40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
I've lost 4 kg in 4 days. I am not doing anything crazy like a 5 day fast...
That’s an insane amount to lose in 4 days, even if you are just shedding water!
Some excess water and a good crap and you are there
Always weigh yourself at roughly the same time of day, naked and after doing your dirty business or a bunch of variables can bugger up your weight monitoring.
Come now. We're all followers of political polling. Surely we can accept random variation and pick out the values we most like focus on the underlying trend?
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
It definitely increases spirituality
You do a lot of intense gazing out of the window thinking about life and god and stuff, and you reckon two hours have passed. And it’s just ten minutes
On the other hand you sleep a fair amount in the day
Anyway I am now at hour 42 and I think I’m through the two day wall. I reckon I can do this now. The hunger has abated. I feel good. Bouncy
I see it’s a day for persuading folk that The Telegraph (& its attached wart, The Spectator) is a noble, shining, independent jewel in the crown of British journalism.
Good luck with that.
And the Middle East is a bastion of press freedom.
I heard one of the shills for the UAE on the radio proclaiming the importance of a vibrant press for democracy... What does the UAE know about democracy, exactly?
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Fasting is more interesting than just having a balanced diet. I have a good friend who just fasts as a matter of course from Sunday night until Tuesday morning every week. He says he looks forward to it as a jump start to the working week. Picked it up during a few years in the Middle East.
I've not ever gone that far with fasting but am partial to the occasional 20 hours or so without food.
My own experience of trying fasting is that it is incompatible with a life where you actually do something. I become like I am when I'm very tired; my daily cycle of energy highs and lows becomes more pronounced, to the extent that I don't want to drive once in a low. Perhaps that's just me.
Yes, I find the same. I simply couldn't work effectively while fasting, nor could I exercise and do odd jobs at weekends while fasting.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
That’s exactly how I felt in my 50s til covid fucked up my eating/fasting/exercise regimen
American weakness risks leading us towards a wider worldwide conflagration.
And the weakness is on the side of both a Republican party playing stupid partisan games, and a US president who is unwilling or unable to sell the risks to the American public.
There are several areas of obvious ongoing conflict: *) Russia - Ukraine. *) Israel - Gaza - West Bank *) Houtis - Red Sea *) Iran - everyone
Then there are the potential ones: *) North Korea - South Korea *) China - Taiwan
The US - and even the West - cannot hope to deal with all of these at once, without going onto a war footing. And we have sleepwalked into a situation where we have allowed smaller conflicts to grow.
We are living in very dangerous times. And I cannot see a Biden 2 or Trump 2 presidency dealing with them in any way effectively.
The issues are global and go way beyond national politics. In essence the free market let rip and decided (understandably) to stick production into cheaper markets. Which has damaging effects on the western countries who grew rich from manufacturing.
If America or Britain or Germany want to stay both competitive and prosperous, they need to invest heavily to onshore manufacturing. We are all more expensive than China, but we can get cheaper by investing in skills and technology.
A change from laisse-faire free marketism into a more mercantilist position is the Brexit that a lot of people in the producer sector- farming and fishing as examples - voted for...
I think this is spot on. Clearly there are some important benefits to the current globalised free market model but to my mind they are far outweighed by the risks and costs in terms of sustainability, security and self sufficiency.
Not to mention some of our competitors (or allies) are ahead of us, in terms of both protectionism and subsidies for domestic production. Hail to the Chief!
Mercantilism vs globalisation is a really difficult economic dilemma because there's plenty of statistical evidence that can support either position. In favour of mercantilism you have multiple economic indicators in the West showing that real wages and standard of living improvements have stagnated for low and middle income earners since the globalisation of production. In favour of globalisation you have uncontestable evidence that the world as a whole has got inordinately richer and more comfortable in the same era.
I think it's reasonable to conclude the last couple of decades of globalisation were good for the world's population (putting aside ecological considerations for a moment) and bad for the Western working class. But there's then a mixed picture of evidence on mercantilist policies - rich countries with more protectionist rules generally faring less well on average than those with open economies, with the partial exception of major natural resource exporters, but the picture also being messy because of bloc-level internal free trade with external mercantilism as per the USA and EU.
So what's the policy answer to that? Difficult.
Yes, and there is the added complication of changing geopolitics. Ask Germany how their cheap Russian gas deals are working out.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Fasting is more interesting than just having a balanced diet. I have a good friend who just fasts as a matter of course from Sunday night until Tuesday morning every week. He says he looks forward to it as a jump start to the working week. Picked it up during a few years in the Middle East.
I've not ever gone that far with fasting but am partial to the occasional 20 hours or so without food.
My own experience of trying fasting is that it is incompatible with a life where you actually do something. I become like I am when I'm very tired; my daily cycle of energy highs and lows becomes more pronounced, to the extent that I don't want to drive once in a low. Perhaps that's just me.
Yes, I find the same. I simply couldn't work effectively while fasting, nor could I exercise and do odd jobs at weekends while fasting.
Apparently it varies from person to person quite intensely (I really have read a lot on this). Some feel the same energy levels during a fast, some feel MORE energetic, plenty feel deep fatigue (and probably shouldn’t do jt - certainly not with a serious job in hand)
Personally I find it easier out here in a warm balmy climate like Thailand. There is less demand on the body to burn fuel. Doing this in freezing England in January would be *harder*
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
Yep. Even though dogs were likely scavengers during their journey from wolf to pet, wolves were hunters, and most dogs still have the hunters' instincts of eating as much as possible if they get the chance, and eating extremely quickly (hence the phrase 'wolf it down') to make sure they get their fair share before the other hunters. Humans don't really have the same drive.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
I've lost 4 kg in 4 days. I am not doing anything crazy like a 5 day fast...
That’s an insane amount to lose in 4 days, even if you are just shedding water!
Some excess water and a good crap and you are there
Always weigh yourself at roughly the same time of day, naked and after doing your dirty business or a bunch of variables can bugger up your weight monitoring.
Come now. We're all followers of political polling. Surely we can accept random variation and pick out the values we most like focus on the underlying trend?
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
It definitely increases spirituality
You do a lot of intense gazing out of the window thinking about life and god and stuff, and you reckon two hours have passed. And it’s just ten minutes
On the other hand you sleep a fair amount in the day
Anyway I am now at hour 42 and I think I’m through the two day wall. I reckon I can do this now. The hunger has abated. I feel good. Bouncy
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
Yep. Even though dogs were likely scavengers during their journey from wolf to pet, wolves were hunters, and most dogs still have the hunters' instincts of eating as much as possible if they get the chance, and eating extremely quickly (as in the phrase 'wolf it down') to make sure they get their fair share before the other hunters. Humans don't really have the same drive.
The anthropology of hunter gatherers - which is what we were for 200,000 years - suggests this is wrong
It’s a lifestyle of feast and famine. You can only gather so much moss, fungi and wild fruit. The main source of nutrition is the hunt. And that varies greatly
This is especially true of northern climes in winter. This is why we store fat so horribly easily
This is also why we switched to agriculture despite the many many negatives associated with that - from zoonotic diseases to decreased meat protein reducing stature
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
I see it’s a day for persuading folk that The Telegraph (& its attached wart, The Spectator) is a noble, shining, independent jewel in the crown of British journalism.
Good luck with that.
And the Middle East is a bastion of press freedom.
Fairly philosophical about Alien and Predator taking chunks out of each other and not much bothered by the outcome tbh. The UK is already in hock to the ME and them replacing the likes of the Barclay brothers and Murdoch doesn’t seem a huge downward move. Almost needless to say but I’ve given up on expecting upward moves in the media landscape.
I see it’s a day for persuading folk that The Telegraph (& its attached wart, The Spectator) is a noble, shining, independent jewel in the crown of British journalism.
Good luck with that.
And the Middle East is a bastion of press freedom.
Fairly philosophical about Alien and Predator taking chunks out of each other and not much bothered by the outcome tbh. The UK is already in hock to the ME and them replacing the likes of the Barclay brothers and Murdoch doesn’t seem a huge downward move. Almost needless to say but I’ve given up on expecting upward moves in the media landscape.
You’ve always got The National as that last final bastion of total press liberty. I understand that if you give them a call they will print an extra copy for you
I see it’s a day for persuading folk that The Telegraph (& its attached wart, The Spectator) is a noble, shining, independent jewel in the crown of British journalism.
Good luck with that.
And the Middle East is a bastion of press freedom.
Fairly philosophical about Alien and Predator taking chunks out of each other and not much bothered by the outcome tbh. The UK is already in hock to the ME and them replacing the likes of the Barclay brothers and Murdoch doesn’t seem a huge downward move. Almost needless to say but I’ve given up on expecting upward moves in the media landscape.
You’ve always got The National as that last final bastion of total press liberty. I understand that if you give them a call they will print an extra copy for you
The National is necessary if only for the Yoon screeches it induces.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Yes, the public does understand that the PM isn't going to commit electoral suicide before he has to. On the other hand, the public does want an election now and calling for one - even if it's unlikely to happen - won't go down badly.
Whether 'bottled it' is the right phrase to use I'm doubtful about. 'Frit', or some variant, might be better. But the gist is right.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
I began intermittent fasting a year ago and it has been amazing. Not only does food taste better, but your insulin, t-levels, sleep and workout recovery are much much better. I am fit ... diet is far more important than workout for results. Normal days I eat breakfast and dinner: No snacking. Then one or two days a week I also skip breakfast. It sucks the first 3-4 weeks, but then the body becomes accustomed to it. 3-4 meals a day is a hang up from when we worked hard framing or factor labour. Contemporary lifestyle does not justify the level of troughing that marketing suggests.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Mate, that doesn’t sound good. Seriously
Can’t you take early retirement or at least quasi retirement? I have a good friend in his late 50s who’s been a hardworking and highly successful forensic psychiatrist all his life (quite well known) - he was suffering the same burnout
He’s paid his dues and taxes to society and the NHS and he’s recently retired (to some soft consultancy and writing) and he says he’s never been happier. And he’s starting to look healthier. Relaxed. Losing weight and travelling
He has enough purpose and work to direct his life but he’s out of the coal mines. Maybe something to consider before you drop dead of a heart attack?
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Mate, that doesn’t sound good. Seriously
Can’t you take early retirement or at least quasi retirement? I have a good friend in his late 50s who’s been a hardworking and highly successful forensic psychiatrist all his life (quite well known) - he was suffering the same burnout
He’s paid his dues and taxes to society and the NHS and he’s recently retired (to some soft consultancy and writing) and he says he’s never been happier. And he’s starting to look healthier. Relaxed. Losing weight and travelling
He has enough purpose and work to direct his life but he’s out of the coal mines. Maybe something to consider before you drop dead of a heart attack?
I could financially retire any time I choose. I have been quite good at earning money and am a fairly frugal person being at heart a Puritan.
Part of the problem is my strong ancestral Presbyterian work ethic. I simply hate doing nothing and enjoy my work as it gives meaning to life. I don't particularly envy my retired colleagues, with their loss of social relationships and intellectual stimulation. It ages them.
I am planning to slow down this year, cutting hours by about 25%, so will see how it goes.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
Yep. Even though dogs were likely scavengers during their journey from wolf to pet, wolves were hunters, and most dogs still have the hunters' instincts of eating as much as possible if they get the chance, and eating extremely quickly (as in the phrase 'wolf it down') to make sure they get their fair share before the other hunters. Humans don't really have the same drive.
The anthropology of hunter gatherers - which is what we were for 200,000 years - suggests this is wrong
It’s a lifestyle of feast and famine. You can only gather so much moss, fungi and wild fruit. The main source of nutrition is the hunt. And that varies greatly
This is especially true of northern climes in winter. This is why we store fat so horribly easily
This is also why we switched to agriculture despite the many many negatives associated with that - from zoonotic diseases to decreased meat protein reducing stature
Well this from the reputable Smithsonian, with a mixture of archaeological and current-day antropological research, is probably a reasonable summary. It suggests that a lot of modern diet fads supposedly based on 'paleo' eating miss the mark:
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
Yep. Even though dogs were likely scavengers during their journey from wolf to pet, wolves were hunters, and most dogs still have the hunters' instincts of eating as much as possible if they get the chance, and eating extremely quickly (as in the phrase 'wolf it down') to make sure they get their fair share before the other hunters. Humans don't really have the same drive.
The anthropology of hunter gatherers - which is what we were for 200,000 years - suggests this is wrong
It’s a lifestyle of feast and famine. You can only gather so much moss, fungi and wild fruit. The main source of nutrition is the hunt. And that varies greatly
This is especially true of northern climes in winter. This is why we store fat so horribly easily
This is also why we switched to agriculture despite the many many negatives associated with that - from zoonotic diseases to decreased meat protein reducing stature
I don't think switching to agriculture was a choice made by humans. It was more that human societies which adopted agriculture outcompeted those which did not. The individual humans in those societies may have been less happy and healthy than their hunter-gatherer counterparts, but the societies flourished. The analogy is with viruses (viri?) which become less virulent in order to spread better. The individual virus doesn't choose to do this; but those viruses which do make this change outcompete those that don't.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
I've lost 4 kg in 4 days. I am not doing anything crazy like a 5 day fast...
That’s an insane amount to lose in 4 days, even if you are just shedding water!
Some excess water and a good crap and you are there
Always weigh yourself at roughly the same time of day, naked and after doing your dirty business or a bunch of variables can bugger up your weight monitoring.
Come now. We're all followers of political polling. Surely we can accept random variation and pick out the values we most like focus on the underlying trend?
Being overweight is just margin of error?
You have to adjust for the "shy thin bloke" effect.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Fasting is more interesting than just having a balanced diet. I have a good friend who just fasts as a matter of course from Sunday night until Tuesday morning every week. He says he looks forward to it as a jump start to the working week. Picked it up during a few years in the Middle East.
I've not ever gone that far with fasting but am partial to the occasional 20 hours or so without food.
My own experience of trying fasting is that it is incompatible with a life where you actually do something. I become like I am when I'm very tired; my daily cycle of energy highs and lows becomes more pronounced, to the extent that I don't want to drive once in a low. Perhaps that's just me.
Yes, I find the same. I simply couldn't work effectively while fasting, nor could I exercise and do odd jobs at weekends while fasting.
Apparently it varies from person to person quite intensely (I really have read a lot on this). Some feel the same energy levels during a fast, some feel MORE energetic, plenty feel deep fatigue (and probably shouldn’t do jt - certainly not with a serious job in hand)
Personally I find it easier out here in a warm balmy climate like Thailand. There is less demand on the body to burn fuel. Doing this in freezing England in January would be *harder*
As I said below, IME it increases the height between my daily cycle's highs and lows - in the same way extreme tiredness does. When I'm really tired I can have periods where I *feel* really energetic - but they are soon followed by a crash, sometimes an almighty one. I find fasting the same.
If I didn't have to do anything it would be fine; anything involving decisions, driving/machinery, or looking after a kid - I wouldn't do it.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Have you tried the two week tofu* diet ?
Vile, but cleared up my high blood pressure.
*Plenty of protein, zero salt and carbs - and very filling.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Mate, that doesn’t sound good. Seriously
Can’t you take early retirement or at least quasi retirement? I have a good friend in his late 50s who’s been a hardworking and highly successful forensic psychiatrist all his life (quite well known) - he was suffering the same burnout
He’s paid his dues and taxes to society and the NHS and he’s recently retired (to some soft consultancy and writing) and he says he’s never been happier. And he’s starting to look healthier. Relaxed. Losing weight and travelling
He has enough purpose and work to direct his life but he’s out of the coal mines. Maybe something to consider before you drop dead of a heart attack?
Until quite recently (possibly even current retirees) psychiatrists could retire on a full pension at 55. In all sorts of ways, it's remarkably draining as a specialism.
Well done to the ICC for ruining the integrity of the T20 World Cup.
However, the second-round draw raises major potential questions about the sporting integrity of the competition. It is possible, for instance, that all four group winners from the first stage could meet each other in the same Super Eight group, with all four second-placed teams meeting each other in the second Super Eight group. Based on seedings, the Super Eight group not involving England is expected to feature India, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lank
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
Two poached eggs on hot toasted Borough sourdough with a dash of soy, cracked kampot pepper and seasalt, and a few chill flakes
Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Great, fhe hunger is back. I’d better have some black tea
I'm mentally replacing the soy with a really good, sharp, homemade hollandaise. One that you essentially want to spoon directly out of the pan into your face.
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
Two poached eggs on hot toasted Borough sourdough with a dash of soy, cracked kampot pepper and seasalt, and a few chill flakes
Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Great, fhe hunger is back. I’d better have some black tea
I'm mentally replacing the soy with a really good, sharp, homemade hollandaise. One that you essentially want to spoon directly out of the pan into your face.
MSG shortcuts all that wholesome homemade goodness and just gives you pure yum. Cheap too - a packet at our local corner shop is 50p and it lasts a couple of months. That plus citric acid crystals for acidulating sauces without the danger of splitting.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Perhaps time to introduce something on fast cars?
Surely @Dura_Ace can furnish us with more on topic commentary about his souped-up Kawasaki GKKV 100CC with special teen-o-whine megadecibel exhaust cans which actually sits parked in his garage while he sits indoors with a nice slice of Battenberg cake and rewatches Are You Being Served, volume 7?
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Have you tried the two week tofu* diet ?
Vile, but cleared up my high blood pressure.
*Plenty of protein, zero salt and carbs - and very filling.
If anyone wants something healthy and invigorating to distract them from eating at this time of year I can recommend pruning vines. I am very happy to offer this experience at my vineyard for free. It's backbreaking, seemingly without end, kind of lonely (even if there are others helping you, they're usually up the other end of the field), and completely inimical to hunger. The simple maths of knowing that it takes about 30 seconds to a minute to prune one, and there are thousands left to do before the end of March, is also a poignant reminder of the ticking clock of mortality.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Perhaps time to introduce something on fast cars?
Rumour that Gerasimov was killed overnight.
True. Mixed news for Ukraine because he is seemingly an awful military tactician.
I see it’s a day for persuading folk that The Telegraph (& its attached wart, The Spectator) is a noble, shining, independent jewel in the crown of British journalism.
Good luck with that.
And the Middle East is a bastion of press freedom.
I heard one of the shills for the UAE on the radio proclaiming the importance of a vibrant press for democracy... What does the UAE know about democracy, exactly?
What was the (apocryphal) line from Gandhi on democracy? - "A fine idea. Perhaps it should be tried"
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Have you tried the two week tofu* diet ?
Vile, but cleared up my high blood pressure.
*Plenty of protein, zero salt and carbs - and very filling.
If anyone wants something healthy and invigorating to distract them from eating at this time of year I can recommend pruning vines. I am very happy to offer this experience at my vineyard for free. It's backbreaking, seemingly without end, kind of lonely (even if there are others helping you, they're usually up the other end of the field), and completely inimical to hunger. The simple maths of knowing that it takes about 30 seconds to a minute to prune one, and there are thousands left to do before the end of March, is also a poignant reminder of the ticking clock of mortality.
Nice try, although I don't think you are selling it somehow.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
Yep. Even though dogs were likely scavengers during their journey from wolf to pet, wolves were hunters, and most dogs still have the hunters' instincts of eating as much as possible if they get the chance, and eating extremely quickly (as in the phrase 'wolf it down') to make sure they get their fair share before the other hunters. Humans don't really have the same drive.
The anthropology of hunter gatherers - which is what we were for 200,000 years - suggests this is wrong
It’s a lifestyle of feast and famine. You can only gather so much moss, fungi and wild fruit. The main source of nutrition is the hunt. And that varies greatly
This is especially true of northern climes in winter. This is why we store fat so horribly easily
This is also why we switched to agriculture despite the many many negatives associated with that - from zoonotic diseases to decreased meat protein reducing stature
I don't think switching to agriculture was a choice made by humans. It was more that human societies which adopted agriculture outcompeted those which did not. The individual humans in those societies may have been less happy and healthy than their hunter-gatherer counterparts, but the societies flourished. The analogy is with viruses (viri?) which become less virulent in order to spread better. The individual virus doesn't choose to do this; but those viruses which do make this change outcompete those that don't.
Yes that’s fair. I phrased it far too loosely
Though there must have been ONE tribe/clan/extended family which semi-consciously switched to agriculture and then outcompeted the others. Almost certainly in the close vicinity of Gobekli Tepe
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
A poached egg is just a fried egg for someone who has given up on life.
It depends what you mean by a fried egg. Done correctly it looks like in the link below. Crinkly bottom and edges.
I don't like the crinkly bits.
My fried egg is with a decent amount of butter on very low heat - lid on pan to gently cook the top - I'd say this is more like poached in butter rather than fried.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
Yep. Even though dogs were likely scavengers during their journey from wolf to pet, wolves were hunters, and most dogs still have the hunters' instincts of eating as much as possible if they get the chance, and eating extremely quickly (as in the phrase 'wolf it down') to make sure they get their fair share before the other hunters. Humans don't really have the same drive.
The anthropology of hunter gatherers - which is what we were for 200,000 years - suggests this is wrong
It’s a lifestyle of feast and famine. You can only gather so much moss, fungi and wild fruit. The main source of nutrition is the hunt. And that varies greatly
This is especially true of northern climes in winter. This is why we store fat so horribly easily
This is also why we switched to agriculture despite the many many negatives associated with that - from zoonotic diseases to decreased meat protein reducing stature
Well this from the reputable Smithsonian, with a mixture of archaeological and current-day antropological research, is probably a reasonable summary. It suggests that a lot of modern diet fads supposedly based on 'paleo' eating miss the mark:
That's a really interesting article. The conclusion is important too:
"That’s why people who follow these “Paleo diets” that aren’t really paleo can often be really healthy. And people who are vegan, and eat no meat at all, can do really well, too.
I think the one thing that they never have in a hunter-gatherer diet is the heavily processed foods that we are surrounded with. In processed foods, you get these combinations of sugars, salts and fats that never occur in nature. You take out a lot of things like fiber and protein that make you feel full, and put in a lot of things that make your brain’s reward systems light up, like flavoring. Processed foods seem to be a big driver of obesity."
Wild primates are actually very good at balancing their diet, and extremely varied in what they (we) eat. Its not just that we can eat nearly everything, but also that variety is a very effective biological advantage. This study of baboons in Cape Town shows an amazingly varied diet of almost constant grazing.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Mate, that doesn’t sound good. Seriously
Can’t you take early retirement or at least quasi retirement? I have a good friend in his late 50s who’s been a hardworking and highly successful forensic psychiatrist all his life (quite well known) - he was suffering the same burnout
He’s paid his dues and taxes to society and the NHS and he’s recently retired (to some soft consultancy and writing) and he says he’s never been happier. And he’s starting to look healthier. Relaxed. Losing weight and travelling
He has enough purpose and work to direct his life but he’s out of the coal mines. Maybe something to consider before you drop dead of a heart attack?
I could financially retire any time I choose. I have been quite good at earning money and am a fairly frugal person being at heart a Puritan.
Part of the problem is my strong ancestral Presbyterian work ethic. I simply hate doing nothing and enjoy my work as it gives meaning to life. I don't particularly envy my retired colleagues, with their loss of social relationships and intellectual stimulation. It ages them.
I am planning to slow down this year, cutting hours by about 25%, so will see how it goes.
Good luck. I agree you need some purpose in life - that’s why I cited my friend who has retired to consultancy and writing - he’d be lost without any direction at all - and you sound similar. You need a compromise such as his?
High blood pressure is like a post it note from god, stuck to the fridge door of life. Slow down, look after yourself, eat better
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Have you tried the two week tofu* diet ?
Vile, but cleared up my high blood pressure.
*Plenty of protein, zero salt and carbs - and very filling.
If anyone wants something healthy and invigorating to distract them from eating at this time of year I can recommend pruning vines. I am very happy to offer this experience at my vineyard for free. It's backbreaking, seemingly without end, kind of lonely (even if there are others helping you, they're usually up the other end of the field), and completely inimical to hunger. The simple maths of knowing that it takes about 30 seconds to a minute to prune one, and there are thousands left to do before the end of March, is also a poignant reminder of the ticking clock of mortality.
Nice try, although I don't think you are selling it somehow.
I see it’s a day for persuading folk that The Telegraph (& its attached wart, The Spectator) is a noble, shining, independent jewel in the crown of British journalism.
Good luck with that.
And the Middle East is a bastion of press freedom.
I heard one of the shills for the UAE on the radio proclaiming the importance of a vibrant press for democracy... What does the UAE know about democracy, exactly?
What was the (apocryphal) line from Gandhi on democracy? - "A fine idea. Perhaps it should be tried"
I think he said that of "Western civilisation" not "democracy"
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Perhaps time to introduce something on fast cars?
Rumour that Gerasimov was killed overnight.
Was it Ukraine's doing or window issues ?
A Ukrainian blatting.
Treat with salt for the moment, but the rumours brought a certain amount of perverse joy to me this morning.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Perhaps time to introduce something on fast cars?
Rumour that Gerasimov was killed overnight.
Was it Ukraine's doing or window issues ?
I have this plan for a business in post war Russia -
Crypto NFT Blockchain AI Space Launch Safety Windows.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Perhaps time to introduce something on fast cars?
Surely @Dura_Ace can furnish us with more on topic commentary about his souped-up Kawasaki GKKV 100CC with special teen-o-whine megadecibel exhaust cans which actually sits parked in his garage while he sits indoors with a nice slice of Battenberg cake and rewatches Are You Being Served, volume 7?
Acceptable Political Betting topics:
perfumery stationery and leather goods wigs and haberdashery kitchenware and food
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Mate, that doesn’t sound good. Seriously
Can’t you take early retirement or at least quasi retirement? I have a good friend in his late 50s who’s been a hardworking and highly successful forensic psychiatrist all his life (quite well known) - he was suffering the same burnout
He’s paid his dues and taxes to society and the NHS and he’s recently retired (to some soft consultancy and writing) and he says he’s never been happier. And he’s starting to look healthier. Relaxed. Losing weight and travelling
He has enough purpose and work to direct his life but he’s out of the coal mines. Maybe something to consider before you drop dead of a heart attack?
I could financially retire any time I choose. I have been quite good at earning money and am a fairly frugal person being at heart a Puritan.
Part of the problem is my strong ancestral Presbyterian work ethic. I simply hate doing nothing and enjoy my work as it gives meaning to life. I don't particularly envy my retired colleagues, with their loss of social relationships and intellectual stimulation. It ages them.
I am planning to slow down this year, cutting hours by about 25%, so will see how it goes.
Find some hobbies/sports?
A couple of friends took up dingy sailing - it requires a fair bit of exercise & keeps you flexible, social, skills to develop. And has led them to doing some holidays in the Med where they go off the usual tourist trail - hiring a larger boat & sailing the islands in Greece, for example.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
Yep. Even though dogs were likely scavengers during their journey from wolf to pet, wolves were hunters, and most dogs still have the hunters' instincts of eating as much as possible if they get the chance, and eating extremely quickly (as in the phrase 'wolf it down') to make sure they get their fair share before the other hunters. Humans don't really have the same drive.
The anthropology of hunter gatherers - which is what we were for 200,000 years - suggests this is wrong
It’s a lifestyle of feast and famine. You can only gather so much moss, fungi and wild fruit. The main source of nutrition is the hunt. And that varies greatly
This is especially true of northern climes in winter. This is why we store fat so horribly easily
This is also why we switched to agriculture despite the many many negatives associated with that - from zoonotic diseases to decreased meat protein reducing stature
Well this from the reputable Smithsonian, with a mixture of archaeological and current-day antropological research, is probably a reasonable summary. It suggests that a lot of modern diet fads supposedly based on 'paleo' eating miss the mark:
That's a really interesting article. The conclusion is important too:
"That’s why people who follow these “Paleo diets” that aren’t really paleo can often be really healthy. And people who are vegan, and eat no meat at all, can do really well, too.
I think the one thing that they never have in a hunter-gatherer diet is the heavily processed foods that we are surrounded with. In processed foods, you get these combinations of sugars, salts and fats that never occur in nature. You take out a lot of things like fiber and protein that make you feel full, and put in a lot of things that make your brain’s reward systems light up, like flavoring. Processed foods seem to be a big driver of obesity."
Wild primates are actually very good at balancing their diet, and extremely varied in what they (we) eat. Its not just that we can eat nearly everything, but also that variety is a very effective biological advantage. This study of baboons in Cape Town shows an amazingly varied diet of almost constant grazing.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Perhaps time to introduce something on fast cars?
Rumour that Gerasimov was killed overnight.
Was it Ukraine's doing or window issues ?
A Ukrainian blatting.
Treat with salt for the moment, but the rumours brought a certain amount of perverse joy to me this morning.
Every time I hear the name, I think of the Red Storm Rising character....
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
Two poached eggs on hot toasted Borough sourdough with a dash of soy, cracked kampot pepper and seasalt, and a few chill flakes
Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Great, fhe hunger is back. I’d better have some black tea
I'm mentally replacing the soy with a really good, sharp, homemade hollandaise. One that you essentially want to spoon directly out of the pan into your face.
MSG shortcuts all that wholesome homemade goodness and just gives you pure yum. Cheap too - a packet at our local corner shop is 50p and it lasts a couple of months. That plus citric acid crystals for acidulating sauces without the danger of splitting.
Interesting. Is it bad for you? How much do you use, just a pinch? What sot of meals are you adding it to?
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
It depends what you think Sunak values more... a) Being PMOTUK for another 6 months or b) the post-Sunak tories having 0-100 more seats because he went for an election at the optimum time.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Off topic posts are just nature's way of filling the vacuum left by the lack of meaty political stories. We had an entire day of speculating on the date of the next GE yesterday so that one's exhausted.
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Perhaps time to introduce something on fast cars?
Rumour that Gerasimov was killed overnight.
Was it Ukraine's doing or window issues ?
There are two General Gerasimovs to add to the confusion. The 1* and the CGS. Ukraine have claimed to have killed the 1* Gerasimov about three times already.
When you go to sign the Labour petition, you can't even see how many signatures it's had so far. If Labour aren't just timewasting with this terribly-organised stunt because they've got nothing oppositional of much substance to say, then what they're doing is testing out their petition weapon. This doesn't cost much, and it may bring in some membership applications, so it makes a bit of sense. Then they can run a proper petition on something else later. Goodness knows what it would be, though. Staying in the ECHR? It's as if they've found no weak point in their supposed enemy's defences at which to concentrate an attack.
If Sunak finds a banana skin or Labour get some film of him throwing darts at pictures of proles, or of him taking a bag full of cash from the leader of a known crime family, they may quickly garner 8 million signatures for "General Election Now" and then it would at least put Sunak on his back foot. But we all know what the Tories would do in such circumstances.
What is even more pathetic is Labour don't make it a petition to the king. That would be fawning enough, but at least it would have an edge to it.
A few years off mass production, but will transform the economics of EVs. Easily good for half a million kilometers - so the rest of the car will obsolete faster than the powertrain.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Mate, that doesn’t sound good. Seriously
Can’t you take early retirement or at least quasi retirement? I have a good friend in his late 50s who’s been a hardworking and highly successful forensic psychiatrist all his life (quite well known) - he was suffering the same burnout
He’s paid his dues and taxes to society and the NHS and he’s recently retired (to some soft consultancy and writing) and he says he’s never been happier. And he’s starting to look healthier. Relaxed. Losing weight and travelling
He has enough purpose and work to direct his life but he’s out of the coal mines. Maybe something to consider before you drop dead of a heart attack?
I could financially retire any time I choose. I have been quite good at earning money and am a fairly frugal person being at heart a Puritan.
Part of the problem is my strong ancestral Presbyterian work ethic. I simply hate doing nothing and enjoy my work as it gives meaning to life. I don't particularly envy my retired colleagues, with their loss of social relationships and intellectual stimulation. It ages them.
I am planning to slow down this year, cutting hours by about 25%, so will see how it goes.
Find some hobbies/sports?
A couple of friends took up dingy sailing - it requires a fair bit of exercise & keeps you flexible, social, skills to develop. And has led them to doing some holidays in the Med where they go off the usual tourist trail - hiring a larger boat & sailing the islands in Greece, for example.
This 40-minute radio programme, broadcast yesterday, is highly relevant:
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Mate, that doesn’t sound good. Seriously
Can’t you take early retirement or at least quasi retirement? I have a good friend in his late 50s who’s been a hardworking and highly successful forensic psychiatrist all his life (quite well known) - he was suffering the same burnout
He’s paid his dues and taxes to society and the NHS and he’s recently retired (to some soft consultancy and writing) and he says he’s never been happier. And he’s starting to look healthier. Relaxed. Losing weight and travelling
He has enough purpose and work to direct his life but he’s out of the coal mines. Maybe something to consider before you drop dead of a heart attack?
I could financially retire any time I choose. I have been quite good at earning money and am a fairly frugal person being at heart a Puritan.
Part of the problem is my strong ancestral Presbyterian work ethic. I simply hate doing nothing and enjoy my work as it gives meaning to life. I don't particularly envy my retired colleagues, with their loss of social relationships and intellectual stimulation. It ages them.
I am planning to slow down this year, cutting hours by about 25%, so will see how it goes.
I am similar , though not frugal. I enjoy my job and would soon be bored.
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
Two poached eggs on hot toasted Borough sourdough with a dash of soy, cracked kampot pepper and seasalt, and a few chill flakes
Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Great, fhe hunger is back. I’d better have some black tea
I'm mentally replacing the soy with a really good, sharp, homemade hollandaise. One that you essentially want to spoon directly out of the pan into your face.
MSG shortcuts all that wholesome homemade goodness and just gives you pure yum. Cheap too - a packet at our local corner shop is 50p and it lasts a couple of months. That plus citric acid crystals for acidulating sauces without the danger of splitting.
Interesting. Is it bad for you? How much do you use, just a pinch? What sot of meals are you adding it to?
The literature now suggests MSG bring bad for you was a 1980s panic with little or no grounding in reality. It does of course contain sodium so has some of the same implications as salt if overused, but most of the Far East chugs it down in vast quantities. Taiwan I think being the biggest consumer per head.
It's revelatory. Makes eggs eggier, tomatoes tomatoier, gravies and sauces yummier, adds flavour sprinkled on a steak, and adds immediate umami to any kind of oriental cooking, especially broths, ramen etc. I always put it in the Sunday roast gravy.
I wouldn't add it to anything sweet, most salads (except tomato), anything mediterranean or Middle Eastern, or anything South Asian.
I put just a pinch in egg or on tomato, a level teaspoon in a main meal for 4, and a heaped teaspoon in something like soup noodles.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
I think Rwanda and a Wellingborough by-election result that isn’t a disaster.
Labour really need to put zero effort into the campaign and you almost want your candidate to do something stupid to lose some votes to give the Tory party some false hope
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
With the greatest of respect, Leon, and without wishing to be unkind, how do YOU know when you’re feeling weird?
It’s a good point. I will be specific. I feel a mixture of intense mental lucidity followed by copious yawning and sleepiness - and then back again
I’ve been reading about fasts. There is quite a literature on fasts, now
It all makes sense from a Darwinian perspective. If you go into a severe fast your body thinks you cannot find anything to hunt kill and eat so it tells the metabolism to adapt
When you have the chance to rest you will rest and nap and conserve energy. But when you do something you do it with total commitment - your body wants you to succeed at hunting. You scan the horizon for prey with extra acuity
Interested in the feedback @Leon. I fast when I diet, although not to this scale as it is the only way I can lose weight and I lose lots when I do it as I eat and drink a lot normally, although I do eat very healthily (and when I say a lot I mean a lot). I just cut down to one big meal a day, no nibbles and no alcohol and I do break it for any social event.
I assumed fasting was not necessarily good for you and I do tend to put the weight back on after a bit (Lost 8 kg prior to my last May cycle ride, 5 of those are back on), but I notice you have said you have read it is good for you. I am interested in knowing more about that?
On a pedantic point I note your Darwinian comments. We may well have evolved out of that by now (or maybe not). We have had generations where the need to do that has gone so it is not a trait that represents the fittest of the species (the survivors) and therefore likely to be passed down as much. I thought the same sometime ago when you compared dogs to wolves. Again dogs have gone through a huge evolutionary change due to domestication and so can't be compared to wolves in behaviour. It is worth noting that sometime ago dog trainers relied on that relationship in the techniques they use. That has gone out of fashion now as not being correct.
Yes, there is reasonably good evidence that fasting increases longevity, probably by boosting cellular repair.
According to that paper, the suggestion is that you get many if not most of the benefits by restricting eating to 10-12 hours per day. So you can breakfast at 8am and have dinner at 6pm, and still qualify - no need to do the silly stuff like trying to live on water only for days?
Yup, I don't start eating until around 10ish, but am done by no later than 5pm. Usually a light breakfast and a main meal at about 4pm. That gives your gut a good 16 hours to process what you had and rest itself. Fasting is a proven method, but you don't need to fast for days on end.
Yes, eating within 8 hours, and fasting for 16 per day works well.
There are mental benefits too, which is why some form of fasting is pretty much a universal feature of religions. Muslims find Ramadan very spiritual for example, though not unusual to gain weight from feasting. It does rather upset diabetes quite a lot.
Biologically we did evolve for constant grazing rather than intermittent feasting, as that is what other primates do. We are not dogs or lions. The fasting of primates is largely due to lack of opportunity for feasting.
We do have a craving for high calorie food in a way that we just don't get for vegetables, though it is possible to discipline oneself away from these. There is even a hypothesis that the proclivity for diabetes T2 in South Asians is because of its biological advantage in putting on weight quickly when food is abundant in order to last the period when it isn't. The argument is that in countries with more perennial food supplies such as Europe, that is less the case.
Yep. Even though dogs were likely scavengers during their journey from wolf to pet, wolves were hunters, and most dogs still have the hunters' instincts of eating as much as possible if they get the chance, and eating extremely quickly (as in the phrase 'wolf it down') to make sure they get their fair share before the other hunters. Humans don't really have the same drive.
The anthropology of hunter gatherers - which is what we were for 200,000 years - suggests this is wrong
It’s a lifestyle of feast and famine. You can only gather so much moss, fungi and wild fruit. The main source of nutrition is the hunt. And that varies greatly
This is especially true of northern climes in winter. This is why we store fat so horribly easily
This is also why we switched to agriculture despite the many many negatives associated with that - from zoonotic diseases to decreased meat protein reducing stature
Well this from the reputable Smithsonian, with a mixture of archaeological and current-day antropological research, is probably a reasonable summary. It suggests that a lot of modern diet fads supposedly based on 'paleo' eating miss the mark:
That's a really interesting article. The conclusion is important too:
"That’s why people who follow these “Paleo diets” that aren’t really paleo can often be really healthy. And people who are vegan, and eat no meat at all, can do really well, too.
I think the one thing that they never have in a hunter-gatherer diet is the heavily processed foods that we are surrounded with. In processed foods, you get these combinations of sugars, salts and fats that never occur in nature. You take out a lot of things like fiber and protein that make you feel full, and put in a lot of things that make your brain’s reward systems light up, like flavoring. Processed foods seem to be a big driver of obesity."
Wild primates are actually very good at balancing their diet, and extremely varied in what they (we) eat. Its not just that we can eat nearly everything, but also that variety is a very effective biological advantage. This study of baboons in Cape Town shows an amazingly varied diet of almost constant grazing.
There's also that fact that we'd probably want to be optimising our nutrition differently to our Paleo ancestors. They (or rather, their genes) would probably have been very happy to eat foods that helped them to successfully reproduce and raise offspring, even if those same foods caused them to die of cancer at 60. We, less so.
A few years off mass production, but will transform the economics of EVs. Easily good for half a million kilometers - so the rest of the car will obsolete faster than the powertrain.
VW the biggest shareholder.
Another example of how need drives innovation. Suddenly battery technology which was stagnant for decades is coming on in leaps and bounds because of smartphones and EVs. Same story with the recent new antibiotic for drug resistant bacteria: nobody bothered investing in new antibiotics for decades because there was no money in it. Same also with Malaria treatment until the Gates foundation poured money in. And of course military drone technology for which Ukraine and other recent wars have been a crucible.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
I think Rwanda and a Wellingborough by-election result that isn’t a disaster.
Labour really need to put zero effort into the campaign and you almost want your candidate to do something stupid to lose some votes to give the Tory party some false hope
Like an early declaration setting a just about achievable 4th innings target. Somehow I don't see Keir as the Bazball type.
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
Two poached eggs on hot toasted Borough sourdough with a dash of soy, cracked kampot pepper and seasalt, and a few chill flakes
Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Great, fhe hunger is back. I’d better have some black tea
I'm mentally replacing the soy with a really good, sharp, homemade hollandaise. One that you essentially want to spoon directly out of the pan into your face.
MSG shortcuts all that wholesome homemade goodness and just gives you pure yum. Cheap too - a packet at our local corner shop is 50p and it lasts a couple of months. That plus citric acid crystals for acidulating sauces without the danger of splitting.
Interesting. Is it bad for you? How much do you use, just a pinch? What sot of meals are you adding it to?
The literature now suggests MSG bring bad for you was a 1980s panic with little or no grounding in reality. It does of course contain sodium so has some of the same implications as salt if overused, but most of the Far East chugs it down in vast quantities. Taiwan I think being the biggest consumer per head.
It's revelatory. Makes eggs eggier, tomatoes tomatoier, gravies and sauces yummier, adds flavour sprinkled on a steak, and adds immediate umami to any kind of oriental cooking, especially broths, ramen etc. I always put it in the Sunday roast gravy.
I wouldn't add it to anything sweet, most salads (except tomato), anything mediterranean or Middle Eastern, or anything South Asian.
I put just a pinch in egg or on tomato, a level teaspoon in a main meal for 4, and a heaped teaspoon in something like soup noodles.
I do something quite similar with dashi stock powder. Which is the basis of most Japanese cooking - what makes it so oomammmi ish - and is largely MSG
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
Rwanda will help them win the election. That's the plan.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
Rwanda will help them win the election. That's the plan.
Is that Plan with an 'f', or is there no effing Plan?
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
I think Rwanda and a Wellingborough by-election result that isn’t a disaster.
Labour really need to put zero effort into the campaign and you almost want your candidate to do something stupid to lose some votes to give the Tory party some false hope
FWIW I am not sure at the moment that Wellingborough is a Labour certainty. I put the Tory chance at 25%.
I can't see a route to Rwanda being done. The Tories' hope is that they get credit for 'trying' and being stopped by the wicked courts applying the the law of the land or the HoL politely suggesting that this is an illegal putrefaction that needs amending.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
I think Rwanda and a Wellingborough by-election result that isn’t a disaster.
Labour really need to put zero effort into the campaign and you almost want your candidate to do something stupid to lose some votes to give the Tory party some false hope
FWIW I am not sure at the moment that Wellingborough is a Labour certainty. I put the Tory chance at 25%.
I can't see a route to Rwanda being done. The Tories' hope is that they get credit for 'trying' and being stopped by the wicked courts applying the the law of the land or the HoL politely suggesting that this is an illegal putrefaction that needs amending.
I think Lab will definitely win, but the combined Con and Reform votes could be higher than Labour's.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
I think Rwanda and a Wellingborough by-election result that isn’t a disaster.
Labour really need to put zero effort into the campaign and you almost want your candidate to do something stupid to lose some votes to give the Tory party some false hope
FWIW I am not sure at the moment that Wellingborough is a Labour certainty. I put the Tory chance at 25%.
I can't see a route to Rwanda being done. The Tories' hope is that they get credit for 'trying' and being stopped by the wicked courts applying the the law of the land or the HoL politely suggesting that this is an illegal putrefaction that needs amending.
Sub 20k majority with no reform candidate in the GE. Reckon it's 10% max hold chance for the Tories.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Have you tried the two week tofu* diet ?
Vile, but cleared up my high blood pressure.
*Plenty of protein, zero salt and carbs - and very filling.
If anyone wants something healthy and invigorating to distract them from eating at this time of year I can recommend pruning vines. I am very happy to offer this experience at my vineyard for free. It's backbreaking, seemingly without end, kind of lonely (even if there are others helping you, they're usually up the other end of the field), and completely inimical to hunger. The simple maths of knowing that it takes about 30 seconds to a minute to prune one, and there are thousands left to do before the end of March, is also a poignant reminder of the ticking clock of mortality.
Or there is the Lake District option: clearing all the brambles and other weeds from a hilly, rocky piece of land, in driving rain and wind. You will get fit but be so tired, wet and scarred from the brambles you will be unable to eat, even assuming the lazy householder can be arsed to go into town to get any food for you. Sleep will be all you crave and when the trains to escape have been cancelled for the nth time you will be actively looking forward to death.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Mate, that doesn’t sound good. Seriously
Can’t you take early retirement or at least quasi retirement? I have a good friend in his late 50s who’s been a hardworking and highly successful forensic psychiatrist all his life (quite well known) - he was suffering the same burnout
He’s paid his dues and taxes to society and the NHS and he’s recently retired (to some soft consultancy and writing) and he says he’s never been happier. And he’s starting to look healthier. Relaxed. Losing weight and travelling
He has enough purpose and work to direct his life but he’s out of the coal mines. Maybe something to consider before you drop dead of a heart attack?
I could financially retire any time I choose. I have been quite good at earning money and am a fairly frugal person being at heart a Puritan.
Part of the problem is my strong ancestral Presbyterian work ethic. I simply hate doing nothing and enjoy my work as it gives meaning to life. I don't particularly envy my retired colleagues, with their loss of social relationships and intellectual stimulation. It ages them.
I am planning to slow down this year, cutting hours by about 25%, so will see how it goes.
I am similar , though not frugal. I enjoy my job and would soon be bored.
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
Two poached eggs on hot toasted Borough sourdough with a dash of soy, cracked kampot pepper and seasalt, and a few chill flakes
Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Great, fhe hunger is back. I’d better have some black tea
I'm mentally replacing the soy with a really good, sharp, homemade hollandaise. One that you essentially want to spoon directly out of the pan into your face.
MSG shortcuts all that wholesome homemade goodness and just gives you pure yum. Cheap too - a packet at our local corner shop is 50p and it lasts a couple of months. That plus citric acid crystals for acidulating sauces without the danger of splitting.
Interesting. Is it bad for you? How much do you use, just a pinch? What sot of meals are you adding it to?
The literature now suggests MSG bring bad for you was a 1980s panic with little or no grounding in reality. It does of course contain sodium so has some of the same implications as salt if overused, but most of the Far East chugs it down in vast quantities. Taiwan I think being the biggest consumer per head.
It's revelatory. Makes eggs eggier, tomatoes tomatoier, gravies and sauces yummier, adds flavour sprinkled on a steak, and adds immediate umami to any kind of oriental cooking, especially broths, ramen etc. I always put it in the Sunday roast gravy.
I wouldn't add it to anything sweet, most salads (except tomato), anything mediterranean or Middle Eastern, or anything South Asian.
I put just a pinch in egg or on tomato, a level teaspoon in a main meal for 4, and a heaped teaspoon in something like soup noodles.
MSG seems to raise my heart rate and stop me sleeping if I eat it. I don't think this is psychosomatic because there have been times when I've only realised afterwards, when I'm lying in bed for hours with a racing pulse unable to sleep, that what I've eaten contains it.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Have you tried the two week tofu* diet ?
Vile, but cleared up my high blood pressure.
*Plenty of protein, zero salt and carbs - and very filling.
If anyone wants something healthy and invigorating to distract them from eating at this time of year I can recommend pruning vines. I am very happy to offer this experience at my vineyard for free. It's backbreaking, seemingly without end, kind of lonely (even if there are others helping you, they're usually up the other end of the field), and completely inimical to hunger. The simple maths of knowing that it takes about 30 seconds to a minute to prune one, and there are thousands left to do before the end of March, is also a poignant reminder of the ticking clock of mortality.
Or there is the Lake District option: clearing all the brambles and other weeds from a hilly, rocky piece of land, in driving rain and wind. You will get fit but be so tired, wet and scarred from the brambles you will be unable to eat, even assuming the lazy householder can be arsed to go into town to get any food for you. Sleep will be all you crave and when the trains to escape have been cancelled for the nth time you will be actively looking forward to death.
"Torsten Bell, boss of the Resolution Foundation think tank which focuses on improving living standards for those on low to middle incomes, tweeted prior to Sir Howard's comments that the most common living arrangement for an adult aged between 18 and 34 in 1997 was "being in a couple with children".
"Today the most common is... living with your parents""
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
I think Rwanda and a Wellingborough by-election result that isn’t a disaster.
Labour really need to put zero effort into the campaign and you almost want your candidate to do something stupid to lose some votes to give the Tory party some false hope
FWIW I am not sure at the moment that Wellingborough is a Labour certainty. I put the Tory chance at 25%.
I can't see a route to Rwanda being done. The Tories' hope is that they get credit for 'trying' and being stopped by the wicked courts applying the the law of the land or the HoL politely suggesting that this is an illegal putrefaction that needs amending.
It will be amusing to see a Conservative Party manifesto promising House of Lords reform.
Declaring victory on refugee processing and inflation (etc) seem like tactical moves before an election... these claims won't survive through till autumn but simply compromise a later campaign where recession and summer boat crossing will change the scenario. In other words they are acting like a GE is imminent
Lots of things point to the government trying to make May work - the fast tracking of the NI cut, a cynical view of Rwanda as a stunt, the pushing of all sorts of problems into the "next government" pile.
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
I wonder if it all ultimately depends on the fate of the Rwanda bill ammendment process... if that process fails in the tory party then surely there is no other way than a GE.
I think Rwanda and a Wellingborough by-election result that isn’t a disaster.
Labour really need to put zero effort into the campaign and you almost want your candidate to do something stupid to lose some votes to give the Tory party some false hope
FWIW I am not sure at the moment that Wellingborough is a Labour certainty. I put the Tory chance at 25%.
I can't see a route to Rwanda being done. The Tories' hope is that they get credit for 'trying' and being stopped by the wicked courts applying the the law of the land or the HoL politely suggesting that this is an illegal putrefaction that needs amending.
Sub 20k majority with no reform candidate in the GE. Reckon it's 10% max hold chance for the Tories.
It will be amusing to see a Conservative Party manifesto promising electoral reform.
Given Gordon Brown waited a full 5 years after the 2005 GE until he called the May 2010 GE, Labour can hardly have many complaints Sunak is doing the same
I’m not one to bash the BBC needlessly [yes I am] but this is genuinely bizarre, nay unbelievable
An entire and quite long BBC article about Sir Nicholas Winton - who famously rescued hundreds of Jewish kids from the Nazis - which doesn’t once mention that he was Jewish. Nor that the kids were Jewish. Nor that the woman used as an example is Jewish
"Torsten Bell, boss of the Resolution Foundation think tank which focuses on improving living standards for those on low to middle incomes, tweeted prior to Sir Howard's comments that the most common living arrangement for an adult aged between 18 and 34 in 1997 was "being in a couple with children".
"Today the most common is... living with your parents""
That is a pretty damning indictment of the opportunities on offer to young people today. I left home in 1994 aged 18 and haven't lived with my parents (other than during Uni holidays) since. We bought our first home aged 26, the year we got married, and had our first child at 30. Not many of today's young adults will have the chance to follow that kind of trajectory. And the Tories wonder where all their voters have gone!
Given Gordon Brown waited a full 5 years after the 2005 GE until he called the May 2010 GE, Labour can hardly have many complaints Sunak is doing the same
True. But were there any moments the opposition Tories accused him of “squatting” “bottling it” or said “Why don’t you just call that election, we are ready.”
Given Gordon Brown waited a full 5 years after the 2005 GE until he called the May 2010 GE, Labour can hardly have many complaints Sunak is doing the same
Similarly, like Brown, Sunak will hardly be able to complain if the electorate punish this delay in appointing a government capable of addressing the issues of the day by taking over 90 seats off the party of government.
40 hours. Am in ketosis. Feel light headed and sleepy and weird
Mate, what are you doing? Stop with the dieting fads. Eat a regular, balanced diet. Ease up on the booze, do some simple exercise plan like Couch to 5K. It ain't rocket science.
I actively LIKE fasting
I feel cleansed. I lose weight. I stop boozing. I detox my liver
And - as Dr @Foxy nofes - there is now an ample literature on the many benefits of fasting. Autophagy!
See also the literature on increased longevity in animals with severely reduced calorific intake
We aren’t meant for a life of easeful plenty with three square sugary meals a day. We are built for a life on the savage plains - eat an antelope once every 3 days. Go without at other times
Daily fasting is good, but 18 or so hours at a time. You just bounce about from one quick fix to the next! Cutting out ultra processed shite is definitely a wise strategy, though.
As I have said upthread this is totally wrong. Intense fasting plus exercise plus sensible whole foods was how I permanently (for 15 years) lost 30kg
I’m now trying to repeat that
Hello and welcome to PB Weight Watchers (with Fasters Anonymous)
I'm in the whole foods, condensed eating hours, sensible exercise camp.I'm fitter, healthier, lift more, run and walk further and mentally happier than I'd say I've ever been in my life. At 57! Just means I mustn't waste the next 57!
I wish I could say the same, as a fellow fifty-something! It sounds as if retirement has been good for you.
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
I'm very, very lucky that forced decisions years ago (no choice but having to join company pension schemes) gave me the chance to retire at 55, my wife was able to quit work at the same time and take her pensions at 55 a couple of years after me. Health issues gave us a kick up the arse to change diet, quit the booze and exercise properly and appropriately for our age. If you can cut work down, I'd give it a go!
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
Two poached eggs on hot toasted Borough sourdough with a dash of soy, cracked kampot pepper and seasalt, and a few chill flakes
Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Great, fhe hunger is back. I’d better have some black tea
I'm mentally replacing the soy with a really good, sharp, homemade hollandaise. One that you essentially want to spoon directly out of the pan into your face.
MSG shortcuts all that wholesome homemade goodness and just gives you pure yum. Cheap too - a packet at our local corner shop is 50p and it lasts a couple of months. That plus citric acid crystals for acidulating sauces without the danger of splitting.
Interesting. Is it bad for you? How much do you use, just a pinch? What sot of meals are you adding it to?
The literature now suggests MSG bring bad for you was a 1980s panic with little or no grounding in reality. It does of course contain sodium so has some of the same implications as salt if overused, but most of the Far East chugs it down in vast quantities. Taiwan I think being the biggest consumer per head.
It's revelatory. Makes eggs eggier, tomatoes tomatoier, gravies and sauces yummier, adds flavour sprinkled on a steak, and adds immediate umami to any kind of oriental cooking, especially broths, ramen etc. I always put it in the Sunday roast gravy.
I wouldn't add it to anything sweet, most salads (except tomato), anything mediterranean or Middle Eastern, or anything South Asian.
I put just a pinch in egg or on tomato, a level teaspoon in a main meal for 4, and a heaped teaspoon in something like soup noodles.
MSG seems to raise my heart rate and stop me sleeping if I eat it. I don't think this is psychosomatic because there have been times when I've only realised afterwards, when I'm lying in bed for hours with a racing pulse unable to sleep, that what I've eaten contains it.
Yes, I get something like that, too. For most people, it's not an issue, though, and there's a fair amount of research which has completely failed to demonstrate any harm from it.
It's a strange one, as dietary glutamate doesn't affect the levels in the brain.
I’m not one to bash the BBC needlessly [yes I am] but this is genuinely bizarre, nay unbelievable
An entire and quite long BBC article about Sir Nicholas Winton - who famously rescued hundreds of Jewish kids from the Nazis - which doesn’t once mention that he was Jewish. Nor that the kids were Jewish. Nor that the woman used as an example is Jewish
That can only be deliberate. I cannot otherwise explain it
The only question is whether this was a decision from the top, or near the top, or if it was a lower-down-the-ladder employee who sneakily changed it without anyone noticing.
I’m not one to bash the BBC needlessly [yes I am] but this is genuinely bizarre, nay unbelievable
An entire and quite long BBC article about Sir Nicholas Winton - who famously rescued hundreds of Jewish kids from the Nazis - which doesn’t once mention that he was Jewish. Nor that the kids were Jewish. Nor that the woman used as an example is Jewish
I’m not one to bash the BBC needlessly [yes I am] but this is genuinely bizarre, nay unbelievable
An entire and quite long BBC article about Sir Nicholas Winton - who famously rescued hundreds of Jewish kids from the Nazis - which doesn’t once mention that he was Jewish. Nor that the kids were Jewish. Nor that the woman used as an example is Jewish
"Torsten Bell, boss of the Resolution Foundation think tank which focuses on improving living standards for those on low to middle incomes, tweeted prior to Sir Howard's comments that the most common living arrangement for an adult aged between 18 and 34 in 1997 was "being in a couple with children".
"Today the most common is... living with your parents""
That is a pretty damning indictment of the opportunities on offer to young people today. I left home in 1994 aged 18 and haven't lived with my parents (other than during Uni holidays) since. We bought our first home aged 26, the year we got married, and had our first child at 30. Not many of today's young adults will have the chance to follow that kind of trajectory. And the Tories wonder where all their voters have gone!
I bought my first home (by myself - no partner) when I was 21. Just a tiny flat - but still. Got me on my way. And I was not a big earner at the time. I saved money like heck from my first day at work at 16 - hardly any expenses and no social life back then.
I’m not one to bash the BBC needlessly [yes I am] but this is genuinely bizarre, nay unbelievable
An entire and quite long BBC article about Sir Nicholas Winton - who famously rescued hundreds of Jewish kids from the Nazis - which doesn’t once mention that he was Jewish. Nor that the kids were Jewish. Nor that the woman used as an example is Jewish
That can only be deliberate. I cannot otherwise explain it
The headline describes Winton as "Holocaust hero" so isn't it obvious that the kids he saved were Jewish?
No, it’s not. Absolutely not
Polls show that kids in the west are growing up with much less knowledge of the Holocaust. This article NEEDS to say “Jewish” at least once. It’s fairly outrageous
Is there anything more delicious than a fried egg? Just a little salt and pepper on top... Perfection!
A poached egg - less grease
Two poached eggs on hot toasted Borough sourdough with a dash of soy, cracked kampot pepper and seasalt, and a few chill flakes
Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Great, fhe hunger is back. I’d better have some black tea
I'm mentally replacing the soy with a really good, sharp, homemade hollandaise. One that you essentially want to spoon directly out of the pan into your face.
MSG shortcuts all that wholesome homemade goodness and just gives you pure yum. Cheap too - a packet at our local corner shop is 50p and it lasts a couple of months. That plus citric acid crystals for acidulating sauces without the danger of splitting.
Interesting. Is it bad for you? How much do you use, just a pinch? What sot of meals are you adding it to?
MSG leads to migraines for my wife, so its a no go for us, sadly. I think the mechanism is based just on dehydration as there is no other reason that i have found to link the two.
Comments
You do a lot of intense gazing out of the window thinking about life and god and stuff, and you reckon two hours have passed. And it’s just ten minutes
On the other hand you sleep a fair amount in the day
Anyway I am now at hour 42 and I think I’m through the two day wall. I reckon I can do this now. The hunger has abated. I feel good. Bouncy
Personally I find it easier out here in a warm balmy climate like Thailand. There is less demand on the body to burn fuel. Doing this in freezing England in January would be *harder*
It’s a lifestyle of feast and famine. You can only gather so much moss, fungi and wild fruit. The main source of nutrition is the hunt. And that varies greatly
This is especially true of northern climes in winter. This is why we store fat so horribly easily
This is also why we switched to agriculture despite the many many negatives associated with that - from zoonotic diseases to decreased meat protein reducing stature
(Yes, Yes)
So, for that, thanks
I suspect that hospital life is not very conducive to a healthy diet, a bit like fire station life. Hectic times with random lulls while waiting for something to happen, often with calorific snacks about to tempt a primate.
My bones ache now, my skin on my hands looks horrible from decades of handwashing and alcohol rubs, and time passes so fast. I have burnt the candle at both ends all my life, and it is beginning to show. On tablets for blood pressure, and threatened with statins now.
Am doing both dry January and Vegetarian (not vegan) and not missing either alcohol nor meat, particularly after the holiday surfeit of both.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm
Great, fhe hunger is back. I’d better have some black tea
Yes, the public does understand that the PM isn't going to commit electoral suicide before he has to. On the other hand, the public does want an election now and calling for one - even if it's unlikely to happen - won't go down badly.
Whether 'bottled it' is the right phrase to use I'm doubtful about. 'Frit', or some variant, might be better. But the gist is right.
Somebody needs to get a grip on the off-topic bollocks about doing the Bobby Sands diet and fucking eggs before this website dies.
Can’t you take early retirement or at least quasi retirement? I have a good friend in his late 50s who’s been a hardworking and highly successful forensic psychiatrist all his life (quite well known) - he was suffering the same burnout
He’s paid his dues and taxes to society and the NHS and he’s recently retired (to some soft consultancy and writing) and he says he’s never been happier. And he’s starting to look healthier. Relaxed. Losing weight and travelling
He has enough purpose and work to direct his life but he’s out of the coal mines. Maybe something to consider before you drop dead of a heart attack?
It's a kind of "shit or bust" tactic, but it doesn't seem to be working. And then the question rolls back to "why would a PM call an election when they're on track to lose badly?"
How small would the polling gap have to be for an election before this December/ next January not to be utterly kamikaze?
Part of the problem is my strong ancestral Presbyterian work ethic. I simply hate doing nothing and enjoy my work as it gives meaning to life. I don't particularly envy my retired colleagues, with their loss of social relationships and intellectual stimulation. It ages them.
I am planning to slow down this year, cutting hours by about 25%, so will see how it goes.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/our-ancestors-ate-a-paleo-diet-with-carbs-180980901/
The analogy is with viruses (viri?) which become less virulent in order to spread better. The individual virus doesn't choose to do this; but those viruses which do make this change outcompete those that don't.
If I didn't have to do anything it would be fine; anything involving decisions, driving/machinery, or looking after a kid - I wouldn't do it.
Vile, but cleared up my high blood pressure.
*Plenty of protein, zero salt and carbs - and very filling.
However, the second-round draw raises major potential questions about the sporting integrity of the competition. It is possible, for instance, that all four group winners from the first stage could meet each other in the same Super Eight group, with all four second-placed teams meeting each other in the second Super Eight group. Based on seedings, the Super Eight group not involving England is expected to feature India, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lank
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/01/04/t20-world-cup-fixtures-draw-west-indies-groups-england/
There is little new in Ukraine or Gaza, the Wellingborough byelection is a while off, there are no letters currently going into the 1922 committee and nobody is currently on I'm a celebrity or publishing fan-fiction books about the conspiracy to topple Boris.
Perhaps time to introduce something on fast cars?
megadecibel exhaust cans which actually sits parked in his garage while he sits indoors with a nice slice of Battenberg cake and rewatches Are You Being Served, volume 7?
Though there must have been ONE tribe/clan/extended family which semi-consciously switched to agriculture and then outcompeted the others. Almost certainly in the close vicinity of Gobekli Tepe
I don't like the crinkly bits.
My fried egg is with a decent amount of butter on very low heat - lid on pan to gently cook the top - I'd say this is more like poached in butter rather than fried.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-fry-egg
"That’s why people who follow these “Paleo diets” that aren’t really paleo can often be really healthy. And people who are vegan, and eat no meat at all, can do really well, too.
I think the one thing that they never have in a hunter-gatherer diet is the heavily processed foods that we are surrounded with. In processed foods, you get these combinations of sugars, salts and fats that never occur in nature. You take out a lot of things like fiber and protein that make you feel full, and put in a lot of things that make your brain’s reward systems light up, like flavoring. Processed foods seem to be a big driver of obesity."
Wild primates are actually very good at balancing their diet, and extremely varied in what they (we) eat. Its not just that we can eat nearly everything, but also that variety is a very effective biological advantage. This study of baboons in Cape Town shows an amazingly varied diet of almost constant grazing.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3722187/
High blood pressure is like a post it note from god, stuck to the fridge door of life. Slow down, look after yourself, eat better
Treat with salt for the moment, but the rumours brought a certain amount of perverse joy to me this morning.
Crypto NFT Blockchain AI Space Launch Safety Windows.
perfumery
stationery and leather goods
wigs and haberdashery
kitchenware and food
Going up.
A couple of friends took up dingy sailing - it requires a fair bit of exercise & keeps you flexible, social, skills to develop. And has led them to doing some holidays in the Med where they go off the usual tourist trail - hiring a larger boat & sailing the islands in Greece, for example.
If Sunak finds a banana skin or Labour get some film of him throwing darts at pictures of proles, or of him taking a bag full of cash from the leader of a known crime family, they may quickly garner 8 million signatures for "General Election Now" and then it would at least put Sunak on his back foot. But we all know what the Tories would do in such circumstances.
What is even more pathetic is Labour don't make it a petition to the king. That would be fawning enough, but at least it would have an edge to it.
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-jones-01-04-2024/card/quantumscape-stock-surges-40-after-battery-test-results-bSxt2jhJgDbsOiTrPp4X
A few years off mass production, but will transform the economics of EVs.
Easily good for half a million kilometers - so the rest of the car will obsolete faster than the powertrain.
VW the biggest shareholder.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001tscr
Funnily enough, today's is about weight loss!
It's revelatory. Makes eggs eggier, tomatoes tomatoier, gravies and sauces yummier, adds flavour sprinkled on a steak, and adds immediate umami to any kind of oriental cooking, especially broths, ramen etc. I always put it in the Sunday roast gravy.
I wouldn't add it to anything sweet, most salads (except tomato), anything mediterranean or Middle Eastern, or anything South Asian.
I put just a pinch in egg or on tomato, a level teaspoon in a main meal for 4, and a heaped teaspoon in something like soup noodles.
Labour really need to put zero effort into the campaign and you almost want your candidate to do something stupid to lose some votes to give the Tory party some false hope
largely MSG
I can't see a route to Rwanda being done. The Tories' hope is that they get credit for 'trying' and being stopped by the wicked courts applying the the law of the land or the HoL politely suggesting that this is an illegal putrefaction that needs amending.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67890334
"Today the most common is... living with your parents""
An entire and quite long BBC article about Sir Nicholas Winton - who famously rescued hundreds of Jewish kids from the Nazis - which doesn’t once mention that he was Jewish. Nor that the kids were Jewish. Nor that the woman used as an example is Jewish
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-67876587
That can only be deliberate. I cannot otherwise explain it
If you can cut work down, I'd give it a go!
For most people, it's not an issue, though, and there's a fair amount of research which has completely failed to demonstrate any harm from it.
It's a strange one, as dietary glutamate doesn't affect the levels in the brain.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/04/one-life-marketing-materials-altered-following-jewish-backlash
Not sure how deliberate the choice was by the BBC (see for example a story earlier this year):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-66467077
Polls show that kids in the west are growing up with much less knowledge of the Holocaust. This article NEEDS to say “Jewish” at least once. It’s fairly outrageous