Project management

Measuring your health

Are you currently on a diet, or planning to start one? Most people who try to drop a few pounds are obsessed with measurements. They check their calorie intake, waistline and weight. This is all fine, but do they have a meaningful plan to ensure proper progress? I think they don’t.

There was a fantastic article on this subject in a trade journal I sometimes skim through; Chemical Engineering Progress (August issue). If you are interested, you can read the article for yourself. However, here are the take-away points:

Monitor your fat percentage, not weight alone. Aim for a loss of one-half percentage point per week for sustained and sustainable fat-loss.

Also plan for a 500-calorie energy deficit; make sure you take in less calories than you burn each day. A difference of 500 calories should be efficient (and result in approximately one-half percentage point drop per week in fat percentage).

How do you measure fat percentage? There are several machines available, but for a quick estimate, you can compute it from measuring your height, waistline and neckline and combine all of that in a formula:

For men: F=86.01 x log (WC – NC) – 70.04 x log (H) + 36.74

For women: F=163.205 x log (WC + HC – NC) – 97.68 x log (H) – 78.387

• WC = waist circumferance (in)
• HC = hips circumferance (in)
• NC = neck circumferance (in)
• H = height (inches)

Aim for 1/4 inch accuracy. Good luck!

Summer ramblings: the art of not checking mail

I just finished the book "the 4-hour workweek" by Tim Feriss. I found his thoughts are pretty much aligned with mine: measure what counts, eliminate distractions, and do not over-communicate. Too bad he published his book before I started this blog.

I think the best point of the book is the focus on not checking email too often. Simply rurnng off push notification on the phone is bliss.

Enjoy the summer and close Outlook before is's too late!

Dodging the tax collector - legally

Do you pay your taxes with a smile? I figured not. At least I know that I don't. Some of it, sure. I'm all in for pooling up money for the good of society, but not like giving away my savings. It is my money, earned through my value creating activities anyway, right? So, how can we avoid just handing the money over to the tax collector, without risking jail time or big fines?

Well, there are many ways, and which ones you can use depends on where you live, your attitude towards risk and your age. I live in Norway, Europe - the little spoiled, rich country with the oil and gas in Scandinavia. We have an excellent tax saving option for young people called BSU - which is a special savings account for the first down payment on your mortgage, which gives you a tax exempt on a portion of the money you put into that account. So, if you are saving for you first house, this is an excellent option.

Lots of people are putting away money for retirement, and they should. Even in countries with large social welfare programs this is a necessity if you want to keep a high standard of living after you quit working. In many countries there are tax-exempt mutual funds you can invest in with a fixed savings plan. Many of these are geared towards retirement planning, and some may be presented as retirement insurance with a savings option. Check out what's there in your own country.

Also, if you are going to get rid of stocks where you will realize a loss, that loss will give you a tax reduction in most civilized countries. Therefore, dump the losers and save the tax (if you don't think they will regain their lost value).

What about short term tax dodging then? Well, I haven't really found any legal ways to do that.

Coping with cold weather

I have been to busy to update this blog for a while. Amazingly enough, people still keep coming back to it. I am stunned and grateful for this fact.

This winter has shown few signs of global warming. Of course, linking the weather the last couple of months in those places where I have been roaming for this period to global warming is bogus. However, it is still a very realistic local cooling happening. Europe has seen the coldest start of January in 30 years, and temperatures down to -40 degrees (Celsius) have been reported in Norway and Sweden. How do we cope with such temps without severely limiting our lives?

Some limitation must be taken into account. However, there are a few things we can do to make life more comfortable. First of all, get yourself some woolen clothes, preferably 100% wool underwear (not your boxers or lingerie, but to cover most of your skin). This'll make your outdoor adventures more endurable. Second, get some nice music on your new portable device. Did you get a nice iPod touch for X-mas? Lucky you! Then, buy some books. Hide inside your home and enjoy the literature. Some very nice reads I've enjoyed lately:

• The Sun Also Rises
• Wicked Prey (Lucas Davenport Mysteries)
  
• Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34
  

And - behold - remember to drink enough coffee!