Things. Disconnected.

[tinyjo]

* Chinese blogs censored on MSN Spaces. I wonder what the LJ policy on that is?

* Found myself listening to David Davis yesterday morning and had a thought. Is it that people deserted the Tories when they realised that they were going to be moralising and interfering about peoples lives too when back to basics happened and thought well if we have to put up with it either way, we might as well have public services and voted Labour? I have no idea if that's a reasonable thing to think. I know that the Tory party has a small government, let people run their own lives wing but I don't know enough about politics pre back to basics to know whether it had previously been in the acendancy or whether I'm just rambling.

* Unlike dyddgu, I like Harry Potter, but ho for hogwarts! is still a v. funny and well worth a look.

* I went to buy jeans yesterday. I hate the fact that when buying trousers I have to buy at least one size higher if not more. Even when I'm doing well weight wise it makes me feel fat, and right now it was definitely not what I needed. Still, I now own 2 pairs of trousers which won't give me indigestion and I can try to slim out of them.

* I keep thinking about andypop at odd moments. I've never known someone who was involved in an accident like that. I really really hope he pulls through. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, see jinty's most recent posts.)

* Meme. I got tagged by gingerprincess and pennyroyalist but I'm slow at the moment.

Not because you have to, but because you WANT to! Things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play. What lowers your stress/blood
pressure/anxiety level? Make a list, post it to your journal... and then tag 5 friends and ask them to post it to theirs.

- Hug from Alex. Always works.
- A nice cup of Earl Grey.
- Cooking with the radio on (assuming that I have a fairly full fridge) - it's really soothing.
- Bath on a Sunday night with the Week In Westminster on.
- Spending a couple of hours pottering round the house tidying up.
- Singing along to stuff. Mostly pop/indie stuff but nearly anything will do.
- Lying down in bed with Radio 4 on, particularly daytime programmes.

I notice that Radio 4 features 3 times in that list. Sigh. I am soooo sad!

* There is *no way* I can keep up this pace of activity. I need to get serious about scheduling nights in again.

* I'm trying a slightly new approach to Weightwatchers, which will (hopefully) help a bit with my ambivalent dieting. Instead of carrying points over (either positive or negative) I'm just going to try to stick to the points each day. Otherwise, I seem to quite often succumb early in the week, saying to myself "I'll make it up later" and then not stick to it for the rest of the week because I'm so daunted by the huge points deficit that it doesn't seem worth it. Also, I need to learn to eat well when I'm out, not just say "oh well, I'll make up for it later".

Comments

[knirirr.livejournal.com]

I know that the Tory party has a small government, let people run their own lives wing but I don't know enough about politics pre back to basics to know whether it had previously been in the acendancy

I don't think that it ever has been, but unless it becomes so then they're unlikely to get many votes, I think.

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think that's going to have to be their main way of differentiating themselves from Labour. It's certainly something I look for in any party who wants my vote.

[knirirr.livejournal.com]

It's certainly something I look for in any party who wants my vote.

It is the main thing I look for. Unfortunately, there's not much to choose from. UKIP and Vanitas have leanings in those directions, but are far from perfect.

Speaking as an experienced dieter :)

[t--m--i.livejournal.com]

The thing that eventually worked for me was originally setting out to lose a fairly small amount of weight, then using the slimming club as a monitor while I spent about a year iirc working out what lifestyle I needed to follow in order to keep my weight stable and making any changes required to support that way of life.

Every six months or a year I could then go back and lose another 7 or so pounds, because then I knew what to do to keep it off.

What also helped was that the weight loss was just a means to an end - the real goals were (1) avoiding the family history of diabetes & heart trouble and (2) reducing my raging PMT.

I wish you luck - losing weight is easy, maintaining weight loss is really really hard. Favourite tip: the "I did it!" stories in Fitness Magazine (a relatively sane publication).

Re: Speaking as an experienced dieter :)

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

That's not a bad idea at all. Maybe I'll try for half a stone and then try to maintain that for 6 months, that kind of think.

[mendel.livejournal.com]

Re MSN Spaces and China: I suspect that LJ will continue to operate under American law. Microsoft complicates things because it's Microsoft China doing the filtering; if LJ were to operate out of China they'd have to comply with Chinese law too.

Have you seen the No S Diet? Doesn't work for everyone but worked great for me, and I presume it's WW-compatible and might help with sticking to the points each day.

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried No-S but it might be worth a shot. You could certainly fit it in with WW so I could run them side by side and use WW to help me pick what I should eat instead.

Not so much a diet, more just what your granny told you :)

[t--m--i.livejournal.com]

I followed the link and it all seems very sensible indeed. The only thing I would quibble with is the word "willpower" which is a little abstract for my taste - self awareness, thinking things through carefully including looking at the actual evidence, and forward planning (you know, see umpteen CBT tomes) are perhaps more concrete and useful notions ;)

We all know - really - what to do to keep ourselves healthy: eat a good, nutritionally complete and balanced diet, eat at regular and sensible intervals, take exercise, get enough sleep, do what we can to avoid or cope with stress. Devil's in the details, though, ain't it... or we'd never have needed WeightWatchers.

Re: Not so much a diet, more just what your granny told you :)

[t--m--i.livejournal.com]

I mean to say, I would certainly recommend the site as reading for anyone who wants to reach and keep at a healthier weight. The devil's in the details and it certainly does have a good clear and extensive discussion of those details.

[pthalo]

The Chinese government blocks people in China from accessing LiveJournal. And that's probably why Microsoft agreed to censor them. It was probably "no access at all, or censored access."

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Ah, that figures. And there's a whole enormous debate about which of those positions is better.

Andy

[applez.livejournal.com]

I regret never having met him. Clearly if he won Jenni's approval, he must be a great guy. :-/