Disinformation

I now know the moment when I realized that Disinformation was a huge problem, specifically for conservatives from the older generation (Baby Boomers).  The year was 2017 and my father was incensed that Pete Carroll would allow a flag burning in the Seattle Seahawks locker room.  He believed this happened with every fiber of his being.  He read a throw away article with a not all that impressive photoshopped picture of Michael Bennett holding a burning United States flag.  Not until I told my father to look up whether this event was real did he finally understand that he had been duped.  That makes it sound more eventful that it actually was.  He didn't thank me.  No remorse for being wrong.  Really there was no recognition that what he previously believed was incorrect.  He only temporarily turned off his flamethrower of anger and hatred.  Then it was on to the next thing he was told to be angry about.  I'll let you guess where he received all of his information, and you would be right.  

It was at that moment that I understood that my dad was a mark.  This man had volunteered to consume a steady supply of "news" that he liked, which apparently did not matter if it was accurate or not.  This stream of information was designed to anger this mark and feed his insatiable hunger to fuel his vitriol.  And it worked. Every. Time.  

Dad passed away about a year later.  He never righted his own ship.  When he was too sick/weak to replenish his supply of disinformation, he had nothing to be angry about because there was no one telling him what to be angry about.  He calmed down because his supply of anger fuel was turned off, not because of some self-improvement epiphany.  

He was always stubborn, so him not changing his own behavior was not a surprise to me.  What surprised me was his willingness to shelf his curiosity and critical thinking skills.  Characteristics he used to have in abundance and taught me how to use simply disappeared.  

I lost my dad to manipulative, inaccurate, hate-inciting, propaganda many years before he passed away.  He had succumbed to this misinformation many years before he succumbed to cancer.  

Healthiest I've Been In A While

Noticed that I am the healthiest I have been in quite some time.  Recently saw my weight get down to the lowest part of my self-defined "range" of acceptable weights and stay there.  So its not like I magically dropped 25 pounds and it surprised me.  Its more like a subtle trend towards being less heavy.  I have always eaten fairly healthy and stayed physically active.  That hasn't changed, but there is something I'm doing right, so it is time for some self-analysis.

Exercise:

My weight training has probably increased and has been more focused.  One change revolves around my long-term goal of performing strict pullups, despite never being all that close to doing one.  Guessing that I have spent the last year building up the specific muscles to get me to that goal.  For starters, there have more a LOT more inverted rows.  That leads me to recent workouts where I feel like I'm getting closer to a strict pullup by using weigh offsets on a pullup machine.  Doubt that is it, but the intensity is extremely high, using major muscle groups, so it is not "nothing".

Strangely, I have gotten away from major lower body workouts, like back squats.  They just do not appeal to me anymore.  Instead, I have been embracing ATG/Knees over Toes workouts.  I start every gym workout with 3 minutes of backwards walking.  I end every gym workout with raised elevation Patrick steps (10/leg).  While this has been a positive change, I doubt it has done that much to my overall health other than help me avoid injury.

For the last 10 years or so, I have embraced running.  There were times when I worked up to 8 mile runs, but that usually brought on knee pain when I increased my distance or speed.  Thus, the reason I have been using the ATG workouts.  My gym workouts typically involve a 1-2 mile run, which have been consistent.  My overall weekly milage is low (~3-4 miles), so while I have been running, it has not been that much.  

The only other intense gym workouts have been Bench Press, Inclined Bench Press, Curls, "Cable Pushaways" and "Tricep Pulldowns with a flat grip".  Those are to get my arms looking bigger, which have worked a little bit.  Maybe the increased intensity has helped on these exercises?

Diet:

We all knew it had to be the diet, right?  Let's see if there have been some positive changes.

More meal-kit, pre-prepped meals that have been the default lunch since I have been working from home.  This helps with portion control and limiting overprocessed items from getting to the plate.  Big positive here.

After a recent well visit trip to the doctor, my blood tests showed my bad cholesterol was a little high.  My response was to reduce my cheese intake.  This was easy since I was incorporating cheese in so many ways.  Primarily, my breakfasts include omelets.  Lots of omelets.  That means lots of cheese.  Just before I realized I needed less cheese at breakfast, I had found a new way to make my omelets which was based on the Korean/Japanese method for Omarice.  I decided that instead of rice, I would use cauliflower rice and mix in other vegetables (mushrooms, peppers, broccoli) as a hash base.  Then the egg was basically a French style omelet laid over the hash.  The more I use this style, the less cheese I consume.  I also eliminated cheese as a snack.  This could be more impactful that I realize.

Summary:

No changes that I would consider major.  Weight training has been more intense.  My diet has improved with the drastic cheese intake reduction.  The results are essentially that my weight is less, but I feel better overall.