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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 18:42:40 GMT
if you're actively losing that much weight and eating pretty low calories, then don't exercise... like Zee said, you'll get 'caught up' to what's going on in your body. I did a medically assisted VLCD (very low calorie diet) for a while and they specifically told you NOT to exercise while the large weight losses were happening. And good for you!! Yes, don't worry about exercising if you're tired. You will unfortunately lose some muscle mass. You can put it back on later. Here's something important I didn't do: TAKE VITAMINS! HAIR SKIN AND NAILS TOO! I lost about 1/3 of my hair after about 9 months. I thought I was not going to and then it caught up to me. It's growing back in but I sure couldn't really afford to lose that much. I keep it chin-length for now and the new growth is about halfway there. I dyed it pink for fun. 🩷 Ugh, do not want that. I already take minoxidil/finasteride because my hair is so thin. I'm going to have to buy pill vitamins - since I upped my dose, I cannot stomach the gummy vitamins that used to be my nightly dessert.  I don't know how comfortable I am with not exercising at all. I've been reducing the amount of time, speed, and/or weight compared to what I was doing before and hopefully that will be enough. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 18:03:07 GMT
I find it difficult to believe that RFK Jr. will convince Republicans to enact regulations that may reduce profits for their biggest donors. he won't. this goes for donors and personal wealth increasing companies. i suspect that if you look at companies who democrat congressional members are invested in, you will find they own stock in companies that go against their public political stance but increase their personal wealth. Of course. And I just happened to run across this example - corporations are expecting Trump to reduce consumer protection regulations, not add to them. apnews.com/article/delta-airlines-trump-biden-regulation-c4393d5f763d95c8286d4069563032dc |
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 17:49:51 GMT
why would this be a surprise? food companies aren't in the moral business. they are in the money and profit business. if profits dip, company has to pivot to bring that lost money back. Here in a capitalist society, every company is in the money and profit business. That's why they lobby against regulations that would make it harder for them to profit. I find it difficult to believe that RFK Jr. will convince Republicans to enact regulations that may reduce profits for their biggest donors. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 17:47:37 GMT
So I have a confession to make - after posting some long post here a while back about how I wouldn't use semaglutide (though I've never criticized others for doing so), on impulse, I signed up with a company that does weight loss with compounded semaglutide. I'm currently on week 7 and have lost 13 lbs. What is relevant to this conversation: yes, I'm eating a lot less. Like there is no point in taking me to a restaurant. Snack food? No interest. I'm very worried about losing muscle, though, so I eat a lot of protein, and the easiest way to get that is through protein shakes and bars. I do my best to buy ones that don't contain more additives than they need to, but there's no getting around that these are highly processed foods. I supplement those with simple whole foods - usually just protein like salmon or chicken and a veggie or fruit. But there's no denying that I am now consuming more highly processed food each day than I have in years. I'm sure it would be better for me to find whole food ways to get adequate nutrition, but honestly I can't eat enough real food in one day to get the amount of protein and fiber I'm supposed to have. Another problem is that I'm tired. Exhausted, actually. I assume this is because I'm not eating "enough" (I am tracking and average about 1000 calories per day) but I cannot eat more. The exhaustion has also made working out very difficult as I simply don't have the energy for it. And it means that food preparation, which takes both forethought and physical energy, is difficult. I'm hoping this phase of tiredness will pass because I can't imagine spending the rest of my life like this. I don't know what the answer is. I haven't been a real consumer of Big Food for years, so they're not feeling any pinch from me continuing not to buy their products. It seems to me that if they want to reel in the Ozempic crowd, the best thing they can do is make high-quality products that deliver maximum nutritional benefit with the least volume. It will eventually pass, your body isn't used to this yet. I only use a maintenance dose of tirzepatide now and it's definitely different than in the beginning. I feel great and have energy. The first probably six months I was adjusting, losing weight, couldn't eat, sometimes felt dizzy and had to make sure I was staying hydrated. Sometimes all I could take in in a day was a hard boiled egg and Gatorade. That passes. I ended up losing 52 lbs and backed off on the dose because I was getting too skinny and looking drawn. I maintain my weight between 115-120 now (I'm 5'2") and got my usual healthy look back, and no one tells me I'm "too skinny" anymore or asks if I'm ok. Lol Thank you. That's good to hear validated. My husband has actually been concerned about me but I've been telling him it will pass. I also feel validated in finding that it does indeed take an unsustainably low amount of calories per day for me to actually lose weight. Without the meds, I wouldn't be able to do this. So now I have fear that the next government will ban these drugs for weight loss. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 16:53:12 GMT
Around here, during Covid schools were closed physically for almost a year and a half. They don't seem to factor this in when writing the headlines about the education system failing and test scores dropping. We are on a big "no phones during the school day" era in my area, and it will be interesting to see how that affects grades/test scores this year. There are articles about it every week... I think smart people make Trump look dumb(er) and he will do whatever he can get his minions to do to make sure no one is smarter than he is which is to decimate the education system. He didn't cross it off on his to-do list with his first term, he won't let it slide the second time. JMO. The thing is, schools in states like mine where we returned to in-person school in September 2020 are seeing the same declines. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 16:48:42 GMT
So I have a confession to make - after posting some long post here a while back about how I wouldn't use semaglutide (though I've never criticized others for doing so), on impulse, I signed up with a company that does weight loss with compounded semaglutide.
I'm currently on week 7 and have lost 13 lbs.
What is relevant to this conversation: yes, I'm eating a lot less. Like there is no point in taking me to a restaurant. Snack food? No interest. I'm very worried about losing muscle, though, so I eat a lot of protein, and the easiest way to get that is through protein shakes and bars. I do my best to buy ones that don't contain more additives than they need to, but there's no getting around that these are highly processed foods. I supplement those with simple whole foods - usually just protein like salmon or chicken and a veggie or fruit. But there's no denying that I am now consuming more highly processed food each day than I have in years.
I'm sure it would be better for me to find whole food ways to get adequate nutrition, but honestly I can't eat enough real food in one day to get the amount of protein and fiber I'm supposed to have. Another problem is that I'm tired. Exhausted, actually. I assume this is because I'm not eating "enough" (I am tracking and average about 1000 calories per day) but I cannot eat more. The exhaustion has also made working out very difficult as I simply don't have the energy for it. And it means that food preparation, which takes both forethought and physical energy, is difficult. I'm hoping this phase of tiredness will pass because I can't imagine spending the rest of my life like this.
I don't know what the answer is. I haven't been a real consumer of Big Food for years, so they're not feeling any pinch from me continuing not to buy their products. It seems to me that if they want to reel in the Ozempic crowd, the best thing they can do is make high-quality products that deliver maximum nutritional benefit with the least volume.
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 16:31:56 GMT
Came back to say - I don't know how much of this is Covid and how much other things, but now that I'm teaching music privately, I am frankly shocked at how many of my students show behaviors that I've generally associated with having ADHD, being on the autism spectrum, or having a neurological difference of some kind. Just a quick glance over my schedule and I counted 9 or 10 out of my 22 students.
To my knowledge, only one of them has a diagnosis and is receiving support at school. Several attend small, religious private schools that probably don't have the resources to help kids with special needs.
I think it's probably overly simplistic to blame Covid or any one thing for what's going on with our kids. I do know that defunding public education isn't going to fix it.
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 14:42:57 GMT
My thought is that Republicans will not be happy until:
- low income children are taught reading and basic math only, and that mostly by computers.
- science, history, geography, the arts, and other elective subjects will be reserved only for families who can afford private education with or without a voucher.
- kids with special needs are no longer educated, but simply warehoused until they're old enough to perform manual labor.
So basically they want to wind the clock back 100 years or more. They perceive that the US needs more unskilled labor and have correctly determined that providing every child with a good education (and thus expectations and ambitions for their future) means that people have some choices in life and they don't choose to work in the fields or meat processing plants. Basically, the American dream took a huge number of desperate, starving people out of the cheap labor pool that industrialists relied on to staff their businesses.
Republicans have determined that the American dream was a mistake and prevents them from making as much profit as they want. So they're going to undo it.
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 14:04:12 GMT
From Houston, TX, USA to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - 8982 mi or 14455 km. I was curious to see where I could have gone that would be even further away, and came across this website What's the Farthest City. Put in your city and see where you could go! |
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 3:02:27 GMT
As an X-Files fan, I think the truth is out there. But I don't think this Congress has the ability to find out what it is.
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 1:40:11 GMT
I am struggling a lot with this. Some days I'm like, screw it, we're out of here, and some days I feel like people with our privileges need to stay and fight. If Trump starts rounding up any and every undocumented immigrant here in Texas, things are going to get ugly fast. He has stated that the round ups will start as soon as he is inaugurated. At speed he is moving we may not make it to Jan 20th.. BTW: I use my flag stamps and they the word FREEDOM across the bottom. I also use assorted other stamps too. Yes. His border czar says to expect “shock and awe” from roundups on day 1. I’m sure his supporters are salivating at the thought of so much human misery. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 20, 2024 1:37:19 GMT
We're getting a preview here in Houston of what public education will look like under Republican rule: factory-style "teaching" of slides and worksheets all day, every day, focus on test prep to the exclusion of all else, AI-generated lessons and grading done by AI, no professional teachers - just minders as kids work online or do worksheets and a small cadre of lesson presenters who are prohibited from modifying lessons to meet their students' diverse needs. None of this prepares students to have the independent thinking skills and problem solving skills that will be needed for jobs now and in the future. Treating kids like widgets in the classroom will produce workers who perhaps could have spent 40 hours a week installing widgets at the car factory, but who will have no idea how to program and troubleshoot in a robotic manufacturing environment. They will not know their accurate history because they weren't allowed to learn it. They will never have read a novel or book in school (short passages only) so they're not prepared to fill in the gaps in their learning by reading. They will have had little/no exposure to the arts and humanities, which is how you end up with soulless monsters who view their fellow human beings as acceptable collateral in the latest culture war. Families with means will switch to private schools, some of which will be excellent, and some of which - the lower cost ones that take vouchers (these will be a replacement for publicly funded charter schools) - will be mediocre or poor and will refuse enrollment to kids with special needs that are more expensive to accommodate. This isn't conjecture. It's happening right now in real time in the 8th largest district in the country. Coming soon to all of Texas, I have no doubt. But it’s what Texas wanted. They’ll end up doing those agricultural jobs. Giving Americans jobs! Picking fruits and veggies. Trump wants this type of America. Keep jobs in America being performed by Americans regardless. What do you do? Hi, I don’t know you and can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic. So I’m not sure how to respond. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 23:50:08 GMT
F*ck that. We will stay and fight to get our country back. This is something that needs to be reiterated. Don't let them decide what the United States is. This was a close election, and we all learned a lot about some of our fellow citizens' values. That doesn't mean it's over. Before the 2020 election, my MIL made a comment about the only stamps they had were US Flag ones and she didn't feel excited about using them. I said, "Don't let them define what it means to be patriotic." I am struggling a lot with this. Some days I'm like, screw it, we're out of here, and some days I feel like people with our privileges need to stay and fight. If Trump starts rounding up any and every undocumented immigrant here in Texas, things are going to get ugly fast. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 23:48:11 GMT
Didn't Oklahoma just try this and the courts struck it down? Oklahoma tried opening a religious charter school with public funds. That was struck down. It's pretty clear this is another example of Texas floating a test case to see what they can get away with. I'm sure this will be challenged all the way to SCOTUS. This court hasn't seemed too interested in requiring every state to follow the 14th amendment, so I don't have much hope that they'll enforce the 1st. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 23:38:56 GMT
I can’t anymore. California should be able to protect us pretty well for the next couple of years while my grandkid finishes up high school. But by the end of this presidential term, who knows what the educational system in this country will look like. To say nothing of health, defense, justice, immigration, the economy, and the general welfare. Remember when I said we were doomed? Now we really ARE doomed. Yes, I'm glad my kids are done with K-12 education. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 21:56:52 GMT
www.lonestarleft.com/p/texas-board-of-education-moves-forwardMy tagline these days is "front row to the shit show," and here's a shining example. Coming soon to a state near you under the coming administration, I'm sure. If this sounds like no big deal to you, consider that the evangelical worldview from which these lessons will be written may not align with your family's beliefs. And of course, decide how comfortable you are demoting your child's Jewish, Muslim, and non-believing classmates to second class status in your schools.
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 21:31:47 GMT
johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/no-the-democratic-party-cant-message"In the wake of the election results, one of the most common media postmortems has been the Democratic Party’s supposed failure to reach those Americans who they were unable to persuade over the course of the campaign; rural and working class voters, especially. The airways have been filled with politicians and talking heads offer their critiques and suggestions on how Democrats need to rethink how they are messaging. I’m sorry, but that’s largely nonsense. This election result isn't about Dem messaging. Their messaging during the campaign was pitch-perfect in any other iteration of America. It was about helping the middle class, lowering taxes for the average American, continuing with sound economic policies to cut rising grocery prices, preserving democracy, taxing the wealthy, affordable healthcare and education, the rights of women, strengthening the border, unity, opportunity. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz formed a balanced ticket filled with character, intellect, and genuine love for this country, and they delivered their vision beautifully and eloquently. Their respective resumes contained exemplary histories of their work on behalf of the working people of this nation. They were experienced, mature, and competent. And none of these realities could overcome the America that we’ve become—or at least a sizable portion of it has. This election result isn’t about policy or platform, it’s about racism, misogyny, lack of education—and a Right-wing media machine that caters to those realities." ETA: we've seen multiple instances of proof of what Pavlovitz says right here on this board. Trump supporters don't know why they support him. They don't know what plans he has. They just believe his fear mongering and think he will make things better. I really don't know how we go forward when such a large chunk of our country is impervious to logic and reason, and frankly too lazy to READ about candidates and policy positions instead of relying on sound bites.
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 21:23:01 GMT
Oh goody. Trump is putting Dr. Oz in charge of dismantling Medicare/Medicaid. He is going to "incentivize disease prevention," which sounds nice, but probably means taking away people's healthcare to "incentivize" them not to need it. bsky.app/profile/noturtlesoup17.bsky.social/post/3lbddbjr5p22vI hope Oprah is sufficiently sorry for unleashing him and Dr. Phil on this country. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 21:12:02 GMT
You mean China won't be paying the tariffs?  |
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 18:27:57 GMT
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 16:40:29 GMT
The tax cuts will be for the rich. So we have a political party that will cut food and medical care for the poor do the can cut taxes for the rich. Aaron Rupar… “House Republicans who have been on Fox this morning are not denying that they are interested in cutting Medicaid and food stamps to pay for more tax cuts.” x.com/atrupar/status/1858899614256054647?s=61&t=j45uMgNk1i8O0YllKF58nwCan't wait to see how this plays out with the folks who voted for Trump because of their economic insecurity. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 14:22:15 GMT
Some things that would improve our country's mental and physical health a lot are to limit the number of hours we work, to have more vacation time, more support for child raising, more time for cooking and eating in a relaxed manner, and more sleep.
I'll be interested to see which of those things this administration will focus on, if public health is a concern now.
(Hint: none of them. Republicans invented grind culture to keep those wage slaves' noses to the grindstone so they can better enrich their corporate overlords.)
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Post by Merge on Nov 19, 2024 13:33:48 GMT
How unsurprising that you'd believe a woman can't make a decision on her own. I'm sure if the husband had decided to remove the child from a daycare he deemed too "woke," you'd be cheering. And how unsurprising that yet another woman from the left thinks their way is the only way and they can and should call all the shots.
How foolish of me to think that a husband and wife would be a team. Maybe the OP's nephew isn't involved in the child(ren) care decisions and doesn't care, but since he called her unhinged, I'd love to know why. Was it her decision to cut ties with the care facility in general, or was it because she felt a need to call in the president of the board, the associate director, and director of the facility to really give them a piece of her mind-you know, to really show them? Was she happy and had no concerns before the election? So many questions...  Again, you know and I know that if either of them had removed the child from the daycare because they thought it was too "woke," you'd be cheering. So nothing you have to say here is relevant. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 18, 2024 19:52:26 GMT
My own opinion: Either someone in the Biden administration has made the change or just put it out there that there has been a change, OR Biden said/did it (hopefully) without being fully aware of the consequences. Do I think Ukraine is going to get the exact co-ordinates for targets within Russia from the US for these ballistic weapons to be used effectively? No, no I don't. BUT... The night, maybe a little longer, before Russia went into Ukraine I watched Zelensky appeal to US audiences for Biden to agree to let him make a deal for peace with Russia. He said that there would be war otherwise and he didn't want that for his country. Biden wouldn't go along and the result is history. The only other comparable thing for me was when I watched Saddam Hussein ramble on one night about how prepared they were to fight us immediately before Iraq was struck. Astonishing and horrifying moments in history that I watched live on TV. Moments that were seared into my memory because of the enormous destruction that immediately followed both. So... I can't completely rule out that Biden did now what he did right before the war; escalate a dangerous, pending confrontation into full-out war. Why would he do that? Joe Biden Hasn't Stopped Being Wrong for 40 Years - 7 Jan 2014 The AtlanticI currently live about 10 miles from Biden and I've been aware of his government record for many, many decades. If anyone can make such a poor decision as to give the OK for Ukraine to fire ballistic missiles deep into Russia pretty much guaranteeing that the US and NATO will be forced into another major war as he's packing up his bags in DC and go live out the rest of his life in Delaware, it's Joe Biden. Please give us a link to this speech. I could be wrong, but I remember the US warning that Russia was going to invade but nothing was really done until after it happened. Biden did try to persuade Putin not to do it but we know how that went. ETA and more importantly, a link to Biden refusing to negotiate peace. Most people remember that whole situation quite differently www.politico.com/news/2022/11/08/biden-admin-nudging-led-ukraine-to-drop-putin-condition-for-peace-talks-00065679But you know, alternative facts and all. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 18, 2024 18:02:59 GMT
Merge there is no reason we can't go separately. However I thought until I could make it a habit to go, it might be helpful to have someone who was saying basically, I'm going, c'mon with me. Moral support really. DH and I just guilt trip each other (in a playful way) about whether we've gone to the gym that day. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 18, 2024 17:07:10 GMT
I thought of something else this morning when I came out of my workout, sweaty, nasty wild hair and hot blotchy purple face—my husband could take a quick shower, run his hands through his hair and be on his way. Me? It took the better part of an hour to put myself back together—wash and condition hair, multiple hair products, multiple body and face moisturizers, diffuse hair, makeup once my face has cooled down enough that it won’t slide off—then get dressed. No chance could I take all that paraphernalia to the gym to shower there, whereas my husband could easily. Maybe this is another aspect to the exercise gender gap—the time required after the workout is prohibitive to women? This is a huge problem. My husband expressed several weeks ago that he'd like to join a gym. And I was all about that idea. But, he is at work at 3:30 am. I wake at 5. He is normally home by 2 and I work until 3:30 usually. He was like, that's great, I'll come home and nap for a bit and then we can go after you're done working. Which is good timing actually. But then I'll need to shower and wash my hair. (I have thin hair that needs to be washed everyday) And then what am I supposed to do? Wake up the next morning and not shower and wash my hair until after I go to the gym in the afternoon? My hair is almost chin length now and I wear a CPAP at night. My hair looks crazy in the morning. So am I supposed to take two showers and wash my hair twice a day? I just haven't figured this one out yet Is there a reason you need to go together? Can you just go first thing in the morning? TBH I generally don’t shower until after noon, after I’ve done my exercise for the day. I wear my hair short and it looks like a hot mess when I get up. I put on a ball cap or, more often, a stretchy wide bandeau type headband before I leave the house if I haven’t showered yet. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 18, 2024 16:58:47 GMT
Yes, we all know there are plenty of other people who have been sucked in to the Trump cult.
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Post by Merge on Nov 18, 2024 15:26:43 GMT
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Post by Merge on Nov 18, 2024 14:08:28 GMT
Quite apart from what others have said about these scientists not going to want to give up their life’s work - and I do feel there is a good chance of a ‘brain drain’ to other countries - I am concerned about him talking about an 8 year break. Is he suggesting the incoming administration intends to try to stay in power beyond the 4 years they have been elected for? I fear this administration will do damage that will take the US - and the rest of the world - a decade or more to recover from. It's going to take a lot longer than that. We won't see America's recovery from Trump in our lifetimes, I'm afraid. |
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Post by Merge on Nov 18, 2024 14:06:05 GMT
I’m with the nephew-she’s definitely unhinged. So she just made this decision on her own? Did they discuss it together? Is she latching on to the 4B movement next? What if the nephew is one of the husbands that didn’t tell their wives how they voted-you know-what happens at the ballot box stays at the ballot box? wtf 😳 How unsurprising that you'd believe a woman can't make a decision on her own. I'm sure if the husband had decided to remove the child from a daycare he deemed too "woke," you'd be cheering. |
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