The Humble Morning Coffee

Earlier tonight I have been examining my food intakes in my current diet, and trying to figure out why for the last 12 months I haven’t been able to make a significant dent in the 8-10kg of midriff fat I have remaining.

At the end of it, something interesting emerged from crunching the approximate caloric numbers and may serve to explain the discrepancy - coffee.

The coffee machine I use in work actually outputs two serves per (massive) cup, at around 500ml. With the milk we use, standard milk, not full cream, it’s around 200 calories per shot which means per cup is around 400 calories simply in milk calories. If I have 2-3 of these cups every day, I’ve added around 2-3 standard meals to my diet simply by drinking these, or 800-1200 calories.

With other foods consumed throughout the day, 3 days out of 7, I consume a bit more than I am burning. It means I’m not losing, I’m very slowly gaining.

I guess the lesson is, if you’re trying to lose weight, the cardinal rule is to output more than you consume and create a nutritional track record. Hence, if you do let yourself go, without realizing, the maths can show you the holes.

After years of dithering and hard introspection I’ve finally decided to begin a blog again with a different focus. Welcome to ReactionDynamics, a blog and portfolio site based around my life and work!

What Happened?

For those who don’t know me, or those who asked me why I gave up blogging, I used to be a blogger on several sites years ago, when the blogosphere was all shiny and new. I was passionate about topics dear to me, and some readers took it so seriously that I had to shutter my doors for fear of IRL retaliation. Things got out of hand, but additionally my life took a huge turn and I couldn’t devote huge amounts of time that I used to spend. I’d been studying. I was all over the place. Reactionary, and full of fire. In some ways, I still am, but it’s been tempered with a little more wisdom.

Why the Blog?

In the intervening years, I’ve learned a lot about work, life, technology, and the web in general. I’m active in the new wave of ’social media’, what I call ’share media’. The web is now what I design and write for a living, and is what I’m passionate about.

I needed a new outlet, and a new beginning, for that creativity and passion I’ve held back, and this site will serve as the hub for that. I hope you stick around and become a regular reader, but even if you don’t, I hope you take something away from the knowledge and discussion I will produce on here.

Ohh, and excuse the emptiness, I’m just moving in and there’s plenty to be done :)