It seems like the evidence for standing vs. sitting is antecdotal at best.
While there are sometimes sitting would help (cutting down on snacking, taking a break at stores), there are other times that it hurts.
To uses some of the examples given, at Thanksgiving people tend to eat more than any other time of year. And with regards to car loans and mortgages, those are probably some of the biggest money mistakes people make. Even a quarter percent of a difference in a loan can waste tens of thousands of dollars. Just because someone is sitting does not mean they are making better choices.
I think there are two better options than debating sitting or standing.
1) Do your research. Whether it's making a grocery list, planning meals in advance, or shopping around for a loan, you'll spend less if you put the leg work in first.
2) When in the middle of a meal or shopping trip, stop and think: "do I need this?" If you're not sure. Take a break. Wait 10 minutes and see if you still feel hungry (chances are you won't). If you're at the store and are not sure if you want something, wait a few days, then come back.
Both of those have been shown to cut down on spending and eating, and will do more to help you than just sitting down.
We give our corks to our parrot to gnaw on. She doesn't eat them, just crumbles them and laughs maniacally. Parrots need lots of interesting items to destroy with their beaks -- untreated wood, the bottoms of heads of garlic, toilet paper rolls, and CORKS.
My job is to watch for college students trying to get "free eats" instead of paying. The sad part is we are always in need of workers, say in the dish pit, mopping floors, etc. that would only require an hour or two and includes a free meal and a paycheck. Unfortunately, after many years in the business I have come to the conclusion that most would rather "steal" than work.
I'm going to echo Ryan's thoughts. The post I've written on my site with the most amount of traffic was something I decided to throw together at the last minute. Someone scooped it up on StumbleUpon and it took off. I still get traffic from it today.
@Grandpa Ken: I can see it both ways. Posts that don't change provide a useful snapshot of the writer's thinking at a moment in time--and, because it is possible to update without republishing, it's possible to write new posts with new thinking, and make that information accessible to people who find the old posts, by adding an "Updated: see my new post on this topic" with a link.
@Ryan: I usually have a sense as to whether I've hit the mark with a post. Sometimes the readers will surprise me and a piece will draw much more interest than I'd expected. (My post Creating an artificial windfall generator, for example, drew a lot more readers than I'd expected.) I suppose that balances out the ones, like these, where the piece draws fewer.
This thread is old but are any of you still active? Got so much to ask. Will definitly do this 20 minute thing. For all of you get hold of book called "what should i do with my life" by po bronson. That will help too. Wish you all super luck!
Wali.
I do not like to drink water and I am addicted to Vernor's Ginger Ale...having said that, my Mom died of dehydration when she was ill with the flu and the caregiver did not see to it that she drank enough water...her organs shut down at the hospital where they could not even get an IV in to her neck...so sad...
I am sitting here next to a bottle of cold water and have not tasted it yet...oye, it doesn't even taste bad! It is just not as good as soda...and I need just some fresh water.
Love the lemon/ginger water idea...make my own 'ginger root tea' and even with a little sugar or agave syrup it would be healthier than soda...ok, here goes, drinking the water while it is cold! Thanks for these GREAT ideas all!!!~n
I just got this card in the mail and came right to the web to do research, figuring it was a scam (which it is). Strangely though, about 2 weeks ago, someone (online) also gained access to one of my legitimate credit cards and charged around $350.00 on it (which my credit card company did NOT make me pay). I wonder if the two are connected...In any case, thanks for your information about this card...it helped me to figure out what I was dealing with...
Like many women, I'm a bit overweight and my thighs touch together when I stand. A couple of summers ago I pranced around NYC in a flirty skirt and felt fantastic... Until a few hours later, when I developed a soreness and itchy rash on my thighs. Unbeknownst to me, if your thighs are rubbing together in moist summer heat for a few hours, you can develop urticaria, or almost an allergic rash. Awful!
That prompted me to delve into the corner of the lingerie department of department stores {Penny's, Sears, Macy's, etc.) I'd never been in before and thought only "older" women used (I'm in my 20s): the rack with shapewear and slips. I purchased a pair of what I can only call half-slip/half shorts. Black with lace trim, they're satiny and sexy, and serve not only to prevent the uncomfortable rubbing I'd experienced years ago, but also gives me peace of mind that if my skirt ever blows or flips up, my dimpled thighs won't be immediately noticeable. It's great!
I used to feel self-conscious about even owning such a piece of lingerie, but it's just so darned USEFUL, I've had it for a while now and consider it an indispensable piece of my wardrobe -- moreso than blouses that go out of style, or bras & underwear that get worn out quickly.
Also, I don't think I've ever seen the full movie, but there's a line from Steel Magnolias that's stuck with me... When the women are watching other women dancing, they mock one overweight woman dancing. One is incredulous that she's out in public looking like that and says something along the line of, "I haven't left the house without wearing a girdle since I was 18." Oh how those words comfort me! What feels like a realm of lingerie for the over-40 or over-50 crowd feels sanctioned by to be used by those of us still in our 20s but perhaps without the slimmest figure :) It sometimes feels like those of us in our teens or 20s are supposed to naturally look like we don't need girdles or slips or spanx or whatever. I'm so glad it's all coming back into style! I have a wedding to go to in a couple of months and I think I'll look for a nice slip to wear under my dress... (and maybe one that's long enough to be visible, thanks to previous commenters' opinions on its suggestive sexiness!)
DOGS, Dogs, dogs...everyones saying a dog is good. However, toss any dog a bit of meat and its going to be distracted as long as it takes to eat it...Guarenteed. They proved it on Mythbusters with a trained guard dog!
I lived the first 24 years of my life in the USA with machine dryers. Then I spent 4 years living abroad in a country where line-drying (particularly on racks due to poor weather conditions outside) was the norm. My little apartment had a washer but no drier; that was the norm for all my friends.
Is there a difference between clothes that have been machine-dried and air-dried? Ohhhh yes.
1) With line/rack drying, you do have to be creative in how you hang things to avoid the 'pulled' look from wet clothes vs. gravity. I agree with a previous commenter that hangers help a lot to distribute the weight of wet fabric, but unfortunately hangers sometimes take up valuable real-estate on the drying rack or around the apartment, so you have to be selective in what you choose to hang.
2) No matter what you dry, for the most part you were get marks left from where the clothespin was, or where the bend was if you draped the item on the rack/line. It's usually not a problem if it's something you'll wear the wrinkles out of shortly after wearing it, like underwear. But it can be a problem for nicer shirts and the like sometimes.
3) In my opinion, there is absolutely a difference in texture. Most clothes (I can't argue for different natural vs. synthetic vs. blends due to ignorance) WILL be significantly stiffer after line-drying. This is not a *problem* per se, but in terms of comfort it can be inconvenient. Now I'm no spoiled brat or anything, having backpacked extensively for months relying on hand-washing EVERything and line-drying almost every time. So for me, having stiffer clothes was tolerable. Heck, if you don't have any other choice, it has no choice but to be tolerable. But the only thing I missed was having soft athletic socks. It's practically demoralizing to stick your feet into something that feels like low-grade cardboard every day for years. Of course once the shoes went on and walking softened them up a bit I didn't notice it anymore, but still. It's still something you negatively notice every single day. When I left there to come home to washing machines, I was so giddy after my first load of machine-dried laundry I probably did rub their softness against my cheek, lol.
But I guess it's kind of moot since it seems like most people who've weighed in on the line-drying suggest tossing the clothes in the machines for a few minutes to soften them up anyway.
I just thought I'd weigh in as someone who's lived both all-machine-drying and all-line-drying.
By the by, great article! I've bookmarked it and look forward to using a couple of the tips I've learned.
Fresh cilantro is very cheap, really good for you, and can truly 'make' sooo many dishes. I have used it in everything from soup to eggs. You can Doctor Up store bought salsa's, give a real mexican flair to home made Latin dishes, kick a salad up a notch, and even use it as a base for wonderfully exotic sauces. Taste the difference of good old chicken noodle soup (homemade or store bought) with a bit of cilantro and a touch of sriracha (hot sauce)thrown in. If there is ever an ingrediant that I just have to have in my kitchen it's definitely Fresh Cilantro!
I have Scottish skin and I am on antibiotics and Retin-A cream right now. I stopped the cream like my doctor told me and bought SPF 70 and the brand she told me to. I reapplied liberally every 2-2 1/2 hours and I am still pretty burned. I am a big fan of prevention and always slather the sunscreen on but sometimes even the most careful people can still get burned. I have used aloe and tea bags before, I am going to try the vinegar tonight.
Not only have I noticed that the posts I like the best seldom get any love, but the posts that are more off the cuff, the ones that I perhaps don't feel as strongly about, always end up doing a lot better.
Any physical object embodies the energy that it took to make it--the energy that went into assembly, the energy that it took to make the parts, refine the raw materials, etc. Plus, there's that item's share of all the energy that it took to build all the factories, the refineries, the mines, the pipelines, the trucks, and so on, and so on. There are nitpickers out there who will try to wrap you up in endless details along these lines.
My point is this: Ignore the nitpickers.
Here's the sort of question the nitpickers worry about: Which uses less energy? An old-fashioned steel lunch box or a series of brown paper bags? Answer: There's no right answer--it depends on how you count.
Something like a brown paper bag (made from renewable resources and requiring very little energy) is a reasonable choice--the steel lunch box only wins if you use it for a very long time.
But a solid, well-made physical object that will last for a generation or two is almost always a win--even if some netpicker can fabricate an argument that you'd use less energy if you used (and threw away) disposable items right along.
It's worth being aware of this stuff, but only in a general way. You might, for example, guess that a cardboard-and-vinyl child's lunchbox loses: It probably takes more energy to make than 180 brown paper bags, but only lasts a year.
That's what I mean by a seat-of-the-pants calculation. Everybody knows to prefer things that last longer. I'm suggesting a second layer of that: Prefer things where a lot of the cost is the cost of the materials--because those are the items that will cost more in the future.
Other stuff--things where a lot of the cost is the cost of the brand or the technology or the "intellectual property" that's embedded in it--are things that are going to get cheaper or become obsolete. If you want one, buy it later--after it's gotten cheap.
"We had another friend that would bring us undeliverable pizzas. "
Ah yes, that was my favorite part about delivering pizzas.
Occasionally we would get a "bad order" (typically a crank/hoax call to deliver a pizza to an apparently legitimate but nonexistent address). The address sounded good so we took the order but when the driver got there, discovered the street number didn't exist and there was nobody to accept and pay for the pizza.
It seems like the evidence for standing vs. sitting is antecdotal at best.
While there are sometimes sitting would help (cutting down on snacking, taking a break at stores), there are other times that it hurts.
To uses some of the examples given, at Thanksgiving people tend to eat more than any other time of year. And with regards to car loans and mortgages, those are probably some of the biggest money mistakes people make. Even a quarter percent of a difference in a loan can waste tens of thousands of dollars. Just because someone is sitting does not mean they are making better choices.
I think there are two better options than debating sitting or standing.
1) Do your research. Whether it's making a grocery list, planning meals in advance, or shopping around for a loan, you'll spend less if you put the leg work in first.
2) When in the middle of a meal or shopping trip, stop and think: "do I need this?" If you're not sure. Take a break. Wait 10 minutes and see if you still feel hungry (chances are you won't). If you're at the store and are not sure if you want something, wait a few days, then come back.
Both of those have been shown to cut down on spending and eating, and will do more to help you than just sitting down.
We give our corks to our parrot to gnaw on. She doesn't eat them, just crumbles them and laughs maniacally. Parrots need lots of interesting items to destroy with their beaks -- untreated wood, the bottoms of heads of garlic, toilet paper rolls, and CORKS.
Are you going to be adding more info on WiseBread?
My job is to watch for college students trying to get "free eats" instead of paying. The sad part is we are always in need of workers, say in the dish pit, mopping floors, etc. that would only require an hour or two and includes a free meal and a paycheck. Unfortunately, after many years in the business I have come to the conclusion that most would rather "steal" than work.
I'm going to echo Ryan's thoughts. The post I've written on my site with the most amount of traffic was something I decided to throw together at the last minute. Someone scooped it up on StumbleUpon and it took off. I still get traffic from it today.
The Writer's Coin | Follow me on Twitter
Hi Nora. I was wondering how long you have been a "professional hobo" for and how it is working out for you.
It sounds like a really fun lifetstyle, although difficult, and I'd like to hear your wisdom on the topic.
What is it like to just travel around and have adventures? Is it worth it?
It reminds me of the movie "Into the Wild" which was awesome!
@Grandpa Ken: I can see it both ways. Posts that don't change provide a useful snapshot of the writer's thinking at a moment in time--and, because it is possible to update without republishing, it's possible to write new posts with new thinking, and make that information accessible to people who find the old posts, by adding an "Updated: see my new post on this topic" with a link.
@Ryan: I usually have a sense as to whether I've hit the mark with a post. Sometimes the readers will surprise me and a piece will draw much more interest than I'd expected. (My post Creating an artificial windfall generator, for example, drew a lot more readers than I'd expected.) I suppose that balances out the ones, like these, where the piece draws fewer.
@Spaces: Thanks!
This thread is old but are any of you still active? Got so much to ask. Will definitly do this 20 minute thing. For all of you get hold of book called "what should i do with my life" by po bronson. That will help too. Wish you all super luck!
Wali.
I agree, well worth the read...and re-read.
I do not like to drink water and I am addicted to Vernor's Ginger Ale...having said that, my Mom died of dehydration when she was ill with the flu and the caregiver did not see to it that she drank enough water...her organs shut down at the hospital where they could not even get an IV in to her neck...so sad...
I am sitting here next to a bottle of cold water and have not tasted it yet...oye, it doesn't even taste bad! It is just not as good as soda...and I need just some fresh water.
Love the lemon/ginger water idea...make my own 'ginger root tea' and even with a little sugar or agave syrup it would be healthier than soda...ok, here goes, drinking the water while it is cold! Thanks for these GREAT ideas all!!!~n
Wow, I knew it was bad out there, but I didn't know it was THAT bad.
I just got this card in the mail and came right to the web to do research, figuring it was a scam (which it is). Strangely though, about 2 weeks ago, someone (online) also gained access to one of my legitimate credit cards and charged around $350.00 on it (which my credit card company did NOT make me pay). I wonder if the two are connected...In any case, thanks for your information about this card...it helped me to figure out what I was dealing with...
Happy 2 Year!
Your posts are The reason I keep coming back here. Even if I am a relative newbie and haven't clicked on all those links. Yet.
:-)
Perfect. I usually dislike a lot of those sayings, but the one that you brought up is a good guide for life. Thanks for (re)sharing this idea.
Like many women, I'm a bit overweight and my thighs touch together when I stand. A couple of summers ago I pranced around NYC in a flirty skirt and felt fantastic... Until a few hours later, when I developed a soreness and itchy rash on my thighs. Unbeknownst to me, if your thighs are rubbing together in moist summer heat for a few hours, you can develop urticaria, or almost an allergic rash. Awful!
That prompted me to delve into the corner of the lingerie department of department stores {Penny's, Sears, Macy's, etc.) I'd never been in before and thought only "older" women used (I'm in my 20s): the rack with shapewear and slips. I purchased a pair of what I can only call half-slip/half shorts. Black with lace trim, they're satiny and sexy, and serve not only to prevent the uncomfortable rubbing I'd experienced years ago, but also gives me peace of mind that if my skirt ever blows or flips up, my dimpled thighs won't be immediately noticeable. It's great!
I used to feel self-conscious about even owning such a piece of lingerie, but it's just so darned USEFUL, I've had it for a while now and consider it an indispensable piece of my wardrobe -- moreso than blouses that go out of style, or bras & underwear that get worn out quickly.
Also, I don't think I've ever seen the full movie, but there's a line from Steel Magnolias that's stuck with me... When the women are watching other women dancing, they mock one overweight woman dancing. One is incredulous that she's out in public looking like that and says something along the line of, "I haven't left the house without wearing a girdle since I was 18." Oh how those words comfort me! What feels like a realm of lingerie for the over-40 or over-50 crowd feels sanctioned by to be used by those of us still in our 20s but perhaps without the slimmest figure :) It sometimes feels like those of us in our teens or 20s are supposed to naturally look like we don't need girdles or slips or spanx or whatever. I'm so glad it's all coming back into style! I have a wedding to go to in a couple of months and I think I'll look for a nice slip to wear under my dress... (and maybe one that's long enough to be visible, thanks to previous commenters' opinions on its suggestive sexiness!)
DOGS, Dogs, dogs...everyones saying a dog is good. However, toss any dog a bit of meat and its going to be distracted as long as it takes to eat it...Guarenteed. They proved it on Mythbusters with a trained guard dog!
I lived the first 24 years of my life in the USA with machine dryers. Then I spent 4 years living abroad in a country where line-drying (particularly on racks due to poor weather conditions outside) was the norm. My little apartment had a washer but no drier; that was the norm for all my friends.
Is there a difference between clothes that have been machine-dried and air-dried? Ohhhh yes.
1) With line/rack drying, you do have to be creative in how you hang things to avoid the 'pulled' look from wet clothes vs. gravity. I agree with a previous commenter that hangers help a lot to distribute the weight of wet fabric, but unfortunately hangers sometimes take up valuable real-estate on the drying rack or around the apartment, so you have to be selective in what you choose to hang.
2) No matter what you dry, for the most part you were get marks left from where the clothespin was, or where the bend was if you draped the item on the rack/line. It's usually not a problem if it's something you'll wear the wrinkles out of shortly after wearing it, like underwear. But it can be a problem for nicer shirts and the like sometimes.
3) In my opinion, there is absolutely a difference in texture. Most clothes (I can't argue for different natural vs. synthetic vs. blends due to ignorance) WILL be significantly stiffer after line-drying. This is not a *problem* per se, but in terms of comfort it can be inconvenient. Now I'm no spoiled brat or anything, having backpacked extensively for months relying on hand-washing EVERything and line-drying almost every time. So for me, having stiffer clothes was tolerable. Heck, if you don't have any other choice, it has no choice but to be tolerable. But the only thing I missed was having soft athletic socks. It's practically demoralizing to stick your feet into something that feels like low-grade cardboard every day for years. Of course once the shoes went on and walking softened them up a bit I didn't notice it anymore, but still. It's still something you negatively notice every single day. When I left there to come home to washing machines, I was so giddy after my first load of machine-dried laundry I probably did rub their softness against my cheek, lol.
But I guess it's kind of moot since it seems like most people who've weighed in on the line-drying suggest tossing the clothes in the machines for a few minutes to soften them up anyway.
I just thought I'd weigh in as someone who's lived both all-machine-drying and all-line-drying.
By the by, great article! I've bookmarked it and look forward to using a couple of the tips I've learned.
Fresh cilantro is very cheap, really good for you, and can truly 'make' sooo many dishes. I have used it in everything from soup to eggs. You can Doctor Up store bought salsa's, give a real mexican flair to home made Latin dishes, kick a salad up a notch, and even use it as a base for wonderfully exotic sauces. Taste the difference of good old chicken noodle soup (homemade or store bought) with a bit of cilantro and a touch of sriracha (hot sauce)thrown in. If there is ever an ingrediant that I just have to have in my kitchen it's definitely Fresh Cilantro!
I don't suppose you have a picture of the centerpieces? I love blue and lavender, but have no artistic skill. ;o)
I have Scottish skin and I am on antibiotics and Retin-A cream right now. I stopped the cream like my doctor told me and bought SPF 70 and the brand she told me to. I reapplied liberally every 2-2 1/2 hours and I am still pretty burned. I am a big fan of prevention and always slather the sunscreen on but sometimes even the most careful people can still get burned. I have used aloe and tea bags before, I am going to try the vinegar tonight.
Thanks, Liora.
Love some of your original brown bag ideas. Thanks for stopping by.
Check out my various projects and services at Itinerant Tightwad. I also have a monthly education newsletter.
Not only have I noticed that the posts I like the best seldom get any love, but the posts that are more off the cuff, the ones that I perhaps don't feel as strongly about, always end up doing a lot better.
Go figure.
Any physical object embodies the energy that it took to make it--the energy that went into assembly, the energy that it took to make the parts, refine the raw materials, etc. Plus, there's that item's share of all the energy that it took to build all the factories, the refineries, the mines, the pipelines, the trucks, and so on, and so on. There are nitpickers out there who will try to wrap you up in endless details along these lines.
My point is this: Ignore the nitpickers.
Here's the sort of question the nitpickers worry about: Which uses less energy? An old-fashioned steel lunch box or a series of brown paper bags? Answer: There's no right answer--it depends on how you count.
Something like a brown paper bag (made from renewable resources and requiring very little energy) is a reasonable choice--the steel lunch box only wins if you use it for a very long time.
But a solid, well-made physical object that will last for a generation or two is almost always a win--even if some netpicker can fabricate an argument that you'd use less energy if you used (and threw away) disposable items right along.
It's worth being aware of this stuff, but only in a general way. You might, for example, guess that a cardboard-and-vinyl child's lunchbox loses: It probably takes more energy to make than 180 brown paper bags, but only lasts a year.
That's what I mean by a seat-of-the-pants calculation. Everybody knows to prefer things that last longer. I'm suggesting a second layer of that: Prefer things where a lot of the cost is the cost of the materials--because those are the items that will cost more in the future.
Other stuff--things where a lot of the cost is the cost of the brand or the technology or the "intellectual property" that's embedded in it--are things that are going to get cheaper or become obsolete. If you want one, buy it later--after it's gotten cheap.
Shelby said:
"We had another friend that would bring us undeliverable pizzas. "
Ah yes, that was my favorite part about delivering pizzas.
Occasionally we would get a "bad order" (typically a crank/hoax call to deliver a pizza to an apparently legitimate but nonexistent address). The address sounded good so we took the order but when the driver got there, discovered the street number didn't exist and there was nobody to accept and pay for the pizza.
Since when do open houses feature food of any sort?
I've been to a few and never saw any hint of food...not even for a mouse.