Tag Archives: Learning

Healthy Eating

What I learned from Ketogenic Dieting

Carbohydrates are a problem.  At least for me.  So out of necessity I searched for a short-term solution where I could cut carbs and lose weight too.  I am getting to the point where I need to settle in on a long-term alternative for my diet.  This is a good time to reflect on where eating and maintaining Ketosis arrived as a tool for me.

I began with strict daily calorie counts.  25 grams maximum of carbs.  To reach the level of fat burning I wanted, my ratio of 4% Calories from carbs, 15% from protein and 81% from fat was what I followed.  So, with about 2000 calories daily, I had 77 grams of protein and 184 grams of fat to eat.

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Was it hard?  You bet it was.  Finding enough fat to eat seemed almost impossible.  The shock for me was realizing how much the typical American diet is high carb and “low” fat.  What was good for me is that I reached Ketosis quickly and saw early weight loss.  I did not stay on it very long because of the health risks people around me kept reminding me of.

Lifesum diet app
From https://www.dietspotlight.com/lifesum-review/

I found that using a dieting app was indispensable.  After looking around a bit I went with Lifesum.  lifsum logoThe choice of diets with the app were a factor for me.  I soon switched to their Ketogenic easy.  This meant I now got to eat a whopping 100 grams of carbs each day.  My ratio changed to 20% calories from carbs, 15% from protein and 65% from fat.  The bad news was that my protein stayed at 77 grams per day.  The shift up by 75 grams of carbs was offset by a reduction in 35 grams of fat down to 149 grams a day.

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While that may seem easy as the name implies, at first it was hard for me to get up to 100 carbs.  I began with the idea that by eating about 4 times I could average about 25 grams of carbs per meal.  This average was significant for me because I was wary of how large swings in carb consumption would affect blood sugar.

One of the biggest benefits from this new diet was that it led me on an unending search for healthy, convenient, nutritious and consumable sources of carbohydrates.  So many of these foods checked off some of the boxes but not all.  They might be extremely hard to prepare, or even harder to digest!  Some are delicate and challenging to use.  It seemed like the window of when they are ripe, and edible was so small that if you didn’t have a backyard garden full of trees giving birth to them the moment before you ate some, then forget it.

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Another benefit was that I lost weight, and on a gradual timeline.  I learned over time how I would be able to maintain my goal weight once I reached it.  With the 2000 calorie plan, any day I burned more than I consumed contributed to my weight loss.  The app was a big help with measuring my daily calorie burns.

My takeaways.

  • Eat at least 4 meals at regular intervals. If fasting, plan the fasting periods with care.
  • Avoid unhealthy calories. These can lead to very bad consequences.  Take the time and make the effort to find healthy types of fat, protein, and carbohydrates for your diet and then eat them in healthy amounts.
  • Counting calories is a good habit to have. Knowing  how much you are eating keeps you out of danger.
  • Counting the calories that you burn each day has huge benefits. This lets you know if your amount of exercise is contributing to a healthy lifestyle or an unhealthy one.
  • Healthy dieting can provide better alternatives than caffeine and other stimulants people depend on.
  • There are so many things to learn about diet and exercise that can impact not only your health but your brain, your skin, your energy, even your sleep.
spinach chicken pomegranate salad
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Disciple

My journey of personal observations which I have made over the years to apply Bible reading in my life.
Matthew 13:19-23
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart…20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.  He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
Observation
The four responses to the word of God are explained and only one response is the fruitful response.
Application in my life
I hope this will be a time for me to bear fruit in a small group of people who desire to learn and grow in their journey as Christians.
My prayer
Lord, I pray that You will direct me and the people who are to be in the Bible study. Let us be fruit bearers who will continue in the practices of applying the words of the Bible after this period of group study is over. Amen
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Undergrad Summer Reading

How to get the most out of your online college class.

I’ve been teaching undergraduate courses via computer for about a decade. Here are some tips based on my personal experience that can help you get the biggest return on the investment of your time and energy within this type of learning environment.

Because it is so foreign to the traditional face to face classroom model that students have learned to navigate most of their lives, students often arrive in an “online” class unprepared. This can create the kinds of obstacles that lead to less that the ideal conditions for learning excellence.

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The traditional class has set days and times where the student is present and focused primarily on receiving new information and knowledge about the subject material. Their complete attention is committed to listening to the direction of an instructor and they face immediate consequences for not having prepared in advance by reading, studying, and note taking. Questions are addressed in a manner that allows for immediate clarification and professors are able to offer multiple examples which can help cement the learning of new concepts. Students can also employ multiple learning modalities in one setting by vocalizing their thoughts, hearing the information spoken, seeing visual representations of the content and writing down cogent facts that have significance.

The typical online class has no set day, no set time. Students must make a conscious decision about when, where, and even how they will engage with the material. That engagement is first and foremost, reading, reading and more reading! Any writing, listening, speaking or visualization are primarily brought about by the student deciding to add those aspects by introducing each of them on their own. Would the typical student know how to? Would they even recognize the need to do it in order to learn better?

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Tip: if offered, attend an online orientation course.
These courses are designed specifically to educate students on the unique challenges online classes present so that students can equip themselves with appropriate strategies to do well.

Tip: Plan to study the first available day that you have for each learning module.
Each online class is divided into modules that take place over a number of days. Students who perform best start their work on the first day that the module is assigned. They read the assigned material. They take notes. They learn the definitions of new terms and they quiz themselves on key concepts that they have identified. Verbal quizzing – saying the answers out loud – is a good way to add 2 modalities. Reading and taking notes or highlighting is not enough by itself to retain a large enough amount of the information. By studying early, you allow yourself time to absorb new knowledge. In a few days you can review the material and find out how much you have already retained. This is critical for an online student. You can then take the remaining available time to focus on the parts you’ve yet to memorize. Also, you can ask questions or ask for any help from the instructor. Students who wait until the module is almost over to begin working have lost the ability to benefit from any of these practices.

Tip: Engage in the class as often as possible.
Many classes attempt to simulate the face to face dynamic that occurs with discussion groups and professor led seminars. This is done by allowing students to ‘text message’ one another during the module to exchange ideas about various topics. Instructors know how important this community building is for student success so they often provide detailed written guidance on how to interact with other students for maximum benefit. Many students do not follow the instructions. Instead they assume a level of participation that they think is required and commit to do only that much. That falls far short of the engagement needed to help not just the particular student but everyone else in the class as well. Imagine that you are in a traditional face to face classroom and the three other people assigned to your small group discussion do not say a word to you during the entire class. Even when you ask each of them a specific question, they just look at you and stay completely silent. Finally, after you have reached the point where you have given up all hope after patiently waiting for a reply – the instructor announces ‘time’s up’ and asks each group to report out on your discussion – your classmate whispers to you, ‘I agree with what you said’. What did you get out of that?

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Tip: Reader; know thyself.
How good of a reader are you? What is your reading comprehension? There are reading strategies that teach how to get the most information in the shortest amount of time from textbooks. Did you know that? Do you use any of them? Colleges typically have the ability to score textbooks on their level of readability – how hard it is for the average student to read it and understand it. You should find out the readability of your class textbook and compare it with your own reading level. This will tell you how much work you have cut out for you. Ultimately, an online class will be based on how much reading you do and how much you are able to learn from reading.  Here are 3 reading systems that I share with students. Try each of them and test your results. You can also modify them or combine the best parts, tailoring them to what suits you best.

SQ3R

P2R

S-RUN