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Started the Fast Diet

By on January 24, 2013 in General, Science

There is a new lifestyle and diet scheme in town. It’s called the 5:2 Fast Diet. Fast as in fasting, not as in speedy. Unlike most (all?) other diet regimens, this one does seem to have some science and data to back it up. The 5:2 bit of the name equates to the fact that you can eat normally for 5 days a week, and then on 2 days you restrict yourself to 600 calories. Thats for men. It’s 500 for women.

Extreme fasting, and its sibling prolonged calorie restriction, have been studied for a while. Current research is showing that the gentler, and more easily doable 5:2 Fast Diet can provide many of the benefits that extreme fasting does. 

Grab the book by Dr. Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer to get more info. Only a few quid in paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon UK. They also have a web site.

I’m making Monday and Thursday my fasting days. Starting today. Will fast from breakfast until dinner then until breakfast next day on those days. With the 600 calories allowed split between breakfast and dinner. That’s the same as what Michael Mosley does. Seems sensible. 

My current weight stats are:

Height: 188 cm.

Weight: 87.8 Kg.

BMI: 24.8.

Not overweight, but BMI close to entering 25+ danger zone. I know from when I was playing cricket regularly that I feel better when my weight is about 79 Kg. So I’ll make that my target.

Weight Target: 79 Kg.

BMI Target: 22.4.

It’s the biochemical changes, as outlined in the Fast Diet book that are the real prize though. 

Follow me on Twitter to comment or discuss. 

Reading list

By on May 21, 2012 in General

Books I want to read this year. List is in no particular order. I’ll select from the list based on whim. Let’s all gather round the glow of our screens in December to see how many I managed to read. 

Lonely Planets (David Grinspoon) – Finished

Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success (Ken Segall) – Finished

Chocky (John Wyndham) – Finished

The Geek Manifesto (Mark Henderson) – Finished

By Light Alone (Adam Roberts) – currently reading

Solaris Rising (Various) – partially read. Short stories.

Manhattan in Reverse (Peter F. Hamilton) – partially read. Short stories.

The Fabric of the Cosmos (Brian Green) – partially read

The Devine Wind (Kerry Emanuel) – partially read

Paradox (Jim Al-Khalili)

Why Beauty is Truth (Ian Stewart)

The Rough Guide to the Future (Jon Turney) – Finished

The Equations: Icons Of Knowledge (Sander Bias)

Very Special Relativity (Sander Bias)

It Must Be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science (Graham Farmelo)

The Quantum Universe (Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw)

Why Does E=mc² (Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw) – Finished.

Calculus Made Easy (Silvanus P. Thompson)

China: Illustrated History (Patricia Buckley Ebrey)

America: A Narrative History (George Brown Tindall, David Emory Shi)

The Seven Basic Plots (Christopher Booker)

Writing Fiction: A Guide For The Narrative Craft (Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French)

Reading Like A Writer (Francine Prose)

How Not To Write A Novel (Howard Mittlemark, Sandra Newman)

The Etymologicon  (Mark Forsyth)

Snuff (Terry Pratchett) – Finished

Dodger (Terry Pratchett)

The Long Earth (Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter)

Starmaker (Olaf Stapledon)

Odd John (Olaf Stapledon)

Last And First Men (Olaf Stapledon)

Jack Glass (Adam Roberts)

Novelists Boot Camp (Todd A. Stone)

God: The Failed Hypothesis (Victor J. Stenger)

The Comprehensible Cosmos (Victor J. Stenger)

Irreligion (John Allen Paulos)

The Universe (john Gribbin)

Why Business People Speak Like Idiots (Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, Jon Warshawsky)

Consider Her Ways (John Wyndham)

Land Of The Headless (Adam Roberts)

Gradisil (Adam Roberts)

50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need To Know (Tony Crilly)

50 Philosophy Ideas You Really Need To Know (Ben Dupré)

50 Physics Ideas You Really Need To Know (Joanne Baker)

Logic: A Very Short Introduction (Graham Priest)

Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction (Timothy Gowers)

Guerrilla Home Recording (Karl Coryat)

 


 

 

 

 

 

Proposal to up motorway speed limit to 80mph

By on October 9, 2011 in General

The UK Government are holding a consultation to canvas views on whether the speed limit on UK motorways should be increased from 70mph to 80mph. It seems to me that many people currently drive at about 75mph when the motorway is clear. They see 75mph as enough over the speed limit not to get prosecuted. If the limit is raised to 80mph then 85mph will become the new norm. I can’t see the point in this. In my experience all this will mean is that you will get to the next part of your journey with congestion more quickly. It won’t make much difference to overall journey times. I’ve tried driving long distances going faster than the speed limit when I can, and then the same journey sticking to the speed limits. Over a 2 week period the times the journeys took each day were with 10 minutes of each other. Some of the fastest journeys were the days I stuck to the speed limits. So I can’t see this increase to 80mph making journeys quicker. It’ll also burn more fuel for no gain.

If they want to decrease journey times it’d be better to make it an offence to sit in the overtaking lanes on the motorway when there is space on the inner lanes. 3 points for everyone hogging the overtaking lane would do more to increase traffic flow on the motorway than increasing the speed limit!

Switching Soapbox to a new theme

By on September 25, 2011 in General

I’m in the middle of switching my Soapbox site to a new theme. Canvas from WooThemes. I’m planning of doing a lot more writing on 4 main topics on this site in the future. These will be science, technology, teaching myself mathematics (to better understand science) and also some fiction, and posts about writing fiction.

I wanted a cleaner, simpler and whiter layout for the site. Canvas theme fits the bill very nicely 🙂 So over the next few days the layout of the site will change as I mess about with the settings in the WooThemes framework and the Canvas theme.