Made it, just barely

Six months ago, I set a target of getting to 195 pounds (or less) by my 33rd birthday (see prior post). To make things more interesting, I also put $1,000 at risk. With one day to spare, I achieved my goal. In the last 3 months, I've gone from 208 pounds to 194.8 pounds.

About a year and a half ago, my wife decided that she was going to lose 19 pounds and go from 139 pounds to 120 pounds. This morning, she achieved her goal as well.

I have to admit that it's satisfying to have met my goal. But I don't really like how I got here. Even after missing my last goal and setting up this self-bet, I didn't take it seriously for the first three months. Then I got motivated and pulled out the stops in the last three months and just barely made my target. It's the moral equivalent of cramming for an exam the night before and then getting an A. It's satisfying but it's not the work ethic that I want to teach my kids. I much more of a believer in "slow and steady wins the race" and not cutting things so close. At some point, these other tactics are going to catch up with you and not going to produce the results you want long-term.

That's why I'm so much more proud of my wife achieving her goal. She's been at this every day for the last 18 months. She injured her knee at one point and she battled through it. We decided to discontinue our membership at the YMCA so she did her workouts at home - early in the morning before the kids got up. The last 5 pounds were just as challenging as the first 14 but she didn't give up. She just stuck to it and made it happen. That's the example that I want my kids to follow, not mine. I couldn't be more proud of my wife's accomplishment.

As an aside, even though I won my self-bet, I just made a $20 donation to Heifer.org to buy a flock of geese for a family in need somewhere in the world.

PS - If folks have ideas for maintenance goals, please let me know. Thanks.

What’s Your Story?

A friend of mine in NYC just started writing a blog. The whole thing is very well done and I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in personal growth. He had one post today that really touched me. It's about a funeral he just attended and the woman who had passed away. As part of discussing that event, he mentioned the following:

Earlier in the day I had reconnected with an old friend. He told me a story of how he had recently met a fascinating woman in Africa in her late 70’s, and during their conversations he had asked her if she had any advice for him in life, anything she could tell him about what life meant. She raised herself up on her tip toes, stabbed her finger into his chest plate and, knowing she had his attention, said “when you’re about to die, someone will ask you the question, ‘what’s your story?’ And your answer… your answer had better be good!”

Here's a version of my story from last March (see prior post).

Can't be right all the time

My dad sent this to me awhile ago and I really enjoyed it. So I'm posting it to my blog so others can enjoy it as well.

GREAT PREDICTIONS BY WISE MINDS.....!

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee DeForest,"Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television.

"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." -- Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom." -- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923.

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers ." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." -- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.

"But what is it good for?" -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates,1981

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us," --Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody inparticular?" -- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible," -- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper," -- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make," -- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out," -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible," --Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this," -- Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy," -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value," -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, France.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented,"-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

"The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required." -- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University.

"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself."-- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872 .

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon," -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

And last but not least...
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

So much for the "Wise Minds"......

Tenth wedding anniversary

This weekend, my wife and I had the opportunity to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Our anniversary itself isn't for another two weeks but my parents are in town and agreed to take the kids for 48 hours so we could get away and celebrate (THANKS!). We certainly took full advantage of the opportunity and piled a lot of different activities into two days. On Saturday, we checked in at the Clift Hotel and did some shopping before dinner at Asia de Cuba. Then we headed next door for Jersey Boys at the Curran Theatre. The show was awesome and I definitely recommend it to anyone in the Bay Area or NYC.

On Sunday morning, we worked out at the hotel fitness center, got some breakfast, and did a little more shopping. Then we headed over to Mill Valley (north of the Golden Gate Bridge). Had a nice lunch and did a little shopping before having a massage for two at the Tea Garden Springs. It was the Heaven's Door room and you get a jacuzzi for two for 30 minutes before having side-by-side one-hour massages. Then it was off to the Mountain Home Inn - a quaint inn near Muir Woods. That night, we had a quiet dinner at the inn and setup a fire in our fireplace. We also attempted to watch a movie on my laptop (no TVs) but fell asleep in the middle.

The following morning, my wife used the jacuzzi in our room for a bit and then we had a nice breakfast. Then we did a 3.5 mile hike (roundtrip) from the inn to the East Peak of Mount Tamalpais. The view from the top is supposed to be the best in the Bay Area. We could see around for at least a 50 mile radius - including San Francisco, East Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. Definitely recommend it - even if you drive directly to the top. Afterwards, we did a hike from the inn through Muir Woods (roughly another 4 miles roundtrip). So we certainly got a lot of exercise yesterday morning but we also had lots of time to talk. It also reminded us of a lot of the walks we did during our honeymoon through Acadia National Park during our honeymoon.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect anniversary celebration. Thanks again to my parents for making it possible! And thanks to my wife for ten awesome years of marriage - with many more to come.

Did you know? Part 5.

A friend of mine asked me this question: "“how many days of US energy consumption could we replace if we liposuctioned all body-fat over 10% for men and 18% from women in the US?" I'm sure you've all been asking yourself the same question so here's my attempt at an answer. This article says that “By 2002, average weight for men was almost 191 pounds; for women, average weight was 163 pounds”. And this page says that “The average adult body fat is closer to 15%-18% for men and 22%-25% for women”. So let’s assume 16.5% for men and 23.5% for women. That would mean the average man is 31.5 pounds of fat and 159.5 pounds of muscle; 38.3 pounds of fat and 124.7 pounds of muscle for women. So, if men got down to 10% body fat, they’d keep their 159.5 pounds of muscle but only have 17.7 pounds of fat (a reduction of 13.8 pounds of fat). For women, to get to 18% body fat, they’d keep their 124.7 pounds of muscle and have only 27.4 pounds of fat (a 10.9 pound reduction). According to Wikipedia, there are 105.74 million adult men and 112.81 million adult women in the US. So, if each one of those men had 13.8 pounds of fat liposuctioned out and each woman had 10.9 pounds removed, that would be a total of 2,688.84 million pounds of liposuction fat. Per the numbers in my earlier post, the density of liposuction fat is 7.66 pounds per gallon. So 2,688.84 pounds of fat would be 351.02 million gallons. One gallon of fat yields 0.867 gallons of biodiesel. So 351.02 million gallons of fat would become 304.22 million gallons of biodiesel. Biodiesel has about 10% less energy content than regular diesel so 304.22 million gallons of biodiesel would offset the use of 273.8 million gallons of diesel. And, according to EIA, the US uses 64 billion gallons of diesel per year. So 273.8 million gallons would be 0.428% of that or about 1.56 days or about 37.5 hours. Now, note that diesel usage accounts for only 20.4% of overall petroleum usage in the US. And petroleum only accounts for 39.8% of overall energy consumption in the US (source). So, the real answer to your this question is 0.127 days or about 3 hours. Not much of a renewable energy source. The more interesting question from my perspective is "if people in the US consumed less food such that they were at their ideal weight and body fat percentage, how much energy would be saved in terms of farming, packaging, transportation, preparation, etc and how much biofuel could be generated from the equivalent amount of farm land without triggering all these food vs fuel debates?" Don't have time to try to figure that one out but perhaps someone else can take up the challenge. =)

A stairway to heaven?

A friend of mine sent me this article from the Economist. It's about a scientist at UCLA who has an idea about how to transport large amounts of CO2 out of the atmosphere into outer space. Hopefully he'll submit the idea to the Virgin Earth Challenge and win the $25 million to do this for real (assuming the science is actually sound). Regardless, reading stuff like this does give me hope that we'll find solutions for global warming if we have enough really smart people work on the problem.

You there?

A friend of mine sent me an email yesterday afternoon saying "Are you around? You’ve been quiet and I wanted to see how you were doing?" I appreciate the interest and concern. I've been meaning to post more but just can't seem to find the time. Recently, I've been spending a lot of time trying to work out and lose weight. I need to lose another 2 pounds or so in the next two weeks or I'll need to donate $1,000 to Heifer.org (see prior post). My target weight is 195 pounds and, as of Saturday morning, I was around 197 pounds. We're also way ahead of schedule at work science-wise so things are heating up for me on the business side. More soon...