Dr murphy joplin mo weight loss

Female 34. SW: 240. CW: 227 GW:169ish. 5’6
I have done so much research, seen so many doctors, and watched so many TikTok’s on how to lose weight but it is not happening.
First: medical background -Possible PCOS -All labs normal -Not on birth control -Normal blood pressure -Normal blood sugar
Workout routine: -4 days a week I lift heavy for 60-80 minutes depending on the day -6 days a week (including weight lifting days) I do at LEAST an hour of cardio. -I try to walk 15k steps a day at least. -I know these aren’t the most accurate but my Apple Watch says I burn between 1200 and 1500 ACTIVE calories a day -I try to have one rest day a week
Nutrition: -1700-1900 calories a day. Some days I’ll have as much as 2100 -150 grams of protein at LEAST everyday
Supplements: Ovasitol (for PCOS) Fish oil D3 B complex Magnesium Glutamine L-carnitine A Pro/pre biotic Saw palmetto Zinc Spearmint At LEAST 3200 ml of water a day. Most often more.
Mental: I sleep 8-9 hours a night The only stress in my life is this stupid weight.
Progress: I started January of 2022 at 240 lbs. At this point it was all cardio and I was on birth control. I added weight lifting in March 2022 with only 30 min cardio 4 days a week. I got as low as 221 last June. Then. Nothing. And I do mean nothing. No movement. Except up. I came off birth control this January at my Dr last ditch suggestion and my weight overnight went from 226-234. I KNEW it couldn’t be fat. But it still took about 5 weeks for it to go away. I know about blood volume increase. And DOMS. And water retention. And muscle mass increase. I’ve been not just weighing myself daily in the AM but taking measurements at least twice a month.
What I’ve tried: Taking a break (month long. Nothing) Increasing calories to 2300/2400 for only three week (nothing). I’m back at 1700-1900 Increasing cardio to 60 min 6x a week. Started this April of this year. Gave myself 4-6 weeks to account for increase in blood volume. I got down to 224. Then. Nothing. Now back at 227.
Measurements this whole time were minimal changes. Often they would go up. My neck has gotten wider this entire time. My waist measurements fluctuate 3-4 inches DAILY.
I don’t feel bloated. I’m not gassy. My clothes aren’t fitting any differently. My face isn’t thinner. All I know is that it’s been a year and a half and I’ve only lost 13 lbs and the majority of those pounds lost took place in the first 3 months last year.
I track EVERY morsel of food I eat. And I usually eat the same things everyday so it’s easy to keep track. I don’t drink soda. I don’t drink alcohol. I’m not having a lot of sugar. I only have gluten with one meal (breakfast).
My Dr told me to go on weight loss injections. I do NOT want to rely on a shot for the rest of my life. This should be easy math. But it’s not working. What else can I do? What am I missing?

TL;DR — Seeking on resources, support groups, and next steps for my mom’s care (early dementia), especially to help my dad who has become her primary caretaker
This will be long and appreciate you bearing with me… I love my mom and am feeling helpless in knowing how to support both her and my dad. My mom has seen early symptoms of dementia for the last 5 or so years, but this is the first year that it seems to be declining fast. She’s seeing a neuropsychologist who said she’s “right at the crux between mild cognitive impairment and dementia,” and tests point to “earliest stages of late onset Alzheimer’s” (which obviously can’t be confirmed).
Her memory loss looks like - Repeating thoughts or sentences or asking questions multiple times (10x an hour or so) about when something is happening, where they’re going, etc - Getting mad at her friend because she believes her friend yelled at her (this didn’t happen) - Forgetting events that happened even as little as 8 hours before (this one is new, as of this month or so) - Hyperfixating on a bladder issue she’s having and being treated for, I.e. believing it’s caused by something else, etc. I know dementia meds don’t work well with bladder medications so that’s a separate frustrating issue :( - Getting lost while driving (this happened a few times a long while back, so now she limits her driving to the pool and library) - Becoming increasingly reclusive and inactive — I’ve seen her go from attending water aerobics 5x a week, doing Spanish classes and Bible study, tutoring, art classes, etc. to rarely leaving the house more than once a week, citing her bladder issue. She’s gained a lot of weight and the only times she sees other people (granted, she’s always been quite shy) are when my dad takes her to see her friends
Her mother had dementia and died at 78. My mom is 75, and my dad is functioning as her primary caretaker (I live out of state).
When I call her, she can either sound chippeperfectly fine or super stressed/depressed — no in between. My dad has definitely carried a huge load for a really long time — fortunately he has a good community of friends he can see and lean on, but it’s definitely taxing on him, and he sends long emails occasionally citing all of her new symptoms and I can sense it’s a cry for help.
What resources are there for us? Groups? Counselors who help talk through next steps? Even books to read? Should we keep getting second medical opinions? Should we try urging my mom to keep up healthy habits and join social activities? When should we have real conversations about professional caretakers?
Sorry for rambling, I’m definitely feeling a bit in over my head and even contemplating how necessary it’d be for me to move back home. Advice would be so appreciated. Been following this community for a long while and have been so appreciative of its presence in helping me feel less alone.

Quick warning that I will be talking about weight loss here.
TLDR: has anyone had success with or have advice for losing weight during extended breastfeeding?
I’d initially tried to start getting back in shape during my maternity leave and have been able to get in some exercise from the start but found any change in diet/exercise that led to weight loss hurt my milk supply. And once I was back at milk and relying heavily on pumps and valuing every single oz of milk this was just not a priority.
Cut to now.
LO is almost 13 mos, is day weaned, but still breastfeeds a few times a day. I went to the dr last week to address some symptoms that have cropped up and they advised that this could be related to my weight/weight gain and suggested I work on getting back into a healthy weight range as a first step and then we could start doing other tests if that didn’t do it. Luckily that’s only about 10 lbs lighter for me. (Yes, they used BMI which is 100% BS but I’m ready to try anything).
I guess I’m less worried about supply now but I also am not quite ready to quit breastfeeding. I haven’t found a ton of resources about weight loss during this “extended” breastfeeding period and was curious if anyone had advice or resources to share?

I’d like to go back on to the combined pill as I’m struggling with hair loss and it seems like it may be the only thing to help solve it.
I’m wondering if there’s a combined pill out there that has less possibility of aggravating migraines and pelvic pain(hormonally mediated vestibulodynia)?
More info. I was on Yasmin from around age 14 for pain. About 10 years later they tried me on Cerelle because of migraines. I shot up 2 dress sizes in a couple of weeks, covered on acne and had hair loss. So they tried Loestrin 20 which didn’t work I think because of constant spotting.
They put me onto Lucette instead of Yasmin due to cost. I took beta blocker meds to help the migraines which is ok but not ideal but there was nothing really for the pelvic pain. The hair grew back, acne went and weight eventually went but that was harder.
Since then I was put on the IUD actually against my wishes due to endometriosis and everything happened again. Been off all BC for two years now but issues remain especially the hair loss. So here I am.
Any help appreciated. It’s a minefield and I will see my dr but the waiting time is looooooong.

Afghanistan

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is saddened by the train collision in eastern Odisha State of the Republic of India that has left hundreds dead and injured. MoFA sympathizes with the bereaved families of the victims and the injured.

Australia

We send our deepest sympathies following the devastating train crash in India's eastern Odisha state.
Our thoughts are also with the many injured, and with the emergency personnel working to assist them.

Bhutan

Sending prayers to @narendramodi and the people of India as we hear developments of tragic train crash in Odisha. May the loved ones find strength, as they come to terms with the loss and horror. We share your pain and pray for quick healing.

Canada

The images and reports of the train crash in Odisha, India break my heart. I’m sending my deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones, and I’m keeping the injured in my thoughts. At this difficult time, Canadians are standing with the people of India.

China

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent separate messages of condolences to Indian President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a deadly train derailment and collision accident in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.

Tibet / Dalai Lama

I very much appreciate that the state government and other agencies, including those of the Central government, are doing their utmost to provide medical treatment and support to the injured and other people affected by this tragic accident.

European Commission

Terrible news from India.
I express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the Odisha train accident and wish a speedy recovery to the injured.
The people of India are in our thoughts in this time of sorrow.

France

My deepest condolences to President Murmu, Prime Minister Modi and the people of lndia after the tragic train accident in Odisha. France stands in solidarity with you. My thoughts are with the families of the victims

Italy

Min. @Antonio_Tajani 🗣 The Italian Government expresses deep condolences to #India for the tragic train accident that occurred today in Balasore. A prayer for the victims and the injured, I hope that those still trapped will be rescued.

Japan

I am deeply saddened by the news of the loss of many precious lives and the injuries in the train accident in the State of Odisha. On behalf of the Government of Japan and people, I would like to express our heartfelt condolences to those who lost their lives and their bereaved families. I also pray for the speedy recovery of those who were injured: Message of condolences from Japanese PM Fumio Kishida to PM Narendra Modi

Maldives

Deeply saddened to hear the news of the tragic train accident in Odisha, #India, leading to loss of lives and injuries to many.
My heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and praying for a speedy recovery to the injured.
@DrSJaishankar

Nepal

I'm saddened by the loss of dozens of lives in a train accident in Odisha, India today. I extend deep condolences to Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji, Government, and the bereaved families at this hour of grief.

Pakistan

Deeply saddened by the loss of hundreds of lives in a train accident in India. I extend my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families who lost their loved ones in this tragedy. Prayers for speedy recovery of the injured.

Russia

Russia'n President Vladimir #Putin sent his condolences to @rashtrapatibhvn & @PMOIndia @narendramodi over the deadly train collision in the Indian state of Odisha.

Sri Lanka

Deeply saddened to learn of the tragic train accident in Odisha. My thoughts & prayers are with the families of the victims & those injured. I hope for a speedy recovery for all those affected. Sri Lanka stands with India in this time of grief @DrSJaishankar @IndiainSL

Taiwan

The thoughts and prayers of the government & people of Taiwan go out to those affected by the tragic train collisions in Odisha. We grieve with India at this time of loss & sadness.

Ukraine

On behalf of myself and the people of Ukraine, I express my deepest condolences to Prime Minister @narendramodi and all relatives and friends of those killed in the train accident in the state of Odisha. We share the pain of your loss. We wish a speedy recovery for all those injured.

UNGA

I’m deeply saddened to hear the news of the train crash in Odisha, India. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and with the emergency services. Heartfelt condolences to the people and the Government of India. @narendramodi @DrSJaishankar @IndiaUNNewYork

United Kingdom

Tragic news of the train crash in India.
My heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.
My thoughts are with the survivors and emergency services

Vatican

"Entrusting the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of the Almighty, (Pope Francis) sends heartfelt condolences to those who mourn their loss," senior Vatican cardinal Pietro Parolin said in a telegram published by the Holy See.
"His Holiness likewise offers prayers for the many injured and for the efforts of the emergency service personnel," said the telegram, which was addressed to the apostolic nuncio in India, Leopoldo Girelli.

As owner of BodyLogicMD of Carmel, Lynn Reynolds, D.O. dedicates her Indiana-based bioidentical hormone therapy practice to guiding her patients through the process of healthy aging and helping them to alleviate or reverse chronic illness. She helps men and women find relief from symptoms of hormonal imbalance such as low libido, weight gain, irritability, depression, hot flashes and loss of muscle mass.
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NHS inform: Brain fog is not a medical term but used to describe a range of symptoms including: poor concentration, feeling confused, thinking more slowly than usual, fuzzy thoughts, forgetfulness, lost words and mental fatigue.
Before the pandemic the term ‘brain fog’ was mainly used within the chronic illness community with many, such as myself, having to justify its existence. I’ve said the words “It’s a real thing” more times than I could possibly count. Well, if I did try, my brain fog would make me lose track anyway. I’ve battled with the fog for as long as I can remember. Some days I just swap out more intellectual words for something Dr Seus would write but some days the inside of my head resembles static from a broken tv. Brain fog becomes a barrier, stopping me from accessing and understanding my own thoughts and leaving me unable to communicate them how I’d like to. On the worst days I can literally taste the word on my tongue and then watch it disappear as it’s carried away from me on a cloud of crackly static. It’s unbelievably frustrating and exhausting to fight with yourself for your own thoughts but even more frustrating to be perceived as less intelligent or less eloquent as a result.
Don’t get me started on how ridiculous and frustrating it is to have a photographic like memory for what feels like inconsequential things and have important, meaningful events locked away from me by my own brain. I would love to know why my brain feels that the exact outfit I wore grocery shopping that one time is important but the due date for my next essay isn’t. Even writing this I can feel my anxiety rising within me trying to grasp for words to write down. My brain swapped ‘inconsequential’ for…never mind, actually. It’s gone again. My most used web page is an online thesaurus that I constantly battle with when I feel like I have the flavour of the word I want but have no idea how to start finding it. You’d think I’d have the vocabulary of Shakespeare if you looked at my internet history. I’m sure I do, It just lives in the magical land at the bottom of the crackly static rainbow. The one that all the other parts of me gets to holiday but I’m stuck in the 1 star BnB that’s listed as ‘cosy’ on trip advisor.
For me, the most debilitating and frustrating part of brain fog is being unable to concentrate and retain information. I’m the person that asks the same question 3 times in a row and then nods in agreement. Not because I’ve understood but because asking a 4th time feels ridiculous so I pretend. In a social setting that is. Why is this my biggest issue with brain fog ? Because I hate the idea that people could feel like I don’t listen or care about what is said. I listen. I listen hard and I care equally as hard. So much so that I decided to make a living out of doing exactly that. Listening. Isn’t that such a wonderful cosmic joke? Make the person that struggles to retain information and communicate how that information lands only want to do that exact thing forever. What’s that saying, though? “Nothing worth doing is easy” or something like that. Well, this is the interesting part. I’ve actually found a few upsides to my brain fog. Don’t get me wrong, it’s horrible and its hard. When it’s hard it’s really hard but when it’s not so hard I feel like a real life superhero. I have spent my whole life with heightened focus, heightened adaptability and the ability to get really creative in order to communicate, make myself heard and, well, just to exist. I feel that by trying so hard to combat an obstacle like brain fog, on the days or hours that it lifts I suddenly have all of these superhuman abilities. It suddenly becomes less about concentrating so hard for a little information and more like being in touch and connected to the world in a way I can’t even explain. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a piece about how bad it is to be in the fog and how good it is to be out of it. I’m not going to start telling you how to ‘cure’ it by eating right and getting enough sleep like all of the post pandemic fog experts that seem to be growing like weeds. I want to tell you how I’ve came to appreciate who I am in the fog and how it’s making me a better therapist and person.
I’ve found that living in the fog actually has it’s own set of unique opportunities for growth and development. For me, personally, it’s made me realise that wanting to become a therapist isn’t some kind of cosmic joke but actually something I have always, unknowingly been training myself to be. Firstly, the fog has always forced me to find other ways to understand and communicate. When it has been hardest to retain information and really ‘listen’ to what someone is saying I’ve looked for other ways to understand. For example, when words didn’t quite hold the weight I needed I got the context from body language, tone and non-verbal cues. I’d fit the pieces together in a way that I could make sense of them. This became second nature to me and when translated into a therapeutic setting it allowed me to be able to attune to my client in a very natural way. I’m calling it a superpower because I believe that the ability to become intuitive and connected could be the key to being able to ‘be’ with people. To be more understanding, accepting and open to what makes us human. In my experience, people living with something that makes them different are some of the most accepting and indiscriminating people in the world.
To give it more context, have you ever seen someone deal with a language barrier by simply raising their voice? I used to work in retail and I’d see it a lot and in my experience it only made the situation worse. I found that sometimes the word being understood doesn’t matter, what matters is how the word is spoken and ultimately how the person was made to feel. When in that situation my natural reaction was to accept that we didn’t speak the same language and communicate that it was ‘ok’ in a way universally understood — by my emotional response and my body language. Honestly, sometimes I believe that a smile and a nod could fix the world. This communicated to the person that we were ‘in it together’ and we’d find a way to carry out this transaction in a way that we could both understand. For me, this is an example of brain fog resulting in heightened intuition, problem solving, adaptability and creativity. They might not be in the same league as invisibility or the power to fly but when you’re alone in that fog the ability to make a meaningful human connection beats x-ray vision any day. In fact, I’d even argue that intuitive insight is a real world x-ray vision — just less gross and not as morally questionable.
I’ve talked about my fog creating a less than habitable environment for my words and thoughts but something that I can struggle with is the sheer amount of feelings. My fog might carry away my words but it is the perfect environment for difficult and unwanted swarms of feelings. Brain fog anxiety is inescapable and it is accompanied by a lot of anger, frustration, sadness, grief, loss and confusion. Sometimes it’s so overwhelming that I don’t want to communicate at all because I’m just so exhausted with being exhausted and having to try and explain that to someone else feels impossible. So sometimes I just don’t, and that’s ok. Sometimes I use an old trusty defence mechanism and laugh it off, and that’s ok. Sometimes I am so angry that I want the unfairness of it being invisible to be seen and heard and that’s ok too. Why am I telling you this? Because: Empathy. It has been my experience that dealing with so many different flavours of emotions has allowed me to build up quite an impressive repertoire of things I can deeply and personally empathise with. This is another thing I can thank my fog for in terms of helping me become an effective therapist. I do feel that people living with experience of a chronic illness, cognitive difficulties or any kind of illness really, can engage with empathy potentially more naturally than someone who doesn’t have a frame of reference. In my case, however, I feel that brain fog goes deeper than that. Brain fog has allowed me to be able to experience an array of emotions and understand them in different contexts which ultimately has made me understand how they can be different for everyone, just as they are different for me at different points of the day or different fog coverage.
Whilst my personal motivation for becoming a therapist was driven by my ‘wounded healer’ like internal voice telling me that I can use my pain to help others, I have came to the conclusion that it was my pain that made me able to help others. Living with my condition has made me resilient, robust, adaptable, empathic, understanding and intuitive and I believe that the fog has the power to do that for anyone who finds themselves in it. This isn’t a ‘silver lining’ or call to make the best out of a bad situation it’s a shout out to how badass the fog inhabitants are out there. Just for getting up in the morning — that’s enough. For me, acknowledging how I’ve been able to adapt to the conditions the fog has created for me has provided me with so many opportunities for growth and helped me be able to accept that the fog is part of me. Some days are better than others, some suck. I really want to create a narrative that living with these conditions is all about management and doing what is best for you when, why, how and where it is best for you. It’s not about a ‘cure’ or ‘overcoming’ something. For me, it’s about accepting that this messy, difficult, frustrating and exhausting thing is part of me. In fact, I can’t count how many times I’ve imagined someone stepping on a lego brick barefoot when they’ve told me to ‘get better soon’ or something just as ‘encouraging’. My superpower is navigating the fog and I am damn proud of that, even if navigating some days looks like I’m just sitting on the sofa in my pyjamas.
https://link.medium.com/PgG32UGskAb

Hihi!
I have been searching threads for people who quit birth control quick after getting it but I cannot find anything (maybe im not looking enough lol) .
So, I was prescribed 6 months ago to birth control (combination pill - mirvala) due to extremely irregular and scarce periods. It was fine at the start, but 3 months in, the symptoms were hitting me like a BRICK. For example, high weight gain and no weight loss, constant bloat, borderline eczema/ dry skin flare ups, nausea, and the common pms, etc.
Im truly over it and I don’t really want to wait for it to maybe get better and maybe get off sooner the better? However, I’ve heard so many horror stories of getting off the pill and getting post pill pcos and other extreme symptoms, etc. I’m horrified! However, I feel like a lot of those heightened symptoms are from people who have been on bc for yearss. Or i can just get lucky and not get severe symptoms or something?
TL;DR: should i not be as frightened of the symptoms of getting off birth control cuz maybe i haven’t been on it long enough (probably flawed logic) or am i still fucked loll.
Sorry this all is probably flawed logic but I’m just really nervous and trying to find the courage and hope out here :,)

Julia Holdom New Zealand Tertiary College

Practitioner Research： Vol 5, No 3 - May 2018

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A personal reflection

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Figure 1: Children at Little Einstein’s Educare in Cambridge lead the design, planning, and execution of the construction of a hut made out of tree branches after recent stormy weather.
When introduced to the acronym STEM (which stood for science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning in early childhood education (ECE), I was immediately intrigued. Having been a kaiako (teacher) in rural New Zealand and growing up on a dairy farm, natural, hands-on, child-lead, and inquiry-based learning was my passion. It always sat well with me that Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early Childhood Curriculum (Te Whāriki) (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2017) backed by decades of research and literature supports a play-based approach to learning in the early years in New Zealand. It did not come as a surprise to me then that STEM learning, a term for the learning areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, a buzz phrase making its way around the international academic world, was something I recognised as intrinsically woven throughout early childhood curriculum and programs in Aotearoa/New Zealand. As a result, I presented on STEM learning in ECE with Fiona Woodgate, at the 2017 New Zealand Tertiary College symposium and have since been speaking with kaiako from different regions in New Zealand to get a broader idea of how STEM learning is integrated into their ECE programs.
Due to a rapidly evolving, complex and technologically advancing society, it is now well recognised that future societies are going to need to be equipped with a range of problem solving and creative thinking dispositions, rather than specific skill sets (Allen, 2016; Smith, 2016; Rodriguez, 2016; Wise Lindeman & McKendry Anderson, 2015). The young children of today need to be involved in real world, contextually relevant learning, in order to support their communities, preparing them for educational opportunities in the future, as well as a wide range of careers that may not currently exist (Allen, 2016; Draper & Wood, 2017). This realisation has resulted in a strong international focus on the concept of STEM learning in today’s varying education settings. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), whilst a relatively new term in the early childhood education sector in New Zealand, is not a new concept. Its focus is to support children in learning problem solving, creative thinking, investigation skills and design, through multi-content curricula (Sharapan, 2012; Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.; Gartrell, 2016).
This reflective article begins to explore the concept of STEM through the lens of Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017). The world renowned curriculum document is well known for its focus on dispositional, play-based learning, and the weaving of multiple curriculum content areas throughout daily and ongoing learning experiences. Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017) not only focuses on skill acquisition, but on dispositions and attitudes that support learning throughout a lifetime. This article presents an explanation of how teachers can support STEM concepts and experiences from ECE settings inAotearoa/New Zealand are shared to provoke thinking and reflection.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics – An introduction

In ECE, recognising individual aspects of STEM learning can be relatively simple. Children are naturally curious, and begin to explore the world around them from infancy, developing their own working theories about how the world works through the people, places and things that they interact with (MoE, 2017). In this sense, they are natural born scientists, investigating, questioning, exploring, and experimenting. As they explore, they are often confronted with simple scientific and mathematical concepts, such as learning about gravity, force and motion, quantity, number, weight, space, and time through play (Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.; Sharapan, 2012; Hamlin & Wisneski, 2012; Bosse, Jacobs & Anderson, 2009).
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Figure 2: Building a relationship with Papatūānuku (Mother Earth) is seen as an essential aspect of early childhood in Aotearoa/New Zealand, which can lead to increased environmentalism and sustainability in years to come. Children are encouraged to be involved in the care of the natural environment, and here, they are engaged with centre family members in exploring the garden, utilising and leaning valuable STEM concepts in the process.
Working theories are the evolving ideas and understandings that children develop as they use their existing knowledge to try to make sense of new experiences. Children are most likely to generate and refine working theories in learning environments where uncertainty is valued, inquiry is modelled, and making meaning is the goal” (MoE, 2017, p. 23).
Often within children’s play arises the opportunity to use varying tools to support their learning. Utilising tools with a purpose for design or problem solving can be understood as technology (Dietze & Kashin, 2012; Young & Elliot, 2003). Technology in ECE is often viewed by kaiako as digital technology, and the use of information communication technology (ICT) (Wise Lindeman & McKendry Anderson, 2015), however it is imperative to recognise that technology is anything that has been designed for and is used for a purpose, generally being to make a task easier, quicker, or more productive (Young & Elliot, 2003; Fleer & Jane, 2011). In my experience, engineering is perhaps the more challenging notion to identify as part of young children’s learning and development, in part due to some teachers’ lack of content knowledge in this area, but also the complexities of this concept for children in the early years. Much of the literature on STEM learning focuses on engineering for children from preschool age onwards (3+) without mentioning the infant and toddler years. Perhaps this is due to the perception of what design and engineering is for differing ages. Is a toddler not engineering when they are constructing with sand in the sandpit? Is an infant not designing when creating art with finger paints or food on different surfaces during experiences every day?
“The day-to-day programme and environment are organised in such a way that children can initiate purposeful, problem-solving activities and devise and solve problems to their own satisfaction using a variety of materials and equipment” (MoE, 2017, p. 49).
Science is a way of investigating, understanding, and explaining our natural, physical world and the wider universe. It involves generating and testing ideas, gathering evidence – including by making observations, carrying out investigations and modelling, and communicating and debating with others – in order to develop scientific knowledge, understanding, and explanations (MoE, 2007, p. 26).Technology is intervention by design: the use of practical and intellectual resources to develop products and systems (technological outcomes) that expand human possibilities by addressing needs and realising opportunities. Adaptation and innovation are at the heart of technological practice. Quality outcomes result from thinking and practices that are informed, critical, and creative.... Technology is never static. It is influenced by and in turn impacts on the cultural, ethical, environmental, political, and economic conditions of the day (MoE, 2007, p. 26).Engineers design technology using a combination of science and math (Pantoya, Aguirre-Munoz & Hunt, 2015, p. 61). Engineering is solving problems, using a variety of materials, designing and creating, and building things that work (Boston Children’s Museum, 2013, p. 3).Mathematics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in quantities, space, and time. Statistics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in data. These two disciplines are related but different ways of thinking and of solving problems. Both equip students with effective means for investigating, interpreting, explaining, and making sense of the world in which they live (MoE, 2007, p. 26).
Whilst internationally, the concept of STEM focuses on inquiry and project-based learning, often planned for, facilitated and led by adults, I see this concept being represented in a range of educational settings, woven through a range of pedagogical approaches and philosophies of teaching in New Zealand. In line with the vision of Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017), STEM learning occurs naturally in children’s play, need not be teacher-led or project focused (Gartrell, 2016; Draper & Wood, 2017) and can effectively be supported in a socioculturally relevant context for individual learners and their learning communities (Hamlin & Wisneski, 2012; Moomaw & Davis, 2010; Neill, 2009).
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning is important for all children, individually, and within social groups of learners. The common theme within the four STEM concepts, is that they are all content areas that occur naturally through play. When children are natural learners, curious in nature, they do not require adults to give them answers to questions, and do not benefit greatly from this method of teaching (Allen, 2016; Sharapan, 2012). Instead, children develop life-long dispositions of inquiry, curiosity and independent thinking by having inquiry skills scaffolded or modelled to them. Often children embrace the opportunity to investigate for themselves, experimenting, exploring, making mistakes, and using trial and error. In this sense, STEM learning is a way of being, a way of playing and a way of learning (Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.). So where do kaiako fit into STEM learning?
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Figure 3: Through their natural urges, infants and toddlers explore mathematic and scientific concepts through play with the support of their kaiako, as well as through environmental prompts, provocations and play invitations.

The science, technology, engineering and mathematics environment

There are a number of areas worth considering when planning for and facilitating learning in diverse and unique education settings. One of the most obvious in play-based, child-led settings is the physical environment. Those familiar with the Reggio Emilio approach will have heard of the notion of the environment as the third teacher (Delany, 2011) and providing opportunities for child-led learning through the design of and resources available in the child’s physical learning environment. It is imperative that the environment supports STEM learning so that children may engage in STEM learning experiences both independently, as well as with peers and kaiako (Hamlin & Wisneski, 2012). Long gone are the days of including a science, mathematics or technology corner in your classroom or setting (Neill, 2009; Delany, 2011), instead the emphasis is on saturating the environment in resources that encourage authentic, real-world, familiar and culturally relevant ways of exploring. These resources do not need to be expensive and single purpose, and can easily be found in our natural environments. As New Zealand makes more of a move towards environmental sustainability, and eco-schools become more popular (Vincent-Snow, 2017; Enviroschools, n.d.), reusing and recycling materials becomes an exciting way to make the most of what we have available to us, and supports children’s creativity.
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Figure 4: Uninterrupted play allows these tamariki time to work together to create, design, problem solve, and imagine. Here, children in the Tui room of Little Einstein’s Educare have created a structure to protect themselves from the ‘Lava’ beneath.
Another popular move in recent years appears to be the inclination to get out into nature to support real life, hands on learning. Emphasis has been made on preventing a generation of children with Nature Deficit Disorder, a term coined by Richard Louv (2005) in his book Last Child in the Woods. Kaiako and children are venturing out into whatever natural environments they have available to them, such as local parks, reserves or forests to make the most of natural learning that occurs when children are empowered to explore, question, and discover. science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning could not be more evident in these opportunities to explore and build a relationship with Papatūānuku.
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Figure 5: Nature Days are becoming increasingly popular in ECE settings that can accommodate such expeditions. Children are empowered to use a variety of tools to explore, create and design, and developing working theories through the relationship they are building with the natural world around them.

Reflective Prompts

Consider the ECE settings and environments you are familiar with.Does your environment invite exploration? Are there spaces, in which children can taste, touch, smell, listen and look?Are there gardens and natural spaces for children to independently explore nature science, earth science and opportunities for children to play with different matter to build working theories about the natural and physical world?Are there loose parts provided both inside and out for children to construct, build, design, create and begin to develop theories around science and mathematics through size, weight, height, gravity, momentum, trajectory and more?Do you have pen, paper, clipboards, scissors, cameras and other technological tools available to children in different areas that they can easily access and use to document, plan, take notes and draw about their learning and discoveries – inviting engagement in the concept of engineering?
“Children have opportunities to explore how things move and how they can be moved by, for example, blowing, throwing, pushing, pulling, rolling, swinging and sinking. Children have access to technology that enables them to explore movement, for example, wheels, pulleys, magnets and swings. Children have opportunities to develop spatial understandings by fitting things together and taking things apart, rearranging and reshaping objects and materials, seeing things from different spatial viewpoints and using a magnifying glass” (MoE, 2017, p. 49).

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics books

Books are an essential resource for any STEM learning environment (Bosse, Jacobs & Anderson, 2009; Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.). Not only is it important for children to access reference books with correct images and names of items, something Fred Rogers found instrumental in supporting children’s language acquisition and development (Sharapan, 2012), but also fictional and non-fiction story books about people and characters whom are investigators, explorers, inventors, designers and problem solvers themselves (Pantoya, Aguirre-Munoz & Hunt, 2015). Children’s scientific and engineering identities are supported as they explore literature that introduces concepts, dispositions and attitudes children recognise within themselves, and they are able to develop deeper understanding of STEM concepts as they explore these in context through stories, characters and the arts (McLean, Jones & Schaper, 2015; Sackes, Trundle & Flevares, 2009).
In addition to this, Kathy Trundle’s work on inquiry-based learning emphasises the opportunities that arise through purposeful interactions between kaiako, children and books to scaffold children’s inquiry skills.
Fictional children’s books to support STEM learning and identity in the early years:Inventor McGregor by Kathleen T. PelleyThe Grandma McGarvey series by Jenny HessellOh the Things they Invented by Dr SeussRosie Revere, Engineer; and Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beatty and David RobertsAnything is Possible by Giulia Belloni

Risk taking

Wise Lindeman and McKendry Anderson (2015) emphasise that children need real-world experience and real-world problems in order to have a chance at developing solutions to these. Pawlina and Stanford ( as cited in Wise Lindeman & McKendry Anderson, 2015) add that educators must view mistakes as opportunities to grow children’s brains. Here, teachers must consider both physical risk taking, as well as emotional and mental risk taking. In today’s society, maintaining the physical health and safety of the children in our care settings seems to have counterbalanced the human need to take risks in order to learn. Kaiako are finding themselves challenged beyond comfort when it comes to children’s safety, and the balance between safe and calculated risks, children learning from experience, and adults protecting children from physical injury is out of sync. However, research shows that children need these experiences to learn for themselves, and that without these risk-taking experiences, children will not be adequately prepared for challenges they will face in the future, both physically and mentally (Brynes-Swiatek, 2017; Curtis, 2010; Gramling, 2010; Warden, 2010). When it comes to emotional and mental risk taking, we must consider how we are supporting children to try new things, supporting them to push themselves out of their comfort zones, and risk making mistakes and being wrong, all whilst remaining confident that their holistic wellbeing needs are being met to maintain a safe learning environment.
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Figure 6: When the tolerance for risk is zero, children don’t really risk loss of life or limb, but more often than not, they risk losing valuable experiences with the world they inhabit. (Gramling, 2010, p. 51).
Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017) supports this through its sociocultural approach to learning, outlining the need for children to learn in culturally and socially relevant contexts. In addition to this, aspects of dispositional learning such as perseverance, persisting with difficulty, and facing challenges or uncertainty (MoE, 2017), are outlined as important for life-long learning. Risk taking is highlighted as a desirable learning outcome throughout the Exploration strand of Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017), particularly for toddlers and young children. Risk taking, mistakes, failure, trial and error are all significantly important in STEM learning and developing perseverance, inquiry skills, attitudes towards exploration and creative thinking.

Reflective Questions

Does your learning environment, both material and otherwise, provide opportunities for children to take risks physically, cognitively and emotionally?Are children encouraged and supported to experiment, to trial, to make mistakes, to fail or succeed, and to revisit their learning?Do your environments allow for independent and group creative thinking and problem solving?

Time

Providing children with not only the space and resources needed for exploration and enquiry learning, but the time to discover at their own pace, and the opportunity to document or revisit their learning is crucial. Gifting children the time to figure things out for themselves, without interrupting their learning with a quick answer, supports an attitude and disposition towards creative thinking and problem solving. Dr. Emmi Pikler (as cited in Christie, 2012) emphasised the importance of slowing down one’s practice and interactions to deeply engage with the children during interactions. Toni Christie (2012) states that the practice of taking adequate time deepens teachers’ awareness and knowledge of each child. The same concept can be applied to children’s interactions with the world around them. Can giving children the time to explore, think and discover deepen their awareness and knowledge of the world around them, teaching them more about science, mathematics, engineering and technology in real-world, contextually relevant and authentic ways?
“The learning outcomes in each strand are broad statements that encompass valued knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions that children develop over time” (MoE, 2017, p. 22).
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Figure 7: Hands on Science in action! Many New Zealand ECE settings are making a move to embrace children’s natural inclination to get messy during their exploratory play. Science occurs in many forms, why not through mud and water play?
In addition to giving children the time needed to learn, do teachers support children to stay on task and be focused on the interest they have taken, or do they interrupt this learning with routines? In Carr and Lee’s (2011) research on children’s learning wisdom, they highlight the importance of teachers adopting strategies to support children to revisit their learning. One strategy suggested is that “Teachers can document the changes in children’s understanding” (Fleer, 2008 as cited in Hamlin & Wisneski, 2012, p. 85). This allows children to deepen their engagement, and develop an openness to experiences and a capacity to reflect, in order to make sense of their learning.
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Figure 8: Working together as a team to solve problems, think creatively and develop theories about how things work. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics all evident through child initiated play experiences.
Reflective Questions:Are children gifted the time needed to explore, design, create and learn in uninterrupted environments?Do the routines of the day disrupt this learning or do they support busy learners to continue their work?Are children given the tools and strategies required to support them to document and revisit their learning? Are kaiako skilled in the art of observation, knowing when to step in, and when to step back?Are kaiako gifted the time to support children’s learning in this way, or are they too busy with the organisational tasks of the day?Do teacher - child ratios support quality STEM interactions?

Purposeful, intentional teaching

Once we have decided as kaiako whether we should step back to observe, or step in to add value to the child’s learning experience, the responses we provide must consist of high quality, purposeful, thoughtful interactions with children (MoE, 2017). In these moments, teachers need to be highly sensitive and aware of what the child needs from them – more often than not, it is not an answer they need, but stimulating investigation habits and behaviours being modelled to them (Sharapan, 2012). Kaiako must embrace opportunities to model moments of wonder, using questions that may prompt curiosity within children, and the opportunity to co-construct ideas and working theories in collaborative settings (Allen, 2016; Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.; Sharapan, 2012).
The key to these experiences is not to make the mistake of answering children’s questions with an answer, but to provide intentional, open-ended questions and comments that get the children thinking (Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.; Sharapan, 2012). Equally as important, is the need to model and introduce the use of varying tools to support their enquiry, so that they may seek their own answers independently in future.
Modelling STEM language is crucial to a child’s ability to learn STEM enquiry and thinking themselves. In addition to questions, modelling scientific, mathematical and investigative language is important to support children’s inclination to develop their own working theories. Supporting children by modelling language, describing using scientific, mathematical and technological words will give them the tools to use to do the same in future experiences. This will also normalise STEM concepts and learning for children (Sharapan, 2012).
It is important to support children’s scientific enquiry in new ways too – perhaps in ways they had not thought of themselves. This is where we are scaffolding their learning, in that they are learning new ideas and knowledge in a social situation from others. Part of STEM learning is how children understand investigative thinking and processes. Imperative to science, engineering and design are STEM process skills (Neill, 2009). The Ministry of Education supports this by adding that children should have opportunities to demonstrate “curiosity and the ability to enquire into, research, explore, generate and modify working theories about the natural, social, physical, spiritual and man-made worlds… [and the] ability to represent [these] discoveries using expressive media, including digital media” (2017, p. 47).
“Kaiako are the key resource in any ECE service. Their primary responsibility is to facilitate children’s learning and development through thoughtful and intentional pedagogy. This means they require a wide range of capabilities [including being] knowledgeable about play-based curriculum and pedagogy and able to conceptualise, plan and enact curriculum that is motivating, enjoyable and accessible for all children, [and] able to integrate domain knowledge (for example science and arts knowledge) into the curriculum” (MoE, 2017, p. 59).

Conclusion

The rapidly changing world that we live in, is providing us with many new and exciting technologies that make our lives easier, more enjoyable, and enable quick access to new information at a rate never seen before. However, with these new and exciting changes, also come challenges for children’s natural, enquiry learning. More and more ECE centres, particularly in city environments are designing spaces with little-to-no large open natural spaces for children in the outdoors, and are resorting to man-made environments of turf, concrete and other year-round, all-weather materials to support indoooutdoor play. Does this mean that these children miss out on the opportunity to learn natural science? Or can nature be woven through the environment and program in other ways? Children are also more inclined to want to be engaged with digital media, as their parents and society are modelling the use of these in everyday interactions. Is this cause for concern in the ECE setting, or can children be empowered to use technology in constructive ways? Are kaiako equipped with the understanding of STEM learning and child development that they need to support life-long learning dispositions of enquiry, problem solving, risk taking and perseverance, or are current pedagogies failing tamariki (children)? As learning and information consumption grows exponentially to the highest it has even been, it is now more than ever that children need teachers to be the facilitators of learning, the models of curiosity, the inspiration to learn, explore, discover, think, design and to be leaders of the future. Dispositions, rather than skills, are what tamariki need to succeed in the future. A final question for reflection therefore asks are educators preparing tamariki adequately for life-long success?

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Jo, Jade and the entire learning community at Little Einstein’s Educare Ltd in Cambridge for giving permission to publish their inspirational photographs, and shared understanding of STEM learning in action. Special thanks also to Catherine at Hobsonville Point ELC, and Jen at Changepoint ELC, Tauranga for your wisdom and input on STEM learning in your ECE learning communities.

I'm considering this medicine for weight-loss reasons but I've been spooked by my Dr saying it can cause fatal Pancreatitis ?
So I'm wondering if there's an " anti-pancreatitis " pill to take ?

My bf allows me to live a very comfortable life with him where he basically allows me to live with him for free. He said that the only condition I need to uphold, is pay for my own food. He’s extremely sweet and will buy takeout when we are craving it, and has shown me so many amazing things. I love him to pieces, and I buy takeout as well from time to time.
But it kinda annoys me how I don’t have a job but I pay for my own groceries and he takes everything from what little I have. I don’t have an income (on unemployment) so whatever I buy I ration it, but he always comes around including himself in my dinner plans which he did not help me buy.
It’s annoying when I intentionally will skip breakfast to not even have enough food for later, and he’s including myself into whatever lunch/dinner I’m making. When I buy a 4 pack of soda for myself, he will drink more than half and say I’m mocking at him by not drinking them and leaving them in the fridge. He will say I’m stingy if I ask for them back. When I spend a half an hour making something, he will eat it in one bite.
He is overweight and says that a lot of the time he shouldn’t be eating extra of whatever I’m making, but if I make a bowl of cereal he will want one too. If I go food shopping and ask him to bring me, he will say he’s staying in the car. He buys meal preps for his weight loss and says they’re boring and wants what I’m having. I have to hide snacks because he will finish them in one night where I can snack on something for months.
I don’t like being cheap especially since he said he’s having money problems. But he says he’s having money problems receiving a $6,000+ check biweekly. I get $125 from unemployment a week.
TL:DR; How do I live with my bf (32 M) without feeling as he is greedy, especially when he’s allowing me on to live with him for free?

Is the test you can easily legally buy at Walmart good for weight loss/to lose body fat? Or should I look at other options? Also how would I go about asking my Dr about getting on test/TrT

This will be a long post, so I'll start by providing a condensed summary.
The full analysis for each song will be below.

Tl;Dr

"Life Is But a Dream" is an album that explores the different stages and aspects of life, emphasizing that life is merely a temporary experience. The album plays with diverse themes, such as childhood, dreams, love, personal struggles, and individuality.
"Game Over" deals with different stages of life, from childhood to adulthood. The song suggests that life is just an ordinary experience that passes by and we must cherish every moment of it.
"Mattel" focuses on the artificial and superficial aspects of society, suggesting that people are only living in a façade without truly understanding their purpose.
"Nobody" delves into the idea of one's self, exploring the concept of being alive yet feeling nonexistent in life. It contemplates the complex nature of human existence.
"We Love You" sarcastically talks about society's obsession with materialism and constant growth, which often leads to a loss of genuine connection with others.
"Cosmic" describes the cyclical nature of life, celebrating the beauty of different eras and experiences that have shaped us as individuals throughout time.
"Beautiful Morning" ponders the idea of living through various struggles and pain, questioning what truly makes life beautiful, despite all its suffering.
"Easier" encourages looking at the brighter side of life and suggests that it's better to let go of hardships and focus on the positive aspects.
"G" is a highly satirical and possibly sarcastic song about people's need for approval and importance, questioning the self-indulgence in seeking such attention.
"(O)rdinary" explores the desire to experience human emotions and feelings, yearning to understand others and live an authentic life.
"(D)eath" deals with the theme of mortality and the feeling of release that comes with embracing the inevitability of death, as seen through the protagonist's dreams.
"Life Is But a Dream" is an instrumental piece that culminates the album, offering introspection and contemplation on life as a whole, using the beauty of music to help express this sentiment.
Overall, the album is an exploration of the human experience, touching on life's darkest and brightest moments. It serves as a reminder that despite all the trials and tribulations we face, life is ultimately transient and beautiful. The band uses an introspective and often satirical lens to piece together different aspects of life, urging listeners to contemplate the brevity of existence and the importance of holding onto significant experiences and connections.

In-Depth Analysis

Game over

"Game Over" is a reflection on life's different stages and how they define an individual's journey, ultimately leading to a realization that life is an ever-changing series of experiences.
In the song, different moments in life are described through various words and phrases, such as "Crawling, Walking, Fleeting, Glory" and "Secret, Toothless, Fairy, Pillow." These seemingly contradicting moments all contribute to the complexity of life, with the pre-chorus exemplifying the idea of ordinary and extraordinary coexisting in an individual's journey. The song's chorus, "As it may," repeats to signify how life will continue no matter what happens.
The post-chorus, "Days are fine and come on time / But years leave with nothing to find," highlights the idea that time is fluid and creates a sense of disorientation when observing life's passage. This sentiment is further emphasized in the second verse, which details more specific instances and how they continue to change as life goes on.
Towards the end of the song, the narrator realizes that they don't belong in their current life and decides to let go. The outro reflects on the concept that life is merely a dream, with the narrator swinging from their family tree and saying goodnight.

Mattel

"Mattel" depicts a world made of plastic and artificial elements, a metaphor for a superficial and shallow society. The lyrics describe a character made of vinyl skin and plastic bones, who is unable to express emotions or have any personal depth, representing how people can become detached from their true selves.
The line "I've smelled the plastic daisies and it seems we've found ourselves in hell" emphasizes the idea that this artificial, materialistic world is a form of suffering, as it lacks real emotions and genuine connections. The character struggles to find meaning in this environment, feeling trapped in a loop and surrounded by people who only play pretend.
The bridge conveys the emptiness within the character, mentioning the phrase "just smart enough to know nothing at all." This demonstrates the character's self-awareness of their own superficiality and how they can't escape it in this world. The ending of the song, with the repetition of the word "burn," possibly signifies a desire to destroy this fake world and start anew, seeking authenticity and meaning.
As the song fits in the context of the album, it serves as a reflection on societal materialism and the potential loss of identity and connections, with the protagonist desiring genuine experiences and emotions. This theme recurs throughout the album as the characters grapple with addressing and overcoming these challenges in various ways.

Nobody

“Nobody” evokes the existential themes, exploring human identity and self-discovery. In the context of the album, "Nobody" plays a role in balancing the explorations of human experience with a more introspective and spiritual focus, centering on the idea of transcending physical existence and uniting with divinity.
In the lyrics, the use of phrases like "I am all" and "I am none" reflect the idea of embracing one's insignificance in the grander scheme of existence while simultaneously recognizing the inherent power and potential that resides within every individual. The chorus line, "I am the one in everything / I am alive, I am the dead, I am a man without a head," evokes the idea of existing beyond traditional concepts of life and consciousness.
The line "float like a feather through space and time outside a dream" underlines the theme of transcending one's perceived limitations, seeming to achieve a higher state of being. The song's message revolves around the idea of 'shedding weight as I am coming undone,' which can symbolize letting go of the trappings of material existence to reach a purer, more spiritual plane.
"Nobody" can also be seen as an exploration of identity, with the protagonist undergoing a transformation and rebirth as they move beyond their body and earthly ties. This arguably ties in with the overarching themes of the album "Life Is but A Dream," as it seems to remind the listener that life is fleeting and the pursuit of self-discovery and transformation is essential.
In conclusion, "Nobody" is a thought-provoking and introspective piece that complements the broader themes and messages of the album. The song encourages personal transformation, asking the listener to abandon the trappings of material existence and seek out their true identity, transcending the boundaries of the physical world.

We Love You

"We Love You" speaks to the never-ending search for power, success, wealth, and social status, emphasizing that as people strive for these things, society continues to love and support them. The lyrics consist of phrases and words that represent desires and motivations, creating a sense of urgency and an insatiable appetite for more.
The refrain and chorus highlight how society admires those who constantly chase success, even as they sink "unto the mud." This suggests that the pursuit of these desires ultimately leads to one's downfall or demise, whether it be physically or mentally. The song can also be interpreted as a criticism of materialism, with the repetition of phrases related to superficial or external achievements.
Within the context of the entire album, "We Love You" contributes to the overall theme of life, death, and human experience. The album explores various aspects of life, from its fleeting nature to the search for meaning and identity, and "We Love You" encapsulates the darker side of the human desire for success and material gain. By examining these themes, the song encourages listeners to reflect on their own motives and pursuits, questioning whether their actions ultimately lead them towards true happiness or self-destruction.

Cosmic

"Cosmic" explores the theme of everlasting connections and the cyclical nature of life, love, and pain. In the context of the album, it appears to be a reflective piece on past experiences and the idea of meeting again in different lifetimes.
The song's lyrics demonstrate the resilience of relationships and connections that can cross time and space, as well as the notion of fate. Lines like "We loved so many times, and in so many lives sometimes we got it right" and "It found its way back in, until we meet again into that good night" speak to the cyclical nature of love and the concept that some connections can weather multiple lifetimes or experiences.
The imagery of "chasing through the stars beyond forever" and "dancing in the wind as roses born again" convey a sense of drifting through time, searching for these connections in various forms and scenarios, while the repeated phrase "there you'll find me" implies a constant presence, always waiting for a reunion.
Furthermore, the song touches on themes of loss and the transient nature of life, as demonstrated in lines like "fade - from all that was before we shut another door, but not a last goodbye." This speaks to the idea that while things may come to an end, there is always the possibility of renewal in different forms.
In conclusion, within the context of Avenged Sevenfold's album "Life Is But a Dream," "Cosmic" can be interpreted as a contemplative piece on the power of everlasting connections, the cycles of life and love, and the concept of finding each other again throughout time and space.

Beautiful Morning

"Beautiful Morning" contemplates personal struggles and the complexities of life while seeking solace from the unknown or divine.
In the first verse, the speaker asks the divine to save them, allow them to hear, and experience the beauty of life. The refrain "You walk on water but the water swallows you" signifies the price people can sometimes pay for extraordinary abilities, wealth, or fame. This line can be interpreted as the speaker questioning the existence of God and/or their religious beliefs.
In the second verse, the speaker lays in a tomb, feeling alone and empty, which could represent internal struggles and feelings of being lost and helpless in their own life. The chorus poses a contrast between the speaker's emptiness and the unique yet otherworldly person "like no other." This could highlight the complexities of human nature when confronted with external forces causing personal struggles.
The bridge of "Beautiful Morning" presents a contrary view, describing a perfect day where everything seems bright and beautiful. This vision is juxtaposed against the song's darker themes, signifying a fleeting moment of happiness and solace. The guitar solo in the song might symbolize an emotional turning point, filled with both darkness and hope.
The third verse suggests that the speaker acknowledges and embraces their issues, but ultimately, the song ends with a repetition of the chorus and a reminder of the struggle between seeking solace from external forces and finding strength within oneself. Overall, the song can be interpreted as an exploration of the balance between self-reflection, doubt, and the transient beauty found in life, with the phrase "Beautiful Morning" symbolizing hope amid emotional turmoil.

Easier

"Easier" explores the concept of facing hardships and the desire to escape from life's challenges. The song's lyrics convey a message of finding solace in the idea of walking away from difficulties, with the hope of seeing brighter days ahead.
In the first verse, the lyrics describe being shaped by "peaks and valleys," likely referring to the ups and downs of life. The protagonist laments feeling tied to the physical world until they die. The chorus then introduces the idea of walking away as an easier option, with the belief that there will be better days in the future.
As the song progresses, the second verse reinforces the transient nature of life, where things you love become goodbyes, and the protagonist is ready to face the end of their journey. The outro repeats the idea that it's easier to walk away, emphasizing the need for detachment and acceptance in dealing with life's challenges.
In the context of the album, "Easier" fits in thematically with other songs that explore the experiences and struggles of existence. The album often addresses the doubts, fears, and complexities of life while also seeking hope and solace in the face of these challenges. "Easier" serves as a contemplative reflection on coping with adversity and searching for a sense of inner peace amidst life's difficulties.

G

The song "G" can be understood as a satirical commentary on the concept of God and the notion that divine intervention plays a role in people's lives.
The lyrics of the song suggest an inflated sense of ego and self-worth, as if the singer is proclaiming themselves to be a godlike figure:
"I am the man Six days of bullshit, a wave of my hand And you know what I need Put your hands together, get down on your knees."
The lyrics also touch on the superficial aspects that are often tied to religion and spirituality, such as compliments on one's appearance and style:
"It's so chic and we love What you've done with the place Compliments you with style and grace."
The chorus highlights the idea that people often attribute random or coincidental events and blessings in their lives to a higher power, with lines like:
"Can’t tell me that all I see ain't a gift from the fabulous one."
The song serves as a critique of the human tendency to create idols or gods in order to explain the unknown and provide a sense of comfort or guidance. Within the context of the GOD trio in the album, "G" represents the exploration of what it might be like to have godlike power and the consequences that come with it.

(O)rdinary

"(O)rdinary" appears to take on the perspective of someone or something yearning to become human. As part of the GOD trio, "(O)rdinary" deals with the theme of power, control, and the human experience. The lyrics ask questions such as "Will you give me my own soul?" and "Will you let me take control?", indicating a desire to take on the qualities and experiences of a human, despite potentially not being one.
This theme of wanting to be human and understand the human experience is further emphasized with lines like "I wanna see the things that you see" and "I wanna know the secrets inside." The line "Tell me how to dream" also refers to a human ability that the subject of the song wishes to experience.
Within the album's context, this song represents a desire to have ordinary human experiences and emotions, in contrast to the idea of being a god or something extraordinary, as portrayed in other songs like "G" and "Nobody." The subject of "(O)rdinary" seeks connection and understanding, longing to experience life through the eyes of the human subject.

(D)eath

"(D)eath" addresses the theme of death as a relief from the struggles and dissatisfaction experienced in life.
Throughout the album, various aspects of life are explored, such as the artificiality portrayed in "Mattel" and the pursuit of power and success in "We Love You." However, in "(D)eath," listeners are presented with an alternative perspective: death as a form of liberation from life's challenges.
The lyrics in "(D)eath," particularly the lines "I stare out in the distance of the city scene… I leap into the darkest night / Wind on my face, it satisfies / I never have felt so alive..." describe a character contemplating their life and finding relief in the idea of death. This person feels a sense of freedom and exhilaration in the moments leading up to their death.
In contrast with the other songs in the album, which focus on various struggles and frustrations in life, "(D)eath" offers a reprieve from these hardships. It represents an escape from societal pressures and a chance for authenticity and self-realization. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the song does not necessarily promote or glorify death; rather, it explores the theme as a means to understand the complexities and challenges of life within the context of the album.

Life Is But a Dream

"Life Is But a Dream" is an instrumental track from Avenged Sevenfold's album of the same name. The album itself explores various themes, including life experiences, identity, and existential questions. Although the title track has no lyrics, its placement at the end of the album signifies a conclusion or reflection on the themes presented throughout.
The song's title, "Life Is But a Dream," can be seen as an acknowledgment that life is fleeting and ephemeral, much like a dream. This idea is also present in other songs throughout the album, such as "Game Over," where the lyrics "Days are fine and come on time / But years leave with nothing to find" express the passing of time and the fragility of life. Similarly, in "Nobody," the character describes themselves as being "boundless" and "free," suggesting an awareness of life's transience.
The theme of identity is also prevalent in the album, with songs like "Mattel" and "(O)ordinary" exploring the concept of self-discovery and the search for one's own soul. In "Mattel," the singer describes having a "vinyl skin" and "plastic bones," questioning their own humanity and the nature of their existence. In "(O)ordinary," the lyrics ask, "Will you give me my own soul? / Will you let me take control? / I wanna see the things that you see / I wanna be the human that you be."
Finally, the album explores existential questions and the nature of reality, as seen in songs like "Cosmic" and "Beautiful Morning." In "Cosmic," the lyrics describe a journey through time and space, with the singer declaring that they will follow their loved one through the stars "beyond forever." In "Beautiful Morning," the character grapples with the meaning of life and questions whether they truly belong in their current existence.
By ending the album with the instrumental "Life Is But a Dream," Avenged Sevenfold leaves the listener with a moment of introspection to reflect on the themes and emotions that have been explored throughout. The absence of lyrics allows the listeners to draw their own conclusions and contemplate the fleeting, dream-like nature of life and its complexities.

Hello, a few years ago I went to a weight loss clinic for help with weight loss. The dr there put me on phentermine and topiramate which worked amazing for me. I was on for about 10 months? And lost 85 or so lbs. this dr said there have been more recent studies that indicate phentermine is safe for longer term use(dependent upon blood pressure, etc) , whereas it’s typically said to be safe only for 3 months at a time.
Well over the last few years I’ve slowly packed most of the weight back on. I’m now wanting to use this combo again, hoping that what I know now after being on it then gaining after, that I could be successful with keeping the weight off, the second.
Anyway I’m going to meet with my primary care Dr in a few weeks to try and get on this combo of meds through her cause it’s just easier. But she only prescribes for 3 months. So I’m curious what the majority of physicians are doing. I don’t want to go back to the weight loss clinic and blow her off to get meds longer but I also know 3 months won’t be enough to get me where I need to be + maintain before tapering off again

M30 5'9" SW: 232, CW: 208, GW: 190 T2D - metformin 500mg x2
Hi all, I'm in need of some assistance and feedback from those with the know-how. History TL;DR - Peaked at 265 three years ago. Slowly dropped down to around 232. Three and a half months ago diagnosed with T2D at 6.6 A1c. This really motivated to get my life in order. Started tracking macros and surprise, surprise. I was consuming like 2800 calories a day and my macros were all out of wack. Started tracking - a doctor recommended a 1500 cad diet with more protein (100g), lower carbs(<150, closer to a 100 the better), cheat day on weekend, all that good stuff.
​
I had phenomenal success the first two and a half months. I've dropped about 25 lbs and am feeling great. I averaged around 1.5 lbs a week sometimes 2 lbs. However, my weight loss has all but stopped. 1500 cad isn't doing it anymore along with exercise. I did some research and all signs point to the fact my body adjusted to 1500 cad. A 'reset week' was recommended and I did so, but it doesn't seem to have done much. I did some more digging from some fitness oriented coaches and they're recommending that for a diet period of 2-3 months that a maintenance/recovery period of your recommended intake last 3-5 weeks.
I can see the logic to that, but I wanted to poke the hive mind and see what you all have to say. My BMI still says I'm obese and I want to at least drop down to 190 for my health and my family. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Galatians  

The Gospel of Paul  

Paul can be forgiven for equating the destruction of Israel with the end of the world. Everyone who loves Israel wants to save her, the controversy between the Judaizers and Paul was over how to do it.  
From The Interpreters’ Bible:  
"Introduction  
-1. Occasion and Purpose  
Conservative preachers were persuading the Galatians that faith was not enough to make sure of God’s kingdom. Besides believing that Jesus was the Messiah, one must join the Jewish nation, observe the laws and customs of Moses, and refuse to eat with the Gentiles (2:11-14, 4:10). One must have Christ and Moses, faith and law. Paul insisted that it must be either Moses or Christ. (5:2-6). [Mind you, the congregations were literally segregated at meals according to whether the male members’ foreskins were circumcised; compare with the trouble regarding the allocations between the two groups of widows reported in Acts.]  
Not content with raising doubts concerning the sufficiency of Christ, the Judaizers attacked Paul’s credentials. They said that he had not been one of the original apostles, and that he was distorting the gospel which Peter and John and James the Lord’s brother were preaching. They declared that his proposal to abandon the law of Moses was contrary to the teaching of Jesus, and they insinuated that he had taken this radical step to please men with the specious promise of cheap admission to God’s kingdom (1:10). If he were allowed to have his way, men would believe and be baptized but keep on sinning, deluding themselves that the Christian sacraments would save them. Claiming to rise above Moses and the prophets, they would debase faith into magic, liberty into license, making Christ the abettor of sin (2:17). The Judaizers were alarmed lest Paul bring down God’s wrath and delay the kingdom. They had not shared the emotion of a catastrophic conversion like Paul’s, and they found it hard to understand when he talked about a new power which overcame sin and brought righteousness better than the best that the law could produce.  
Another party attacked Paul from the opposite side. Influenced by the pagan notion that religion transcends ethics and is separable from morality, they wanted to abandon the Old Testament and its prophetic insights. They could not see how Paul’s demand to crucify one’s old sinful nature and produce the fruit of the Spirit could be anything but a new form of slavery to law (2:19-20, 5:14, 2-24). They accused him of rebuilding the old legalism, and some said that he was still preaching circumcision (2:18; 5:11). Whereas the Judaizers rejected Paul’s gospel because they believed it contrary to the teaching of the original apostles, these antilegalists felt that he was so subservient to the apostles as to endanger the freedom of the Christian Movement.  
Actually Paul had risen above both legalism and sacramentarianism ... his faith was qualitatively different from mere assent to a creed (5:6). He was living on the plateau of the Spirit, where life was so free that men needed no law to say ‘Thou shalt’ and ‘Thou shalt not’ (5:22-24). But this rarefied atmosphere was hard to breathe, and neither side could understand him. The conservatives were watching for moral lapses… and the radicals blamed him for slowing the progress of Christianity by refusing to cut it loose from Judaism and its nationalistic religious imperialism.” (Stamm, TIB 1953, vol. X pp. 430)  
Paul’s defense of his gospel and apostleship was the more difficult because he had to maintain his right to go directly to Christ without the mediation of Peter and the rest, but had to do it in such a way as not to split the church and break the continuity of his gospel with the Old Testament and the apostolic traditions about Jesus and his teaching. …  
To this end Paul gave an account of his relations with the Jerusalem church during the seventeen years that followed his conversion (1:11-2:14). Instead of going to Jerusalem he went to Arabia, presumably to preach (1:17). After a time he returned to Damascus, and only three years later did he go to see Peter. Even then he stayed only fifteen days and saw no other apostle except James the Lord’s brother (1:18-20). Then he left for Syria and Cilicia, and not until another fourteen years had passed did he visit Jerusalem again. This time it was in response to a revelation from his Lord, and not to a summons by the authorities in the Hoy City.  
Paul emphasizes that neither visit implied an admission that his gospel needed the apostolic stamp to make it valid. His purpose was to get the apostles to treat the uncircumcised Gentile Christians as their equals in the church (2:2). Making a test case of Titus, he won his point (2:3-5). The apostles agreed that a Gentile could join the church by faith without first becoming a member of the synagogue by circumcision. … They … recognize[d] that his mission to the Gentiles was on the same footing as theirs to the Jews – only he was to remember the poor (2:7-10). So far was Paul from being subordinated that when Peter came to Antioch and wavered on eating with the Gentile Christians, Paul did not hesitate to rebuke him in public (2:11-14). (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 430-431)  
Paul’s defense of his apostolic commission involved the question: What is the seat of authority in religion? A Jewish rabbi debating the application of the kosher laws would quote the authority of Moses and the fathers in support of his view. Jewish tradition declared that God delivered the law to Moses, and Moses to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the men of the Great Synagogue, and that they had handed it down through an unbroken rabbinical succession to the present. If Paul had been a Christian rabbi, he could have treated the Sermon on the Mount as a new law from a new Sinai, which God had delivered to Jesus, and Jesus to Peter, and Peter to Paul, and Paul to Timothy and Titus, and so on through an unbroken apostolic succession until the second coming of Christ. Instead of taking his problems directly to this Lord in prayer, he would ask, ‘What does Peter say that Jesus did and said about it?’ And if Peter or the other apostles happened not to have a pronouncement from Jesus on a given subject, they would need to apply some other saying to his by reasoning from analogy. This would turn the gospel into a system of legalism, with casuistry for its guide, making Jesus a second Moses – a prophet who lived and died in a dim and distant past and left only a written code to guide the future. Jesus would not have been the living Lord, personally present in his church in every age as the daily companion of his members. That is why Paul insisted that Christ must not be confused or combined with Moses, but must be all in all.  
The Judaizers assumed that God had revealed to Moses all of his will, and nothing but this will, for all time, changeless and unchangeable; and that death was the penalty for tampering with it. The rest of the scriptures and the oral tradition which developed and applied them were believed to be implicit in the Pentateuch as an oak in an acorn. The first duty of the teacher was to transmit the Torah exactly as he had received it from the men of old. Only then might he give his own opinion, which must never contradict but always be validated by the authority of the past. When authorities differed, the teacher must labor to reconcile them. Elaborate rules of interpretation were devised to help decide cases not covered by specific provision in the scripture. These rules made it possible to apply a changeless revelation to changing conditions, but they also presented a dilemma. The interpreter might modernize by reading into his Bible ideas that were not in the minds of its writers, or he might quench his own creative insights by fearing to go beyond what was written. Those who modernized the Old Testament were beset with the perils of incipient Gnosticism, while those who, like the Sadducees, accepted nothing but the written Torah could misuse it to obstruct social and religious progress. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 431-432)  
To submit to circumcision would have betrayed the truth of the gospel because it contradicted the principle that all is of grace and grace is for all (2:5). Perpetuated in the church of Christ, the kosher code and other Jewish customs would have destroyed the fellowship. Few things could have hurt the feelings and heaped more indignity upon the Gentiles than the spiritual snobbery of refusing to eat with them.  
The tragedy of division was proportional to the sincerity of men’s scruples. The Jews were brought up to believe that eating with Gentiles was a flagrant violation of God’s revealed will which would bring down his terrible wrath. How strongly both sides felt appears in Paul’s account of the stormy conference at Jerusalem and the angry dispute that followed it at Antioch (2:1-14). Paul claimed that refusal to eat with a Gentile brother would deny that the grace of Christ was sufficient to make him worthy of the kingdom. If all men were sons of God through Christ, there could be no classes of Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female (3:26-28). What mattered was neither circumcision not uncircumcision, but only faith and a new act of creation by the Spirit (5:6; 6”15). (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 433)  
Church unity was essential to the success of Christian missions. Friction between Aramaic and Greek-speaking Jewish Christians in Palestine had to be eliminated (Acts 6:1). The death of Stephen and a special vision to Peter were required to convince the conservatives of the propriety of admitting the Gentiles on an equality with the Jews; and even Peter was amazed that God had given them the same gift of the Spirit (Act 11: 1-18). This hesitation was potentially fatal to the spread of Christianity beyond Palestine. Many Gentiles had been attracted by the pure monotheism and high morality of Judaism but were not willing to break with their native culture by submitting to the painful initiatory rite and social stigma of being a Jew…. Had the church kept circumcision as a requirement for membership, it could not have freed itself from Jewish nationalism.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 433)  
III. Some Characteristics of Paul’s Thinking  
… “the law” of which Paul is speaking does not coincide with “law” in a twentieth-century state with representative government. His Greek word was νομος [nomos], an inadequate translation of the Hebrew “Torah,” which included much more than “law” as we use the term. [When “תורה ThORaH” appears in the text I translate it as “Instruction” – its literal definition - capitalized.] Torah was teaching on any subject concerning the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures. Since the Jews did not divide life into two compartments labeled “religious” and “secular,” their law covered both their spiritual and their civil life. Nor did Paul and his fellow Jews think in terms of “nature” and the “natural law.” They believed that everything that happened was God’s doing, directly or by his permission. The messiah was expected to restore the ancient theocracy with its power over both civil and religious affairs.  
The Gentiles too were accustomed to state regulation of religion and priestly control of civil affairs. The Greek city-states had always managed the relations of their citizens with the gods, and Alexander the Great prepared the way for religious imperialism. When he invaded Asia, he consolidated his power by the ancient Oriental idea that the ruler was a god or a son of God. His successors, in their endless wars over the fragments of his empire, adopted the same device. Posing as “savior-gods,” they liberated their victims by enslaving them. The Romans did likewise, believing that the safety of their empire depended upon correct legal relations with the gods who had founded it. … Each city had its temple dedicated to the emperor, and its patriotic priests to see that everyone burned incense before his statue. Having done this, the worshiper was free under Roman ‘tolerance’ to adopt any other legal religion. … Whether salvation was offered in the name of the ancient gods of the Orient, or of Greece, or of the emperor of Rome, or of Yahweh the theocratic king of the Jews, the favor of the deity was thought to depend upon obedience to his law.  
One did not therefore have to be a Jew to be a legalist in religion. … Since Paul’s first converts were drawn from Gentiles who had been attending the synagogues, it is easy to see how Gentile Christians could be a zealous to add Moses to Christ as the most conservative Jew.  
This is what gave the Judaizers their hold in Galatia. The rivalry between the synagogue, which was engaged in winning men to worship the God of Moses, and the church, which was preaching the God who had revealed himself in Christ Jesus, was bound to raise the issue of legalism and stir up doubts about the sufficiency of Christ.  
Gentile and Jewish Christians alike would regard Paul’s preaching of salvation apart from the merit acquired by obedience to law as a violently revolutionary doctrine. Fidelity to his declaration of religious independence from all mediating rulers and priesthoods required a spiritual maturity of which most who heard his preaching were not yet capable. … Paul’s gospel has always been in danger of being stifled by those who would treat the teachings of Jesus as laws to be enforced by a hierarchy. (Stamm, TIB 1953, X pp. 434-435)  
V. Environment of Paul’s Churches in Galatia  
The conclusion concerning the destination of the epistle does not involve the essentials of its religious message, but it does affect our understanding of certain passages, such as 3:1 and 41:12, 20.  
From the earliest times that part of the world had been swept by the cross tides of migration and struggle for empire. The third millennium found the Hittites in possession. In the second millennium the Greeks and Phrygians came spilling over from Europe, and in the first millennium the remaining power of the Hittites was swept away by Babylon and Persia. Then came the turn of the Asiatic tide into Europe, only to be swept back again by Alexander the Great. But the Greek cities with which he and his successors dotted the map of Asia were like anthills destined to be leveled by Oriental reaction.  
About 278 B.C. new turmoil came with the Gauls, who were shunted from Greece and crossed into Asia to overrun Phrygia. Gradually the Greek kings succeeded in pushing them up into the central highlands, where they established themselves in the region of Ancyra. Thus located, they constituted a perpetually disturbing element, raiding the Greek cities and furnishing soldiers now to one, and now to another of the rival kings. Then in 121 B.C. came the Romans to 'set free' Galatia by making it a part of their own Empire. By 40 B.C. there were three kingdoms, with capitals at Ancyra, Pisidian Antioch, and Iconium. Four years later Lycaonia and Galatia were given to Amyntas the king of Pisidia. He added Pamphylia and part of Cilicia to his kingdom. But he was killed in 25 B.C., and the Romans made his dominion into the province of Galatia, which was thus much larger than the territory inhabited by the Gauls. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 437-438)  
War and slavery, poverty, disease, and famine made life hard and uncertain. In religion and philosophy men were confused by this meeting of East and West. But man’s extremity was Paul’s opportunity. The soil of the centuries had been plowed and harrowed for his new, revolutionary gospel of grace and freedom.  
Not all, however, were ready for this freedom. The old religions with prestige and authority seemed safer. Most Jews preferred Moses, and among the Gentiles the hold of the Great Mother Cybele of Phrygia was not easily shaken. Paul’s converts, bringing their former ideas and customs with them, were all too ready to reshape his gospel into a combination of Christ with their ancient laws and rituals. The old religions were especially tenacious in the small villages, whose inhabitants spoke the native languages and were inaccessible to the Greek-speaking Paul. To this gravitational attraction of the indigenous cults was added the more sophisticated syncretism of the city dwellers, pulling Paul’s churches away from his gospel when the moral demands of his faith and the responsibilities of his freedom became irksome. This was the root of the trouble in Galatia. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 438)  
VI. Date and Place of Writing  
Some consider it the earliest of Paul’s extant letters and place it in 49 … In support of this date it is said that Paul, who had come from Perga by boat, was met by messengers from Galatia, who had taken the shorter route by land. They reported the disturbance which had arisen in his churches soon after his departure. He could not go back immediately to straighten things out in person, because he saw that he would have to settle the matter first in Jerusalem, whence the troublemakers had come. So he wrote a letter.  
But … [w]e do not know that the trouble in Galatia was stirred up by emissaries from the church in Jerusalem … Moreover, this solution overlooks the crux of the issue between Paul and the legalists. His contention was that neither circumcision nor the observance of any other law was the basis of salvation, but only faith in God’s grace through Christ. … On the matter of kosher customs, as on every other question, he directed men to the mind and Spirit of Christ, and not to law, either Mosaic or apostolic. That mind was a Spirit of edification which abstained voluntarily from all that defiled or offended.  
We may say that the situation [in Galatia] was different – that in Macedonia it was persecution from outside by Jews who were trying to prevent Paul’s preaching, whereas in Galatia it was trouble inside the church created by legalistic Christians who were proposing to change his teaching; that in one case the issue was justification by faith, and in the other faithfulness while waiting for the day of the Lord.  
The letter to the Romans, written during the three months in Greece mentioned in Acts 20:2-3, is our earliest commentary on Galatians. In it the relation between the law and the gospel is set forth in the perspective of Paul’s further experience. The brevity and storminess of Galatians gives way to a more complete and calmly reasoned presentation of his gospel. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 438 - 439)  
At Corinth, as in Galatia, Paul had to defend his right to be an apostle against opponents heartless enough to turn against him the cruel belief that physical illness was a sign of God’s disfavor … and they charged him with being a crafty man-pleaser … He exhorts his converts to put away childish things and grow up in faith, hope and love…  
Most childish of all were the factions incipient in Galatia, and actual in Corinth … He abandoned the kosher customs and all other artificial distinctions between Jews and Gentiles and laid the emphasis where it belonged – upon the necessity for God’s people to establish and maintain a higher morality and spiritual life… He substituted a catholic spirit for partisan loyalties ... (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 440-441)  
VII. Authorship and Attestation  
If Paul wrote anything that goes under his name, it was Galatians, Romans, and the letters to Corinth. … F.C. Baur and his followers tried to show that the letters ascribed to Paul were the product of a second-century conflict between a Judaist party and the liberals in the church, and that they were written by Paulinists who used his name and authority to promote their own ideas.  
[But] the earliest mention of the epistle by name occurs in the canon of the Gnostic heretic Marcion (ca. [approximately] 144). He put it first in his list of ten letters of Paul. A generation later the orthodox Muratorian canon (ca. 185) listed it as the sixth of Paul’s letters. … While the first explicit reference to Galatians as a letter of Paul is as late as the middle of the second century … the authors of Ephesians and the Gospel of John knew it; and Polycarp in his letter to the Philippians quoted it. Revelation, I Peter, Hebrew, I Clement, and Ignatius show acquaintance with it; and there is evidence that the writer of the Epistle of James knew Galatians, as did the authors of II Peter and the Pastoral epistle, and Justin Martyr and Athenagoras. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 441-442)  
VIII. Text and Transmission  
Although the epistle was composed neither carelessly nor hastily, the anxiety and emotional stress under which Paul dictated his cascading thoughts have produced some involved and obscure sentences … and a number of abrupt transitions… These have been a standing invitation to scribal clarification. … Paul’s debate with his critics takes the form of a diatribe, which is characterized by quotations from past or anticipated objectors and rapid-fire answers to them. Paul did not use quotation marks, and this accounts for the difficulty in 2:14-15 of deciding where his speech to Peter ends. The numerous allusions to person and places, events and teachings, with which Paul assumed his readers to be acquainted, are another source of difficulty. All theses factors operated to produce the numerous variations in the text of Galatians." (Stamm, 1953, TIB p. 442)  
From Adam Clarke’s Commentaryⁱ :  
"The authenticity of this epistle is ably vindicated by Dr. Paley: the principal part of his arguments I shall here introduce …  
'Section I.  
As Judea was the scene of the Christian history; as the author and preachers of Christianity were Jews; as the religion itself acknowledged and was founded upon the Jewish religion, in contra distinction to every other religion, then professed among mankind: it was not to be wondered at, that some its teachers should carry it out in the world rather as a sect and modification of Judaism, than as a separate original revelation; or that they should invite their proselytes to those observances in which they lived themselves. ... I … think that those pretensions of Judaism were much more likely to be insisted upon, whilst the Jews continued a nation, than after their fall and dispersion; while Jerusalem and the temple stood, than after the destruction brought upon them by the Roman arms, the fatal cessation of the sacrifice and the priesthood, the humiliating loss of their country, and, with it, of the great rites and symbols of their institution. It should seem, therefore, from the nature of the subject and the situation of the parties, that this controversy was carried on in the interval between the preaching of Christianity to the Gentiles, and the invasion of Titus: and that our present epistle ... must be referred to the same period.  
… the epistle supposes that certain designing adherents of the Jewish law had crept into the churches of Galatia; and had been endeavouring, and but too successfully, to persuade the Galatic converts, that they had been taught the new religion imperfectly, and at second hand; that the founder of their church himself possessed only an inferior and disputed commission, the seat of truth and authority being in the apostles and elders of Jerusalem; moreover, that whatever he might profess among them, he had himself, at other times and in other places, given way to the doctrine of circumcision. The epistle is unintelligible without supposing all this. (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 361)  
Section VII.  
This epistle goes farther than any of St. Paul’s epistles; for it avows in direct terms the supersession of the Jewish law, as an instrument of salvation, even to the Jews themselves. Not only were the Gentiles exempt from its authority, but even the Jews were no longer either to place any dependency upon it, or consider themselves as subject to it on a religious account. "Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto faith which should afterward be revealed: wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but, after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Chap. [chapter] iii. 23-25) This was undoubtedly spoken of Jews, and to Jews. … What then should be the conduct of a Jew (for such St. Paul was) who preached this doctrine? To be consistent with himself, either he would no longer comply, in his own person, with the directions of the law; or, if he did comply, it would be some other reason than any confidence which he placed in its efficacy, as a religious institution. (Clarke, 1831, vol. II pp. 366-367)  
Preface  
The religion of the ancient Galatae was extremely corrupt and superstitious: and they are said to have worshipped the mother of the gods, under the name of Agdistis; and to have offered human sacrifices of the prisoners they took in war.  
They are mentioned by historians as a tall and valiant people, who went nearly naked; and used for arms only a sword and buckler. The impetuosity of their attack is stated to have been irresistible…’” (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 369)  
From The New Jerome Biblical Commentaryⁱⁱ  
"Introduction  
The Galatai, originally an Indo-Aryan tribe of Asia, were related to the Celts or Gauls (“who in their own language are called Keltae, but in ours Galli”) ... About 279 BC some of them invaded the lower Danube area and Macedonia, descending even into the Gk [Greek] peninsula. After they were stopped by the Aetolians in 278, a remnant fled across the Hellespont into Asia Minor …  
Occasion and Purpose  
… He … stoutly maintained that the gospel he had preached, without the observance of the Mosaic practices, was the only correct view of Christianity … Gal [Galatians] thus became the first expose` of Paul’s teaching about justification by grace through faith apart from deeds prescribed by the law; it is Paul’s manifesto about Christian freedom.  
... Who were the agitators in Galatia? … they are best identified as Jewish Christians of Palestine, of an even stricter Jewish background than Peter, Paul, or James, or even of the ‘false brethren' (2:4) of Jerusalem, whom Paul had encountered there. (The account in Acts 15:5 would identify the latter as ‘believers who had belonged to the sect of the Pharisees.’) … The agitators in Galatia were Judaizers, who insisted not on the observance of the whole Mosaic law, but at least on circumcision and the observance of some other Jewish practices. Paul for this reason warned the Gentile Christians of Galatia that their fascination with ‘circumcision’ would oblige them to keep ‘the whole law’ (5:3). The agitators may have been syncretists of some sort: Christians of Jewish perhaps Essene, background, affected by some Anatolian influences. … (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC pp. 780-781)   END NOTES
ⁱ The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The text carefully printed from the most correct copies of the present Authorized Version. Including the marginal readings and parallel texts. With a Commentary and Critical Notes. Designed as a help to a better understanding of the sacred writings. By Adam Clarke, LL.D. F.S.A. M.R.I.A. With a complete alphabetical index. Royal Octavo Stereotype Edition. Vol. II. [Vol. VI together with the O.T.] New York, Published by J. Emory and B. Waugh, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the conference office, 13 Crosby-Street. J. Collord, Printer. 1831.  
ⁱⁱ The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Edited by Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Union Theological Seminary, New York; NY, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. (emeritus) Catholic University of America, Washington, DC; Roland E. Murphy, O.Carm. (emeritus) The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, NC, with a foreword by His Eminence Carlo Maria Cardinal Martini, S.J.; Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1990  
  Chapter One  
…  

Tiding of [בשורת, BeSOoRahTh, Gospel] one
[verses 6-10]  

…  

…………………………………………  
How [כיצד, KaYTsahD] was [היה, HahYaH] Shah`OoL [“Lender”, Saul, Paul] to become a Sent Forth [Apostle]
[verses 11 to end of chapter]  

…  
Chapter Two  

Sending forth of Shah’OoL required upon hands of the Sent Forth
[verses 1-10]  

…  

…………………………………………  
The YeHOo-DeeYM [“YHVH-ites”, Judeans] and the nations, righteous from inside belief
[verses 11 to end of chapter]  

...
-16. And since [וכיון, VeKhayVahN] that know, we, that [כי, KeeY] the ’ahDahM [“man”, Adam] is not made righteous in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction [Torah, law],
rather in belief of the Anointed [המשיח, HahMahSheeY-ahH, the Messiah, the Christ] YayShOo`ah [“Savior”, Jesus],
believe, also we, in Anointed YayShOo`ah,
to sake we are made righteous from inside belief in Anointed,
and not in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction,
that yes, in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction is not made righteous any [כל, KahL] flesh.  

“As a Pharisee, Paul had been taught that works of law were deeds done in obedience to the Torah, contrasted with things done according to one’s own will. The object of this obedience was to render oneself acceptable to God – to ‘justify’ oneself. Having found this impossible, Paul reinforced the evidence from his own experience by Ps. [Psalm] 143:2, where the sinner prays God not to enter into judgment with him because in God’s sight no man living is righteous. Into this passage from the LXX [The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible] Paul inserted ‘by works of law,’ and wrote σαρξ [sarx], ‘flesh,’ instead of ζων [zon], ‘one living.’ This quotation warns us against setting Paul’s salvation by grace over against Judaism in such a way as to obscure the fact that the Jews depended also upon God’s lovingkindness and tender mercies (I Kings 8:46; Job 10:14-15; 14:3-4; Prov. [Proverbs] 20:9; Eccl. [Ecclesiasticus] 7:20; Mal. [Malachi] 3:2; Dan. [Daniel] 9:18).” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 483)  
“Justified is a metaphor from the law court. The Greek verb is δικαιοω [dikaioo], the noun δικαιοσουνη [dikaiosoune’], the adjective δικαιος [dikaios]. The common root is δικ [dik] as in δεικνυμι [deiknumi], ‘point out,’ ‘show.’ The words formed on this root point to a norm or standard to which persons and things must conform in order to be ‘right.’ The English ‘right’ expresses the same idea, being derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘richt,’ which means ‘straight,’ not crooked, ‘upright,’ not oblique. The verb δικαιοω means ‘I think it right.’ A man is δικαιος, ‘right’ when he conforms to the standard of acceptable character and conduct, and δικαιοσυνη, ‘righteousness,’ ‘justice,’ is the state or quality of this conformity. In the LXX these Greek words translate a group of Hebrew words formed on the root צדק [TsehDehQ], and in Latin the corresponding terms are justifico, justus, and justificatio. In all four languages the common idea is the norm by which persons and things are to be tested. Thus in Hebrew a wall is ‘righteous’ when it conforms to the plumb line, a man when he does God’s will.  
From earliest boyhood Paul had tried to be righteous. But there came a terrible day when he said ‘I will covet’ to the law’s ‘Thou shalt not,’ and in that defiance he had fallen out of right relation to God and into the ‘wrath,’ where he ‘died’ spiritually… Thenceforth all his efforts, however strenuous, to get ‘right’ with God were thwarted by the weakness of his sinful human nature, the ‘flesh’ (σαρξ) [sarx]. That experience of futility led him to say that a man is not justified by works ‘of law.’” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 483)  

[Actually Paul changed his point of view as a result of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, not as a result of intellectual contemplation. His many failures hitherto had not led him to this conclusion. The description of Paul in the preceding paragraph is a fiction.]  

“In the eyes of the psalmists and rabbis this was blasphemously revolutionary. Resting on God’s covenant with Abraham, they held it axiomatic that the ‘righteous’ man who had conscientiously done his part deserved to be vindicated before a wicked world; otherwise God could not be righteous. … In Judaism God was thought of as forgiving only repentant sinners who followed their repentance with right living …  
The theological expression for this conception of salvation is ‘justification by faith.’ Unfortunately this Latin word does not make plain Paul’s underlying religious experience, which was a change of status through faith from a wrong to a ‘right’ relationship with God… It conceals from the English reader the fact that the Greek word also means ‘righteousness.’ … (observe the ASV [American Standard Version] mg. [marginal note], ‘accounted righteous’).  
But ‘reckoned’ and ‘accounted’ expose Paul’s thought to misinterpretation by suggesting a legal fiction which God adopted to escape the contradiction between his acceptance of sinners and his own righteousness and justice.  
On the other hand, Paul’s term, in the passive, cannot be translated by ‘made righteous’ without misrepresenting him. In baptism he had ‘died with Christ’ to sin. By this definition the Christian is a person who does not sin! And yet Paul does not say that he is sinless, but that he must not sin. … This laid him open to a charge of self contradiction; sinless and yet not sinless, righteous and unrighteous, just and unjust at the same time. Some interpreters have labeled it ‘paradox,’ but such a superficial dismissal of the problem is religiously barren and worse than useless.  
The extreme difficulty of understanding Paul on this matter has led to a distinction between ‘justification’ and ‘sanctification,’ which obscures Paul’s urgency to be now, at this very moment, what God in accepting him says he is: a righteous man in Christ Jesus. Justification is reduced to a forensic declaration by which God acquits and accepts the guilty criminal, and sanctification is viewed as a leisurely process of becoming the kind of person posited by that declaration. This makes perfection seem far less urgent than Paul conceived it, and permits the spiritual inertia of human nature to continue its habit of separating religion from ethics. To prevent this misunderstanding it is necessary to keep in mind the root meaning of ‘righteousness’ in δικαιοω and its cognates.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 484-485)  

-19. I died according to [לגבי, LeGahBaY] the Instruction, because of [בגלל, BeeGLahL] the Instruction, in order [כדי, KeDaY] that I will live to God.  

“… The Pharisees taught that the Torah was the life element of the Jews; all who obeyed would live, those who did not would die (Deut. [Deuteronomy] 30:11-20).” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 488-489)  

-20. With the Anointed I was crucified, and no more I live, rather the Anointed lives in me.
The life that I live now in flesh, I live them in the belief of Son [of] the Gods that loved me and delivered up [ומסר, OoMahÇahR] himself in my behalf [בעדי, Bah`ahDeeY].  

“The danger was that Paul’s Gentile converts might claim freedom in Christ but reject the cross-bearing that made it possible. Lacking the momentum of moral discipline under Moses, which prepared Paul to make right use of his freedom, they might imagine that his dying and rising with Christ was a magical way of immortalizing themselves by sacramental absorption of Christ’s divine substance in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The church has always been tempted to take Paul’s crucifixion with Christ in a symbolic sense only, or as an experience at baptism which is sacramentally automatic. It has also been tempted to reduce Paul’s ‘faith’ to bare belief and assent to his doctrine, and to equate his ‘righteousness’ with a fictitious imputation by a Judge made lenient by Christ’s death.  
Against these caricatures of ‘justification by faith,’ Paul’s whole life and all his letters are a standing protest. He never allows us to forget that to be crucified with Christ is to share the motives, the purposes, and the way of life that led Jesus to the Cross; to take up vicariously the burden of the sins of others, forgiving and loving instead of condemning them; to make oneself the slave of every man; to create unity and harmony by reconciling man to God and man to his fellow men; to pray without ceasing ‘Thy will be done’; to consign one’s life to God, walking by faith where one cannot see; and finally to leave this earth with the prayer ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.’  
… When Christ the Spirit came to live in Paul … Paul was guided at each step, in each new circumstance, to answer for himself the question: What would Jesus have me do? And the answer was always this: Rely solely on God’s grace through Christ, count others better than yourself, and make yourself everybody’s slave after the manner of the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.  
… The phrase εν σαρκι [en sarki] … means, lit. [literally], in the flesh. Someday – Paul hoped it would be soon – this would be changed into a body like that of the risen Christ, which belonged to the realm of Spirit.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 490-493)  
“Christ lives in me: The perfection of Christian life is expressed here … it reshapes human beings anew, supplying them with a new principle of activity on the ontological¹ level of their very beings.” (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC p. 785)  

-21. I do not nullify [מבטל, MeBahTayL] [את, ’ehTh (indicator of direct object; no English equivalent)] mercy [of] Gods;
is not if [it] is possible to become righteous upon hand of the Instruction, see, that the Anointed died to nothing [לשוא, LahShahVe’]?  

“It is not I, he says, who am nullifying the grace of God by abandoning the law which is his grace-gift to Israel, but those who insist on retaining that law in addition to the grace which he has now manifested in Christ.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 495)

  Footnotes   ¹ Ontological - relating to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being  
An Amateur's Journey Through the Bible

I'll start by saying I'm not even sure what I'm looking for from this post. It might be motivation, maybe validation, maybe a combination of the two and something else. But I at least want to get my story off my chest, because I feel like I'm at a very pivotal point now.
Like many here, I've (30F) always been overweight. I was 5 when had my first grand mal seizure. I was diagnosed with epilepsy, and the following years was heavily medicated with meds that caused me to gain a lot of weight very quickly because I no longer felt "full". By age 11, when I probably naturally grew out of the epilepsy and my doctor asked me to stop the meds, I was on the borderline between overweight and obese.
By the end of high school (2011), I was 5'5 and about 205lbs. I did lose weight at this time, and around the same time in 2012, I was at 165lbs. Then, in June of that year I found myself in what I now know was a very abusive relationship. I coped as I always had, with food. That relationship went on for several years. By December 2014 I was hovering around 250lbs, and around 275lbs in January of 2018. I had, up to then, always been pretty active. I ate a lot of junk, but I also could walk 3-4 miles without breaking a sweat. In 2019 I developed plantar fasciitis from working at a cafe, but if I stretched and took care not to wear crappy shoes, it wasn't so bad. I could still get around.
When Covid hit in 2020, I caught it very early on when nobody knew what it was yet. It was March 2020, and I was at about 280lbs, but still very active and ate relatively balanced meals. That went out the window with Covid. I'm still now struggling with long-Covid symptoms that are somewhat improving, but at that time, I could barely get out of bed. I slept for hours and hours, for days. I couldn't walk across the street without being out of breath. I also moved flats, and was totally isolated in my new living situation. I became something of a recluse, and things just kept getting worse.
I've had slight back pain my whole life, but with Covid, I gained a lot of weight very quickly, and the pain quickly became debilitating. I was about 300lbs by June of 2020, around the time the intense lower back pain started, and it's only gone up since then. I'm currently hovering at about 365lbs (I probably hit that weight some time in 2021), and the pain is unbearable most days. Some days I can't walk even a few steps because of the back pain. To make matters worse, now my legs retain fluid (probably because of the lack of movement) and often feel like boulders. Most days I can't do basic chores. Even showering is exhausting. I'm miserable all the time.
I guess I just need to know - is there hope? Have I completely fucked up my back beyond repair? Can I even still lose the weight? I've gone to a lot of therapy, and I'm finally, very slowly, learning to love myself. And I do. I want to live. I want to be better. I deserve that. But I also don't want to be disappointed. I want to be realistic. I'm going out with friends again, trying to keep up daily hygiene, even dating again a bit. Last year, as I'm diabetic now, my doctor prescribed me Metformin. I stuck with it for months, diet (monitored by a nutrition specialist) and even a bit of treadmill walking. I only stopped because I wasn't responding well to the medication, both in terms of side-effects and complete lack of weight loss, and that felt really disheartening. I'm now due to start Trulicity soon, and I have a lot of hope. I know I can put in the effort, and it will come from the right place instead of a place of self-hatred and anxiety. I guess I just want a realistic picture of what I can expect from here. If you've read this far, thanks so much.
tl;dr I'm really fat and want to know if it's worth even trying at this point and what I can expect.

Hi everyone, hope y’all are doing great! Years ago I took fluoxetine to treat my drepresso and while it did make me happier (for a short period) I gained A LOT of weight. As someone with an ED, becoming overweight made me sadder than before!
Nowadays I take Concerta 36mg to treat my ADHD and have managed to lose all the extra weight (eating healthy and working out) but my Dr suggested I start fluoxetine again because the depression is back.
I’m terrified of gaining all the weight back if I incorporate fluoxetine, even though concerta is an appetite suppressant. I took wellbutrin for a year and it didn’t work for me:(
TL;DR: Has anyone taken the concerta + fluoxetine combo and experienced any weight gain/loss?
Thank you!

Galatians  

The Gospel of Paul  

Paul can be forgiven for equating the destruction of Israel with the end of the world. Everyone who loves Israel wants to save her, the controversy between the Judaizers and Paul was over how to do it.  
From The Interpreters’ Bible:  
"Introduction  
-1. Occasion and Purpose  
Conservative preachers were persuading the Galatians that faith was not enough to make sure of God’s kingdom. Besides believing that Jesus was the Messiah, one must join the Jewish nation, observe the laws and customs of Moses, and refuse to eat with the Gentiles (2:11-14, 4:10). One must have Christ and Moses, faith and law. Paul insisted that it must be either Moses or Christ. (5:2-6). [Mind you, the congregations were literally segregated at meals according to whether the male members’ foreskins were circumcised; compare with the trouble regarding the allocations between the two groups of widows reported in Acts.]  
Not content with raising doubts concerning the sufficiency of Christ, the Judaizers attacked Paul’s credentials. They said that he had not been one of the original apostles, and that he was distorting the gospel which Peter and John and James the Lord’s brother were preaching. They declared that his proposal to abandon the law of Moses was contrary to the teaching of Jesus, and they insinuated that he had taken this radical step to please men with the specious promise of cheap admission to God’s kingdom (1:10). If he were allowed to have his way, men would believe and be baptized but keep on sinning, deluding themselves that the Christian sacraments would save them. Claiming to rise above Moses and the prophets, they would debase faith into magic, liberty into license, making Christ the abettor of sin (2:17). The Judaizers were alarmed lest Paul bring down God’s wrath and delay the kingdom. They had not shared the emotion of a catastrophic conversion like Paul’s, and they found it hard to understand when he talked about a new power which overcame sin and brought righteousness better than the best that the law could produce.  
Another party attacked Paul from the opposite side. Influenced by the pagan notion that religion transcends ethics and is separable from morality, they wanted to abandon the Old Testament and its prophetic insights. They could not see how Paul’s demand to crucify one’s old sinful nature and produce the fruit of the Spirit could be anything but a new form of slavery to law (2:19-20, 5:14, 2-24). They accused him of rebuilding the old legalism, and some said that he was still preaching circumcision (2:18; 5:11). Whereas the Judaizers rejected Paul’s gospel because they believed it contrary to the teaching of the original apostles, these antilegalists felt that he was so subservient to the apostles as to endanger the freedom of the Christian Movement.  
Actually Paul had risen above both legalism and sacramentarianism ... his faith was qualitatively different from mere assent to a creed (5:6). He was living on the plateau of the Spirit, where life was so free that men needed no law to say ‘Thou shalt’ and ‘Thou shalt not’ (5:22-24). But this rarefied atmosphere was hard to breathe, and neither side could understand him. The conservatives were watching for moral lapses… and the radicals blamed him for slowing the progress of Christianity by refusing to cut it loose from Judaism and its nationalistic religious imperialism.” (Stamm, TIB 1953, vol. X pp. 430)  
Paul’s defense of his gospel and apostleship was the more difficult because he had to maintain his right to go directly to Christ without the mediation of Peter and the rest, but had to do it in such a way as not to split the church and break the continuity of his gospel with the Old Testament and the apostolic traditions about Jesus and his teaching. …  
To this end Paul gave an account of his relations with the Jerusalem church during the seventeen years that followed his conversion (1:11-2:14). Instead of going to Jerusalem he went to Arabia, presumably to preach (1:17). After a time he returned to Damascus, and only three years later did he go to see Peter. Even then he stayed only fifteen days and saw no other apostle except James the Lord’s brother (1:18-20). Then he left for Syria and Cilicia, and not until another fourteen years had passed did he visit Jerusalem again. This time it was in response to a revelation from his Lord, and not to a summons by the authorities in the Hoy City.  
Paul emphasizes that neither visit implied an admission that his gospel needed the apostolic stamp to make it valid. His purpose was to get the apostles to treat the uncircumcised Gentile Christians as their equals in the church (2:2). Making a test case of Titus, he won his point (2:3-5). The apostles agreed that a Gentile could join the church by faith without first becoming a member of the synagogue by circumcision. … They … recognize[d] that his mission to the Gentiles was on the same footing as theirs to the Jews – only he was to remember the poor (2:7-10). So far was Paul from being subordinated that when Peter came to Antioch and wavered on eating with the Gentile Christians, Paul did not hesitate to rebuke him in public (2:11-14). (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 430-431)  
Paul’s defense of his apostolic commission involved the question: What is the seat of authority in religion? A Jewish rabbi debating the application of the kosher laws would quote the authority of Moses and the fathers in support of his view. Jewish tradition declared that God delivered the law to Moses, and Moses to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the men of the Great Synagogue, and that they had handed it down through an unbroken rabbinical succession to the present. If Paul had been a Christian rabbi, he could have treated the Sermon on the Mount as a new law from a new Sinai, which God had delivered to Jesus, and Jesus to Peter, and Peter to Paul, and Paul to Timothy and Titus, and so on through an unbroken apostolic succession until the second coming of Christ. Instead of taking his problems directly to this Lord in prayer, he would ask, ‘What does Peter say that Jesus did and said about it?’ And if Peter or the other apostles happened not to have a pronouncement from Jesus on a given subject, they would need to apply some other saying to his by reasoning from analogy. This would turn the gospel into a system of legalism, with casuistry for its guide, making Jesus a second Moses – a prophet who lived and died in a dim and distant past and left only a written code to guide the future. Jesus would not have been the living Lord, personally present in his church in every age as the daily companion of his members. That is why Paul insisted that Christ must not be confused or combined with Moses, but must be all in all.  
The Judaizers assumed that God had revealed to Moses all of his will, and nothing but this will, for all time, changeless and unchangeable; and that death was the penalty for tampering with it. The rest of the scriptures and the oral tradition which developed and applied them were believed to be implicit in the Pentateuch as an oak in an acorn. The first duty of the teacher was to transmit the Torah exactly as he had received it from the men of old. Only then might he give his own opinion, which must never contradict but always be validated by the authority of the past. When authorities differed, the teacher must labor to reconcile them. Elaborate rules of interpretation were devised to help decide cases not covered by specific provision in the scripture. These rules made it possible to apply a changeless revelation to changing conditions, but they also presented a dilemma. The interpreter might modernize by reading into his Bible ideas that were not in the minds of its writers, or he might quench his own creative insights by fearing to go beyond what was written. Those who modernized the Old Testament were beset with the perils of incipient Gnosticism, while those who, like the Sadducees, accepted nothing but the written Torah could misuse it to obstruct social and religious progress. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 431-432)  
To submit to circumcision would have betrayed the truth of the gospel because it contradicted the principle that all is of grace and grace is for all (2:5). Perpetuated in the church of Christ, the kosher code and other Jewish customs would have destroyed the fellowship. Few things could have hurt the feelings and heaped more indignity upon the Gentiles than the spiritual snobbery of refusing to eat with them.  
The tragedy of division was proportional to the sincerity of men’s scruples. The Jews were brought up to believe that eating with Gentiles was a flagrant violation of God’s revealed will which would bring down his terrible wrath. How strongly both sides felt appears in Paul’s account of the stormy conference at Jerusalem and the angry dispute that followed it at Antioch (2:1-14). Paul claimed that refusal to eat with a Gentile brother would deny that the grace of Christ was sufficient to make him worthy of the kingdom. If all men were sons of God through Christ, there could be no classes of Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female (3:26-28). What mattered was neither circumcision not uncircumcision, but only faith and a new act of creation by the Spirit (5:6; 6”15). (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 433)  
Church unity was essential to the success of Christian missions. Friction between Aramaic and Greek-speaking Jewish Christians in Palestine had to be eliminated (Acts 6:1). The death of Stephen and a special vision to Peter were required to convince the conservatives of the propriety of admitting the Gentiles on an equality with the Jews; and even Peter was amazed that God had given them the same gift of the Spirit (Act 11: 1-18). This hesitation was potentially fatal to the spread of Christianity beyond Palestine. Many Gentiles had been attracted by the pure monotheism and high morality of Judaism but were not willing to break with their native culture by submitting to the painful initiatory rite and social stigma of being a Jew…. Had the church kept circumcision as a requirement for membership, it could not have freed itself from Jewish nationalism.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 433)  
III. Some Characteristics of Paul’s Thinking  
… “the law” of which Paul is speaking does not coincide with “law” in a twentieth-century state with representative government. His Greek word was νομος [nomos], an inadequate translation of the Hebrew “Torah,” which included much more than “law” as we use the term. [When “תורה ThORaH” appears in the text I translate it as “Instruction” – its literal definition - capitalized.] Torah was teaching on any subject concerning the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures. Since the Jews did not divide life into two compartments labeled “religious” and “secular,” their law covered both their spiritual and their civil life. Nor did Paul and his fellow Jews think in terms of “nature” and the “natural law.” They believed that everything that happened was God’s doing, directly or by his permission. The messiah was expected to restore the ancient theocracy with its power over both civil and religious affairs.  
The Gentiles too were accustomed to state regulation of religion and priestly control of civil affairs. The Greek city-states had always managed the relations of their citizens with the gods, and Alexander the Great prepared the way for religious imperialism. When he invaded Asia, he consolidated his power by the ancient Oriental idea that the ruler was a god or a son of God. His successors, in their endless wars over the fragments of his empire, adopted the same device. Posing as “savior-gods,” they liberated their victims by enslaving them. The Romans did likewise, believing that the safety of their empire depended upon correct legal relations with the gods who had founded it. … Each city had its temple dedicated to the emperor, and its patriotic priests to see that everyone burned incense before his statue. Having done this, the worshiper was free under Roman ‘tolerance’ to adopt any other legal religion. … Whether salvation was offered in the name of the ancient gods of the Orient, or of Greece, or of the emperor of Rome, or of Yahweh the theocratic king of the Jews, the favor of the deity was thought to depend upon obedience to his law.  
One did not therefore have to be a Jew to be a legalist in religion. … Since Paul’s first converts were drawn from Gentiles who had been attending the synagogues, it is easy to see how Gentile Christians could be a zealous to add Moses to Christ as the most conservative Jew.  
This is what gave the Judaizers their hold in Galatia. The rivalry between the synagogue, which was engaged in winning men to worship the God of Moses, and the church, which was preaching the God who had revealed himself in Christ Jesus, was bound to raise the issue of legalism and stir up doubts about the sufficiency of Christ.  
Gentile and Jewish Christians alike would regard Paul’s preaching of salvation apart from the merit acquired by obedience to law as a violently revolutionary doctrine. Fidelity to his declaration of religious independence from all mediating rulers and priesthoods required a spiritual maturity of which most who heard his preaching were not yet capable. … Paul’s gospel has always been in danger of being stifled by those who would treat the teachings of Jesus as laws to be enforced by a hierarchy. (Stamm, TIB 1953, X pp. 434-435)  
V. Environment of Paul’s Churches in Galatia  
The conclusion concerning the destination of the epistle does not involve the essentials of its religious message, but it does affect our understanding of certain passages, such as 3:1 and 41:12, 20.  
From the earliest times that part of the world had been swept by the cross tides of migration and struggle for empire. The third millennium found the Hittites in possession. In the second millennium the Greeks and Phrygians came spilling over from Europe, and in the first millennium the remaining power of the Hittites was swept away by Babylon and Persia. Then came the turn of the Asiatic tide into Europe, only to be swept back again by Alexander the Great. But the Greek cities with which he and his successors dotted the map of Asia were like anthills destined to be leveled by Oriental reaction.  
About 278 B.C. new turmoil came with the Gauls, who were shunted from Greece and crossed into Asia to overrun Phrygia. Gradually the Greek kings succeeded in pushing them up into the central highlands, where they established themselves in the region of Ancyra. Thus located, they constituted a perpetually disturbing element, raiding the Greek cities and furnishing soldiers now to one, and now to another of the rival kings. Then in 121 B.C. came the Romans to 'set free' Galatia by making it a part of their own Empire. By 40 B.C. there were three kingdoms, with capitals at Ancyra, Pisidian Antioch, and Iconium. Four years later Lycaonia and Galatia were given to Amyntas the king of Pisidia. He added Pamphylia and part of Cilicia to his kingdom. But he was killed in 25 B.C., and the Romans made his dominion into the province of Galatia, which was thus much larger than the territory inhabited by the Gauls. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 437-438)  
War and slavery, poverty, disease, and famine made life hard and uncertain. In religion and philosophy men were confused by this meeting of East and West. But man’s extremity was Paul’s opportunity. The soil of the centuries had been plowed and harrowed for his new, revolutionary gospel of grace and freedom.  
Not all, however, were ready for this freedom. The old religions with prestige and authority seemed safer. Most Jews preferred Moses, and among the Gentiles the hold of the Great Mother Cybele of Phrygia was not easily shaken. Paul’s converts, bringing their former ideas and customs with them, were all too ready to reshape his gospel into a combination of Christ with their ancient laws and rituals. The old religions were especially tenacious in the small villages, whose inhabitants spoke the native languages and were inaccessible to the Greek-speaking Paul. To this gravitational attraction of the indigenous cults was added the more sophisticated syncretism of the city dwellers, pulling Paul’s churches away from his gospel when the moral demands of his faith and the responsibilities of his freedom became irksome. This was the root of the trouble in Galatia. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 438)  
VI. Date and Place of Writing  
Some consider it the earliest of Paul’s extant letters and place it in 49 … In support of this date it is said that Paul, who had come from Perga by boat, was met by messengers from Galatia, who had taken the shorter route by land. They reported the disturbance which had arisen in his churches soon after his departure. He could not go back immediately to straighten things out in person, because he saw that he would have to settle the matter first in Jerusalem, whence the troublemakers had come. So he wrote a letter.  
But … [w]e do not know that the trouble in Galatia was stirred up by emissaries from the church in Jerusalem … Moreover, this solution overlooks the crux of the issue between Paul and the legalists. His contention was that neither circumcision nor the observance of any other law was the basis of salvation, but only faith in God’s grace through Christ. … On the matter of kosher customs, as on every other question, he directed men to the mind and Spirit of Christ, and not to law, either Mosaic or apostolic. That mind was a Spirit of edification which abstained voluntarily from all that defiled or offended.  
We may say that the situation [in Galatia] was different – that in Macedonia it was persecution from outside by Jews who were trying to prevent Paul’s preaching, whereas in Galatia it was trouble inside the church created by legalistic Christians who were proposing to change his teaching; that in one case the issue was justification by faith, and in the other faithfulness while waiting for the day of the Lord.  
The letter to the Romans, written during the three months in Greece mentioned in Acts 20:2-3, is our earliest commentary on Galatians. In it the relation between the law and the gospel is set forth in the perspective of Paul’s further experience. The brevity and storminess of Galatians gives way to a more complete and calmly reasoned presentation of his gospel. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 438 - 439)  
At Corinth, as in Galatia, Paul had to defend his right to be an apostle against opponents heartless enough to turn against him the cruel belief that physical illness was a sign of God’s disfavor … and they charged him with being a crafty man-pleaser … He exhorts his converts to put away childish things and grow up in faith, hope and love…  
Most childish of all were the factions incipient in Galatia, and actual in Corinth … He abandoned the kosher customs and all other artificial distinctions between Jews and Gentiles and laid the emphasis where it belonged – upon the necessity for God’s people to establish and maintain a higher morality and spiritual life… He substituted a catholic spirit for partisan loyalties ... (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 440-441)  
VII. Authorship and Attestation  
If Paul wrote anything that goes under his name, it was Galatians, Romans, and the letters to Corinth. … F.C. Baur and his followers tried to show that the letters ascribed to Paul were the product of a second-century conflict between a Judaist party and the liberals in the church, and that they were written by Paulinists who used his name and authority to promote their own ideas.  
[But] the earliest mention of the epistle by name occurs in the canon of the Gnostic heretic Marcion (ca. [approximately] 144). He put it first in his list of ten letters of Paul. A generation later the orthodox Muratorian canon (ca. 185) listed it as the sixth of Paul’s letters. … While the first explicit reference to Galatians as a letter of Paul is as late as the middle of the second century … the authors of Ephesians and the Gospel of John knew it; and Polycarp in his letter to the Philippians quoted it. Revelation, I Peter, Hebrew, I Clement, and Ignatius show acquaintance with it; and there is evidence that the writer of the Epistle of James knew Galatians, as did the authors of II Peter and the Pastoral epistle, and Justin Martyr and Athenagoras. (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 441-442)  
VIII. Text and Transmission  
Although the epistle was composed neither carelessly nor hastily, the anxiety and emotional stress under which Paul dictated his cascading thoughts have produced some involved and obscure sentences … and a number of abrupt transitions… These have been a standing invitation to scribal clarification. … Paul’s debate with his critics takes the form of a diatribe, which is characterized by quotations from past or anticipated objectors and rapid-fire answers to them. Paul did not use quotation marks, and this accounts for the difficulty in 2:14-15 of deciding where his speech to Peter ends. The numerous allusions to person and places, events and teachings, with which Paul assumed his readers to be acquainted, are another source of difficulty. All theses factors operated to produce the numerous variations in the text of Galatians." (Stamm, 1953, TIB p. 442)  
From Adam Clarke’s Commentaryⁱ :  
"The authenticity of this epistle is ably vindicated by Dr. Paley: the principal part of his arguments I shall here introduce …  
'Section I.  
As Judea was the scene of the Christian history; as the author and preachers of Christianity were Jews; as the religion itself acknowledged and was founded upon the Jewish religion, in contra distinction to every other religion, then professed among mankind: it was not to be wondered at, that some its teachers should carry it out in the world rather as a sect and modification of Judaism, than as a separate original revelation; or that they should invite their proselytes to those observances in which they lived themselves. ... I … think that those pretensions of Judaism were much more likely to be insisted upon, whilst the Jews continued a nation, than after their fall and dispersion; while Jerusalem and the temple stood, than after the destruction brought upon them by the Roman arms, the fatal cessation of the sacrifice and the priesthood, the humiliating loss of their country, and, with it, of the great rites and symbols of their institution. It should seem, therefore, from the nature of the subject and the situation of the parties, that this controversy was carried on in the interval between the preaching of Christianity to the Gentiles, and the invasion of Titus: and that our present epistle ... must be referred to the same period.  
… the epistle supposes that certain designing adherents of the Jewish law had crept into the churches of Galatia; and had been endeavouring, and but too successfully, to persuade the Galatic converts, that they had been taught the new religion imperfectly, and at second hand; that the founder of their church himself possessed only an inferior and disputed commission, the seat of truth and authority being in the apostles and elders of Jerusalem; moreover, that whatever he might profess among them, he had himself, at other times and in other places, given way to the doctrine of circumcision. The epistle is unintelligible without supposing all this. (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 361)  
Section VII.  
This epistle goes farther than any of St. Paul’s epistles; for it avows in direct terms the supersession of the Jewish law, as an instrument of salvation, even to the Jews themselves. Not only were the Gentiles exempt from its authority, but even the Jews were no longer either to place any dependency upon it, or consider themselves as subject to it on a religious account. "Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto faith which should afterward be revealed: wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but, after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Chap. [chapter] iii. 23-25) This was undoubtedly spoken of Jews, and to Jews. … What then should be the conduct of a Jew (for such St. Paul was) who preached this doctrine? To be consistent with himself, either he would no longer comply, in his own person, with the directions of the law; or, if he did comply, it would be some other reason than any confidence which he placed in its efficacy, as a religious institution. (Clarke, 1831, vol. II pp. 366-367)  
Preface  
The religion of the ancient Galatae was extremely corrupt and superstitious: and they are said to have worshipped the mother of the gods, under the name of Agdistis; and to have offered human sacrifices of the prisoners they took in war.  
They are mentioned by historians as a tall and valiant people, who went nearly naked; and used for arms only a sword and buckler. The impetuosity of their attack is stated to have been irresistible…’” (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 369)  
From The New Jerome Biblical Commentaryⁱⁱ  
"Introduction  
The Galatai, originally an Indo-Aryan tribe of Asia, were related to the Celts or Gauls (“who in their own language are called Keltae, but in ours Galli”) ... About 279 BC some of them invaded the lower Danube area and Macedonia, descending even into the Gk [Greek] peninsula. After they were stopped by the Aetolians in 278, a remnant fled across the Hellespont into Asia Minor …  
Occasion and Purpose  
… He … stoutly maintained that the gospel he had preached, without the observance of the Mosaic practices, was the only correct view of Christianity … Gal [Galatians] thus became the first expose` of Paul’s teaching about justification by grace through faith apart from deeds prescribed by the law; it is Paul’s manifesto about Christian freedom.  
... Who were the agitators in Galatia? … they are best identified as Jewish Christians of Palestine, of an even stricter Jewish background than Peter, Paul, or James, or even of the ‘false brethren' (2:4) of Jerusalem, whom Paul had encountered there. (The account in Acts 15:5 would identify the latter as ‘believers who had belonged to the sect of the Pharisees.’) … The agitators in Galatia were Judaizers, who insisted not on the observance of the whole Mosaic law, but at least on circumcision and the observance of some other Jewish practices. Paul for this reason warned the Gentile Christians of Galatia that their fascination with ‘circumcision’ would oblige them to keep ‘the whole law’ (5:3). The agitators may have been syncretists of some sort: Christians of Jewish perhaps Essene, background, affected by some Anatolian influences. … (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC pp. 780-781)   END NOTES
ⁱ The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The text carefully printed from the most correct copies of the present Authorized Version. Including the marginal readings and parallel texts. With a Commentary and Critical Notes. Designed as a help to a better understanding of the sacred writings. By Adam Clarke, LL.D. F.S.A. M.R.I.A. With a complete alphabetical index. Royal Octavo Stereotype Edition. Vol. II. [Vol. VI together with the O.T.] New York, Published by J. Emory and B. Waugh, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the conference office, 13 Crosby-Street. J. Collord, Printer. 1831.  
ⁱⁱ The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Edited by Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Union Theological Seminary, New York; NY, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. (emeritus) Catholic University of America, Washington, DC; Roland E. Murphy, O.Carm. (emeritus) The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, NC, with a foreword by His Eminence Carlo Maria Cardinal Martini, S.J.; Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1990  
  Chapter One  
…  

Tiding of [בשורת, BeSOoRahTh, Gospel] one
[verses 6-10]  

…  

…………………………………………  
How [כיצד, KaYTsahD] was [היה, HahYaH] Shah`OoL [“Lender”, Saul, Paul] to become a Sent Forth [Apostle]
[verses 11 to end of chapter]  

…  
Chapter Two  

Sending forth of Shah’OoL required upon hands of the Sent Forth
[verses 1-10]  

…  

…………………………………………  
The YeHOo-DeeYM [“YHVH-ites”, Judeans] and the nations, righteous from inside belief
[verses 11 to end of chapter]  

...
-16. And since [וכיון, VeKhayVahN] that know, we, that [כי, KeeY] the ’ahDahM [“man”, Adam] is not made righteous in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction [Torah, law],
rather in belief of the Anointed [המשיח, HahMahSheeY-ahH, the Messiah, the Christ] YayShOo`ah [“Savior”, Jesus],
believe, also we, in Anointed YayShOo`ah,
to sake we are made righteous from inside belief in Anointed,
and not in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction,
that yes, in realizing commandments [of] the Instruction is not made righteous any [כל, KahL] flesh.  

“As a Pharisee, Paul had been taught that works of law were deeds done in obedience to the Torah, contrasted with things done according to one’s own will. The object of this obedience was to render oneself acceptable to God – to ‘justify’ oneself. Having found this impossible, Paul reinforced the evidence from his own experience by Ps. [Psalm] 143:2, where the sinner prays God not to enter into judgment with him because in God’s sight no man living is righteous. Into this passage from the LXX [The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible] Paul inserted ‘by works of law,’ and wrote σαρξ [sarx], ‘flesh,’ instead of ζων [zon], ‘one living.’ This quotation warns us against setting Paul’s salvation by grace over against Judaism in such a way as to obscure the fact that the Jews depended also upon God’s lovingkindness and tender mercies (I Kings 8:46; Job 10:14-15; 14:3-4; Prov. [Proverbs] 20:9; Eccl. [Ecclesiasticus] 7:20; Mal. [Malachi] 3:2; Dan. [Daniel] 9:18).” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 483)  
“Justified is a metaphor from the law court. The Greek verb is δικαιοω [dikaioo], the noun δικαιοσουνη [dikaiosoune’], the adjective δικαιος [dikaios]. The common root is δικ [dik] as in δεικνυμι [deiknumi], ‘point out,’ ‘show.’ The words formed on this root point to a norm or standard to which persons and things must conform in order to be ‘right.’ The English ‘right’ expresses the same idea, being derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘richt,’ which means ‘straight,’ not crooked, ‘upright,’ not oblique. The verb δικαιοω means ‘I think it right.’ A man is δικαιος, ‘right’ when he conforms to the standard of acceptable character and conduct, and δικαιοσυνη, ‘righteousness,’ ‘justice,’ is the state or quality of this conformity. In the LXX these Greek words translate a group of Hebrew words formed on the root צדק [TsehDehQ], and in Latin the corresponding terms are justifico, justus, and justificatio. In all four languages the common idea is the norm by which persons and things are to be tested. Thus in Hebrew a wall is ‘righteous’ when it conforms to the plumb line, a man when he does God’s will.  
From earliest boyhood Paul had tried to be righteous. But there came a terrible day when he said ‘I will covet’ to the law’s ‘Thou shalt not,’ and in that defiance he had fallen out of right relation to God and into the ‘wrath,’ where he ‘died’ spiritually… Thenceforth all his efforts, however strenuous, to get ‘right’ with God were thwarted by the weakness of his sinful human nature, the ‘flesh’ (σαρξ) [sarx]. That experience of futility led him to say that a man is not justified by works ‘of law.’” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 483)  

[Actually Paul changed his point of view as a result of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, not as a result of intellectual contemplation. His many failures hitherto had not led him to this conclusion. The description of Paul in the preceding paragraph is a fiction.]  

“In the eyes of the psalmists and rabbis this was blasphemously revolutionary. Resting on God’s covenant with Abraham, they held it axiomatic that the ‘righteous’ man who had conscientiously done his part deserved to be vindicated before a wicked world; otherwise God could not be righteous. … In Judaism God was thought of as forgiving only repentant sinners who followed their repentance with right living …  
The theological expression for this conception of salvation is ‘justification by faith.’ Unfortunately this Latin word does not make plain Paul’s underlying religious experience, which was a change of status through faith from a wrong to a ‘right’ relationship with God… It conceals from the English reader the fact that the Greek word also means ‘righteousness.’ … (observe the ASV [American Standard Version] mg. [marginal note], ‘accounted righteous’).  
But ‘reckoned’ and ‘accounted’ expose Paul’s thought to misinterpretation by suggesting a legal fiction which God adopted to escape the contradiction between his acceptance of sinners and his own righteousness and justice.  
On the other hand, Paul’s term, in the passive, cannot be translated by ‘made righteous’ without misrepresenting him. In baptism he had ‘died with Christ’ to sin. By this definition the Christian is a person who does not sin! And yet Paul does not say that he is sinless, but that he must not sin. … This laid him open to a charge of self contradiction; sinless and yet not sinless, righteous and unrighteous, just and unjust at the same time. Some interpreters have labeled it ‘paradox,’ but such a superficial dismissal of the problem is religiously barren and worse than useless.  
The extreme difficulty of understanding Paul on this matter has led to a distinction between ‘justification’ and ‘sanctification,’ which obscures Paul’s urgency to be now, at this very moment, what God in accepting him says he is: a righteous man in Christ Jesus. Justification is reduced to a forensic declaration by which God acquits and accepts the guilty criminal, and sanctification is viewed as a leisurely process of becoming the kind of person posited by that declaration. This makes perfection seem far less urgent than Paul conceived it, and permits the spiritual inertia of human nature to continue its habit of separating religion from ethics. To prevent this misunderstanding it is necessary to keep in mind the root meaning of ‘righteousness’ in δικαιοω and its cognates.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 484-485)  

-19. I died according to [לגבי, LeGahBaY] the Instruction, because of [בגלל, BeeGLahL] the Instruction, in order [כדי, KeDaY] that I will live to God.  

“… The Pharisees taught that the Torah was the life element of the Jews; all who obeyed would live, those who did not would die (Deut. [Deuteronomy] 30:11-20).” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 488-489)  

-20. With the Anointed I was crucified, and no more I live, rather the Anointed lives in me.
The life that I live now in flesh, I live them in the belief of Son [of] the Gods that loved me and delivered up [ומסר, OoMahÇahR] himself in my behalf [בעדי, Bah`ahDeeY].  

“The danger was that Paul’s Gentile converts might claim freedom in Christ but reject the cross-bearing that made it possible. Lacking the momentum of moral discipline under Moses, which prepared Paul to make right use of his freedom, they might imagine that his dying and rising with Christ was a magical way of immortalizing themselves by sacramental absorption of Christ’s divine substance in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The church has always been tempted to take Paul’s crucifixion with Christ in a symbolic sense only, or as an experience at baptism which is sacramentally automatic. It has also been tempted to reduce Paul’s ‘faith’ to bare belief and assent to his doctrine, and to equate his ‘righteousness’ with a fictitious imputation by a Judge made lenient by Christ’s death.  
Against these caricatures of ‘justification by faith,’ Paul’s whole life and all his letters are a standing protest. He never allows us to forget that to be crucified with Christ is to share the motives, the purposes, and the way of life that led Jesus to the Cross; to take up vicariously the burden of the sins of others, forgiving and loving instead of condemning them; to make oneself the slave of every man; to create unity and harmony by reconciling man to God and man to his fellow men; to pray without ceasing ‘Thy will be done’; to consign one’s life to God, walking by faith where one cannot see; and finally to leave this earth with the prayer ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.’  
… When Christ the Spirit came to live in Paul … Paul was guided at each step, in each new circumstance, to answer for himself the question: What would Jesus have me do? And the answer was always this: Rely solely on God’s grace through Christ, count others better than yourself, and make yourself everybody’s slave after the manner of the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.  
… The phrase εν σαρκι [en sarki] … means, lit. [literally], in the flesh. Someday – Paul hoped it would be soon – this would be changed into a body like that of the risen Christ, which belonged to the realm of Spirit.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X pp. 490-493)  
“Christ lives in me: The perfection of Christian life is expressed here … it reshapes human beings anew, supplying them with a new principle of activity on the ontological¹ level of their very beings.” (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC p. 785)  

-21. I do not nullify [מבטל, MeBahTayL] [את, ’ehTh (indicator of direct object; no English equivalent)] mercy [of] Gods;
is not if [it] is possible to become righteous upon hand of the Instruction, see, that the Anointed died to nothing [לשוא, LahShahVe’]?  

“It is not I, he says, who am nullifying the grace of God by abandoning the law which is his grace-gift to Israel, but those who insist on retaining that law in addition to the grace which he has now manifested in Christ.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 495)

  Footnotes   ¹ Ontological - relating to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being  
An Amateur's Journey Through the Bible

Case History
38 Year Male, Software Professional. Desk Job
· 2018: Foot injury
Active, played Volleyball and Cricket.
Aichiles Tendonitis left foot/ankle following a sports injury. X-Ray showed bone growth.
Lasery Therapy late in the year. Immense pain on walking, standing. Starting using right foot more. Used insoles, which reduced pain.
· 2019: Start of Groin Pain, Right Leg
March – Kidney stone. Intraveneous Opiod in Chicago IL, USA. Post that developed groin pain in right. Urologist ruled out kidney related pain. No sports.
Laying on left caused pinching pain in right thigh/groin.
November2019: X-Ray/MRI of Pelvis : Nothing abnormal
Dr daignosed HIP IMPINGEMENT FAI Right Hip, based on symptoms. Redced motion in right leg
· 2020: Covid, WFH. Pain: 2-3/10
Sedentary Lifestyle recoverng after Covid weakness. Ease in foot pain, due to limited motion.
No more groin pain, put it shifted to front thigs. Never really tested range of motion.
· 2021: Grade-III Fatty Liver, HT, Metabolic Syndrome, Insulin Resistance
Back to India. Sedentary. Weight 107 Kgs by December. Working from Home. Back stiffness. Pain: 2-3/10
· 2022: Weight Loss Journey. Very less Pain

• Lost 19 Kgsin 6 months by June-2022. Low Carb diet, Walked 6-10 Kms daily with No Exercise.
• Muscle loss in calves.
• Blood work great. BP in control. Borderline Diabetes reversed.
• No more back stiffness.
• July-Dec: Reduced walking, steady weight gain, mostly muscles: 93 Kgs by December.
• Hips hurt while long hours of sitting. Tail Bone Pain
• No Hip Pain while laying on left (as earlier). Overall stiffness in right front thigh on sitting 2/10.

2023: Bilateral FAI with bony spurs. Reduced angles. Early arthritis changes?
CURRENT: Daily activities hurt.

• Laying on left side hurts.
• Laying Straight hurts. ROM Limited. Laying in right doesn’t hurt.
• Stretched right lower back(psoas?) while doing lateral heavy band mobilisation.
• Pain in lower right back Walking hurts after 15 mins. Tried PT. Increased pain. RT > LT

In Short, Resting/sitting Hurts. Standing doesn’t. walking after a while hurts. Pain: 5-6/10. Need to find postures that don’t hurt while sleeping/sitting.
I am not looking for medical advice but DO I really need surgery? All reports attached.
Will arthroscopy(shaving) be helpful or THA? My Ortho Dr has referred me to a sports specialist, which I am yet to visit. My Dr doesnt do arthroscopy. He does THR of HIP and Knee.
CT Pelvis
​
MRI Pelvis
📷
Left Hip
​
Right Hip
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https://preview.redd.it/xga2e5if3m3b1.jpg?width=1232&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4149407c7d00481c06033c5ba5281cb6f791d51

Hello! I have been keto for about 3 weeks. 31F, 113 lbs and I’m TTC (queer & 5 failed IUI in) I’m generally healthy, I am not trying to lose weight but to gain muscle, bulk up a bit. Low BP, no known fertility issues, have had all the regular tests.
I decided to try keto bc my partner did it last year and she loved how much energy it gave her and how it boosted her mood. I have generalized anxiety, and have been diagnosed with IBS, and recently have been having bad joint inflammation. Ive read on the keto sub that the keto diet has helped people with all these things - but my biggest reason for doing it is the potential benefits to fertility.
However, I’m curious: is the benefit of keto for fertility that it can help with weight loss, which for someone who is obese or overweight can impede fertility? I’ve also read that it can regulate cycles for people with PCOS, which I see how that would also benefit fertility but I don’t have PCOS and my cycles are quite regular. I’m also curious about why some peoples periods on keto are referred to shark week, are they heavier? Does it perhaps correlate to the uterine lining?
I suppose I’m seeking info - scientific, anecdotes, or otherwise, about how the keto diet can support fertility. I have established care with a new re clinic, and will ask the dr as well, but since I’m moving cities and getting an appointment takes so dang long, it’s not until august. I appreciate any thoughts/info in the meantime!