Thin Slices of Joy
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serenity...sounds like good news nearly all around. I agree about riding trains and processing creatively. Sadly, I rarely get a chance as there are none in my area.
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Serenity it sounds like everything's going well for you! Well done for sticking to your diet that's awesome! I am trying to think of mine as a new way of life and different permanent habits. So far it seems to be working.
My 3 daughters were all out on Saturday night so DH and I snuggled up on the sofa and had a 3 episode GoT evening, we've almost finished season 3 now. Might even catch up by Christmas at this rate LOL. X
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magiclight - I actually prefer trains to planes and cars. From here, I've taken the Via Rail to Toronto and Quebec City. I've taken the train to NYC. That was really long, but my sciatica was pretty bad at the time. It wasn't too long after a plane trip, and I didn't want to get on another plane. The downside to nearby trains is that there are nearby freight trains with one in the middle of the night. But I've got an app for that! The ideas I had on the train worked!
ScotBird - We're using the Whole 30 to break some bad habits we started during chemo. I was afraid I wouldn't lose weight while taking Tamoxifen, but I guess pastries do make me gain weight! You can pace yourself on GoT. We have 2 YEARS until the final season!
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Serenity and Scotbird...Pastries make one gain weight - I'll be &^%$ !! My sweet tooth protests.
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Mmmm, pie. It's been years, but I used to make white chocolate banana cream pie for holiday dinners.
It's cruel that the foods I'm good at making make me gain weight (pie, bread, cheesecake, ...). I haven't baked anything since February.
On that note, think we're at day 15 of the Whole 30, and I'm down over 7 lbs!
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Wow eep going Serenity, you're doing so well, 7lbs is a LOT in 15 days.
I've found a new yoga teacher, who was recommended by my Pilates teacher, she said he performs miracles on back/sciatic pain. He seems lovely, but says that it's important to practice yoga at least 4/5 times a week. How will I fit it in??
X
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ScotBird - I couldn't commit to yoga that many times! Lately I've only been exercising at home, so I save travel time. I even wrote down each exercise in a hip alignment video I liked because I could complete it faster on my own.
Nice family photo
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Mental Floss on fat facts:
12 Enlightening Facts About Body Fat
The human body is an amazing thing. For each one of us, it's the most intimate object we know. And yet most of us don't know enough about it: its features, functions, quirks, and mysteries. Our series The Body explores human anatomy, part by part. Think of it as a mini digital encyclopedia with a dose of wow.
Let's face it: Fat gets a bad rap. Entire industries have been built upon the criticism and attempted reduction of body fat. But fat, formally known as adipose tissue, is a crucial part of your hormonal and metabolic processes. Adipose tissue is a major site of energy storage, and has a key role in the regulation of metabolism and insulin production in your body—not to mention, it helps keep you warm. Having too much fat can be a bad thing, but having too little can pose problems as well.
Fat is stored in the body in the form of triglycerides, free fatty acid (FFA) molecules that are held together by a molecule called glycerol, a type of alcohol. Most of our body fat is stored in fat cells called adipocytes, but fat can also be stored as droplets within skeletal muscle cells. In addition, some triglycerides even roam freely in your blood stream. (These are the ones most easily broken down through exercise.)
Before you demonize fat, take a look at these 12 facts about your adipose tissue.
1. FAT IS AN ORGAN …
Your fat is not just a layer of padding—it's actually an organ of the endocrine system. "Fat secretes a lot of hormones, while activating or deactivating many more," Indraneil Mukherjee, a doctor at The Southeastern Center for Digestive Disorders and Pancreatic Cancer, Florida, tells Mental Floss. It's comprised of adipocytes and fat cell types called the stroma-vascular fraction, which are made up of growth factors—messengers the body uses to signal cells—as well as stem cells, blood cells, and a host of other cell types.
2. … AND IT PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN YOUR METABOLISM.
Adipose tissue is "a metabolically dynamic organ," according to a study in Archives of Medical Science, whose primary job is to store excess energy. It also synthesizes "a number of biologically active compounds that regulate metabolic homeostasis." In other words, it controls your body's energy balance by regulating appetite signals from the central nervous system and metabolic activity in peripheral tissues. Chronic over-nutrition—eating too much on a regular basis—can cause inflammatory responses and metabolic disorders that can lead to disease: most obviously, obesity.
3. WHITE FAT GIVES YOU ENERGY.
White adipose tissue stores your body's reserves of energy, and the endocrine cells mentioned above, which secrete crucial hormones and molecules. There are even "adipose depots" where white adipose tissue tends to gather more easily, located around organs such as the heart, lung, and kidney.
4. BROWN FAT KEEPS YOU WARM—AND IS NEWLY DISCOVERED IN ADULTS.
Brown adipose tissue is typically found in newborn human babies and hibernating mammals, according to a study in Frontiers in Endocrinology. Its main function is to generate heat—keeping you warm—and to do so, it contains more mitochondria and capillaries than white adipose tissue.
Up until recently, researchers weren't sure brown fat existed in adults. "There's a lot of excitement around the discovery," Yi Sherry Zhang, an assistant professor at the TOPS Obesity and Metabolic Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, tells Mental Floss. "It helps to regulate energy expenditure. This is important because drugs that target this type of fat may provide a new way to treat obesity."
5. TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE FAT CAN INCREASE YOUR RISK OF DIABETES.
While it is now commonly known that obesity—when a person carries more weight than is considered healthy for their height—can predispose a person to type 2 diabetes, too little fat has a similar effect, according to the American Diabetes Association. Type 2 diabetes is a group of diseases in which the body has an impaired ability to produce or respond to the hormone insulin. And it turns out having too little fat is due in part to a lack of a lipid-storing "compartments," which leads to an imbalance of triglyceride and free fatty acid levels, leading to insulin resistance.
6. YOUR LEVEL OF BODY FAT MAY BE INFLUENCED BY YOUR MICROBIOME.
Researchers at McMaster University have begun studying a new realm of therapies known as postbiotics, the by-products that bacteria leave behind, which help the body synthesize insulin more effectively. In a new study, scientists discovered that administering postbiotics to mice with obesity reduced their insulin sensitivity—without any need for weight loss—heralding promising potential treatments for obesity with type 2 diabetes.
7. EXCESS FAT IS THE PERFECT ENVIRONMENT FOR CANCER.
Adipose tissue also secrets "hormones that make cancer cells grow quicker," says Mukherjee. In fact, when adipose tissue expands, it also allows more immune cells to enter the tissue. These B and T immune cells secrete pro-inflammatory molecules such as adipokines [PDF]—peptides that signal other organs—and cytokines, which create the perfect microenvironment for tumor growth, according to a study in Frontiers in Physiology.
8. YOU CAN MOVE YOUR FAT AROUND.
If you are so inclined, Mukherjee points out that "fat transplant is legal"—so you can technically surgically move it from one body part to another without any harm done, "for vanity," he says. These so-called fat transfers can augment a formerly flat part of your body, but buyer beware—not only can you experience the side effects of surgery such as swelling, bruising, several weeks of recovery time, you can develop lumps.
9. DIETING DOESN'T REDUCE THE NUMBER OF FAT CELLS YOU HAVE.
The number of your fat cells can increase, but once the cellular structures have developed, they never go away. "With dieting, they just get smaller," Mukherjee says. Zhang adds, "Each of us has 10 billion to 30 billion fat cells in our body." Obese people can eventually have up to 100 billion fat cells.
10. YOUR FAT COMMUNICATES WITH OTHER ORGANS ALL OVER THE BODY.
It does so by sending out small molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs) that control gene activity, according to a study in Nature. After injecting genetically modified mice with fluorescent liver cell miRnas, researchers saw a significant drop in liver cell fluorescence, which suggested that the fat tissue was communicating with the liver to regulate gene expression. They hope to further study this process to discover new treatment methods for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
11. THE GENETIC UNDERPINNINGS OF FAT MAY HELP TREAT OBESITY.
"We are beginning to understand the genetic basis for fat distribution and obesity," says Zhang. "We have recently published genes that play a role in determining how body fat is distributed," she continues. She hopes that these discoveries will help researchers understand the genetic component of common disorders like metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
12. IN FACT, EPIGENETICS IS THE NEW FRONTIER OF FAT RESEARCH.
Researchers studying fat to better understand metabolic disorders recently focused on the field of epigenetics, which is the study of "the various elements that regulate which genes are active in particular cells and how they are regulated," Zhang says. She believes that epigenetic changes are likely to play a critical role in the development of chronic disorders like metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. "Unlike the genetic code, it is possible to reverse and alter these elements, which means we can potentially develop new ways to prevent and treat these common disorders
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Last night I woke up the pup to go upstairs to bed. She made it to the third step and decided she'd had enough. I easily picked her 28 lbs and carried her all the way to bed.
Woof!
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Hey, my brain is OK!
Why Do We Forget What We're Doing the Minute We Enter a Room?
Left your keys on the kitchen counter again? No problem. Just go and get them. Walk through the house, into the kitchen, and—what was it you needed to do again? Why are you in here? In less than 30 seconds, you've managed to forget the entire purpose of your errand. But don't worry. It's not just you, and you're not losing your marbles. It's called the Doorway Effect, and it's actually a sign that your brain is in fine working order.
Scientists used to believe that memory was like a filing cabinet. You have an experience, and it gets its own little file in your brain. Then, later, you can go back and open the file, which is unchanged and where it should be. It's a nice, tidy image—but it's wrong. Your brain is much more complicated and sophisticated than that. It's more like a super-high-powered computer, with dozens of tasks and applications running at once.
A 2011 study found that the Doorway Effect is the result of several of these brain programs running simultaneously. Researchers taught 55 college students to play a computer game in which they moved through a virtual building, collecting and carrying objects from room to room. Every so often as the participants traversed the space, a picture of an object popped up on the screen. If the object shown was the one they were carrying or the one they had just put down, the participants clicked "Yes." Sometimes these pictures appeared after the participant had walked into a room; other times they appeared while the participant was still in the middle of a room. The researchers then built a real-world version of the environment and ran the experiment again, using a box to hide the objects people were carrying so they couldn't double-check.
The results of both trials were the same: The simple act of walking through a doorway made people forget what they were doing. And it wasn't a matter of distance, either. The researchers asked the question ("Is this what you're carrying?") after people had walked a certain distance within a room, and a certain distance between rooms. Within a room, their memories remained mostly intact. But crossing a threshold was like shaking a mental Etch-a-Sketch.
The researchers concluded that their subjects' brains perceived doorways as a kind of cut-off point. The memories and movement that carried the students through one context literally hit a wall. On the other side of that wall was new context, and a fresh landscape for memory. The participants' mental computers were combining the tasks of spatial awareness, movement, and memory. But each task requires attention, and you can't pay attention to everything at once.
Is there a way to avoid the Doorway Effect? Probably, although science hasn't found it yet. If you've got a trick that works, let us know in the comments.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/79056/why-do-we-for...
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Last night I fell asleep thinking of a nice, creamy mushroom risotto.
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So, that's where it went!
When You Lose Weight, Where Does the Fat Go?
Into thin air! While ads for diets, pills, and exercise equipment promise to "burn fat away," the truth is that our bodies don't convert fat into energy. That would break the Law of Conservation of Mass. When you lose weight, you're really just losing atoms—you can't turn those atoms into energy. Scientists have known this for a long time, but in 2013, Australian physicist Ruben Meerman was waging his own battle of the bulge and wanted to know how much fat we exhale. Meerman did the math and found that for every 10 pounds of fat you lose, 8.4 pounds are exhaled as CO2, while the remaining 1.6 pounds are converted to water, which the body excretes as tears, sweat, urine, or...other stuff.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/67704/when-you-lose...
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I've been AWOL for the summer. I moved house, and have been spending a lot of time, painting, fixing up, hiring people to do the things I can't. My yard flooded! Heavy rains, but still, that was a shocker. Still working on that issue before we get socked with a hurricane. (hopefully not!)
Anyway,, I've finally caught up on all the posts! I have missed this thread,, did not realize how much until I came back. So Happy to be back. Need to try out some of the new stretches that you have posted lately.
My slices of joy: My dog LOVING her yard, running and chasing the squirrels. Me loving the privacy of the fenced in back yard, pulling weeds, and deciding what to plant when I get all the invasive plants out!
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Welcome back, glennie! Love to hear how happy your dog is! Hope you get your yard sorted out before a hurricane hits. Hope the stretches help you.
I forgot to write about a new simple stretch from my kinesiologist. Get into a deep squat with your back against the wall. Curl head down and back up repeatedly. It's supposed to stretch the fascia along the calf. It makes me happy to just be able to get in this position. I don't worry about losing my balance since I'm against the wall.
I haven't been sleeping enough for the past few forevers. Last night I slept over 8 hours, and I still took a 3-hour nap. I don't recall the last time I napped. I feel better.
Tomorrow is a holiday! Gives me time to do some prep work for my trip later this week. Going to Boston. Wish I could do some sight seeing, but I won't be there long.
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My leg rest this morning.
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Serenity - Enjoy a labor free day and watch your pup enjoy the freedom of a fenced yard.
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Serenity, I have been working with a Feldenkrais practitioner and it is helping me. Wondered if you had ever tried it?
This is a face video that my friend found last night:
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And these are ones that my practitioner has prescribed for me. http://openatm.org/olena.html
Scroll down to
Olena Nitefor's Interpretation of the Mia/Gabby San Fransisco Evening Lessons
and try
Title Source Time Tilting legs in and out on back p.77 59:60 Download Discuss On back lift hip to lengthen opposite arm p.54 55:52 Download Discuss Tilting knee on back connecting to arms above I do #1 and #3 a lot. I only do #1 until about the 38 min mark after that there is some head raising that my neck is not up to yet.
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magiclight - Thank you! I hope you've had a relaxing day, too! Instead of work-work, I've been cleaning out our basement. Feels good to get rid of things. Next weekend, I want to reorganize the laundry room.
glennie - I've never heard of Feldenkrais. I'll have to try it. Thanks! My main exercise this weekend has been climbing stairs. Some things in the basement could be moved elsewhere. According to FitBit, I've climbed 27 floors today so far. Whew!
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Will be hard to top her what-I-did-over-the-summer story!
Schoolgirl has legendary holiday after pulling 4ft sword from Cornish lake 'where Arthur's Excalibur was thrown' (good job she's named after a famous English queen)
By Alex Matthews For Mailonline 15:17 03 Sep 2017, updated 15:26 03 Sep 2017
- Matilda Jones found the sword in Dozmary Pool during a family trip to Cornwall
- Legend claims King Arthur returned Excalibur to lake after Battle of Camlann
- But, family believe sword is only around 30 years old and likely to be film prop
A seven-year-old school girl had a legendary holiday after pulling a giant four-foot sword from the Cornish Lake where Arthur threw Excalibur.
Matilda Jones was wading through water waist-deep at Dozmary Pool when she stumbled across the blade underwater.
According to local folklore, Dozmary Pool is the spot where King Arthur returned Excalibur after being fatally wounded in the Battle of Camlann.
Matilda Jones holding a 4ft sword she found at Dozmary Pool in CornwallPaul and Matilda Jones holding a 4ft sword she found at Dozmary Pool in Cornwall
It is said to have been accepted by the Lady of the Lake, whose arm mysteriously rose from the water to received the fabled blade.
Ironically, her father Paul Jones, 51, had recounted the story of King Arthur to Matilda and her sister Lois, four, moments before the discovery.
Mr Jones, from Doncaster in south Yorkshire, said: 'It was a blistering hot day and Matilda asked if we could go for a paddle.
'She was only waist deep when she said she could see a sword.
'I told her not to be silly and it was probably a bit of fencing, but when I looked down I realised it was a sword. It was just there laying flat on the bottom of the lake.
'The sword is 4ft long - exactly Matilda's height.'
Matilda Jones, from Norton, Doncaster, with the sword she found in Dozmary PoolMatilda Jones, from Norton, Doncaster, with the sword she found in Dozmary Pool
Legend has it that King Arthur first received Excalibur from the Lady of Lake in Dozmary Pool after rowing out to receive it.
After being mortally wounded he asked to be taken there so he could return the sword to her.
After three attempts, his loyal follower Bedivere cast it into the water and the Lady of the Lake's arm rose to receive it.
The pool, in the civil parish of Altarnun on Bodmin Moor, was said to be bottomless until droughts in 1859 and 1976 dried it out completely and revealed it is, in fact, and shallow pond.
Matilda shares her name with Empress Matilda, the daughter of King Henry I and heir to the English throne in the 12th century.
While it may be exciting to believe a young with such a regal name has written her own chapter in the Arthurian legend - her father thinks the sword's origins are more recent.
Mr Jones said: 'I don't think it's particularly old. It's probably an old film prop.'
Queen Matilda: Heir to the throne
Empress Matilda was the daughter of Henry I, King of England
Empress Matilda was the daughter of Henry I, King of England.
She moved to Germany as a child and later married Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in 1114, when she was just 12 years old.
The union produced no children and the Emperor died in 1125.
But the death of her brother in 1120, made her the heir to the throne of England.
In 1127 she married Geoffrey of Anjou, who would later become Duke of Normandy, and had three sons.
However, female rulers were unpopular at the time and her cousin Stephen of Blois had himself crowned king of England.
Matilda's claim to the throne was supported by her half brother, Robert of Gloucester and uncle, David I of Scotland.
Matilda and Robert landed at Arundel, West Sussex, in September 1139 and England was thrown into civil war.
After two years of fighting, Stephen was captured at Lincoln and Matilda took control of England.
But she was not a popular ruler and was never awarded a coronation.
Stephen was later released in exchange for Robert of Gloucester and the civil war waged on.
But Robert died in 1147, leaving a grief-stricken Matilda to return to France.
Her son Henry took up the fighting, but was also forced to flee across the Channel.
He was crowned King Henry II of England after the death of Stephen's son Eustace in 1154.
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Love it !
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I'm home! I had a good trip, but I wish I had more time in Boston. I was hoping to get there early, but Air Canada had other plans.
I got to my hotel after 11 pm on Wednesday. My afternoon flight had been cancelled, and my actual flight was delayed. I didn't make a great effort to stay with the Whole 30. I had a great sushi lunch on both days, but yesterday there were people giving out free Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I cannot turn down free Ben and Jerry's. I mean, really! They even had Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. Yesterday I went to happy hour. I drank unsweetened iced tea and ate the appetizers that were way off of Whole 30, but it was for work! I did drink my coffee black.
I had many joyful moments on my trip, but the absolute best part is that I didn't need any pain meds on my trip! I haven't taken Lyrica since Tuesday, and I haven't taken other pain meds for months. I sat at the airports, on the planes, and for work with no sciatic pain! I didn't have any problems with the soft bed or carrying my backpack with laptop all over the place.
The only luggage I had was a backpack and a small messenger bag. I've been working on packing lighter. This is the best I've done. Loved passing by the lines of people waiting on their luggage.
Happy to be home with my family and pup. Apparently my pup really missed me.
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so happy your trip went well, serenity!
Vicky
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KB...thanks for sharing - now that was a most spectacular experience and a big slice of joy!!
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Ah what a GREAT trip Serenity, that's brilliant news that your sciatica is cured. Well done. And KB, what a wonderful thing to see, how amazing. Thanks for the lovely pictures.
XX
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Vicky - Thank you!
KB - I love staycations! Beautiful pictures! Thank you for sharing.
ScotBird - Thanks! I will always need to keep it at bay by exercise/nerve flossing, but I'm thrilled to be off the pain meds.
I slept so much this weekend after returning from Boston. Now that my sciatica is under control, I will focus on improving my sleep. I've had sleep problems since I was a teenager. Tamoxifen probably doesn't help.
Things I'm trying (though I need to be more consistent):
1) melatonin
2) wear blue light-blocking glasses (not a good look!)
3) magnesium powder
4) f.lux/night mode on devices to reduce blue light
5) sleep mask
6) relaxing sounds during sleep (I like river/waterfall sounds)
I'm sleeping better than just a few months ago, but there's room for improvement. I really need to increase the intensity of my exercise. Work in progress.
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Just heard from a family member that they've returned home to Tampa. Their house is fine. I'm glad they're safe at home. I have another family member with a house in Naples. They went to Missouri, so they haven't returned home yet.
glennie - Hope you're safe.
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So, I should bake and give it all away?
Creative Activities Like Baking and Knitting Boost Mental Well-Being
Research has already shown us that making art is a good stress reliever, even if your skill level is more kindergartener than Picasso. Now a new study from the University of Otago in New Zealand suggests that these mood-boosting effects can be gained from even the most straightforward crafts. As the Independent reports, knitting, baking, crocheting, and jam-making were all found to produce an "upward spiral" effect that carried over to the following day.
For the study, published last month in The Journal of Positive Psychology, researchers from the university's department of psychology asked 658 students to record their daily experiences and emotional states in a diary for 13 days. Following the days when subjects took part in something creative, they reported feelings of positive personal growth that psychology defines as "flourishing." In addition to crafts and cooking, researchers also cited painting, sketching, writing, musical performance, and digital design as some common creative activities students completed.
These results shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's experienced the zen-like effects of knitting a scarf or crocheting a blanket. According to the Craft Yarn Council, stress relief and creative fulfillment are the top two reasons knitters and crocheters give for partaking in the hobbies. Baking has also been touted as a form of therapy, with some mental health clinics using time in the kitchen as a treatment for depression. Another benefit of improving your mood through creativity is that the results of your labors can be shared with others—so if you're still in need of gifts for the holidays, we suggest heading to the craft store and reaping some of the benefits yourself.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/89492/creative-activities-baking-and-knitting-boost-mental-well-being
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