I consider myself to be...
If computers take over (which seems to be their natural tendency), it will serve us right. -- Alistair Cooke
If computers take over (which seems to be their natural tendency), it will serve us right. -- Alistair Cooke
Poll credit (Score:5, Informative)
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Why didn't anyone add a "for my age" clause in there? Goes without saying? (But I already added the couch potato joke.)
Oh well. At least the meta-poll did go somewhere. It was beginning to look like another dark hole. (Too much hyperbolic talk of black holes these years.)
Re:Poll credit (Score:5, Interesting)
Hahaha I gotta say this made my day!
"Just started" running (Score:2)
When /. first appeared, I was probably in just OK shape. Sure I rode the mountain bike to class and stuff, but as a systems admin / IT / programmer person, I was not in great shape.
For some reason I started running about 2 years ago... I run several times a week, 3, 5, 10, 15lk distances. I feel better than I ever have before. Its kind of sad, I wonder why I did not start earlier. There is some kind of primal feeling when running. You should go try it. :)
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I don't like running, I had my ACL reconstructed a couple of years ago and running hard worries me. I do love cycling though so that's my go to for cardio. Whether mountain biking or using the awesome FulGaz app on an indoor trainer I can't get enough of it. I spend my day developing software and wondering where my next ride will be.
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I am with you, running feels like a slog for me that I do not enjoy but cycling is very enjoyable. Maybe it's the speed and the fact that its also functional transportation.
I also like that it's just more gear to nerd out on as just a machine. Upgrading parts, general maintenence, there's a lot of neat tech involved. Only downside is it can get real expensive real fast if you want it to though.
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I find that a lot of the fun is in building a bike that has 85% the capability of some "bike industry" weapon with a 4-5 digit price tag for a small fraction of the price using a department store bike frame and cheapo Chinese parts. Cycling is supposed to be an affordable hobby, but I know a guy who said he got into racing cars because racing bicycles was too expensive, and I'm pretty sure he was only half-joking...I once went out to a mountain bike trail where the average bike was worth more than the van I
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I agree some of the charges for the "brands" are just out of control, like compact car price which is just silliness since outside of the biggest companies like Giant/Trek/Specialized who do everything but drivetrains vertically every company is just "branded frame + 3rd party parts"
It's nice that the Chinese companies have built up a track record now where it's not such a sketch-job buying frames and wheels from them like Ican, HongFu, WinSpace all have very nice products at realistic costs. Once you have
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I (re)started cycling a bit over a month ago, bought a brand new Cannondale Quick 4 which was around 800 bucks. Added a couple hundred bucks of accessories to it, and I congratulate myself every day for picking that bike. It's all I need.
My short term goal is to bike 30 km per session (by mid-Autumn). Not a lot, but I'm middle aged and taking it easy.
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I hate running.
I do martial arts and sometimes, about 2 - 4 times a month, a longer tour with the bicycle with some friends.
Re: "Just started" running (Score:1)
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I like running but it's tough to actually complete a run nowadays. I do walk up to 10 miles a week, a bit over 3 miles on M/W/F and I'm in the mountains at 8,200' with 500' of altitude change during my walks, so I'm certainly getting some exercise :)
I will note that early last year when I started regularly walking, my right hip bothered me enough that I couldn't lift my right leg very high, couldn't remove a sock without contortions, and couldn't even cross my legs at the ankles without pain (right over lef
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I will note that early last year when I started regularly walking, my right hip bothered me enough that I couldn't lift my right leg very high, couldn't remove a sock without contortions, and couldn't even cross my legs at the ankles without pain (right over left). After a few months of regular walking, I've recovered almost 100% of movement again so I do advise at least going for regular walks.
This sounds like a flexibility issue, great that it's doing better! You might want to try easy flexibility to continue your gains: https://www.easyflexibility.co... [easyflexibility.com] (Even though that link says it's about BJJ, it's just general lower body stretching).
And of course keep walking.
I have been in the same shape for years (Score:3)
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Activity, both physical and mental, is one of the most important things you can do for yourself as you age. Conversely, being sedentary is one of the worst. I'm no athlete, but my wife and I are walking maniacs.
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I'm 47 and other than crows feet and a bald spot, I look exactly the same as I did at 18. When I notice I've put on some fat, I just eat less food for a while and it goes away. But I guess I'm the oddball. Many people I know diet and exercise constantly and keep getting fatter (my ex-wife, for example). Might be genetics. My Mother weighed 120 pounds +/- 0 for her entire life.
round (Score:5, Funny)
Round is a shape. A good shape right?
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Round is a shape. A good shape right?
According to Plato [youtube.com], it is [neelburton.com] (Aristophanes in "The Symposium').
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The most perfect shape. Like my physics professor used to say, "imagine a perfectly spherical bear..."
In great shape except I'm falling apart (Score:2)
Good conditioning layered on top of a couple of chronic illnesses puts in me ???? shape.
Stoned. I'll probably regret the candor later. (Score:1)
I'm a fat tub of shit. 320lbs and 6'3. Smoke a pack a day and can't remember the last time I ate something a color other than beige.
I drink tons of black ice coffee which I feel should probably be more popular, and around 12 cans of diet dr pepper every workday.
I'll probably die when a blob of peanut butter and cheese gets stuck in my heart.
I'm not sorry. I don't care about living long. Life hurts, food makes it better, and I've been this weight for years so I won't need a crane any
Re: Stoned. I'll probably regret the candor later. (Score:2)
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I'm not sorry.
Have no regrets, mate, that's the only way. I still have the outward visage of an athletic body. Even though, at 50, it's been 15 years since I exercised seriously. Over the past 10 years I've gradually stopped going to the gym, swimming and walking. To the point where I don't do anything active now.
I smoke 60 bongs per day. I drink anywhere from 4 to 8 beers most days. More like 12-18 once per week.
The Doctor says I have high cholesterol and some other shit associated with becoming middle
Re: Stoned. I'll probably regret the candor later. (Score:2)
Re: Stoned. I'll probably regret the candor later (Score:2)
Thatâ(TM)s diabetes medication, and it has significant side effects that lead 14% of study participants to cancel the therapy. And thatâ(TM)s the study they submitted to the German authorities, so you can assume that was the _best_ study they had.
Do you have first-hand experience with it? Metformin, which is usually prescribed together with it also helps to lose weight, but it also is for diabetics, and it also leads to nausea and diarrhea in a significant number of patients. Thatâ(TM)s not a
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Thatâ(TM)s diabetes medication, and it has significant side effects that lead 14% of study participants to cancel the therapy. And thatâ(TM)s the study they submitted to the German authorities, so you can assume that was the _best_ study they had.
Yes, I used it myself. I've stopped last month because I've reached a good weight and I can maintain it without medication.
Ozempic has been officially approved for weight loss by the FDA. I originally got it prescribed off-label, and because I was also in pre-diabetes, so lowering the blood sugar helped. I did have nausea attacks in mornings a couple of times a week that lasted for a minute or so, but that was it for side effects. On the plus side, it helped me to lose 15kg of weight within 2 years. It w
Hard to judge between OK and good! (Score:2)
My gym... (Score:2)
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Not too bad (Score:4, Interesting)
Then, COVID hit.
The virus didn't take ME out, but it got me out of my groove. I was in the habit of getting up, fixing a healthy breakfast, and getting to work early so that I could leave early and go to the gym. It was a scheduled routine, and I loved it. But, once I started working remotely (electrical/firmware engineer), and my gym briefly closed, I got out of the habit, and haven't been able to get back in.
I'm sure a bit of apathy has set in, as well. Now, I'm 15 pounds heavier, my abs are under a layer of pudding, and my adams apple is slowly being enveloped by a growing double chin. Beer and Wavy Lays have taken the place of protein smoothies and spinach. I can't say that's all bad, but I certainly don't feel as energetic as I used to.
Some day, I'll find my groove again.
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Why don't you MAKE ME?!
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Don't feed the AC trolls :D
Re: Not too bad (Score:2)
Same here. I went to the gym three times a week when COVID struck. Now Iâ(TM)m lucky if I make it once a week.
Pretty good (Score:4, Interesting)
I was skinny, to the point of looking anorexic, in my teens and 20s. My weight crept up on me and by my 40s I was in a state of total denial about just how much I weighed.
I had my gallbladder out (fat, forty, female) and realized I could now pass an aviation medical. I had always been interested in learning to fly and was now in a position where I could afford to do something about it. I got as far as the left seat of a 172 and couldn't get the seatbelt around me. I was crushed, but motivated. Over the next year and a half I lost 160 pounds, finishing with a tummy tuck to get rid of the residual flab roll. I didn't gain it overnight and wasn't going to lose it overnight...
In addition to the new energy and direction I felt in life - flying is a hoot, the most fun I've had in a long time - losing weight and getting in shape may have saved my life. If I hadn't done something about my health I might not be here now.
I've struggled to maintain my fitness the last couple of years, government restrictions plus anxiety and depression, but do what I can.
...laura
The answer for me has changed (Score:4, Interesting)
Missing option (Score:2)
Vaguely human shaped?
OK for someone who's nearly 60 (Score:1)
That probably counts as being "In great shape" by the standards of a Slashdot poll, but as pretty much everyone that I have anything to do with locally does similar things I'll just go for "In good shape".
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I am in good shape (that's what I picked) because I walk a lot and have an active job. But I was never a runner and can't say I've ever biked more than 60 mi. (100 km) in a day. And you think you're only okay? I'm calling you a liar!
Problems with units (Score:2)
The trouble I have with people from the USA talking about weight is that I am too young to relate to the units of measure they use. It is not hard to divide the number of pounds by 14 to get the stone that my parents would probably have remembered from their childhood but that is still unintuitive,
A couple of people have put their BMI so at least that was meaningful and I can compare it with mine. When someone says they are 5'11" and 250 pounds I have to use an app to see what that means. I'm only 62 so
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Up until my early 60s I was 5'10". Then, I had a set of three compressed fractures in my vertebrae and lost three inches of height. For my BMI, do I use my old height or my new, because it does make a significant difference?
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Up until my early 60s I was 5'10". Then, I had a set of three compressed fractures in my vertebrae and lost three inches of height. For my BMI, do I use my old height or my new, one because it does make a significant difference?
BMI is not necessarily very useful. However, it is at least something that a very noisy 4.5% of humanity insists on using a different one to the rest of us! I can't even discuss the weather with some of you without someone having to do mental arithmetic!
On that last, it is now a comfortable 22 degrees but the temperature is expected to be 30+ over the weekend and could even reach 40 degrees early next week. Using measurement systems from different centuries, those numbers sound different on opposite side
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And what does the fact that the US doesn't use the same measurement system that you do have to do with my question about BMI?
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And what does the fact that the US doesn't use the same measurement system that you do have to do with my question about BMI?
Pay attention. I said it is nice that they use the same BMI as us.
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Re: Problems with units (Score:2)
the original height makes most sense to me. Your overall build, proportions, organ size etc is still that of a someone 5' 10".
That said if you really care about these things look up someplace to get a DEXA (aka DXA) body composition scan to find out your body day percentage and lean mass. If you've had compression fractures you may already have had DEXA scan to measure bone density: the original role of that technology. Same machine, just running in a different mode.
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Could be worse, in some places they weigh each other in stones. https://www.wikihow.com/Calcul... [wikihow.com]
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10 years later, I'm still the same height and weight. But I've got a little bit of a gut now and a bit less muscle. BMI doesn't take into account body composition.
When someone says they are 5'11" and 250 pounds I have to use an app to see what that means.
People technically able enough to use /. should use an app to translate into modern measures.
So, someone still needs to use an app. And it seems like you'
win/lose (Score:2)
I was actually starting to get better in the spring, but it turned out to be an unsustainable hack.
I quit my job and that gave me the time to time to get outside a lot more (and the gorgeous spring weather didn't hurt). But then I noticed a correlation between unemployment and my checking account balance falling, so I got a job. That fixed the checking account problem, but now I'm just a sedentary lump again. Fuck!
Just accept keeping in shape is a chore (Score:3)
I have always been slightly on the chubby side, but until about 40 years of age my weight at least stayed consistent without too much effort. After that, it started to increase, so had to do something.
I've never enjoyed sports or exercise, all the way from PE classes in elementary school, and whenever I had tried to start up something it just didn't really work out. Go out on a jog/biking? Why bother doing such a loop where you come back home anyway. Play hockey/soccer/whatever team sport? Oh please, chasing after some ball, what's the point? Just get everyone a ball then they can all be happy. Even forgetting about the senselessness and busy-work of most forms of traditional exercise, everyone always told me that "you'll really start feeling better, it's fun, it's great". No, it isn't. You get exhausted and sweaty. I'd much rather be on my PC leading an interstellar empire or blasting zombies. And the closest real-life equivalent to that last one (paintball or laser tag) costs way too much to do regularly and/or is crowded by hyperactive 12-year-olds.
Anyway, I was able to turn this around a few years back by just accepting that "staying in shape" is a chore, just like mowing the lawn or vacuuming. You are not supposed to enjoy it, you are not supposed to feel better about it. Just allocate 30 mins for that sweating every other day and it'll be fine. If you can get it done alongside some other chore (like that mowing the lawn), all the better. Seems to work; I've lost about 10 kilos over the last two years and trend seems to be continuing.
So don't come talking to me about how much fun and feeling better it is to do regular exercises, because it makes me think you must be either crazy or high.
I did get treadmill out of a discount for home a year ago. That way I can at least read Slashdot and watch Youtube when doing that jog to nowhere, so it's slightly more tolerable chore, but that's kind of same as getting a more lightweight and powerful vacuum cleaner for the other chores.
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Anyway, I was able to turn this around a few years back by just accepting that "staying in shape" is a chore, just like mowing the lawn or vacuuming. You are not supposed to enjoy it, you are not supposed to feel better about it. Just allocate 30 mins for that sweating every other day and it'll be fine. If you can get it done alongside some other chore (like that mowing the lawn), all the better. Seems to work; I've lost about 10 kilos over the last two years and trend seems to be continuing.
I was like this for nearly two decades until I started looking at exercise differently. Now I am results oriented. Not in terms of weight or appearance, but in terms of my ability. Like, "Wow, I can touch my toes now!" or "Wow, I just did five pullups!" Now I have some athletic goals I am working towards, and every time I see myself improve, it gives me a rush. If I don't see myself improve, it becomes a puzzle to figure out why I'm not improving. Watching my (small) weekly progress is fun.
Anyway that might
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A few years before covid I started regular weightlifting, just going for an hour instead of lunch (and eating during meetings). I guess I got finally disgusted enough by my shitty appearance and weakness.
First of all, you get used to the routine and the endorphins you get. Just can't wait to be done with a stupid meeting and go pump some iron. Feels good.
As for the goals, it becomes pretty automatic that you have to do more each time. Did five pullups last time? Have to do 6 today. Deadlifted 100kg? Have to
Out of shape but probably not as much as some (Score:3)
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Good shape? (Score:2)
"I'm old, Frodo..." (Score:1)
Easier since COVID (Score:3)
Since working remotely due to COVID, I now have easy access to my bike, shower, and change of clothes. I can go for a ride between meetings or at the beginning of the day when it's cooler. My neighborhood streets are much safer and more accessible than downtown streets. All in all, it's been much easier to stay in shape.
Shape is a Social Construct (Score:1)
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+1. In many places in the world, being "in good shape" means being fat and merry, since that means you have enough money to eat a lot.
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New poll suggestion: Destroyed personal data? (Score:2)
Not sure what the options should be, but the basic question is "When did a company delete your personal data?" Or maybe something like "How annoyed were you when you discovered your personal data had been deleted?"
Today's example was discovering that the google deletes old data from Google Calendar. If you thought you could look back at your old events in your calendar, you better start thinking again.
Several other examples over the years. Interesting that one of them was Microsoft zapping my calendar data.
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Today's example was discovering that the google deletes old data from Google Calendar. If you thought you could look back at your old events in your calendar, you better start thinking again.
You can remedy this to some extent by using an external client. I used apple calendar for my work calendar. Bonus is that if your company cuts off your access, you still have all the data available for any potential lawsuit.
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Hmm... Before I retired I used to track my working time with a spreadsheet, but it was a pretty feeble approach. I basically had to pull out projects manually if I wanted to see what was going on, and a lot of time got tossed into a miscellaneous category...
But what's bothering me in this case is the secrecy of the purge. The amount of data in the calendar is minimal, but it was valuable to me. In this particular case, I remembered something from six years ago and wanted to look for events around that time,
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So how sure are you that Apple isn't quietly deleting your old calendar data for similar reasons?
It's just a local program stored on my computer. The data is stored locally, so if Apple is deleting it somehow (or if my hard drive crashes), then it will be stored in backups.
As for the rest of your comment, that is super annoying.
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Annoying for sure, but annoying enough for a poll? However the Cowboy Neal Option is obvious:
"Just ask Cowboy Neal for his secret backups!"
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Google deleting personal data? That really sounds like an oxymoron!
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Well, there's personal data and then there's personal data. You can check your own, but I guess it comes down to two subquestions:
(1) Are there kinds of personal data that have no positive value to the google?
(2) Is any of the data actually deleted, even when the owner of the data wants it to be deleted?
My current speculation on the calendar data is that maybe the google's lawyers decided the old stuff should be purged.
Does this take into consideration mental health? (Score:2)
Lockdown and changes to society have resulted in much more insular, not only sedentary, lifestyles.
Find an activity you *want* to do! (Score:1)
iPhone iOS 16 public beta (Score:1)
Tech (Score:1)
Samsung (Score:1)
Half Marathons at 71 (Score:2)
It's relative (Score:2)
Pretty good shape! (Score:2)
Male, 178cm
93kg
about 12% body fat percentage
Can bench well over bodyweight (110kg last time of trying some point last year),
can pistol squat with hands behind back
Between 40 and 45 years old.
That's not too bad for a keyboard jockey that doesn't gym.
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Shape Round (Score:1)
If you're an IT gaming nerd who's too fat. (Score:2)
Age is the biggest factor for me .... (Score:2)
Like a lot of typical "computer geek" types, I was never into competitive sports or even fitness. I went through a "chubby phase" in my early teens, which was honestly just due to diet. (I got in the habit of eating big candy bars as dessert every night after dinner, primarily.) My mom insisted I start going to the gym at the local YMCA every Saturday. I did but never liked it much, and I can't say it really did anything to help my weight situation. What did work was getting a little older and getting inv
Ironman Lake Placid (Score:1)
Work makes it so. (Score:1)
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I'm in great shape! (Score:2)
I'm large, I am round, and I am comfortable.
trying to be consistent (Score:1)