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Leaving Facebook

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Yesterday I deactivated my Facebook account. I didn’t tell anyone I was leaving. I just did. I always found those people annoying that would make some grand announcement about how they had to quit Facebook, while still on Facebook. More than half the time, the person would return months, weeks, or even days later.

I did want to put up this post in case someone asked me my reasons or in case I forget someday what led me to deactivate my account. Since quitting Facebook is hard for many people, I’d be a fool to say with 100% confidence that I’ll never back. The program could change and offer a feature that brings me back. Or maybe I’ll need it to access a new network of people. Since I can’t foresee every possibility, I won’t use the term never.

About a decade ago, I posted daily. In the last few years, maybe once every 3 or 4 months. Despite not actively posting or even commenting on others, I would still check in a few times a day looking for value. Most of the time, I’d waste 5 or 10 minutes only to find nothing of interest.

Reasons I Left Facebook

#1 Too Distracting

This applies to all the social networks, but I figure I’ll tackle Facebook first. See the Ted Talk Quit Social Media by Cal Newport for a deeper explanation of this point.

#2 No Business Value

I was never able to drive traffic from the INeedCoffee  Facebook Page to the INeedCoffee website. I would get less than 1% engagement with links to content on our website. Stupid memes that provided no value would do better. This is not a new complaint, I discussed it back in 2013 on the post Shutting Down the CriticalMAS Facebook Page.

#3 Too Much Sharing, Too Little Creating

It is far easier to post a link to something someone else wrote than actually contribute something yourself. In the early days of Facebook, people talked about their friends, family, hobbies, and ideas. Now as far I can see, the majority of posts are just links to things people like created by people they don’t know.

If there was a checkbox that allowed me to only see original words and photos from people I know, I’d be back. This is what Instagram gets right. More on that later.

#4 Less Joy, More Hostility

I had already muted more than half my friends who engaged in sharing links to the latest outrage. I ran keyword filters with FB Purity to hide as much negativity as I could, but some would always creep through the filters. I want to hear about your hobbies and see pictures of your kids. I don’t care what news story upset you today.

Instagram is the social media network that best captures the early spirit of Facebook. You can’t share links and reposting someone else’s work isn’t easy to do and is mostly only done by business accounts. And people tend to take photos of things that bring them joy and not things that upset them.

In the last year, I noticed the best posts on Facebook had been shares from Instagram.

#5 Seattle Indie Coffee Failure

For a decade now, I have been trying to increase the communication between coffee enthusiasts and coffee professionals here in Seattle. So years ago, I started the Seattle Indie Coffee Facebook Group. I tried to encourage the sharing of information about new cafes, roasters, events or news specific to the quality coffee scene here in Seattle and the surrounding areas.

It didn’t work. Unfortunately, the industry is too secretive here in Seattle. They do amazing work, but they only seem to talk to each other. Other enthusiasts here in Seattle feel the same as me. Instead of feeling appreciated, we feel disrespected. And it sad that it this way. But in the end, I realize that this isn’t my battle.

#6 Cult of the Maybes

One of my original reasons for staying on Facebook was for Invites to events. In my world, there are only two ways to RSVP to an event. Yes or No. Maybe means No. Always. Facebook has Yes and No options, but they also have “Is Interested”, which is code for Maybe, which is code for No.

I’m certain I’ll miss a few cool events, but the reality is most people that say they are “Interested” an event aren’t going anywhere. Clicking they are Interested makes them feel better without actually having to commit to anything. And before that event arrives, they will be clicking “Interested” to other events.

My Meetup group the Coffee Club of Seattle doesn’t tolerate Maybes or No Shows. We get almost 100% to every Meetup and have for 12+ years. Over 1,200 events so far. We are not on Facebook, obviously.

#7 Privacy

Other people get more upset with Facebook on Privacy than me. I never trusted them to begin with, so I never shared anything on the network that I would not feel comfortable sharing with every person on the planet.

But, I missed something. By making my list of friends Public, bad actors could create fake accounts and use social engineering to fool someone I know. I corrected that setting a few months ago, but it got me thinking about other things I might be missing that I haven’t thought about.

#8 So Slow

I’m surprised nobody is talking about how painfully slow the Facebook website is. As an Admin for a Facebook Page, it would take 20+ seconds to load enough of the site to actually post something. Facebook is loading so much crap now that if you check the memory usage of your browser you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I know a Facebook engineer here in Seattle. He was clueless to the fact the site was slow. Probably because all the employees have access to the fastest computers and thickest bandwidth. He was stunned when I showed him how it took me almost 30 seconds to load the INeedCoffee Facebook Page from a mobile-version of the website.

Will I Be Successful?

I failed to go 30 days without Facebook in 2010. But that was before Instagram and back then I still got joy from the site. I also didn’t deactivate my account then so the temptation to reconnect was stronger then. So perhaps I’ll be able to kick it for longer or even for good? We will see.

facebook thumbs down

 

Coffee Tests on an Empty Stomach

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I forgot to include this on yesterday’s Fitness Updates (December 2018) post.

Back in September, I was making progress on resolving some stomach issues. From Stomach Woes Update:

A few weeks ago, I cut my coffee intake in half and I feel a lot better. Instead of 3 coffees a day, I started brewing three 1/2 cups of coffee with my Aeropress. Each time with food.

This was a fine solution, but I wake up early. Usually between 5 am and 6 am. If I eat the first thing in the morning, then my eating window can get pretty wide. A long eating window is not a good idea for staying lean. From #7 on Fat Loss Cheatsheet: What Works and What Doesn’t (for me):

Reduce daily eating window. When do you eat your first bite of the day and when do you eat your last? I know I will gain weight at a 15-hour window and lose weight with an 11-hour window.

If I pair my first coffee with food, my eating window jumps to 15 hours. I needed to find a better way.

Test #1: Half & Half

This helped a bit, but half & half is still food. And I love the taste of black coffee. I drink some of the best light roasts you can find. Adding h&h to them is probably the equivalent of pouring Pepsi on a single malt scotch. Not a good idea.

Test #2: Decaf

Most decaf coffee is nasty, but there are 2 roasters in Seattle that know how to source and roast decaf properly (Kuma, QED). Drinking a hot coffee even without caffeine as long as it tastes delicious is enough to “wake me up” for an hour or so.

The problem I discovered was the removal of caffeine did almost nothing to reduce the stomach pain.

Test #3: Cold Brew Coffee

Cold brew coffee has less acid than other brewing methods. It worked. Each morning I pour a half mug of cold brew concentrate into a mug, top it off with water, and then heat it. My gut feels so much better now.

If you are interested in getting started with cold brew, check out my INeedCoffee article Make Concentrated Cold Brew Coffee With the Penguin Coffee.

I still prefer more acidic methods of brewing coffee, but I now have those with food. So I only drink the heated cold brew in the morning. The rest of the day I drink AeroPress or if I’m out espresso.

Test #4: Coffee Tamer

I received a sample of a mineral pack that when added to an acidic coffee reduces the acid without reducing the flavor. It was called Coffee Tamer. I found it interesting and it worked, but just not as well as Cold Brew. Cold Brew was kinder to my stomach. Coffee Tamer might be a good option for traveling when I’m away from my cold brew stash.

Fitness Updates (December 2018)

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I thought I’d give some updates to my fitness goals and progress.

#1 Project Cardio

After many years of doing no cardio, I decided to add some to my fitness routine. You can read my reasons in the post Cardio Motivations and Expectations.

I quickly discovered that the elliptical machine was perfect for me. I don’t hold the handles. It never felt natural. Some smarter people than me online do the same. Not holding the handles can reduce the risk of lower back pain.

I’ve gone from 2 sessions a week at 15-20 minutes to 3 sessions at 25-30 minutes. I’m easing into it to minimize injury risk and so I don’t have spikes of hunger. I’ve been successful on both so far. I have been more tired, but I believe that is from the super-short days we are having in the Pacific NW.

In addition to the elliptical machine, I’ve started swimming. A few laps here and there when the pool is not crowded.

#2 Increasing Protein

After doing the Potato Hack and the Peasant Diet for so long, I wanted to dial up the protein to preserve muscle. I explain why in the post Less Peasant, More Bodybuilder. I’m naturally not a high protein eater, but I’ve been getting better.

Maybe too good. As good as the potato hack is, it is even better when you stack it with some high protein meals. I’m getting even leaner, which was not my intent. I wanted to add more muscle this winter. You need calories for muscle. So I have reduced my potato intake to increase my appetite a bit.

This stacking potatoes with protein is a super powerful fat loss strategy. I might share more details if there is interest. It is crazy effective.

#3 FMD / Protein Cycling

I already covered how I dialed in a simple way to do a 5-day Fasting Mimicking Fast. You can see that post at Simplified Fasting Mimicking Diet / Protein Cycling Diet. Having sauna access means I can do these more frequently (maybe 4-6 times a year) without feeling cold.

#4 Knee Issues

My knee is getting better. I’ve had some minor setbacks, but the trend is positive. I have discovered goblet box squats and single-leg exercises are helping a lot.

Also one day recently, I was running late to an event where I was the host. I refuse to be late for anything and I also don’t pay for parking, so I was forced to run 0.8 miles to be on time. My first run in probably a decade. I felt fine. I actually felt good. Interesting.

Bargaining For Flavor (Fixing Your Potato Hack Mindset)

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I have received some variation of this question so many times now, that I thought I would make a post directly responding to it. That question goes something like this:

Can I add ____ to the potatoes for flavor during the potato hack?

What the person wants to add to the potatoes varies, but the theme is always the same. They want to make the potato hack easier. They want more flavor. They are bargaining. Bargaining for flavor.

I briefly discussed this in the 2017 post The Five Stages of (Potato Hack) Grief. From Stage #3:

Bargaining is the most predictable stage. Once they’ve accepted the concept, moved past any objection they can think of, they immediately start looking for loopholes. Can I have sour cream? Can I have ketchup? What about apples? Salads? Eggs? Protein shakes?

The Potato Hack works because you fill your belly with very-low flavor boiled potatoes. It tricks your brain in a good way to break the connection between flavor and satiety. It is a powerful learning experience that will not only help you lose weight but do it a way that helps reset your connection to food in an unnatural environment where food has been engineered to taste better than anything any previous generation of humans since the beginning ever had to taste.

But, you are weak and you need your flavor. You can’t go 5 days or even 1 day or even one meal with plain boiled potatoes.

I have suggested two ways to make it easier to prepare for potato hacking.

  1. Use salt and red wine vinegar as “training wheels” to get the habit started. It will increase the flavor, but not the calories. From there, you can decide what you want to do next.
  2. Marine Potato 20 – An Easy Potato Hack For Everyone

But for some of you, these hacks aren’t enough. Highly-flavorful foods have made you their bitch. You work for your taste buds. They are in control. So let’s go back to the original question: Can I add ___ to the potatoes for flavor?

Add it up. If the average human eats 3-5 pounds of food a day, add the potatoes and all your fixings you need, weight it up, take the total calories and measure it against your metabolic rate. There are calculators online to help you with finding yours. If the math works in your favor, test it out. If you are able to make your numbers and NOT FEEL HUNGRY, then congrats. You won’t get the full benefit, but you might move in the right direction.

Why is important to not feel hungry? Because the brain remembers. It doesn’t want you to lean out. Do you know what hunger does during a diet? It puts the brain on alert. Then when your willpower is at its lowest, it cranks up the hunger. Most dieters regain their lost pounds because they never lost the weight in a manner that didn’t trigger the brain to go on alert. How do you fool your brain? You fill your belly with potatoes until you can’t eat another one.

Silencing hunger is the key to maintaining fat loss.

If you still think you need to flavor up your potatoes, let me share with you the mindset that helped me drop 25 pounds and keep it off for more than a year without ever feeling hunger. Once I understood the roles of flavor and satiety, I saw it like debt. The extra weight I was carrying was like credit card debt. It was there because I spent beyond my means. I took more flavor from the environment than my body could process, so it got stored as fat. I paid off my debt in full by reducing my flavor intake.

By reducing my flavor intake, I reduced my calorie intake, but I did it in a way that I never felt hungry. My brain never went into alert status. I believe that reducing flavor is important to the long-term success of a diet. Not every meal, but some. You might potato hack a few days a month or a meal a day or whatever works for you.

Plain boiled potatoes are the ultimate tool for breaking the flavor addiction.

The ability to go without flavor for a meal or a few days is a skill you develop. It gets easier. That strength of character you build potato hacking stays with you and makes other challenges easier. You can potato hack! Start with one potato. Then a year from now, come back here and post a comment telling me how much weight you lost and how much better you feel or if you’ve already been successful, drop some encouragement below.

potato

Photo by Lars Blankers

Tater Haters Have Some Explaining To Do

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Every so often in a conversation, I’ll mention how one can get lean without feeling hunger by eating boiled potatoes. I’ll get challenged on this point as most people are clueless to the fact that potatoes are not fattening when you don’t fry them or slather butter or cheese on them. So, I’ll mention to the other party how I used potatoes to drop 25 pounds and keep that weight off for more than a year.

At this point, my debate opponent should pause and perhaps ask some follow up questions on what could be a learning experience. But they rarely do. That would destroy their nutritional worldview that potatoes and carbs are inherently fattening.

So they fire back with any idea that comes to their head to explain how I dropped 25 pounds by eating on average 10-15 pounds of boiled potatoes a week.

You exercised more!

Nope. My exercise levels have been consistent for years as well as the type of exercises I do.

It must be genetics!

Then how was it my genetics allowed me to gain 25 pounds when I wasn’t eating lots of potatoes?

At this point, they try and shift the topic away from fat loss to something else.

But potatoes are nightshades and nightshades are horrible.

I feel great and I feel even better being 25 pounds lighter.

But the glycemic response will give you diabetes!

Being a fat ass will give you diabetes. But if you want to lower the glycemic response, add a splash of red wine vinegar to the potatoes.

I would get fat eating that many potatoes. 

No, you wouldn’t. You couldn’t possibly eat enough potatoes to make yourself fat. Figure out your daily calorie burn and divide by 350. That is how many pounds of potatoes you’d have to eat just to stay the same weight. You might stuff yourself once trying to hit that number, but after that, your brain will suppress hunger signals before you get close. Enter calorie deficit. Enter fat loss.

I didn’t just make this up. This nutritional trick is over 100 years old.

Cognitive Dissonance achieved. 

Then I tell them that now that I am lean, I cut back eating so many potatoes. This is when they get a glimmer of hope that I might be conceding them a point.

Then I explain the real reason.

I had to cut back on the potatoes because I was losing too much weight. I wanted to gain some muscle and my appetite was too low from the boiled potatoes, so I took a break from them for the time being.

🤯

Seriously, if you think eating boiled potatoes will make you fat, check out my Potato Hack Diet resource page. The potato has the highest satiety of any food on the planet. Potatoes are awesome!

Photo credit

My 2 Best Purchases of 2018

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It is the shopping season, so I thought I would share my two favorite purchases of 2018 with you.

#1 ASUS ZenScreen

This summer I was getting frustrated with the 13-inch screen size of my laptop as it was preventing me from being as productive as I could on my projects, so even though my laptop was only a year old, I started researching buying a new 15-inch laptop.

Thankfully, I stumbled onto a much better and affordable solution. The ASUS ZenScreen is a 2nd monitor for laptops. It is thin and has a nice cover that doubles as a stand when folded. For around $200, I solved all my problems and now I have more screen real estate than I would have with a single 15-inch laptop.

asus zenscreen

My 15.6-inch ASUS ZenScreen to the left. (Amazon USA) The laptop to the right the ASUS Zenbook, which I do not recommend (slow). 

A 2nd monitor is also great if you take online courses such as Lynda or Udemy. It allows me to code in an editor while watching the lesson without pausing the video and switching windows into focus.

Side note: Many libraries provide FREE access to Lynda courses. But library websites are notoriously bad, so Google/Bing the name of your library system and the word Lynda.

#2 Membership to Gym With a Sauna

For years, I have been playing the free-pass game to get access to saunas. I finally decided to get a membership at a nearby LA Fitness, which has a sauna. I’m going 5-6 times a week and I’m loving it. It is making the cold rainy season bearable.

And the health benefits are amazing. Check out the podcast below if you want to hear more about how good saunas can be for you.

The Top 22 Science-Backed Benefits of Saunas (And How Saunas Help You Beat Fatigue and Increase Your Energy)

Do you have a recent purchase that you think I or the reader of this blog would like? Leave a comment. Thanks.