Loose Skin

A lot of people who have lost weight complain about 'loose skin' or the fact that they
seem to retain a larger than necessary envelope of skin. And some go so far as to have
pieces of flesh removed. Seems extreme to me.

Lets consider what happens when someone looses weight ie uses up stored fat for energy.

Look at the pictures of severely anorexic people. There is no loose skin on them. Just
skin and bones. Their bodies used everything they could find for fuel. I am not
recommending anorexia, but merely pointing out that obesity is arrived at differently
between people and its resolution will proceed differently as well.

Maybe someone with loose skin just drank a lot of sugary drinks, which bloated them
and they unbloated when they stopped. While someone who ate too much meat ended
up with compacted fat around their waist, and the visceral infrastructure to support it.
That's not about to go away without a fight.

A judge at a dance competition told me to use Atkins if I wanted to loose weight; could
probably see I'm not much of a meat eater!!

Try Atkins for 10 days and see if it makes a difference. Go back to healthy. Do Atkins
again. NO QUICK SUGARS; THEY ARE THE ENEMY! Not until you are normalized
again.

                                                         * * *

A quick read on medical aspects of the question informs one that the skin has three layers,
and the elastic part is on the second layer, the dermis. The thicker the dermis, the more it
will spring back easily so that older people will have more of a loose skin problem. And
one will expect genetics to come into play here, as the initial thickness will vary from one
individual to the other.

Bottom line: one needs to feed the dermis while loosing weight, giving it the precursor
elements for upkeep. And the wisdom among the medical pros is that loosing weight
quickly is not a problem It is how long one was obese  which is the determinant.

The dermis regenerates over two years.

source: Wikipedia

What we think of as skin is produced in the basal layer of the upper layer: skin cells. These cells migrate  to the top to form a layer of dead cells 20 deep at the corneum level. The spinosum level is the protective net, the granulosum where the cells bind together.

We see in the second diagram that the dermis receives blood nourishment, although the blood vessels as such travel underneath, inside the fat repository. The pain sensation is on the epidermis, touch and pressure on the dermis, vibration in the water pouches of the fat layer.The glands producing sweat are within the dermis, as are the hair follicules and their nourishing suet glands.

Strictly speaking, the under skin fat layer is not part of the skin although the skin attaches to the body reaching through the fat from the dermis. It is here that the nerves are connected as well. Connective tissue from the dermis includes collagen, elastin and a matrix of elastic fibres. It reaches under the fat to meet fascia (web-like connective tissue around organs), tendons and bones.

Main Meal

Looking through my recent pictures, the most inspired main meal of the last week was the following:
white rice, tepid boiled vegetables and cheddar cheese, with a side salad of greens and orange with Miracle Whip dressing. Got me through an otherwise difficult time!

Bread Pudding

Made a bead pudding to get me through this difficult eating period, as I heal from dental
surgery. There were 6 slices of bread (with butter) so I froze 6 individual portions of the dish.

Below, served in the evening with jam and ice cream, although it is also nice during the day with milk and banana. Just put in the microwave 40 seconds, and out it comes tepid and malleable.

The ingredients: bread, butter, 2 eggs, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, milk, one yellow apple. Bake at 350 F, 45 minutes.

Quand!

China Developments

If it is well known that the stock market in China is an investment vehicle for individuals,and subject to change, and speculation, some new money is on the way. China announced Sunday that its state pension fund would now be able to invest on the Market:

Research in Europe also argues that it is other emergent countries such as Brazil that sell to China, and the US least of all:

https://www.research.natixis.com/GlobalResearchWeb/Main/GlobalResearch/ViewDocument?ecoCreditToken=334A416835564641354A6C4D6D6B745176797A654C673D3D

Bread Rusks

One of the great food secrets of francophone North America is the biscotte.
The German name - Zwieback - gives us a clue to what they are: twice baked
pieces of baguette, or instant toast. At 30 calories each, low fat, 2 grams of fiber
for 3, they can replace a serving of bread in a pinch. With jam for breakfast,
Nutella at night, crumbled on a salad as croutons, it is an ever useful food, with
no strong taste of its own. Not salty, so there is no temptation to eat on
like chips. Not really sweet, so one won't eat them like cereal either. They accompany
another food.

I looked for them on-line at Costco, Trader Joe's and other American giants but
couldn't find them. Pity, they are ubiquitous here, in the cracker aisle. And they do
make a difference.

Sistine Chapel

Visited the exposition of Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel Art at Montreal's Palais des Congrès. The exposition is interesting in that it affords one a large-scale view of the ceiling works from up-close.

Some of the works are in alcoves, and rounded spaces, in the original but here presented flat.

The Sibyl figures prominently. M. wanted to show the prophets (male and Hebrew) and
sibyls (female and Greek) meant to have prophetized the coming of Christ and these
form the 'lace' around the main works of the ceiling.

Some of the works - above the Delphic Sibyl - are breathtakingly beautiful when seen in this exposition. Some commentary has maintained that M may have been homosexual and not really taken by women. It is true that some of the studies for his works were done from male models; I would not go further than that.

One needs to go back to the times, that rudimentary materials used, the fact that we are 

here in the Renaissance with perspective but not yet realism. M was one of the first to 

open bodies to see how muscle and the internal organs were placed. He also tended to 

exaggerate because the work would be seen from a distance.

The Chapel itself, in the Vatican City, is of course open to the public.

An earlier work from the chapel, Cosimo Rosselli, Handing over the tablets of the Law.

Arcane

Seaside

I have long been a cyclist, but always a casual one in terms of speed and length of rides. My last accomplishment was a trip to the local Walmart and back, a humble 10 kilometers in all. Still, I do like to follow what others are doing.

 

I put together a little app that lets me convert from kilometers to miles and vice versa, on Visual Studio 2013 Community.

 

The image is from Erik theElectric, a lucky adept who bikes in San Diego. That seaside ride is a beaut, viewable on Youtube.

 

 

 

 

 

Backgrounder (migrants crisis)

The following program, which dates from May, gives some background on the current migrant crisis
to the Schengen Space (the European community on the continent 'without borders'). Although the numbers have since become more dramatic: just this morning, Greece announced some 20,000 migrants in one week, 82% of whom are from Syria.



Cartes sur Table : comprendre les migrations... by lemondefr

Serving Bowl!

After a morning of biking and shopping on an empty stomach (had a small apple at 10), bought a new plate for my meals. It is actually - as per its label - a serving bowl; so I now eat out of a SERVING BOWL, not the most feminine behaviour. But it is saner than what I was doing, which is eat out of a curved decorative plate. A side of gold leaf, anyone?... Comes down to the fact that vegetarian food is plentiful and round, so that one ends up picking up the grapes from the Waldorf salad under the table. Problem solved!

The Challenge

Body builders doing food challenges are becoming a thing on the net, and who am I to judge. They are a very peculiar brand of athlete because they are working on altering their body composition. Indeed, some do not lift at all but merely compete on looks. And there is a great deal of variety among them, but a BMI over the healthy range is not uncommon.

What is odd, is young people doing the Michael Phelps challenge i.e. getting down the food that this swimmer does when in training. Yep, 12,000 calories high carb high fat. I looked it up, he is 6 feet 4 and has a BMI of 23.6. Although many feel he must be exercising like mad, I am taken by the time he must be spending in water. Olympic pool water might be 82 degrees F. Sounds comfy, but it isn’t, because the thermal drain in water in 25 times faster than in air. No other type of athlete deals with this.

I looked up cyclists as well, rumoured to eat a paltry 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day on the Tour de France (where they might cover 100 miles in one day). They tend to be shorter and lighter than Phelps: 5 feet 9 with a BMI of 21.6. What is stressful for the cyclist is how high his body temperature might get during the day.

Personally, I have never done body training but do find that body muscle mass varies over time: use it or loose it. Swimming is fun, but the cold is increasingly hard to accept with age. And cycling is a joy, but when one is rested on an empty stomach in the morning. Those who practice many activities end up handicapping themselves for one with the other. My advice: lighten up mood-wise!

https://books.google.ca/books?id=XOyjZX0Wxw4C&pg=PA636&lpg=PA636&dq=thermal+challenge+swimmer&source=bl&ots=MuvpU6kw_g&sig=dbzywHEJUUwq5aX7H7P7s5aKhHA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCIQ6AEwATgKahUKEwjNq9_0xqvHAhXGND4KHQdnA5s#v=onepage&q=thermal%20challenge%20swimmer&f=false

Salad

Guys will be entertaining in no time!!! Might taste concentrated?!

Dunzo!

Ex-Machina

I watched a movie, this afternoon, Ex-machina. It is an English movie (2015), shot in Norway, and some of the scenery is amazing. The actors were unknown to me, and it is a true work of science-fiction ie the charcters do not shape the outcome by their morals, but rather their morals are put to test by technology.

In fact, I watched it in dribs and drabs; the tension is so tight, one can hardly do it any other way. It was not a waste of my afternoon, and on this the critics on the Net agree: high marks for this oeuvre. I mean, dude, God is one of the characters...

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Moon

Picture shows the hidden face of the moon, courtesy of NASA. Historically, the Soviet Luna3 was our first glimpse... I am tempted to think that the Donald Trump bid for the presidency of the United States may not be that odd; the man has had two wives from the Soviet Block: Ivana from Russia, and now Melania, a Slovene. Makes for interesting linguistic habits...

Supplement

Health authorities in England are starting to feel there is a lack of vitamin D intake for approximately one fifth of the population. The 10 microgram per day recommended is only partially filled by food (3 to 5), the rest - meant to be derived by sunlight - is hard to get. Climate change may be affecting the level of sunlight received.

source: Le Figaro, from The Independent

http://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/2015/08/03/01008-20150803ARTFIG00207-grande-bretagne-le-manque-de-soleil-pourrait-devenir-un-probleme-de-sante-publique.php

Musicians

Dang

Rumour has it that we are on the eve of an election call, and face the prospect of an exceptionally long and expensive campaign. One up-coming issue I cringe to think about is that darn Senate, and the parochial positions the three contenders are currently holding on the matter. In point of fact, all three are holding unto a truth about the question, but for all the wrong reasons.

Mulclair is correct, the Senate should be abolished. The idea that Canada's Parliament cannot pass a law on its own, without being overseen by a benevolent upper body is from another age. But please spare us the bickering about the financial morals of elderly senators. And bringing together the elderly from all sectors dloes not force wisdom, we all know.

Justin Trudeau is right. The Senate needs younger, more varied voices, not necessarily on the party line. Here, let's dream a little further. This Senate needs a new job. I much admire the European Parliament, and found Daniel Cohn-Bendit in a suit speaking for the Environment pure genius.

Premier Harper knows best. Canada's upper body should be elected. But not to encourage an anti-French West. There are quite a few Québecois going west these days, in any event. Times change. And this formulation gets an automatic veto from Quebec politicians.

Canada is going to have to do something really creative here. I know we can.