What are you currently doing (besides being here)?

[DaSpecial1]

Just cooked a yummy dinner for my kids with a lovely two-layer peach upside-down cake (baked by me ) for dessert. I rock!

[Theraven]

Editing meshes (making a couple of them more usable than they were), and trying to figure out why an object has weird extra recolors I've not added...

[fatedicewolf]

Watching Wheel of Fortune and trying to fix my TS3 game. It won't play anymore It keeps saying I placed a download that needed a newer patch in my Mods folder and my computer refuses to update to the newest patch!   

[miros1]

Editing meshes (making a couple of them more usable than they were), and trying to figure out why an object has weird extra recolors I've not added...

Maybe you got a duplicate GUID?  People were not registering the random GUIDs they were using for the few days the SimPE site was down.

Listening to Jeopardy and not cooking dinner.

[Theraven]

Extra subset trouble. I cloned another mesh and tried to add the subsets from the old mesh. The subsets with faults in them flashed blue at first, because there was something wrong somewhere in the file, but it worked after I went through the tutorial to see if I'd forgotten anything, which I obviously had.

[DaSpecial1]

Watching Wheel of Fortune and trying to fix my TS3 game. It won't play anymore

I know the feeling. I had to lose the family I was playing and start fresh to stop the game from running my cpu @ 100%.  I'm beginning to think that game needs 10 gigs of ram to run .

Right now I'm resting after yet another cooking spree. I must be channeling the Galloping Gourmet or something.

[Theraven]

Trying to figure out BHAVs. Not easy, but I found Echo's tutorial which has pictures and explanations. Only thing is, SimPE isn't showing what it is supposed to show even if I'm doing the exact steps. Annoying... 

[Zooey]

Watching the clouds cover the sky (it's dark like it's night here) and writing at my book. Can't wait until I finish it. Chapter 8 so far 

[Punx]

On GDC, Listening to Green Day, and playing sims 2.

[Theraven]

Doing school work, for a change. Reading about diabetes and how a low-carb-high-fat diet can, in most cases, either balance out or "treat" both type 1 and 2. You can even lose weight by following this diet, even if you're not a diabetic (it's not unehard of, as this is already one of the billion-and-one known ways to lose weight - but it seems to be one of the most effective, if you keep to it).

Quite interesting, in fact. Almost makes me want to change my diet to something like it (I'm not a diabetic, and I love chocolate too much to go entirely over to it - but it sounds interesting). Everything I've read makes sense - a so-called "stone-age" diet is supposed to be a lot better for humans than any other diets we're told are good. Mostly fat, some proteins, (animalish fat, eggs, meat, bird, fish, butter, cream, nuts, berries, above-ground veggies...), and almost no carbs (no sweets, sugar, bread, rice, potatoes, very little fruit, and very little milk...).

Blah, blah, blah, I know - I just tend to go a bit eager when I find something interesting... 

[caffeinated.joy]

Talking to my mom on the phone and dancing around because I am finally employed! Woot! Go me!

[Theraven]

Writing the above-mentioned assignment.

The strangest thing is that I've written most of it from memory, just from reading a few books, and I think what I've written is as much with my own words and as correct as it can be. Usually I sit with all the books around me, trying very hard not to write directly from the text. The whole assignment is meant to be around 2000 words, and I've so far, without any troubles, written 1413 (which is only my part counted in...), and feel I could easily write another two or three pages without resorting to deeper studies of the books. I probably have to filter it down to less, though.

Either I've evolved in assignment writing, or it's interesting enough that I've started to learn it - or maybe because I usually sit chewing candy or other useless stuff and can't think properly (high and swinging blood sugar levels), while I for once (just to test it) made a dinner that fits what I'm writing about (the low carb, high fat diet - scrambled eggs with a bit of bell pepper and some ham, with a piece of fish and some bacon beside). It tasted delicious, and was even fun to make (I usually hate cooking only to myself). I'm not feeling hungry, my stomach feels good for a change (despite that I think I ate a bit too much) and haven't eaten anything or felt like I need anything to eat since I started writing some hours ago. I even feel calmer and more focused than I normally do. Strange... Or maybe not so strange, after all.

[caffeinated.joy]

Speaking from personal experience (my father and three of his brothers are/were diabetic and my sister is diabetic), the right diet isn't low carb/high fat. Rather, it's low carb/high soluble fibre. Eating a high fat diet can add stress to the pancreas, which is something diabetics want to avoid. The fat you look for are small amounts of unsaturated fat. Bacon is something to be careful with in a diabetic diet because it's high fat and sugar or syrup is used in the curing process. The same applies to ham.

The point is to control glucose production in the body. Carbs convert to sugar during digestion, which is why it's avoided. It also doesn't take as long for the body to process carbs, which is why we often feel hungry with a high carb diet. It's true fat takes longer to digest and thus raises the blood sugar at a slower rate, but it's important to keep fat intake low because diabetics tend to be at a higher risk for heart problems. It's important, therefore, they restrict their fat intake to 30% or less of their total daily calories. The Atkins diet is not a good plan for diabetics because it's high in fat. I have a diabetic uncle who is healthy and tries to keep active, but he had to go in for bypass surgery two years ago.

Soluble fibre helps keep the digestive tract healthy, regulate blood sugar and lower cholesterol. A high fibre meal will also help you feel full longer.

No food is honestly completely taboo. Diabetics can still enjoy the occasional sweet treat; they just need to be careful.

Just my two cents on the whole thing.


What am I doing right now? Enjoying the yummy, super soft socks I bought today.

[Glamily]

Watching Torchwood, Glee, Doctor Who and Lost Girl.. all at once.

[Theraven]

It's a very controversial theme, I'm aware of that. This is exactly why we've chosen this as our assignment.

I read two books written by a diabetic (type 2), and he is all for the LCHF diet (also called "stone age diet"). He tried lots of carbs, and little fat first (which is actually recommended where I live!). It didn't work, and he got heart problems and had troubles keeping blood sugar levels normal. He started eating the opposite, and suddenly he felt better, and even his doctor wondered what he had done, since everything now was normal. He could even stop using his medications. 

Carbs might actually be what is causing heart problems, not the fat. There have been studies which shows that the brain and heart works better on ketogens, which is what the body uses as fuel when you're on this diet. Instead of quick glucose, the body has to burn fat instead (which it really is supposed to do). Glucose (whether it comes from quick or slow carbs), on the other hand, makes high doses of insulin go out to the body, and it makes the blood sugar much more unstable. The insulin also hinders fat from being used as fuel, since the body seems to prefer glucose because it's quick fuel.

The diabetes shot in the air together with use of potatoes and corn, especially the past 50 years or so. If you think about it, it does make sense. French fries are made with potatoes - but cooking fat gets the blame. Candy and a lot of fast food are stuffed with carbs, both sugar, potatoes and corn - but fat gets the blame because carbs turn to fat when it's eaten (remember - carbs makes the insulin go berserk and highen the blood sugar levels, and insulin also hinders fat from burning)

The biggest argument is the saturated fat, which is a big part of both the human body and animal bodies. Humans were hunters and collectors, eating meat from the beginning. We ate very little carbs, but instead proteins and mostly saturated fat. If stone age people managed well, why not modern day people (we've not evolved as much as we like to think - instead of adapting ourselves to the environment, we're instead adapting the environment to our use)

Even dogs and cats get diabetes nowadays - but a lot of their store food is made with a big percenetage of corn and vegetables (thought good for humans). Cats and dogs are from nature's side meat eaters, hunters. They're not meant to digest corn and vegetables. What they should get of vegetables is what comes from the animals they eat (rabbits, mice, and so on)

Certain types of epilepsy are being treated with a similar diet (ketogen diet), Alzheimers and Parkinsons are conditions which could also have a benefit from ketogens. Why not diabetes, where the person is in some way intolerant of carbs or don't have insulin themselves? With lesser need for insulin, their health problems might even lessen.

That's my own two cents, anyway. Gotta go now - school starts in half an hour...