Almost a year ago, I bought a Fitbit and a Quadric blood pressure cuff to help me improve my health. I won't give lots of links to the various blog posts where I discuss my thyroid and lack of one; nor the posts about the strange heart issue just use the links in the categories over there on the right and you will find them.

I was looking at my history in both the FitBit app and the Quadrio app and I was rather amazed at how well I have done. 

Yes, I will be honest that since November of last year, I have not been activly working at it - the walking, the weight loss, the lowering of the bp, getting more sleep. BUT I do have to say that the effort I put into it has paid off since I have maintained my weight loss and kept my BP down and I have been able to eliminate one of the heart medications I was on.

So let's look at some charts, shall we.
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First up is my resting heart rate, this is a graph from the FitBit. As your heart gets stronger, your heart rate gets lower because it does not have to work as much to get the blood pushed around your body. This is an average and I do know that the FitBit is not as accurate as actual medical monitoring but look at the trend.  And what about those two spikes? Those are from being really sick with that nasty bug that eventually morphed into bronchitis.  I would say I have done well, I give myself an A.

Next up is my weight which is also from the FitBit. Yeah, the weight has taken a slight uptick recently but overall I am down just under 10 pounds; I was at one point down just over 10 pounds but that was due to the bronchitis and I have always said, if you want to loose weight get pneumonia; you will not only loose weight but you might loose your life too. I do not recommend getting it but the weight loss that happens is only a secondary benefit with the first being recovering and living. Thank goodness for antibiotics.  I would say I have done well but I could have done better so I give myself a B.

The last chart is from the Quadrio and it is of my average blood pressure reading. I could not get one image for the year as the app does not rotate into landscape thus i have had to merge them together.  The two lines are for the systolic and the diastolic readings. I have moved on the range chart from within Grade 1 hypertension to the lower edge of Normal and bordering on the range of Optimal which is better than Normal. Note: Ranges are Optimal, Normal, Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3.  I would say I have done very well so I give myself an A+.

What is my overall grade? I would have to say a B+ as I have not been really working at it the past 5 months and IF I had things would be much better. Yet I think I get an A because of how much I have improved. 

I will try to remember to do another report card in SIX months which I hope will keep me on track; and again in another year. 

I support and believe it is good for the UK to leave the EU. I have even had someone say to me "you are the first person I have spoken to that thinks this is a good idea". I question who they have spoken to and how well they know people who live in the UK.  So let me lay out WHY I think it is good; your opinion may vary with milage.

I do not think all of the EU is a bad thing but I also do not think all of the EU is a good thing either.

First, lets start with some history. Do you know about what the history of the EU is? I suggest you start here and read up on it and how it started as a trade group, the EEC, and if you had any interaction with international business in the late 1970's and early 1980's the term Benelux might be a familiar term. 

I do think that the EEC was a good idea and the data does support this. Up until recently the members of the EEC grew economically.

Then the EEC evolved and the creation of the EU happened:
"The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs, and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries, and regional development. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished. A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the eurocurrency.."

Presently the citizens of a sovereign country are represented, in what is a super government, by non-elected officials who enact laws, rules and regulations that impact their individual countries - for good, for bad and for indifference. Yes, I know these member countries did agree to this to begin with but I believe and my friends, who live in the EU, believe that in many cases what the EU does now is too costly and goes to far and to those in control of the EU, it is now about POWER and what they the EU representative feels is "right" vs. what is right for THEIR individual country and that countries citizens.

Some would call it LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY (of their country) and too much scope creep on the part of the EU government.

There is nothing wrong with improving trade, goods and services for the region nor is there anything wrong with allowing the free movement of people.

Here is an example of what I consider to be early EU stupidity, yes stupidity.
An EU law/regulation was passed standardized units of measurements. This resulted in fines for groceries that had old scales that have imperial units of measurement (pounds and ounces) vs. metric vs. both; is that really to the benefit of the citizens? If you want to know more start here and here. YES, the EU was fining people for having scales that did not meet the law that "standardized" a unit of measure despite a law of the nation that allowed them to use what they wanted.  Before the EU (during the time of the EEC) if a company in the UK shipped their widgets to another country, the weight was probably marked on the box in kilograms. Could the box have also been marked in pounds, probably since why would you have two different boxes for your widgets - one for sale/use in the UK and another for use/sale outside the UK.  

Think about it. Even in the good ol' USofA if a company ships their widgets internationally the metric weight is listed as well as the Imperial weight. Does the EU fine us? So why fine a company within its region. Does the USA fine a company base here for only have a metric weight on the box of widgets and not having the Imperial units? 

There are also the standardized banana curvature laws and the pippin apple size laws. Why not let the people decide decide for themselves if a banana has too much curvature or an apple is too small.  In the USA we would call this restriction of fair trade. 

Yes this is simple example but I am using to point out that this happened early in the EU era and IMHO the bureaucracy has only gotten worse.  

There was the Common Fisheries Policy that resulted in Scotland loosing their fishing industry. The policy was in theory was a nice idea because it took into account over fishing but what also happened is that land locked countries that did not have ocean ports were given fishing rights - read that as quotas, for fishing fleets that did not exist and where did those rights come from? Yes, they came (read that as taken away) from countries that had long established harbors, fleets, and fishing businesses. The Scottish fishing industry was devastated. Here is an article about how some fishermen feel about the EU and the exit vote. (Note: Peterhead is not far from where Elisa of Scotland lives and I have been to Peterhead many times and seen the results of this policy.)

I could go on and on about this and those on the other side of the debate can also go on and on. But let me put it to you this way. The USA is a nation of states and there are clear dividing lines between what the states can do and what our federal government can do - even if some of those lines do get blurred but don't go there right now, stay with me, ok??! What if we now has an "American Union" that consisted of Canada, the USA, all the Central American countries: Mexico, Belize, etc. and all of South American countries. Now, imagine if there were non-elected officials in this union who enacted regulations that

1. Everyone use some new coin as the currency and you get fined if you still use the old currency.
2. There was a new system of measurements and you get fined if you don't use it
3. You can't produce your widgets cause you make too many and that someone else where in the union could make them cause the AU says they don't make enough. And you get fined if continue to produce your widgets.
4. Your region, which has a booming economy and is doing well financially, must raise taxes to generate more income for the AU to give to another region that is not doing as well economically because their local government give all their citizens 110% of their salary upon retirement and that region can't afford to do it anymore but they won't tighten their own belts.  Oh, and your regional government gets fined if you don't do it. 
5. The AU also move from a northern region to a southern region just because the southern region would not  join the AU unless the government moved there for half the year. And yes, your regional government pays for the expense of the offices to move, lock, stock and barrel and the non-elected officials maintain permanent residences in both places all year long.
6. Every law, regulation, and policy is also printed (yes a hard copy) in 24 of the regions languages vs. using let's say SIX standard languages like the UN does? Note: it use to be THREE and now there are six which are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. This massive printing would then be stored in an archive - why not store it digitally? 

At this point, lets return to the subject of sovereignty.  There are now unelected officials who are not of your region enacting laws, rules and regulations that affect how you live - earn a living, what you can buy; what you can and can not do; what you can make or sell; how you can act; what you must use for money and units of measurement and MORE despite what YOUR region has enacted in the past - and you get no say in it.
 
Would you, as a citizen of the USA want this? 

Elisa of Scotland, who has taken the banner images seen on this site, participates in a Flicker group called Macro Mondays.  

To challenge me and to get me to use my new camera more, she has started to send me the weekly challenge information; and for two weeks now, I have taken it on and when I am done, I send the picture(s) I have taken and my "submission" to her. 

Here are my entries. First, which was last week's, was TIME.  There are TWO images of the inner workings of an antique pocket watch I have.

The second subject, which is for the coming Monday is STRIPES.  This shot is of a banded agate I cut and polished as a mini-plinth. I was going to makes cabs but could not cut away the layers of the agate.