Artificial Intelligence

Hey everyone, I'm slipping in one last post before the year ends because it will push me past my previous year's count on the main blog.

I wanted to talk a little about artificial intelligence. Recently there have been some significant advancements in this technology, and the focus has been on visual art and script writing. This has led to a lot of controversy between people who enjoy using these tools and those that find them disturbing.

This isn't our first foray into artificial intelligence. When I was younger, Google's Deepmind was being developed to play chess. It eventually managed to beat the world's best human chess player, but after his loss the guy practiced a bunch, came back and beat Deepmind. So they kept developing the AI, had another game, and the human lost again. From there on out he wasn't able to bridge the gap and AI has been consistently better at chess than the greatest human players. This happened as well with the Japanese strategy game Go, which has simpler rules but is far more complex. Eventually AI was able to beat the world's greatest Go master.

They have developed AI to write classical music to the point that it can produce pieces that can fool musicians into thinking they are human-made. The limit here is that the AI can only create music by blending pieces in its dataset, so it can't predict changing music genres. Basically, it can create something passably good and original sounding from an established time period, but it's still not "inventive".

Our most recent developments aren't our first attempts to use AI for visual art or written script either. Even in the early stages of the Internet, we had things like Cleverbot and iGod, which basically had a bunch of pre-programmed responses to common questions and statements that it would present when it saw them, as well as some sassy vague lines that it could say if it didn't recognize what you were talking about. It was kind of  off-base more often than not but this is still sort of the premise of the current technology.

I also remember systems that would let you merge faces to show what a combination of traits shared between two people could produce, and systems that could predict what you might look like at various ages. Kind of similar to the AI art.

The difference is sophistication. Our newer tech is far more sophisticated than it used to be. Visual art and written word are both areas that AI has had incredible difficulty adapting. In fact, both of these fields are listed as belonging to the "humanities", as if they are what distinguishes humans from everything else.

I'll give you a little history on these developments. Things got big when a program called "Dal-E" was created, named as a combination of the artist Salvador Dali, and apparently Pixar's little trash collecting robot Wall-E. I think it would have been self-explanatory for them to leave the "E" as assumed to mean "Electronic". Wall-E isn't an artist.

Anyway, how it functioned was that you could put in some prompts, like "steampunk, vampire, Seinfeld" and it would search the Internet for images of those things, find shared traits between them, blend them together and produce thousands of unique images for you to sift through and decide which ones you like.

But you could take it further and request that it be in a specific genre, like cubism, or even a particular person's style, like Van Gogh. I saw someone request a picture of the New York skyline done in the style of Salvador Dali.

An interesting point about this tech is that it has as much bias as the human hivemind, because it's dataset is the collection of human thought online. So if you ask for a wedding, you'll see only images of white people getting married, or if you ask for a doctor, you'll only see images of male doctors because those are the prevailing human biases. But if you want something more nuanced you can just further specify the traits you're looking for, like "woman doctor". 

Dal-E wasn't available to the public, but a little bit later a clone of the program called Midjourney was developed and released for only a $10 monthly subscription fee. Now I see AI art plastered all over the front page of Reddit.

Honestly, it's still not perfect. Notoriously it still can't draw hands for some reason. They bend in all the wrong places, are disproportionate and not realistic at all. Also, while I can't verify that I haven't been duped yet, I will often think "That looks kind of like AI", check the comments and the OP will say they used an AI system. It has a certain "look" it hasn't been able to get rid of, even with its better pieces. But it will likely get better, the music bots started off "creative but bad" before getting sophisticated enough to create passably good pieces, while admittedly being still a little uninspired.

I'll get to my overall opinion on this, but let's first talk about our written word AI, which is called GPT.

This has been around for awhile and honestly, only tech people seem to care about it. It failed to create the social stir that Midjourney did, but scriptwriting has been an even larger hurdle for AI than visual art. Basically, you can speak to it conversationally and it will respond to you, and you can ask it to write you stories.

I know a guy with the app "Chat GPT". He asked it to write a story about Pikachu and Albert Einstein. The chatbot made something up about how Pikachu got separated from his friend Ash and ran into Einstein experimenting with electricity. Einstein became fascinated with Pikachu as an energy source, and he taught Pikachu that he could one day be a genius too.

So it's a crappy story, but it did a few "human-like" things that are kind of creepy. It screwed up about Einstein experimenting with electricity, because the man was known for other things, but it did figure that he was a genius and that humans associate historical geniuses with electricity. It then gave Einstein this trait because it knew that Pikachu has lightning powers and it could create a connection between the two characters this way. Again, it's not great, but all previous attempts to use AI for script writing has resulted in bizarre, disjointed stories, and who knows how far it can be developed?

So these are the new technologies. What do I think of them? I don't like them. I think they're creepy and weird. I'm not really asking for them to be dismantled, I don't really think that's an option at this point. But from a subjective, human perspective, I find these things gross and disturbing without much potential to fill a need or improve lives.

There is some controversy surrounding who "owns" art produced by an AI. Is it the person who put the prompts in, or the moderators of the AI? Also, some artists worry about people claiming their works by putting it through the AI but having it change almost nothing, then saying they "put it through a filter" and that the almost identical work was just it "taking inspiration".

AI artists, sometimes referring to themselves as "prompt engineers", claim the AI produced work is genuine art, as the program still requires human direction and discernment. They point to the invention of photography and say that classical artists back then said it would ruin the medium as it could produce more accurate images with less effort.

I guess there's a point there. I don't think high-end art is going anywhere anytime soon. Originally, the greatest physical advantage humans had was our long distance running. We weren't the fastest, but we could outlast any other species and we used this skill to stalk and hunt prey. Then we tamed horses and invented cars, which could outspeed and outlast our best runners. The skill of running became less important and less practiced, but we still celebrate and value marathon runners. Also, we wound up getting horse farmers and mechanics. New skills were developed because of the new technology, so society didn't simply become "less skilled", it became more varied.

I mentioned before that AI can beat the best chess and go players, but we still have tournaments and champions for both these games, because even if humans aren't the best anymore, people are still impressed to see a human perform at such a high level.

I do think that the field of commercial art could change significantly, because even if you still need a human to operate the AI, it requires less skill. But commercial art was the worst form of art anyway.

What I don't like about Midjourney is that it changes the medium from one that is visual to one that is descriptive. Also, creativity is about the process of creation, and this changes it to something closer to consumption.

Whenever technology makes something easier, it makes people less skilled at it. This is even true for memory aids, even at the level of photography. In Mali, the people out there didn't have regular access to photograph technology, so everyone had super strong memories. This is because if you forgot something, it was gone forever. Since we're able to instantly look at anything we want, there's no need to remember everything anymore, so we let our brains release more information. This sounds bad, but if we can access our memory aids, what's the point of putting so much effort into remembering everything. Is that skill even necessary?

So from that perspective, maybe it's fine if people become less creative and less skilled at traditional art, if they're able to manifest their creations more easily with new technology. If it gets sophisticated enough, we might wind up in a world with better creations but less creative people.

Or maybe we're capping out on how good this technology can get. In terms of food, highly processed items are more "high-tech" but they're also less appetizing and worse for the body than more organic food. It still has a function because it can be mass-produced and feed a higher quantity of people, but in terms of quality, artificial foods have been used and modified extensively and have never been able achieve as high a quality as their lower tech alternatives. Maybe AI art will be seen similarly, as more accessible but lower quality. 

But what I'm really wondering is, who benefits from the introduction of this new technology? I can see how photography may have been intimidating to realist artists who spent their lives perfecting their crafts only to be outdone by any commoner with a camera, but at least photography had a strong utility for recording information. With this AI art, it just seems like it gives corporations an excuse not to hire a graphic artist.

Also, this stuff might get misused. If you've got access to enough of someone's signature, you could plug them into an AI and get a bunch of approximations of it. The concept of a signature is that the subtle, unconscious habits of the writer can't be reproduced easily but there's still some variation, indicating it's not just a photocopy or whatever. You can get the subtle habits with slight variations through this technology.

The chat stuff might be even worse. You could use it to spread propaganda online. Create lots of dummy accounts and have it auto-generate "creative" dialogue to give the illusion that plenty of people are engaging and agreeing with your cause.

But anyway, for myself the damage has been done. Even if AI art hasn't quite gotten that organic look down, it's good enough that every time I see someone's work online, I have to ask myself "Is that from a person or a robot?" And as silly as that sounds, that has just made my life a little bit worse.

It's 15 minutes to the new year and I haven't had a chance to look over or edit this post. I want this to count for 2022, so I'm posting it now. Hopefully it hasn't been too meandering or nonsensical

Frustration With Medical Tech

Somehow, one of the things I haven't mentioned between my "I'm Diabetic" and "My Health Journey" posts are the frustrations that have come with the use of medical technology. As tools used by some of our most respected professionals to determine highly sensitive information, you would think they would be reliable, but this is not always the case.

After I received my adult ADHD diagnosis and before my home blood pressure monitor was delivered, I decided out of curiosity to test my blood pressure with one of the publicly available cuffs at my local Shoppers Drug Mart. My results were very elevated.

Later, I received my home monitor and my results weren't fantastic, but in a far less alarming range than what I'd got at Shoppers. In fact, I was in an allowable range to begin the stimulant medication for ADHD. I was uncomfortable because I didn't know if I should trust the home monitor over the Shoppers one, but after some encouragement, I decided to try the meds.

I'd been monitoring myself at home for awhile, and my blood pressure hadn't changed significantly. In fact, it was better than before I started the meds. Out of curiosity, I decided to go back to Shoppers to test my blood pressure, to see if my results had improved by their machines standards as well.

My results were far, far worse than anything I'd seen before. I asked the person at the pharmacy if their monitor was reliable, and he said it was "typically reliable", but told me the temperature that day and the fact that I'd been walking could have elevated my numbers, and encouraged me to keep monitoring from home.

The next day I went to work, brought my monitor with me, tested myself and it said that I had an "irregular heartbeat" which was something I hadn't seen before. I panicked and got my coworker to drive me to the ER.

A nurse did my blood pressure and an ECG. When I saw an ER doctor, he told me that my heart rate was elevated, but that I didn't need to stay for monitoring. I told him that I'd tested my blood pressure and it said I had an irregular heartbeat. He said that my heartbeat was fine, it was just moving fast. I told him that I'd had an extremely high reading from a Shoppers monitor, and he said that those cuffs tend to push numbers up. I gave him my exact numbers and said, "Really, do they push them up THAT much?" and he was like "Yeah, I wouldn't trust that reading. Just keep track with your home monitor."

This was weird to me, because I thought that the Shoppers ones would be more reliable. They're larger and seem like more of a commitment to install, and the monitor at home requires me to fasten the cuff myself, which seems to leave more room for human error.

Later on, after I was reacquainted with my family doctor, I brought in my monitor to be assessed for accuracy. Apparently, the monitor that I'd been sent by the ADHD clinic was for 37 cm arms and lower, while my arms were 42 cm

So not only were the Shoppers cuffs pushing my numbers up, but also, the comparably more favourable home monitor was ALSO pushing my numbers up by being too small.

I was then fitted for a 24 hour cuff. This is pretty much what it sounds like. It's a monitor that is attached to you for 24 hours that you can take home, and it measures you every half hour. The idea is that when you're being tested, some people tense up, causing their blood pressure to increase. This is due to the increasing pressure on their arm, anxiety about their numbers, and the presence of an authority figure. The name of this phenomenon is "White Coat Syndrome", based on the idea that a medical professional, likely wearing a white coat, is causing you anxiety with their presence and it's boosting your numbers. 

Apparently you can't get anxious about tension on your arm every half hour, and without a medical professional around and no access to your numbers, the 24 hour cuff is supposed to get a better impression of your baseline blood pressure and heart rate.

So I went through all this. My numbers came back and they were... pretty much ideal. So not only were the Shoppers cuffs pushing my numbers up and the home monitor being too tight, I was ALSO impacted by White Coat Syndrome.

I've got a properly fitted home monitor now, and supposedly it gets roughly accurate results.

It's funny, when I was getting my arms measured, the nurse said "Maybe if you lose some weight your arms will get smaller." Talk about something I've never felt compelled to be insecure about. If there's any part of the male body that is predicted to expand with fitness, I'd expect it to be the biceps.

Another piece of equipment that has caused me grief is my glucose monitors, the freestyle libres. In a previous post, I said that these had judged me favourably, with a 96% rate of being in my target range. Thing is, I'm probably doing even better than that, because most of that outlying 4% is from low glucose events.

When I first started monitoring my blood sugar, I noticed that I would sometimes dip low during the night, and sometimes around 4 pm. I opted to correct this by drinking a glass of milk before bed and after work.

At one point, my sugars were coasting real low so I kept trying to get them back in normal range by sucking on jolly ranchers and eating spoonfuls of maple syrup, but the numbers kept dipping. After about two days of me anxiously eating candy, the monitor died.

I had an appointment with my dietician and told her about this. She said that the machine had likely just malfunctioned, and that with my condition and the medications that I'm taking, I shouldn't be concerned about low blood sugars. I told her that my numbers tend to go low at around 3 am and 4 pm. Turns out, if pressure is put on the monitor, it triggers a low blood sugar event. 

It's fixed to my arm. I toss and turn in my sleep and often take a nap after work. The times that I got the low sugar events were when I was laying on the monitor.

White Christmas

I can now retire the "coloured Christmas blog title" tradition, because we had a white Christmas this year.

 In 2019, due to a lot of sad news, I made a post called "Blue Christmas" as a play off the phrase "White Christmas". It carried over the next year in 2020 when we were using a colour coded system to track COVID cases and decide precautionary measures. Grey was the worst on the scale, and meant lockdown. That's where we were at, so I titled that post "Grey Christmas" to play off the previous year. Then we almost had a white Christmas in 2021 but we had a flash thaw so I titled that "Brown Christmas", and now in 2022 I can finally let the theme go.

In fact it was a really white Christmas. We had planned to go to Brampton to see Lee-Anne's family, as we visited my side last week. There were weather warnings and Lee-Anne headed up on the Thursday, missing the worst of it. I came two days later on the Saturday when things were supposed to be bad. Luckily I made it without much issue.

This wasn't the case for everyone. All flights going out from Pearson Airport in Toronto got cancelled. There was a story about people getting snowed in at a Wal Mart in Chatham and having to stay overnight, and trains getting stuck for long stretches of time.

I felt bad leaving the cats behind in a natural disaster. I kept imagining pipes freezing and bursting, or frozen branches falling on the house. Our upstairs neighbours are gone right now, which added to the anxiety of leaving the house empty. But we're back now and everything was fine.

Before I left, the garbage bins kept blowing everywhere. I tried to secure them but had no confidence they would stay put. I was kicking myself for not thinking to put them in the garage or something, but somehow they were where I left them when we got back.

Lee-Anne's mom is very generous at Christmas, and this year I got a charcoal chimney, which is a tool that lights charcoal grills without the need for lighter fluid. I've been wanting one for awhile, but it's not something I'd bother buying for myself and my birthday is at the end of barbecue season. Even though it's out of season right now, it's a little closer to the next barbecue season.

As a joint present, we got a new spice wrack. We already had a very nice spice wrack, that I got when I helped a friend's sister move in college. It had bottles with metal engravings of the leaves of each represented spice. I was very proud of it, but my tarragon and coriander bottles broke. Also, during our roach infestation, some of them got into the crevices of the spice wrack, and even though we've dealt with the issue, it's felt a little... tainted since then.

Anyway, we're moving up from a six (started at eight) spice wrack, to a 24.

The new wrack contains: onion powder, turmeric, allspice, chili powder, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, rosemary, cumin, garam masala, chipotle, dill, black sesame, coriander, ground cinnamon, ground savory, cream of tartar, nutmeg, ancho chili pepper, cloves, caraway seeds, summer savory leaves, and white pepper

Of these, I don't know how white pepper differs from black pepper. I also know that baking powder is made of baking soda and cream of tartar, and that you're supposed to use baking soda to make a "bath" for pretzels and bagels before baking, but I don't know what you're supposed to use cream of tartar on its own for. Also, very weird name when it isn't a cream. There's ground savory and summer savory leaves, but I don't know what either of these things are.

In fact, despite having 24 spices, my old 6 spice wrack had the following that are not available on the new one: thyme, sage, basil, and oregano.

The good news is that this new wrack is a McCormick, which is a common brand of spice that you can buy in reusable bottles at most grocery store. In fact, we already had thyme and cayenne pepper in the appropriate bottles before getting the wrack.

Lee-Anne got me a set of headphones. I broke my previous pair, which were still working but holding on by a wire. I was fairly content balancing the one side on my shoulder, but it's nice to have an intact pair again. She also got me a tarot tracker. It's made by the person she got her deck from, so it's someone we've vetted. It has a proposed year ahead spread, which I'll likely use on the new year, and a bi-weekly 6-card draw, and a daily single card draw, to use for reflection. We'll see if I keep up with that.

As for my present to her, she had a set of bowls that she'd gotten with her mother like ten years ago. Since we moved in, one broke and the other one looks like it's preparing to break. She's tried to find replacements, but hasn't found anything as vibrant as what she had. She made me promise not to buy dish sets without consulting her, so I did check in with her. She responded with "Where did you find those?!", so I ordered them. They haven't shown up yet.

Here's the url. I'll post a pic if they arrive in person: https://www.wayfair.ca/dining/pdp/wrought-studio-12-piece-dinnerware-set-service-for-4-c009490364.html?piid=615698983

Between this and the hand-carved bowls I bought for my mom and brother, I bought a lot of bowls this Christmas

Premium King Suite

Me and Lee-Anne went to Guelph this weekend to spend some time with family. We stayed at a hotel, but because four hotels in Guelph closed over the pandemic, it's difficult to find a room. By the time we had made plans, there was only one left, which was a Premium King Suite, likely the most expensive room in the building. I am not accustomed to such luxuries, so let me share with you the experience

The place was more like an apartment than a room, so we had our own living area. Last time we stayed at a room at this place, it was airplane themed, with a little metal airplane model and a painting of an airplane. This one didn't have as prominent of a theme, but it did have this birch tree painting. I've found that artists love birch trees, and I'm not sure why.

Bathroom. Pretty typical.

TV on a bulging chest. 

King sized bed.

TV with a fireplace beneath it. I highly doubt the fireplace is meant to be used. We found some candles out in the hall that had their wicks removed. This place likes to give the impression that it's ready to start a fire while not actually giving guests the option of starting an open flame.

Little table in the kitchen with a print of a wine glass crossed by a bottle.

We got a full kitchen, including a full oven and refrigerator. In my experience, you usually get a microwave and a mini fridge. There were even pots and pans in case you wanted to do some home cooking. It's funny, if I was going to be doing any cooking it would likely be because I was staying for awhile and eating out was causing financial strain. If I were planning on staying for that length of time, I'd likely be staying in a cheaper room. I think the people who can usually afford to stay in this suite don't need to worry too much about being able to afford takeout. Maybe it's because they might be holding some kind of social function.

Overall it was kind of cool. Because it was sort of a rare opportunity to have access to something like this, we hosted my mother and brother and a few others in the suite for kind of a Christmas function.

It sounds a bit random but I brought home some bowls as a gift.

I mentioned in my "Old Neighbourhoods" post that I went to an annual event called the Frederick Art Walk, and that a friend of mine had a booth at it selling wood-turned bowls. I contacted him about getting a couple to give as presents. I was expecting to get two mid-sized bowls but he talked me into buying that larger one, as its what he'd get for his mother, and then the second largest was for my brother. He threw in the smallest one for free. The second smallest was mine, that I bought at the art walk.

It's a soup bowl, and I never really trusted it not to stain, but since this summer plenty of soup has moved through it and it still seems to be in good condition. After coming home with the other three bowls and finding that they fit together nicely, I realized that my bowl was sized perfectly as a set with them. I mentally wrestled for awhile about whether or not I wanted to give up my bowl and ultimately decided to do it. Now I need a new soup bowl.

Today we traveled to Toronto to visit my Oma and Granddad, and we met up with my aunt as well. This is my grandfather who has dimension. Last time I saw him he was still able to hold conversation, but at this point he does not speak for the most part. He is able to answer yes or no questions, he can repeat words when prompted, he can still read writing out loud which I confess surprised me, and he's still able to sing. We sang Felis Navidad together. On that note, he can speak as much Spanish as English.

He seemed comfortable around me. He was able to say my name when told who I was. As a group we had lunch together at the place he is living.

Then me and Lee-Anne came back to Kitchener. It was a pretty transit-heavy day. We took a bus to Toronto at 8:30, then transferred to a subway and met my Oma at 11:30. Then later we took the subway again, and between two buses got back into Kitchener, then took the light rail home.

My Health Journey

In my "I'm diabetic" post, I spoke about the diagnosis and some new accommodations that I've had to make. I said that I did some bloodwork that wasn't because of concerns about diabetes, although it did reveal it. I didn't talk about the circumstances that brought me to that point, so I will now.

I mentioned in a post earlier this year that I've been re-diagnosed with ADHD. Before that, because I'd been struggling to stay on top of some of the responsibilities of my new position after being promoted, I connected with a therapist who specializes in ADHD. He connected me with an agency that does assessments for the disorder. I was assessed, diagnosed, and given a blood pressure monitor to see if I was eligible to take stimulant medication.

My blood pressure was in an allowable range to take the stimulants, so I got a prescription. I was on them for six days. I was really paranoid about my blood pressure so I brought my monitor to work with me. I tested myself at work, it said I had an irregular heartbeat, I panicked and had my coworker drive me to the ER.

I had an ECG done at the ER and talked to a doctor who said that my heart wasn't irregular, but it was beating extremely fast. 

They let me go home. I counted my ADHD meds, found I was one less than I should have. What probably happened was, I got up, took a pill, went back to bed, woke up again and forgetting that I'd taken one, took another, accidentally double-dosing.

So now I'm worried about my heart, which led me to contact my family doctor, which led me to getting my bloodwork done, which got me diagnosed with diabetes.

In my "Johnny Barnes" post, I mentioned that I was in Guelph for a doctor's appointment, which is standard to do every three months for diabetics. I didn't mention how my meeting went though.

Three months since starting diabetic meds and my new diet, my blood sugar dropped from 10.5 to 6.9. If I recall correctly, anything over 7 is considered diabetic. The range from 6-7 is considered "pre-diabetic", and between 4 and 6 is standard. So my blood sugar levels have entered the "pre-diabetic" range, meaning that my organs are not presently taking damage.  

Even though I'm in the pre-diabetic range, that doesn't mean I am pre-diabetic, as I'm only maintaining that status with the aid of medication. To properly go into remission, I would have to drop below an average of 6 and maintain it without the aid of medication.

Going into remission is possible, but generally diabetes is considered a progressive disease that gets worse over time. This is because people who have it often struggle with lifestyle habits that make it worse, and unfortunately, because they've gotten to this point they require better lifestyle habits than those that don't have it just to maintain their current status. Even if I go into remission, the lifestyle changes that I've made need to be commitments forever, because at this point my body is more susceptible to regression.

Also, medication for diabetes prevents the organs from taking damage, but it often makes it harder to lose weight as well, which is a big part of recovery. So the odds seem stacked against the person with diabetes.

All this being said, my decreased blood sugar level is considered a resounding success. I had a bunch of other numbers too, which I don't remember but were a lot better than they were before. My doctor told me to "keep up the great work" and seemed more positive than I'd ever seen her. I'd been connected with a dietician, and in my second session, on looking at my numbers she broke down laughing because of how much better they'd gotten. Apparently I'd improved enough that I no longer qualified for a dietician, and she said that I'd "graduated from the school of diabetes"

I mentioned to my dietician that I could have developed diabetes at any time in the decade that I hadn't seen my family doctor, but she said that it could have happened sooner than I thought, as apparently there was a huge influx of diagnoses post-COVID, due to all the change in lifestyle and the increase in stress.

She said that success for type 2 diabetics is considered staying within target range (4-10) on a glucose monitor 70% of the time. When I was talking to her, I'd been in range 96% of the time.

I'll list the things that have spiked my blood sugars into an unhealthy range:

-Charcuterie board. This was a provided lunch from my agency for a team-building day. I ordered one of the few things that didn't have carbs but something in it still got to me

-Waffle with jam. I got this at a hotel breakfast. There was someone in charge of meal prep instead of it being buffet-style. There wasn't much of a menu and I felt put on the spot so I wound up going with this. I got the jam instead of the maple syrup because I thought maybe the berries would offset some of the sugar, which of course it didn't

-Qdoba burrito. I got this because of a lunch-provided training at work. I made sure to get the whole wheat tortilla and the brown rice, but of course restaurants are only concerned with your enjoyment, and if you try to order something healthy, they offer only the illusion of a nutritional value

-Potluck. This was for a work holiday party. There appears to be a theme here of me violating my diet because of work provisions

My dietician said that she would rather hear that I was allowing myself the occasional indulgence, as that reduces my chance of having a relapse.

At the time I hadn't lost any weight, but she said that of the five key factors, weight was likely the least concerning and I should still be proud. She said that I shouldn't use weight as my measurement for determining health, but that if I followed my diet and lifestyle guidelines, eventually weight loss would follow.

Since my last session I finally saw a decrease in weight by ten pounds. Overall, I'm down 23 from last year.