# Winter's a-coming! Season of Death Mini-Rants **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 18, 2010, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833 "2010-09-18T09:03:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/261 "2010-09-30T23:17:24Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > 1.) Keep your beads someplace separate from your mother’s. > > 2.) Tell her that the beads are for your own projects. > > Voila. Or I could just get off my ass and make my necklaces. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![abbeytxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@abbeytxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abbeytxs)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/262 "2010-10-01T00:04:07Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > > [@abbeytxs](#): > > > > Oh shut the hell up! I’m too tired and hungry to have to listen to some internet pissant lecture me about meat or something. This is the pit, this is mini-rants, deal with it. When this gets easier, I’m sure I will cheerfully come running back to apologize to you for not being kind, but for now, let me repeat, shut the hell up! > > I’ve been at it for a year and a half now. It does NOT get easier. Maybe it does with meat, but if it was going to get easier with carbs it damn well should have done so by now. > > That said, if you don’t have some sort of basic taste objection to it, I recommend investing heavily in sugar-free hard candy (and don’t chew it). It won’t make you feel strong or energetic or full, but it’s whole lot easier not to stuff something tasty in your mouth when there’s already something in there. You, Sir or Madam, are my new best friend. Thank you for being honest. Somehow it is strangely comforting to know this is going to suck for a long time! ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/263 "2010-10-01T03:55:46Z")
> [@Not\_a\_Platypus](#): > > > [@Jackmannii](#): > > > > That’s OK, the line was busy anyway. > > Probably, but I’m still annoyed that I didn’t even try. I might have had a decent chance for that first one, considering how long they were taking calls. I guess I can make myself feel better on that one because I didn’t know I was right until they gave up and announced the answer. \ Aaron Burr! \ ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/264 "2010-10-01T04:19:12Z")
> [@abbeytxs](#): > > Being that I am pretty much the poster child for Type II Diabetes precursors, I knew it was only a matter of time before I hit “prediabetes” glucose numbers. I don’t want to go on medication so I decided to try to control it with an extreme low-carb diet. It is working (yay), but I am so sick of people telling me it is going to get easier and that I will quit craving carbs! No, it isn’t getting easier!! Quit lying to me! I am hungry ALL the time! It has been a month and I would cheerfully sell my children to the devil to be able to eat a pizza or waffles with real maple syrup without my numbers going up. I’m tired ALL the time. I have no stamina which really sucks because the only thing I’ve done right all these years is exercise. Now I can’t last more than half an hour to 45 minutes on the tennis court or the soccer field without being totally out of gas! > > So, fantastic that I get to live longer, really sucks that it is going to be a miserable extra few years. Sorry to hear you’re not having an easy time with the low-carb diet. Sucks to not be able to eat what you crave. Wish I could tell you a foolproof method for easing cravings, but I don’t know how. I’m also on a low-carb diet and it’s actually been a lot easier than I expected. I realize it’s not like that for everyone, though. You may already be doing this, but try sipping water (or herbal tea, if you need flavor) whenever you feel hungry in between snacks and don’t stick to only 3 big meals a day, but eat lots of good low-carb snacks or small meals throughout the day. Protein takes a long time to digest, but does burn a lot of energy doing it. Get plenty of rest and hang in there. The other thing is if you’re trying to eat low-carb versions of generally carbohydrate-rich items, it’s probably going to be a lot more difficult to resist the cravings. I pretty much avoid: low-carb cookies (yeah, right), low carb yogurt (really, isn’t yogurt already low in carbs if you don’t pump it full of sugars, flavoring and fillers?), and low carb mashed potatos (now, that’s just silly). Just stay away from these gimmicks and stick to lean meats and green/low-starch veggies (of these, you can pretty much eat as much as you please. Truly, there is only so much fresh spinach and chicken breast a person can eat. _sigh_ It may not get easier, but humans are pretty adaptable…eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/265 "2010-10-01T11:03:39Z")
> [@Moonlitherial](#): > > > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > > > I can’t get out of any door except the front door without the pass card, either, and they don’t give pass cards to part-timers. I know I’m only there one or two days a week, but I still need to get in, people. Piggy-backing in every day (and not being able to go outside again all day) is not ideal. > > This MUST violate a fire regulation somewhere. > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > It’s not that she can’t get out–it’s that she can’t get back in again on her own. Presumably even if the doors out require keycards to activate regularly, there will also be emergency exits that will let you out but also sound alarms. In some locations it violates the part about “knowing how many people are in there so we know whether everybody has gotten out”. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/266 "2010-10-01T14:54:27Z")
> [@abbeytxs](#): > > This is the pit, this is mini-rants, deal with it. Same right back to you. If you don’t want people to potentially rant right back at you, stick your shit nobody cares about in MPSIMS. > [@begbert2](#): > > I’ve been at it for a year and a half now. It does NOT get easier. Really? It’s not \*at all \*different to stare at something you don’t eat now than it was 18 months ago? I find that \*very \*hard to believe, but I have no reason not to take your word for it. :shrug: > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > You know, I’m not even sure if the door unlocks when the alarms sound. Sometimes there will be a short delay, maybe 15 seconds or so, to discourage people from just setting off the alarms all the time. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/267 "2010-10-01T15:14:30Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Sometimes there will be a short delay, maybe 15 seconds or so, to discourage people from just setting off the alarms all the time. Really? Never heard of that, but I have no reason not to take your word for it. :shrug: ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/268 "2010-10-01T15:32:14Z")
Or so the signs I’ve seen on some alarmed doors claim. I’ve never bothered to test it out. And, unlike an assertion of a personal experience (e.g., having exactly the same cravings over a year after starting a diet as at the beginning), I can [give cites for mine](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=emergency+exit+delay). ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/269 "2010-10-01T17:11:27Z")
You guys know that cravings can be assuaged with small amounts of the food you’re craving, right? In my experience, that actually works _better_ - scratch it when it’s a small itch, before it turns into full-body eczema. Assuaged. Assuaged. Aaaaasssuuuuuuuaaaaaaaged. That’s a helluva word. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/270 "2010-10-01T17:22:21Z")
Assuaged with sausage. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/271 "2010-10-01T18:07:31Z")
Saussuaged? ---
**Author:** ![abbeytxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@abbeytxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abbeytxs)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/272 "2010-10-01T19:34:49Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > > [@abbeytxs](#): > > > > This is the pit, this is mini-rants, deal with it. > > Same right back to you. If you don’t want people to potentially rant right back at you, stick your shit nobody cares about in MPSIMS. So. You do care. How sweet. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![abbeytxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@abbeytxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abbeytxs)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/273 "2010-10-01T19:40:53Z")
Sorry to hear you’re not having an easy time with the low-carb diet. Sucks to not be able to eat what you crave. Wish I could tell you a foolproof method for easing cravings, but I don’t know how. I’m also on a low-carb diet and it’s actually been a lot easier than I expected. I realize it’s not like that for everyone, though. You may already be doing this, but try sipping water (or herbal tea, if you need flavor) whenever you feel hungry in between snacks and don’t stick to only 3 big meals a day, but eat lots of good low-carb snacks or small meals throughout the day. Protein takes a long time to digest, but does burn a lot of energy doing it. Get plenty of rest and hang in there. The other thing is if you’re trying to eat low-carb versions of generally carbohydrate-rich items, it’s probably going to be a lot more difficult to resist the cravings. I pretty much avoid: low-carb cookies (yeah, right), low carb yogurt (really, isn’t yogurt already low in carbs if you don’t pump it full of sugars, flavoring and fillers?), and low carb mashed potatos (now, that’s just silly). Just stay away from these gimmicks and stick to lean meats and green/low-starch veggies (of these, you can pretty much eat as much as you please. Truly, there is only so much fresh spinach and chicken breast a person can eat. _sigh_ It may not get easier, but humans are pretty adaptable…eventually. [/QUOTE] Thanks for the kind words. Some days it is easy, some days, not so much. I have not even tried any of the low-carb versions of high carb foods. I know better than to try that. Wouldn’t work for me. I feel confident about the choices I am making and the glucose numbers are for the most part really good. There are just times when the thought of eating another salad, or bowl of broccoli, or carton of yogurt makes me want to scream! I am glad to hear that it is working for you. Keep it up!! ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/274 "2010-10-01T21:11:09Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Really? It’s not \*at all \*different to stare at something you don’t eat now than it was 18 months ago? I find that \*very \*hard to believe, but I have no reason not to take your word for it. :shrug: It’s gotten **worse**. Specifically, prior to starting my diet, I didn’t crave food; I ate food. And when I abruptly started dieting, I didn’t really notice what I was missing, since I was riding high on the “by not eating my weight in snacks every day I’m avoiding horrific death” train. Of course it should also be noted that I didn’t _entirely_ stop eating carbs; two cups of ordinary cereal a day remain a major part of my diet to this day, so maybe that helped. Then the blush wore off. And Christmas rolled around. Not a good combination. I started to _really_ notice what I was missing, and my cravings began to surpass my will and didn’t go back down. I started breaking the diet regularly and gained back ~25 lbs, _entirely_ on adding impulse-bought snacks to my regulated-sized meals. Only in the last month or so have I embarked on a new plan to artificially shore up my failing will, and while it seems to be working, it has nothing at to do with the cravings having receded. There are several items in the supermarket that call out to me every time I walk by them, and I can’t even stop myself from walking by them. Lordy lordy, is this un-fun. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/275 "2010-10-01T21:33:10Z")
The problem with having to avoid carbs is they’re everywhere. So is meat, but meat is pretty recognizable and easy to intentionally avoid. You have to work at avoiding carbs, and whole swaths of food choices are just _gone_. Almost the entirety of Italian cuisine, for instance. A vegetarian can still eat a veggie pasta dish; someone going carbless can’t touch any pasta in any form any more. You really have to work at avoiding carbs, and meals with plenty of carbs are the default. Pasta, rice, and bread are all extremely significant staples, and they’re not easy to replace, unlike meat. In addition, carbs are a part of the general human diet, where the part meat contributes is protein. Protein can be had from things other than meat; if you can’t have carbs, you simply can’t have carbs. That leaves a definite, if necessary, hole in the diet. ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/276 "2010-10-01T21:40:47Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > [ Of course it should also be noted that I didn’t _entirely_ stop eating carbs; two cups of ordinary cereal a day remain a major part of my diet to this day, so maybe that helped. I know there are conflicting studies on pretty much all matters diet related, but how confident are you that a low carb diet will help? I recall reading that it doesn’t make much difference what form the calories take. Personally I’m very suspicious of things like Atkins. I don’t see how that can be good for your cardio vascular health. I guess a diet that emphasizes lean protein is ok though. I think the trick with carbs is to try to favor the complex variety that are difficult to break down. I like a lot of stuff made from texturized vegtable protein. [Morningstar Chik’n](http://www.morningstarfarms.com/products.aspx?coid=23&family=3695%7C3733) products are worth a look. If you’re a pasta lover, check out the [Dreamfields brand.](http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com/) They claim that they process the flour so that most of the carbs are not digestible. Hopefully they have some proof of that on their web site. If its true, that could be a good way to have your pasta and eat it too. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/277 "2010-10-01T21:53:24Z")
As far as I can tell, other than actual medical issues, the main thinking behind low-carb diets is that carbs are so much more dense calorically than protein that minimizing your carb intake is significant in minimizing your caloric intake. Two pounds of food that’s mostly protein is less calorically dense than two pounds of food that’s mostly carbs. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/278 "2010-10-01T21:59:02Z")
> [@dzero](#): > > > [@begbert2](#): > > > > [ Of course it should also be noted that I didn’t _entirely_ stop eating carbs; two cups of ordinary cereal a day remain a major part of my diet to this day, so maybe that helped. > > I know there are conflicting studies on pretty much all matters diet related, but how confident are you that a low carb diet will help? I recall reading that it doesn’t make much difference what form the calories take. I lost 100lbs in 9 months. My confidence that there was _something_ right about my diet is pretty high. Though, as noted, I wasn’t on your stereotypical low-carb diet. The diet was _mostly_ about calories, something which is directly served by taking a look at the calories that you find in high-carb foods and recoiling away in shock an horror. About the only thing explicitly anti-carb about it is that I didn’t bother counting the calories in anything meaty that I ate - I didn’t pack up on them, but I didn’t restrict them at all either. > [@dzero](#): > > Personally I’m very suspicious of things like Atkins. I don’t see how that can be good for your cardio vascular health. I guess a diet that emphasizes lean protein is ok though. > > I think the trick with carbs is to try to favor the complex variety that are difficult to break down. I like a lot of stuff made from texturized vegtable protein. [Morningstar Chik’n](http://www.morningstarfarms.com/products.aspx?coid=23&family=3695%7C3733) products are worth a look. > > If you’re a pasta lover, check out the [Dreamfields brand.](http://www.dreamfieldsfoods.com/) They claim that they process the flour so that most of the carbs are not digestible. Hopefully they have some proof of that on their web site. If its true, that could be a good way to have your pasta and eat it too. I wasn’t on any diet that specific, structured, or complex. It was more of a “don’t snack so much, you moron”, with a dash of selecting and measuring out the regular meals not to be too large or high carb-cal. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/279 "2010-10-01T23:37:12Z")
To all the people who feel the need to bleat “Go Skins!” or “Go Dawgs!” or “Go Bears!” or any other stupid-sounding mascot name when you talk about your alma mater…please allow me the pleasure of slapping you. And if you pump your fist at the same time, you get two slaps. Maybe this trend has been around a long time and I’m just now getting around to noticing it, I dunno. But I’m seeing everywhere. And it grates on me to an almost irrational degree. An email exchange I just had with a guy: Me: So are you native to the area? Him: I grew up in Virginia, but attended NC Chapel Hill (Go Heels!). WTF? Is this like a prayer or something? It’s one thing to be passionate about a bunch of overgrown teenagers scrambling over a ball while you’re watching them play, but you also have to cheer your team on in the middle of a mundane conversation when we aren’t even talking about sports? I think of all the rants in this thread, this one is the miniest and silliest, but goddamnit I had to get that off my chest. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833/280 "2010-10-02T00:13:17Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > WTF? Is this like a prayer or something? Yes. Yes it is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winters-a-coming-season-of-death-mini-rants/554833.md?page=15)