2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

florianatwobob said:

@Cherryfudge my very limited Arabic isn’t repeatable in polite company. Dad was with the Royal Navy in Egypt…….

I suspect my Dad knew things he wouldn't repeat in front of his daughters.  

As to Taliesin... I'm still learning.  

MrsCD

I did French and German at school but only used it when we went on battlefield tours around Europe. I can't have a conversation but somehow manage to understand/ be understood!
DD has just told me about the 1000 outdoor hours challenge. It's mainly aimed at primary children, but I'm sure it would benefit most people. I'm going to try to increase my outdoor hours next year but may not manage1000 hours!
During the war years, children would have spent a lot more time outside, and were probably a lot healthier for it. Apparently, American children spend 1200 hours a year on screen time, so the possibility is there, and I'm sure British children are more or less the same.

Laura_Elsewhere

@MrsCD, I like the idea of a 1000-outdoor-hours challenge and yes, it would help a lot... not just reduce screen time for kids but Vit-D is only now being fully understood - a friend researches in the field and he is evangelical about getting people outside and daylight on skin... 
If you go out with sleeves pushed up to elbows you can get UV even in midwinter - wear gloves and dress the rest of you cosily and you can easily go out for a 30-minute walk in the bitterest UK weather without getting chilled because your forearms just quietly reduce their surface bloodflow. 
If you struggle to get to sleep, try going out to get daylight-on-skin much earlier in your day - it's what sets the clock ticking for the bedtime hormones to be produced, so if you start that at 8am, the chances are far far higher of you feeling sleepier at bedtime. 
Vit-D helps with reducing asthma symptoms, and lower levels are implicated in all kinds of medical conditions, from mild to very serious ones. That's not to say "Vit-D cures all these" but it is possible that increasing your daylight-exposure may reduce the severity, or reduce your risk - perhaps it's something that is healthy over your lifetime rather than immediately? Still being researched... 
My friend says to avoid the strongest sunlight, ie 11am to 3pm, or thereabouts, in the warmer months, and to wear a broad-brimmed hat to protect your face and (esp men!) your ears and neck and scalp, all year round. But if you go out early and later, then he says not to use sunscreen on your limbs, and just let your body get the UV safely that way. 

So there are the obvious immediate benefits to 1000 outdoors hours, ie obesity, eyesight, socialising, etc., but there may be massive benefits across someone's life, from improved sleep patterns to lowered risks of severe and mild disease...

Oh yes, and just 30 minutes a day walking in daylight reduces the risk of a) getting a respiratory infection and b) reduces the severity and length of it if you do get one - and that research went for colds and flu, which are unrelated, so given our current pandemic situation it seems a useful trick to know  

weenancyinAmerica

I do a lot of genealogy and can figure out what I am reading in almost any language that uses the same alphabet we do. This week alone I have done research in Swedish, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, and Flemish. But I can't speak them. I collect the children's dictionaries in different languages and children's books on how to speak them, but not very successful at it. Where I live, I need to learn more Spanish so that is my goal this year, especially since a couple of family members speak mostly Spanish. 

Liverpool_Anne

@Cherryfudge, I know what you mean by improve something etc but honestly that is what I do all the time. What I mean by targets being limiting is, for example, lose half a stone. Either you fail miserably or you achieve the target but actually need to lose more weight but stop trying as you have achieved your target. IyswIm. I also feel after years of setting 100+ targets 3 times a year for my pupils and having to work with the pressure of targets for myself I've really grown to dislike them and as I don't like them I'm just not doing them

Cherryfudge

Liverpool_Anne said:

@Cherryfudge, I know what you mean by improve something etc but honestly that is what I do all the time. What I mean by targets being limiting is, for example, lose half a stone. Either you fail miserably or you achieve the target but actually need to lose more weight but stop trying as you have achieved your target. IyswIm. I also feel after years of setting 100+ targets 3 times a year for my pupils and having to work with the pressure of targets for myself I've really grown to dislike them and as I don't like them I'm just not doing them

I suppose when I say I will try to improve, I'm giving myself something I can't fail. I get very discouraged by failure, but 'nothing succeeds like success'. If I lost half a stone I might well slow down my weight loss but at least I would feel I could be in control of it and being me I would probably still think I needed to lose more.

It raises a few issues: unrealistic targets, not being kind to ourselves, not being in a place where we can pick our selves up and move on, lack of awareness in target setters of the demands on those they are setting the targets for. Yet I still keep optimistically setting them for myself! Have I fallen into the trap? Or perhaps I'm just periodically trying to take stock and reorientate myself?

I think your point about targets being limiting is really worth consideration, but it's taking me a while to think through. So if, for instance, my self esteem about my ability to speak French is quite low, I will set myself a lower target and never find out what I could have achieved? If I lose the half a stone I will stop there and not find out I could have lost another 4 lbs and fitted into smaller jeans?

Some of it must depend on the individual: their self-confidence or otherwise, what support they have, what life is throwing at them at the time and probably what was said to them in early childhood too. Things like that will influence how we look targets, challenges, problems etc. On a good day they can be inspiring but on a bad one or if set by the wrong person or in the wrong way, they are off-putting. Why does our society focus so much on achieving more and more rather than on contentment with what we have and helping others have a happier life?

Okay, essay over. Lots for me to think about. It must be your teaching abilities coming to the fore.

MrsCD

@Laura_Elsewhere, I absolutely 100% agree with you on the vitamin d front. DD has MS, and her previous specialist nurse was very evangelical, as you say, about all people, but younger women in particular, taking vit d in these northern latitudes, as it's been proven to help reduce the chances of developing MS.

TwibbleDee

I’m refusing to make grandiose resolutions this year. I’m just going to work on being kinder to myself, including moving and feeding myself more things that are nutritious. 

PipneyJane

MrsCD said:

@Laura_Elsewhere, I absolutely 100% agree with you on the vitamin d front. DD has MS, and her previous specialist nurse was very evangelical, as you say, about all people, but younger women in particular, taking vit d in these northern latitudes, as it's been proven to help reduce the chances of developing MS.

@Laura_Elsewhere and @MrsCD, may I echo this?  Vitamin D is involved in so many processes in the body, including regulating your metabolism and enhancing your immune system.  (I think it has something to do with hormone creation.) From personal experience, once I started taking a Vitamin D supplement, it helped to regulate my periods.

- Pip