Nibbles Ninja

Nibbles Ninja

Nibbles & bits from Alan Fahrner

All posts tagged Health

6 Weeks Challenge Complete, 7.7 Pounds Down

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles1 Reply

I completed The Athlete District‘s 6 Week Challenge, ending up 7.7 pounds down, and in better shape. These before and after pictures don’t do justice to what their challenge accomplished (especially since the side shot wasn’t at the same angle):

Front before and after

Side before and after

It may not be obvious, but the belly is smaller. 🙂

(And, my muscles are more defined.)

However, probably the biggest things it did were:

  1. Made me a lot more cognizant of what I am eating (I tracked carbohydrates, protein, and fat macros to meet the daily goals they set)
  2. Cemented my commitment to regular, vigorous exercise

Although I wish I lost more weight (at 243.3 pounds, I need to still lose about 40), I can tell it was far from “all for naught.” I feel better, I can put shirts on I wouldn’t wear 6 weeks ago, and I stand up almost like normal (which says a lot given my two bad knees).

Am I going to pretend it was easy? No. However, the dieting part, especially, wasn’t horrible.

If you are overweight and/or out-of-shape, don’t believe the “noble lies” people tell you so you don’t feel so bad about it. Don’t believe your own rationalizations either (they are just lies we tell ourselves).

Don’t beat yourself up about where you are, but start on your path to a healthier life. You can do it!

(Cross-posted on my 30 Day Quest blog.)

This Is Concerning

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles
US agencies aren’t ‘following the science’ on COVID — and staff are too scared to complain
Silencing physicians is not “following the science.” Less absolutism and more humility by the men and women running our public health agencies would go a long way in rebuilding public trust.

“COVID and Race”

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles
COVID and Race
One of the defining characteristics of the pandemic’s early stages was its disproportionate toll on Black and Latino Americans. During COVID’s early months in the U.S., the per capita death rate for Black Americans was almost twice as high as the white rate and more than twice as high as the Asian r…

But these large racial gaps in vaccination have not continued — and as a result, neither have the gaps in COVID death rates.

Instead, COVID’s racial gaps have narrowed and, more recently, even flipped. Over the past year, the COVID death rate for white Americans has been 14% higher than the rate for Black Americans and 72% higher than the Latino rate, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It is a remarkable turnabout, a story of both public health success and failure.

“Why is Canada euthanising the poor?”

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles

When folks tell you that the slippery slope argument is bogus, examples like this show that if far from always true:

Why is Canada euthanising the poor? | The Spectator
There is an endlessly repeated witticism by the poet Anatole France that ‘the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.’ What France certainly did not foresee is that an entire country – and an ostentatiousl…

What the article shares is shocking…

“Study: Medical Marijuana Leads to Addiction, Not Shown to Be Effective”

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles
Study: Medical Marijuana Leads to Addiction, Not Shown to Be Effective - The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Medical marijuana has been legalized in 37 states, but a new study released Friday found that the drug had no...

Much of the legalization of marijuana, including for recreational use, was justified with the argument that people were being deprived of the medical benefits of marijuana. This study creates additional questions as to whether that is really the case and continues a trend of an absence of evidence on the alleged benefits of marijuana. Additionally, many pushing for legalizing medical marijuana have argued that those using it for medical purposes would be much less likely to develop an addiction — a perception undermined by this study.

“Don’t buy the fearmongering: The COVID-19 threat is waning”

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles

Marty Makary M.D., M.P.H. is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, chief medical adviser to Sesame Care and author of the upcoming book “The Price We Pay.”

Don’t buy the fearmongering: The COVID-19 threat is waning
As the COVID pandemic wanes, Americans are being fed a distorted perception of the risks by the media and some experts. They continue to fuel fear by repeating speculation that variants will evade …

“Younger age at first drug use tied to faster transition to substance use disorder”

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles

This seems an intuitive result:

Younger age at first drug use tied to faster transition to substance use disorder
Younger age at drug initiation is associated with a faster transition to substance use disorder (SUD), according to a research letter published online March 29 in JAMA Pediatrics.

And, although I am generally a “live and let live” kind ‘a guy, the more we decriminalize or legalize drugs, the more “younger age” first use you’ll have (even if it remains illegal for them).

You Don’t Say?

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles
Long-term study reveals harm in regular cannabis use
Regular cannabis use has harmful effects regardless of the age a person starts using, a University of Queensland-led study has found.

Is Obesity a Disease or a Lack of Willpower?

Posted on Author AlanPosted in Nibbles, Quotes

”TheAs someone who has fought to keep weight off since his early thirties, I know the battle, and what it does to the mental well-being of those of us involved.

Many of the most influential of those prewar European authorities had become convinced that obesity must be the result of a hormonal or metabolic dysfunction, not caused by overeating, a concept that they recognized as circular logic. (“To attribute obesity to ‘overeating,’ ” the Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer had aptly commented eight years before Astwood’s presentation, “is as meaningful as to account for alcoholism by ascribing it to ‘overdrinking.’ ” It’s saying the same thing in two different ways, at best describing the process, not explaining why it’s happening.) Rather, it’s somehow programmed into the very biology of the fat person, a disorder of fat accumulation and fat metabolism, these German and Austrian clinical researchers concluded. They believed, as Astwood came to believe, that obesity is neither a behavioral issue nor an eating disorder, not the result of how much we choose to eat consciously or unconsciously.

And…

If the proposed treatment for a fat accumulation problem that itself caused internal starvation—that is, hunger—was to starve even more, we can imagine all too easily why it would fail, if not in the short run, certainly eventually.

And…

Even those suffering from obesity came to see their condition as their own fault.

— The Case for Keto: Rethinking Weight Control and the Science and Practice of Low-Carb/High-Fat Eating by Gary Taubes