#i have a limited pepsi energy drink in the back i think?

[oars]

do you like my bottle collection :3

[rockethorse]

I was tagged to do this meme by @roguebotanist ! Sorry it took me so long!

1. If you could travel one place in the world where would you travel?

Probably be to the USA to visit all my friends there, and my partner's extended family! I'm planning to go to Japan again soon with my partner, too, but because Australia is closer to Japan, that's a lot more attainable than visiting the states. So if I had magic-genie-travel-vouchers, I'd definitely pick the US. Just... maybe not for a few years, lol. It's a dream of mine to be able to take the two of us on a kind of foodie driving tour down through different American states, visiting a bunch of people we know, and tasting all the stuff we see on Instagram, LOL.

2. What do you do in your free time away from Sims?

I draw, cook, dabble in writing (I'm not very good but I really enjoy it), translate/subtitle videos from Japanese and close caption videos/podcasts in English, and work on eventual-someday comic ideas. I also keep meaning to get into gardening and sewing - I have all the equipment, but the attention... not so much.

3. What other games do you play besides The Sims?

Animal Crossing, Pokemon (even though I still haven't finished SWSH), Stardew Valley, a little bit of Slime Rancher (highly recommend, I think a lot of y'all would really like it), and the Ace Attorney series though I haven't played much beyond the original trilogy even though I really like it. Since we got our Switch I started playing Zelda BoTW too, which is my first real "gamer" game and I really, really liked it, so I'm sort of dabbling in more games of those kinds of genres that I used to be intimidated by.

4. How tall are you?

5'11"/180cm, last time I measured.

5. One random interest of yours?

I collect/love to pore over retro cook books with really terrible photography. I have a small collection of them. Some of them are genuinely good and others are hilariously bizarre. I daydream about starting a YouTube channel some day and I think about making a week's worth of breakfast/lunch/dinners from these old books and recording the process. My current favourite is all about what you're supposed to like to eat based on your star sign, from the 1990s. There's a lot of the word "moist".

6. Current favourite bands/artists?

“Current” is hard to say because if I actually manage to get attached enough to an artist/group to specifically like them, they become my favourite for a loooooonnnnggg time. So I would have to say my "current" favourites are exist†trace, Go-Bang’s, BARBEE BOYS, and Yes.

7. Something you’re looking forward to?

I'm looking forward to getting my life back together now that I've finally been able to finish a really stressful irl project, lmao. I'm looking forward to having enough money saved up to hopefully travel to Japan as early as next year and surprise my friends there. I'm looking forward to breakfast tomorrow and painting my nails :9

8. Current favourite films?

I have the same problem with this as I do music, LMAO. I really liked Birds of Prey! The most recent new-to-me film I saw that left an impression on me which I can remember was the Ghibli film "Only Yesterday". If you're a little older and a bit stressed about the pressures of adult life then this movie is a real treat. Also saw Big Eden for the first time semi-recently with my partner and was really sweet and pretty funny. Now that I think about it, it had a lot in common with my cook books.

9. What food could you not live without?

I was thinking of all the foods I love and would hate to go without, like tofu (for real), but I'm actually watching my diet right now and as it turns out I can apparently live without a lot of stuff, LOL. But I'm trying to eat "healthier" not just change weight and the only thing that's really tripped me up is the idea of forgoing sugar-free drinks. I knoowwww Pepsi Max probably isn't """good""" for me or """a substance human beings should consume""" but I grew up on it, I drink a sugar-free energy drink every second day (used to be every day but my heart said don't do that), and I like black coffee but even that has its limit. So I guess the answer here is "terrible, bad, laboratory-constructed soda", lmao. Can’t live without it, questionable if I can live with it.

10. Favourite series (book or movie)?

If I'm allowed to pick a TV series then this is where I slide in and say the 2003-4 Sailor Moon live action series (shoutout to Lady Bane for making excellently niche Sims 2 content for it, too). If not, I'm stuck again with not really knowing and not wanting to say Harry Potter since I haven't really engaged with it for a million years. Hey! Maybe you guys should recommend a new book or movie series to me! Especially if the book is available as an audiobook, because I have more patience/attention for them than reading these days.

I don’t know who to tag because I don’t know who’s already done it - let’s start with @afro-sims-for-you, @didilysims and uhhhhh @katatty-main​ ? Plus anyone else who follows me and wants to do it! Tag me back so I can read ‘em :0

[ahurriedwalk]

JESSIE COLEMAN: A QUARANTINED ZOOM INTERVIEW.

With a mass of blonde hair loosely piled on top of her head and fashioned with red string, I ask if that’s a common practice for her styling habits. “Ah” She exclaims seeming to have just realized its existence herself, “I’ve been working on a set and lost my hair tie in the process, this was not a planned look!”  

Jessie Coleman is a music photographer and actress that, like most, found themselves reinventing careers in the wake of a pandemic.  With all work on hold for the foreseeable future, Jessie was left with limited resources to produce a body of work during a time of quarantine and uncertainty.  This led to a series of self-portraits which caught the attention of other artists, photographers, and “personal idols” as Jessie refers to a handful of the names that have reached out, to her disbelief.

TELL US WHAT IT IS YOU DO (DID). To survive I worked part time as a traveling presenter. I’ve been contracted with a company for over 10 years now. It was through this that I was hired to be on tour with some of my favorite bands and covering their time on the road for social media. From this the music photography grew and I really think it’s a nice fit for me. I’m excited and happy to do it. Every time. I’m being coy, I’m thrilled. I also work as an actor. I do hop around constantly between all these jobs and most of them keep me on the road. I have not paid for a flight in 12 years and I haven’t really been home in that time either!

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOUR WORK?   I do try and distance myself from my own aesthetic most of the time in my work. I don’t know why that’s my instinct nor do I know if it’s the best choice. But I began to feel like I was pigeonholing myself and that my creativity seemed stunted when every image looked like it was all a different scene in the same story. I grew up in a funeral home and dressed mostly like I had lived in the television show ‘Road To Avonlea’. It all translates to a more Edwardian macabre imagery that I’m still drawn to. I suppose there is always an abstract version of this in all I do.

WHERE DO YOU LIVE AND WHY. I live in New York because I’m supposed to be here.  It’s the only way I can describe it. At 16, I walked into a New York restaurant when visiting some friends. It was all decorated for Christmas. Every setting was perfectly polished, the staff had their whites all pressed and they had this vivacious energy buzzing around the tables. I had to sit back in my chair and take it all in. I felt like I was in a movie. I said out loud, ‘I’m going to live here someday’. Well don’t you know that just a few years later, my friend from acting school called me to tell me that she put our names down without my permission and got us an apartment, and it just so happened to be in that very building! Just above that same restaurant!  Eventually I took over the lease and I’ve been there ever since. It was built in the 1920s and it’s just blocks away from where Edgar Allan Poe had lived. It’s just perfect.Tiny. But perfect.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE UPPER WEST SIDE? Anything I could ever need is on my block. I feel so spoiled. I can walk to Lincoln Center, The Met, Central Park, Riverside Park. Can you imagine being new to your neighborhood, going for a stroll and just happening upon the Gothic dream that is The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine?  I really do feel so grateful everyday I wake up here. The neighborhood vibe is best described as a quiet excitement, the best kind of living.

WHAT ARE YOUR PERSONAL GOALS FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS? Okay (laughs). I don’t have any. I’m just doing. I’ve really been over the top in my past when it came to amassing what I felt were career victories and certain achievements. I’m sure it’s considered healthy to an extent but it wasn’t working for me. During quarantine, I stopped judging myself so harshly and just put my work out there, even the pieces I didn’t particularly like. But I did this with the intention of using it to map or document my own growth and evolution. I looked at it like I was just sharing a personal process and that made it seem less daunting. I’ve received such a dramatic increase in interest, recognition and offers that I really have to trust that relaxing and giving into the organic flow of work is the best approach for me.

QUICK ANSWERS FAVORITE DESSERT: Mint chocolate chip with sprinkles!

FAVORITE DRINK: The dirtiest gin martini.

A SONG I HAVE TO LISTEN TO: “Song For Jesse”  Nick Cave

HIDDEN TALENT: I can carve a jack-o-lantern in 4 minutes, including the gutting!

ONE MOVIE TO WATCH FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE: Buffalo 66

ONE CANDY: Annie’s gummy fruit snacks

YOUR LAST MEAL: I don’t eat meat or drink soda but, if this is my dream fictitious scenario it would be diner style too salty turkey and gravy with mashed potatoes and a Pepsi.

SEE JESSIE’S WORK: www.jessiecoleman.com www.instagram.com/waltzmatildawithme

[sarahbutsmaller]

Things I thought/wish I knew about weight loss surgery

I’m stil in my early days to be fair, 10 weeks post op. So ask me in 12 months and my list might be entirely different and much more positive. My surgery happened quickly and unexpectedly due to Covid-19 so I don’t really think I had the time to prepare mentally. I still have days where I think “I’ve completely changed my life and my body forever and I wonder if it will ever feel normal” and I’m sure eventually I will, but for the moment it’s honestly still a struggle. But anyway, here it is - the stuff I wish someone had told me before I had Bariatric surgery.

1. How long my recovery would take

I definitely expected to be okay in a couple of days after surgery. It took me a good 4 weeks to fully recover and get back to doing normal things.

2. How much pain I would experience

Again, I thought I’d be fine and experience no pain or discomfort after a few days. I couldn’t bend over for the first 4 weeks. I couldn’t curl up in a ball. I couldn’t lay flat on my back for 2 weeks.

3. How much I would miss eating a full meal

You know when you make a bomb ass meal and you just wanna sit and devour the whole plate? Yeah I can’t do that any more and it is a total mind fuck! It takes a lot of time to get your brain to accept that you cannot eat as much as you want to.

4. That I wouldn’t be able to eat or enjoy certain foods again.

Plain Cadbury dairy milk chocolate, Nutella, Pepsi max. Used to be my favourites, now I can’t stomach them. Potato? Not my friend.

5. How hard it would be to retrain my brain to eat slower

It is so bloody hard to break a habit you’ve built over 28 years. I can no longer inhale my food. I actually have to chew now, crazy right?

6. How soon after surgery I would start feeling better about myself

I started to feel a lot better about myself once the weight started falling off. That first couple of weeks where you lose all your water weight is a huge confidence boost.

7. How good you feel when you physically cannot overindulge In sugary/greasy food

Don’t get me wrong, your body definitely tells you when it doesn’t like something. But I’m grateful that I don’t really have the option of sitting and suffering after over eating. I can’t eat to the point of food comas any more.

8. How important it is to be kind to yourself and let yourself rest when you need it

One of the most important things to remember. I was definitely way too hard on myself and expected myself to be able to do everything right away, but it’s so important to remember that your stomach has literally been rearranged and there are parts missing. Major surgery requires rest and recovery.

9. How good basic foods taste after being on a liquid and purée diet for 4 weeks

Oh yeah. I struggled on purées because there aren’t many things I like the idea of eating In purée form so getting to “soft foods” and being able to eat steamed Veges was heavenly.

10. How scared I would when my stomach would start to Allow me to eat more

Yep. You get used to your tiny new stomach and then all of a sudden you can eat more than you could before and it’s scary. Am I going to be able to over indulge again? Am I going to able to go back to my old ways? No, Probably not. My stomach will never be the size it was before BUT...

11. It is possible to still eat some junk food and sometimes, it’s actually easier.

Having a smaller stomach means you’re limited as to how much you can eat, obviously. And once you start eating so little, it becomes hard to justify spending money on larger amounts of food than what you need. So what does that mean? Well basically, it’s easier and cheaper to just grab a small chocolate than pay for a big salad or something and then take it home and probably waste it because you won’t finish it later like you said you would. Sometimes if I’m at home and I don’t have anything small and single serve to cook, I’ll just eat a doughnut or some sort of junk because I know it will fill me and I know there is no wastage. So yeah, it’s definitely still possible to eat a lot of calories. Especially if you’re like me and like to drink calories. I’d rather drink coffee all day and not eat and it all starts to add up.

12. The sleeve/bypass is a tool, not a solution.

It is incredibly helpful to not be able to eat much, but it requires A LOT of mental strength and energy and it is definitely not the easy way out.

And to finish on a positive note, my most recent comparison pictures. I’ve come a long way in just 10 weeks both physically and mentally and I am super proud of myself for it!

[strangerstuffandthingsimagines]

Icarus (Billy Hargrove x Reader)

Request: Hey so I have been listening to the song 'helpless' from the musical Hamilton and there are these lines from it that make me think of Billy/Dacre its 'Look into your eyes And the sky’s the limit/I’m Helpless!/Down for the count And I’m drownin’ in ‘em' so I was wondering if you could maybe write a billy imagine with those lines in mind, please? ♡♡♡♡♡

Based on the song “Helpless” from Hamilton the musical

A/N: I really hope you like this! Hopefully, you catch the Hamilton reference. I apologize if it's a bit short but I honestly really liked this, I’d be down to write another part :) Spoiler: sorry if the kiss scenes kinda meh, I’m not the best at writing kiss scenes so bare with me.

Music blared from the speakers, the rhythmic thuds of the beat felt as if it were the only thing keeping you alive. Moments like these were the moments you felt the freest. Nothing but the music, carrying you through the night, not a thought or worry in sight. You were never the one to fight for attention or to claw your way into the spotlight, you were just using every song to get you through the night.

Your eyes squeezed shut as you raked your finger through your hair, body swaying and rolling with the waves of the melody. As your eyes fluttered open, beaming from pure bliss, you were taken aback by the amours gaze from a stranger. Sharp and cool, his blue brooding eyes were hypnotic, the murmur of the song began to die out.

You smiled at him, your hand trailing down from your hair to the back of your neck, shyly looking away before returning back to his stare.

The next song started, your attention returning back to the dancefloor. You disappeared into the crowd, leaving the mysterious stranger wanting more.

As the night simmered down and the music winded down you took a sat by the window, the draft from outside was refreshing against the heat of your skin.

The stranger with the striking gaze now striding toward you, red solo cup in hand.

“So, are we just going to make eyes at each other all night, or are we going to something about it?” He smirked with his shoulder against the wall, cup in one hand, cigarette in the other. 

The corners of your mouth turned upward as you raised your own cup to your lips, taking a sip of your Pepsi. 

“Yeah?” you asked, amusement written across your face. “Well I came here to dance, I don’t know about you, but if you want to join me then by all means.”

With that, you set down your drink and sauntered back to the dancefloor. Your energy returning to you as your favourite song boomed from the speakers, the guy from before in your pursuit. 

You spun around, grabbing hold of his hands, laughing over the music.

“You were workin' as a waitress in a cocktail bar When I met you, I picked you out, I shook you up and turned you around Turned you into someone new”

“Whats your name?” your lips brushed against his ear, sending shivers all over his body.

“Billy.” his hand swinging with yours as you tried to get him to let loose. His eyes wandering your face, his tongue running over his bottom lip.

“I’m Y/N” you laughed as he spun you around, twirling you under his arm. 

The two of you became intoxicated off of one another. Your perfume mixed with the smell of Billy’s cologne and cigarettes, creating a toxic concoction that drove you both crazy. You were drowning in his eyes, engulphed by the ocean blue and intrigued by the soft shadows framing his stare.

You crossed your wrists behind his neck, his hands finding your waist as you swayed with the music. Your heart raced and your head spun, completely high off of each others energy.

Don't you want me, baby?

Something came over you, but he was just so magnetic, his hypnotic eyes putting you into a trance.

You tangled your hands into his long locks of golden hair, his hand finding the back of your neck. 

He took your bottom lip between his teeth for a moment before you fervently moved your lips with his, the taste of nicotine on his tongue.

The party came to an abrupt end, something about the neighbours calling the cops, but you didn’t mind.

“Do you need a ride?” Billy asked taking a drag from his cigarette, blowing the smoke out in a grey cloud. “My cars just over there.”

Taking your bottom lip between your teeth, you pondered the offer, 

“Thanks, but I think I’ll just walk.” You replied with a playful grin. “Besides, I don’t want to fall to hard to fast.”

Billy was left dumbfounded as you began to walk away, your hands swinging by your sides. 

“Wait, can I get your number?” he called after you, keys in hand.

“You’ll just have to find me at the next party, then I’ll see what I can do” You winked, leaving Billy speechless.

Little did you know you would be warned to stay away, that Billy Hargrove was bad news, but nothing could convince you to keep your distance.

You were helpless.

[treadmilltreats]

I realize I can't party like I used to

I realized this on my last visit home. Since moving to Florida I have lived a healthy lifestyle. Back in the day I was a 2 liter a day Pepsi drinker which I gave up years ago. I also gave up smoking cigarettes, drinking heavily and staying out all night partying.

I now wake up every morning at 5 a.m. so I could be at the gym by 5:30 a.m. to work out for 2 hours. I eat right, I pack my own lunches everyday, I eat mostly chicken and fish and I hardly ever eat anything that taste good. On the weekends you can find me walking or running on the beach or riding my bike on the boardwalk. I also love yoga, I do meditation and I am very tired of all sorts of different things to stay in shape like pole dancing, aerial yoga and ballroom dancing.

My whole lifestyle now is totally different from what it was before. Before I got married I had a problem with drugs and alcohol. I stayed out every night, I danced until dawn, and I did every drug known to mankind. I ran my life recklessly but you know how things change when you get married and have children.

I now realized my mortality and how I have the odds stacked against me because of my family history of heart attacks, so I decided to change. Was it easy? Oh Hell no but nothing in life worth anything is easy but I did it. I now feel amazing, I have energy, my body feels good and I think I look good. This has been my lifestyle for the last 28 years, so when I go home, I'm out partying with my friends who still party like I did 28 years ago and hell it took a toll on me.

I'm not used to staying up late, I go to bed by 10 p.m. I didn't exercise for the whole 10 days.

I ate whatever, whenever, I wanted to and I don't think I even saw a green vegetable or vegetable at all for that matter unless it was a garnish on my drinks. I drank way more than I probably drank all year here and trust and believe I felt like shit because of all of this.

I like feeling healthy, I even like getting up at 5 in the morning... okay, maybe not so much but I do it because of the feeling I get afterwards when I come home. Partying like that made me feel sluggish, totally not feeling good, like when I am when I am exercising and eating right. Look, I get that my friends still have this way of life and if it works for them I'm happy for them but I realize that that is so not my life anymore.

I enjoy taking care of myself and yes, I do enjoy once in a great while, indulging in things that I normally don't. I always say all bets are off when I'm back in New York because I miss the food so much but in my world now everything is in moderation. I can have that piece of pizza but I can't have the whole pie. I can have a cannoli but I can't have half a dozen. I can have a drink. I can't be doing shots in the bar until 3am. I care about my body, I care about my mental health and for me, that means I need to live this healthy lifestyle.

I could easily slip back down that rabbit hole, back into my addiction and I know how fast I can happen so for that reason alone I need to know my limits. If you read my blog you know I'm all for whatever gets you through your day, if partying every weekend is your thing, good for you, if that's what gets you through your day go for it. I'm just an advocate of what works for me, and for me a healthy lifestyle works. It makes me think better, it gives me more energy, it makes my whole day feel better and so I realize that I am no longer the party animal I once was and I have to wave the white flag and concede to that fact.

So today my friends remember it's okay to grow and change, you are no longer that person you once was. You have realized what works for you and what doesn't anymore and it's okay.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to run all this alcohol and food out of my system and that may be a long ass run.

"Be the change you want to see"

@treadmilltreats

[mollydollyjournals]

Its Monday 5th. 156lbs today, from 153.4 yesterday. Because I've had way too much alcohol recently so it's making my water levels go all over the place. I might drink tomorrow so 1) I need to make sure I keep to a reasonable limit if I do, and 2) definitely no alcohol today.

I'm also just going to have cherries for the rest of the day. I want to not have anything but I think some fruit or veg would be better for health and such, so I'll have berries or whatever.

I do feel like at this point I'm falling behind if my weight doesnt drop back in the next few days...I know slow progress is better than no progress and assuming I'll still be like 154 tomorrow that's still something overall. But that is really slow. So idk. Logically I should be fine with that because it's better than nothing etc, but it's still irritating to me and I know if I get too irritated with it I'll stop thinking straight and binge or something.

So I can drink tomorrow if I want to drink with company, or Wednesday if I wanna chill in my room. I do quite like having wine and playing whatever music I feel like and just shitposting or whatever. But really I still want company so...maybe tomorrow is better. Then after that I kinda need to try to make it til saturday. I have an event over the weekend so itll be like:

Wednesday - do whatever I want at home

Thursday - housework & weekend prep

Friday - travel & event 1st evening

Saturday - main event day

Sunday - travel home, chill

So if this was a few years ago I would have drunk on Friday and Saturday and just suffered through Sunday. Maybe had another bit to drink to soften the hangover. But 2yrs ago I fucked up my liver, 7mths ago I fucked it up again, and I at least know that I cant do that anymore. The best way for me will be to either not drink at all or only drink on the Saturday. It's not going to be a rowdy drunken event so if I do drink itll probably just be me, and I'm not gonna be tempted to get completely smashed, which is good. But knowing me itd be better if I had the option to. I'll see how I feel on the day.

But it does mean that this week I can only drink either tomorrow or wednesday, which I hope I can do. Because otherwise I'm gonna be hungover on the friday when I'm trying to do stuff, or get sick. I really need to slow down so idk. I hope I dont have a massive spiral on weds or thurs. That's when itll be difficult. I'll try to make a list of stuff to do that can distract me.

Today I have to finish up some stuff that I meant to do ages ago but I'm terrible at concentrating. Which is kind of annoying because I do want to do it but I dont think my brain wants to actually focus on it. And I wanted to have it done by tomorrow so I kinda have no choice now. Standard me though. I start early, only do a little bit, relax because I have ages, then suddenly I have like 5 minutes to get everything done.

So this week feels really busy...I tend to need a lot of downtime as it is but this is also way more than I've done in ages so I'm kind of overwhelmed and nervous. It's great because I'll be able to actually see people and hang out and it should be nice, but I also feel like I'm gonna screw up somewhere. I'm not very good at getting everything sorted out on my own. I can do it sometimes but it always burns me out and I end up drinking loads or something. And I need like...aftercare ha. But theres just nothing and I still have to do everything by myself.

I'm glad at least the stuff I have to do doesnt take too much physical energy. Just mental focus and all. Which is also not my strong suit but I'll at least be able to manage something. For now, I need to finish my pepsi max then go write everything out properly...my thing with executive function issues at times like these is to write out everything I need to do then write it all in order so I dont have to think about what I'm doing I just go through the list. It always takes me so long to plan and I rewrite the list basically every day but it's the only way for me, I cant keep all the info in my head and also do the actual stuff. Bleh.

I also need to stop with the pepsi max so much. Its sugar free but it's still artificial bullshit. It's just tasty. Tomorrow I should switch back to ice tea I think.

[sarahunfiltered-blog1]

My Diet/Fitness/Nutrition Journey Thus Far

Most of the memories I have of life growing up revolve mostly around food. I remember growing up and all we’d eat was Sonic, Dairy Queen, Whataburger, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, you name it, I ate it. I could still to this day probably tell you my order from each place. I was raised on Hamburger Helper, Ramen noodles, Rice a Roni, canned and boxed everything, candy and soda. 

I remember when I was around maaaaaybe 12-13 and my mom doing a diet that may have been slim quick or something along the lines of you eat chicken and veggies, take these pills and do some sort of workout. I had a really bad sweet tooth (still do) as a kid and I started to gain weight and at 13 I was 165lbs, so my mom included me into her diet routine and I would eat the chicken and veggies, rice cakes, a tbsp of coconut oil and would chew sugar gum and we’d walk between the stop signs on the street we lived on and I’d do her workouts with her. I remember watching my brothers and sisters eating candy while I ate my caramel rice cakes because I was the bigger one of all of them, so for the longest time I was just the fat tomboy of a girl that would stare at herself in the mirror and look at how big my butt was at 13 and hating it and my stomach to stuck out and my fat face. I remember I used to grab my stomach and cry and scream about how much I hated it. If only I were skinny I’d be enough. I would sneak and binge on sweets, it was my comfort, it was there for me and it made me feel better

When I got my period and more of my hormones kicked in I lost a lot of weight. I want to say I got down to 125 when I was around 14-15 and I wouldn’t eat because I was extremely depressed. My sweet tooth was still there, but I wouldn’t eat because I thought eating would make me fat, so I wouldn’t and when I did it was minimal. I ate a lot of 100 calorie snacks, drank juice like V8 because I thought it was healthy, diet coke because it was diet and wouldn’t make me fat. When I was 16 I started working at Target and they have a Pizza Hut Cafe and almost every shift I would go pick up there bread sticks and a diet Pepsi and that would be my lunch (the thought of that now literally makes me cringe). I went to a bible college from 17-almost 18 and ate Ramen noodles and whatever shit food they served while I was there, but I didn’t know any different so I just ate it. I was still pretty skinny because ya know I was 15-17 and you can eat like shit and still be a twig.

When I turned 18 and moved out of my parents house my diet didn’t suuuuper change. I was still living a hardcore Taco Bell and Pizza Hut bread sticks and diet coke life style because I was living on my own, broke as a joke and ate the food I was used to eating, but then I gained probably 30lbs easily within a short amount of time (surprise surprise). I had spent my whole time as a teenager not wanting to be the fat kid and here I was back at 165lbs... wtf. I didn’t really know how to cook, didn’t have money for groceries, refused to apply for food stamps, so I just thought starting to workout would cure all my problems. Well, it didn’t long story short. I mean why didn’t working out and running for an hour THEN going eat Taco Bell work? I was working out, right? HA.

I remember scrolling Pinterest when I discovered it and finding the “Military Diet” and giving that a go. You basically don’t eat anything for 3 days and could apparently lose 10lbs. I wanted to DIE during that diet. I made it the first time around and lost 5lbs, then gave it another go and didn’t make it 2 days and stopped by Taco Bell on my way home from work and binged on that. So my diet search continued... One of my coworkers at the time started using My Fitness Pal to track her calories and she was losing weight like crazy, so I obviously I needed to give it a go and the weight just started falling fall. I went from 165lbs to 125lbs within a matter a months. I didn’t work out, I just ate less than 1,500 calories a day, cold turkey stopped eating candy, drinking soft drinks and unfortunately my Pizza Hut bread sticks. Everything was going GREAT. When I wanted to go down to the next lbs and I was 0.2 from it I would pop a few laxatives the night before and then would weight myself the next morning after shitting my brains out, but I HAD to lose that 0.2lbs.. just had to. I became overly obsessed with counting calories and eating lean cuisines and and 100 calories snacks and drinking Naked juice and weighing myself DAILY and measuring every single little thing I ate and would legit cry if I went over my calories. Funny, not so funny story. One weekend I was headed to my mom’s and had already eaten all of my calories for the day, but was staaaaaaaarving, so I stopped by Jimmy John’s and ate a sandwich that was 800ish calories, which put me 800ish calories over what I was “allowed” to eat, so you bet your ass I drug all of my brother and sisters and mom to a walking trail and walked/ran until I burned off the entire sandwich because I wouldn’t sleep peaceful knowing what I did by eating that sandwich. It was bad, just so bad. I remember the day I hit a breaking point and just wanted some damn chocolate chop cookies, but didn’t have the calories saved for it, but I binged on them anyways and cried in Michael’s arms over what I did and he was telling me it was fiiiiiiine and all the sweet things he could, but it wasn’t to me in that moment, but in that moment I just knew I needed to stop all of this, so I did. I feel like I remember just deleting the app off my phone and being done with it. I was 20 at this point and working a standing job.

Beginning in February of 2014 I started a corporate sitting job, so I didn’t have access to Starbucks or a grocery store on my breaks like I did working at Target, so I had to start bringing my lunches and snacks and to top it all off I was sitting. As you could maybe imagine I started gaining weight from being stagnant and snacking ALL day at my desk (#teamnutrigrain). I put on a good 20lbs within the first couple of months. So I started going for walks on my breaks, eating a lean cuisine a day, eating more fresh fruits and veggies, almonds, and limited my snacking to only in the afternoons and that kind of helped and worked for me for a long time and I stayed at a healthy maybe 140ish lbs and that worked for me because I was still skinny. All about that skinny life because skinny = healthy, right? Well, I thought so. 

I turned 21 and didn’t go crrazzzyy drinking, but I drank moscato and margarita’s often enough and still was all about my Friday candy binge. I was also drinking up to 3 cups of coffee a day at work and just couldn’t figure out why I was sweating and so anxious all the time. I genuinely thought it was from work when in reality I was just pumping myself with coffee after coffee after coffee day in and day out (I’ve learned since my lesson since then). I went through a phase of HIIT workout and running, but that faded really quick, but I really enjoyed hiking when I gave it a go, still do. Along with yoga which I am planning to make a goal of starting a practice in 2018. 

Around the time I turned 22-23 my older sister, Meghann, had a baby and really educated herself around living a more holistic lifestyle and it really intrigued me and around that time I had discovered podcasts and I realized how much processed foods aren’t the best choice and what I could do as an alternative way of going about eating, so I stopped lean cuisine’s (haven’t had one since), milk and yogurt along with limiting candy and processed snacks. I completely cleaned my desk out at work from all the sugar filled granola bars and whatever else I had in there and started to work with that. I shortly thereafter learned about one of the best ways of going about what to eat/not eat is if it didn’t come from the earth and/or has a label on it to think twice before eating it and READ the back of the label if you do. This is still newer-ish to me to do and I’m currently learning about all things nutrition, and how the mind, body and spirit all work together and you can’t have one fully without the other.

 As of now I don’t drink dairy milk, I limit cheese but still love it, I grocery shop once a week and buy as much organic produce as possible, I am still working on the meat switch when it comes to buying organic meat (not quite there yet), I cold turkey stopped eating candy and have found organic, non high fructose corn syrup filled alternatives when I have a sweet tooth, I haven’t been drinking alcohol much the last 2 months or so (don’t have a legit reasoning behind it, just doesn’t sound good), I am really into cooking paleo, vegan, Whole30 friendly foods because it coincides with my eating from the earth method I live by and when I want Whataburger breakfast on a Friday or a taco with a flour tortilla or a real homemade chocolate chip cookie I happily will eat it because I do not believe in living a restricted lifestyle. My entire life leading up to recently whether it was mentally, spiritually or physically has been restricted and I’m not OK with it because it’s limiting and keeps me in a box. I’m a believer in the energy you put into something is negative the outcome will be negative, so if I’m to sit here and say “this is cookie is SO bad for me. OMG. I am going to gain 10lbs.” Well, I’m asking for it to happen, versus eating the cookie cause I want the damn cookie and loving every bit. They doesn’t mean I sit there and eat 12, it just means my mindset around food was so terrible for so long and I know what it did to me mentally that is not worth it for me to be negative about it. I am content and happy with where I am out now, I don’t even care to weigh myself anymore, I don’t body shame myself anymore, I don’t calorie count, I don’t binge, I don’t use food as a reward system, I just educate myself around it, listen to my body and see how it feels and go from there. My anxiety has lessened, I sleep so much better, I feel so peaceful inside and out, and my skin has completely cleared up (I’ll talk about my skincare routine future post).  It’s been a long, ongoing journey, but I am thankful for the million and 2 podcasts I’ve listened to, my sister and everyone else along the way to get me to where I am today and I am excited to continue to learn and grow and now have a place to share all the info I am taking in and it maybe help someone else. :)

- Sarah xo

[mitchbeck]

KEELEY: SECOND ANNUAL TEDDY BEAR TOSS IS DECEMBER 7TH

Stuffed animal donations will benefit local fire departments BY: Michael Keeley, Maine Mariners  PORTLAND, ME – November 27, 2019 – The fur will fly at the Cross Insurance Arena on Saturday, December 7th in the second annual “Teddy Bear Toss,” presented by the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety. Fans are invited to bring stuffed animal donations to toss onto the ice following the first Mariners goal. All collected stuffed animals will be donated to local fire departments. The Teddy Bear Toss is a famous holiday tradition that is held throughout all levels of hockey, collecting teddy bears and other stuffed animals for people in need. The spectacle of stuffed toys flying onto the ice after the home team’s first goal has been well documented in places like Calgary, Alberta (WHL’s Calgary Hitmen), and Hersey, Pennsylvania (AHL’s Hershey Bears). Mariners forward Greg Chase played in Calgary from 2011-15, where the Hitmen averaged over 20,000 stuffed animals in each year’s toss, and previously held the world record of 28,815 before being bested by the Hershey Bears in 2018. “It was a crazy sight to be a part of,” said Chase. “Bears literally raining from the sky. The anticipation is different than any other game, you know it’s the first goal that sets off the chaos. The energy is different. I think it’s almost an advantage for the home team. You come out with that extra jump.” Chase also gave his thoughts on the charitable component of the toss – which is at the core of the event. “There’s no better feeling than seeing those kids' faces when you hand them a bear,” he said. “This is a really special event for a lot of people. To be able to give back especially around the holidays is awesome. We get to do it in such a fun and cool way for the fans, that’s what makes our game unique.” The Mariners held their first Teddy Bear Toss last November, with Riley Bourbonnais scoring the sacred goal midway through the second period. He was later overshadowed by Ty Ronning’s third-period hat trick, leading the Mariners to a 6-4 comeback win over the Manchester Monarchs. The Mariners collected 1,153 stuffed animals last season, and are hoping to top that mark this year. “Donated teddy bears are used by local fire and rescue services to comfort children during difficult times and stressful situations,” said Captain Robb Couture of the South Portland Fire Department. “Many of these bears will find their way onto our fire trucks and ambulances for just that reason.  We will also be using the bears to supplement the South Portland Christmas Toy Drive for local children in need of a special gift this holiday season.  Special thanks to the Mariners organization for supporting us and our local communities!” The South Portland fire department will also have staff and a vehicle on hand at the game to help clean up the toss. The Mariners will take on the Adirondack Thunder at 6:00 PM. The game also features a mini-stick giveaway for the first 2,000 fans through the door, courtesy of Jobs In ME. Families of four can take advantage of the “Family Four Pack,” which includes four tickets, four food, and drink vouchers, and four Mariners can koozies for as low as $80. Family Four Packs are available for all Saturday and Sunday home games but must be purchased in advance. After Thanksgiving, the Mariners are home on Friday and Saturday, hosting the Indy Fuel and Newfoundland Growlers. Friday features Black Friday discounts at the Mariners merchandise stand: 20% off all Mariners pucks during the first intermission and 15% off all Mariners hats during the second intermission. Both promotions are limited to five items per customer and must be purchased with a credit or debit card. It’s also a 1-2-3 Friday with $1 Aquafina water, $2 Pepsi products, and $3 Bud Light drafts through the start of the second period. The puck drops at 7:15 PM. Saturday night will feature specialty Aquaman jerseys as part of the league’s partnership with DC Comics. Jerseys will be up for auction through the ECHL. A balloon artist will also be on hand on the concourse. Groups of 10 or more can call 833-GO-MAINE to get tickets at a discounted price. Individual game tickets can be purchased at MarinersOfMaine.com, in person at the Trusted Choice Box Office at the Cross Insurance Arena, or by calling the box office at 207-775-3458. Read the full article

[weeklyhumorist]

I’m That Friend Who Always Asks if You’ve Hydrated and, Well, Have You?

Friend, you seem down. Are you drinking enough water?

Look, I know modern life holds many reasons to forget. Work. Church. Kids who call you a worthless shitfreckle and a husband who slides his Chapstick cap of a penis into anything plausibly sentient. I get it.

But being even slightly dehydrated throws you off. Similar to how finding an unknown anus’s anal beads in a spouse’s go-bag forces questions upon your marriage. Fact is, most are walking around not even realizing they’re thirsty. Or that “business trip” doesn’t always mean business trip.

It’s simple: Eight glasses, morning to night. If you’re like me, afternoons are mostly spent setting increasingly appreciable rage fires in increasingly busy Paneras, making that daypart less ideal. But whatever your hydration schedule, I find it best to begin when you first wake, right before the dark thoughts have settled in.

And that’s a full glass, too. Personally, I like to feel all fancy-schmancy by using the goblet my mother-in-law says exemplifies “the tackiness I’ve brought to the family.” I like this one because you can hold it by any of the pea green octopus’s eight pee yellow tentacles. Well, now only six, since the Elmer’s didn’t take. But still — I enjoy the options. And the rhinestones.

Your little ones will surely benefit from your good example. My parents mainly gave us coke and Pepsi — the first for energy and the latter to get the coke’s drip taste out of our throats. Water was limited to the chore of draining mom’s car bong. Parents didn’t know as much about wellness then. Or how to hide paraphernalia from the po-po if water’s still inside.

When my own daughter’s not busy updating the Insta she’s devoted to my varicose veins or her TikTok leaking details from one of my mandated wellness checks, I always nudge her to hydrate. I even got her one of those cool Yeti canteens. When I showed her, she told me to “go fuck [my]self.” Sensing she was a tad off, I reminded her to take some water. To which she replied, “in the shitbox, with a serrated blade.” ::sigh:: Pre-tweens.

But my son’s a tougher nut. I noticed his urine was quite dark. The last ER doc said it’s because his precocious methamphetamine addiction has macerated his insides. I say he just needs more H2O. Sadly, he doesn’t care for tap. Or basic human responsibility. So I suggested sparkling. And to at least make some dough by cooking meth, too.

Speaking of science: Did you realize 60% of our bodies are water? So just take my hubby. Even if .6% of him’s often inside another woman, he’s got more substantial parts in need of lubrication. I often call his office to nag him. Mostly about the size of this month’s “extramarital oopsy” bill, but also about the water thing, too.

Cause there’s no aborting reality: Water flushes the system. Reduces headaches. Gives us something to obsess about other than the usual concerns regarding mounting gambling debt, a son’s laziness about slinging rock to lessen said debt, or finding a watertight glue that’ll better bond ceramic tentacles.

There’s also digestion. It’s well established that water helps you swallow. Less publicized is how it helps breadier appetizers come back up when you surreptitiously excuse yourself to the ladies. Without water, I wouldn’t be so trim. Period.

To say nothing of how great it is for my skin. Last night, while practicing my “basically lucid” mask in that mirror I cracked during the latter half of last week’s early-midweek bender, I couldn’t help but notice how youthful I look. That’s all water, friend. Dire tears are surprisingly effective moisturizer.

For motivating others along their journeys, a fun phrase can serve as light reminder. When my kids fail to self-irrigate, I jokingly chirp, “Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink.” My daughter always messes that up, thinking it’s “wither, whore!” instead. But her memory’s been off ever since that whole human trafficking thing. First kid; who knew?

Whenever stuck, refer back to the three R’s: Replenish. Renew. Racism’s A Lie. My shrink says this saying both confuses and disgusts her. Also to tender backpayment or it’s my final session. But she’s only acting curmudgeonly because I know of her nether regions’ recurring appointment atop my husband’s midlife crisis goatee. You have no such excuse. Yet. At least I don’t think. Are you missing anal beads?

Regardless, what you’re not missing is me — and I want you to grab some agua. Now. I’ll wait here with the seventeen named demons that call my mind home and the sixteen ounces of pure, filtered goodness with which I vainly try to extinguish their existence.

Salud!*

  *is what I’ve named the most terrifying of the seventeen demons.

I’m That Friend Who Always Asks if You’ve Hydrated and, Well, Have You? was originally published on Weekly Humorist

[jayne-hecate-writer]

The Hu at the O2 Academy...

Bristol. Monday 10th February 2020

I have been going to concerts for nearly three decades now and it is rare indeed that I see a bad gig, most bands are professional enough that even a slow crowd or a long tour can still give them enough energy to make a decent attempt at the show. I have also seen a wide variety of musical styles, from the ethereal beauty of highbrow opera to the grinding bleakness of Black Metal and many more in between (including the numerous horrors of “Annie” & “Thoroughly Modern Millie”!) in the Bristol Hippodrome! So when the chance to see the band The Hu came up, I was intrigued and excited, until I realised where the venue was, you see the O2 Academy and I have history. This is the only venue that I have ever walked out of because the sound was so bad that the band actually bored me. Yes, I admit it, I do not like this venue and maybe this will begin to explain why.

Several things really annoyed me at the gig last night at the Bristol O2 Academy, this venue is frankly dreadful and their security is completely intrusive. I have quite truthfully been through less invasive security checks to get on an actual aeroplane that I got last night going into to see a band! Watching the security staff body searching a lad in his twenties because he was dressed in a hoody and had a few piercings and then seconds later searching through a woman's handbag and throwing away her lollypop was pathetic and showed a level of discrimination that I was not comfortable with, but more on that later. When it was my turn to be searched, I dumped my bag on their counter and walked through the metal detector to find the woman on the other side searching through my personal stuff, which I then pointed out was my medication. On realising that I am disabled, she closed my bag and shoved it at me because she was in a hurry. Only I was struggling and needed her to place the strap on my shoulder because my hands were full as an officious staff member was at that very moment demanding that my tickets be presented. Once I had my ticket scanned I then encountered the staff and the medics who kept asking me if I was 'OK’ and if I ‘needed help' because I walk with a stick and have obvious ‘mobility issues’ as I struggled to get into the venue. I pointed out that I had some one with me to support me if I needed actual help, but the patronising and pitying staff just antagonised me further by speaking to me as if I had learning difficulties. Physical impairment does not immediately equate to mental impairment and also, I have an honours degree in science, plus a post graduate qualification and several professional qualifications all in teaching. I am not a stupid person (despite the claims of some of my closest friends!) and thus do not enjoy being spoken as if I am a moron, just because I use a walking stick. If these staff members really want to help disabled people come into the venue, they could try training door security staff not to carry out internal cavity searches on their victims who just want to enter the building and enjoy a show!

Inside the venue, the sound techs had amplified the drum kit of the support band to the max and then tried to raise the level of everything else above them, which turned the sound into a painful distorted buzz rather than a musical event to enjoy. The support band, Fire of the Gods, were therefor utterly unlistenable because the sound mix was just atrocious and their positive message of equality and social inclusion was completely lost, simply due to the bad sound. I have no idea if this band are any good because what I heard was just awful and I do not believe that it was the fault of the band. I could see that they had guitars and even backing vocals, but the bass drum was so high up in the mix, everything else was lost and it sounded as if nothing else was even plugged in. They could have been playing the finest classic guitar riffs known to human kind and I would never have known. Thankfully when the main act came on, their sound was somewhat better, but the drums were still overly emphasised in the mix meaning that at times the sounds was still heavily distorted, due to the levels being wrong. As for The Hu, their material is utterly beautiful, this concert had moments that felt like a cultural ceremony rather than a metal gig, but the invasively bad sound made them hard to listen to at times, which was heart breaking given how many positive reports I have heard about them.

My final gripe was because there were some real arseholes in the audience who pushed, barged and shoved their way through a very heavily packed in crowd, hurting people and stepping on toes, feet and even my walking stick. Again, I have the experiences of so many extreme metal gigs that have always been positive, the crowds have always been welcoming, considerate and fun, meaning that as a disabled woman I have always felt safe, even when in the pit down at the front for some of the most extreme bands currently recording. The crowd in the O2 was more mixed that I usually experience and some of them were clearly looking for any excuse to start trouble with other crowd members. At less than ten minutes into The Hu's set, Security broke up a fight right in front of me, started by a young woman in her twenties. Yes, I am pleased that the fight was broken up before it got serious, but why did they have to discuss this right in front of me, blocking my already limited view of the band before they dragged her away. Four members of security on the floor and one on the stairs above me was what it took to close down this scene and a few minutes later the girls friends took a phonecall (which I am amazed they could hear!) before they too barged their way out to go and find her. She had clearly been ejected from the venue.

So then, The Hu... I really want to see more of them because they are fascinating, given that they play a form of metal music that is culturally inspired and uses their traditional Mongolian instruments and vocal style. They had some moments of real beauty and their tribal sound and pounding rhythmic back bone gives them a quality that is unique, beautiful and exciting. They did use the tired old trope of the fake encore at the end, which so many bands now do that it almost feels refreshing when other bands choose not to do it, but even that is entirely forgivable. At the end of the gig there was one moment that truly showed the difference between them and the Bristol crowd, when a pair of skimpy women's knickers were thrown on stage, only for them to catch on the intricately carved neck of the exquisite Morin Khuur (a horsehead fiddle... Yes, I had to look that up because I had no idea what it was called). Gala the musician carefully unpicked the foul soggy knickers from his instrument and wearily dropped them into the fenced off area in front of the stage, before walking disdainfully away. Given how cold it was outside, I can only imagine that the then knickerless woman probably had icicles hanging down to her knees when she finally got home!

To conclude this bitter and angry review, I think that The Hu are fabulously interesting and well worth investigating if you do not know them. However, the O2 is a shockingly awful venue and frankly I feel insulted by every visit I have ever made there. After every show, I come out of the venue and say to myself “Never again.” It really is that bad a venue, especially when compared to so many of the wonderful and beautiful venues I have been to so recently in Bristol and further afield. I dislike the O2 because of their obtrusive security, their consistently poor sound at every gig I have seen there, their badly laid out interior and finally because of their watered down drinks! last night, the pint of Pepsi Max served to my precious Wifey tasted like it had been urinated in, which was just another insult from this already awful venue. I genuinely promise that this was the last time I see a band there, no really, I mean it this time!

Go and see The Hu on the rest of the world tour now.

 https://www.thehuofficial.com/

[lindyhunt]

How to Make Competitive Intelligence Your Competitive Advantage

I stared at the sea of snow around me. White as far as the eye could reach. A blank, empty landscape.

It was exhilarating at first. No one ahead, no one tailing or overtaking me.

Unencumbered, I was completely alone.

Then I realized I was lost. What direction was I going in? Was I going in circles? Was I even on a path?

It was my first snowboarding trip in Japan and I had taken a wrong turn. And now, the beautiful landscape around me was devoid of anyone, or anything, that might give me a sense of direction.

Years later, it’s this experience that comes to mind when my friends in the startup industry complain about their competitors.

They long for a blank expanse of a market, free of competitors hurling their way forward alongside (or ahead, or behind) them. It’s an entrepreneur’s daydream: no one to stop you from speeding ahead, eyes firmly on the prize.

Of course, markets devoid of competitors are rare: if a product is worth making, the market around it won’t stay empty for long. If it does, the product probably wasn’t worth making.

Even so, the appeal remains. And that’s why we’re often told to ignore our competitors completely.

Shut them out, focus single-mindedly on your product and users: everything else will fall into place.

And it’s certainly true that an obsession with ‘the competition’ is a bad idea. When companies get tangled up in rivalries, they often miss out on more important things (while Coke and Pepsi were battling it out, they failed to cash in on the arrival of energy drinks — Red Bull is now the most popular soft drink in the world).

But do we have to choose between a blinkered focus or competitor obsession?

I don’t think so. If we can adjust our lens, the landscape around us will begin to look different. Blinkered focus can turn into a peripheral vision that is both inclusive and alive with information.

A single company — especially a startup — will naturally be limited in terms of the information it relies on. The combined knowledge of a number of companies operating in the same arena (or neighboring landscapes) is inevitably much more extensive.

And so, we can begin to view competitors as invaluable resources rather than pesky rivals.

Here’s how.

The Perks of a Busy Market

Many startups enter an already-crowded market. That’s often seen as daunting, or even deal-breakingly negative.

It’s not.

In fact, entering an unexplored arena with no context is much more daunting.

The support that comes with having competitors may not be obvious at first, but it’s real.

By their mere presence, a competitor is already helping you carve out your category, make noise, and educate your users. They are legitimizing your idea, and proving there’s a market for it.

As Joel Gascoigne, CEO of Buffer puts it:

The real problem startups have is that most people don’t know about them.

Competition can help to shine light on the market, which is often actually more useful than if you were alone.

There are cautionary tales of businesses that became ‘victims of active inertia’ — lazy on their initial strong competitor-free success — and ultimately failed. And there are other businesses that, spurred on by new competitors, kicked their complacency habit to the curb.

That’s because strong competition is the ultimate accelerator. Each individual step forward counts as a step for everyone.

Would Nike still be the king of sportswear without Adidas snapping at their trainered-heels? What would Steve Jobs’ legacy be without Bill Gates? Would Salesforce’s boom be as resounding without Oracle pushing it along?

Competition strengthens, rather than weakens, a market. Companies striving for leadership and out-servicing each other to win customers generates tons of value. Plus, saturated markets are the most profitable. And if your business can thrive in a startup-crowded jungle, it can survive (almost) anything.

Peripheral Vision

The benefits of a competitive market aren’t reaped automatically. What you need is an all-encompassing awareness of the industry you’re in — its peaks and troughs, new players and old-timers, innovations and disasters.

This will keep you nimble and agile, particularly if, like me, you’re in a market that’s constantly shape-shifting and whizzing forward.

With peripheral vision of the big picture, you can steer fast and respond faster. And when you adopt this frame of mind, the competitive landscape turns into a goldmine of information to guide you forward.

But how do we tap into this competitive intelligence?

It boils down to three basic steps:

Gather data from a bunch of different websites

Analyze the data

Interpret the results

Of course, we do this kind of stuff all the time. The problem is, it tends to be a tedious, time-consuming process woven with endless opportunities for distraction — particularly as half of the relevant information will be buried under the noise of the internet.

And really, there are a ton of better ways we could be spending our work day. Humans aren’t great at dealing with large datasets. Machines are.

Enter bots — clever automated systems. By linking to, and communicating with, multiple APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), machines like our new digital assistant, GrowthBot, can help us map the landscape we’re operating in.

But the potential of automation goes further than this. Our capabilities as humans are finite, and often biased. As important as it is to stay on top of our industry’s trends and transformations, we’ll never be able to know it all ourselves.

That’s because we rely on the limited amount of information we’ve come across rather than a complete knowledge of our field (which would be impossible). Plus, we can’t plug in a new server when we reach our information-processing limits.

A smart machine, however, will be able to learn literally everything there is to know about an industry and its players.

It can then summarize and present the core content back to us, bringing us as close to being all-knowing, all-seeing experts as it’s possible to be.

Reducing Trial and Error

Here’s the thing: all businesses are testing the waters for someone else. It’s up to those who follow in their footsteps to capitalize on this.

By paying close attention, a trailing company can cleverly reap the benefits of someone else’s successes and failures.

That’s not as evil as it sounds. It’s basically common sense, or the ‘second-mover advantage’.

While the pioneer pays a steep price in creating the product category, the later entrant can learn from the experience of the pioneer, enjoying lower costs and making fewer mistakes as a result.

Imagine if Google hadn’t paid attention to the mistakes in Yahoo’s UI, or if Uber hadn’t exploited the public enthusiasm for Lyft?

Indeed, many of the world’s most successful businesses aren’t built on originality. Instead, they’re launched by entrepreneurs who simply saw a gap in an existing concept. Perhaps that gap was better branding, smarter customer service or elevated UX.

One example is the way Apple redefined and dominated the market for mobiles — a category which Motorola pioneered.

The point is, this success is built on the swift, agile following — and then improving — of an idea; not on being the first to execute it.

Similarly, you can come to a conclusion in seconds (for free) that it might have taken another business hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to get to.

There are shortcuts everywhere when you start looking. Opportunities to reduce trial and error on the basis of someone else’s experience.

Maybe similar strategies will work for you, maybe they won’t. Either way, the more you know, the better-informed your future decisions will be.

Put simply: insights aren’t necessarily less useful when they’re second-hand.

Collective (Competitive) Intelligence

Collective intelligence within an industry is something we can all contribute to and benefit from, by pooling resources and building on what’s already been achieved.

Turning a potential battleground into a network, like in case of open-source software.

And along the road somewhere, your competitor could even become your collaborator: enter ‘coopetition’ (cooperative competition).

The big players have set the trend: Spot.IM has started using Facebook’s API, despite the fact that their goal is to keep users engaged on websites that aren’t Facebook. Apple and Microsoft joined forces on the licensing of mobile operating system features and patents. Google funded Mozilla’s Firefox. Arch-rivals Amazon and Apple teamed up to distribute Amazon’s e-books through the iPad’s Kindle app.

All these companies have the same target market, but they found that combining forces — rather than constantly trying to one-up each other — is a powerful tool. And this mindset can be put into practice on a smaller scale, too.

As long as we’re keen to grow, improve and adapt, there will always be value in questioning the tactics of businesses besides ourselves. Maybe the answers will surprise us, maybe they will inspire change.

Businesses like ours, yes; but also unrelated businesses we simply find interesting.

So no, it’s not about an unhealthy obsession with our competitors. But it’s not about shutting out those around us to create the mirage of an empty landscape, either.

It’s about curiosity, open-mindedness, a willingness to learn from others. And with the help of today’s AI, competitive intelligence can become a competitive advantage.

[berna2206thames19-blog]

A Few Ideas For Valuable Liquid Grip Methods

Astute Climbing Chalk Canada Programs For 2017

Fitness is an activity that many people enjoy. But it can be difficult to learn everything you need to about fitness. The following article will provide Climbing Chalk|Canada the proper techniques to help you in reaching your fitness goal. If you want to increase your commitment to fitness, pay for a multi-month gym contract. This will "lock you in", so to speak, and keep you coming back over time. However, you should really only do this if going to the gym is something that is difficult for you. If you are serious about becoming more fit, you should select a routine that improves flexibility, burns calories and tones multiple muscle groups. Search for classes in your region. In order to reduce the risk of injury you should be careful to use proper form when you are walking. Walk up straight and draw your shoulders back. Your elbows should fall at 90-degree angles. Your forward foot should be opposite your forward arm. Your heel should always touch down first. Let your foot roll forward naturally and push off with your toes when you start your next stride. You will never get yourself a six pack of abs by doing crunches all the time. Abdominal exercises will strengthen your muscles, but they won't burn off your belly fat. For six-pack abs, do lots of cardio, resistance training, and changing your diet. Before starting your workout, test the padding thickness of the bench by pressing fingers down into the cushion firmly. If you are able to feel the wood through the padding, the machine is either cheaply made or worn out. Choose a more comfortable one. A machine with thin padding can cause discomfort and bruising, failing to provide the support necessary during your exercise routine. Don't exercise when you're ill. When you are ill, your body needs the energy to heal. In addition, your body is not really able to build muscles while you are sick. So, you should refrain from working out until your body has recovered from illness. Meanwhile, eat properly and rest as much as you can. Always pay a trainer prior to actually starting your workouts. This practice increases the likelihood that you will actually show up for your workouts. The reason for this is that your money is already spent. You will want to get your money's worth, so therefore, you will probably endure these sessions. You should lightly workout the muscles that you worked hard on the day before. When exercising tied muscles it is important to use less effort when using them the next day so that you do not cause injury to the muscles. Focus on alternating your fitness routine to concentrate on your frontal muscles, then your back muscles. If you're just working out your lower back or just your abdominal muscles muscles, be prepared for back pain. If you work out both of these you will stave off any back pain you might have. When you are doing situps or crunches, try pressing your tongue against the top of your mouth. This engages your neck muscles and keeps them aligned properly while you are exercising your abs. You can avoid harmful strains or injuries this way. Prior to beginning a workout routine for your arms, make sure you know your goals. Are you trying to increase your muscle mass? If so, you should be lifting larger weights so that your intensity level is increased. If you want to sculpt and tone, simply do more reps with lighter weights. Get the whole family involved in your fitness plan. Let each family member choose activities for the entire family to do together. Keep fitness diaries for the whole family to monitor their progress. This way, everyone in your family is working towards both a common goal of better fitness and their own unique goals. Volunteer at your child's school fitness program in order to show him or her your interest in fitness. Getting yourself involved will help your child be more enthusiastic about their own participation. No matter how important it is; there will always be people who aren't willing to learn about proper fitness. These people may not want to learn or they may just be lacking the right methods. This article will not only help you get fit, but stay fit as well.

Some Questions For Picking Out Important Elements For Canada

Lobster with Pepsi logo 'tattoo' on its claw caught in Canada   A lobster caught in Canada with a Pepsi logo imprinted on its claw is drawing attention to the harmful impact rubbish can have on the ocean, conservationists say. The branded crustacean was trapped by a fishing crew off the Canadian island of Grand Manan, New Brunswick, on 21 November. Karissa Landstrand told CBC she was banding and loading lobsters into a crate for transportation to a buyer when she spotted the instantly recognisable red and blue logo of the fizzy drink .   “I can't say how he got it on,” Ms Lindstrand, who posted the image on Facebook, said. “It seemed more like a tattoo or a drawing on the lobster rather than something growing into it.” She told Canadian media it appeared as if the logo was “tattooed on the lobster’s claw”, causing a debate among the crew working on the boat, however she could not explain how it got there. “They believe that maybe there was a can in the bottom of the ocean and when [the lobster] was growing, it grew around the can,” said Ms Lindstrand, who has been lobster fishing for four years. Another speculated that cardboard Pepsi packaging may have been stuck on its claw for years, with Ms Landstrand adding it could be scraped off but was not paper. “This tells me that there is a lot of garbage in the ocean, if that’s what’s happening to the lobsters we get out from the water,” she added. Matthew Abbott, a marine program coordinator at the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, said it showed “garbage [is] infiltrating even into the deep water”. “I was surprised by unique turn of events that led to this lobster being imprinted with an image of a Pepsi can, but sadly not surprised that marine animals, even found at some depth, are coming into contact with human waste,” he told The Telegraph. “It certainly helps illustrate how widespread marine debris is. While we often think of marine debris as being on the surface it is indeed spread throughout the water column both as large pieces and micro-plastics. “This may have been a fairly harmless case, but often when marine animals come into contact with human rubbish the outcome is much worse.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/01/lobster-pepsi-logo-tattoo-claw-caught-canada/

Basketball Tips You Will Not Find Elsewhere

It's difficult to overestimate just how many fans of basketball there are around the world. To fully enjoy basketball, whether as enthusiastic spectator or player, you need to fully understand this game. This article below can help with that. Dribble the ball correctly. Finger tips, not palms, are the key to successful dribbling. This method gives you much more control of the ball. Dribble on the sides of your body instead of directly before you, and bounce it waist level. Keep your eyes up. Make sure you dribble properly by keeping your head held up, facing forward. You haven't practiced enough if you keep looking at the basketball while you're dribbling. One of the best ways to improve your dribbling is to bring your ball along anytime you need to walk somewhere. Try dribbling even when walking to a store. Get used to looking up as you go so that you can focus your attention on the court and not on your hands and the ball. You must learn how to dribble, how a crossover is done and other important ball handling skills. In a crossover, you transfer the basketball from hand to hand. The action needs to be performed quickly in order to be successful. When done correctly, the crossover dribble help you to change direction in order to move down the court efficiently. If you want to be a jump shooter, avoid pumping iron excessively. Although it's true that strong muscles are beneficial, additional bulk can impede your ability to play effectively along the perimeter. Some pro shooting guards make their arms large enough to decrease their own field goal percentage. Need to dupe the opposition? Trick them using a back pass. To do this pass, hold on to the ball with your dominant hand. Now, pull it behind your back. The last step is to flick your wrist in the direction you want the ball to land. This should help to trick the other team. Keep your skills sharp in the off-season by playing different challenging games. Basketball is usually a team sport, but just because you can't find others, doesn't mean you have to just stop thinking about it. That is not a problem. You'll still be able to get a lot done when playing solo. Work on free throws or practice pivot moves. Additionally, you can practice vertical jumping and dribbling. Your child should work on their core muscles if they want to become a basketball player in high school. This includes their abs, lower back, and hips. A core that is not strong enough limits the linkage between arms and legs. A strong, sturdy core allows force from the legs to fuel movements like running and jumping. The excitement that basketball creates for millions of fans across the globe s hard to match. People new to the sport, may be confused if they don't understand all the rules and subtleties. This article should provide a guide for you to use in improving your game.

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[michaelwalshblog-blog]

Amid obesity epidemic, Coke shifts 'health' focus from exercise to calories

For the first time in human history, more people are obese than underweight, with America leading the way. Yahoo News examines the way the food industry has contributed to the worldwide epidemic, and how soda companies in the U.S. have tried to deflect blame for the increase in obesity, particularly in children.

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For years, Coca-Cola and other soda companies promoted exercise as a way to fight obesity and argued that their products could be part of an overall healthy lifestyle. But recent science shows weight loss has far more to do with nutrition and that exercise, although extremely beneficial for other reasons, has little effect on weight.

Public health advocates and medical doctors say that the soda industry’s campaign to promote physical fitness was a calculated maneuver to shift the blame for its prominent contribution to the nation’s obesity epidemic. Now, as soda consumption falls in the United States, Coca-Cola is backing away from funding its fitness initiative. But public health officials accuse it of exporting America’s obesity problem to developing nations.

Coke’s exercise campaign was an example of “trying to be slick,” Sara Bleich, a professor of public health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School, told Yahoo News. “Why are we getting heavier? We’re getting heavier because we’re taking in too many calories, not because we’re exercising too little. Of all the different behavior changes you could do, there’s probably the most evidence that if you drink fewer sugary beverages you would reduce your risk for obesity.”

Photo: Christopher Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

There’s a case to be made that soda companies are responding to a market demand for sugary beverages and have little obligation to promote the public’s well-being. After all, Coca-Cola is a publicly traded company with responsibilities to its shareholders — not a government agency or nonprofit.

But responding to market demand is different from fostering market demand. Coke and its competitors engage in multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns to encourage consumption of their products, which consist of flavored, sugary water with little nutritional value.

Nowadays about 17 percent of children (one in six) in the United States are obese and therefore at a higher risk of chronic health conditions, including cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. More than one-third of adult Americans is obese. Sugary beverages like soda and sports drinks are the top calorie source in the average teen’s diet: 226 calories per day.

Lauren Kane, senior director of communications for the American Beverage Association, the trade organization representing Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and other soft drinks, pointed out that all sugar-sweetened beverages combined only account for about 6 percent of the calories in the average U.S. diet.

“We understand that we make products that have calories, so we have a responsibility, but at the same time, you have to look at the obesity epidemic in the big picture,” she told Yahoo News. “There are lots of different calories that people consume every single day.”

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‘Sunsetting’ physical fitness

Yahoo News contacted Coca-Cola to discuss the obesity epidemic and the company’s physical fitness programs. A company spokesman said via email that they “have been on a journey to evolve the way [their] company approaches health and wellness.”

“We’ve been listening to and learning from our consumers, the public health community and other stakeholders about the most appropriate role we can play to support the fight against obesity in a way that is credible, transparent and beneficial for everyone. As a result, we have said we will no longer support programs that center on personal fitness,” he said.

The Triple Play Mobile Tour in action at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore, July 2015. (Photo: Steve Ruark/AP Images for Boys & Girls Clubs of America)

Gradually throughout the 2000s, as public awareness of the health risks surrounding soda and fast food grew, Coca-Cola started to pour money into healthy lifestyle projects, such as exercise and sports events.

In 2016, Coca-Cola began to implement guidelines for how it would support research, nutrition and physical activity programs. This includes “sunsetting any funding of company-owned or branded health and wellness platforms that promote well-being.” The application of these guidelines is ongoing.

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The truth about exercise and weight loss

There’s no doubt about it: Exercise is associated with many health benefits for the body and mind. But recent studies show it has only a modest impact on weight.

Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K., argues that the public perception that physical inactivity — rather than poor diet — is the primary cause of obesity was fostered by pervasive messages from the food industry. Coca Cola has promoted the message that “all calories count” and associates its products with sports, but Malhotra’s research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that “one cannot outrun a bad diet.”

“The messaging of these companies such as Coca-Cola that gives the impression to the public that you can burn off the calories was not in keeping with the science,” Malhotra told Yahoo News. “The evidence is very clear. At best, exercise has a very marginal effect when it comes to obesity. At worst, it’s not linked at all. I would say we should remove exercise when we talk about obesity.”

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Beverage marketing

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission found that American beverage companies spent about $3.2 billion marketing carbonated beverages in 2006. Nearly $500 million was targeted at teens and children as young as two years old. In 2010, children and teens respectively watched an average of 277 and 406 ads for sugary drinks and energy drinks, while preschoolers saw about 213.

But those figures have dramatically declined, according to data from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. The report says beverage company advertising to children and teens went down to $866 million on sugary drinks and energy drinks in 2013. Companies spent an additional $465 million to advertise diet drinks, 100 percent juice and plain water.

Erica Kenney, a research fellow in the department of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, explained that this decline came after the industry’s voluntary pledge to decrease marketing, but it wasn’t universal and some companies even increased advertising to kids.

Hey there, new guy. #NationalHotDogDay pic.twitter.com/yyeOW3rvqw

— Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) July 19, 2017

Given the beverage industry’s frequent denials that these marketing tactics contribute to the epidemic, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health assembled a fact sheet with “key scientific evidence” linking sugary drinks and obesity.

It shows that “more and more marketing has moved into social media and mobile platforms, so even though there’s less seen on TV, there’s still plenty of advertising online for kids,” Kenney said.

Malhotra draws a parallel to the way cigarettes were marketed: “The junk food industry spends millions in marketing junk food and targeting the most vulnerable members of society, including children. What we know is there are lessons to be learned from Big Tobacco.”

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The new cigarettes

In many ways, this current dilemma mirrors the decades-long controversy surrounding the cigarette industry’s contested right to encourage smoking by the American public. Cigarettes were ubiquitous in mid-20th-century America but public awareness campaigns made them taboo. Here’s another way to think of it: “The Flintstones” and other cartoons once hocked cigarettes — now they promote sugary cereals.

The analogy isn’t perfect but both soda and cigarette manufacturers had campaigns downplaying the links between their products and health problems, and public officials fought to limit access to these products with varying degrees of success.

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the proportion of adult smokers in the U.S. dropped from 42 percent in 1964 to 18 percent in 2014. During most of this period, the tobacco industry spent billions trying to sow doubt about the now clear-cut link between smoking and lung cancer.

Malhotra said effective regulations to curb smoking were not implemented until 50 years after the first links between smoking and lung cancer were published in a British medical journal. Big Tobacco, he said, adopted a corporate playbook of planting doubt that cigarettes were harmful, which included subsidizing favorable research from scientists.

“The very same tactics are being used as part of [the soda industry’s] corporate strategy. One of the things they do is emphasize personal responsibility and that a lack of exercise is driving the obesity epidemic,” he said.

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Promoting exercise

The Coca-Cola Company has spent millions of dollars to fund fitness programs across the U.S. intended to help individuals and families “live active, healthy lifestyles.” The company has boasted about supporting more than 280 physical activity and “nutrition education programs” in more than 115 countries.

“They’re playing tennis in Portland, dancing in Atlanta, boot-camping in Chicago and working out in fitness centers all over America. From coast to coast, community organizations are amplifying their active-living and nutrition education programs due in part by local grants from the Coca-Cola Foundation,” reads a 2012 press release titled “Coca-Cola Wants America to Be Fit!”.

The more smiles the better! #TroopsForFitness #OpenHappiness pic.twitter.com/ISPro0DZ9w

— Happiness Truck (@HappinessTruck) June 26, 2013

The Dr Pepper Snapple Group has committed more than $35.5 million to its “Let’s Play” initiative from 2011 through 2019 “to help encourage active play for kids and families.”

Among Coca-Cola’s many investments in physical activity is the Copa Coca-Cola, an international youth soccer tournament. Coca-Cola said that since 1998, the league has expanded to 60 countries and reached more than 1.3 million boys and girls. In one statement, a Coca-Cola marketing manager said, “We want to inspire teens to lead active healthy lives, form lasting friendships and follow their dreams.”

(When asked if the Copa Coca-Cola program would be phased out as part of the “sunsetting,” a Coca-Cola spokesman said the league’s purpose was about physical fitness but was also more of a “marketing asset,” like sponsoring the Final Four or Major League Baseball.)

Coca-Cola became the first founding corporate partner of Exercise is Medicine, which is coordinated by the American College of Sports Medicine, in 2007 to encourage doctors to prescribe exercise as medical treatment. Coca-Cola provided grant funding for foundational support and marketing.

Rhona Applebaum, chief scientific and regulatory officer at Coca-Cola, said in a statement at the time that the company is committed to advancing “evidence-based science” and underscoring “the importance of an active, healthy lifestyle.”

“And there is irrefutable evidence that exercise truly is medicine, and that fitness extends both the quality and quantity of life,” Applebaum said. “If every sector of society would collaborate to advance this proven remedy, the faster we could eradicate the global pandemic of physical inactivity and improve public health. That’s certainly a health outcome worth striving to achieve.”

According to Coca-Cola, the initiative is active on 200 college campuses and recommended by 2,000 health care providers in the U.S. It has spread to Australia, Italy and Germany, and is “going strong in Latin America, Asia and Africa.”

To repeat: exercise is good for health and its encouragement should be celebrated. But experts say there has been a major blind spot in Coke’s health advice.

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Undermining scientific objectivity

In August 2015, the New York Times revealed that Coca-Cola was funding something called the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN): a now defunct nonprofit that ostensibly researched the causes of obesity but promoted the notion that people should focus less on diet and more on exercise. Scientists with the group, described as an “astroturfing” operation, suggested that people should lose weight not by cutting caloric intake but by increasing exercise. Health care professionals criticized GEBN for downplaying the link between sugary drinks and obesity. The group announced it would cease operations by the end of the year, citing “resource limitations” — not public outcry or an approach that no longer reflects the scientific consensus.

The Denver Post reported in December 2015 that James Hill, a nutrition expert who directed the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, had accepted $550,000 from Coca-Cola and traveled the world at company expense to spread GEBN’s message at conferences. He has since resigned.

A team of University of California, San Francisco researchers looked at 60 studies from 2001 to 2016 and found that 34 reported a link between sugary drinks and obesity and diabetes while 26 did not.  All the studies that reported no link were funded by the beverage industry.

“There have been studies done that show when the soda industry is funding studies the results are null or negative, meaning they are either not showing an association with obesity or that the risk of obesity goes down. I think that’s sort of the same bias you’re talking about, when money is funneled in,” Bleich said.

Public health lawyer Michele Simon released a study in June 2015 saying that the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), which publishes the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, one of the nutrition field’s most respected journals, has many ties with the food and beverage industry that hamper scientific objectivity and result in “industry-friendly research.”

“Moreover, the media views health organizations like ASN as purveyors of independent and objective information, largely unaware of the many connections with junk food and beverage giants,” Simon wrote.

For instance, the ASN’s “sustaining partners” — a designation given to companies that give at least $10,000 a year — include manufacturers of highly processed and minimally nutritious foods and drinks, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The donations give these companies “print and online exposure, annual meeting benefits and first choice to sponsor educational sessions, grants, awards and other opportunities as they arise.”

“In other words,” Simon said, “food, beverage, supplement, biotech and pharmaceutical industry leaders are able to purchase cozy relationships with the nation’s top nutrition researchers.”

ASN did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News.

_____

Junk food and obesity

Kane of the American Beverage Association said obesity rates have been steadily rising while soda consumption has been going down. In fact, it recently hit a 31-year low, according to Beverage Digest. She said, “If soda consumption was driving obesity rates, obesity should have gone down as consumption went down — but that isn’t the case.”

When presented this argument, Bleich responded that Kane is “not quite right.”

“While it is correct that overall SSB [sugar-sweetened beverage] consumption has declined, obesity has actually leveled among many adults and even declined significantly among young children. Obesity continues to increase among low-income and minority populations who also continue to be the highest consumers of SSBs,” Bleich said.

Kane responds that all calories contribute to obesity and that one source of calories cannot be blamed wholesale: “We are doing our part with our small piece of the pie.”

“To pin it on one source of calories, which is such a small portion of the American diet, is not only wrong, it’s short-sighted and misleading to people because they think, ‘Oh, I’ll cut one thing out of my diet and all of a sudden my weight challenges are stopped.’ That’s just not the case,” she said.

Stephen Neabore, an internist with the nonprofit Barnard Medical Center, a primary care medical center in Washington, D.C., said processed foods are a driving force of the obesity epidemic — decreasing the nutritional value and increasing the calorie density of food. He encourages his patients to focus on whole foods that grow out of the earth.

“I don’t know of any healthy way to incorporate soda into a diet,” Neabore told Yahoo News. “There’s no nutrition benefit to it, but you’re still getting sugar and calories out of it. It’s not as filling as eating a meal would be, so people tend to overdo it quite easily.”

Neabore said when he talks to patients about the benefits of eating fruits or vegetables that they understand there really is no benefit to drinking soda. He said “carbonated sugar-water” is not healthy by any standard.

The nutritional value of a can of Coca-Cola. (Photo: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)

“There’s no comparison between any kind of soda I’m aware of and any kind of fruits, vegetables, beans or lentils,” he said. “If people say they want to stick with it, I try to say, ‘Why do you want to stick with this? Why not go all the way and make your diet as healthful as possible so you can get all the benefits you can.”

Neabore said there’s a lot of confusion and disagreement over the perfect diet but that a plant-based diet — including fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes — is the only one that’s been shown to prevent and reverse heart disease.

_____

Expansion overseas

As soda sales decline in the United States, companies are looking for new sales potential in foreign markets. For instance, the first Coca-Cola bottling plant opened in the Gaza Strip in November 2016.

The World Health Organization says obesity rates have more than doubled worldwide since 1980.

WHO and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) released a report in September 2015 showing that per capita sales of industrially processed food products, which includes fast food and sugary beverages, increased by 26.7 percent in 13 Latin American countries from 2000 to 2013 — along with obesity rates. This strong correlation indicates that these products are a major driver of rising body weight in the region.

According to the report, total sales of carbonated soft drinks doubled from 2000 to 2013, reaching $81 billion (in U.S. dollars) in Latin America. This exceeded soft drink sales figures in North America.

Enrique Jacoby, the nutrition and physical activity adviser for PAHO/WHO, said these food products are not designed to help consumers meet their nutritional needs. He said the increased portion of “ultraprocessed food products” in the Latin American diet has had “very negative results.”

Photo: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images

“They are engineered to have long shelf lives and to create cravings that can completely overpower people’s innate appetite-control mechanisms and their rational desire to stop eating,” Jacoby said in a statement. “So they are doubly harmful: They are quasi-addictive and thus increase overweight and obesity, while replacing whole fresh foods that are the foundation of a natural, nutrient-rich human diet.”

The World Food Programme, the food assistance branch of the United Nations, concluded in a study published last April that the burden of under-nutrition and obesity has cost Latin American economies billions of dollars. Malnutrition has negative consequences for educational outcomes and productivity and increases rates of illness and mortality.

_____

Blame and shame

Sara Kirk, a professor of health promotion at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, said that the food industry’s rhetoric around personal responsibility places the onus on the individual and ignores the environmental impact. She said the current environment encourages unhealthy behaviors — namely to be less active and over-consume — so it becomes more difficult to make healthy decisions.

“The food industry wants that message to be out there. They want people to feel and believe that. They often frame it as ‘You can eat what you’d like as long as you’re active,’ but we know from study after study that you cannot exercise your way out of the amount of food we’re consuming through the environment we’re functioning in,” Kirk told Yahoo News.

She argues that our current social, institutional and political structures are not supportive for people living with obesity.

“You can’t completely absolve responsibility for individuals because there are choices people make between healthy and unhealthy,” Kirk said. “What we need to think about is that at the moment it’s really hard to make a healthy choice.”

_____

Beverage taxes

Bleich of Johns Hopkins said possible solutions to people taking in too many calories from soda range from the heavy-handed (like sugary beverage tax) to the relatively simple (like easy-to-understand menu labeling).

“There’s a huge body of evidence that says the moment you fiddle with prices you change behavior,” she said. “And the specific evidence for sugary beverages show it has a bigger impact of reducing purchases.”

The ABA and Coca-Cola actively lobby against proposed taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages intended to lower soda consumption, diet-related diseases and health care costs. In response, it has created front groups like Americans Against Food Taxes.

Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Santa Fe Vice President Kathy Hart urges voters to reject a tax on sugary beverages outside a polling center in Santa Fe, N.M., on May 2, 2017. (Photo: Morgan Lee/AP)

Politically, sugary-beverage taxes are much harder to enact than something like menu labeling, which places the onus on the consumer.

Food reform advocates have said that the food-and-beverage lobby was responsible for watering down first lady Michelle Obama’s “Lets Move” public health campaign, which largely shifted its focus from transforming the American diet to staying active.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine criticized Obama for having abandoned any major effort to improve the nation’s diet and instead focusing on “noncontroversial recommendations” about exercise. The group contended that “Let’s Move” should “combat the myth that increased exercise can compensate for poor eating habits.”

_____

Menu labeling

A few years ago, Bleich wanted to see if providing calorie information in a meaningful way would actually have an impact on what someone decides to drink. Her team of researchers posted signs at six stores, in low-income African-American neighborhoods in Baltimore from 2012 to 2013.

These signs showed the number of minutes running or miles walking that would be needed to burn off a sugar-sweetened beverage: they calculated that it would take 50 minutes of running for a 15-year-old weighing 110 pounds to burn off a typical 20-ounce bottle of soda (250 calories).

Afterward, they collected data for 4,516 purchases by African-American adolescents. According to Bleich, obesity and the consumption of sugary beverages are in fact going down for children ages 6 to 11 overall, but is still increasing among black and Hispanic children.

They discovered that when adolescents were told how much they would need to walk or run, they were more likely to buy smaller amounts of soda or skip sugary beverages entirely.

“We are just inundated with health information all the time. Right now we find calories uniformly across any consumer packaged good,” Bleich said. “If right next to those calories you saw a stick figure running and the equivalent in running, I do think that would matter, particularly if it was uniform across the board in all places of consumption and that was echoed on menu boards.”

Neabore said it would be nearly impossible for someone to reach their weight-loss goals through exercise if they maintain a poor diet. When talking to patients about weight loss, Neabore said, he spends about 90 percent on diet. He said that people burn about a hundred calories by running a mile on average.

“If you look at soda or any kind of processed food, that’s almost nothing. A candy bar can have 500 calories in it, which means you have to run five miles to burn off that one candy bar,” he said. “So just avoiding it or substituting it with something that’s good for you is a much better option than trying to burn off those calories.”

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Balance Calories Initiative

Kane said the ABA launched a Balance Calories Initiative to reduce the sugar and calories people get from beverages — with a goal of cutting 20 percent of the calories people get from beverages by 2025.

“We’re doing that in a whole host of ways. At the forefront of that is innovating with new products that have less sugar or no sugar. In fact, 48 percent of beverages purchased now have zero calories,” she said.

Many of those, of course, are artificially sweetened versions of traditional soft drinks. But a few recent studies show signs that even diet sodas can contribute to weight gain and to metabolic syndrome, which can be a precursor to diabetes. It’s unclear why that should happen, although some researchers speculate that by encouraging a taste for sweet foods, diet sodas promote higher caloric intake overall. And the studies are preliminary and hard to interpret — but if future research bears them out, the industry could find itself battling on a whole other front.

Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP

Susan Neely, president and CEO of the ABA, said in a Balance Calories Initiative video that the association’s member companies will offer smaller beverage sizes, drink choices with less or no sugar and provide calorie information (which is required by federal statute anyway.)

“As a mother, balance is important to me. It’s what we all want for our families,” Neely said in the video. “So this is the hard work that’s required to bring about real change, and it’s happening now.”

Kane said the industry is intensely focused on getting people interested in new beverage options that have less sugar and fewer calories that they might not know about yet.

“If you walk down the beverage aisle today, it’s going to look a lot different than when you walked down the beverage aisle 20 years ago,” Kane said. “You would have full calorie and diet. Now you have a whole range of options.”

The Coca-Cola spokesman told Yahoo News that their current focus is helping consumers reduce the amount of sugar in their diets.

“We agree that too much sugar isn’t good for anyone, which is why we have refocused our business to reformulate many of our drinks with less sugar — and to create new drinks with low-to-no sugar,” he said.

On behalf of Coke, he expressed support for the recommendation of several global health authorities, such as the World Health Organization, that people should limit their added sugar intake to “no more than 10 percent of their total calories.” He said they “are on a journey to support this recommendation.”

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:

Hate in America: Where it comes from and why it’s back

New York, Iraq, Myanmar: The endless calamity of religious war

Women tweet photos of when they were age Roy Moore’s accuser was

In the hands of Trump, the past is a political weapon

Photos: Hate in America: A look under the hood

[cwmoss]

40 Notes on Japan (or How I Forgot to Wipe in the Land of the Rising Sun)

40 Notes on Japan (or How I Forgot to Wipe in the Land of the Rising Sun)

Around the New Years that transitioned between 2016 and 2017, I went to Japan with my girlfriend. These are things I noticed or thought worth noting…

The Japanese don't have a phrase they say after someone sneezes.

They have bootleg Kanye items with @caramelbobby-esque designs. (Which reminds me of people always jokingly saying, "I'm huge in Japan.")

I'm quickly realizing that if wearing fuzzy things were a religion, my girlfriend would devote her life to it.

Though the culture is very respectful and serious, a river of playful and adorable things run through the culture. Even animations on the subway are cuddly-looking.

In a restroom, a sign said: 'Please flush only toilet paper and what nature provides.' Which is the most poetic way I’ve ever heard that said.

I’m tall-ish, so I expected to hit my head in more places in Japan. Though I only ended up hitting my head in 2 places: leaving the Delta flight to Tokyo and on a stairway lamp in a shop in Daikanyama.

My girlfriend and I sat for an hour in Tsutaya Books' lovely upstairs cafe trying to figure out what is in a gimlet. We weren't able to remember, but it was the best drink we had in Japan.

I wish I had a guide for Japan called 'Places to Sit for an Hour'. It would feature wonderful places to feel a city's pace. Somewhere between visual feasts and a city's symphony, one could bathe in everything that isn't water. No photos because you should create your own picture of a place. Descriptions as encryptions, where each word helps you know more and less about each place. If I were to write a place, I'd start with the second-story Cafe of Tsutaya Books in Daikanyama. Each person gets surrounded by a kaleidoscopic background littered with literature. Text halos in sunshine, bound outlines in moonlight. Your ears meet taps, and trumpets, and loose pianos, and free fingers. Even the clanks of cups and steps of strangers keep time with the songs stretching out through the speakers. Darkened mirrors looks into other universes. 5000 yen gets you an hour of pleasure and a couple drinks.

Walking 12.7 miles in one day shouldn't he humanly possible. It definitely isn't humane. (Note: After this full day of walking and being fully exhausted, I considered walking down to the front desk to ask where I could get water. I had forgotten it came out of the faucet. And is after I just after showered.)

In Japan, noise feels like an art form. Studied, noted, and fully aware: it feels like everyone coos at the same frequency creating a friendly hum. People never really shout or boisterously laugh. Noise is almost always kept around a small choral swell of voices. Even stores that played Muzak seemed to never lose themselves to the human voice. When entering stores, the greetings from the salespeople seem to come out just barely above a whisper. The only truly loud noise I heard was a Lamborghini that seemed like it had lost its mother and was crying out. I'd assume even their chiseling jackhammers sound like lullabies that could put infant to sleep. 

Small Coke bottles are the heaviest I've felt at the size. They seem like they're at least twice the thickness of American bottles, and a few pounds each.

The taxis of Tokyo are like the Catholic's idea of the Holy Spirit, they are ever present. And when a door is opened to you, seemingly with magic, it is brightly lit with colorful LED beams.

My father would love this place because it's quiet, clean, and respectful.

The Japanese wear a lot of doctor’s masks for hygienic purposes. For that reason, it’s hard to feel as if you could be friends with anyone wearing one.

Though people who wear the masks are only supposed to be doing so when they are sick (I was told it was to protect others from their sickness), I haven't seen one person wearing a mask cough yet.

In the same way that people who wear doctor's lab coats perform better on tests, I wonder if people wearing doctor's masks here also feel smarter.

The masks aren't as stylish as I'd hope they'd be. Maybe because they throw them away after each day. Though, near the end of our trip My girlfriend found a store that sold animal-style masks that resembled their faces. I assume their for children and kid-ults.

New Years celebrations at the Shibuya Crossing were akin to NYC's Times Square.

Smoking still has its hand on the throat of Japan. It’s everywhere, but in a restrained way. There are smoking sections in trains and restaurants and coffee shops. Thankfully their sealed in little glass and metal bubbles. Except in bars, where it is everywhere.

All of their transit will say the directions in Japanese, then repeat them in English -- which makes getting around impossibly easy.

The babies of Japan seem to mostly be carried kangaroo-style in little front-side pouches, and almost exclusively by the men. (Also, my girlfriend noticed that they don’t see to support the child’s neck. The baby’s head just seems locked back, and all of the necks of the youth look fully normal. So there’s that.)

I was in Japan for 12 days and it wasn’t until 2 days before we left that I heard a baby cry for the first time there..

Lots of poster boards menus line the crowded streets. To keep the outer casing of the lights from burning passerby that bump the lights, they wrap the lights in aluminum foil (which doesn't keep heat) to keep people from burning themselves.

In the whole of the trip, I only heard one car honk its horn.

Cars don't have dents in Japan. Or rust. Or bumper stickers. Sometimes, they'll have stickers on their back window, but none seem humorous or accomplishment based (like Americans proud of running half-marathons).

The restrooms in all public train stations don't have soap.

I've noticed that Japan, like the USA, dances deeply with alcohol and energy drinks. They're everywhere and advertised as much. I wondered how a country so deeply seeped with tea would handle things like Monster Energy drinks -- and it appears they've given them the full embrace. They're in every shop and convenience machine I've seen. (Though I haven't seen Red Bull anywhere.) At our Ryokan, we were going to take a calligraphy class led by monks and they requested that we not have any alcohol before. But there were not limitations for caffeine, which I think equally shifts my mental-state, though obviously in a different direction.

I have a feeling in my gut that when I leave Japan, the thing I'll miss most is the silence. The Japanese seem to respect the Quiet in a way that I've never seen before.

The bullet trains of Japan can take you across the country in only a few hours. It's truly magical and slightly perplexing, especially since this is my first time riding one. The insides of each cart resemble essentially an airplane's economy-class on steroids. Leg room for Paul Bunyan, and windows the size of a manhole cover. The ride is absurdly smooth at all times, but at night the effect is even more stimulating. Lights—neon, iridescent, street corners, et cetera—fly by at an incredible speed. It’s like springtime for blossoming filaments. Black and then a hundred blips of warm and cool light with a few dashes of color, then black again with only your reflection in the window. The rural emptiness and jumbled metro, each expressed in moments as small as a few seconds. All across a horizon that can't be met but does feel known, filled with lights waving goodbye from a city previously visited. And because the tracks outside the bullet train aren't visible, it almost feels like you're riding on a bizarro air plane, being piloted by the a penultimate Yves-Klein bluest-of-blue Blue-Angel of aeronautics only 80 feet above the ground. It's sublime in the way only the most terrifying things can also be equally, if not more so, beautiful.

I haven't seen anyone kiss. I've seen a few young couples holding hands, though they could be foreigners visiting. Love is not in the ocular-air.

Slurping is accepted and encouraged with noodle dishes. What I want to know is: can someone be considered attractive for how well they slurp? (And is all slurping accepted, e.g. finishing a drink through a straw?)

I saw a visiting white traveler run out of pure excitement that he found a sparingly seen public trash can.

The only construction I've seen is for towers. Nothing on the ground or near it.

When you call somewhere, the ringing of the phone that the caller gets to hear sounds like a cooing pigeon.

People look good. Because 99.9% of them are svelte, their clothes look great on them. Bright colors are rare in fashion. I don't know if this a recent thing or something they've been at for a while. While in Japan, I wore a bright red coat and, at times, I felt like a garish sun burst.

Snoopy and Mickey and Minnie Mouse are everywhere. Mario is nowhere. I saw one Mario Run ad while I was here on the subway, and that was it. People don't even wear him on clothes. I didn't understand this at all.

Most major cities I’ve visited smell pretty bad. Especially in downtown areas. Piss, trash, spoiled food. Tokyo had none of that, at least where we were.

As an English speaker, adjusting to Japan phonetically was a little tough. None of their words remotely resemble ours.

It's a Coca-Cola country. It's everywhere, and in most restaurants. Whereas Pepsi is only found in vending machines.

The country is filled with toilets that handle everything for you (except for the actual going). The seat is warmed. Water is sprayed. Lots of options and mild initial confusion, but it was great once I accepted the toilet’s offerings. Though, when I returned home to Los Angeles, restrooms felt odd. Somehow, when confronted with the challenge of wiping, I'd forgotten what to do. Or at least lost my natural, well-practiced motion. The self-cleaning toilets of Japan left me too rectally adventurous, and now I had to pay for my own sins.

If you enjoyed this list, in some ways I wrote it because of Jan Chipchase’s 61 Glimpses of the Future.

[treadmilltreats]

I realize I can't party like I used to

I realized this on my last visit home. Since moving to Florida I have lived a healthy lifestyle. I was a 2 liter a day Pepsi drinker which I gave up years ago. I also gave up smoking cigarettes, drinking heavily and staying out all night partying.

I now wake up every morning at       5 a.m. so I could be at the gym by 5:30 a.m. to work out for 2 hours. I eat right, I pack my own lunches everyday, I eat mostly chicken and fish and I hardly ever eat anything that taste good. On the weekends you can find me walking or running on the beach or riding my bike on the boardwalk. I also love yoga, I do meditation and I have very tried all sorts of different things to stay in shape like, pole dancing, arial yoga and ballroom dancing.

My whole lifestyle now is totally different from what it was before. Before I got married I had a problem with drugs and alcohol. I stayed out every night, I danced until dawn, I did every drug known to mankind. I ran my life reckless but you know how things change when you get married and have children.

I now realized my mortality and how I have the odds stacked against me because of my family history of heart attacks, so I decided to change. Was it easy? Nothing in life worth anything is easy but I did it. I now feel amazing, I have energy, my body feels good and I think I look good. This is been my lifestyle for the last 28 years, so when I went home, I'm partying with my friends who still party like I did 28 years ago and hell it took a toll on me.

I'm not used to staying up late, I go to bed by 10 p.m. I didn't exercise for the whole 10 days. 

I ate whatever, whenever I wanted to and I don't think I even saw a green vegetable or vegetable at all for that matter unless it was a garnish on my drinks. I drank way more then I probably drank all year here and trust and believe I felt like shit because of all of this.

I like feeling healthy, I even like getting up at 5 in the morning... okay, maybe not so much but I do it because of the feeling I get afterwards when I come home.  Partying like that made me feel sluggish, totally not feeling good, like when I am when I am exercising and eating right. Look, I get that my friends still have this way of life and if it works for them I'm happy for them but I realize that that is so not my life anymore.

I enjoy taking care of myself and yes, I do enjoy once in a great while, indulging on things that I normally don't. I always say all bets are off when I'm back in New York because I miss the food so much but in my world everything is in moderation. I can have that piece of pizza but I can't have the whole pie. I can have a cannoli but I can't have a half a dozen. I can have a drink I can't be doing shots in the bar until 3am. I care about my body, I care about my mental health and for me, that means I need to live this healthy lifestyle.

I could easily slip back down that rabbit hole, back into my addiction and I know how fast I can happen so for that reason alone I need to know my limits. If you read my blog you know I'm all for whatever gets you through your day, if partying every weekend is your thing, good for you, if that's what gets you through your day go for it. I'm just an advocate of what works for me, and for me a healthy lifestyle works. It makes me think better, it gives me more energy, it makes my whole day feel better and so I realize that I am no longer the party animal I once was and I wave the white flag and concede to that fact.

So today my friends remember it's okay to grow and change, you are no longer that person you once was. You have realize what works for you and what doesn't anymore and it's okay.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to run all this alcohol and food out of my system.

Be the change you want to see"

  

"And just when the caterpillar thought his life over...he turned into a beautiful butterfly"

**Now released my latest book**

The Blessing in Disguise.... revealed

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