Friday, December 29, 2017

and we will soon be off, onto a new year

As this year draws toward a close, perhaps it is time to reflect on the past. Appetite is a physical thing, and is therefore beyond the control of the brain. When we fast, or on a deducing diet, regardless of the type of diet, we are likely unsatisfied. Lower carbohydrate may reduce the dissatisfaction for some. To low of carbohydrate content also also caused physical dissatisfaction for some. The brains' desire is quite a different matter.

In the matter of brain dissatisfaction, there is remarkably little of any value written on the correction of this issue. There is some in research language, but it is either research without anything that I understand as relevant or nothing that I can apply, or just beyond my simple understanding. Sam Harris demonstrated how little free will we actually have, and the Stoics said some things are up to us and some are not. We need to be the dog tied to the cart and the cart driver at the same time. Not easy to acheive. With 2/3 of the people obese in developed nations, what does that say about the state of affairs.

A 5, 7 or 9 point true/false or truth scale is a wonderful tool to add evidence to. Each bit of evidence or lack of evidence moves the mental pointer toward or away from the central neutral point. And in the end we have a probability thing. If there is no evidence, something has a substantial probability of being wrong or false.

Critical thinking is a wonderful tool, but it has its limits. Absolutism is also dangerous. Fracking operations can destroy aquifers; the method of distraction has to do with subsurface communications, and is often more correctly identified as well casing cementing failure, casing perforations, and uncased exploratory holes than the actual fracking operations. It may be the fracking that releases the gas though.  Vaccinations are generally safe, however there are antidotes that suggest this is untrue. These are often associated with early vaccinations, and that may be the real danger. Introducing chemicals before the brain has formed may be the cause of autism, as autism is a brain structural issue. There are no studies that show no damage from too early of vaccinations. These two examples are often used by promoters of critical thinking but are aborted by absolutism.

The global warming, over world population are real, but we may get a reprieve on the critical nature by a mini ice-age due to solar cycles. Anyone who does not accept climate change is not dealing with the truth. Trump may wish to ignore reality and try to reap the profits rather than deal with the problem, but this will severely bite the US in the future. We say this with Hunter Harrison reaping the profits on the CP and CN rail lines, and the subsequent rebuilding required.

        

Monday, December 25, 2017

and a merry christmas to all

Just to wish you a merry christmas, happy new year, and/or what ever you celebrate this time of year. We have passed the solstice, the days are getting longer, spring will come, and life is good.

Several blogs have there best book of the year reviews out, but I will simply list the book that had the most impact on my life this year: Donald Robertson; The Pphilosophy of Cognitive - Behavorial Therapy.

During the reading of this book it became clear to me that all religion are just the sum of the past beliefs, and the sum of the decisions of those who are dead. The book does not suggest this, but it was during my reading of this that that obvious belief came to me. It points out so many historical sources of concepts; I had to look up a few of these in more detail. It clears away some more wrong beliefs. It became clear that all religions just fill up time with useless fiction. It is that displacement of time that has value to we humans who live in a time of excess, when all of our time is not used to obtain what we need for survival. Our mental time exceeds our physical time. Full stop. What? When we run out of physical energy, we still have mental energy left. Exhausted physically, but mentally aware, we need something to think about. Religion provides that, as does reality, or anything else. Religion took a run at teaching, but the subject matter is no longer of value as it has not been upgraded. Oh well, religions could be studied as historical myth systems. Anthropologist like studies in some cases.

Going forward from here, reality is all that matters.

After knowing what food one should eat, and what to avoid, and approximate quantities, the issues of doing that remain. And then there is all the other time that must be used. Retirement has freed up much time, as has letting go of the time sucking concepts of religion. Now that I understand what time sucks religions and religious thinking is. Now I have time, and little interests to fill that time. And limited physical ability, motivation, desire, energy, what ever is really short in the process of turning it into action or time filling pursuits that are driven. Action with no utility, beyond burning time, just does not cut it much.

The concept of time burning utility-less activity just does not appeal to me much. Understanding one more thing, say the evaluation of Eulers constant e, or wau, F, is just not moving me much. I spent much of my working life evaluating physical properties, some of which are system properties that change as a function of time, moisture content, stress history, structure development, chemical cementing, and all those weird and wonderful thing that happen in one off design and construction or geology formations. I have dealt with many theories that in reality are so wrong. Like pavement modulus, which is not a soils property but a system property. The equations need a constant pavement modulus, when in reality the value is space-time-rate dependent variable. In Engineering, everything needs to be reduced to simple usefulness, and simple enough that understanding all the inputs is not required.

We see "engineering design" utilizing programs that the designer does not understand how it works, but has nice input and output forms; some have crap models hiding inside, but nobody cares. It is quick and simple, and sort of works, except when it does not, and then much of the time it was close enough anyway. There was no longer any satisfaction in the engineering, it was just about making money. It is all done with, now, for me anyway. It is time to go forward into something new... or old.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

In search of dopamine

In search of dopamine

Is all overeating beyond that to remove acute hunger actually a response to a biochemical desire for more dopamine?

That is what Lustic's book, Hacking of the (Yanky) Mind suggests. Well, it implies that, with a few twists. It is the biochemical reactions that drive feelings, the chemistry leads the thought, or the feeling, or releases the eating machine. It does not take much food to take away acute hunger, but it takes a great deal more, too much, to stop the eating machinery. That is the problem. It is the drive for dopamine that must be satisfied. At the same time, serotonin must also be replaced. Stress of any kind causes cortisol to be released, and that is a dopamine antagonist and a serotonin antagonist.

So you or anyone can believe any kind of odd shit you like, and do what ever bat shit you like, but that is not my concern... well it should not be. But yet it bothers me to see people who obviously believe something that is wrong... and are not willing to examine their beliefs. It is non of my business, yet it bothers me. There is one absolute right; all else is wrong, is a belief that I have that is likely correct, yet so many do not believe that either. The society we (I) live in is essentially Orwellian, they believe what they are being told by the groundnut, or the "authorities have jurisdiction", politicians, or religious leaders. There are those of us who have examined the beliefs, and have different views, but... little influence. Society changes one mind at a time. We are on the verge of a major change, in the next half century or so.  

So you have the right to believe garbage. That is your right, and I struggle with that, and I must give up that desire to correct others. It is like arguing with some idiot on the internet, that does not want to know the truth. Why should I care? Even when they are family. I need to get on with my life, right or wrong. Family will just need to resolve their own issues.

  

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Truthisms or trueisms

Truthisms are statement that are true or sort of true, but are found lacking in some respect. an example may be the typical 'existence of gods', that is to say the believer thinks it is true, but when one goes through the logic, using evidence as the basis, it cannot be true unless god is just a concept, an idea, or the result of free floating rationales. This is not the result that the religious want, so they often apply a "beyond space and time" line, which upon inspection, leaves just concepts, or the environment that only concepts occupy. Oh well. It is just a truthism.

One more is the "to lose weight, eat less and move more". Which in the long run may be mathematically correct but it is useless in the application. It ignores the fact that we animals are biochemically driven with little actual free will. But the medical field is what it is, a knowledge industry that only has some of the answers, there is much that they do not know.

Another trueism is to make money buy at low price and sell at high. Anyone who has tried to apply this to something like farming know that survival is often just luck, along with doing the right thing some of the time. Doing the right thing does not result in success some of the time.

Of late we have seen the opioid issues and all those who become addicted due to pain medication, and then the medical profession lays the blame on those biochemical units that do not use as directed, not accepting that we have little free will. We may also need help with addiction recovery, especially when we have been addicted in the past. Use as directed is a medical trueism, and should be seen as one. The drug companies, both domestic and foreign, are making money off  these synthetic opioids, and are over promoting there use. We humans cannot live pain free, or pain reduced. We must suffer, especially at the hands of the medical industry, if we wish to abuse ourselves, and remain active. It is the over promotion of  these youth forever concepts that cause many of our problems.

My father always cautioned many around him to be cautions with our bodies, but nobody listened. He managed to walk to the end, but not too much, and all those around him suffered in old age with hip problems, as had his ancestors, and most of my ancestors on both sides. What change do I have?

A life of chronic pain is what many of us have. In my case, first psychological chronic pain, later back and now hip. Chronic pain is just chronic pain, regardless of the cause. Not being able to deal with a irrational situation in youth is not much different than as a senior. There is no solution, other that just ignoring it, as best as we can. Life is suffering until death. Oh well, in the end we just die anyways.
 

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

GMO

Generally considered as safe is one of the GMO issues. It has GCAS has history; every new cross breed plant through history has been treated as such. It has been considered safe until proven otherwise.

GCAS is questionable process when we start gene splicing and the like. We humans are being used as lab rats, unknowing that we are being used as lab rats. If we are going to consider consent, informed consent, qualified for consent, able to provide consent, etc, GMO must be labeled so that we may choose. It a drunk adult is unable to provide consent, then the uninformed is also unable to consent. If we are going to worry about the ability of a wined up lady's ability to consent, then we also must worry about hidden dangers in the food supply and GMO labeling.

GMO were toughed as increasing yields, but I have not seen any evidence of that. I have seen evidence of tougher life for farmers, but now they need big acres to succeed or fail. Small part time operations just do not work. It is now apparent that food and/or water will not be the limit to human population, the ability of the earth to handle Co2 is. End a sentence with a verb, OK. This means that small subsistence farms, and seasonal employment may be the way to go, but what do I know?

Some of the GMO products have been health concerns. There was the South African corn with spider gene spliced it that killed off the heavy eaters of the corn, the poor laborers that mainly ate corn did not live to to see the second crop due to neurological issues. The farmers has no labors to put in a second crop. OH well. Then there was the cotton stubble that was toxic to cows, they could not carry calf's to term if they grazed on stubble. All of course unproven. The evidence is not conclusive, the chemical analysis has not been done to prove, but the products were withdrawn. No proof, no liability. No money to prove is just reality.

So labeling get out of the lab rat, no informed consent issue, and product withdraw of seriously flawed products is all fine. What about the current wheat issue with the product being good for growing, but the product has food addiction issues, as it contains opioid peptides?




   

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Primer on Sugar

http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2017/11/sugar-vs-carbohydrate-whats-the-difference/
 
copied so it does not disappear 

Sugar vs Carbohydrate – what’s the difference?

The story for this week was inspired by a tweet by someone with whom I’ve written a couple of academic papers: Dr James DiNicolantonio. James tweeted about his latest paper, published in BMJ Open Heart (Ref 1), but it was the graphic in the tweet that caught my eye. The graphic was a representation of the amount of sugar in a number of different foods, but with the sugar content represented as cubes of sugar.
The bottom left hand corner of the graphic reported the source as “Leo Delauncey/MailOnline”, but the picture had no label to describe exactly what was being illustrated. It made me wonder – is that added sugar, free sugars, or carbohydrate? What’s the difference anyway? This proved to be a really enlightening issue to explore.
We need to start with a quick description of carbohydrates (you will soon start to wonder what’s the difference between sugar and carbohydrates). Then we need to sort out sugar, added sugar, free sugars etc and then we will be able to answer the question: what are the sugar cubes supposed to represent and are they a fair reflection of the actual sugar content of each food shown?
What are carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates can be divided into three categories: monosaccharides; disaccharides and polysaccharides. Saccharide comes from a Greek word meaning sugar. Mono means one; di means two and poly means many, so...
Monosaccharide means one sugar. The three most common monosaccharides are:
-  Glucose (found commonly in fruit and grains);
-  Fructose (found commonly in fruit);
-  Galactose (found commonly in milk).
Disaccharide means two sugars. The three most common disaccharides are:
-  Sucrose (one molecule of glucose and one of fructose) – what we know as table sugar;
-  Lactose (one molecule of glucose and one of galactose) – what we know as milk sugar;
-  Maltose (two molecules of glucose) – less well known as malt sugar.
Polysaccharide means many sugars. Polysaccharides come in digestible and indigestible forms. The digestible forms of polysaccharides are:
-  Glycogen. This is the form in which animals (including humans) store energy – in the liver and muscles in the body. Glycogen is made up of thousands of glucose molecules.
-  Starch. This is the form in which plants store energy – as in grains, pulses, potatoes and root vegetables. Starch is made up of thousands of glucose molecules.
The indigestible forms of polysaccharides are collectively called fibre. Fibre contains sugars linked by bonds, which cannot be broken down by human enzymes, and are therefore deemed indigestible. There are two forms of fibre:
1) Insoluble fibre (which does not dissolve in water). This includes cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Cellulose can be found in whole-wheat flour, bran, and vegetables. Hemicellulose can be found in bran and whole grains. Lignin is a woody fibre found in wheat bran and the seeds of fruits and vegetables;
2) Soluble fibre (which dissolves, or swells, in water). This includes pectins, mucilages, and gums. These substances are not broken down by human enzymes, but instead can be fermented by bacteria in the large intestine. Pectin can be found in apples, strawberries and carrots. (Because it absorbs water and forms a gel, it is often used in jams and jellies). Mucilages and gums are similar in structure. Sources of gums include oats, legumes (beans, peas), guar and barley.
The key fact to remember is that, during digestion, all carbohydrates need to be broken down into monosaccharides (simple sugars) to be absorbed. This means that all digestible carbohydrate either is, or breaks down into, sugar.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Doomed.

We humans have a problem; we have become addicted to our food supply. Trace chemicals may not be the cause, it may be higher carbon dioxides cause higher amount of carbohydrate to be fixed in grains, and plant starches, and the concentration is high enough that we have become addicted to sugar or fructose more likely, that gives us a dopamine rush and that is what we are addicted to. It may be that it is trace chemicals effecting the endorphin reward paths, opioid censors, or adrenaline censors. Either way, to survive, some of must learn to kick the food habit... again.   So I will light a candle to ease my future passing.

Friday I ran into an old fellow now, someone who "had a piece" of the same company as I for for many years, but I left before he did. I did come back for "contracts" later, and for a while as an employee, but the fun was gone. The industry changed, and it was no longer fun. We are both retired, and bored... well not bored, not interested in doing much, even disinterested in life's pleasures, or the like. For some of us retirement is not a good thing, but we could not continue on either. Most of our cohort have died off already, and but we are young for seniors. I just do not want to sit around and talk to other seniors about the old days. I need to do something but I hurt in so many places... and do not want to do anything that is going to make the pain worse... I can understand those that become addicted to opioid pain medications, then take to street drugs, when the legal but addicting supply runs out. Damn drug companies and medical industry... for ever starting the thought, belief... that so many have... that we can be pain free in life. Another false belief to let go of... end sentence with a proposition, just because that is the way I think. We all just die in the end anyway.

So on with the remainder of my life, and to understand and perhaps beat this food addiction... perhaps a worthy pursuit. Sugar, primarily fructose, is addicting... we have it in abundance now. That is the two essentials of addiction, addicting and available at a price. When it is affordable... cheap, it just becomes a problem. That is one, but there is a second... opioid addiction, from the grain and dairy, or perhaps we became addicted to opioid otherwise, and then the wheat and dairy provided a trace... I am not sure. It may be multiple factors. So the plans are obvious... abstinence. Get off and stay off.

Obvious like the sun going around the earth, or the moon going around the earth. Why one without the other? Oh well, some thing are just wrong.

So overeating is just a mental thing, driven by biochemistry. It is up to the logical part of us to stop it. Until we stop, we will be unable to stop. And it is everywhere. Taper down and avoid like the plague. again.









   

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Diabetes Unpacked

by Prof Tim Noakes and Jason Fung MD

I have started to read this book. So far, it has been a updating of everything that I believe to be true, but it is good to see these things in print. 

Monday, October 30, 2017

Craving Change

I completed the Craving Change workshop that has been put on by Primary Care, where the dietician suggested much good stuff, but never really addressed cravings like I have. There were some thinking models, all of which are incomplete. It was a reminder of how fucked up our current culture is, and how far I have regressed from our current culture in my thinking about food.

She introduced a concentric circle model of the reasons for eating, but I think it is correct, but not in the correct order. The primary is energy, but out from that should be a biochemical ring, for those that eat because of excess insulin, lack of leptin signaling, recalling that high insulin blocks leptin signaling, and therefore lower carbohydrate, therefore lower insulin is required for weight loss.

The next should involve a change in thinking, a change in beliefs, to some form of eating small three or four times in the day, regardless of hunger. This change in beliefs, and subsequent required action is the portion that I have been struggling with these last years, with attached weight gain. This was totally absent from the model.

Along with the foregoing, there is a related biochemical ring, that of the cortisol, serotonin, dopamine struggle going on in the brain. Cortisol and excitement drive eating, as does dopamine. Too much brain stimulus... drive both ends of the three brain chemical dance, only satisfaction and contentment, aka not struggling is neutral in the drive to eat. Anything we do drives eating, it is the absence of effort that must accompany sustained weight loss. That is not made clear. Taking on weight loss as a job is fine for weight loss and regain cycle; that is what is promoted. There is little psychological information available about life between the cycles of loss/gain. That is what is missing from society, as it exists today. I am only concerned with this life today, that is all we have.

Outside those rings are environment, emotional, social, availability, issue rings. Food addiction, and behavioral addiction to eating are not considered, yet we know that these are real and often the driving force in overeating. These mask learned behaviors that forced epicgenetic changes, reinforcing the driving of overeating. Staying away from food pushers is easier than resistance in their presence. That explains much of the problem.

The solution is understanding the problem and changing my core beliefs to something else from what society has trained into me. Many foods are poisons. Food pushers must be avoided. Do not take to much food. I need more carbs than the LCHF people to avoid the chemical/liver craving, but not many.
     

Thursday, October 19, 2017

I feel a change coming on

Changes are coming. To what, I am not sure. But an early part of any change is letting go of the past behavior/ actions, and perhaps doing something else.

Cognitive therapy, as describe has three loci: thinking, behavior, and emotions. Yet when I look at my cognitive process in meditation, there are four parts: thinking, behavior, emotions, and beliefs. Attach the body and we have the Buddhist five aggregates. Cognitive therapy ignores beliefs, yet that is the easiest to change, the fastest to change, and perhaps the most unforgiving part of the thinking processes. When I adopted the belief that wheat has no place in the human diet, wheat and wheat products stopped being part of my diet, yet I still find I consume wheat as a filler in sausages, or did. Yet no wheat is a belief, not just thinking. Beliefs are thoughts that we do not question, they are givens, and are not yielding to pressure the same way a thought is. Perhaps this is a distinction without a difference, or not. But there is a distinction, for when eating something is considered to be not even possible, the problem just goes away.

Some retired persons can simply go home, sit down and do nothing, watch TV etc. Spend no money, and be happy doing nothing. Not I. I need thing to do, things to think about, places to go, and the like. I do not need other people much; they are just drags on my freedom. I cannot express many things without creating offense, so I keep silence, and just go away. I like to be right, and know that I am right, more or less. But I need to be active at something that I enjoy, or at least can tolerate. There are many things that I do not like, and other things that I cannot do because of interference from others, who shall not be named, but she who must be obeyed.

Opinions as these are not popular, but once we have them, what do we do? The world is overpopulated when we use Co2 level as a guideline. This guideline influences how I feel about the third world, and the US. The logic is indisputable, as is there is absolutely no evidence of any god, but masses of evidence that people have long held a "belief of god(s)".

Pushing of gods and/or religion onto seniors seems to be in fashion at all the local seniors centers. I just find such behavior to senior abusive.

But if we consider the senior abuse line, they listen but do nothing, as in the case of my brother in law. The natives harasser him, but the RCMP will do nothing. I offered to let him live here, but he does not want to leave the town. He did put his house up for sale, but the town has become native, and is a dyeing Saskatchewan small town, so sale will be slow. Oh well, he is of the wife's family and was among the "comes with."  The town has lots for sale for 100$ if you are willing to build within one year. His old house is just that, old, but functioning. He has stopped paying taxes also, because the natives are getting is money first, but he is unable to say no to the beggars/harassers. Oh well, it is his life.

So here is the coming change perhaps:

If obesity is largely psychological, and we are being influenced by opioid peptides in food, are the cravings that I feel just the driving force of opioid addiction, and the hunger of not eating just normal hunger from not eating? So I am left with two driving forces, hunger and opioid addiction.

So opioid peptides in food are from wheat, dairy products. Ground meat products often contain both milk proteins and wheat filler. So then I am left with solid meat and vegetables as before.

I know this to be true, but am as yet unsure how to apply it unless I am gone from home most of the time. I cannot not eat and sit at home, but I have little choice but to sit at home. My right hip is in too bad of condition to just walk, and archer is OK for a few hours, but that is the extent of my pain endurance. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.



 

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Let the dervishes whirl

Societal Change

Is it a process or does it just evolve? The internet has grown, first by a plan, and then it was set free with many people adding to the system, without much control... just like well, a weed, but it has purpose and use and value; yet there is much bullshit masquerading as real and valuable. But the growth rate is far faster than societal change, yet these two are so similar.

When we start to analysis the content, we immediately see in both, the width of the "bullshit bands", for the lack of a better way to describe the volume of false and questionable information, flowing in both systems. Bullshit has now a definition; stuff that nobody cares if it is truthful or not, just about the volume. Loud and big, bold, and runs over reality and truth.

Ultimately, it is all about cleaning the garbage from our minds. Obesity is about wrong beliefs about what should be eaten an why. It is also about eating less than our physical body demands. Recovery is all about learning how to reach satiation, with less food than we would like. It is learning to starve ourselves down to "normal" weight, and maintaining that biochemical state, not allowing enough food to enter the body as the body would like, while knowing that usually the biochemistry wins. But all those who think it is personal choice please leave the building and fuck off forever. We are just responding to the biochemistry, and if your biochemistry does not have this problem, you have no right to criticize those of us who have over excited hormones. The biochemistry always wins.

Within society there is wrong information, and finding and removing that information is a big part of life growth. Religion is all wrong, as it is based on a wrong concept. So what is to be believed? Politics is questionable, sports... well it is entertainment and a bit of "professional",aka, they make money off it, and then there is the recreational exercise... which we all need exercise... if we do not get it at work. But when the pain starts, it screws everything.

Society needs to change, one person at a time. It is us that must change, and let the world flail about. But what is society, and what is entertainment business profit driven promotion, all above society, but not really part of society? and what of those people caught in the spin of the political / marketing business machinery, entertainment creation bullshit generation machine? Let the dervishes whirl overhead.

Friday, October 13, 2017

Obesity is a psychological problem

If I were to eat only 1800 calories a day, I would not have a weight problem, but since I am unable to do that, it is a psychological problem. Could it be any more clear?

We have scales and good data as to caloric density on every package.

But the medical industry as not figured out how to fund the treatment of psychological issues, beyond those who have some form of insurance, and have no clear and simple treatment that can be demonstrated to work. Cognitive therapy shows the most promise, but what is the correct point of view? How much help is a mentally fucked up councilor? How few councilors are not fucked up? Have I ever met one? No.

Primary Care says cravings are caused by emotions. But the craving can arise directly from the situation, what ever that is. So when I walk by the refrigerator, I want to eat, when I see food, I want to eat, when it is breakfast time, lunch time, supper time, TV commercials, and whatever, I want to eat. McDonalds, Tim Hortons and  the like do not effect me in this way as they do not serve real food. As the French say, as comes the food, comes the appetite, or something like that.

So the whole thing is about not responding to my cravings, which are now the first and only reaction I have from many situations.

But I need to starve to lose weight, or should that loose weight because we do not want it to be so tight. Yet primary care says do not starve, because it damage the metabolism, but it does what it needs to do. So they are unwilling to recommend the only thing that works because it also does damage.

But when we realize that overeating is a psychological problem, does that change the emphasis and provide a different solution?

I spent the first 26 years of my life hunting for food, always finding excess. It was that natural food hunter in me that created the problem. I was on diets most of that time between, and by that time I had done 5 or six deep gain/lose cycles... most of a hundred pounds each time. I had no knowledge about how to eat right. That knowledge is not publicly available even yet, from the authorities. Some of us have figured out what is more likely to be correct, but the public authorities have issue with our plan, and it does not consistently work well, and is difficult for some to adhere to.  

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Oh, really

Leduc Primary Care, whatever they are called, is putting on the Craving Change series again. I am attending, with the hope that I can pick up on something that I have missed, elsewhere, along the way in my studying this issue.

So the dietitian claimed the hunter gathers hunted dinosaurs...

She seemed claimed that when food was short, we put on weight, and while food was plentiful we lost weight. Perhaps she was trying to to say our bodies are more efficient when food is short, and less efficient when food is plentiful, which is even a stretch. After time, perhaps this is true, but that has nothing to do with cravings.

Their ultimate claim, so far, is that emotions cause cravings, and if we remove the emotion... by dealing with it the craving will not bother us.

But cravings can also be generated by... well... biochemistry, and a craving can be just a craving, just as hunger can be generated prematurely. So some of us must learn to live with hunger, and cravings, while not eating.  

Monday, October 9, 2017

Maintaining Serotonin

Maintaining Serotonin

So how does one maintain a sufficient and adequate level of serotonin to stay in a satisfied and contented state of mind? The government and industry does not want that, it kills the intensive to buy products which kills the economy. It would be disastrous to get all of the people into that state, but I, as an individual will have little effect on the economy. I am already cheep. So we each, as individuals, are into this "on our own", there is no help.

It is serotonin that keeps us in control, when it come to spending, and eating. That may be the key, according to Lustig and reason. 

Friday, October 6, 2017

Public Wrong Concepts

Free Will, is it real or imaginary? Sam Harris says we have little free will, as demonstrated by testing.

Two thirds of the population is overweight. Do they want to be, do not care, or have no free will? Or is it all chemical addiction... to our current foods?

The Stoics say we have control over our aversions and desires, while the Buddhist in non-self, five aggregates say we do not have control over our desires and aversions, only influences. Yet others Stoics say that if we do not resists, our desires will drag us down and pen us into styes, like pigs or wolves. That does not sound like control.

So it is likely that we only have influence over our desires and aversions, yet when we are going with our desires, life is easy; while when we are resisting our actual desires, life is a struggle. Kinda like riding a bicycle in a stiff wind. The trick is to get our desires to align with our rational plan. That is the problem. Our emotional desires often do not align with our rational plan. We have only influence over this, even though our ego says we have control, or we would like to believe we have control. To make matters worse, some may have control, and some may not. Perhaps control is a learned skill that some have and others do not. We may not be the same, some may have more control than others, or not, they may just believe they do because there desires match their reality better. Who really knows? Perhaps Sam Harris is right. It is all fixed by biochemistry. We have no choice.

We live along the lines our desires direct us down. We are guided in our decisions by our skills and desires. We are either successful or not. but we are directed forward... by our internal drive controlled by our desire, possible modified by our logical mind, perhaps not. So how would we need to live and develop this skill? 

First we need to remove the illusion of control... fiction. Is it our diet of fiction that is fucking with our minds. Electronic media, and the fiction content of all such programming...is that what is pushing desires off course? I expect there is a relationship between the amount of fiction in our lives and our overeating. Is it like the dog tied to the cart, being dragged along, where the cart goes.

Lustig makes it clear that contentment is what we need, which come from success, producing serotonin. Anxiety and cortisol, or pleasure and dopamine; both sets are antagonist of the central position of contentment. That is the problem in general, we are trying to stay on what has become a narrow ledge, where contentment was once a wide plateau. It is tough to walk on just the line.  Now the doing is the tough part.

Added:
Lustic new book,  Mind Hacking makes clear the three mind 'states' , dopamine, serotonin, cortisol... well those are really the hormones controlling, but all things do not work the same in all states. Free will, and the control of the rational mind are reduced in the dopamine and cortisol rich stages; so we need to be in the serotonin stage to effect appetite control. Duh. What did I just say?

To have appetite control, we need to have our mind bathed in serotonin. This is the contentment, satisfied, stoic joy, endaimonia state of mind. So the trick is to maintain that state of mind under life conditions. I have never lived nor worked in such a state of mind. I would get nothing done. Oh well, I am retired now.  
 

Monday, September 25, 2017

Is overeating a form of mental illness?

Is overeating a form of mental illness?

I have no answer other than probably? It is a behavior driven by something, and that something does not appear to be physical, at least most of the time. In taking this problem apart, it could be mental, physical, environmental, or conditioned into our automatic responses, which should be able to be overridden with mental effort.

There is enough to demonstrate that some is physical, some is food knowledge, some environmental, but the big portion is just us and our mental issues, if we are actively searching for a solution. There are those too, which do not care or have just given up, and are resolved to relax, just as they are. 

There is no doubt, in my mind, that overeating is conditioned in response to stimulus. That stimulus includes placing our body in front of food, even seeing eatable food, perhaps TV food adds, perhaps even knowing that there is eatable food in the refrigerator... all stimulus. Thinking or talking about food, even writing this is a stimulus. Our conditioned response is to eat. Does that not describe mental illness???? 

So now that I have declared this to be mental illness, is there anything more know about the treatment? Well not much. From Lustig's work we know it is a shortage of serotonin, too much dopamine, cortisol, or a receptor problem... maybe or something else.

In my youth, overeating became a rational solution to the problem, maybe. It was rational to the child mind at least. Once that has become a conditioned response... to any stimulus... now what. Any kind of a aggravation, irritation, irrational person, and my automatic response was to eat, anything would do. So how does one overcome such a deeply conditioned response when we (I) live in such an irrational world?   First, there is no medical help.  This is not a recognized DSM V problem, there is no mental treatments.

There are few psychologists that offer treatment for eating disorders; one that does is a cousin of mine, she appears physically to have overcome her food issues; however, she is a nut bag in other facets of her life. Her thinking system is just not compatible with my reality.

During my working life I did what was necessary to make a living most of the time, then for a while I only took projects for selected good clients. I go through my working life, but then... I retired and regressed. Now I need to make changes again. It does not matter, in the end we all just die anyway.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Statins and Sucide

Opinion, not advice.

Doc wanted me to go on statins, so I took another good look at the data. So what does it really show?

"So I have a thirty percent chance of dyeing in the next ten years."
What are the odds on statins?
"Well you should be on statins!"

First off there is a problem with the total numbers treated in the study. It seem that there are quite a few people who start but stop quickly. The study's seem to just cross these of as non compliant. Yet I here there are some that statins just do not agree with; instant muscle pain, other discomforts. They make a quality of life decisions, live without statins until death. Possibly quicker, or shorter life, but by how much, nobody knows. Well one study show days more. Days, not weeks.

Then there is the suicide rate; three times higher on statins, and the doctor says there is no causal link and eliminate the suicide deaths on the all cause deaths. So it becomes all cause but suicide. Bullshit. Suicide is a quality of life subjective decision. There were more people who felt there life was poor, not worth leaving on statins. So what is the issue? Muscle pain, loss of strength, actual muscle cell death, there is no reasonable recover from that. Well the statin folks want to eliminate them from the study. If included, the sales pitch data tanks.

So when one adds back the dropped out, and suicides, there is no benefit; it appears to be better to stay off statins. Even if one was to try them and stop if there are quick side effects, the benefit is not there... unless one had family history or real history. So where does that leave us /me?

Doctors and preachers are two of the oldest professions, along with robbin, looting, or the legal equivalent, soldiering. So after we realize that truth in the professions are less that virtuous, it is up to the doctors to provide studies to show benefit, else I call bullshit. Just like religion; provide evidence of a god or fo. Proof of a long history in a belief of a god just does not cut it. 

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Lustig

I can't get me no satisfaction,
I gotta have me more satisfaction, more serotonin.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Dr. R Lustig, a new book

So now we are progressing down the understanding why it is so difficult to stay on a diet long term.
https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-American-Mind-Corporate-Takeover/dp/1101982586

Dopamine. Serotonin. Insulin. And Others.

So we humans, long term, need a environment that causes us humans to generate more serotonin. OK. Serotonin is the contentment hormone.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Do Churches Care about people

https://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/206235/Graves-to-move-for-condo
Now consider Carlton, Sask, or Greencourt, Ab, or Mayerthorpe, Ab, and those are just the ones that I know personally. The churches are just happy to walk away from the places that they burried the dead. Now let us take a better look at churches. First I will not say they are evil but I know they are. Lets divide up the instructions in the bible and see if the instruction does more good for the person or the church... and the church is what it is all about.

We are born without any knowledge, and we grow up searching for knowledge. Much of what we learn as children is just wrong, but we do not realize this... until we do. We are forced to unlearn, and learn something else, but that to may be wrong. So we learn to test, and find much is just assumption, truth is just a concept. Now what? There is no god, death is final. Many people have developed systems of beliefs, but morality can only be based on the present best practices. Keeping useless people alive is not moral by an objective standard if we include economy, or even just value in society, in an overpopulated world that we live in.

Honor our mother and father is a misleading commandment when our parents were wrong, cruel, abusive by the standards of present, but not far out of line by the standards of there time. So who does their beliefs benefit? Only the church. Those who wrote the bible knew a lot of psychology, or at least what worked, train them young and they will follow; they never learned the seven step of critical thinking; and when we do we call bullshit on religion. Religion is not just evil, but cruel, abusive, deceitful, infliction on the world. All religion should be eliminated and replaced with science and religion. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. A bible burning, roast wieners, or something.    

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Irma beats Cuba

Irma must be beating Cuba and the press has not said a word. Images of Irma show the eye just off the north coast of Cuba, and have for the last day, but not one word in the press. US controlled media have ignored the situation. So what is the situation in Cuba? It must be severe. 

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Zuckers!! - Protein vs Atmosphere Co2

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-4757332/Protein-risk-millions-rising-CO2-emissions--study.html

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v510/n7503/full/nature13179.html?foxtrotcallback=true

http://www.ndtv.com/food/rise-in-carbon-dioxide-may-trigger-protein-deficiency-in-18-countries-harvard-1732354

https://www.wionews.com/world/global-warming-reduces-protein-in-key-crops-study-18491

So the rising Co2 in the future will cause less protein in the food, but is this true in the past as well?

Is the rise of Co2 a root factor in the obesity epidemic? And then we can grow protein, but which protein?

Is this an answer, or just more noise?

In 1950 Co2 was at 280ppm, winters were cold here, snow was deep, and hogs could be raised on the local barley. By 1960, Co2 was at 315ppm, and hogs need concentrate, iron supplements, antibiotics, and other supplements to survive on barley. We blamed chemical fertilizer for the increase in carbohydrate and reduction of protein in the grain. But was it the Co2 effect? Now we are at 400+ ppm, and we have an obesity epidemic. Are these just Co2 rise effects?
 




Saturday, July 22, 2017

Zucker Problems

The Zucker rat is a genetically altered and/or selectively bread rat that overeats and becomes fat, without exception. It was reportedly developed for obesity and hypertension research, or at least selected for such research. Now what about us humans who seem to be unable to stop eating? Are we just like the Zucker rat, and have not enough will power to overcome the environmental supply of rich ready foods?

In historical days, most food had to be cooked before they could safely be eaten, and this limited our ability to graze on carbohydrate rich foods. Then came refrigeration, low cost sugar, mass produced cheap food products, and the problem came to the poor; the middle classes developed; now we have a full blown problem without the former physical controls. We are now 100% dependent on individual willpower and food knowledge. Carbohydrates should be fall back foods, not staples. Well, manufactured sugars for sure, should not be consumed by most of the adult population. Sugary foods should not be used as soothers of feeling replacements.

We humans are nasty to each other. We all are too sensitive, and we have too high expectations of each other. Philosophy says we should have compassion and consideration for others, preach peace, practice love, and all learn to get along with each other. We all need each other to a point, then we are too many. Stoics say we should live naturally, and practice virtues. Religions teach falsehoods, and not teach how to get along with nastys, deadbeats, abusers, uncaring and the scum of the earth. We need to learn that, and learn how to deal with those people in our lives who display those characteristics, even when they are parents, other family, guardians, teachers, peers, mates, and the like. Many of us just become nastys as that is what we mostly see, and do not know what we should be like. Many of us learned to eat rather than deal with the people. Now we need to learn to deal with the ignorant, unthinking and nastys.  Nasty people get nasty responses, silence maybe the best response.

Compassion with people who have not learned to be nice is all fine to say, but what about when they are obviously in the wrong. It is not just we are in conflict, but they are logically wrong. Not just my biases, but they are wrong, and happy, unwilling to change? Why should it bother me? Oh well, we just live until we die, and now there are too many humans.

Our ability to not be impacted by negative, and nasty people must be increased to the point we are not driven to seek food as relief. High insulin and high blood sugar are natural sedatives; so did I recognize this and start self medicating, or was the food response coached in; was it a recognition that food would make me larger, I just do not know. Memories abound; what is true and which are false, I have no clue. If it is a true memory, some of it must have indeed happened. Now I need to be able to deal with the nasty and negatives. Avoidance only goes so far.   



   

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Baises and eating

We tend to eat as we always have eaten, we ate pulled to it as a strong habit, an epicgenetic drive and a genetic drive with no satiation switch. We are the overeaters, regardless of the actual cause. Perhaps we are not busy enough. When we have no time to eat, it is easier perhaps to stay on a diet, or when there is no food to eat. We have refrigeration, and freezing as methods of preserving. We have supply side control of many products. There are no shortages of food. It is always in our faces. There is no escape.

The only solution is to be able to say no, and mean it, and to live it. That is the problem, the continual pressure to eat in excess, and the genetic drive. In addition, many of us were taught to reach for food first before feeling. That is just one more aspect that drives us toward food.

Our family relationships may also be an issue. The flying fish hook in the face, no more fishing for my own safety, with that person. Also the wild driver, and no letting her drive if I am in the vehicle. Then there is the continual negative outflow of verbal crap, just stop listening, stop caring, and avoid as much as is practical. There is the religious evangelizer, who does not stop, even though I have repeatedly said I am an atheist, there is no god, no supernatural, no after life. You are just living in your dreams. The only thing atheist have in common is a clear knowledge that there is no god and no supernatural, although we tend to be more reasoned. Keeping quite and letting the dervishes whirl becomes a way of life.

In overcoming overeating, we need to learn how to eat properly, but also how to live between meals without food, without social support, without creating resentment from other family members, and similar new things, new concepts and new behaviors. In the end it does not matter, we all just die anyway.

    

Monday, June 26, 2017

fingernails on chalk board

I learned about fingernails on chalk board in grade 7 from the Screech-halk, my teacher. She did both, dragged here fingernails on the chalk board and screeched in a similar tone. She struck fear into all of us. That was in 1960 ish.

Now there is an individual who does YouTube videos on food addiction that I would like to listen to, but am just unable to listen to, due to her voice, and to me it sounds like fingernails on chalk board.

GMO are raising there web presence. GMO are paying for trolls to put down any claims that GMO should be avoided, as they should be for your health, unless you do not want to be an unpaid lab-rat. Well, at least the protein parts, until they develop enough history, to be demonstrated not harmful to all. Monsanto has a corn that kills in South Africa, or so the story goes, before they silenced the opponent. Monsanto was good at silencing there opposition.  One more example... http://www.foodpolitics.com/2017/06/follow-up-to-gmo-propaganda-film-food-evolution/

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Zucker Problem

We the obese suffer from at least six issues:
  • A physical problem, high insulin, possible driven somewhat by food choices, but now high insulin epigenetics 
  • A possible learning impairment or other structural brain issue that make us susceptible to cultural and family dynamics, cultural/society stresses. 
  • A highly emotional based brain, which combines with the other issues to create psychological distress and issues at times.
  • A food rich environment in which some of the foods drive the problem as well
  • A lack of good information about overcoming combined problems, education knowledge component. 
  •  A brutal and uncompassionate society with little knowledge of how to overcome individual internal issues. Specific individuals have knowledge, but it is difficult to find these and extract the knowledge from them. 
As the specific knowledge is not unique, which piece of knowledge is lacking? That is the question.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

the conglomerate and trump

So as I understand it, a trump identity or company under the umbrella of the trump borrows 12.7 million, and supplies a loan guarantor, a Ukrainian Pro Russian political party. As there is a guarantor, there is no need to repay the loan. At the other end of the conglomerate out pops 12.3 million of political contributions. Duh. WTF? How can the man say no influence from Russia? The trump skimmed of the political contribution, and received what?   

Friday, June 9, 2017

Bat Shit Crazy People

I am still learning to deal with the bat shit crazy people who frequent my life, and the bat shit crazy ideas that I have at times. New crazy show up.  Most of the bat shit crazy ideas that I have were adopted in my younger years without much consideration or choice. These ideas are prevalent in the collective consciousness of society and rub off.

This week I was out camping with a couple who struggle with weight issues and I do. There struggles are different, but with similar effects. They are unwilling to give up tasty snacks about three time each day, plus three meals. I, on the other hand will give up snacks, but not meals. To lose weight, there meals are of a size of snacks, and calorie wise may contain less than there snacks, which leave me hungry. Also they do no activities of exertion, nor exercise. There most energetic activity is take the dogs to the dog park and let them run.

All the religions are bat shit crazy, as is politics. Just look at the trump show. Bat shit crazy is trump. There has to be mostly independent law force that follow the law as enacted. If politicians want change, they need to change the law first.  To become elected you need to be popular, and have policies that make one stand out, yet in government, one needs a steady and fair hand; tolerance, for the people will be there tomorrow, and a eye to the future. Elections can be bought, as trumps was, and not by foreign powers such as Russia. I hope trump has not taken Russian money, but I fear he has, through a Ukrainian (Russian) back door loan guarantee from a foreign bank. 

The Canadian government must deal with this Indian situation, or the debt will just rise. The medical industry is also out of hand, but they will fix most anyone, and keep them alive for the pay check. Something needs to be done; perhaps guidelines on who can be treated from public money.

The Indian population must become either full citizens or the rank and file Indians will suffer. The chief will do well, but the commons will not. Oh well, they to will just die in the end, like all of us. Without education, the lower groups will survive on the reserves and on dole.

But back to the bat shit crazy, those who think anything will be resolved will need to have a look at resolutions of the past. Either one side or both sides feel hard done by. So when will the losers rebel? Well if there is not evidence, it is just opinion, and as such, should be treated as a hypothesis until some evidence is found. With religions, a game of dueling hypothesis shows they are all wrong. In the god, no god debate, the "no god" has no evidence against the "no god" hypothesis, while there is no "necessary and sufficient" evidence for a god, therefore there is likely "no god". End of discussion until evidence is presented.

Morals have no need for a god either. Do no physical harm, and the oriental version of the golden rule will go a long way to good ethics. We have man made laws also that keep most on track, but those only deal with the worst of people without the money to mount a good defense. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.





Saturday, June 3, 2017

Nonhumor - trump

Warning rant / nonrant

Nothing to do with food, eating, overeating, lack of satiation. There are just some thing that make a bad situation worse. I refuse to give trump a capital t, he is too much of a bully for any respect.

"Make America Great Again" slogan was interpreted by many of his followers as the idea that we would make America great again by slaying political correctness, by bringing back jobs, by keeping undocumented workers from entering our country, from showing the mainstream media who's boss. In reality, he is living in the past. What government has to do is get out of the way and let companies do there think, but that has caused pollution, abandoned waste, abandoned oil wells, nuclear waste, arsenic waste, etc. Economic business must pay for the waste cleanup as well, but they have not nor will they willingly. With all these people, we need to leave the earth in a condition that the next generation can live in it. 

trump has destroy US relationships with the rest of the world and even his own people. Consider the Kathy Griffin picture and the turmoil he caused over it. It was a poor taste Taliban skit. But he overreacted, as is trumps way. Angela Merkel is now the leader of the free world. trump is just not a leader of willing free peoples.

The world has moved on since the time and populations that the American ego thought it was great, and businesses had free reign. Those time are gone forever. Green and conservation, while still developing is a much more difficult task. The forward thinking population being more free, unconstrained, made possible through an uncontrolled business morals, made the US what it was. An unethical, savage place, where life was brutish, hard and often short. They have no qualms about killing at the governments request; that is not moral nor ethical, and certinally not great. That has been there forte, along with development of the tools of destruction.

There are others who try to use force to promote themselves, and they do but not by support, but fear. Typical gun culture thinking. Taliban and muslim groups are examples if goofy intolerant religious concepts. There is one more word that I will not capitalize. Sick the US on the muslims, like an attack dog. That is what they are good at now. They are not good at critical thinking (too many unrecognized biases), or public communications, but some of them do the hardware quite well, but have it built elsewhere.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/world/1474749-trump-describes-us-as-cleanest-nation-facts-muddy-the-claim
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said the United States "will continue to be the cleanest and most environmentally friendly country on Earth" as he announced a U.S. pullout from an international accord designed to curb climate change.

As with Mike from Canmore, Donny from New York, you saying something does not make it so. Statements should be based on real facts, not on your day dreams of reality.


     

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

So why do I overeat?

So why do I overeat? This is the basic problem that I have been struggling with for some time without finding a satisfactory answer, but a lot of hypothesis. So lets examine the scientific method that works so well for learning.

use of the scientific method:
  • Ask a question. 
  • Conduct background research.
  • Construct a hypothesis. 
  • Test your hypothesis in an experiment.
  • Draw a conclusion by analyzing data. 
  • Communicate your results so they can be checked and validated by your peers.
  • If it holds up, your conclusion becomes a “theory” or a “model” for others to leverage.
There is a decision in the middle of this process that is missed, the negative outcome after the testing. if the test results show no a negative result, abandon... well in the true science, we would right it up to provide guidance to future lookers, that says this did not work. But we are missing something about weight loss, the body is 24/7, while the mind, our controlling fraction is something less, and at time takes a nap. The mind is not in ultimate control, but just thinks it is.

The only solution is to eat less, move more. We do not want to here that, but what we eat can be debated. We need to be able to do this, the proof is in the doing.

So all these hypothesis as to the cause are irrelevant, we still need to be able to stick to a starvation system; our hunger may be less on low carb, maybe. There is no help in this matter.   

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Schultz, OCD treatment,

Schultz, and his OCD treatment scheme, third person thinking, do not seem to have an effect on the desire to eat. That is not to say that they do not work, they do not have a big effect, although the way of thinking does alter the perceptions. Perhaps I did not "do it right" or something, but doubling down on something that does not seem to have a effect is the typical diet mentality. I am not finding any effect.

Doubling down on diet changes do not help if I am unable to stay on the damn diet does not help.

There are some bad words that I need to talk about, worship and faith. These are bullshit religions concepts that have no place in modern society and religion is the home of snake oil salesmen. Proof must be presented before any decision is made with respect to life. Any transaction in which god is brought up is more suspect. Loans to the religious increases the provability of default by a factor in one study shows. Now where did that go? http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/05/what-the-words-you-use-in-a-loan-application-reveal.html 

We should worshiper nothing but truth, with evidence. Faith is something without evidence. Over the years I saw many foundation built on "assumed soil bearing values" which is faith based design, and numerous failed. There is nothing to work with there in repairs, It is just do it over, with real values this time. Worship and faith are concepts that should be abandoned along with gods, souls, afterlife, and similar supernatural and uneducated concepts. 

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Can Fred live in the third person?

Would it be easier to live in the third person if I gave myself a different name? It would be easier but untrue, and likely less effective. The whole purpose of this exercise is to examine the OCD treatment proposed by Schultz, and to learn to live in the observational perspective of the third person. This is said to generate a clear minded perspective of any situation, like overeating. understanding the desire to eat as a over-driven physical need is not sufficient to stop. Fred needs to learn to ignore this physical need and do something else. It is all about self management up to the limit of extended endurance, but not beyond. Breaking the body leads to mental problems and escape-ism, and we do not want to go there. 

But perhaps I also need to describe the other analogy that Fred perceives here, the problem of over management, that is the problem of management taking up to much of the available time, of resources. We see this occasionally in second generation companies, and always now in government. Over management. They are spending so much time in controlling people, and trivial behaviors, there are not enough resources left for what is actually required. Trump is a good example of this problem. He sees that there is too much government, but is unable to decide what is actually required to reduce the size of government. It needs to get out of the lives of people and set only directions based on facts, real items, and on personal desires like religion. Women's health should be between the women and her doctor, end of life issues should be between the patient and doctor. Reduce regulation without imposing the beliefs, not facts. Something will not go the way we want, oh well, but the cost of management will be manageable.

As the population grows the perceived need for management grows faster. This suggests that at some point, the cost of management, and the population size get out of control. We are over in both accounts.  Here is an example of a useful law that is just too costly for the government to implement: http://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/Wynns-Law-unlikely-to-pass-final-vote-20170513  . Just too much government.

Do we run into the same issue within our own human self? Exercise, food prep, person stuff, home cleaning and maintenance, computing, commuting, retraining, upgrading, recreational, and work all take time. And we need sufficient rest time as well. Are we at or beyond our personal durability? Do we need to do less, or do something different? Elimination of things out of our lives is always a choice, just like the government needs to simplify, but without losing life quality. The first thing that should happen is dumping of all religion in favor of the Church of Alternative Reality... The church intent on the domination of all other religions... or at least provide a alternative to ... based on reality... aimed at improving mental health, health in general and providing reasonable modern guidelines to life, fully aware that some things are up to us, some are not.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Trump-at-Liberty-University-commencement-In-11143794.php Wrong. Trump and the US worships money and/or rich people, beautiful people, and popularity. God does not exist so they believe they worship an concept, mainly in the head of the believers. This is just goofy talk. 

Perhaps it is time to take Fred to the garage to address some spinning wood or something.  

   

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Is it Just OCD

Is this problem just OCD? (obessive, compulsive disorder) If it is OCD, the treatment is as Jeffrey M Schwartz describes, relable, reattribute, refocus, revalue, or some similar named steps. That is call it OCD, it is all OCD made worse by the chemical imbalance of intake, go obsess about recovery or something else, it is still just OCD and it does not matter. The solution is redirection of the OCD toward something useful and not damaging. Displace the behavior with a useful behavior.

The urges can safely be ignored and get on with life, The urges do not matter. That is easy to say, but when we are hungry, have the urge to eat, and food is ever present, then what is the expected outcome? The bloody urges, combined with hunger always win.


The solution is see this all from the third party preservative. It is not the I view, or I the receiver, but I the detached observer, that gets all the information and make objective decisions. Detached observer, the mindfulness observer, that observes the issues in a detached environment, that needs the information. Dispassionate. What the body wants is not part of the decision making process. That is the act of taking the decision to eat or not away from the body, and giving that decision to the rational mind of a third person. Is this what a belief in a god actually do; take the choice out of our hands and give that decision to a prescribed book or other control? 

Mindfulness is a clear minded outward perspective, a third person awareness, on inner awareness. Detached. Seen from a distance, taking a step back from our emotions. As soon as we are aware, the attachment begins to loosen and can fall away. So that third person view is necessary. All this takes the decision making away from the lower brain, the emotional part, and gives the decision making to the higher brain function. All well and good, but how does one live in this high brain and shut down the lower brain function? Metered meals. So then it is all about staying on a diet anyway.

To stay in that no-self mode, in mindful third party mode, is the difficult part. Schwartz says everyone is capable of going into this mode, but offers no evidence of that. Sustaining that third party no self is not so easy. With food issues, that detached no self mode must be maintained 24/7, with no reprieve. Yet we also need to work and do life things.

So all this suggest to me that we are all taking about the same thing, using different words to describe, using different concepts to understand the same thing, when the solution lies in objective thinking, not in the self layer. Yet it is the self that must do what is right, what it values and what it needs to do. So we are back to the dueling brain that causes all the issues, and the only solution, just do what is right to do, and damn or shut down those body urges. This is what a gay must go through trying to live straight.

So Schwartz now recognizes the need, for his program to work as it was intended, one must be in this third person objective. Neither of his early books make any reference, for he, a third party to OCD is in that mode automatically. So the missing part is to learn to live continually in third person thinking, just as with work. My history suggest that I am capable of third person mode, but not continually. Sustained maintenance of "3rd person mode" is something that I find difficult.      

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Homeostatic Imblance

Homeostatic, the body' ability to maintain a constant weight is just broken in my case. I gain period, unless I am losing. Zero carb or very low, and I stink and gain, unless I am hungry all the time. Add carbs and I gain but the ketosis goes away. The  last solution was walking two hours each day and eating enough to maintain only light hunger for four years. It was a miserable existence. Add a bit more food to hold the gain to 1 kg per month, existence was still miserable but not as much hunger. Three years has passed, and now I am 35 kg up. It is time to turn the process around again.

Homeostatic is an concept; it does not exist in my world. This is like god; it only exists in the mind of the believers. So what is necessary to drop back into that hunger state that I can lose weight? 

I cannot walk for two hours each day now. My right hip is near gone, and the pain would stop me.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Realist vs Atheist

So high blood sugar is one means of reaching a euphoria state for a bit of time. A relaxed zoned out state. Sugar is the fastest, fruit not far behind. Dairy products also push this along. A good tasting tuber, or grain, usually with butter also help this along. So why would we not overeat? It seems that one third of the population never learned this or it does not happen to them. My contention is that overeating is normal for most of us as we were trained into overeating by the diets provided in our youth, and of course, persist today. So why is it so hard to change? We first need to desire to change, and secondly, more importantly, we need to change our human environment to foster lasting change. As this is not about to happen universally, many of us are doomed to suffer a long slow overweight death. 

Our human environments are largely controlled by the people who are remote from us but who's outreach extends one us. Yes religions, as those cast a net, a cloud, over all of us. That is not to say that we must react to their whims, but so many do that when we cooperate with those great clouds, we are drawn along with the group. Once we realize there is no god, we find ourselves still being drawn along with the population. Do you have any idea how deeply in our language and thinking religion is entrenched?

So our common beliefs, often refereed to as morals, are so evasive. Those of us who are stepping out of that mold start recognizing things like the anti-racist movement for what it is, like religion, is an effort to not looking at reality. On average, the blacks are not as well educated, not accustom to the educated among the population, they, on average, place less importance on education, and on whole the blacks perform less "educated" in life. The orientals are all about education and using that education to prosper. White are between, but many recognize that education of some type help the process of success in life. More is attitude in life. This is not racist but fact. But the anti-racist cannot see that, they only see racists when someone crosses there way of thinking, just like religions. We all get trapped into this false tunnel vision. Breaking out is enlightening.

It is becoming obvious that Neanderthals were the first peoples in north America now. The DNA project pointed at this, but left the calling out of this to others. That fact alone may point out why Canada has such a native people problem bring them into modern life styles. Up until now, I have attributed it to there society and unwillingness to accept reality of the times. It take considerable force to turn the ship off shore, just like our own eating reality and direction. It is not just reality but what we think is reality, and what our body says should be happening.

So our attitudes and opinions that keep us on course, even if we are coarse. We do not examine our attitudes and opinions in the detail we should, and when we do, we find ourselves at odd with the world in many ways. We get tired of swimming against the current, and against our own instincts, in a world without compassion or understanding. Many of us just stop caring and allow ourselves to drift with the current, even when the current of the world is just wrong. We take the odd swipe at the big wrongs, and let the others just pass by, unacknowledged. In the end we just die anyway.

Virtue is the only good. Knowing what is right and doing that, a stoic truth, must the foundation of our ethics, but I digress. Enough.





Thursday, April 20, 2017

Eating disorders

What are eating disorders?

Well the more I read, the less sure I am that anyone knows a great deal about these. Essentially, eating disorder is a loss of logical control over our intake of food in some way. The physical body or unconscious is in control. Our eating is beyond the control of our free will. The chemistry is in control. Short of locking myself away, I am going to eat when I get like that. I am one who is unable to not eat the marshmallow, unless I physically take myself away. Understand that. If there is food available I will eat it. That is an eating disorder, binge eating disorder likely. The desire to eat is in control.

How does one live life with this problem?

There are many who do not have this problem who are willing to tell me how to do it, but they and I am not the same animal. I am unable to control myself in the presence of food. That is the essential difference. The zucker rat, and the Labrador dog are likewise. 

The solution is not clear. Any system that supposes a god is just wrong as there is no god. There is no physical evidence of a god, and no miracles. We are the result of evolution and other natural processes, some of which we understand, some not so much. There is no purpose in human life beyond reproduction, and after we get well founded comfortable conditions. These are all cultural. We are opportunistic organisms living on a big rock. Some of us develop irrational desires, like myself toward food, or like the gays toward other of there same gender. We have all the *files, alcoholics, drug addicted. Not rational, any of them. Some recover, some die with the issues.

We need to somehow get our desires under control. Somehow. Control of the body is all I could ever do so far, yet after reflection, it is the desire that must go. Now desires should be within our locus of control according to Epictetus, yet perhaps not chemically/physically driven desires. That is likely the difference; some are physically/chemically driven desires, some are psychological driven. We have control of the psychologically, but not the physical. Some, like eating are likely driven by both as eating is required by the body for survival. Some eating is required, some is not.

Those that claim supernatural knowledge and authority over others, aka religious leaders, are total nut cases. Eating disorders are, at the foundation our reactions to our situation, in the presence of food. Our situation includes (included) family, social/cultural collective social behaviors and expectations, even in "unreal" but real situations. I was raised in a irrational religious environment, which I ignored, and later became agnostic for most of my working life. Now that I have time, I have sorted out my thinking in this area of my life and have become completely atheist. The conditions I was raised under caused this food issue, of that I am certain. The family religion/philosophy "don't talk, don't tell" has become "those raving religious lunatics".

So does early learned behavior get encoded into the epigenetic behavior? The simple answer is yes. So how does one undo this? Well, nobody seems to be telling? Go see a psychologist specializing in eating disorders. So I looked around and found one locally- well thirty miles away. So I set up an appointment and went. She was bigger than I was at the time... not much evidence of her ability there. So my search too me to the neighboring providence, where I found a renown psychologist who had found a solution. So I started to make an appointment, but then I recognized the voice, but not the name.  A cousin, who had never been bothered by the eating issue nor reality, she had always been batshit crazy and thin, but with a tremendous memory. So much for that line of help. 



    

Friday, April 7, 2017

C Test

How do we know if something works or not? We need to test it. So what is the criteria? What is truth anyway? Ask any religious person if the is a god, and they will say yes. Ask an atheist and they may say no so what is the truth. The truth is there is no physical evidence of one. The only place a god could hid is in the mind of the believer. So truth is to a large part dependent on the position of the person who is questioning what is truth.

Else where I have stated any group of people who try to subjugate a second group are immoral. This is typical religion subjugating their young. This is government recommending people to should follow the Canada Good Food Guide. This document is wrong for so many people, it is just a crime against humanity to continue to promote it. This week we saw a senator get in shit for stating the truth, that many benefits came from residential schools. How else is the government going to provide advanced education to the north? A town of a few hundred to a few thousand cannot afford to have schools with all subjects after say grade nine. High schools need diversity, and small schools cannot offer the diversity needed in these times. So what is the truth? Children at about age 14 should be ready to leave home and get an education. Oh well, we of European ancestry have been doing this for centuries, or millennium. 
So political correctness is subjugated truth. There was some bad, and some good, but with the current state of political correctness, one cannot speak the truth, or some kind of statistical correctness.    

Religions are fraudulent. They promise to save your souls. They are unable to deliver, and there are no souls, no self. So what is truth? 
Until truth can be defined objectively, we are at a loss to say what is right. The ancients used virtue to escape this, for a virtue is always good. Well, until Aristotle realized that virtues were between two extremes, that even virtues can be abusive in excess. So what is the ultimate test. If it benefits us, as individuals, there is no reason to reject it unless it does harm to others. Buddha said something on this: Do not accept anything by mere tradition ... Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures ... Do not accept anything merely because it agrees with your pre-conceived notions ... But when you know for yourselves—these things are moral, these things are blameless, these things are praised by the wise, these things, when performed and undertaken, conduce to well-being and happiness—then do you live acting accordingly.
So we are left with your own evaluation, and what we think is right. Not a straight forward when everything is in flux and change. All we can do is evaluate everything for ourselves, and if we find it immoral to indoctrinate others with wrong information, well then perhaps Buddha had the right idea how to live well. Right intent and knowledge, right action, speech, and livelihood, right concentration, effort and mindfulness, and we are responsible for all our decisions.  
 

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

B Act

Recovery is all about action, action leads to recovery. Right action, right behavior, and who decides what is right action? The person making the action. We live in an overpopulated world. Wrong action may lead to our death, or our suffering. It does not matter. No one knows what is correct anyway.

Religion always tells of great altruism, and great act of self sacrifice, and yet the pope says it is selfish to not have children in this overpopulated world. He says birth control and abortion is wrong, yet is unable and/or unable to step up to take care of the people, yet speaks of his great altruism. Something is wrong here. His conception of what is right and wrong is warped. So who decides what is right and wrong?

The government has laws for now, where they are willing to spend money to prosecute some "crimes" but not others. They are reluctant to prosecute fraud, or even condemn it. Why? Could it be that so many of them are on the take from the proceeds of fraud? What is fraud? Charging for something that you know will never be provided. So is selling good government and providing poor government fraud?

The LDS church says one must tithe, even if your children do not have enough, because they need the money more. Is this right? 

We allow free market of psychic advice, and numerous similar bullshit. Some of it is just entertainment, even for those who cannot afford entertainment. They would be better off going to the library and reading, or spending that money on a reality education. Oh well, some can be fooled all the time. But it is the person making the action that decides on what is right and what is not.

We see vegetarians wailing about the conditions that farm animals are raised in, and I will admit that some of the factory farms are vicious, but the historical and traditional farms are better, but the animals have a choice of produce or go extinct. We all do. The veggies wail about eating meat and suffer from protein deficiency, fat soluble vitamin deficiencies, slow muscle development, slow mental development, high frequency of autism and similar veggie issues. Yet they do not see the problem as nutritional issue. We have to many people on this earth. We can never be satisfied, as it is dissatisfaction that drives the human population forward. More education, more choice, more and better space at home, and all the time we need more work to provide the money for more stuff. Stop the world, I want to get off. Go minimal and see the world.

The whole issue of overeating is about lack of contentment. Physical, mental, and gut satiation. That is what this life is short on. Not activities, money, or social involvement. We can keep ourselves running in circles, or we can sit back and watch the world run by.

Religions are parasitic organization also, and commit fraud ever time they pass around a collection plate. There are no souls to save, the meme parasites reside in all the old books that are used as a foundation for the religion.

Enough.  

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

A Plan

SMART has a plan. Motivation, controlling cravings, managing thoughts, improving lifestyle. With this outline they claim to be able to fix alcohol, drug and food issues. Yet at all the meetings, it is common to push sugar 'treats'. So if one is motivated enough, clear thinking enough, well enough controlled thinking, and living a good lifestyle, on should not have a problem. Yet we look around and 2/3 of the people have issues. So when one looks at the problem, well then all we need to double down and worker harder. Bullshit. There is a problem, and if we did not overeat, we would not have the problem. All well and good, but with food the cravings never leave. As we get older, we will be less active, and need to cut our food further. Then one day we realizes that the experts have missed something. Reality. Genetics. Environment. We are born with a desire to eat, cultured within a society that overeats, live in an environment that food is always on offer, in a society that is all about greed. The population is a mixture of stages of evolution, and there are some have little desire to eat; others the flip side; we are never satisfied; it is these thin people who are driving the discussion, and they do not have the same desire to eat. They do not have the problem, and are not able to solve it.

We see this fixity of ideas in religion also. There is no physical evidence for any sort of god, so the only place left for a god to hide is in the mind of the believers, and having been infected with that parasitic meme, are unable to realize that religions are parasitic memes. They are fixated on these life controlling concepts that are historical cultural group think, and are actually wrong. Overcoming overeating is all about control of behavior, of self behavior. Knowing the correct behavior is one part, and doing the correct behavior is the other part. Unless walking is part of work, or can be made into part of work, weight control is not possible. 15000 steps is three hours. Working 50 to 70 hours a week in our working life tires us out to the point we cannot continue once we become aged. Many of us never took the time required to develop a proper life skills; we were to busy earning a living; those that did or were able to develop adequate life skills do not have the problems, and cannot understand those of us with the problem, and certainly do not have a solution.

There is no physical evidence of a soul, so when we die, it is all over. And in the end we all just die anyway. Death is none of my concern, as when death has arrives, I am no more, but as long as I am, there is no death. These are not so common of beliefs but the correct one. More evidence that many of the collective concepts are just wrong.

Back quite a number of years, John Powell, a disreputed Jesuit, suggested that we should review all our beliefs and throw out those that cause us problems, are wrong, or do not help us function. I started then, and got rid of many "beliefs of youth". Since then occasionally I have used that testing philosophy to clean up more beliefs, replacing with understand, and concepts of no god, no soul, no self, virtue as I define it, and much more. I realized that many people have a wrong understanding of what is right for me, what good virtues are, and what many disabilities really are. We only need to allow others to prosper, there is no obligation to help them more than we help ourselves. Religions are just group opinions, it does not make them right, and in many cases they are just wrong.

The food and diet science is just about as bad. Shortage of carbohydrate can also cause cravings. So what we need is a plan that can work, and if it works stick to it but evaluate and adjust in a never ending feedback loop.

So what is the solution? next day.

      

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Genetic / Plastic brain / Epigenetics

So working my way through Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained, I realized the amount of bullshit that is written and sold as facts, when so much is speculation, and then something else comes along that does not fit, and we start back around again. So much of life is like Dennetts multiple  drafts, around and around we go in a infinite braided feed back loop, that changes as we learn more. At some point we need to do something so we do it, with incomplete information, with partial awareness, and we get something out of it...maybe. Much without purpose, without results or not. Awareness is the last thing that came and we may only be aware, after the fact, but if it is a rational level decision, and not pressed into service before the concept has reached maturity... well then, but it does not matter, for time rushes on and in the end we all just die anyway.

We all just swim upstream or stand still, or drift with the current of time. We make minor decisions, and perhaps we change a bit or not. Time keeps rushing by. Nap and an afternoon can be gone.

The other night, in the middle of the night, I realized that I was conscious, but not awake. I was aware of my thoughts, but not awake. It is like the sensation in meditation the first time I felt sound, not heard it. It is surreal, but real. It is the split between unconsciousness and sleep. It is dream like but not a dream, paralyzed, but aware of self, of my thoughts, and the goings on about the sleeping mass of self. The consciousness was unable to awake the self. Not out of body but locked in the body, unable to break free. Fear instantly arose, but subsided enough to realize what was happening or subsided as I realized what had happened. So what does this have to do with anything and can I repeat this experience? Perhaps it is a way to rest my aged self and keep my mind active.

So how would one induce this experience again. Well, perhaps like mediating myself to sleep by using a root consciousness as the point of return when the mind wanders. Well the first test resulted in a quiet a few returns to consciousness, good nap, quick to drift off.

Back to Dennett and Plastic brain concepts. Some brains are predisposed to being better at some function than others, and have some benefit to those that have those talents, hence survive better within there closed environment. In five thousand years we see the Indus valley developing mathematics, and it spread. Some areas developed an aptitude for mathematics, while the test cases, the fringe population of the Americas did not. As a result today, the frequency of occupations requiring high drive and heavily mathematic dependent are rare among there members. Yet the visual arts has a high numbers of native members.

So do the farmer based populations and their decedents have high numbers of heavy people?

We were frequently driven home with the concept of not wasting food. The plate must be cleaned. Nothing was permitted to be wasted. A life time of not wasting food is now a fixed characteristic which we cannot overcome. If food lands on the plate, it will be eaten, so it must be kept off the plate. Is this habit, cultural, familial, or genetic or epigenetic? We certinally learned this as children, and parents do not want to leave children hungry. So overeating can be learned as children, carried on ever after, except for those few that do not overeat, and often leave food on there plates.

I was out at a self serve country diner theater last night, and I noted that the a few 'normal" sized people left food on there plate. I doubt that any overeating disordered person would do that. So is their enough plasticity in the brain of a senior to change? There has not been much evidence of that over here yet.    





Sunday, March 26, 2017

Receptors in pairs

This is a reminder to self. Back a few years ago, Lustig stated a important item, the receptor for insulin and leptin occur in pairs close together, so a cell can be either open to glucose or closed and not hungry if it weights a few days to receive a leptin.  It is an or switch for each cell. That gut hunger occurs at the time the liver switches between glycogen and fat production to gluconeogenesis, and thus to glucose regulation.

That is the key, hunger dissipates after the second or third day... not true for some of us... we who behave like the zucker rats. We are always ready to eat more. But on the second day, the hunger lessens, from gnawing lower liver region to just hunger.

Zucker rats have either low leptin or a leptin receiver issue. It is not clear, and both are suggested as a issue that causes the Zucker Rat. Too much insulin is one obvious factors, with this is directly related to glucose intake, except that fructose causes the liver to make fat fast. Fructose of any amount slows weight loss as fructose stimulates insulin release but is not needed in the process, but generates hunger. Fructose stimulates hunger.

Of course, insulin injected into the brains of rats kills appetite, but anything injected in the brain does that. Dopamine may be evolved, but the whole problem is desire to eat and available food, but the reward circuits do not help in the control anyway, nor is that explanation helpful. There is more than one driving circuit, and those are not the ones that are typically the problem. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

12 step and OA approach is useless as the is no physical evidence for the existence of any god, so the only space is in the mind of the believer. There is no return from atheistism reality to a believer to utilize those methods. These methods are displacement of reality methods.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Dennettion Zombie

Dan Dennett talks about philosophical zombies who are exactly like people except for one item, usually consciousness, so how can anyone tell the difference?

When I am in one of those eating stages, his description is almost exactly what it is like, I am doing it but I am not in control; I cannot stop; it is a form of mental dysfunction. All I can do is distract myself, perhaps delay, escape, of use alternative activity where food is not available. There does not seem to be any available help offered beyond drawing in a concept of something more powerful myself and using that to control the self. One fictional mental object to control the wild mind of uncontrol. Do some portion of the population have a portion of the mind that is beyond our control, and I am part of that portion of the population?

We have control over part of our consciousness, only part. But is there part also that we have no control over, and the short answer is yes, most of it. So what causes this vacillation between that part of eating in which we have control and that part which we have no control? I do not understand. 

What pushes me over the edge? Available food is one item, if not the main item. Once started, I do not stop until all food is gone. That is a problem. I cannot go with no food. but it must be metered, doled out in small quantities... more later