[[posterous-content:pid___0]]I really have to credit Tim Ferriss.
I heard about his book, Four-Hour Body and it opened up a thought for me. The body is a system, and you can hack that system. I've read some, tried some. It has been a while, and I don't do everything he suggests, but that concept, that this is a system you can control, was a mind-blowing thought.
It was a mind-blowing thought because, during my time getting my second BS degree, I got up past 300 lbs, topping out at somewhere between 330 and 350 lbs. It wasn't as if I wasn't mobile: I was taking classes and thus walking all over campus. I was sitting and coding for class, sitting and reading and trying to understand the class, sitting and waiting for the next thing to happen, but I was walking all across campus. It wasn't as if I was eating constantly: I was waking up to make 8:30am classes and not eating until after 6pm, sometimes until after 10pm. By the metrics I understood, I should not be heavy, but I was.
It was a mind-blowing thought because there were inputs besides exercise involved. During the time between my top weight and the point I started weighing myself, I had been a member of a gym, and, for a while, I would go on the treadmills for a while, then lift weights, then walk some more. I hadn't started weighing myself, so I can't say anything about the effect on my weight of that, but I can say I found it uninspiring, that I didn't have to buy new clothes after the experience. I can also say that I took two things out of the experience: the realization that I desire more fitness and less fat but not more muscle -- there are many things I've broken, not knowing my own strength, and in my walking-around life, there's little that I have to do that taxes the strength I do have -- and that there is one machine, one that focuses on back strength, that I could peg the first time trying and do reps.
The thought that it's more than simply food and exercise, which I had tried and thought failed me, but timing and other sorts of things, and that you can and should document it. This lead me to look into Quantified Self, which inspired me to start making the graph you see. There are 56 entries, not 56 days, because hey, when you're trying to develop a new habit, especially one that occurs when you're at your least alert, sometimes you miss a few days.
Looking through a book list on the topic of Quantified Self, I found The Decision Tree by Thomas Goetz, a book that's all about the changes in health care in the data age, and it's inspiring me to take more steps. I want to send my spit to 23andMe and learn about what my genes say about me. I want to get a FitBit and start keeping track of my movement. I might even join the school gym over the summer. I have started collecting location-based apps on my Android phone, both to start keeping track of my walking and to quantify my life.
One of the best ideas I got from Decision Tree is that people who have more control over their lives have better health outcomes. I will try to start developing ideas and bringing updates to this site. When I develop more tools for me document, I will start placing their results here. That is something I can control.
Thank you again, Tim Ferriss.
