The Life Ledger

Fitness is a way of life.

I just realized this after noon while building the shower door that I never followed up with more about my run. Apologies all around folks. I do still have my running number, which I’ll display in that post, and a few other things that were my major thoughts about the event.

Hope life is treating everyone well, and you’re getting out in the wonderful weather for exercise.

Thank you for visiting The Life Ledger. If you enjoyed this article, check out the related posts below and subscribe to our feed.

Arby’s, one of those places that I think about as being “healthier” fast food joints. I shouldn’t have looked up the nutritional info because ignorance definitely was bliss. But lets break this down and see what has potential.

From my previous post, my goal is to aim for around 1000 calories at lunch. Because I’m wanting to be healthy, I try to get a Market Fresh Sandwich of some sort. With random choice I get :

• small drink : 180
• small fries : 338
• Roast Turkey Ranch & Bacon Sandwich : 834

Ouch, that total comes to 1420, with my standard 5% adjustment, and no refills. And just switching to water isn’t going to help. Well they have wraps, that cuts out around 130 more calories, and while close its not quite enough. It’s a shame because I think those sandwiches are tasty but obviously to much food, just in pure volume. Wonder what my other choices are? Little bit of excel magic later I get

Of course the children sandwiches rises to the top. But if have to get that soda, you limited to 17 items or 1/3 of the menu. There’s the Vineyard Salad but any dressings will add at least 200 calories. But the most of the basic sandwiches, with exception of crispy sandwiches, pass my trigger line. Removing soda provides double the choices. But there are limited choices on subs (French Dip and Hot Ham & Swiss) as well no Market Choices. Maybe it’s time to move this choice off my rotation for work lunches. Making educated choices can be a pain!

Reuters has an article focusing simply on loss of body mass, not general health or fitness. And surprise, surprise they say something that most everyone should know.

“What we found was that it did not matter whether a reduction in calories was achieved through diet or burned everyday through exercise.”

The study consisted of 3 groups. One reduced daily caloric intake by 25% while another reduced their intake by 12.5% and increased their exercise by 12.5%. The remaining people were the control group and did nothing. At the end, both test groups lost the same amount of weight, and apparently in a very similar manner.

These results lend credence to methods of dieting like the Hacker’s Diet. Simply eat less calories than you use. And it is fairly easy to see math behind it, which dovetails into the philosophy of this site. So I’m going to translate it over into banking math. It’s different than normal financial goals because you want to decrease the value “stored”, but from an equations point of view it works similar enough.

Consider your body like a Checking account. Anything you eat is a deposit. Anything you do, at all, is a withdrawal. So we end up with something like this:

C.account(today) = C.account(yesterday) + Consume - Life - Exercise

That would be the equation for control group. Most people eat approximately the same amount every day, so C.account doesn’t change from day to day. And just living life uses up some calories. The beating of the heart, breathing, heck even digesting food takes work. At the same time, these people might get a certain amount of exercise already. The study indicates that they are healthy, just overweight.

For group one, the scientists modified the equation this way.

C.account(today) = C.account(yesterday) + 0.75 * Consume - Life - Exercise.

Since you are not taking in as many calories as before, while still maintaining everything else, your body has no other choice but to convert stored energy back over. If your paycheck got cut you would have to start digging more and more into savings.

What about group two?

C.account(today) = C.account(yesterday) + 0.875 * Consume - Life - 1.125 * Exercise.

In this case your income/caloric intake hasn’t reduced as much as group one, but at the same time you are spending more above basic necessities. So the over all loss is the same as group one.

The Reuters article does raise a good point, that I think alot of people miss. It just focuses on weight loss. There are lots of supplementary benefits from exercise. For example exercise improves aerobic fitness and lowers the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. And that’s just the short list. A full thousand words could be written about the benefits of exercise without breaking a sweat. It’s just nice to see people acknowledging the underlying properties what has to happen.

New Year’s Resolutions are like spam, dreams of financial gain or weight loss without form to re-enforce their promises.

In writing a previous post I had the above epiphany. It was to be my closure, but it struck a chord. It is simple, memorable, but with more than a grain of truth. So after some discussion with Cris, decided to give it a story of its own.

So why am I having a hard time writing? Both Spam and New Years Resolutions are common enough in our culture. Maybe it’s because no one really takes either one very seriously. The average person gets 7 or more pieces of spam a day. And experience shows how few people actually believe them, all being sent unread to the digital trash. Can the same not be said for New Year’s Resolutions? Look at how long most people keep them. I was making my first resolutions at age 10, only to be broken within 3 months.

There are similarities though in how they play with our psyches. Both encourage the impulse for a quick fix, but usually only end up helping someone else. How healthy do you think your retirement fund is going to be if you chase after “pump and dump” stocks? Or are you expecting that inheritance from a mysterious prince? It’s easy enough to ride that horse to death, so I’ll stop.

So why do we then lie to ourselves about future changes in actions, when we refuse to maintain the needed willpower to follow through? Maybe my google-fu is weak but I couldn’t find any research on how long people take to decide on their resolutions. But in the beginning of December, co-workers usually starting asking each other “what are your resolutions for next year”? Most of the time, people get that look of concentration, do a cursory self evaluation, and choose the least painful thing to promise. So few put actual thought into these “life changes”, requesting more time for serious contemplation.

This is why Cris and I both advocate that people should instead plan out their goals, approaching them as an integral part of life. Usually the same whims that lead you towards fitness are those that can cause you to stumble.

I hate the first of the year.

Okay, that’s a bit harsh.

What I hate is how many people set themselves up for failure. Sometime after the holiday ham and before the midnight bubbly, the average American takes this long look inward. Maybe it’s that change in the last digit of your checkbook. Or the lengthening days that hint at the coming promise of spring. And just as the moon pulls at the sea, we make those same resolutions as last year only to be foiled a few months down the road. And we are used to the cycle. We see those same articles dusted off : Most common resolution, First to go, How long can you last? ….. Sorry, that last sounds abit like spam.

And in droves We the People stimulate the economy: our gym memberships, exercise equipment, fad diets, IRA contributions, increased savings at the Banks. Companies love that financial shot in the arm. They know that very few people keep their resolutions because…

Exercise:
Off to the gym we go, shiny new gear in the trunk. Wait, everyone else seems to have gotten the same deal! Packed parking lots, queues for machines, and not enough clean towels just made my 30 minutes at lunch become 2 hours! After work is even worse. Can’t go outdoors because I’m above the 39th parallel. Anyways, I don’t remember being this sore last year when I started up.

Savings:
It’s time to improve my retirement savings plan. 10% into the 401k, plus 100 a month into an IRA. Hmmmm….. The bills from Christmas just came in. I know, I’ll start next month. But then that’s Valentine’s Day. Oh and taxes, can’t forget Uncle Sam. I’ll try to remember to start this up again in May.

Diet:
Oy, after all that holiday food I need to lose some weight. Time to diet, I’ll try those pills I saw on TV. Shoot, George brought in left over Christmas cookies. Maybe after the Superbowl because Sam always makes the best wings. One or two chocolate hearts aren’t going to hurt. What the hell?! Why aren’t I losing weight!?

So your motivation drops, and with it the focus of your resolutions. With no visible forward progress, you got frustrated and decided to try again in another year. So I say to you, be contrarian in the timing of your resolution. Pick a time that is away from birthdays and holidays. It could lead to a greater chance of keeping it.