u/loveyouronions

I had some great feedback on my last substack about UPF, so thank you very much for that. Here is a slightly more controversial piece on fat activism and UPF, which I almost never see discussed around this issue

I am a runner so don’t use the gym a huge amount (though I should be using it more, and this summer have thought how nice it would be to have access to a treadmill)

I also love Jesus Green Lido and a few years ago I had a student membership there and I used to go for a run, end it at JGL, have a nice shower and a dip in the pool, and it was lovely.

I no longer qualify for any of the discounts so I’m looking at £52/mo which is a fair chunk for me. I live on Maids Causeway so I’m very close to JGL and Parkside Pools and gym. I have heard some…not so good things about Parkside Pools so was just wondering if anyone goes there and enjoys it? It would be ~£40/mo just for JGL so I feel like this way I’ll get a bit more out of it, and maybe I’ll actually do some strength and conditioning!

Hello everybody - I thought you may all enjoy my latest piece on UPF:

I actually started this subreddit back in 2023 (I don't know why I chose coco pops at the icon!) but I find the discourse around UPF online to be very frustrating - often circular, often pedantic, often attracts those struggling with eating disorders. I found policing this sub to be hard, though clearly more capable moderators have stepped in in my stead.

Anyway, I find online discourse hard, so I'm shifting to this longer-form writing which I hope can bring some nuance to the subject. I think you'll all know most of the theory in here, but you may enjoy hearing my story around UPF and why discovering it has altered the course of my life.

In 2023 I lost a whole bunch of weight (80lbs) and started running. Like many here, I became pretty addicted and I've loved it ever since. I was lucky enough to even run the New York City Marathon last November and I was so proud of myself and the body I had built.

Shortly after the marathon, I developed this awful labyrinthitis, and then lost my vision for 3 months. This was a nightmare for me. I stopped running, put on a bunch of weight (I guess I was relying on the running a bit for weight management, but also was so upset that I definitely emotionally ate), and have just generally been sad and heavier than I would like.

I finally got it all under control, my vision is back and I'm cleared to run again. In June I put a concerted effort toward weight loss and I'm down 17lb in the only way I know how: cutting out most Ultra Processed Food and calorie tracking. I eat around 1500-1600 most days and I feel satisfied and happy with the rate of weight loss.

Problem is, I really want to return to running but **I do not know how to manage running alongside weight loss.**Running makes me hungry, and it wouldn't be safe nor sustainable to eat 15-1600 calories while running, even gently - I know it would open me up to problems and underselling is never a good idea.

So, do I start running again, or do I wait until I'm closer to my goal weight (about 20lbs until I'm a 'normal' BMI, 20 again until I'm at my 'ideal' weight). This will probably take 6 months. I'm worried about underfeeding even if I do adjust my calorie intake accordingly.

Unsure. I welcome any and all advice. I don't want to be back running marathons just yet, just an easy 5km a few times a week to keep my body and my mind happy, but you know how addictive running becomes...

In 2023 I lost a whole bunch of weight (80lbs) and started running. Like many here, I became pretty addicted and I've loved it ever since. I was lucky enough to even run the New York City Marathon last November and I was so proud of myself and the body I had built.

Shortly after the marathon, I developed this awful labyrinthitis, and then lost my vision for 3 months. This was a nightmare for me. I stopped running, put on a bunch of weight (I guess I was relying on the running a bit for weight management, but also was so upset that I definitely emotionally ate), and have just generally been sad and heavier than I would like.

I finally got it all under control, my vision is back and I'm cleared to run again. In June I put a concerted effort toward weight loss and I'm down 17lb in the only way I know how: cutting out most Ultra Processed Food and calorie tracking. I eat around 1500-1600 most days and I feel satisfied and happy with the rate of weight loss.

Problem is, I really want to return to running but **I do not know how to manage running alongside weight loss.**Running makes me hungry, and it wouldn't be safe nor sustainable to eat 15-1600 calories while running, even gently - I know it would open me up to problems and underselling is never a good idea.

So, do I start running again, or do I wait until I'm closer to my goal weight (about 20lbs until I'm a 'normal' BMI, 20 again until I'm at my 'ideal' weight). This will probably take 6 months. I'm worried about underfeeding even if I do adjust my calorie intake accordingly.

Unsure. I welcome any and all advice. I don't want to be back running marathons just yet, just an easy 5km a few times a week to keep my body and my mind happy, but you know how addictive running becomes...

There's something I've been wanting for a while (a new fitness watch), which I've never quite been able to justify the price of in a given month - I could easily afford it but I don't like squeezing my budget per month a huge amount in case of unexpected home repairs or something, and I prioritise my savings contributions, my bills and have a hefty mortgage etc. I

Anyway, I've just had a look again and I have been offered the 5 month payment option which would make this fit into my budget very smoothly (74/mo). I try to avoid anything that will appear on my credit report as we are looking at selling our home soon and getting a slightly bigger mortgage, and I just want my credit to look clean and not like I am struggling to afford a £350 payment!

So this seems like a good option - it doesn't affect credit and seems to be offered based on my amazon shopping history etc. Is there a downside to this? I would really love this fitness watch, I really miss having one but mine died six months ago and I haven't replaced it yet.

(and a disappointing use of an AI thumbnail, especially after last week's kerfuffle with Hank Green)

EDIT: From the shade map helpfully posted below, it looks like parts of Midsummer Common will have a good view, as will Parkers Piece!

I've seen conflicting reports, and I'd really like to get a nice view of it. Where are people viewing the eclipse? I meant to go to MC yesterday to see where the sun was but I got caught up with work.

Thank you!

Hi all,

Looking forward to the partial eclipse this coming week - does anybody know anywhere in Camb that is selling eclipse glasses?

Alo, where is a good place to see the western horizon - I know the fens are pretty flat, does that mean castle hill is the best place, or will anywhere be fine? Thanks!

I feel like I am at the end of my tether at the moment with all this conflicting information coming from all sides. Diet is such an intellectual exercise in the f**ked up food landscape of ours.

I quit Ultra Processed Foods around 8 months ago after reading several books on the topic and it has changed my life. I realise now that I was addicted to them - they have been designed to be that way. I am happier and healthier on every metric. 60lbs down, diabetes in remission, and trying for a baby. I run most days and my mental health is incredible compared to what it was.

But the question is beginning to settle in: I'm at my goal weight now, and I want to get fitter and all that, but how do I choose a dietary pattern that works for me?

I have pretty much settled on a roughly mediterranean pattern of eating: mostly veg, some starches, mostly whole grains, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a little fish and occasional meat, and sweet treats when it is worth it for me. This seems to be keeping me full and well, and I seem to be able to regulate my intake well without counting calories or macros: just letting my body dictate what I need and stopping when I am full. This is in line with some of my understanding that when eating mostly whole foods in an unrestricted way (i.e. no cutting out huge swathes of food groups) , people will tend to eat the right things overtime and not develop nutritional deficiencies. People who are VitC deficient will naturally gravitate towards citrus, iron deficient toward iron-rich foods, etc.

Great, you may think: what's the problem?

Well, to be honest: I'm just very susceptible to other ideas, and nervous I'm not doing the right thing. I have never had an easy relationship with food: I've always used it as a crutch and I've always overeaten (though I know that was the satiety-overriding formulas of the UPF, mostly). I just don't trust myself.

So, when I hear about low carb or even carnivore eating fixing people's health problems, bringing them mental clarity, reversing diabetes, or claims about how we don't really need fibre, or that vegetables aren't as good for you as we thought, or on the flip side that veganism is the way, meat is killing us, or that I need to count my macros for the rest of my days to be sure I've got it right - well I find myself floundering.

I am particularly struggling to find anyone who actually takes on these carnivore people properly in terms of the claims they are making about food.

A lot of this stuff seems really intuitave, and people have claimed their lives have been changed over it. We can't trust MAHA, it feels like everyone in every industry is being paid to say a certain thing, we have conspiracy theories to the right of us, and race vegans to the left....who can we trust?

I feel like I am at the end of my tether at the moment with all this conflicting information coming from all sides. Diet is such an intellectual exercise in the f**ked up food landscape of ours.

I quit Ultra Processed Foods around 8 months ago after reading several books on the topic and it has changed my life. I realise now that I was addicted to them - they have been designed to be that way. I am happier and healthier on every metric. 60lbs down, diabetes in remission, and trying for a baby. I run most days and my mental health is incredible compared to what it was.

But the question is beginning to settle in: I'm at my goal weight now, and I want to get fitter and all that, but how do I choose a dietary pattern that works for me?

I have pretty much settled on a roughly mediterranean pattern of eating: mostly veg, some starches, mostly whole grains, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a little fish and occasional meat, and sweet treats when it is worth it for me. This seems to be keeping me full and well, and I seem to be able to regulate my intake well without counting calories or macros: just letting my body dictate what I need and stopping when I am full. This is in line with some of my understanding that when eating mostly whole foods in an unrestricted way (i.e. no cutting out huge swathes of food groups) , people will tend to eat the right things overtime and not develop nutritional deficiencies. People who are VitC deficient will naturally gravitate towards citrus, iron deficient toward iron-rich foods, etc.

Great, you may think: what's the problem?

Well, to be honest: I'm just very susceptible to other ideas, and nervous I'm not doing the right thing. I have never had an easy relationship with food: I've always used it as a crutch and I've always overeaten (though I know that was the satiety-overriding formulas of the UPF, mostly). I just don't trust myself.

So, when I hear about low carb or even carnivore eating fixing people's health problems, bringing them mental clarity, reversing diabetes, or claims about how we don't really need fibre, or that vegetables aren't as good for you as we thought, or on the flip side that veganism is the way, meat is killing us, or that I need to count my macros for the rest of my days to be sure I've got it right - well I find myself floundering.

A lot of this stuff seems really intuitave, and people have claimed their lives have been changed over it. We can't trust MAHA, it feels like everyone in every industry is being paid to say a certain thing, we have conspiracy theories to the right of us, and race vegans to the left....who can we trust?

I'm just posting here so you can all enjoy my yoghurt fail.

I've been making yoghurt for a while in my instant pot, always turns out well but last night I didn't press 'start' when I thought I had, and only realised shortly before bed, so I let it do its thing and heat up, but for the cooling phase I chucked in a couple of cool packs from the freezer to speed things along so I could go to bed after adding the yoghurt.

Looked normal this morning, set it up for straining, and popped into the fridge. Come lunchtime, I had some yoghurt on my meal, only to discover this weird lumpy texture. small, silicone looking lumps in my yoghurt.

The cool pack had leaked. Non toxic, food safe but 'not suitable for human consumption' cooling gel (which as far as I can tell is the same stuff used in nappies and sanitary towels, as well as fake snow and geli baff), was allllll throughout my yoghurt.

Such a shame as I had found whole milk on sale for £0.30 yesterday and had made a huge batch!

I'm seriously considering Veganism - or at least totally detaching myself from the factory farming system and just eating a small amount of backyard eggs.

I've been mostly veggie for a while, with the odd blip when eating with my family (who seem to forget about it every time I go over). I eat oysters, too - they have cured my chronic iron deficiency, and I'm very ok with the amount of suffering - or lack thereof

There are a few things that keep me from taking the plunge, and I would love to hear from long time vegans about these. It may help you to understand where some non-vegans are finding it hard, too - or help with your activism. I don't know.

1. I have a huge mistrust of the food industry and Ultra Processed Food. It is probably my specialist subject, and I am currently writing a series of essays on it. Cutting it out changed my life a massive amount, and I went from incredibly unhealthy and overweight to healthy and happier - mentally and physically - over the course of a year or so. The more you look into it, the more shocking it gets (quite like the animal industry in that way), and I just really don't want to be buying from these corporations, which would make getting alternative milks and other products difficult. I don't really eat milk and I'm very happy eating whole foods like beans and pulses, and tofu and tempeh - I wouldn't like meat alternatives really - but I would really struggle with yoghurt which is a real staple of my diet; I make garlic yoghurt and put it on almost everything I eat. I also love creme fraiche and good butter on crusty bread. I'm a good cook - I can make things taste nice, I can make a vegan alternative of almost anything - and perhaps that answers my own question - but I just can't get the 'unatural' thing out of my mind.

I have looked into lots of the studies around babies and nutrition and I find it hard to justify giving a diet that no child would choose - given the ability to self-regulate food intake that we now know children have. I am fascinated by the Dr. Clara Davis experiments, for example, and find it hard to believe that this incredible system that we have evolved to have, to regulate our nutritional intake, can be out-paced or out-thought by scientific consensus and reasoning.

I have watched a lot of 'unnatural vegan' on Youtube - I really respect her a lot, and think she is doing great work, and I really understand her perspective. But I just have this block in my head around UPF because of who I was when I was eating it, and how much better my life has become. I just can't bring myself to move my diet in a direction that requires all these formulations and concoctions - and the predatory companies behind them.

2. I'm really scared of so much of the anecdotal evidence around veganism. I know it's not science-based, but we hear so much of people becoming vegan and then slowly feeling worse and worse over a matter of years. This happens so, so much. It scares me. Soooo many stories of people reincorporating animal products and feeling amazing - and some of these are people who have supplemented as well as they can, paid attention, checked their blood levels, etc. I just can't square all these stories in my head, and come to the conclusion that we don't need to eat these products to be healthy, or at least to achieve optimal health. I'm asking this in really good faith btw - I genuinely want to know. It feels like veganism was a trend in the 2010's that is dying out now. Is this just the inevitable outcome of that?

3. Some of the little things don't make sense to me. Honey - I've kept bees before, and they seem very happy. Backyard eggs - a friend runs a hen sanctuary and the eggs are great, she feeds them well and I don't feel bad eating those. I suppose I am finding it hard to take a hard line on animal exploitation: I guess on some level I believe that using animals isn't inherently evil e.g. service animals, for eggs or for pets and things. I don't feel this about dairy - I think that's inherently wrong, getting cows pregnant and harvesting their milk like that just isn't right. Leather - I have jackets that have lasted 30 years. I buy second hand mostly but still - I just don't see how plastic is better than leather given that these cows were probably slaughtered for some crap burger anyway. (I know that's not always the case).

4. I'm slightly scared of vegans? I find the antinatalism, arguing, pessimism, black and white thinking, the intellectualism of diet- everything you see online basically - a bit off putting. I don't want to be associated with all that - even though I suspect that's not even close to the reality on the ground. Most vegans I know are very chill. But then again - I'm not exactly chill about UPF!

I don't know. I'm in a funny spot. I'm trying to read up on it as much as I can but I just haven't been able to take that last leap. I struggle with the fact that this isn't an ancestral diet - that we have very little data on it longterm, and the data we do have is pretty inconclusive. I detect an appeal to nature in my head, but I just can't shake it - because of my experience with the food industry I will likely always have this 'eat real food, like your grandmother would recognise' in my head. At the same time, I see the animal industry and I want nothing to do with it.

I eat 99% vegan as it is, and maybe that is enough. I'd just love to hear your perspectives. If you got this far, thank you!

My husband's 30th is coming up next month and our plans for a couple of nights away in the cotswold's have fallen through. I am considering our options but I wonder if any of you have any ideas for some special things to do in and around Cambridge?

That way we could funnel the travel or hotel cost into the cost of the day out, if that makes sense. Not looking for fancy restaurants (I am a chef, and it's just not worth it to us as I can cook nice stuff at home, and frankly it is a busman's holiday), but day trips, local retreats, places to stay, spa ideas, that sort of thing.

We are both very bookish and would be happy staying somewhere quiet with our books and peaceful or doing a boat trip or something, it doesn't have to be crazy. Just something to mark the occasion. Was looking to spend 300-500 but doesn't have to be that much. We also share custody of our spaniel with my parents (long story) so dog firiendly is always fun too.

My husband's 30th birthday is in a little over a month, and the plans I had made have just fallen through! I was wondering if this community had any ideas of things to do for a couple of days (perhaps 2 nights) that would be special?

I had thought about:

1. Paddington - Plymouth - Penzance with the GWR dining car and a couple of days down there

2. Cheap flight up to Scotland (we are in Cambridge) and a few days somewhere quiet

3. Shepherd's hut type thing in the woods.

We do have access to a car but a train/bus option would be preferable as I can't drive at the moment and I don't want him to spend his birthday weekend driving loads (he doesn't particularly like doing it and he only passed last year, so it's stressful).

Any and all ideas welcomed! We could also fly to a European city or something but that gets into another level of money. I was looking at spending £300-500 but this can stretch a little.

Thank you!