Daily Arithmetic for Thirtysomethings

Oh boy, metabolism's a b.....est friend? Well, it used to be anyway. I remember the high school days when I used to eat a box of Hot Tamales, down it with a Coke, and somehow still be able to fit through Carlo's doggy door when I lost the house key. But then again, Deebo also learned how to fit through the doggy door.*

Ah, I digress. Metabolism. Mine used to pace itself with a ride on a bullet train, but now is just a steady Amtrak. And I do realize that there's still time for it to become little Tommy the Tank Engine sputtering along.

Some girlfriends and I were recently talking about health, and I made a comment regarding diet and exercise that I hadn't realized until it came out of my mouth. I came to the realization that when I was younger, exercise seemed to be the more important component for me personally (because my metabolism ran free). Now, however, diet is much more important for me. I'm realizing that I really do need a system for what goes in my piehole.

I'm working on regaining my pregradschool body. We'll just call it my PGS body. It's not all that different from my GS body; just more toned and less round around the middle. I'm not looking to dethrone Miss Hawaiian Tropic here. Anyway, I don't know how much of my PGS body is to blame on grad school or just the fact that 30 is knocking on my door this year. So, I've taken it upon myself to really get educated about my diet.

Before I know what I need to improve on, I need to understand what I'm eating now and how it does or does not help me in the long run. So I started a food diary. It's the first part of my experiment only to monitor, not to change. I've always heard about keeping a food diary, but have never been able to do it because of the time commitment. But I found a great site that is making the task much easier. It's called Calorie Count.

Here's what I like about it. There are three types of data you can log on a daily basis:
1. Food. Enter all of the foods you eat. Many foods are already in the database, which contains all nutritional label data. If you are eating a particular food not in the database, you can enter the info yourself and of course save the data for the next time you eat that food. If you are using a recipe to cook something, you can also enter it in to get nutritional data for the final product.
2. Activity. Enter significant activity you accomplish (i.e. spin class, walking the dog, etc) and the duration. The site calculates how many calories per hour are burned for that activity.
3. Weight. Keep track of your weight. If you have a goal weight you are trying to reach, the site will calculate what date you will probably reach that weight given your past eating and exercising trends.

The first day I started entering food data, I'll admit it took a little bit of time. But it gets faster and faster as you continue to eat things you have already eaten before. Once they're in the system, they're there. And once you get into the habit of registering the food you've eaten, it gets easier. The activity log is also very easy to keep track of. I've not done a good job logging my weight because I don't own a scale (and have no desire to). Maybe I'll check it out at the gym every few weeks or something.

So what I'm realizing from my little experiment is that just by the simple process of entering food, I've become a thousand times more aware of what I'm eating. I was not even planning on changing anything at this point - I just want to look for trends and deficiencies - but I can't help thinking about things before I choose to put them in my mouth. Here's a sample report card from today.

Nutrition Report

Fat - 25.7% (77 grams) Protein - 13.4% (91 grams) Carbohydrates - 60.9% (412 grams) Alcohol - 0.0% (1 grams) Other - 0.0% Daily Sodium Intake - 1,321 mg Daily Sugar Intake - 98 grams Daily Cholesterol Intake - 96 mg Daily Saturated Fat Intake - 22 grams Daily Fiber Intake - 65 grams

Nutrition Grade

	Calories	Grams	Fat	Carbs	Protein	Grade
	2,644	1,556	77	412	91	A

As you can see, I did okay today. Some things surprised me. I had 430% RDA of Vitamin C (yay, fruit and beans) and also did great on Vitamin A and calcium. I have been pleased to see I've been doing well on protein too, which will make all of you meatheads happy. I promise there are other ways to get protein! I have been somewhat low on iron though, and this is one I want to follow. We'll see what trend comes out of that one.

Calorie Counter also provides a daily Calories In, Calories Out estimate given the foods you eat and the activities you complete. For those of us who are mathematically minded, this is very satisfactory. :)

Give it a whirl, see what you think. I'll update in a few weeks with my progress.


* Carlo = 10 pounds, Deebo = 60 pounds :)

A WONDERFUL Day for Austin

Austin just made history today thanks to my bosses at City Hall. 200 Smart cars are coming to our City as a part of the Smart car2go program!

I interned at Austin CarShare in 2007 and wrote a few reports on challenges and deficiencies it encounters as a small non-profit. The organization is definitely trying to serve a need in our community, but the cards have been stacked against it for a while. As a non-profit, its costs are high and pockets shallow. Aside from that, ZipCar has had its eyes on Austin for a while, and there is no way for Austin CarShare to compete sustainably. ZipCar is an international corportation with tremendously lower rates, thousands more vehicles, and dozens of successful markets.

I hadn't heard anything about ZipCar in Austin recently and was blown away when I heard this great news about cars2go, which was not even on my radar. Their policies are so much more intuitive than Austin CarShare's, and even ZipCar's.

Here's the lowdown from Wired:

Whenever a car is needed, it can be rented on the spot, or it can be pre-booked via mobile phone or the internet. A Smart car2go can be used for as long as needed, and can be returned to any unoccupied public parking space within the area of operation. So think of it as a car-sharing program run directly by a car manufacturer. And the costs are reasonable too: 19 euro cents per minute, and that covers everything, taxes, insurance, mileage and even fuel. They also rent by the hour and day, if needed, 9.90 euros per hour or 49 euros per day. All you have to do is register (for free) and have a valid driver's license. Once you're registered, you can open any car2go by means of a card reader placed behind the windshield.

Renting by mobile phone is the way to go, and free registration is absolutely fantastic. I love that one can see an available car, text their information to rent the car, and go! People decide when and where they return the cars giving an even greater amount of freedom.

The first phase of the Smart car2go program in Austin will be fleet replacement for the City. 200 cars (using only 100 spaces) will be available to employees this fall. The following year the program will open to the public. And if we succeed in Austin, other American cities will follow. This timeline is brilliant in my humble opinion. Get the cars here, peak interest, and create loyalty and word of mouth among the thousands of City employees, leading to a significant beginning customer base for Phase 2.

The program first kicked off in Ulm, Germany, a city significantly smaller than Austin. How'd it go?

Robert Henrich, responsible project manager at Daimler AG, sums up: “The success of the first pilot phase surprised even us and shows how much importance already is attached to forward-looking mobility concepts today. In just two weeks more than 500 customers had registered with car2go – a number we had not anticipated. Sometimes I could see from my office window how employees sprinted to the parking lot after work to get a car2go before they were all gone.” Their enthusiasm and the interest of the people of Ulm persist. In peak periods the entire fleet of 50 smart fortwo was being used to full capacity and could have been greatly expanded based on the user demand. Since the start, 8,000 rentals have been registered, and per day as many as eight customers have used one and the same vehicle. (from egmcartech.com)

The writer for Wired, undoubtedly one who has not visited Austin, also had this to say:

Smart is looking to bring on-demand use of its cars to Austin. You know, in Texas. Yes, the same Texas with all the steers, BBQ, cowboys, Bush family members and general vehicle xenophobia.

Sure, he may be right about the BBQs and Bushes, but here's our chance to prove him wrong about the vehicle xenophobia. I'm positive that a visit to Austin would do the trick.

All the Dogs You've Ever Loved

I check out PostSecret from time to time, and I really liked this postcard I saw recently. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy :)

Data Visualizations

I am a total data dork. I love poring over maps, charts, and graphs. For one of my classes, I've been studying data visualizations and have become slightly obsessed with IBM's Many Eyes site. The site allows you to browse all kinds of visualizations from across the globe as well as publish your own. Here are a few I especially like: (click on any to enlarge)

Obama's Inaugural Address

U2 Song Lyrics (bet you can guess which one)

Layoffs in the USA
(This one is interactive. Click here to explore.)

Surname Occurances, 2000 Census
(Also interactive. Click here.)

So I decided to make a few visualizations of my own, using data I readily have available. Check them out. They are pretty elementary, but I hope create more advanced ones soon.

Home States of Chris and Megan's Wedding Guests

Artists in Megan's iTunes Playlist