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You just finished reading Don't think I will use Groupon again. Had so much trouble with an online order, can't imagine the annoyance of buying a restaurant coupon and them not accepting it. Or a cruise, or something. What a joke. On Noemi.ro. Please subscribe to my RSS feed if you liked this post. Thoughts? Questions? Send me a direct message.

Hello Noemi, okay you cite this book 4HB and make reference to yogurt being good for weight loss and fruit better than veg. This seems to fly in the face of conventional wisdom. I do agree potatoes are fattening. Obesity is a big deal these days pardon the pun but seriously it is one of the key dangers facing society. I doubt the money spinning book 4HB has the real answer but I know Romanians have the answer to this problem check this link:
http://www.romania-insider.com/eu-obesity-report-slim-trim-romania%E2%80%A6-big-fat-britain/41647/#

So what is it about Romanian culture/diet/genetics or whatever else it might be that they buck the trend on a global epidemic? How can the obese world emulate Romanians success? Maybe there is some Romanian folkloric herbal potions good for weight loss? If you share your thoughts I’d be grateful.

Regards,

Sascha

Hi Sascha,

I’m not sure if you are Romanian or not. My experience with “traditional” Romanian weight-loss is quite simple: Family members throw random “remedies” at you along with loving insults which all have a similar theme: Eat less. Some of them are teas, generally because tea is almost zero calories and fills you up fast. I’ve heard yogurt can be good in the morning. I’ve heard “eat more meat” and “eat no meat”. Eat only grapefruit (sound familiar?) All the diets change depending on who is talking about it. Dieting is a kind of oral tradition for us, along with insulting another’s physique. I know it might sound like I’m criticizing Romanian culture, but I very much enjoy my culture, flaws and all.

As you can tell, I’ve heard many weightloss regimen ideas thrown at me by many-a Romanian Grandma, Aunt, Mother, Cousin .. etc.

There is no magic potions. Romanians living in Romania have access to high quality food from local farms. They also have limited access to fast food, and even getting to a fast food place usually requires quite a bit of walking. The Romanian diet is no healthier than other cultures, our staple foods corn and pork aren’t particularly healthy.

I don’t really believe our genes are better. Look at Romanians of the “Romanian Diaspora” that live in America – a large amount of them are overweight.

We also don’t eat as much. Plates in Romania are literally smaller, though we are getting more “Western” sized plates now with the big stores that are coming into almost every city.

Losing weight takes alot of hard work. There are no Romanian potions or teas that will make the process any less painful.

I do think the Four Hour Body book has some good guidelines. It is not all crackpot. Most of the book is really just: eat less and exercise. But he goes into how to exercise to get the most out of your time and what to eat to speed up the process (Similar to Atkins.) I personally lean towards flexible vegetarianism so I can’t really follow the 4HB diet.

In conclusion: Romanians are probably thinner because of higher food quality, & less convenient food options.

Good luck!

1. I like how hairless cats look. I want to put colored wigs on them.
2. I like sleep alot.
3. I find cute stuff online, and then figure out a way to make it myself.
4. I’m losing my sweet tooth.
5. I rarely listen to voicemails. I read every text and email.

gray is such a pretty color.

and eternally underrated.

Made some last minute business cards this morning when I realized I had none before an interview. Printed on old soviet-era stationary with just a name and number, David said it was the creepiest business card he had ever seen. But I got the job, so I win.

This is a reply to DJ’s post, There’s an App for that

Sometimes when I’m hanging out with friends, there comes a time when we are all on our phones, tapping away. Someone sarcastically mentions, “Hey guys, let’s hang out so we can just play on our phones.”

It’s easy to see the disrupt that technology puts into “being human” and it’s easy to be opposed to it. But the benefits far outweigh these awkward moments.

The fact that people are using this increased connectivity to drastically improve their lives is the most amazing part of the internet. One example of this is the Wikimedia foundation that brings access to Wikipedia to Africans who do not have access to the Internet. They can use this information to learn about different subjects, especially science that when applied, can significantly improve their lives. Books were the first step towards this increased connectivity. They are massive amounts of information stored in portable devices that we can gift, pass on, share, and read. However, books can be limited to those with the money and education. Think about the college kids that skip out on buying $100 books to save money; can you blame them? What the internet does is offer information up to a much broader group of economic classes. Though not the whole world has access to this pool of information, many people in disadvantaged situations and countries do. Some of them have used the internet to learn and become self-taught. The educated upper-class looks down upon my internet-educated generation because it is terrifying to them how much we can know and learn for free and without a degree. The connectivity of the Internet granted two great new freedoms, the freedom to mass information and the freedom to easily publish information.

While sometimes, it may seem like you are in your own little world when you are on your phone or focused on the music blaring through your headphones, you are really in our little world. A world that has become larger through massive amounts of data yet smaller in the way it keeps us closer. A world we all created together, one byte at a time.

When it lays down and dies.

— Van Gogh

I love looking at some of my favorite painters and seeing how they drew. This is the study before the painting.

And sometimes there’s a rainbow, and it smells like wet grass, and everything is figured out. Yes, Cuberry is on the way to becoming something incredibe.