I shot some timelapse footage of me making homemade kimchi. It was super easy and fun! I'm using the Krautsource fermenting kit, which makes it really simple to do. Now the hard part is waiting… I prepared this based on the recipe for traditional kimchi from Krautsource.com. I had to modify the amounts since I was…
Category: Health
Cold Showers and Tackling the Hard Stuff: Crushing the 30-day Cold Shower Challenge
Today I completed a challenge that I told myself was impossible : the 30-Day Cold Shower Challenge. But the question everyone asks me is… Why? Why? Why would I do something so obviously uncomfortable to myself every morning? Well there’s actually a good bit of research into the health benefits of cold showers. These include : increased…
Exercise and Mental Toughness
I was running this morning and thinking about what the point of exercise is. I realized that beyond the obvious health benefits, that there's a lot of mental / emotional power-ups that exercise gives to you. I've long known that certain kinds of exercise effects my general sense of well-being, confidence, and happiness. Dancing, running,…
Health Update + Five Tips for Meeting Your Health and Fitness Goals
So for the past year or so, I have been doing a number of health and diet interventions to live more healthily and energetically. I've tried to avoid crash diets and short-term interventions, and instead focus on small, incremental changes that might have longer-term benefits down the line, as well as more immediate improvements today. I'm…
Update on High-Protein, Low-Carb, No-Dairy Breakfast Plan: No Effect!
About two months ago, I started a new diet plan. Very simply I substituted my normal breakfast for a high-protein, low-carb, no-dairy meal. In other words, I'm eating A LOT of eggs. The idea was to get a healthy start to the day and see how that effects the rest of my health. On the…
My New Hybrid Bike: The Trek 7.2 FX!
I'm the happy owner of a new Trek 7.2 FX hybrid bike! I still love my Brompton foldie, but I've been itching for something with a little more oomph that I can take on longer bike rides across the bridge to Sausalito or for other short country rides. Part of the challenge was finding a…
New Diet Plan: High-Protein, Low-Carb, No-Dairy Breakfasts
Everyone knows that a healthy breakfast is an important part of any diet. I’ve been reading up on the benefits of a high-protein, low-carb breakfast. Tim Ferriss is a strong advocate for this in his book 4-hour Body. Several research studies (#1 and #2) suggests that high-protein versus high-carb breakfasts lead to greater feelings of…
Two Week Review of the FitBit Surge: An Impressive, Affordable Fitness Tracking Smartwatch
I've had the new Fitbit Surge smartwatch for two weeks now and I have to say I'm pretty happy with it so far! Is it going to win any design awards? Probably not. But does it get the job done as an exercise tracker / smart watch? Absolutely. For those that don't know, the Surge…
How Important Is Target Heart Rate to Your Health?
136 to 150 beats per minute: according to Kaiser Permanente's target heart rate calculator, this is the sweet spot that I'm supposed to go for when I'm exercising. My latest run I averaged 131 bpm, according to my new FitBit Surge. So that's encouraging how close I am. But how important is being in your "target…
My New Fitbit Surge
Let's do this! Here's my new FitBit Surge smart watch. Pretty darn geeky, I gotta say. More soon, once I've had time to play with it.