Back to work
Well it was nice while it lasted - two weeks off work, to laze around the house not doing all those jobs I’d promised myself I was going to do when I had some time off. Weather could have been better, but it wasn’t too bad.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, the non-drinking, healthy-eating, Konjac-taking regime took a bit of a hit while I was off work. Actually, it didn’t just take a bit of a hit - it was completely knocked on the head. Plenty of unhealthy food, and way too much to drink have probably completely wrecked all the good work that I’d previously done. But hey, I was on holiday. I still don’t own a set of scales so I have no idea how bad the damage might have been - which is probably a good thing, as it would probably be a bit depressing.
So, back to work also means back to doing things right. I’ve re-started on the Konjac today (I did keep taking my other supplements while I was off - just didn’t take the Konjac) and yesterday’s beginning of the month shopping chore stocked me up on plenty of bottled water and fresh fruit and veg. Hoping that it will be quite easy to get back into the normal pattern.
The other thing that I need to back into normal patterns is going to bed at a reasonable time; while I was off I found myself staying up as late as 3am just looking at crap on the Net. This has been a slow one to recover from as my body got used to being up late but sleeping late in the day. Last night I finished an online chat about 10.45pm and thought “Time for bed”. Around 1am I was still awake, thinking “If this goes on much longer I may as well just get up!” Of course, once your body realises that you’re having trouble sleeping, your brain starts to wonder why. Which makes it even more impossible to sleep. You start to think about all sorts of things - some good (plans for the weekend), some bad (how crap you’re going to feel come 6am), some impossible to answer (which is better - ouzo shots or kumquat shots) - and that takes you even further from the realm of sleep.
Smoking - The Book
Well, I finally finished reading “Slow Burn” by Don Oakley. Normally, I wouldn’t write a whole post about a book, I’d just update my “What I’m reading” page, but I think this one deserves as bit more.
First off is a warning; this book is a chore. It’s about 600 pages of quite factual stuff that needs quite close attention. If you’re the sort of reader that skims, you probably want to avoid this one.
Second is another warning. The guys style is not the easiest in the world to get along with; he cares deeply about his subject, but the phrasing he uses to put his points across can be irritating. There were several occasions when I nearly threw the damn thing across the room because I was annoyed not by what he said but how he said it.
Taking those two points into account, what do you get? Well, what you get is an examination of the whole arena of smoking and the effect that it has had not only on people’s health but also on the way society functions. Oakley takes issue with practically every piece of anti-smoking reportage that has been produced in the last 40 or so years, starting with the Surgeon General’s 1964 report and continuing up to 1999 when the book was published.
He explains at great length the ways in which statistical probabilities have been manipulated to present the public with scare-mongering facts to encourage them to give up smoking (children have a greater risk of health problems from a glass of milk a day than they do from living in a house where one or both parents smokes). He discusses how many conclusions about smoking and health have been based on only one (narrow) study. He takes issue with the way that many studies into the effects of passive smoking (or environmental tobacco smoke) are based purely on after-the-fact anecdotal evidence provided by friends or relatives of the person supposedly effected.
There is a big hole in his arguments, though, in that at the same time as condemning statistical manipulation and extrapolating from only one study, a lot of his counter-evidence does just that. He accuses various bodies of having bias towards anti-smoking, but displays bias of his own. Having said that, though, there is enough evidence presented here to make you re-consider your anti-smoking stance; if only half of what he says is only half true, it still presents a completely different picture than the anti-smoking brigade, public health policy groups and politicians would have us believe.
The truly thought-provoking part of this book comes, though, when he moves on from discussing the implications for health to discussing the implications for society. We’ve all seen the way that smokers, over the last 20 to 30 years, have slowly been ostracised from society, but the picture presented by Oakley is much worse than I would ever have thought it could be.
Consider this; you’re a woman, or non-white, or Jewish - or perhaps all three - and you apply for a job. The company turns you down because you’re a non-white, Jewish woman. What’s the first thing you do - call your lawyer! Now, replace those groupings with just one - smoker. Don’t bother calling your lawyer, he won’t be in.
Smokers are being regularly discriminated against because they smoke. Not because they smoke in a room where co-workers may be effected, mind. Just that they smoke - or have done in the last 12 months, or whatever arbitrary time limit the prospective employer might like to put on it. Coupled with the fact that (in the States at least) they have to pay more for health care, and many other things, smokers are as victimised as any minority group since the slaves were brought over from Africa - but no-one seems to give a damn.
And that’s why I would encourage you to read this book (if you can find a copy); to make you re-think the social ramifications of anti-smoking policies.
- - -
I feel that I should point out that I am not a smoker. I never have been. I grew up surrounded by smokers and never really saw the attraction, but I don’t have any deep-seated feelings against smoking. I have never been convinced by the arguments against smoking, or passive smoking, and the recent introduction of a blanket ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces here in the UK quite frankly pisses me off. I realise that my opinion is not one that is shared by many people but there you go!
Wolfie’s July Project 4
I must confess that the Project is suffering somewhat this month. You see, I’m on holiday (vacation if you’re from t’other side of the Atlantic) and so I’ve decided that all bets are off.
Having said that, though, I’m still being quite good; whilst I have been indulging in a few ciders they’ve not been too excessive. Food-wise I’m doing OK-ish, but there has been more chocolate and crisps than there otherwise normally would be. I work on the basis, though, that I’ve earned it.
What I thought I’d do would be to skip it for the rest of this month, and then get back on track in September (with a break for my birthday half-way through).
I must say that though I still haven’t invested in those scales to see if I actually have lost any weight, when I look in the mirror there is definitely less to see. So I’m going in the right direction.
Wolfie’s July Project 3
Avid followers of The Wolf’s Howl (I know there are some, I see the stats) will know of my drive to cut down on the booze and to lose a bit of weight. However, its been a while since I posted on the subject so you might be wondering what’s going on. Well, I haven’t really got anything to report.
The Project continues and it seems to be going pretty well. Had a day off from not drinking last Saturday, to celebrate the third birthday of the daughter of some friends (you know the sort of thing; sunshine, barbecue, kids playing while the adults gradually get more and more “merry”) and had one hell of a hangover the next day. It really is amazing how quickly you lose your tolerance for the stuff. Having a couple of beers this evening, as a friend of mine had some that he was getting rid of so it seemed churlish to refuse.
The Konjac Fibre regime remains. I must admit I don’t take this as diligently as I should - I generally miss the morning one as I don’t get up in time to take it - but I am still taking it. From a healthy digestion point of view, it is definitely working well!
As far as losing weight is concerned, I don’t know if this is happening as I don’t own a set of scales. What I do know is that I feel better, my clothes feel looser even if they really aren’t and I feel good about myself. At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.
(Oh, by the way, could the person who stole my last July Project entry please not steal this one? Have an original thought, eh? I don’t mind you linking to the post, I don’t mind you ripping the piss out of it, but I do object to you stealing the whole thing and passing it off as your own work)
Wolfie’s July Project 2
Well, here we are at day 8 of the July Project, which began slightly later than planned on 3 July. The Konjac Fibre seems to be working OK; I’ve managed to remember to take it every breakfast, lunch and dinner (except for Saturday 7, when it wasn’t possible) and I have to say that it does seem to be helping me to eat less.
The way it works, it’s supposed to absorb water and swell up in the digestive system. This is then supposed to make you feel like you’ve already eaten, so you don’t eat as much at each meal. This then - over time - helps you to re-educate yourself to want less to eat so that when you stop “dieting” you don’t backslide. So far, seems to be working in this regard.
The other way that it’s supposed to work is that it helps to balance blood-sugar levels, so reducing feelings of hunger. This effect is taking longer to kick in, but I’m not feeling any more hungry than I would if I wasn’t taking it, so it’s not really a problem. Also, I find that if I drink some water, it helps to stave off the hunger pangs until it’s officially time to eat.
A side-effect of using this product is that my diet is now much higher in fibre than it was previously. This is good, because fibre in the diet helps to keep the digestive system clean and healthy but I think I’m going to buy shares in Andrex soon!
Throughout the June Project (see this post, this post and this post for more info) and so far through the July Project I had not weighed myself. I had an idea of how much I weighed, based on the last measurement sometime last year; I didn’t weigh myself, though, because I wanted to see whether my clothes started to feel looser, etc, rather than being a slave to pounds.
I had the opportunity, though, on Saturday to see what my current weight is and I am rather badly shocked. The last time I weighed myself, I was 18 stone. I was expecting to come out around that figure again, maybe a pound or two lighter thanks to the June Project. But instead, I was 19 stone 1 pound. If I have lost any weight due to the June Project - and I feel like I have - then that means that in the last year I put on well over a stone without even noticing! Scary.
So, I’ve made another change to the diet (small changes at first, hoping that they’ll be easier to stick to), to go with changing breakfast cereal to one that has less sugar (see this post); no more sugar in the morning coffee; that’ll save me another 0.5kg of sugar across the month, bringing the total up to 2kg!
I’ll give that a couple of weeks to see how it affects how I feel and then I’ll weigh myself again and see if I’ve lost any weight at all.
Since weighing myself on Saturday, it’s become clear that the July Project is going to have to last for longer than I had originally planned, so it looks like I’ll be doing this until the New Year at least.
You never know, I might even start to exercise!
Wolfs Stuff
Wolfs Helpers
-
