I love the site Low Tech Magazine, which I consider one of the best on the net. Reading its piece Too Much Combustion, Too Little Fire, the section “Energy Use Compared: Ancient vs. Modern Households” made me think of my food power consumption. It was December and I don’t heat my apartment so it’s cool. Yet my refrigerator was on. As I started to wonder if I could get by[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday’s post answered the best time to exercise in the morning. What if you exercise in the evening too or instead? The beginning of that post—why exercise, listing the benefits, and so on—apply here. No need to repeat everything up to “First things first.” Alternative 1: Just before bed The latest option is to exercise last before going to bed. Many ask if getting your heart rate up might keep[…] Keep reading →

Say you exercise in the morning. When is the best time for it? First, what’s the point of morning exercises? Fitness? Yes, you can’t leave fitness out, and if you don’t impose on yourself a healthy daily challenging activity, you might expect the point of the specific activity to be the main goal. It’s not—not in the long term. The goals of daily morning exercise include in the long term[…] Keep reading →

As this phrase—if we don’t lower our birth rate nature will raise our death rate—came out of my mouth in conversation yesterday, I could tell it captured a lot in a few words. I expect I’ll start saying it more and promoting it. It gets to the heart of what we need to do. All research I know of says that we are over the planet’s carrying capacity, which means[…] Keep reading →

A friend came over for his first sampling of my famous no-packaging vegetable stew and the show that goes with it. Talking about vegetables, cooking from scratch, and maybe the daily exercise, he asked, “Do you ever feel like giving in?”, which I took to imply meaning getting take-out, eating out, or getting comfort food. The question felt weird. If I think back far enough, I can remember craving the[…] Keep reading →

I see people rewarding themselves and others with candy or other similar sources of pleasure. The idea used to make sense. For most of my like I saw baked goods and sweets as rewards. Now I see candy as punishment. Vegetables are reward. More material stuff is punishment, less is reward. Flying is punishment. Discovering the nature around you is reward. I can think of many other examples where my[…] Keep reading →

Following my post Thoughts on reading my love letters to my high school girlfriend after 30 years, I’ve gotten closer to getting rid of them. I haven’t, but I’ve gotten nearly as close as I’m willing, though I’m keeping a plan B. Since my post Less, Please, on getting rid of hundreds of books near the beginning of this blog, about ten years ago — or “putting them back into[…] Keep reading →