Weight Loss, part 1

When I moved to a new state just before starting fifth grade, I didn't adjust well. My social skills were slower to develop than average, and I ended up being bullied and mostly alone at school for the next two years. Simultaneously, I went from being a fairly skinny, active girl to being a rather chubby one. Maybe it was cortisol from the stress of being bullied, or maybe it was spending recess in the library instead of being active. I don't know the exact cause, but I then spent nearly all of the next three decades or so being overweight. I've had five children in the last 15 years, and my BMI last fall was over 27, which is officially "overweight."

Last fall, I read Jason Fung's The Obesity Code and started to apply the principles in it. I think Fung's conclusions about treating obesity are brilliant: 1) slow down and break up the utilization of carbohydrate-provided energy in order to reverse insulin sensitivity, and 2) fast intermittently to use up energy stored in adipose tissue.

Following the principles Fung lays out--and tweaking them with my own additions (would any readers of my blog expect any less of me? :) )--I have lost 30 pounds over the course of a year. My BMI is "normal" now. I can jog for 20+ minutes at a time and actually enjoy it, so I exercise more vigorously than I used to. Exercise is not how I lost the weight, though. Nutrition changes (and I was already a moderately healthy eater by US standards) and intermittent fasting were the primary factors in my weight loss.

In case my variations on Fung's principles are helpful to others, I'll post them later. I'm currently testing a recently-invented variation that shows great promise. In the meantime, if you haven't watched Fung's videos on the etiology of obesity and you want to understand weight gain/loss better, I highly recommend watching them. The first one is at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpllomiDMX0.

New video: Hypothesis about glucosamine helping prevent developing pneumonia secondary to influenza

Back in June of this year, I recorded a short presentation about glucosamine possibly helping prevent developing pneumonia in connection with an influenza infection. I wasn't especially pleased with my diction during the presentation, but I haven't made a better video since.

It is winter now, so I'm posting the recording in case it can help people. I now take glucosamine capsules in moderately large doses when I come down with a respiratory illness, and it does seem to help protect my throat, larynx, and lungs. Here's the video:

I wrote a blog post about this hypothesis in February of 2018 at https://petticoatgovernment.blogspot.com/2018/02/glucosamine-to-protect-cartilage-during.html.