Love versus Goliath

Why am I an atheist?

A few years ago this question cropped up a fair bit in speaking to Americans particularly. No-one in Australia would bother asking – they’d probably assume I was anyway. I took a few minutes back then to give my perspective on things and am sharing it now. This may not be for everyone to read, depending on your own perspective. These are MY views – I am in no way speaking for any other atheist.

Let’s Talk About Sex

Growing up, I was taught there were three things one didn’t discuss in polite company: sex, religion and politics. Religion and politics can lead to heated arguments – just look at several countries around the world at the moment with very volatile political environments. As a respite from the politics, let’s talk about sex, baby.

Edit October 24, 2016: Judging by the comments received on The…

The Challenges of Life

Sometimes life throws us so many curved balls it takes a while to fight one’s way out from under the pile squashing the life out of you. 2015 was a very tough year. My life changed in many ways. I found myself single. That was tough enough, but I also found myself unemployed. Made redundant is the correct term.

Stress is a prime trigger of auto-immune conditions and mine went into overdrive.…

Sixty is the new forty, so they say. It had better be, because on Friday I turned sixty. People talk about the “big five-O” – let me tell you, the “six-O” is bigger!

Where is your party invitation, you ask? Yes, well, I did want to have a party. I had a massive party when I turned forty, nothing when I turned fifty. I mightn’t be able to dance when I’m seventy, so sixty it had better be, I…

Ms D is keen on legumes. I’m not. I blame that on my mother’s broad bean fetish (I hate the darn things). I’ll eat green beans, but Dr G wants me to stay away from them due to the fructose. I’ve agreed to eat baked beans every now and then.

Did you know a standard serve of porridge is 1/2 cup? HALF A CUP? I’ll starve to death. On the other hand, I am supposed to eat four serves of grain (cereal) foods a day. Oh, that includes bread I’ve just realised, so maybe achievable. I was envisaging eating muesli with my dinner. I think I can have two serves of porridge for breakfast!

I am to snack on walnuts or almonds, but brazil nuts (my favourite) were not considered as “fit for purpose”. Now, I like walnuts, but I wish the “Healthy Eating for Adults” and MyFitnessPal talked the same language. The former talks grams, the latter talks “walnut halves”. There is no correlation between what each thinks a serve is. The former says 30 grams, the latter says four halves. Four halves is nowhere near 30 grams. I’m confused. (NB: I did find another entry later for 25 grams, that will do)

Does Ms D know how expensive walnuts are?  Nearly $12 for 400 grams. Mind you, at 25 grams a day, that will last sixteen days. I hope. I have resident two-legged rats……. I’m hoping they don’t like walnuts……

Then the government says:

Replace high fat foods which contain predominately saturated fats such as butter, cream, cooking margarine, coconut and palm oil with foods which contain predominately polyunsaturated and mononsaturated fats such as oils, spreads, nut butters/pastes and avocado.

Meanwhile MyFitnessPal says my goal is zero grams for polyunsaturated and mononsaturated and gives me a nasty red negative number if I eat any. I’m confused. But I’m allowed 45 grams of fat in total, but only 15 grams of saturated fat, so what is the rest supposed to be?

MyFitnessPal’s own blog says:

All dietary fats provide about 9 calories per gram but, as you likely already know, some fats are better for our health than others. For example, polyunsaturated omega-3 fats, found in foods like wild salmon and flaxseed, have protective, anti-inflammatory properties, whereas artificial trans fats have been linked to increased inflammation and heart disease.

So, me being me, I followed the author on Twitter and asked why I had no polyunsaturated goals. Maybe I am supposed to set them myself, but why do I get a nasty red negative number if I eat any? Surely I should be getting a nice green tick or something?

Never mind, back to my dietitian. Ms D was very happy with my getting close to achieving my target of 1,200 net calories a day. Net being 1,200 after anything I earn extra from activity like walking or swimming.  The good news was I can set myself a target of 1,400. Ms D works in kilojoules, I stick to calories. I don’t understand kilojoules.

So I’ve been a good girl and bought supplies. I’m not sure the muesli passes muster as I’m not sure how low GI it is. Even my low sugar Weetbix favourite didn’t pass muster, but Sustain is good. So Sustain and porridge it will be.

At home I weigh everything. Eating out is harder. Trying to find something in MyFitnessPal’s database that I think and hope matches what I am eating is a bit of a struggle. On Sunday I allowed myself a treat: 166 millilitres of Bailey’s Irish Cream. You know how many calories that was? FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-ONE!!! My daughter tells me to buy Bacardi and have with Coke Zero – much less calories. But Bailey’s is so…….. nice. And, sadly, very more-ish.

I have been walking. Got to earn a few more calories somehow! I’m managing 8,500 steps a day in short ten to twenty minute bursts. No hour long walks for me any more. I love the twin flowers but you may need to click on the picture to see it full size, depending on your display.

I managed a thirty-four lap swim (800 metres) on the weekend, but that is a far cry from my 120 lap best during the GCC last year. A day at a time.

After I drooled over the idea of sailing across the sky, knowing the going rate for a trip is around the $428 mark, I settled back to flower spotting. These look so delicate, it is a wonder how they survive a day.

I found a school locker key in the washing machine, there seemed to be far too few socks in the wash and a certain bedroom looked like a bomb had hit it – there was a cereal bowl under the desk.

Later I drove Mr 17 to soccer, had just settle into a nice resting position on the bed when Mr 14 asked to be taken to Coles to spend his non-so-hard-earned pocket money. Why should I take him, I enquired. “Because you love me”.

“So”, I asked, “what are you going to do for me because you love me?” That posed a problem for him.

We agreed that he will help me clean out my car tomorrow.

Miss 12 jumped on the bandwagon and came too. “If I had asked you to take me to Coles, you’d have said no”, she accused.

“Arrr, but if I’d asked you to do something in return for me, you’d have refused”, I reminded her.

“Yes, I would have”, she agreed. At least she was honest!

I came home to find it necessary to confiscate the xBox until certain chores were done which were supposed to have been done WELL BEFORE anyone went near the xBox.

Miss 12 complained I no longer give warnings, I just swing straight into consequence management, such as turning off the TV for 30 minutes if it is too loud. Yep, kiddo, you got that right.

NO MORE WARNINGS!

I’m just going to enjoy my flowers.

I am COMPLETELY “flora ignoramus” so I have very few names! I simply enjoy the beauty of nature. Readers enjoyed my shots last year, so I’m picking up habit again. Makes a change from unwellness and political debate!

If you are interested in last year’s shots but missed them, here is a selection.

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Ethics and integrity in health blogging

A fellow blogger, Carly Findlay, has today published Health blogging, honesty and authenticity. I am not nearly in the same league as Carly when it comes to writing about health. It was never my intention to write about health at all, I wrote about civil rights and politics. Then I got sick and my health and political concerns merged with the battle to save our universal health system. I’ve…

eHealth – what is the future?

This is an extract from my latest article for The Australian Independent Media Network.

As a patient seeing multiple health professionals and having registered, in great hope, for eHealth, I was very interested to hear the doctors thoughts about their own profession. I understood the patients’ perspectives all too well.

There was a general consensus from the medical personnel about the silo…

Hey doctors, here’s a new medical condition: Tough Cookie Syndrome

I’ve made a medical discovery, so listen up doctors! It is called tough cookie syndrome. It goes something like this for me, but feel free to adapt to your own patients’ particular circumstances.

Patient doesn’t feel well so you, the kindly general practitioner, start the diagnostic process. A scan or two here, a blood test or ten there. A specialist or two gets invited into the mix. Way too many…

Calories in and calories out: supplements count

To minimise stress on my my poor joints I am on the weight loss and then maintenance treadmill. I’m a firm believer in the simple maths approach: if one puts in more than one uses, one gains weight. If one uses more than one eats, hurray!

What I’ve discovered is the other things we can be taking for medical conditions have calories! They add up!

Knowing your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is…