Why I gave up social media and what I'm doing instead

Summers I get up early, walk the dog if he's game, and then go water the garden. It's a ritual that I observe perhaps not religiously, but I have spent an awful lot of early mornings doing it. This fine sunny Summer morning was no different. I was doomscrolling social media while filling up buckets of water to pour on the tomatoes when my wife came out- which surprised me- to tell me the burning I'll smell when I come back inside is the pan I left on. Totally distracted, after making my breakfast with it, I just let it go.

We all see signs of how distracted society is around us. Since I commute to a job to another town one day a week, and am not within walking distance of essential services, driving is the example I see most often and glaringly. Now, when I approach a four-way stop and no one is taking a turn, I know why: at least one driver was filling that yawning chasm of nothing to do for 10 seconds with their phone. It happens every day at every intersection. It happens at street lights. it happens in exit and entrance ramps on highways. It happens in parking lots and driveways. No one is really paying all that much attention, anymore.

One of the most brilliant inventions, I've always thought, was the driving simulator. It's apparently a relic of the past, from what my kids say. It let you preview the feeling of driving before even getting behind an actual steering wheel. Your job was simple: stop at stop signs, keep the car on the road, don't hit a pedestrian or other car. And it was a challenge. Its most important role was to ingrain behavior. I think our phones and social media have broken this pattern for so much of our behavior. It's making everyday experiences awkward, difficult, even dangerous.

There was nothing in particular I was distracted by this morning. That's the scary part. i was not thinking "gotta get back to doomscrolling." I just don't have the concentration I used to have. And as someone who works in the IT field, that is very concerning. I speculate that it's what Alzheimer's or dementia might feel like. If I can't maintain focus long enough to turn a burner off, what will I be forgetting to do next?

There is an area of study which seeks to improve how you engage with reality, here and now: that is mindfulness. Mindfulness is all about foregoing all else in favor of the one thing you are focused on. It could be reading a book, sewing a button- or cooking an egg on the stove. The key is daily practice.

I notice not many people are talking about mindfulness on social media. Is it even possible in a world on fast-forward, seeking to grab your eyeballs in a couple of seconds, literally as you can't wait to swipe away and on to the next couple of seconds of entertainment?

I've read the highly recommended How to Break up With Your Phone by Catherine Price. I've taken the intial step of removing all social media from my phone. But I am still at the beginning of the process. Next comes the hard part of rebuilding my attention span. The laundry list, according to the article "How to Reclaim Your Attention Span" over at Experience Life, is daily meditation, body scan exercises, breathing exercises, and the bane of all IT workers- monotasking. The column also encourages "deep work-" like reading a book- and discourages "shallow work-" like mindlessly scrolling social media.

So join me, won't you, as I try to rebuild my life, one book, one pan, one day at a time.

Getting your gut right: veggies in the morning

As habits go, getting a veggie in with every meal- including breakfast- is hard to beat. Vegetables are the core of every truly healthy diet.  A plant-based diet doesn't cause any long-term damage, unlike keto which can lead to heart problems and organ failure. Sorry, but its true.

Last night we went a little nuts and had a tempurafest. Sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, shrimp. We wanted to make broccoli but just ran out thanks to something else earlier in the week. Jasmine rice with a tasty dipping sauce and a variety of beers were consumed as well.

In the hangover haze I realized a great many sweet potatoes and onions remained. Sitting out on the cutting board. Drat! What a waste. Well, gentle reader, what happened next I don't recommend ANYONE do, but I have survived too many slices of cold pizza for breakfast still found in the box on the counter the next morning to not do this. As the cutting board was otherwise pristine, and the ambient temperature cool and humidity low, I cut everything up and made it into breakfast tacos.

To reiterate: I do not endorse this. And I would disavow anyone suggesting I told them to.

But, to continue the recipe, dear reader, I persist. I live on. I thrive. And sweet potatoes fueled me that good spring day.

The sweet potatoes and onions were in 1/4" slices already, prepped for their sacrificial batter bath and dip into the oil volcano. All I had to do was basically quarter them. I don't know about you, but I like my sweet potatoes sweet and smoky, and I want to put an egg on anything sweet and smoky. and eggs before noon make me think of breakfast tacos. Not the most coherent of thought connections, perhaps, but in the end it made glorious sense.

The ingredients

Corn tortillas- however many fulfill your taco lust
Pinto beans- about a heaping tablespoon per taco. Possibly chili powder or adobo sauce to season
Sweet potatoes- for this I used about half a potato's worth. Sliced then quartered
Yellow onions- three or four slices of a medium onion, quartered
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tbl water
1 tsp soy sauce- to flavor the cooking water
sesame oil- one squirt, for same

Sriracha- a good drizzle, exact amount up to you
1 tsp-1 tbl sweet and smoky BBQ sauce
1 tsp taco sauce per taco
Scallions
Eggs- I fried one and split it across two tacos. One per, if you're that kind of person, and you know if you are. Poached would be delicious too.
1 tsp cooking fat, more if cast iron or steel probably. Was adequate for non-stick
Cheese- slice or two or some crumbles. I actually prefer a fake cheese for tacos, Daiya American style- but I'm weird. Use whatever you like- Monterey Jack, Asodero, go nuts.

The method

The sweet potatoes are going to take the longest. Heat up your pan to medium to medium low, melt your fat (in the case of butter or coconut oil) or bring up to temp if olive oil. I don't recommend a polyunsaturated oil for this. Sweet potatoes are sweet, like water is wet, and sugar sticks like crazy. Drop in the sweet potatoes and onions. Warning- following my recipe will render your onions well-browned- the way I like them. Hold off adding the onions five to ten minutes if you don't like the idea of that.

While the sweet potatoes and onions cook, bring beans up to temp in another vessel. I'm going to assume if you have pinto beans in the fridge, they are already seasoned to perfection. That's just how people with pinto beans already in the fridge roll. If you are opening a can, drain and then bring up to temp on medium to medium low. add a pinch of chili powder or a half teaspoon of adobo from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce, then salt and pepper. When they lightly bubble, reduce to low/keep warm.

Move the potatoes and onions around and turn over until the potatoes start to brown. at that point, add the cumin and chili powder. add the water, soy sauce and sesame oil. Lid and cook until the sweet potatoes are soft and buttery.

If you can heat a third pan, preferably a cast iron pan, do so and toast the corn tortillas on each side then add some cheese, reduce to low and let melt. remove at that point, no one likes overly chewy tortillas.

Un-lid the potatoes and add a squirt of sriracha and the BBQ sauce. Stir to incorporate. Top with scallions and set aside.

Cook egg or eggs as you see fit.

top the tortillas with beans, a splash of taco sauce, an egg or half-egg each.

Spoon some potatoes on top and/or have on the side.

Enjoy your sweet, smoky, spicy, buttery, savory creation.

New Habits: Daily Walking

I’m sure many of you have read by now the study that says if you sit more than three hours a day, your expected lifespan takes a hit of a few years. Well, that is a pretty difficult pill to swallow for denizens of cube farms like me. I tried in vain to have my office pay for a standing workstation, but I have to prove that it would be used to treat an existing condition, and furthermore have my doctor write a memo stating as much. Despite the obesity epidemic ravaging America, an overweight guy who just wants to live longer doesn’t seem to be compelling enough reason to write up an official excuse.

So, I have been improvising with a plastic storage bin until I have picked out something more permanent- and a bit more critically, figure out a way to finance it. The idea of having to find a solution on my own is a tad irritating- after all, doesn’t it ultimately benefit a workplace to support the long-term health of its employees?- but it just underscores how we manage everyday to sweep potential health risks under the rug while caving in to a barrage of messages telling us to indulge in them. So much so, in fact, that the bad behavior has become ingrained. When you’re running errands, pressed for time, it’s so easy to just swing by and pick up a sausage biscuit or a double cheeseburger. There aren’t too many fresh raw vegetables available in drive throughs. The message is slowly changing, yes- but it’s become incumbent upon a person with healthy aspirations to write over those ingrained habits with new ones.

So, I’ve started a new behavior. I tend to be an early riser, so I have some extra time in the mornings. I’ve made taking a thirty-minute morning walk part of the process of waking up. Now I get out of bed, put on my walking clothes and head immediately for the door. It was a pain at first, but now it feels pretty normal. I have found a few things to enjoy while walking: the cool morning air, I’ve chosen a fairly picturesque walk, and I’ve been going through my music library rating songs. On Monday I will start listening to an audio book, which will provide me with something extra to anticipate when heading out the door. Whatever it takes to make it more pleasant and turn this into a life-long habit.