Katty

There are lots of different ways to lower blood sugar. Put simply, the average person should aim for 15grams of fibre for every 100 grams of carbohydrates, and 5% or less of a person's dietary intake should be in the form of sugar, and simple starch counts as sugar. You also want a good amount of your calories to come from fat and protein. Not only do foods high in fat and protein improve satiety, but they've been shown to help lower blood sugar. When it comes to carb based foods, it's best to focus on a wide variety of plant based whole foods in order to maximise gut microbiota diversity. Research has shown that people who consume 30 or more different plant foods a week, have the most diverse gut microbiomes. What counts as a single plant food is also pretty flexible, but it's good to do research on that, because I've read that, while two different types of apples will count as two different plant foods, 2 servings of spinach is required to count as a single plant food, for some reason. The great thing about doing it this way instead of aiming for 5 a day, is that it gives you a lot of flexibility. You can do this while on the Keto, modified Atkins, gluten free, you can avoid legumes or maximize legume consumption if you like. You can eat 1 vegetable a day, so long as you're making up for the numbers in other kinds of whole plant foods. Although, with diabetes, it is recommended that you limit how many plant based foods are fruits, particularly high sugar fruits like grapes. Also, for optimum gut health, it's recommended to consume a fermented food, at least 3-4 times weekly, so: kefir, yoghurt with live cultures, kimchi, sauerkraut, and miso. Pickled foods are good too, if the pickled foods are fermented and not just floating in vinegar. This is not something you have to do, as it takes a bit of work, but something I like to do is buy meat on the bone so that I can boil the bones to make bone broth, as bone broth is great for gut health. The reason I recommend a gut healthy diet, personally, is that research has shown that diverse gut microbiota helps control blood sugar and increase sensitivity to insulin. If you have ChatGPT, Claude or some other AI tool, AI can be really good for research scientific studies (in fact, I find when asking it about research on any given subject, that's when I've found it to hallucinate the least). It can also be good for giving you a custom meal plan based on your personal dietary needs as well as your food preferences. I've been using it to generate a meal plan in which I consume at least 30 plant foods a week including a fermented food at least 4 times a week, and it's given me brilliant ideas. You can ask it simply for a meal plan that's best for a diabetic and put in all the foods you like eating on daily basis, any allergies or sensitivities, etc, and even ask for alternatives if you're not sure about the first choice or need flexibility.

I think that ChatGPT has helped me be a better witness in more peripheral ways. I mean, I've been using it for more 'slog work' as I call it, to help me with meal plans, cleaning schedules, etc. so I can focus on doing research on spiritual things or comments myself, or, on my down time, doing something creative. I don't like researching jw subjects with it, personally, because I find putting in the work gleans more rewards, and actually gives me more opportunity to really think and meditate on a given subject. I'm surprised no one brought up the recent study in which someone who used old fashioned tools, google and chatgpt for a writing assignment, and the one who used chatgpt had the least mental engagement with subject, the lowest amount of brain activity and had the worst recall of the 3 categories. Some things are worth doing the more difficult way, at times. I'm not saying you're doing a bad thing if you use it for spiritual research. It can be useful so long as you're taking the time to digest what you've researched. It's just a personal preference for me.

This is just political drama. It's just theatrics. Meanwhile Trump is considering making a major database on all citizens and making a deal with Palantir to do, using the desire to deport illegals as an excuse and hardly anyone is talking about it. Some are even saying there might be evidence that DOGE was setting up for this and that might have been Elon's role. You can't trust any politician, which is obvious. It has been so normalized for governments to commit mass overreach and deprive their citizens of privacy or censoring their speech that it seems like no modern government can do anything without attempting, at least, one of these. The free world is a lie. Some people only seem free. I also never trusted Elon. He is incredibly clever, something people should not underestimate. He clever in a way, I believe former PM Tony Blair is clever: These are people who play the long game, think their next moves before making their current and know exactly what to say to garner support to themselves, no matter how sinister their plans for people might be. But, I also never trusted Elon because I've seen evidence he's had ties, at least, with individuals associated with the WEF, a globalist organization with ties to the UN, he proposed neurolink and thought interfaces before it was talked about at Davos, and he often warns against the dangers of AI while a lot of the technology that he owns has massively expanded the AI tools it implements, often to the potential detriment of users. X is a massive target of something known as "dead internet theory" or the belief that most of the people you interact with are AI bots. He claimed to try to get rid of AI bots, but it feels like there are more than ever. Of course, I have no hard evidence to support my feelings of distrust for Elon to sincerely be someone who cares about the well being of US Citizens. It's mostly a gut feeling based on things like the above.

The deportations is not what I find concerning. It's the fact that Trump felt the need to sign a contract with Palantir to commit surveillance on the average person in the US that does. Governments these days can't do anything without massive overreach and either spying on or trying to control their citizens.

I seriously doubt Americans hard pressed to find work would not pick fruit. The difference, however, is that they won't do it for below minimum wage and without adherence to labour laws. An undocumented migrant would, because they wouldn't have a choice. Do work or be reported to authorities and deported is their choice. In the mining industry, a citizen would expect safety protocols and compensation of injury or death in the case of a mining disaster. If an undocumented migrant is injured or killed in a mining accident, the employers could just get Abrego Garcia to go and round up another batch of workers for them. Even mass legal migration can lead to worker exploitation, because employers can do what ever they want to someone who's job is tied to a visa with very little to no backlash, because the options are, again, "work here or be deported". There are apparently exploitative practices taking place in the UK, a country with a relatively open immigration policy for workers. Yes, native people are going to be disenchanted with an immigration policy that makes finding employment next to impossible or lowers the standards of how employers can treat employees, because "we can just replace you with a batch of Indian workers at a moments notice". I agree that people shouldn't criticize the migrants, themselves, because they're just doing what anyone would do in their position, but, on places like forums and social media, I'm seeing an increasing amount of people complaining, not about the migrants themselves, but the employers and governments for their exploitative practices and for how they end up treating their own citizens. Yes, people are making a huge fuss about people breaking the law and entering a country illegally. What the Europeans did was between 300 and 100 years ago. I'm really tired of people rehashing old history as a justification not enforcing current laws. I'm saying this as a descendant of an immigrant from south of the border, myself. My grandfather entered the country and came in through customs just like everyone else who came in the country, because, even then, people knew that entering a country without permission was not allowed. He also learned fluent English, started a family with an indigenous American, had lots of kids, and, in many ways, assimilated to the local culture. He wasn't the nicest dad, I hear, but he influenced his children to obey the law and respect authorities. How can a parent who breaks the law for the sake of entering a country come to impose those standards on their children? Comparing people who enter a country illegally, and who, after years of living here, never bothered to learn even enough English to give a short reply to a police officer to those who worked hard and assimilate to the laws and customs and the land is insulting to these people. What is more, is that it's insulting to the many people who go through years in immigration limbo and spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours filling out forms for Visas until they finally get indefinite leave to remain. Most news media and commentators don't consider the facts before assuming that anyone with any kind of objection whatsoever to this are just "racist".

Ooooh. I want to do this with my family... except for Bluey.

We watched "A Silent Voice" or "The Sound of Voice" again, and anyone see that? I think everything can be constituted, at least to some extent to be Naoka's fault. Looking at the Wikipedia on the Manga, it looks like she's a bit worse in the anime than in the Manga. It kinda makes me curious to see the manga. I wonder if Amazon has a translated version... Anyway, she instigates a lot of events in the film and, when people respond to that instigation, due to social pressure, apparently being quite strong in a collectivist society like Japan, she seems to use it as a out to escape anything resembling accountability for her actions. I'm pretty sure she's a psychopath.

I mentioned I left it out, not on purpose, but because I'm on a computer and not my phone. I'd have added it if I were on my phone.

Here in Northwest England, I love going to Darwen with my little girl. There's so many beautiful hilly spots with becks and waterfalls. I also liked going to Alderley edge and hope I can go back when my daughter's a bit older. It has a really old mine and a stone circle that I didn't get to see because I had a kid in a pram still. When she drops the nap, I plan on going pram free with her, so as soon as I can either get a sitter for the baby that's coming or drop the pram for both, I'd love to go back. The picture doesn't do it justice. You can see the entire Manchester skyline from the hill where the forest begins: We also had our fourth anniversary in Grasmere, which was breathtaking, and we hiked to a very small cave that was kinda fun, but the walk itself was the best part. Lastly, when we were in Munich, there was this forest that was about a half hour bus ride away from the city: Grunwald (yes, it does have an umlaut, but I'm not typing on my phone. Sorry) forest. Our daughter was only a few months past one, and we put on her baby reins and let her walk for much of the forest and she absolutely loved it. Going to various forests and parks is one of my favourite things to do with my little girl and she seems to love nature and flowers and trees and birds.

Whether using AI on a test for employment isn't necessarily cheating. A good question to ask a prospective employer might be to straight up ask whether they would expect you to use AI tools in your work, and, if so, at what level. I'm not sure what is meant by a job needing a lot of technical knowledge, but if it's a part of the tech industry, it is likely that the employers might have embraced AI, and are expecting their workforce to use it on a daily basis. If you are expected to know this material without relying on AI however, then, yeah, it could be cheating, or at least considered to be such. It's probably best to at least attempt to have an open conversation on AI if you end up moving forward on this job. I would imagine individual have varied opinions on its encroachment upon the workforce, and, thus, different expectations.

Some forums are made to be more like social media, yes. I don't think this is one of them.

Sometimes I delete my social media apps for a week or so, because I've found sometimes the content can bring my mood down. I agree forums are not like social media. Social media is designed to keep you addicted to scrolling indefinitely. It can lower focus and attention span, and can negatively influence our thinking when we overconsume it. A forum allows for more long form, nuanced ideas and arguments requiring more critical thinking to read as well as write.

On a more serious not, while I don't assert an opinion on what government should or should not do, I think a tiktok ban and really a short form video ban would be good for society. I don't see any positive impact that TikTok has made in the consciousness of younger generations that even measure up to, much less than outweigh the negative impacts. It is highly addictive and it lowers attention span. It also shoves divisive, often highly politicized issues into people's faces via influencers who either lack the understanding of the nuances of the situation or will not share a more nuanced views, because divisive and controversial content gets more engagement. These content creators, as well, with the loudspeaker they're given and the validation it gives them from audiences exacerbates the Dunning Kruger effect in regular content creators to dangerous levels. People are giving advice on things thinking they're actually experts, when they have no idea what they're talking about. I see, even on facebook on Instagram a lot of this Tiktok parenting content, and a lot of it is toddler moms asserting with great confidence really extreme ideas on "gentle parenting", (which in reality is permissive parenting). It seems as if these competitions as to whose ideas can be the most extreme incarnations of some trendy concept become inevitable. I've seen people say things like: germs don't make you sick, we shouldn't be eating vegetables, or that you should never tell your child "no" or you should always respect their "no". I think Twitter/X and TikTok have created a generation of people who can't pay attention to something that lasts more than a few seconds and struggle with even basic levels of critical thinking. I wish I could stop seeing Tiktok or Tiktok clone content everywhere on the internet. I have to delete my social media accounts once every few weeks or so, these days due to its negative impacts on my mental health. I also wonder how many ADHD diagnoses are just misdiagnosed screen or social media addictions in children and even toddlers. Btw, I'm not sending any judgment towards people who regularly view Tiktok. As someone who struggles with social media addiction, I understand the struggles of those who struggle with breaking away from short form content. I'm just saying, it's not the healthiest thing for our attention spans or ability to comprehend longer and more nuanced content. Before social media, film and television developed a lot more slowly, so that people could have a chance to get to know the characters, theme or setting a bit better before the main action came into play. I've found a lot of film and television hammers the message right in your face from frame 1 almost. It could be that we no longer have the attention span to see something start slowly and see where it takes us.

If time travel to the past were possible, it seems like there would be at least one Bible account of miraculous time travel to the past. I think Jehovah set up the universe with a few hard and fast rules and no time travel is one of them. The fact that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light is likely a clue to that. (of course nothing with mass is even likely capable of travelling light speed either). I'm eagerly awaiting any confirmation as to whether tachyon's actually exist. Of course, the implication that a particle with imaginary mass can time travel still would not likely apply to anything with mass. Yes. I believe it's what physicists refer to as entropy. I'll have to check with my husband to be sure.

I've used ChatGPT to give ideas from the perspective of a cognitive behavioural therapist, and it's given a lot of ideas for journaling, etc. I stopped doing it after a few queries though, because I have a difficult time trusting it. If you talk to a human, you know there's a strict code of confidentiality, and you can trust they won't share the information you give to third parties. You can't say that for AI's. Your information is likely going onto a server and where after that? Who knows? It's like any aspect of big tech, if you don't want something about yourself to be widely known it's best not to share it. It's very likely that the information you share will end up in a database to be used for future data sets to train future versions of ChatGPT. Yes, you can be relatively anonymous, but it's an AI, it's not like a program can't potentially use your profile and cross reference to publicly available information to make a determination of what your identity is, and when information is available on a server that has access to the internet, even if it's not sold to major third parties, it can still be hacked. Even though it wasn't an AI company, 23 and me, went bankrupt and it caused a lot of people were concerned about what happened to their data. I wonder if we're providing our ChatGPT accounts, if we have one, with more information than is what's contained in our DNA? There is also another concern: how much people are starting to feel bonded with mere computer algorithms. Mark Zuckerberg straight up said that AI is a good solution for loneliness. Yeah, but Zuckerberg has something to gain from people taking that approach, and, in the long run that can do more harm than good. I do fear that if we continue to feel increasingly bonded with computer programs, we may, over time, lose our humanity. With a therapist, one of the elements that is therapeutic is knowing there is a human there who can understand how we feel. Sometimes that's all a person needs. But, AI just gives you the illusion of a human who understands without the reality. I wonder what potential psychological harm can come, particularly to future generations who grew up with chatbots. That being said, CBT is really expensive, so there could be some benefit to low income people who need to overcome issues, if they feel comfortable with the possibility of third parties having access with their information, seek sources for advice given, especially on more sensitive issues, and realize that they are not talking to a human but an aggregate of information presented to sound human based on a composite of human generated content.

If Yosemite is an essential to your trip, you might find it easier to fly into California, if you're coming from Australia, and you might find it, overall, less expensive, to fly in and out of the US from California. San Fransisco or Sacrimento would be equally good destinations, but both are about a 3 our drive from Yosemite. if you want to explore New York and Houston, it's very likely that flying over the long distances will come out less expensive than the petrol for driving these long distances, and you can spend so much more time exploring. It sounds like you might be spending a lot of time in New York City, and you'll probably prefer taking taxis and transport over driving in New York until you decide to go to Bethel and Niagara. Alternately, you might be able to find coach tours that will include tours of these different places. I'd recommend using Skyscanner and Google flights to try to work out different combinations of return and multi-flights to see what comes out to be the less expensive option, and see what is the best thing to do at what part of your trip.

It would certainly be a lot more difficult for the "expressions inspired by demons" to spread around the world quickly without the internet, so I'm thinking, yes.

I don't think that will apply to us for a while, yet. But, it does bring home the importance of following the guidlines for cart witnesses. The faithful slave gave us really good instructions in order to be able to Witness publicly without being considered a nuisance (except of course, to those who choose to see us as a nuisance, basically for existing).

David uses Claude at work. I use ChatGPT mostly to ask programming questions when David's not around and to ask questions about research on baby/toddler development.

Fiction entertainment shows that are just for entertainment are definitely not harmless. There's a reason why past totalitarian governments have invested in 'entertainment' shows for their propaganda. It works. It affects how you view morality, how you conduct relationships, and even how you see reality. Also, when it comes to shows that portray angels and demons, it can be demonic propaganda trying to influence us to see things from their perspective, and that can be extremely dangerous. I know people will think I'm a little kooky for saying this, but I think David Tennant might actually be demon possessed in real life. I mean look at past interview and the more recent interview where he talked about "whingy little people who will be gone soon" talking about the people complaining about Dr. Who become a very blatantly overt platform for trans propaganda. You can just see the demonic rage seething from him. I've never seen him in past interviews or anything be anywhere near that level of hatred or resentment. I used to watch a lot of these shows that promoted worldly morality and it did affect my view of reality. I used to watch Glee and a lot of Netflix feminist shows, and I do think they often made it easier for me to engage in bad association, because I was already spending a lot of time with fictional people who lived all kinds of diverse sexual lifestyles. These days, I'm a lot more careful about my entertainment even than when I was a regular pioneer, because we have a toddler who's nearly 2 and I find children are so easily affected particularly by portrayals of violence and sexuality. When I was my child, my first introduction to sex was on television and I didn't really understand what was going on and it just imbued me with a bit of guilt and shame regarding thoughts on sex, kind of like I understood this was not meant to be something for me to see. I think that sense of shame made me more vulnerable to sexual abuse, but I'm digressing. Like I said in the other thread, I plan on working really hard to keep me little girl as innocent as possible. On nights we don't have Eliza with us we might watch various things like comedy shows--I find the UK tends to have a higher tolerance for the f word than the US. They openly use words like this on late night TV where it's bleeped out even late night in the US, but we still try to limit our profanity in entertainment--or we'll watch spoofy comedies or Bridge of Spies or something along that line. When it comes to TV shows, we'll occasionally watch the Simpsons: the older episodes that were funnier, and I think the only show we watch that's on TV right now that we watch is Bob's Burgers. Yeah, Gene is sometimes a bit of a potty mouth, and sometimes there are gay or very promiscuous characters, but their appearances tend to be relatively rare. I find most of the episodes tend to have a really positive message, I like that the dad is the voice of reason in the family and the mum is kind of a ditz sometimes. It makes me feel like our family is more normal. I get tired of seeing the inept husband/domestic goddess wife trope, because as a mom with ADHD I feel like it subjects me to really unrealistic expectations. We also watch Studio Ghibli films with the exception of Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service. I think On Poppy Hill is one of my favourites. We do sometimes watch "My Neighbour Totoro". It's the kind of film that might bother the conscience of some, but we find it's more about mythological creatures than straight up magic or witchcraft. We've also watched Anime series like Toradora and Your Lie in April. We find that when it comes to fantasy, there is a big distinction between books like, say, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and the Harry Potter series. The former is more of an alternate fictional universe with it's own set of in-world rules, and the latter is a book that incorporates real world spells into a fictional universe. I get that not everyone makes this distinction and some Christians will see all fantasy as bad. When it comes to music, such as Christian music, I think it's more of a conscience matter. You have to consider the background of the music and whether the particular song promotes false teachings about Jehovah. I find a lot of contemporary Christian music is more about generating good vibes than any particular doctrine and also I think a lot of country music overlaps with Christian. We like a few country songs that talk about God in them, personally.

I think they would have seen the umbilical cord first. A part of the cord stays on a newborn for the first week or two and then it falls off, so they probably would have seen that it was a natural consequence of that happening. I think I still have the piece of my daughter's cord with the clamp still on it, somewhere in a box.

Yes, and social media killed it, just like short form content destroyed television. Thanks to social media everything has to be click-baity, rage-baity, or, in some other way, has to capture people's attention over all the other content screaming for attention. Everything has to be so sensationalized. I've tried to market games on Twitter/X and it's an absolute nightmare. People post the same things over and over again, and if you're trying to run a sincere marketing campaign it feels like you're screaming into the void. I went through a month of "The answer is between this letter and that letter on the keyboard" posts, or the "by 30 you should" followed by tasks a 12 year old should be able to do. I felt like my brain would melt. Sadly this could also be the death of books, at least in this system of things. Gen-Z is one of the least book literate generations in history, and gen Alpha is poised to be worse, as, not only is short form content making it increasingly difficult for people to follow longer and more complex narratives, but the education system has been increasingly dumbed down with students being more likely to read excerpts out of context than actually being expected to read full books. The situation for kids coming into school is even worse; a lot of them can't even use books, as in, turn the pages . I admire people of the younger generations who push against the tides and actually read real books. I think following a complex narrative helps us develop empathy, understand nuanced situations and to understand context in communications. I see way too many people on social media who struggle with comprehending a single sentence, not to mention help people develop the critical thinking skills to step outside the political biases and emotional manipulation of today's headlines.

As it was stated, you don't really have to worry about books too much if you sign up for an online program that provides the learning materials. There are so many to choose from in the US, by the way, if you do a quick search on homeschool programs in America, so many programs pop up. If you do want to get text books, I'd probably get some second hand on eBay or other websites were people sell their used books. That's what we plan on doing, since you're a little bit more on your own as a home-educator in the UK.

Idk. I never wear sunglasses and I was sunburned exactly once in my life, when I was 12, because I was swimming all day at a camping trip. My husband burns more often and he also never wears sunglasses, but his epilepsy medication makes him sensitive to sunlight.

I'm glad you brought up sunlight and cholesterol. There are so many misconceptions on fat, still. I see nutritionists still recommend low-fat products to lose weight, despite the fact that more recent research has revealed that full fat products, particularly in regards to dairy based products have greater benefits than their low fat alternatives in weight loss, due to the consumption of these leading to greater and long lasting satiety, reducing the need to snack between meals. Fats and lipids are actually necessary for so many bodily functions, and when I was in school, I learned that the body burns fat when in a resting state, but you need a vigorous cardio workout in order to metabolize carbohydrates, particularly starch and sugar. And, I've been starting to look into the benefits of vitamin D for immunity. I have a friend who found a resource that stated that the recommended dose for vitamin D is too low, or, at least too low for up here where there's a constant cloud cover, so he takes 3 times the regular dose from October to March and states he never catches what goes around as a result.