Sunday, June 05, 2016

Art, politics, and paranoia

Over at the online journal EyeContact I've published an essay about aggressive cops, philanthropic bankers, a sex-crazed theologian, fatty foods, some noisy bats, a couple of conspiracy theories, and an extraordinary group of young artists. You can read it here.

6 Comments:

Blogger Richard said...

A good review on Eye-Contact. Re food, you can see the difference when people eat their traditional diet or simply cut down. My son and I reduced a huge amount. We see polynesians and others by a lot of coca-cola and other drinks as well as sometimes chocolate and much else. I never eat corned beef.

However, it is a point that one can reduce weight without changing one's diet too much. Coca cola isn't the problem. We found that our problem with eating was habit. We had to change our habits. So firstly we were advised by (my daughter who is an expert in this field, and now has a PhD in Health Science), to first of all simply record EVERYTHING we ate. We got some cheap but good scales for weighing things (food), a calculator, and note books or somewhere to record. This is the first step. Then weigh oneself frequently (once a week I am doing now using one of the machines that will tell you if your BMI is too great, that is, if you are overweight for your height etc).

Then after a while we targeted 1700 calories a day (by the way 1700 calories are actually, 1,700,000 calories: but they are referred to on products etc as calories. To convert kilojoules to calories divide by 4.2. The average man of about 6ft might or possibly should weigh about 11 stone or possible at the most 76 kilograms (but you can find all this stuff out). It isn't necessary to do much exercise to lose weight although a walk each day will help.

The point is to eat less of what you were eating if you need or want to lose weight. It doesn't mean that you have to avoid a weekly treat say. You have to slowly eliminate things you tend to binge on. I used to have a lot of sugar sachets which I added to make a nice drink but it added a lot of calories. I also stopped buying anything such as cheese that I 'binged' on. So I have no biscuits, I drink no soft drinks and rarely any alcohol, I drink tea without milk, coffee with milk (one normal coffee for example is about 25 calories, an apple is 60 calories, a small bar of chocolate is about 270 calories so we have one of those only once a week. It pays to weigh rice and note on the packet how many kilojoules it has per 100 grams then convert it to how much you eat.

coca cola actually has less calories per 100 gms than many other drinks such as "natural" orange drinks. All of these have a lot of sugar. It is essential the body has carbohydrates but the aim is to no have in excess of that required.

So we also never go to MacDonalds or any other fast food place and I never now eat chips (I might do so on rare occasion).

Those golden Feijoas are good as a pears and other fruit such as apples.
Remember though that fruit such as pineapple per 100 gms probably has a lot of calories so you have to calculate that.

Once you have a regular food pattern, then it is easy to record daily intake. Right now I have eaten about 1760 calories over the whole day so I will just have some tea without milk and I have weak tea as otherwise the stimulant effect of caffeine might cause sleeplessness. (Avoid coffee after about 4 pm).

With a reduced calorie intake and some discipline in eating (eat slowly by the way), weight will slowly decline. If you reduce too much red meat you might have trouble with low B12. I used Executive Stress B which is quite cheap at Pak 'n Save....

Weight watchers aren't bad. It sounds difficult but anything worth doing is difficult. My son lost over some years about 60 kilograms I lost a lot of kilograms. As one reduces it is not a straight line down, like anything sometimes you increase.

9:04 pm  
Blogger Richard said...

Reducing weight can save your or your loved ones lives as it is the biggest cause potentially of death outside of old age. So a systematic program, not a boot camp madness which is dangerous, as people who are overweight can die of heart failure quite easily if "overdriven": not that, just walks and some exercise with guidance from a doctor and some books on the subject, and you experience better health.

Obesity can be measured and it means that one's BMI is too high (I am about 1.67 metres and if my weight was 100 kilograms my BMI would be 100 divided by my height squared so with a calculator that is ~ 36 and normal BMI is between 20 to 25. I would be very much outside my recommended weight (obese in fact, and dangerously so).

So, if you use one of those machines that print out the results, as I do each week, it will tell you if you are overweight. Also when I weigh myself I look at my body in profile to see my waist size.

You have to do these things. If you eat much the same on the same day of each week it becomes increasingly easy to reduce. We find that we now get a lot more fruit and are careful to avoid any sweets, sugar, chocolate etc. But it is a good idea to have one or two days when one 'gives oneself a treat'.

It is important for people everywhere to watch their health, physical and mental (mens sana in corpore sano). The health of the body and mind are linked. You live longer and better and thus mean you see your grandchildren or grand nephews etc and you feel better.

The down sides of obesity are very large risk of all cancers, respiratory problems, cardio vascular failures, and other illnesses such as diabetes.
Gout is an example. But there are many more.

People sometimes avoid fruit good vegetables (and good fish or meat) because of the cost but the cost is irrelevant. You don't need to own a car or a house, but you do need good food inside you. So if you want to go into debt, spend more on food you can use to keep yourself well with.

There are not many "bad" or "unhealthy" foods, it is really the total calorie intake per day that is the issue with health. Although a shift to higher fibre diet (for example my breakfast is always 1 wheatbix, 1 kiwi fruit, some fruit from a can (there is sugar in those but it's not much and it makes it taste good) and some milk, and a coffee with milk. Later in the day I might have s/w bread with salad (you can buy ready made salads at Pak 'n Save). As I have these things and say soup on Monday or Steak on Thursday etc I know sometimes in advance how many calories and whether I should maybe have a pear (75 calories for an average pear) or say a pineapple (my Calorie Counter book says about 50 calories a slice...so if you eat a whole pineapple it is probably about 300 to 500 calories. So don't eat too much fruit either if you are reducing. But if you eat any thing fruit is better than coca cola or cake or chocolate or sweets.

9:04 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tongan gangs...they don't take any...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgVuOLaCF44

12:26 pm  
Anonymous Scott Hamilton said...

Thanks for your comments Richard. I'm looking at what I eat more carefully as I get older, and trying to keep my weight well under 100kg. It is remarkable how much more energetic one feels...

10:21 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was very impressed by this post, this site has always been pleasant news. Thank you very much for such an interesting post. Keep working, great job! In my free time, I like play game: imgtaram. What about you?

9:15 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

Your new valuable key points imply much a person like meĀ and
extremely more to my office workers. With thanks; from every one of
us.

syringe infusion pump manufacturers

infusion pump manufacturers

patient monitor manufacturers

11:06 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home