Monday, December 26, 2016

Attachment to Food and/or Eating

Peter Michealson, in Secret Attachments suggests that we have an attachment to food or eating that has gotten out of control. The cause is a concept of emotional injury or attachment to a negative emotion, fear of abandonment, resentment, ego or some other such issue. We may be using eating as a defense, but ultimately it is and attachment to a delusion or emotion locked into our psyche. Or we could like food a bit to much, another form of attachment. We need to let go of the attachment either way.

Buddha, back in his day said that all our suffering is some form of attachment to delusions, our thoughts, concepts, ideas, fears, graspings, expectations, hopes, dreams, and opposites, are all forms of delusions. In other words it is our attachments to the things that drive our lives in the direction we want to go that cause the problem, So if we are not attached to where we go or what happens, we can be free of all suffering. Well, if we do not care, it does not matter. Yes. So being ready to let go of our attachments if that attachment is what freedom of suffering is all about. It is the attachment that is common to all the issues, so if we let go of the attachment, then we are free.

All property, shelter and the like was owned by the community of monks, and they then provided housing, shelter, food, close, etc to the monks. Monks supported the community, begged for the community, and worked for the community. OK. They owned nothing, had nothing, and were free but cared for by the community. Some had jobs within the community: it needed a treasurer, builders, gardeners, beekeepers, etc,

 It is specifically letting go of attachment that the Buddhist promote, regardless of what the attachment is aimed at. So could letting go of the desire for food and/or eating be part of the solution? sounds like it should work, but how does one let go of a attachment? That is the question.      

Friday, December 23, 2016

Fictitious Concept of Self Control

Fictitious Concept of Self Control

Not all humans have anything like self control. That statement files in the face of psychologists, government, doctors with there non-compliant concept. In fact, I can see little evidence that more than a few have "self-control" No one wants to be fat, yet 2/3 of the population is. All anyone needs to do to not be fat is to not eat as much. We see drug dependency, alcoholics, smokers, all of which would not be if they had "self-control" so I suggest that self control is a delusion, a concept we have but is not a real thing, much like gods. So if we are bowing at the alter of self control, and not getting anywhere, what is the logical next step? Stop believing in self control. It does not really exist.

That does not say we should stop trying. Agrippina, or was it Socrates, the old Greek said resist and persist are the two great virtues, or something to that effect. He said those were optional but desired characteristics. I use the word optional for some characteristics unlike duty, following traditions, loyalty to your city state, good moral behavior were just expected, and the transgressors were just not tolerated. They either left to take up residence elsewhere, to travel or were eliminated by other methods, sold into slavery, exiled, exterminated. There is no suggestion that people could force change on themselves, just that they should try.

That is where modern thoughts break down. It is assumed or preached by those in authority that people can change if they want it bad enough, yet there is not what the evidence says. Just look at the fat, smoking, drinking, drugging, lying, cheating, tax evasion, people abusing,  and how many are left as honorable humans? None, or close to that number. So trying to acheive is all we are capable of, achievement itself is more luck that anything.   

There are many of us who just cannot follow a diet when food is available. It is a human problem, and only those who have no attraction to food or make extreme efforts are being successful. Obesity is therefore a cultural/societal problem, not a individual problem. That is what the average human reaction is telling us.     

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Cravings

What are cravings? These are attachments to feelings, desires, emotions, desires for specific foods, flavors. The strength of the attachment or desire is the problem. The only found solution is to let go of the attachment. So what help is that and how is that achieved?

Science, in the form of psychologists, remain quiet on that. It is the craving that cause me much problems.

So those of us with strong desires for food, for comfort, for some other emotion that food acts as a substitute for have a problem, which the medical professionals have no clear answer for. Our best guess it is cause in childhood, and it is some attachment to something that make us feel better. The marketing psychologists know how to drive the attachment by keeping food/food advertising in our faces constantly. But there is no know relief, other that isolation in an active enjoyable environment, where food is not available. The problem  is, one cannot live for extended periods in such an environment. There is no solution. that is what it come down too. Fuck It.    

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

which way do you wobble?

Which way do you wobble? We all wobble, and we cannot run true when we grew up in a wobbling society, culture, learned to wobble from eccentrics, just to survive. So where is the center to correct for eccentricities, and that is true to correct for wobbles, and then there are questions of speed and balance.

The point is that nobody knows for sure. When it comes to overeating there are many hypotheses, and nobody knows what is right and what is not. It is obvious that it is not a single problem, for then those who have fixed the problem would have created a pattern that works for others. There are many patterns and none of them work universally. Many of those who were obsessive about eating have switched to measurement obsession, or exercise obsession, or running obsession, which will work until age or injury set in. So is changing obsession a cure?

We overeaters have a big wobble toward eating and usually away from exercise. The issue with exercise it requires time, and we need to take something else out of our lives. That is but one of the problems. Doing something that we do not enjoy makes it drudgery. It is like an athlete learning more calculus, doing calculus exercises just to stay fresh. Just does not happen for long.

So do we need to produce an anti-eating wobble to counter balance this problem. Everyone is wobbling differently so what is true?        

Friday, December 2, 2016

Food Decision time

Is the overeating motivation physical/biological based or noological/mind/emotionally based? This is the big "divide the problem in two" question.

If it biological, take that path, if it is mind based, it requires a different path. Since the desire to overeat/ overeating is worse in time of indecision, that suggests it is a mental issue.  So where is there to turn to?



Wednesday, November 30, 2016

(5)

Do I have a need for a personal "charter of responsibilities."?

That would be essentially a total disclosure of what I think.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Quest for Purpose (4)

Literature search part

Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, states:  We discover this meaning in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering (and mitigation of more suffering )

Searching for meaning becomes more about attitude that we maintain than the actual whatever we are doing, or the why of doing. For years my company tag line was: providing information to build on. As a geotechnical engineer, that was what I provided, as our core service, but also a bunch more related services. Then I retired and fell into a existential vacuum after doing a few thing that I wanted to do. So I need a replacement for work which I value. Blogging is nice but it is only one part of the solution. 

Some part of the search is displaced by being in the present moment for life activities, sleep, body care, meals, or some entertainment. Some of my days are taken up with care of this property, grass, garden, snow clearing, an bit of maintenance when I am so inclined. 

Studying and learning is a useful displacement, however applying what I learn beyond myself is not part of the use, for the memory is failing so it is difficult to learn and retain information. This is something which was not a problem before age 60, but since the short term memory is a problem. If I read something today, it will be gone later, and I will have no recall of any of this tomorrow. I could not write without spell check and grammar check. Some of that is dyslexia but it is worse, a loss of short term memory. Enough whining, and back to reading Frankl again.     

Monday, November 21, 2016

Quest for Purpose ~ (3)

The quest to derive a current purpose in life has become urgent, well as urgent as a retired person can become urgent. Time is relative, or our valuing of time more likely. What we value, our beliefs, and meaning with engagement, and/or attachment in the conscious mind is the objective. With a why a man can life almost any how, or something to that affect is a quote I recall, but from who, I am not sure. Frankl repeats it, but is not the source.

I just had a read through the UN deceleration of human rights. Cognitive dissonance what? It is a fine but lacking document, it lack a human responsibilities section. Along with rights comes responsibilities that must be spelled out for the people, else wise the social programs will fail from overload. How the social programs required are going to be paid for?

There must also be a section on human responsibility. This IAC document is also lacking. If humans are going to survive they need to control there population and use of resources. In addition, our responsibilities must include some like:
  • All humans need to work toward local or state self-sufficiency, work using mainly quickly (annual growth) renewable resources, and not be a burden on the state.
  • all humans need to educate themselves in science, and scientific method using real evidence, to not cause undue pollution, overpopulation, etc
  • all humans need to be rational, use science, and be sensitive to the physical needs of others.
  • all humans need to learn to protect themselves from emotional abuse, falsehoods created by politicians, businesses, religion, elders, and learn to filter for truth, rational thought,  and scientific correctness.
  • all humans need to learn much, and ever generation needs to learn these same stuff.
Along with this goes a responsibility of the state not to overtax, abuse their citizens,  Over-taxation and general discontent is creating big issues in the world. It is discontent and pollution that will bring down civilization.

My purpose must stay within my responsibilities as a citizen of the world, and be real, not just a fantastical dream. More contemplation is required.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

A Purpose in Life (2)

Generation of alternatives is the next stage in the decision process. It is more along the lines of useful meaningful work that I need, but I am not willing to punch a clock, nor do sales, nor my old profession, even if I could. My mind is just not sharp enough anymore. It had stopped being fun a number of years ago, but I had to wind down the company, such as it was.

Why is purpose important to have at a conscious level? If we are alive and doing we have a purpose or meaning in our lives. Purpose or meaning is the root of motivation for doing whatever we do. That is coupled with attachment to the purpose or meaning, and engagement in meaning, together these attitudes produce flow in life.

Typical purpose or meaning have connections to something or someone outside of ourselves; religion for some, or some cause or organization for others, often at the exclusion of others. Some are fixated on family, and become immeshed. The other extreme occurs when a dishonest member screws another, splitting family, or religion, politics, morals, other other value splits family. Work or career is often sited as something to become engaged with, but then forced retirement comes along, or no longer capable, or memory begins to fail, or the need for the occupation dries up or decreases... overpopulation, yes. Fixation on some objective is often seen as a driving and motivating force, but fixation can be broken by any number of things, becomes obviously impossible or we recognize our cause is irrelevant.

Family is not a factor, and I was raised in the era where we talked openly of overpopulation and pollution. I was raise in relatively poor conditions, and early on realized I would not subject any child to what I underwent growing up, hence the no children stance. Some of those cold and savage conditions effected me in other ways, personality issues, relationship issues, and the like, bringing us to where we are today. One of my close cousins was a modern hermit until he died.   

One other item that has come up out of this political discontent around the world. Canada also has this issue, but in Canada with multiple parties, some 35 to 40 percent of the popular vote are in control, where as with Brexit and US election you need 50 percent. The Liberals are in power here with the support of the natives on the Dole, with I think 38 point something of the popular vote. The liberals offered something for everybody, but are searching for ways to borrow enough cash to make it work. They are short of delivery and are now looking at tole  roads. Oh well.

Hobbies are supposed to be fun, and anything that I tried was for a while, but then they became chores. I could do any number of renovations around home, but I have no desire to do. I could turn wood, or other wood related projects, but why? There is no purpose in those things for me anymore. I can sit and whine on a blog for a couple of hours a day perhaps, but that too has it's limits, and is of little value to anyone, beyond me filling time up.  I do a bit of traditional archery, but no interest in competition. Walk the dog a couple of time each day is about all my hips can take. I did film photography, but digital does not appeal much to me. Most of that is Photoshop anyway, and what does one do with all the images? I have file drawers of film and pictures down stairs that no one cares about. That is a lot that I am not interested in, without a purpose for the effort. So there is more negatives or what I will not be doing unless my attitude changes.

To visit relatives and some friends is a strain with their god talk. I need to be on an anthropological expedition mode of thinking. Until I became a atheist from just not caring agnostic, this was not a problem. It is amazing how much christian beliefs have seeded the English language.

I struggle with writing, and could not do it effectively before the computer and auto-correct. When I was young and working as an engineer, I depended on several wonderful secretaries, and then we hired a typist, who soon left from overwork with redoes.  Oh well, life goes on. Reports on onionskin anyone? Carbon paper anyone?  And forms on Gestetner. Hand drafting, and log tables, slide rule before the calculator in 1973. Oh well, I am dated, past my best by date. I have half of a museum around here. Technology has changed the offices in my lifetime. We adapted, but how many times can we do it? It is time for more adaption.

Comments are welcome.

    


Saturday, November 19, 2016

A Purpose in Life

This blog is about to take a turn for a bit. Bear bare with me if you can. My displeasure with the modern food system has not left, and some vitriol posts may be coming, if and when I get to writing them.

This purpose of life bit is an exercise in renewal of self, to refocus on what is important as viewed from a old codger prospective. I think it is important to think about things like this from time to time, especially as we undergo major changes in our life. What has happened in my life? Well I have retired, done a few things that I always wanted to, become a strong atheist, from an agnostic/not caring position, and have had a bit of time to read, think and write about stuff. I have encountered free time, which is something new for me. A conscious purpose in life is one of the necessary foundations for building the remainder of my life.

Now biologically we can say that the human has no purpose beyond reproduction and supporting the development of the human species. This is fine to a point, but when we examine the past we see civilizations flourish and die, as long as the remains have been around. Jared Diamond and others have examined this, and we can say that in most cases, the downfall was brought about by overpopulation in the environment the civilization existed in. There are no old great civilizations thriving today. We are likely doomed from overpopulation, pollution, and depletion of resources. It is also common that the civilizations continue in a reduced state long after the collapse below the peak.

Now to get back, to purpose, from this we can see that reproduction and development of the human species is a "genetically driven" purpose, so that suggest that anything we do that drives society forward is purpose, and aids in the advance of society, and is therefore valid purpose. Even being a burden on society drives development of social programs of the government and the do-gooders, just as the robbers drive the insurance, home alarm, home security business. So almost anything is helpful to society in some form. Some only give purpose to others in society, and this also contributes to society. In other word, almost anything contributes to society to a point. Those who are not a burden on society do more service than other who are primarily a burden. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

There is a limit on what the people will support, and we may be at that limit, hence Brexit, Trump. Rather than a tax revolt, we are doing a political revolt, starting in England and now the US. As a Canadian, we saw the NDP in Alberta and Trudeau in Ottawa. When more than one half of the voting population think there is a problem, we will have a dramatic shift, not necessarily correcting the problem. We are at one of those shift points. In Canada we have the natives on the dole that shifted the balance of power with our multi-party system. Oh well, itewajda.

Now in order that I can get myself behind the new purpose, it must motivate me. That means I must value the prospects, and find no obvious blocks without work arounds. It must have meaning and purpose, to which I can become attached and engaged with, and have a positive attitude about. The new purpose must fall withing my skill set, more or less, and within my meager means. It must also be within my beliefs and values. Being atheist prevents god or religion becoming a purpose or providing meaning. Dueling hypothesis was the final straw in removing all doubts as to the no god hypothesis is much more likely. I personally think Eastern (Buddhist, Confucians, Hindi)  morality and  ethics leave Abrahamic morality and ethics (jewish, christian, muslim) in the dirty ditch, sucking swamp water, but that is just my opinion having read about both.   

So what is my purpose? From the criteria, anything that helps society in some way is a logical choice. Now to generate alternatives, add more criteria along the way if necessary.  Your comments are welcome.
 

PE Pussy Graber

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/11/19/trump-demands-apology-from-hamilton-after-casts-message-to-pence/

Pretty thin skinned this fellow. If he expects an apology for this,  he is out to lunch.

“Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you, and we truly thank you for joining us here at ‘Hamilton: An American Musical.’ We really do,” Dixon said to further applause. “We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us. Again, we truly thank you truly for (sharing) this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and orientations.”

http://business.financialpost.com/news/donald-i-never-settle-trump-said-to-be-settling-real-estate-university-lawsuit-for-around-25-million-source

 This is the fellow the US picks as a leader?

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Wrong Hypothesis

I learned that a hypothesis that I based much of a lifetime of work on is actually incomplete, it is wrong under some conditions. We learn as we go no. It is all history now, but the feeling of finding out a major hypothesis of our life is wrong is quite a shock.

Frankl's insight is that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful. Of course, if we find pleasure meaningful, for some, pursuit of pleasure is meaningful. Pleasure is specific, while what we personally find meaningful is general, making the US constitution equivalent to a hypothesis that we just realized as incomplete, but we still understand it.

Then there are the dueling hypothesis of god/no god. Before this can be addressed we need to decide on what is evidence. If we eliminate all holy books as hearsay, then the no god hypothesis has much more support and credibility. When we just review all the available evidence, the case is clear, there is no god. I understand how this hypothesis is impossible for some to accept, it goes against all that they have believed all there lives. The only solution for them is to die off. Oh well.

So is there a direct connection between what we find meaningful and our actions. The simple answer is no, since staying on a diet is next to impossible. Eating and desiring food is much more of a physical/primitive instinct that is even our belief system, but our beliefs are much closer than is our reasoning mind. So if I am to make not eating meaningful to myself in some way.... Who knows?    






Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Truth or Bullshit

https://authoritynutrition.com/8-glasses-of-water-per-day/

I have no dispute with 64 oz being about the required water, but the source of this is in dispute.

The earliest source of 64 oz per day I have seen is from the US civil war, how big should a standard canteen be? The decision was two quarts was the minimum that a cavalry or infintery could get by for a day on, so that was the canteen size selected. Nothing but experience, no science.

This is not much different from the Greek goatleg of water from 2000 plus years ago.

So 8x8 is not a modern concept, but something that is about right, as demonstrated over time. Many of us overweight people run a bit dehydrated, so to drink more water is not out of line recommendation. A big glass of cold water does tend to force an end to a meal.  

Friday, November 4, 2016

Willpower Failure

Does the willpower fail, or is it the disconnect between willpower and action?

Just how do we define the will? Frankl, in the doctor and the soul, says the will is our ability to make choice, which is also what Epictetus suggest we have control over, absolutely. If the power to choose is really the soul, the geist, the mind, then when I overeat, there is a disconnect between the body and mind, for I am aware of doing wrong, but keep doing it regardless. I become possessed by a force outside of my mind, and my body just does it.

During meditation, I can separate my mind from body, I have control over the mind, but my body still wants and does. It is not, therefore, a willpower failure but a disconnect between mind and body that occurs.

In Sam Harris's work, he found nothing he could relate to as free will, but he was dependent on the body for measurement, so he was not isolating the will, but including the body/mind interface in what he was measuring. In order to make eating a fair choice, we need to provide an alternative to eating at all times. That choice must be as enjoyable and fulfilling as eating... well after our metered meal. 

Retirement may be a bad concept, as one really needs something to do. In engineering, as a technical specialist, loss of memory or rather failing memory is not a good thing. Other professions may not be as heavily dependent on memory, but for my own safety and others, I need to give it up. Now I need replacement activities, but lack the desire and/or interest to do much. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

So I guess this whole post is just about how wrong collective thinking about willpower failure is. It is the connection between will and physical action that has failed, and much of that is not through the individual, but through the collective thinking, education, we receive, informally. 


Wednesday, November 2, 2016

What is Important Today?

mental wanderings without purpose

Frankl in search of meaning got me thinking. Philosophy and meaning, what else is there? The object of logotherapy is to modify/increase meaning to make life more, better, without effecting the philosophy. But so many of us suffer from philosophical issues, might it not be simpler to just create and load a whole new logos, rather that patching up the old one piecemeal? Really, since it is self loading, it must be piecemeal over the existing, one concept at a time.

So what would a new cultural free logos look like? Could it be cultural free? No, it could not be culturally free, for the existing human operating system was loaded during childhood/student/youth/young adult/adult/old adult stages, and is immersed in culture. Any new logos would contain elements of the culture or digital culture from which it came. It come down to what is the ideal philosophy/meaning to paint onto life in the present environment, and present time.

We are in control of our decisions, but we can only chose between available or conceived options. We have control of our attitudes which is a big part of how we react to life, and every situation. Since we have control of our decisions, and attitudes, we have control over our opinions, and what we accept or reject. This gives us control over our beliefs, values, ethics, characteristics we emphasize, and those we suppress. That gives us control over our desires and aversions, motivations, and a number of other mental or geist issues. Once we start to even think about getting the body to do something, we can only influence the physical part of us.

There is one of my problems, conceived options. I do not generate options readily. I could just sit here and drink tea, or I could write a bit, or....

Our mind is logically responsible for only that which we have control over. It is therefore illogical to "take responsibility" in the absolute sense, for anything we are not in complete control of, yet the law expects that we will. Responsibility is therefore only an approximation of control, and is only what others would like to control, not actual control, only proximate control. So we only take proximate control at best of anything beyond our mind, and therefore can only have proximate responsibility. 

The logos would need to a encyclopedia type of book. To impose order on a wind ranging group of concepts would be near impossible. AC Grayling has made a effort of writing clips on many subjects, but does not go near the basics. The logos must lay out concepts which then can be picked up individually, with both the up size and the down side discussed. Many concepts have both, which provide rational limits on the characteristic. Consider charity; families can easily get into finical difficulty if we are too charitable, trusting, gullible. Many of the modern charities are essentially business that pay the administrators very well.  We need compassion, but not get stupid about it.

So what is the next move?

As a retired person, my views may be slanted. My impending death (0 to 23 years) should provide a sense of urgency of action, or so says the stoics. Yet, much of the time, I just do not care, tomorrow is another day. Today is day 24676. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. Growing old is optional, death is not. After we consider death, all else is more positive. Today is the first day of the rest of my life.      


Monday, October 31, 2016

Gays

warning- mental wanderings -fiction

What would the genes think about gays if genes could think?

Well, you see, we reproduce, but we are not in control, for there are epigenetics fouling up the works. Some day we may adopt some of there changes or not. Oh well, we do not always throw true copies, some are just damages, bent, twisted, reverse twisted, kinked, methylated or acetylated. We try to throw true male and female, but some just are not quite true to their intended type. We could just junk those when we see the error, or we could let them live, and be productive. Some help the survival of the true sexes, and some are just there. It does not matter?

Speaking of junking some, we try, but you humans get in the way and provide care for the defective ones. This produces a burden on healthcare and mental health that need not be there. It is the human choice to expend great effort to salvage the poor, and let some of the good expire due to lack of care. Oh well, that is human doing and is out of our control. We can only influence the headstrong, stubborn, indoctrinated, fixed ideologies type humans among you. You have picked up collective ideas that create issues between you individuals, where minding your own business would be the preferred behavior. There are many humans that have fixed wrong ideas and beliefs that need correction.

Those of you who have not thrown true can live happy any way they want, for often there are more than one issue. Oh well, if we were perfect we would not mutate. Some mutations are necessary for survival under extreme conditions and through population bottlenecks. There is no reason these cannot get together and live in common couples or groups for the remainder of their lives, natural or extended by human interference. Death is inevitable, suffering is not. Each can choose. If it bothers some to see the strange, they can look the other way. We ignore many of the population anyway, what is a few more?

Humans have long been fowling their own environment. Oh well, the gene will survive, not necessarily as humans. Many previous long lines got trimmed off before, but we genes cannot think, so do not care. Erects walked the earth for two million years, and current population is unlikely to beat that record.

We genes have been around for a long time. We came from the last planet that was recycled as planets do. Bits of the previous civilization may have also come, and you may find them as out of order artifacts that make no sense. Some of you say the universe is 13.8 billion years, but that was just the last big bang from a singularity. What happens when two black holes collide at something over light speed, each traveling at something less than light speed? They generate a lot of material and noise so you can hear nothing else until the next happening.

So what does this animal medium fauna really amount too anyway? We genes recycle everything until we cannot, then we become food for oxidation, or other life. What does it matter? change of address, eternity or atoms, to quote Marcus of 2000 years ago. In the end we all just die anyway, but before that happens, get busy and do something. We need exercise.

Sincerly
Your Genes.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Dawkins Question

What would a human gene want if a gene could want? What? Genes can't want, but if they could, what would they want?

That likely tells us more about the future than anything else. If you say so. To reduce the size of the question to a partial answer, what do humans want? More money, power, fame, prestige, and not to be forgotten. Well we cannot all have that, only a few can, and as the population grows, the less people will acheive this success. Our genes do not care about these human concerns, only about survival, as a group, not as individual genes. A steady food supply would help.

Big changes in species seem to occur when the population goes through a bottleneck, which is usually the result of some stress on the population. Some will survive, some will not. Oh well, that is evolution. Then the species, or new species build back up, live how they live, and do it all again. With logic, can we look forward into time and guess which or what will cause the next bottleneck, and when it will occur? My guess is climate change and overpopulation, which since population drives climate change faster will occur quite soon.

My demise scenario goes something like this: carbon dioxide rises, and the sea ice melts, present temperature and 10 years, warmer temperature will do it sooner. The warming allows huge amount of methyl hydrate trapped on the floor of the arctic ocean to melt, which causes a 5 degree C rise in temperature. Fish and food become in short supply, which gets horded in the cool regions. Much effort will be made to correct the problem, but once the sea ice is gone, it will be to late to stop by human means. Too bad, so sad, government did not have the will to act. Methyl hydrate will kill many humans. Oh well, itewajda.

The bottleneck occurs. We must cooperate to survive, or we can kill each other off for resources... That will be the choice of the governments soon. Earth will suffer until the nuclear winter ends... The governments will not cooperate, the choice will be war. Perhaps 1 percent of the population will survive, likely through cannibalism and savaging. After the dust blocks the sun, the temperature will drop 15 degrees, ice and methyl hydrate will start forming in the polar regions. Soon the Earth will be habitat once again, but will the human species have survived?

I am sixty seven now, and I expect that the if I survive to the age of my parents, the methyl hydrate will take me out. Yes, I am saying it will happen that soon. Alternatives : cooperation and cutting green house gasses but not dust into the atmosphere.  Dust has a cooling effect. Burn coal and produce soot to block out the sun. China may be right by ignoring the western clean air methods.

But I digress, but maybe not. The gene may want to reproduce and survive, but to do that we must reduce in numbers, and soon. Our environment is too fragile, and we are too close to the edge. Oh well, itewajda. Growing old is optional, death is not.

    

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Fanatics

Are we all fanatics about something? Frankel claims that being a fanatic about something is one of the modern  neurosis or signs of neurosis.

Is a LCHF person a fanatic? Some would say yes.

How about a religious person?

Atheist and the like think so. The like include those like myself who know there is no god. Gods were a hypothesis to explain the unknown, and religions have grown into a series of fantastic stories, many being a hypothesis in there own right. So does that make me a fanatic? Possible, since that is not the collective neurosis.

So what about those who think the Canada Good food guide has some value?

Some value but the recommendations present the food science/food marketing climate of a few years ago, not the science of the day or now.

So with all we know about obesity and its primary cause, overeating, when is there going to be action on overeating? Does that make me a fanatic?

How about my view on overpopulation being the primary cause of carbon dioxide rise, global warming, ice melt, and the like? We need to aim for a population that keeps carbon dioxide below 300 ppm. Does that make me a fanatic?

And so many other views that are not the collective view of society. Society has collective neurosis, and I have private neurosis; no I am just fanatic, a lunatic, a radical. Maybe, but I am in search of truth, that which the hypothesis can be demonstrated if not proven. Oh well, itewajda.   

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Spirtual? No. Geist

We do not have an appropriate English word. Spiritual has a religious connotation. Geist is the German word but without religion connotation.

Paul MacLean came up with the triune brain, I did think we actually have a quadratic function, a physical interface primitive, an old automatic emotional portion, a rational part and a geist part where we do not question the stored automatic beliefs. But now perhaps, the geist part, being automatic may just be part of emotional part. The emotional part is more consistent and powerful than the logical/rational part, hence when these are in conflict, the emotional/geist part will always win in the long run. That explains a lot of why diets (rational logical) work in the short run and fail in the long run.

Now what is geist part of the brain all about for a "god does not exist" atheist? (I need to put it that way for there are also "I do not believe in god" atheists.) We do thing automatically that has been encoded into our personality and/or genetic/epigenetic makeup. There is no agreement on where these behaviors are encoded. It is in the automatic unreasoned part, and that causes the problem.

We do not want to overeat, yet all day we are bombarded with eat eat messages in the media. Marketing works, and it is relentless.  We are human, and therefore are generally cooperative with requests for a behavior, especially when we enjoy those behaviors. This cooperation and hedonic satisfaction drives resides in the emotional/automatic portions, which are stronger and more persistent than the logical/ration signal.  There is the problem, as long as  we are subjected to the emotional/automatic messages, we will suffer from overeating, and/or the urge to overeat. How about if we were able to move the "do not overeat" rule to the automatic/emotional portion of the brain and thereby increase the resistance? How does one do this? It it even practical? Is this what groups like Tops do with support, or just increase our investment?

The story hypothesis is a natural human response to wanting to know the why of events. We sapiens would rather have a likely wrong story that no story. Explanations in the form of hypothesis stories were told to us as children; we accepted them, and as we got older and tried to question them, were noted many adults claimed to believe these fanatic stories. Some gave up questioning and believed, others of us called bullshit under our breath, and carried on without ever getting logical answers. But is there something there in reality? The answer is found in the doing. It is easier to stay motivated in emotional belief than in knowledge driven reality. That is the difference; belief vs knowledge, and reason is the weaker force until we realize that motivation can come from truth as well. When rationally, there is no need of doing anything, there is still a need to do something so that we can be in the flow. Activity for no other reason than activity is valuable.      That  is not rationally obvious to some of us.

So where is this going? We atheists may need to create unquestioned emotional "truths" to deal with life where rational is not strong enough. Do not overeat at meals. Do not place ourselves in food rich environments. Do not eat between meals. And those around us who have a problem with these values, or rules will just need to accommodate us. Oh well, itewajda.







Wednesday, October 26, 2016

existential vacuum

how does one move out of a existential vacuum? there is nothing to push against. there is nothing to pull on.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Who has the right?

Does the government really have the right to tell us what we will or will not do?

We are all equal... well sort of... but not really. Those in power are not superior, they just think they are and lord it over us peons, who are busy doing other things, like making a living and living our diseased lives.

The government has the best of everything, they are the first that get paid through taxes. They have the best of quality of buildings, services, and are the first to screen that they need more, better, new. But what gives the the right to govern in the first place? Well they just take that authority. They govern because we do not resist them.

We need a bit of government, but we do not need as much as we have. We need police to keep the criminals in line, but if people want to self-destruct, we need people to pick up the bodies, but should we be preventing self destruction? We live in an over populated world now. Perhaps we should be teaching people how to overcome depression, frustration, anger, resentment, boredom, apathy, fear, anxiety, lack of direction, and similar "emotional" issues in school, and leaving them to there own devices after that. First, we would need to learn how to do this ourselves. That is the rub.

Schools, and religions are much more concerned about teaching there own philosophy than science, human sciences, and truth. Everything is hypothesis, story, until it is proven. It is teaching hypothesis as fact that created much of the problems that exist.

Once we understand that our expectations are a big part of the problem, and that modern media create these expectations, at the behest of big corporations, we can reduce our expectations. But there are more dream merchants. Religions. These massive organization control masses of people, and some collect up masses of money, much of which rubs off onto the administration, and there lifestyle and comfort. There are other organizations that provide for there people, but the people do not own anything. That is a lifestyle choice. It is the foundation of ashrams, communes, and the like. But do these provide value to the community or just comfort to their people?

So we are free to do or not do much, but not to do other things. What is wrong with doing drugs, alcohol, tobacco, excess food, etc? Do we individual humans still have value to our society? Or is the value in the cash flow required to keep us alive, healthy... well functioning? It appears that this is the real issue, the cash flow required to provide "services". The government is not concerned about humans, but the cash flow, which they depend on. The economy is the first concern, and that is just not the way it should be. It should be the people, next week, next year and for the foreseeable future.

That make sustainable environment critical, population control, and the like issues that the government should be more active in understanding and promoting that understanding to the people. Overeating has a huge impact on the lives of those who are inflicted with this issue; it has a huge impact on health care, and those of us in Canada, the public purse, yet the government does not take the steps necessary to clean our environment even a little bit. So if that is not evidence of where there interests lie, in the cash flow, what is?

 

Who has the right?

Does the government really have the right to tell us what we will or will not do?

We are all equal... well sort of... but not really. Those in power are not superior, they just think they are and lord it over us peons, who are busy doing other things, like making a living and living our diseased lives.

The government has the best of everything, they are the first that get paid through taxes. They have the best of quality of buildings, services, and are the first to screen that they need more, better, new. But what gives the the right to govern in the first place? Well they just take that authority. They govern because we do not resist them.

We need a bit of government, but we do not need as much as we have. We need police to keep the criminals in line, but if people want to self-destruct, we need people to pick up the bodies, but should we be preventing self destruction? We live in an over populated world now. Perhaps we should be teaching people how to overcome depression, frustration, anger, resentment, boredom, apathy, fear, anxiety, lack of direction, and similar "emotional" issues in school, and leaving them to there own devices after that. First, we would need to learn how to do this ourselves. That is the rub.

Schools, and religions are much more concerned about teaching there own philosophy than science, human sciences, and truth. Everything is hypothesis, story, until it is proven. It is teaching hypothesis as fact that created much of the problems that exist.

Once we understand that our expectations are a big part of the problem, and that modern media create these expectations, at the behest of big corporations, we can reduce our expectations. But there are more dream merchants. Religions. These massive organization control masses of people, and some collect up masses of money, much of which rubs off onto the administration, and there lifestyle and comfort. There are other organizations that provide for there people, but the people do not own anything. That is a lifestyle choice. It is the foundation of ashrams, communes, and the like. But do these provide value to the community or just comfort to there people?

So we are free to do or not do much, but not to do other things. What is wrong with doing drugs, alcohol, tobacco, excess food, etc? Do we individual humans still have value to our society? Or is the value in the cash flow required to keep us alive, healthy... well functioning? It appears that this is the real issue, the cash flow required to provide "services". The government is not concerned about humans, but the cash flow, which they depend on. The economy is the first concern, and that is just not the way it should be. It should be the people, next week, next year and for the foreseeable future.

That make sustainable environment critical, population control, and the like issues that the government should be more active in understanding and promoting that understanding to the people. Overeating has a huge impact on the lives of those who are inflicted with this issue; it has a huge impact on health care, and those of us in Canada, the public purse, yet the government does not take the steps necessary to clean our environment even a little bit. So if that is not evidence of where there interests lie, in the cash flow, what is?

 

Friday, October 14, 2016

Overeating, a Collective Maladaptive Behavior

Culture or society has a problem. Collective wrongs in our culture. These produce collective maladaptive behaviors that are learned and not examined by the individual, just learned. Who are we to question our parents? The radio? Television? You can see what era I grew up in. Oh well. These learned maladaptive behaviors and errors cause a collective neurosis or collective problems.

Is overeating at it's start a learned behavior? If our parents were heavy, yes. If our restaurant meals are large, yes. If we are encouraged to intake sugar water, "treats" and the like at every opportunity, and we are, overeating is a collective maladaptive behavior, a collective neuroses, a cultural problem, a societal problem. Oh well.

We as individuals can recognize this, and take action as individuals to redress this behavior, and separate ourselves from this behavior. Other similar collective neurosis include religions, some occupations, some behaviors, some ways of life. Oh well.

Here in Canada, we have a indigenous people culture problem where the young ladies are hitchhiking to get around, and make them prime targets for the predators that do exist. Until the natives realize and accept this, and start protecting themselves, the problem will continue. Our white culture does not take care of such goofy behaviors. This is another collective neurosis, part of a culture.

So to solve these collective neurosis, we need to turn the individual to realize that it is our specific society that causes this problem, and separate ourselves those cultural drivers of overeating. Society is just wrong. We need to step back, and realizing this wrongness, learn to live with truth. We need to live in a god free spiritual level, what Frankl refereed to as noölogic dimension. We need to have a clear and present meaning in our lives. We need to know the our culture has some wrong parts, and know what those parts are, and correct for those in our current life, the only one we get. Oh well, itewajda (in the end we all just die anyway).

and on another note: when we like doing something we are not good at, change happens. Managers get promoted on the basis of performance, and luck, timing of retirements, deaths, company growth. So the next in line is not good at handling personnel, or at project management involving many more people. Now what, a big unhappy staff. Stress, distress. Fountain Tire, are you listening, I have heard has a staff problem at some branches. 

      

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Collapse

Collapse is occurring, and so far the changes made effect is about equivalent to rearranging the chairs, but also many are aware of the problem, and how much must be done to prevent the worst case possibilities.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/mel-wilson/are-we-simply-rearranging_b_12449078.html

The carbon dioxide levels have been going up since the 1960's so long term we must return to that level of Co2 production or figure out how to fix that much.

The obvious solution is return to 1960 population. Oh well, itewajda. 

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Rant

http://www.drsharma.ca/when-the-risk-of-treating-exceeds-the-risk-of-not-treating-then-dont

But Sharma never says clearly "identify and deal with the causes". The overeating will continue if the causes of overeating are not removed.

It is a continual fight to live clear of bullshit, aka false hypothesis presented as fact by a person who does not care, know, or capable of separation of fact and false hypothesis.

Lots of people have a specific purpose in there life. Trump is self promotion and a search for power and money, both as ego boosters. He is all about building his ego. Trump is a great one for making statement that he cannot know to be true.  "I am the greatest."

Sharma does not have that issue, but is only interested in treatment that will generate revenue for him. His specific purpose in life has become to make money off obesity. He is not looking for a cure, but a treatment that will generate revenue.

I am in search of a cure, to cure myself, and to release that cure into the wilds of the internet, to perhaps cure or help others.

Monday, October 3, 2016

Noncompilance

http://www.drsharma.ca/total-ignorance-about-obesity-does-not-stop-doctors-from-preaching-about-it

http://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.ca/2016/10/on-tim-noakes-and-bullsht.html 

My first experience with the medical system. "Cut your intake in half." and when we are unable, we are labeled noncompliant. And that is where any help ends. Nobody ever bothered to figure out why I was unable to comply.

Food knowledge and quantity is only one part. It is essential but not sufficient for recovery. 

The why of overeating is essential for recovery. Each of the following are real and separate issues that must be addressed and resolved.

Food addiction must be addressed and overcome.

Similar to food addiction is insulin overshot which causes premature hunger, repeated hunger. this is a physiological issue and can only be managed, long term. This can be addressed through low carb diet, and should not be confused with either food addiction or emotional overeating.

There are physical issues that cause hunger. These must be addressed before recovery can be realized. Ulcers are bacteria/virus/germs/nasty buggers/ that cause hunger and the antibiotic cure is not any better.   

Emotional overeating, eating over stresses, abuse, indecision or out of habit in our youth can lock in an epigenetic switch, and that make recovery impossible. The cause of the emotional issue must also be resolved, for it may be ongoing even into adulthood. We may be living in bad situation, and are unwilling to resolve it, unable to resolve it, or similar issue.

I do not want to listen to the sarcasm and negativity toward me or others anymore. That is the introduction to personality issues as a cause. Cultural/society/family behavior can make recovery difficult/impossible. Many of us need to be able to stay on a diet while living in a sea of good food.

Oh and lest we forget a chemical called glyphosate that destroys our ability to taste. As a result we need more sugar to taste good, and leads to a physical desire for sweet things, and there is traces of this in all grain products now.

It is all just hypothesis anyway. Nobody knows for sure much.  Oh well, itewajda. 

     

Friday, September 30, 2016

Setpoint... well maybe

http://www.drsharma.ca/resetting-the-setpoint-is-there-something-to-learn-from-bariatric-surgery

So what is the setpoint really? It is a weight that our intake and output are equal, and therefore no change in our weight. Our intake, eating matches our output energy. So all those factors that effect our intake and output come into play.

So when we realize we are addicted to wheat and ban wheat from our diet, we have a new setpoint. Or when we injure our back and stop doing heavy physical work, our output decreases, yet we are in the habit of eating, so we rapidly gain until we make the effort to restrict intake, but then realize that our eating is epigenetic set now so we have a major struggle and are likely to lose the battle long term without a psychological shakeup and superhuman effort.

It is that psychological / educational shakeup that the medical industry does not understand. Neither does the diet industry. The exercise industry only promotes exercise which is all fine for the uninjured and healthy, but not for those with active physical problems. Some exercise is required for life, but not anything like the amount required to deal with a weight problem. Oh well, we are on our own with no government help. In fact, the government is working against us, both actively and passively.

The government goes on spouting wrong information about food and diet, they actively promote and allow other to promote overeating. Again we are on our own. The press promotes whatever without any concern for the correctness nor the effect. Many now know more of what is correct, but it takes an massive effort to get that information into the public's hands, and it must overcome the wrong information competing. Only one can be correct, and wrong side is still winning. Oh well, some of us know what is correct, and are trying to live it. It is difficult when those around us will not be persuaded of what we need.

Human society, as we live today is doomed. Oh well, the big effects will not be severe in my lifetime. Soon the wild fish will be gone, the oceans to acidic to grow much, oxygen producing plankton unable to keep up to our carbon-dioxide production. As the carbondioxide production is tied to population and lifestyle, and we are unwilling to give up lifestyle, the only choice is reduction in population back to the level it was when the oceans could keep up to our carbondioxide production rate. A return to 1960 population more or less. 50% of current. Oh well, itewajda. (In the end we all just die anyway.)

How will this occur. Our excess will shorten the lives of many. Those living in excess do not reproduce healthy populations, but others that live in excess. Religions will need to be banned or subjected to forced population control. All will need to promote birth control, one child families, and similar method of zero growth after the big reduction occurs.

What will cause the big reduction? famine in regions, war-civil and against immigrants or invaders, and disease... resistant bacteria may be a big item. Carbondixoide induced change in weather, and the inability to mount rescue missions, and those who are unable to deal with the high dioxide levels physically, emphysema and other breathing issues. We are unable to convince the governments into real effective actions, just token actions. Oh well, itewajda.  


 

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Negative Negative Negative and Abuse

It is not just the diet industry that suffers from overstatement of the results.   Here are  prime examples. 
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/my-doubts-about-deepak-chopra-and-the-monetization-of-meditation/# 
http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2016/09/28/faith-based-medicine/
 
The diet industry, meditation industry, the whole self-help industry, the drug industry all have this in common, they contain a bit of information/treatment but far oversell the benefits.

Obesity and the obese takes a great deal of abuse from the media and through the media. Obesity is caused by overeating which in turn has many causes. Comfort eating, to overcome the abuse heaped on by the media, is not helpful to this problem. Neither is the abuse.

Now the media may say that it is just reporting, but they manufacture much of the stories, hype them up, without understanding the actually the problem.

The remaining choice is to shut off all media.

Other reasons this may be a good choice is baiting for food by the food industry drives the desire to eat, and the obese do not need that, for to the obese it is additional abuse. It is not just fast food, for we can forbid ourselves to eat that but the commercials stimulate appetite in general. If the government wants to do something about the obesity problem, the first action should be to ban all food commercials. Period. Until they do, the government does not care, regardless of what they say. There actions and speech do not match. We as a population have not adapted to dealing with the new media effectively.

There are many industries, government included that are hype based, not reality based. Much of the strife that the "mentally ill" face is culturally based issues. Many of these "mentally ill" are really the ends of the normal distribution of personality characteristics. These occur naturally, and can be trained out with effort, should anyone desire to and take the time to figure out how to train it out. Much is a result of our modern culture, hype based industry, rush for money, greed is good society, of which I was part of for many years. Now that I have had some time to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it, it is apparent that much is just rhetoric without foundation, currently referred to as bullshit.

Bullshit is spread by people who just talk without concern for the correctness of what they are saying. This is different than lying, for in that case the speaker knows they are wrong. The difference is in the knowing of the truth. Much is just bullshit.  Actually, the bullshit has a random chance of being correct, as the stopped watch is correct twice a day.

So after that digression, how does one separate the tails of the normal distribution from the mentally ill? Does it make any difference? Does anyone care?  How much of this is culturally driven? As it turns out, the definition of acceptable behavior is totally culturally driven. So any mismatch is a function of culture except where there is an organic problem, although adapting to a rapidly changing culture is not easy, and we may step between cultures in our day to day lives. Each occupation and even employer has it's own culture, as do families, nationalities, districts, ethical origins and the like.

We do change, and often in steps. We will no longer tolerate something, and switch off something. It can be sudden and dramatic or slow and gradual to the point we do not even notice. We can foster this change, or it can occur at a unconscious level. Obesity recovery is often a trained in change, and it may be unpleasant for those who do it, and also for those around those that make the change. Much is a necessary push against the culture we live in, and those around may find it unpleasant, but that is their problem. It is up to each of us to decide the kind of person we are going to be and then do it.

Food commercials are abuse to the obese, so the media are abusers.            

Saturday, September 24, 2016

What is the weight loss key?

What is the key to weight loss... well it is not eating. So how does one do that for an extended period of time? now that is the real problem. LCHF may help, but until someone puts numbers on it, it is hard to know what they are talking about, and what about that desire to eat which LCHF people ignore, or do not acknowledge? Well that may be emotional driven, food addiction, chemically driven, epigenetic, habit, but that is not the LCHF concern, yet it is the overweight persons concern.

Back a hundred posts ago, I had it down to five areas that drive overeating: food and physiological knowledge, physical cause of excess appetite, environmental conditions, maladaptive eating behaviors as eating disorders (stress, comfort) , and food addictions. To this we need to add epigenetic and perhaps relabel these. So which one is driving today?

It is apparent that many people who do not have weight issues are driven into crazy eating patterns. So what is the natural solution? So where does the motivation come from? When we try to rationalize the desire to eat with Maslow's extended motivations...

Transcendence, self actualization, aesthetics, knowledge and understanding, self esteem and respect for others, love and acceptance, safety, physiological needs, but the higher portions are cultural driven... overeating must be in the bottom two someplace. Oh well, these do not seem to relate very well... but that is a issue with all these schemes... they are all mismatched.  It becomes we need to want, need, desire recovery more than the problem has a hold on the natural drives. The strongest force will win. Epigenetic pull vs will power. Is it even an even struggle? 



 



Thursday, September 1, 2016

Dinner with Foodies

Last night I had dinner with a group of Foodies. It was obvious to me that Foodies have a special problem, they like there food and want it, want to talk about it, and that drives appetite. It is an unhelpful situation for me. I will avoid in the future.

Foodies are all about the food, they crave more, better, different. And among them are the one with weight issues. Not rational. Oh well. itewajda.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Offensive Maneuvers

Offensive Maneuvers, aka going on the offensive are not intended to be offensive to others, but often are when we consider philosophy and/or theology, it is taken as offensive. Religious people are just thin skinned; that is what religion does to people; they are not used to dealing with reality.  We personally relate to and are attached to our beliefs, and then some fool comes along and tell us we are just wrong and ignorant of the truth. How can that not be offensive? We anti-religious have been taking that abuse since we realized the religious premises are false.

Through history, people get some thing right and others wrong. Original sin, aka we are born ignorant, and must learn everything from those who went before or from first principals, or experiment. Some thing our ancestors, teachers, parents, coaches, professors, etc taught us were just wrong, that is how society and knowledge progresses. It it were all correct, there would be no progress. The assumption that any holy book could be totally right and not improved on, looking from this side is just ludicrous. Oh well, reality continues. As we ratchet through life, correcting one thing at a time, the best we do is to survive in a pleasant life, good life, meaningful life, a life with purpose... with ever increasing knowledge and truth. That does not mean that errors will not creep in, and fixes will be made. But admitting imperfection goes a long way to relieving stress. A worth while purpose is to correct errors in our thinking.

We are limited by our character, skills, strength, desires, energies, interests and the like. Some of us are unable to stop eating, and there is no help in many areas; further, it is not apparent that any human knows how to help some of us. We could be locked up and not feed, but short of that.... we will overeat. There is no one pitching a philosophical or psychological correction that has interest appeal, or universal acceptance, and understanding of the problem, other than eat less. That is not where the problem is. The problem is in overcoming desire to eat, overeat, and develop satiation. Telling our self falsehoods does not make this better.  

Some things I teach will also be wrong, but for different reasons than never questioning the belief. Better plans will come along, without a doubt. Our purpose can simply be to understand.  

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Scams - misdirection

Chain of consciousness... 

Scams - misdirection are the most common problem of the diet industry. The real problem is how do we, on a long term basis, overcome our natural and epigenetic overeating selves? It is all fine to say only eat a little bit, but when we are unable to overcome our desires, it is all our fault, or so society says, yet they are unable to teach what we lack... will power... or so they say. Well just look around at the 2/3 of the population with this problem. How can you say it is all just a lack of will power? Has the human race in developed countries degenerated that fast? It is a lack of something in our culture, and that is time to communicate at a level to transmit some vital information at the appropriate age. I am suggesting that it is TV with entertainment and advertising that has created this problem.

But how does one abandon a lifestyle which has become so natural? And more importantly, what do we replace it with? Once we learn to sort real from false belief, and sticking with those people who do likewise, we are left with huge voids, people who do not want to understand, and little else. We cannot discuss this with people who do not care, and once we sort the garbage out, there is little need or purpose in rehashing those garbage concepts. These false premises must be just abandoned on the wayside, along with all that comes from these same false premises.

We will not win when we fight against our nature. It is our nature that must be changed. Can we reset epigenetic switches twice in our lives? Can we shut off the overeating switch with diet? Not likely, else we would not have the weight loss failure to maintain relapse rate. Where is this going?  Where am I going?

Lack of will power is not lack of power but rather lack of interest and successes in an undertaking, and lack of direction. How long should one keep pushing in a direction when we see so little success in that direction? Are we just pushing a big rock up hill, and when we stop, it roles back? If one could find something more interesting than eating, something we enjoyed more....

This reminds me of the decline of the churches. There theology has three major errors in the founding premises; there are no souls, when we are dead, we are dead; there is no afterlife, no reward, no punishment; there is no supernatural, no god, just luck of the times and our personal effort. So willpower is an effort at something that there is at least some potential of success at. When we are fighting epigenetics, all we have is struggle, and for each day of struggle, minimal success. One day of failure requires about seven days of struggle to overcome the effects of that one day of failure. 

Will power is about desiring the right things. Desire for food is natural and epigenetic, while the desire to be of "normal weight" is intellectual, hence is easily run over by the food desire. That is the core root of the problem. So will power must get aimed at not eating much, and not at weight. but bear with me here for I digress. Oh well, in the end we just die and become worm food- well that is just not permitted. To be green, we should be burred - unpreserved into the ground, but fear of disease and government regulations prevent this. Sky burial would be green also, but once again that is not permitted. There are no green methods permitted so the least damaging way is cremated, turned into Co2, a green house gas. Unless I just wander off and am lost in a bog or bush somewhere.

   

Monday, August 8, 2016

common useage

Denotation, connotation, definition and common usage are all different for lots of words. How can we keep it all straight? Well, we can't. Language is in a start of flux. Written is slower changing than spoken, and words vary over geography as well. For example, an American in America, being call a Yankee suggests that they are from the north. To the rest of the world, a Yankee is any American. Oh well.

Gluttony is the word that got me thinking. In biblical time, when ever that was- somewhere between 5000 and 600 years ago- gluttony was considered personal choice, and most have not examined this in detail since. We now know that it is epigenetic desire; we have little choice; that is why it is so difficult to lose and keep off weight.  In time of plenty, and of high sugar food sources, we overeat. That is true human nature. That does not mean that we can stop struggling against the weight gain, but rather that we will likely gain, long term so we lose long term. Gain is loss at the same time. Weight gain, life quality and quantity loss. Oh well. Myths are not true, however a general concept may be true.  

Biblical time are a wide range of time. On the start is oral tradition, before written works. The end is  because translation can put such a slant on what something actually says that we may not recognize the original after two translations. It is like the telephone game, the message is so garbled... And if the message was wrong to start with... the world was not created for humans - we are rapidly adapting opportunistic species that has flourished too well and overpopulated... The Co2 levels have been on the rise since the 1950`s, we are overpowering the natural correction of the planet. Oh well, we all just die in the end anyway.

Freethinkers bash religion, and there is a lot to bash and correct the understanding of. Oh well. Atheists do not believe in anything supernatural. Some even attended churches. Companionship and being seen to support the churches is/was important. Just look at the US election. Agnostics just do not care. And when we take things apart, there is some truth many things, and some outright false concepts. So when we start correcting what we think, and start to move forward in a positive way, what do we call ourselves? Humanists? Well perhaps, but even that term has drawbacks... It has been hijacked by groups who offer rituals for dollars. Militant atheist try correct everything that is understood wrong. Positive Psychologists accept spiritual existence and transcendence since these concepts can be powerful driving forces, even if in fact these concepts are hogwash. We are not driven by truth, but rather what we believe. Yet we claim to be truthful without studying, testing and cleaning our thoughts. We humans do not like to take responsibility for being wrong, yet we are and it is so natural. This may be what Socrates meant by 'we do not do wrong willingly.' Yet we have 20% sociopaths. 

Some of us are truth seekers, some are not. Some just rail against whatever, on and on, and never offer an alternative. That is probably the best term yet, a truth seeker, yet humanist manifestos are a collection of truths, more or less... presented in a positive way but without any moral reasons or explanation for each statement, nor defense for each clause.

Suppose we took the truths of the Stoics, Buddhist, Confucius, and modern sciences and mashed them together into a true and correct enmeshment. Note that Christianity and Islam are not in this list; it is doubtful that they would have anything to add. Buddhism has such a superior moral code. But that would be considering what people could be, not what they are. That has been the downfall of all the near socialist states.        


           


Monday, August 1, 2016

Or I could just sit and day dream

Mediation:

Jhana, in Buddhist terms, where meditation becomes effortless and enjoyable.

 calm the mind, ridding it of disturbing mental states such as anxiety, craving, and ill-will. the mind becomes more positive.  being at ease with ourselves. the calmness of mind allows us look closely at our experience, it’s possible to look deeply into a still mind.

Flow is where a person performing an activity becomes fully immersed, with a feeling of energized focus, undistracted presence, and enjoyment.  appreciate your experience undistracted This feedback loop keeps you in a stable, calm, alert, pleasurable, joyful, and focused state of mind, a self-sustaining flow of positive states.

Letting this flow state arise, to learn to calm the mind, to drop deeper into your experience of the body, to accept discomfort without reacting to it, to accept pleasure without grasping after it, and to allow joy to arise. Ultimately you have your whole life to work on this.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Knowing vs Doing

Knowing what one should and should not eat is one part. The much more difficult part is doing, eating well, but not overeating. That is the essential issue for most overweight people, yet there is little beyond generic motivation that deals with the problem.

Everyone I ever met who was overweight wanted to be lighter, some even became lighter for a time. It is giving up the drive to eat that is so difficult. It is that philosophical / individual thinking area that I need to study a bit more. There are two areas, external outward looking, (humanism) and internal inward looking (stoic world view) to rationalize. Much of this is to take one concept at a time and decide how I actually believe about that subject, the reasons for such a belief, and examine my consistence of thought and behavior. Doing what seem natural has not worked in respect to food, and I expect that this is due to epigenetic encoding.

As I look around at the people, I realize that much of our population is likely dealing with this encoding problem, but is unaware of the exact cause. Developing OCD with respect to food intake is one method of recovery, but that is a bitch to live with as well. Redirection is the other, and that requires light work that we enjoy as well, which is also effort.

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Learning to overcome Epigenetic encoding... rationalization

Once we consider that the overeating issue might be epigenetic encoded, and it is now our nature, several realizations jump out. It is now our nature. The struggle will be lifelong, and unrelenting, if we wish lasting success. Diet is about what is easier to do, not what is right. Developing OCD like behavior with respect to food intake may be the only way to achieve lasting recovery weight loss.

It is apparent (several research papers) on average that mice (children) born in time of famine have longer life potential, and those born in time of excess have less. Oh well, it is the luck of the draw, and I was born into excess food. For what ever reason I started to overeat as a small child, and over (or by) the first few years of school ballooned up to a massive size.  The ease of epigenetic encoding likely decreases with age, so that may be why we see that people who come later to this overeating problem tend to recover more often than those who started as a child. So if we overate as child over one winter, say six months, overeating encodes as a epigenetic characteristic. So I overate for several years, possible intentionally or as a stress response, it is likely that overeating encoded.

So "recovery" is not really possible, only is learning to live at a near normal size with this encoded natural drive to overeat. The problem is permanent. That is a realization like a missing hand. How could I have not realized this before? Recovery is a concept preached by others, I never really considered that recovery is bullshit, the problem will always exist for me. Weight loss is possible, an the urge to overeat will always be present.

That is one of the problems of life, we echo back that which we have been taught, without major consideration of whether it is true or not. We trust our teachers, even when they are wrong. That is the major problem of religion, and of science, and of history, hell, life. "Hell, Hanna, Hell" was a favorite explanation of one of my great grand fathers, George Washington Schnelle (born July 4) who was married to Hanna Rohrabaugh or Rorabaugh. anyways...a bit ADD.

So how does one develop in oneself enough OCD like behavior with respect to food to counteract epigenetic encoded overeating? Well first is the rigidity of behavior, enough to be irritating to self and others. This will be required as even a single slip well set us back to where we were. A binge must be defined as anything not on our food regiment. Rigidity of behavior will also need to extend to between meal activities to complete life. Now that I have these concepts firmly planted in the mind, where will it need to go from here? It does not matter, for in the end we all just die anyway. 


Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Overcoming epigenetic encoding

 comments are welcome

So now recovery is down to overcoming epigenetic encoding. To overeat has become our nature. The original cause of overeating may have been dealt with but now it is encoded into our epigenetics. Now we know why there is typically only a 5% long term frequency of recovery.

Food addiction and compulsive overeating are separate issue and must also be dealt with separately and before epigenetic encoded overeating. Now how do we deal with this epigenetic encoded drive to overeat?

That is the big question, and while I am searching for the complete answer, here are some partial answers, not in any specific order.

Metered meals of real food is required, work between meals.
Lower slow carbohydrates only to keep insulin down and reduce blood glucose spikes.
Knowing that it is my epigenetic nature to overeat, and telling other that, as a defense against food pushers.
Avoid food pushers and food pushing situations.
Openly attach frankinfoods as frankinfood aka not foods but products  (See DA Kessler)

In utero... may be long enough to set epigenetics .... so some are screwed before they are born... so they/we have two choices ... fight lifelong overeating/obesity issues or grow obese...Not a pleasant realization. This is  life long battle, not a short struggle, but the remainder of our lives. Depressing or irritating, which are we/you/I going to choose?

With this being epigenetics, we are not at fault, it is truly our nature. We can stop listening to the idiots that talk lifestyle change, choice of lifestyle. We have no choice when it is our nature, only a life of struggle.   Now all we need to do is understand recovery treatments or develop OCD like fixity recovery. 

So they have identified a mechanism called "small RNA inheritance" that does that in utero, and something similar for children in development responding to overeating and fixing that into our epigenetic nature. It does not matter the cause of overeating as a child; it becomes our nature, and now we must learn to deal with that. Life is a bitch, and then we all die in the end. Now we obese/exobese know why the struggle is so difficult.       

and more evidence of it being epigenetic issue: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/science/epigenetic-marks-dna-genes.html
 
  • Some studies, for example, have found that people with a high body mass index have unusual epigenetic marks on a gene called HIF3A. Some researchers have suggested that those marks change how HIF3A functions, perhaps reprogramming fat cells to store more fat.
Reference: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/10369861/Epigenetics-How-to-alter-your-genes.html  



Sunday, July 3, 2016

Eating is encoded into our nature

Eating is encoded into our nature. Overeating is encoded into our nature. This realization explains the difficulty of recovery. We need to change our very nature. So where is the help? Not in the medical system. Psychology? Perhaps, but I have not found it yet. Philosophy, most definitely, but there is nothing aimed specifically at living in a modern food rich environment. All must be adapted to our specific situation. That requires time and energy, clear thought, clear reasoning. There is so much noise in our environment, and so much effort to promote wrong ideas, unhelpful ideas. All likely true believers, which make changing them impossible.

It is really all about change of self, overcoming my very nature, and changing core beliefs, values and the like, contrary to what those around me are pushing for. All I can do is change myself and that we each must do. At this point it is essentially me changing me, by myself, without support. Can this succeed? Death is the result in the end, either way. It does not matter.

The realization that I am essentially along in this endeavor is interesting. I know there are others who are undergoing this same process, consciously or unconsciously, but how does one connect with these others? And after connecting, how does one connect on an approach? There is a group out there, but they believe that a belief in a god supersedes all reason and understanding of these disease, but gods and most of what religion teaches is just pigshit, fit for worms, bugs and the like. I see the likely answer really lying in understanding the disease, issue, personality characteristic, characteristic that was encoded through epigentics (the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself.). That is the real problem of obesity or overeating.

http://www.ddw-online.com/enabling-technologies/p149032-epigenetics:-targeting-the-mediator-between-environment-and-phenotype-fall-11.html   "The Överkalix study (an isolated community in northern Sweden) found that a single winter of overeating as a child can biologically predispose one’s children and grandchildren to diabetes and heart disease, resulting in lifespans that are decades shorter than their peers1. " So one winter is enough to encode overeating. How long does it take to encode the other way? Or is it even possible? One meal after a diet is enough to erase one and a half years of recovery, one day at a time. This suggests that after encoding, flicking that switch, the switch is permanently switched. It become a one meal at a time struggle the remainder of our life. Oh well, we die in the end either way.  

There are a great many articles like http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3432807/ that tell us absolutely nothing useful for recovery. Oh well, it is all about turning research dollars. Then there are reports like this that tell us we are screwed:  http://news.nationalpost.com/news/new-study-says-obesity-triggered-by-genetic-light-switch-not-overeating-or-inherited-traits, but are we really; or does it just take understanding the problem and living in such a way that we can reset/upset/delete that switch? I do not know yet. In the end we all just die anyway.

  

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Revised Intentional Overeating

What was intentional at the time may have encoded and is now part of us. We now have to overcome our nature. That is the essence of the real problem. 

So is eating food that I like, intentional overeating? Liking food is part of the problem. So perhaps the stoics are right... Hunger should be the only sauce.  Simple food is best. Barley portage. Barley cakes. But where can one get barley grown without fertilizer and chemicals? Oh well, in the end we just die anyway.

I expect that most obese people do not want to be obese but they want to eat well, like the food, enjoy life  or perhaps cannot stop eating. They both know that they must reducing eating to lose weight. There is where the problem lies most of the time, and that is following that direction. The resistance to calorie reductions comes from hunger or a mental drive; of the mental drives there are at least three, physical or physiological memory, automatic memory, and conscious memory.

Any reduced calorie diet will take the weight off. Hunger is less if we keep insulin low, that is eat a higher fat, normal protein, low carbohydrate. Our body balances our need with fat taken from the reserves, so to our body any reducing diet is higher in fat to our body. We will experience hunger if we have been living on a high carbohydrate diet. It will take considerable time to adjust to a more Paleo like, Atkins like, low carb diet, but you may suffer if you do it quickly. Those carb that we eat should be slow carbs only, that is greens and a few cooked unprocessed vegetables, high in fiber and slow to digest.

Now those mental drives need to be addressed. These need to move to the conscious decision making area of the brain. That is where the difficulty is. We are not taught to unmake automatic behaviors, and we will always revert to our old automatic behaviors if we ever let vigilance slide or lapse. This vigilance must continue to death, and that will come soon enough. There is no need to hasten death by overeating.

There are many reasons that eating may have become automatic. These include liking food, environment, food addiction, emotional eating, stress, or trained in overeating. Many of these were trained in by parents, environment, conditions, rules or desires of self as children. Some of these only became a problem as our metabolism slowed with age, or with other body or chemical changes. But what do I know. We all die in the end.    

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

The Disease is Overeating

The Disease is Overeating, the symptom is obesity. The degree of the problem can be measured by BMI, metabolic syndrome, and the like. Some damage is permanent, some can be released by not eating specific food groups. Reduction of carbohydrates removes much of the blood glucose issues, and related weight issues. Restrictive food lists and behaviors provide relief from food addictions. Psychological treatments can remove stress, emotional, personality driven overeating. Philosophical approaches can remove other reasons, and give some relief to the cultural and physical driven overeating, and to intentional overeating, even after it has become encoded and automatic.  To obtain this recovery, we need clarity of mind to understand the actual cause of the specific overeating case.

To me it is now obvious that recovery from overeating is a much bigger undertaking that most undertakings. Certainly much bigger that simple weight loss.  I have been reading and researching this issue for all my life, but seriously since 2008. I have read 8 feet of books on the subject, and about the same on recovery attempts, philosophy's, and other things that have been suggested as possible sources of the solutions. Some helped, some defined the problem better, some gave me insight into my specific problem, and some was just a waste of time. The difficulty comes in a wrong definition of the problem causes. That is just misdirection, which is likely the biggest problem with recovery from overeating. We are simply not addressing the real problem, but rather a symptom of the problem.

It become obvious at this point that treating someone problem must come from the inside, for only we can treat our problem, or even figure out the cause. Yet that is a massive undertaking, and we do not get much help from the medical establishment. Anyone who is unable to follow their prescribed diet is simply noncompliant and no further help is available. Admitting that we do not know the answer can be the first step in developing the knowledge to fix the problem and know the answer. 

To fix intentional overeating, we first need to realize that overeating was intentional at one time and overeating became encoded and automatic. This has become part of our personality, character, our psyche, part of what make us us. We are not even aware of the intentional aspect of the past. It is a natural instinct in overdrive. Now what? How does one fix this? We need to change our character, our personality, our behavior, our outlook on our culture, change even our belief system, what ever we need to change, sufficient change to recover and sufficient change to not slide back, that is the difficult part. That change must be continued for the remainder of life. 

Now evidence based change is difficult to argue against. Trying to figure out what the evidence says is the hard part. Once we understand, duh, it is obvious. So why could I not see it before? Misdirection is likely culprit. Now we are left with changing our behavior, but after we know the truth of the evidence, that should follow. Most try to change the behavior without understanding the cause of the behavior. If the cause remains, backsliding can be expected. I do not need to be self-sufficient, I can ask for help when help is available. When it come to cause of my behavior, who is there to ask? Me and rigorous honesty, guess and test or ?.  In the end we all just die anyway.



Friday, June 17, 2016

Travel Experience

Travel Experience... it is the stories of the returning travelers that excites the next wave of travel. Those stories have turned quite negative in the last bit from those returning from Europe. Hoards of black assumed refugees around the tourist attractions hawking trinkets, gang mobs of in your face pick pockets, swarming at tour buses. Hotel ripoffs... well built up expectations only to find run down dirty bug infested rooms. Airport security searches- of the seniors getting out of hand, and of the ladies getting physical. And the cost of some places... If one chooses to go, you need to be willing to pay the prices... gouging anyone... Oh well it was only a discussion group, and a few fresh stories. The odd thing is that everyone had similar stories in the last years. So why would I want to travel? I have long held that travel was much overrated anyway. Is it fear or practical reality that keeps me home?    

I have been on quite a few long trips in my life; I have felt ripped off by ever one; why would I travel?  Oh well, we all just die in the end.

Camping, in Alberta is not any better. The rates in some campgrounds is outrageous. Walmart parking lot, here I come, and move ever day... Retirement has become enjoying life as best we can until... well OK, we all just die in the end.

Then there is the US joke; mass shootings and democrats filibuster on gun control. http://freethoughtblogs.com/affinity/2016/06/17/democrats-filibuster-on-gun-control/   
You have trump as a presidential candidate. How can we Canadians keep a straight face? We have religion... all those who think it is right to kill those who will not agree that your pigshit beliefs...Christians, Muslims, Trump, Ken Ham, Flat earth society... etc. Oh well, we all just die in the end.

   




Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Sharma's Just Wrong

Sharma has a long series cutting down the arguments against obesity as a disease.  http://www.drsharma.ca/arguments-against-obesity-as-a-disease-7-medicalizes-a-behaviour?

Sharma is just wrong about what the disease is. Definition:

dis·ease
dəˈzēz/
noun
noun: disease; plural noun: diseases; noun: dis-ease; plural noun: dis-eases
  1. a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.

    "bacterial meningitis is a rare disease"

    synonyms:illness, sickness, ill health; More
    • a particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people.

      "departmental administration has often led to the dread disease of departmentalitis"
 OK, so it may apply but obesity is a symptom of the real problem. That is why treatment is not effective, he is busy treating a symptom. The real problem is philosophical/psychological and has been produce by the modern society concepts over running natural satiety regulation. Eating is such a important biological function that there has never been needed in the past a physical off switch, the mental/emotional off was sufficient. But modern society, and mainly the relentless advertising has locked the satiety switch on on. Full speed ahead. It may have first been switched on by emotional/stress/food addiction/habituation, but that is irrelevant after the lock is encoded into the primary or unconscious automatic mind. The "stuck on" on switch must be first released, and the other problems fixed, as well, for recover to take place.

Alberta does not pay for philosophical/psychological services, so until someone is willing to do the work and dig into there own pocket, the problem will continue. As long as those "at the public trough" need substance, they will argue the wording to keep the money flowing. So what is the point in arguing with Sharma's "Livingston Pig"? 

The best thing one can do for ourselves is to shut off radio, TV, and stop paying attention to society that "feeds the Pig(s)" period. Learn to cage the Pig. Ignore the Squeals, or listen to the Squeals as noise. Three moderate meals each day. It is society that has brought us to this point. Society will not get us out of the problem. It is up to each one of us to learn what we must do and get ourselves out of this mess. We are on our own. No government will help. They each have their own "Livingstone Pig" to deal with.

If you do not understand this read Never Binge Again by Glenn Livingston. This aggressive irritating book is right but does not contain one word of the psychology behind the workable philosophy. It is something one should force oneself to read. It is like forcing the self to read the building code, but it has the power to change your life.

So what is a Glenn Livingston Pig? Not to be confused with a Johnathan Livingston Seagull, our hopes, dreams and aspirations. A Pig is a belief or drive that has outlived it's usefulness, and it need to be discarded, however it is stubborn and will not go away. It is a desire to eat for no other reason than to eat. It is a sow or a problem, and just will not go away. The pig must be dealt with. It is a belief that thinks it is right, contrary to all evidence. A negative damaging meme, a instinct run amuck.