So it's been a few days, another deadline was missed, and now a blog post about the health benefits of fasting? Are all emulator authors this crazy?
Emulation
Yes I missed the sunday deadline, reasons are I wanted to improve the SMSVDP emulation with the new information found recently. I took the time to also recode a lot of the VDP core to be a bit cleaner and get ready for SG-1000 emulation. The new information nearly completes everything I needed to know about the VDP ,there are still a few more minor details but the emulation accuracy is very high now in the SMS/GAMEGEAR/SEGA-E video cores. I'm going to let people play SG-1000 games on the MARK III in RetroCopy in the next version, most emulators don't allow this and the ones that do aren't accurately doing it.
The MARK III / JAPANESE SMS cartridge slot is compatible with the SG-1000 cartridge slot, and I guess a selling point of the console back then (1985) was backwards compatibility with the ~50 or so SG-1000 games. They do play slightly differently on the SMS than the SG-1000 though. I've also been sprucing up other areas and just doing a lot of general improvement. Configurable input is done which is nice, and it's nice and easy to use so that should please people.
Fasting
All in all it *WILL* be out on Friday, which is tomorrow. I can guarantee this because I am fasting on the weekend and won't want to touch the "anxious release feeling" you get when you put some code out to the public. It's a bit like sitting at home after the first date - "Did I do alright - did she like me - maybe I shouldn't have mentioned my views on Saddam".
And if you haven't heard about fasting then I will briefly sum it up for you. It basically means you don't eat, or eat very little. The way I do it is to not eat anything on the first day except a few fish oil tablets and water. On the second day I may have some protein (less than 100g) in the form of whey protein isolate (WPI) which is 95% protein, a complete protein with all essential amino acids.
Crazy people and doctors: Same thing
Now why would you want to do something "crazy" like not eat? Some people do it for religious reasons but I'm not religious. So what is my reason? Well I do it for two reasons, health and weight loss. Now you must be careful around topics like fasting, because the loonies of the world have attached themselves to it, whether religious, schizos or doctors.
Fasting isn't some magical cure for EVERY DISEASE but it's pretty much one of the only ways people have cured (not treated) things like arthritis. Alternatively some doctors will say you will die if you don't eat for 3 days (seriously). People really need to stop listening to 95% of doctors because most of them are morons. Someone in my family is a doctor and I've met plenty, doctors receive about 1-2 months training on nutrition. 1-2 months for the most important thing related to health. So where is the truth? Will fasting cure everything or will it kill you? Black... white... or is it gray?
Most animals refuse food when they are sick as it gives their body a better chance to heal. Humans have fasted since we started walking on the Earth, only in the last 100 years or so has it stopped almost completely. If you have any cancers, tumours, arthritis, the anecdotal evidence suggests fasting can (not guaranteed) heal them. The longest I have "fasted" is about 12 days, and it's hard work, but it has cured my lactose intolerance, has cured a friends arthritis and another friends "irritable bowel syndrome". This is just in my sphere, I have read about lots of other success stories too. The best thing about it is it's free which is why you won't find many corporations/doctors supporting such things when they cannot sell something to do it.
Fasting, and weight/fat loss
In regards to fat loss, you will probably only lose about a half pound of fat over 2 days of fasting, unless you exercise, and about 5-10 pounds of water. Most fat loss with fasting comes after day 2, this is due to your body and it's ability to have a reserve energy supply called glycogen. This is stored in your liver (starts being released when you haven't eaten for 12 hours) and muscles (used in exercise). Glycogen carries around water with it in a 1:4 ratio. When you use 1 gram of glycogen as energy your body now has 4 grams of water it needs to get rid of. This is why you can lose 5-10lb of actual weight in the first two days, but the water will come back when you eat and refill glycogen energy stores. Don't be fooled by the water loss (or the gain).
So if you seriously want to lose a good two pounds or three of mostly fat, do a little research on protein fasts (these types of diets are what hospitals put obese people on), and do it for at least a week. I do recommend having protein when you fast for weight loss. Not having protein is only important when you're trying to cure some sort of ailment.
If you supply your body with protein it won't take it from your muscles/organs/tumours/cancers/etc. However if you do have a serious illness just stick with water, vitamins and fish oil to ensure your body and its "cleanup routine" takes protein from the 'bad sources', taking the energy stored in them and removing them from your body as wastes.
I am RetroRalph and I endorse this statement
So fast if you want, or don't, it's a hard thing to do so it won't be for the mentally weak. My goal in posting this is to remove some of the ignorance surrounding the topic, not to get people to fast. Us average looking people need the really bad looking people to give us a chance in the mating game, so it's important that not everyone is thin and healthy looking. So don't share this information with everyone. 