I have nothing to apologize for, of course. Those few amazingly awesome friends who read my blog aren't holding their breaths in eager anticipation for my next musings. The world is not going to explode, nor implode, if I don't share my thoughts about x, y, or z.
Yet I still feel guilty for not posting over the last month or so.
Obviously the Fat Friday thing has been put on hold, mostly because I became fairly convinced that the diet does, indeed, work. I've been experimenting with just avoiding carbs when I make my own food, but I've found it's too lax an excuse. I'm stable at 314 (net loss of 16 lbs from starting the diet), but I haven't really changed from that weight in 3-4 weeks. I need to go back to forcing myself to keep with the lifestyle if I want to lose weight, and I'd really like to break 300 before Christmas. It's a silly little thing, I know, but I haven't weighed less than 300 since high school.
On the other hand, losing weight still isn't a primary objective for me or my life. I'm convinced the diet works, and it works well. I'm also convinced that life is too short to completely cut yourself off from the experiences you love, and if the experience you love happens to be a giant warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and caramel on top, well, it's not the end of the world if I deviate from the diet now and again to enjoy that.
So that's really that about the Fat Friday segment. I suspect I'll want to write about something else for a change. Maybe the deficit, which is terrifying me with its "low but possible chance of losing all workstudy if no one can compromise" nature. Not tonight, though. Definitely not tonight.
Tonight is a time for sleep.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Done with Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is an amazing writer and has contributed a great deal towards the atheist and skeptical movements. I enjoyed several of his books and think of him as an intellectual giant, with wit and wisdom by the dozen. What I find myself not enjoying, however, is his views outside of the narrow realm of biology and atheism.
First came last year, when he gave a speech at TAM speaking harshly about those who enjoy fantasy literature, which was mildly irritating yet overall no major issue; after all, everyone has a right to their opinion, and as weird as it seemed to me at the time I'm generally not the type of person to worry about that sort of thing. Now, however, he's having a go against feminism, specifically Rebecca Watson of Skepchic. It's late and I'm braindead, so I won't go into too much detail about the case, but you can read all about it here. This include's Dawkin's response to a video she made where, almost in passing, she commented on how creepy it was that a guy invited her into his hotel room while in an elevator. I copy and paste Dawkins' reply here:
One of the worst arguments you can make when dealing with issues is to point out that "someone else has it worse." It's unfeeling and logically unsound. I could understand if Rebecca Watson had made a giant issue about it, but having watched the youtube video this all originated with, she wasn't making ludicrous claims or expressing anything other than a side note about a guy who probably should've thought about the situation he was creating and didn't. Dawkins' response was uncalled for.
I could add more, but I fear this may be rambly enough as it is. It's currently 3am (and I'm feeling lonely) and my brain isn't really "on" anymore.
First came last year, when he gave a speech at TAM speaking harshly about those who enjoy fantasy literature, which was mildly irritating yet overall no major issue; after all, everyone has a right to their opinion, and as weird as it seemed to me at the time I'm generally not the type of person to worry about that sort of thing. Now, however, he's having a go against feminism, specifically Rebecca Watson of Skepchic. It's late and I'm braindead, so I won't go into too much detail about the case, but you can read all about it here. This include's Dawkin's response to a video she made where, almost in passing, she commented on how creepy it was that a guy invited her into his hotel room while in an elevator. I copy and paste Dawkins' reply here:
Dear MuslimaYick.
Stop whining, will you. Yes, yes, I know you had your genitals mutilated with a razor blade, and . . . yawn . . . don’t tell me yet again, I know you aren’t allowed to drive a car, and you can’t leave the house without a male relative, and your husband is allowed to beat you, and you’ll be stoned to death if you commit adultery. But stop whining, will you. Think of the suffering your poor American sisters have to put up with.
Only this week I heard of one, she calls herself Skep”chick”, and do you know what happened to her? A man in a hotel elevator invited her back to his room for coffee. I am not exaggerating. He really did. He invited her back to his room for coffee. Of course she said no, and of course he didn’t lay a finger on her, but even so . . .
And you, Muslima, think you have misogyny to complain about! For goodness sake grow up, or at least grow a thicker skin.
Richard
One of the worst arguments you can make when dealing with issues is to point out that "someone else has it worse." It's unfeeling and logically unsound. I could understand if Rebecca Watson had made a giant issue about it, but having watched the youtube video this all originated with, she wasn't making ludicrous claims or expressing anything other than a side note about a guy who probably should've thought about the situation he was creating and didn't. Dawkins' response was uncalled for.
I could add more, but I fear this may be rambly enough as it is. It's currently 3am (and I'm feeling lonely) and my brain isn't really "on" anymore.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Freedom to be Vile
Oh Neil Gaiman, how I adore thee. Today he wrote on his blog about the nature and necessity of free speech:
I can't make the argument any better than Mr. Gaiman did. Go read his article, it's worth it.
You ask, What makes it worth defending? and the only answer I can give is this: Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you're going to have to stand up for stuff you don't believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don't, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person's obscenity is another person's art.The entire essay is in response to a reader asking why we should defend lolicon manga, and I agree 100% with everything he says. I've seen lolicon in some of my searches (I'll admit a guilty pleasure in seeking out erotic-yet-not-vile doujins, and I find I have to wade through 5-10 distastful and icky ones involving lolicon, incest, or rape to find one that I don't find objectionable) and yes, it's quite gross. I think the world would be a better place if it didn't exist, if only slightly. Even still, I would not for a moment consider banning it or making it illegal, and would actively vote against any politician who did.
Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff youdo like, you've already lost.
I can't make the argument any better than Mr. Gaiman did. Go read his article, it's worth it.
Fat Friday: Everything's eventual
Starting Weight: 315.5
Ending Weight: 316.0
Net Change: gain 0.5 lbs
So another stable week. I did cheat a lot this week admittedly for various reasons (If everyone else decided on Pizza, I'm not going to leave my friend's house just to go procure something low-carb), but I still maintained my weight this week, so that's good. Unlike when I counted calories, I find I don't feel as guilty when I do cheat, possibly because I don't feel like this is as rigorous or demanding as counting calories. One of my friends still thinks this diet is "bullshit," that it's really just portion control. I only partially agree with the sentiment. I do think it's portion control mostly, but I know from three separate times of trying to count calories that I can't portion control by counting calories or otherwise limiting what I eat. I don't have the self-control, and I find I'm hungry more often when I eat carbs.
As an example, I used to have two bowls of cereal for breakfast most mornings. I'd eat the first bowl, and I still wouldn't be satisfied so I'd have to get a second. These weren't small bowls, either. Now my breakfast consists of either three eggs or two hamburgers, sans bun. I find that, in general, I'm more sated by that smaller meal than I was with all the cereal I had. I eat that and am legitimately not hungry anymore. I'm not alone. A recent study suggested that, while eating any breakfast increased satiety and helped portion control throughout the day, high-protein breakfasts showed a much greater decrease in brain activity in food-motivation centers.
So yes, I'd say I'm something of a semi-believer now. I'll never argue its benefits with others, but I'm probably going to continue this diet past the experiment date just to continue to hold back on my cravings. Here's to seeing what next week will bring.
Ending Weight: 316.0
Net Change: gain 0.5 lbs
So another stable week. I did cheat a lot this week admittedly for various reasons (If everyone else decided on Pizza, I'm not going to leave my friend's house just to go procure something low-carb), but I still maintained my weight this week, so that's good. Unlike when I counted calories, I find I don't feel as guilty when I do cheat, possibly because I don't feel like this is as rigorous or demanding as counting calories. One of my friends still thinks this diet is "bullshit," that it's really just portion control. I only partially agree with the sentiment. I do think it's portion control mostly, but I know from three separate times of trying to count calories that I can't portion control by counting calories or otherwise limiting what I eat. I don't have the self-control, and I find I'm hungry more often when I eat carbs.
As an example, I used to have two bowls of cereal for breakfast most mornings. I'd eat the first bowl, and I still wouldn't be satisfied so I'd have to get a second. These weren't small bowls, either. Now my breakfast consists of either three eggs or two hamburgers, sans bun. I find that, in general, I'm more sated by that smaller meal than I was with all the cereal I had. I eat that and am legitimately not hungry anymore. I'm not alone. A recent study suggested that, while eating any breakfast increased satiety and helped portion control throughout the day, high-protein breakfasts showed a much greater decrease in brain activity in food-motivation centers.
So yes, I'd say I'm something of a semi-believer now. I'll never argue its benefits with others, but I'm probably going to continue this diet past the experiment date just to continue to hold back on my cravings. Here's to seeing what next week will bring.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Fat Friday: Down, Down, Down
Starting Weight: 318.2
Ending Weight: 315.5
Net Change: 2.7 lbs
Not too shabby a week, it would seem. I'm continuing to lose weight at a healthy rate. This makes me down roughly 15 lbs total since I started a month ago. I now weigh less than I have in several years, though not by much.
Nothing else of import to present at this time. I was distracted by minecraft all week and have only recently resurfaced for air. The diet remains feeling sustainable as a lifestyle, which is good, and the diet seems to be reasonably successful as far as weight loss. The biggest (and arguably overall most important) question that remains is what my blood levels look like when all this is done. I'm less worried about the HDL and LDL so much as I am about kidney and liver functions and the like. I think it's fine since I do still eat a fair amount of vegetables and dairy, but without the data one can't be certain.
Ending Weight: 315.5
Net Change: 2.7 lbs
Not too shabby a week, it would seem. I'm continuing to lose weight at a healthy rate. This makes me down roughly 15 lbs total since I started a month ago. I now weigh less than I have in several years, though not by much.
Nothing else of import to present at this time. I was distracted by minecraft all week and have only recently resurfaced for air. The diet remains feeling sustainable as a lifestyle, which is good, and the diet seems to be reasonably successful as far as weight loss. The biggest (and arguably overall most important) question that remains is what my blood levels look like when all this is done. I'm less worried about the HDL and LDL so much as I am about kidney and liver functions and the like. I think it's fine since I do still eat a fair amount of vegetables and dairy, but without the data one can't be certain.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Fat Friday: Even Steven
Starting Weight: 318
Ending Weight: 318.2
Net Change: Gain 0.2 lbs (Hardly enough to count one way or the other)
So things are pretty even now. I blame this week on stress, mostly. I'm running a game of Legend of the Five Rings for some friends and for some reason I've been stressing out over making it good than I have over other games I've run. Today's the day of the game, though, so hopefully I can relax a little bit once we've seen that.
I also haven't been exercising at all over the last couple of weeks, save some walks and whatnot. This coming week, since I won't be spending all my time preparing for the game, I should have more time to actually hit the gym or go running or somesuch.
The low-carb lifestyle seems relatively easy to maintain so long as I don't obsess over it. Since I'm trying to treat this now as a lifestyle and not a "diet," it means I don't stress anything regarding it. That seems to be my biggest focus: not stressing the diet, but simply accepting it and integrating it.
Non-diet-related posts will return at some point, I promise. This just happens to be the one thing I'm dedicated to writing about every week.
Ending Weight: 318.2
Net Change: Gain 0.2 lbs (Hardly enough to count one way or the other)
So things are pretty even now. I blame this week on stress, mostly. I'm running a game of Legend of the Five Rings for some friends and for some reason I've been stressing out over making it good than I have over other games I've run. Today's the day of the game, though, so hopefully I can relax a little bit once we've seen that.
I also haven't been exercising at all over the last couple of weeks, save some walks and whatnot. This coming week, since I won't be spending all my time preparing for the game, I should have more time to actually hit the gym or go running or somesuch.
The low-carb lifestyle seems relatively easy to maintain so long as I don't obsess over it. Since I'm trying to treat this now as a lifestyle and not a "diet," it means I don't stress anything regarding it. That seems to be my biggest focus: not stressing the diet, but simply accepting it and integrating it.
Non-diet-related posts will return at some point, I promise. This just happens to be the one thing I'm dedicated to writing about every week.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Fat Saturday?
Whoops! I was a little busy yesterday so didn't have a chance to post this week's results
Starting Weight: 319.5
Ending Weight: 318
Net Change: 1.5 lbs
So not a very impressive week, per se, but also not awful. I did have a cheat day as well due to the necessity of my position, so that may have been a contributing factor. I also stole an onion ring from a friend's plate on 3 different occasions this week, but overall my carb intake is still significantly lower than my normal diet.
All of this has happened thus far without any significant exercise. I've been active and gone on walks here and there, but I've been lax in hitting the gym. I fully expect this is part of the problem.
And still, 1.5 lbs in a week isn't awful. It's just not impressive. I'm not discouraged at present, and am actually finding some aspects of this diet to be very sustainable, not as a "diet" but as a general lifestyle change. Whether I'll continue to feel that way is up for debate.
Starting Weight: 319.5
Ending Weight: 318
Net Change: 1.5 lbs
So not a very impressive week, per se, but also not awful. I did have a cheat day as well due to the necessity of my position, so that may have been a contributing factor. I also stole an onion ring from a friend's plate on 3 different occasions this week, but overall my carb intake is still significantly lower than my normal diet.
All of this has happened thus far without any significant exercise. I've been active and gone on walks here and there, but I've been lax in hitting the gym. I fully expect this is part of the problem.
And still, 1.5 lbs in a week isn't awful. It's just not impressive. I'm not discouraged at present, and am actually finding some aspects of this diet to be very sustainable, not as a "diet" but as a general lifestyle change. Whether I'll continue to feel that way is up for debate.
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