What do I believe?

A while ago I wrote about my personal axioms.  Since then I’ve added a few more.
  1. The universe exists.
  2. I exist.
  3. I can derive accurate information about the universe from my senses.
  4. Other things being equal, living is better than dying, and being happy is better than being miserable.
Note that (3) says “I can“, not “I do“.  There’s a wealth of evidence that one’s senses don’t begin to tell the whole truth about reality, not even the part of it that’s in their range.  But I believe that in general, what I see/hear/feel/etc bears some consistent relationship to some external world that is not in any reasonable sense a part of me.
Some corollaries:
  1. Other people exist, and I haven’t just imagined them.
  2. I accept the validity of deduction and induction until proven otherwise.
And some other observations:
  1. The map is not the territory.  Words and symbols that we use to describe reality of necessity ignore some things, abstract others, and generally don’t ever tell the whole story.
  2. The map can tell a story consistent with the territory.
  3. When your map diverges from the territory, Bad Things Happen.
Why does any of this matter (even to me)?  Several reasons.
I read a lot of atheist blogs.  The question of “proof” comes up a lot in such places, or the related question of “why do you think that?” or “why do you believe that?”  A common question to atheists is “where do you get your morals from, if not from God?”
I had a discussion online with a guy by the name of “Rhology”, and it left me wondering about the basis of morality.
Sam Harris wrote a book about morality that discusses similar stuff (… and eventually I’ll read it :).
I had a conversation with my friend Tom long ago, wherein I said “we are all free to do whatever we want to do, and this is demonstrably true”.  And he said “ah, but what should we do?”  And we agreed that that was a very important question.
I have this poorly defined metaphor in my head comparing morals to gravity, and I wanted to lay some groundwork.
I enjoyed the speech (rant?) in Starship Troopers (the book), which discussed a moral system based on unchanging fundamentals of human thought and behavior.  I’ve always thought that was a cool idea.
So we’ll see how this turns out.

Weight / fitness status, 6/25/12

End of week 13 on LoseIt.  Down 1 lb since last entry (two weeks ago, 6/11); net loss so far, 9.2 lbs.
My starting weight 3/26 was 189.6
My current weight is 180.4
My goal weight is 175
My plan is to lose 1 lb per week
My calorie budget is 1,693
My goal date is August 3, 2012
My original date was July 8, 2012
I was in MD last week.  I ate fairly well, and even IF’d twice (Monday & Thursday).  I managed to not repeat last trip’s travesty of consuming an entire medium pizza Sunday night!  ๐Ÿ™‚
Worked out a bit two Sundays ago (6/17), not so much yesterday.  Had all day, too.  Maybe tonight, since my usual Monday night gig has been canceled.

If elected I will …

From The Internet Oracle, 1500-02:

1500-02
Selected-By: Christophe <xof@chanticleer.com>

The Internet Oracle has pondered your question deeply. Your question was:

> Pardon the repeat, but I think you're pulling my leg.

And in response, thus spake the Oracle:

} Not at all.  If elected, I will:
}
} - bring the budget into balance while cutting taxes and
}    investing in job-creating infrastructure;
}
} - increase retirement and health benefits while adding
}    oversight over unneeded expenditures and reducing
}    payroll deductions;
}
} - trim military spending while taking an exceptionalist
}    stance versus our enemies and restoring our standing
}    with allies;
}
} - reduce spiraling prison costs while getting tough on
}    violent crime and increasing the penalties for drug use;
}
} - cut illegitimate births while eliminating subsidies for
}    abortion and for contraception;
}
} - increase personal freedom while supporting faith-based
}    initiatives and de-funding our failing public schools;
}
} - support the little guy at last while deregulating big
}    business and eliminating limits on campaign donations.
}
} In January, of course, I reserve the right to re-evaluate
} each of these policies based upon changing conditions.
}
} You owe the Oracle your vote.

Weight / fitness status, 6/11/12

End of week 11 on LoseIt.  (And hey, look, today’s the 11th.  Meaningless coincidence in action! ๐Ÿ™‚  Down 1.7 lbs since last entry (two weeks ago, 5/29); net loss so far, 8.2 lbs.

My starting weight 3/26 was 189.6
My current weight is 181.4
My goal weight is 175
My plan is to lose 1 lb per week
My calorie budget is 1,700
My goal date is July 27, 2012
My original date was July 8, 2012
Haven’t logged in LoseIt in over a week.  Was in TN most of last week.
I’m 6.4 lbs from my goal, and 3-ish weeks [edit: 4-ish weeks, oops] from my original target date (according to LoseIt) of 7/8, had I lost a pound a week steadily since 3/26.  The primary hurdles in my way of losing 6.4 pounds in the next three weeks are upcoming travel.  It’s hard to eat well when you’re traveling.  (Well, anyway, it can be hard for me to eat well when I’m traveling.  ๐Ÿ™‚

Weight / fitness status, 5/29/12

End of week 9 on LoseIt.  (Didn’t log week 8, so don’t go looking for it.  I was in MD on business last week, and yesterday was a US holiday and I just forgot.)  Up 2 lbs since last entry 5/14; 6.4 lbs net loss since 3/26.

My starting weight 3/26 was 189.6
My current weight is 183.2
My goal weight is 175
My plan is to lose 1 lb per week
My calorie budget is 1,712
My goal date is July 27, 2012
My original date was July 8, 2012
My first Sunday onsite at work I ate a whole medium pizza for dinner.  It was yummy, but oh my, just a little overboard.  The rest of the week wasn’t as bad, but it wasn’t good.  The past few days haven’t been fabulous, either; the food has been mostly clean (i.e. fresh, fairly low carb, and mostly wheat free), I’ve just eaten too much of it.  And some ice cream.  :9  And I never did get around to exercising last weekend.  ๐Ÿ™
Over the weekend R and I bought some new clothes.  Before I lost 46 lbs in 2010 I wore a 40″ waist; I’m at 34″ now.  Life is good.  ๐Ÿ™‚  (Of course I’ve been a 34 since Dec 2010, but it’s still nice to (still) be at that size.  ๐Ÿ™‚
On the minus side, I have several nice pairs of pants with little wear, that I just can’t wear any more, ’cause they’re too big.  Oh well.  Not a terrible problem to have.  ๐Ÿ™‚

Good advice (he said modestly)

A friend of mine is on Facebook working on losing 200 lbs (starting from 420, I think he said).  He asked if anyone had any nutritional tips.  Well.  I posted a few, and figured I’d post them here, too.

On a side note, I’m kind of surprised that pasting from FB into WordPress worked so well.  Modern technology is pretty amazing.

  • Larry Clapp A site I like, and that helped me lose 46 lbs in 2010, is http://www.MarksDailyApple.com/ (“MDA”). I’ve read a lot about diet, nutrition, and exercise in the past three years, and I’ve found that “conventional wisdom” is often wrong. For example:
    – wheat and other grains are actually not that good for you, and wheat in particular is actively bad for most people.
    – The whole “gluten free” thing? Not a fad, and a good idea to at least try.
    – The whole “low carb” thing? Also not a fad. (Well, okay, it was, for a while.) But it turns out that consuming too many carbs does tend to promote obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and just general poor health. “Too many” varies by individual, but < 100g/day is a good place to aim for when trying to lose weight. Contrast this to the “recommended daily intake” of *over 300g/day*!
    – Eating fat doesn’t “make you fat”, turns out that’s sugar (and probably things that taste like it, like supposedly non-caloric sweeteners).
    – Skipping meals is okay, and may in fact be actively good for you. Search MDA for “fasting” and “intermittent fasting”
    – The “six meals a day” thing to “keep your metabolism going” is not actually supported by the evidence.

    www.marksdailyapple.com

    Mark Sisson’s daily musings on health, nutrition, fitness, the health industry and the low-carb, paleo, Primal lifestyle.
    44 minutes ago ยท 
  • Larry Clapp Here are two places I recommend that give a broad outline of what to eat, or actually what *not* to eat:http://www.archevore.com/get-started/ . The first time I read that, I thought, “that guy is whacked”, but the more I read, the more it was in line with current, evidence-supported theories about diet, nutrition, and health.

    www.archevore.com

    An Archevore is someone who eats based on essential principles, and also someone who hungers for essential principles. Take your pick.
    41 minutes ago ยท 
  • Larry Clapp And there’s http://www.gnolls.org/1141/eat-like-a-predator-not-like-prey-paleo-in-six-easy-steps-a-motivational-guide/ . “Predators eat meals, prey grazes on snacks.”

    www.gnolls.org

    ?”How does the paleo diet work?” Here’s the simple, solid, and strongly motivational step-by-step guide. You can do this!
    39 minutes ago ยท 
  • Larry Clapp Okay, three places: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-to-the-primal-eating-plan.

    It’s not an accident that all three of these guys (and their websites) are heavily into reading the actual studies (not just news stories about them); heavily into what’s *practical* as opposed to some fleeting *optimal*; and (grrr) heavily, though pretty much accidentally, *opposed* to “conventional wisdom” about diet, exercise, and health.

    And all three of their eating plans are similar. Imagine.

    www.marksdailyapple.com

    Do the Math In my recent Context of Calories post, I explained how the differentSee More
    31 minutes ago ยท 
  • Larry Clapp My biggest piece of advice is, only make changes that you can live with for the rest of your life.

180.0, baby!

180.0.  That’s what the scale said this morning.  Lowest since 10/6/11, when for one day I hit 179.6.  The three day window was 180.4, 179.6, then 180.4 again, so I’m not sure that really counts.  The last time I was consistently hovering around 180.0 was last June.

This could certainly be another outlier, but I’m happy, nevertheless.  ๐Ÿ™‚
[Current “goal date” on LoseIt: June 21.]
[ Update 5/17/12, the next day: 180.0 again this morning, so not a total fluke!  ๐Ÿ™‚ ]

Steve Pavlina articles I’ve enjoyed so far

I discovered Steve Pavlina over the weekend.  He’s a fascinating guy.  He’s clearly a nutjob in some respects, but a lot of the rest of his advice is quite practical and useful.  Here are some of his articles that I enjoyed and recommend.

Weight / fitness status, 5/14/12

Week 7.  Net loss so far, 8.4 lbs, down 2.8 from last Monday.
My starting weight 3/26 was 189.6
My current weight is 181.2
My goal weight is 175
My plan is to lose 1 lb per week
My calorie budget is 1,697
My goal date is June 28, 2012
My original date was July 8, 2012
I’ve had a cold since about last Thursday.  Long story short, Friday sucked, Saturday was bad, Sunday was less bad, today is fairly okay so far.  The Primal/Paleo lifestyle may provide higher resistance to disease, but it’s not immunity by any means.  Alas.  ๐Ÿ™‚

A cool page on overcoming procrastination

If you Google “overcoming procrastination“, this page is the first one, so this link is probably extraneous, but I liked it.

And then I read some of the rest of the site for the next three hours.  Or maybe more, I forget.  Very interesting stuff, if you like his style.
And if you don’t, well, he doesn’t care.  For some reason, that amuses me.  ๐Ÿ™‚
But he makes the point with pretty simple math: “I get 1M hits a month.  Out of that, some people are bound to hate what I’ve written, and frankly there’s nothing I can do about that.  So I write what I write, and if you like it, come back, and if you don’t, don’t.  What could be fairer than that?”  (Paraphrased.)