Spent some time answering a question on Quora to start my day creating instead of consuming (recommended by Seth Godin), check it out here.
Quora 1
27 03 2012Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: diet, exercise, fitness, health, quora
Categories : Health
Self Experimentation: Sleeping on the ground
22 03 2012
"You should be sleeping on a wooden board for at least a week!"
I’ve decided to experiment with sleeping on the ground. The idea first came to me, oddly enough, from watching Seinfeld. Kramer realigns Elaine’s spine, she gets hurt again from sleeping on her mattress and Kramer says something like, “you should be sleeping on a wooden board for at least a week! It’s common sense!” After thinking about it a bit, I wondered, why do we need beds anyway? I don’t imagine humans evolved sleeping on beds, I mean imagine following a heard of antelope and lugging around a 50 pound mattress. At best we slept on grass or some kind of mat, at worst the ground. That was my main jumping off point for trying this experiment. After already deciding to try this experiment I did a little reading, such as this article, but for the most part I’m trying it out to sate my own curiosity.
You’re probably thinking, “you’re crazy Russell! Everyone sleeps on a mattress, why even try?” Here are a few of my reasons:
- My bed is extravagant, and I’m striving to be as minimalist as possible.
- Sleeping on the ground takes up a lot less room, and all of my sleeping gear can be folded up and stored if more space is necessary. My room feels much more open without my queen sized bed taking up the bulk of it.
- If I am able to sleep on the ground, I can sleep anywhere in the world and not have to worry about it. I won’t be reliant on my bed for a good night’s rest.
- There may be possible benefits, some outlined in this article. Any benefits, aside from those listed above, would ancillary and are not the main reason for my experiment.
Below is a photo of the setup I’m going to be trying. I have a camping mat, a bed cover, a sheet, a fleece blanket, and a comforter (these two blankets are good enough for southern California). Note: I started on 3-19-12.
Since this is an experiment I should have some kind of hypothesis. Hypothesis: sleeping in this situation will result no negative change, ie back problems, problems sleeping, etc. I will note any differences in my life in future blog posts or on my ongoing experiment page.
Ciao – Russell
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: experiment, ground, seinfeld, self experimentation, sleep
Categories : Body, Health, Lifehacking, Self Experimentation
Experiment: One bowl of vegetables diet
15 03 2012One of my buddies wants to lose weight after putting some on post college. I convinced him to experiment with the simplest diet possible: add one bowl of vegetables to what you eat per day. Eat whatever you want, but just add one bowl of vegetables per day. All you need to do is go to Walmart, buy a giant bag of frozen mixed vegetables, then microwave and eat a bowl every day.
Hypothesis: Not much effect on body weight, but easier poops with less toilet paper used.
What this experiment will help me demonstrate (if my hypothesis is true), is that there is no such thing as “healthy” food. My idea is that eating more “healthy” food will not help you lose weight. The idea that I think most people have is that hey can eat “healthy food” to make up for the bad food they eat. Instead, I believe that only by eliminating crappy food can you lose weight. That’s my current idea anyway, we’ll see if my friend has any luck with the 1 bowl of vegetables diet. If it does work, then I just found an awesome diet to hype up.
An analogy for my idea: Eating healthy food to try to counteract the negative results of eating junk food is like putting jet fuel in your car to try to counteract the negative effects of putting really old fuel in your car (old gasoline turns into varnish). Simply put, that’s not going to work, you need to remove the negative element.
On a side note, my dad is on a diet right now, but still drinks plenty of diet soda (just as bad as regular soda IMO) and alcohol, so I predict no results for him.
Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: diet, vegetables
Categories : Experiment, Health