Recently in Health Category
It just hit me again today how many of our currently-serious national problems could be easily and cheaply resolved by the same simple solution: eating less and exercising more.
Pollution, Global Warming, High gasoline prices, Gridlock? All easily helped by riding a bike. We each need about 45 minutes a day of aerobic exercise, and biking quickly enough to be aerobic covers at least 7 miles in that time.
High food prices? Eat less. The middle wife and I were amazed to discover our grocery bill dropping in half after we started eating appropriately. We virtually eliminated our dining out costs too, as it's hard to find appropriate meals outside the home.
Aches, pains, high medical bills? Many diseases of middle age are optional, and can easily be avoided or ameliorated by eating only what we should and working out the way we should.
Nothing good on TV? Turn it off and get moving. There's better fare, and all for free, at the public library only 3 miles away.
Our bikes can carry two bags of groceries, and we have five grocery stores within two miles of our home. So why on Earth would we need to power up a one ton vehicle for the same purpose? When I can walk to the dry cleaners in 15 minutes, tell me again why I should drive there instead.
I can understand why folks don't want to be outside when the weather is lousy (though enjoying the outdoors even then is simply a matter of dressing for the occasion), but for the next half year, the weather will usually be very pleasant at least part of most days, so why not do our health, our budget, folks elsewhere (who need food and fuel a whole lot more than we do), and the planet itself some good today?
Our church challenged us to eat like the rest of the world this week. That is, not much in terms of quantity, and not much in terms of variety. One goal is for us to know what it feels like to be hungry most of the time.
It began today, and so far I've had one new realization - no leftovers! When my lunch consisted of a single serving of rice and beans, I found myself digging out every last grain of rice and eating it. Likewise the single serving of rice, chicken and veggies tonight.
The feeling of hunger I already know, since the True Hunger weight management system I follow ensures I feel hunger before eating at most if not all meals anyway. (This is a simple secret of the already-thin, who only eat when hungry. Duh!)
One other big change for me personally is drinking mostly plain water for the week - with no diet soda, and no fruit juices.
We are advised to be sensible about health, so I'm making sure I get enough calcium, and hopefully enough calories to maintain the muscle I've worked so hard to develop in place of visceral fat in the past four years. But I'm still making sure it all totals far under my usual 2,200C/day, so I get the full effect. I can't remember ever doing such a thing before when I wasn't overweight.
Tomorrow we have guests arriving from Ecuador for the week. It will be interesting to see what they make of our efforts to eat as they eat. It will also be interesting to see what effect this has on my exercise this week.
Whatever we save on groceries by eating this way (about $100 in our case) we are asked to donate to help feed hungry children in Zimbabwe. The next phase will be for us to help pack literally tens of millions of meals for them. That too will be a good experience, though I'm very concerned about how we'll ensure our food doesn't become yet another weapon used by that sad nation's dictator (Robert Mugabe) to reward supporters and punish opponents. I know we'll try to channel aid through churches, and hope that is a sufficient protection.
One other important point was made in this past weekend's message: there are several levels of poverty. That's an important distinction, because folks we think of as poor in this country are generally still rich by world standards. As one citizen in Soviet era Russia said after viewing a propaganda film about the evil U.S., "I want to live where the poor people are fat."
The truly poor in our world live on two bucks a day, tops, without safe water or health care. Short of becoming the World's policeman (and probably not even then), we can't do much about the many nations with vile despotic governments whose policies ensure hardship. But that leaves many other countries where we can help. And part of that help is for the ecologically-minded among us to stop harming folks further by discouraging the use of DDT to stop malaria, and trying to prevent gifts of genetically-modified food to the starving.
I just got an email alerting me to an upcoming "Wellness Jam" on campus.
It sounded good, since I'm getting old enough to really prefer "wellness" to "sickness."
One thing really caught my attention though: exhibitors include Planned Parenthood.
Guess it depends on whose wellness matters to you...
I recently learned competitive cyclists and swimmers are prone to osteoporosis. Why that is so is still unproven, but one theory that makes sense is that both of those activities are low-impact. That's good for saving knees, but may not be good for building and conserving bone strength. The cure? Do something high-impact too. Turns out a triathlon is ideal. The swimming and biking are easy on the knees, and the run helps bones stay strong. So my running two 5Ks a week isn't only good for my heart now, but also my bones.
Another theory that makes sense is that cyclists and swimmers exercise more hours at a time than many other kinds of athletes. And as a result, they may sweat out more calcium and other vital nutrients. A normal athlete's diet supplies enough calcium for an hour a day of exercise. But for a cyclist to complete a century may take seven hours. And most sport drinks don't include calcium.
A third explanation also rings true: phosphoric acid, found in many carbonated colas and some other carbonated soft drinks, is known to leach calcium from bones.
Other things believed to help bone strength include strength training and a daily multi-vitamin, both of which I enjoy.
I'm a bit between a rock and a hard place on calcium consumption, given that a couple of years ago I had two kidney stones whose composition included calcium. My calcium intake has been restricted somewhat since at the request of my urologist. I'm not aware of having any bone density problem, but also don't want one, so expect I'll ask about that at this Thursday's physical.
Much though I love it, I see I now have to say goodbye to soft drinks that contain phosphoric acid. I'm also adding a daily glass of milk back into my diet.
Update: Saw the doctor today, and got a mini version of a bone density scan. The good news: I don't have osteoporosis yet. The bad news is that my bone density is enough below normal that the doctor advised me to resume normal calcium intake, despite the possibility of another kidney stone resulting.
Seems like I've reached the point in life where there are trade-offs for everything. Since the consequence of osteoporosis would be worse than the consequence of another kidney stone, the focus for now is on protecting bone strength.
I recently learned of two books for men who want to bicycle in later years:
Cycling Past 50 (which already applies to me), by Joel Friel (the same author as the book I read last year getting ready for my first triathlon.)
Even more impressive to me as a concept is this one: Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100. From it, I now have a new goal: ride a century on my century (do a hundred mile bike ride on my hundreth birthday. Mind you, not many men make that age period, let alone fit enough to ride a bike, but if I should still be around then, I'd prefer enough of me still be around to pull off a stunt like that.
Now today I read that getting to at least age 90 may be easier than expected, and with better than even odds (54% chance of success), if I manage to do five simple things:
Exercise regularly
Avoid obesity
Not smoke
Avoid diabetes
Avoid high blood pressure
The details are in this article from Med Page Today:
More than half of men in their early 70s who exercised regularly, were not obese, didn't smoke, and didn't have diabetes or high blood pressure survived to 90, reported Laurel B. Yates, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and colleagues in the Feb. 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
Men surviving to 90 also had significantly lower rates of many chronic diseases compared with those who died earlier, the researchers said.
And among those who did have chronic disease, the age of onset was significantly later in the long-term survivors.
"Modifiable healthy behaviors during early elderly years ... are associated not only with enhanced life span in men but also with good health and function during older age," the researchers said.
In an interview, Dr. Yates said the implication is that the benefits of these factors extend into old age. Earlier research has established beyond doubt that they prevent early mortality.
Interested? There's more. Read the whole thing.
If I don't make it, here's what I want on my tombstone :)
Lost the weight
Got fit
Died anyway
But if I do make it, how about
Rode a Century
on His Century
Update:
Friend Greg suggests an intermediate goal for each intervening year:
Ride my birthday on my birthday
that is, ride as many miles as my current number of years of age as a birthday celebration.
Since it's not usually biking weather on my birthday, he suggests I do this on my half birthday instead, but I may also go with the original idea and use it as a reason to take both me and my bike someplace where the weather is nice on my birthday. Thanks for the idea, Greg!:
This is posted to reassure all our relatives who asked us to let them know we survived our first triathlon this morning. We did! And we both got our special wish - not to finish last!
the day began at 3:45AM, when we had to get up in order to arrive in Waukegan, IL by 5AM for a meeting of our The Fitness Race team. Good thing we brought along long pants and a light jacket, as it was still pretty chilly as we prepared.
A sprint distance triathlon is 3 events in 1, starting with a half mile swim, continuing with a 13.2 mile bike ride, and ending with a 5K (or in this case a 4 mile) run. Each section begins and ends near a central transition area where entrants stow gear and clothing.
This was the sixth year of this triathlon, celebrated by offering six portapotties per area for the 890 entrants to share. The line quickly grew to over ten minutes. We'd have gladly paid another buck at registration to shorten the line. There's always the lake, but we were about to swim in that water, whose bacterial count was already high yesterday.
The swim start was a shock to our whole team. Everyone was so pumped up that we all started ineffectively, each having to forcibly calm down and swim smoothly.
I discovered it was a bad idea to have started at the back of my wave, as I turned out to be one of the faster swimmers in our wave - sort of a father-daughter mashup of age 50+ men and women up to age 22. Accepting that I now swim well was hard, as I never beat anyone during two years on my high school swim team forty years ago,
I also need to practice porpoising in and out of the water the next time I do a beach start, rather than just running when the water is too high to lift my leg over but still shallow enough not to require swimming.
Like most newbies, I overdid in the swim portion, and ended up having to walk across the sand beach afterwards, just to keep my heart rate down to a level that would permit me to complete two more events.
I was shocked how far it was from the water to where my bike was waiting for the next leg of the race, and how far I then had to run beside my bike before being allowed to climb on and ride.
The best thing about the swim portion was having a "Farmer John"-style (sleeveless) Orca Sonar wetsuit. It kept me afloat and warm in the 69 degree Lake Michigan water, thereby dramatically improving my swimming time. The Middlewife also had a wetsuit, and agrees my next couple of days would have been miserable otherwise, as she really dislikes cold water.
I bike a lot, so enjoyed that portion of the event except that the four-lane road was badly maintained. I counted over a dozen expensive racing bikes down and out, and twice had to stop to remount the chain on my own bike (as did four others on our team), even though the course was flat enough I never had to shift out of the bike's top gear.
Today's most searing memory was being passed by a guy who looked back to comment "Sweet" about my folding bike (one of only two in the race), and immediately hit a crack and blew out his rear tire. The guy was tough as nails though. He rode at least another very fast mile on that flat tire. By then he needed not only a new tube, but an entire new wheel. Ouch!
The next transition was dragged out by my managing to tear the mounting hole on the "bib" number I was to wear on my chest. I had to dump my 5 gallon gear bucket to find a safety pin.
The run is the part of the race I endure rather than enjoy. I've only recently become able to run 4 miles, and still do so at roughly a 12 minute per mile pace, rather than the 8 or 9 minute pace of the good runners who kept passing me today. For now, that's as fast as I can go while keeping my heart rate down enough to finish even a 5K, let alone 4 miles.
As expected, the first quarter mile was worst. That's when I'd barely begun, but was already about as tired as I would get. What kept me going was simply knowing I'd already done the same distance twice last week.
The best part was approaching the mid-point, and realizing that (since we'd run uphill the whole way) the entire rest of the race would be downhill. Bonus!
Another high point was seeing Mindy from our team running uphill and looking miserable, and being able to give her the good news she was just behind our team lead. As expected, that gave her an approachable goal.
As I crossed the finish line, I was shocked to hear the announcer call out my name, home town and time. We wore an R.F.I.D. tag that some computer instantly matched with my entry info. Between that and the heart rate monitor that guided my effort and the GPS that guided our car this morning, I was struck anew by the technology we now take for granted that hadn't even been imagined yet fifty years ago!
My next joy was waiting with the Middlewife and my new brother as the third member of their relay team finished. They were a very special group. None of the three could have finished alone today, but together, with each doing their best event, not only did they finish, but they weren't even last, despite having a runner who is 3 months pregnant and a cyclist who'd never ridden over two miles at a time until a month ago!
I was thrilled with my under two hour finish time, faster than I'd dared to dream of. But this is not a sport at which I'll over prevail, due to its self-selecting nature. Of all the 50+ year old men near Chicago, only 19 entered today. Needless to say, those for whom this is a regular sport are fast. Despite setting a new personal best time today, I finished ahead of only two other guys my age, a couple minutes behind two others on our team, and almost 25 minutes behind the average finisher overall..
I am so proud of our group, founded on the idea that folks who need to lose at least 40 pounds can do so by preparing for an athletic challenge. As our leader Mark pointed out, it's a lot easier to motivate folks toward a positive goal like completing a triathlon than a negative goal like losing weight.
We are now one month away from doing this again in the largest triathlon in the world, but now we're veterans, looking forward to even better times (not least because the run is shorter.)
The easiest way to save real money under a nationalized health care system would be by making it as hard to sue that government agency as it already is to sue all other government agencies. Doing so would eliminate most if not all the money doctors now have to put aside annually to pay for malpractice insurance. Unfortunately, it would also minimize patient recourse after incompetent of malevolent treatment.
To put this into focus, here is how a recent malpractice case looked to the local doctor involved, as reported to the Chicago Flame:.
"After 29 years of practice, I just had the experience of sitting in the defendant's seat in a medical malpractice trial. Emergency physicians are sued frequently. We often have to act with a paucity of information. Plus no one minds suing a doctor that they have met for only a brief time. It isn't like suing good ol' Doc Jones, the family doctor with whom you have shared some history. After all, if things don't turn out fine, it must be someone's fault. The corollary to that argument: if it is someone's fault, then someone has to pay.
Now, I'm not too proud to say that I make mistakes. Ask my kids. I do it all the time. I take comfort in the fact that I can honestly say that I, like the vast majority of my colleagues, do the best I can for my patients. Unfortunately, this is not synonymous with great results. Somehow, medical malpractice standards have evolved from a standard of "what a reasonably well trained physician would be expected to do under similar circumstances" to a standard that "mistakes, or even an undesirable outcome without mistakes, implies guilt."
...
I had heard horror stories from others who had gone before me, but I was unprepared for how vicious the plaintiff's attorney could be. My reputation, ethics, work habits and intelligence were all mocked. Family members of the deceased patient testified, complete with blown up family photos, of what a great guy the deceased had been. I don't doubt it. I just kept wondering what that had to do with anything. After all, my parents were wonderful people, and they died anyway. It happens. If being good people is the criteria we are to use, then I want to know where I can sign up to be compensated for their loss. Only seems fair to me.
My patient had a medical problem that was simply not survivable. Only the $4500 for two hours of testimony plaintiff's "expert" felt otherwise. That guy was amazing. He testified that without ever seeing the patient that he knew more about him than the surgeon who operated on him. Now I'm not saying that the money had any role in influencing his opinion, but……..
After six days of trial, five years since the occurrence and a couple of months of cumulative missed work attending various legal actions, it finally came down to the jury. The lawyers could say that it was just part of business, and it wasn't anything personal, but I beg to differ. It felt very personal. All my years of working at 3 a.m. on holidays and birthdays came back to me. All of the patients that I had worked feverishly to care for, at the expense of my own health-both physical and mental-and family life meant nothing to these piranhas. The plaintiff's attorney asked the jury for $3.5 million. My insurance policy was for $1 million. Except for the hospital backing me, my house, savings and kid's college money would be at risk. That is about as personal as it gets.
Finally, at almost 9 p.m., the jury reached a verdict. They "found for the defendant." In other words: nothing would happen. That was the best I could have wished for. On another day with a different set of 12 "peers," the results could easily have been reversed. I would beg to differ with anyone who called me a winner. A survivor maybe, but definitely not a winner.
My wife and I, exhausted, are changed people, motivated to get out of clinical medicine ASAP.. With time it might change. If we stay, we'll be less enthusiastic about caring for patients, wondering which one is going to come back and play the lottery with our lives. If we leave, we become a growing statistic-two more who have retired early, left the field or moved out of state-due to a system wildly out of control"
One more thing: when good doctors leave, doctors still seeking work may be from Al Queda, as Great Britain's National Health Service learned last week.
What's the appropriate punishment for "TB Guy", the personal injury lawyer with extremely-drug-resistant tuberculosis, who along with his family intentionally flouted medical advice regarding his illness and travel plans for a wedding and honeymoon abroad with complete disregard for the well-being of the rest of humanity?
Seems to me the answer is obvious: everyone exposed to him as a result can sue the socks off TB Guy et al, especially anyone unfortunate enough to actually catch the illness.
I'm not surprised a personal injury lawyer could lack a working conscience. But even a sociopath can learn to fear consequences.
I read today that the original Typhoid Mary, once caught, was quarantined for the rest of her life. That may have to be the fate of TB Guy as well. With a proven lack of ethics, he certainly ought not again be allowed near folks he might infect.
Nice for TB Guy that he currently lacks active symptoms of TB, but reportedly his odds of dying from TB remain 30%, so it doesn't seem sensible to let him share that risk with others.
So far as I'm concerned, TB Guy and his co-conspirators can repay all costs of locating, quarantining and treating him.
I also find myself wondering what planet his father and new wife were from to cooperate in all this?
The U.S. Supreme Court today decided in a close 5:4 vote that the U.S. Congress actually did have the power to outlaw a particularly-heinous method of performing a late-term abortion.
What upsets me about that particular method of killing a baby is that it is a grotesque parody of actual birth, done on a child far enough along in its development that if the doctor stopped then, the baby might live. Instead, what I, the U.S. Congress, and now the U.S. Supreme Court consider murder is then committed by poking an instrument into the infant's head and sucking out its brain.
This strikes me as being much the same sin as cooking a baby animal in its mother's milk, in that what is intended to nourish and protect is instead used to destroy.
If anyone advocated doing the same to unborn animals, P.E.T.A. would do almost anything to avoid such a horrid violation of animal rights.
And how could an almost fully developed human baby not feel pain during such a process?
Here's my previous comment on this particular method of late-term abortion: "I can't imagine how any moral person can support a form of abortion that intentionally murders an almost-fully-developed infant, merely to ensure the child doesn't enter the world alive."
More of my previous thinking on abortion issues is here.
One of my pet peeves is folks who proudly continue to show up for work and ride public transportation even though they are contagiously ill. Twice in the last week I've had to move to another car on the Metra because someone with a cold insisted on sharing it with everyone in the area. In one case, the perp even bragged about it on her cellphone. I pack a face mask for use in such situations, and actually had to use it once last week.
If you are sick with a contagious disease, please don't share it with others! Best: stay home. That's what sick days are for. If that's truly not an option, avoid others. If you have to cough, cover your mouth with a handkerchief or Kleenex. Use waterless hand cleaner before touching surfaces others will also have to touch.
The Middlewife's employer has a strange policy on this. If anyone is ill more than 5 workdays in a row, they have to go on disability. Hello, the average cold lasts a full 7 days! You'd think a firm that makes its money on health care would know this, rather than forcing their workers to come in regardless after 5 days.
If I'm ill with something contagious, I'm out of the office. I'm still willing to work, and a lot of my work can still be done, but I try not to give to others what I wouldn't want to receive.
This year saw the completion of my weight loss quest. It was also the year I became athletic again, for the first time since high school, and even then it was more of a "have to" than a "want to" thing for me.
As the year progressed I have been amazed to see myself switch from walking fast, to alternately running and walking, and finally to mostly running, and jogging as much as 3 miles at a time. I also took up roller blading this summer, and can now go a dozen miles on these. I even did this 25 mile bike ride in mid summer. And most recently, I realized I can save the $1.75 bus fare from the train station to my office by walking 2 miles, and have happily been doing so even in rain and snow. In better weather I often ride this folding bike to and from the train at both ends of my commute, and will soon begin using this even smaller kick scooter instead (assuming I can learn to use it more safely than one day this week. My first Christmas present was a call from my dentist, telling me he can fix the two front teeth I just chipped falling off the scooter on Saturday.)
Much of this change has been motivated by the teachings of Jack Groppel, who I've now heard speak at our church three times. Recently, Jack's teaching has been further reinforced by the book "Younger Next Year", which the Middlewife and I both enjoyed reading over Thanksgiving week.
An excellent point made in the book "Bulletproof: The Making of an Invincible Mind" by Chuck Holton, is that both television screens and computer screens can be very detrimental to health.
Why?
1) engaging in passive behavior for hours a day
2) content so trivial and shallow it diminishes the mind
3) constant messages of fear, both real and imaginary
4) constant invitations to sin
Holton makes these points regarding children. In my opinion the points apply equally to adults.
A famous principle in computer science is "garbage in, garbase out". Following that principle, I avoid entertainment inappropriate for young children. If I wouldn't let anyone peddle filth or fear to kids, what good can it possible do me?
I've gradually given up television entirely, but the point also applies to computer users. After a week like the one just past, I'm beginning to consider so-called "news" obtained via the Web to be just as poisonous as watching it on TV, even when the angry views being offered are coming from folks with whom I otherwise agree.
Shades can confirm we didn't allow violent computer games in our home. (Pac Man was OK; Doom was not.)
I find I'm even comfortable now without music in the background all day. There's a lot to be said for being comfortable in my own skin, and not needing to be distracted from my own thoughts.
The main point of Holton's excellent book is that we need fear nothing other than being outside God's will for our lives.
"Fear God. Nothing else."
"Perfect obedience equals perfect safety"
"The world defines safe as 'secure from danger, harm, injury, or evil.' The Bible's definition is much simpler: being on God's side."
Should we still be prepared? Definitely. Ready, but not afraid.
Perhaps a worthy stance for us all on this fourth anniversary of 9-11.
This week, for the second time, my life was saved by what our day considers routine, even minor surgery, but would have been impossible at any price even a century ago.
This time it was called minor surgery, though I am firmly of the opinion that minor surgery only happens to other people.
Turns out I had a large kidney stone blocking the outlet of one kidney. The stone being too big to pass, the resulting pressure would likely have eventually killed the kidney. This was discovered by a now-simple CAT scan that would have been science fiction even 50 years ago.
The next afternoon, a doctor went in after the stone, saying quote "when I looked in, there it was, facing me." He then scooped it up in a basket and pulled it out. What made this a modern miracle is that he did so without cutting me open, using only a tiny natural opening. (Yeah, that one.)
The drama isn't entirely over. Turns out a stent (another modern medical miracle) was installed to enlarge the path enough to accommodate the stone, and that will need to be removed. In addition, it turns out the stone has a smaller friend that also needs to pass, very definitely while the stent is still there to provide it easy exit.
If the second stone fails to find its own way within a few days, another modern medical miracle, called lithotripsy will use ultrasonic waves to shatter the stone into fragments small enough to pass easily.
Not entirely coincidentally, I was given a postcard to send my legislator asking for legislative relief to reduce doctors' legal liability for non-economic losses such as pain and suffering in the interest of keeping doctors from leaving our state. Having just experienced both the miracle of continued life thanks to care by my doctors, and a tiny bit of the pain and suffering that makes some folks think they deserve to be instant millionaires courtesy of the legal system, I was happy to immediately complete and mail the card. (For more on the issue of liability as it affects medical costs and care, see this related entry.)
Why? It's simple. If it had been harder to get in to see my doctor that day, I might not have bothered, with tragic results.
Update: The lithotripsy was done today. No pain so far afterwards, thankfully! Within a couple of weeks, the fragments will hopefully pass, the stent will then hopefully be removed, and we can all call this medical miracle complete.
In related news, the IL legislature has reportedly agreed to cap awards for pain and suffering.
Update2; The stent was removed today. That required only a local anesthetic, not even delivered via a shot, and was briefly uncomfortable but nothing like some horror stories I'd heard.
One way to judge increasing health is by how many tubes are still in you. On that scale, I am now down to zero tubes and full health. I feel pretty good too. Thanks for all the prayers along the way. They helped.
I recently finished reading Thomas Sowell's excellent book "Basic Economics". One of his key points is that what matters in the long run is not good intentions, but actual long-term results. Many ideas that seem good in theory, especially to politicians who only have to get through the next election, are not good for the whole nation over the longer term.
Cheap drugs from Canada is a good example. Who can be opposed to cheap drugs for Granny in the short run? But in the long run, what drug company will ever again develop a new drug for Granny, and jump through all the hoops of getting it approved for sale by the FDA if they can't then charge enough for the drug to recover their costs of development plus enough profit to remain in business? And if there were a company so altruistic as to proceed without such assurance, would you personally want to own their stock?
Selling drugs more cheaply to Canada makes sense to drug companies now only because those drugs by and large do not return to the U.S. to undercut prices here. Once that is no longer true, prices paid by Canadians will either rise to cover the full cost of the drug, rather than only the incremental cost of making one more bottle of it, or the drug will no longer be available in Canada, or the company involved will eventually lack the necessary resources to develop new medicines.
Capping costs always seems like such a fine way to help the poor, except that in the long run such efforts usually end up harming precisely the poor. An example pointed out by Sowell, and recently seen by us, was San Francisco rent control. Enacted to keep rents low for the poor, its long term effect has been to drive the poor, and particularly the immigrant poor out of the city.
See also this earlier related post.
Some pharmacists, typically (but not exclusively) observant Roman Catholic ones, are as a matter of conscience unwilling to dispense birth control pills. Until now, this has been quite acceptable, since plenty of other pharmacists are available to fill such prescriptions.
Friday, however, Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois filed an "emergency" rule with the Illinois Secretary of State's office, requiring birth control prescriptions be filled without delay at pharmacies selling contraceptives. And, no, despite the date, this was not an April Fools joke.
Although I personally think opponents of abortion might do best to fully support alternatives to abortion, including birth control pills and even RU-486, I understand and respect that some Pro Lifers see those too as means of murder.
I am aghast at what seems to be implied by the Governor's action -- that IL pharmacies need to either pay a second pharmacist to work alongside pharmacists unwilling to dispense birth control pills, or fire and replace such pharmacists. If so, it would still OK to be an observant Catholic in Illinois, just not OK to be an employed pharmacist of that faith.
To me, that sounds way too close to pre-World War II laws against employment of Jews for my comfort, and also suggests Catholic votes may no longer be important to the Democratic Party of Illinois. Further, the timing reeked, coming the day before the Pope died.
Update: According to this story, four IL pharmacists have just been put on unpaid leave "until they either decide to abide by Illinois law or relocate to another state" without such a rule.
Update2: The four pharmacists have now been fired by Walgreens, and are suing. My response? It will be a cold day in hell before I vote for Blagojevich.
What amazes me most about the Terri Schiavo case is that no one on the pro-death side seems concerned that starving to death is painful, and that it would never be permitted if she were a pet animal rather than a human. Why haven't those who want her dead sought court permission to put her to sleep humanely, as they would a dog or cat, rather than via what amounts to torture?
I'm also amazed that anyone gives a rip what her "husband" thinks on the subject due to an obvious conflict of interest. Today's Opinion Journal covers that aspect of the case well, leaving out only that he may also have financial reasons for wanting Terri dead:
"According to news reports, Mr. Schiavo lives with a woman named Jodi Centonze, and they have two children together. Surely any court would consider this prima facie evidence of adultery. And this is no mere fling; a sympathetic 2003 profile in the Orlando Sentinel described Centonze as Mr. Schiavo's "fiancée." Mr. Schiavo, in other words, has virtually remarried. Short of outright bigamy, his relationship with Centonze is as thoroughgoing a violation of his marriage vows as it is possible to imagine.
The point here is not to castigate Mr. Schiavo for behaving badly. It would require a heroic degree of self-sacrifice for a man to forgo love and sex in order to remain faithful to an incapacitated wife, and it would be unreasonable to hold an ordinary man to a heroic standard.
But it is equally unreasonable to let Mr. Schiavo have it both ways. If he wishes to assert his marital authority to do his wife in, the least society can expect in return is that he refrain from making a mockery of his marital obligations. The grimmest irony in this tragic case is that those who want Terri Schiavo dead are resting their argument on the fiction that her marriage is still alive."
I'm further amazed that the party which constantly trumpets its concern for the disabled hasn't taken the lead in caring about this particular disabled person. According to a blind friend, she and other disabled persons have definitely noticed.
Update: It's beginning to look like this is all about (at least in their own minds) courts asserting dominance over the executive and legislative branches of government. If so, I'm disgusted! A human being is dying in unnecessary pain, and for what? So turf can be defended? If so, those involved need to remember there is another Day of Judgment yet to come, when all wrongs will be made right.
Too bad Terri wasn't a mass murderer or a snail darter. Then she'd get the sympathy she deserves now, rather than only in the Hereafter.
Update 2: OK, Peggy Noonan just said it a whole lot better here.
Sample quote: "It cannot be good for our children, and the world they will make, that they are given this new lesson that human life is not precious, not touched by the divine, not of infinite value.
Once you "know" that--that human life is not so special after all--then everything is possible, and none of it is good. When a society comes to believe that human life is not inherently worth living, it is a slippery slope to the gas chamber. You wind up on a low road that twists past Columbine and leads toward Auschwitz."
That seems relevant somehow to this old joke:
Be careful how you treat your chidren. They choose your nursing home.
Sooner or later we need to harmonize our views on life and death:
If you are against executions, why is abortion OK?
If you are against abortion, why are executions OK?
If you want to save animals, why not save people (also animals)?
If you want to save nature, why not save people (part of nature)?
Update #3: Finally, a sensible post from the other side of this issue. Neal Boortz correctly reminds us "Death will not be an end for Terri Schiavo, it will be a beginning."
I don't know whether Terri Schiavo is?/was? a person of faith. But Boortz is correct to remind us that death is not the end, and that what lies beyond for those who love God (Romans 8:28) is infinitely better.
Update#4: OK, now I do know enough about the faith of Terri Schiavo to trust that her future is secure.
This story from (BP) news 7/24/04 reports: "Affidavits filed with the motion include testimony by both of Terri's parents and a family friend, Frances L. Casler, describing Terri as a 'practicing Catholic' who attended Catholic school from elementary through high school, went to mass nearly every week and was taught to 'respect the Pope and the teachings of the church.'
...
'Terri was a gentle spirit, but firm in her Catholic faith,' Mary Schindler said. 'There is no question in my mind that Terri had not fallen away from her faith at the time of her collapse.'
...
In their affidavits, the Schindlers said their daughter attended mass with them in St. Petersburg on Saturday afternoons before her collapse...
'I cannot imagine that Terri would go against the pope on this issue,' Mary Schindler said. 'Removing her feeding tube without any consideration for her religious beliefs is, in my opinion, grossly improper and is a denial of her religious liberty and her right to freely practice her religious beliefs.'"
From other comments in that story, it appears their marriage may have been "unequally yoked", adding a bit to the consequences one might want to consider before planning such a union. It would also appear Michael Schiavo is in rather more need of our prayers than Terri.
"Bob Schindler said in his affidavit that although Terri attended church regularly and even made a special gesture of dedication during the celebration of their nuptial mass, Michael Schiavo made 'derogatory or condescending comments' about Terri's devotion.
Update #5:
I understand her hospice is now giving Terry Schiavo morphine for pain, which finally addresses my original concern on her behalf.
Update #6:
Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass has found a doctor in Holland who openly advocates killing folks suffering from terminal illness.
"Dr. Eduard Verhagen puts children down. Actually, he doesn't really put them down. You put animals down, not human children. He doesn't put children to sleep, either.
He kills them. And he figures that if we understand his reasoning, we'll drop our old-fashioned irrational objections and agree with him. He considers those who would draw comparisons to the Holocaust as ridiculous and uninformed.
Verhagen described how he takes care of certain children painfully suffering from spina bifida. Morphine and another drug, midazolam, are given intravenously.
'The child goes to sleep,' he was quoted in the March 19 edition of The New York Times. 'It stops breathing.'
'I mean, it's difficult to give the right emotion there, but it's beautiful in a way,' he said. 'They are children who are severely ill and in great pain. It is after they die that you see them relaxed for the first time. You see their faces in the way they should be for the first time.'"
Kass also points out the key resulting problem.
"Once the understanding that human life is sacred is ground down by faith in scientific reason alone, almost anything is possible.
Yet if we deal only in scientific reason, then only the powerful will define the terms. And there are always some folks who will consider some lives--not theirs, naturally, but lives belonging to others--as not worth living."
Update #7: It must be snowing in Hades today, because The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and I agree on this issue.
Jackson told reporters today "She is being starved to death, she is being dehydrated to death. That's immoral and unnecessary,"
Update #8: Various courts never allowed her removed feeding tube to be restored, and Karen Schiavo eventually died. Various Democrats and "progressive" bloggers have since proclaimed their virtue in defending courts against legislative interference in this matter, relying on what they consider to be polls supporting their view.
Personally, I am more impressed that in the months since, three other persons whose lives appeared equally hopeless have returned unexpectedly: a woman whose grandaughter decided unilaterally that her grandmother wouldn't want to live with a failing aorta, a long-ago injured firefighter, and most recently a woman critically injured in a car accident.
If such incidents prove anything, it is that "such decisions are better left to a higher power", as then-Governor Bush is reported to have said in refusing to halt the execution of Carla Faye Tucker, despite her having become a Christian since committing her crimes.
Perhaps Gov. Bush should have followed his own advice and kept Tucker alive, but the rest of us also need to follow it and not prematurely assume anyone is beyond help.
In recently signing a surgical consent, I was reminded anything can happen, and my family might someday have to make a similar decision, as I myself once did as my mother lay dying.
In such a case, I'd like all possible measures taken to save my life, so long as there is still a potential real life to save. However, if I already had a soon-to-be-fatal illness, I don't see the benefit of fighting for a couple of extra months, especially if I've already had time to say prayers and goodbyes, and would spend the remaining months doped out of my mind or in terrible pain.
Having already had one near-death experience, I already know beyond all possibility of arguing me out of it that my death here will be immediately followed by life beyond life much as described by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross in her book "On Death and Dying", written some years later. That event gave me what John Wesley called assurance of salvation. God's grace truly is amazing! May we have similar grace on future Karen Schiavos.
Our church recently did a Christmas on Location message from South Africa. You can view the video in hi-res here, or med-res here, or lo-res here.
It makes the point that AIDS is killing incredible numbers of people in Africa. Yes, some due to poor choices of their own regarding sex or drugs. But many others are innocent victims, raped, recipients of tainted transfusions, infected at birth, or even uninfected orphans of those killed by AIDS.
As a church, we needn't pretend we don't know what causes AIDS, but we also shouldn't condemn and refuse to help even "guilty" victims, let alone provably-innocent ones.
Despite all the deaths from the recent tsumami, I suspect far more people will die of AIDS in Africa this year than will die in Asia from the tsumami.
Until the day this video appeared, I didn't know any AIDS victims personally, or at least didn't know I knew any. But now I do know one, and they are still beloved children of the most-high God, persons of infinite worth, for whom Christ died.
Update:
When I checked Ask Jeeves "How many die from AIDS in South Africa each year?", the third unsponsored link it offered listed 360,000 infected per year, as of 2002, according to this article in Le Monde. Two other links report AIDS activists claim 600 die of AIDS in South Africa every day - 219,000 each year in just one of many severely-affected countries.
Nicholas D. Kristoe (hat tip Instapundit) also reminds us that more poor folk in the Third World die of malaria each year from the lack of DDT to use against mosquitos, thanks to environmentalists who either prefer mosquitos to humans or can't recognize the full consequences of their opposition to any use anywhere of DDT for any purpose.
After reading an Email lament about water pollution this afternoon, I really appreciated Instapundit's link to Radley Balko's wonderfully hopeful article on the Good News of 2004.
Here are a few good bits, but be sure to read the whole thing.
1) "Juvenile violent crime has fallen every year – and nearly halved – since 1995."
2) "Life expectancy in the U.S. is at an all-time high among men and women, black and white."
3) "Concentration levels of every major air pollutant have dropped dramatically since 1970, even as we drive more, consume more, and produce more."
4) "U.S. water has been getting steadily cleaner for the last 20 years."
5) "The average citizen of the world has grown less likely to die a violent death caused by government, war or his fellow man."
6) "As of 2002, 70 percent of the world’s nations were holding multi-party elections. Fifty-eight percent of the world’s population lived under a fully democratic system of governance. Both of these figures are at their highest points in human history."
7) "Real per capita incomes in the developing world have more than doubled since 1975"
8) "Between 1960 and 2000, life expectancy in developing countries increased from 46 to 63 years. Mortality rates of children under five are half of what they were forty years ago."
Also see this related link.
The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed I deleted one entry from this blog -- my New Year's entry about losing weight, in which I promised updates later.
I actually did update it at least once, to report "no progress." Actually, it was worse than no progress after a new pill my doctor prescribed.
After hearing a great sermon on self control in June, which mentioned a new weight loss group at our church that would be starting in September, I resolved that if I didn't start losing weight by then I would make myself join that group, no matter what.
And so I did. It's only been three weeks, so I have a very long way to go, but for the first time in over a year, the scale is trending down instead of up.
I'm posting this for two reasons: because I promised to, and because what I've learned may help others.
The name of the program is "True Hunger", and that's also its only requirement. You can eat whenever and whatever you want, but only when you are truly hungry (stomach rumbling). And you are to stop eating as soon as you are satisfied (not when you are full or stuffed.)
I'm learning other interesting things along the way, such as that my stomach, in its natural state, is only the size of my fist. That gives me an easy way to judge how much food it will likely take to satisfy me (roughly half what I ate before.)
Though it has taken me until today to get back to my weight of January 1, I'm thrilled to be there, and very hopeful.
Want to know more about True Hunger? Here's the link.
Update: 6 weeks in, I'm losing 2 pounds a week, and retired my first pair of too-large pants.
Last week I also discovered a really quick ways to lose 3 pounds -- bad chicken. Be sure to check those expiration dates kids...
Preparing for a colonoscopy this week had a similar, but more lasting effect, due to the required clear liquid-only diet for the day before the test. The test turned out great, so won't be repeated for ten years. For those of you over 50, just do it. Colon cancer is one of the most curable of all cancers, yet also one of the most deadly.
Update 2: The first 10-week session is now done. I ended up losing 16 pounds in all, plus 1 more since, as of today, Thanksgiving morning 2004. Finally the first person outside our group noticed yesterday that I'm losing weight. Yay! Visible progress!
Update 3: The new year finds me 1.5 more pounds down than at the last update, despite the holidays. I was also reminded today of another of our key learnings from the group: If you know you will, no matter what, eat a particular snack as part of a meal, eat it first so as not to overfill. Our True Hunger group relaunches in two weeks, and I'm already signed up, as I've still got a long way to go in this and various other aspects of life.
Update 4: Another pound down yesterday, making 19.5 in all as I look forward to our group resuming tomorrow. My goal for Spring is three-fold: first, to get below the weight limit of my bicycle, (1/2 pound to go), fit the next size down of slacks, and get below the stated weight limit of the fold-down ladder into my attic (5.5 pounds to go.) I saw the doctor yesterday; he was very pleased, and cut my meds.
Update 5: Weight loss is going slower this session, about 1/2 pound per week, but continuing at that rate every week, for a total of 22 off thus far. The belt has tightened one notch too, a most welcome change.
One of the other guys in our group lost as much in 3 weeks as I have since September '04, but started from 350, so still has a ways to go.
Update 6: Session two ends tomorrow. I'm down 25# overall now, & 2 sizes down in pants size. Most folks wouldn't be pleased by a 38" waist, but for me it's progress!
The most memorable moment in this session was when I decided to carry two 10# weights on a 2 mile walk, to symbolize the weight lost to that point. I like to died! If anyone ever tells you 10# isn't much, hand them a 10# weight and ask them to just hold it for 1/2 hour! On the other hand, I just repeated the stunt today, on a slower walk with the Middlewife, and it was a lot easier today after working out more over the past week. I even did a walk/run version of my usual path yesterday when my arms ached too much to carry weights. That kept my pulse up in the cardio range without actually forcing me to "jog" (an excercise I have always hated.) To avoid stress on my knees, I did the 100 step "run" portions up on the balls of my feet, which was easy enough for that short a distance, even though I did it at least a half dozen times in the course of the effort.
I'm also now forcing myself to do situps on occasion again. Ugh, only 25 so far, but better than none.
I'm also reading a good book on the topic: The Total Temple Makeover, by Gregory Jantz. It is full of good info, and none that seems misguided thus far. Highly recommended, even if your body mass index isn't still 32 when it should be under 25.
Update #7: Another 2# down. Carrying two 10# weights around the lake is no longer a big deal, and now allows me to do all the exercises I can think of with them along the way.
I have to be cautious with run/walks though. Even with new top-quality running shoes and careful warmup, I am prone to a pain in my right calf if I'm not careful, and then can't run even a moment until that goes away after about a week. I knew there was a reason I've always hated running!
Saw the doctor again - again pleased (5# off since last visit), and cut my meds again.
Found a Web site that calculates Body Mass Index here and ideal weight here.
One of the best concepts in the book above is glycemic load. This takes the glycemic index of food one step further, factoring in typical portion size. Here's a link to a useful list for common foods.
Update#8: New info on the Body Mass Index suggests a BMI under 30 is sufficient to avoid early death due to obesity. Last time I checked, my # was 33, so now I've an extra incentive to improve that by at least 3, which for me is another 20# off. That should be very doable by my next birthday at the current rate of progress.
At a retreat of the leaders of our group this week, I learned that some of our leaders are themselves "stuck" at a weight well above their goal. The danger is that this could simply become a fellowship for fat people, rather than actually helping them lose the fat.
One goal of the leaders now is to focus more on evidence-based suggestions, i.e. things that have been proven helpful. That makes sense. In all of life, there is a big difference between knowing the right thing to do, and actually doing it, with far more fans in the bleachers watching than players on the field playing. As for me, I'm a player now, and intend to stay on the field until game over.
One other related event of note this week was the government's release of a new food pyramid, in 12 flavors, based on age and gender. One observer suggested it be called a food dodecahedron, but one of its authors would prefer it to be shown as a food octagon, preferably large, red, and labeled "stop". That author also plans to investigate reports that the new pyramid labels brown rice as a dark green vegetable.
Update#9: Progress continues. To my surprise, I have a waist again, only 2" narrower than my chest and hips, but it's a start. A new pair of pants I bought a couple of weeks ago that was an inch too tight in the waist at the time fits fine today.
My goal this session is to lose a pound a week, less than in the first session but more than in the second session. So far, so good.
Our leader is now facing knee replacement surgery, giving him an incentive to lose another 25# himself. Toward that end, I'll be sharing this blog entry with him:
"From an orthopedic standpoint I will tell you that there is no doubt about increased morbidity from being overweight. That increased morbidity shows up in my office all the time. Foot pain, knee pain, back pain, neck and shoulder pain - all are more common in individuals who are overweight with poor fitness.
Your knee sees three times your body weight in force across the joint when you walk, and seven times BW when you run. That means that for each pound you gain your knees think you gained 3 to 7 lbs. These increased forces, along with the loss of flexibility and strength that usually accompanies the weight gain, lead to aching joints from a variety of causes, including arthritis.
In addition, if you are obese, with a BMI of greater than 30, you have 3 times the usual risk of complications when undergoing elective knee replacement surgery. Problems such as blood clots, infection, increased blood loss and neurovascular injuries are all more common in the obese, and the result of the surgery less predictable. These studies have been done, including one excellent one published just last September from Johns Hopkins."
Update 10: I've hit a plateau. Since the end of the last session, I've not again reached my lowest weight of that week. The good news is that at my last doctor visit I was another 5# down, and my blood sugar almost where it should be, but I still have far too many pounds to go to be slacking effort now. I'm noticing a subtle creep upwards in the quantity of food I choose to eat, so will be seeking to remedy that.
Another blessing that may help is that our primary office challenge is moving on to a better opportunity, which I hope will reduce work-related stress.
Part of who our team is is that we want to please others. For years now that hassn't been an option, reminding us we serve an audience of one, and must find better solutions than overeating in response to stress.
Update 11: It took all summer, but the plateau is finally over and weight loss has resumed. Some thanks for this go to my urologist, who found my recent kidney stones were calcium oxalate and cut both of those from my diet. Sadly, that means no more milk, chocolate and nuts. On the bright side, chocolate and nuts were both temptations to me. Associating them with the kidney stone helped in giving them up.
I also learned this summer to avoid situations of food temptation. Events with lots of good food close to hand result in a week or two of later effort re-losing pounds I'd already lost. If I offend anyone by avoiding such events, I'm sorry. My will power is not yet sufficient.
Case in point: I enjoy a monthly mens' breakfast sponsored by our church. Even so, I'm giving that up while I'm obese.
Another help in losing is that I've settled on another small folding bicycle that fits in a bag for carrying on the train. Much as I love the Dahon Jetstream P8 folding bicycle for comfortable riding, the Dahon Presto Lite seems more compatible with mass transit weight and size limitations. Both are excellent ways to get exercise, when ridden 11-14 miles per working day. But I'm still a wimp compared to the co-worker who rides his Dahon Helios XL every working day of the year, even in downpours and blizzards.
Another joy is that a good friend has just joined our True Hunger group. May God bless us both in reaching weighty goals this Fall!
Update 12: Another pound down this week. Yay! Thanks to Adam Jacot de Boinod, via the Beeb, here's a lovely German word that applies to our need: "Kummerspeck is a German word which literally means grief bacon: it is the word that describes the excess weight gained from emotion-related overeating."
Update 13: Today was a big milestone in this long quest. I hit 210#, 40# down from my initial weight 13 months ago. I am exactly halfway to my goal weight of 170# ("normal range"), and only 6# from being only "overweight" rather than "obese".
There are medical benefits already apparent: my blood sugar is now normal, so my med for that has been cut in half, my blood pressure was low normal for the first time I recall ever, so that med has also been cut in half, and my cholesterol is low enough I've been taken off that med entirely!
Update 14: Another red letter day. I've had a brand new pair of slacks in a drawer for years that were a size smaller than expected when purchased, and have never come close to fitting since. Today I wore them to work, and they've fit fine all day! We also packed nearly all my remaining XL tops and size 40 slacks for Katrina victims in Waveland, MS (large sizes are reportedly very much in need there.)
Update 15: More happy news -- as of today I am officially "overweight" rather than "obese".
Shades' delighted comment was "Congratulations! You've gone from a medical condition to a lifestyle choice."
Better, this happy result is in spite of my eating out with a friend at Leona's all-you-can-eat buffet for lunch yesterday. Although I still felt a bit out of control and as though I'd overeaten, I only filled one plate, making it the least amount of food I ever recall eating at such a buffet.
Update 16: The Fall True Hunger session ends this week, and I am down 14 pounds and 5 combined inches for the 10 week session. That's 2 fewer than in the Fall session last year, but then there are fewer pounds left to lose now than there were then, so I'm very pleased. I'm also now fitting size 36 jeans and size "Medium" wind pants.
Update 17: This morning, for the first time in about a decade, I weighed under 200 pounds. That was my next goal so I'm happy to have reached it. I also had a co-worker ask "Where'd you go?" today, and another co-worker wasn't even sure at first who I was. On the other hand, one of the 4 year olds at church looked at and pushed my stomache before sitting on my lap for the second week in a row this weekend, so I suspect they know further improvement remains needed.
For inspiration to continue progress, I'm reading another excellent book "The Power of Full Engagement", by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.
Update 18: Another banner day today! For the first time in over a decade, I put on the size Medium shirt I got for the only time in my life I ever jogged 5K, and took off around the lake. Based on the teachings of the above book, I don't jog at a steady pace. Rather, I run hard for a while, then walk fast until I recover, and then repeat the cycle.
One day this week the weather outside was awful, so I did the trek on an elliptical trainer in the association exercise room. It reported that my cycle was walking 2 minutes at 4.3 MPH or above, then running 1 minute at up to 7 MPH, averaging 6 MPH for the entire 30 minute session.
To retain arm strength as I lose weigh, I'm also doing pushups again, and finally managed to do 20 at once. Similarly, to remind my stomach it is also expected to relinquish its fat, I'm doing situps too, and can now do 50 per session.
The principle is that you only gain strength when you both exercise beyond your comfort zone and then allow time for recovery. Thus, the idea is to do something tough, and then allow time for recovery. And this is not only for physical training; the same is recommended for developing mental and emotional strength.
For instance, when my cell phone died yesterday, I had to wait about 10 minutes at the phone store for service, then return an hour and a half later to pick up a replacement phone. Normally, I'd have seen the entire process as a pointless frustration. But following the book's advice, this time I viewed it as an opportunity to practice the virtue of patience.
My weight goal for Christmas was to get below 200# on MY scale, which weighs 2# heavy. Today was the day. By doing my run/walk around the lake before weighing, I got that scale to read 198.5#
Size-wise there has also been progress. As noted above, I'm now able to comfortably wear some size Medium shirts (Walmart has some great microfiber ones for $17 each) and just barely get into a size 34 belt. That's a net 3 inches down in chest/waist/hips/thigh/arm measurements since our last True Hunger session ended a month ago.
Update 19: Another day for celebration! When I visited the doctor today, he took me off both Avandia and Cardizem, meaning 1) I no longer have Diabetes, and 2) my blood pressure is back to normal. I'd also lost 13 pounds since he last saw me in October.
Update 20: I weighed 195# on my scale this afternoon (which is really 193#.) That's 55# off since I started, and 25 yet to go! Recently I'm only losing at the rate of 1/2# per week, at which rate finishing this will take me all year. On the other hand, I'm also gaining strength and speed as I exercise. I can now lift 35# dumbbells for a dozen reps, which is 11 more than when I bought them a few weeks ago. I'm definitely size Medium for shirts now, 34 for pants, and find it interesting that some of the stores I like don't offer any sizes smaller than that. I still have some gut to lose, but may also now be able to fit a tapered dress shirt.
Interestingly, the Journal of the American Medical Association has just reported that having a Body Mass Index below 25 increases your odds of dying within 4 years, so 170# may now be as low as would be safe for me to go.
Update 21: OK, I found another non-recommended way to lose weight - catch a cold. I'm down 2.5 more pounds in 2 days, even though I think I'm eating enough. My guess is that my body is working harder than usual to overcome the cold.
Update22: Progress is back to its usual slower pace, but continuing. Keeping a log helps remind me of that progress when I forget. I hit a new low of 190.5# on my scale today, and hope to lose at least 1 more by April 1, when I see my doctor again. I also set my best time ever for a 2 mile run/walk last night, at 23.75 minutes. I'm now running more of it than I walk, but still need both.
Our True Hunger leadership team just finished a two month study, the key take-away of which for me was learning that it is normal for us to hit plateaus on the way to weight loss goals, and that at each such pause, God will show us what else we must surrender to continue our progress.
Now we are seeking to neighborhood-ize that ministry, which may be a good step forward. One remaining issue is whether our goal is to be 1) a way to help people to lose weight, or 2) a support group for people who have always struggled with weight issues, and are likely to continue struggling all their lives. The difference is in whether we can realistically expect participants to eventually reach a goal weight, and then maintain it thereafter. One of our leaders considers that impossible, but this week I learned a leader in another ministry took True Hunger just once, learned the principles during that ten week session, eventually lost all her excess weight, and has kept it off ever since without too much trouble.
Personally, if such people didn't exist, I'd have trouble maintaining hope and progress myself. I respect that for some people this battle can't be truly "won", any more than a former alcoholic can ever expect to safely go back to drink. But I refuse to believe that permanent weight loss is impossible for anyone willing to sufficiently restrict their caloric intake and sufficiently increase their activity level. It seems scientifically provable to me, that if I eat and exercise like a 170# man, in the long run I will be a 170# man. Further, if along the way, I gain sufficient insight into the problems I have previously medicated with excess food, there is no requirement for me to ever do so again. It isn't that I couldn't fall off the wagon and gain weight again, as so many do after ending a diet. Rather, it is that I can, with the help of God and skilled mentors, learn better physical, mental, emotional and spiritual habits and thereby permanently improve this aspect of my life, as similar insights in other aspects of my live has permanently improved those.
As that last paragraph indicates, my "mercy" gift is insufficient for me to be a fully-helpful leader for those in need of the lifelong support group version of True Hunger. but I do hope to "give back" as a mentor to others starting this path, just as I was myself originally inspired by a leader who as of this week is down a total of 70#. In fact, that still inspires me, as I expect to have lost 80# by the time I'm done.
Update23: God has such a sense of humor! I've been wanting to weigh less than 190# on my own scale (which weighs 2# heavy) by the time I saw the doctor again, and yesterday was the day. However, it was achieved via a mysterious diarrhea the night before that I could have happily done without. On the other hand, I still weighed 189.5# on that scale this morning, so it wasn't a one-time fluke.
The doctor was very pleased with my9.5# weight loss since I last saw him, and figures my weight is now just fine as far as he is concerned. My BMI is now 27.5, and I'm precisely average in weight for guys my age. So, I'll be happy if progress continues, but not frustrated when I don't lose a pound a week.
This time it was my anti-kidney-stone meds that got cut, more progress I can measure! My blood pressure is now ideal, but I still take one small pill a day to keep it that way. That for me is a continuing reason to lose a bit more weight. Every pill I no longer need is that much less stress on my liver and kidneys.
Total weight off thus far, 62.5#, since 9/13/04. On that day, I met my True Hunger leader, who had already lost over 60#, and wondered if I could ever hope to do so myself. The answer is now clear: in my own strength, no, but in God's strength, for sure!
One of the great failures of our nation was Prohibition. Eliminating the sad consequences of alcoholism was a worthy goal, but never shared by enough Americans to make it actually possible.
Another great failure was our war efforts in Viet Nam. In my opinion at the time, we weren't doing the things necessary to win, and were therefore doomed eventually to lose.
Both of the above problems seem to apply now to our decades-long "war on drugs."
Despite decades of education against use of illegal drugs, some folks in pretty much every community still choose to use them, enough to make complete elimination of the drug trade almost impossible.
If we really wanted to win the War on Drugs, we'd prosecute customers as harshly as sellers, and not worry, for example if pesticides sprayed on Marijuana plants still ended up in Marijuana sold here, even if it killed those who used it.
The only country I'm aware of that "won" its war on drugs was Communist China, which reportedly did so by immediately executing anyone caught in the trade.
We can't do such things and still be America, any more than we could in the '60s have simply paved over Viet Nam (my preferred solution at the time.)
As a result, it's not a question of whether we will eventually legalize most illegal drugs, but only of when we will finally do so. That being the case, sooner is better, with one exception:
I don't want legalization to turn into implied approval. If someone just has to smoke a joint in the privacy of their own home where no one else is harmed, that would likely be OK with me. But I don't want to see billboards suggesting I "Smoke Mary Jane", nor would I want to see vials of Crack next to the condoms at the local Safeway.
Canada, in my opinion, had a better idea. When it legalized alcohol, it restricted sales of hard liquor to government stores, which were intentionally not made attractive and did not advertise. That removed the incentive for marketers to increase the use of hard liquor, and ensured profits from such sales went where they could help deal with the unfortunate consequences of legalization.
Some Americans sense a constitutional right to advertise any legal product on every flat surface, but I do not. In my opinion, many bad products that must nonetheless be legal for use by adults should not be advertised, lest they artificially increase demand for an unhealthy product.
I've been advocating legalization publicly for a few years now, and have yet to meet anyone willing to actively disagree with the idea. This may be an idea whose time has come, if only we can remember legalization is not equivalent to approval.
Update:
M. Simon reports "there are two iron rules of prohibition. The harder the enforcement the harder the drugs. The harder the enforcement the harder the criminals." The rest of his article here is also well worth reading.
Update2: Instapundit adds "Legalize the stuff, tax it like tobacco, and let the trial lawyers sue sellers for any product defects or dangers."
That would be a corrective for problems resulting from legalizing any and all drugs to thereby also cut medical costs, as suggested in this related post.
