Recent quotes:

Is the most effective weight-loss strategy really that hard? New study shows dietary self-monitoring takes less than 15 minutes a day -- ScienceDaily

What was most predictive of weight-loss success was not the time spent monitoring -- those who took more time and included more detail did not have better outcomes -- but the frequency of log-ins, confirming the conclusions of earlier studies. "Those who self-monitored three or more time per day, and were consistent day after day, were the most successful," Harvey said. "It seems to be the act of self-monitoring itself that makes the difference -- not the time spent or the details included."

Gyms That Make You Want to Exercise More - WSJ

Some Precor cardio equipment allows gym members to log in and save workouts. Precor found that people who save workouts go to the gym more often, according to data from about 25 clubs in Canada. “We can’t tell you that a saved workout drives people to come in more often,” Mr. Bartee says. “We just know that people who do save workouts come in more often.” The data also shows that people who log into a cardio machine work out 33% longer than those who don’t log in. People who use a machine’s video-on-demand service also work out 15% longer than those who don’t, Precor data shows.

Lessons from running

Some days, my run achieves little more than sweat and puffing. But even on mediocre runs, I relearn life-lessons: When in doubt, run. The first step is hardest. Try new trails. Look up. Everything passes. Pick a goal and, when it’s closer, pick another. Relax your shoulders. Grinds bring glides. Embrace the burn. Say hello. Enjoy breathing.

7 Habits of Highly Effective (Trail) Runners - Rock Creek Runner

But I should mention that tracking does 3 main things: Helps you establish consistency and a running routine by logging your progress each day Creates a map detailing your strengths, weaknesses, and improvements Provides a blueprint or record you can use for future training or injury prevention The best part? It’s super easy. Just follow each run with a quick stop by your training log.

Career as a Venn diagram

Jad Abumrad’s carefully planned vision came undone when he realized he wasn’t suited for the job he thought his major pointed toward. He had studied music composition and creative writing at Oberlin College and Conservatory, intending to score films. “That didn’t really work out. I just wasn’t very good at it. And so, at a certain point, I just gave it up. I thought my plan was wrong.” […]He was ready to start from scratch when his girlfriend reasoned that he didn’t have to abandon what he’d worked toward. “She made the suggestion, ‘You kind of like to write. You kind of like to make music. You’re not really good at either on their own terms, but maybe you could somehow find the middle ground. Try out radio.’ ” It wasn’t a seamless transition — he began by working for free — but he stuck it out, creating a style of radio that fuses science and storytelling with music and sound. As a producer and host of WNYC’s “Radiolab,” his job is eerily close to what he originally imagined for himself, scoring films; he just had to stretch his thinking to get there.

The secret to weight loss

Bottom line: If you want to lose weight, you have to eat less. And I found that eating less consistently was only possible for me if I did these two simple things: Weighed myself every day, in order to see my 10-day average and figure out if my weight was going up , going down, or holding steady; Ate foods that didn’t make me hungry for more food later.

Five day 'fasting' diet slows down ageing and may add years to life - Telegraph

“Strict fasting is hard for people to stick to, and it can also be dangerous, so we developed a complex diet that triggers the same effects in the body,' said Professor Valter Longo, USC Davis School of Gerontology and director of the USC Longevity Institute. “I've personally tried both, and the fasting mimicking diet is a lot easier and also a lot safer. “I think based on the markers for ageing and disease in humans it has the potential to add a number of years of life but more importantly to have a major impact on diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other age-related disease.”

Notes and indexes build a scaffolding that holds new ideas in place

You may think note-taking is just for college students, but taking notes preserves the essence and context of what you're taking in. If it's a book, you could organize your thoughts with a commonplace book, which is a book containing excerpts from other books. Although it requires a bit more effort, it could also help you connect and organize your ideas in ways you couldn't with a computer. You could also organize your book's contents and your notes with an idea index.
No matter how organized these tools may become, though, there’s something I just can’t get past: sometimes forgetting is even more helpful than remembering. Anind Dey, an associate professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, has been studying how self-monitoring or life logging can serve as a memory aid for Alzheimer’s patients or a tool to learn more about what’s going on in the lives of people with autism. Beyond that, he says, “I still think this is a niche market.” One big reason is that retaining everything we experience “doesn’t really match the way we think,” Dey says. “I think of bad incidents in my life, and in my head I’ve made them better, or I’d be really unhappy.”