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Chapter One: Separating Our Own Food Attitudes from Our Children's Eating Behaviors
As soon as my daughter could walk, my mother started to comment on her chunky legs. "You better watch her, Carly, you don't want her to get fat." For goodness sake, my daughter is only two!
Carly, mother of two
My mother raised me to eat when I was hungry and stop eating when I was full. I am convinced that what she taught me has saved my life. As a professional actress I have watched both men and women in my field literally starve to death to maintain the body they think the entertainment world is looking for.
Samantha, actress and mother of one
Hundreds of parents, who are struggling with or worried about how their children are eating, have told me poignant stories about how critical they are of their own eating habits. And often, once I prompt them to examine the attitudes with which they were raised, they report that they have always felt they were either failing themselves by eating too much or making bad choices, or failing their parents because they didn't eat enough of the "food of love" they were offered.
If there's one thing I've learned from listening to these stories, it's that there is a direct connection between parents' food attitudes and how they deal with their kids' eating behaviors. As one mother told me, "I have an easier time talking about sex with my kids than food. My mother was so controlling and involved with my food that I always felt I was failing and ended up with a real weight problem. I still struggle with weight and my relationship to food, and because of that, I am terrified to interfere with how my kids eat. I feel paralyzed when it comes to saying anything at all about nutrition." Acknowledging and understanding this connection between our own food attitudes and our children's eating behaviors is the first step toward teaching our kids how to eat for life. And yet it's also one of the most challenging steps because it requires that we look at our own food history and eating experiences.
In this chapter, you will revisit your family food legacy and the tape loops (or food attitudes) this early experience created. As you become more familiar with your own food attitudes, you will automatically become better able to separate your own experience from what is going on with your children. Indeed, you may discover that what you perceive as your children's eating problems are really not problems at all, but rather styles of eating that are simply different from your own.
Taking the Fight Out of Food: Whose Problem Is It?
One of the most common complaints I hear from parents is that mealtime is one long power struggle. "My two-and-a-half-year-old won't sit in his high chair!" "My four-year-old incessantly demands dessert!" "My three-year-old throws a fit if I don't give her a cookie!" Parents come into my office completely at their wits' end.
In one such case, a mother came to see me because she could not understand her three-year-old son's picky eating behavior. Jennifer is thirty-six, with an engaging wit and the ability to turn even the most mundane incident into a stand-up comedy routine. She always has a twinkle in her eye and has a lot of great ideas about feeding children. Indeed, she knows that when she "lets go and relaxes" around food, her kids relax and eat better. Her first son (she has two) was a "foodie" like her. He loved exploring new foods and ate almost anything she offered, which is why Jennifer was surprised by her younger son's food issues. From day one, he was a very picky eater and often simply refused to eat at all. When she consulted her pediatrician, however, he assured her that her son was perfectly healthy and right where he should be in terms of growth. His advice was simply to "back off" and "let him be."
But even though knowing her son was in good health helped to allay Jennifer's fear that he would end up with scurvy, she still could not ignore everything she'd heard about encouraging him to eat. It was very difficult for her to sit by and watch her son refuse food.
Jennifer's reaction is not very different from that of many parents whose feelings of competence come from nurturing and feeding their children. When our children eat, we have concrete evidence that we are doing a good job, helping them make their way in the world with strong, healthy bodies. And when they don't eat well, or we think they are not eating well, we assume we must be doing a bad job. But we still need to ask, What was really going on between Jennifer and her son? What was the problem? Was it hers or her son's?
The first thing Jennifer and I did was to look at her own food legacy, and when we did that, we soon discovered that Jennifer had been raised as a dieter from the time she was very young. (Her joke is that her formative experience with religion was Weight Watchers, since she was sent by her mother at the age of nine to meetings that were held at the temple!) After years of diet camps and therapy to help resolve her food issues, she had come to terms with a way of eating that felt comfortable, and she was thrilled to be a mother who could let her sons enjoy their food. She was not going to repeat her own mother's mistakes by restricting what they ate.
So when Todd began refusing to eat, Jennifer found herself trying to fight back, almost force-feeding him, and frequently becoming angry at his resistance to her carefully prepared meals. She wanted him to eat and enjoy his food, but she was unwittingly contributing to the fight: the more she encouraged Todd to eat, the more he resisted.
Despite thinking that she handled food differently from her restricting mother, Jennifer gradually began to realize that, in her own way, and despite having the opposite goal, she was being just as controlling as her mother had been. At first, all she could see was her son's resistance to her efforts to help him. When he would "simply not listen," Jennifer reacted -- sometimes in anger, sometimes out of anxiety and frustration. It took a while for her to see that her reaction was actually fueling the power struggle with her son.
Once she realized that, we were able to address her need to give up trying to control the situation, so that she would be better able to let go of the outcome. Meanwhile, at a deeper level, she also began to separate her own fear of being restricted (a holdover from her mother's attempts to restrict her own food intake) from her son's seemingly self-restricting behavior. Only then could she see that Todd was, in fact, reacting to the pressure she was putting on him to eat. When Jennifer backed off, Todd began to eat more regularly -- though never with the same adventurousness as his older brother.
Children -- at any age -- seem to be masters at detecting our agendas: they know exactly what we want them to do and then often do just the opposite. What is our agenda when it comes to food? We simply want our children to eat well -- that is, eat the food we have lovingly and painstakingly put before them. And know this: even if you think you're being discreet, cheerful, or absolutely blasé as you serve breakfast, lunch, or dinner, even a ten-month-old in his high chair can detect your concern, worry, and anxiety that he get that broccoli down the hatch.
I met Carolyn when she attended one of my workshops because she was concerned about her nine-year-old son, who had become quite overweight. She herself had struggled with a weight problem in the past and resolved it by sticking to a diet that was totally free of sugar and junk food. She herself ate plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, and every meal she prepared for her two sons was made up of a variety of nutritious, organic foods.
Although her younger son seemed to enjoy whatever she put in front of him, the older child wanted only starchy carbohydrates, such as potatoes, pasta, and bread. He wouldn't touch vegetables and also fought with her to eat chocolate bars and other sweets, none of which Carolyn allowed in the house. From the time he was two, she told me, their every interaction about food had been adversarial. Now she was even more worried because he was really gaining weight and clearly hoarding the foods she'd never allowed him to have.
As we explored the situation, two issues became clear: one was that Carolyn had a food legacy associated with very health-conscious eating that went back three generations. Her mother and grandmother had both eaten only "healthful" foods and had restricted foods deemed "bad." The other was that both Carolyn and her mother had weight problems and frequently felt guilty about how much they ate. Her mother was not happy with her figure and had constantly berated herself for failing to restrict her food intake. She also criticized Carolyn when she was growing up by focusing on her weight. In fact, Carolyn said that when she returned from a trip to India, during which she had become very ill with dysentery, her mother had joked that she looked great because she had lost so much weight.
Like her mother, Carolyn believed that in order to be a good parent she had to make sure her children ate nutritiously ALL THE TIME. And because of this food legacy, Carolyn felt completely stymied by her older son's eating behavior and had no tools for dealing with his determination to make his own decisions about food.
Did he, in fact, have an eating problem? Or was he simply reacting to Carolyn's rigidity about food and eating? Had her son internalized his mother's fears about gaining weight? These were the questions Carolyn and I began to unravel as we worked together. Indeed, once Carolyn saw how her food legacy had affected her own eating habits and attitudes toward food, she began to realize that her son's weight gain had triggered her fear -- not that he would become fat but that she herself could not control her own food intake. Once she was able to be more objective about her fears and associations with food and weight, she was better able to deal with her son's situation. In the end, Carolyn decided to try to be more flexible, allowing her son to have some sweets and candy. Predictably, once she made these foods available instead of forbidden, her son stopped hoarding them. And as Carolyn began teaching him how certain foods impacted his body, he began -- slowly but surely -- to try vegetables and protein to round out his diet. As you will see in the upcoming chapters, even the most willful children can learn how to increase their range of foods -- if they are taught in a palatable manner.
What Is Your Family Food Legacy?
Most negative attitudes toward food begin at home. Therefore as you prepare to help your children become good eaters, you need to be clear about the kind of environment in which you were raised. Use the questions below as a way to consider the rules, tone, and values that pertained to eating in your family.
1. Did your parents ever tell you to stop eating before you felt you were full?
2. Did either of your parents ever pressure you to go on a diet?
3. Did a friend ever show you how to diet?
4. Was anyone in your household ever on a diet when you were growing up?
5. Did anyone binge and/or restrict foods in a regular way?
6. Did anyone "eat like a bird," always picking at food and never sitting down and enjoying a meal?
7. Did your mother, father, or any of your siblings go from diet to diet, always trying to lose weight but never feeling comfortable with their body image?
8. Were their diets successful only temporarily?
9. Did you eat predominantly "healthy" food?
10. Did your family eat a lot of bread, pasta, and other starchy foods?
11. Did your family consume a lot of fried food?
12. Did your parents let you snack on junk food?
13. Did your family keep soda in the house?
14. Were there any foods that were forbidden or only served on very special occasions?
15. Was there an emphasis in your household on making sure you ate enough?
16. Do you come from a culture in which food was scarce and, as a result, eating was believed to assure health and happiness?
There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. Rather they are intended to help you become more aware of how you were raised with relation to food. They are not intended to evoke either blame or self-praise. As a general rule, your food legacy will fall into one of four categories.
1. You were raised in an environment where food was equated with love. Such an environment can create a situation in which you might feel that you are letting someone down if you don't eat all the food she or he has prepared. It can also lead you to use food to process emotions rather than to deal with your feelings directly.
2. You were raised in a restrictive environment where the types and amounts of food you ate were closely monitored by your parents. Often this environment is characterized by dieting and maintaining weight and tends to evoke one of two reactions: either you were comfortable with these restrictions and want the same for your kids, or, once out of your parents' control you rebelled, eating whatever you wanted without regard to nutrition or balance, which could make you uncomfortable with setting limits and establishing parameters around food and eating for your children.
3. You were raised in an environment where one or more of your family members went on restrictive diets and lost weight only later to regain it. Such a legacy may cause you to believe that you are not in control of food, which can then lead to restrictive/binge behavior and yo-yo dieting.
4. You were raised in an environment where meals were enjoyed, a variety of foods was offered, and there was little or no emphasis on how much or how little one should eat of any particular food. Meals usually consisted of a balance among healthy nutritious foods, with an allowance for some sugar or junk food. There was an emphasis on eating for enjoyment instead of a focus on rigidity. This environment is the most likely to produce a healthy attitude toward food and eating.
Whichever environment you were raised in, it is likely that you have internalized your legacy, and that it has subtly but powerfully influenced your present attitudes toward food. It is these internalized, unconscious food attitudes, or what I call tape loops, that can unwittingly influence the way you are dealing with your own kids about food.
What Are Your Tape Loops?
Examining and disrupting your tape loops, those voices in your head fueled by your attitudes toward food and eating, is the next step toward separating your own food attitudes from your children's behaviors. Have you ever heard a voice in your head berating you when you ate that second piece of cake, and then said to yourself, "Now I have really blown it! I am totally off my usual diet, and I better not eat anything tomorrow." The internalized attitude that you don't have control over what or how much you eat helps create the feeling that you have "blown it," leaving you at risk for deciding that the only way to compensate is to not eat anything at all the next day. When you begin to restrict what you eat, you put yourself at risk for creating or continuing a restrict-binge-restrict cycle. What happens with such an attitude? You may eat two, then maybe three pieces of cake, and the chips, and then the cookies, and the ice cream, and whatever other food you deem "bad."
Indeed, experts are now beginning to understand that this negative cycle impacts metabolism and can result in weight gain rather than weight loss. During a binge, the body responds to the influx of food by storing body fat, as if readying itself for a future famine.
This physiologic reaction is the reason why people with a history of yo-yo dieting can end up regaining more weight than they lost. With each attempt to lose weight, they begin to trigger the mechanism that leads to storing more and more fat. Scientific research supports the idea that people who chronically restrict their food intake not only disrupt their metabolism and wind up gaining more weight and a percentage of body fat but also become more preoccupied with thoughts about food. For more on the metabolic impact of yo-yo dieting see Debra Waterhouse's book Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell.
Another tape loop might lead to your needing to feed your children in order to make you feel that you are loving them enough. People who come from backgrounds that emphasized eating as a way to show community within the family as well as love and appreciation for the chef (frequently the mother) often carry tape loops that cause anxiety if a child doesn't eat "enough." They might fear that their children won't be healthy, that their children don't love them, or that they themselves are not being good parents.
These tape loops, as I've said, are a direct result of the internalized messages created by your family food legacy. Consider these four general attitudes toward food:
1. You tend to eat when you are feeling stressed, anxious, bored, lonely, or in need of comfort. You use food to celebrate an event or to reward yourself.
2. You categorize foods as either good or bad, which often causes you to be preoccupied with closely monitoring what you are eating on a daily basis.
3. You feel you don't have control over food or eating; you are prone to dieting and/or restrictive/binge behavior.
4. You don't think about food. You eat when you are hungry, reaching for whatever is around and available. You are not overly concerned with nutrition or eating in moderation because you trust that your body is getting the nutrients it needs for optimal health and well-being.
If your general attitude toward food is characterized by either (1), (2), or (3), you have internalized a negative attitude toward eating, which may in turn be determining how you are dealing with your children's eating behavior. On the other hand, if you feel your attitude is most akin to that described in (4), you more than likely have a healthy, objective way of addressing your children's eating issues. In essence, tape loops -- whether they voice admonishments to eat more or eat less -- can interfere with your ability to deal with your children's eating behaviors objectively and clearly. Therefore, you need to become aware of your own tape loops and separate them from your children's behavior with food.
How Your Tape Loops May Be Affecting Your Children
Not surprisingly, there is a direct correlation between how parents treat themselves and how they treat their children: parents who are more relaxed about how they eat will be more relaxed about how their children eat. These parents will also have an easier time if the pediatrician tells them to "back off" when they begin to worry about their toddler who never seems to eat anything, or about their five-year-old who eats only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Parents usually fall somewhere on a spectrum of attitudes about eating. At one extreme is a very rigid approach toward what foods their kids should eat, and at the other extreme is allowing kids to eat anything that interests them. If you have a hard time forgiving yourself after eating fattening foods, then you might have a hard time relaxing when your children eat those foods, and you might worry if they have days when they eat mostly cake and ice cream. On the other hand, if you are relaxed about food and have never dieted a day in your life, you might not even give a second thought to your child's sugar intake. You might focus on other things, like getting him to sleep so he will wake up feeling fresh in the morning. The more easygoing you are about the way you eat, the easier it will be for you to go with the ebb and flow of your child's eating because you will be confident that his nutritional needs are being met. Indeed, as you will see in chapter four, pediatricians and nutritionists agree that for children nutrition is achieved on a two-week basis, not day to day.
Let's see how flexible or rigid you are about eating, and how that corresponds to your response to your child's eating behavior.
1. Visualize a line that contains four points, A, B, C, and D.
2. Imagine that you are attending your best friend's fortieth birthday party, where your favorite birthday cake is served. You:
A. Look at it and say to yourself, "I am definitely not having a piece; I cannot do that!"
B. Take one piece after deliberating for ten minutes, and it tastes so good that you have another half. You then figure you blew it, so you might as well have three more pieces, and then you move on to eating the other foods you didn't taste because you know you will not have this stuff again starting tomorrow.
C. You eat the piece of cake but spend a lot of the evening feeling fat and thinking about how you shouldn't have done that and you certainly won't have any more fattening food.
D. You have and enjoy the cake, knowing that one piece of cake will not affect your weight.
3. Imagine that your beautiful baby is now ten months old, you are still nursing a bit, and you find that you are also still struggling to lose those last ten pounds. You are really getting fed up with how slowly the weight is coming off. Despite integrating exercise into your schedule, you are noticing that the weight is taking a long time to budge. You:
A. Decide to go on a low-carb, high-protein diet and restrict all fattening foods: you are determined to stay on this for several months, and you do, ignoring all tempting foods.
B. Decide to go on a low-carb, high-protein diet, but then after several weeks start to eat carbs in higher quantities again, spending alternate days bingeing on carbs and then returning to high-protein, no-carb eating.
C. Decide to really diet but end up cutting back just a little on your food intake, all the while feeling mildly guilty and uncomfortable and wishing you could diet better and be more disciplined.
D. Decide that the next ten pounds will most likely come off in time as you stop nursing and return to your usual activities. You continue to have a relaxed attitude about your food intake.
What Your Responses Mean
• If most of your answers were As, you are probably quite rigid and used to feeling comfortable with the control you have over food. Controlling your food has quite likely worked for you in the past, but you might have a harder time as your child starts to fight with you over control issues and uses food as a forum for doing this. It is useful to understand your tendency to be controlling because it is possible that your children will detect this trait, especially as they enter the developmental stages in which their main task is to differentiate themselves from you, establish their will, and test their power. At such times, they will most likely use food as an issue or grounds for a fight. It may also be hard for you to figure out how to be less controlling with relation to food.
• If you responded mostly with Bs, you are quite likely a chronic dieter who has spent much of your life alternating between eating excessively and restricting your food. If you eat one food more than you'd planned, you have a hard time forgiving yourself; the only way out is to promise yourself that you will restrict your intake tomorrow. You continue eating in this on-and-off-again manner and may have difficulty dealing with those days when your child has been to a birthday party and then the circus and has eaten mainly cake and ice cream. You may feel that you did a terrible job as a parent by allowing this to happen.
• If you answered mostly with Cs, you, like most of us, live in a culture that bombards us with the idea that we should feel guilty when we are eating dessert and fattening foods, but you remain relatively relaxed when you do indulge in those foods. You can forgive yourself, because you realize that your generally healthy habits will make up for your day of overeating. You may have a relatively easy time if your child has a day of bad eating, but you will be sure to integrate more healthy meals during the week.
• If you answered mostly with Ds, you are probably relaxed about food and diet. You don't really worry much about whether your kids are getting enough nutrition because you trust that you are giving them access to a complete range of foods. You let your children make a lot of their own choices, and it is not stressful for you if they have a day of junk eating.
Rarely do we fall neatly into one category; more often, we float from one to another on the continuum. You may not always be an A or a D, and you may find that you plot yourself somewhere between A and B or between C and D. As you begin to see how flexible or rigid you are -- with yourself and your kids -- consider this: the more flexible you are able to be, the more likely it is that your children will learn to make good decisions about food.
Overinvolved, Underinvolved, and Unrealistic Standards
In addition to evaluating how flexible or rigid you are, it is also helpful to see how involved you are in your children's eating behavior. Generally parents deal with their children in one of three ways. Again, you will probably fall somewhere along a spectrum rather than at one extreme or another. Once you figure out where you tend to fall, you will be better able to see how you've been dealing with your kids and their eating behavior:
• Are you overinvolved?
Overinvolved parents have a hard time relaxing and not worrying about how their child is eating. They tend to hover and make comments.
• Are you underinvolved?
An underinvolved parent tends to ignore his or her child's eating behavior -- whether the child is always asking for a third helping or seems fixated on losing weight. A parent's underinvolvement often stems from a wish not to replicate her or his own parent's overinvolved behavior, or it can be a result of not having developed the tools to deal with these issues.
• Do you have unrealistic standards for how your children should be eating?
A parent who sets unrealistic standards usually does so either because she has set such standards for herself or because she feels guilt and dread at not upholding such standards of "good" eating. Additionally, a parent may have unrealistic ideas about their child's body type, which can, in turn, result in the parent having difficulty accepting that child's natural eating habits.
The Overinvolved Parent
The overinvolved parent usually has not established enough distance between his own food legacy and how he is dealing with his children's eating behavior.
Tom and Nancy are two high-powered lawyers in New York City. They are attractive, bright, and articulate, and both of them are short; he is five six, and she is five two. They came to see me about their five-year-old son, Alex, who they said had almost always been on the low end of the chart for height and weight. (No surprise to me, given their stature.) They were worried that Alex, who had always been an extraordinarily picky eater, was not getting proper nutrition. As a result, there was a great deal of tension in the home, and it was often difficult for them to eat with other families. "All the other kids eat well enough, but our son barely eats anything," Tom said in exasperation.
Not only did Alex hardly eat at all, but he also often insisted on eating the one food he had picked that week. It might be cheese puffs or peanut butter -- the food of the week varied -- but he ate only a very small amount and rarely more than one food at a time. Tom and Nancy said they were being pressured by well-meaning friends and relatives to be more strict with Alex. And they also felt stressed by always having to make sure they had Alex's food of the week with them wherever they went. Most important, Tom and Nancy worried that Alex would never get the nutrition he needed, and that he would certainly never learn to eat well.
I asked them what their pediatrician had said in answer to the questions, "Is he on the growth curve? Is he thriving? Does he have energy?" They reassured me that he found Alex to be in perfect health for his size and was not at all worried.
They further described their son as having abundant amounts of energy and told me that he was very involved in sports and hardly ever got sick. We then talked about the foods Alex did eat: while his menu was limited (his diet consisted mainly of soy milk, cheese puffs, peanut butter, apples, and orange juice), it was clear that he was receiving significant protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals -- all of which are the building blocks of sound nutrition. (You will learn more about specific food requirements in chapter four.) But despite my reassurances that their son was obviously healthy, Tom and Nancy remained concerned and uncomfortable with the fact that Alex ate so little.
I then inquired about their own eating habits as children, asking them if they too had been small kids. Their responses? Yes, they had similar picky eating habits, and yes, they were both small. It quickly became apparent that Tom was very ashamed of how his child ate. When I pressed him a bit, he admitted that Alex reminded him of himself as a child, when he was teased for being small and called "a skinny wimp." Despite all Tom's success as an adult, he still cringed at the idea of his son's being teased and made to feel ashamed, as he had been when he was a child. Additionally, Tom was very sensitive to the judgment of other parents who he thought were being critical of his parenting. Tom felt that they wanted him to simply lay down the law and force Alex to eat the foods that all the other kids were eating. In fact, he had often tried to bully Alex into eating more and admitted that his son ate far less with him than with Nancy.
As we began to work together, it became clear that the first order of business was for both Tom and Nancy to become more comfortable and accepting of both their own food legacies and their issues regarding their son's body type. Once Tom, for example, understood that his son was happy, healthy, and not being teased, he was able to separate Alex's experience from his own past.
If you tend to be overinvolved in your child's eating behavior, you may be turning food into a battleground more often than is necessary. Your concern may be based more on your own food legacy than on your child's actual eating behavior. As a result, you may actually be helping to create a problem when no problem exists. Knowing when to back off and give your child more choice will help take the fight out of food.
As you will see, once parents are able to separate their own food legacies from their children's eating behaviors, they have a much easier time guiding children to eat in a balanced, moderate way from all the food groups -- which is one of the goals of teaching your kids to eat for life.
The Underinvolved Parent
This next scenario illustrates the challenge of a parent who is underinvolved. Jan is a thirty-five-year-old mother who laughingly calls herself "the obese mom," which is quite ironic, given that she is diminutive and without an ounce of body fat. When she came to consult with me about her overweight son, she told me that when he was born she read the books, felt confident that a child could never overeat, and she did what the books recommended. She laid out a variety of foods on his tray, feeling certain that he would stop eating when he was full.
Jan had a very demanding job, but she trusted her nanny, and her son seemed to be happy and was developing beautifully. What she did not know, however, was that her nanny was constantly feeding him. When he was in the stroller, there was always a bottle in his mouth, and the nanny, an overweight woman herself, was constantly feeding him chocolate bars and cake, giving him the clear signal that food is love.
Jan's son was very attached to the nanny, connected food with love, and soon became a habitual overeater. Jan told me that while she had noticed he was certainly chubby, she figured he was just a large baby. He was thriving, and it was not until when, at the age of three and a half, his pediatrician stated "this child is obese!" that she decided to take action. "That was my wake-up call," Jan explained.
Despite her reluctance to deprive her child of the caregiver he adored, Jan was constantly fighting with the nanny about the way she was feeding him. Jan had even begun to suspect that the woman, while outwardly agreeing with Jan, was sneaking him food. The difficult part, however, was that Jan too equated food with love; to her, being a good mother was nurturing her child with a lot of food. Her mother had been completely uninvolved with her children's meals, and the kids pretty much fed themselves, mostly relying on junk food. So when Jan became a mother, she was determined never to deprive her child of food and to offer him anything he wanted. Although she worried about her nanny's overfeeding of her child, she also saw this as an expression of the nanny's love and concern and doubted her own ability to set up the structure he would need to break his connection between food and love. (See page 207 for more information on how to deal with babysitters, nannies, and other caregivers.)
She also knew that she needed help from someone who would be able to provide the structure she feared. Her solution was to hire a new nanny, who completely changed the household. This new nanny was outraged by the boy's eating habits and believed strongly that children do not need to eat all day long or to constantly have sippy cups of juice at the park. Her attitude was that a child needed to learn to wait, eat at snack and mealtimes, and certainly eat less sugar.
While her advice made sense to Jan, she still had difficulty with what she saw as depriving her son of his favorite treats. As a result of growing up drinking Coke and eating Twinkies, Jan had never learned much about nutrition or about integrating sweets and treats in a balanced way. And never having had a weight problem, she had never been forced to confront the negative effects of eating such sweet, fatty foods.
In fact, as she eventually came to realize, Jan herself had reinforced her son's food-as-love connection. One of her favorite activities had been making cookies with him, after which they'd both eat the batter and then the cookies. Her son also loved this cozy, warm time when Jan was nurturing herself as well as him.
When her new nanny witnessed this cookie-baking activity, she was outraged: "Why on earth would you choose making cookies when your child is overweight?" This was yet another wake-up call for Jan, to see how clearly her own food legacy was impacting her vision of how to be a good mom.
Following the nanny's lead, she began to set up clear standards with regard to eating and to teach her son about nutrition (see chapter four for more information on this). But it was still a struggle. During the first two weeks, while he was withdrawing from sugar, he had headaches, he was cranky, and he had difficulty sleeping. But once he'd broken his attachment to sugar and sweets, he began to eat a variety of foods. Within a year, he had lost twenty-five pounds and matched his percentile for weight. His physician no longer considered him to be overweight.
Jan not only learned how to set limits with her son but also how to talk to him about food and nutrition in a way that he was able to understand and follow. And she realized that, given some choice about when he could have his treat, her son soon became less demanding and learned to incorporate sugar into a healthy diet. (You will find such instructions in chapter four.)
Interestingly, when I asked Jan whether she would have been more concerned about her child's weight in the early years if her child had been a girl rather than a boy, she said vehemently, "Yes! I would never have allowed my daughter to be overweight like that!" Jan's comment is consistent with a general prejudice in our culture: we tend to be much more concerned about girls (and young women) being overweight than boys (and young men).
If you think you are underinvolved in your child's eating behavior, first assess her nutritional intake. Is she getting enough balance in her diet? Does the pediatrician think she is growing consistently in height and weight? Have you begun teaching your child about nutrition, or are you simply hoping that she will figure it out on her own?
These are just some questions that you can use to help you assess your child's eating behavior, especially if you suspect she may be overeating. Again, in part two, you will learn the four steps of eating for life, which will give you tools and exercises to help you become more positively involved in your child's eating behavior.
The Parent with Unrealistic Standards
Not unlike the overinvolved parents, those with unrealistic standards tend to be more restrictive about the foods they want or will allow their children to eat. They are so focused on controlling their child's food intake that they tend to ignore or overlook the child's particular behavior, stage of development, temperament, or eating style.
When Casey came to meet with me for a few sessions, she was very upset about the fact that her seven-year-old son was beginning to put on some weight. In fact, she had already consulted with her pediatrician, who had reassured her that although he was looking a bit "chunkier" than usual (he'd always been a bit stocky but was also muscular and never had much fat), this was typical of boys who were about to enter a growth spurt. The pediatrician then reminded Casey how to provide good nutrition for her son and help him stay away from junk food.
When I asked why the doctor's response hadn't allayed her fears, Casey said, "I have been feeding Ben the healthiest food you could imagine for his whole life. How could he be gaining weight? It's impossible!"
Casey claimed that she gave Ben a lot of freedom to choose the range of foods he wanted at mealtimes and always prepared healthy foods he could have at his disposal in the fridge and the pantry. Up to that point, things seemed to have been working out just fine. So when he began gaining weight, she became very frustrated.
"Could he be eating junk food when he's at other kids' homes or at school?" I asked.
At first Casey was reluctant to admit such a possibility. But when she questioned him afterward, she learned that even though he had completely understood her and her husband's feelings about junk food and sugar and had absorbed their attitudes, he had started to eat these foods outside the house. But why hadn't he told his mother? Simply because he knew it would have upset her. And, as a result, he was also showing signs of feeling ashamed about both his sneaking behavior and his weight gain.
I knew that before we could focus on helping Ben manage his weight, we had to address Casey's own attitude toward her son's eating habits and what his "chunkiness" seemed to mean to her. In other words, before she could deal with Ben's weight gain and his desire to eat junk food, she had to admit that her own food legacy was exacerbating the situation. She then told me that she had been raised by an extremely progressive mom who fed her children organic and health foods, emphasizing this way of eating as a way of life. There had never been a bit of junk food or sugar in their house, and Casey had accepted that rule. In fact the rigidity and structure actually appealed to her temperament, and she had been raising Ben the same way. Further, she herself had never had any problem with overeating or weight gain.
I counseled Casey that she needed to get over worrying that she would be a bad mother and become more flexible about junk food and sugar for the time being, because Ben was, in fact, overeating these foods. I advised her to open up and try to be a bit less rigid about allowing some of these foods in their own house. I also encouraged her to allow her son to experiment with these foods within her sight so that he would feel less guilty about eating something that was forbidden.
Casey then came up with her own parameters: she was comfortable with letting Ben have some junk food, but he had to eat healthy food first. She also found another way to reduce her son's need to overeat these foods outside the home: she designated one dinner a week as Silly Supper, when Ben could decide what he wanted to eat, and she was not allowed to comment on it.
I was also helping Casey teach Ben about nutrition. Although she had always fed him the healthiest of foods, she had never thought about teaching him how or why to care for his own body. Once he understood that Casey respected his own feelings about sugar and junk food, even though they were different from hers, Ben was motivated to listen to what she had to say about nutrition. The more information and freedom Casey gave him, the less he overate, and eventually he stopped asking for snacks from other children.
If you think you may be setting unrealistic standards, you need to take a hard look at your rules and parameters. Are they too rigid? Are they causing your child to sneak or hoard food? If so, try to become more familiar with the essentials of nutrition (see chapter four), so that you will feel more comfortable as you ease into giving your child more responsibility for making choices and decisions.
It's also important that you are honest with yourself about your child's unique body type. Is your son small like Alex? Might this be why he tends to eat so little? Is that painful for you to see because you struggled with your own stature as a child and adult? Is your daughter larger than her brother? If so, do you worry that she will not feel comfortable in her body because you yourself struggled with weight as a child? Does your daughter have a larger frame than you? Are you uncomfortable or nervous that she may be big or overweight?
In order to be realistic about your child's genetic inheritance, you must be honest in assessing your own feelings about your child's body. Are you uncomfortable? Ashamed? Worried? Be frank with yourself; these feelings happen. The important thing is to make sure you understand their connection to your own experience so that you can separate your feelings from the way you communicate with your child.
If you think you may be asking your child to live up to unrealistic standards, you may want to consider how your strictness could be contributing to the difficulty your child is having with following your rules. If a child continues to be unable to meet rigid parameters, she will end up feeling like a failure and have little sense of how to take care of her own body. So try and ease up on yourself and your children and build more Silly Suppers into your routine!
Are You Ready for the Next Step?
Separating your own food legacy from your children's eating behaviors is not always easy. It can be challenging to look at yourself in the mirror and see your own food habits and attitudes. Just know that even though you may not resolve your own food issues right away, you can still help your children learn to have a healthy relationship with food, unfettered by negative tape loops. Essentially, once you are able to be clear and objective in dealing with your kids' eating behavior, you will be able to replace your overinvolvement, underinvolvement, or unrealistic standards with a new attitude by doing three things:
• Give up some control.
• Give children some freedom to make their own decisions.
• Observe your children and separate your feelings and behavior from theirs.
These three objectives require you to be flexible about your kids' relationship with food. You need to trust not only your own ability to teach and guide your children but also your children's innate desire and ability to take care of their own bodies.
The minute our children move from breast milk and formula to solid foods, they become very sensitive to the attitudes we parents have toward food. Without our even realizing it, we broadcast our own preferences, dislikes, and hang-ups loudly and clearly to our children, sending them, often unwittingly, messages that can contradict our intentions. By neutralizing such negative interference, you can and will accomplish the three objectives outlined above.
In the next chapter, you will begin to unravel what may be going on with your children and food by looking at them in terms of their developmental stage and temperament. Within this context, you might find that your children's eating behavior, though annoying or frustrating to you, is indeed perfectly normal for their age. And if you still want to help them change their behavior, you will also find helpful tips on how to make suggestions that are age appropriate.
Copyright © 2005 by Donna Fish

domain: psychology


WHAT IS A CATEGORICAL EXEMPTION?
- Categorical exemptions are descriptions of types of projects which the Secretary of the Resources Agency has determined do not usually have a significant effect on the environment.
- Categorical exemptions are found in Article 19 of the CEQA Guidelines
- Unlike statutory exemptions, categorical exemptions are not absolute. There are exceptions to the exemptions depending on the nature or location of the project (Guidelines §15300.2).
- There are approximately 30 "classes" or types of categorical
COMMONLY USED EXEMPTIONS
- Class 1 is the "existing facilities" exemption. (Guidelines §15301)
- Class 2 consists of replacement or reconstruction of existing structures and facilities. (Guidelines §15302)
- Class 3 consists of construction of small structures. (Guidelines §15303)
- Class 7 consists of actions taken by regulatory agencies as authorized by state law or local ordinance to assure the maintenance, restoration, or enhancement of a natural resource. (Guidelines §15307)
- Class 8 consists of actions taken by regulatory agencies to assure the maintenance, restoration, enhancement, or protection of the environment where the regulatory process involves procedures for protection of the environment.(Guidelines §15308)
Categorical Exemptions Defined | Public Resources Code §21084
Addition or Deletion of Exempt Categories | Public Resources Code §21086
Exceptions to Categorical Exemptions | 14 California Code of Regulations §15300.2
Categorical Exemptions | 14 California Code of Regulations §§15301 - 15329
Categorical Exemptions Defined | 14 California Code of Regulations §15354
SELECTED CASE LAW


text:
This weeks ‘Favourites’ interview is ready for your eyes underneath, with ex-Sheffield resident and now full-time Berlin local, Mark Baines.
Mark will be spending the next few months finishing up his part for the eagerly anticipated ‘Make Friends With The Colour Blue’, which is due out later this year – peep the forum thread that appeared a couple of days back for further info on that.
Anyway, for now, get thy read on…
Way to start the day: With a coffee and some nice breakfast.
Skatespot: The bank spot in Sa Pobla, Mallorca.
Skatepark: The old Wakefield park was really good.
Skate video: Right now it’s ‘Mind Field’, but I like all the Girl/Chocolate videos and the old Blind and 101 videos too. And of course the Blueprint videos.
Skate section: Marianos ‘Mouse’ part is pretty much incredible.
Movie: Pacino and De Niro films.
Band: The Beatles
Album: “The Stone Roses”
Oasis lyric: “So wrap up cold when it’s warm outside”
Gig you’ve been to: Oasis at Finsbury park was pretty damn good despite the rain.
Person: My family and friends are my favorite people.
Magee quote: It would offend people, and I stopped listening to him as much anyway!
Material Possession: I don’t have one really, maybe my laptop because I can keep in touch with friends with it and it has my music on there. I have a house full of stuff I left behind in Sheffield and I only really miss my cats and the people who live there.
Current none skating pass-time: Trying to learn German.
Sheffield skater: Joel Curtis – me and him used to skate together daily. Lots of good times.
Skate trip to date: Mallorca every year – it’s a lot of fun to be with the team there.
Time in your life: Right now is pretty interesting. I actually remember the days I played football everyday as a kid and I have fond memories of that too.
Special move in a game of SKATE: Bigspin nollie inward heelflips.
Board, ever: The ‘Starbucks Coffee’ graphic I had, before Starbucks took over the coffee world.
Thing about living in Berlin: It’s really mellow and there’s a lot of good spots and people to skate with.
German phrase: Ein beer bitte.
Disturbing experience: Not sure really. I once watched my friends cat run into his living room and just die straight in front of me, my friend was out and I felt so bad about it but I couldn’t do anything. I think it had been hit by a car and come home to pass away. I wouldn’t call that my favorite though as it was pretty awful…
Marks section from the Neil Chester/Sumo skateshop video ‘Thru the Eyes of Ruby’ (1998):

domain: hobby


text:
Told that his name might not be treasured among Giants fans today, Chris De Luca, national baseball writer of the Chicago Sun-Times, said, “I’m glad I don’t have season tickets any more.”
De Luca didn’t cost Lincecum, who still won in a landslide by receiving 23 of 32 first-place votes, and he expressed admiration for Timmy Terrific, who went 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA and became the first Giant in history to lead the majors in strikeouts (265).
De Luca stood by his ballot. Voters are allowed to pick the top three pitchers and De Luca had Brandon Webb first, Brad Lidge second and Johan Santana third.
“It’s funny because toward the end of the season, in early September, I was thinking Lincecum would be in my top two,” De Luca said. “I thought Webb’s victories (22) stood out to me more than anything, and Lincecum didn’t have the victories. Twenty victories was a big deal. We had a stretch there where no one was hitting 20.
“Santana (undefeated after June 28) stood out because there was so much pressure not just being in New York, but to be who he is. With Lidge being a perfect closer (41-for-41 in save chances), that was a tough pick for me, not to pick him No. 1.”
Posted: November 12, 2008 at 04:43 AM | 22 comment(s)
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domain: news


text:
Rachel LeBrock posted this to the Sacramento Bee's blog. Woo hoo.
Kiss and tell
Sacto blogger Keith Lowell Jensen has added another URL to his Internet oeuvre. Much in the way that Jensen's All My Jobs blog details the comedian/writer/blogger's explorations into gainful employment, All My Kisses journeys into the realm of love and infatuation.
The entries - written in (mostly) work-safe prose - are funny, engaging and more than a little bittersweet. And, who knows, they may sound familiar.
"Look closely, you may be in one of the stories," Jensen wrote in a recent e-mail. "Remember that time you got drunk and kissed the coat-check boy? (I) worked as a coat-check boy!"
For the record, I never kissed a coat-check boy...or if I did, I wouldn't tell...Jensen, however, is thankfully not so discreet.
Thanks Rachel. Read the first story at All My Kisses by clicking HERE.

domain: literature


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I wanted to redesign my agency website for the longest time now since early COVID since we had a lot of updates to make, but not enough time or motivation to get the project done. Webflow Global Maker Day was the spark that I needed to take a moment and implement it!
What it does
Creative M Studios is a UI/UX agency that specializes in delivering high-end, realistic prototypes, to primarily startups that want to get to market faster and/or in front of investors with their revolutionary idea.
How I built it
I built this using all primarily Webflow components and very little to none custom html/css. The only custom css that was implemented was from CodeCrumbs (navigation bar with a frost-blur effect). All design assets were created using Sketch, After Effects, and Lottie.
Challenges I ran into
The time constraint was the toughest part of this challenge. Webflow does an amazing job making it really simple to build high-end websites able to match designs with pixel-perfect accuracy. Unfortunately, I was only able to build out 2 desktop-first pages in the allotted time.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I would say that I am pretty proud of myself for being able to quickly organize and execute 2 fully designed pages, as well as designing, animating, and implementing, a number of vector artwork - all within less than 24 hours (I didn't get to really start until in the evening due to work in the morning).
What I learned
I learned how to better implement custom CSS into page settings and the new clipping components feature.
What's next for Creative M Studios - Redesign
I will continue working on this project probably into the week and next week so that my agency website can be fully up to date with the new redesign!
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.

domain: design


text:
I was diagnosed with celiac disease at the age of 30, and with I can say that it was one of the happiest days of my life. If you are wondering why, continue reading to get introduced to that quiet, changing, cocooned and above all painful celiac disease!
For as long as I can remember, I have been listening my parents’ stories about how by the age of 7 I didn't have any appetite and the only thing I would eat was fruit. In that period of my life, while running around carelessly with friends I fainted, and in the hospital was diagnosed with epilepsy. I was given antiepileptic drugs to keep the illness under control. I also remember the pain in my lower limbs. The doctor’s explanation was that I grew quickly and that is completely normal. The problem was that the pain was so strong that I couldn’t sleep at night. I was doing a lot of sports and was very active, almost hyperactive. There was not a month during the year when I didn't have aphthae, I was losing my hair, and after childbirth I was experiencing enormous mood swings and lack of concentration.
The biggest problem was the leg pain I was experiencing. In my twenties, I literally begged the doctors to find the cause of the pain and the weakness that I was experiencing daily. The pain was getting stronger, my knees were shaking, I could barely walk up the stairs, even just walking was exhausting. Sometimes I just couldn’t get out of the bed, even if my baby was crying in need of his mother. All the hospitals and medical examinations were not able to determine the nature of my problem. I was told to check with a clinic in USA to improve my health. I decided to stay brave and to believe that I am young enough to get through everything, even that period of my life when I was taking painkillers daily just to get through the day. I also decided to completely ignore the comments of my friends and colleagues that maybe I was suffering from multiple sclerosis.
In the second decade of my life I gave birth to two children, both diagnosed with celiac disease (in infancy). While the genetic testing for celiac disease was non-existent in my country at that time, my husband and I underwent testing for celiac disease specific antibodies to maybe discover celiac disease, but we were both negative. One day we received an invitation for genetic testing which we gladly accepted hoping to find answers to our questions. My results came in positive (presence of HLA DQ2 and DQ8 was established). I repeated the serology, which also came positive at this time, as well as the small intestine biopsy, to round up the whole story.
I immediately started with gluten free diet. The antibodies decreased over the years. The pain started to fade slowly. But only after 5 years of strict and persistent gluten free diet my results came in negative. For so many years I lived my life in pain, got wrong diagnosis, and took wrong therapy. After gluten free diet the pain in my muscles and joints disappeared, along with long and painful menstrual bleeding and aphthae. Finally, I was calm enough to continue my life. My diet consists of groceries which don’t have gluten naturally, and my mission became to raise the quality of life of people suffering from celiac disease!
In the end, I would like to say that celiac disease wasn’t even a possibility in adult population at the end of last and in the start of this century if it wasn’t manifested with clear symptoms: stomach ache, diarrhea, vomiting. Today, I can say that genetic testing contributed a lot to discovering celiac disease in family members and first relatives of the diseased, as well as to a lot of people whose celiac disease was completely asymptomatic. We can’t give up on educating patients and medical staff and raise awareness about celiac disease as a quiet epidemic which carries a lot more diseases and weak states of our organism.
M.M., 43 years

domain: medical


text:
Click here to compare with other General Surgery Specialists.
Dr. Corey Ming-Lum, MD is a general surgery specialist in Saint Louis, MO.
- University Of British Columbia Faculty Of Medicine, Medical School
- 1 7425 Forsyth C B # 8221, Saint Louis, MO 63105 Existing Patients: (314) 747-3969
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Frequently Asked Questions
Dr. Ming-Lum's office is located at 7425 Forsyth C B # 8221, Saint Louis, MO 63105. Find other locations and directions.
Dr. Ming-Lum has not yet indicated whether they offer telehealth services. Please contact the office to check for availability/eligibility.
Find contact information here to make an appointment.


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VR Art Show
View and buy art in VR
Join artists from around the word at the first artist trade show in VR. Artist can set up their own booths and advertise their craft next to other artist in a fully immersive virtual reality experience. Visitors can walk around freely, talk to each other and the artist, and even purchase art that’s on display in real time.
Our goal is to bring people together and open up a world of possibilities to artists everywhere to continue to grow their business while providing a unique and one of a kind experience in vr.

domain: artistic


text:
Endangered Florida panther shot in Georgia
In Troup County, Georgia, in 2008, a hunter was waiting in his tree stand for deer when he spotted and shot an animal he'd never seen in that area before: a cougar.
He reported his kill to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, after which the body of the big cat was brought to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in Athens, Georgia, for necropsy.
High-tech CSI-type genetic testing by the National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, revealed that the young, healthy mature male was a resident member of the south Florida remnant population of critically endangered Florida panthers, although it isn't clear if he was an escaped zoo animal or pet, or travelled to Georgia on his own.
According to a news release today from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources , because Florida panthers had not been documented in Georgia in years, it was initially thought that this animal might have escaped or have been intentionally released from captivity. With the genetic confirmation that the animal is indeed a Florida panther, it's possible this animal could have traveled all the way from south Florida to Georgia.
"We have had evidence (road kill) of Florida panthers as far north as the Florida panhandle," said Tim Breault, Director of Division of Habitat and Species Conservation, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Young males, in an attempt to develop their own territory, will often wander far from their home range. We think this may have been the case in this situation."
The healthy male shot by the hunter in 2008 was evidently roaming northward in search of his own territory, which raises questions about other Florida panthers that might be leaving their usual range to find better habitat by moving north.
"Finding a Florida panther that far from southwest Florida is out of the ordinary, but male panthers, particularly younger ones, can travel great distances," said Paul Souza, Field Supervisor of the South Florida Ecological Services Office. "While it's unusual for panthers to be seen that far north, it is not impossible for a young male to travel so far."
The critically endangered Florida panther is the last subspecies of mountain lion still surviving in the SE United States. With only about 100 left, it means every loss is a step closer to extinction. Just this morning (August 5, 2009) a semi accidentally hit one on a highway in Collier County Florida.
The Florida panther is a magnificent animal. A mature male can reach 6 feet in length and weigh 130 pounds, preying on white-tailed deer, wild (feral) hogs, armadillos, birds and small mammals like raccoons. While they may occasionally take an outdoor pet, this shy cat generally avoids humans.
If ever an animal was blessed with a plethora of names, it is Puma concolor. Also known as mountain lion, puma, cougar, panther, catamount and painter, this big cat used to range all across the US. It's also supposedly the only ‘big cat' that purrs (tigers for instance ‘chuff' rather than purr.).
The Official State Animal of the Sunshine State, Florida panthers need our help. They have suffered a tremendous reduction in numbers as the human population in American, and particularly south Florida has mushroomed. They are now reduced to less than 5% of their historic range.
Because of their small population, the Florida panther is struggling to overcome the effects of inbreeding. Beyond that, other threats are habitat destruction and fragmentation, collisions with vehicles, mercury poisoning, and parasites/diseases from domestic cats and dogs.
The loss of even one Florida panther to a careless hunter is disturbing. So far the shooter hasn't been charged, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Office of Law Enforcement is investigating this incident since the Florida panther is a federally protected endangered species.
Thank you to Melissa Cummings of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for this breaking news report.
Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue
an Educational Sanctuary home
to more than 100 big cats
12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL 33625
813.493.4564 fax 885.4457
Sign our petition to protect tigers from being farmed here:
Free ways to join us and help the big cats:
Twitter: Follow Me and be invited to enter our Animal Lover's Dream Vacation Giveaway! http://twitter.com/BigCatRescue
This message contains information from Big Cat Rescue that may be confidential or privileged. The information contained herein is intended
only for the eyes of the individual or entity named above. You are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, disclosure, and/or copying of the information contained in this communication is strictly prohibited. The recipient should check this e-mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses. Big Cat Rescue accepts no liability for any damage or loss caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail.

domain: geography


text:
Because termite activity may increase given the milder winter so far, the Professional Pest Management Alliance (PPMA) is calling on the industry to spread awareness about termite threats during Termite Awareness Week, which is March 5-11.
As homeowners gear up for spring by dusting off their outdoor furniture and making cleaning lists, the pest control industry is focused on termite season. Recognized by Chase’s Calendar of Events, this annual observance encourages homeowners across the country to actively monitor for signs of termites and underscores the critical need for routine inspections.
“Pest control professionals know exactly how destructive termites are, but homeowners are often caught completely by surprise. First, to find out they have termites, and second, at the expense to correct more severe structural damage — it can be quite a one-two punch,” PPMA Executive Director Dr. Jim Fredericks, BCE, said in the news release. “PPMA is working to drive that message home and sharing with homeowners that in today’s economy, it is estimated that termites cause $6.8 billion in damage in the U.S. every year when you adjust for inflation.”
PPMA takes the stance that if more companies share this message, the louder and more impactful this message will be received.
“Our entire industry should be working together to communicate the importance of identifying and eradicating termite infestations and encourage proactive, routine termite inspections and partnerships with pest control professionals,” Dr. Fredericks said.
PPMA is launching a media relations campaign and a social media strategy across Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. It also recently launched its new Instagram channel, @PestWorldOfficial, and is working on a new, second season of its popular termite show, “Will They Eat It?” scheduled to be released in June 2023.
Pest control companies interested in joining PPMA for this campaign should use #TermiteAwarenessWeek on all social media channels when sharing content about this pest and are encouraged to share content posted on @PestWorld’s social platforms.
For Mainframe subscribers, an exclusive Termite Awareness Week toolkit will be shared on PPMAMainframe.org featuring downloadable assets such as a customizable press release, social media content, logos and cover photo images, media talking points and high-resolution photography and video assets. Reviewed for accuracy by NPMA entomologists, these materials are a resource for companies to use in their own promotional efforts.


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Tuesday, 15 July 2014
It's been a while and this is the first update from my ipad so I haveno idea of how good the formatting will be.
There's not been a massive amount to get excited about of late, a few scraps here and there. South-easterly winds haven't seemed to be on the agenda, and when they have it's been a case of no swell. Typical Cornish summer I hear you say. However, there's a storm brewing out in the slot later this weekend and this should swing some waves our way during the middle of next week. Early days for any detail, but there's more than a good chance of winds either being light or offshore at the time the swell arrives and some real waves might be on there cards.
Posted by plappers at 15:34


Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade Livestream – Episode 5
Catch up on the Eternal Crusade streams as the team shows off a tank versus tank battle, the Lascannon and Quad Gun, and follow up with a Q&A.
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- Warframe PS4 and XB1 Get Silver Grove Update
- Digital Extremes brings its huge new Warframe update, The Silver Grove, to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles today.
- Tribes: Ascend announces launch date
- Hi-Rez Studios has announced that Tribes Ascend will launch on April 12, 2012.
- Grey Shores of Oblivion Opens in Knight Age
- On February 5, Joymax opened up the new area in Knight age, called the Grey Shores of Oblivion.


text:
Exemption of Infringement of Technology Protection Measures
Due to the exclusive right of copyright owner upon his/her own created work and the technology protection measures to support and prevent breach of such exclusivity in the digital era, one of the measures is the access control through technology to assist and tackle the issues of breaching of copyright such as setting code or password. If any act violates such measures either by such as hacking the code or decode the password, such act will be considered as breaching of access control measures where the violation act affects the measures to be ineffective. However, with or without the measures, the accessibility of the copyright work is always the issue for certain groups such as the disability or social goods accessibility includes educational purposes in which those should not be obstructed by this measure as it would put more burden on the same accessing to the works. Accordingly, the Ministry of Commerce has released its draft Announcement on Acts Exemption from Violation of Technology Protection Measures under Section 53/5(1) B.E. 2537 (1994)
The essence of this Announcement is to exclude “certain acts causing the technology protection measures to be ineffective” and those will not be considered as technology protection measure violation in which it will be focusing on literary, audiovisual and film works.
The acts under this Announcement which are not considered as violation of technology protection measures are as follows:
1. In case of acts causing ineffective of technology protection measures by the disabled persons or organizations endorsed by the Ministry of Commerce conducting for the benefits of disabled persons, the term of disability can be referred to that as specified in the Copyright Act B.E. 2537 (1994). If the disabled persons or organizations as mentioned above violate technology protection measures under certain acts such as those necessary for making such disable person living its life for audiovisual, film and/or literary works, those will not be considered as violating the technology protection measures. However, measures or systems to prevent others from accessing to the works are still required.
2. Exemptions of violation of technology protection measures in case of audiovisual and film works include the acts of students, researchers, teachers and educational institutes and acts of using some parts of works suitably for teaching or researching. It needs to have reasonable reasons that there is no any other way to arrange for the material for teaching other than violating of technology protection measures. However, measures or systems to prevent others from accessing to the works are still required.
3. Exemptions of violation of technology protection measure in case of audiovisual and film works also include the acts of librarians which are for keeping or copying of works for using in the library as the works got damage or unusable and that there is no way to arrange for such material from any source and that such material shall not be used outside the libraries.
In any way, the acts which are exempted from being violation of technology protection measures shall not be the acts for generating profits and the persons who conduct such acts shall receive the work or its copy legally.
This Announcement will be effective from 23 August 2022 onward.

domain: law


text:
Local government officials threw their unanimous support this
week behind an effort to keep Yale Locks & Hardware operating in Lenoir City.
County Commission and Lenoir City Council voted Monday to provide Yale Locks with a 10-year, 100
percent tax break, amounting to incentives of about $1,028,000, to remain in the county.
most of you know, Yale has been around for a very long time," Lenoir City Mayor Tony Aikens told
commissioners Monday night. "They have raised a lot of families up there, and we'd certainly like to
encourage them to stay in Loudon County. It's not just about Lenoir City; it's about Loudon County,
and it's about the 234 citizens that work up there as well."
Pat Phillips, president of the
Loudon County Economic Development Agency, said that given an average income of about $40,000 per
year at Yale for more than 230 employees, the impact would mean more than $4 million in lost local
wages. He said 61 percent of Yale's employees live in Loudon.
"I just hope we can pass this
tonight to show our support for these families and the individuals and do our best to hopefully keep
this company in our county," Commissioner Steve Harrelson said. Other commissioners agreed that
if the company left it would have a significant impact on the county.
"I think anybody that
has ever been involved in sales or anything like that knows that it's much cheaper to keep a
customer or a company than to try to get a new one in," Commissioner Bob Franke said. "So I think
even if with our best efforts if we're not able to keep them, I think it's well worth the effort at
least to try even though it's probably going to be a corporate decision that not many people have
control over, at least at this level, but I'd sure like to give it a try."
voted 9-0 to approve the Yale tax incentive, with Commissioner Sharon Yarbrough absent.
unanimous vote like this sends a great message not only to the company, but to the community and the
employees," Phillips said.
Yale's parent company, Assa Abloy, announced plans Friday to
consolidate its Lenoir City Yale operation into an existing, larger Assa Abloy facility in Berlin,
Conn., and shut down the local plant.
Yale Locks general manager Dick Krajewski said
operation transfers would start no sooner than in 60 days. Layoffs would come in increments over the
next 12-14 months to keep production flowing smoothly.
Phillips told city council Monday
morning that he hopes the incentive will change corporate minds and be the "possible solution" to
keeping a staple in the local economy for nearly 60 years.
"I think everybody understands
this is going to be an uphill struggle since the decision has already been made out publicly,"
Phillips said. "Hopefully, we can get their interest and reverse the decision that has been
Aikens told council that Yale management would relay the city and county's message to
the corporate office.
"I'm optimistic that it will work, but I can't tell you at this point
in time if it will or not," Aikens said. In other business, the commissioners:
Approved appointments to the surplus property committee, library board and the solid waste
● Adopted an interlocal agreement with Lenoir City in which the county and
city would split local costs associated with the construction and repairs to the Simpson Road
bridge. The total costs of the project is $202,871, and the Tennessee Department of Transportation
will foot the bill for $162,297. The city and county will each contribute $20,287.
project includes the removal of the old structure, construction of a concrete slab bridge, erosion
and traffic control. The bridge is expected to be completed by Nov. 1.
● Approved new
Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System employee contribution rates. The rate for general employees
will increase from 9.52 to 9.72 percent, while the rate for public safety officers will go from
13.02 to 13.22.
● Approved an increase to the highway department fund of about $80,000
for disaster relief stemming from April 2011 flooding.
● Heard from representatives of
the Amberly Meadows Home Owners Association. HOA treasurer Otis Peterson told commissioners that the
developer of the subdivision went bankrupt and some streets had fallen into disrepair. The
subdivision includes seven houses and 28 lots.
News-Herald Staff Writer Stephanie Myers
contributed to this report.


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- Top Speed: 5 mph
- Estimated Range: about 10 miles
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- Front Wheels: 7" x 2"
- Rear Wheels: 8" x 2"
- Dimensions: 40.6" (L) x 20.1" (W) x 36.2" (H)(Note: Due to manual measurement, there may be an error of up to 1 inch.)
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- Motor: 200w - 250w
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text:
Cannabis and Canines
How Cannabidiol Benefits Dogs
by Caroline Coile
Struck with severe arthritis, Topper, a 7-year-old Ibizan Hound, was in such pain he could hardly walk. He had to be carried outside to eat or use the bathroom, and medication wasn’t working. On a friend’s recommendation, his owner, Christy Moore, of Florence, Arizona, gave him cannabidiol (CBD). “Within three days, he could walk on all four legs and I was crying tears of joy,” she recalls. “It was the miracle we needed.”
Topper is among the thousands of furry family members that have found relief with CBD, one of 113 cannabinoids found in cannabis (hemp) plants. Success stories abound of how CBD has helped dogs overcome anxiety, reduce seizures and even beat cancer.
Cannabinoids, including CBD and the psychoactive compound THC, are substances that mimic the naturally occurring chemicals produced in all vertebrates. Receptors for these endocannabinoids are found throughout the body, especially in the brain, nervous system and immune system, as well as the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, intestinal tract, muscles, bones and both the reproductive and circulatory systems. They act as master regulators that signal other systems when to speed up or slow down, working to stabilize the body and return it to homeostasis. Cannabinoids from the cannabis plant affect these same receptors, each in slightly different ways.
Unlike THC, which is toxic for dogs at prescribed human dosages, the most significant, documented side effects of CBD are diarrhea and changes in some liver enzyme values after several weeks. The main concern with CBD is that it inhibits cytochrome P450, a chemical in the body responsible for metabolizing most drugs. That means CBD could affect the effective potency of a prescribed drug.
What Research Shows
While thousands of reports on CBD’s effect on laboratory animals and humans have been published, only a few have been conducted with dogs or cats. Still, CBD seems promising for arthritis, anxiety, itchiness and possibly seizures, cancer and other maladies.
Arthritis: In a Cornell University study, some dogs were initially so decrepit that their owners considered euthanasia, but after just days on CBD they were trotting around and even climbing stairs. A Baylor University study found similar improvement.
Itchiness: An Australian study found CBD reduced itchiness, inflammation and skin lesions by 51 percent after eight weeks of treatment. An American study also found CBD significantly reduced reports of itchiness.
Cancer: Cannabinoids are reported to induce cancer cell death and prevent metastasis. A Cornell University study found that CBD along with a standard chemotherapy drug reduced cancer cell proliferation in vitro more than the chemotherapy drug alone. Anecdotal reports from veterinarians have claimed CBD shrunk cancer cells or put dogs into remission.
Behavior: Despite those reports, no controlled study has shown CBD to be more effective than prescription medications in reducing anxiety. A University of Kentucky study found physiological measurements of anxiety in response to noise were not significantly different for CBD versus a placebo, and were worse compared to trazodone (a drug commonly prescribed for anxiety). A University of Western Australia study found shelter dogs with aggressive tendencies exhibited less aggression toward humans after two weeks of taking CBD.
Seizures: Many anecdotal reports hail CBD’s success in combatting seizures in dogs, but the single controlled study delivered only moderate results. A Colorado State University study found CBD only worked with some dogs, and it reduced, but didn’t eliminate, seizures.
Other: Evidence from laboratory animals supports CBD’s effectiveness in promoting bone healing, fighting infection, treating inflammatory bowel disease, slowing degenerative myelopathy, quelling nausea and relieving pain.
Broad-spectrum products work better than isolated CBD because they use the whole cannabis plant. Choose those with third-party certificates of analysis of potency and testing for heavy metals, mycotoxins or pesticides. Avoid human edible products that often contain ingredients such as xylitol that are toxic to pets.
Aim for about 0.1 to 0.2 milligram per kilogram of a dog’s weight, given twice daily by mouth. Work up gradually, but beware that more is not always better with CBD, because sometimes the response is biphasic—it doesn’t work if they get too little or too much.
Discuss CBD with a veterinarian, but realize that not all of them are familiar or comfortable with the subject. CBD, like many supplements and drugs designed for humans and used on canines, is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Overall, the evidence is compelling that CBD can help some conditions. The endocannabinoid system is the largest system in the body and the least explored. CBD is not a miracle drug, but it may be the miracle our four-footed friends need.
Caroline Coile, Ph.D., is an award-winning writer of 34 books, thousands of magazine and web articles, and an app, All About Dogs. Learn more at CarolineCoile.com.

domain: health


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domain: entertainment


text:
KPI Benchmarks : Mortgage Application Approval Rate
- Benchmark Range
- Benchmark Average
- Benchmark Sample Size (n) 1804
* Is High or Low Best: Higher is Better
Mortgage Application Approval Rate
Mortgage Application Approval Rate measures the number of submitted mortgage loan applications that are approved by the lender in relation to the total number of mortgage loan applications received over the same period of time. A relatively low value for this metric is typically related to a few common factors, including an increase in submitted applications by potentially risky borrowers (e.g., borrowers with bad credit scores, etc.), general inefficiencies within application review and approval processes (e.g., poor written/oral instructions concerning what is needed to fill in the mortgage application, increased contacts due to missing or incorrect information or documentation, untimely contacts concerning missing or incorrect information, etc.), or inconsistent training/use of job aids during processing. Each of these factors can increase employee rework (due to errors or incomplete application information) and application decision cycle times, both of which have a direct impact on borrower frustration levels and attrition rates.
The number of submitted mortgage loan applications that are approved by the lender divided by the total number of mortgage loan applications received over the same period of time, as a percentage.
KPI Best Practices
- Clearly communicate info and documents needed from customers for applications and provide them with regular status updates
- Audit underwriting procedures and auto-decision rules regularly to align with company goals and strategies
- Target qualified borrowers who will have the credit history necessary for loan approval
KPI Calculation Instructions Mortgage Application Approval Rate?
Two numbers are used to calculate this KPI: (1) the number of submitted mortgage loan applications that are approved by the lender, and (2) the total number of mortgage loan applications received over the same period of time. Include all mortgage application completed by potential borrowers and submitted to the institution through any channel in the denominator. Include only new mortgages and refinances in this calculation (i.e., do not include home equity lines of credit or modifications); in most cases, new mortgages and refinances should be analyzed separately for this KPI.
KPI Formula :
(Number of Approved Mortgage Loans / Total Number of Mortgage Loans Received) * 100

domain: economics


text:
Table of Contents
Are Iguanas Nocturnal Or Diurnal? Green iguanas are diurnal, arboreal, and are often found near water.
What time of day are iguanas most active? An iguana in the wild will wake when the sun is up and is becoming hot. They will be most active in the daytime. This is often linked to temperature, and the hotter temperatures will create an iguana at its most active. Iguanas spend their time climbing, foraging, sourcing food, and basking in the sun.
What time do iguanas go to sleep? Although these reptiles are polyphasic, their sleep shows a tendency to concentrate between 20:00 and 8:00 h. Quiet sleep occupies the greater percentage of the total sleep time.
Do iguanas need light at night? Photoperiod: Iguanas generally need 14 hours of light and 10 hours of darkness.
The visible light and the UVB light source should be turned off at night to give the iguana a light-dark cycle.
As mentioned above, supplemental heat may need to be added.
Are Iguanas Nocturnal Or Diurnal – Related Questions
Do iguanas get lonely?
No, iguanas do not get lonely because they are solitary lizards. Loneliness is not an issue for iguanas – because they get territorial and want to have the best spots and territory to themselves.
What are iguanas attracted to?
Iguanas are attracted to trees with foliage or flowers, most fruits (except citrus) and almost any vegetable. Some green iguanas cause damage to infrastructure by digging burrows that erode and collapse sidewalks, foundations, seawalls, berms and canal banks.
Do iguanas breathe when they sleep?
Iguanas do sleep, but it isn’t the same way that humans and other animals sleep. When an iguana sleeps it enters a deep, restful state. It’s breathing and heart rate slows, but it maintains a high level of vigilance that keeps it aware of potential threats and danger.
Do iguanas like to hide?
Ideally, the branch should slope from the bottom of the enclosure to the top and should be near a source of UV light and heat, so the iguana can sit on the branch and bask. Large rocks in the cage also allow for basking. Iguanas also typically love a place to hide.
Can iguanas see in the dark?
7. They have an extra eye. Not only do iguanas have great vision and see colors, as well as UV light, sharply, but they also have an unusual photosensory organ on top of their heads called the pineal gland, or parietal eye.
Is red light bad for iguanas?
The reason why most reptile owners tend to use red bulbs to provide their pets with heat is because of the idea that reptiles cannot see the red spectrum of light. They say that reptiles can see colours and lights. This means that red light is useless in terms of providing heat without disturbing the sleep of your pet.
Do iguanas get bored?
They’re Kind of Boring
Why does my Iguana not drink water?
Green Iguanas do not have any sweat glands, consequently, they do not need to drink nearly as much fluids as their mammal counterparts. Furthermore, since they are cold blooded, and can regulate their temperature via their dewlap and the changing colors of their skin they do not need to sweat in order to stay cool.5 days ago
Can an iguana bite your finger off?
Mathew said though it’s unusual for an iguana to bite off a child’s finger, the type of injury is quite common. “These injuries heal so beautifully, most patients don’t need them,” he said. It took about half an hour to stitch up the fingertip, and Christopher was sent home soon after the surgery.
Do iguanas eat cats?
Cats can of course, be deadly to lizards. Iguanas are larger and scarier to see but not to cats who still view them as moving toys.
Can an iguana kill a dog?
Apparently, iguanas stunned by the cold snap are falling out of trees and laying in hibernation, dying or dead on the ground where dogs find and play with or eat them. The results have proven fatal for many of the canines. According to the Miami Herald, bacteria on the iguanas crusty skin leads to botulism poisoning.
What are iguanas scared of?
Iguanas are really scared of light produced by some products. People can hang compact discs in their garden that can confuse them quickly. One can tie compact discs to plants or trees in a garden that can result in more advantages.
What smell do iguanas hate?
Iguanas tend to steer clear of tough plants with thick leaves as well as citrus, pentas and crotons.
Do Iguanas poop in pools?
To add to bathroom-related issues, now South Florida iguanas are relieving themselves in neighborhood pools, contaminating them with their feces.
But, while that’s definitely gross, one animal expert told the Sun-Sentinel it shouldn’t hurt the family pet, as it’s a myth that iguana feces is poisonous to them.

domain: biology


text:
Back in the day, when I was a kidlet groing up in the South, my breakfast was usually biscuits with brown flour gravy, grits swimming in melted butter, crisp country bacon, and eggs over easy. No one ever talked about cholesterol, and people thought that breakfast was the best way to start the day. I wish it was, it's still one of my favorite food memories. But, I rarely have that type of breakfast now. Instead, I usually eat cereal. One of my resolutions for this new year was to eat more steel cut oatmeal. I prefer it to the more familiar oats that I grew up eating. It has a better texture, I think, and it fills me up better and holds off hunger longer than other types of cereal. And, of course, it's very healthy for you. It's full of soluble fiber, which reduces LDL, the "bad" cholesterol that leads to plaque buildup. This recipe include walnuts, which also reduces LDL, and like oatmeal can increase HDL, the "good" cholesterol.
I found this recipe in Martha Stewart living, which calls for roasting the oatmeal and walnuts. Roasting usually improves the flavor of food, and it gave the oatmeal a nice toasty flavor. This is a lovely way to start the day. But, I wish they would discover startling new evidence that my old fat laden Southern breakfast was actually good for your heart. A girl can dream, can't she?
Roasted Oatmeal With Walnuts And Oatmeal
(Martha Stewart Living)
1 ounce walnut halves, (1/4 cup)
1-1/4 cup steel cut oatmeal
5 cups cups water
5 ounces dried apricots, chopped (1 cup)
a good pinch of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
honey, to drizzle on top of the oatmeal
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread walnuts and oatmeal on two separate baking sheets, and bake until both are brown and toasted--about 10 minutes for the walnuts and 12 minutes for the oats.
Bring water to a boil and add the oatmeal, apricots, cinnamon, and salt. Return to a boil, then turn it down, partially cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until oats are tender and thick, about 20 minutes. Chop the walnuts.
Serve the oatmeal in 4 bowls, sprinkle each serving with the walnuts and drizzle some honey on top.
Note: I found that the leftover oatmeal re-heats fine the next day. It may need a little water added.

domain: food


text:
Climbing plant poster no 2
A botanical poster painted with watercolor technique. The illustration fits perfectly with the interiors in both modern and scandinavian style. It will work as a poster for the living room, kitchen and bedroom. Graphics perfectly harmonize with other botanical posters from the same collection.
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Full list of countries we deliver to and the costs are available in delivery section on the bottom of the website.
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text: Spider-Man celebrates his 50th Birthday in style, with an issue that manages to both move things forward and also pay a lot of respect to what’s gone before. The main story here is of course the debut of ‘Alpha’, Spider-Man’s brand new sidekick. The parallels between his origin and Spider-Man’s are obvious, and there’s a lot of fun spotting the references and nods to Amazing Fantasy #15 here. Andy Maguire is an outcast high-school student who attends a scientific display and is transformed into a superhero. It’s a very clever idea to have Peter Parker in his new role as a super-scientist cause a very similar accident to the one that he suffered, and it’s another great addition to the classic idea of power and responsibility. I also loved how self-aware Slott seems about the fan reaction to Alpha, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those quotes calling him a ‘Poochie’ came directly from The Outhouse or other forums! I personally don’t mind the character, as I don’t think he’ll be around for too long, and I just think the idea is so perfect for an anniversary issue like this one, allowing Slott to do some indirect nostalgia, but also, as I said, to do something new and demonstrate how much the character of Spider-Man has grown, from a nerdy teenager and hated vigilante, to a respected scientist and Avenger. The other stories in this issue are also solid, Dean Haspiel writes and draws a fun ‘between the panels’ story from way back in ASM #50 and Josha Hale Fialkov delivers a ‘day in the life’ that has plenty of the typical Parker Luck. So, Happy 50th to our friendly Neighbourhood Wallcrawler, and let’s hope the upcoming 700th issue party is just as fun! Spider-Man’s getting greedy with these anniversary issues, what is he, the Queen?