What do the data say?

I’ve previously explained my visceral need to ingest information and my obsession with data collection and analysis. As pertains to my health, this has manifested in glorious fashion. Here is a list of all the variables that I’ve regularly tracked since January:

• Body weight right when I wake and again before I go to sleep.

• Circumferences of the following:

  • Right and left arms

  • Right and left legs

  • Abdomen at the navel

  • Waist

  • Chest at the nipples

• Body fat (3 point method with calipers)

  • Chest

  • Abs (or where I think they should be in theory)

  • Upper right quadricep

• Every meal (4 per day)

• Every supplement including time taken

• When I do ‘stalling’ exercises on my binge days

• Any drink that isn’t water

• The amount in oz. of water that I drink per day

• Amount of sleep in hours:minutes

• Whether or not I take a nap during the day

• Quality of sleep – Both on a 1-5 subjective scale of how I feel as well as information taken from the ‘Sleep Cycle’ alarm clock on my phone

• Amount of daily protein ingested

• My awesome wife bought this new scale that gives me the following in addition to weight:

  • Body fat %

  • Body fat weight

  • Water %

  • BMI

  • Bone Mass %

By this point, I’ve got a TON of data to work with. Granted, I’m sure there are other things that I can track but this is certainly sufficient for my needs. In my previous blogs I’ve talked about some of the conclusions and course corrections that I made with all of this fantastic information. As previously reported:

• January 1^st: 264 lbs.

• February 1^st: 256.5 lbs.

• March 1^st: 250.5 lbs.
  
  

Here’s the new stuff:

• April 1^st: 245.5 lbs.

• April 17^th (this morning): 238.7 lbs.
  
  

So what did I change in April that’s let me lose twice as much in 2 weeks? 2 things:

1. I added more protein.

2. Sleep tracking.

The monthly tracking data only tells part of the story. The whole story goes something like this:

• X month

  • Week 1 Y lbs.

  • Week 2 Y lbs. -5

  • Week 3 Y lbs.

  • Week 4 Y lbs. -5

  • Week 5 (or new month) Y lbs. -5

Basically I’d only lose 5-8 lbs a month thus far because I’d lose some weight one week, and then I’d either plateau or gain weight the other 3 weeks of the month. Despite my looking at the data sets and adjusting to reflect my best weight loss days, this pattern had continued for 3 months. After doing even MORE research during my March stagnation period and talking with my wife about her training regimen, I decided that I should get more protein. I was only eating roughly 100 grams of protein per day. Looking at protein charts for my size and body type I should be getting TWICE that amount.

So I added another 100 grams of protein in the form of two protein shakes. The first around lunchtime, and the second just before bed. The first week of this change, was a bit spotty. Normally, I take one week of supplements per month. This first week of higher protein was my week of no supplements.

Despite that, I managed to lose 3 pounds. 3 pounds in one week isn’t great, but it’s only one pound more than my previous average. So I decided to continue the protein regimen and se where it takes me on a week that I restart all of my supplements. Here are the supplements that I’m currently taking:

• Alpha Lipolic acid – 4x/day (Anti-oxidant and reported to be anti-aging by way of delaying the decay rate of mitochondria)

• Garlic Extract – 4x/day (Garlic has like eleventy kadillion benefits. One of which is to boost testosterone production. Others include cancer prevention, high blood-pressure reduction, heart disease prevention.)

• Green Tea extract – 3x/day (ENERGY BABY!!!!! Also, it has been shown to be 20x more antioxidant effective than Vitamic-C. Prevents cancer, etc.)

• Policosanol – before bed (May help control cholesterol.)

• Chromemate – 1x/day (There are a few reported benefits to this ‘drug’ one of which is 22% longer life span. That’s all you had to tell me! Once my workout begins next week, I’ll be upping the dose to 3x/day as Chromemate is also said to aid in recovery.)

• Glucosamine Sulfate 1/day (I’m 6’5” and 37 years old. My joints already creak like a factory full of rusty door hinges. This helps me walk around without falling apart. Though I’ll likely stop taking it once this bottle is empty as I’ve felt no real benefit from it. Also most studies have shown that despite the big pharma hype machine, there doesn’t actually seem to BE any benefit from it.)

• Flax seed oil 1/day (Provides Linolenic acid – an essential fatty acid which cannot be produced by the human body. It has many benefits including reduced heart disease risk)

• A potassium/magnesium/calcium blend with some other weird stuff like dandelion.

Ok, so that’s a ton of pills I’m taking right? The ALA, Garlic, Green Tea, and Policosanol I started taking specifically because when I read ‘the 4 Hour Body” I decided to do everything that Tim Ferriss recommended. I’m like that with new workouts. I read all the information. Then I do some research into the process, supplements, dietary requirements and also the success that others have experienced with it. Once I’m satisfied that it won’t injure me, I don’t just leap in with both feet, I do a fucking cannonball.

So I started the 4 Hour Body diet which I’ve been doing since February which I’ve chronicled here in this blog (just a few posts down.) Anyway, back to the data and what it says. I added the supplements back in to my diet and…. I gained 1.5 pounds. What the fuck? REALLY? I gained 1.5 pounds? Back to the analysis. Diet – nothing changed. Timing – nothing changed. There was ONE variable that moved, however: sleep. I looked back at my sleep records and it seems that the second week of added protein, I slept horribly. My average sleep quality (according to the sleep cycle alarm clock) was 56%! OUCH.

This does make sense though because I’ve been working a different project this last week and it required my presence at 10am. Typically I don’t even get to sleep until 4 or 5am so that threw my whole routine out of whack. Even though I reintroduced the supplements back into my diet, I slept like total crap all week. This is one of the great benefits of tracking everything that you do: you can easily spot anomalies.

More Course Correction

Here’s where I rectify the anomalous behavior and see what is REALLY going on with this added protein idea. All this week, I’ve made it a point to be in bed by 2am (baby steps.) My sleep timer is set for ~9am so that will give me a minimum of 6.5 hours of sleep as opposed to the 3 to 5 I had been getting. I also started wearing the mask that I usually wear when I sleep during the day to keep out the sun. There is a little ambient light in my bedroom at night, and this helped filter that out as well. Most days this week I actually slept for around 7.5 hours. The average sleep quality was now 80%. This may still seem low, but after 3 years of using the sleep cycle alarm clock I’ve only reached above 90% like twice. 80% is actually a pretty good average.

And the weight loss? I went from 240 last Saturday to my goal of 235. This is actually the first week since I started the 4 hour body diet that I’ve reached my 5lb/week goal. The sleep has paid off in spades. I’m going to attempt to continue the trend and shoot for 90% sleep quality. The quality of sleep seems to only be indirectly related to the time spent sleeping. I’ve hit 89% with 7 hours, and I’ve hit 60% with 9 hours. I’m going to try to narrow that all down a bit and see where it takes me. If I can squeeze another pound out of the deal by consistently hitting 90% then it’s worth it.

The Musical Fruit

Also, It’s worth noting here that I actually ran out of beans 2 weeks ago. This basically means that I’ve been eating strictly paleo for the last 2 weeks of data.

There was one exception though. On monday of this week, I stopped in and ate a cajun chicken bowl at Wahoo’s for lunch. I don’t eat rice, so that means just chicken and white beans. That day I lost 1.5 pounds and the following day I lost 1.5 pounds. I specifically chose white beans over black beans because I tend to favor black beans.

One of the figures that sticks out in my head is from very early on in February right when I began the 4 Hour Body. One of my best weight loss days contained 2 anomalies: 1 was bacon, and the other was organic white beans. The following 2 days, I also lost 1.5 pounds each day. I worked the bacon variable again a few times and if I eat 3 strips of bacon in the morning with my eggs it appears to have a positive effect. That first week of added protein, in fact, I was eating 4 strips of bacon every morning. By the second week, I had run out. So it seems, while I need to do more testing, bacon not only tastes good, but it’s good for weight loss. That being said, I still wouldn’t recommend a diet that uses bacon in excess, but I’ve got a good friend of mine helping me to test the bacon theory as well. He is a BIG man. I’ve known for a long time that he just doesn’t eat breakfast. So I’ve got him eating 3 strips of bacon and 5 eggs right when he wakes up. He’s also added 2 16 oz protein shakes per day to his diet. I don’t have all the results at this point, but the first 2 days he reported losing some circumference, so we’ll see how it goes.

Back to the beans. I have suspected for a little while now that white beans would fare better for me than black beans, but lately, every time I hit up the organic section in Albertsons, they’re out of white. They have pinto, kidney, black, garbanzo, red and every other damn bean variety that you can think of, but no white. Apparently someone else figured this out as well.

Time to figure out the vast WHITE BEAN conspiracy.

-G2

PS I wrote this post 2 weeks ago. On May 1^st, I weighed in at 232.8lbs. That’s a total of ~13 lbs. Lost in April just by regulating sleep and adding protein.

My Friend ‘Doc’ Abe Felmley

As I’ve mentioned once before, my good friend Abe ‘the Doc’ Felmley once said to me:

“You know, commander, most people they do that whole ‘measure twice cut once’ thing. I, myself cut and then throw away the ruler … but YOU. You measure 50 times and then that cut you make is like the best cut anyone’s ever seen.”

At the time, the Doc and I were collaborating on a number of art and music projects. Some of them have seen the light of day others may some day live, and many are likely lost to the ages. He said this to me at a time when he was virtually mass producing artwork. Websites, mini-comics, songs – to this day I don’t think I’ve met anyone as prolific as the Doc. When I wasn’t around to draw some of the stories he was writing – he’d just do it himself and keep charging forward. It was a time of overwhelming inspiration. Mostly, I was just trying to keep up with the man.

Few people even to this day understand the relationship that Doc and I had. Doc’s mom thought I was a bad influence on him and my girlfriend at the time thought Doc was a bad influence on me. In him I saw a person who brought all of his ideas to life and in me he saw someone who could bring ideas to life in an amazing way.

When we got together, pure chaos always followed. There was a time when we dropped 5000 super balls down 3 stories in the center of a crowded upscale mall in Orange County, Ca. (A spectacle that I’ve heard has been repeated there several times since.) Every child that was within sight of the event was smiling for a good 20 minutes afterward as they tried to gather as many as possible. Some of the adults even managed to join in the fun. Security nearly caught us, but the chaos was far too much for them to keep their attention focussed in one spot. Many years later, someone told me that there’s a good chance that we inadvertently inspired this classic Sony ad:

There was another time where we trekked to Catalina Island and I ended up with cactus barbs in my tongue and completely dehydrated but high on energy drink from one of our sponsors at the time – Atomic X energy drink. There was that time that we walked from California to Oregon together. Doc chose to return home while Fran and I continued the walk in the direction of the east coast. Together we wrote comics, novels, picked up women, lived in an abandoned church and had countless other adventures. Eventually, our paths diverged and we ended up taking very separate routes through life. I’ve thought of starting the autobiography of my walk across the country with an entire section just describing the ‘Doc’ years.

When the Doc made his measurement observation I had just completed some website or drawing or something. The Doc and I definitely had a ‘competitive brother’ relationship. While we respected the work of one another, there was always the drive to make our next project completely outdo whatever madness the other person created. This time, The Doc was marveling over the amount of craftsmanship that I put into the work. (As a side note, one of his very next projects was an incredible website that I still have on file somewhere called “Dangerfizz.com” It was an incredible reverse engineered site that he self branded.)

This “Measure 50 times. Cut once.” sentiment has stayed with me over the years.

I’m naturally curious. If I become interested in a subject, I tend to find out everything that I can that’s related to it. For example: In 2005, I wanted to buy two new monitors. I knew that I wanted flat panel monitors (at this time, they had only been affordable for about six months.) So I began looking around. I’d stop in at various computer stores (most of which are now out of business) department stores and on the internet. After about 4 months of searching, I narrowed it down to 2 different models. The first was a pair of EXTREMELY high quality NECs. The only downside to these monitors was that they cost around $800 each. Ultimately I opted for a pair of ultra bright HP 2207s with the shiny clear coat finish and side USB ports. These were ~$600 each but I found them on sale for ~$350 each. This was about 6-7 months after I decided to buy new monitors. Measure 50 times, cut once. I still use those monitors to this day. Granted, I now have a larger third monitor that I use as my primary, but I’d be lost without the 2 HPs when I’m editing or drawing. Hell, they even look amazing when I’m playing Battlefield 3 in SLI Surround (that’s 3 monitor widescreen mode for those who don’t know.)

The moral of the story is: I’m thorough.

So when, in January I found myself weighing nearly 270lbs for the second time in my life, I decided to do something about it. That something began with tracking some variables. The first time I looked across at a scale and it stared back at me saying “270, fatass” I was working at Skytop, PA as a glorified janitor. That summer began an ascent to the most fit point I’ve ever been in my life. Before the year was over, I was free squating 400+ pounds for reps. I could easily run a mile – including 6 flights of stairs – without becoming winded. I remember the first time I forgot some gear back at my room. I had some time before my lifting partner Dave and I began, so I decided what the hell, I’ll RUN back to my room and get it. At this point, I was 20 and I hadn’t run since high school – 3 years prior. I remember laughing uncontrollably at the ease with which I climbed the stairs at full speed. It was amazing. Over the next 5 years I continued to become a machine. Sadly, only a few photos remain from that era.

So there I was, almost a decade since my walk across the country with The Doc and Franbo and again, I found myself across from the scale as it mockingly said “270, fatass.”

That’s when I decided to begin tracking EVERYTHING. Today, 2 weeks in to April, I weighted in at 237. So far, the only things that I’ve implemented are INSANELY detailed self tracking and a slow-carb/paleo diet 6 days a week. In the next 2 weeks, I’ll add a zero cardio workout. About 2 months from now, I’ll start running again.

More to come,

-G2

So I played through Bioshock Infinite. Before I go anywhere else, I’ll say that it certainly WAS a great game, and one that I really wish that I had the time to play again.

For many years now, I’ve read the IGN review of a game or occasionally watched the video review which is typically just a guy reading the written review over some video before I play the game. There were 2 main points that I took away from the interview: 1. Bioshock has a crazy twist ending, as most of us suspected but we wouldn’t see it coming. 2. The PC version is far and away the best looking version of the game.

Ok cool. Now I’m even more excited about Infinite. At this point I’ve already seen it played at work, though I tried to keep my eyes away from the screen just so I wouldn’t spoil it for myself. It certainly DID look good on the PC but my copy was reserved on 360. Normally this would be no big deal, but I preordered the special edition (I have both Bioshock 1 and 2 special editions, so I wanted to match my collection.)

GameStop: a big bag of dicks.

At this point I think it’s necessary for me to back up the train a bit here and discuss my relationship with GameStop. I’m an OLD school gamer. I remember going to ‘EB Games’ and buying games for my Commodore Amiga 2000. Back then it was called ‘Electronics Boutique’ and it was a store that was only recently multi-state. I had never seen one outside of NY or PA. Fast forward almost 10 years to 2000. Electronics Boutique, with their goofy ass purple lettering were becoming ‘EB Games’ just as GameStops were popping up everywhere. I remember having a conversation with my buddy Jay about how we just simply preferred EB. The staff were nicer and they had a better selection of PC games and items. It seemed, at the time, like GameStop was trying to cater to the consoles more than anything. GameStop then bought EB Games.

So I started buying my games from them.

GameStop Pre-order. I’m not going to get into the semi-shady used game business that GameStop has built, as that’s been covered many times over the past few years. We’ve seen several large game companies fall (most recently THQ) despite GameStop recording record profits during several of those years. I’m the type of person who pre-orders my games by looking at the list of upcoming titles and saying “Ok, I want those 4” and then paying for all of them in full. When the day of release comes, I walk in, show them my receipt, take my games and walk out. This worked real well for a time. Then they started offering bonus pre-order items. Cool. Only they never seemed to have one left for me. Not that I’m keeping score, but here are some items that they stiffed me: an Alex Mercer statue from Prototype, mini-bike and UFO vehicles for Saints Row 2, a GameStop exclusive map pack for Far Cry 2, and a few others all fell into the ‘Sorry man we’re all out” despite the fact that I typically pick up my games at midnight releases or within 2 hours of the store opening. I suspect that some friends of GameStop employees who rented or borrowed those games from Blockbuster or GameFly ended up with my pre-order bonuses since, at the time, the pre-order bonuses were packaged seperately. GameStop also handed me a 360 copy of Fallout 3, despite the fact that I reserved a PC copy. Again, this was the special edition version so I couldn’t simply exchange it. Pre-ordering has never worked well for me at GameStop. Other companies such as BestBuy or Amazon have worked just fine. In fact, when Metal Gear 4 came out, BestBuy was the only store in the area that had surplus of the MGS4 branded 80GB PS3, so I picked one up along with my special edition pre-order. (Yeah, I pre-ordered MGS4 before I owned a PS3)

When you move into the realm of ‘Special Edition’ versions of games, GameStop gives you usually no more than a 10 day window in which you can pre-order them. If you don’t follow games, you’re pretty much out of luck. Also, once you have these pre-ordered you can’t change your system, say when a review comes out telling you that your version is buggy or not as good as a different SKU. This is what I faced with my copy of Bioshock Infinite: Songbird Edition. I just read the review from IGN telling me that PC was better, but now, I’m locked in to 360. GameStop FINALLY got the pre-order bonuses right by taking them OUT of their employees hands and instead packaging the pre-order bonus directly in the game box, but they didn’t manage to get rid of all of the downside of pre-ordering.

I spent about 5 days of debating various semi-shady methods of obtaining the PC version; “Hi, random Wal-Mart employee whose IQ is likely double digit. I would like to exchange this 360 copy of Bioshock Infinite (that I didn’t purchase at your store, but luckily for me, the 360 game inside the special edition box is actually a retail version, it doesn’t say anything on it like ‘not for retail sale’) for the SAME game, but the PC version rather than the 360 version, AND I’d like you to give me ten bucks since the PC version is actually cheaper.” At any normal store, this type of douchebaggery wouldn’t sit well with me, but FUCK WAL-MART. Ultimately, I looked at all the special edition bonus items and the pre-order items, realized that they were all 360 items, and decided to just bite the bullet and play on 360.

IT WAS AWESOME.

I’m sure that there were some bells and whistles that were missing from the PC version but lemme tell you – Bioshock Infinite is one DAMNED FINE LOOKING GAME – even on Xbox 360.

At this point in gaming history, we have reached an era where it’s more noteworthy to say that a game DOESN’T look good than to say that it does. Graphics today are of such high quality that almost any release on any device will look really really good. I’m a game snob. There are many older games that I LOVE but I simply won’t be able to play them again because they are hideous. Blocky models, ultra low res textures, no shadows – it’s just a nightmare. Most games made since 2007ish don’t suffer from those issues, and certainly the games that are arriving in 2013 look really good.

This is a fantastic time to be a game enthusiast. We are finally in an era where FUN and STORY and CHARACTERS not only MATTER more than graphics, but finally, they are what most companies are forced to focus on because every game looks good. Story, fun and characters are now the only things that can set your game apart. You won’t see many games sold due to ‘amazing graphics.’ Or as I like to call them: ‘shiny piles of poo.’

So back to Infinite, IGN review and how Nicolas Cage fits in.

I’m going to be talking in as nonspecific terms as I can at this point, but you’ll likely be able to put things together so if you haven’t finished Infinite yet, tread lightly in these next few paragraphs. I’ll tell you when the spoiler has ended so you can keep reading if you like.

Here’s the second part of the IGN review that paid particular attention to:

After the original’s mind-blowing “Would you kindly?” twist, you’re probably expecting a similar “Gotcha!” this time. Will I spoil it? Of course not. But will it come? Yes. Will it catch you off-guard? It got me, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t wow most people. The moment it happened was, for me, every bit as stunning as Andrew Ryan’s reveal in the first BioShock.

Sweet, there’s a cool twist and I won’t see it coming. Fast forward to 2 hours in to the game. I’m on my PC in my clan’s Ventrilo server talking to [1MI]Zain.

 - SPOILER ALERT –

Zain: “Did you play Bioshock yet?” (He had finished the game by this point)
Me: “Actually, I finally decided to start it last night. Played for about 2 hours before I went to sleep.”
Zain: “Hurry up and finish I want to talk to you about the end.”
Me: “Yeah, I’m working on it. I suspect, though, that they’re going to go all ‘Wicker Man’ on me.” (the 2006 remake, not the original Christopher Lee version)
Zain: “I’m not saying anything at all.”

Fast forward a week when I’m sitting on the couch sick from one of those pesky common colds. You know, the type where you’re too tired to be able to concentrate on anything to be productive, but you’re too alert and shitty feeling to be able to sleep. Yep. I was right. Straight out of Wicker Man. Sadly, 2 hours in, I knew the basic plot. Wicker Man + Bioshock + Derigibles = Infinite. Thankfully, Bioshock Infinite is still amazing, and as soon as I have some extra time on my hands, I’m going to be playing it in ‘1999 mode’ because I’m a hardcore gamer.

So here’s the basic comparison:

WM: Edward Malus (a police detective played by Nick Cage) is led to a strange island.

BI: Booker DeWitt (a private detective) is led to a strange island in the sky.

WM: The inhabitants of the island are crazy pagans.

BI: The inhabitants of the island are crazy pagans. (Before you can enter ‘Columbia’ you have to be baptized into their crazy America worshipping religion.)

WM: Edward spends the whole movie trying to find and save a little girl from the islands inhabitants.

BI: Booker spends the whole game trying to save a little girl from the islands inhabitants.

WM: The little girl (Rowan) turns out to be his daughter.

BI: The little girl (Elizabeth) turns out to be his daughter.

WM: At the end of the movie, Edward is trapped inside a giant wicker man. Rowan (his daughter) sets it afire and burns him alive.

BI: At the end of the game, Booker is held down in a river by his daughter (Elizabeth/Anna) and he is drowned.

SO there it is. Bioshock Infinite is basically the Wicker Man.

——-END SPOILERS———

The bottom line though, is that Bioshock Infinite is great. The graphics DEFINITELY hold up on the console version.  Also, the songbird statue is pretty bad ass, and the various extras included in the special edition are also pretty cool.  Songbird looks quite natural standing next to my Big Daddy.

So there are several things at this point which should be obvious to anyone with even a single functioning eye: Not all foods are made alike.

I say this not to point out that there are differences between Roast beef and an orange, but rather that there are differences between an orange and an orange.  Even two oranges of identical species are different.  The same can be said for most things that we decide to put inside ourselves.

Wholey $#!+ Foods

A few weeks ago, I needed some things that could only be found at Whole Foods.  Some fresh crushed almond butter and their amazing 365 brand aged balsamic vinegar.  If I could, I’d drink the balsamic vinegar by the glass, it’s so good.  Sadly, it’s also a vinegar so it’s harsh as hell, but makes for a tasty dressing on my salads.

While squeezing my giant 6’5”, 240lb. frame through the tragically narrow aisles I noticed something; there are no unhealthy people walking around.  Every single person in the entire store (with the sole exception of a single fat guy I saw at the check out counter) was lean and fit looking.  What’s more, even the older people looked younger.  You know the type, worn ball cap over a neatly trimmed but balding head wearing a light sweatshirt despite the 75 degree weather and sandals.   Or the woman wearing a nice scarf and loose fitting summer pants with a floral pattern.  They’re probably doctors or somehow connected to the medical profession.

Anyway, the reasons that this strikes me as odd start with the fact that I’m in southern California.  When I lived in Huntington Beach EVERYONE looked like this.  I lived right on the beach FFS. Out of shape people just don’t live in the western part of Orange County.  You spend too much time outside at the shore.  Fat is embarrassing and even if you are fat, 6 months of playing beach volleyball, ultimate frisbee and surfing work wonders to get rid of it.  When I think of ‘Californians’ these are the people that I see in my mind.  Superhumanly fit and attractive people.

The second reason is that I currently live in Los Angeles.  I’m still pretty close to the beach, but I live about 4 miles inland. The rent is cheaper here than in the OC, and there are working people here who don’t have time to go to the gym and play beach volleyball all day - which is always the excuse for being out of shape - ‘Oh I just don’t have time!!!’  As such, when I go to Vons or Albertsons to buy groceries, I see ‘normal’ looking Americans. Heavy, thin, tall, short - anything goes.

So I start to wonder: What’s different between Vons or Albertsons or Ralphs and Whole Foods?  Aside from the roughly 10-20% price increase - virtually EVERYTHING at Whole Foods is natural and/or organic.  That’s it!  Now I’m sure that we’ve got another chicken and egg thing going here, but at the same time, are you willing to risk that the place where you buy FOOD for your family is unhealthy?  

I’m sure that not everyone who shops at Whole Foods also works out.   I’m also sure that not everyone at Whole Foods counts calories or carbs or fat or sugar or protein or whatever.  So can the secret of looking young and being healthy be far simpler than all the talk shows and infomercials and magazines make it? Can it be as simple as ‘Just buy all of your food at Whole Foods?’

I don’t know.

The Tuna Example

So I made some tuna salad today that I could use for the week.  I’ll usually make 4-5 cans at a time and spoon it out as I need protein for my spinach and kale salads.  I’ll usually add some black or pinto beans to this salad, often right from the can if I don’t have any freshly made.  I’ll make sure that there’s a good source of fat in there, either whole olives, 1/2 an avocado or some extra virgin olive oil if I’m out of the other two.  Then I’ll finish it off with some aged balsamic vinegar and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

When I buy Tuna, I usually buy whichever brand is on sale.  When I put them in my cupboard, I’ll just add the new ones to the stack.  As a result, this particular day, I had 4 different brands. 1 Bumblebee chunk light, 1 Starkist chunk light, 1 Chicken of the Sea Solid White, and 1 Whole Foods brand that doesn’t have ‘chunk light’ or ‘solid white’ or anything else descriptive on the front of the label.  It just says “Albacore in water.”  On closer inspection, it does in fact say ‘solid white albacore tuna’ in the ingredients.  Also of note, this tuna has the fewest ingredients. Water is the only other ingredient on the label.  The other three brands all contain vegetable and/or soy broth and salt.

For years, I’ve made tuna with a 2 to 1 ration of chunk light to solid white.  The solid white tastes better, but it’s dry as hell.   The chunk light is more fishy, but it’s nice and wet and doesn’t get stuck to anything as you consume it.  I also add some onion powder and when I have them, chopped Claussen pickles to my tuna.

Just for fun I opened one of each and looked at them side by side.  I’ve included this photo for comparison as you read.

The first shot in this image is all four cans freshly opened.  As you can see even in this poorly lit iPhone image, there are distinct differences.  The Bumblebee can on the left contains very tiny tiny particles of fish floating murkily in water.  

The Starkist is more of the same, but with larger chunks that are clearly visible.  

Chicken of the sea has an unfair advantage here, as it’s solid white tuna, not chunk light.  Solid white is typically larger chunks of fish and less water than the chunk light.  Of the four, it is clearly the most white of the bunch.  It contains some large chunks of fish surrounded by smaller pieces similar to the previous two.

The stand out here is the Whole Foods brand.  There are virtually no small pieces of fish. It looks like a freshly cooked fish that’s been stuck in a can. Even the water surrounding the fish doesn’t obscure the bottom of the can.

Once I’ve drained the water from the cans, the differences remain.   I have a specific device that has been designed to strain cans of tuna fish.  It’s a small disc with holes in it that fits inside the can once opened. Before this device entered my life, I spent years of can lids bending in half as I used them to strain out excess water or worse yet - tuna firing out the top of the can on to my shirt as the lid folded beneath the weight of my forceful strain.

So after straining the water out, the Bumblebee is a mush of watery fish. Even with the tuna strainer, I’m not able to separate all of the water out of the can.  The Starkist isn’t bad, its like hundreds of little fish flakes in a wet pile.  Then we get to the solid white tunas where the Chicken of the Sea can is almost entirely strained.  At this point, you can clearly see the actual chunks of tuna muscle.  They are, however, still covered in smaller flakes.

This is again where the Whole Foods brand sticks out from the competition.  First off, it’s not a traditional tuna can.  This one has a pull top lid that comes right off.  You don’t need to use a can opener.  There is a lip around the top of the can that prevents the strainer from actually fitting inside the can. I can’t push down into the tuna to squish the water out. Instead, I hold the strainer on the lip of the can and simply turn the can over in the sink.  Surprisingly, all of the water just pours right out.  I don’t have to squash down the tuna to remove any excess.

Finally, I dump all of the cans into my mixing bowl.  Normally, I’d grab a fork and pull all of the tuna out of the can.  For the sake of this test I decide instead to shake each can vigorously over the bowl.  

The results can be seen in the above photo.  As you can see, I won’t be eating any Bumblebee tuna unless I force it out of the can with my fork.  The Starkist is slightly more accommodating.  As expected, the Solid White performed quite differently, but still yielded a varied result.  After a shake or two from the Chicken of the Sea can, the bigger chunk of tuna fell out.  Some of the smaller pieces of tuna remained in the can.

The clear winner in this category should be no surprise by now.  With the Whole Foods can, I simply flipped the can over without shaking it and all of the tuna fell into my mixing bowl.

Conclusions  

If these results hold for even 50% of the foods that you would buy at whole foods, then it’s not terribly difficult to see why the people who shop there are in far better shape than the people who do their shopping just a few miles down the road at Vons, Ralphs or Albertsons.  

At this point I wonder why anyone would shop anywhere else.  Even if it was a question of MONEY that seems absurd to me.  How much money are you willing to spend for a few more years of a healthy, high quality lifestyle?  Furthermore, let’s REALLY talk money.  If you shop at whole foods, odds are that the average person there has more money to spend for food than their Vons counterpart.  That being said, the people that you meet there are more likely to be either A. more serious about their own health and/or B. more likely to be in a position to help YOU with the same. If the adage ”it’s all about who you know” holds ANY water, wouldn’t you like to accidentally strike up a conversation with someone at Whole Foods than Vons?  The odds of the person who spends more money on food knowing more people of means than someone who doesn’t are pretty good so you’re probably better off financially spending more money at whole foods while you get to know some of the people who shop there.

-G

A quick update on my latest scientific experiment: Me.

On Friday, February 1st, I weighed in at 256.5 lbs.  Then I changed my eating habits (see my previous blog post) and began tracking them over the course of the next 4 weeks.

On Friday, March 1st, I weighed in at 250.5 lbs, a loss of 6 pounds in one month averaging 1.5 pounds per week.  Not too shabby, but nothing earth shattering.  At 250 pounds, that’s less than 1% per week.

After talking to a few people some on Reddit and some I know in person, I changed 2 major things:

1. I started eating one Tsp. of Almond Butter (fresh ground at Whole Foods, so ZERO sugar) every night before bed

and 2. I used Saturday as a completely over the top, eat ‘til I’m sick binge day.  

Saturday, which I had previously referred to as my ‘off day’ or ‘cheat day’ now became my ‘binge day.’ It’s a subtle difference, but an important one.  All Saturdays prior, I ate like a normal American.  I’d have fast food, pizza, soda, pasta or whatever else came to mind but never really gorging myself. Looking at my list, I’d estimate that I never went over 2800 calories in a day. That may sound like a lot, but my BMI at 250lbs calls for around that amount just to maintain my current weight.

On the 2nd of March, however, I force fed myself a STAGGERING 5200 calories.

Here’s what I ate: 

Breakfast

1 raw lemon 17 5 half walnuts 69 1 tsp almond butter 50

4 servings egg beaters (about 4 eggs): 100 calories 1/2 cup spinach: 30 cal 2tbsp Black Bean Salsa: 60 cal

Second Breakfast

In N Out 4x4 with no sauce: 1040 Ham and Cheese Sandwich Ham 4oz: 240 cal 2 slices cheese: 120 cal mayo: 60 cal Deli roll: 170 calories

Lunch

Spaghetti: 1/4 box - 400 cal Lawrys Spaghetti sauce: 50 cal butter: 1 tbsp 100 calories

Dinner:

2 Ham sandwiches Ham 4oz: 240 cal 1 slices cheese: 60 cal mayo: 60 cal Deli roll: 170 calories

Ham 4oz: 240 cal 1 slices cheese: 60 cal mayo: 60 cal Deli roll: 170 calories

1 pint Ben n Jerrys Late Night Snack: 1080 cal

Drinks: 1` bottle Dr Pepper 250 3 cans Yerba Mate Iced Tea 156 1 bottle Yerba Mate Iced Tea 110

Total Caloric Intake: 5162 calories

Here’s where it gets interesting. 

When you meticulously track your body composition (weight, body fat, measurements) and the foods that you eat, you build up a good amount of data that can quickly be referenced to give you a rough idea of your progress.

During the month of February, my average pattern of weight would be as follows:

Friday Morning: X

Saturday (cheat day): X-1

Sunday: X+2
Monday: X+2

Tuesday: X
Wednesday: X-1
Thursday: X-1

Friday: X-2

The bottom line is this: for 2 days after my ‘cheat day’ I’d gain as much as 3 pounds. Only 3 days after the ‘cheat day’ would I level off again to my pre-cheat day weight.

Let’s compare these results to last weeks results - the first week that ‘cheat day’ became ‘binge day.’

Friday Morning: X

Saturday (cheat day): X-2

Sunday: X
Monday: X-1

Tuesday: X-2
Wednesday: X-3.5
Thursday: X-3

Friday: X-4

More becomes less

For the non-analytically inclined folks out there, what this basically shows is that on the week that I chose to binge, I actually lost TWICE as much as the 5 previous weeks.  Also, My body recovered FASTER than when I just ate normal portions, and I was able to lose an extra 2 pounds over my 5 week average.

With that in mind, here’s what my binge day looked like this week:

Wake Up -

1tsp Almond Butter: 50

3 Walnuts: 78

Breakfast - 

4 whole eggs: 280 Cal

5oz Ham: 250

1 small broccoli crown: 40

3Tbsp Lentil/Spinach mix: 150

2nd Breakfast -

1 DiGiorno Pepperoni Pizza: 1860 cal

5 Strips Bacon: 175

.75 liter Mt Dew: 340

1 Qt Grapefruit Juice: 350

Lunch -

1 DiGiorno 4 Cheese Pizza: 1860 Cal

5 Strips Bacon: 175 Cal

.75 liter Mt Dew: 340

1 QT Grapefruit Juice: 350

Dinner - 

1 pint Ben & Jerry’s Americone Dream: 1120 Cal

Before Bed -

1tsp Almond Butter: 50

Total: 7470 Calories

Let’s see just how much less I can get out of more this week.

-G

PS.  Yes. On these days, I feel like I’m going to explode.

On the recommendation of one Matt Obringer, one month ago I began the “Slow Carb” diet made famous by Tim Ferriss in his book the 4 Hour Body.

The gist of it is this: 

Each meal choose one item in each of 3 categories: 

1. Meats (Chicken, Beef, Fish, Lean Pork)

2. Beans/Lentils

3. Rough Green Veggies (Spinach, Broccoli, Kale, Brussels Sprouts, etc.

Nothing else. Particularly no foods that can be white such as potatoes, pasta, breads, etc. - if there’s a WHITE version of it, you can’t eat it. So no Whole Wheat bread, cause there is a white version of bread.

During this time, I’ve tracked every item that I’ve eaten and my body measurements/weight/body fat so that I could play with the data.  I also decided that I would be ELIMINATING exercise during this time because I wanted to be able to review the data without the added variables that working out would bring to the results.

Here are my findings as posted on Reddit (http://bit.ly/13uuiyc) in the 4HourBody subreddit: 

To start out:

When I began this diet, I decided to do it completely without any exercise so that I could eliminate a variable when testing and analyzing my results. For these first 30 days, the most exercise I’ve done is a mild hike once a week, or the recommended binge day exercises.

Day 1 (Jan 29)

• Weight: 257
• Navel: 120 cm
• Hips: 106.5 cm
• Chest: 124 cm
• Arms: 36 cm
• Thighs: 61cm
• Body Fat: 32.2%

Day 30 (Feb 28)

• Weight: 248.5 (-8.5)
• Navel: 115 cm (-5)
• Hips: 102 cm (-4.5)
• Chest: 122 cm (-2)
• Arms: 36 cm (=)
• Thighs: 58 cm (-2)
• Body Fat: 26.4%

note: I’ve been measuring body fat with digital calipers using 3pt method, so this measurement I use for difference over time rather than true accuracy

On Daily Tracking: For the last 30 days, I’ve kept a daily journal of my meals and measurements. I used the iPhone app Lift at first for several daily reminders until the habits developed and I don’t need the reminders any longer. Google Drive is the home of all of my stats - simply because I can use it anywhere.

Pros:

• extremely quick. Tracking eats MAYBE 15 minutes of my day in total. I track my measurements immediately after brushing my teeth in the morning. I have my cell phone handy and record them as I measure them.
• Insanely useful information. After a month of recording this information, I’m now able to look back on days that deviate one way or the other from the norm, and start to fiddle with the formula.

Cons:

• Seeing your measurements fluctuate up AND down on a daily basis can be really frustrating if you let it. On my spreadsheet, I only have one color highlight and it’s on Saturday. I do this for 2 reasons - 1. Sat is my cheat day. I’ve got all of the Saturday notes built into my sheet so that I remember the binging rules. 2. When I glance at my journal, my eyes naturally compare all the green lines and gloss over the white ones. Also - with the Saturday measurements highlighted, I don’t see the aftermath of cheat day until I actively look for it. I focus on my progress BEFORE the cheat day.

Here are some interesting anomalies that I’ve found:

• The foods that I eat appear to have a 2 day lag time before I see a peak result.
• eg. On SUNDAYS (Cheat day +1) I usually only move the scale 1-1.5lbs up. MONDAYS (Cheat day+2) otoh the scale averages 2-3lbs more.*
• My highest weight loss day was 3lbs on 2/1-2/2, just a few days in. I’ve not been able to match that weight loss in the subsequent weeks.
• Despite that initial drop, the following week, I plateaued. I was within 1lb. of 255 for 10 days straight. A quick look at my food calendar immediately pointed out the problem here: I had almost completely eliminated beans/lentils during these days. As soon as I course corrected, I immediately lost 2lbs. (And by ‘immediately’ I mean the results occurred 2 days later)
• Weight loss Slowed down on the week off of AGGa (I haven’t been able to find the ‘P’ localy, and my chart too easily confused G(reen Tea) with G(arlic) so the G from Garlic became Ga)
• The most that I’ve gained from a binge day is 2lbs. I’ve gained this amount also on non-binge days (today for example, I’m 2lbs heavier than yesterday).

Meals

Here is what my basic day looks like:

• Wake Up: Measurements, 5 Walnuts, Tsp. Almond Butter
• Breakfast (within 30 mins of waking - around 9am): 3 Whole eggs OR equivalent size Egg Whites/Egg Beaters style goop, 1-2 cups Spinach, 1 cup Beans or lentils from previous night dinner or 1/2 cup black bean salsa
• Second Breakfast (about 3-4 hours later - around 1pm): Salad with 2 cans Tuna or 1/2 Large Chicken Breast. Spinach, Kale, 1 cup Beans or Lentils, Aged Balsamic Vinegar (Whole Foods Brand - I’d drink this by the gallon if it weren’t so harsh. The flavor is AMAZING.) 1 TBSP. Olive oil OR 5-7 Spanish Olives.
• Lunch (4 hours later - around 5pm): 1/2 Large Chicken Breast, 1 cup Beans or Lentils (usually in the form of some Spinach Dal or a tomato based spicy lentil mix), 1-2 cups Broccoli (about half a crown from the farmers market or Sprouts Market).
• Dinner (4 hours later - around 9pm): 1 large Chicken Breast or 1lb. Turkey Sausage (pre cooked weight) or 2 Beef or Turkey Burgers, 2 cups Broccoli or Brussels Sprouts, 1 cup of Beans or Lentils (Again with the Dal or Spicy tomato sauce)

Preliminary conclusions: This diet works. I’ve seen actual results in 30 days with ZERO exercise.

Now that I have some data to work with, I believe that my next 30 days should see better results. My goal is to lose 12 lbs in the next 30 days since (according to the data) I shouldn’t see a 10 day plateau.

My next move is to change Binge Day to Binge Meal, and then to 1 Binge day every 2 weeks. Following that, in about 30 days, I’ll be adding exercise back in to my day.

There are 2 things that I’d like to note here:

• I have yet to see any evidence of extreme end weight loss (5+lbs/week qualifies as extreme to me.) I’m averaging 2lbs/week. 2 lbs a week is what I generally lose on any kind of diet - it’s nothing revolutionary. I admit, I may be doing something wrong, though I’m not aware of what it could be at this point save the zero exercise thing. I have read of others losing massive amounts of weight but at this point, I’ve not been able to match their results.
• I didn’t eat ‘poorly’ before starting this diet. I don’t like sweets aside from some honey in my Chai Tea (though I’ve since replaced that with Saigon Cinnamon and switched to Yerba Mate Chai (the bags or loose leaf, not the bottled kind with the added sugar)) and the rare bag of Unreal Peanut M&Ms. Prior to this I have lived mostly paleo for several years, though, since I’ve been married, about twice a week I’d have some form of floury thing, be it bread on a sandwich or some rice/pasta/potato thing. Girls prefer floury things in my experience :P

I hope that any of this helps you guys on your journey. Also, I welcome any and all hints and tips.

I’d like to be able to get my weight down to about 195 ASAP and then begin bulking back up to around 225. At my healthiest point (around 13 years ago) I was 195, Squatting 450, Bench 275, Curl 200, I could run 10 miles with a backpack on the Appalachian Trail (In NJ/PA for those of you familiar with that landscape. That ain’t no cushy TRACK I can tell you ;) ) etc. and I’d like to get CLOSE to that size again.

History:

Let me start by stating, for the record, that I am not a Democrat.  I am also not a Republican. I have never been a Democrat, though I was a Republican until I began thinking about politics on my own.  What I am is Independent. That does not mean that I don’t know what I am, in fact if I were to describe my personal philosophy of life it would be one of independence.  My golden rule is ‘one persons freedoms end where anothers begin.’

I would say that I first started following politics around September 12th, 2001. Prior to that I didn’t really care.  Like most Americans, I sat glued to the television for several months that autumn.  I sat in my neighbors house (for many years I have opted out of television, so I didn’t even have basic cable in 2001) and together we watched the world react to the horrific events of Sept 11th. We watched on Fox news.  

Many things happened in that year for me.  First, I stopped attending church in favor of Atheism. Second, I decided that I was not a Republican any longer. That was also the year I first found a test called the “political compass test.” (http://politicalcompass.org/) The theory behind the political compass is that there are more sides than just right and left. The idea being that right and left are economic viewpoints and up and down are social viewpoints.  At the top of the scale you have authoritarianism, fascism and at the bottom you have libertarianism or anarchism (gentle reader, please do not confuse the word ‘anarchism’ with the word ‘chaos’ as in this particular sense - they are not synonyms.) From left to right, you have the liberals, socialists to the ‘conservatives’ (neo-liberals), 

I tested first in that year and found that I am actually exactly dead center between left and right (x=0 for you mathematicians) and about 2/3 of the way down the scale toward anarchism/libertarianism.  Since that time I’ve tested roughly 5 more times with almost exactly the same result each time. 

2005

2007

2008

2012

In 2000, I voted for the Green party candidate, Ralph Nader. For this the liberals will tell me that I wasn’t voting for Nader, I was voting against Bush. To which my reply is, no, I voted for Ralph Nader, which by default is against Bush AND Gore.  Nonetheless, I still receive some of the blame for the debacle that was the 2000 election where the United States had a President whom they did not elect.  In 2004, I voted for Kerry mainly because I disagreed with the very essence of George W. Bush.  At that time, I would have voted for virtually anyone just to get that man out of office. 

By 2008, I had endured enough bullshit from the political world and the media that I had become pretty good at weeding out facts from spin and flat out lies.  I remember in 2004, talking with my father (a party Republican, and a Vietnam veteran) about the Swiftboat Veterans for truth ad and how there was solid evidence that the entire thing was staged, but by that time, the damage had been done. Even if he didn’t believe the ad anymore, he couldn’t trust Kerry.  I remember the entire ‘flip-flopper’ incident and a vast majority of people voting for Bush simply because they could see themselves having a beer with him at some fantasy barbecue.  I remember a book titled ‘Perfectly Legal: The Secret Campaign to Rig Our Tax System for the Super Rich’ (NYT bestseller btw)  and a visit from the local branch of Secret Service that my friend received just for reading and discussing it at work with some colleagues.

In 2008, I was ready for Barack Obama.  I had done my research early on in the primaries so that I’d know what each candidate stood for and also where that was.  I celebrated wildly the night he was elected as our President.  I followed through the vital first 100 days and watched as he achieved more than most presidents by that time.  Then something happened;  I decided that everything was alright.  For the first time in many years, I trusted our president, and I felt confident that I could get on with my life because Barack had this.  Sure, I kept watch from a distance, but I had nothing to worry about because he had my back.  I watched as he brought our troops home, as he got Bin Laden, as he passed Obamacare and also as he wracked up record debt.  

When it came time to re-elect him, I didn’t see a good Republican challenger - Romney was too far left for most Republicans and the Mormon thing made them uncomfortable. Most Republicans think that Ron Paul is bat-shit crazy.  Newt was too polarizing in the current environment, and Rick Santorum couldn’t compete with the nonsensical amount of money and planning that Romney had already put in to his bid for President.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought “Sweet, I’ve nothing to worry about, the voice of reason continues to prevail in the United States, Obama has this.”  On October 3rd, several of my left leaning friends had decided not to watch the presidential debates.  I sat down on my couch that night, certain that Obama would wipe the floor with Romney.  But something terrible happened instead.  Obama was clearly not prepared, and Romney cleanly destroyed him.  The President never questioned anything that Romney said.  He didn’t question the spin on facts, nor the ambiguity of Romneys proposed ‘policies.’  He just let his challenger have the stage and say anything he pleased right or wrong.

The Gargoyle Method

One of my favorite endorsements came from a person who frequently told me that he wanted to fight me and always followed it up with some horrific end that I’d meet in some specific hold or move that he would apply to me.  In one of those self indulgent  ”It’s time for me to leave the company” emails, he said ‘don’t debate Gene unless you really know what you’re talking about because even if he doesn’t, he’ll convince you that he does.’  During the time that we worked together he often liked to engage me in some political topic or another, but I was always more informed than he - even with the writings of the opposing viewpoint and he found it difficult to ever come out ahead while making his ill-researched points.

Another endorsement that has been applied to me: “Most people measure twice and cut once. I usually cut, and then throw the ruler away but you [Gene] measure 50 times and then when you cut its better than any cut that anyone’s ever seen.”  I relate these to you so that you’ll understand fully the attention to detail, effort, and even joy that I infuse into acquiring knowledge about everything.  

The Gargoyle Method of addressing a problem is one that has been honed over time by myself and my best friend, Glen Mayers (http://grimthinks.com/).  It follows only one rule: what do the data say?  In other words, we collect all of the data that we can find - be it right, left, true, false, sane, bat-shit crazy, accidental, intentional or fabricated.  Once all of the data is on hand, we analyze it, try to find the inaccurate data which we then discard, and make our conclusions based on what is before us, not what someone tells us and not through the filter of any agenda.

Both of us have often been heard claiming that we’re never wrong.  This is because our conclusions are based on the data in front of us.  If you then show us new data, our old conclusion is not wrong, it continues to be correct given that specific data set, but we now make a new conclusion based on the inclusion of the new data.  We vehemently avoid clinging to previous conclusions.  I do not care to hang on to false beliefs for any reason.  

Here’s a real world example:  I reach in to my pocket and find my cellphone is missing.  You tell me that you saw me leave it at a diner where we just ate lunch.   The conclusion: Given the testimonial of a trusted friend, I assume that it’s at the diner, so we get in the car to see if it’s still there.  As we get out of the car, my cell phone falls out of your pocket.  With this new evidence, I’m not going to continue to insist that my phone is at the diner. The new conclusion is that you had my cell phone the entire time.  Both conclusions were correct. (though admittedly, the one conclusion that is now in question is whether or not you are a trusted friend.)  

This same principal can be applied to everything.  If Jesus Christ were to appear on my couch this afternoon and have a conversation with me before vanishing, then I’d cease to be an atheist.  Am I wrong to be an atheist in the meantime? No, because there is no evidence to support a superior being of any kind, so I don’t draw that conclusion.  I look at the evidence (none) and conclude that there is no god.

Sanity

Now that you have some background as to how my mind works, let’s get down to the main point: reality.  Over the course of the last ten years I’ve talked with a great many people.  I’ve founded and led 2 separate forums dedicated solely to discussing politics and religion - the two things that most people refuse to discuss.  People lose their minds on occasion when discussing these things, but on the whole I’ve tried to keep the discourse civil.  

In any discussion between two parties, if one party refuses to compromise or in any way come together with the second party, and that second party is open to compromise, then the compromising party will always lose more than they win.  The ‘uncompromisers’ will never agree to anything that doesn’t 100% agree with their principles.  The compromisers, on the other hand, are willing to find common ground to move the conversation forward.

This is the main issue that I’ve witnessed between modern Republicans and Democrats. Before you get on your high horse and tell me “OMFG NOT ALL REPS/DEMS are this way!!!!1111” Yeah, I know. My father, for example is one of the more rational people I’ve ever met, and he’s a Republican. My friend Glen is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, and he’s very definitely on the left.  I’m talking here about the core of the parties.  I’m addressing the majority of each.

If Obama says “I’m willing to talk to my enemies” the Republicans damn him for not standing up for Americans, they call him a socialist/Muslim/communist sympathizer and accuse him of apologizing to terrorists.  If the Democrats try to pass legislation that doesn’t 100% agree with the Republicans, then they filibuster and accuse the Democrats of inaction and say ‘they can’t get anything done.’  Then a Republican takes office, the Democrats are willing to find common ground - so they do - and the Republicans take credit for being visionary and being able to ‘reach across the aisle.’

This also translates over to many of the people who support candidates.  In the last month, I’ve been accused of being an ‘Obama Cheerleader,’ of having ‘drunk the Kool-Aid,’ of ‘believing partisan rhetoric,’ etc. simply because I have analyzed data and found it lacking in sufficient facts to back up statements like ‘Obama Lied’, ‘Obama is a communist’, ‘Obama is Kenyan,’ etc.  When their evidence is discredited, people turn to ad hominem attacks, they dodge the question and present more questions, or they simply stop talking.

When I’m presented with a ‘debate fact check’ from Breitbart.com, and I then present 3 more fact check sites, including factcheck.org, rather than address any of the new evidence, I’m met with “is that the same Annenberg (referring to the Annenberg school at the University of PA, where FactCheck is based) that Obama and terrorist Bill Ayers worked together?”  This, of course, is a loaded question, meant to immediately discredit FactCheck.org as being in league with terrorists.  2 things here: 1. Even if they WERE terrorists, that doesn’t mean that their fact checking is wrong.  It has absolutely zero to do with their fact checking.  You might be able to assume that they’d have a certain point of view, but that’s it.  2. This use of obvious misleading logical fallacy points right at the heart of the problem - these Republicans don’t give fuck all about reality.  They only care about flying their flag from the white house.

If tomorrow, you were to take the entire Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and swap the people out with the New York Yankees baseball team, most fans of the Lakers, and fans of the Yankees would still be fans of those two teams.  Laker fans would not swap out their Laker Jerseys for the blue and white, nor would Yankee fans suddenly find some purple and gold.  They’d still say “Oh I’m a Yankee fan.” The most that 90% of them would do is acknowledge that their team is unlikely to do well this year.

And so it is with political parties.  It’s so desperately important that each party have ‘their team’ in office that some of them don’t care how they get in, or what they have to say.  Reality no longer matters.  When I post these videos: http://bit.ly/SC7KDa

http://bit.ly/SC8iZu

http://bit.ly/SC7GTI

http://bit.ly/SC7N1P

http://bit.ly/SC7WlG

http://bit.ly/SC8PLg

 rather than anyone offer a rational response, they are ignored.  When I’m told “Obama said 6 times during his UN speech that the YouTube video was responsible for the attack in Benghazi” and I go back and REWATCH the UN speech in its entirety, instead of acknowledging that Obama doesn’t say that EVEN ONCE (the closest he gets is when he is talking about freedom of speech and he says “There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. There is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy. There is no slander that provides an excuse for people to burn a restaurant in Lebanon or destroy a school in Tunis.”) I’m instead shown videos of how the ‘liberal media’ lies to us with their agenda.

That brings me to another point: if, on the x axis in the political compass test, you fall halfway to the right of the centerline, then 3/4 of all the other points of view falls to the LEFT of you. It doesn’t mean that there’s some conspiracy out there to get you, it means that YOU hold a position further RIGHT than most of society!  When you consume information - 75% of it will be LEFT of your point of view.  The SAME thing goes for those on the left!  

There was actually a study done that addressed the political bias of the big 3 news networks: http://bit.ly/SBXEkS  It found MSNBC to lean to the left, Fox leans to the right, and CNN fits squarely in the center of those two.  

It’s this fucking manipulation of words that bothers me. Instead of addressing facts, and information that I present, my own words, or those of someone else are twisted to mean something that they are not saying.  It’s fucking straight up dishonest.  It disgusts me.  If your argument is so tenuous that all I have to do is watch the source of whatever you’re claiming to prove you wrong, then either you are extremely gullible for believing what you are obviously repeating to me, or you are intentionally trying to misrepresent the truth so that you can change the minds of all the people who will not do any research on their own.  The is also straight up fucking dishonest. 

What it is NOT is a debate. It’s not even a conversation.  Instead it’s me talking and presenting evidence and someone else not paying any attention whatsoever because they’re too busy distorting, fabricating and flat out lying about reality so that they can forward their crazy agenda and get their candidate in office.  

Turning Point

This carefully crafted deception is why the first debate could have possibly delivered the presidency to Mitt Romney.  Because prior to the debates, Democrats and other Obama supporters faced this mountain of bullshit and fought day after day on the side of reason, logic and truth only to see the very person that we had been defending just sit there and let the bullshit happen unchecked.  Instead of having our backs, he fueled the fires of the ‘birthers’, the tea party, and the bat-shit crazy Glenn Becks of the world.  Now, not only do we have to fight the constant stream of garbage that they spew, but he actually stood there silent and validated their arguments by not questioning their credibility when handed the opportunity on national television.  

The victory that should have easily been his was instead handed to a man who has held virtually every point of view in his active 6 year quest for the presidency.  Mitt Romney doesn’t care about doing the job of the President of the United States, he just wants people to call him “Mr. President.” If he actually DID care about the job, he wouldn’t have listened to every single person in the Republican party that told him “Oh if you say X and Y it will win you the support of Z demographic.”  If he had actually held a point of view and expressed it with some conviction, then that horrific first debate may have actually won him  the presidency.  Instead, he followed it by placing ads in Ohio telling Jeep employees that their jobs were going to be shipped over to China.  Chrysler VP Gualberto Ranieri actually had to step in and set the record straight. 

Toward the end of the campaign, (and even now actually) I couldn’t even talk to Romney supporters because they completely deny reality and their only argument is “you’re a sucker who got duped by the liberal media.” 

Republicans: Seriously, please, enough with the nonsense. It’s time to let the tea party and Fox News wither on the vine.  I get that you all still think that there’s a liberal media out there (and there is) but it isn’t ALL media.  It’s only a few people. 

Rachel Maddow put it best:  

“Ohio really did go for President Obama last night, and he really did win. And he really was born in Hawaii. And he really is, legitimately, President of the United State - again.

And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month. And the Congressional Research Center really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy.

And the polls were not skewed to oversample democrats. And Nate Silver was not making up fake poll numbers about the election to try to make conservatives feel bad; Nate Silver was doing MATH.

And climate change is real. And rape really does cause pregnancy, sometimes. And evolution is a thing. And Benghazi was an attack on us, it was not a scandal BY us.

And nobody’s taking away anyone’s guns. And taxes have not gone up. And the deficit is dropping, actually. And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.

And the moon landing was real. And FEMA is not building concentration camps. And UN election observers are not taking over Texas. And moderate reforms on the regulations on the financial industries and the insurance industries in this country are not the same thing as communism.

Listen. Last night was a good night for liberals and for democrats, for very obvious reasons. But it was also possibly a good night for this country as a whole.

…But if the conservative movement and the conservative media and the republican party is stuck in a vacuum-sealed, door-locked, spin cycle of telling what makes them feel good, and denying the actual lived truth of the world, we are all deprived, as a nation, of the very debate between competing, feasible ideas about real problems.

Last night the republicans got shellacked, and they had NO idea it was coming. And we saw them in real time - in real, humiliating time - not believe it even as it was happening to them. And unless they want to secede, they will need to pop the fictional bubble they have been so happily living inside, if they do not want to get shellacked again.”

And as for those who will only use deceit, fabrication, and ad hominem attacks I say: 

Fuck that shit.

-G2

One of the biggest comments I hear from Republicans whenever I tell them that much of the deficit that we face and many of the problems that Obama faced coming into his Presidency were things that Bush actually did.  They try to tell me that it’s irrelevant, but I disagree.

For example: Bush took a $314B Surplus, and turned it into a $500B Deficit. (which is actually more when you take into account that the bank bailout was voted in before Obama arrived, yet the effects are attributed to him because he was in office when it was completed.) Obama began office with a $1500B deficit and in 2013, it is projected to be an $800B deficit. 

History of Deficits and Surpluses: http://bit.ly/RO41Ts

So when Republicans say OMFG OBAMA CREATED 13 TRILLION DOLLARS OF DEBT!  If you look at the actual record, this is not true.

WSJ Article on Market Watch: http://bit.ly/VPeqTi

Clinton’s final budget went into effect in 2001. He left office with a ~ $160B surplus (down from ~$310B the previous year,) and a public debt of ~$6T. 

Bush’s final budget went into effect in 2009. He left office with a ~$1500B deficit (up from ~$500B the previous year), and a public debt of ~$12T

Obama’s final ‘budget’ (here to mean spending for the year as congress has not passed an official budget) of his first term goes into effect this next year, and while there certainly are some things that can change, 2013 will have a ~$900B deficit (down from ~$1100 the previous year), and a public debt of ~$16T.  

So blaming Obama for $16T creating worth of debt is completely misleading. By misleading, of course, I mean total fabrication. Not true. False. Trixy little hobbitses.  

The REALITY is that under Obama, ~$4T was created, not $16T.  

Once I get this point across, the typical response leaves the realm of the rational and dives straight into “OH OF COURSE, IT’S ALL BUSH’S FAULT AND WE’RE ALL RACISTS”

After my initial bafflement wears off, I gently point out that never once have I blamed Bush for everything bad, nor have I called anyone a racist.  Bush is, in fact, responsible for $6T of debt, and Obama is responsible for $4T (so far). 

Recently, though, one of my friends (of almost 20 years) went on a Facebook posting spree of roughly 10 images all similar to the following: 

 

So I get where the whole “It’s Bush’s fault” thing comes from: in the face of the reality that Dubya was actually a shit president, all they can do is say “Oh well you’ll just blame Bush for everything” implying that 1. I’m changing the subject, and/or not holding the current President accountable and 2. that somehow them saying this negates the facts of the issue and my arguement.  

But until recently, I didn’t understand where the whole “and I’m a racist” thing came from.

Here are some headlines from today:
http://bit.ly/VPhMWz

A Romney/Ryan supporter says “And another 4 years of the N***** maybe he will get assassinated this term” 

and this: “Racial slurs yelled at Ole Miss Obama protest”  

http://cbsn.ws/ZhAQLX 

Now before I go any further, this is OBVIOUSLY not the majority of the Republican party. To even suggest this would be completely nonsensical - But here’s the thing. When shit like this happens and it’s associated with your party, the RIGHT thing to do is have a press conference and say something like “We’re sorry, everyone, we don’t condone the actions ro statements of Denise.  In fact, we think that she’s a fucking moron, and we are not only ashamed that she is one of our supporters, but we would also like to add that we do not agree with anything that she says. We’d actually like to be unaffiliated in any way with her and we certainly do not feel the same way.  As for the nonsense at Ole’ Miss, ditto.  It’s time for these people to advance to the 21st century.”

Well ok, maybe not EXACTLY that, but certainly disavow it SOMEHOW so that your party isn’t associated with it and certainly, it’s time for them to insist that their party DOES come into the 21st century with the rest of us.

-G2

Yeah, I kick TONS of ass at Bad Company 2.