Monday, September 02, 2019

in which I shamelessly virtue-signal

In case you didn't notice, I've placed a "count-up" timer on my Kevin's Walk 3 blog (see here) to mark the amount of time I've been without any sweet drinks, i.e., sodas, fruit juices, sugared teas, etc. Starting from midnight last night (the counter is slightly off because I think it's set to the wrong time zone), I've sworn them off as part of a campaign to shed a few kilos before the walk even begins. I think this moratorium—which will continue during the walk—will have some significant effects over the next few weeks. Here's hoping, anyway. And should I slip and drink something I shouldn't be drinking, well... the counter will be reset to zero.

A word about what I'm permitting myself to drink: obviously, water is the first choice, and should I want something sweet, like sweetened tea, I'll use Splenda and/or some keto-friendly erythritol, which I recently ordered from iHerb. No milk, which has carbs—although heavy cream is actually slightly more Atkins-friendly than milk (about 4% carbs for heavy cream, and 5% carbs for whole milk)! I'm also allowing myself some Coke Zero, which is the only type of diet soda you can readily find in Korea (Diet Doctor Pepper, Diet Sprite, Fanta, etc., are pretty much no-shows; they may be hiding somewhere on the peninsula, but they're not a common sight at your typical Korean grocery).

No count-up timer for Atkins/keto-style eating. I'm hedging my bets. For now, we cut down on sugary drinks. Baby steps. Baby steps.



10 comments:

Charles said...

The Count-Up Timer doesn't seem to be working at the moment--or, at least, I can't see it. I see the phrase "Count-Up Timer," but that's it. I assume there is supposed to be something below it other than blank space.

Also, I don't think this is virtue-signalling. It is setting up a public accountability mechanism to encourage you to adopt a lifestyle change. It's a positive thing, and not shameful in the least.

Virtue-signalling would be if I said, "That's great that you've finally made this decision! I, of course, swore of off sweet drinks a long time ago and have felt great ever since! It's going to change your life, man!"

(This is not true, by the way. I don't generally drink sodas, fruit juices, etc., but I do on rare occasion. And I also drink beer, which is as bad as if not worse than the above. If I were to do a similar diet, it would involve cutting out beer, and that... *shudders*.)

Kevin Kim said...

I'd say you're right that it sets up a public-accountability system, but I'd also call it virtue-signaling when I announce, "Look at me! See what a good boy I'm being?" Which is what I was doing in this post. I appreciate your charitable reading, though.

Kevin Kim said...

As for not seeing the count-up timer... I don't know what to say. It's visible on my Windows machine at the office, and on my Mac laptop at my apartment. I know that my blog's sidebar isn't visible if you're looking at my blog on your phone, but you're obviously seeing the sidebar if you can see the "Count-up Timer" title. Hmmm...

I'll dig around and see what I can do.

Charles said...

Well, I suppose you can insist on the uncharitable reading of your actions; that is your prerogative. And I suppose you know more about your own motivations than I do.

I just checked the timer again, and I noticed that the page paused for quite a few seconds after loading the timer label before eventually just giving up and displaying the archives. This is happening in Chrome (in IE, which I never use but tried just to see what would happen, it apparently dies at the timer and never ends up displaying the archives).

I'll check it out when I get home and see if it shows up.

Kevin Kim said...

I'm using Chrome at home and at work. It could just be that I've chosen a count-up timer with a very poor design, software-wise. I noticed that, on my work computer, I can't see the "edit clock" button that I see while at my apartment.

It's strange, but I just went through something similar over at John McCrarey's blog: he had slapped up some pics in one blog entry, but two of them didn't show up on my computer at work. They did, however, show up both on my phone and on my laptop at home. In the meantime, all the pics were visible to him, so he didn't see any problem. Go figure.

Kevin Kim said...

I've changed the count-up clock to another one. It's visible from work on both my office computer and my cell phone. Once I get home, I'll see whether it's visible on my laptop.

Charles said...

I can see it now! I don't know if it is because you switched, but it probably is. Before I left my office, I went into the source code and found the site for the plug-in you were using--turns out I could not access that particular site, which is why it was balking. I don't know if it is blocked or there was just some other problem.

Now that I can see the timer, though, I gotta say... do we really need to know how long you've gone without sweet drinks down to the second? :p

Kevin Kim said...

Some count-up timers give you the option of displaying or not displaying certain elements of the time being counted... I'll see whether I can just display the days. No promises, though!

Charles said...

I was mostly being facetious. I was just picturing you sitting there, counting the seconds that you've gone without sweet drinks. It was amusing.

Kevin Kim said...

The deed is done all the same! Days only.