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I Haven't Had Soda In Ten Years

Nosoda

Yes, it's true, I have not had a single drop of soda in ten years.  Not even diet soda, or for that matter, club soda.  I actually tried to give it up more than ten years ago, but February 17, 2000 I had a soda at the movies.  It was a wake-up call, because I ordered it, and started drinking it, without even really thinking about it!  I had resolved to give it up, and it had been so ingrained in my consciousness that it was possible to order and consume it without realising it.

So why did I give up soda?  In short, there's no real value to it, other than the taste.  Non-diet soda contains ridiculous amounts of sugar - so much so that they have to actually make soda less sweet to make it palatable.  Sugar can be responsible for up to 99% of the calories in a non-diet soda, and those are calories that are entirely unnecessary, and contribute nothing to the body, and may even significantly harm the body.  All sugars cause spikes in insulin levels; the concentrated sugar in many sodas can cause them to be amplified in both the up and down directions.  If you're familiar with "anti-oxidant" drinks, the "oxidants" that anti-oxidant drinks fight are known as free-radicals, and those increase as sugar intake increases.  (Adding vitamins to soda or sugared drinks is therefore pointless.)  This says nothing of the other ingredients, such as phosphorous (in the form of phosphoric acid) which may upset the balance of calcium in the body and could make bones more brittle.

What about diet soda?  Well, I never liked the taste of diet soda when I used to drink soda, so I never considered it a suitable replacement.  I've also always associated diet soda with weird chemicals; I seem to recall cancer warnings on diet soda bottles when I lived in California.  (This was not to say that the diet soda caused cancer, but one of the chemical ingredients had been shown to cause it in rats.)  Therefore, I never really drank the stuff in the first place; it was sugared sodas that I really gave up.

Was it difficult?  Yes.  It still is.  To this day the smell of soda (particularly Coca Cola, or Boylan Orange soda) really makes me want to drink it.  I'm to the point where I can fight the urge, but it was harder earlier on.  It's also difficult because it is ubiquitous in society, and people offer it to you as a matter of course in many social situations.  Since I'm 'more adult' now, I can usually request a beer or tea (depending on the situation), but many people are still surprised when I tell them I don't drink soda.  I hear a lot of people say "Oh, I could never do that." and many of them are correct - I don't think it's an addiction, but I think it's fairly close.

So what do I drink instead?  I drink a lot of water and a lot of tea.  (I've never been a coffee drinker.)  I drink juice occasionally, but it has a lot of sugar (though it's more natural, and has fructose instead of concentrated sucrose) so I try not to drink that too often.  I also drink beer and wine on occasion, and usually in moderation.

Hopefully, avoiding soda has made me healthier.  I can't prove that it has, but it certainly hasn't hurt.  At this point, it's something that I've done for ten years, and will probably continue for some time to come.

An Experiment: Minimalism In Eating - Part Two

So I fasted yesterday.  It was largely as I expected it to be - I was hungry for all of the day.  The water helped somewhat, though I learned a lesson with regards to the tea.  It needs to be decaffeinated!  I tried to sleep at around 1130pm, but I was up until almost 300am.  I didn't stay in bed the entire time (though I tried sleeping for an hour and a half before I gave up and got up) but I didn't get back to sleep until about 3.

Today I woke up and drank several glasses of water before I made myself a 'breakfast burrito' which was basically scrambled egg whites in a low-carb low-fat soft taco.  I also had two low-carb low-fat gluten-free blueberry waffles with a little bit of natural maple syrup before starting work.  I worked until about 4 (skipping lunch) and then went to the gym.  I ran/walked 1.5 miles in 20 minutes, burning off 200 calories, before doing some weight exercises and then cycling off another 100 calories.  I weighted myself before I left, and I am at 167lbs, which is 4 lbs less than last Wednesday.  I'm not sure why that is exactly, but hopefully the exercise will allow me to continue to build muscle and eliminate fat.

When I came home, I rewarded myself with Papa John's pizza - a large with chicken and bacon, of which I ate half.  While it may seem like a lot to have eaten half a pizza, I can assure you that I easily could have eaten the entire thing.  ;-)  Also, since I skipped lunch, it was still a minimal experience since I could usually eat half a pizza on top of a breakfast and lunch.  I'm hoping that the protein and carbs in the pizza will essentially allow me to have "slow-carbed" the exercise that I did, but I'll have to see.

I feel pretty good, though not great - I'm obviously tired from the exercise, and I've got a slight headache.  That's to be expected, and isn't the end of the world.  I suspect I'll have a much easier time of sleeping tonight, given that I've not had any caffeine today in addition to being tired.  I'll have to see how I feel tomorrow!

An Experiment: Minimalism In Eating

I've decided to fast today.  Since I love to eat (really, who doesn't?) I think this will be particularly challenging.  However, I think it will also be rewarding.  Of course, that's the point of the experiment - to find out.

I've been thinking more about my eating habits, and while they're not particularly bad, they're not particularly good, either.  I do cook, but most of the time I rely on packaged frozen foods simply because they're easier.  That's not to say they're bad foods - I read labels conscientiously, and ensure that the majority of my diet consists of protein, with minimal fat and minimal carbs.  I try and eat vegetables and fruits as much as possible, and avoid non-fructose sugar (i.e., sucrose) for the most part.  (This latter aspect is most difficult, as I definitely have a sweet-tooth - or 28 - as my dentist will attest, though I am successful more often than not.)

With all that said, I have been following several works on nutrition science, not the least of which is the TRANSCEND program outlined by Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Terry Grossman.  While I consider it unlikely I'll ever get to eating the kind of diet that Ray Kurzweil does, I do take supplements and try and maintain a healthy diet.  Caloric restriction has been proven to extend the lives of murine animals and it seemed to me that fasting occasionally might be a reasonable way to add to caloric restriction.  Of course, by not eating anything, and still existing, calories are burned by the body so as to maintain that existence.  I will end up being calorically negative today.  Add to that my exercise regimen of going to the gym at least twice a week, and suddenly my calories burned start to really add up.

I had another thought as to why this might be beneficial.  Throughout most of human history, food was difficult to come by.  There would have been times when our ancestors didn't eat simply because they were unsuccessful in their hunt, or because crops would have failed.  Therefore, my body should be 'built' as it were to not only accept short periods of fast, but may also benefit from them.  Clearly, my ancestors survived (I am here) so it couldn't have been the end of the world if they went a day without eating.  There are also obviously several religions that practise the concept of fasting, so it's not as unpopular an idea as it might seem.

Furthermore, when was the last time I gave my digestive system a break?  The rest of me gets a break every so often - brain, heart, limbs, etc., all get a rest when I sleep (for varying degrees of the definition of the word "rest").  While the digestive system does interrupt certain functions at night, I think it might be useful to occasionally give it a rest in general.

While I will not eat today, I am still allowing myself tea and water, both of which have no calories.  I have also taken my supplements today which would be a few calories, but not many.  Starting tomorrow morning, I will eat & exercise as I normally do, and see what happens.  So far, while this is not exactly easy, it has proven to be an interesting challenge, and hopefully it will stay that way through the rest of the day.

Book Review: Fatal System Error by Joseph Menn

When Mikko Hyponnen (of F-Secure fame) posted about this book on Twitter, I immediately pre-ordered the book.  I got it two days later.  (I was only one-day advanced on the pre-order, it seems.)  I wasn't quite sure what to expect exactly, only I knew it had to do with cyber-security, so I was intrigued.

What I got was a fascinating book with two main stories told from the perspectives of the good guys.  The first was a story of how a young dyslexic man struggled against the odds to become one of the best people around at defeating Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attacks.  His story, which spans at least two continents and his unwitting participation with some of the internet's shadier characters, is a fascinating one.  That story comprises part one of the book, and ties into part two quite neatly.  Part two is the story of a British detective and his exploits in foreign countries (particularly Russia) in his efforts to find and eventually catch several of the same cyber-criminals from part one.  While it has the tempo of a fictional "cyber-thriller", this book is non-fiction and is based on the very thorough work of Joseph Menn, a reporter for the Financial Times (previously of the LA Times).  The overall theme is that of the war that is taking place using the world's computers and networks as a battleground.  Despite the chronicled successes outlined in these two stories, it's a war that's very quickly being lost.

I've been working in the cyber-security industry for a while now, so I'm not entirely unfamiliar with some of the more sinister aspects of what happens on the internet.  However, I think for the "layman" or someone who doesn't work with technology and/or cyber-security, this book will be a really good look into a world that you don't ordinarily see, replete with real heroes, real villains, and real consequences to real people.  Most people will understand some of the consequences from the flood of spam that they're used to getting; for the unlucky few, identity theft will bring the stories even closer to home.  Even if you're fortunate enough to have never experienced any of those consequences yourself, you may have recently heard of the attacks on Google and several other companies.  The war taking place in cyberspace is all too real, and while I would hope that most people never have to be involved, the opposite is likely the case.  It is escalating, and there need to be more stories like the ones in this book if we ever hope to win.

New Year's Resolution Check

So far I've managed to stick to my New Year's Resolutions.

I've had less success with putting the Four Hour Work Week principles into practise than I would have liked so far.  Personal outsourcing didn't work out as I'd anticipated (largely as I had little need) and I've yet to fully develop a muse in the manner that the book suggests.  I've had some small success with my stock film muse, which brings me to resolution number two.

As for stock film production, I've actually done well with that.  I've gotten all my clips uploaded, and many of them are tagged.  I even made my first sale, and while the $5 won't allow me to retire right away, it's proof that it's something worth continuing.  I've started taking my video camera on some small trips with me, and I film things that I think are interesting and that might sell.

I read two books in January, "The Alienist" by Caleb Carr, and "Sneaker Wars" by Barbara Smit.  The reviews of the books are on this site.  I'm already into the fourth chapter of February's first book.

I've started learning Spanish as well.  I've set up a computer with Rosetta Stone, and I've gotten through the first two lessons of Spanish.  If you're ever eating an apple or a horse runs by, I can tell you about it in Spanish now.

I've been running, too.  I went to the gym ten times since my resolutions went into effect on January 4th (2 times the first week, 3 times the following weeks, and 2 times the last week), and I burned 300 calories (not including any weight-lifting) each time.  That's 3,000 extra calories I burned.  As of yesterday, I was able to extend my time running at a constant pace of 6.0 mph to 13 minutes.  My immediate goal is to get through the "5K Run" setting on the treadmill at Level 1, which is running at 6.0 mph for about 25 minutes.  (After that, I'll progress through the various levels, which start to include inclines and declines and runs at faster speeds.)  I use that running as the aerobic exercise prior to using the weight equipment at the gym, and then walk on the treadmill afterwards.  I've changed my eating habits to focus mainly on protein and fruit/vegetables, so diet combined with exercise, weight training, and vitamins and supplements should get me in good shape.

I've also gotten through two chapters of "wxPython In Action".  It's only introductory material at the moment, but I'm doing each of the examples as they come up in the book to continue to get experience.

When you add all that to the fact that I work a full time job and I attend grad school part-time, I've had a busy month!  It was productive, though, and I've enjoyed it.  I hope to make February just as productive, and I'll let you know at the beginning of next month.