The Blog of a Chronic Content Creator
Welcome to the first episode of the Battling Pickle Podcast. No explicit notes for this episode, however the book that I’m referring to is the textbook for my EPY 601 course: Educational Psychology: Theory & Practice by Bob Slavin.
On my home network, my laptop (a MacBook Pro) has a static IP address, and is accessible over VNC (screen sharing). This means that I can enjoy peak laziness – instead of getting off the couch to see if something has completed, I can just pull it up on my phone. But what about when I travel and I’m not on my home network? How can I be lazy from across campus, or a friend’s living room when my laptop is upstairs? A simple little script that connects my laptop to my home VPN on demand.
The Problem
Corporate networks, as well as the network of a friend or family member, typically aren’t under our control. I can’t ask my friends to open ports on their router so I can connect to my machine when it’s on their network just as a matter of politeness. And my corporate network really won’t like me asking for a static IP and a network exception just to VNC into my machine.
In theory, I could sign up for a service that enables Remote Desktop through a central service – something like LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, or TeamViewer. These are all great services, but they add an extra layer onto the system – my laptop already has VNC built in, and installing VNC is easy and simple on machines that don’t have it. The problem is that VNC is meant to be connected to on the local network, and while VNC connection services are available, that’s again, another layer.
In theory, I could have my laptop always connected to my home VPN when I’m out and about. I’d have to remember to connect it each time, and depending on my settings, it might route all traffic through my home network which slows things down and inflates my internet usage. I really only need it to connect when I need to VNC in, and that’s why this script is useful.
How It Works
The script works by checking for a file on my web server ever 2 minutes. If that file is present, it runs a script to connect the VPN. If the file isn’t present, it does nothing. Here’s the code:
#!/bin/sh
COMMAND=”/Users/jon/connect-vpn.sh”
yourURL=”https://example.com/connect-vpn”
if curl –output /dev/null –silent –head –fail “$yourURL”
then
pgrep -f -x “$COMMAND” > /dev/null 2>&1 || $COMMAND
fi
All you have to do is replace the COMMAND with the connection command for your VPN solution (or anything else you want to remotely trigger) and the yourURL with the address you want to query. On my web server, I can use a command such as ‘touch connect-vpn’ in my web directory to create the file, and then simply ‘rm connect-vpn’ to reset. On my computer, I have saved this script as macbook-vpn.sh and use the following CRON entry to run it every 2 minutes, although you could run it however often or as little as you like:
*/2 * * * * /Users/jon/macbook-vpn.sh
From here, you could make this as complex or as simple as you like. You could have another URL that, if found, would disconnect the VPN. You could also script multiple things into your VPN connection/disconnection. In the past I’ve used this script to create a reverse SSH proxy connection, effectively giving my firewalled PC a publicly accessible port – useful again when I need to get into something remotely and securely.
A little while ago, I posted my Epic Long Post about Losing 170 pounds in 11 years. Before I get into my update, I want to thank everyone who reached out to me with well wishes and support, especially those who told me that my blog post really helped them with their own weight loss and health journeys. I’m so happy to have been able to help you by sharing my story! If you haven’t read the first part, I suggest going there and reading it first!
Anyway, since my last update, the biggest nemesis to weight loss aficionados happened: The Holidays. And while the time period didn’t cover one of the primary gluttonous holidays, Thanksgiving, it did cover the 1-2 punch of Christmas Eve/Day and New Years Eve/Day. These two celebrations come just 1 week a part, feature special meals for many, and can cause a dieter to have to choose between “being good” and “being jolly”. Well friends, I’m here to report on my journey through the Merriest or Happiest of Seasons, with perhaps some advice for how to survive it without feeling totally bummed out. Spoiler Alert: You will gain weight… temporarily.
Christmas
Prior to December 24, I was losing at a rate of 2.0-2.2 pounds per week. I had achieved this through rigorously tracking everything I ate, aligning it with my Lumen’s (affiliate link) recommendations, and not cheating. I also would walk every morning for about 2.5 to 5 miles. December 24, Christmas Eve, my wife and I planned a small feast: crab legs and asparagus, and on December 25, we planned to have a prime rib, cheesy potatoes, and yams. Add into that an abundant supply of Christmas cookies and other snacks (I was particularly proud of my perpetually soft and chewy gingerbread cookies), and I was pretty nervous about how I’d walk the line between enjoying myself, and enjoying myself too much. My compromise was this: Eat whatever I want on 12/24 and 12/25, but continue to take my long walks each day in the mornings. I figured that my body would probably enjoy the time out anyway – walks do end up stretching you literally in ways you realize you miss when you stop doing them for awhile (As I’d find out in February!).
So with much trepidation, on 12/24 I weighed myself and was 240.3 pounds. I then went for a 3.66 mile walk, and burnt 423 calories. I was ready for the day. Feasting was done, and on Christmas Morning, looking at the pretty presents waiting for me helped me not focus too much on the change on the scale – I was 242.5, just 2.2 pounds heavier. Crab isn’t a bad food, but the sheer amount of it and the butter that accompanied it was probably a bit to blame. I went for another walk, 3.96 miles this time (burning 480 calories), and enjoyed round two of “eat whatever”, including a very good spinach artichoke dip around lunch time that I simply could not stop eating (my wife is an excellent cook!)
And on December 26, at 6:58 AM, I weighed myself… 245 pounds. By 9:27 PM that night, I was up to 247.4.
7.1 pounds. To put it into perspective, the last time my weight averaged 247.4 pounds had been December 6. So in 2 days I’d seemingly undid 18 days of progress.
Now I know what some of the savvier of you are saying: There are a TON of factors that go into those 7 pounds. Increased amount of food, for one thing – it takes time for your body to process those things that you ate, even if they aren’t calorie laden. Increased amount of water, through both drinking more beverages and through the carbs retaining water that they would eventually release. And yes, increased calories do mean you’ll go up a little over the next few days. I knew all of these things, yet it was still a tad depressing. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t have changed what I did – I truly enjoyed eating special meals with my wife on two very special days of the year. But to see your progress seemingly evaporate, even temporarily, was disheartening. I kept thinking “I wish I knew how long it would take to bounce back”, which is part of the reason I’m writing this blog post. Maybe future dieters will stumble upon this and realize that life will get back to normal fairly quickly.
Over the next few days, going back to my usual diet plan (and eating Christmas leftovers in small quantities), I got back down slowly. 245 one day, 246 the next, 244, 243.2, 242.7, and finally 241.6 on another monumental day: December 31, the last day of the dreaded year 2020.
(Curious as to the whole year of 2020? Here’s that chart)
New Year, New Shakeup
OK, so again, special food for special days, and again, a predictable rise, with the highest weight being on Sunday, January 3 at 244.2 pounds. Not as bad as Christmas, but still a bit depressing. All of this time I kept thinking “When will I get back down to 240.3?!?” Turns out, the answer to that would be January 6, two weeks to the day after Christmas Eve, I weighed in at 240.0.
Along the way, my Lumen started to notice my body acting a bit differently, as did my body fat scale – you see, as I neared 238.8, I was getting toward the cut-off from a BMI of 30+ (Obesity) to 25-30 (Overweight). BMI is a very troubling number – with lots of debate around how useful it is to describe someone’s overall health, so I’ve never really put much stock in it (Of course, when your BMI is 40+, you don’t need someone to tell you that you’re morbidly obese – it’s just something you know about yourself, like your eye color). Around the same time, my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) started to get closer to what it “should” be for someone my age and height. Lumen started playing around with giving me more carbs, which caused me to experience wild shifts in my weight loss rate – at one point I dropped as low as 1.2 pounds per week. Toward the end of January, I went back to my previous Lumen settings (assuming no workouts, just walks) and after a 10 day plateau, started losing again.
Finally, February saw me losing weight at a reduced clip, but I am continuing to drop. A big accomplishment for me came on February 12, when, for the first time, my weight hit below 230 (229.0), and my body fat went below 25% (24.8%) according to my scale. I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to compare the numbers below from April 9, 2020, to February 12, 2021. Imagine looking at the first screen below on your phone, after already losing 80 pounds over the last 18 months, and thinking “Well… guess I got another 100+ to go…”. If that is you right now, as you read this, then know… it’s possible. If I could do it, you can do it.
And if you’re curious, here’s the February weight chart. February posed a very interesting challenge for me – the inability to go for my morning walks. Something I’d planned for but hoped wouldn’t happen.
First, the planning: on December 14, Apple released Fitness+, their answer to Peloton and something that I would get for free through my Apple One subscription (or at least 3 months free since I’d bought a Series 6 Apple Watch). I was very interested in trying it out since many of the workouts could be done without equipment, and they promised to offer modifications for those who were starting out with exercise. On December 23, I started with the Absolute Beginner Strength workout, the Absolute Beginner HIIT workout, and a Mindful Cooldown – 25 minutes of exercise after my regular walk, and I enjoyed the variety. A week later I did another HIIT workout, and was happy to have an alternative to my walks.
Then, on January 19, it happened: I broke my walking streak of 222 days – instead of a long walk, on that rainy morning, I did a HIIT workout, a dance workout, and a Cooldown. I was happy to still get my exercise in while also not having to come home and dry off (Just to shower and dry off again!).
This preparation was very useful come Thursday, February 11 – the day that the Mississippi Delta got hit with a small ice storm. Campus was closed, and it probably wouldn’t have been a great idea to go out walking – so I did a bit of HIIT. The next day? Yoga. The next day? Core and Dance. And so it went, until February 24 when I was next able to get out and walk – because after the ice storm, came snow which lasted for almost a week.
As mentioned earlier, getting back into walking was something I really was happy to do but something that in just 1.5 weeks my body feel out of routine with. The nights of February 24 and 25 my legs were a little sore! But thankfully just a few days of walking built them up again.
So, not only have I ticked off the boxes for getting below my body fat, I’ve also added a bit more to my exercise routine, and found that I actually like HIIT workouts… and that Yoga can really whip me in ways I never expected! As I write this, February is ending on a “low” note – low weight. High note in other respects.
So that about wraps us up for this weight loss update. As of today I’m down 190.2 pounds from my high, within the home stretch to get to maintenance mode, and have dropped below 25% body fat. Nearly there. My next update will likely be once I go into maintenance mode, and how that works for me.
Thank you all for your support,
Jon Westfall
February 28, 2021 – 225 pounds.
P.S. In a fit of irony, when I posted my last update, my weight went up about a pound the next day, and it was 3-4 more days before it got back down to where it was on the post. Perfectly normal fluctuation, but of course, something one can’t help but roll their eyes at. Thanks body, I was just bragging on you… 🙄 😁
Well friends, we’ve made it past 2020. I figured we could all use a bit of a pickup after that, so I’ve created “That 2021 Energy Mix” – songs sure to pump you up, in a thematic playlist. Let’s walk through it!
Neutron Dance (12” Remix), performed by The Pointer Sisters, written by Allee Willis & Danny Sembello
We start our list with the song that I’ve heard most this past year – because it leads off my Workout playlist that my Apple Watch defaults to start playing when I start a new workout! So obviously, a theme here is energy and activity. But there’s more to that. Allee Willis describes the lyrics of her infectious ear worm as due to “all this stuff going on in my life: I don’t want to take to anymore, I’ll just stay here locked behind the door. Just no time to stop and get away, because I work so hard to make it every day” Source. Willis, who would later go on to write the theme song to Friends, I’ll be there for you, and other music you’ve heard, describes a sentiment a lot of us have felt in 2020 – and offers a way out, perhaps, in this nuclear dance option.
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, written and performed by U2
While released in 1995, this often overlooked U2 power tune has origins dating back to the song “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” released in 1952. Always a good “pump up” tune, I figured this one would nicely keep us active while also moving us from the 80s to the 90s. And guess what, we’ll then keep up this decades theme with a jump of 14 years to our next entry!
Uprising, performed by Muse, written by Matt Bellamy
Ah the 2000s, a decade that started with a false scare (I’ve heard that 2020 is the Y2K we never got), and contained some of the most formative times for things we take for granted today. Smartphones, social media, and so much more. But turning to specifically this tune – how many of us have wanted to stage our own rebellion in 2020? A sense of despair hard to avoid, the only way we move forward is by resisting it We Will Be Victorious!
Burning Up, performed by Marianas Trench, written by Josh Ramsay
Moving to the 2010s, one of my favorite finds in 2020 was this track. Initially added to my “Get Up!” Apple playlist (Generated each week automatically), Burning Up is actually off of an amazing album, Astoria, a concept album by Canadian rock group Marianas Trench. Really I could have included most of the album on this playlist! Pure energy in this track (Made better by the fact that Marianas Trench also put the whole album out in instrumental form if you want some good “jam” music without words), sounds harkening back to the 80s, and a song you can just enjoy without thinking too much. Speaking of the 80’s…
Why Can’t This Be Love, performed by Van Halen, written by Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, & Alex Van Halen
A good energetic track that starts our love story with 2020. You see, a year ago in January, 2020 seemed like it could be a great year. The opportunity for change in the air with the new decade, enthusiasm for a strong economy, and a relatively peaceful world (to the perception of most Americans, at least), there was no reason to believe 2020 would give us trouble. Sure, there was this thing in China that seemed really annoying, but most of us figured it wouldn’t grow out of control. After all, it hadn’t yet. Too bad that 2020 would soon show us why it couldn’t be love.
Hit That, performed by The Offspring, written by Dexter Holland
A song released on my birthday in 2003, “Hit That” tells us All the world is getting with, I say. Consequences are a lot but hey, that’s the way, that’s the way things go. 2020 definitely got with everyone, in ways we didn’t really enjoy.
Humpin’ Around, performed by Bobby Brown, written by Antonio Reid, Kenneth Edmonds, Daryl Simmons, Bobby Brown, Thomas Keyes, & Jan C. “Stylz” Styles
I think it was probably somewhere around March we started to think that perhaps 2020 was, to use the rumored original title to this song, F***ing Around on all of us. We became a bit more guarded!
You Win Again, performed by The Bee Gees, written by Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, & Maurice Gibb
With it’s pulsing bass line, You Win Again tells a story of defeat that we started to feel in mid-2020. I recall thinking in April “Well, this sucks, but it will be better again in July”, only to have July be, personally, my worst month last year. I’m going to hit you from all sides, lay your fortress open wide
I Blame Myself, performed by Sky Ferreira, written by Sky Ferreira, Ariel Rechtshaid, Justin Raisen, Daniel Nigro, & Jordan Benik
How many of us sat around feeling like we couldn’t pull ourselves out of the 2020 funk? Blaming ourselves for our mood. A comment often made to me was “I feel really depressed, and then I realize I have nothing to be upset about – I still have a job/loved ones/my health”. 2020 abused us all and even though some were hit harder than others, it’s perfectly fine to understand that your losses and stresses are valid. Stop blaming yourself for your reaction, and start moving forward. Damage can be repaired.
Big Girl (You Are Beautiful), performed by Mika, written by Mika, Jodi Marr, John Mercant, Andres Orue, & Dan Warner
An easy to have missed 2008 track from Mika, this is the turning point of our little 2020 story. One quote that I heard in 2020 that cracked me up was “You either come out a monk, a hunk, a chunk, or a drunk”. No matter what you came out fo 2020 as, self-value is something you should never doubt. We’re all beautiful, even if we’re works in progress.
Born This Way, performed by Lady Gaga, written by Stefani Germanotta & Jeppe Laursen
Another power tune to push us back in the right direction!
New Divide, written and performed by Linkin Park
As one of my wife’s favorite bands, Linkin Park makes an appearance in a lot of my lists. But like the previous two tracks, this echos a positive turn around. While there is still so much to do to get back to normalcy in the world, we all have reason to fill this hole [and] connect the space between… across this new divide
Freedom Must Be Now (W/ Mykal Rose), performed by Third World and Ibhola Lethu, performed by Juluka & Johnny Clegg
Two great songs filled with energy. In the case of the latter, you really don’t need to know what the lyrics mean, but if you want a hint, here it is
This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race, performed by Fall Out Boy, written by Pete Wentz, Patrick Stump, Joe Trohman, & Andy Hurley
Moving into 2021, we can recognize the truth to lyrics like I’m a leading man, and the lives I lead are oh, so intricate, and hopefully But the real bombshells have already sunk!
Cult of Personality, performed by Living Colour, written by Corey Glover, Vernon Reid, Muzz Skillings, & Will Calhoun
Not only a great energy song, Cult of Personality reminds us that it can be really easy to fall into the crowd following each other toward whoever or whatever promises us hope. Let’s try to avoid that one in 2021 – because it’s only through our own independence that we can conquer the challenges we have.
Water Under the Bridge, performed by Adele, written by Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin
2020 man, it’s water under the bridge!
Better Country, performed by Paul Brandt
Canadian country singer Paul Brandt released this track in 2018, but it sure seems applicable to a different year and different country than Canada!
Family Tree, performed by Kings of Leon, written by Caleb Followill, Nathan Followill, Jared Followill, & Matthew Followill
Relaxing the beat a little bit in this one as we get toward the end of the playlist. Thanks for being part of my family tree by reading this!
Help Myself, performed by Maggie Rose
If there was ever a song about coping with 2020, this one is it. I’ve spent a lot of time walking this past year, and some of that was jamming to the lyrics:
Maybe we’re all just out of minds,
One step away from fine and dandy,
Pills and candy,
Gotta cut straight to the happy ending,
Maybe we’re all just out of our heads,
Despite what the experts said,
I’m only here to help,
I just can’t help myself
DuckTales Theme, performed by Felicia Barton, written by Mark Mueller
A fun one to wrap us all up, with a modern twist thanks to the reboot of the past few years on Disney. What 80s kid doesn’t smile when hearing this (or a kid of any decade, perhaps!)
I hope you’ve enjoyed my little journey through 2020 and on to 2021. Keep the energy moving!
