The best weight loss advice I have ever heard came from Alton Brown when I heard him speak at the Coolidge Corner Theater during his book tour last year. Someone in the audience had mentioned that his figure looked better, and Alton proceeded to explain how he slimmed down. What he did was he started keeping a log of everything he ate — cookies, cake, and so on — and noticed a pattern. He would always have a glass of milk with those things he ate. One important point he mentioned about diets and why they don’t work is because they are based on the idea of “moderation” (he used air quotes) and likened unhealthy eating as an addiction. The analogy he used referred to drug addiction, that no drug addict would ever stop using if he thought, “Oh, I’ll only do a little injection of cocaine today.” Once Alton eliminated the milk everything else went away, and he hasn’t had a desire to eat sweets. It wasn’t just eating habits that caused him to lose weight. Exercise was also very important. He was very proud that he could run 5 miles without falling over huffing and wheezing (which he demonstrated vivaciously). What Alton Brown said about losing weight was the most sensible thing I had heard about it. It made me realize that kind of change, the commitment, has to come within the self first. Nothing else will provide that for you.
Bathroom Shields
I don’t understand why some people think that bathrooms — public ones no less — are these psychological shields from the outside. I feel most vulnerable when using public restrooms. Despite whatever “protections” these spaces provide, they don’t stop sound waves traveling through walls that separate the men and women’s bathrooms. It’s something to keep in mind if you ever want to bitch someone out on your cell phone in an office complex.
Questions
Usually whenever someone asks me a question, I always have to respond with the following question:
- What are you really asking?
People aren’t typically upfront about what they want, and getting through their bullshit is really annoying. Another follow-up question I sometimes after that, and tone can vary a lot with this one, is:
- What are you so afraid of?
That tends to either put a stop to people’s queries or get them talking about what the real problem is.
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
With each passing day, I’ve been noticing more and more that people seem to lack a sense of foresight. You can blame technology for this which has afforded us with such convenience and affordability that instant gratification has spoiled us so badly that we expect everything to be so easily provided. I won’t say that this is the only cause, but it is a factor. I’m thinking that it’s even more basic than that. I believe it’s about survival which is manifesting in people’s desire to maintain control of their world even if it interferes and disrupts the lives of others.
There are things that people can’t control no matter how hard they try, and often people will complain because they can’t get what they want. Most complaints I hear are knee-jerk reactions, short-sighted, and lacking perspective. The only perspective is that of the complainer’s and it is usually a self-serving interest. These will too easily commit all sorts of logical fallacies for the sake of “argument” under the illusion that whoever can talk louder or faster can claim the title of being “right” and win what is basically a shouting match. The world is bigger than any one individual’s life.
I’m reminded of an experiment one of my professors told our class about randomness. People had a choice between choosing Object A or Object B and would receive either a reward or punishment (a mild shock) depending on which object they chose. The reward/punishment system was random every round when the subject made a choice about which object to pick. Our professor also told us that the same experiment had been given to monkeys. Animal rights aside, what the researchers discovered was that the monkeys learned that choosing the same object over and over yielded more reward in the long term. The human subjects didn’t produce results as good as the monkeys. You could question various aspects of the test, but it doesn’t change what it highlights.
Resistance is very destructive and people seem to go this route more often than trying to find resolution in harmony. I knew someone in high school had a shirt that read, “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” The mob mentality, when composed of narrow-minded views and poor application, reflects badly on everyone. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy (things usually never are) solution to fix this, and doing so would need a large amount of time before any change occurs. Trying to upheave and replace an entire social culture all at once would be chaotic.
It’s an emergent behavior that makes me want to avoid people because everyone seems to be looking out for themselves instead of each other. I don’t want to partake in that, and it suppose it’s a reason why my choices and behavior don’t seem “logical” to others even though all I am doing is, in a sense, trying to survive. It’s all anyone is trying to do.
