A few years ago I built a cabinet for my family. I used equipment purchased off of Ultimarc (https://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html), did the woodworking myself. I'm a very inexperienced amateur woodworker, but I love doing it. It's a fantastic hobby to contrast against a day of programming.
Here's a photo album of the process. I picked up the Donkey Kong marquee later as a gift for my wife at Christmas time - she's the Donkey Kong Pro in our household.
Of course, when I look at it - I only see the flaws. I'd love to get a second shot at building it!
Oh the other side of it --- weighing in frequently and drinking a ton of water! I weigh myself most nights. I know what days I didn't get enough water, because I'll have "lost" 2 pounds that day. That tells me that (1) I need to immediately drink some more water and (2) drink extra the next day. Dehydrating yourself will have a negative impact on weight-loss long-term.
Hey, congrats to you! I'm pretty much in your exact boat.
I started the year at 267 and I'm down to 225 now. My goal is an even 200 (or I'll sometimes say 199 for the joy of seeing that 1 in the front).
I've done it just as you have -- by eating less. At the start of my diet I was counting calories on a daily basis -- but after a while I started learning to pay attention to the calories of everything I eat. Now I simply keep a running tally in my head and know where I'm at. I'm fine with estimating when I need to.
The biggest change for me is learning to be happy with smaller portions. I used to eat 3 enchiladas, then have another 2, then another 3,.. THEY ARE SO DELICIOUS! Now I know going in that I'm going to make my plate and that's it. There's times I wish I could have more, but enjoying the one plate is the biggest key to my success so far.
The other side of it is avoiding calorie landmines. It's so easy to accidentally eat an extra thousand or two calories while eating out by not paying attention. Knowledge is power :).
i too, like/liked to gorge. i wasn't obese so it was never a serious psychological problem, i'm just something of a hedonist.
i've found that intermittent fasting allows me to occasionally (occasionally!) gorge and satisfy that hedonist inside of me. i also do low carb so i will combine this with a carb cheat day maybe every couple of months. my weakness is popcorn so i will enjoy a small popcorn at the movies after dinner.
conversely, if i accidentally eat a 'calorie land mine' as you put it, i'll just skip the next couple of meals. i just focus on work instead.
i think most 'naturally' skinny people do this anyway. i was eating 3 (or more) meals a day no matter WHAT and that's not necessary healthy.
You and I have literally the same progress since the beginning of the year (mid 260s to 225). I don't really have much to add to that, I just find it interesting :)
I have not seen any well-constructed study showing that GMO foods are harmful, but I see the argument you are advancing fairly frequently. Could you share why you think GMOs in general are bad? I'm not informed enough to make a determination either way at this point so I'd be very curious to see what is compelling other people to have such strong opinions about it.
Being from Africa I can tell you that the Patents linked with GMOs are really bad. The subsistence farmers depend on part of their harvest for the next crop. GMOs owned by corporations have patents that if introduced or even an adjacent field cross-pollinates with your crop you are in violation of several patents. So every year you are forced to buy new seeds from the Corporation. I hope this gives you a bit of insight as to how subsistence farming is hurt by these types of seeds.
Maybe opensource type GMO is in order? Who knows.
What happens to farmers who don't buy new seeds and just reuse seeds from their current crop, licensed or otherwise? Are there examples of them being pursued by patent lawyers?
I don't trust science at the current state to understand the long term impact of GMO. Besides, I prefer to eating natural ingredients regardless if science finds no problems with GMO in the future as well.
Wanted to comment that I downvoted not because of your first sentence, but because of the second. Hackers have not proven themselves more rational than society at large and I wish we would stop arrogantly thinking of ourselves that way.
Yeah, I was a little hesitant about that second part also. It was more for effect; I fully realize we're definitely not an insular bunch who can be expected to be rational in all parts of our lives in comparison to the irrational unwashed masses.
Where does the line of natural get drawn? Genetic modifications have been part of agriculture from the very beginning. The food we grow today didn't even exist before humans adopted agricultural practices.
The issue is not necessarily with genetic modification itself, but the reasons for modification.
For example, if a plant is modified to be highly resistant to pesticides, then the concern would be that such plants are saturated with potentially harmful (to the person eating them and the environment) pesticides.
Another example would be plants that are modified to be incapable of reproduction (so that the manufacturer can sell them to farmers each season). In this case, the issue is social/economic rather than health/environmental.
I can't speak for the parent, but I can say that, for me personally, the position is not "GMOs are bad". But there are potential issues that should be taken seriously, and I'm skeptical of people who are so insistent about pushing ahead; they usually stand to make money.
To repeat, the issue is not modification itself. After all, we've been modifying genetics for thousands of years through traditional agricultural techniques. For me, the main issue is who is doing the modifying and why.
When I hear "free soda" I hear "free diabetes and heart disease". Free soda is the worst kind of encouragement to have your employees living a healthy lifestyle. I'd love to hear about a company who seeks to provide fresh local fruits and vegetables at its snack table.
I really don't mean to come off as a Debbie Downer, but soda is such a terrible scourge on society as a whole.
Free... soda, selzer water, coffee, Naked juice, fruit baskets daily...
The point is that these stupid small things make (or not make) you feel appreciated.
Although I don't hardly drink soda, having free soda available would allow me to believe that the company is willing to spend a few K/yr to say "We appreciate your hard work, have something small as a token of our appreciation"
Ummm, I've never been at a (small) firm that didn't offer diet soda if anyone wanted it.
Heck, I got at least one place to get caffeine free with sugar Coke, since I don't like the effects of the former and (at least back then) didn't have to worry at all about calories at that level. I was probably the only one who drank it, but it was a really minor effort for them to include it along with everyone else's preferences, and obviously that sends a message as well.
Yahoo! Ireland used to have free fruits, at least around 2006/2007.
I'm with you about the sodas. They are free at my work (with a loose rule of one per employee per day) and I always say to my fellow colleagues that it's terrible, sugar sugar sugar.
This is high in the running for the dumbest article I've ever seen on HN. Send that U-Verse internet connection back to 1983 and you'd get the same response - "this speed is cool, but it doesn't really let me do anything NEW". We need technology that serves for the things we might do in the future, not merely for the things we want to do today. Because we never know what technology from today we'll be stuck with deep into the future.
There are for real reasons already - I work in manufacturing and collaboration is really annoying with gigabyte-sized files going back and forth - not to mention the browser CAD / simulation tools that could be made if the pipes were far bigger.
Friends with a 3D scanning company are FedExing crates of 2TB drives across the US to get around this - it's actually cheaper...
I think you (and to be fair, a lot of others too) might have skipped most of the article; what you've said basically agrees with the latter half of it- from
"The inability to anticipate the utility of Google Fibre is understandable" onwards.
