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For me, a lot of stuff has been going on outside the TT world.
In TT, ever since my "retirement" for health reasons around April I believe, I have mostly not done anything TT related other than record a few matches while visiting a few tournaments. I do post on forums sometimes and watch high level TT. But I haven't trained or practiced. I am waiting for something approaching a solution to my joint issues. More on that in a few. But I am such an EJ that I still bought a Tibhar Akkad. I want to sell/give away most of my equipment but I love the Nexy Arche and the Tibhar Akkad handles and overall feel, so I will keep those as my blades pending a comeback if my knees become better again. I do have some blades to give away or sell should the opportunity arise.
Obviously, I was forced to retire, but I was also dating someone and getting ready to get married at a relatively old age (I am over 40). I had a private ceremony in June, but will be having something more harrowing and public at the end of this week. I tried to invite some TT buddies but didn't want to burden anyone with travels and expenses. But at least one of my groomsmen will be a TT player.
I am also trying to put in a few more hours at work to get more pay. Isn't working out as well as I had hoped (everything had been lined up to click, then restructuring threw me for a loop). But I did learn that in life, you need faith or something like it whether you are religious or not. Otherwise, what is the point of struggle and trying to grow when there is truly no guarantee of success?
Finally, I am looking more closely at my diet. I am discovering that a lot of stuff that I thought was true about diet wasn't. I thought veganism was healthy, but I just found out that there is a huge vegan lobby driving a lot of stuff that people read today about healthy eating. In fact, the more I investigated food, the more I realized that a lot of recommendations about how to eat are based on bad science. Really bad science. There are people who *seem* to be doing well as vegans, but there are people who also *seem* to be doing well eating just about nothing but meat (zero carbs)! And a good scientist has to explain all these, but yet you see the vegans often demonizing the zero-carb specialists, and sometimes the zero-carb specialists demonizing the vegans. But I think the zero-carb specialists are more open minded as some make allowances for vegan behavior, but they also point out that there are no ancestral populations that were vegan and there are at least two vitamins that require you to eat either fermented foods or animals (Vitamins K2 and B12).
In any case, for someone like me, it's convinced me that what I thought was scientific about veganism and the desire to reduce cholesterol was unsettled science. I also learned about intermittent fasting and time restricted feeding and circadian rhythms of the body. I learned that many of the issues that I had that I thought were salt related were really sugar and carb related. I cut sugar and processed foods out of my diet.
I effortlessly lost 17 pounds after I stopped playing TT by putting more fat into my diet and I expect to lose even more after my wedding after my body adapts to eating meat again as I continue to find the balance between eliminating starches and deciding how much if any veggies to eat. I now realize that a lot of things I blamed on meat in my health were largely traceable to having low stomach acid (partly related to restricting salt as the chloride in salt is part of what helps you maintain stomach acid) and poor sleep habits. Will work on managing these better.
I think this stuff is important enough that I will add a few videos not to convince anyone but in case anyone is interested. It's important to get stuff about your health right - now it's more important to me than ever since I am married (before it made less of a difference since it was just me).
On the dangers of sugar (lots of videos but this is an old one):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
Why apple juice is worse than soda (many people miss her point when they hear this, but if you get her point, you will understand why fruit juice is just bad for you - eating sugar without fiber is dangerous):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4POWBmf1Byk
Time restricted eating and what it can do for your health:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6KClPkotxM
In fact, time restricted eating can actually sometimes correct for poor diet choices if you have the discipline to maintain it in spite of such choices:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erBJuxVR7IE
Saturated fat is not the enemy (people confuse its effects with the effects of sugar and heated vegetable oils):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHGiid6N9Q
MEat is not the enemy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rz-8H_i1wA
I can go on - ketogenic diet etc. But in any case, I strongly suggest that you take an independent and open-minded approach to diet and see what works for YOU. And don't let lobbyists fool you into thinking they are scientists. The American Dietary recommendations were more political than scientific. And even people who attack the America dietary recommendations are not always being scientific either - you need to be careful when interpreting the evidence. THe one thing that everyone agrees on is processed modern foods are not good. But beyond that, one has to be open to understanding what is good for one's body, and not buy into blanket demonizations of diets. And of course, learn to go without meals on occassion - fasting seems to do well for everyone.
I can see the potential for some of my health issues being resolved. But let's check back in another 6 months. I will explain what has happened then. Will be married too - wish me luck.
Cheers guys!
In TT, ever since my "retirement" for health reasons around April I believe, I have mostly not done anything TT related other than record a few matches while visiting a few tournaments. I do post on forums sometimes and watch high level TT. But I haven't trained or practiced. I am waiting for something approaching a solution to my joint issues. More on that in a few. But I am such an EJ that I still bought a Tibhar Akkad. I want to sell/give away most of my equipment but I love the Nexy Arche and the Tibhar Akkad handles and overall feel, so I will keep those as my blades pending a comeback if my knees become better again. I do have some blades to give away or sell should the opportunity arise.
Obviously, I was forced to retire, but I was also dating someone and getting ready to get married at a relatively old age (I am over 40). I had a private ceremony in June, but will be having something more harrowing and public at the end of this week. I tried to invite some TT buddies but didn't want to burden anyone with travels and expenses. But at least one of my groomsmen will be a TT player.
I am also trying to put in a few more hours at work to get more pay. Isn't working out as well as I had hoped (everything had been lined up to click, then restructuring threw me for a loop). But I did learn that in life, you need faith or something like it whether you are religious or not. Otherwise, what is the point of struggle and trying to grow when there is truly no guarantee of success?
Finally, I am looking more closely at my diet. I am discovering that a lot of stuff that I thought was true about diet wasn't. I thought veganism was healthy, but I just found out that there is a huge vegan lobby driving a lot of stuff that people read today about healthy eating. In fact, the more I investigated food, the more I realized that a lot of recommendations about how to eat are based on bad science. Really bad science. There are people who *seem* to be doing well as vegans, but there are people who also *seem* to be doing well eating just about nothing but meat (zero carbs)! And a good scientist has to explain all these, but yet you see the vegans often demonizing the zero-carb specialists, and sometimes the zero-carb specialists demonizing the vegans. But I think the zero-carb specialists are more open minded as some make allowances for vegan behavior, but they also point out that there are no ancestral populations that were vegan and there are at least two vitamins that require you to eat either fermented foods or animals (Vitamins K2 and B12).
In any case, for someone like me, it's convinced me that what I thought was scientific about veganism and the desire to reduce cholesterol was unsettled science. I also learned about intermittent fasting and time restricted feeding and circadian rhythms of the body. I learned that many of the issues that I had that I thought were salt related were really sugar and carb related. I cut sugar and processed foods out of my diet.
I effortlessly lost 17 pounds after I stopped playing TT by putting more fat into my diet and I expect to lose even more after my wedding after my body adapts to eating meat again as I continue to find the balance between eliminating starches and deciding how much if any veggies to eat. I now realize that a lot of things I blamed on meat in my health were largely traceable to having low stomach acid (partly related to restricting salt as the chloride in salt is part of what helps you maintain stomach acid) and poor sleep habits. Will work on managing these better.
I think this stuff is important enough that I will add a few videos not to convince anyone but in case anyone is interested. It's important to get stuff about your health right - now it's more important to me than ever since I am married (before it made less of a difference since it was just me).
On the dangers of sugar (lots of videos but this is an old one):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
Why apple juice is worse than soda (many people miss her point when they hear this, but if you get her point, you will understand why fruit juice is just bad for you - eating sugar without fiber is dangerous):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4POWBmf1Byk
Time restricted eating and what it can do for your health:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6KClPkotxM
In fact, time restricted eating can actually sometimes correct for poor diet choices if you have the discipline to maintain it in spite of such choices:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erBJuxVR7IE
Saturated fat is not the enemy (people confuse its effects with the effects of sugar and heated vegetable oils):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHGiid6N9Q
MEat is not the enemy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rz-8H_i1wA
I can go on - ketogenic diet etc. But in any case, I strongly suggest that you take an independent and open-minded approach to diet and see what works for YOU. And don't let lobbyists fool you into thinking they are scientists. The American Dietary recommendations were more political than scientific. And even people who attack the America dietary recommendations are not always being scientific either - you need to be careful when interpreting the evidence. THe one thing that everyone agrees on is processed modern foods are not good. But beyond that, one has to be open to understanding what is good for one's body, and not buy into blanket demonizations of diets. And of course, learn to go without meals on occassion - fasting seems to do well for everyone.
I can see the potential for some of my health issues being resolved. But let's check back in another 6 months. I will explain what has happened then. Will be married too - wish me luck.
Cheers guys!
