We're coming to the end of the eating extravaganza that is December. In our household we have 2 birthdays as well as Christmas and New Years as excuses to over-indulge. This year we had a landmark birthday, 2 xmas suppers and we have plans for both Dec 31 and Jan 1. We should be making resolutions to lose weight in starting in January, especially as we look forward to our late winter holiday, but we aren't.
I'm going to be rifting off several posts by Yoni Freedhoff the first being the fallacy that one gains 3 to 5 kgs over Christmas. Most people only gain 1kg but that's a hard 1kg to lose again. It adds up so if it's not the New Years resolution, what to do? Lifestyle change is always the answer!
My SO and I have always approached weight maintenance differently. Him by decreasing calories from fat and me by exercising. He does a lot of lip service to aerobic exercise and I do the same for food choices. I do exercise because I really enjoy it and I can eat what I want. We both lost around 7 kg between 1998 and 1999 and have kept it off. Reading the most up-to-date research, it seems that his is the more effective method. Not gaining weight is much easier than having to take it off. For us this means label reading and portion measurement until we get the idea of what a serving size is...and it's always much smaller than anticipated. We also always drink diet pop - carbonated chemical soup may as well be calorie-free since it's already nutrition free.
For me, it all goes sideways when I fall into the magical idea of weight set-points. That's the idea that it doesn't matter what I eat, I won't gain weight. Uh huh. Last time I tried that I gained 3 kilos from eating pub food after golf. Apparently some people use the idea of a societal weight set point as an excuse for their weight. Actually the idea of a lifestyle set point which makes a lot more sense. It's why we quickly loose some weight after holidays as we return to our normal eating habits.
So what about those resolutions? Mine is to continue to educate myself about nutrition and health and choose my food wisely. Happily after all this time, my tastes have changed and I can eat half a mini blizzard without the other half calling me from the freezer. I'm hoping to get SO to get the idea of hard aerobics out of his exercise routine and do the same - no more bootcamp for us but more ab exercises all around! We're getting more subject to injuries that take a long time to heal.
Have a great 2011 because, you know, the world ends in 2012. Kind of like Y2K only Y2K12. No pressure.
Friday, 31 December 2010
Sunday, 19 December 2010
The unawesomeness of all in one devices
I used to have a PDA and no cell phone, I just don't phone a lot. My Sony Clie UX50 was a whopping $1200 and did everything but made phone calls. I was pretty happy with it - it's still my alarm clock.
Tech doesn't stand still though and slowly I couldn't rip MP3s into small enough files and Palm all but disappeared. Eventually I upgraded to a windows mobile phone then another. Along the way I found I really like swype but not a physical keyboard. I don't like a screen full of icons, even if I have no intentions of leaving the sandbox, I usually do. I like having a removable battery and an external SD card is a quick way to transfer media from one device to another.
I have a Samsung GT i9000M thru Bell Mobility. Better known as the Galaxy Vibrant. I updated to Froyo, my device crashed and burned and is now at the repair shop. This is not a rant about Bell or Samsung. Enough devices failed that the update was pulled, repairs are being made and, hopefully, the problem is being resolved.
Nope this is about how much I plain rely on my device and I have to say I'm surprised. My SO was out of town last week. We usually text. Not this time, we had to - gasp - phone! Not that easy to catch someone when they are going out with a dog every 30 minutes. I twitter (much better than I blog). Sometimes I see stuff that I take a picture of and post. Or even take a picture to show SO later. No camera with me. I like to listen to tunes at work. No new tunes. My grocery list is on my device. Now it's back to pen and paper and it's hard to keep a pen. I pay for groceries with a credit card (for points) then pay back the card as soon as I leave the store because I loose those bills right away. Using debit card instead. Standing in line or waiting somewhere so I could play a game...if I had my Vibrant. I even saw a book that would be perfect for reading in snippets What the Dog Saw . Happily not yet available in Canada on Kindle. But I'm in the middle of a couple of books on my device - sigh.
Should I consider changing devices when mine comes back fixed? It was good until the update so I think it will be good again when repaired. And there's just nothing else out there right now that's better. Even the Nexus S doesn't meet up with my Vibrant.
Tech doesn't stand still though and slowly I couldn't rip MP3s into small enough files and Palm all but disappeared. Eventually I upgraded to a windows mobile phone then another. Along the way I found I really like swype but not a physical keyboard. I don't like a screen full of icons, even if I have no intentions of leaving the sandbox, I usually do. I like having a removable battery and an external SD card is a quick way to transfer media from one device to another.
I have a Samsung GT i9000M thru Bell Mobility. Better known as the Galaxy Vibrant. I updated to Froyo, my device crashed and burned and is now at the repair shop. This is not a rant about Bell or Samsung. Enough devices failed that the update was pulled, repairs are being made and, hopefully, the problem is being resolved.
Nope this is about how much I plain rely on my device and I have to say I'm surprised. My SO was out of town last week. We usually text. Not this time, we had to - gasp - phone! Not that easy to catch someone when they are going out with a dog every 30 minutes. I twitter (much better than I blog). Sometimes I see stuff that I take a picture of and post. Or even take a picture to show SO later. No camera with me. I like to listen to tunes at work. No new tunes. My grocery list is on my device. Now it's back to pen and paper and it's hard to keep a pen. I pay for groceries with a credit card (for points) then pay back the card as soon as I leave the store because I loose those bills right away. Using debit card instead. Standing in line or waiting somewhere so I could play a game...if I had my Vibrant. I even saw a book that would be perfect for reading in snippets What the Dog Saw . Happily not yet available in Canada on Kindle. But I'm in the middle of a couple of books on my device - sigh.
Should I consider changing devices when mine comes back fixed? It was good until the update so I think it will be good again when repaired. And there's just nothing else out there right now that's better. Even the Nexus S doesn't meet up with my Vibrant.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
How a WP7 device came to our house
I am the primary geek at our house. I had an Omnia 2 that I really liked. I fiddled and modified until it was just the way I wanted but it didn't have the direct access programs like android does so after I saw my S-I-L's device, and checking that there were Android apps for the stuff I like to do, I decided to upgrade to the Galaxy S, reset the Omnia 2 and give it to my SO. He's not a geek but I'm around so I thought it would work out well.
Not so much. The screen was not sensitive enough except when he didn't want it to work at all. This meant tapping H-A-R-D on the screen for texting yet doing butt calls even though the screen was supposed to be locked. Frustrating. He wasn't interested in having several screens with themes for applications and really didn't like the on-screen keyboard. I had a credit so I asked him if he wanted to go shopping for a phone. He said he would trust me to get him something.
First it would have to have a roomy keyboard. I looked at a Torch, and LG Optimus Quantum. The torch keyboard has very small keys with ridges around them to center the thumb on the key. The LG just has larger keys and just felt like it would be better for someone with bigger fingertips. The Torch had a series of small icon to touch and the LG had big squares. So I brought home the LG. With an upgrade credit and by trading in the O2. I ended up paying $6 and have 14 days to exchange it at any Futureshop.
It was a hit. In 2 seconds he had sent a couple of texts and was on line at his favorite website. Setting up email was a snap. We sat around and took pictures of each other with the LG, SGS and iPhone4 in the room (mine were the best because I was using retrocamera but his flash was a nice feature)
This would not be the phone for me. I fiddled with it for a couple of minutes and put it down. But for people new to the smart phones I think it could be a good choice. It has solid construction. WP7 Marketplace has a reasonable range of apps for those doing social media or playing games and the Internet Explorer is responsive. Like the old Palm PDAs, there is no multi-tasking but you can use it as a DAP while using programs and when you return to an app, it's where you left off unless you close it. Most importantly, it's easy to use.
Not so much. The screen was not sensitive enough except when he didn't want it to work at all. This meant tapping H-A-R-D on the screen for texting yet doing butt calls even though the screen was supposed to be locked. Frustrating. He wasn't interested in having several screens with themes for applications and really didn't like the on-screen keyboard. I had a credit so I asked him if he wanted to go shopping for a phone. He said he would trust me to get him something.
First it would have to have a roomy keyboard. I looked at a Torch, and LG Optimus Quantum. The torch keyboard has very small keys with ridges around them to center the thumb on the key. The LG just has larger keys and just felt like it would be better for someone with bigger fingertips. The Torch had a series of small icon to touch and the LG had big squares. So I brought home the LG. With an upgrade credit and by trading in the O2. I ended up paying $6 and have 14 days to exchange it at any Futureshop.
It was a hit. In 2 seconds he had sent a couple of texts and was on line at his favorite website. Setting up email was a snap. We sat around and took pictures of each other with the LG, SGS and iPhone4 in the room (mine were the best because I was using retrocamera but his flash was a nice feature)
This would not be the phone for me. I fiddled with it for a couple of minutes and put it down. But for people new to the smart phones I think it could be a good choice. It has solid construction. WP7 Marketplace has a reasonable range of apps for those doing social media or playing games and the Internet Explorer is responsive. Like the old Palm PDAs, there is no multi-tasking but you can use it as a DAP while using programs and when you return to an app, it's where you left off unless you close it. Most importantly, it's easy to use.
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Missing the point of the pro choice position
Going around the part of the internet I peruse is the truly ridiculous internet poll about the "pregnancy of Pete and Alisha Arnold". The feeling in my part of the blogsphere is that it's a scam designed to promote the anti-abortion position since no real people would get pregnant in order to have strangers decide on their personal life. That seems very probably, PZ's post may not be the best (no person *yet*? There will never be a person in her belly) but as always there are some awesome comments and those are what I'll be rifting off.
MY pro-choice position. I have no right to input into any pregnancy but my own. If I were to be asked what I would do in their position I would try to help them clarify what medical terms meant for end result of the pregnancy. Then it's their decision. Government has no right to input into pregnancies either. Whether it's US states denying abortions to women or the Chinese government dictating the one child/mandatory abortion policy. I agree with the motivation for the China policy much more than the US position (population explosion vs. women are stupid) but in the end, I feel both are wrong and would be better served with a education and medical intervention to prevent pregnancies in the first place. Pregnancy is a health condition that starts changing women's bodies soon after conception; it should be avoided if a child is not desired. If it helps, think of it as workplace safety.
People seem to be confused about the terminating the pregnancy part. All too often you get someone saying that there must be restrictions against late term abortions. Why? First, if a woman did decide on a late term termination is legality really going to be an issue? Do some major damage to yourself and the pregnancy is likely to be terminated. Second, late term terminations are done all the time. C-sections - late term termination. Any labour inducing actions are, in effect, late term terminations. The pregnancy is terminated not the product.
An expression of the lagging of science is often stated as where's my flying car. I would ask, where is my artificial womb. If it was truly accepted that life began at conception and human life is sacred there would be a concerted effort to ensure that any embryos removed from women would have an opportunity to develop as far as possible. This would be a boon to infertile couples and overly fertile women alike. The embryo/fetus only dies because of the inability to survive the new environment - see all those terminated pregnancies walking around?
It's very important to me that abortion is legal. Pregnancies can and do go wrong and doctors must be able to communicate options that will be in the best health interests of the woman and/or help prepare the parent(s) for birth. Just like any life changing event, the patient may need counselling. I am very glad that Canada doesn't have an abortion law. Pregnancy is treated as any other medical condition. I don't get to vote whether a smoker gets a lung transplant so why should I get to vote if other women keep a pregnancy. What is the difference between women miscarrying and needing a D&C and women choosing early in a pregnancy to get a D&C? Why do anti-abortionists assume the doctors that are there to help women hate humanity?
When you really think about it, it seems that the anti abortion lobby can only be primarily a pro-"punish/control women for being able to grow cells that can become life" group. That's a topic for another post though.
MY pro-choice position. I have no right to input into any pregnancy but my own. If I were to be asked what I would do in their position I would try to help them clarify what medical terms meant for end result of the pregnancy. Then it's their decision. Government has no right to input into pregnancies either. Whether it's US states denying abortions to women or the Chinese government dictating the one child/mandatory abortion policy. I agree with the motivation for the China policy much more than the US position (population explosion vs. women are stupid) but in the end, I feel both are wrong and would be better served with a education and medical intervention to prevent pregnancies in the first place. Pregnancy is a health condition that starts changing women's bodies soon after conception; it should be avoided if a child is not desired. If it helps, think of it as workplace safety.
People seem to be confused about the terminating the pregnancy part. All too often you get someone saying that there must be restrictions against late term abortions. Why? First, if a woman did decide on a late term termination is legality really going to be an issue? Do some major damage to yourself and the pregnancy is likely to be terminated. Second, late term terminations are done all the time. C-sections - late term termination. Any labour inducing actions are, in effect, late term terminations. The pregnancy is terminated not the product.
An expression of the lagging of science is often stated as where's my flying car. I would ask, where is my artificial womb. If it was truly accepted that life began at conception and human life is sacred there would be a concerted effort to ensure that any embryos removed from women would have an opportunity to develop as far as possible. This would be a boon to infertile couples and overly fertile women alike. The embryo/fetus only dies because of the inability to survive the new environment - see all those terminated pregnancies walking around?
It's very important to me that abortion is legal. Pregnancies can and do go wrong and doctors must be able to communicate options that will be in the best health interests of the woman and/or help prepare the parent(s) for birth. Just like any life changing event, the patient may need counselling. I am very glad that Canada doesn't have an abortion law. Pregnancy is treated as any other medical condition. I don't get to vote whether a smoker gets a lung transplant so why should I get to vote if other women keep a pregnancy. What is the difference between women miscarrying and needing a D&C and women choosing early in a pregnancy to get a D&C? Why do anti-abortionists assume the doctors that are there to help women hate humanity?
When you really think about it, it seems that the anti abortion lobby can only be primarily a pro-"punish/control women for being able to grow cells that can become life" group. That's a topic for another post though.
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Trip down memory lane - our wedding
We were visiting with friends and they were playing their wedding music for us. It was interesting because their wedding was South African and very dance-able. This lead to our wedding music, clearly more important to me than him because he couldn't remember it. He gave a stab at our first song (he chose "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce at the time but not during our visit) then, I think, just gave up and said something by Roberta Flack for the second song. Really, Roberta, Killing me Softly, Flack? I knew I had wanted "In My life" by the Beatles for the first song so thought we had it for the second song. Quick - get the wedding memories book.
I'm amazed that I found the book in 3 seconds. We've moved several times and rarely look at photos anymore. I was very detailed in filling in blanks even though we were at school. Some of the comments are classic. Under traditions we like I have - arch at end, vetoed by SO; Under Engagement Mementos there are a couple of pictures and the comments 2 roses for Valentines and over 3.5/4 for grades - at least I didn't totally go soppy. And, btw, all wedding dress styles have sleeves that's how long ago it was.
 |
| We were all pretty happy about following local traditions. |
My dream wedding was to get married in a hot air balloon at dawn. Very symbolic and unrealistic considering I get motion sick at the drop of a hat. That would have had to a very large balloon. Anyway my dad mentioned that ma cousine had gotten married by a JP; I wasn't going to do that was I. Uh, I guess not. Off to a church we went. Luckily in the '80 the RCC was much more relaxed about weddings - busy shuffling those priests I guess. Our priest was a very nice guy who got the call while taking Chemical Engineering. We spent a lot of time talking Chemistry rather than religion. He made suggestions for secularizing our ceremony (least repulsive OT verses, no mass etc) and off we went. Church, hotel reception and dance (calypso, rock, no polkas or Beach Boys until requested by guests!). We took off at midnight because we were heading to Hawaii in the morning.
I compare to the last wedding I was in 5 years ago. Very nice ceremony in the bride's parent's back yard. Nice supper at a hall, lots of country music. Bridal party last out the door because we had to clean up garbage, remove decorations, pack up booze, take gifts home etc. And that seems to be the trend around here. One of the lab techs has 2 weddings next summer, one in her back yard and the other not. In both cases there will be cleaning up that involves more than removing the gifts. I guess it prepares you for the rest of your life together.
And our second song *was* In My Life. For all that it's remembered I should have push for it to be first:)
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Faith-based organizations =/= religious org ; semantics at it's best
Every year the multi-national I work for puts employees through the Corporate Ethics. It used to be everyone but they've stopped wasting the time of people who have no purchasing power; unfortunately that's not me. In it people like me find out things like
And so American manager has brought his religion into the workplace. Even if I choose not to participate in a charitable activity, I can rest assured that he will contribute on my behalf. That would be my behalf as both and employee and stock holder. Thank you for relieving me of that burden. Now I have to make doubly sure to up my contributions to secular charities.
- if someone has a frowny face they are unlikely to take your teasing about age well.
- avoid the appearance conflict of interest
- don't give/take bribes which includes most gifts
And so American manager has brought his religion into the workplace. Even if I choose not to participate in a charitable activity, I can rest assured that he will contribute on my behalf. That would be my behalf as both and employee and stock holder. Thank you for relieving me of that burden. Now I have to make doubly sure to up my contributions to secular charities.
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Obesity acceptance
I was reading Dr. Sharma's weekly links. One interesting discussion is obesity is like alcoholism. Commenters rightly noted that obesity doesn't at all lead to the types of behaviour alcoholism does with the effects on others. But if obesity was treated as an addition like alcoholism perhaps more people would seek treatment.
I'm not sure we're seeking a solution that doesn't exist. A long time ago, a friend (who was taking a psych course at the time) told me that all people have addictive personalities as part of their pleasure/reward system. Research has not contradicted that pleasure is a powerful motivator and reward and we see it in all aspect of life. It's just as some are more socially acceptable than others. Most people admire successful/rich people. In the past, a well fed body was an indication of wealth. Now that there is an overwhelming availability of cheap palatable food everyone can have this wealth indicator.
I admit, I find it difficult to empathize with obese people. I don't really understand why, once you have to increase your clothes size a couple of times that you don't take steps to stop the increase by checking your portion size and making yourself eat different foods. Replace food as a reward with an activity you would do more of if you had more time/money. Take time to build new habits and don't multi-task while eating.
And then I remember dog training. My first dog never went on furniture - a firm rule but he also had to be on a leash because he was intermittent on coming when called. We're now on dog number 4. None of them have had really solid recalls though all of them come when I call them to watch tv or go in their space because I'm going out. I can make all the excuses in the world about time and other commitments but, in the end, as much as I would like (really like) my guys to come when I call them ALL THE TIME, it's not that important to me because I haven't made time to effectively work on it to make sure that they do.
Why does obesity matter to you? If you're activity level is slow walking, sitting, driving and you can do that, what is your motivation for change? If you don't mind taking pills to compensate for metabolic shortcomings why lose weight? If you are willing to take the increased risk of surgical risk, poor medication dosage then being larger isn't going to be a motivator. If you don't care how long you live because you'll be seeing everyone who matters in heaven, why would you be concerned about your length and quality of life?
Why does your obesity matter to me? Well, in a universal health care system there is a finite amount of money. I am currently healthy. A little physio and an annual checkup is about the extent of my use. But every dollar that goes towards a intervention of a manageable health problem is unavailable for other use. That means poorer assessment and treatment of cancer and other diseases. Longer surgical wait times because of the increased surgical complexities with increased likelihood of poor outcomes. Less research and/or health education funds.
Research shows that it's really is the calorie intake that matters; we over eat way more than we can compensate for with exercise. If the reward not being obese is not self evident, perhaps it means MORE food processing to take out calories while maintaining nutritional needs and inducing a sense of satiety. I'm not talking about deceitful marketing or emphasizing of one nutritional aspect in the face of overwhelming lack of value for calories (like chocolate milk and twizzlers). I'm talking about more intrinsic single serving packaging like precut pizza made with low fat cheese and salt substitutes with flash freezing for optimal palatability. Prefer pop/soda? Make it with stevia (natural has a better image!) and load it with nutrients. Many people denigrate food research because it is done by multi-national, profit based food companies. This is like denying the good that has come out of medications because they are developed by multi-national, profit based pharmaceutical companies. Use food processing to help those people who are not going to take the effort to garden, prepare raw food, measure serving sizes and all those other things that go into healthy eating habits.
I would like everyone to be more like me. Making the choice to eat healthier foods in moderate quantities. Exercising for fun and all that. But that's not realistic. Instead of using an authoritative control for a widespread problem, play into the behavioral aspect. Making the low calorie choice convenient, attractive and tasty may seem like giving up or giving in but what am I losing? The ability to be judgmental about people who make different lifestyle choices? Sure but I'm also hoping to lose the strain on the health care system and see people live with less medical intervention.
I'm not sure we're seeking a solution that doesn't exist. A long time ago, a friend (who was taking a psych course at the time) told me that all people have addictive personalities as part of their pleasure/reward system. Research has not contradicted that pleasure is a powerful motivator and reward and we see it in all aspect of life. It's just as some are more socially acceptable than others. Most people admire successful/rich people. In the past, a well fed body was an indication of wealth. Now that there is an overwhelming availability of cheap palatable food everyone can have this wealth indicator.
I admit, I find it difficult to empathize with obese people. I don't really understand why, once you have to increase your clothes size a couple of times that you don't take steps to stop the increase by checking your portion size and making yourself eat different foods. Replace food as a reward with an activity you would do more of if you had more time/money. Take time to build new habits and don't multi-task while eating.
And then I remember dog training. My first dog never went on furniture - a firm rule but he also had to be on a leash because he was intermittent on coming when called. We're now on dog number 4. None of them have had really solid recalls though all of them come when I call them to watch tv or go in their space because I'm going out. I can make all the excuses in the world about time and other commitments but, in the end, as much as I would like (really like) my guys to come when I call them ALL THE TIME, it's not that important to me because I haven't made time to effectively work on it to make sure that they do.
Why does obesity matter to you? If you're activity level is slow walking, sitting, driving and you can do that, what is your motivation for change? If you don't mind taking pills to compensate for metabolic shortcomings why lose weight? If you are willing to take the increased risk of surgical risk, poor medication dosage then being larger isn't going to be a motivator. If you don't care how long you live because you'll be seeing everyone who matters in heaven, why would you be concerned about your length and quality of life?
Why does your obesity matter to me? Well, in a universal health care system there is a finite amount of money. I am currently healthy. A little physio and an annual checkup is about the extent of my use. But every dollar that goes towards a intervention of a manageable health problem is unavailable for other use. That means poorer assessment and treatment of cancer and other diseases. Longer surgical wait times because of the increased surgical complexities with increased likelihood of poor outcomes. Less research and/or health education funds.
Research shows that it's really is the calorie intake that matters; we over eat way more than we can compensate for with exercise. If the reward not being obese is not self evident, perhaps it means MORE food processing to take out calories while maintaining nutritional needs and inducing a sense of satiety. I'm not talking about deceitful marketing or emphasizing of one nutritional aspect in the face of overwhelming lack of value for calories (like chocolate milk and twizzlers). I'm talking about more intrinsic single serving packaging like precut pizza made with low fat cheese and salt substitutes with flash freezing for optimal palatability. Prefer pop/soda? Make it with stevia (natural has a better image!) and load it with nutrients. Many people denigrate food research because it is done by multi-national, profit based food companies. This is like denying the good that has come out of medications because they are developed by multi-national, profit based pharmaceutical companies. Use food processing to help those people who are not going to take the effort to garden, prepare raw food, measure serving sizes and all those other things that go into healthy eating habits.
I would like everyone to be more like me. Making the choice to eat healthier foods in moderate quantities. Exercising for fun and all that. But that's not realistic. Instead of using an authoritative control for a widespread problem, play into the behavioral aspect. Making the low calorie choice convenient, attractive and tasty may seem like giving up or giving in but what am I losing? The ability to be judgmental about people who make different lifestyle choices? Sure but I'm also hoping to lose the strain on the health care system and see people live with less medical intervention.
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