Category: 6_avail

“temptation” is now shortened to “YH” for you4huo4, referring to food made available by family members, rather than the stash I built up in Bayonne home.

[23]availability: sys2background heat

Posted on by tiger40490

In Sep 2023 I took a historic step to visited Hui Mei and then Henry Lew, to restart my calorie-restriction long-march (长征).

For a few months (at least) before Sep 2023, I was relying on sys1 more, and less on sys2 to regulate my cravings and respond to random attacks of enticing foods.

I now realize that /mindfulness/ (sys2 paying attention, self-regulating,,,) over my cravings/temptations/availability is important and often effective, as in the current context.

I am becoming mindful during office hours and after I reach home. I think sys2 workload is heavier in the latter, when availability is a bigger challenge.

— suggested techniques
* Hui Mei suggested swallowing very slowly.
* Hui Mei suggested holding a defense for 15m till the craving subsides.
* Henry suggested focusing on a part of the stomach
* Henry suggested a fixed allocation for the entire evening

These suggestions all require sys2 mindfulness.

— Limited sys2 resources for competing demands

Right now (Sep 2023) I have relatively few and light competing demands on my sys2 resources. (I will not list those demands.)

Safe to say that Circuit Breaker period was stressful. Tech xx (muscle-building) and demanding work projects often affect calorie-restriction. At those times, sys2 is overbooked, and I rely on sys1 (or no system at all) for calorie restriction.

— background heat .. Calorie restriction is a constant effort, and a classic background heat. I guess that when sys2 is tired out by such background heat, I would feel loss of peace and harmony, stressed out, less calm, more irritable.

Availability .. (esp. at home) is a necessary condition for the background heat. Fending off the wrong* temptations on a daily basis is an everyday workload for sys2.

##lifelong struggles@@ Am battle-tested: diet++

Posted on by tiger40490

k_Promethean_struggle

When I describe to friends diet restrictions (mine or otherwise), we often feel “This self-discipline is achievable perhaps for a year, but not for a lifetime”. It is a Promethean struggle and demands a /herculean/ self-discipline.

Today I decided to challenge this perception. I think there is lots of evidence that I (you too) have fought many lifelong battles and they didn’t tire me down.

— resist the brainwash, cosmic-ray of self-pity in the context of peer-benchmark
wrong priorities
OC-effective
— eg@Promethean: yoga
On the other hand, my forward-bend daily practice in Sec 1 was clearly unsustainable, torturous
— eg@Promethean: chin-up .. see separate blogpost
— eg: coding drill .. a harder struggle for my peers than for me
— eg: English listening, speaking, writing … felt like a lifelong battle until middle of my NUS years
review English vocab .. not a battle for me, but for other peple such as millions of English learners
==== less specific, milder (but lifelong) struggles
— eg: take the stairs once a while when everyone is taking the elevator/escalator
— eg@Promethean: brushing/flossing teeth, esp. with fixed retainer
— eg: math .. a struggle for my kids, and most students until they can opt out like in high school

Apr21EAP: appetite失控 #compassion #poison

Posted on by tiger40490

k_mellow

Problem description — You come home without hunger (like Bayonne), but when you see food you start to feel an appetite out of control.

Counsellor challenged me — Can you say to yourself right now “I won’t compare to the past. I will focus on the present and what’s within my control.” Well, I won’t give up and accept things like “my kids have disappeared, or my legs are now useless..” However, the environment changed hugely from 2019.

— out-of-control appetite.. I hope there’s a more powerful phrase like “appetite on rampage”, but “control” is a power phrase in my mind. See also wins+control ]Bayonne

Now I think the appetite on rampage is normal. How do you decide that’s not legitimate hunger? Your yardstick is elastic!

You find this new appetite so irrational (hunger is never rational), so random (it actually is), so out of control (human nature). But that’s probably the case with a lot of people, when they have not tasted that particular food for a long time.

— Compassion .. is a keyword from the 13 Apr 2021 Cigna counselor. See powerless guilt #self-hate for the opposite of compassion

I gave the counselor a graphic metaphor — patches of poison on the surface of an internal organ. This counselling session helped me open up, spot the poison, wash it off, while keeping, not rejecting, the organ. I felt cleansed. I know how ugly the organ looks, but it’s part of me and I embrace every part of me. I am OK as an fallible, weak human being. It’s OK to lose half the nightly battles. In unusual j4 S$7.50 salad, I recorded my chat with another Cigna counselor Bindi when I said “everyone is weak.”

Las Verrugas Anales | ASCRS

libido|alcoholism : boring longevity #肾

Posted on by tiger40490

 

Context: noHunger到家..out@ctrl #unexpected

— Analog 1: libido .. In my teenage years, I had very “healthy” libido, and I wanted to control it. I realized that if I lived in a shared bedroom then I won’t feel any “appetite out of control”. As soon as I had a bedroom to myself, within minutes I would find the urge/desire/appetite overwhelming. Sexual “drive” is a driving force and 8 times out of 10 you can’t stop it. Availability and freedom are two sides of the same coin. (“temptation” too). This Availability leads to an overwhelming “appetite”.

However, any “enjoyment” can lead to temptation and loss of control. If due to health, or short separation or pregnancy your partner can’t support your sexual needs, an out-of-control libido would compel the individual to seek other sexual partners.

李靓蕾直言王力宏在很多城市都有“好朋友”，“你坦承这些是你的问题，你没有办法控制自己” but there’s no such problem in a prison, i.e. no availability.

— Analog 2: Alcoholic treatment centers, smoke cessation centers, screen-addiction treatment camps, and jails for drug addicts provide an “easy” environment for self-restraint. No availability, no struggle, no torture. However, you can’t stay in jail forever, as Bindi said.

When you come out of the the physical environment, you must rely on self-restraint. You must face the availability challenge.

— kidney health brochure and my reflections
Angelina Jolie .. chose to have her breasts removed.. loss of pride, joy and pleasure, but compare that loss to the pain of kidney failure or long-term cancer management!

No [:=zero or very low] pleasure in either alcohol, salt, or gaming … is loss of enjoyment, but I wish to have this extremely boring life .. more a blessing than a curse. Mass media (beyond advertisement) portray pleasures in food, alcohol, tobacco, sex, extreme sports … In contrast, my chosen lifestyle is boring. Boring lifestyle is correlated with less pain, less bodily harm [incl. illnesses]

Kidney patients have many diet restrictions. I guess some of them may consider the hypothetical question “what would I tell my younger self?” I think some may face the stark choice between 2 lifestyles

  1. longevity as the priority… Restrict calories, sweet, alcoholic foods. Is such a life worth re-living? Perhaps this is a Buddhist perspective but I want to downplay the Buddist influence.
  2. pleasure as a basic priority … but plenty of sufferings down the road

Imagine this scenario .. After acquiring a substance dependency (alcohol, tobacco or mild drugs) early in life, a self-disciplined adult decides that a life without alcohol (Choice A) is not worth living. After due diligence, she/he concludes that a shorter life expectancy like 70Y (Choice B) is better than a 10Y-longer, but boring life without alcohol (Choice A). A dangerous question for the young, a question of free will. More than 50% of the people secretly wish that the consequence of those pleasures in Choice (B) is a painless death at an earlier age compared to the boring life. Most of these individuals underestimate the length and severity of ill health during the declining years.

addictions: various degrees@harm: food++

Posted on by tiger40490

When it comes to calorie counting, One of the least noticed features is the various degrees of “bad” when we decide to loosen up and eat bad food

I feel creamy cakes are among the worst foods. Except for the strongest dieters it is probably impractical to completely ban creamy foods as if they were opium.

There are important degrees of bad — fried peanut and alcohol are both worse than creamy food.. tobacco is worse than alcohol.. drugs are worse than tobacco.  In the mass media and everyday conversations, we can see the different attitudes towards categories of “bad” substances.

In terms of calorie density, more stupid are the calorie-dense foods that aren’t satisfying — fried peanuts; alcohol; mint ice-cream; cheese chunks;

— ranking by regulatory restriction on substance-advertising

  1. TV show or football binge-watching
  2. movie addiction  .. no advertising regulation
  3. .. harm: huge t$cost if a poor person watches too much
  4. e-gaming .. no advertising regulation
  5. unhealthy food
  6. alcohol .. age restriction
  7. tobacco .. age restriction. No advertising allowed in some countries like SG. Tobacco is deemed more addictive and harmful than alcohol
  8. drugs .. complete ban on advertising

good appetite could b a bad thing #Buddhist

Posted on by tiger40490

See ##list of big addictions I am able to fend off. Today’s blogpost is first and foremost about appetite:

  • In my twilight years, I wish to have a good appetite to enjoy healthy food.
  • At my current age, a lower appetite is life-enhancing. Out-of-control appetite is currently a real problem for many.

At any age, appetite for unhealthy food is a sign of bad genes.  In reality, most foods fall into the grey area between healthy and unhealthy categories. In other words, moderate/controlled [2] amount of such foods are harmless to most healthy adults.

Problem is with the moderation and control. Most people don’t have enough of that, so even with the “grey” foods, we would overeat i.e. beyond what we know is good for our health.

I’m relatively lucky to enjoy a good-yet-under-control appetite.

— Buddhism advocates self-restraint
Q: Do you eat to live or live to eat? Some Buddhists would probably say “eat to live” as they eat the minimal amount just to stay healthy. They are at the polar opposite of “Live life to the fullest/You only live once” types.

wrong-X temptations@family outing

Posted on by tiger40490

Each situation is different, like EastCoast/Bedok vs Ikea, but still I can see some common features

Option: eat nothing, but it’s hard to enjoy the family outing. Tough choice.
Option: controlled indulgence, but the cCost is extremely dangerous
Option: just stay out of the scene. Perhaps leave early.

— tip: bring fruits + raw veg, esp. EastCoast
— tip: eat dessert only

2022 BMI situation

Posted on by tiger40490

See also

  • https://btv-open.dreamhosters.com/18661/stress-binge/

Goal — sustainably improve to and stay below 65.

Practice ctbz… effective in this battle.

— sugg: strict n longer fasting .. no starch, no meat, no nuts, no cooked veg, no controlled indulgence .. for half the (wall clock) hours, while the other hours are “normal” like the past 2 years.

Be prepared that if you are 10% below this mark, then you may see your weight continue climbing. In that case, I think the effort is still decent, worthwhile, healthy, just not enough to turn back the tide.

Intermittent Fasting has to be sustainable, not a torture.

— sugg: controlled indulgence .. important topic esp. under stress. Stressors tend to override other priorities
— sugg: delay all meals .. would be a more achievable tactic if strict fasting is  either ineffective or impractical, unrealistic.
— factor: work stress
Office stash is much easier to manage, explained in stash in Bayonne^ff^#1173 #unexpectedEnticing. So it is better to return to office after movie or yoga, and avoid working at home

— factor: blogg can induce hunger slightly.
— factor: recreational stock trading can require Sys2 mental energy and induce hunger slightly
Avoid having too many names pre-cleared at once.

— factor: workout for intimacy .. Am I willing to sacrifice it for BMI? No I won’t. Intimacy is more important than BMI.
— BMI ^ muscle ..  Dr Lau said muscle loss is more dangerous
— BMI ^ early sleep .. I feel BMI is more important in general.

sugg: sleep early to avoid late night hunger, but use other morning rewards.

Between eating the same food at night vs the next morning, I prefer the latter.

— BMI ^