Last Day of August!

Sending around a few feelers on proj 2. Not many interesting places out there. I recognize myself in so many of them. I see people from a similar past with an idea and trying to execute on it. The difference is that some of them have sunk a lot more cash into it and seem no better off on there venture than we were on mine. Just as well we didn't drag it out for 5 years with no income. At least I've been able to scrounge up some work here and there that expands my horizons a bit.

But a rather low energy day to some extent. Then again, I did go for a 6km walk (P4) after a snacky-lunch. My pedometer and map my run seem to agree on the distance. That's reassuring. That's a good website, but I wish you could tell it not to re-centre when you click a point. I'd rather set the window to a nice position and then click, click, click quickly. Not click, wait for redraw, click, wait again, etc...

Exercise & Energy Stuff

Walking is nice this time of year. In fact, down to about 0C, it's quite comfortable without much of a coat it seems. It's a 23C high today, and while it's comfortable, when you get inside you realize you're a bit sweaty. For the long hikey walks with a pack and some serious weight, I've been interested in the carbo-gel pack stuff. It's supposed to provide some carb's, protein and electrolyte stuff which your body can draw on without having to stop and take in a pile of food. You still need the water though.

Looking on the web, I found a recipe someone had put together to recreate his own, rather than buy a bunch of packets, or a bottle of it for $22. So his recipe uses protein powder, electrolyte powder, some brown rice syrup and cashew butter. Those last two for carbs and fat respectively. But whoa, the smallest jug of protein power is about $20 and the electrolyte stuff is about $30 for a small pack too - so I'd have to be scorfing a lot before this would be worth my while.

There's a good food analysis site that gives a breakdown of foods - a good resource to plan your own mix. The carb boom brand of gel has mostly carbs, a bit of sugars, and sodium and potassium. Ratio is 27g, 3g, 50mg, 50mg

Something like honey has high carbs, but it's mostly sugars. Rice is high in carbs, hence the brown rice syrup. I couldn't find it at the one place I went - I'll have to check another.

A good resource is looking at all the work done on "oral rehydration therapy" or ORT. This is based on lots of field work in developing countries where dehydrated people are given the magic mixture of a salt, sucrose and potassium and are almost instantly cured and able to walk again. They suggest either sucrose or starch actually. So the rice based stuff works there too.

The world health organization and others seem to suggest a mixture of about:

8 tsp of sugar and 1 tsp table salt mixed in 1 liter of water.
A half cup of orange juice or half of a mashed banana for each liter both to add potassium

Interesting that they also say "If commercial solutions are used, true rehydration solutions should be used and sports drinks should be avoided (especially in younger children) as these solutions contain too much sugar and not enough electrolytes. at this source

So if it's good enough for dehydrated African kids, it must be a decent mix for a sports drink. With carbs added for more energy, I'd think it makes a pretty good, cheap solution to use:

Brown Rice Syrup
Crushed banana
8tsp of honey
1tsp salt

That will probably taste like crap, but with a bit of water to make it squeeze-out-able, and chugging lots of water to wash it down... it should be cheap and provide a good balance. Substitute orange juice or dehydrated potato flakes perhaps for other potatssium sources. Perhaps some cocoa powder would make a good flavour, or some instant coffee. A caffeine version I suppose. Screw the expensive stuff.


Wrap
Keeping it fairly rant free today. Thanks for the messages - Whew! What a deluge. Gosh, just swamped here. This is me below the sea of mhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifessage bytes.

Anyway, the much-awaited assignment for you right now, whenever it is you are reading this - is to drop everything and go to a news website, scan the headlines, and actually read start to finish the most UN-interesting story you can find on the front page. Something you would never read normally. See what you learn and tell me.

Here are a few good news sits, for those of you who need hints. Google News, or The Independent, or else, try: LA Times.