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Monday, February 12, 2018

Intermittent fasting

The Promise

 
Why cut back every day if you could drop pounds by watching what you eat only a couple of days a week? That's the logic behind intermittent fasting, a weight loss approach that's become more popular over the past few years.
There are different versions, but the general idea for all of them is that you eat normally some days of the week and drastically reduce your calories on other days.
Some plans encourage you to skip food entirely for up to 24 or 36 hours at a time. On others, such as the Every Other Day Diet and the 5:2 Fast Diet, you can have some food but only get about one fourth of your regular calories.
Some research shows that intermittent fasting works. In one study, overweight adults who cut calories by 20% every other day dropped 8% of their body weight within 8 weeks. They also had less inflammation.
The possible secret behind the diet's health-boosting benefits: Fasting puts your cells under a mild stress.  Scientists think that the process of responding to this stress, on your low-calorie days, strengthens cells’ ability to deal with stress and potentially fight off some diseases.

What you can and can't eat 

 
You can eat mostly what you want on days when you don’t fast. But to lose weight and get the nutrients you need, you should stick to healthy foods and limit treats like dessert and processed foods.
On fasting days, you’ll eat very little food or none at all.
For example, the Every Other Day Diet says to eat no more than 500 calories during each fast day.
Another program called the 5:2 Fast Diet involves eating 5 days a week and fasting for the other 2 days, when women can get no more than 500 calories and men no more than 600. That’s a quarter of the amount you likely eat on the days when you don’t fast. Whether you eat those calories in one sitting or spread them across micro-meals throughout the day is up to you.


Level of Effort: Hard

Limitation:  

It’s not easy to skip most of your calories a few days a week and rely mostly on water, coffee, and tea to keep you feeling full. You’ll need a balanced meal plan to eat in moderation on your so-called "feast" days, despite their name. You can indulge in a treat occasionally, but that's about it if you want to see results.

 
Cooking and shopping: 

 
You can continue your regular cooking and shopping, as long as you stick to mostly healthy foods. 

 Packaged food and meals? No.

  

Exercise

How much you exercise  is up to you. But obviously, you’re not going to have a lot of energy for that on your fasting days. The creators of the Every Other Day diet studied people doing cardiovascular exercise (like biking) while on the alternate-day fasting plan and found that they were able to maintain muscle mass while fasting. 

 

 

Does It Follow Restrictions/Preferences?

You choose what food you eat, so you can make it work with food restrictions -- whether you're vegetarian  or vegan, high- or low-carb, avoiding fat, etc. But it's worth noting that you could have side effects like fatigue, weakness, and headaches.

What Else You Should Know

Cost: None beyond your shopping. In fact, because you will eat much less 2 to 4 days per week, your grocery costs should go down.
Support: There are several books and websites detailing variations on the basic idea of fasting a few days a week. So though there's no single destination for support, there are plenty of resources once you've decided which version of the plan appeals most to you.


Most of the intermittent fasting diets recommend cutting back to 500-600 calories on fasting days. In general, for many people this would be medically safer and easier than not eating at all on those days.
Remember to drink enough on fasting days to prevent dehydration.  And you’ll need to eat a healthy diet on days that you don’t fast.

 

 

Sunday, February 11, 2018

It is vanity?

Laban could neither justify himself nor condemn Jacob, therefore desires to hear no more of that matter. He is not willing to own himself in fault, as he ought to have done. But he proposes a covenant of friendship between them, to which Jacob readily agrees. A heap of stones was raised, to keep up the memory of the event, writing being then not known or little used. A sacrifice of peace offerings was offered. Peace with God puts true comfort into our peace with our friends. They did eat bread together, partaking of the feast upon the sacrifice. In ancient times covenants of friendship were ratified by the parties eating and drinking together. God is judge between contending parties, and he will judge righteously; whoever do wrong, it is at their peril. They gave a new name to the place, The heap of witness. After this angry parley, they part friends. God is often better to us than our fears, and overrules the spirits of men in our favor, beyond what we could have expected; for it is not in vain to trust in him.


Genesis 31:43-55

 

43 Then Laban replied to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? 44 So now come, let us make a covenant, [a]you and I, and let it be a witness between [b]you and me.” 45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 Jacob said to his [c]kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. 47 Now Laban called it [d]Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it [e]Galeed. 48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between [f]you and me this day.” Therefore it was named Galeed, 49 and [g]Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between [h]you and me when we are [i]absent one from the other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between [j]you and me.” 51 Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between [k]you and me. 52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. 53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac. 54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his [l]kinsmen to [m]the meal; and they ate [n]the meal and spent the night on the mountain. 55 [o]Early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.