Really appreciate the update. Most concerning is the attack in Amsterdam. I am forwarding that article to some folks who are in denial about how much Jew hate has been both created and tolerated through the supposedly 'pro-palestinian' rhetoric.
The Dutch king has come out and condemned the attack now, saying that the Netherlands failed the Jews just like they failed in WW2. It is interesting to see that some media people did try to both sides for awhile (cue the BBC) but the Dutch establishment have been completely appalled by it. The police are investigating if taxi apps were used to coordinate the attacks. I suspect quite a large number of taxis must be owned/operated by recent immigrants (as is the case in the UK and Germany)
Well it's about damn time for more western leaders to come out strongly against this Jew hate BS. They have tolerated it and given tacit permission for all the pro Palestinian crap and hopefully now they will rethink that. Anyone with half a brain could see this coming and anyone with a bit of moral backbone would have chopped it off at the pass before it came to this.
I personally am gob smacked ( a little British lingo there eh?) that Trump made a woman Chief of Staff. I mean how dare he! That’s a democrat policy, to believe all women and to elevate them. I know a democrat should have done that but they were too busy standing up for women’s abortion that hitler Trump would have taken away. I mean what would YOU rather have, a female in a high competent role, and men out of women’s sports or an abortion a month.
Good for Trump and good for her. No doubt she’ll be stellar.
The chief of staff is not a 'post turtle' role. As I am sure you know a 'post turtle' is someone who looks the part but has no idea why they have been elevated that high or how to actually do anything in that role. One could argue that Harris was a 'post turtle' as she certainly appears to have been a Diversity hire on steroids.
Competency means you are far more likely to get others following in their wake. For example, can anyone doubt that a woman can be a leader of a powerful Western nation after Thatcher? You have also had Merkel and Meloni as powerful leaders. Both May and Truss were v flawed. In my opinion it is only a matter of time before the US does have a female president who is there on merit (which means it is highly likely to be a Republican)
I didn’t know Susie Wiles was Pat Summerall’s daughter! Summerall and Madden are still the BEST team of broadcasters ever.
As for NYC news, Eric Adams, who has spoken out about the impact hundreds of thousands of migrants are having on the city, announced that the free meals program would now end. This is supposedly after a phone call with Trump.
If you’re on X, two accounts to follow are @CrimeinNYC and @ViralNewsNYC. Both have followed the migrant crisis and document the problems that MSM (with the exception of the NY Post) ignore.
For the record, I feel terrible for the women and children migrants and anyone who wants to come here and work for a better life. The Biden administration did no favors for these people. On the other hand, the gang members need to go. Had Harris been elected this would have gone on indefinitely.
I didn't know it either until I read that this morning and I thought -- oh it makes sense then. And yes to the Summerall Madden combo.
The current situation is doing no one any favours. It is being used by people who want to exploit workers. Yes to orderly immigration, but the US and the West in general can not be the dumping ground for people who have terrible lives in their own countries. They need to clean up those messes. Haiti devolving down to anarchy is not going to be solved by allowing all Haitians to enter into the US at will, for example. In fact, nothing is likely to alter. If you have ever read The Comedians by Graham Greene, you will know the problems in Haiti have been known for many years -- back to the era of Papa Doc and then Baby Doc with the rampant corruption.
If people come to a country, they have to be willing to leave their mores, customs etc and embrace the mores and customs of the new country. I know I had to do this for the UK. I did have to jump through many hoops -- first to get my visa and then to get my citizenship. Assimilation must happen. Otherwise it resembles an invasion and it is the poorest and most vulnerable of a country's citizens who lose out.
Agree on all points. And the people I know here who are most against it are the legal immigrants who had to hire attorneys, got no hand out and worked their butts off.
Women and children are trafficked to be sex slaves or just slaves. 325,000 children are missing. Allowing children to be trafficked here is child abuse and it’s child abuse by their parents and it’s child abuse by the Biden homeland security.
No illegal should be here and I am all in on sending them all home period. No exceptions. If they are found they are gone. We can’t afford them and the only people that want them are exploiters. Hopefully many will self deport, particularly if the freebees stop. You know, the free housing, the free medical, the free schooling, the free debit cards, the free food.
Hello Northumberland! How are You this fine Friday?
And another fine roundup. I wasn't aware of Britshoring. And that was a good article about Susie Wiles.
Those are very strong statements on the gender insanity by President Trump. I wish him good luck with all that. I'm glad to see the UK continue the ban on puberty blockers.
That's shocking about Justin Welby. But maybe it shouldn't be.
And that is a shame about the attack on Jews in the Netherlands.
That's interesting about the bees. And sorry to hear Paddy was so unsettled.
TY, as always, Michelle. Wishing You good luck on the writing next week.
The Britshoring thing is interesting. I knew a little bit about it as friends of my eldest are employed by US firms in the UK.
I think Susie Wiles is interesting and the chief of staff does really serve as Mayor of the Palace/gatekeeper. I hope she does a good job as the country needs her to do this.
The attack on the Jews in the Netherlands is just shameful. The Dutch government have come out strongly and said that anti-Semitism of this nature will not be tolerated. They are still arresting people. It does go to show that there has been a serious misconnect in the teaching about why such things are not to be tolerated. I suspect if you suppress something like that without actually digging it out all it does is fester. The problem needs to be sorted at the source and in this case, it appears to be in the local Arab communities who are residing in the Netherlands. They need to learn that they must behave by Dutch norms if they wish to reside in that country.
Paddy is better now. I think he just isn't used to the firework noise. He was not as bad as the first collie was but he did not like the bangs at all.
"mincemeat (which is basically vine fruit, booze and suet)" Oh my, this brought back memories from my youth (5 decades ago). My Irish/Dutch ancestry mom made that stuff for my English/Welsh/German ancestry dad. He loved it but the sight of it being "fermented" made me and my brothers run in fear. Never tried it. Neither did I try the Limburger cheese my dad loved.
Just finished on Audible The Siege. Really good and wonderfully read by the author, Ben MacIntyre. The 1980 take over of the Iranian Embassy in London by Iranian-Arab dissident from "Arabistan" prompted by Saddam and Abu Nidal. Excellent and a study in the confusion and fog of hostage taking and negotiations.
Still slogging my way through "The Unwinding" based on your recommend. It is very good. Tells a side of the US in the 2000s not often told. It is a bit one sided and omits some successes and entrepreunurial growth here. That said, the devastation wrought by the Clintons and Bushes and Obamas is poorly understood here. I am hoping that the presence of folks like RFKJr and Tulsi Gabbard might educate Trump unlike the Paulson's and other Wall Streeters who inevitably inhabit any American Administration.
3 Hs -- Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi. IR - Islamic Republic of Iran (ie the current rulers of Iran). Many Iranians wish to see the IR gone.
I was not a fan of mincemeat pies until I spent my Junior Year Abroad -- they were everywhere and it was considered impolite to refuse them. They are the small tart sized. I have grown to like them.
So pleased you enjoyed the Siege.
And yes I know The Unwinding gets some things wrong -- I had to explain to my eldest who originally recommended it to me that how Packer described the Silicon Valley in the 1970s/1980s wasn't precisely accurate. It is a bit one-sided but he does detail the problems with deindustrialization, how the lack of successor industries leads to a downward spiral, the problems with occupational mobility, plus how medical insurance in the US became this huge perk and then was cut. I know why the UK went to socialized medicine (devastation of WW2) but the US chose a different route. I am not sure either route is entirely fit for purpose any more. Packer is scathing on the Occupy Wall Street movement btw.
It is going to be interesting to see if the new Trump administration can do anything to alter the course of the domestic problems and halt the off-shoring. There does need to be a return to small manufacturing etc. I found the book v interesting and the Biden administration turned out to be basically what I thought it would on the basis of the book, including there being many unexploded mines in Bidenland. My eldest told me that he thought it was the best explanation he had read up to that point in mid-2020 about why the US was the way it was.
I made mincemeat pie a few years ago, just as an experiment. But, as is my wont, I made it the old-school way with actual meat in it. And real fruit instead of that nonsense in a jar.
I didn't really care for it, but I didn't expect to. My parents made mincemeat pie at Thanksgiving every year, and I didn't like back then, either. But all the people who *are* fans of mincemeat raved over my pie and wanted me to make more. It was so much effort, I haven't been able to bring myself to make it again, no matter that people want to PAY me for said pies.
Nobody in the UK makes it with real meat, except Americans. My mother did that way several times.
People in the UK use suet, usually the ready shredded suet. Once the mixture is made up, it lasts about 5 years. You can add more brandy (I use bourbon) if it is too dry. I use mixed dried fruit, almonds, grated apple, honey and afore mentioned bourbon and then put it in jars. It is an adaptation of an Elizabeth David recipe. It is similar mixture to what goes into the puddings and Christmas cake. I have made my own candied peel in the past (very easy to do) but tend to buy it for this..
Over here, you can't move for the mincepies. They are small hand held pies and are everywhere, rather than the full sized pies. It is considered impolite to refuse them.
You don't get the Christmas cookies which is more of a German thing, although some are over here now partly as a result of Aldi and Lidl which are German discount supermarkets who now operate in the UK. Gingerbread houses are not as popular either. Stollen and panettone are also popular. Christmas cakes are covered in a layer of marzipan and iced with fondant. Fruit cakes are popular over here as celebration cakes. I think the different sorts of baking which goes on for Christmas so interesting.
There are mince pies and there are mince pies. To highlight just how omnipresent the mince pie is in the UK, Custom PC (a magazine for a niche of a niche) did an annual "Mince Pie Megatest" at Xmas time putting a couple of dozen commercial pies through their paces each year just as they would high-end graphics cards. Duchy Originals - a #NotMyKing brand - consistently placed bottom.
You have me salivating: it has never occurred to me that you could make your own mince; I must give that a bash. I didn't know Americans were prone to still including actual meat as originally intended either. Whether they are "good" or "bad" will depend entirely on the cook and their recipe. I refuse sprouts at Xmas because only my Auntie Maureen knows how to make them not only palatable but delicious!
I got suet from the butcher, but I had to shred it myself. Didn't use alcohol, since that's off the table for me.
I love being able to find German Christmas stuff at Aldi. No one else around here sells marzipan candy but them. Not so fond of stollen and panettone, but I adore Jaffa cakes, which they have this time of year.
I make my own fruitcake, but I use real fruit instead of the chemical concoction they sell for making fruitcake here. My dad always used that, and I confess it has a nostalgic flavor that I appreciate, but it's kind of like the aluminum flavor of old-school TV dinners: it's the nostalgia that gives it its savor, not the actual taste.
I love all the Christmas baking and candy making. One year I made Turkish Delight. Based on the reactions of various family members, I came to the conclusion that its something you either love or hate--there seems to be no inbetween (I didn't like and therefore didn't make it again).
You should try making your own marzipan. It is actually very easy to do. You can then shape the fruits etc yourself. Potatoes -- marzipan rolled in unsweetened coca powder is very easy to do.
Turkish Delight is good, but the best stuff is fresh from Istanbul. It is a huge faff to make, having done it.
Jaffa cakes are a Victoria sponge, with a bitter orange jelly/filling and a chocolate ganache if you wish to make a larger version. McVitties famously took it to court when the UK government tried to classify it as a biscuit instead of a cake. They took in a huge cake to help clarify minds.
I think marzipan is one of those acquired tastes. I recoiled at my first taste of marzipan, and yet...there was something about it that kept me coming back to it. And now I *must* have it at Christmas.
I'm with you on Aldi. I'll be round clearing them out of Stollen very shortly. Stumped foe buying me a pressy? Half-a-dozen loaves of Stollen and I'm your friend for life! Alternatively if you want to be shot of me: keep all the Stollen to yourself and I'll storm off, damning you to hell, and you'll never see me again ;-)
Jaffa cakes are ubiquitous in the UK all year round. I used to live fifteen minutes walk from McVities, whose very name is most associated with them here. Very moreish.
I found that not snacking has helped me lose considerable amounts (obviously overeating to a massive degree). I did the 800 diet which Moseley championed earlier this year and the pounds have continued to come off. I am really limiting my intake of traditional carbs in favour of things like whole grains. I am also forgoing potatoes and trying for 30 different plants per week (including tea and coffee).
Really appreciate the update. Most concerning is the attack in Amsterdam. I am forwarding that article to some folks who are in denial about how much Jew hate has been both created and tolerated through the supposedly 'pro-palestinian' rhetoric.
The Dutch king has come out and condemned the attack now, saying that the Netherlands failed the Jews just like they failed in WW2. It is interesting to see that some media people did try to both sides for awhile (cue the BBC) but the Dutch establishment have been completely appalled by it. The police are investigating if taxi apps were used to coordinate the attacks. I suspect quite a large number of taxis must be owned/operated by recent immigrants (as is the case in the UK and Germany)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/08/maccabi-ajax-football-israelis-attacked-palestine-protest/ or https://archive.ph/6FIX8
Well it's about damn time for more western leaders to come out strongly against this Jew hate BS. They have tolerated it and given tacit permission for all the pro Palestinian crap and hopefully now they will rethink that. Anyone with half a brain could see this coming and anyone with a bit of moral backbone would have chopped it off at the pass before it came to this.
I personally am gob smacked ( a little British lingo there eh?) that Trump made a woman Chief of Staff. I mean how dare he! That’s a democrat policy, to believe all women and to elevate them. I know a democrat should have done that but they were too busy standing up for women’s abortion that hitler Trump would have taken away. I mean what would YOU rather have, a female in a high competent role, and men out of women’s sports or an abortion a month.
Good for Trump and good for her. No doubt she’ll be stellar.
V good.
The chief of staff is not a 'post turtle' role. As I am sure you know a 'post turtle' is someone who looks the part but has no idea why they have been elevated that high or how to actually do anything in that role. One could argue that Harris was a 'post turtle' as she certainly appears to have been a Diversity hire on steroids.
Competency means you are far more likely to get others following in their wake. For example, can anyone doubt that a woman can be a leader of a powerful Western nation after Thatcher? You have also had Merkel and Meloni as powerful leaders. Both May and Truss were v flawed. In my opinion it is only a matter of time before the US does have a female president who is there on merit (which means it is highly likely to be a Republican)
I didn’t know Susie Wiles was Pat Summerall’s daughter! Summerall and Madden are still the BEST team of broadcasters ever.
As for NYC news, Eric Adams, who has spoken out about the impact hundreds of thousands of migrants are having on the city, announced that the free meals program would now end. This is supposedly after a phone call with Trump.
If you’re on X, two accounts to follow are @CrimeinNYC and @ViralNewsNYC. Both have followed the migrant crisis and document the problems that MSM (with the exception of the NY Post) ignore.
For the record, I feel terrible for the women and children migrants and anyone who wants to come here and work for a better life. The Biden administration did no favors for these people. On the other hand, the gang members need to go. Had Harris been elected this would have gone on indefinitely.
I didn't know it either until I read that this morning and I thought -- oh it makes sense then. And yes to the Summerall Madden combo.
The current situation is doing no one any favours. It is being used by people who want to exploit workers. Yes to orderly immigration, but the US and the West in general can not be the dumping ground for people who have terrible lives in their own countries. They need to clean up those messes. Haiti devolving down to anarchy is not going to be solved by allowing all Haitians to enter into the US at will, for example. In fact, nothing is likely to alter. If you have ever read The Comedians by Graham Greene, you will know the problems in Haiti have been known for many years -- back to the era of Papa Doc and then Baby Doc with the rampant corruption.
If people come to a country, they have to be willing to leave their mores, customs etc and embrace the mores and customs of the new country. I know I had to do this for the UK. I did have to jump through many hoops -- first to get my visa and then to get my citizenship. Assimilation must happen. Otherwise it resembles an invasion and it is the poorest and most vulnerable of a country's citizens who lose out.
Agree on all points. And the people I know here who are most against it are the legal immigrants who had to hire attorneys, got no hand out and worked their butts off.
The whole situation is terrible.
Women and children are trafficked to be sex slaves or just slaves. 325,000 children are missing. Allowing children to be trafficked here is child abuse and it’s child abuse by their parents and it’s child abuse by the Biden homeland security.
No illegal should be here and I am all in on sending them all home period. No exceptions. If they are found they are gone. We can’t afford them and the only people that want them are exploiters. Hopefully many will self deport, particularly if the freebees stop. You know, the free housing, the free medical, the free schooling, the free debit cards, the free food.
I agree. They never should have been brought here to begin with and the Biden administration doesn’t care about any of them.
Hello Northumberland! How are You this fine Friday?
And another fine roundup. I wasn't aware of Britshoring. And that was a good article about Susie Wiles.
Those are very strong statements on the gender insanity by President Trump. I wish him good luck with all that. I'm glad to see the UK continue the ban on puberty blockers.
That's shocking about Justin Welby. But maybe it shouldn't be.
And that is a shame about the attack on Jews in the Netherlands.
That's interesting about the bees. And sorry to hear Paddy was so unsettled.
TY, as always, Michelle. Wishing You good luck on the writing next week.
So good to 'see' you JT.
The Britshoring thing is interesting. I knew a little bit about it as friends of my eldest are employed by US firms in the UK.
I think Susie Wiles is interesting and the chief of staff does really serve as Mayor of the Palace/gatekeeper. I hope she does a good job as the country needs her to do this.
The attack on the Jews in the Netherlands is just shameful. The Dutch government have come out strongly and said that anti-Semitism of this nature will not be tolerated. They are still arresting people. It does go to show that there has been a serious misconnect in the teaching about why such things are not to be tolerated. I suspect if you suppress something like that without actually digging it out all it does is fester. The problem needs to be sorted at the source and in this case, it appears to be in the local Arab communities who are residing in the Netherlands. They need to learn that they must behave by Dutch norms if they wish to reside in that country.
Paddy is better now. I think he just isn't used to the firework noise. He was not as bad as the first collie was but he did not like the bangs at all.
3Hs and IR? What is that?
"mincemeat (which is basically vine fruit, booze and suet)" Oh my, this brought back memories from my youth (5 decades ago). My Irish/Dutch ancestry mom made that stuff for my English/Welsh/German ancestry dad. He loved it but the sight of it being "fermented" made me and my brothers run in fear. Never tried it. Neither did I try the Limburger cheese my dad loved.
Just finished on Audible The Siege. Really good and wonderfully read by the author, Ben MacIntyre. The 1980 take over of the Iranian Embassy in London by Iranian-Arab dissident from "Arabistan" prompted by Saddam and Abu Nidal. Excellent and a study in the confusion and fog of hostage taking and negotiations.
Still slogging my way through "The Unwinding" based on your recommend. It is very good. Tells a side of the US in the 2000s not often told. It is a bit one sided and omits some successes and entrepreunurial growth here. That said, the devastation wrought by the Clintons and Bushes and Obamas is poorly understood here. I am hoping that the presence of folks like RFKJr and Tulsi Gabbard might educate Trump unlike the Paulson's and other Wall Streeters who inevitably inhabit any American Administration.
3 Hs -- Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi. IR - Islamic Republic of Iran (ie the current rulers of Iran). Many Iranians wish to see the IR gone.
I was not a fan of mincemeat pies until I spent my Junior Year Abroad -- they were everywhere and it was considered impolite to refuse them. They are the small tart sized. I have grown to like them.
So pleased you enjoyed the Siege.
And yes I know The Unwinding gets some things wrong -- I had to explain to my eldest who originally recommended it to me that how Packer described the Silicon Valley in the 1970s/1980s wasn't precisely accurate. It is a bit one-sided but he does detail the problems with deindustrialization, how the lack of successor industries leads to a downward spiral, the problems with occupational mobility, plus how medical insurance in the US became this huge perk and then was cut. I know why the UK went to socialized medicine (devastation of WW2) but the US chose a different route. I am not sure either route is entirely fit for purpose any more. Packer is scathing on the Occupy Wall Street movement btw.
It is going to be interesting to see if the new Trump administration can do anything to alter the course of the domestic problems and halt the off-shoring. There does need to be a return to small manufacturing etc. I found the book v interesting and the Biden administration turned out to be basically what I thought it would on the basis of the book, including there being many unexploded mines in Bidenland. My eldest told me that he thought it was the best explanation he had read up to that point in mid-2020 about why the US was the way it was.
Living in terror of mince pies? The weird phobias of Septics. You poor benighted soul, you don't know what you are missing.
I made mincemeat pie a few years ago, just as an experiment. But, as is my wont, I made it the old-school way with actual meat in it. And real fruit instead of that nonsense in a jar.
I didn't really care for it, but I didn't expect to. My parents made mincemeat pie at Thanksgiving every year, and I didn't like back then, either. But all the people who *are* fans of mincemeat raved over my pie and wanted me to make more. It was so much effort, I haven't been able to bring myself to make it again, no matter that people want to PAY me for said pies.
Nobody in the UK makes it with real meat, except Americans. My mother did that way several times.
People in the UK use suet, usually the ready shredded suet. Once the mixture is made up, it lasts about 5 years. You can add more brandy (I use bourbon) if it is too dry. I use mixed dried fruit, almonds, grated apple, honey and afore mentioned bourbon and then put it in jars. It is an adaptation of an Elizabeth David recipe. It is similar mixture to what goes into the puddings and Christmas cake. I have made my own candied peel in the past (very easy to do) but tend to buy it for this..
Over here, you can't move for the mincepies. They are small hand held pies and are everywhere, rather than the full sized pies. It is considered impolite to refuse them.
You don't get the Christmas cookies which is more of a German thing, although some are over here now partly as a result of Aldi and Lidl which are German discount supermarkets who now operate in the UK. Gingerbread houses are not as popular either. Stollen and panettone are also popular. Christmas cakes are covered in a layer of marzipan and iced with fondant. Fruit cakes are popular over here as celebration cakes. I think the different sorts of baking which goes on for Christmas so interesting.
There are mince pies and there are mince pies. To highlight just how omnipresent the mince pie is in the UK, Custom PC (a magazine for a niche of a niche) did an annual "Mince Pie Megatest" at Xmas time putting a couple of dozen commercial pies through their paces each year just as they would high-end graphics cards. Duchy Originals - a #NotMyKing brand - consistently placed bottom.
You have me salivating: it has never occurred to me that you could make your own mince; I must give that a bash. I didn't know Americans were prone to still including actual meat as originally intended either. Whether they are "good" or "bad" will depend entirely on the cook and their recipe. I refuse sprouts at Xmas because only my Auntie Maureen knows how to make them not only palatable but delicious!
I got suet from the butcher, but I had to shred it myself. Didn't use alcohol, since that's off the table for me.
I love being able to find German Christmas stuff at Aldi. No one else around here sells marzipan candy but them. Not so fond of stollen and panettone, but I adore Jaffa cakes, which they have this time of year.
I make my own fruitcake, but I use real fruit instead of the chemical concoction they sell for making fruitcake here. My dad always used that, and I confess it has a nostalgic flavor that I appreciate, but it's kind of like the aluminum flavor of old-school TV dinners: it's the nostalgia that gives it its savor, not the actual taste.
I love all the Christmas baking and candy making. One year I made Turkish Delight. Based on the reactions of various family members, I came to the conclusion that its something you either love or hate--there seems to be no inbetween (I didn't like and therefore didn't make it again).
You should try making your own marzipan. It is actually very easy to do. You can then shape the fruits etc yourself. Potatoes -- marzipan rolled in unsweetened coca powder is very easy to do.
Turkish Delight is good, but the best stuff is fresh from Istanbul. It is a huge faff to make, having done it.
Jaffa cakes are a Victoria sponge, with a bitter orange jelly/filling and a chocolate ganache if you wish to make a larger version. McVitties famously took it to court when the UK government tried to classify it as a biscuit instead of a cake. They took in a huge cake to help clarify minds.
I LOVE Marzipan! I'm prone to leaving the cake it is wrapped around even.
I think marzipan is one of those acquired tastes. I recoiled at my first taste of marzipan, and yet...there was something about it that kept me coming back to it. And now I *must* have it at Christmas.
I'm with you on Aldi. I'll be round clearing them out of Stollen very shortly. Stumped foe buying me a pressy? Half-a-dozen loaves of Stollen and I'm your friend for life! Alternatively if you want to be shot of me: keep all the Stollen to yourself and I'll storm off, damning you to hell, and you'll never see me again ;-)
Jaffa cakes are ubiquitous in the UK all year round. I used to live fifteen minutes walk from McVities, whose very name is most associated with them here. Very moreish.
Stollen is great -- reasonably easy to make. Plus there is more marzipan. It is basically bread with dried fruit wrapped around marzipan.
I have a recipe which I got from the Times about 30 years ago now and I tend to make it every year.
That too I must have a bash at... but only after I've walked of my waist!
Ah, well -- this is always the battle.
I found that not snacking has helped me lose considerable amounts (obviously overeating to a massive degree). I did the 800 diet which Moseley championed earlier this year and the pounds have continued to come off. I am really limiting my intake of traditional carbs in favour of things like whole grains. I am also forgoing potatoes and trying for 30 different plants per week (including tea and coffee).
Walking is good though.