February 2004 Archives

A friend pointed me to Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. While informative and chock full of samples for all genres, it's also quite sarcastic and funny. Here's how he describes IDM (intelligent dance music):

This is the oddest named genre in the entire world, since it's not easily danceable, it's not certifiably intelligent, and it's arguable as to whether it constitutes as actual music. This is the realm of the uber-pretentious electronic music afficionados, with razor-thin eclectic tastes, who spend most of their waking energy arguing about what IDM is and what IDM isn't. But I guess that depends on what your definition of 'is' is. That's why it's the one genre that doesn't have any kind of cohesive sound. That's also why some of them despise the term "Intelligent Dance Music". So just ignore them. It is fun to listen to, after all.

The Sigur Rós website has videos for download, and quite a few of them, too. Most are just clips from various performances, including one on the Craig Kilborn show. I don't know why, but it just seems a little odd to be playing on that show. Just way too mellow. I guess that's why they cut the song early. The video for "untitled #1" is rather disturbing. Maybe it would make more sense if I understood what they were saying, but it seems that kids are playing in some sort of post-apocalyptic nuclear ash.

I've been ignoring most of the hoopla surrounding Mel Gibson's latest movie, The Passion. I have absolutely zero interesting in going to see it, mostly because the topic is rather uninteresting. I have no problem with accurately showing history, if that's what it is really trying to do. But after reading comments for Mel's Dad, I doubt that Mel is unbiased. Some of the choice excerpts from the article:

"It's all -- maybe not all fiction -- but most of it is,'' when asked about his views on the Holocaust.

In this latest interview, Gibson said Jews want to take over the world. He did not know why Jews would want to achieve that, but said "it's all about control. They're after one world religion and one world government."

Now that's just scary stuff.

Ok, maybe I've been a little too hard on the South Beach Diet. IANARD, so that's not surprising. According to this Nutrition Action Health Letter article, it is actually a decent diet. In fact, it is one of the only diets they analyzed that is healthy and based on sound science. The only other is Weight Watchers. So maybe SBD isn't so bad once you get over that first induction phase. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that skipping the induction phase completely won't really harm your diet. Sure you won't lose that initial 10-20 pounds, but in reality that is almost all water loss, anyways. I figure they threw that phase in there just to give people some immediate "oh wow!" results to keep them going onto the rest of the (IMHO, more healthy) diet. Anyhow, the article is a good read covering the 10 most popular diet books (according to Amazon), including, of course, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution.

Well, John Kerry keeps racking up the primary victories, and this really depresses me. Nothing about Kerry impresses nor ignites me. My first choice is Howard Dean. He hasn't waffled nearly as much on so many key points. I mean, how can Kerry be against the war and now, when he was so much for it earlier? He claims he was lied to by the President, but it really wasn't that hard to see through the Prez' BS. In any case, I think Kerry is the one the Republicans wanted all along. We kept hearing how they wanted Howard Dean, because he was easily beat. But man, Kerry is such a bore, and so uninspiring, I think they secretely wanted Kerry all this time. Personally, I think Dean could beat Bush, but I really don't think Kerry can. If John wins this thing, I'm afraid we're gonna be stuck with Dubya for another 4 years. Dean, you better win in Wisconsin!!

I know it sounds like that stupid Cheerios commercial, but it's true. I just got my results back from the doc, and they were even better than expected:

The American Heart Association has a nice page describing cholesterol numbers.

To achieve this goal, I went on a diet low in saturated and trans fat and started running and weight lifting. As an extremely nice side benefit, I lost about 45 pounds, going from 209 last January to 164, currently. So needless to say, the past year has been rather amazing. I'm really at a loss for words on how well diet and exercise really do work. And I'm not talking about low-carb diets like Atkins or South Beach. Hell, in a typical breakfast, I'll have about 100 grams of carbohydrates. Atkins wants to keep you below 20g for a whole day during induction. I know more studies really need to be done, but I call bullshit on low-carb diets. And even if they do work, they just don't sound that healthy to me. The only points I agree with Atkins and South Beach on are stay away from trans fat and refined flour and sugar, eating only whole grains. Time will tell, I guess. And contrary to popular belief, I'm not hungry all the time eating lots of carbs. Sure, it did take some getting used to. Because typical portion sizes are so huge and the whole "clean your plate" mentality, you really have to re-train yourself to know when to stop eating.

While I didn't use any magical diet, exercise machine, or drug, I'll let you in on the tools I did use. First, I opened an account on eDiets.com. This was a great starting point since I didn't even know how to begin a diet low in saturated fat. You just pick the type of diet you're interested in, in my case, cholesterol lowering, and they provide you with a weekly meal plan, complete with a shopping list. My daily caloric intake was about 1,800. One annoying part of the meal plans was that invariably it chose many meals I just wouldn't eat. So every week, I had to go in and tweak the meals, which was rather time consuming. And there's no way to say "never assign me this recipe again." You can pick a mix of recipes or frozen dinners. I didn't really follow the plan when we went out for lunch at work, but after a while, I could pick out good foods and restaurants. The big things to avoid are cheese and butter, large portions, and anything fried. Often, I would eat only 1/2 or 1/3 of the meal served. I'm still using eDiets, but I'm trying to wean myself off that monthly payment. The American Heart Association publishes many good cookbooks with tasy recipies. I have the Quick & Easy book. My only complaint is that the recipies are very large for a single person. But I just make them on Sunday, and then I have dinner for a few nights the rest of the week.

For weight lifting, I bought a Bowflex Power Pro XT. Don't order online! Call 'em up and tell them you saw a commercial for a free leg attachment. You'll save $200. Sure, Bowflex has cheesy commercials, but it was actually recommended from a friend of mine who is a personal trainer. And while, I may not get the best workout, it does the job and it's very convenient. Keep in mind that $1,000 is 20 months of a $50/month health club. So joining a club may be better for someone else.

For cardio, I started running last September. I hated running while growing up, but I decided that running is a great cardio workout, and you don't need a lot of fancy equipment. You can just go right outside your front door. The only downside is that it gets a wee bit cold here in Chicago during December, January, and Februrary. Luckily, my condo building has a fitness room with a treadmill. My only advice for running is to get some good running shoes, socks, and shirts. And increase mileage slowly.

A couple other books I found useful were Cholesterol for Dummies and Restaurant Confidential, both of which I picked up at my local library. I'll probably buy the latter since it has some good reference material.

So, yes, it has been a lot of hard work. But then again, it took many years of irresponsibility to get my body in the shape it was. It's no surprise that it took a year of dedication to reverse that. And I'm not one for relying on pill popping, if at all possible. After hearing these results, I'm not sorry at all about the lifestyle changes I made. In fact, it only encourages me to keep them up. The AHA and FDA are correct in their advice, IMO.