Stop Dieting--Really

The Average Dieter

The most important thing in weight loss is to first ask yourself do you just want to lose pounds and inches or do you want to lose a lifestyle that promotes weight gain and health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers? If the first, you will fail. Period. Old habits reassert themselves faster than ants at a buffet. As soon as you go off whatever diet you choose, the weight will pile on and bring friends to add to your misery.

The more often you lose weight, gain it back (with extra for good measure), lose weight, gain… You get the picture. We all know the word—yo-yo dieting. It screws up your metabolism royally until one day the diets that used to work, won’t. It takes even less food to put on pounds and you start to see rising blood sugars and blood pressure. Not good signs.

What Can You Do?

Stop dieting. Honestly. Start living a life that doesn’t center on what you do and don’t eat. Most of us have heard or seen enough reports to know what constitutes healthy and unhealthy foods. Stay as close to the original food as possible. That means a baked potato instead of French fries, baked chicken and steamed vegetables instead of chicken pot pie. Not always.

You can eat processed or sugary foods about twenty percent of the day unless, like me, they trigger a binge. Then stay away from such foods until your craving for them lessens and try them again warily, watching your body’s reaction. And if you do binge, forgive yourself and start over with the healthier foods and staying away from your triggers.

More on triggers Monday.

Authors Creating Main Characters of a Different Gender

Male vs. Female

Mind you I’m not a book scholar or publisher, so this post is conjecture and personal preference. Men tend to gravitate toward certain genres such as thrillers, so I’ve read, and may not read novels written by women or so they think. A lot of popular female authors of thrillers, mysteries, and horror write under male pen names to escape reader prejudice.

J. K. Rowling writes a private investigator series as Robert Galbraith. It’s not a spoiler alert. They’ve slapped a big sticker on the front cover to advertise the fact. Brings up an interesting question—a national bestseller (England) but not yet a New York Times bestseller. Would knowing Harry Potter’s creator wrote the book drum up more sales here but not in England? Or maybe the new book has become popular enough that no one cares who wrote it.

Anyway, not usually a fan of these genres, I’m one who picked up The Cuckoo’s Calling because of J. K. Rowling’s name. Didn’t love the book but I did believe the main character as a man. I had a hard time caring about Harlan Coben’s main character, Kat, in Missing You. Something about her didn’t ring true to me as a female.

Gender Bias

I don’t think prejudice that a man wrote it played a part. It didn’t in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Joss Whedon and company wrote wonderful scripts, though to be fair, having a living female play the part gave him a leg up so to speak. Robin Cook in Death Benefit wrote the female main character as emotionally stunted and believable.

Didn’t believe Donna Tartt’s main character in The Gold Finch was male or a teenager. True, the story was told from the perspective of the character in his late twenties. Still, he remained a teenager for more than half of over 700 words, hardly a flashback.

Memorable Characters

Many characters who will never leave the readers’ consciousness were created by the opposite gender—Rhett Butler, Atticus Finch, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter—I’m sure fans could come up with hundreds of examples.

John the Baptist's Doubts

Is Jesus the One? {Matthew and Luke}

Hearing about Jesus’ ministry while in prison, John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who was to come or should we wait for another?”

Jesus said, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, leprosy is cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” After John’s disciples left, Jesus turned to the crowd. “Did you seek John to see someone swayed by popular opinions or dressed in fine clothes? No, such people live in luxury. You saw a prophet, yes, and more. He was the one written about: ‘I will send my messenger before you and he will prepare your way.’ (Malachi 3:1)

“No man greater than John has been born, yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

Personal Thought: I first believed this might mean no one is greater than another in the eyes of God, but Jesus said the least is greater, so why? I don’t know. I read someone else’s idea that this referred to the fact that those after John would have the opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit and could know Jesus in a more personal way.

Those baptized by John believed Jesus, but the Pharisees and experts in the law had not been baptized and rejected his teachings.

The People Act Like Children

Jesus said, “I compare this generation to children playing and calling out, ‘We played the flute and you didn’t dance, sang a dirge and you didn’t cry.’ John the Baptist neither ate bread nor drank wine, and you said he has a demon. The Son of Man eats and drinks and you call him a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Wisdom is proved right by all her children.”

Personal Thought: I like that last statement. Listen to people and what they’re really saying or not saying behind the words they use to get to wisdom.

College Bound

The Steps

Financial aid, major, live-in or commute, which college--it swells into an overwhelming avalanche of paperwork that can bury you. Larger colleges with more inbound students tend to have less time or inclination to be helpful except for prescribed days. If you can't attend these open enrollments, good luck.

Fill out the federal application for financial student aid no matter what your financial status--makes the process go more easily. Each school applied to receives this online and asks for any other information needed. Apply to more than one college and choose the one that best fits your academic and financial goals. How much debt are you comfortable acquiring? The quality of education is not tied to the cost of the institution.

First Decision

Were does the student want to go? If shy and introverted like my kid, a smaller community college has the ability for better one-on-one attention and the same first two year courses most colleges require, at a much reduced cost, that can be transferred to a four-year program after getting an associate's degree.

Courses

Since required courses come first, picking a specific major can wait, which is good news for most students who haven't a clue what future they want to commit to. Experiment with elective courses, free classes you can take just to see if you like the subject. In smaller colleges, apply for classes as early as possible before they fill up.

Books

Quick tip from a family friend: you can often get course books online (Amazon) for a much lower price, whether new, used, or even rented--that was a new one to me.

Oil and Gas Companies Exempted From the Law

 Getting a Straight Answer

Incidents of chemical contamination in drinking wells in PA, WY, CO, and NY have caused controversy regarding hydraulic fracturing. Some wells have blown up from the release of methane gas. There seem to be few conclusions determining if fracturing, some other industrial practice, or naturally occurring conditions caused the problems. Many state that no scientific evidence exists of problems related to fracturing.

No doubt one of the major contributing factors to not being able to answer the question of the industry’s effects on people and the environment is its exemption or exclusion from such laws as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, and others.

Exempt From the Law

Gas and oil construction activities are exempt from getting a permit for any waste water released from gas and oil exploration, production, process, or treatment operations. Except for diesel fuel, any underground injection of wastes is allowed.

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act was created to help communities prepare for emergencies due to hazardous substance spills or releases (into the air, for instance). It allows the collection of data on releases and transfers of listed toxic chemicals. Oil and gas facilities are exempt from providing this information.

Right to Know

Activities under the Mineral Leasing Act, including the exploration and extraction of natural gas, are covered by a legal finding that they have no significant impact on the human environment unless the public can prove otherwise, which obviously becomes a lot more difficult when gas and oil companies aren’t required to disclose much if any information.

Nicodemus Risks the Pharisees Wrath

Nicodemus Meets With Jesus {John}

A Pharisee named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council, went to talk to Jesus at night (probably because the Pharisees opposed Jesus and Nicodemus didn’t want to be seen). Nicodemus said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher, come from God. No one could do the miraculous things you do without God.”

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

“How can a man reenter the womb when he’s grown?”

“To enter the kingdom of God, one must be born of water and the Spirit. The wind blows as it pleases. You hear it but neither know where it comes from nor where it goes. It is the same for those born of the Spirit.”

“I don’t understand,” Nicodemus said.

Personal Thought: I’m with him. All kinds of interesting interpretations come to mind and maybe that’s the point. The Spirit works with individuals, which means individualized advice and requirements, not one collective thought. We are all part of the church, but each part has a place no other part can replace.

God So Loved the World {John}

“I speak of earthly things,” Jesus said, “and you don’t believe me. So, will you believe me when I speak of heavenly things? No one has gone into heaven except the Son of Man, who came from heaven. God loved the world enough to give His one and only Son, so that those believing in him should not die but live forever. God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save it. Believe in his name to save yourself from condemnation. Don’t believe and stand condemned.

“Light has entered the world but men loved the darkness where they could hide their evil deeds. Those living by the truth, come into the light to plainly show that what they do is done through God.”