Category Archives: Science

Is this really a solution?

Bariatric surgery to cure diabetes. – MSNBC

Two groups.  One with surgery.  One without.  Surgery group lost an average of 46 lbs over the 2 year study.  The control group lost an average of 3!  It is a surprise that the group who lost the most weight had higher incidences of diabetes remission?  NO.

I know obesity surgeries force a life change in the subjects.  But there’s also plenty of evidence to show that people learn to eat around those changes and still be overweight.  Is overweight more healthy than obese?  Yes.  I just don’t think this is a realistic treatment.  Yes it’s hard to lose weight.  Yes it’s harder probably to change your life to be healthy.  And harder still to keep it off (trust me I know, even though I’ve done a fairly decent job of it).  But learning those skills HAS to be better than surgery right?

De-evolution

I’m fairly certain we are devolving (de-evolving?  See it’s already happening to me!) as a society.  That thing a few weeks/months back I posted about the human race splitting has to be true.  As I’m pretty sure I mentioned in that post, the movie Idiocracy (a failed attempt on a good idea) seems prescient.

Anyways, the latest clue that we are just setting up our own doom, I give you the Double Deep Meat Lover’s pizza from Pizza Hut.  A single slice will log you 580 calories!  But hey, maybe someone can just eat three slices a day and lose some weight (though not as much as you might thing, and definitely they won’t be healthy) since they’d only be consuming 1740 calories a day.  Of course, 90% of Americans (I just made that stat up) would probably put down 3 slices a sitting so…

I don’t accept this

Fat as the new normal.

I’m all for women being comfortable with their bodies (limiting this discussion to women, because it was women discussed in the article), but for fat to be accepted as normal?  Nope.  I’m not down with that.  Should women being face a deluge of unrealistic images of “perfect” bodied women?  No.  Should the be pressured to conform to that unattainable (for the most part) ideal?  No.  Should they be made to feel shameful about their bodies?  No.  Not in a bad sense.  But should there be societal pressure for them to lose weight for HEALTH reasons?  I think so.  Maybe this makes me an asshole, but to just let fat be normal/okay, I don’t know about that.  But this is definitely a bi-nodal thing.  More and more obsession with celebrity and impossibly skinny people.  But also an ever increasing focus and emphasis on health.  Here’s to hoping health wins out.

This is what I do

Dissociation.  It’s what I do when I run.  I focus on a far off object.  I time my breathing to my cadence (though I’ve also read that this is bad for various reasons).  I tell myself to get there, then I just pick another target.  I’m at my best when I’m aiming for something.  I don’t think about the run.  Just concentrate on my breathing, cadence, and target.  However, the second part of the article about mental expectations is also true.  If I plan on running X miles in Y time, I find myself pacing my energy for it.  Like doing what my mind expects and nothing else.  Not that I’ve run recently (being lazy these days, very very lazy).