Category: Life and living

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A more serious approach to getting in shape

For the past couple of years I’ve been struggling to get back into shape.  Not that I was ever the picture of Adonis, I have over the years taken to mountain biking, backcountry skiing, rock climbing and even running.  But not recently.  A series of injuries, nagging colds and rich foods and drink have taken their tolls.

A few months ago, the last of my symptoms finally gone, I decided to get a little more serious about getting in shape.  For the first time in a LONG time, I went to a gym.  I joined a gym.  I chose 24 hour fitness because of their proximity to work (and home) and their cheap price.

I was only slightly familiar with the equipment in the gym, and it took me a few sessions to feel comfortable, each time branching out to try out a larger variety of the items provided.  But I kept to the basics (lower weight, multiple reps) and split the workouts between cardio and weights.

This went along just fine, but I quickly saw the need for a little record keeping.  I’ve found that tracking progress in itself can be a good motivator – and in particular, when dealing in unfamiliar terrain.  Seeing how new I was to the world of weights and heartrates and calories, I felt that keeping track would help me understand the benefits of what I was doing.

I did a little searching around and eventually came upon the site Daily Burn.  This site allows you to track your workouts, caloric intake, and weight.  The interface is pretty straigt forward and allows one to easily enter data and view reports, which I like.  The database of activities and foods is pretty comprehensive, though this (as in many of the sites that I checked out) is definitely one of the weaknesses.  Specifically, I find myself constantly having to *fudge* the food that I’m eating as their database is better aligned to pre-packaged foods rather than freshly-cooked.  I do find the numbers to be good enough for my purposes though.  It gives me a rough idea of the calories (and other nutritional factors) of the food I’m eating and allows me to check out different kinds of foods to better understand some of the choices I could be making.

So just today in the Wired news feed I see this article (with the included sidebars) talking about how Nike’s ipod-integrated tracking system has been a big success.  To me it’s no surprise.

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Buying fresh vs. freezing

I’ve never been a member of Costco – I’ve lived in smaller apartments since going to college and lived alone for many of those years and have never had the space or need to buy in bulk.

Additionally, I’ve wondered about the cost-effectiveness of buying such mass quantities (at a discount) and then paying for the local storage (in one’s home).  In essence, by buying in smaller quantities, I’m passing on the cost of storage back to the retailers.

In addition to the physical space required to store this stuff, there’s also costs for things like extra large or additional fridges/freezers.  I found this post from Get Rich Slowly to be pretty interesting in two ways:  First, the breakdown of the cost of operating an additional freezer.  Granted, I believe his math is a little flawed (it doesn’t take into account differences when the unit is opened more or less during a period of time nor does it look at seasonal temperature differences (though he live in Portland so these are probably less extreme than in other parts of the country).  A better test would be to monitor the device over a longer period of time.  I was surprised by the overall estimated cost of running the freezer – not that expensive really.  (I won’t get into other considerations when buying in bulk, storage, the quality of frozen vs. fresh or the cost implications of a long-term power outage…)

The operating cost is an interesting piece of data.  Leading me to the second item I found interesting – the energy measurement device that he has – the Kill-a-watt meter.  This is such a great idea.  You plug in your electronic devices and the unit measures the electrical draw.  I’m really intrigued by this and am considering buying one – I tend to be a little geeky that way.

To me (and it’s not just me, I’ve read plenty of others who are saying the same thing) one of the biggest problems we have today with energy conservation is a lack of measurement tools.  Time and again, reading reports of the hybrid electric vehicles you see the authors talking about their energy use.  Yes, this is key to a hybrid car – but it’s also an indication of how easy it is to report on that statistic – these cars make it incredibly easy to see what your consumption is.

It would be really interesting to see what would happen if all of our devices were telling us how much energy they were consuming on a daily basis.  I for one am OK with energy conservation – I unplug some devices when they’re not in use, but even with my $35 monthly utility bill, I know I could shave off more – I wonder how much.

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09-09-09

Last year it was the Olympics.  For a few years there have been celebrations of these early days and months of the millennium .  And I somehow I’ve frittered them all away.

Perhaps this year I should do something different.  I should partake.

A quick google search pulls up a few interesting options:

How about the World day of Interconnectedness?  I’m not exactly sure what they’re calling for, but it sounds like extra touching.

Or there’s the 090909 Festival though that’s in New Zealand – or so I can only guess by the ‘.nz’ web site.  Man it’s amazing how people manage to leave fairly vital information off their websites.

What about the Big Bear 090909 Sexual Energy Activation?  I’m not really sure what that is but it costs $595 and I think it involves sitting Indian-style (can we still call it that?).

Of course there’s the release of ‘Rock Band: The Beatles’ which I guess is somehow tied to world peace and 09-09-09 and video games and perhaps that’s been the meaning of Revolution #9 all along?

I think I’ll keep looking.

Any suggestions?

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meet the new guy

This weekend I drove out to Meghan’s to meet our latest friend.

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About two months ago Meghan mentioned a co-worker’s dog who had several puppies – lots of puppies.  We considered then the idea of taking one of the fellows home, if they would be put up for adoption.  This past week, the little pups came into her hospital and were being snatched up throughout the day.  After a few phone calls, text messages, and emails, we decided to go for it.

He’s a cute labrador & shepard mix – and by the looks of it, he’s gonna be a big guy.  After a lot of discussions and thoughts about how long I’ll stay at my current apartment – This not-so-little guy more than anything might force that decision.  But, we should have a little while before we’ve got to worry about that.

Last night was not the best night’s sleep I’ve had – he can be pretty active when he wants to, and I’m appreciating that this is going to be a bit of work.

We have yet to give him a name, but we’ll have that worked out by the end of the weekend.

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Last year: Frankfurt. This year? just sitting at work

Last year at this time I was having an awesome, fuzzy jet-lagged walk around Frankfurt on my way to Africa.

I had several hours between flights and decided to take advantage of the excellent weather and speedy train into town to stretch my legs a bit.

The day was one of those totally bizarre half-drunk with jet-lag and half-drunk with excitement of traveling off to new destination days.  The combination of hyped-up excitement and over-tired dull brain made for an interesting, dizzying state of mind.

Africa was definitely one of the best trips I’ve done, and while I imagine it may be a while before I get back, it is definitely on the list.

In the coming weeks I’m going to take advantage of the weekly-photo posts to re-visit the experience.

For now, I’ll just continue sitting at my desk, working.

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automated savings

Last week, I wrote about how I tried to actively manage my finances, in order to better afford the things that are important to me.

There have been a few simple methods I’ve used over the years to help me with my finances.  The first is really easy – simply subscribing to a financial magazine.  I tried a few over the years (and I haven’t had one now for a couple) but I found that just getting a monthly reminder in the mail that financial planning is something you should be considering was enough to keep me engaged – I’d check in on my 401k allocations, think about whether I was saving enough money, and pledge to get better at doing both.  Of course many of those pledges were unrealized, but if even a few came to fruition, that’s still once a quarter where I did something to improve my financial standing.

Lately, I’ve been enjoying all of the content that the ‘new’ web has to offer including podcasts and blogs.  One blog that I’ve come across lately that I like is Get Rich Slowly.  This site offers straightforward advice on how to think about your finances and how to apply that to your living situation in a sane way and hopefully build wealth while you’re at it.  The problem with this site, for me, is that many of the topics are for people just looking to get control of their situation – get out of credit card debt, live within their means, etc.,  This (thankfully) hasn’t been me for many years.  But, again, the check-in from time to time on these topics is a good reminder to myself to think about what I’m spending and saving.

By far, the most successful method I’ve had for thinking about savings – was to remove thinking from the equation (go figure).  I started with an automated 401k program at work (years ago) but I’ve built that to what I have now: A fully though-out system for putting money away.

Each paycheck I receive gets broken into different parts automatically and stashed into various accounts.  In January my company overhauled its payroll system which was the perfect opportunity for me to overhaul my savings plan.

Right now it works like this.  Each paycheck:

  • 15% of my pre-tax earnings goes to my 401k contribution.  Without going into gory details, this is enough for me to maximize my contribution each year.
  • about 30% of my pre-tax earnings goes to benefit myself and society alike (taxes)
  • about 1% goes to my company’s medical plan (the company pays double what I do)

The rest is mine to do with as I see fit.  Rather than having all of that deposited into my checking account (where it would be sure to disapear) I have the following in place:

  • 10% goes into a checking account I use for cash – this constitutes a majority of my weekly spending (via ATM withdrawls)
  • 10% goes into a brokerage account which I consider to be long-term savings (for those times when I take a break between jobs)
  • 80% goes into a checking account I use for paying bills

This is working pretty well right now.  For the first time in a long time I haven’t touched my brokerage account and my cash account has covered my weekly spending well.  All of my bill payments are paid electronically, with the fixed ones (mortgage, insurance, etc.,) automatically withdrawn and the rest manually entered each month or paid by credit card (which is then paid via online bill pay services).

As I get better, My plan is to have all discretionary spending (cash and paying off the credit cards) be covered in one account.  Right now, my credit card payments are taken out of the same account as my mortgage, and that doesn’t make sense.  In this way I’ll have a better understanding of what I’ve roughly allocated for myself and when I’m overspending that.

With this system, my savings rate right now is more than 25% of my take home salary right out of the gate.  As long as I don’t spend every dime in my checking accounts, the actual rate is even higher.  That’s a rate that I’m happy with for now, but I intend to notch up as the year goes on.