Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
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I’m morbidly curious: just how slow is your heart? Like “I’m an Olympic athlete” slow, or “I’m an undead vampire” slow? I’ve had resting heart rates in the 80s and 90s when I’ve been in a health slump. If I’m lucky, like right now thanks to my walk, my resting heart rate drops to the 70s.
Anyway, the need for more testing sucks, but I’ll charitably assume it’s for your safety and not just bureaucracy spinning its wheels.
Good luck with the new Merrells and with Angeles City.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/November/2023 @ 3:52 pm
Good luck with your medical shit.
What’s Swan going to do at the Hash if she’s not planning to Hash? She just there for moral support? Hm.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 03/November/2023 @ 6:11 pm
The clouds in all of today’s photos are very impressive. Philippine weather is something.
Sorry to hear you’re having to exercise so much caution. I hope things improve over the coming weeks, especially regarding polyps and sciatica.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/November/2023 @ 6:17 pm
Well $6500 is undoubtedly better than the tens of thousands you’d be charged in the States by our leftism-enhanced medical system. And the lack of polyps will pay for itself pretty quickly, I think. After you heal from surgery, your quality of life will be radically better. Fingers and tentacles crossed.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/November/2023 @ 10:02 am
I was planning to write about camera techniques for conveying a sense of incline, but you seem to be using them. Basically, put the top of the slope at the top of the picture when you’re going up (i.e., tilt your camera down), and do the opposite to accentuate downhills. It’s not the greatest method, but it helps a bit.
Good walk. Also, good luck with appointments and, eventually, surgery.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 31/October/2023 @ 10:40 pm
Whoops:
hell of *a* thing
D’oh.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/October/2023 @ 4:20 pm
re: breffus
That looked to be a mighty fine breakfast.
re: being too drunk to remember
Careful. Drinking too much is never a good thing, and the older you get, the more likely people are to try to take advantage of you. To paraphrase Dean Wormer from “Animal House”: old, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life.
By, the way, that $50,000 inheritance we discussed… I’m sure you remember it…
re: Hash and La Union
I’m glad it was a good Hash, and it’s good to contemplate other life-possibilities. Is there a local version of Dr. Jo, though?
re: Tom Hardy quote
While I’m not a misanthrope (yet), I can do without most people. I’m not needy for company, but some folks are attracted to others like moths to a flame. Good for them, I guess; there are benefits to togetherness that we loners will never know. But I prefer not being too dependent on others. It limits freedom.
re: feeling shitty
Hell of thing to happen right when you get back home. Get well soon!
re: weight
Congrats, but just so we’re clear, that’s mostly water weight. Any diet takes off 10 pounds in the first week. Keep the 10 pounds off and keep losing, and that weight will be the fat.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 30/October/2023 @ 2:36 pm
Really nice pics of the sunset. Seems to have been a good walk. Would you say it was a worthwhile trip overall?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/October/2023 @ 4:14 pm
re: fresh fish
Won’t be fresh for long in that weather. Buy it before it rots!
re: rearing horse
I see a donkey gesturing during a speech. Symbolism?
The room looks nice despite the dangerous bathroom. Good luck with the Hash. Here’s hoping the leg holds up.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 29/October/2023 @ 1:40 am
Sorry about the frustrations, but I have to admire the thoroughness. Korean doctors rarely talk to you for more than 5 minutes, maybe 10 on rare occasions. Good to know there’s some information about the sciatica. I wonder what therapy will involve—back stretches to separate the vertebrae?
That French toast did look really good. But if you’re gonna go for something that carby, you may as well go all in and get the syrup. Otherwise, it’s like ordering a McDonald’s Big Mac value meal with a Diet Coke. What’s the point? You’re already going over the cliff. Get the regular Coke.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 27/October/2023 @ 1:17 pm
Good walk! I’ll be curious to read about your medical news.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 26/October/2023 @ 3:42 pm
Good luck with your appointments. My MRI after my stroke was long and loud—about thirty minutes in the tube. They gave me a radioactive dye before I went into the machine; I could feel it coursing through my blood vessels.
I’m sure your polyp-removal operation will go well. It sounds as if everyone is taking extra precautions. Just don’t be a bleeder.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 25/October/2023 @ 8:28 pm
Dr. Sten Ekberg on insulin and intermittent fasting.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/October/2023 @ 11:35 pm
Happy 30th anniversary to the SBHHH. Many happy returns.
The whole “non-binary” thing is BS: it just creates a new binary:
binary vs. non-binary
There’s no escaping binaries.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/October/2023 @ 11:13 pm
Diets like keto, Atkins, and anything low-carb are predicated on the insulin problem. This way of thinking is called CIM, the carbohydrate-insulin model. Its explanatory power picks up where the CICO model (calories in, calories out) leaves off, specifically when it comes to explaining why following CICO always leads to frustrating plateaus in weight loss.
I’ve written a lot about CIM and CICO on my blog, so you can search for those terms there. I’ll also see about giving you some video links to some experts so you know I’m not just blowing smoke.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 24/October/2023 @ 11:37 am
I was wondering where the photos of Beers #1 and #2 went, but I guess you’re keeping those for yourself.
If you’re eating, say, 1600 calories a day, then drinking another 720 on top of that, you’re probably overbudget. But yes, if your activity calories are sufficient, you might have incurred a caloric deficit. Again, though, weight loss is as much about minimizing insulin spikes as it is about reducing caloric intake, and twelve beers means twelve spikes in the evening, right before bed. Not good.
Brian has the right idea, though, in suggesting an incremental change in your weekly beer-drinking schedule. There are plenty of dieters who reckon their calories in terms of weeks instead of days. This can be more bearable, psychologically, for some people. Maybe try setting a weekly calorie budget for yourself, with food and nonalcoholic drinks as one category, and alcohol as another. Or hell, just lump it all together to make life simpler.
Whatever works.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/October/2023 @ 7:49 pm
A clarification about “avoid creamy dressings”: the creaminess isn’t the problem. But a lot of these dressings contain a ton of added sugar, especially if they come from a bottle and aren’t house-made. You can ruin a healthy salad by applying the wrong dressing.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/October/2023 @ 10:12 am
With caloric burn, there’re activity calories and total calories. We burn calories even when sitting around doing nothing. For most adult men, that total is usually somewhere around 2000 calories, which is our BMR, or basal metabolic rate. If you’re seeing 3000 calories on your tracker, then that’s 1000 activity calories.
So the question is how many calories you’re taking in. If it’s more than your BMR + activity calories, then you’re going to gain weight. Strive for a daily caloric deficit, and you’ll see some weight loss over time. Be sure to count the calories from your alcohol consumption.
The basic math says that 3500 calories equals a pound of fat. If you have a 500-calorie deficit 7 days in a row, that’s 3500 calories, so you’ve lost a pound for that week. (This logic can be taken to ridiculous extremes, though. Are you really going to lose 100 pounds of fat after 100 weeks? Not likely. And that’s something all dieters experience: weight-loss plateaus.)
Other factors, like hormones, affect weight loss, so the above formula is at best a rough guide. Insulin is the big one to watch for: while insulin lowers blood sugar, it also encourages the body to store fat. You get a spike of insulin every time you eat or drink, especially when it’s carby stuff. The more insulin spikes throughout the day, the more likely you are to gain weight. This is why drinking is so bad: you’re repeatedly spiking your insulin, bar after bar, beer after beer, and you’re doing it in the evening before sleep, which is double-plus ungood. This is why intermittent fasting and straight-up fasting are so beneficial: you’re minimizing your number of daily insulin spikes. And this is why those sources you read suggested cutting so far down on the alcohol. If you simply can’t do that, then it’s hopeless.
I suspect you’re not eating 2000 calories a day, but if you’re close, and then you add drinking on top, well, that’s going to put you over your BMR, and you’ll gain weight.
Some foods spike insulin higher than others. Those are the carby foods. Minimize the height of your insulin spikes by eating non-carby food. In this way of thinking, oil, cream, and butter are not your enemy. Fettuccine Alfredo is bad for you not because of the cheese sauce but because of the pasta. So seek out keto alternatives to what you usually like to eat, but eat in moderation: fat doesn’t spike your insulin much, but it does have a ton of calories.
One solution to the psychological problem of feeling unsatisfied after a meal is to eat lots of food that is not calorie-dense, like salads. A huge salad with some protein on top (chicken, salmon) could be the way to go. At restaurants, avoid creamy dressings and stick to oil and vinegar (I prefer balsamic vinaigrette).
Your goal is to lose around 60 pounds, right? If you want to try something radical, try the Newcastle diet, which I did in 2021 after my stroke. It’s hell as diets go, but you’ll lose 60 pounds in 3 months, guaranteed. Have a one-serving diet shake for breakfast and dinner, and restrict lunch to salad and chicken breast or fish. Keep your total caloric intake below 800 calories per day, and you’ll lose weight for sure. It’s not a sustainable diet, of course, and it’s not meant to be. You’ll find yourself thinking about food all the time. But if you can endure ten weeks of that—with no beer—you’ll reach your weight-loss goal before next spring. Heh.
Good luck!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 23/October/2023 @ 10:05 am
Good luck with the weight-loss program. I’ve found that burning over 4000 calories a day for a little over a week can reduce your waist size by two inches. The danger is in gaining it all back.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/October/2023 @ 9:42 pm
Good for you re: making it through the hike. There are therapeutic stretching videos on YouTube that can help with sciatica-related problems.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/October/2023 @ 6:53 pm
re: metformin
Not a fan. Please go to my blog’s search window and search for what I’ve written on the drug. Otherwise, it’s good to see things moving forward, medically speaking.
It was a good reminder that despite what I pretend to believe, I mean nothing to them beyond a drink commission. I left after one beer.
It’s always about the money, nothing deeper. Intellectually, you know this. Emotionally, well, you’re kinda stunted. But you’ve got a squeeze now, sort of, so why feel empty at all?
See, this is why I think you need to swear off the bar girls. On some level, a very stupid level, they do mean something to you, and that’s not appropriate when you’re trying to cultivate a committed relationship.
This ties in to the latter part of your post, which is at least partially about aging gracefully and with dignity. You can’t go around being an emotional puppy dog forever, never growing up, never learning from mistakes. I hope you make the Swan thing work, and I sincerely hope you turn away from all forms of paid companionship. It’s all fake, and you’re not “helping” anyone by helping to perpetuate such an industry.
Good luck swimming over to the deep end of the pool.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/October/2023 @ 7:05 pm
Congrats, I guess, on a decent-enough game. May your aiming fluid help your darts to fly true. This darts thing happens in cycles, doesn’t it.
Good luck figuring out the new rhythm. Asleep by eight? Pussy.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/October/2023 @ 9:22 pm
We took the Lubao route, about a 60K journey
I’m curious as to why there’s a loop in the route.
Your other commenter should calm down. There are dozens of videos online about how to deal with dogs that have dominance issues. Simply putting the dog down is no solution. Only someone who doesn’t know dogs would say that.
Here’s a super-short video on fixing dominance.
Here’s a longer video.
Both of these videos make the same basic point, and neither suggests killing the dog.
Here’s one more video for good measure, but the trainer in the video doesn’t necessarily recommend the method he uses for all dogs.
Your other commenter is right, however, about the alpha/beta thing. That has to be stopped immediately. Lucky does indeed need to know who’s boss.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/October/2023 @ 6:53 pm
Looks like a good hat, Brian. Thanks. I’ll see if I can find a Korean (more likely Chinese since everything here is made in China) equivalent.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/October/2023 @ 6:08 am
Europeans who visit the US and try Twinkies think they’re horrible, chemical monstrosities. I, being American, love them. Here in Korea, there’s a treat that is so similar to a Twinkie that I wonder if it’s a shameless ripoff. Completely different shape, but exactly the same in every other respect—smell, texture, taste, etc.
Glad to hear there was no knee problem, but I do hope you go see your docs all the same.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/October/2023 @ 7:20 pm
I wrote on this topic long, long ago.
TL;DR: I’m not much of an afterlife guy. After death, we echo into the future through the effects of our actions and in the minds of others. Nothing deeper than that.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/October/2023 @ 10:11 am
I appreciate the shout-out.
Age and death come for us all eventually. Unless we’re lucky or unlucky enough to die early. Then it’s just Santa Muerte coming for us.
That trip out to the resort seemed fun. Any plans to go back?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/October/2023 @ 4:06 pm
Does that qualify as “glamping”? It looks pretty rugged to me.
Not glamping, but also not very fun-looking, what with a bunch of tents all clustered together in what looks like a lame attempt to re-create civilization. What’s the point in camping while surrounded by people?
and my imagination once again briefly ran wild
You strike me as—how do I put this politely—a bit over-concerned for your safety!
This gent was there to greet me as I entered the Car Wash, but I guess it wasn’t my time.
Interesting how different cultures treat death. In Mexico, there is a quasi-Catholic cult of Santa Muerte (Holy Lady Death). Fun stuff.
I went with the daily special rib platter.
Looks mighty good.
Goodbye[,] Monty’s…
Wow, how often does one see green, manicured lawns like that in the PI?
I guessed that “Come Sail Away” would be the music video, but I wondered whether you’d be enterprising and put up the horrible Cartman version.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/October/2023 @ 1:22 am
HIs name must be “Shorty”
Well, you know what they say about that Irish curse. “Jaysus,” indeed.
Looks to be a nice vacation spot.
I’d never walk 35K in your local heat and humidity. I’d die after a single km.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/October/2023 @ 9:18 pm
«« Back To Stats PageJust marveling at that lovely sky. And the lovely food.
Did I tell you the joke about the Irish schoolteacher and her bad student? This was told to me by an Irish priest back when I was in grad school.
An Irish schoolmarm is instructing her kids. She says, “I want you to make a sentence that uses the word ‘lovely’ twice in it. Sally! Why don’t you give it a try?”
Sally, a good and proper student, stands up and says, “It was a lovely day, so I went out to see the lovely flowers.” She sits back down.
“Excellent, Sally!” beams the teacher. Her eyes narrow as she looks at Jimmy, her worst student, sitting way in the back. “Jimmy, can you give me a sentence using ‘lovely’ twice?”
Jimmy thinks for a bit, then hesitantly stands up. He says:
“One day, me sis come home. She says to me da, ‘Da! I’m pregnant!’ And me da, he says, ‘Lovely, fuckin’ lovely.'”
Have a fuckin’ lovely day.
And with that, I’m off on my big walk. Not sure how frequently I’ll comment from the road, but I’ll try. You’re a daily read, after all.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/October/2023 @ 4:43 pm