MungedMetaData2017 

 

Introduction/Definition/etc Body Conclusion Discussion License Page History Page Statistics Page Views:  since creating on 20170915

 

Introduction/Definition/etc

 

So data collecting on my Munged2017

idear, and some issues with same...

 

 

Body

 

Bought a CVS Health Digital Food Scale,

for $20 or so, and now cannot find it online,

so wondering what's up with that, customer

service, awaiting a recent request, as calling

at 4 am ish not helping, no recognition of 

security question, not locked out of account

for resetting password on a really slow responding

system (backups?) the other day, just looking for the

manual online, and a link to reference here...

 

Anyways, a digital scale, and quickly learn,

about Tare, a zeroing button to get the weight

of the container out of the math, so add plate,

tare reset to zero, and add say bread, toasted

and get the weight of that, and

then a third thing like Peanut Butter,

grams of that,

while with cereal, bowl, tare, corn flakes, or whatever,

tare, hit units button for say default oz to grams,

fluid oz,  or grams to ml 

(remembering? 1 ml water = 1 g????),

but makes it look better unit wise, and

Imperial gallons, fluid oz, etc is different,

well grams don't mean much to me,

(quarter pounder? = _ g?)

but don't like the math for oz and lb,

conversions of fractions, so going to grams,

some think Kilos and any scale is for drugs,

(old research lab scales went missing a lot)

but food intake can be an issue for some people,

but like water retention, liquids may make a

difference, (precooked pasta vs. cooked pasta?)

and if getting completely anal about it,

body output like peeing, defecating, and sweating,

dry weight of a person each day, before showering,

after showering, ow much wet hair,

which clothes left on,

body scale (around $5-10)

when winter after holidays clearance,

then CVS came out with a 

more advanced, BMI and other great stuff

in similar form factor.  My battery went quickly

on the low end body scale, and maybe because

I was placing books on it, and stacking, but

maybe discounted and get them out when

sitting around with batteries included, anyways,

MicroCenter had CR2032 batteries at $1 each later,

and invested in that, (the 9 pack for ~$5 is a better

deal (per unit) and turns out those coin type batteries

are used for bicycle lights, the froggie ones,

and the in the spokes orange and other colours?

ones too, so stocking up in the fall makes sense,

just with BBCMicroBit2017 (there is a non kids

version that uses coin batteries, but very young

kids tend to swallow coin batteries. BEWARE)

MicroBit,  RPi Zero W and Arduino investing

(including Fall back to school sales)

plus memory for cameras (rebuilding RPi3 SD :-( ),

quickly went out of budget and had to not 

buy at the register some things going back

when had the few bucks, math had worked out

that it might not be $35 per bounce fees,

cascading (inverse of compounding,

or in the negative)

and hit the limit there

too...

 

Anyways, datawise for food, looking at creating

ODS, and more processable CSV /XML files

for looking up the data from packaged stuff like:

 

FileName:

UPC:

Price: (sale/regular)

NetWeight:

PackageWeight:

NutritionalInformation:

Serving Size:

Number of Servings/Container:

Contains: Wheat, Eggs, Nuts, etc warnings

Website:(can I lookup this stuff there?)

HighLow: (Low Sugar/High Fibre, High LDL, etc)

Notes:

 

(adding validation options might help,

and complete datafields, link to NutritionalInfo

record/file, and then comparing say product

X, and product Y, for sugar content, fat content,

salt content, etc, price / unit, availability, etc)

 

and many others I'm not remembering at the moment,

data normalization, like for database design,

as the NutritionalInformation

is an approximated USDA food table,

and complex in itself, so more there...

 

Ingredients can be complex,

as say combined pasta,

contains wheat or rice, durum, and enriched

B vitamins, iron, etc, so might be a long list of stuff,

and maybe even less than 2% of the following

type stuff, FDA Yellow, Red, and/or Nutrasweet,

Sucralose, Aspartamine, (last 3 likely trademarked)

and other undesirables

(alcohol since studied for a CSAC,

and asking others not to,

try it myself to be internally consistent),

at least for me, where sugar in the first three ingredients,

with a simple food of only say 5 ingredients,

it might be proportionally difficult,

unless you look at serving size, and g sugar

per serving, and decide based on that,

or just being

BeggarsCantBeChoosers2017

shut up and take it, while staff and volunteers are

laughing at you, haha, you have to have pie,

and pray to pie, all we have for you,

other stuff is chocolate donuts, and worse,

so not possible to live within rules normal

people with money, going to grocery stores

can and do...

 

Units make a difference, some have both

Imperial/English lb. oz. and Metric (g)

but computers may want just one value,

so multiple fields for metric and imperial,

the load of entering all the data has been

bad...   At first entering with a

PrePaidCellPhonesUpGrade2016

smart phone, with a text editor

and working out the format

 

 g container (plate/bowl/ or skip papertowel = 0g)

tare

 g added food name

 

= ? g difference

 

after eating

weighing say chicken bones

or banana peel plus brown spots left over

or apple core, etc

to subtract out sometime to get the difference

keeping the numbers on the left hand side

makes it easier to find later on,

(not to be confused with miles ridden, walked,

time formats, etc) and maybe a later automated/

compile type thing  with a lookup of the

container weights and volumes say tan brown bowl

or black bowl (Rapid MicroWave Instant Oatmeal

or Instant Rice or Mac n Cheese,

the last two working less well

for me...)

 

But years or so of keeping a food log

and recently, (Labour Day weekend)

going to weigh and measure, and

learning the hard way

hasn't changed intake at all,

afaict, for now, just getting baseline

of what I normally do, and that is all

at home, taking a scale on the road,

and need a backup scale, there are probably

better and looking forward to Bluetooth entering

my numbers automagically into software that

I probably create, hit the button and get it transferred

instead of data entry errors, (transposing and

forgetting being big problems)

stepping thru a form/ script and getting

ending numbers, saving intermediates

along the way, and fully customizable,

and automatable to develop something

that works for me, and maybe some

comments from others

(likely ignored, but what the hay),

likely never finished, like many researchy type

projects, building on previous problems,

looking up somethings (tare) and 

what other products are out there,

making due with what I have, and might 

afford, not really, but dreaming of better,

and expressing that, as the peacefullness

and possibly safety of cooking while trying to measure,

especially while learning, is difficult, will the thing

on the stove burn, while I'm taking the extra

time to weight and measure the other stuff?

 

Used to be just crack and egg shell, and throw

in the trash, I was always annoyed that others

would just put it in the sink, collect it up later,

but turns out maybe safer, in some ways,

e.coli, salmonella, etc, be damned,

I didn't eat many products I had to worry

about those things, but that is what is given,

and how many eat, so have to make due,

otherwise hot dogs, fish, or back to microwaved

meals, and mostly cereals, etc, comfort foods,

which helped get me to 250 lbs, or so, now

down below 200, last I weighed myself,

before seasonal increased eating, and staying

home much more... Sodas first to  go,

thought before that people who drank

them were fat, and proved I could get there

being like everyone else, but water, if filtered,

and cold (frozen bike water bottles?)

likely good enough for me...

 

And recently too tired to start up a smart phone,

the one with the text editor, and index cards,

and hope to enter those

to keep some of it all digital,

and that only a few weeks,

without the scanning/ photo of packaging,

entering into a spreadsheet/

packaging information, doing math,

with/ without a spreadsheet, automation,

even without travelling/ eating out, and other difficult 

beginner situations, planning ahead what I can

and cannot eat, and where to go based on that,

before holidays, and we are going to x

therefore I cannot, and going to y,

or home (z), to weigh and measure

with an extra scale I didn't bring with

(or dropped and got wet along the way)...

And/or take photos of my food,

which freaks people out...

Are you going to write about us?

Is he a secret shopper/ foodie? Critic?

Better make it good, no chef's surprises, etc...

 

 

Conclusion

 

Summary of experience or similar

 

Not much results yet, just getting started,

much more to do, the data load will get bad

after a while, and the automation necessary

and lookup times with more data making it

more CPU and disk space/ flash memory

and using other automating, and micro

processor/ CPU tasking necessary,

but output in CSV, starting with spreadsheets

where most start and edit, running some processes

usually called munging data, to validate, fix,

and eventually compile to get answers,

may be one solution...

 

The other is get more fat, which will happen anyways

getting into the fall and winter time(s), lest I go the

other way and get too skinny, which has happened

before restricting too much the types of foods

I eat, and what I don't...

 

Discussion

 

A place for feedback on the page presented

 

What food processes do you use?

 

Weigh and measure?

Some specific diet?

Weight Watchers (tm?)

Atkins (tm?) Diet?

etc?

 

Some religiously defined Kosher/ Hallal (sp?),

fish on Fridays, etc?

Vegetarian, Vegan, Freegan?

 

Or is it none of my business, and best left

to personal choices, responsibility, and availability

is your own issue?

 

License

 

Creative Commons Share and Share Alike,

Non Commercial, Non Derivative,

for the whole site's contents

unless otherwise explicitly stated

 

Page History

 

20170915 Jerry

• Jerry created this page to log a little progress,
• just a little, not much, but vague, project mnglment
• wise...

 

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