I'd have thought the most urgent thing to relax as we soften the lockdown would be dentistry.
Opticians too. Wonder how many old dears are driving down to Tesco with a decade old prescription in their second pair of glasses because they broke their first pair during lockdown.
BMI 40+ isn't just a 'little extra padding'. You have to seriously go some to get that way.
TBH, I can't imagine there are many people with BMI of over 40 that don't have some other very serious conditions.
I was there a little over a year ago - and am now in the high 20s. It took some work to fix it but it's the best thing I've ever done - and I still have a way to go. In retrospect its amazing mental gymnastics we are capable of to justify it, put it to the back of our minds.
I know people who have taken difficult personal measures to protect themselves from infection (social shielding) - but won't make relatively easy lifestyle and dietary changes to complement that. We're creatures of habit I guess.
I fear that quite a lot of people who have never worked from home before probably piling on the pounds. It is so easy to do so when the kitchen is only a few steps away. And also they aren't using up all those calories taking kids to school, commuting to the office, walking to get lunch, etc.
We hear that booze sales are also through the roof, so again not great the old waist line.
As a long time WFHer, I try to stick to an intermittent fasting regime to restrict the number of hours a day I can actually consume any food. Otherwise, I find I just graze all day, then eat a big meal in the evening, and that is just bad news.
3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along.
If you've got Covid eliminated within your population entirely (New Zealand possibly) then you can run a full speed domestic economy for the next couple of years. In addition in the worst case scenario if no vaccine is developed and Covid keeps appearing in the wild in the next few years everywhere else you're going to have people banging down your door to emigrate there (Even with a long quarantine period). You become new Eden.
I have most of my Betfair balance tied up in this market and I fear I am going to keep adding more as I don't see any reason the GOP should be odds on to win in November outside of actual outright ordanances banning Dems from voting.
I think it is tight, I think it is close but I do not see how they can possibly be odds on.
BMI 40+ isn't just a 'little extra padding'. You have to seriously go some to get that way.
I know a number of folk who will be over BMI 40. I doubt that they consider themselves more at risk as a consequence. There has been comparatively little in the media to get the message across which is unfortunate. I guess there is a reluctance to seem "fattist" or whatever.
I've found this surprising also. COVID 19 is going to be with us for some time - there's time for people to switch to a healthier lifestyle and lose weight. At the very least, the govt could explicitly make this link.
I have friends desperately trying to persuade their parents to eat healthier and I think stronger govt messaging on this would help them out a lot.
BMI 40+ isn't just a 'little extra padding'. You have to seriously go some to get that way.
TBH, I can't imagine there are many people with BMI of over 40 that don't have some other very serious conditions.
I was there a little over a year ago - and am now in the high 20s. It took some work to fix it but it's the best thing I've ever done - and I still have a way to go. In retrospect its amazing mental gymnastics we are capable of to justify it, put it to the back of our minds.
I know people who have taken difficult personal measures to protect themselves from infection (social shielding) - but won't make relatively easy lifestyle and dietary changes to complement that. We're creatures of habit I guess.
I had a couple of serious warnings just over a year ago with bile duct problems and unexplained blood clots on my lung that caused a minor infarction of the heart. Decided it was time to stop taking good health for granted. Lost more than 20 lbs since then. Slipped a bit in February when felt under the weather and put on a stone but lost about half of that now.
I have found WFH difficult. Far too many snacks available. I am trying to boost my calorie output to compensate.
Would it be fair to say a consensus is building that the way COVID spreads is a highly complex matter and that lockdown is helping only marginally if at all and with enormous drawbacks?
The data seems to show that the harder the lockdown, the worse the death toll is in terms of deaths per million citizens. Spain, Italy and Belgium are all faring very badly.
Forcing people to live together in cramped spaces could in some cases be counterproductive, it seems.
Boris & co weren't to know this, but the time to realise it and start the economy going again is now. Actually it was days ago. It may be too late.
But by acting now we may not cause the permanent damage the treasury is predicting today.
Look at Norway and Denmark on that chart of deaths per million. They are a fraction of Sweden's.
And Denmark is in a worse starting point than Sweden in terms of both population density, areas of high density, and land border with the rest of the Continent.
Care homes and lack of PPE are the problems, say Swedes
Would it be fair to say a consensus is building that the way COVID spreads is a highly complex matter and that lockdown is helping only marginally if at all and with enormous drawbacks?
The data seems to show that the harder the lockdown, the worse the death toll is in terms of deaths per million citizens. Spain, Italy and Belgium are all faring very badly.
Forcing people to live together in cramped spaces could in some cases be counterproductive, it seems.
Boris & co weren't to know this, but the time to realise it and start the economy going again is now. Actually it was days ago. It may be too late.
But by acting now we may not cause the permanent damage the treasury is predicting today.
Look at Norway and Denmark on that chart of deaths per million. They are a fraction of Sweden's.
Maybe but Sweden's are a fraction of Belgium's Italy's and Spain's. There is just far too much uncertainty here to decide to destroy the world's fifth biggest economy.
And Devon/Cornwall is a fraction of London. Population density is clearly part of the equation. And that really isn't much of a surprise.
Devon has literally had 1/15th of the victims per million of population of places like Wolverhampton.
Yet both have had the same lockdown rules..
Which is interesting because back in the early days of this virus Devon was a bit of a hotspot. And Devon has the disadvantage of an elderly population.
Could population density have an impact on both the spread of the virus and also the intensity of the infections?
Population density will almost certainly be an influencing factor. But there will be lots of variables which have a small impact which unless investigated fully in each outbreak, will remain unexplained. Remember that in the first days of Corona in the UK, the NHS was on top of the testing. Who knows, perhaps one doctor convinced the few positives in Torbay to get as many friends and relatives tested as possible finding more cases but the following isolation prevented the exponential growth. A couple of weeks later the ability to saturate-test a sub-population was out of the question because all the test were needed for likely cases.
Would it be fair to say a consensus is building that the way COVID spreads is a highly complex matter and that lockdown is helping only marginally if at all and with enormous drawbacks?
The data seems to show that the harder the lockdown, the worse the death toll is in terms of deaths per million citizens. Spain, Italy and Belgium are all faring very badly.
Forcing people to live together in cramped spaces could in some cases be counterproductive, it seems.
Boris & co weren't to know this, but the time to realise it and start the economy going again is now. Actually it was days ago. It may be too late.
But by acting now we may not cause the permanent damage the treasury is predicting today.
Look at Norway and Denmark on that chart of deaths per million. They are a fraction of Sweden's.
Maybe but Sweden's are a fraction of Belgium's Italy's and Spain's. There is just far too much uncertainty here to decide to destroy the world's fifth biggest economy.
And Devon/Cornwall is a fraction of London. Population density is clearly part of the equation. And that really isn't much of a surprise.
Devon has literally had 1/15th of the victims per million of population of places like Wolverhampton.
Yet both have had the same lockdown rules..
There is some mileage in that, but also practicalities - which was why the original lockdown was everyone; they thought differentials would be impractical.
That may be different now that we have done it.
I wrote to my MP at the end of March asking him to try and make sure the rest of the country did not get poleaxed by metropolitan problems. I have a suspicion that that is what may have happened with cemeteries last week until the Minister stomped on it - ours were closed for one day then reopened.
“ For pensioners, something is spot-on in the state of Denmark
With most rich countries including the UK trying to figure out how to look after old people using finite resources, Denmark may offer several solutions”
BMI 40+ isn't just a 'little extra padding'. You have to seriously go some to get that way.
TBH, I can't imagine there are many people with BMI of over 40 that don't have some other very serious conditions.
I was there a little over a year ago - and am now in the high 20s. It took some work to fix it but it's the best thing I've ever done - and I still have a way to go. In retrospect its amazing mental gymnastics we are capable of to justify it, put it to the back of our minds.
I know people who have taken difficult personal measures to protect themselves from infection (social shielding) - but won't make relatively easy lifestyle and dietary changes to complement that. We're creatures of habit I guess.
I fear that quite a lot of people who have never worked from home before probably piling on the pounds. It is so easy to do so when the kitchen is only a few steps away. And also they aren't using up all those calories taking kids to school, commuting to the office, walking to get lunch, etc.
We hear that booze sales are also through the roof, so again not great the old waist line.
As a long time WFHer, I try to stick to an intermittent fasting regime to restrict the number of hours a day I can actually consume any food. Otherwise, I find I just graze all day, then eat a big meal in the evening, and that is just bad news.
This is all very true. I would love to see Fitbit or Withings or someone who has sight of connected scales data do some work on hour many kgs we've put on so far.
For my part its hard as I run good mileage over a week, don't drink, and eat well - but it's basically care and maintenance to compensate for 23 hours a day of a newly sedentary lifestyle. It's why I never understood why exercise was in the firing line at some points in this.
3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along.
If you've got Covid eliminated within your population entirely (New Zealand possibly) then you can run a full speed domestic economy for the next couple of years. In addition in the worst case scenario if no vaccine is developed and Covid keeps appearing in the wild in the next few years everywhere else you're going to have people banging down your door to emigrate there (Even with a long quarantine period). You become new Eden.
I think that only a society like North Korea could keep the Corona Virus out of the country, and how full speed was their domestic economy?
I was watching another report on South Korea, and again it seems on top of the state surveillance and massive testing, the government asked people to work from home, not go out unless they really needed to etc, and the vast vast majority did as requested and thus no need for an "enforced" lockdown.
However the stick is pretty big e.g. a few people deliberately left their phones at home and went out when they should have been in isolation. So now the government is moving to a system of electronic tagging of individuals.
I await the Guardian headlines if the UK government suggested such a system, especially for those arriving from abroad.
What I don't understand (among many other COVID-related matters) about this is the following:
1) If these countries (S Korea, N Zealand, Hong Kong, etc) have done brilliantly well in locking down and keeping COVID out, what happens when they re-open to the outside world? 2) They haven't acquired "herd immunity" presumably so COVID will just take off, (unless they resume the lockdown) 3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along. 4) Is there really any alternative to letting COVID run its course, albeit managed so the health services aren't overwhelmed?
Genuinely puzzled.
1) The virus-controlled world is a huge swathe of the globe from Ürümqi to Taipei to Shiretoko containing a large proportion of the world population and an important part of the world economy, so in the event that we ended up with this as a single no-quarantine zone it's not really what you'd call isolation. If nobody else chooses suppression then everyone arriving will need to go into quarantine, absent really great testing or something, but that doesn't sound impossible since we're surviving a status quo where nobody travels.
2) We don't quite know for sure but on current evidence it seems like nobody with a still-functioning healthcare system is anywhere near herd immunity, and neither does anyone have a coherent plan to get there. You can't really make a coherent plan until you know what the real infection rates are.
3) Taiwan isn't in lockdown, South Korea isn't in lockdown, Japan is in a very gentle voluntary version where Tokyo bars are asked to close at 8pm instead of going late into the night. We can certainly keep a version of this going for many months, and it should get easier as we get better information about how the virus spreads and how to avoid it.
4) See [2] - it's not really clear that letting COVID run its course, albeit managed so the health services aren't overwhelmed, is practical. It might be, it might not, the data is still quite patchy.
I was watching another report on South Korea, and again it seems on top of the state surveillance and massive testing, the government asked people to work from home, not go out unless they really needed to etc, and the vast vast majority did as requested and thus no need for an "enforced" lockdown.
However the stick is pretty big e.g. a few people deliberately left their phones at home and went out when they should have been in isolation. So now the government is moving to a system of electronic tagging of individuals.
I await the Guardian headlines if the UK government suggested such a system, especially for those arriving from abroad.
What I don't understand (among many other COVID-related matters) about this is the following:
1) If these countries (S Korea, N Zealand, Hong Kong, etc) have done brilliantly well in locking down and keeping COVID out, what happens when they re-open to the outside world? 2) They haven't acquired "herd immunity" presumably so COVID will just take off, (unless they resume the lockdown) 3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along. 4) Is there really any alternative to letting COVID run its course, albeit managed so the health services aren't overwhelmed?
Genuinely puzzled.
I think you are right. New Zealand will have to remain isolated from the outside world until a vaccine is found.
Mr. rkrkrk, thanks, that slightly surprises me as I thought I'd read the reverse here recently (entirely possible I just misread that, of course).
The decentralisation seems a huge difference as well, though. But I suspect more money for the NHS will have widespread support from the faithful, whereas raising the prospect of reformation might raise accusations of heresy.
You're quite right that you read the opposite here - it was just a misreading of the graph though.
We had quite a major reorganization of the NHS not so long ago. It's unclear what benefits that produced frankly.
It remains surprising to me that discussion of putting more money into the NHS is taboo on here. Of the G7 we put the second least money into health (Italy are least) - so why exactly should we expect the best health service in the world?
Yes we can change the team formation, but we are playing with 10 men against 11.
On reorganization, there is an OECD report on the efficiency of health systems in different countries which contains the following paragraph:
"There is no health care system that performs systematically better in delivering cost-effective health care. In fact, the efficiency estimates vary more within country groups sharing similar institutional characteristics than between groups. In other words, big-bang reforms are not warranted. Rather, it may be more practical and effective for each country to adopt the best policy practices implemented by countries in its own group while borrowing the most appropriate elements from other groups."
3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along.
If you've got Covid eliminated within your population entirely (New Zealand possibly) then you can run a full speed domestic economy for the next couple of years. In addition in the worst case scenario if no vaccine is developed and Covid keeps appearing in the wild in the next few years everywhere else you're going to have people banging down your door to emigrate there (Even with a long quarantine period). You become new Eden.
10 % of NZ economy comes from tourism directly and indirectly.
First, thank you to @Nigelb for such a header. My thinking is that at all times hospitals are always under pressure to unblock beds and care homes are a vital outlet so it is understandable that that process continues even under today's circumstances. Is one safer than the other? Well we are seeing that the answer is perhaps but hospitals can't have people taking up beds which they need for more urgent cases.
3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along.
If you've got Covid eliminated within your population entirely (New Zealand possibly) then you can run a full speed domestic economy for the next couple of years. In addition in the worst case scenario if no vaccine is developed and Covid keeps appearing in the wild in the next few years everywhere else you're going to have people banging down your door to emigrate there (Even with a long quarantine period). You become new Eden.
I think that only a society like North Korea could keep the Corona Virus out of the country, and how full speed was their domestic economy?
I'm not sure North Korea has kept it out at all. Did anyone pick their dear leader for the deadpool ?
The boy had only mild symptoms and when tested was found to have levels of virus that were barely detectable. The low level of infection is thought to explain why he did not infect other people.
The researchers believe that since children typically have only mild symptoms, they may transmit the virus far less than infected adults. “Children might not be an important source of transmissions of this novel virus,” they write.
There are several virus diseases that are much worse in adults than in children, Mumps is a famous example. An important question is: do children who are Sars-Cov2 positive but do not transmit the diease to others build up enough antibodies to be immune from future infection when they are older?
One ambulance carrying a patient with coronavirus symptoms was turned away by 80 hospitals before he could be seen.
Just for context, maybe worth mentioning that this kind of thing was happening in Tokyo *before* coronavirus - Japanese healthcare is generally pretty good, but the part where ambulances get you to emergency care is a long-standing mess, you would often hear of cases where people were stuck in ambulances for ages while the unlucky crew tried to find a hospital that would take them. Obviously coronavirus has made it a whole lot worse, both for people with the virus and people without the virus.
Would it be fair to say a consensus is building that the way COVID spreads is a highly complex matter and that lockdown is helping only marginally if at all and with enormous drawbacks?
The data seems to show that the harder the lockdown, the worse the death toll is in terms of deaths per million citizens. Spain, Italy and Belgium are all faring very badly.
Forcing people to live together in cramped spaces could in some cases be counterproductive, it seems.
Boris & co weren't to know this, but the time to realise it and start the economy going again is now. Actually it was days ago. It may be too late.
But by acting now we may not cause the permanent damage the treasury is predicting today.
Look at Norway and Denmark on that chart of deaths per million. They are a fraction of Sweden's.
And Denmark is in a worse starting point than Sweden in terms of both population density, areas of high density, and land border with the rest of the Continent.
Care homes and lack of PPE are the problems, say Swedes
3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along.
If you've got Covid eliminated within your population entirely (New Zealand possibly) then you can run a full speed domestic economy for the next couple of years. In addition in the worst case scenario if no vaccine is developed and Covid keeps appearing in the wild in the next few years everywhere else you're going to have people banging down your door to emigrate there (Even with a long quarantine period). You become new Eden.
I think that only a society like North Korea could keep the Corona Virus out of the country, and how full speed was their domestic economy?
I'm not sure North Korea has kept it out at all. Did anyone pick their dear leader for the deadpool ?
Which more or less makes my point. If they can't keep it out, then a wonderful tourist country with a strong and sensible democracy like New Zealand has absolutely no chance.
BMI 40+ isn't just a 'little extra padding'. You have to seriously go some to get that way.
TBH, I can't imagine there are many people with BMI of over 40 that don't have some other very serious conditions.
I was there a little over a year ago - and am now in the high 20s. It took some work to fix it but it's the best thing I've ever done - and I still have a way to go. In retrospect its amazing mental gymnastics we are capable of to justify it, put it to the back of our minds.
I know people who have taken difficult personal measures to protect themselves from infection (social shielding) - but won't make relatively easy lifestyle and dietary changes to complement that. We're creatures of habit I guess.
I had a couple of serious warnings just over a year ago with bile duct problems and unexplained blood clots on my lung that caused a minor infarction of the heart. Decided it was time to stop taking good health for granted. Lost more than 20 lbs since then. Slipped a bit in February when felt under the weather and put on a stone but lost about half of that now.
I have found WFH difficult. Far too many snacks available. I am trying to boost my calorie output to compensate.
Perhaps unexpectedly I am taking more exercise than before as a result of WFH. We have a proper cooked lunch now which, at knocking off time, allows us to do a 2/3 hour walk or bike ride in the evening. It's great. Been seeing more wildlife than usual - discovering there are more brown hares around locally than I thought and watched an osprey collecting nesting material the other evening.
I'd have thought the most urgent thing to relax as we soften the lockdown would be dentistry.
Opticians too. Wonder how many old dears are driving down to Tesco with a decade old prescription in their second pair of glasses because they broke their first pair during lockdown.
Breaking my glasses is what worries me most. I don’t have a second pair...I’m getting one as soon as I can
Not everyone can afford or has the space for gym equipment.
Most people have a floor for push ups though.
I'm doing supersets of 35 press-ups and 40 bodyweight squats while I'm waiting for my gym equipment to arrive (next week, I've been told). It's not ideal but it's at least keeping me active and making me do something that gets me out of breath.
3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along.
If you've got Covid eliminated within your population entirely (New Zealand possibly) then you can run a full speed domestic economy for the next couple of years. In addition in the worst case scenario if no vaccine is developed and Covid keeps appearing in the wild in the next few years everywhere else you're going to have people banging down your door to emigrate there (Even with a long quarantine period). You become new Eden.
10 % of NZ economy comes from tourism directly and indirectly.
Yes but well over 10% of our economy comes from not being locked down. Having to forego tourism seems a relatively small price to pay.
I have always hankered to emigrate there and am kicking myself that I didn't when I had the chance a couple of years back. It wasn't really realistic - it would have meant uprooting the family and leaving behind the wider family - but I think life there would have been good.
3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along.
If you've got Covid eliminated within your population entirely (New Zealand possibly) then you can run a full speed domestic economy for the next couple of years. If in the worst case scenario if no vaccine is developed and Covid keeps appearing in the wild in the next few years everywhere else you're going to have people banging down your door to emigrate there (Even with a long quarantine period). You become new Eden.
10 % of NZ economy comes from tourism directly and indirectly.
Blimey, that is the same as Spain. I think future generations are going to be genuinely bewildered by the amount of travelling done for frivolous reasons over the last 30 years. I very much doubt we will see it again in any of our lifetimes.
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
I have most of my Betfair balance tied up in this market and I fear I am going to keep adding more as I don't see any reason the GOP should be odds on to win in November outside of actual outright ordanances banning Dems from voting.
I think it is tight, I think it is close but I do not see how they can possibly be odds on.
Same here. In fact I'm more confident than you. I'm not expecting it to be close.
Still, it would be nice if the market moved a bit towards my view. All very well being contra consensus but it does test your nerve.
Would it be fair to say a consensus is building that the way COVID spreads is a highly complex matter and that lockdown is helping only marginally if at all and with enormous drawbacks?
The data seems to show that the harder the lockdown, the worse the death toll is in terms of deaths per million citizens. Spain, Italy and Belgium are all faring very badly.
Forcing people to live together in cramped spaces could in some cases be counterproductive, it seems.
Boris & co weren't to know this, but the time to realise it and start the economy going again is now. Actually it was days ago. It may be too late.
But by acting now we may not cause the permanent damage the treasury is predicting today.
Look at Norway and Denmark on that chart of deaths per million. They are a fraction of Sweden's.
Maybe but Sweden's are a fraction of Belgium's Italy's and Spain's. There is just far too much uncertainty here to decide to destroy the world's fifth biggest economy.
And Devon/Cornwall is a fraction of London. Population density is clearly part of the equation. And that really isn't much of a surprise.
Devon has literally had 1/15th of the victims per million of population of places like Wolverhampton.
Yet both have had the same lockdown rules..
Which is interesting because back in the early days of this virus Devon was a bit of a hotspot. And Devon has the disadvantage of an elderly population.
Could population density have an impact on both the spread of the virus and also the intensity of the infections?
Population density will almost certainly be an influencing factor. But there will be lots of variables which have a small impact which unless investigated fully in each outbreak, will remain unexplained. Remember that in the first days of Corona in the UK, the NHS was on top of the testing. Who knows, perhaps one doctor convinced the few positives in Torbay to get as many friends and relatives tested as possible finding more cases but the following isolation prevented the exponential growth. A couple of weeks later the ability to saturate-test a sub-population was out of the question because all the test were needed for likely cases.
which suggests that not wanting to inconvenience people going on/returning from skiing holidays was THE mistake that overwhelmed the testing capacity and forced many countries to abandon comprehensive tracing.
Mr. Eagles, I'd be surprised if you have less available floor space than me for exercise. It doesn't take much at all for pressups and situps. A folding exercise bike only takes up a couple of square feet, weights likewise.
Not everyone can afford or has the space for gym equipment.
Most people have a floor for push ups though.
I'm doing supersets of 35 press-ups and 40 bodyweight squats while I'm waiting for my gym equipment to arrive (next week, I've been told). It's not ideal but it's at least keeping me active and making me do something that gets me out of breath.
What are supersets? I`m guessing the 35 is not in one go - or else I`m seriously impressed.
The boy had only mild symptoms and when tested was found to have levels of virus that were barely detectable. The low level of infection is thought to explain why he did not infect other people.
The researchers believe that since children typically have only mild symptoms, they may transmit the virus far less than infected adults. “Children might not be an important source of transmissions of this novel virus,” they write.
There are several virus diseases that are much worse in adults than in children, Mumps is a famous example. An important question is: do children who are Sars-Cov2 positive but do not transmit the diease to others build up enough antibodies to be immune from future infection when they are older?
That would be excellent news if it could be confirmed clearly. Reopening schools (up to a certain age, dependent on the outcomes of study) would look significantly less risky for the households involved.
I'd have thought the most urgent thing to relax as we soften the lockdown would be dentistry.
My wife's practice is completely closed and she doesn't expect it re-open before autumn at the earliest. Apparently dentistry is very high risk as there are a lot of aerosol generating procedures with the power tools.
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
In addition to that, I've found keeping a food diary is a great help. It stops you idly and mindlessly snacking (and eating more than you realise). And if you feel embarrassed at what you're putting in it, it's easy to tell yourself: well, if you don't want to write it down, don't eat it.
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
We're drinking about as much as usual at home, although I'm not sneaking out to the pub once or twice a week for a chat and a pint with the other old men of the town. And we're walking more, although I've given up my gym trips, of course. One thing we're not doing is snacking. And our weight is lowly going down.
Not everyone can afford or has the space for gym equipment.
Most people have a floor for push ups though.
I'm doing supersets of 35 press-ups and 40 bodyweight squats while I'm waiting for my gym equipment to arrive (next week, I've been told). It's not ideal but it's at least keeping me active and making me do something that gets me out of breath.
What are supersets? I`m guessing the 35 is not in one go - or else I`m seriously impressed.
35 press-ups in one go immediately followed by 40 bodyweight squats. Then followed by sitting down and puffing.
Would it be fair to say a consensus is building that the way COVID spreads is a highly complex matter and that lockdown is helping only marginally if at all and with enormous drawbacks?
The data seems to show that the harder the lockdown, the worse the death toll is in terms of deaths per million citizens. Spain, Italy and Belgium are all faring very badly.
Forcing people to live together in cramped spaces could in some cases be counterproductive, it seems.
Boris & co weren't to know this, but the time to realise it and start the economy going again is now. Actually it was days ago. It may be too late.
But by acting now we may not cause the permanent damage the treasury is predicting today.
Look at Norway and Denmark on that chart of deaths per million. They are a fraction of Sweden's.
Maybe but Sweden's are a fraction of Belgium's Italy's and Spain's. There is just far too much uncertainty here to decide to destroy the world's fifth biggest economy.
And Devon/Cornwall is a fraction of London. Population density is clearly part of the equation. And that really isn't much of a surprise.
Devon has literally had 1/15th of the victims per million of population of places like Wolverhampton.
Very similar in my part of Spain: Madrid death-rate 112/100k Infection rate 876/100k Andalucia 12/100k 136/100k Almeria - mi casa! 5/100k 64/100k
'Death rate is 3.2%' is, I think, highly misleading and possibly meaningless since we don't know what the denominator is.
I genuinely missed the government deciding to ease restrictions though. Is she talking about the UK?
RKI is Germany. Also, the first easing of restrictions started yesterday, so unlikely to be responsible for R increasing - RKI figures will for sure not be that up to date. Talk (last week) of easing lock down might have made people a bit looser in their behaviour, which is why I would have combined easing some restrictions with imposing others: eg compulsory mouth/nose covering in public to make sure the message was clear that it things are not back to normal.
Not everyone can afford or has the space for gym equipment.
Most people have a floor for push ups though.
I'm doing supersets of 35 press-ups and 40 bodyweight squats while I'm waiting for my gym equipment to arrive (next week, I've been told). It's not ideal but it's at least keeping me active and making me do something that gets me out of breath.
What are supersets? I`m guessing the 35 is not in one go - or else I`m seriously impressed.
35 press-ups in one go immediately followed by 40 bodyweight squats. Then followed by sitting down and puffing.
Btw boilerjuice are not the cheapest usually 2p or so more expensive pl than my oil buying syndicate. Having been in the 50p range i bought a month ago at 36p thinking how cheap.it was.. todays price is just above21p
Not everyone can afford or has the space for gym equipment.
Most people have a floor for push ups though.
I'm doing supersets of 35 press-ups and 40 bodyweight squats while I'm waiting for my gym equipment to arrive (next week, I've been told). It's not ideal but it's at least keeping me active and making me do something that gets me out of breath.
What are supersets? I`m guessing the 35 is not in one go - or else I`m seriously impressed.
35 press-ups in one go immediately followed by 40 bodyweight squats. Then followed by sitting down and puffing.
My aims are very short term - I'm waiting on a delivery of home gym equipment when I can more or less fully resume my normal routine (legs being the most problematic bit). That, I'm hoping, is next week.
Special snowflake alert - I need to be careful with my shoulder because I have a permanently weak collarbone, which means that simply going for harder press-up variations is not advisable.
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
Having lost most of the weight, it is really a simple input and output formula - but one complicated by many other psychological and behavioral factors that you allude to. Overcome them and the motivation and benefits become more accessible.
Something like MyFitnessPal for calorie counting was useful for me. Even over a few weeks then you quickly pick up the new habits.
At the risk of sparking the controversy saying something like this inevitably does, eating less meat and animal products can clearly help some people too [hides under table]. Getting the biggest nutritional bang for your calorific buck while still having a heaping plate of food for dinner is not a bad place to be (exactly as you say, having something to chew on matters and makes you feel less deprived).
I'd have thought the most urgent thing to relax as we soften the lockdown would be dentistry.
Opticians too. Wonder how many old dears are driving down to Tesco with a decade old prescription in their second pair of glasses because they broke their first pair during lockdown.
Breaking my glasses is what worries me most. I don’t have a second pair...I’m getting one as soon as I can
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
In addition to that, I've found keeping a food diary is a great help. It stops you idly and mindlessly snacking (and eating more than you realise). And if you feel embarrassed at what you're putting in it, it's easy to tell yourself: well, if you don't want to write it down, don't eat it.
The other point about all the diet books out there is one you allude to. Losing weight is a bastard. It's not as easy as every foreword in all those books makes out. It takes sacrifice (minor in context!) and deprivation (ditto). It requires some discipline which can often be a factor for being overweight in the first place.
But neither am I of the "pull yourself together" persuasion. Plenty of overweight people would love to be able to lose weight but for such people (over)eating is a psychological demand reflecting other things going on in their lives from which they can take comfort with food.
The hospital where my wife works in PA has been told by all the nursing homes around that if they take a patient, the patient is the hospital's for the duration. No patients at all are allowed to return to the homes after admission to hospital.
That policy also has its downside - the hospital is refusing all patients from nursing homes unless it's an emergency, regardless of their COVID status. But is does seem far better than the situation you described.
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
Having lost most of the weight, it is really a simple input and output formula - but one complicated by many other psychological and behavioral factors that you allude to. Overcome them and the motivation and benefits become more accessible.
Something like MyFitnessPal for calorie counting was useful for me. Even over a few weeks then you quickly pick up the new habits.
At the risk of sparking the controversy saying something like this inevitably does, eating less meat and animal products can clearly help some people too [hides under table]. Getting the biggest nutritional bang for your calorific buck while still having a heaping plate of food for dinner is not a bad place to be (exactly as you say, having something to chew on matters and makes you feel less deprived).
Either way this is a cracking time to start.
Absolutely agree with all of that.
(and eg I used to amaze friends (ie bore them senseless) telling them how many calories were in what foods.)
NigelB, I have been unable to comment here for several weeks , but do wish to add my condolences to those already expressed. Back in 2010 I lost my own father in circumstances which strongly suggested medical negligence at hospital related to keyhole surgery. We all have to face the painful reality of losing elderly parents who have reached a certain age , but the awareness that a death could so easily have been avoided does leave a very bitter taste in the mouth. My thoughts are with you.
It is worth considering the role of pensions in the economy if there is a massive contraction. This will reduce or wipe out pension fund assets due to company insolvencies and reduced profits. Thus defined benefit pension schemes will have large shortfalls. Their parent companies may face insolvency due to the need to make up these shortfalls,. The government may change the rules to reduce the benefits from these schemes.
Defined contribution schemes will just reduce the benefits that members will receive on retirement. One way or another, people will receive significantly smaller pensions due to the smaller economy.
Pure twitter anecdata, but a tweet on Friday from a Berlin resident. I'd imagine one of the problems in giving a date for easing up is folk going gung ho in the lead up to it.
I'd have thought the most urgent thing to relax as we soften the lockdown would be dentistry.
My dentist isn’t expecting to open for a few months after lockdown ends.
They can’t get the PPE and various other things they need to do their work.
Apparently is the case across the entire sector.
I can't imagine even with normal face shields that will be enough. They have to stick their heads right into patients mouths and make them cough. I would have thought realistically they need those South Korean style space suits.
Factor in on average 20 different people a day sit in each dentist’s chair then you’re going to need a more stricter and often cleaning cycle.
It won’t be business as usual for them once the lockdown ends.
There will be no non-essential procedures like teeth polishing etc that's for certain. I think it will be you have had no symptoms of CV and only essential treatment.
Will be absolutely wrecking private dentist businesses.
But again, the government needs to be working with BDA to come up with a plan. If they continue this urgent treatment centre model where only those at risk of death or serious complications for many months on end, it will be storing up huge problems.
We’re going to have a lot of looming health problems.
My mum has decided she’s never going back to her chiropodist.
Gyms are going to struggle, they are perfect vectors for spreading this horrible disease.
Not everyone can afford or has the space for gym equipment.
I am certainly not going back to my gym. And my god, fitness equipment, it is the new bog roll. If you can get, they are price gouging. I wanted to buy a heavier kettlebell, a decent one usually cost say £30, they wanted £65 for identical ones I currently have.
And they laughed when Sports Direct said they were an essential service.
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
Having lost most of the weight, it is really a simple input and output formula - but one complicated by many other psychological and behavioral factors that you allude to. Overcome them and the motivation and benefits become more accessible.
Something like MyFitnessPal for calorie counting was useful for me. Even over a few weeks then you quickly pick up the new habits.
At the risk of sparking the controversy saying something like this inevitably does, eating less meat and animal products can clearly help some people too [hides under table]. Getting the biggest nutritional bang for your calorific buck while still having a heaping plate of food for dinner is not a bad place to be (exactly as you say, having something to chew on matters and makes you feel less deprived).
Either way this is a cracking time to start.
I'm low carb and find in removes the desire to snack. I've been fairly strict during the lockdown, and in fact having decided to shop as infrequently as possible concentrates the mind and makes you not run down valuable food stocks. At the beginning, not having to buy bread, pasta or rice was a huge advantage. Rather than write a menu 14+ days in advance, I just worked out 14 meals, made sure that I have enough ingredients to make them, and will cross them off the list as I use that recipe. I'm drinking more at home but probably less overall. I'm actually getting more exercise as I am running to my normal schedule but getting a 3-4 mile walk on other days (that might change as it looks like I might actually be working from home by the end of this week, the kit is due to be delivered today). As a result, my weight is steady, if not falling slightly
Pure twitter anecdata, but a tweet on Friday from a Berlin resident. I'd imagine one of the problems in giving a date for easing up is folk going gung ho in the lead up to it.
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
Having lost most of the weight, it is really a simple input and output formula - but one complicated by many other psychological and behavioral factors that you allude to. Overcome them and the motivation and benefits become more accessible.
Something like MyFitnessPal for calorie counting was useful for me. Even over a few weeks then you quickly pick up the new habits.
At the risk of sparking the controversy saying something like this inevitably does, eating less meat and animal products can clearly help some people too [hides under table]. Getting the biggest nutritional bang for your calorific buck while still having a heaping plate of food for dinner is not a bad place to be (exactly as you say, having something to chew on matters and makes you feel less deprived).
Either way this is a cracking time to start.
Absolutely agree with all of that.
(and eg I used to amaze friends (ie bore them senseless) telling them how many calories were in what foods.)
Don't disagree with any of this, but another factor is satiation. And each person has to find what combination of food types, meal times and exercise actually work for them.
Personally for me, high protein diets based on fattier meats work well, as I feel sated for longer than I would having a greater bulk of vegetables or even fruit. The two habits I formed which helped the most were walking the dogs twice a day and not eating a carb with dinner.
Its a hell of a bastard this CV. Even with the very good German response and it appears well behaved public, still very close to the crucial 1.0 number. Clear that if people let their guard down, soon be back above that.
3) They surely can't keep keep the lockdown going until/if a vaccine comes along.
If you've got Covid eliminated within your population entirely (New Zealand possibly) then you can run a full speed domestic economy for the next couple of years. If in the worst case scenario if no vaccine is developed and Covid keeps appearing in the wild in the next few years everywhere else you're going to have people banging down your door to emigrate there (Even with a long quarantine period). You become new Eden.
10 % of NZ economy comes from tourism directly and indirectly.
Blimey, that is the same as Spain. I think future generations are going to be genuinely bewildered by the amount of travelling done for frivolous reasons over the last 30 years. I very much doubt we will see it again in any of our lifetimes.
I had planned doing lots of travelling over the next 10 years having done virtually none in the last 10.
Not so sure now. Might have to do it all in my head instead.
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
In addition to that, I've found keeping a food diary is a great help. It stops you idly and mindlessly snacking (and eating more than you realise). And if you feel embarrassed at what you're putting in it, it's easy to tell yourself: well, if you don't want to write it down, don't eat it.
The other point about all the diet books out there is one you allude to. Losing weight is a bastard. It's not as easy as every foreword in all those books makes out. It takes sacrifice (minor in context!) and deprivation (ditto). It requires some discipline which can often be a factor for being overweight in the first place.
But neither am I of the "pull yourself together" persuasion. Plenty of overweight people would love to be able to lose weight but for such people (over)eating is a psychological demand reflecting other things going on in their lives from which they can take comfort with food.
Really interesting to read what works for people here.
What keeps my weight stable is a very simple policy of missing breakfast, usually a mid-morning hot drink but sometimes nil by mouth, until lunch. Lunch is usually a healthy soup, with green salad, bread, butter, cheese etc. Dinner varies, but high on healthy fats, good protein, bit of carb, big green salad, usually spinach leaves. Dessert. No snacking. Never really tempted to. Drink when I want. Two things I usually include in my diet are homemade sauerkraut (yum) and home made yoghurt. A note also needs to go to eggs.
The idea behind intermittent fasting is to give your body rest and recovery time in between bouts of digesting.
It's a mixture of intermittent fasting and a few ketogenic principles (but I do carbs). If you need a lever for the weight to go down, reduce the carbs.
It is worth considering the role of pensions in the economy if there is a massive contraction. This will reduce or wipe out pension fund assets due to company insolvencies and reduced profits. Thus defined benefit pension schemes will have large shortfalls. Their parent companies may face insolvency due to the need to make up these shortfalls,. The government may change the rules to reduce the benefits from these schemes.
Defined contribution schemes will just reduce the benefits that members will receive on retirement. One way or another, people will receive significantly smaller pensions due to the smaller economy.
That's probably true (unfortunately) and any re-configuring must include the public sector.
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
Having lost most of the weight, it is really a simple input and output formula - but one complicated by many other psychological and behavioral factors that you allude to. Overcome them and the motivation and benefits become more accessible.
Something like MyFitnessPal for calorie counting was useful for me. Even over a few weeks then you quickly pick up the new habits.
At the risk of sparking the controversy saying something like this inevitably does, eating less meat and animal products can clearly help some people too [hides under table]. Getting the biggest nutritional bang for your calorific buck while still having a heaping plate of food for dinner is not a bad place to be (exactly as you say, having something to chew on matters and makes you feel less deprived).
Either way this is a cracking time to start.
Surely you increase the nutritional density of meals by leaving out the bulk carbs. Plenty of meat and veg is what you need. Lose the potatoes.
The pearls I have cast before you previously have mostly been Italian opera, much of it light-hearted (Rossini..). Today I have two very different recommendations for you.
Today's Met opera offering is Patrice Chéreau's celebrated 2009 production Richard Strauss's searing post-romantic opera Elektra, starring the wonderful Nina Stemme. It got ecstatic reviews at the time:
On a different note, my wife and I were bowled over by the Théâtre Odéon's L’École des femmes (The School for Wivesby Molière, directed by Stéphane Braunschweig. Don't be put off: yes, most Molière productions are profoundly boring, but this is something quite exceptional. The director has managed to make this a thoroughly twenty-first century experience, and yet has remained completely faithful to the original. You can understand why the play was so controversial when it was first produced in 1662. The acting is superb, and the verse is beautifully spoken whilst remaining conversational and natural. In French, with English or French subtitles, and available to watch anytime:
Secondly, on WFH/weight loss. As with most things, routine is key. Once the novelty of wfh has worn off then routines are life savers (literally if it means avoiding snacking all day = putting on the pounds).
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
Having lost most of the weight, it is really a simple input and output formula - but one complicated by many other psychological and behavioral factors that you allude to. Overcome them and the motivation and benefits become more accessible.
Something like MyFitnessPal for calorie counting was useful for me. Even over a few weeks then you quickly pick up the new habits.
At the risk of sparking the controversy saying something like this inevitably does, eating less meat and animal products can clearly help some people too [hides under table]. Getting the biggest nutritional bang for your calorific buck while still having a heaping plate of food for dinner is not a bad place to be (exactly as you say, having something to chew on matters and makes you feel less deprived).
Either way this is a cracking time to start.
Surely you increase the nutritional density of meals by leaving out the bulk carbs. Plenty of meat and veg is what you need. Lose the potatoes.
I agree. There is no science behind giving up animal products being an aid to weight loss - the opposite is usually true.
The drink is one of the things keeping me going. I probably should switch away from beer and drink more spirits, but I *like* beer. Stopping drinking would improve my physical health at the cost of my mental health. Same with a weekly takeaway - its not just calorie goodness, its keeping a local business going.
So what needs to happen is to balance that off with exercise. As my personal lockdown started I had gotten into a routine of running 5k a day. That's slipped a little and partly switched to the bike, but I am out more days than not. The challenge now is (a) make that every day and (b) start doing indoor exercise. I am poor at press ups etc - a challenge is now set. A dozen of each a day. What else can I do?
Comments
BMI 40 is eg 17 st 10 at a height of 5'6".
In addition in the worst case scenario if no vaccine is developed and Covid keeps appearing in the wild in the next few years everywhere else you're going to have people banging down your door to emigrate there (Even with a long quarantine period). You become new Eden.
I think it is tight, I think it is close but I do not see how they can possibly be odds on.
I have friends desperately trying to persuade their parents to eat healthier and I think stronger govt messaging on this would help them out a lot.
I have found WFH difficult. Far too many snacks available. I am trying to boost my calorie output to compensate.
That may be different now that we have done it.
I wrote to my MP at the end of March asking him to try and make sure the rest of the country did not get poleaxed by metropolitan problems. I have a suspicion that that is what may have happened with cemeteries last week until the Minister stomped on it - ours were closed for one day then reopened.
“ For pensioners, something is spot-on in the state of Denmark
With most rich countries including the UK trying to figure out how to look after old people using finite resources, Denmark may offer several solutions”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/02/for-pensioners-something-is-spot-on-in-the-state-of-denmark
For my part its hard as I run good mileage over a week, don't drink, and eat well - but it's basically care and maintenance to compensate for 23 hours a day of a newly sedentary lifestyle. It's why I never understood why exercise was in the firing line at some points in this.
2) We don't quite know for sure but on current evidence it seems like nobody with a still-functioning healthcare system is anywhere near herd immunity, and neither does anyone have a coherent plan to get there. You can't really make a coherent plan until you know what the real infection rates are.
3) Taiwan isn't in lockdown, South Korea isn't in lockdown, Japan is in a very gentle voluntary version where Tokyo bars are asked to close at 8pm instead of going late into the night. We can certainly keep a version of this going for many months, and it should get easier as we get better information about how the virus spreads and how to avoid it.
4) See [2] - it's not really clear that letting COVID run its course, albeit managed so the health services aren't overwhelmed, is practical. It might be, it might not, the data is still quite patchy.
"There is no health care system that performs systematically better in delivering cost-effective health care. In fact, the efficiency estimates vary more within country groups sharing similar institutional characteristics than between groups. In other words, big-bang reforms are not warranted. Rather, it may be more practical and effective for each country to adopt the best policy practices
implemented by countries in its own group while borrowing the most appropriate elements from other groups."
http://www.oecd.org/economy/growth/46508904.pdf
Or get out on shanks' pony or a secondhand pushbike while there are 1940s levels of traffic on the roads.
A good one is to look at Youtube yoga courses.
First, thank you to @Nigelb for such a header. My thinking is that at all times hospitals are always under pressure to unblock beds and care homes are a vital outlet so it is understandable that that process continues even under today's circumstances. Is one safer than the other? Well we are seeing that the answer is perhaps but hospitals can't have people taking up beds which they need for more urgent cases.
Not sure how to square that circle, that said.
This is an intersting article, especially There are several virus diseases that are much worse in adults than in children, Mumps is a famous example. An important question is: do children who are Sars-Cov2 positive but do not transmit the diease to others build up enough antibodies to be immune from future infection when they are older?
I've gone pretty big against that, she had been crystal clear she doesn't want it. And yet... I worry...
I have always hankered to emigrate there and am kicking myself that I didn't when I had the chance a couple of years back. It wasn't really realistic - it would have meant uprooting the family and leaving behind the wider family - but I think life there would have been good.
As to weight loss in general, I could write several books on it (my "proudest" moment was when putting up 17lbs overweight for an amateurs race once, and yes it was my horse so the owner was ok with it).
Of course usually by far the biggest contributor to weight gain is alcohol. Sadly. A bottle of wine is 1,000 calories right there on top of anything else you are ingesting. Fizzy or "health" drinks are likewise toxic. Also snacking as has been mentioned.
Then there is, as has been mentioned, the snacking. Most diets work not because of some magic formula (food combining, protein, etc), but because they regulate eating which people who are overweight generally don't do. Just having three meals a day and no more is often a big reduction in calories.
Next of course exercise. My diet book would be one page - eat less and exercise more.
Finally, the key is routine but this time with what and when you eat. Take any thought out of the process because the more you think about losing weight the more you think about food and the more you think about food.
So top tips to lose weight: 1. cut out alcohol 2. set out menus (out of preference the same thing same time every day, say toast and butter in the morning and some combination of salads - lots of cabbage and cottage cheese and tomatoes and perhaps some chicken breast - for lunch and supper 3. Don't eat between meals or if you do, have something (tomatoes, celery, carrots) to chew on with very or relatively few calories which is important psychologically. 4. Do more aerobic exercise if possible to get to the point whereby you get the natural "high". It will make you happier and more motivated.
Meanwhile:
https://twitter.com/jennyhillBBC/status/1252524551130537984?s=20
Still, it would be nice if the market moved a bit towards my view. All very well being contra consensus but it does test your nerve.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1252542407285055489?s=20
"Pa, you won't believe this. We've gone and struck oil! Loads and loads of it."
"Oh fuckety fuck. We're ruined!"
"'I've had 'gastric coronavirus' for weeks - why is no one talking about this version of the virus?'
The historian and author has been suffering from 'gastro-coronavirus' for weeks, yet says little is known about this version of the virus "
11.
I genuinely missed the government deciding to ease restrictions though. Is she talking about the UK?
That would be excellent news if it could be confirmed clearly. Reopening schools (up to a certain age, dependent on the outcomes of study) would look significantly less risky for the households involved.
Another 70 old breaking the stay-at-home regulations and guidelines.
One thing we're not doing is snacking.
And our weight is lowly going down.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/31/jordan-switches-off-all-large-scale-solar/
And knowing that PBers have a habit of living in draughty off-gas mansions in the countryside :-)
https://twitter.com/mattwardman/status/1252547455415193601
Madrid death-rate 112/100k Infection rate 876/100k
Andalucia 12/100k 136/100k
Almeria - mi casa! 5/100k 64/100k
Nope. It's difficult to see who the favourite is now after @Paristonda came so close with Johnson. Maybe @rottenborough with Joe Biden.
Special snowflake alert - I need to be careful with my shoulder because I have a permanently weak collarbone, which means that simply going for harder press-up variations is not advisable.
Always playing golf and stuff. Taking holidays.
Something like MyFitnessPal for calorie counting was useful for me. Even over a few weeks then you quickly pick up the new habits.
At the risk of sparking the controversy saying something like this inevitably does, eating less meat and animal products can clearly help some people too [hides under table]. Getting the biggest nutritional bang for your calorific buck while still having a heaping plate of food for dinner is not a bad place to be (exactly as you say, having something to chew on matters and makes you feel less deprived).
Either way this is a cracking time to start.
But neither am I of the "pull yourself together" persuasion. Plenty of overweight people would love to be able to lose weight but for such people (over)eating is a psychological demand reflecting other things going on in their lives from which they can take comfort with food.
Belgium Rt still a little above 1 (eek), Italy's very low.
The hospital where my wife works in PA has been told by all the nursing homes around that if they take a patient, the patient is the hospital's for the duration. No patients at all are allowed to return to the homes after admission to hospital.
That policy also has its downside - the hospital is refusing all patients from nursing homes unless it's an emergency, regardless of their COVID status. But is does seem far better than the situation you described.
(and eg I used to amaze friends (ie bore them senseless) telling them how many calories were in what foods.)
I have been unable to comment here for several weeks , but do wish to add my condolences to those already expressed. Back in 2010 I lost my own father in circumstances which strongly suggested medical negligence at hospital related to keyhole surgery. We all have to face the painful reality of losing elderly parents who have reached a certain age , but the awareness that a death could so easily have been avoided does leave a very bitter taste in the mouth. My thoughts are with you.
Defined contribution schemes will just reduce the benefits that members will receive on retirement. One way or another, people will receive significantly smaller pensions due to the smaller economy.
https://twitter.com/gordonguthrie/status/1251194084225691648?s=20
Also, nutters everywhere. Would it be presumptuous of me to to predict which part of the German political spectrum these roasters come from?
https://twitter.com/philipoltermann/status/1251752817901154304?s=20
Personally for me, high protein diets based on fattier meats work well, as I feel sated for longer than I would having a greater bulk of vegetables or even fruit. The two habits I formed which helped the most were walking the dogs twice a day and not eating a carb with dinner.
Not so sure now. Might have to do it all in my head instead.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/isolate-isolate-isolate-chinas-approach-covid-19-quarantine/
What keeps my weight stable is a very simple policy of missing breakfast, usually a mid-morning hot drink but sometimes nil by mouth, until lunch. Lunch is usually a healthy soup, with green salad, bread, butter, cheese etc. Dinner varies, but high on healthy fats, good protein, bit of carb, big green salad, usually spinach leaves. Dessert. No snacking. Never really tempted to. Drink when I want. Two things I usually include in my diet are homemade sauerkraut (yum) and home made yoghurt. A note also needs to go to eggs.
The idea behind intermittent fasting is to give your body rest and recovery time in between bouts of digesting.
It's a mixture of intermittent fasting and a few ketogenic principles (but I do carbs). If you need a lever for the weight to go down, reduce the carbs.
The pearls I have cast before you previously have mostly been Italian opera, much of it light-hearted (Rossini..). Today I have two very different recommendations for you.
Today's Met opera offering is Patrice Chéreau's celebrated 2009 production Richard Strauss's searing post-romantic opera Elektra, starring the wonderful Nina Stemme. It got ecstatic reviews at the time:
https://metoperafree.brightcove.services/?videoId=6150398610001
On a different note, my wife and I were bowled over by the Théâtre Odéon's L’École des femmes (The School for Wivesby Molière, directed by Stéphane Braunschweig. Don't be put off: yes, most Molière productions are profoundly boring, but this is something quite exceptional. The director has managed to make this a thoroughly twenty-first century experience, and yet has remained completely faithful to the original. You can understand why the play was so controversial when it was first produced in 1662. The acting is superb, and the verse is beautifully spoken whilst remaining conversational and natural. In French, with English or French subtitles, and available to watch anytime:
https://vimeo.com/327310297
So what needs to happen is to balance that off with exercise. As my personal lockdown started I had gotten into a routine of running 5k a day. That's slipped a little and partly switched to the bike, but I am out more days than not. The challenge now is (a) make that every day and (b) start doing indoor exercise. I am poor at press ups etc - a challenge is now set. A dozen of each a day. What else can I do?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/opinion/coronavirus-testing-pneumonia.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur