Choices, choices, choices

Is there any idea that stock imagery can't express....cheesily? 

A few months ago, a close friend expressed some concern that I both spent way too much time thinking about what I eat, and was puzzled why I eat the same things over and over again, week after week. It seemed rather obvious to me, so obvious that I had a hard time explaining it. After some thought: I eat the same pre-measured diet over and over again 5 days a week is so I don't have to think about it. Recording it is simply a safety measure, so I don't have to worry that I'm losing focus.

Too much choice is....too much, especially if we are not aware of all the factors needed to make an informed choice. A recent piece in the New York Times elegantly explains how the government can take three different tacts to given choice with significantly different outcomes:

Until last month, all 50 states had a simple policy for voter registration: If you want to become a voter, you have the opportunity to register. Oregon is now the first state to adopt a radically different approach: If the relevant state officials know that you live in Oregon and are 18 or older, you’re automatically registered as a voter. If you don’t want to be one, you have the opportunity to opt out.
We could easily imagine a third approach. A state might decide that if you want some kind of benefit — say, a driver’s license — you have to say whether you want to register to vote. Under this approach, the state would require you to make an active choice about whether to be a voter. You would have to indicate your desires explicitly.

Three methods:

1. opt in - you must actively make a choice to participate
2. opt out - you must actively make a choice not to participate
3. active choice - you must make a choice to participate or not participate.

In an ideal world with unlimited time, unlimited resources and unlimited knowledge, all choices would be active choices. In reality, we depend on a representative government, on financial planners and lawyers, on parents and spouses, on our employers and on our media gate-keepers to make choices for us every moment of the day so we aren't flooded. Indeed, the industrial revolution in the processing of our food supply is a way of limiting choices -- there is a lot more choice in a kitchen stocked full of raw, unprocessed ingredients that rely on a home cook to come up with a home-cooked meal than in a box of Kraft Dinner.

A box full of many, many (bad) choices.

Making voting registration opt-out results in a bottom-line good: more people can and will vote. Well, good for pro-democracy people who believe people should vote in their self-interest, bad for the politicians who depend on the laziness of the people to stay silent.

There is one national party who is very against opt-out voting, and it would be disingenuous to play like it's somehow "neutral" not to name them. It's a fact. The Republicans want to make it harder for people who don't agree with them to vote. Maybe the Democrats do, too, but they don't act on that evil urge. Anyway,...

In 2004, Congress authorized the Department of Agriculture to allow states and localities to automatically enroll eligible poor children in school meal programs, rather than requiring their parents to sign them up. As a result, millions of such children now have access to school meals.

Is this because a bunch of poor, anti-government parents all of sudden got hoodwinked into buying into the system? Or because when you step back and take a macro-look at things, too much choice allows a shockingly large amount of important choices go unmade? As the old saw goes, "war is not lost by the wrong decision, war is lost by indecision."

Any choice that a positive response will be a benefit to society should always be opt-out. Voting, enrolling kids in free-lunch, health insurance, education, and yes, vaccinations, should always happen automatically. You can then choose not to vote, or protest the gubbermint's hands on maaaah kiiiidz, but bottom line a lot of good will come from simply making things automatic in the positive.

We like it when a website allows us to check that blessed box that says “do not ask me again.” If we are busy — and most of us are — choosing not to choose may be the best choice of all. A fundamental reason is that it frees us to focus on our deepest concerns.
Consider the revealing words of President Obama: “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” There is a lesson here for everyone, not merely presidents. If people were required to make active choices about all decisions involving their diets, their finances, or their health, they would have far less time to think about their families, their work, and their favorite forms of recreation. (bolding mine)

Choice is held as right in this society, as it fits in well with consumerism and capitalism -- the right to choose your doctor will magically make the health care system stronger, the right to choose one of 100 different sugared breakfast cereals is an exercise in freedom, the right to choose a president from a centrist bought-and-paid-for Democrat or a centrist bought-and-paid-for Republican will strengthen our democracy. Sometimes too much choice is just white noise, but sometimes choice is an illusion if all the options are just slight variations on the same theme. Then we must question the system that limited the choices, but that's a rant of a whole 'nuther level.

I eat the same thing week in week out about 90% of the time, 5 days a week. I'm cool with it.

You can choose which ever color you'd like, as long as it's black.

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Presented without comment: McDonald's is closing a lot of stores here and abroad. Chipotle announced in a year's time, there will be no genetically modified food served in their restaurants. 

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2850
A very intense week. Probably took in too many calories, but I did get to ride a lot. I'm very not-bored.

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MONDAY COUNT: 3270

SLEPT: 9:30pm - 6am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal  

LUNCH: 2pm, falafel, chicken soup, momma salad, 600 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, poppa salad with dressing, cheezits, 410 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, tilapia, asparagus, 350 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 6-8pm, popcorn, cashews & chocolate chips, kind bar, left over bagel and creamcheese, +/- 1300 cal

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BIKE CREDIT: 1340
TUESDAY COUNT: 2285

SLEPT: 9:30pm- 5:45am, 8.25hrs

AM SNACK: 6:30 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, Fage with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK: 12:15pm, cashews and chocolate chips, 535 cal

LUNCH: 3pm, quarter pounder, fries, diet coke, 920 dal

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, Stouffer's french bread pizzas, poppa salad with dressing, 1060

EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, popcorn, +/- 400 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 3030cal

SLEPT: 9pm-1am, 3:30am-6:45am, 7.25hrs

AM SNACK: 7 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST: 11am, Steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, chicken meatballs, curry lentils, steamed strignbeans, a pickle, 610 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, poppa salad with dressing, 200 cal

DINNER: 7:45pm, Ethiopian food, water, +/- 900 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, two cookies, +/- 600 cal
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BIKE CREDIT 1070 cal
THURSDAY COUNT: 2155

SLEPT: 11pm -1am, 3am-6:45am,  6.75 hrs

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, Fage Yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

BIKE SNACKS: 12:30pm, 3:30pm, homemade granola bars, 150 mg caffeine, 490 cal

LUNCH: 5:15pm, sauteed shrimp and mushrooms over poppa salad with dressing, 625 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, vegetarian dim sum, +/- 1500 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 3510

SLEPT: 12am-6:30am, 6.5 hours

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, slaw, momma salad, cheezits, 1000 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, halibut, sausage, gnochi, fancy cake and ice cream, water, +/- 900 cal

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, pint of ice cream, 1000 cal