... And the Seahawks Win the Super Bowl!!!

On Wednesday, Seattle celebrated the Seahawk Super Bowl win with a parade. The parade was attended by over 700,000 people. Larger than the population of Seattle. I was at work. It was important for me to be at work because we were having a big day at the office (not a life changing big day), but a day where everyone showed up because we wanted this thing to go well. I would have loved to be downtown for the parade. I look back now, and question which choice was the right one. No one would have died if I had gone to the parade, but the result might be that my co-workers look at me differently. As it is, I received some really really nice praise for my work on Wednesday.

Life is made up of tough choices for sure. A battle between what we selfishly want for ourselves; and what we owe to those who have helped us along the way. It's not always a clear decision. I've been selfish, and I've been selfless. Letting someone close down for selfish pursuits never feels good; but sometimes selfish pursuits are important. It's never easy. Sometimes it's just about finding a way to be okay with the choices we make, and not beat ourselves up too much, one way or the other. Go Hawks!!!

The Seattle Neighborhood Blog

Almost every Seattle neighborhood has a blog. These blogs are fantastic for communicating neighborhood changes. They can be used to find new businesses that are moving in, or old businesses that might be moving out. They are great for informing neighborhoods about community events such as 5k runs, festivals, and parades. The Seattle neighborhood blogs are an incredibly phenomenal way to stay in touch with what's happening in your community. Here is a great link to a compiled list of neighborhood blogs in Seattle.

Seattle Neighborhood Blogs

And here is an insanely long list of compiled Seattle blogs, as listed on the Seattle city website.

Seattle Communities Online

Please take the time to explore these websites, and find something fun, and new about your neighborhood.

Weight Loss as a Goal

This past weekend I was walking around Greenlake, listening to the podcast, "Everyday Paleo Lifestyle and Fitness," hosted by Sarah Fragoso and Jason Seib. On the podcast, Jason Seib read about a study out of the University of Pennsylvania, from Jonathan Bailor's book "The Calorie Myth". The study, meant to simulate yoyo dieting, was performed on rats. The rats were made to lose weight, and then gain the weight back, lose weight, gain the weight back, lose weight, and gain the weight back. The mice that were made to lose weight, after having gained the weight back the first time, lost the weight 100% slower, and then gained the weight back again 300% faster. Also within that study they found that rats that yoyo'd a second time stored calories as body fat 400% more efficiently than rats that ate a fattening diet.

All of that is to say that weigh loss through calorie reduction is not an effective means for permanent weight loss, and is actually damaging the body's metabolism every time weight is lost and then gained back. Transforming one's own body is so much about the food than it is about the quantity being eaten. A notable exception might be if one is morbidly obese, and their calorie intake is 8000 calories per day, then they should be cutting back calories (if they are not an olympic level athlete). By no means though should that person be cutting back to a 1200 calorie diet.

I personally believe that 80% of weight loss comes from diet (that's not calorie reduction, but changing how one eats), and 20% comes from physical activities like walking, and weightlifting.

In my opinion, the four best things anyone can do to achieve sustained and healthful weight loss are:

1. Eating healthily (i.e. eating real food, and drinking water).
2. Walking (slowly, and low-impact).
3. Getting 8 hours of restful sleep (preferably in a pitch black room, with as little ambient light as possible).
4. Developing strong stress management skills (breathing exercises, physical activity, reading... whatever is relaxing and stress relieving).

The NFL Offends My Walking Sensabilities

I had read about this issue several weeks ago, and now it's popping up again, and because Seattle is in the Superbowl, I suppose it's relevant to the guy who blogs about walking. The gist of it is that the NFL won't allow attendees to walk to New Jersery's Superbowl stadium. You must be shuttled in, and that shuttle will cost you $51.

You Can’t Walk to the Super Bowl Because You Are the NFL’s Personal ATM

This hits a nerve on two levels. As is, I've been going through an intense evaluation of how I'm spending my money, and what I can do to put a little more into my savings account. I'm actually going to write a longer piece on that topic this Monday, but needless to say after food, rent, and bills there's not a lot leftover for me to squirrel away. The idea that someone like any of us, who is operating on a budget can't choose to walk to the Superbowl is ridiculous. To me it feels more like a money grab, than an issue of infrastructure & logistics, and that actually really bothers me.

On the second level of how this strikes the wrong nerve, I can't help but wonder how when we all live in America, one can't make a personal choice to walk from a hotel to the Superbowl if one wants to. Is this really an issue of infrastructure and logistics? Really? Don't get me started on the fact America's obesity epidemic is still a growing problem, and that walking should be encouraged at every opportunity, but when did America also become so dysfunctional that it can't handle foot traffic to a stadium? Something is terribly wrong, and I'm little disheartened by all of this.

Read the article linked above, and feel my outrage.