Today I learned from an episode of an online course, 2 articles, and 2 newsletters. Topics covered include carb cycling, cooking soup, saying “no,” and creating white space.
Videos
- I watched an episode of the Great Courses course titled “Rediscover the Lost Art of Cooking.” The lesson was “Soups from around the world.” It didn’t focus on technique, but Chef Bill Briwa shared 4 soup recipes:
- Tom kha gai
- Gazpacho
- French onion soup
- Ribolitta
If you want to know why I’m taking a cooking course right now, check out the Launch post for my April 2020 experiment: Avoiding Heavily Processed Foods.
Reading
Liberal Arts and Business School
First, I read an article by Riana Shah in the MIT Sloan Student Blogs on reasons that liberal arts undergrads are well-prepared for business school. She says that a liberal arts education prepares you to learn from ambiguity, synthesize knowledge from disparate topics, and communicate well. All of these qualities also help you succeed in an MBA program and business in general.
If you want to know more, I recommend checking out You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a “Useless” Liberal Arts Education by George Anders wherever you find your books. Josh Kaufman’s gives an overview of business principles and a compelling case to skip MBA programs in The Personal MBA. Lastly, Praxis provides a wonderful boot camp experience to prepare you for work in business and gives a compelling case to opt-out of college entirely.
Riana is a Swarthmore alum who was a Fellow with the Frank 5 Fellowship program of the Aydelotte Foundation. At the time, I worked as an admin assistant at the Aydelotte Foundation. I met Riana and the other fellows for a teamwork experience with PhillyCAM in Philadelphia. She has described herself as a “Badass entrepreneur & WOC” and I must agree.
Carb Cycling
On my notes for 18 April 2020, I mentioned Vince Sant’s recommendation that the correct combination of 3 practices is the key to quickly and sustainably decreasing body fat while building muscle (lean bulking). Those 3 practices are Time Under Tension (TUT), carb cycling and flexible dieting, and High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).
Today, I read a Healthline article on carb cycling by Rudy Mawer. I’m not a doctor, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Here’s what I learned from this article.
Basically, carb cycling is a dieting technique where you cycle your carbohydrate consumption. You may cycle on a daily basis, having high-, moderate-, and low-carb days. Or, you may cycle on a larger schedule, such as 14 days or 4 weeks. On this larger scale, you may have 11 of the 14 days as low-carb days. Then 3 of the 14 days as high-carb days.
The reason for cycling carbs, if cycling on a daily basis, is to meet the demands of your daily activity. If you’re resting today, then low-carb is appropriate. If you’re exercising anaerobically, then moderate carb is appropriate. Lastly, if you’re exercising aerobically, then today should be a high-carb day.
In theory, carb cycling allows you to reap the benefits of a low-carb diet and a high-carb diet. Some benefits from a low-carb diet may include “better insulin sensitivity, increased fat burning, improved cholesterol, and enhanced metabolic health.” Benefits from a high-carb diet may include improved performance and recovery, nutrient delivery, hormonal control, and glycogen replenishment.
In reality, scientists need to complete interventional studies before the good theory of carb cycling can be approved for practice. This doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with carb cycling yourself, though. Just be cautious and consider consulting with a physician or dietician.
Also, the meanings of low-, moderate-, and high-carb consumption are subjective. Personal experimentation and documentation are recommended when beginning carb cycling. I imagine experimenting with carb cycling in the future but I am not going to do so right now.
Newsletters
I read Matt D’Avella’s 19 April 2020 newsletter titled “When to say yes and when to say no.” My main takeaway is that saying “no” doesn’t get easier over time. While distinguishing your priorities may become easier as you focus your attention and turn down irrelevant/inappropriate opportunities, the act of saying “no” and momentarily disappointing someone may not get easier.
Finally, “White Space” by Carl MH Barenbrug. An essay in the Simple Sunday newsletter by The Minimalists. In the essay, Barenbrug talks about the concept of white space in design. He then says it’s important to make white space in our daily life and environment. This white space can help you manage stress from information overload in your environment. The idea made me think of Greg McKeown’s admonition to create time to play, explore, and rest if you want to be healthy and meaningfully productive (Essentialism).
That’s all for today. I’ll be back with another update tomorrow!
The featured image is a photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash.
