calming down my wife.

[chenda]

Interesting experience today. The car we share with friends near our summer house caught fire.

Electric?

[Henry]

I've spent most of my time the past few hours selling the wreck, organising a cheap rental car for our two remaining days here and calming down my wife.

I'm not saying that you're chronology concerns necessarily reflects your priority of concerns, but just in case your last chronological concern was not your first prioritization concern, it may have not been risen to such a concern in the first place.

[loutfard]

Electric?

This was a 2007 diesel. Probably an oil leak near the engine. I wouldn't go anywhere near a burning electric or gasoline car, but a burning diesel somehow was less scary...

[loutfard]

Looking back on 2023:

- I (re)discovered ERE as the FIRE relative that really clicks with me. What a pity by the way I avoided the book ten years ago because of its sensational title!
- We lowered our expenses by >300€/month. Mostly small improvements: changed cell phone providers, updated insurance, sourced vitamin supplements and nuts differently, installing solar, ... The large improvements were using a food waste app and cutting car expenses almost entirely.
- We consume slightly more of some things, and better quality at that. We eat better food. I listened to a wonderful cycle of high-quality free organ concerts.
- Drugs. We hardly drink any alcohol anymore. Not a hard rule. It just disappeared organically. We might experiment with (legally!) growing a cannabis plant each. The idea would not be to consume it, but to try and (illegally) sell the production.
- I integrated a few successful kitchen experiments into our food routine. Lentil burgers, humus, grated carrots, veggie spread and grated white cabbage in sweet vinegar are the main examples. Ticks all boxes of cheap, fast and healthy.
- I sold a few possessions and gave away others.
- We actively chose to source second hand more often. One particular high was my wife going second hand clothes shopping together with my mother.
- I got an e-reader - second hand of course - and am actively using it.
- I lost 10kg of (over)weight and gained sleep quality and physical endurance.
- My wife matured in several wonderful ways. She enjoys her new job more. Some hard emotional things improved on her side. Our relationship improved from a high starting point.
- My relationship with my family improved. With most of them, this was from a very high level already.

Looking forward to 2024:

- My wife and I are planning to actually get married.
- I hope we will be able to take big steps regarding housing:
- Our summer house should be mostly finished by this summer. It will play a larger role in our future. That much is clear.
- Our primary residence is very expensive, the elephant in the room really when it comes to our expenses. A much cheaper alternative to suit our needs would catapult us very close to winning the money chapter of ERE game.
- We have not entirely solved transportation either. Having family and friends on both sides of the continent comes at the cost of getting to the other side of Europe at least twice a year and often more. That means we spend money, much of that goes to supporting disgusting people controlling fossil fuel resources, and it's not great for the environment either. The same holds for moving around the remote countryside by car.
- Skills.
- I want to up my bicycle maintenance skills and possibly experiment with electric bicycles.
- Energy. I want to play with photovoltaics, possibly solar thermal and at least look into aquathernal.
- Side gigs. I would like to start at least one. Main criteria:
- medium to high added value
- easy to operate from a city in the heart of old Europe, a rural area at the fringe of new Europe or a combination of both
- limited screen time required

[loutfard]

Ill in bed since a few days. I spent some awake time looking into my area's rules on tiny houses. Once again, they're more relaxed about anywhere else in the world. It would take a special kind of sarcasm to describe urban planning in less regulated areas like the Netherlands or most Swiss cantons as chaos.

If we'd ever move to a tiny house, we'd probably have to gently break them petty rules. That prospect will probably lead my wife to veto the idea.

[zbigi]

Is the "tiny house" just a tiny house, or the "house as a vehicle to skirt around local laws" concept?

Also potentially worth noting that the EU is currently working on laws for greenyfing houses. One of the ideas currently floated is that from 2030 new houses will have to be emissions free, which in practice means heating with a heat pump. If you build before 2030, you'll probably be given some time to adapt.

[loutfard]

Is the "tiny house" just a tiny house, or the "house as a vehicle to skirt around local laws" concept?

I can't legally do anything of the following in or near the city/region where I live:
- live in a trailer park and have my legally required address registered there
- put a camper in any driveway or garden including my own and live there permanently. Trying to find out the repercussions of getting caught.
- put up a small studio, whether mobile or fixed in place, in my own garden and live or do office work in it
- sublet any part of our 130 m² house
- live in anything smaller than 45 m², except a trailer
- build or buy any structure to live in, no matter how simple, small or mobile, without an architect's expensive stamp of approval
- ...

I can legally:
- build a 40 m² pool house in my garden separate from my house, or a woodshed, or a garage, or a veranda, without a permit or even a notification to any building authority, but I am not allowed to sleep in it. The worst thing is, these things actually get checked around here. Trying to find out the repercussions of getting caught.
- live in a trailer if I move between plots at least once every 120 days (but getting the administration to accept my parents' address for correspondence is almost impossible).
- live in my parents' unused attic and have my official address registered there. Wife has vetoed that though, and I understand her.

If I go 15 km south, I'm in a diferent region with much more lax rules and enforcement, much worse public transport and cycling infra, a different language and lower real estate prices. It's its own can of worms, but I might need to discuss that option with my wife.

[zbigi]

Those rules do sound harsh. I guess that's what countries gravitate towards when they have high population density (and state strong enough to actually enforce such rules).

[frugaldoc]

I can legally:
- build a 40 m² pool house in my garden separate from my house, or a woodshed, or a garage, or a veranda, without a permit or even a notification to any building authority, but I am not allowed to sleep in it. The worst thing is, these things actually get checked around here. Trying to find out the repercussions of getting caught.

How do the authorities check this? Walk onto the property and peer in the windows? That sort of government intrusiveness wouldn't go over very well in the US and might be hazardous to the inspector's health.

[loutfard]

Most likely a neighbour would rat on you. Police would ring at your door and demand to check if the place can be used for sleeping/living. If it can, you'd be liable for a construction permit violation because the construction permit exemption depends on that not being the case.

It turns out to be extremely difficult to find out about the risks associated with this. The fact the risk exists at all might keep my wife from considering this as a valid option.

This city generally feels very much like helicopter parents. They're convinced they know better what's best for you, but don't always execute well and leave very little space for mucking about and experiment. I have no experience with HOA's, but I imagine it to much like a relatively well-managed publicly owned HOA.

As I've hinted before, I've now identified a promising area south of the city, in the other language region of the country. Only 13km from here, but a different world in many ways. A forest - large by local standards- is in between. What I've found out:
- Transportation.
- A train link brings you there in 13 minutes, every half an hour for most of the working days, and every hour on weekends.
- The cycling links are very good, up to the regional border. They're acceptable after.
- The car link is relatively weak. That's great news actually. It means it's less attractive to car bound people.
- Uber recently launched around here. The occasional round trip to the city is affordable.
- There is a government-subsidised car share at the train station.
- This almost feels like cultural arbitrage rather than geo-arbitrage. So few people have links to this area, presumably because the language or cultural differences scare them. It might be possible to exploit...
- Living in a tiny house and establishing one's mandatory legal residence there is actually possible. Doing so on the same plot as someone else's main residence is not completely out of the question either.
- Building regulations have recently been relaxed (!) there. In limited cases, one can now self-apply for a simplified building permit, no expensive architect needed. For kit houses, prebuilt modules and incredibly speaking even sub-40m² single story self-built ones, there's a non-zero chance of arranging a permit on one's own!
- Rental contracts for a spot on someone's else's lot are not prohibited.
- Real estate prices there are very much lower than in the city, and slightly lower than the other areas around the city we currently live in.
- Ugly duck building plots sometimes turn up in that area for four times median net annual wages and under. Think small, sloped, limited road and utilities access. Unheard of over here.

[loutfard]

I just made lettuce soup for the first time. Really happy with that. Why so?

Our food waste app regularly yields all kinds of prepackaged, precleaned lettuce, so much that we often don't manage to eat it all in time and have to throw some out. Yesterday's hunt yielded four packages of lettuce. My wife was annoyed to the point of proclaiming we'd have to scale back our food waste app runs. I was "let's see if I can come up with something" and processed three packages into a tasty lettuce soup. Cheap, easy, fast, less waste, reproducible, tasty. I rock.