• 2 Posts
  • 92 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 15th, 2023

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  • Thanks a ton, all of what you wrote is super helpful!

    I think I’m doing pretty similar things, but you’ve definitely given me some food for thought.

    I estimated my TDEE (energy expenditure) around 2800cal, and I’ve been aiming for 2000cal. Like you it’s a little aggressive, but also gives me wiggle room in case I’m not estimating calories correctly.

    I actually really like counting calories along with intermittent fasting (I only eat between noon and 8pm every day. I also don’t really like “fad” diets or even worrying too much about macronutrients, though I’m making an effort to get more protein, and stuff like cucumbers helps a ton with satiation like you’re saying. Your way of meal planning simplifies things a lot, but I don’t know if I could really do that because I like a wide variety of food.

    I’ve been doing strength training (3-4x per week), but you’re giving me motivation to add some cardio. I hate cardio but deep down I know I need to train because the outdoor activities I like the most (hiking, skiing) require it.

    I’ve been following my plan for a little over a week so far. Not a lot of time, but seems like I’m down about 0.25kg. Scales are pretty inaccurate though, and my weight does fluctuate over 1kg in a single day.

    My motivation is perhaps a bit different… I’ve done strength training before and am trying to get back into it, but at this point in my life I’m at about 24% body fat (according to U.S. Navy calculation) which is right on the verge of obesity, so I’m thinking to drop down 10% before seriously trying to put on more muscle. I’ve read it’s slightly easier to put on muscle at low BF%, but more importantly I think I will just look better, since I don’t think I look great at 24% BF.

    Whenever I get blood tests done though, I’m usually just barely in the “healthy” range when it comes to cholesterol and stuff, so that’s definitely a secondary motivation. Plus lots of people in my family have diabetes, so it’s better for me to take steps now to prevent it.

    Thanks again for your reply, it gives me validation that I’m on the right track, and definitely gives me some food for thought.



  • For me it is a convenience thing – I spend a lot of time working from home and sometimes it’s nice to just be able to grab my phone and join a meeting while I’m sitting on the couch or w/e without needing to go over to my home office room. My team almost never does anything outside of work hours, so it’s not like I’m getting pinged or anything. In the rare situation where I get some notifications from a chat channel outside of working hours (usually someone in a different time zone) then I can just turn off work apps in Android and it goes away.


  • It is good and reasonable to be continually skeptical of the people and organizations we get involved with, and I appreciate your warning and looking out for bad organizations.

    On the other hand, my experience in politics leads me to believe that if you sit around waiting for the perfect allies, you will usually be waiting alone for a very long time.

    Looking at this group, it looks like in my state (Utah) they have been key support for a couple of well respected local nonprofits that have done great work on RCV and anti gerrymandering. That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing to me.

    I think it’s a mistake generally to view Republicans as the enemy. Even if they are in a leadership role like in the RNC. For example, in Utah, nothing gets done without Republican approval. So saying “I won’t work with you because you’re Republican” here is a losing strategy to make changes. And we now have the beginnings of progress on RCV.

    So I think we should continue to be vigilant and watch out for the first signs that people are acting in bad faith. But if we want our ideas to be popular, we are going to need to learn to (without compromising our own values) build a bigger tent.












  • You are absolutely right about all the challenges facing average Americans that keep us too busy to do a lot about issues like these.

    Still, there are lots of different ways to help. Some do require more time, and are probably out of reach for someone who’s just barely getting by. But some require less.

    Today I dropped off at the post office 350 hand written postcards to low propensity climate voters in my state. I wrote and addressed the postcards while I was watching TV, so it didn’t really take much more of my free time (I would have been watching TV anyways). Elections in my state have been decided by only a few hundred votes, so actions like this do make a difference.

    Next week, I will be meeting with staff for my member of Congress in person in D.C. I have the luxury of having the time and money to make this happen, but if you pick up the phone or write an email every single month to your congressional office and mention climate change, it makes it much easier for us to get these meetings and get our point across. Pressure on congressional offices alone doesn’t get the job done, but it makes them take us more seriously when we meet with them and present a bill that we want them to support.

    Congress is pretty dysfunctional right now, but we still have managed to get some climate friendly legislation through. Every bit of help and support we get along the way makes a difference.

    The group I volunteer with is Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and I think they are the best, but there are other groups out there. The American Conversation Coalition is more right-leaning and has been gaining traction recently. The Sunrise Movement is more left-leaning, though for some reason I haven’t heard much from them recently, at least in my state. I’m sure there are other groups out there besides those three.