My Recipe for Losing Weight

There are three types of problems.  A simple problem, such as following a recipe, might require some knowledge or mastery of certain techniques, but generally carries with it a high assurance of success.  Complicated problems, like sending a rocket into space, while not being as easy to master, can still be broken down into many simple problems.  Once one addresses issues of coordination and scale, they, too, are likely to succeed upon repetition.  In contrast, complex problems, such as raising a child, depend on multiple interconnected relationships, making each instance unique.  Losing weight, it would appear, is a complex problem.  While there are certain immutable principles, such as calories in < calories out, what works for some may not work for others.  Having said that, now that I’ve figured out what works for me, I’d like to share it with the world in case anyone happens to be in a similar predicament.

How I looked on my first bike ride in years.

Frequently Asked Questions on Kayak Commuting

Here is what the Oru kayak plus all my gear look like loaded up on the bike. While the kayak is not all that heavy, it is a bit awkwardly shaped for my rack. Fortunately, it squeezes under my seat just right and tends to stay put when secured using bungee cables.

Last Friday I loaded the Oru Kayak onto my bike in the morning for only the second time and headed out to work.  It was to be my first round trip kayak commute.  Given the tricky logistics of a one-way kayak commute, I was very much looking forward to getting in some more paddling without having to carry the kayak half a mile into my office first.  Predictably, the process of setting up and dismantling the boat in Manhattan always attracts a crowd of curious onlookers with myriad questions.  I’ve also gotten quite a few questions from friends and colleagues both online and in real life.  Here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions I’ve received.

My First Kayak Commute

Adventure Sunday kayak trip in the Croton River with family and friends.  We had remarkably beautiful weather for the kayak portion of our adventure on an otherwise rainy day.

In the previous post, I described the genesis of the idea of a kayak commute and some of the initial steps taken towards bringing that idea to reality.  I acquired an Oru folding kayak, went out on a guided trip across the Hudson, and honed my kayaking skills with family and friends.  The foundation had been laid for me to complete my first solo kayak trip across the Hudson as part of my daily commute.

Building Towards a Kayak Commute

I don’t often get to take the long way to work given my school drop-off responsibilities.  But there I was, on a bright and crisp morning during Spring Break week, crossing the GW bridge with one colleague and on my way to pick up another colleague for a joint bike commute.  Looking out over the Hudson, I thought about how great it would be to cross the river without having to come all the way uptown first.  There must be a way.

Maybe Cycling Isn’t Enough

The path to weight loss turned out looking a lot like this.

I didn’t start bike commuting purely for fitness and weight loss purposes, but it was certainly a very big plus.  As I wrote in my previous post, the 100+ mile per week commute from Riverdale helped me lose weight pretty much no matter what I was eating, but just a few months after moving to the city (and after a very harsh winter that didn’t allow for much riding) my cycling mileage shrank dramatically and I regained all that weight.  I had resolved to get back on the path to good health and fitness.

A Little Cycling Goes a Short Way

About a year ago I wrote about how cycling to work every day from Riverdale helped me lose about 12 lbs and achieve much better overall fitness.  Back then and over the ensuing summer, I averaged over 100 miles per week cycling.  With a minimum round-trip length of 22 miles (and occasionally taking longer routes of over 20 miles one-way) plus frequent weekend riding, I was burning calories and shedding pounds with ease.  No matter what I ate, it seemed, I was still burning far more than I was consuming.  But at the end of that summer, when we moved to the City, …

Rinkonomics and Traffic Justice

Fewer injuries occur on the rink than on trampolines, skateboards, or baseball fields, despite the seemingly chaotic atmosphere. I was also shocked to see so many kids wearing helmets despite their proven lack of effectiveness in the most common types of ice skating injuries.

I just listened to a fascinating (as always) Freakonomics podcast about a concept developed by Economics Professor Daniel Klein called Rinkonomics.  On an ice skating rink, a few simple rules (everyone skating in the same general direction, no cell phones allowed, etc.) suffice to keep everyone relatively happy and safe.  Given the lack of central control and direction, someone unfamiliar with a rink might think that collisions would be extremely common.  In fact, as I can attest from recent experience, collisions are very rare and the most common type of injury is self-inflicted and involves only one skater.

Klein goes on to make the case for the rink as an analogy for economic life in general, and against central planning.  However, I was most struck by the following quote explaining why the rink functions as it does:

An important quality of collision is mutuality. If I collide with you, then you collide with me. And if I don’t collide with you, you don’t collide with me. In promoting my interest in avoiding collision with you, I also promote your interest in avoiding collision with me.

Therein lies the key to understanding, and potentially solving, one of the biggest public health crises (and undoubtedly the biggest public health crisis facing children) of our era.

City Living: Family in New York City

This is my fourth post in my series on city living.  For earlier posts see

• Lessons learned from week 1
• One hectic month
• Sunday street fair

A word of warning: I have a lot of weakly related ideas floating in my head these days, and today’s post is more my way of sorting through it than an attempt to convey any particular message.

Staying in the city after starting a family and raising kids may be increasingly popular, but there’s still a fair number of people who end up leaving for the suburbs.  Since my wife and I have actually lived in multiple suburban communities, and visited or explored several more, we are often asked what each of them are like.  However, looking back at the people we met in the suburbs and comparing them to the people we’ve recently met in the City, I now realize that this information about individual suburbs is far less useful than most people imagine.

Taking Back the Streets: How to Solve NYC’s Parking Problem

I’ve spent hours in search of the elusive free parking spot in NYC, marked by a sign such as this one indicating the relatively few hours of the week during which parking is not allowed there.

Last week I described how the series of street fairs in our neighborhood got me thinking about the under-allocation of space to pedestrians and the need for more places for kids to go out and play.  Late last week I brought the car home from its increasingly long-term parking spot at work in order to facilitate some weekend travels and shopping.  The hours I spent circling the neighborhood searching for free parking have given me plenty of time to contemplate alternatives to the horrendous state of parking in Manhattan.

Taking Back the Streets: Pedestrian Spaces and a Crosstown Bike Route

Another Sunday, another street fair.  This past Sunday’s street fair on 100th St between Broadway and West End was not quite as extensive as last week’s, which closed down half of Broadway for 10 blocks.  Nevertheless, it had the obligatory bouncy castle, which of course meant we had to stop while my daughter played.

My daughter pauses from fishing in a kiddie pool and getting her face painted to listen to a kid-friendly guitarist sing Old McDonald.

Walking about in the middle of a car-free street for the second week in a row got me thinking about street allocation space in New York City more generally.