Since the coronavirus was keeping me from eating out, a few months ago I decided that this might be a good time to act on a longstanding wish to lose 10 to 15 pounds. I diligently logged calories on fitday.com and shed five pounds pretty quickly — and no more in the last eight weeks. The weight-loss plateau is real.

Except for a couple of times when eating with friends, I’ve kept under 1,700 calories a day, a target Fitday calculated based on the goal of losing 12 pounds in 12 weeks. By the Harvard Medical School’s guideline that one should eat about 13 calories per pound of body weight a day, 1,700 calories is the amount to maintain 130 pounds — which I haven’t seen since my 30s and have no intention of seeing again.

The deadline is 11 days away, and according to Fitday, I would need to drop down to 597 calories a day to lose 7 more pounds by then.

So, I’m not going to meet the goal. Restate that more sympathetically: the goal won’t be met. I really don’t feel blameworthy.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the weight-loss plateau happens to every dieter eventually. Metabolism declines with weight loss until you’re burning no more calories than you eat and reach the plateau. At that point, you need to boost your metabolism by exercising more or cutting more calories.

I could do more than a daily half-hour walk. Getting back to 15 minutes of strength work several times a week might help — and I should do it for my bones anyway. I don’t see how to cut more calories without hunger.

But I may need to accept that the scale is stuck. When I think sensibly, I realize that the goal is not pounds but habits. I am learning how to eat mindfully, establishing better habits for the rest of my days. Staying mindful may require continuing to log calories.

The target weight might not have been desirable anyway. There are research findings that senior women are better off being overweight according to the body mass index chart (a subject for another post). I’m healthy; that’s the important thing.

*****

INTERMITTENT FASTING DIDN’T WORK FOR ME

Before logging calories, I tried intermittent fasting. It’s been promoted in recent years not only as a technique for weight loss but also as a healthy practice for people without excess pounds to shed. The most popular pattern is to fast for 16 hours and eat for only 8, having the first meal around the usual lunchtime.

When I heard of eating only from late morning to early evening, my first thought was about what happened to the advice that breakfast is the most important meal.

Not surprisingly, intermittent fasters dispute that. “Now that research on fasting has been conducted, we know breakfast is not required for most of us, and it may even be better to avoid it all together,” physician Tony Hampton said in an Advocate Aurora Health news email. Hampton contends that intermittent fasting promotes mental clarity, weight loss, glucose control, good cholesterol, and cellular repair and reduces hunger and inflammation.

But a healthy breakfast still has advocates. University of Delaware nutritionist Sharon Collison told Time magazine, “People who consume breakfast regularly often have increased physical activity. They have better dietary profiles and lower intake of snacks. Skipping breakfast is associated with increased disease risk — not only obesity but diabetes, heart disease, and just lower dietary quality.” She said that people who say they aren’t hungry when they wake up might be snacking at night. “If you eliminate that snacking and then wake up hungry and eat a good breakfast, your overall dietary pattern is going to be so much better, and your health status is going to be better.”

The debate turned out to be irrelevant for me, since I couldn’t pull off intermittent fasting. I first tried eating between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. and didn’t lose a pound, probably because hunger spurred overeating during the allowed window. Then I changed to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and found that schedule lent itself to three meals a day, so I might as well eat breakfast earlier.

In this debate, maybe there is no definitive answer, and what eating pattern works best depends on the person. Consuming the recommended foods is likely what matters.

*****

ANTI-TRUMP COMMENTS: 129TH IN AN ONGOING SERIES

“Apparently Trump’s campaign believes that since there were riots this summer, it’s only fair that the president be allowed to kill some of his supporters by exposing them to superspreader events.”
— Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University and medical analyst for CNN

Hundreds of kids will die because they were forced to attend school.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces that schools will be closed in a televised City Hall speech on March 19, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Well, not exactly. But that’s what we supposed to believe. The reality is that thousands upon thousands of school remain closed this fall, denying children their basic right to a quality education based on the unscientific fear that they’d be on death marches if they were to attend schools in-pers0n.

Although schools in some states have been conducting in-classroom learning for weeks–enough time for the novel virus to cause a significant number of Covid-19 cases, nothing of the sort has shown up. By that I mean liberally nothing.

I’ve search CDC data and reports from some states and I find not a single child has been hospitalized or, thank God, died from COVID-19. I certainly could be wrong, the problem being is that most databases don’t break out school-related infections, hospitalizations and deaths. And gathering whatever nation-wide data is available would take a major research effort.

But let me put it this way: Considering how the media are hell-bent on scaring the bejabbers out of us, I’m sure that at the slightest sign of a serious school-related case, the New York Times, Washington Post and the liberal cable news networks would be all over the story. “Pandemic hotspots infect schoolrooms! Your children are at risk!”

What with little available, the Washington Post reports that teachers in “at least” five states have died. (Here is the obligatory sensitivity statement: even one death is too many.) Yet, the same story reports that, “It isn’t clear whether any of the teachers were infected at school.” Then there’s this gratuitous, unattributed and biased claim: “But their deaths have renewed fears that school campuses will become a breeding ground for the virus, spreading the illness as communities grapple with how to balance the need to educate children with properly addressing the pandemic.”

Here’s the Washington Post, again, reporting that coronavirus cases in Florida “spike among school-age children,” jumping “43 percent” since the “forced” reopening of Florida’s schools. Forty-three percent?! Wow. Would that be thousands upon thousands of children, many hospitalized? We don’t really know. The Florida Department of Health put the number of positive tests of children under 18 at 10,513. Yet, the same story admits that we don’t know how many of those children were infected while in school or even whether those infected were only learning remotely.

One of the reasons we don’t know is that Florida irresponsibly is not fully disclosing these and other statistics. And considering the various and checkered history of coronavirus statistics, I’m not sure we could even trust anything that any health department says.

Yet here we are, trying to deal with what we have. I know one teacher whose northeast Florida school has been fully open for weeks, yet says no students have tested positive. Duval County (Jacksonville), initially defying a state order, has created its own dashboard.on the district’s website, Updated daily, it shows the number of students and staff attending or working  in brick-and-mortar schools with confirmed positive cases of COVID-19. Charter schools are not included. So  far this month:

No cases are shown for hospitalizations or deaths. And like all the pandemic reporting, the emphasis is wrongly placed on the number of positive cases, not on their seriousness (i.e. hospitalizations and deaths).

This school closing nonsense is a headlong plunge into child abuse on a national scale.  Fear has snuffed out the science. From local school boards and state education agencies, they are gripped by unwarranted fear that they might be held liable for any outbreaks. I can hardy blame them, but closings are a matter of self-interest.

The science clearly and irrefutably shows that the closings are seriously, and possibly permanently, damaging children in so many other ways.  Here’s what the CDC says:

The best available evidence indicates if children become infected, they are far less likely to suffer severe symptoms. Death rates among school-aged children are much lower than among adults.  At the same time, the harms attributed to closed schools on the social, emotional, and behavioral health, economic well-being, and academic achievement of children, in both the short- and long-term, are well-known and significant.  Further, the lack of in-person educational options disproportionately harms low-income and minority children and those living with disabilities.  These students are far less likely to have access to private instruction and care and far more likely to rely on key school-supported resources like food programs, special education services, counseling, and after-school programs to meet basic developmental needs.

Aside from a child’s home, no other setting has more influence on a child’s health and well-being than their school.  The in-person school environment does the following:

• provides educational instruction;
• supports the development of social and emotional skills;
• creates a safe environment for learning;
• addresses nutritional needs; and
• facilitates physical activity.

Schools must open. Now.

Related and recommended: (Subscription might be required)

• Pod people.
• Invisible children
• A microschooling  manual
• Homeward unbound

[email protected]

www.dennisbyrne.net 

My historical novel: Madness: The War of 1812

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In my last column “The Mystique of the Black Cowboy” I mentioned the story of Cathay Williams. I said that she disguised herself as a man and joined the Union army in the Civil War.  In reality, she did disguise herself as a man but it was the Buffalo Soldiers she joined, not the Union Army. Her story is amazing.  I would like to thank the person who called to make sure the correct history was given.

I mentioned before that the first time I ever saw a Black Cowboy was when I went to the Amphitheater and saw the “Thryl Latting Rodeo Spectacular.”  I was amazed at seeing Black men and women riding horses and bulls, wrestling and roping calves, and barrel raising.

Recently, I spoke with several Chicagoland Black Cowboys and all of them gave honor to Thryl Latting for their interest in horses and the rodeo.

 Thyrl Latting

Who was Thyrl Latting? To find out I spoke with his son Mike Latting who now heads the Latting Rodeo Productions.  Mike told me that his father loved watching westerns at the movie theater. “ He didn’t really understand at the time that he couldn’t be a cowboy, although they were all white that he saw on TV, it’s something that he aspired to do and want to become.”

Thyrl bought his first horse when he was 17 years old and kept it in his family’s back yard in Robbins, Illinois.  After a while, he began competing in rodeos riding bucking horses and bulls but Latting wanted to do more. He wanted his own rodeo company.  Mike went on to tell me, “it wasn’t long to where he bought his own horses and bulls and kind of branched out from there and started Latting Rodeo Productions. And after that, he wanted to bring the history of the black cowboy to the inner-city kids, thus creating the Thyrl Latting Rodeo Spectacular, the rodeo that you saw at the amphitheater.”   Thyrl Latting and his boys at the International Amphitheater Chicago

Thyrl Latting wasn’t just a cowboy, he was a high school shop teacher at CVS and Dunbar in Chicago. This was where Murdock (the cowboy with no first name) met him and it changed his life. “Thyrl was a good mentor to a lot of us. Because of him, it gave a lot of black people an opportunity to compete in the rodeo arena where they didn’t get an opportunity to do before because it was in the arena of what the white folks were doing.”   Mike Latting – Fort Collins 1973

Mike and his sister Tracy not only followed their father into the Rodeo ring, Mike as in bareback riding and the bull riding, and Tracy as a barrel raiser but they both became teachers.  Mike retired from being a Principle 3 years ago, and Tracy is a teacher at a school in Orland, Illinois.   Mike explained to me that being a cowboy and a teacher isn’t that far apart, “I think a lot of people would really be surprised at how much those two careers go hand in hand. As opposite and as different as they sound, it’s about people, because rodeo involves people and education is about people and it involves kids. And they’re really, as far as the concept of what we thought about it in rodeo and education, they pretty much married each other. And I know that may sound weird, but there’s a lot of kids that got on the right track because of rodeo. And they passed through the Lattings.”  

If you have never experienced the rodeo don’t fear.  Mike takes the rodeo to various fairs throughout the summer, but they are still putting on, good clean family entertainment for families, children, and everyone at the Timbrook Rodeo which is held on Memorial Day weekend. It’s at the Latting ranch down in Timbrook, Illinois, just East of Kankakee.  “It’s a really fun time, a lot of people in Chicago come up to it since we don’t have the amphitheater anymore. It’s outside, but it’s on a 65-acre ranch area where the arena is. And a lot of people camp, spend the night, it’s a two-day performance, Saturday and Sunday. I invite everyone to come out and have a great time.”  

I have marked my calendar for Memorial Day 2021.  Maybe I will see you at the rodeo!

Until next time, keep your EYE to the sky!!!

The featured image above shows major wildfire activity in 12 western states.  The ones we hear the most about are California, Oregon and Washington, mostly because of those fires’ proximity to heavily populated areas.

While it’s completely irrelevant, 7 of those states have Democratic governors and 5 have Republican  governors.  People sheltered inside the Fox bubble tend to believe the bizarre notion that all disasters, natural and man-made are somehow caused by Barack Obama, the Clintons or Democrats, Liberals and Progressives in general.

While those theories are intellectually dishonest and grotesque on their face, don’t forget that we live in the age of QAnon, which is slowly becoming a mainstream tribe within the Republican Party.  Their platform is that our country is run by baby eating, Hollywood pedophiles from which only Donald Trump can save us.

Hysteria alert:  A new conspiracy has emerged that’s based on the premise that wildfires only occur in the United States (demonstrably untrue) and that someone, somehow reaps huge rewards from their deliberate ignition.  For some FACTUAL information, click HERE.

Fires need three things to get started: Warm weather, fuel and ignition.  Weather is provided by Mother Nature and 2020 will be the hottest year on record.  The years from 2016 thru 2020 will be the hottest five year period ever recorded.

The polar ice caps are melting and anyone living near a shore line can attest to the fact of rising tides.  Miami streets are often underwater during dry weather.  This is already one of the worst hurricane seasons we’ve ever had and there’s still six weeks to go. Hurricanes are more frequent and more powerful than ever before.

In Alaska the permafrost is melting.  PERMA-fucking-frost, so named because it was supposed to stay frozen PERMANENTLY.  Houses are literally sinking into the ground.

If you’re in the bubble, you’re going to have to reach outside your comfort zone to read about that stuff.

The fuel is a mix of natural growth and man made structures.  The West has experienced severe drought, providing dry timber and brush for fire to consume.  Flammable structures built too close to wooded areas as civilization expands provides plenty of fuel, as well.

Spring and summer supply ignition in the form of lightning strikes and storm activity has only increased over the years.  July 4, for obvious reasons (fireworks) begins the season of human provided ignition.

One major fire was recently caused by pyrotechnics displayed during a gender reveal party, whatever that is.

Add to that mix more powerful and more sustained winds than ever before and it doesn’t take a scientist (you still believe in science, don’t you) to predict more frequent and more severe wildfires which tend to destroy national forest, which is under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture, not state governors.

Wildfires have already destroyed more acreage than they did in the entire fire season last year and the prognosis is that we can only expect it to get worse.  Some 20,000 fire fighters are trying to defend millions of acres of forest and they are outmatched by some of the greatest forces on Earth.

The notion that Democratic governors somehow benefit from these wildfires is beyond ridiculous, beyond reason or logic and as nonsensical as suggesting that “raking” forests is the solution.

Sometimes though, if I close my eyes, I can imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger tossing a lighted match into some dry brush saying, Hasta la vista, baby.

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