Twinky

You mean you're not, T-Bone? You know, the cafe should have celebrated this upgrade with a new array of cakes and coffee. Or maybe I should just get something to eat. Just got in at the end of my working day. Chicken fillets, Jersey Royal baby potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli await my attention. Then rhubarb and yoghurt. Yum. Then maybe my GSC cake. Yum yum.

Oakie! Well, your own life has certainly taken a different turn from what it might have done in TWI. Likely to have been a lot more enjoyable than if you'd still been in. So glad you're participating in the real world. Not the box they tried to force you into.

I love trees, forests, being on mountains above the bushline/treeline looking down on forests, creatures that live in forests... I only have a small garden and I have planted several small trees in it. This city is full of mature and younger trees. The fringe of the city, where I live, has lots of wooded areas. Nice to walk in. My fave verse: Is 55:12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Nah. It was the little leaf symbol on the 3/14 badge. Note, however, the 2/14 symbol is clapping hands. Yay!

I've just finished this (historical fiction): I'm pretty eclectic in my tastes. Lots of what's already been mentioned. I also like Jodi Picoult, who writes about social issues. Ken Follett's books are interesting, nobody's mentioned him yet. What I read depends on whether I want to learn something (so, perhaps, a bit of historical, or social, fiction), enjoy an escape (thriller/crime), veg out (any kind of rubbish) Before that, I recently read a cartoon book (also historical fiction). Sounds silly, it's only slender, but actually, there is a lot in it.

I see the symbol for an Apprentice with 3/14 (3 out of 14 what??) is a leaf. Haven't we had enough of leaves, twigs, Way trees, and the like? How about - um... err... em - an axe? To chop down the Way tree?

Something fishy (and rank) going on, perhaps? I dunno. Makes us all look like newbies. Weird. Apparently I'm a "Rookie" (with >5K posts!) and you, Bolshy, are an Apprentice, with slightly more posts. But we're both still on the Leaderboard.

Did you get booted, Allan? Your thread about LCM doesn't seem to be here now.

By the way, Mike, if you're ever in the UK you are welcome to come to my church or any of the associated churches, see what we do, spend time with any one of our ministers or staff, ask any questions you want about the work we carry out. I'm sure your practical help would also be welcome in cooking meals, distributing food parcels, StACCtion days (service within the community), sitting with the lonely and dispossessed and chatting to them. Hey, you could even pray with people from time to time. The church financial accounts are also easily accessible and any questions you want can be asked of our Treasurer about those. We've found our good works very effective. But come and see !

I have no idea what this post means. "The intensely tone"? "Mighty Fighter of the Evil Forces"? "Any good counterfeit is going to be camouflaged with lots of good." That sounds straight from the PFAL playbook. Without you even reasoning that actually, that's what TWI attempted. Except that the "lots of good" appears to have evaporated very, very early in the piece.

Mike, I have shared a number of great positives in my life, that generate great joy - including on this thread. Have you acknowledged even one of them? No. And no surprise there. Do you look at other threads on this site? There are active threads in Open and in the Music one. Do you follow any of those? You said you wanted to engage in different ways. Well, go ahead. Engage.

Oh no, Bolshy one. For adults at least: "Drink a little wine for thy stomach's sake."

That's FoS "realistico" or maybe "cold-waterio."

Wow, I looked away for a few days, and come back to same-old same-old. I was intrigued by Mike's claim that he has encountered thousands of PFAL grads who want to know more. He must live in a football stadium, or similar. I wonder how many of these enlightened (?) people he has actually met, actually encountered - in person, in the flesh, as human beings - and not as online whoevers? Might a dozen be a good estimate? Or would that too be an over-estimate? My city has a population of about 80,000. I doubt whether I have met even a tenth of them, even fleetingly, and certainly not enough to have deep conversations about theological issues. I really had no idea that Mike had such a huge circle of friends - nay, deep conversational companions, with whom he can freely discuss PFAL. And that's without the casuals that he get into conversation with, and the people at the dance place he attends (if you're dancing, you're not talking). I got the idea he was a little reclusive. Well done, Mike! You've really taken on the boldness that PFAL has imbued you with.

Not just eating plenty of calories - drinking them too. Lots of cheap alcohol, also giving temporary oblivious from their many problems. But then, that's not so different from other fatties. The drinking of alcohol contributes a lot to obesity. We are all familiar with the "beer belly" of overweight men. The obesity to which this thread refers is a lot more than beer bellies. It's the soft padding all over some people.

Interesting articles you post, Bolshy one. So US homeless people are fat/obese, and Brit ones aren't (in general). (I'm sure there are lots of each, in both countries.) In my city, there are lots of places homeless people can get free or very cheap food, including proper hot meals. Some are places run by shelter/refuges, some by churches, there's the "soup run" (soup and sandwiches), there's giveaways by some retailers of use-before sandwiches and fruit, some food is distributed by goody-goodies (for a while). Some is purchased specifically, by random passers-by with kind hearts. Lots of carb-heavy stuff. In my 10+ years working with street homeless, in a city where free food is abundant, I can honesty say there are no obese people among them here; and there are few merely fat people. Can't speak for the rest of the UK, but I suspect it's similar. I found this article, which you might find of interest: HOMELESSNESS IS A HEALTH ISSUE, which looks at the national picture. An extract: "Our audit data highlighted the poor diets many homeless people have. Almost a third of clients regularly eat less than two meals a day. In addition, only 1 in 4 homeless people said they usually eat 3 or more pieces of fruit or veg per day. Only 7% usually consume the recommended 5 per day, compared to 27% of the general population6 – a third do not eat any at all."

Or drought, heavy rain/floods at the wrong time of year, fire, pestilence (locust or insect attack), blight, and many other things. War, too. And climate change. Government policies can certainly exacerbate a bad situation and make a famine out of a bad situation. It is also well known that greed is not necessary in this world, either. Greed. Hoarding food to oneself, to one's nation or cultural group, whatever. Perhaps some fatties could be considered as "food hoarders" in the same way that people hoard all sorts of stuff, useful and not, in their homes. Physical hoarding is considered a sort of mental illness. Maybe we should think of food hoarders in the same way.

And if you had "volunteered" as a healer, and there was no obvious sign of having healed anyone at this event, your self-condemnation likely would have been even greater. Not to mention condemnation and abuse from VPW, and everyone lower down the "Way tree." Bum remaining on seat was probably the best thing to do, IMO.

Was anybody actually healed, Skyrider? I mean, actually, as opposed to saying they were at the time.

Interesting, Bolshy one. Divorce consultations are also often higher in January, after people have been at home with their spouses for longer than usual periods.

I work with street-homeless people (well, I did until the pandemic; about to resume work). I've never seen a fat homeless person. There is plenty of free food available, especially in this city: often carb-loaded, like sandwiches; their fresh veg content is probably lacking; and many drink quite a lot of alcohol. Some, but by no means all, do drugs; many smoke, rolies usually. They have a lot of illnesses and their life expectancy is significantly shorter than people who are not homeless. But they are not fat, never mind obese. Interesting, perhaps to ponder the differences. Becoming homeless, however, is perhaps not the best way to lose weight. I'm not recommending it.

I do think a lot of people boredom-eat, or comfort-eat. A habit, to have something to do with your hands (and teeth) without paying particular regard to what you're doing. Like smokers, who need to have something in their fingers. There is no doubt that people are getting much, much larger. To see some people walking about is painful. Their knees bend awkwardly and the strain on their backs must be dreadful. They are injuring their bodies in horrible ways. And that's just what can be seen. Processed foods with all their additives aren't a good thing at all. Who knows what really goes into them? But another thing that concerns me is what is done to animals while they are still alive. If they are given growth hormones to stimulate their growth, so that they put on weight more quickly (and thus earn more money for their farmers), surely those growth hormones will pass through into whatever eats those animals? So people must be ingesting growth hormones from over-medicated animals. And that's impossible for the eater to detect.

For the first time ever, I've put on about 10 lb that I wish weren't there. It's mostly snacky eating that's done it, together with half a bottle of wine twice a week and a shedload of delicious Lindor chocolates (lots of offers round Christmas and the months afterwards = woe is me!). I prefer fresh vegs and homecooked food, so no issues there. My life/activities have been little changed in the last ten years, so it's not activity levels. I've given up buying chocolates and cut back on the vino. I think the increase is halted, maybe even reversing slowly. A friend who was told he has pre-diabetes and had got to around 215-220 lb was sent by his doc on a diabetes awareness course, which he found really helpful. By watching carbohydrates, he managed without any difficulty to lose 30-35 lb and is now fitter and gets up hills much easier than he did 40 years ago. He found this "Carbs and Calories" book extremely helpful: Carbs & Cals Books | Carb & Calorie Counter Book (carbsandcals.com) You can get it through Amazon and probably many other sources as well. It's quite useful, not preachy, shows photos on standard sized plates, dishes or spoons of common foods in different portion sizes, and also shows substitutes, giving the carb count for each photo. Another friend who has been overweight for years and has tried quite a few diets, unsuccessfully, is now doing very well with Noom. She says she's never got this far before. She has a number of medical issues that can affect her weight. This Noom plan apparently addresses the psychology behind eating - what, when, and how - rather than calorie-counting or similar. Noom: Stop dieting. Get life-long results.

You know, it'd be really interesting to know how many classes LCM put together after he was fired. I know people who have been kicked out by TWI for spurious reasons, and they've immediately overcome their hurt and tried to get a class together. Well. He was kicked out for non-spurious reasons. Did he go out and try to get a class together? Did he feel so passionate about The Word that even though he'd been kicked out, he felt compelled to "witness"? Even though he'd had his name thoroughly (or even throughly) blackened, was he still wanting to do his utmost for His Highest? Nah, don't think so. Left with a golden parachute on condition he kept his mouth shut, most likely, unlike hundreds of decent people who were kicked out - basically, for being decent people, or for some minute and very forgivable infraction. I recall him saying, many times, "You stay hurt for as long as you let yourself stay hurt," and other such things. I wonder if he felt "hurt" or "condemned" for what he did? Or maybe he was just angry at being thrown off the bus? (even, being thrown under the bus!) It would be rather interesting to know his thought processes at the time. And whether he took his own advice, or whether he wallowed in self-pity. We'll never know. And TBH, I don't care.

Actually, mostly I liked the food when I was at HQ. And also at Gunnison. The stuff I didn't like would be stuff I wouldn't like anyway regardless of where it was offered on the menu. There was occasionally very weird (to me) stuff or combinations of stuff, but most of the Americans loved it. Sauerkraut, peculiar sausages (weinies?), sloppy joes - pizza featured occasionally, but I'm not a pizza fan. Sometimes there was unusual stuff on offer for a meal - one evening the 5pm meal consisted of fresh fruit salad. This I love - but most of my Corps hated it. I ate a lot that evening :) We'd had a big "main meal" at noon. One breakfast was 7-grain - porridge. I hate porridge, makes me vomit. The only thing I won't eat. We were asked to have at least one spoonful of this meal. And to my surprise, I loved it and really enjoyed the different textures.

That's why Orwell wrote the book, to snark about communism; but actually, it's about any kind of power imbalance. "The rules" don't apply to everyone equally. Those in power, whether kings, presidents, senators, or party chairmen, simply do not live in the same conditions as the plebeians. "We just wanted to make things better ..."better" doesn't mean better for everyone." (Commander Waterford, The Handmaid's Tale)