This is a new thing that I want to try out. There are many things I want to share with you all and things I want to document for myself, but most topics aren’t long enough for their own posts. In the interest of keeping this blog as a single source of truth for everything about me, I’m going to post them here. Here are some things you can expect.

1. Events
2. Things I found
3. Goals and progress
4. Projects
5. Questions I have

There are a few goals for this new type of post:

1. Honesty. I currently share mostly positive thoughts. It’s not an accurate portrayal of me.
2. Accountability. I frequently make plans, but never follow through.
3. Feedback. I hope that being more open will allow you all to be candid with me.

Please read and share your thoughts. Also, make sure to read the fitness section. I explain how I will literally give you money whenever I slack off.

Fitness

I finally got around to having a DXA scan done. Here are the results.

I’m at 24.6 percent body fat. This puts me between the lower 60th and 80th percentile among 20 to 29 year old males that were tested. After receiving the results, I felt just like what I felt the last time that I failed a test in school. It’s a real wake-up call. What led me here? Eating habits.

Growing up, I usually ate at a moderate pace and didn’t overeat. In the last 5 years, that started changing. Between March and May of this year it reached a peak. I had 4 incidents where I felt so nauseous that I was unable to sleep all night. It had a heavy effect on my life. After a few doctors visits, experimentation and close observation of my habits, I pinpointed overeating as the cause.

I have found that I need to eat more to feel satiated and I frequently tend to feel discomfort after eating. Overeating started weakening my cardiac sphincter, causing acid reflux, which in turn caused nausea.

My eating habits have also clearly prevented me from meeting my fitness goals. Last year, I ran the Big Sur Marathon in 4 hours and 23 minutes, which is roughly a 10 minute pace. While that is a respectable result, I have always intended on breaking the top 5 percent of my age group. Reaching that goal requires running in 3 hours and 15 minutes or under. To get there, not only will I have to train more, I need to eat better and shed some fat.

This is where you all come in. To make sure that I am accountable for my training and more importantly, for my eating, I will make you all an offer. Any time you talk to me in the next year (until August 2016) in person or digitally you may ask me if I deviated from my training and eating goals the day before. If I cheated and I don’t have a good reason (injured, unrelated health issue require diet change, etc.), then I will give you a dollar.

Exceptions and limits: The limit will be ten dollars a day. So, up to 10 people can get 1 dollar from me every day. While on vacation, I don’t need to follow my eating plan, but I do need to follow my running plan.

The running plan is 5 normal runs from Monday through Friday and one long run on the weekend. The eating plan will basically be the Slow-Carb Diet: no white carbs, no sugar, mostly vegetables and protein. Also, I will have 2 cheat meals per weekend where I can eat anything I want. Those don’t count.

Obsessions / Finds

ねこあつめ (Neko Atsume) – iOS Android My latest mobile game obsession. Leave toys and food out for cats. Check back occasionally to see them play, photograph them, name them. Here is a walkthrough and the subreddit.

Moodnotes – Thought Journal / Mood Diary – iOS Mood journalling app from ustwo, the creators of Monument Valley. Grounded in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and positive psychology.

Design Details – link A podcast that features interviews with product, interface and graphic designers in the Bay Area.

Events

July 8 // Percolate DesignTalk Presents Building from Scratch – link Bumped into Nancy at PA Caltrain Station and rode up together. Learned things in a few of the talks. Met other designers.

July 9 // MUJI Presents “Objective Thinking” with Naoto Fukasawa – link Event celebrating Muji’s soon to open Palo Alto store (at Stanford Shopping Center). Met one of my design heroes, Naoto Fukasawa. Was interrupted by David Kelley, another design hero. I have never seen that many top design people in one place before. Got Naoto to sign a phone he designed. Tom and David Kelley starting following me on Twitter.

July 11 // Canepa Cars & Coffee – link Probably the best Cars & Coffee (meetup of car enthusiasts) in the country at the moment. Met up with Sean at Canepa. Saw something like 5 959s, a EB110, an M1, a (possibly replica) 250 GTO, a Miura and tons of Porsches.

July 11 // K-Pop Dance Festival – Eric and I went to watch and support Michelle at her dance performance. Saw Nancy, Paul and a few other folks there. Fun!

July 18 // The World is Heidi’s Oyster – Heidi had her birthday at Hog Island Oyster Co. in Marshall. Enjoyed shucking and eating fresh oysters and bbq that Heidi prepared with friends. Photos to come (hopefully sooner than 9 months).

July 19 // Renegade Craft Fair – link Many craftspeople and artists gathered to show off and sell their creations. Seemed like an Etsy convention. Q had a great time. Probably better for women. Photos from Instagram: 1 2 3

July 19 // Mathilda The Musical – link Went with Q and Natalie. Super fun. Way different than the movie. Makes me want to read the book.

July 25 // 28 Chinese at the Asian Art Museum  – link Q, Natalie, Dustin, Tiffany, Kevin and I visited the Asian Art Museum to view the 28 Chinese exhibit and the regular collection. Photos from Instagram: 1 2 3 4 5 6

July 26 // SF Marathon (first half)  – link Jeff, Natalie and I ran. Q drove us to and from. We met up with Ming after the race. Jeff and I had a good race. Despite two bathroom breaks, we still managed a 2:13 time. Pace and split information.

July 28 // Cast Party Podcast Festival  – link Q and I watched a live broadcast of the Cast Party podcast festival in a theater. It was ok. I’m guessing fans of the specific podcasts represented had a better time. Wouldn’t go again.