04 August 2022 | I'm not a fan of the digital detox. I see it the same way as a weight loss diet. Diligent denial may have short-term results, but my long-term goal is to achieve digital wellness and become a minimalist in this area as well. I want to use fewer but well chosen digital services and technology to serve me. But before that, I need to do some digital cleaning.
07 July 2022 | “What do you want for your birthday?” I ask my girlfriend my traditional question before she celebrates another anniversary. I think gifts are meant to give the recipient something that will make him happy and he is reluctant to buy it for himself. Experiences such as concert tickets, a pedal boat ride or a skydive have been successful for me. This time I gave us both a five-day stay in Riga. I arranged the flights, accommodation and prepared a personalised Riga guide that included everything we could see, experience and taste in the Latvian city.
03 June 2022 | “What would you like to drink?” asks the attendant at the brewery restaurant where my friends and I went for lunch. “Beer, beer, for me too,” they announce one by one. “And you?” the waiter waits for my answer and looks me straight in the eye, “Nothing for me, thank you.“ “You won't drink?” He wonders, and walks off in a huff. It's difficult even with colleagues and friends. “You don't want a beer? Or are you here by car?”, I often hear. Sometimes there is some persuasion: “Come on, you can have one with us, right?” “But you had a beer last week, so why not today?”
03 March 2022 | “Shall we go for a run tonight?” my girlfriend texted me on the first of January, as she was returning by train from a New Year's Eve party in Prague. Aware that the date of our five-kilometer run was approaching, I wrote back a short and conciliatory, “We should.”
19 February 2022 | “Do you have any pictures from high school?” a former classmate asked me in a pub where we reminisced about our years at the business school. “I sure do. They'll be somewhere. Probably on a disc or in some cloud,” I try to remember. I found them the same night. They were lying on mega.co.nz, one of the cloud storage sites I occasionally use. I realise that my online services are a solid mess and as soon as I need to find something, I don't find it at all or only when I don't know why I was looking for it in the first place.
06 January 2022 | Every year at the beginning of January I make a resolution. I think about what I want to do in the coming months and where I will focus my attention. There is so much I want to read, learn or see. This year is no different. With one change. I'm going to clean up beforehand. In things, in data, in the services I use. And partly in my head.
31 December 2021 | “You're getting thinner,” my cousin complimented me when we met at my parents' house before Christmas. I have indeed lost some weight since we last met, however, my weight has been stagnant for the last three months. I know why. I've lost weight. Fortunately, that doesn't mean I've returned to my original eating habits.
07 October 2021 | “Don't eat it, you won't spoil it,” my girlfriend says to me as I look at Margot in my hands. Although she didn't join me in my decision to change my diet, she supports me and often praises me. But she doesn't limit herself. Nor do I ask her to. If she has something good, I either resist or we enjoy it together. I don't make all the calorie-laden treats go away, so I have to learn to manage my cravings and my behavior. Having help from those around me is nice and often makes it easier. But I can do without it.
02 September 2021 | “You keep saying how you're losing weight, and then you come and sit on our bench,” my friends laughed at me in July. We meet every year at the forest cabin and discuss all sorts of things. The bench was rotten and even though the accident happened among great friends and could have happened to any of us, I was still embarrassed.
05 August 2021 | “You keep saying how you're losing weight, and then you come and sit on our bench,” my friends laughed at me in July. We meet every year at the forest cabin and discuss all sorts of things. The bench was rotten and even though the accident happened among great friends and could have happened to any of us, I was still embarrassed.
01 July 2021 | “You don't have a kitchen? And where do you cook?” asked everyone who came to my house and saw the empty corner. I didn't have one until two years ago. The kitchen was the last thing on my mind when I moved in. I didn't need one. Where there is now a large fridge, dishwasher, cooktop and oven, there was only a small fridge with a broken freezer and a microwave on top of it.
03 June 2021 | “Hi. Wow, you've lost weight! Like, ten fifteen kilos, right?” a friend who saw me six months later says to me immediately after we meet. “Ten,” I reply uncertainly. “Don't you eat? Do you exercise? What do you do differently?” she immediately wanted to know my secret recipe. Anyone who notices my lower weight asks me the same questions. And I realized I didn't know what to answer.
06 May 2021 | “You started losing weight?” my friend asked as I stood next to her on the tram. “Yeah, I've lost some weight,” I nod, surprised and slightly embarrassed. The question immediately followed whether I had stopped eating or started exercising. As if there was no other option. “I've tweaked my diet a bit and added protein. I'm watching myself,” I admit, realizing I'm not comfortable talking about it.
01 April 2021 | “Can we do it today?” asked my girlfriend in the taxi on the way home. “We have ten minutes, let's try,” I respond. It was the end of January and we were regularly trying to meet the minimum steps missed each day. We set our lower limit at five thousand. We were returning from friends' in the evening and we were far from fulfilled. It would be the first time this year we hadn't succeeded. And we weren't going to let that happen. We started running like hell through the night streets of Prague to exceed the set limit by midnight. We failed. But it was fun.
04 March 2021 | “Have you weighed yourself yet? And how much do you weigh today?” my girlfriend regularly inquired in the early days of my endeavor. “Of course. I've exceeded this year's minimum again,” I reported, half-dazed and half-enthusiastic. We bought a smart scale for our home. It not only shows me that I'm overweight but also percentages of muscles, water, fat, and many other values. Some are glowing red because they're abnormal. I see a few in blue, which are below average. The scale even calculates a metabolic age, which turned out to be seven years older than reality. I don't know what that indicator means or how it's calculated, but that value definitely irritated me.
04 February 2021 | “Do you have a bit of a bigger belly?” my girlfriend asked curiously when she caught me half-naked on my way out of the bathroom. “How much do you weigh?” she fired off immediately. When I took a step onto the scale, I thought it might be around 120 kilograms. The scale disagreed and showed 122.7. “Hmm. Over one twenty, but under one thirty. That's good, right?” I asked myself. That was at the beginning of December. However, as Christmas approached, so did the festive feasts and television. When I returned home just before New Year's Eve from a visit to my parents, the scale announced an extra kilo and a half. “I should start losing weight,” I thought. Frustrated by previous unsuccessful attempts, I had no motivation to start January 1st by munching on salads and suffering from hunger. I knew I would abandon that plan at the first opportunity.
07 January 2021 | “Undress to your waist and step on the scale,” commands the young, attractive doctor during a routine check-up. After examining the measurements displayed on the computer, she looks at me triumphantly and declares, “You are obese.” Well, that's a surprise. I didn't need to weigh myself to know that. I can see it. I'm fat. I've had those extra pounds for as long as I can remember.