My heavy problem

I've been wanting to trim my weight for a while now, but despite my (what I thought were) good efforts, I just haven't been able to crack through the barrier and really start losing,

I started Nutrasystem plan a little over two weeks ago, in hopes of reducing my weight (aka gut, etc). My gut isn't especially large, but I have had it for about 6 to 7 years, and knowing it's not a healthy sign in looks, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. I decided to try Nutrasystem as an alternative to what I have been doing.

In the first two weeks I have been on the program, I have stayed the course faithfully, and only added to it as necessary to eliminate the energy crash I was experiencing after my workouts. My daily average intake after the adjustment is on average about 1500 calories.

Well, two weeks on, I have basically remained at the same weight for the entire time. My weight can fluctuate as much as 3 lbs. during any particular time, so plus or minus the pound I lost and then gained back, was hardly noteworthy.

I had a previous tendonitous problem for about six months, so I decreased my workouts during that time. However, during that period I did not gain or lose any more than the percentage I have always experienced. In other words, I stayed the virtually the same. Before I got on the Nutrasystem plan, I got back into my workout routine, which is a combination or cardio and weight training, that works best for me. Each run anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes, depending on the what that day's schedule demands. I workout nearly every day, but each day has a different schedule.

Since I have been on the NS plan, and after I adjusted my intake to account for my energy crash problem (and the tendonitis being gone), I have increased the intensity of my workouts, which now exceed the length and intensity of what I was doing before I had my tendonitis problem.

Like I said, I have weighed almost exactly the same for about seven years. My wife and I already have a good diet, so there actually isn't much difference in calorie count from before I got on the system. I was taking in possibly 500 to 600 calories a day more, but it is all basically good stuff. More that a year ago, I stopped drinking sodas, eating french fries, and eliminated any excess sugar, fat, and carbs from my diet. This has resulted in no change whatsoever.

What I do believe is that my other variables are keeping me from losing the mass. I'm beginning to believe that the diet  and exercise variables are basically about right for me, but it's all the other things that are preventing me from making a dent in my quest.

All the time I went through my brain tumor gig and during the following recovery period, I did not gain or lose a pound. As soon as I was able, I started playing racquetball and working out. This had no effect on my mass. I work on a computer for my job, which means I spend about eight hours sitting at a desk. The job has it's stress, so sitting all day with the stress as an added factor, does not help my case. During Spring and Fall months I would walk the nearby industrial park at lunch, but this was more to get out of the office, and had no real effect on my weight.

What I now am coming to believe is that the whole cancer and its associated effects has altered my physiology. That in combination with my age, my sedentary job and its stress, are more of an influence in my inability to alter my appearance than tweaks in my diet and exercise, which are actually doing well. I really don't quite look like I'm the weight I am, but I could look a lot better. Muscle is certainly denser that fat, so this may account for some small amount of this.

My kids tell me that I am in pretty good shape for someone my age, and in fact, my ability to row, bike, and push weight, is in some cases right on par with theirs, maybe better. I'm just a little slower on the court, because of the added mass.

This is a relatively full picture of where I am. Now that two weeks have passed and I have seen zero progress, I can't really say that Nutrasystem has helped, although it seems to do well for others.

I've studied a lot on the subject and tried numerous things over the years, but haven't broken through my personal barrier. I just started doing some other things to get me moving more, and found that I'm not as good as I think I am, or at least as good as I should be.

I'm open to suggestions, but I'm committed to get the excess off. Steady as she goes.

Alien Invaders

The following is a reprint from the Wednesday, July 3, 2013 edition of eSkeptic Magazine. Humans are a paranoid bunch, and Orson Welles showed us just how much that is so. You only have to study history to understand it. If I were an alien, this is the last place I would want to be.

Alien Invaders!

BY DANIEL LOXTON

All living human beings everywhere on Earth belong to the same species, Homo sapiens. Those whose ancestors lived in different parts of the Earth may look or sound different from each other, but in every important way we’re the same. People are people. We all have an incredible amount in common with one another.

Sadly, one of the many things that humans have in common is a potential for violence. We can be peaceful—trading and negotiating and working together—but we can also be fierce. Sometimes one group of people decides to fight another for things that they want, such as resources or territory. Depending on the size of the groups involved, we may call this “piracy” or “banditry,” or we may call it “war.” It’s a sad part of human nature, but it’s not unique to us. Other animals make war between groups, including chimpanzees. They’re very close relatives to humans, so it’s not surprising that chimps share some of our behaviors—cooperative and destructive. (Even animals as distantly related to us as the ants wage war against other nests or invade neighboring territories.)

Because humans can sometimes be dangerous, groups of people often distrust or fear strangers. People may feel that those who look or sound different must really be different, deep down. Sometimes people even come to believe that those that seem different must be bad people. This tendency is called “tribalism”: feeling it is important for those in your own “tribe” to be treated with respect, while outsiders can be treated badly.

Which brings us to an ancient idea that has long terrified humankind: the fear that the place we live could be invaded by cruel strangers from somewhere else. This has happened often in human history, with armies taking over other lands and displacing or oppressing the people who already lived there. Europeans invaded the New World, to the sorrow of many Native Americans. Even the mighty Roman Empire fell to “barbarian” invaders….

Space Age Paranoia

With the development of science, humankind began to realize that ours is just one planet among many. We learned that the twinkling stars in the sky are really mighty suns like ours. At the same time, we learned that our own planet was an almost unrecognizably different place at different periods in the distant past. Prehistoric times were like a series of alien worlds, right here on Earth. (“Alien” means “of an extremely different kind” or “foreign” or “belonging to another place.”)

This new knowledge changed the way we told stories about some of our most ancient fears. To express our anxieties about wars and invasions between countries, writers began to imagine invasions of really “alien” beings from outer space. For example, the 1897 Martian invasion story The War of the Worlds was a clever new twist on stories that imagined military invasions by other countries, which were a very popular type of fiction at that time.

In the 1950s and 60s, UFO legends and science fiction stories were inspired by the Space Age (the period of human exploration of space by astronauts and robotic vehicles) and the Cold War (a long period of military tension and spying between the United States and a then-powerful Communist state called the Soviet Union). Millions worried that a war using unimaginably powerful “atomic” (or later, “nuclear”) bombs could erupt at any moment and devastate the entire globe. Writers and Hollywood filmmakers made good use of these fears of Space Age atomic destruction, producing countless stories about alien invasions. In some, such as Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) the aliens arrive as an unstoppable conquering military force. In others, such as Invaders from Mars (1953) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) the aliens invade by stealth, controlling or replacing their human victims—a reflection of American fears about Communist spies. (“They’re already here,” screams the hero of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. “You’re next!”) And in still other movies, the invaders were atomic monsters created or transformed by radiation. Radiation is a dangerous and terrifying side effect of exploding atomic bombs.

Over time, some alien invasion stories came to reflect fears of environmental destruction rather than atomic war. In the television miniseries V (1983) the aliens come to steal the Earth’s water (and also, while they’re at it, to eat all the humans). But whatever their purpose, alien invaders bring ruin—and take whatever they want in return.

Martians Invade the Earth

The grandaddy of alien invasion stories is The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Published first in installments in a British magazine in 1897 and then collected as a book in 1898, War of the Worlds is a science fiction tale about an attack upon the Earth by merciless invaders from Mars. In the story, tube-shaped spacecraft 90 feet wide crash down in the English countryside. Crowds gather to marvel at these “meteorites”—only to learn the truth when the Martians lash out with their devastating “heat ray.”

Towering, tentacled, three-legged war machines emerge and march across the countryside. Britain’s army and navy are no match for these “vast spiderlike machines, nearly a hundred feet high.” People can only flee before the terrible Martian weapons—not only the “flaming death, this invisible, inevitable sword of heat” but also black clouds of poison gas that the aliens launch against the defenders of London.

Realistically told as one survivor’s personal eyewitness account, War of the Worlds is a very scary book. It may be over 100 years old, but it is as much a horror story as it is science fiction—a harsh, gruesome tale of panic and destruction and grim survival. As the San Francisco Chronicle said in an 1898 review,

Nothing in all literature is more instinct with horror and dread than the advance of these Martians across the peaceful English country… The contrast between the pastoral land and the steel-clad visitors who stalked like giants over the landscape, burning and destroying everything in their path, is so powerful that it can never be blotted from the memory.

A lot of the scariness comes from the aliens’ ghastly indifference to human life and suffering. Wells described the Martians as “intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic” who viewed humans the way “a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.” The Martians took no more notice of attempts to communicate or make peace than we would “of the lowing of a cow.” Their calm, methodical purpose was simply to wipe out human civilization as efficiently as possible.

Yet for all their power, the Martians had no natural defenses against Earth’s microscopic bacteria. Without any immunity, Wells wrote, the invaders “must have begun to rot almost as soon as they arrived.” In the end, the Martians’ own bodies were invaded—and destroyed—by alien germs!

Radio Panics

In 1938 a young actor named Orson Welles adapted the already-classic H. G. Wells story as a radio play for American audiences. In an extremely realistic radio broadcast, actors portraying news reporters, military commanders, government officials, and scientists told radio listeners that Martians were attacking the United States—and instructed the population of New Jersey and New York City to evacuate. Although the show was introduced as a play, many thousands of people were bewildered or frightened by the performance. Some were terrified. The New York Times reported that 875 people phoned the newspaper in concern. Thousands more called the police, or even fled to the closest police station. Thankfully, it seems no one was seriously hurt in the confusion. The next day, a visibly shaken Orson Welles told reporters,

It came, of course, as a great shock to us that the old H. G. Wells fantasy, a classic original for so many adventure stories, romances, and even comic strips should have had so profound an effect upon radio listeners. The invasion by mythical monsters from the planet Mars seemed to us to be clearly in the realm of the fairy tale. Deeply regretful that this is not so.

A 1949 Spanish-language version of Orson Welles’ radio play ended in greater sorrow. Broadcast in the capital city of Ecuador, it caused not only widespread panic, but also a savage riot. An enraged mob burned down the newspaper building where the radio station was located, killing as many as 20 people…