Campus in the Springtime

I'm working on campus four days a week for a couple of months, and if you ever get the opportunity to do so in the springtime, I highly recommend it.

Every day at lunchtime, I set off for a walk from the College of Design, through the mall, over the Mississippi and back. Usually, I pick up a bit of lunch on the way to eat at my desk when I return. Combining this with parking at-distance from the U, it means I get about three miles of walking in a day. Not much, but when you're battling having no metabolism at all, every little bit counts.

Today was classic Spring. No preachers on the mall, but instead there was a pretty big rally and march protesting China and the Olympics in Beijing on behalf of Tibet. The milling throngs had mainly three parts:

1. Tibetan Sympathisers - among them, perhaps even some Tibetans. They are walking around with t-shirts, banners, symbolic torches, and having themselves a nice and orderly demonstration. Well, apart from the two shouting matches I saw. You can spot these guys from a distance by their air of moral superiority and the smugness of doing-something-about-a-bad-thing.

My favorite poster said "Chinese students are brainwashed". As if we all aren't, in some way or another.

2. Bewhildered and Hurt Chinese students, staff, and faculty. Some get angry and shout, some make reasoned arguments ("separate Chinese government from Chinese people" being chief among these.) Some hustle by, looking sad.

3. Jaded passers by. Many people, insulated by their white earbuds, sunglasses, and businesslike gait, just march on by. Spend enough time at the U and you'll see enough protests, marches, and rallies to choke a horse.

I don't know all the nitty gritty details of the Tibet situation, but it does seem a sad one. However, today, the people I felt badly for were the Chinese students standing in sad huddles, and walking with their heads down.

Zimbabwe? Really?

With a combination of colds, travel, coughs, and a soupcon of laziness, I've sort of fallen off the exercise bandwagon. I'm running after it - went for a lovely long walk yesterday and didn't cough once! In fact, I only coughed three times yesterday, and that's awesome news. I've got my workout gear with me, and have scheduled a visit to the gym after work.

Something else I'm doing is tracking my daily consumption on DailyPlate.com. I've learned a few things.

I eat more carby stuff than I should, but still way less than the average American.

According to DailyPlate, I'm allowed about 1800 calories per day for my weight and activity level, if I want to lose 2 lbs a week.

According to them I generally do eat 1800 calories per day naturally. Awesome! I'm not losing weight much, but we all know that there are various other things at play here including basal metabolic rate. Actually, I often eat quite a bit less.

When I have a bad day, my calories can go as high as 2400. That's really really high for me, and happens every couple of weeks or so.

So, it was no small measure of amusement that I came across this today: http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2006/12/27/do_americans_eat_3790_calories_per_day.php

So it seems that the average American from 2000 to 2002 ate 3790 calories per day. WOW.

I'd love to eat that much. Mmm.

Apparently in 1979-1981 the average American ate 3180 calories - a difference from today of 610 calories. Approximately the calories in a McDonald's Super Sized French Fries.

A sobering note. Zimbabwe (according to the link above) in 2000-2002 showed a daily consumption of 2,020 calories. That's still more than I eat.

Finally, check this out : http://www.calorierestriction.org/

There is research showing that restricting calorie consumption can lengthen lifespan. I can't really comment since I haven't read the research yet. They steer clear of making daily caloric intake recommendations (very smart, imho) on that site. More information here, including a pretty compelling discussion of the risks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction

Why do I bring this up? Well, the New York Times has an interesting article here: http://nymag.com/news/features/23169/

Dude tried the calorie restriction diet. He ate 1800 calories per day. Granted, he's 5'11" and I'm barely 5'9", but still... that's interesting.