Setting Life to Hard-Mode

Holding a brand new video game in your hands is very exciting. In it you are holding massive anticipation for the experience that it will bring to you and many times you have expectations of what it will bring. Sometimes you are looking for a familiar experience, like the time I was shopping for Playstation 1 games and asked for a game that was similar to Zelda and the store recommended that I buy Alundra. Many times you want something different to give yourself a change from your normal routine, like the occasional shooter game I like to play to get my blood pumping. Or maybe you want to play a simulator game so you can feel like an expert car driver, city builder, civilization leader, guitar player, or even dancer. No matter what type of experience you are going for I think there are some basic tenants of gaming that can be applied to all videogames.

Always ready to start a New Game!

1. The game provides immersion in an experience outside the real world.
   1. Games draw you in with a goal that must be achieved within the rules that are defined. Sometimes you have to save a princess by passing through 8 game-worlds and jumping on your enemies heads.
   2. The game provides auditory and visual feedback on the changing conditions in the game environment. Breaking focus from the screen typically pulls you out of the game.
   3. You can only input your moves through the provided mechanisms. Today there are new clever ways to interact with video game devices, but if you try tilting your controller on a PS1 racing game it won’t help you steer your virtual car – you have to use the direction pad. Conforming to these inputs is a part of the immersion.
2. The game provides entertainment value.
   1. Since all players of games are playing voluntarily they must be enticed to play of their own free will. If there is no draw of entertainment then either the player will be disengaged or unwilling to play. Both problems essentially stops the play.
   2. Depending on the person’s tastes, entertainment can come in many forms such as story, gameplay, artwork, music, social interaction, or novelty.
   3. Perhaps the game goes so far as to provide a functional benefit to you such as Wii Fit or certain educational focused games. This is a clever way to integrate the entertainment value with physical or mental benefits (that may also be a driving factor to wanting to play).
3. The game provides a challenge. 
   1. Games are typically finite events that may bestow some sort of title of achievement. Sometimes you are trying to save a princess, reach a high score, or be the last man standing.
   2. Games must present a struggle to the player that they must overcome to reach the goal or win. Whether that is competing with other players to win a match or defeating the boss to progress to the next level. It is typically a test of your mastery of the game mechanics and rules.
   3. The challenge of a game can typically be adjusted in modes of Easy, Normal, or Hard. In multiplayer games you are matched against lower-tier players if you are also a lower-tier player. If games don’t provide an initial option for difficulty they may provide optional challenges within the game such as finding all the hidden letters to spell “KONG” or finishing within a certain amount of time.

Screenshot from Donkey Kong Country. Not only are the Mine Cart levels the most difficult – timing this particular jump to get that “N” without failing is exceptionally difficult! Here I am clearly overshooting the jump, but at least I’m not dying like my 5 other attempts to make this screenshot! 🙂

Obviously I’ve loaded these criteria so I can focus on this last point made here, that difficulty is many times an optional path. Why do some people choose the higher difficulty path, and why are we presented with these options in the first place? What choice are you actually making when you choose the easy option? Sometimes you are recognizing your own weaknesses, that you aren’t very capable in certain types of games or maybe it is your first time playing this kind of game. I know I am lacking in skill when it comes to Guitar Hero and other precise timing-based games. However in many cases I think when a person chooses the “easy” path they are consciously removing some of the challenge (#3) for a greater perceived benefit from the immersion (#1) and entertainment (#2). I think we can all agree when you fail at performing “Walk This Way” for the 7th time in a row you naturally are losing entertainment value and start to pull yourself away from the immersion in the experience.

It is counter-intuitive to think that failure is a part of every game, since it seems so detrimental to the overall experience. However, one researcher states that gamers spend approximately 80% of their game-time failing! Whether you are losing against other players, fallen down an endless pit, or let your blocks stack up over the allowed height; nearly every game has moments that tell you that you have failed. I’ve realized that failure is an integral part to games, and further that good games turn failure into a constructive part of the game.

When you fail in a videogame you typically need to experience two emotions (or else you will probably rage-quit):

1. Spectacular Failure. The failure itself should be awe inspiring, almost a reward in it of itself. My favorite failure memories come from the Crash Bandicoot series, where the fragile creature can die a multitude of ways during the game, and has a spectacular and often hilarious animation for death in every instance. And while I am an expert at avoiding death in these games, I always liked to spend my “lives” to experience every different type of death the poor creature can encounter.

Getting your butt burnt by lava while being chased by a dinosaur is a pretty epic way to die! Screenshot from Crash Bandicoot 3

1. Hope of Success. After you have experienced the spectacular failure you should be still left with a hope of success to overcome the particular obstacle. If you have ever played Guitar Hero and failed during the solo, then you are probably going to try again thinking “I know where I failed, and I can do better next time.” Its that hope of success that keeps you driving forward. If you have encountered painfully hard games like Dark Souls or Super Meat Boy the suffering of failure is small compared to sudden surge of enthusiasm to say “I’m gonna get back in there and succeed where last I failed!”

Ultimately we find that success can result in being more of an endpoint than failure. Failure means you get another chance to do it right. Success means you have already mastered it, and afterwards it can leave you lost without a new objective or new game to play.

So if failure is such an integral part of a “fun” pass-time, how can we apply this counter-intuitive logic to our everyday life? Here are a few ideas:

• Increase the difficulty level of your daily life! Watching TV and doing other passive “entertainment” activities are shown to INCREASE stress. Engaging in competitive activities, learning something new, or taking circuitous routes to complete simple tasks has been shown to unlock more satisfying pathways in your brain.
• Make your failures spectacular! When you are trying to cook new recipes, posting content on your social media, tackle assignments at work make sure if they fail; they fail hardcore! If I fail at a simple task at work then I feel pretty crappy, but if I fail at a difficult task then that is something I can share with co-workers on something that I’ve learned.
• Take an iterative approach! Good engineers and video game players share this trait; we aren’t shooting for 100% success out of nowhere. We want to get as close as we can to the target, but always leave room for improvements when we see failures and deficiencies in our original plan.

If you want to learn more about how games can have an impact on real life, you can look up the books by Jane McGonigal or the philosophy book Finite and Infinite Games. I may be making a few more video-game related posts based on what I extract from this literature.

If you are interested in experiencing the resilience building effect of difficult videogames, you can start with some suggestions here. Amazingly, I have found some of the most difficult games I have ever played are on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. Games like Super Mario Brothers, Metroid, Tetris, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, and Battletoads are all incredibly challenging and complex. You can access all of those games here. Some more modern challenging games include Doom, Dark Souls, Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, and the New Donkey Kong series. I’ll add that most games have good challenges (as they are designed that way) so feel free to explore to find a game that interests you.

So, do you choose Hard mode or Easy mode? Why?

Hold The MSG, Please!

Greetings Everyone! I apologize for the spontaneous summer hiatus from blogging, but I suppose that is natural in life. I wanted to kick off a renewed effort to make consistent posts, especially after being encouraged by my blogging pal over at Sweet On Greens!

I want to talk about something that has really concerned me this summer, MSG! During one week this summer I was getting terrible headaches during the day, which I normally never get. I stopped to think about what could be the cause of the problem. In engineering we call that a root cause investigation. One of the first things we ask when we encounter a new issue is “when did the issue first occur, and what might have changed in the system around that time?”

So I started to look at potential changes in my life that happened that week. Maybe it was a new stress from work, or perhaps the stress of taking care of 2 exchange students, or a sudden lack of sleep. Those can certainly play a part, but I didn’t think they completely explained my issue. Then I realized that I had started eating eggs for breakfast those weeks, and I also realized I started using a new seasoned salt spice to flavor them. And you already know from the title that the culprit was sitting on the label of my spice, Monosodium Glutamate or MSG!

Here is the spice I was using to flavor my eggs, prominently featuring the dreaded chemical as the 3rd ingredient!

So what is MSG? Monosodium Glutamate is a flavor enhancer that will give whatever food you are eating a much improved taste. MSG is a man-made synthetic chemical and is a concentrated form of the 5th taste called Umami which is a savory flavor (the other four being Sweetness, Sourness, Saltiness, Bitterness, and a possible newly discovered 6th being Fat) This seasoning finds its way into many spices, salad dressings, and processed foods. Even my favorite salad dressing, Ranch, commonly has this substance!

Why should you be concerned with MSG? As I mentioned I received chronic headaches for a week while eating higher amounts of it. MSG acts as an excitotoxin which excites your cells to death, and you can imagine can have catastrophic effects on your brain! Prolonged use is linked with many cognitive decline disorders – not a good thing!

If all of this isn’t bad enough, avoiding this chemical completely is proving very challenging as Monosodium Glutamate isn’t the only name that the dreaded chemical goes by. I commonly see Yeast Extract and Autolyzed Yeast as two variations as I read labels. These claim to be formed from natural sources, and potentially do not have as harmful of an effect, but knowing myself and my reaction to the real stuff – I think I am better off avoiding it completely.

Another one of my former favorite spices, with the Yeast Extract. Not super happy about the Cane Syrup there either.

Well, what can we do? We must be mindful and ever vigilant in reading labels and knowing the red-flag ingredients. I’ve switched to a few spices below that have no red-flag ingredients. When I am craving a flavor enhancer, I turn to good-old sea salt or Himalayan salt!

A few of my go-to mixed spices now. They avoid many of the red flag chemicals and have great taste!

And now when I need a Ranch Dressing, I prefer to make my own Cashew Ranch Dressing. The recipe is embedded in the link. I think this is a great alternative to real ranch, not only does it avoid the MSG, but it also brings in a lot of good health benefits with the cashew and fresh garlic. I love how easy it is to make, literally just throw all the ingredients in a blender and let it run until smooth! I can make a big batch and have it ready for 1 or 2 weeks at a time. If I am really feeling lazy I can add some olive oil and shake it in to extend the batch further!

Has anyone else experienced issues with MSG? Are you surprised that this chemical is still so pervasive in our everyday foods?

-Andrew

How to make your First Batch of Kale Chips!

Hi Everyone! I apologize for the recent hiatus! A lot has been going on lately. This includes:  hosting two exchange students from Hong Kong and being the Dungeon Master for a good ‘ole fashion game of Pathfinder (D&D)!

Today I want to share my famous Kale chips recipe! I have been getting a lot of demand for the recipe so I thought I’d try to write it out as I have been making it. Of course this isn’t completely original to me, it is a variation of what I learned at The Raw Food Institute and online recipes. I do things a little different based on my own tastes and availability of ingredients. To be honest every batch I make is a little different since I rarely measure ingredients and am always experimenting. Try throwing some fresh garlic in for some extra kick, or add some turmeric and curry for a different kind of spice!

A yummy batch of kale chips fresh out of the dehydrator!

Recently I have been bringing these chips to family parties and getting rave reviews! Somehow when kale is dehydrated it becomes the perfect chip consistency without the chip carbs or the oxidized low quality oils. Not only is kale a nutritional powerhouse but preparing them with this recipe also increases the good fats and spices in your system leading to an extremely satisfying snack! And while there are some great options for kale chips at the grocery stores, they are pretty expensive for a very small bag! And if anyone has tried these chips before: a small bag from the store won’t be enough!

Small bags of Kale Chips might be good for you to get a taste, but the real satisfaction comes from making your own big batch!

For basic equipment you will need a reliable blender such as a Blendtec, Vitamix, or fill-in-your-favorite brand. I use a Blendtec that I bought used on eBay. The other key piece is a food dehydrator or low temperature oven. The instructions for cooking in the oven is in the recipe linked above. I prefer my dehydrator, which is a 9-tray Excalibur brand purchased through an online retailer on eBay. I love the dehydrator because I can set it and forget it without worrying about running back and preventing the batch from burning. I’ve left batches in the dehydrator for 3 days without any issue. The other benefit is that cooking below 110F keeps the leaf in its “raw” state preserving it’s enzymes and nutrients. However, there is a school of thought that kale should be steamed to reduce some of the natural toxins that protect it in the wild. No matter which way you do it, finding appropriate ways to get more kale into your system seems like a good thing!

For sources of kale this time of year is prime time to pick it up at a local farmers market. If not there then check for sales at grocery stores or Whole Foods. It’s great to buy the kale and nuts while they are on sale then make big batches of chips! If done correctly you will be saving a lot of money versus buying your kale chips at the store.

Most recipes for ‘cheesy’ kale chips call for a whole fresh sweet red pepper. I definitely suggest making the recipe at least once this way because it makes it taste impossibly like real cheese! I personally am not a fan of sweet red peppers, so through my experiments have come up with the substitution with paprika powder and cayenne or chili powder. It also makes it simpler to not have to worry about having fresh red peppers on hand.

The only other odd ingredient to mention is Nutritional Yeast. This item is what gives the recipe its profoundly cheesy flavor. It is not an active yeast and is technically raw vegan. You can usually find the Red Star brand or Bragg’s brand on some odd bottom shelf in most grocery stores near the baking supplies or dry cooking supplies.

Now onto the recipe! Be sure to read the recipe through once before beginning as some of the prep work should be done ahead of time. I wrote a lot of extra hints that I thought would be helpful if you are doing it your 1st time.

“Cheesy” Vegan Kale Chips – Home Style

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale – Any variety
1 cup raw (unsalted) cashews
1/2 cup raw (unsalted) sunflower seeds (try a batch without sunflower seeds for a more creamy outcome)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice from half of a lemon)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or chili powder (add more for more kick!)
2 teaspoon paprika
salt – to taste (doesn’t need much, if any. Start with 1 teaspoon)
optional: garlic powder (or fresh garlic), tumeric powder, curry powder, or any flavor to fit your fancy!
1/3 cup water (may vary, see instructions below)

Recipe Instructions

1. Soak the cashews and sunflower seeds for at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours. Drain and rinse when you are done soaking them.
1st time tip: They can soak out on the countertop in a jar of water and just make sure there is enough water to keep them submerged and account for some expansion. If you don’t have raw cashews or raw sunflower seeds, that’s ok too! You can use whatever you have. Just note if they are salted you probably don’t want to add salt later.

2. Rinse off your kale and dry it out.
1st time tip: If you don’t have any fancy drying methods then toss it in the dehydrator (or oven very low) for a few minutes to dry it off. Having dry kale is key to getting a good coating later on.

3. De-stem the leaves from the kale. Rip into chip-size pieces.
1st time tip: Hold one hand on the end of the stalk, and use your other hand to pinch down on the start of the leaves closest to the stalk. Pull through towards the tip while keeping your fingers pinched and you should be able to remove all the leaves from the stalk in one swift motion. Then just rip those leaves a few times and you are golden!

4. Toss the nuts, oil, lemon, nutritional yeast, water, and spices in the blender! Its that simple! Start blending on high until smooth.
1st time tip: If the blender is having a tough time blending or the consistency looks chunky, then add in a little water, punch it down with a spatula, and try again. I do this iteration a few times to get it just right. You want to get it as smooth as possible but also as thick as possible. That is probably why I always underestimate the initial water amount.

5. Place your kale into a large bowl. Pour or scoop your mixture over the kale. Then toss it all together and get a good coating over all the kale.
1st time tip: Use your hands! Its extremely gratifying.

6. Place the goopy kale on your dehydrator trays or cooking trays in a single layer. Spacing between the pieces is good for efficient drying, but not really required.

7. Run the dehydrator or oven! Refer back to this recipe for oven guidance. I set my dehydrator for 105F (the lowest setting) and let it run for about 18 hours. My dehydrator has no timer so it keeps running until I pull it out.

8. Bag or package it up! Enjoy at home, served with meals, or as a snack on-the-go!

Snacking on my kale chips at the start of a long hike!

Thanks everyone! Let me know how you like your chips!

-Andrew

Where is the Fat?

This past weekend I had the joy and pleasure to spend an evening at a marriage of two of my good friends, Doug and Katie. Through the course of the meal one of my friends asked me if I was going to blog about the food there. Going into the wedding I didn’t have any intent to blog about it, but since he asked I figured it would be a good segway to talk about a point that I’ve wanted to blog about anyways. He also reminded me of my famous instruction on how to properly butter your bread.

Whenever I am around a catered meal such as a work-luncheon, parties, or weddings I’ve started to really focus on where the fat in the meal is coming from. Lets take for example a lunch that was catered by a local restaurant at my work. They provided salad, steamed vegetables, chicken, rice, mashed potatoes, and bread rolls. So it starts out seemingly well rounded, we have some greens and veggies, a meat based protein, but then there are 3 types of carbohydrates! And there is seemingly no fats other than some maybe used in the cooking process, butter condiments for rice and rolls, and gravy. So this is basically the ratio of food you expect to see in the Standard American Diet. It has been concerning to me that fat has been reduced to a mere condiment – some butter for your bread, olive oil on a salad, cream cheese on a bagel, or mayo on a sandwich. And even more concerning is that these are often replaced with “low fat”, vegetable fat, or other fake fat alternative.

The Chicken dinner was fantastic!

“So what, Andrew? Fat IS at the top of the Food Pyramid for a reason and should only be a small condiment! Have you finally lost your mind?” Maybe, but given that I have been eating about 1 tablespoon of butter nearly every day, copious amounts of olives and avocados, and even bacon while losing 50 lbs would raise the question as to why this is possible. There is in fact quite a bit of research showing both the physical and the lifestyle benefits of eating more healthy fats. I am not claiming to be an expert, but if you are interested in learning more, here are a short list of the benefits of a higher fat diet and references:

1. Fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar does.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/08/eating-fat-wont-make-you-fat-but-these-10-things-will.aspx

2. Fat helps maintain the good microbes in your body. – David Perlmutter of the books Grain Brain and Brain Maker

3. Fat keeps you satiated longer to reduce hunger cravings. https://www.bulletproofexec.com/engineering-the-ultimate-morning/

4. Fat is essential for healthy brain function. http://www.drperlmutter.com/dietary-fat-brain/

My second point I feel I need to make is that we need to redefine our definition of healthy fats to transition away from Polyunsaturated Fats (canola, soybean, vegetable oils) back to the Saturated (animal, butter, cheese, and coconut) and Monounstaturated fats (nuts, avocados, olives). If you watch the short video in #4 you will see David’s recommendation for more saturated fats. In general saturated fats are more stable, less prone to oxidation especially when heated, which will lead to less free radicals in your body. But if you keep digging on the websites I have linked above you will certainly find more evidence for saturated fats in your diet. Or look here.

Eat your animal fats! And don’t throw away the Yolks, that’s the best part!

It wasn’t a hard transition for me to start putting butter in my coffee in the morning or eat whole avocados for lunch. I know my mother fed me delicious full-fat food for my whole life. We would cook our eggs in bacon grease, and all of our starches we used as a vessel to carry extra butter or cheese down our gullet. We never settled for any low fat or vegetable alternatives to butter or milk products. My mother even uses the age-old method of leaving a stick of butter out on a covered dish on the counter to keep it soft and spreadable, rather than purchase “spreadable” alternatives with additives. And you may think that it may go bad on the counter, but due to its fat density and lack of water content it is relatively inhospitable to microorganisms growing in it, so keeping it covered is all it needs. In fact, if you look at its clarified relative called Ghee, it is quite solid and stable at room temperature. You can even pack it for a hike and not worry about it melting on you. Recently I did get stopped at TSA with a jar of coconut oil. The guy took it out of my bag and said it was over the limit for a liquid. I said no its a solid at room temperature, and he argued it was a gel.

I’ll always remember getting ready to go to high school one morning when my brother Brenton told my mom “Mom can I have an egg for breakfast every day? Whenever I have cereal I get hungry again before lunch” I thought that was super cool, first of all, that Brenton was so aware of his body that he noticed the connection between what he ate in the morning and how he is feeling through the day. I’m usually too dull to think about what I ate for breakfast when I am searching for a mid-morning snack. The second connection is what I am talking about here, that the egg was keeping him satiated and focused through the morning. So not only do the fats have the health benefits I have mentioned above, they give you more freedom to move through your day without constantly looking for that next blood sugar spike for energy. You may even find your mood is more stable without the hunger pains always knocking.

Ghee and MCT Oil. These are the most concentrated “clean” saturated fats you can find. This can definitely help keep you energized, focused, and satisfied throughout the day. Ghee is a clarified butter with virtually all of the protein removed, so it is possible that people with a dairy allergy can tolerate it.

Literally in-between writing this post I visited my tailor to get alterations done to my suits to make them fit me again now that I have lost all this weight. She is a pleasant Italian woman and she asked me if I did anything special to lose the weight.

I said  “Yeah, a lot of stuff including eating more raw vegetables and cutting out most carbs.”

She asked “You mean carbs like pasta?”

I said “Yeah I still eat some carbs like white rice, sweet potatoes, and very little bread or pasta.”

She goes “Well its not the pasta that is bad, its the stuff you put on it.”

I ask “What do you mean?”

She says “You know… like Alfredo sauce.”

And there it connected with me the perception and the paradigm that has really taken a hold of most people in America. Now I know this woman makes her own homemade Alfredo sauce which is rich with butter, heavy cream, and Parmesan cheese. That is an amazing food! If I could somehow convince her to substitute out the pasta and drizzle that amazing Alfredo over some steamed broccoli it would be the best improvement she could ever make to her diet. But, me not being clever enough to come up with all that at the time, I simply said:

“Yeah but Alfredo sauce is so good!”

So while I may have failed that opportunity to convert her over to being a fat eater, I am hopeful that small nudges will keep people moving in the right direction. I would never want to condemn a food from a person, but my strategy is to clutter up my fridge with so much good food there isn’t any room left for other indulgences. When it is time for a celebration is the time I like to loosen up on my diet.

Thanks for reading! What butter-based food are you excited to start eating again?

-Andrew

How to Properly Butter Your Bread AKA How to Avoid Making a Butter Sandwich

Hi Everyone! Happy Flag Day and Welcome to my Birthday Post!

Today I’d like to introduce a new type of post! Its more of a short interlude post. Meant to transition to one of my larger posts and possibly have some more humor to it. Here I will be going over my instructions on how to properly butter your bread when you are amongst good company or at a fancy location. So this is more of a tutorial to help people increase their stature in the world. This was taught to me while I was young by my Memere, and I have previously shared it to a select few of my friends who were unfortunate enough to eat with me and have me correct them in the process. Once I dropped this truth bomb on them they never forgot it!

It is worth while to mention that I do not eat bread often anymore. But when I do eat bread, I think it is important that copious amounts of butter or olive oil be spread over it. Stay tuned for my next post about the benefits of butter!

I think the best way to convince you of the Proper way to butter your bread, is to first demonstrate for you the Improper way that you have probably been doing for a long time.

The Butter Sandwich

1. To make the butter sandwich you are first presented with a roll or piece of a roll. You are also given a butter knife, a Couture butter knife, and some butter either in packets or part of a larger dollop. I don’t have the Couture butter knife for this first presentation, but that is the angled knife that stays with the butter.

2. Take your butter knife and hack at the side of the roll to make a horizontal cut all the way through. If you are lucky you may have a sharper knife on hand like I did, or at least a steak knife there to saw your way through easier. In most cases it leaves behind a lot of crumbs or makes jagged edges. If the roll is too tough then forget the knife and tear it in half with your hands.

3. Congratulations! You have hacked your roll in half. Now take that same butter knife and dip it in the butter and start spreading it over the inside of the bottom half of the roll. The butter is usually still refrigeration temperature so you will really want to work it in there. Otherwise it will be all clumpy.

4. Put the top half back on. You can kind of mash it down on there to give it one last chance to spread out the butter and to transfer some butter onto the top surface. You have constructed a butter sandwich! Doesn’t it look nice?

5. Now pick up that butter sandwich with your grubby hands and put a corner into your mouth. Tear apart that corner by closing your jaw down tight and pulling your hands away from your face with the sandwich. It should break apart and leave some part of it in your mouth. The larger part that is still in your hand –  now with a slobbery bite size hole – can be placed back on to your plate. Your first chews will likely have to be open-mouthed to get all of what was torn into your mouth. After you are done chewing and swallow, make sure you run your tongue across the front of your teeth to dislodge any extra particles of bread forced there from the tearing process.

5. Repeat step 5 until the butter sandwich has disappeared.

So that is the process for constructing and eating a butter sandwich. I do think butter sandwiches do have a place in life, like to pack for a picnic for 3-year-olds. But otherwise, consider my proposed proper method instead.

The Proper Butter Method

1. You have the same materials as in step one of the butter sandwich, but you immediately do something different.

2. Start by using the Couture butter knife to transport a reasonable sized dollop of butter from the main dish onto your plate. This will be used preferably for the entirety of the piece of bread you have, so size accordingly. If you take too little, it is ok to use the Couture butter knife again to add some more later.

3. Now using your hands you are allowed to break off a bite-sized piece of the bread. Return the main part back to the plate while keeping the bite size piece in your non-dominant hand.

4. Pick up the butter knife with your dominant hand and cut a reasonable sliver of butter from the dollup on your plate. Spread the butter onto the outward face of the bread in the other hand.

5. Thoughtfully place that buttered bite-size bread into your mouth. Chew completely and with your mouth closed. Preferably use those herbivore teeth in the back of your mouth to masticate the bread and avoid gumming up your front teeth with unsightly crumbs.

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until the roll or the butter is finished. If the butter is finished first, use the Couture butter knife again to get more butter onto your plate.

So there you have it! The proper way to butter and eat your bread. It may seem like trivial differences to some, but I hope by demonstrating the two methods here you will see the subtle differences can really add up to make it look like a completely different action. So please I’m begging you, the next time you are out in public don’t make a Butter Sandwich!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next blog where I reveal why I think this picture below should be the proper ratio of fats to carbs in my diet:

-Andrew

Fast Food Versus Batch Food

Welcome back everyone! Sorry for the hiatus, things got super busy after the Memorial Day holiday. I hope everyone had a great holiday! I actually started writing this post after the holiday but never finished. Now here is the much anticipated post:

At the end of Memorial Day Weekend we were driving home from Williamsburg Virginia where we had a great time at the Busch Gardens theme park and water park. Along the way we passed by a myriad of Fast-Food chains that are always peppered down the highways. We knew we were on a tight timeline to get home, since passing through New York city at the wrong time would certainly mean long delays and traffic. But this is a long 8 hour drive that we got up early for  and we were certainly starting to feel some hunger pains as the hours passed on! Luckily we had some waters and Honest Teas to keep us going for a while.

So we were on the hunt for somewhere to eat along the route home. We have already excluded almost all fast food joints from our minds as options to eat. However, when I really think about it, fast food appeals very much to my industrial engineer mind set. When we think about delivering a product to a customer in this day and age we are primarily focused on cost, quality, and time to deliver. On cost fast food on a high level always has a competitive edge, although a lot of highway fast food places have their prices jacked up way higher than normal. The term quality is open to interpretation since most of us question the quality of the foods at fast food places in terms of health. However quality also implies consistency and reliability, that you can go to any McDonalds around the world and always get the exact same meal. That is an amazing feat, however it may come at the cost of over-processing and adding preservatives. I actually just saw a great article about McDonalds french fries quality control here.  When we talk about time to deliver this is also key, modern customers always want their product exactly when they need it. Here we wanted something quick that we can possibly take with us in the car. So on all accounts for the modern engineer Fast Food seems to fit the bill.

Fried Chicken is America!

Ultimately we looked up a Wegmans grocery store that was off the highway to eat at their prepared foods section. Ironically it was the Wegmans in Woodbridge, New Jersey near the chemical production plant that I had worked at for 8 months, so I had already been to this location numerous times. I got their wild caught salmon sushi that they were newly featuring, it was quite good! So this detour cost us an extra 5 minutes off the highway, 45 minutes to get our food and eat (its hard to eat with chopsticks and drive), and then get back on the highway. Luckily we were still early enough to avoid true rush hour traffic, and were back on pace to get home at a reasonable time.

When we finally got home we were exhausted from the long day of driving, but I had some work to do! I had a batch of sauerkraut that had been fermenting for a full 4 weeks! I used the wild fermentation method which means I used no starter culture and it is a long process. It was ready to be jarred and go into the fridge. On top of that my kombucha was smelling finished too, so I jarred it and started another batch. I also had some dehydrated sweet potato chips and some homemade beef jerky all in the fridge (I keep them in the fridge because I make them with no preservatives, other than salt). So my point is I had a pretty good feast of sauerkraut, kombucha, beef jerky, and sweet potatoes waiting at home for me ready to snack on.

My batch of sauerkraut all jarred up!

And that’s where it connected with me that all my food had been made as part of batch processes. As in the typical definition of the work, a batch is a quantity of material that moves together through a process, like a batch of laundry. Certain batches can take longer than others, such as the sauerkraut taking 4 weeks, kombucha 1 week, and dehydrated foods 1-2 days. There are many inefficiencies involved with batch processing which is why most production facilities will try to move way from that to a more “fast food” approach. The inefficiencies include managing extra inventory and work-in-process inventory, any materials that you have sitting in stock isn’t making you money, and in a way it is a liability that it could become expired due to shelf life or other issues. It terrifies me when I have a batch of sauerkraut sitting for weeks that could potentially get overrun with mold during the process. Another classic waste is waiting, obviously I’m not standing and staring at my food for 4 weeks for it to be finished and the key to managing waiting time is to make sure you are busy doing other things. So even if you are brewing some coffee in the morning you want to make sure you are effectively filling your time with other things.

A batch of kombucha!

But the nice thing about having batch processes is that once its done, it is available anytime I want it similar to fast food. I can adjust the batch sizes accordingly depending on the factors of shelf life and consumption. If I plan on eating a lot, then I need to make bigger batches to hold me over as long as they don’t sit out too long and get spoiled. And really there isn’t a lot of work that goes into them, mostly just waiting time that if you manage effectively you won’t even notice. I like to think that on a bigger scale we have essentially “outsourced” our foods to fast-food places. We have relied on them to do our batch processing. On a global scale there are a lot more wastes being generated through fast food, such as conveyance (movement of goods from one place to another), overprocessing (for sure), and tons of inventory waste. By bringing food production back “in-house” we can lower the burden on environment, and ensure the quality of our food. The exciting part is that every batch can be a little different, so even though that may annoy people not to get a consistent product, my mind starts to get excited to try to understand the reasons why batches might differ, and what variables are key to ensure consistency. More on that in another post!

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

Learning to See – Organically

So far I have been very appreciative of all the feedback and support that this blog has gotten! Already people have made useful questions and requests for future posts! An core goal of the lean methodologies is to satisfy customers, especially through direct market feedback! So thanks everyone and feel free to give me feedback here or on my new Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/435470066631192/

So on to the post! Learning to See is actually the title of a lean book that describes the methods of Value Stream Mapping, or VSM. Before I describe what Values Steam Mapping is, however, I want to talk more about the title of the book. Learning to See… “Learning to See What?” You might ask. We are looking for Waste, or Muda in Japanese. The idea is that there are wastes and inefficiencies all throughout our processes, we are either too complacent or aren’t trained properly to identify them. And sometimes identifying the waste or problem is harder than solving the problem itself. So once you are trained on this methodology you can quickly start targeting areas for improvement and implementing solutions. Think about when an entire team or factory trained like this they will be able to generate great momentum towards improvements!

The same thing has happened to me in my journey into healthier foods. When you go shopping you typically pick up the foods that are normal to your personal process, and rarely do you see anything wrong with that. Now that I have been trained on raw foods, real foods, whole foods, unprocessed foods it is like I am going through the grocery store with a different set of eyes. When I walk through the aisles it is like all the unhealthy foods are blurred out to me, and I can hone in on the good stuff. Its an amazing paradigm shift when you start to think of food that does not serve you truly as “waste.” Without all that waste and clutter I can really focus on what is important in serving my body to make it function at peak performance.

For example, the thing that inspired me to write this post was that I was shopping at BJ’s Wholesale club for the first time in a while. I was picking up some stuff for a picnic, and thought I would scrounge around and see if I can find any of my real foods that I want in my life. See in the pictures what I found!

  

I found organic coconut oil for $11.99 for a 36 oz container, at Whole Foods I get a 16 oz container for $10! I found organic salad greens and organic chia seeds which is great! I also found nitrite free bacon, at $2 less per lb than Whole Foods’ price! And these are a few of the core staples of my diet now, and now I can get some decent bulk pricing. That’s pretty exciting for me at least! I think this is huge considering the fact that a lot of people see the costs of health foods as a barrier to entry, and the other barrier is that logistically you don’t know where to get it if you aren’t near a Whole Foods. Even the local Stop and Shop and Big Y’s have increasingly growing “healthy foods” sections, which are also giving more competition to Whole Foods space.

So that got me thinking, why are general grocery stores stocking these healthier items now? They have no incentive to start selling these unless they have an opportunity for a profit, or that there is a big enough market for them to move in on.  They haven’t even made big splashes in the press the way Chipotle, Panera, Chick-Fil-A, or any other fast food place is doing to market some big new health improvement in their menu. So really what must be happening is that we have a lot of people that have “learned to see” and it is influencing the the neighborhood grocery centers around us! And like I said as we get more people trained on seeing we are going to have a lot of organic growth (pun intended) in these areas! So definitely keep your eyes open for improvements all around you!

I’ll have to cover the rest of Value Stream Mapping in another post! Stay tuned! Thanks for reading.

-Andrew

Standing For Work

My new standing workstation! You can see on the floor my make-shift mat and green polyurethane puck.

A few days ago my new sit-stand workstation came in the mail! It was a fairly quick setup, I followed along the instruction manual as though it were a Lego set. No words were needed! I set it up, adjusted it to my height, and started standing at my computer. As soon as I had finished my boss walked in the room and told me about his standing desk and how it had helped cure his sciatica. That’s pretty cool! I was actually finally inspired to order my workstation after sitting in 3 days of classroom training for Shainin. The classroom had terrible chairs and I could feel my legs being pinched. Half of the training I had to stand up in the back of the room. There it kind of clicked in my head that 1) I can stand for most of the day, and 2) it is likely better for my blood circulation.

For a while before the decision I had been thinking about it. I kept seeing articles titled “Sitting is the New Smoking” that were freaking me out. On top of that I noticed I am much more sensitive to what I am sitting on now, likely due to having less natural cushioning down there! I can’t even sit with my wallet in my back pocket, I usually get the urge to pull it out after I sit down.

So all of this had compelled me to start researching standing sit-stand workstations. I found two companies that had designs that I like, Kangaroo and Ergotron. Ultimately, I chose Ergotron and a big reason is that we already use a lot of Ergotron products at work. Which mean’t I was already familiar with their designs, have better commonality between parts, and I know they have good products.

The first few days have been an interesting adjustment. It definitely feels more natural to walk up to my desk and just start working. Usually there is some ritual of approaching the desk, pulling out the chair, sitting down, and hunkering down to get started working. While working at the desk, I quickly realized I needed a cushioning mat, so I use some foam material that we produce as a mat. Also in my research of the mat I noticed a neat new product, called Topo by ergodriven.com. I liked how it had several different elevations to encourage changes in position which is good for stretching different areas of the leg. To make my own I dropped down a few polyurethane blocks on the floor around the mat. I found that I can usually last the full morning standing, sit for lunch, and then after lunch I alternate standing and sitting depending on how I feel.

The social responses have been interesting. One co-worker asked me “What the hell are you doing?” I find it funny, in a factory where most workers are looking for more ways to sit, I am choosing to stand for more of my day. A few people asked me if I have back issues, which I don’t really have an answer for. One co-worker leveled with me and asked me why I got the standing desk. My answer was that I am terrified of getting old. Kind of an odd answer, but that was the truth. I think a big part of this journey I am on is to avoid getting old. I do like how this new desk is feeling, so I will have to come back with an update if I think it is successful!

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

Every Story Starts With a Name

Hello Everyone! Or No-one right now as this is the first post to bring this blog into existence. I’ve recently been inspired to start writing about my new experiences in the realms of health, weight loss, nutrition, and life. I am writing this after losing a significant amount of weight and feeling more energized than ever before! But more on that will come later. Really I need to dump as much information as I can into this blog, mostly for the sake of my own memory. I believe in doing so I can create some meaningful content out there for people who may find it useful, and hopefully build a community of people sharing information.

The general format of this blog will be that I’d like to create new posts… say at least twice a week. Included will be a clever picture which may better illustrate what I am saying. Or it may just present at fun concept. Like this one of me preparing some raw vegan meals!

This first post I feel like I need to explain the name of this blog. I started with the title of the URL being Sustenance Kaizen. So I realize that this isn’t going to be a top hitter for people Google searching for healthy life communities. The key is that there is a lot of meaning behind these words. With the word Sustenance you think about the things that support life; especially nutrition, food, and environment we live in. That’s where I want to focus this blog about, or rather not focus the blog. I won’t make this blog all about food, since I believe that is only half the battle, I want this to be about all aspects of life.

The word that many people may not know is Kaizen which is a Japanese term for “good change.” This term has been made popular in industries like Toyota, GE, and United Technologies implementing manufacturing improvements such as Lean and Six Sigma. By using this word I’d like to integrate my background as an engineer in industry with my growing awareness of health. In doing so I can create a more structured approach – at least when I have time –  to apply life improving principles in a systematic way. This is sometimes counter to what classical methods would say, where you are looking for the next big breakthrough typically through radical change or new technology. When it comes to personal health I fear we may be overwhelmed by everything that is required and it is destined to fail. Or we may be waiting for some miracle cure of technology to assist us. The Kaizen way of thinking is more to focus on many small changes to improve an entire system. When you start to build momentum with this process you are more likely sustain the gains and it encourages you to continue on this path. At least that has been my experience, so I plan on using this mind-set to guide my future posts.

Hence the name Whole Life Kaizen (or Sustenance Kaizen… still pending) meaning continuously improving our entire life situation. Another way of putting I heard recently, is to choose to do one thing every day that will make you better. That is what I am all about.

So I am excited to start this blogging journey here!

-Andrew