What will people in the future think of us?

Surprisingly, this isn't another political post about Brexit (though I do wonder what what historians will think of us in the future...).  Today a friend shared a video on FB about how almond link is made:

On watching this, my immediate thought was what would people in the future think of this?  

Suppose there was an Earth-changing event, people were struggling to survive, and there were limited resources.  Maybe the internet* didn't work, but there were pockets of servers around the globe where fragments of information can still be sourced?  Maybe there was a retaliation against knowledge (some days it sure feels like that!), and all libraries and books were burned?  Suppose that the human population had decreased to such an extent that much knowledge was no longer in the human psyche.  People were struggling to grow crops, the world was vegan because we couldn't afford to grow meat, and someone came across this video about how to milk almonds...

What would they think of us?
Would they know that it is not real? That it is meant to be humorous? Will they try to breed almonds?

Or will they know it won't work, and assume that we're stupid? Perhaps blame this stupidity on the reason why the human race is near extinction?

I admit, I may have read too many dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels and watched too many movies, but still.  I do wonder sometimes what the future will think of us...

*If I have used "internet" wrong, and mean "www" or even some other term, please forgive me.  Just because I have an Engineering degree, doesn't mean my geekiness extends to all things computers.

The Best Green Smoothies on the Planet by Tracy Russell

After my weightloss kickstart recently, I have dug out my smoothie recipe book and am making delicious smoothies daily again.  This is a really good habit for me to be in, because they are delicious and filling, and easily transportable.

The Best Green Smoothies on the Planet by Tracy Russell was initially a collection that came as a spin-off from her blog and FB page, where she shared many recipes that she created or used as part of her own weightloss journey.  I have followed her recipes, and completed a virtual smoothie bootcamp in the past, so am glad to get back into the practice.

The blurb says:

IncredibleSmoothies.com founder Tracy Russell tried just about every fad diet and expensive “superfood” supplement out there, with negligible results. It wasn’t until she discovered green smoothies that she lost 40 pounds, lowered her cholesterol by 50 points, and started running marathons.

In The Best Green Smoothies on the Planet, Russell shares healthy, down-to-earth recipes made with unprocessed whole foods. Packed with fresh fruits and vegetables—particularly leafy greens—that you can find at your neighborhood grocery store or local farmers’ market, every recipe in this book contains nutrition information as well as options for substitutions and variations. Russell reveals optimal flavor pairings (which green goes best with which fruit and which fruits blend best together) and specific health benefits of key ingredients.

Focusing on the many positive effects of drinking green smoothies, including detox and cleansing, natural weight loss, and mood enhancement, Russell offers nutrient-rich recipes with flavorful, fun combinations such as:

Pineapple-Ginger
Chocolate-Peanut Butter
Mango-Avocado
Cherry-Pomegranate
Nectarine-Goji Berry

With 150 delicious green smoothie favorites (enough smoothies for five whole months!), The Best Green Smoothies on the Planet provides recipes that can accommodate and enhance any individual or family diet. Whether you’re a smoothie veteran or trying something new, these drinks will wow you—with both accessibility and incredible taste.

Over time, she has branched out to include other aspects of holistic health and mindfulness as seen on her new website Dave & Tracy.com.

So far, I have made a delicious Spiced Blueberry and Pear smoothie yesterday, and for lunch today I made Pineapple-Mango smoothie. They are thick, filling and vegan.  I can't wait until I make a Chocolate-Cherry smoothie - I love that combination!

Egg-white Pizza Recipe

I’ve seen egg-white pizza discussed on a few sites as well as part of the 2B Mindset. It is meant to be a tasty low-carb version of a pizza.

As I’m trying to only cook one meal in the evenings, one of our go-tos is wrap pizza (which is also lower carb than a standard pizza): put a wrap on a baking tray, add toppings and grill until the cheese melts. We like this because each of us can choose our own toppings, so we all eat everything, and it is not so filling that you feel stuffed afterwards.

So last night, instead of the wrap pizza, I made myself an egg-white pizza.

Half a cup of egg whites (I cheated and bought a carton of egg-whites, rather than separating them myself) whisked until fluffy. I also added in a pinch of garlic powder and onion salt into this base, just to give it a bit more flavour.

Then, spoon into a hot pan and wait for the base to cook.  I put a lid on the saucepan to encourage to top/middle to start to cook too.

Carefully turn the base of your pizza base over.

As the bottom of the pizza is cooking, spread with tomato sauce (I used pesto) and add your toppings on the top. In mine, I added Pepperami, mozzarella and a sprinkle of Italian herbs.

If you are using a frying pan that can be put under the grill that would probably be best, but I couldn’t do that, so I put a lid on the pan, so that the top would heat and cook. When the cheese melted, I dished it up.

I confess to not having a photo, of the pizza on my plate.  I had intended to take a photo when I had taken a few bites, but it was too yummy and I got distracted.

It was delicious. Much tastier than I was expecting it to be. And really filling too, without being bloating. I quickly ate it before going to Growth Group (my Bible study group), and I didn’t feel like eating more when I returned a few hours later.

The only things I would change are:

1. Add the basil leaves on top that I bought but forgot to use!

2. Serve it up with a large salad. As I was in a rush, I ate it as it was, but would be really good to eat with a salad so I can eat more slowly and savour every bite.

This will definitely be one to make again.

Ugly Me: My Life with Body Dysmorphia

Last night I watched Ugly Me: My Life with Body Dysmorphia a documentary on the BBC about how some people view their own bodies (it is currently available on iPlayer if anyone wants to watch it).

The write-up says:

Documentary exploring body dysmorphic disorder, a condition which causes people to believe they are extremely ugly. The film follows 29-year-old Liane and her boyfriend Mitch over a year as Liane starts therapy to try and conquer this crippling condition. Each week Liane meets Professor David Veale, one of the world's leading experts on BDD, who attempts to undo some of her deeply entrenched habits, often leading to uncomfortable and revealing realisations.

The documentary also hears from a range of people who are in recovery from BDD. Talking movingly about their own personal experiences helps illuminate Liane's journey and reveals more about this illness.

What I found interesting about this program, is that these people are patently not ugly.  Yet, they were vocalising my thoughts.  Is it not BDD if it is true?  I am fat and I am ugly.  I am not good at makeup, and as Liane says in the documentary, what's the point spending hours on your makeup when it makes no difference?  So, I don't.  I rarely wear makeup, because I feel like I look like a dog's dinner when I do.  At least this way, I haven't put in loads of effort to still look ugly.  I have papulopustular rosacea, which is largely controlled by antibiotics (compared to previously where I was continually asked if I had chicken pox or if I was contagious), but still have breakouts in spots and a red face.  And spots still look like spots, even when covered in foundation and concealer, the raised bumps are still visible and, in my mind, look worse than just admitting I'm covered in spots in the first place.

The other difference between me, and these people, is that I don't let it stop me doing anything (unless I'm getting swamped by my depression).  I am ugly, but I figure that other people can not look. I am fat, but I don't let it stop me (and I've never liked buying clothes anyway).  Depending on what I'm wearing (or whether I've been drinking, as to whether I'm concerned about it) I do feel self conscious, and if people start laughing I'm always convinced it's about me.  One of the reasons why I carry my kindle (or kindle phone app atm) is because I'd rather be alone by choice, than excluded.  If I'm upset or overwhelmed, I can stare at my book/phone pretending to read, rather than face up to the fact that people are talking about me or laughing at me.  If I pretend long enough that I'm fine, maybe it'll be true?

Growing up, I was always fat, and was bullied in primary school because of it.  At home, I was "the clever one" and my sister was "the pretty one"/"the sporty one" (none of these names did either of us any good).  And yes, my husband regularly tells me I'm beautiful etc and I have slowly come to believe that he truly believes that.  I don't doubt him at all.  He is, however, misguided.

So after all this, do I think I have BDD? No.  Firstly, it's true: I'm not pretty or beautiful in the slightest.  But also, it doesn't impact my life much or stop me doing stuff.  I mainly just thought the program was interesting because I assumed that everyone thinks these things about themselves.

Weekly Update no 12

This past week I have been finishing the juice programme, and I have to say it it has worked really well. Overall I have lost half a stone, and though I don’t feel I have any more energy in myself, I am awake in the mornings. I am waking up before my alarm clock, rather than putting it on snooze ten hundred times, and feel awake. I can get out of bed at a reasonable time in the morning and even see my husband off for work!

This week, I am going to do two smoothies a day, and a proper dinner in the evening. I will try and eat low carb in the evenings, to keep the weight loss going. I know any weight loss now will be much slower than it has been this week, but hope it will continue. If at any point I feel my weight is stagnating, I know I can always sign up for a 3 day programme just to give me the boost I need.

Now I have finished 10 days of juices and smoothies, I can share my experience. It was much easier than I was expecting. Many people have told me that they couldn’t cope without eating food, but actually it wasn’t too bad. I even was able to bypass cookies and cakes. The hardest thing for me was not ‘cooking for others’ as I managed that, and had the juice next to me, sipping as I did so; but watching my girls turn up their noses to the lovely pastries I made: cheese and ham, or sausage and cream cheese. I do confess to eating one of those. And on Friday night I went out for a meal of Moroccan Tapas. That was delicious. I did not drink my evening smoothie before I met my friends. I drank a mocktail in the first bar, and then stuck to water all night. I ate less than I usually do, but felt so stuffed! I really ate too much. I did enjoy the food, it was very tasty, but I need to learn that I can’t eat as much as I want to; both in order to lose weight, and also because my stomach has shrunk a little. Even at the march on Saturday I took along my juices, though at one point I did have the dilemma of being really hungry, but also desperate for the loo so not wanting to drink anything more! Fortunately, I was just waiting for the coach by this point, and there were public loos nearby so it was resolved quickly.

So this week, as I reintroduce food into my diet, I need to focus on portion control, and storing/saving/reusing leftovers appropriately.

Put it to the People March

Yesterday, I was able to join over a million other people at the People's Vote March in London.  It was amazing being in so large a crowd, and definitely had a carnival atmosphere.

There are so many pictures online from the event, and it was great to see the giant star on BBC News  which was made and carried by some people who were on my coach!

We had a bit of excitement, when a friend's 15yo son went for a wander without telling anyone... The police were great, and he was soon found.  The worst bit for me (yes, I know, it was much worse for his mum), was when I found him, there was no phone signal for me to tell my friend! But it was alright in the end, and they were soon reunited.

Coincidentally, I also met up with someone I hadn't seen for 15years!  We did the same course at university, and hadn't been in touch since.  Considering it was hard enough for people to meet friends intentionally, it was pure chance to meet someone I knew.  One steward told me yesterday that over 1.5M people had turned up, though I've no idea how such numbers can be verified?

I was very tired when I got back home yesterday, and fell asleep when taking DD2 to bed.  Today, I have been catching up on all the photos and videos online; and have found out that other friends were also on the march.  As it was so big, I'm glad I didn't arrange to meet them too, but hope they all had a good time.

The Revoke Article 50 petition is still going, and has now passed the 5M signatories mark.  A way to check updates, without causing the petition to crash again, is using this website, which also breaks the votes down by constituency, so you can see how many people in your area have voted.

Brexit and democracy

Having triggered Article 50 a couple of years ago, Britain is meant to be leaving the EU at the end of

this month.  Unfortunately, there still is no plan.
As a result, many of us are marching this weekend in support of a People's Vote; where we, the people, can decide on the mess that the country is currently in.

I will be there in my Tshirt and carrying my Brolly, and encourage as many people as possible to come along too.

On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Theresa May made a speech to the nation, telling us how we feel, how she is with us, and it's not her fault, but the MPS for not agreeing with the deal she repeatedly proposes that nobody wants.  I've since seen descriptions of how it was an attempt to hypnotise the nation, and it certainly seems like that - I don't know what else she was trying to achieve?

One impact it has had, however, is to draw attention to a petition: Revoke Article 50. When I signed it, only about 30,000 people had signed.  This has increased massively, to the point where the website crashed this morning!  Every time I refresh the petition page, the number of signatories has increased, and at 14:28 today, it is now up to 972,873! I have even seen one meme suggesting that the House of Commons will take action when the petition reaches 17.4M people, - the number of people who voted Leave in the first place.  I don't know how true it is, but given that  it has increased to nearly a million people in one day, if Brexit is extended even a short while, it won't be long to hit that target.

As for democracy, democracy means that we have a say in politics and who governs us.  It means we can change our minds.  It means that just because conservatives were voted in power once, does not mean that they will stay in power forever.  Just because something was voted in once, does not mean that there is never another vote.  And if new information has come to light - particularly if one 'side' has been accused of electoral fraud and fined - then that vote should be either cancelled or at least redone.  

And that is what the People's Vote is all about - now the general public has more information, and the Leave campaign has been shown to be full of untruths and they still don't have a plan, there should be another vote where people are more informed.