Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson were at a Spice Girls concert last spring, just two figures in a sea of people. As they gazed around the stadium, Featherstone broke down in tears. Not because of anything the Spice Girls were singing, but because the two chefs were consumed by the thought of their own followers; they have more than 900,000 on Facebook. When we go to a gig, its like: We could fill this space so many times! It becomes very, very scary, Featherstone says.

They got the same feeling at Fleetwood Mac. Featherstone has sweaty palms just thinking about it. She and Allinson, who are business as well as life partners, try to forget the noughts and imagine a community of 900, but its still a long way from the days when they had their own restaurant with customers who came in every Sunday and even brought the pair presents if they went on a cruise.

No wonder Allinson, 48, and Featherstone, 34, sound bewildered, if not downright terrified. Their success as the chef duo Pinch of Nom has been sudden. Last spring, their first book of simple slimming recipes sold 500,000 copies in just five weeks (and recently passed the 1 million mark). Last months follow-up, Everyday Light, sold nearly 130,000 in its first week, knocking David Walliams from the top of the bestseller list.

It has been a little bit crazy, Featherstone whispers, as if danger lurks nearby. They have had offers for TV shows offers for everything but have declined them all because they are really shy, says Featherstone, although she is the gobbier half because Kate doesnt usually like to talk. (Thats fair, says Allinson, whose T-shirt is emblazoned with the slogan: Introverts unite separately in your own homes.) When I ask if they might choose to meet their followers Im thinking of events they say that they did bump into some once, and you cant say it wont happen again. But it has never been about us, Featherstone says, and Allinson, a sort of quiet chorus, echoes her words. Its never been about us.

This is something of a mantra for Featherstone and Allinson, and Im intrigued by their wish to deny they are protagonists in their own enterprise. After all, many of their recipes are autobiographical. Tin of praters, a bacon, potato and onion bake, is lifted straight from Featherstones childhood, while the entire Pinch of Nom adventure took off when the two went along to their local Slimming World in Wirral four years ago, then began to post their own recipes to a growing Facebook community.

Their personal story is at the heart of their business but so is their disavowal of it. We dont spout about ourselves. Were not that sort, Featherstone says. They dont take selfies; even on their first date, the only picture they took was of a gull. Photographs of them are rare.

Neither of them has ever followed a specific diet; not Atkins, 5:2, keto nor intermittent fasting. In many ways, they are unlikely authors of a diet book. And this, I suspect, is at the heart of the pressure they feel a double bind in which the story of their efforts to lose weight speaks to their community, but also creates an expectation for a narrative of progress. I sometimes worry what people will think of us. Like, why the hell are you pushing a diet book when youre not a skinny minny? Featherstone says. Because its the accepted norm that people lose weight, [then] they do a book. But were still in that process.

In newspaper articles, Allinson and Featherstone are often described as two fat chefs. They laugh uproariously when I point this out. Do you know we have a little list of the things we have been described as? Featherstone says. Fat. Middle-aged. Jolly. Allinson chuckles.

We found it really funny, Featherstone says. Then the tone abruptly shifts.

Sadly, it is the way that some people talk about people of our size. Fat is a word that people will use willy-nilly to describe people of size. And I personally hate it, Featherstone says. It makes me angry deep inside

In March, the pair revealed they were aiming to lose 190kg (30 stone) between them. Featherstone had so far lost 44kg and Allinson 31kg. Im curious as to how they divvied up the target. Featherstone says: We came up with that between us. They didnt figure out how much each wanted to lose? Weve never really had a target, Allinson says. Because I think that can put a lot of pressure on.

And we dont do pressure, Featherstone adds. But surely two books in the space of a year put pressure on them? We dont intentionally put pressure on ourselves, Allinson says. Is a better way of putting it, Featherstone nods.

Im curious to know if they have lost more weight since the first book, but Featherstone says that the numbers are still what they were.

The body of any diet author will always be taken as a measure of success. Is that on their mind? It cant not be, Featherstone says. We think about things a lot. Its why were both so anxious all the time We still struggle. Even now. We kind of fluctuate. We have a steady loss. And while fluctuation and steadiness may seem at odds with each other, no doubt those who are sharing their weight-loss journey will relate to the apparent contradiction.

Weve always been really honest and open about it, Allinson says.

They have had an intense and challenging year, adjusting not just to huge public interest, but also to the loss of Allinsons mum. Or, as Featherstone puts it: Weve had a great year, but weve also had a s**t year. Allinsons mother died in January, the day after the couple told her they were going to publish a book. When Allinson says this, her eyes are wet and shiny.

Has anyone got a tissue? Featherstone interjects. I assume she is asking for Allinson, but she quickly adds: Because Im wearing mascara and I know whats going to happen. Allinson fishes in her bag and passes her one. They happily rattle off their differences Allinson is organised, decisive and likes strong tea; Featherstone is disorganised, indecisive, talkative and takes her tea milky. But the two of them seem to understand and meet each others needs..

They met nearly 15 years ago, having seen each others profiles on Gaydar Girls. But I didnt message you for ages, Featherstone says. When they met, they got in the car and ended up in Rhyl, north Wales.

Within six months, Featherstone had moved into Allinsons family home in New Brighton, Wallasey, where the pair still live with Allinsons older sister, Lisa, and her dad (whom the three of them look after), as well as two cats. Ive been in the same house for how long is it? Forty-five years, Allinson says.

Before this one, she lived in the house over the back, which was her nans B&B. I am trying to picture how the house just an old Victorian one, Allinson says must have felt with five adults in it.

When they met, Allinson ran her own restaurant, Cromwells, in nearby Irby. Featherstone quickly took on front of house. Food was the driver of their relationship, and they went into work even when the restaurant was closed. I washed the pots. I wanted to learn how this whole thing worked. In their downtime, they watched, among other things, Two Fat Ladies (they have the DVDs) and ate lots of Chinese takeaways.

While Allinson had been to catering college and had gone on to be the head chef for the Boddingtons chain, Featherstone had left school at 16. She had helped a bit in her parents florist shop and did voiceovers at a radio station in Liverpool, but food and Allinson provided a place that felt like home.

The restaurant was hard work. Things came to a head when Allinsons mum, who did the accounts, had a brain haemorrhage. Within a few months, the restaurant closed, as they focused on caring for her. We grieved for the restaurant, Featherstone says. It hit us hard. Next they worked for a Canadian IT company which, if Ive understood correctly, speeds up the internet by using datacentres on the edge of the cloud. It sounds an unlikely fit, but both women say they wanted nothing to do with food after the restaurant shut. In between were months where we didnt do a whole bunch of much.

Then, in January 2016, Lisa persuaded them to go to Slimming World. They began to create the dishes that went into the first book in the tiny family kitchen that, they say, is smaller than the toilet in the offices of their London publisher, where we are meeting.

They photographed their food at the dining-room table. It must have been a squeeze, but Allinsons mum said: If you want to do it, do it well. Allinsons dad lost a stone unintentionally just by eating their food. Then at Slimming World one week, they heard another person discussing a Pinch of Nom recipe and realised how far they had come. At that point, no one in the group knew who they were.

Now they have a test kitchen, a team of 11 and an army of followers they are scared to think about. Featherstone, Allinson and their family all eat the food they make. When people are trying to diet, and the rest of the family dont need to, it can feel as if youre on your own, Featherstone says. She knows this from personal experience. At her all-girls school, she was the tall one and the big one and dieted to fit in, but was bullied. The experience of being different hardened me, she says. But I suspect this hardening is a work-in-progress.

I am surprised, when I get home, and reread the articles that describe Allinson and Featherstone as two fat chefs, to see that the person who chose those words was none other than Featherstone herself. I email her to ask why, given how the description angers her, and she replies that it was a way of saying it first Its an ownership thing. I can call myself fat but no one else has that right.

Over the past six months, however, something has shifted; her feelings have evolved. Its not a word I like any more. Guardian

Pinch of Nom: Everyday Light by Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson is published by Pan Macmillan

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Pinch of Nom: Fat is a word people use willy-nilly. It makes me angry - Irish Times

Fram Centre

Polar bear or aquabear

Ursus maritimus the polar bears Latin name clearly identifies it as a marine animal, not a terrestrial one. Recent studies show they deserve this name: not only do they live much of their lives near sea ice; they also spend more time in the water, swim farther and dive deeper than was thought previously.

ByJon Aars, Karen Lone, Christian Lydersen, Magnus Andersen and Kit M. Kovacs //Norwegian Polar Institute

In 2008, scientists from the United States deployed a subcutaneous temperature logger, in combination with a telemetry collar, on a female polar bear in the Beaufort Sea. Geographic position, internal temperature and ambient temperature were measured simultaneously, making it possible to figure out when the bear was swimming and when she was walking on sea ice. This bear swam continuously for more than nine days, travelling 687 km. These data proved that polar bears are able to swim for much longer distances than previously thought.

In recent years, satellite collars deployed on polar bears have become more sophisticated and many now record time spent in the water, using a saltwater switch (two contact points that carry current between them when in salt water). For Svalbard bears, we have documented several cases where bears have swum more than 100 km (280 km at most) and been in the water continuously for up to four days.

Such long swims in the Barents Region are always trips between islands in the regions archipelagos and the sea ice edge, where most bears hunt much of the year. Pregnant females increasingly often face long swims in the autumn to return from the ice to the islands to make their maternity dens in drifts of snow on land, where they give birth to their cubs in midwinter. This situation is rather new. A few decades ago, sea ice covered much of the ocean surrounding Svalbard for most of the year and corridors of sea ice were virtually always available between the islands and ice-covered hunting areas. Back then, bears rarely had to swim long distances.

Long swims are interesting in and of themselves, but it is also important to know about swimming behaviour on a daily basis, how it varies with season, habitat and other factors. A recent study from Svalbard (see further reading) showed that most female polar bears are very aquatic.

How much time the bears spent swimming varied a lot throughout the year, but in July, they spent two hours a day in the water, on average.

Individual bears also vary considerably in how much time they spend in the water.

Mothers with small cubs swim much less than other females, particularly in early spring. Tiny cubs are unable to survive long periods in icy water, as they lack the fat layer that insulates larger, older bears when swimming. (Their fur insulates well in the air, but not when it is wet.) Thus, when they first emerge from the birth den, bear families are quite vulnerable in habitats with many open leads in the ice, and in areas with little sea ice.

It is important for the mother to get to good hunting areas quickly in the spring to regain weight so she can continue producing milk for the cubs, after a long winter in the den without eating.

We know that polar bears dive between and underneath ice floes when they hunt seals. Bears approach seals by stealth, swimming underwater so they are not detected. From time to time, they surface to check where they are in relation to the seal. Finally, when close enough, they do a final dive and emerge just in front of the seals resting place, and lunge onto the ice in an attempt to catch the prey. Polar bears also dive to find kelp and other things they like to eat, such as submerged carcasses. Our study from Svalbard revealed that adult female polar bears occasionally dived down to several metres depth. The record dive in the study was 13.9 metres!

Given the loss of sea ice in the Arctic in recent decades, it is good news that polar bears are able to swim long distances. In the Barents Region, including Svalbard, sea ice losses have been large, and predictions suggest that reductions will continue much faster here than in other areas inhabited by polar bears. Thus, we believe that bears in the area will need to swim even more in the future.

Good denning areas in eastern Svalbard have already been lost. In years without sea ice in the autumn, pregnant females do not get to these areas any longer. The energetic costs of long swims may be too high.

Pregnant females need sufficient fat reserves to ensure milk production, usually for two cubs, during a three-to-four-month period in the den without any access to food. The estimated cost of swimming is equivalent to 4 kg of fat per day! That is approximately five times the cost incurred by walking; thus a three-day swim equals the cost of a two-week long walk. If the mother has to swim a long distance to reach an island in autumn, it reduces her ability to produce milk for her cubs.

It is also important to note that young bears will not be able to swim long distances at all they lose too much heat. Therefore, even though adult bears are good swimmers and divers, having to make more long swims due to sea ice loss is a serious threat to this remarkable species.

This story is originally published in the Fram Forum

Original post:
Polar bear or aquabear - The Independent Barents Observer

Questions about the Pentagon's credibility carry a host of real-world implications, from allies not trusting America's word, to worries that more troops will commit war crimes, to growing skepticism over intelligence the Pentagon uses to justify military action.

"It's terrible," Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of Defense for President George W. Bush, said of the impact Trump is having on the Pentagons ability to make its case. "Trump is basically essentially doing things that make the Russians and Chinese happy. They can say, 'They are just like us. They do what's in their interest. The notion that America is different is all bullshit.

As the military conflict with Iran deepens, the president's behavior is hamstringing the U.S. military, warned nearly a dozen current and former officials. In particular, Trump's threats to commit violations of international law are fueling perceptions in the Muslim world that the U.S. military is little more than an imperial occupying force.

And the Pentagons credibility faces its next big test Wednesday, when senior military leaders brief skeptical lawmakers in the House and Senate on the decision to conduct a drone strike on Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, a move that sparked the missile attack that struck Iraqi bases that house U.S. troops.

Lawmakers, mostly Democrats, have made it clear theyre in no mood to accept the administrations claims that Soleimani was prepared to attack U.S. forces, especially since theres no guarantee that the military tit-for-tat in the Middle East will die down anytime soon.

Trump's defenders dismiss claims the president's shoot-from-the-hip style is harming the military's reputation. And the Pentagon says its still credible because it doesnt get political.

Theres a reason the U.S. Department of Defense remains the most trusted institution in American government we stay out of politics, the Pentagon said in a written response to POLITICO. DoD also maintains a strong relationship with our allies through our [military-to-military] relationships with countries around the globe, where we do joint training, exercises, and serve together on the battlefield.

But current and former administration officials worry the president's growing pattern of breaking faith with some of those allies, ignoring the chain of command, and forcing Pentagon leaders to publicly defend his actions mean that the military's word does not carry the same weight it once did just as it tries to head off a major war in the Middle East.

"The institution is losing its credibility because it is continually being politicized, its politically being antagonized and it's seen as a Defense Department thats either out of touch, thats rogue, thats partisan, [or] thats lawless," said a former senior military officer who served in the Trump administration and requested anonymity to speak freely.

"You don't know what's solid and what's reliable," added a former senior Pentagon official who served in the Trump administration.

The Defense Departments credibility gap has been on display time and again, most recently this week when a draft letter from a U.S. general to an Iraqi counterpart laying out plans for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq was leaked to the media.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley quickly declared the U.S. wasnt leaving Iraq and said the communication should never have been sent. But it made little difference; Iraqs prime minister brushed off Espers and Milleys statements and said he was treating the draft letter as official policy.

Even some of the Pentagon's biggest supporters said they don't know what to believe about the episode.

I do think Esper and Milley have to explain what the hell happened with this unsigned letter that may or may not have gotten sent, Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin who served as a Marine Corps officer in Iraq, said in an interview. Was this just pure incompetence or was this part of some deliberate messaging strategy?

We cant be playing games like that, especially at times like this, Gallagher added, saying he hopes to get clarity from the closed-door briefing Wednesday. They seemed genuinely surprised. Im struggling to make sense of it now. I hope they will take advantage of that opportunity ... to tell us what exactly happened.

Trump seems oblivious to how his words and actions forced Pentagon leaders to constantly scramble to explain away his comments.

Most recently, it was his threat over the weekend to bomb cultural sites if Iran retaliated for the Soleimani attack. If carried out, such an attack would violate both a United Nations-backed treaty calling for the protection of cultural sites in wartime as well as the Geneva Conventions.

After Trumps comments, Esper hopped into damage control mode. We will follow the laws of armed conflict, he insisted to reporters on Tuesday, not directly commenting on the fact that the president had threatened to do something illegal.

Later on Tuesday Trump backed off, telling reporters, "I like to obey the law."

But even some of the most hawkish voices winced at the episode.

"I don't think we should be targeting cultural sites," Gallagher said. "I do think we should avoid anything that would drive a wedge between us and our allies in the region.

"There is no decision more serious and consequential for presidents and commanders in chief than to order military action," added Michael Rubin, a former adviser on Iraq and Iran at the Pentagon from 2002 to 2004 and resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "Trump's off-handed remarks about targeting cultural sites an illegal order should he try which the Pentagon could never obey highlights what happens when Trump's political style clashes with the legal and planning processes developed by the Pentagon over decades."

The threat came just weeks after the president took the extraordinary step of granting clemency to a trio of accused or convicted war criminals in the Army and Navy. It set off an outcry in the ranks and on Capitol Hill that Trump was meddling in the military justice system and was encouraging lawlessness and damaging good order and discipline.

Sign up for Morning Defense, a daily briefing on Washingtons national security apparatus.

After Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was forced out over his handling of Navy Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallaghers case, Esper followed Trumps order and canceled an administrative board that could have removed Gallaghers SEAL trident pin. In issuing the order, Trump ignored his military advisers in favor of a campaign in conservative media to restore Gallaghers pin.

"There's a sense of dejection by senior leaders in the Pentagon, that the president and the secretary of Defense are going to side with the loudmouths at Fox News against the reasoned opposition of senior military professionals," a senior Pentagon official with direct knowledge of high-level discussions told POLITICO at the time. "That's the sense in a nutshell."

In another recent example, Trump gave voice to what many critics of U.S. military operations in the Middle East have been saying for decades: It's all about the oil.

After abruptly ordering most U.S. troops out of Syria, the president told reporters that "We're keeping the oil, we have the oil, the oil is secure, we left troops behind only for the oil."

"It can help us because we should be able to take some also," he told reporters on Oct. 27. "And what I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal with an Exxon Mobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly."

The Pentagon quickly pushed back. The revenue from this is not going to the U.S., Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman said, insisting local Kurds will be "the sole beneficiary of the sale of the oil from the facilities they control."

Esper weighed in, saying Trump meant that he wants to keep the oil from benefiting ISIS.

It's it's, you know, half dozen, six. I interpret that as deny ISIS access to the oil fields; secure them so that they are denied access to the oil fields, he told reporters on Oct. 31.

The Pentagon and State Department have long sought to combat the public perception that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was designed to seize Mideast oil.

The former Trump Pentagon official said the president's statements about the oil is particularly damaging to the Pentagons credibility at home and abroad.

"It's is a pretty serious concern among the senior uniformed military," said the former official, who declined to be identified discussing recent conversations with former colleagues. The taking of the oil fields is exactly what the criticism was of almost every one of our activities in Middle East. It plays right into critics and skeptics and even conspiracy theorists and is against U.S. values.

The oil field controversy sprang up weeks after Trump ordered troops out of parts of Syria after Turkey threatened to invade northern areas. The withdrawal left Americans Kurdish allies in the lurch, sparking outrage in the military and Congress who said the U.S. was betraying a partner that was instrumental in crushing ISIS.

We are not abandoning the Kurds, Esper insisted, even as Trumps allies in Congress said the president was doing exactly that.

Edelman, the former Bush Pentagon official, said hes worried about how the department can stop the loss of trust.

"We didn't take anything over and establish puppet regimes in Europe after World War II," he said. "The sense that the United States has acted more often than not in a disinterested way by creating some semblance of world order has given us enormous ability to do stuff around the world. Trump is undermining that."

Read more from the original source:
How Trump has created a credibility problem for the Pentagon - POLITICO

Results Fitness Stands Out with High-Def Exercise Videos and Supportive Online Community

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif.-January 8, 2020- (Newswire.com)

American businessmen and women take over 405 million long-distancebusiness trips per year. This massive on-the-go group has a common challenge though: finding ways to stay fit while on the road. Now, the creators of the new Results Fitness app are out to change all that with their all-in-one exercise and personal training program that features high-def videos.

Results Fitness offers a free or subscription-based program aimed at adults who want to lose weight and gain muscle, especially while traveling. The apps full library of 4K videos is updated monthly and incorporates hundreds of exercises along with demonstrations of how to safely perform those for maximum benefit. The program is complemented by an interactive motivational blog that provides fitness tips and education along with the opportunity for users to share their results. Subscribers can also form private groups so friends can exercise together, challenge each other and perform custom-built workouts.

Our health is our wealth. Results Fitness is all about providing busy people with a way to stay in shape no matter where they are so they have no excuses for avoiding a workout. Our app gives users of every fitness level the tools they need to stay fitness-focused with engaging exercise videos and demos, a community of supporters, and more, explained Derek Anderson, who has been a personal trainer for 12 years. In that time, he has helped hundreds of individuals, including athletes, to lose weight, put on muscle and prevent injury through his programs.

Anderson was motivated to develop the app because he saw the challenges that many of his clients faced when traveling for work and pleasure. He regularly prepared routines for them to use while they were away so they would not lose progress but could not find an app on the market that he could recommend.

My job as a trainer is to ensure my clients have everything they need to succeed long-term in reaching and maintaining their health and fitness goals. There was not an app on the market that I believed provided the variety of exercises, instruction necessary to avoid injury, and personal support to aid them when away from home - so I created one, said Anderson. I am especially proud to know that I am able to support the health needs of a broad audience through the apps easy-to-access training tools and guidance.

Since its launch in October, Results Fitness is getting all 5-star reviews online, with customers calling out the app for its ease-of-use, content variety, affordability and effectiveness. And while Anderson says that the program was created with the unique challenges of travelers in mind, its customers are, in fact, using the app at home and the gym as well as on the road.

I set out to build a program that is accessible to everyone, gives them the results they are looking for and is fun. Results Fitness does all that, and I am excited to see how many people are starting the year off right by downloading our app, he added.

Results Fitness is available for free or by a $4.99 per month subscription and is available for Android in the Google Play store. For more information, go to resultsfitnessapp.com. For media inquiries, contact:Derek Anderson atderekandersonfitness@gmail.com.

Press Release ServicebyNewswire.com

Original Source:New Year Brings New Fitness App Aimed at Helping Travelers Stay in Shape

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New Year Brings New Fitness App Aimed at Helping Travelers Stay in Shape - Press Release - Digital Journal