Wherein 1minion learns of gem power

I know someone who I’d consider a wee bit pagan, or at least into the New Age woo enough to be close. I think she’s aware of my skeptical attitude toward that stuff, but it doesn’t get in the way of us being friends. I’d been over at her place recently to watch movies and while waiting for others to turn up (I’m an early bird all the time) I sat outside with her and her mother chatting a little. While out there, I noticed both of them had rocks in their water glasses. Before it could occur to me to ask about that, more people turned up and it was time for the films.

Over the weekend, I was wandering around at the Fringe here in town, a yearly ritual of locally hand-made and world art and jewelry interspersed with both strong and incredibly amateurish musicians vying for ear attention. There are plays of varying quality for those into that as well. I knew she had a table set up for her crystal jewelry this year but it took about an hour of inspecting the wares of other vendors (could have bought a lot more than just a pair of earrings) before I found hers.

We chatted for a bit about how things were going and she offered me a gem out of her little bowl of freebies. It was mostly amethysts, but I pulled out an oddly shaped brown striped thing that kind of shimmers with a metallic glint from the inside. Apparently this is a tiger eye, and one of the gemstones she’s been using to lose weight.

Oh? I said. She pointed to a stone necklace she had on hand for sale and said it was an appetite/apatite stone. Put together they curb an appetite so one can lose weight. She noticed that a tiger eye alone often increased her need for food without getting any satisfaction from it, so she made sure to combine them instead for the best results.

So how do you get benefits like that from rocks like these? Turns out that’s where the stones in water come in. She makes gem elixirs.

Yeah. It looks like there are several ways this can “work.” Some people use natural spring water and put the stones in for a while then take them out later and have the water for use as a chakra spray or to drink or water plants and animals with. I think my friend and her mom just plunk the stones in their water and drink it with the rocks clinking around like sunken ice.

Crystal users are, of course, careful not to be mixing their elixirs with potentially harmful stones because that would obviously kill any positive energy they’re hoping to get out of this.

If she’s feeling any effects from this behaviour, I’m sure it’s in the realm of placebos and positive thinking. She doesn’t want to feel hungry so she manages to convince herself that these stones can fix that, and then she’s fixed.

I lost 20 pounds without any crystal intervention. I just tried the “stop stuffing your fucking face and take a walk, you lardass” routine. It’s working well for me so far. I see no reason to add rocks to my water if they aren’t the ice variety.

Ice at least does have some ability to aid in weight loss since the body has to work to warm itself up after ingesting it. How Stuff Works breaks it down by science. Wee, science!

considering that the definition of a calorie is based on raising the temperature of water, it is safe to say that your body burns calories when it has to raise the temperature of ice water to your body temperature. And unless your urine is coming out ice cold, your body must be raising the temperature of the water. So calories are being burned.

Let’s figure out exactly what you’re burning when you drink a 16-ounce (0.5 liter) glass of ice water:

* The temperature of ice water can be estimated at zero degrees Celsius.
* Body temperature can be estimated at 37 degrees Celsius.
* It takes 1 calorie to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius.
* There are 473.18 grams in 16 fluid ounces of water.

If 8 glasses of ice water are consumed in a day, that’s 70 Calories right there. So long as those Calories aren’t getting back into your body via pop or snacks every day, you’ll be ahead of the game if you keep at it.

Now I have to go and take these jeans off. While I’m pleased I got the damned things buttoned up, my waistline is still not quite ready to be so confined. I can’t remember the last time I was able to wear a pair of jeans that had no extra stretch material, though. These babies are 100% cotton!