Starvation Diet

Starvation Diet Book

2011-11-22T05:05:00.001-08:00

I've now completed the Starvation Diet Book. It tells the story of the project and focuses on some of the key topics which came up throughout it. You can see a preview of it and order a book here.

Art Novel or not?

2011-09-20T04:26:00.001-07:00

If an art project fails to alter and just replicates an original rule does it become stunted or more insightful. Should we as artists always strive to present novelty in an effort to turn life on its head?

Slow Art and Novelty

2011-09-20T04:18:00.001-07:00

There may be a reason why most art projects come to an end. Even if if your life's work is to make furniture you need to feel that at some point you sand off the last bit of wood on an individual chair and stand it there as finished. If your work is as a conceptual artist you go through your prescribed process, you document it, maybe you present that documentation and then you stop. Maybe themes recur, maybe the work gets recreated but you move on. Starvation Diet was set as a life project. The end would be when I died. The measure of its success or failure my weight on death and the amount of money donated. But as I've gone along I've found it increasingly difficult to sustain. I think the reason art projects and other things we do have an end is because we intrinsically look for novelty. We would love to be wonderfully persistence people with sustained interest but in things we do we long to find the ability to conclude one thing and move onto another.

This is not to say that we shouldn't strive for life long endeavours. Maybe we do this through making the project an underlying structure from which other things originate from, sit alongside or inform. Maybe we have to step away from it for a while and then return refreshed. Maybe we segment it and mark the end of each phase.

Different forms of Starvation

2011-07-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

Kwashiorkor

Ideas for a starvation diet t shirt photoshoot

2011-07-08T02:29:00.001-07:00

A few years ago I received my People Tree catalogue through the post. I'm not sure which year it was and after about an hour of internet searching can find no evidence of it. The reason it came to mind of late is that it seemed to me to be misguided. The models were placed in their expensive clothes in front of those who had made them, Indian sowers and African Weavers perhaps. The clothes had to be the focus, as that is what were being asked to purchase, but whilst showing the garments the company tried to make the link between the makers of the clothes and its ethical origins and the finished product. It was probably a great idea sat around a marketing table but when seen it created a feeling of unease and I felt undermined what the company try to do. I am a supporter of ethical trade and interested in where my products originate from but placing the people as an attractive backdrop to the clothes created images too full of contrast. It underlined the richness of our lives compared to others and put me off buying the clothes in the catalogue. I note from the current catalogue (top picture from here) that they haven't gone down this route again. I found this site on my search for the catalogue images http://eng.feministblogs.org/tag/nation-india/page/2/
( from where the second image hails). There is an interesting article on the use of cultures, their architecture, nature and people as backdrops to Western beauty. It makes the point that by choosing this backdrop the companies give the buyer a feeling that they are buying into the exotic. By People Tree choosing developing country backdrops are they at once indicating the exotic and reminding the buyer to feel smugly good at no real cost to themselves. If this is the feeling I got from these images does it underline something which is intrinsicly strange about fair trade. Of course fair trade is a better option than just trade but should it have the title fairer trade, indicating at its place as a process rather than a conclusion. A stepping stone on the path to truly fair trade which, in an infinite resource planet is two pronged. The first prong being a raising of the living standers of those living in abject poverty and the second the sacrifice of some of our unsustainable luxuries to bring our lives to a less decadent place. Does buying another top, no matter how nobly sourced forward the aim for equality or does nurturing my greed for more clothes, more novelty, more stuff ultimately lead to more inequality both geographically and generationally.

This is not an attack on People Tree, us as its customers or fair trade in general.It was just an observation and maybe a cautionary note that we must carry on thinking, challenging our perceptions and behaviours, moving ever forward. The world is an every changing story. Current droughts in Africa may lead to instability in countries we had ticked off our list as solved. The troubles of countries we have seen as nice holiday destinations such as Greece, may throw the economies of the world into turmoil. We are living in a time where each individual must be adaptable in their views and perceptions. Nothing is set in stone, everything should be up for debate. As artists we can use our role as agitators, observers and re-presenters to tackle things of worth.

All this thought and research came about as I have finished the first version of my starvation diet T-Shirt. The stitching indicates the body of a starving woman ( after much research the only vital statistics I found near to this were those relating to a size 0) . When worn by me it will show up the contrast between my body and that of a person suffering from the symptoms of starvation. I want to do a parody of a fashion shoot so was pondering on replicating the ones I saw in that People Tree Catalogue. I will probably approach it in a few different ways and see what resonates best.

A few Facts on Stravation

2011-06-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

One way of measuring malnutrition in children:
•Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) :
•MUAC <125mm >110mm
•MUAC < 110 mm OR the presence of bipedal oedema

Taken from World Health Organisation web site

Is everybody actually getting fatter?

2011-06-28T04:26:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to research vital statistics for a starving woman. The reason for this may seem a little shocking. I want to create a T shirt as a reminder of the extremes of weight which exists between me and somebody who has been deprived of food to the point of starving. I am struggling because as with most subjects things are not as simple as they first appear.
I keep finding a lot of research on the growing obesity epidemic in Developing countries. Its shown in this chart and the quote below from;
here

"The number of obese people in many countries is fast overtaking the number who are underweight — even in the poorest rural regions (see Figure 2). In Mexico, for example, nearly 60 per cent of people are overweight, compared with less than ten per cent underweight."

I have also ended up going down the route of looking at size 0 and what this means. Its easier to find the vital statistics for this, its 31.5" Bust 23" Waist and 34" Hips. There are lots of articles about starving models and the two sisters models who died of cardiovascular arrest and stomach leaks due to starving themselves. I think this is misleading though as its a very different issue to deprive yourself in a land of plenty than to be the victim of famine. If anybody out there can think of a place to go and look for the info I need it would be a great help. Its the vital statistics of a starving 37 year oldish woman in say Chad, India or Ethiopia.

Economic Rationalism

2011-06-28T03:35:00.000-07:00

The true evil of economic rationalism
	Vast amounts of value, of jobs and long term sustainability of communities have been destroyed across the world in the name of economic rationalism.
	It is economic rational to build "super stores" in small and medium towns to destroy local commerce, drive down prices and create greater levels of consumer debt.
	It is economic rational to sell international brands in high spending consumer markets at outrageous mark-ups, while paying children in third world countries a few cents and item to make them under slave conditions;
	It is economic rational to make naturally grown pain killer crops illegal in major regions such as Africa, the forcing governments to purchase vast quantities of out of date synthetic pain killers from US and European pharmaceutical companies that remain ineffective and too expensive for 90% of the population.
	In all cases, economists argue that these are just extreme cases and that the "free market" has produced phenomenal amounts of wealth and raised the standard of living of countless hundreds of millions.
	But is this even true? Does living in a non-de script cul de sac two hours from work with neighbours you don't even know quality of life?
	Is a large screen TV, the latest gadgets and internet porn really improving the minds of your children or the closeness of your family?
	Are we really happy with everything we buy and still find ways to purchase more? or dow e convince ourselves we are happy, to make sense of a system that seems to lose a little more morality every day?
	In the absence of morality in decisions concerning the lives of human beings and its acceptance, it is only "rational" then to conceive of a time in great disasters that governments claim it to be "economically rational" to give up on great numbers of people and let them rot.
	When these times approach, the true nature and evil of economic rationalism will reveal itself to be one of the great evil acts of history. From here:http://one-evil.org/acts/acts_economic_rationalism.htm

Failure or not a Failure?

2011-06-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

I've sent the starvation diet idea off to a group exhibition about failed art. I'm not really sure if this is failed art but thought that it threw up some interesting ideas about when and why we judge something failed.
The text from this is here:

Starvation Diet Failure Statement

“Starvation Diet” is an art/ life project based around food inequality. The premise was that I resisted food I didn’t need and gave the money saved to charity. The process was documented through, photography, film, text and currently resides on a blog site and a half finished book. As the project developed it involved others in “Starvation Diet, the next generation”, explored an idea called “Extreme Starvation Diet” generated a shared weighing scales element and resulted in my losing 2 stone and giving £367.00 to the charity practical action.

Why do I consider it a failed work?

The true nature of it as failure or success will only be evident at the moment of my death. The aim is to raise £10,000 in my lifetime and to remain at a healthy weight. The work is currently in a state of failure as I am putting on weight, have not donated in 3 months and have stopped noting the things I have resisted. The Next generation have not carried on with the project. The work is part of an effort to create slower art with less of a discernable end. This form of art brings up all sorts of issues around success and failure. At what date do we decide on a projects success and how does this choice of date skew this? When the lines between life and art blur are there more pit falls and less artistic control. As artists do we have the tenacity to stay with long term projects and not be distracted by new ideas and works.

Looking back

2011-06-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

Was just looking back at my starvation diet blog and realised that I haven't included anything about the Interactive scales project. The idea came about when I was considering buying a set of scales to weigh myself with. I decided that it was daft to posses something which you would use so infrequently. I also saw a way of picking up my activity levels. I set the rules for weigh in that:
I had to weigh myself on somebody else's set of scales
I had to get there under my own steam
I could only use each set of scales once.

So it began and was charted here:
http://www.bethbarlow.com/completed_pages/scales_map.html

A long time missing-the temptation to stop because its lost its novelty

2011-03-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to be a life project but its turning out to be tricky to keep it in the forefront of my mind. As with lots of art projects they slip in and out of focus and so has my commitment to this. I have started filling in my sheets again and trying to resist. I can feel the inches coming back on a little and I know its perverse but the thing which makes me want to refocus is seeing others about me who have extra weight. In this country we hear common phrases like " I just don't know how I got like this." " I hate myself for being this fat." and people passify with phrases like " Your not fat your just cuddly." or " There are plenty of people bigger than you are." or say of you " You have lovely hair." which is a sure fire distraction from the issue. I haven't decided if we should hate ourselves for being overweight. Not because it looks bad and might turn others off their dinners but because of the moral obligation to eat our fair share and nothing more. This has made me think of an art experiment, possibly the opposite of the extreme Starvation diet where I ate only rice and porridge. In this new work I would have a big cheap and nasty cake, I would chop it into slices one huge and one just a slither. The tiny bit I would give to someone, maybe my son to eat. Maybe I wouldn't tell him why he was only getting a small piece and I was going to eat every other bit. The other I would plough through myself. Maybe it could be filmed with flash images of the needy, too fast that they don't register on the concious. Maybe this is just striving after novelty again though and I just need to keep on with the mundane, both for the sake of the art, life and the message. I shall ponder on the validity of this one.

Your diet with others in toe

2010-11-29T08:58:00.000-08:00

Its hard to stick to my guns when other people pop up. I realise how far from other peoples every day reality my life is. It sticks in my gut to see food thrown away. Its hard to justify the expenditure on a meal which I can't eek out for two days. Maybe I am too stuck in my ways or maybe its just about reaching a happy food compromise.

A whole month into the void

2010-11-29T08:36:00.000-08:00

Where does time go to. I knew that I had been really slack with documenting my starvation diet resists in my log charts but went to fill them in today and found that they were more than 2 months behind. October is a right off, I can barely remember what I had for tea last night never mind a month ago. November is a rough approximation with lots of "Resisted nothing"'s filling in the blanks. It amounts to an unknown amount of money not filtering through to the charity of my choice and I feel bad about that. I'm not sure if I've piled on any extra weight with all this slap dashedness.

Peer pressure

2010-10-11T01:28:00.000-07:00

Writing the title for this blog sent my mind off on a tangent about pier pressure, the pressure you experience when walking along a pier at the seaside. Pressure to purchase candyfloss, shells made into tiny animals, goes on bouncy castles and arcade games. But this is not the kind of pressure I really set out to write about. Hanging around with somebody else this week Its been funny to note how frugal I have become. Bacon for dinner on a Thursday, what extravagance. Bacon chopped up really small and added to a cauliflower cheese much more the ticket, four meals at under a pound. I also don't see any of this as a sacrifice more as a challenge. The only problem is convincing others that having less is not detrimental to your life but instead brings.... hmmm what does it bring? Pause. I can't quite put my finger on what it is. Maybe its a smugness which is strangely satisfying, maybe it is a certain kind of safety to know that you can live on next to no money if you really have to.

To Book or not to Book?

2010-10-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

I am in two minds about if Starvation Diet Should become a book. I keep putting it off and can't decide if that is because that's not what it should be or I don't want to do the work. I suspect that the only way to know might be to start. Or maybe I need to think about what purpose the book would serve. Would it be a book for the person in the street or a bit of high brow artistry? Could it be both? I want it to be a reading experience if its going to be a book at all. A sit down with a cuppa, clean hands and anticipation of enjoyment kind of a read. Sorry, headed off for a bit of internet research there and have come back with this:

Why do artists make books?

"Artists may use other media such as painting or printmaking but for some of their work only the book adequately fulfils their idea.

There is affection for the book as an object and a recognition of its long history as a container of information and ideas. The book form also lends authority to its contents. People understand books because they are accustomed to reading them. Books are very intimate artworks. When you read a book, you are in control. Unlike a painting on a wall, you hold it in your hands, you turn the pages, you touch it and smell it. Only you decide how long it will take, and you don't have to share the experience. Artists like the close connection with their audience that they can have through artists' books.

Books are sequential, with ideas and stories building up as each page is turned. This allows complex ideas to be developed within one artwork.

Different binding forms can be used to reinforce an idea, for example a binding that continually folds in on itself could house a never-ending story. Materials used can also relate to and tell part of the story."

I do want a container of information and ideas, I want authority to the contents. I want a form which is easy to understand and has an understood convention. Touching it and smelling it is good. The way that I want to set it up does involve an element of sharing in that people will be asked to pass the book on. I'm not sure how sequential I want it to be. I've considered materials like rice paper and starch paper to convey the idea of an edible book which people can choose to either eat or read. Think that maybe this gets rid of the idea of it as a book somehow though. Its a nice idea cause it fits so well with the concepts but is it a step too far? Will have to get some paper to try.

Funny how the focus has completely changed now that an object has reared its head. Is this a good thing?

My tea versus their whole days food

2010-09-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

The portion I would give myself for one meal.

In the Scales Slightly over the 11.34 Ounces a malnourished child in India would get. Still on the plate, the difference. Of course there food is probably not cottage pie and broccoli.

2010-09-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

A part answer to how much food a malnourished person would get each day. Kalyan Puri, india;
"On every street corner of this district, at around noon, a woman with a big tin pot ladles out thick gruel to a stream of small children carrying tin bowls. Each one is meant to get exactly 320 grammes, but few are measuring what ends up in their bowls."

"The results are evident in the charity-run primary school run for street kids behind the police station. Here, teacher Amitha Joshi says many children do not eat from early in the morning when their parents leave home until late at night. "They cannot concentrate, cannot retain any facts, they have serious behavioural problems," she told the Guardian."
Taken from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2010/sep/14/mdg1-hunger-poverty-india
I'm off to take a make my tea and will weigh out how much 320 grammes is and take a picture.

It should have been my last day

2010-09-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

I should have been celebrating a return to food after a week of porridge and rice today but gave up last Tuesday. The rest of this week has made me feel privileged. Each time I eat I tended to think I could be eating porridge now or this is so much better than rice. In that respect the two days on rations served a lasting purpose. We should really enjoy food. Its ungrateful not to.

Lucky me

2010-09-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling pretty lucky today. Just sat here and thought, "I could have a cup of coffee if I wanted to in a bit, or maybe I could have tea."

Wednesday

2010-09-09T00:47:00.000-07:00

Why I gave up.

2010-09-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Down the Slippery slope with honey in the porridge

2010-09-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

Its like wearing a hair shirt for no reason

2010-09-08T01:56:00.001-07:00

I started this extreme part of the project with clear ideas about why I was doing it. It was an experiment in increasing empathy, challenging my thoughts and getting a greater understanding. But with my head like cotton wool yesterday I realised that I was in no fit state to contemplate anything at a higher level let alone debate it in a sensible way. So I have started eating according to the normal starvation diet rules again, resist things I really don't need and give the money to the charity. I still feel the physical effects of the last few days but my head is clearing a little and I should be compus mentus by dinner time.

Friends turning into fruit

2010-09-08T01:47:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts on brain functioning and food

2010-09-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

Feeling sick

2010-09-07T05:41:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning feeling a bit queasy.

I can't stop yawning and have a bad head

2010-09-07T05:40:00.000-07:00

Feeling sick

2010-09-07T05:35:00.000-07:00

Woke up Feeling a bit queasy.

Things to research-any help gladly accepted

2010-09-07T01:27:00.000-07:00

What access to flavours do those on subsistence diets have?
Is empathy only a luxury for those who are well and well fed?
What is the average portion of food for somebody on a subsistence diet?
What are the vital measurements of a starving woman aged 36?
What bugs are not killed off from boiling contaminated water?
What are the various signs of malnutrition short term?

Empathy

2010-09-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

I'm interested to see how this process of Extreme Starvation Diet helps me to develop more empathy with those on subsistence diets. A few things I have noted so far:

When we cut down on food we have the choice to take comfort in other things, hot baths, bad Tv etc. What must it be like to have a life with no sources of comfort.
When food has no flavour it become purely about function, food as just function is sad

Some do this for fun

2010-09-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

This process I'm going through is something close to the usual mode for dieting. Restricting what you eat in an effort to loose weight relatively quickly. Possibly cooking different meals for yourself and your family. It places so much focus on the lack of food or the change of food that you can't help but feel miserable. Its like giving something up. But as food is actually a pretty good thing, it keeping you alive and all that giving it up becomes nonsensical. The normal Starvation Diet model seems to me to be even more useful after my first day doing this.

Compare and Contrast

2010-09-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

We don't live with stark comparisons that much in this country. We see other less fortunate places on the tele but that is just like fiction. Tonight was curious because, for the first of my meals there was a real contrast between what I was eating and what George my son was eating. As I cooked his chicken there were several occasions when my fork was poised over a piece, almost about to eat it. It smelled soooo nice and as it got browner it looked more and more tempting. But resist I did. As we sat down to eat I tried to remain upbeat. The temptation to steal from his plate was high and whilst he has not yet appeared before me as a cartoon chicken leg I can see it going that way. Most of the time he was a typical teenage boy, goading me with forks full of flying chicken and asking me in a sarcastic voice "Is it delicious your tea?". I had to give in a little and add salt and a few chilli flakes.

Before First Dinner Porridge

2010-09-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

First dinner half in the bin

2010-09-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

First Breakfast

2010-09-06T03:10:00.000-07:00

Videos

2010-09-06T02:52:00.000-07:00

I'm publishing all the videos in their entirety at the moment and will then edit them into one short film later. Funny to see the odd conversations between my son and I.

First Breakfast

2010-09-06T02:06:00.000-07:00

The ubiquitous before shots

2010-09-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

Was in two minds about doing these as this week is not about losing weight, rather about gaining empathy and insight. But as I want to document all the changes in me I guess I have to do the Physical too.

Last Supper Vid

2010-09-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

Last Pud Vid

2010-09-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

A day full of last suppers

2010-09-05T12:33:00.001-07:00

Chicken and Salford Onions pie
Salford Tomatoes and onions on home made bread
Hollies Cake
Salford and Cuddington Rhubarb and blackberry crumble

The morning before

2010-09-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

Ate too late last night and woke with a poorly belly. So the day of last breakfasts, dinners and suppers I've planned has started at a slow pace. I keep looking in the cupboard at the beige food I have to eat over this next week, starting tomorrow. Its not very inspiring but I am pretty excited to see how I will react to it all. Will I just get really grumpy and give up day 1? Will people I'm talking to start turning into chicken legs, cartoon style? We shall see. Will get around to the first of my Video logs tonight so check back here then.

Starvation Diet-The Next Generation

2010-09-05T01:45:00.000-07:00

Just created a new blog for those of you out there who want to get involved in Starvation Diet and contribute your ideas and experiences to a blog. Its here:

http://starvationdietnextgeneration.blogspot.com/

My Extreme Starvation Diet log

2010-09-01T08:56:00.001-07:00

So, its the week before the start of this extreme week. Nothing but water, porridge and rice to eat. Maybe a little milk for the porridge. I've been trying to find out what an average portion of rice or porridge type food would be for a person on subsistence level but can't find any facts. I don't think that I will be going that far and will just be eating enough of the mentioned food to keep myself going at some semi decent level for a week. I am interested though to see what happens to you if you dramatically limit your diet for a week. See my weeks journey on this page.

Its a date

2010-08-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

Have set the date for my extreme starvation diet for the week starting September 6th. Have been in training, eating porridge for breakfast and weening myself off the honey and raisins, mixed results. Two other kind souls have agreed to join me and take part in the normal starvation diet for the week. Think I'm going to do a video diary each day of the week so watch this space.

Just as an aside was glad to see that Our Lady of Sorrows was getting Pizza to cheer her up. (see Image)

The cupboard was bare

2010-08-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Or was it? So many times I enter my little pantry, look around at the stacked shelves and decide that, no, there is defiantly nothing for tea. Granted there is a proliferation of rice and spice and some cheapo spring rolls that I've decided are unfit for human consumption but it turns out there is enough to create something delicious and nutritious without dashing to the shop again. Lentils, aforementioned spices, the scrappings of a peanut butter pot and some ground up porridge oats are believe it or not (trust me I looked on the internet for inspiration) the ingredients for mini vegi burgers. A tin of tomatoes spices and some cinnamon to make it all a bit Moroccan as a sauce. A few strands of spaghetti and a bit of cheese from the back of the fridge finished it off. Stuffed now and feeling very smug and pleased with myself. Another one in the eye for consumerism. More pennies in the Starvation diet pot.

Crisp hangover

2010-08-23T01:11:00.000-07:00

Crisps make me feel ill. The other night we sat down to watch a film. It seemed like the occasion required snacks. My son and I set about the weigh and save pick and mix sweets and a big bag of crisps. Crisps are very salty. That may appear to be stating the obvious but as a once semi regular eater of crisps I hadn't really noticed it. I hadn't noticed the affect they have on my body before. Now I've been avoiding lots of snacks since October I notice changes they provoke more profoundly. Thirst drew me to drink my bedside glass of water before my head even hit the pillow. The following morning I was still dehydrated, poorly belly and a slight fuzzy head. I had a crisp hangover. Crispy hair of the dog anyone?

Get Lost

2010-08-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

Getting lost on a bike is great for the fitness levels. It also adds a sense of adventure to my life, which is, quite frankly missing of late. Standing at the cross roads just outside Davenham wondering if I should aim to get to Plumley in 20 minutes to get the train back, go and sample to delights of Lache Dennis or could I make it all the way to Knutsford?. Its the kind of mico exploration I've come to love, exploring the detail of your area rather than getting transport to other places. Along this morning's route there is an organic farm which sells ice cream and has a wonderful view. A riverside ride which at points get a little too close to river for comfort and the ever pretty Whitegate Way. Its all here on the doorstep. Its all part of this mornings adventure. Total ride 17.25 miles, need for lie down and good book, total.

Get a Proper Job

2010-08-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Had some other ideas to post but they have completely gone out of my head. So will post these musings instead. I justify myself constantly. Sometimes in response to challenges from others, sometimes just because its what I do. This role as an artist, which I'm playing at present, isn't seen as a proper job. For a start at the moment it doesn't bring in enough hard cash to support us, secondly it doesn't involve going to a place away from home to work for someone else and there are probably a whole host of other thirds. I see it being useful. I see it being challenging but I still justify. Was also thinking that artists are more commonly involved in experiments where as others feel that they are into presenting conclusions.

Extreme Starvation Diet

2010-08-06T00:27:00.000-07:00

Am thinking about doing starvation diet in a more extreme way for a week in September. The plan so far is to eat only rice and porridge for a week and only drink water. To help me in my quest I would really like at least 5 other people to take on the challenge of doing the standard Starvation Diet for that week. This would mean resisting things you don't need to eat, luxury items, snacks, expensive meals out etc and donating the money saved to charity via my Just Giving site of to another starvation related charity of your choice. Reading the book I'm on at the moment has really given me food for thought and made me think about my actions for future generation as well as just thinking across the globe. If anybody wants to join me do let me know by commenting below. If you want to express an opinion on my plan also feel free to comment below. All comment are moderated just to make sure I don't get loads of junk mail comment on here so can take a little while to go on line but will get there eventually.

Starvation Through Time

2010-08-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

Am reading a very grizzly but thought provoking book at the moment called "Bread Of Dreams" by Piero Camporesi. It looks at starvation through history in Europe. Heart warming chapter headings include, "The Disease of Wretchedness" and "Sacred and profane Cannibalism." Came across the word Autophagy, which was a new one for me (google it if you wish as a description here would all be too much)and notes of people eating the elderly to secure the lives of the young. It made me think again about our place in history. I've previously wrote about our lucky geographical and historical placing. Lucky to be born in place time in this era. A recent radio program on money was saying that my generation will not have the economic benefits of the baby boomers, those born 1945-50. There will not be the same opportunities to buy cheap houses and see the prices rocket until you sit on a nest egg, there will not be the opportunity to walk into a job for life or expect to retire at 60 on a good pension. What we have just witnessed in the last 50 years may be unique. The boom in food supplies, the mobility due to oil may soon come to a close. Fingers crossed we don't have to ask questions previously asked in the not so distant past like "can we ever eat human flesh without sinning?" or "when should we pile granny on the bonfire?". I know that I am straying into perverted territory here but maybe it is only by virtue of our extreme privileged times that we are able to find these questions so abhorrent and I am finding this book such sickening reading.

As one of the past commentators on this blog noted, extreme poverty can bring with a very different perspective, even maybe a different morality. However I like to remain less pessimistic about our future than the last few paragraphs might indicate. Maybe we in the West will suffer some of the extremes of the past or current other world but it will probably be how we react which will determine the true decline into wretchedness. I was pondering about how it may be the thoughts like "Let them fend for themselves, I'm keeping all this for myself." which are just one step away from drugging Granny up on Hemlock and feeding her to the kids. Both things come from the same pragmatic striving for individual survival. In fact maybe our current morality is more perverted than that because it is not survival we are aiming for it is luxury. We do, however know that we can work beyond that way of thinking, things like empathy exists in the human mind, compassion and love. If we allow these things to prompt us into action for the good of everyone maybe the future will be less bleak. It is with this in mind that I need to look to those less fortunate, either geographically or in terms of the future, galvanise myself and stop slipping off the wagon. To be repelled by the stories from history and in the same breath resign others to chocolate slavery or eat food brought about at the cost to future generations so that I can have more would surely make me a hypocrite.

To binge or not to binge?

2010-07-26T14:35:00.001-07:00

Another picture of cake, the blog is thick with them.

Next post birthday dilemma. Left overs. Two cakes, some biscuits and a box of chocolates. In terms of putting on weight I wonder if it is better to eat them all in one sitting to get them out of the house or to spread them out. Any idea anyone?

Its my Birthday and I'll Eat if I want to

2010-07-26T05:50:00.001-07:00

I ate lots of cake and dips and bread and the like this weekend. Had to, it was my birthday. I also drank some hard liqueur and a bit of soft liqueur too. But in my defence I made almost everything myself and "Mum didn't go to Iceland", not even once. Now I know just how many bars of chocolate went into those chocolate brownies. Started with two bars of fair trade but ethics took a nose dive when I realised I needed at least 400 grams more. The birthday spread included Home baked bread. I'll post the fool proof recipe soon. Such a smug feeling to unveil my walnut and pesto bread in its rustic wooden tray. Even went all 70's and baked a honeyed ham. Next recipe down from the ham in the book was a calfs head. Call me squeamish but I shy away from any recipe with the word Nostrils in it. I'll spare you all a posting of that recipe. Feel a bit guilty about the chocolate brownie chocolate not all been fair trade now, need to keep putting my mouth where my mouth is. Probably can't condone slave labour just cause its my birthday.

Man, That Hurt

2010-07-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

I've been busy lately and not keeping on top of noting my resists. Lame excuse I know but true non the less. Serves me right though 'cause I added it all up today and, even with the days I can't remember what I might have resisted, it came to £45.48. A lot of this was resisting taking my Dad out for dinner after he had dome some DIY for me. I love meals out but when you place their price in this context you see that they are a real extravagance. That meal would have cost around £20.00. The £20.00 now banked with practical action could feed over 20 people for over a day.

When we have odd bits and bobs to get rid of we call a man who sells it on a car boot to raise money for schools in Ghana. We call him father Christmas because he has a long white beard and a kind giving heart. Don't remember Santa driving a robin reliant van so the similarity may stop there. He told me last time he took some bits that a school in Ghana would cost them £1,000 to build. Money stretches so much further in other countries.

Weight Loss Shoes

2010-07-12T06:37:00.000-07:00

This site by Dominix Wilcox never fails to amuse and impress me. Could his scale shoes be the way to constantly monitor my weight loss? (p.s. not really contemplating this, just tongue in cheek)

http://variationsonnormal.com/2010/04/27/weight-watcher-footwear/

Misery Meals Down The Pub

2010-06-30T01:54:00.000-07:00

I have had a bout of the poor mes. Where is my life going? What is the point? Nobody loves me, everybody hates me. Lots of introspective clap trap which just lurked up on my over the weekend. I know its a waste of time. I know it makes me an ugly thinker. But sometimes you can't help it. In an effort to alleviate this it seemed that a meal at the pub was in order. We had a lovely time, me and my son, listening to the very small loop of music on the CD to the point where we didn't care that Tom Petty was Free falling again. The food was ok. My son bought us pudding. It lifted my mood to be chatting to my son, joking and putting the world to rights. Was it worth the money though? If I had resisted I'd have to be paying £30.00 into the charity pot. It seems like a lot to donate to charity not so much when I handed over my card at the end of the meal. Not quite sure what all this means but just thought it important to blog it.

A Guilt Free Weekend

2010-06-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

I decided that this weekend would be guilt free. I would eat as I please. Crisps with a film, cake after tea, kebab for the take away, beer and cheap cider. I find however that I'm not as good at it as I used to be. I don't enjoy it so much. Its the difference I feel in my stomach I think. Normally it is pretty well behaved but as I pile in the junk food it gets to feeling bloated and grumbly. I don't so much like the taste left in my mouth as I used to. Msg doesn't taste as yummy as it used to, sugar rush isn't quite as good. It doesn't leave me craving more, just wanting to go upstairs and brush my teeth. I suppose all this is a good sign. A sign that my diet has changed and I have somehow educated those tiny buds which litter my mouth.
Taking my son and his chum out for a bike ride to the lake turned out to be the most indulgent bit of the weekend.

Activity Log

2010-06-18T04:14:00.000-07:00

Activity Log for the past few months just uploaded to the starvation diet section of my web site. Its an effort to make sure that I don't just sit in avoiding food and getting no exercise. Apologies for those of us of an aesthetic persuasion, the web page and sheet itself is pretty ugly in the style of fluffy diet type literature.

http://www.bethbarlow.com/completed_pages/starvation_diet.html

Navel gazing whilst the world is going to hell in a hand cart

2010-06-18T03:23:00.001-07:00

When I was much younger, so much younger than today (bet you will be singing the song all day now) I worked for a very brief spell as a care assistant in elderly people's homes. I went to see one chap who was still all there but who couldn't command his body enough to do basic things like getting ready for bed. We had a chat which has stayed with me all my life. It was about art. He told me that he didn't think women could be good artists because we are too introspective. I don't agree with his generalization but it has given me lots of food for thought. I was reminded of that conversation this morning during one of my thoughts for the day (yes sometimes I have several). I've encountered several groups of late who are interested in self reflection, inner growth, stepping away from society at large. I started to wonder if these folks are spending too much time in this inner journey to consider the practical facts that the world and people in it need our help. Can this penchant for inner growth simply be another reflection of the cult of the individual which I think is a major contributing factor to some of our ills. Got that off my chest now, can go back to filling in the backlog of starvation diet log sheets.

To lobby or not to lobby?

2010-06-18T03:10:00.000-07:00

Friends of the earth Campaign to lobby government and make changes to food feed policy. I recently heard a women speak at a conference and her point of view was that personal actions are negligible and spending our energy on lobbying was the way forward. I think its not an either or thing and there should just about be time for both.

16 miles, singin' in public, so proud

2010-06-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Cycled up to Kelsal Via Delemere. There are some monster hills up that way. The photo depicts me half way up one such hill. Always a believer in having something to cycle to, this time no exception. Chester Folk festival the target. Got there knackered and strangely light noggined and headed to the pub. Felt good to tie up my bike knowing that I'd not just jumped in a car to get there. 2 O clock found me sat in an event called a singaround. I was expecting a nice sing along ensemble type bit but the lady next to me informed me that they go around the room and everybody has a solo sing. Several options: run for door, stage dramatic coughing and spluttering fit when my go came round or wrack my brain for something remotely folk which I wouldn't murder. Feel the fear and do it, stick your mustard to the sticky post (or something like that). I did a passable version of Pete Seeger's, "Sometimes I feel like a motherless Child" (a real party tune). Not too many squeaks or missed notes. Felt brill after. Good to step out of the comfort zone. Felt so good that I decided to cycle all the way back and not cheat and jump on the train at Delemere. Decision may also have been tinted by the big piece of cake I ate at Delemere Station Cafe.

Biggest ride this year and starting to realise that I won't die if I get out of breath.

Practical action Energy Vid

2010-05-27T03:58:00.001-07:00

Access to energy - video - Practical Action

2010-05-27T03:57:00.000-07:00

Access to energy - video - Practical Action

Question Time

2010-05-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

What one thing;

directly kills 1.2 million people worldwide a year

causes injury to 50 million people a year

kills or injures many more poor people than rich people

kills or injures more children than any other age group?

A growing list of really nice things

2010-05-26T05:31:00.000-07:00

To keep on top of my vow to try and eat only things which are really nice I'm making a list and checking it twice(sorry couldn't resist the Christmas song link. I'm actually just making it, not checkin it twice at all. This will grow as, hopefully, I find more and more nice things or other people suggest them and I venture to check them out.

Coffee and Walnut Cake from The Hollies Farm Shop in Little Budworth You can almost excuse them calling it a "Concept Cafe" Whatever the monkeys that is, I've not encountered many concepts over my coffee and cake thus far.

Flourless chocolate cake from Cafe Curio, near the bridge in Berwick Upon Tweed Of course it may only be quite this memorable if you have just slip slidded through the snow to get there.

Almost anything from The Goshawk pub, just off the train at Mouldsworth Particular memories of a deep fried Jam sandwich which I don't think they sell anynore, Shame.

Bread from the Cheshire Smokehouse Especially when you have been bus hoping from Knutsford and sit on the green to eat it.

Banana and date Cake from my oven when I get round to stirring it up and putting it there.

Cakes at Delemere Forest Station Cafe best when you have raced up on your bike just in time before they close for the day.

To be continued. Please feel free to post comments with your suggestions for me to check out.

Elderflower cordial hunter gatherer

2010-05-26T04:37:00.000-07:00

In the olden days, much further back than those olden days that older people say were much better, women would be the gatherers. Spending long amounts of time foraging with the aim of staying alive. The thrill of the hunt was all very well and good but it was these hours of spine bending stooping, looking and picking which formed the bulk of early humans diet with meat only on the menu once in a while. I can't say that I had all this in mind when I set off on my bike to find elderflower. I was inspired by a lovely matt paged book called Homemade by Ros Badger and Elspeth Thompson. It features things to make each season. Being spring/summer the thing to make is elderflower cordial. What started me thinking about being a gatherer was the process of doing this. You begin to see nature differently when you are looking for something in it. Its not just a background to your activities it is your activities. The book said that I needed 10 flower heads. The flower heads were high up, this would require a tool, a forked twig was employed for the job of pulling down the branches. 10 flower heads in the bag and a conversation with some nearby goats later I set off back towards home. But it wasn't in the same vein as usual. I stopped my bike three times along the way. One was to pick some more flowers from a much healthier looking crop I spotted closer to home. The next to cut some beautiful white lilac to go in a vase and the third at the local shops to buy further supplies for my brew. All mixed up and sat for 48 hours under a cloth in the pantry it could turn our tasting really bad but that probably doesn't matter too much. Life's enjoyment is most probably directly proportional to the amount of effort you put into it. Modern day life aims to make everything easier, more convenient. You can pick up any nationalities food processed and packaged from a supermarket shelf. If this was all so great why does it always feel so fulfilling when you do things like bake a cake and it comes out roughly cake like, travel to get something you really want to eat, walk miles and suck on an orange at the top of a hill? Our memories aren't made up of things like, "Do you remember that time we went to the shop and bought a packet of Findus crispy pancakes (other crispy pancakes available). Aren't memories often made up of the times we inconvenienced ourselves and really felt the glow of our efforts.

Oxfam fundraising group

2010-05-26T03:11:00.000-07:00

Have got involved in the start up of an Oxfam group in the local area. It was nice to have the odd trip to Manchester to take part in their events but will be even better to be involved in something closer to home. The other ladies (for we are all women so far) seem really nice with a good mix of skills. Hopefully the more strategic organised ones will help keep my creative feet on the ground. We decided to keep the committee to about 5 people to make sure it manageable and at the last meeting there were about 3 places left. We also decided that there may be folks out there who want to get involved but not so intensely. With this in mind we need to make it easy for people to help out at specific events or just keep up to date with what we are up to. Ideas flying around thus far are sports challenges, tea parties, fashion shows, geocaching events etc etc etc, the list goes on and on. So if anybody reading this fancies a challenge to help make the world a better place drop me an e mail bethbarlow@bethbarlow.com

Walk the world

2010-05-26T02:45:00.000-07:00

Starvation diet T shirts-help needed

2010-05-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

I want to create a starvation diet T shirt. It will have drawn on it the outline of a woman my age who is starving. This will help draw the direct comparison between me as a healthy, lucky eater and another person who is starving. Trouble is I'm finding it really hard to find statistics on the size of a starving woman. Grizzly stats I know but they must be out there somewhere.

Another 4 pounds floats off into the ether

2010-05-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

11.7 Pounds is the new weigh in. Will post it to the weigh in maps here soon. http://www.bethbarlow.com/completed_pages/scales_map.html

That is another 4 pounds lost since last time. Need to refocus somehow though on the other side of the coin, those starving. As I loose more weight I am getting a bit more self focused. My feet look like the feet of an old lady. See there I go again, self obsessed.

Getting up whimpy's hill

2010-05-25T02:23:00.000-07:00

There is a hill near to us which the kids tell me is called Whimpy's hill because some kids were once playing on go kart's on it and anyone who failed to go down was called a whimp. I don't know if that is really how it got its name but I like the idea that young people can have an affect on naming things which everybody then assimilates into their language about an area. So, as you can guess its a pretty steep hill. Going down it I almost whoop and think that if I was brave enough I could spread out my arms and take off. Probably would just spread out my arms and very rapidly spread out myself and bike across the tarmac but its a nice fantasy. The great thing about Whimpy's hill however is that it allows me to see that I am getting fitter. I go up it on my bike at least once a week. Before I'd go up it and still be heavy breathing when I got home now I get to the top and am hardly out of breath. Before I used to avoid Whimpy's hill now it heralds a minor victory over my aversion to physically pushing myself. Knitting today so encounter with the hill on the cards. Will take a picture and post it.

Summertime

2010-05-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

I find that I can wear shorts this summer without squinting critically at my legs. Now I am just squinting critically at all the detritus which seems to be on my studio floor.

Big Pizza, feel sick

2010-05-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Allowed myself to be convinced into getting a 12 inch meat feast pizza for me and George. After two pieces thought, "Full now". But it seems that an open pizza box is still an empty pizza box. George set in for his last piece. "I could leave my last piece" I thought. But no. Feel sick now. Not guilty though. Just think I've learnt my lesson. Stop. Have it tomorrow for dinner have it for breakfast just don't jam it in when you are already full up. In the words of my mothers weight watchers inspired mantra "don't use yourself as a dustbin.".

I need a Nurse

2010-05-15T06:56:00.000-07:00

I need a nurse or some other qualified individual to tell me where the measuring points should be for the Choke and Rope Technique. Once they have marked them on I'm off to the tatoo parlor to have them marked on. If you are such a qualified person and want to help out please let me know either through a comment here or by e mailing me at bethbarlow@bethbarlow.com

Weight Watchers and Slimming World e mail replies to Starvation Diet

2010-05-15T06:22:00.000-07:00

I wrote an e mail to Weight Watchers and Slimming World. I'll post the e mail I sent and their full replies soon. They declined to be involved in the Starvation Diet project or let Starvation Diet inhabit a place in their work. My aim is to provide a less self centred way of losing weight. I really want to work in partnership with as many organisations and people as possible. If organisations dealing with the same issues don't want to work with me where does that leave me in relation to them. Are we enemies, are we co-habiting or should we just ignore each other?

Weight watchers has an unmoderated forum which I have been into once or twice. When I go in and comment I feel like an intruder, a hacker a spy. In actual fact I am non of these things I'm just another human being with an opinion. I was challenged the other day by a person who asked if I had just gone in to promote my blog. I commented that yes in a way I had. This weight watchers forum is a place where people interested in diet go to. If I have something which is working for me and helping others less fortunate too would I be remiss to stay away and keep quite about it? I shiver when I start to talk like this sometimes though because it sounds so much like evangelistic religion and we generally hate all that in Britain. I don't want to be an advertiser or an Evangelist but I do want maximum benefit from things I do for the maximum number of people. How you achieve that is still one to work out.

The trouble with diets

2010-05-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

The thing which prompts most of us to diet is a certain amount of self loathing. I hate my belly, my bum looks big in this, I'm such a fat cow. All common phrases which populate our thinking on the brink of a bout of dieting. So it is with this travel bag of negative thoughts that we set off on our journey of deprivation. And we carry on down the path for several steps, noting no difference, falling over and ending up with our face in a cheescake or stumbling mouth open into a bag of chips. Each time we fall down the bag of negative thoughts gets bigger and heavier until we say "sod it, I'm not that fat really, I'm giving up" or "I'll always be fat, whats the point."

How does the process I've been through recently differ a bit. I think I started with a realistic picture of myself, I wasn't bad or gross or weak willed just a bit too fat. The journey started with an idea to do good for others, that was my main focus for at least the first few months. I had a few blips where I got a little self obsessesed but mainly I didn't notice the weight loss or not. I did notice the money growing in the pot and that made me feel good about myself because I was doing good. All this got me over those first few months when ordinarily I would have been wondering about if it was worth it and no doubt giving up. Now that I have started to see changes I have the double motivation. I have a small pair of jeans I'm refusing to take back to the shop. I'm sure that one day they will be less tight.

World Food Programme new vid

2010-05-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

As I signed up to bloggers against hunger I was asked to blog this. Did I miss something or is there another mothers day? I guess not and that somewhere else in the world its mothers day at a different time than ours. Has got me thinking that next mothers day I won't wait for my son to bring me breakfast in bed or buy me a present but instead we will think about what we could do to help other mothers who have to decide each day; "Do I eat or does my child?" That must be a heart breaking decision. You know that if you die your child will very likely not survive but how could you just let that little life so connected to you slip away in your arms.

Not seen you for a while

2010-05-15T05:01:00.000-07:00

Its nice to see people you haven't seen in a while. It was doubly nice yesterday because two people I'd not seen for a few months completely unprompted (honest) commented on how much weight I'd lost. One said something like, "Its not like you were a fat bloater before but you look like you've lost loads". The other I tapped on the shoulder in a shop and had a moment where she didn't recognise me. She said that she hadn't known if it was me at first site and that now I had bone structure in my face which was hidden before. This was a person I spent two weeks sharing a barn with so no stranger. These people, seen less often can see the change more markedly than those who see one every day or every week. All this is really good for the old self esteem but more than that It allows me to show that this change of mind and attitude inherent in the process really does work. The loss is not just happening because I use different scales each time, am rubbish measuring in the choke and rope technique, or due to dress sizes suddenly getting more generous. I look in the mirror I see a difference but people noticing makes It more real. The amount of money growing in my just giving pot bears testimony to the fact that I have resisted over £170 worth of non needed food. Its at this point of a usual diet that you might think GOAL WEIGHT I'll have a cake now and another and another and before you know it end up at your past weight again. But somehow I don't think I can allow that to happen. Firstly because its still the same arguments, I don't need it but somebody else does. Secondly as I have set this up as such a public endeavour and experiment it would be impossible to let it slip without debasing the whole project. Thirdly, while I may well be at a goal weight I'm not yet at my £10,000 giving target, by my reckoning that will take until I'm about 80 years old.

How to Live a Simple Life

2010-05-15T03:19:00.000-07:00

On the tele last night was a programme following a vicar who is experimenting with living a money free life. I don't believe in God but I do believe in a lot of the sentiments which were in the programme and are the best parts of religious belief. In Last nights programme Vicar Peter Owen Jones set off moneyless and foodless to travel to the home of environmentalist Shatish Kumar(Editor of a really thought provoking and dense magazine called Resurgence). Along the way he lived according to the teachings of St Francis, he was not allowed to handle money and had to survive by asking people to buy food, a train fare and give him lifts and a place to stay. This was an effort to be less self sufficient, less of an island from others, humble himself, rid himself of ego and give people the opportunity to be generous. Throughout the programme there were lots of discussions with folks about how the thrust of modern life has been to make ourselves non dependant on each other. This is something I am really aware of. Each of us sitting in our island, sometimes lonely, never being able to just step out and have a chat or give spontaneously of our time. Keeping our eyes on the ground at bus stops in case somebody tries to talk to us or never entertaining the idea of a bus because then we would have to share our transport. All encased in our homes with everything we need and no way of getting rid of what we don't need bar throwing it in the bin. I have also at times been aware of the positive feeling I have had when I have allowed myself to be vulnerable or needy and rely on the generosity of others. This often happens to me during an art activity.

When I worked on an flattened site in Blackburn I used to sit with another artist doing art type activities. Neither of us drove so we couldn't buy lots of materials and bring them to the site. I needed some boxes so went to see the local shop keeper. His house and shop sat on the edge of the site then but has probably been demolished by now(The Picture above is of the shop, The Owner and his son watcing the film we produced with their help). That little need and an explanation of why we needed it led to him offering us cups of tea, biscuits, stories, a necklace which I still have, friendship and use of his house toilet throughout our stay. It made me feel amazed, full of warmth, gave me a fresh sense of what lovely things people are capable of.

During the first few weeks of Starvation Diet myself and a friend had a conversation about personal ownership and the things we use very rarely but feel that we need, we started a list which included scales, a shoe shine kit and a ladder. After this conversation I decided to only weigh myself on other people's scales in their houses and only use each scale once. I also need to get to the scales under my own steam. This requires a certain amount of trust on the givers part, and on my part the ability to do something I find really hard, to ask for a favour and be less independent, I am by nature a pretty independent type. Its amazing how hard this is for us, having to ask for things sets us apart from most other people who can live without ever needing each other, live with the common understanding that cash normally given in a shop will get you things. One of the people I asked for the use of a scales very generously offered me a spare set of scales she had in her garage. I could have taken it and become scales self sufficient again. It would have made the project a lot more comfortable and I would not have been facing the fact that at some point I am going to run out of friends who live close by and will have to ask strangers, neighbours or people further from home. But by accepting the kind offer I'd be back in my house, removed, never needing to put on my boots and walk or get on my bike and ride. Never needing to ask anybody and have them look at me as if I am more than a bit strange. However this process allows for wonderfully unexpected acts of kindness. I was amazed again the other day when at my knitting group one of the ladies gave me her key to go into her house and use her scales and when another lady who has just had open heart surgery offered me the use of her scales and an afternoon cup of tea. It brings a tear to my eye to think of the generosity which can be elicited and is lurking just beyond societies fear and cynicism.

Average commute

2010-05-04T04:33:00.000-07:00

What would it take to make the slower, shorter, positive eventful commute a reality for everybody who wants it? The image shows my commute from my bed, via the forest and back to my office in the spare room, am I lucky or do I just make choices to make it that way? Could everybody make different choices? Does anybody want to make different choices?

Bread Art Rules OK

2010-04-28T04:43:00.000-07:00

Fantastic site. Good fun with a good message. Have a go at creating your own bread art.

http://breadartproject.com

Could the strength of a society rest with its women?

2010-04-28T04:28:00.000-07:00

Have sex with your husband or starve to death

2010-04-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

Law in Afghanistan which says that a man can starve his wife is she refuses to have sex with him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8204207.stm

A hunger Artist By Franz Kafka

2010-04-26T01:54:00.000-07:00

Am going to try and get hold of a copy of this short story by Kafka called "A Hunger Artist". If there are any Kafka fans out there with a copy please let me know and I can see about buying it from you. At least in this one nobody should turn into a dung beetle of get lost in a very long corridor.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hunger_Artist

www.amazon.co.uk/Four-Stories-Franz-Kafka-Academy/dp/066019550X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272272126&sr=8-1

Malnutrition here and Now.

2010-04-26T01:19:00.000-07:00

Decided to do a bit of research into malnutrition in this country and came across these bits.

This one is about people, mainly elderly, starving in this country 93 % at home or in sheltered accommodation. It has got me thinking about how starvation diet can help to address this. Is there a charity near me that helps with shopping or cooking for elderly people which myself or others could sign up to?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7879201.stm

This one talks about what malnutrition is. Starvation is one form of it but it can also involve not getting enough of the right kind of nutrition or being able to absorb the good stuff you put into your body. If this is the criteria I wonder how many young people are malnourished in this country?

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/qa+malnutrition+in+the+uk/3076032

Article from the independent about the malnutrition. Even an clinically obese person can be starving or malnourished. Bit from Gordon Ramsey about fining parents who let their kids eat rubbish.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/we-are-eating-ourselves-ill-treating-malnutrition-costs-nhs-more-than-obesity-447688.html

E mail to Howies, top ethical funcky clothes company

2010-04-26T01:02:00.001-07:00

Hi there,

Am in the middle of an life/art project called starvation diet where I resist junk food and give the money to the charity practical action. Art is the documentation through a blog, web site etc and the change in me too. After 5 months I've almost managed to slim down to a size 12 for the first time in years. I was going to invest in a pair of your skinny jeans but still have big child bearing hips so want them to sit on my waist. Cut to the quick now. How high up do your skinny jeans go?

Kind regards,

Beth Barlow

Commute to work

2010-04-21T01:05:00.001-07:00

At the start of my Commute to work.

At the end of my commute to work

Only things which are really good

2010-04-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

I made a cake. It smelt like a cake, it looked like a cake and blow me. It tasted like a cake. It took 2 hours of walking into the pantry, stirring, beating folding, oven checking. Now this may just be tricky thinking again but I think that with all that cake baking activity I can eat as much of it as I like of it.

Oxfam Gig

2010-04-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Oxfam in Manchester for giving me the chance to try out a few things to do with Starvation diet on Saturday. I wanted to understand how easy it was for people to grasp the concept and how I might get it across in a quick way. Also wanted to see if people would be interested in committing more to the idea through their own lives and diet. I carried in one hand a Mars bar which got stickier as the unseasonally warm day went on. In the other I carried an Oxfam collecting bucket. I asked people if they would like to buy my Mars bar, "its 60p which is about the same amount as 5 people eating for a day in Mexico" I told them. "Or you could resist the mars bar and it just so happens that I am collecting for Oxfam and instead of buying the mars bar you could give the money to people who really need it." Most people said yes to donating, most people gave £1.00 or more. I chatted to most people and told several what I was up to through Starvation diet. I gave several people pledge stickers so that they could choose a day to cut down and donate and three people starvation log sheets because they were interested in changing their lives in line with the idea. My bucket was light at the end of my collecting but it will be interesting to see if it was full of bigger coins. Does engaging people in this way take more time but get bigger results? Does it create less or more informed giving? Is it too much hard sell or are people really giving because they think it makes sense? Good idea for a psychology PHD if anybody out there is into all that. If not would welcome comments below.
P.s. Thanks to George for taking the great photos.

Choke and Rope part 3

2010-04-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

Neck=34 that's no loss but then how much fat does one store on the neck?
Hips=97 that's a loss of 4cm
Waist=80 that's a loss of 1.5cm

Maybe it would make sense to have the right measurement points tattooed on, that would make it easier to make sure that I have the tape measure in the same place every time. Could cope with the hip and waist tattoo but maybe the neck one might be a bit much.

I got in a size 12 jeans

2010-04-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

Well I got "in" the size twelve jeans, couldn't move or sit down in them or anything but they did up and as long as I didn't breath I was in them for the first time in many years. Felt pretty good and dropping nearly two sizes has been a lot less effort than on previous occasions.

Chocolate Chocolate everywhere

2010-04-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, its Easter holiday and I really Could have got myself better prepared. I could have told everybody, "no chocolate for me just donate to this charity" but surely a girls got to have a bit of fun. The big dilemma now is do I wolf down the nasty strawberry creams left languishing in their shiny plastic nests? I know that if I did I would be forced to pull a face of disgust as they sent forth their sweet mushy nastiness to my taste buds. I would be forced to wonder how anybody could choose them as their chocolate of choice almost to the point where I suspect a persons grasp of reality if they dive straight in on the creams. But in actual fact we all need people to eat the chocolates we don't like. Any strawberry cream lovers out there want a handful in a jiffy bag?

Keeping Mum

2010-03-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

Realised that as my eating habits change and less treats become normal less money is going towards the charity. In such dire situations it is only right to shout "Mummmmmmm" and ask if she wants to join with my dad on the starvation diet too. Its a bit tricky for them because they have started to eat a lot less treats due to health stuff so their starting point is already pretty healthy. Mum tells me however that she resisted buying a chocolate Rabbit in Wilkos yesterday and that there is already 60p in the pot. I think she planned to eat the rabbit rather than keep it as a pet. Never know with my family though, my sister once kept some jellied gecko sweets in a mock zoo enclosure until one of them spent too long in the water feature and its head fell off leaving my sister to mourn their passing. I digress. If anybody else wants to join in and spare me the shame of being a 35 year old running to her parents, resist and give the saved dosh here:

http://www.justgiving.com/Beth-Barlow

Or at another starvation preventing charity of your choice.

A time to wear my practical action T shirt

2010-03-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

This Saturday (27th March 2010) practical action are staging a No Tech Day.
http://www.notechday.org/

I'm going to refrain from turning on my laptop and go do some knitting in Manchester with a friend instead. I may even leave my mobile at home. How might that feel?

If its not nice don't eat it

2010-03-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

How often do I find myself eating a mediocre biscuit, chomping my way through a dry piece of cake? How often do I find myself stood in the shop looking for something for a treat, finding nothing that great and settling for something a bit rubbish? I think I shall stop eating things unless they are really nice.

Chocolate rice crispy cakes and cookies

2010-03-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

Don't even have either of these things in the house. They whisper at you from the biscuit barrel and at times of stress they pounce and scuttle down your gullet before you even notice. Luckily by the time I got home yesterday my son had eaten half of his cooking class crispy cakes. That only leaves 6 more to eat. I would feed them to the birds but I fear that with all the chocolate and peanut butter in them the poor birds may never fly again. The cookies were, I told myself for my son after a good parents evening report. But If this was true why were they co-op finest toffee and pecan and not kidie jaffa cakes or the like. I think I may have tricked myself there.

Choke and rope update

2010-03-09T03:28:00.000-08:00

First measurements:
Neck 34
Waist 82.5
Hips invalid Because I measured at the wrong place.

Second measurements
Neck 33
Waist 81.5
Hips 101

Hip to waist ratio is 0.79
Women with hip to waist ratio in the 0.7 band are said to be most attractive to European men and that's on wikepedia so it must be true.

Practical Action T Shirt

2010-03-09T02:47:00.000-08:00

Michaela from Practical Action very Kindly sent me a Practical Action T shirt. I told her my current size (14) and asked her to choose me a size she thought I could slim into. She sent me a medium. I tried it on for the first time today and I think I may have already slimed into it a bit. It fits. And its orange which is great. I need to think of a thing I must do in it at least once a week for the project. Any ideas anybody?

Just giving

2010-03-09T02:11:00.000-08:00

I'm not just saying this but it feels really good to be able to give the money I save so easily. To know that it just goes straight and direct from my efforts to others. This lets giving page is great if you are trying to raise money for stuff or redirect some of your own money. It takes away all the excuses.
http://www.justgiving.com/default.aspx

Out and about in Cheshire

2010-03-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

Its funny. I spend so much time thinking about where to go and then sitting on trains getting there. On Sunday however I sat on my doorstep, put on my stout walking boots, stood up and started to walk. I know that it takes about 40 minutes to get to The Hollies Farm shop, on Tarporley Road, with my son in toe(farm shop makes it sound all crunky and dirty but the hollies is far from that its slick, expensive but full of good stuff). I decided to set a task of getting there in under 30 minutes. With the promise to myself that I could have cake if I got there in time I trotted along at a pace and got to the cafe counter, puffing and blowing in 25 minutes. Coffee and walnut cake as I read my book. Now I know that this project is about starvation diet and resisting things but on this one I don't feel guilty. Its good cake, made of good things in a place I had worked a bit to get to. It wasn't just a whim or giving in to temptation. I also never thought I would say this about cake servings but the pieces here are too big, before no cake was big enough to foil me. This time I left a bit. My next mission was to get to the bookstore on Chester Road. Its another wonderful place. Full of really unusual discount books, better than any trip to the works. I found a road that cuts diagnally to my destination, through some forest, Hogshead road if you want to follow my footsteps(pictured above). There were hardly any cars so I got into my element singing and dancing my way along to Stevie Wonder's greatest hits and came out just yards from the bookshop. I bought a few too many books, that wasn't the plan for my low carbon day but they were on craft and eco design. Walking back with a back pack full of books was strangely satisfying. Finding another quite road which I had not been down before was another part of the adventure, Stoneford Lane. It goes past a little path, just before the railway. This is a path we have trodden before. It leads to a picnic bench along Whitegate way. Sometimes the path is overgrown and leads through prickly undergrowth but on Sunday it was well cut back. On the picnic bench I sat and read a book. It was like being in a very open plan office. I had a conversation with a little robin who kept sneeking up on me really noisely. He was a rubbish sneeker but a good listener . As I left I thanked him for listening I aknowledged that he probably couldn't understand a word I was saying but then most people couldn't understand me either. It struck me that as long as you wern't after answers talking to a small red breasted bird might be just as valid as talking to a human. The rest of the route home took me over old ground, past where the pigs used to live and dissapeared from a while ago, I'm not sure where they went, maybe they moved house. I ran up the hill, not sure why, think I felt like I was in the army. Not sure that soldiers run up hills carrying their weight in craft books but let me tell you they should. It would get then up to speed in no time and they could throw together a charming thankyou card and an angora shrug when they reach the sumit of some enemy hillside. So it was that I ended up back at the end of my street, 4 hours later and an awful lot happier.

At 3 hours walking at 5.63 Km/hour its about 828 calories burnt. That's without figuring in the books carried and the mad run up the hill. That's the cake and the coffee seen off then.