The Times They Are A-Changin'

I have left my post. I've abandoned my writing. I have grown tired.
All of these might have been suitable titles for this post, but the sad fact is that I have just been too busy and could never find both the time and energy to sit here and create. I will soon be retiring and perhaps I will find some time then, though to tell the truth, retirement looks even busier than working every day. There are things to repair that have been overlooked or ignored. There are things to paint that I have conveniently put off. There are bathrooms to upgrade. There is ALWAYS yardwork to be done.

Actually, I don't feel too bad about not posting anything here since August, because I appear to be the only one who ever visits this blog anyway. That's not a whiny complaint, just an observation. I haven't done much to encourage visitors or promote the site in any way. I write as an outlet, and because practice is important. I used to believe that practice makes perfect, but then I learned that nobody is perfect, so I quit practicing. But now I plan to find time to practice and if you have wandered back here again, I hope you will find something interesting to read. Even more important, I hope you will PLEASE leave a comment or at least say hello. Til then (December 19th) I won't try to write more.

Test Your Brain Age

How "old" is your brain? How alert are you? How well do you concentrate? How well do you recall? Here's a great little brain exercise. Use it often. In case you do not read Japanese, here are the instructions in English.

1. Touch 'start'
2. Wait for 3, 2, 1.
3. Memorize the numbers' positions on the screen,then
4. Click the circle from the smallest number to thebiggestnumber.
5. At the end of game, the computer will tell you how old your brain is. Just click the link.

http://flashfabrica.com/f_learning/brain/brain.html

Nostalgia

Here’s a bit of nostalgia for you. Young people today live in a totally different reality from the one you and I had a few decades ago. It’s not their fault they can’t relate, or ours!
Jack


Hey Dad," one of my kids asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him. "All the food was slow."

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained. "Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:


Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it a "machine."



I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren.

Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.



Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?



MEMORIES from a friend:

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to "sprinkle" clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

This concludes the message I received today from a friend. I didn’t write any of it, but I certainly can relate to just about every line of it. Change is not of itself bad. But not all change is good either, is it?

I have a feeling that not too many of our grandchildren have ever actually used an iron…steam or otherwise. They will probably do ok without that experience.

Newer homes are being designed around the lifestyles of today’s families. There is no “dining room”, since most meals are taken in front of the TV. And driveways have to be wider to accommodate all the cars. Very few homes get by with just one TV, or even one computer. As for phones, soon everyone will have one blinking in their ear 24/7, maybe even implanted if we don’t soon come to our senses. And I just read a few weeks ago that BMW now has a car without a steering wheel. It is controlled by a joystick. So all the whiz kid game players will soon have a head start when it comes to driving skills. Scary thought, isn’t it?

Jack

Help Reduce Consumerism!!

(Whatever THAT means!)
Who can deny that those of us in North America tend to buy too much "stuff" we don't really need? Then we tire of it very quickly and go buy some more "stuff". George Carlin got a lot of laughs by pointing that out, but it is a sad situation really. Here's one very easy way you can help counter-balance this, and it is totally FREE. In your web browser type the words
freecycle network. Then join a group in your general area. I even found one in Victor Harbor, Australia (I have some friends there). Once you join, read the rules. Basically, everything you OFFER must be FREE. Before you can list something you WANT, you must OFFER something.
The site will be moderated. Instead of throwing away something you no longer want or need, offer it to someone else who might get some use out of it. It's very simple. I passed along a box of books and a few other items and I'm still looking for a few things we need, like an old (but working) sewing machine. Try it out. And then come back here and let us know what you think.

New Link - Try it out!

Here's a link to a handy wage calculator, and you can use it for US currency or UK. On the left side you can click on whether you want to enter an hourly wage to base your calculations on or calculate your take home pay based on an annual salary. Enter your filing status and deductions and you can quickly see a good estimate of what taxes you will have withheld and what your daily, weekly, monthly take home will be. I have added this link to the "favorite links" at the bottom of the blog so you can come back and use it any time. Let me know if you have other links we might all find useful.

http://us.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/hourly.php

Your Input?

It costs nothing, but it can be very worthwhile to a lot of people you may never meet. Often people push and shove to give their opinion even when no one really wants it. Others are quick to give an opinion about things they have very little knowledge of. But right here, right now is your chance to give your opinion about the articles posted here, to people who want to know what YOU think. I hope that my articles hit on a topic or two that might be helpful to you, and adding your personal experiences, whether in support of what I've written or to correct some lack on my part, is very welcome. You may have noticed that I'm not selling any products, thought the site is supported by ads. I have nothing to sell. But I check reports that indicate just how many visitors have been here, and I am always amazed that so many people can have so little to say. I've been told that only a very tiny percentage of folks who read a blog will ever bother to make a comment. Maybe that's a good thing. I can't say. For myself, the only way I know that you like what you read, and maybe even benefit from the information in some way, is if you just say so. Tell me what you like, what you don't like, what you want to know more about, or what YOU know from your personal experience. This was not intended as my soapbox, but as a forum for ideas that might benefit all of us as we work our way thru issues that are common to baby boomers. You might save someone else from the mistakes you have already discovered, or avoid problems you already have successfully dealt with. Maybe you can just offer a word of encouragement, or a bit of preventative medicine. Share this blog address with friends and family. There are many articles here and surely something will hit their funny bone or spark some interest. So please, take a minute and either drop me an e-mail (just hit the button provided all the way at the bottom of the last page) or enter a comment here. I KNOW you are out there!! I can hear you breathing.

Older, but not necessarily wiser

Just because we have logged a few miles, that's no guarantee of wisdom. We should avoid a superior attitude and a condescending approach to young people. In fact, once in awhile a really bright one comes along.

There was a young man who wanted very much to enter a particular university. The interviewer, an older man, for some reason took pride in how tough he was, and how few managed to get past him. Well, the young man had passed the GED and SAT tests and his scores were impressive, but the old man was determined to show him how little he really knew.
"Young man, you have done quite well, but now I want to give you a very important choice. You choose whether I shall ask you one very difficult question to conclude this interview, or ten fairly easy questions." The young man's future hinged on his decision. "I'd like you to ask me just one very hard question, sir." "Aha!", thought the old man, "I've got him cornered now!"

"Ok, young man. Which comes first, DAY or NIGHT?" The lad thought about it for a few minutes and then confidently replied "Day comes first." "How do you know that?" shouted the old man. "Oh no, sir!" the lad said with a small smile. "You said you would ask only ONE hard question!"

There is a lesson somewhere in that.

Soy Protein or Whey Protein?

So much research is being done about protein supplement shakes, especially since so many diet and weight loss books advocate it. Hard to be sure just which is better. And whether one is better for men and the other for women. The "experts" can't seem to agree totally, but I'm beginning to think that if you follow almost any of the information far enough, someone is making a buck or two off of whatever they have written. In one sense, soy protein might be better for men AND women, but then you come across someone who says just the opposite. My opinion, having considered a ton of writing on the subject, is use either one, unless you have a lactose intolerance. Just use it in moderation, like everything else. Too much protein is very hard on the kidneys and liver. If you are using either one for weight loss, add a healthy dose of exercise to it, or you will be disappointed with whichever one you choose. If you are using protein shakes as a supplement to food sources of protein in order to GAIN weight and build muscle mass, don't overdo it. All the hype is just that, hype!

Well? How Am I Supposed To Lose It?

Funny how at that "certain age" we wake up, look in the mirror and say "How did this happen?" The wrinkles come on very slowly, so we don't really notice. The pounds and inches seem to add up at an even slower pace for many of us. But now you've taken a good hard look in the mirror and you want to finally DO something about the extra pounds. First, if you believe nothing else you read today, especially from this site, believe this: effort and commitment are required. If you think otherwise, stop reading here please. Go browze thru some of my other articles. I hope you will find something there you like. For those of you who are still reading, I'd like to share a few little tips with you. With just a little regular effort, and with little positive changes, and with a little daily commitment to improve your health, you can easily lose ten pounds this month. And by the way, I don't play April Fools jokes. Now you might be thinking, "Ten pounds is hardly worth it. I need to lose fifty pounds!" Well, by the end of August you could be there, but not if you keep making excuses. Just start. NOW!
First, if you are in otherwise good health, you should still consult your medical practitioner before you make any changes in your diet or exercise level. I am not a doctor of anything, and I do not give health advice. I am just passing along some information.
Here are just a few tips. You may have heard them all before. If so, then apparently you didn't put them to good use, or you wouldn't be reading about losing weight, right?
1. NEVER skip breakfast. Ideally, eat a little solid protein in the morning. Leftover skinless chicken or fish, or maybe some peanut butter. Missing breakfast triggers a survival response in your system. You don't want that.
2. Do not connect weight loss with diet. With eating habits, yes. Diets, NO.
3. Do not assume you have to spend money to lose weight.
4. If you are able to walk to the end of your street, go NOW. If it is raining, take an umbrella.
Don't make excuses. If it is not safe to walk in your neighborhood, make a guess about how long it would take to walk to the end of your street, and walk around your house or apartment for that long. If you have some stairs, use them too. If you walk only five minutes today, GREAT!
Tomorrow, walk at least that far or that long again. Eventually you want to increase both the time and the distance walked. Set a goal in 30 days of 30 minutes a day. If you simply cannot do that, keep at it until you can. You can walk in place in your bathroom for 30 minutes if you can't do anything else.
5. Shake up your eating habits. Learn to like fresh fruit. Skip the bagel and cream cheese in the morning and eat a banana or a few strawberries. Eat them very slowly. Enjoy.
6. Do not drink water or anything else with your meals. Wait at least an hour after eating to drink. Never eat anything until at least 1/2 hour has passed after you have anything to drink.
7. If you doctor approves, pick one day each week to eat solid protein and drink extra water. No carbs. A little chicken in the morning, maybe some fish for lunch. You get the idea. No veggies, no pasta. Just protein and water. You will need extra water.
8. Two days each week plan at least six small meals. SMALL meals. 1/2 portions. Consider a portion to be about the size of your palm. 1/2 portion of pasta or potato or rice, 1/2 portion of veggies, 1/2 portion of lean meat. Use seasonings to make it tasty and interesting. Chew slowly.
Do not snack between meals. Plan your meal times so that your last meal of the day is at least three hours before bedtime.
9. Never allow yourself to go hungry. That sends the wrong signals to your body to start storing fat.
10. Weigh yourself no more than once a week.
11. Whether you like it or not, lean muscle burns calories, fat does not. Weight bearing exercise is essential for maintenance of healthy bone structure and density, and you don't have to be a body builder. Just use fairly light weights if you like, but use them to increase the intensity of your walks, and to tone your muscles while you are watching TV.
12. Make the TV your timekeeper. Each time a commercial break comes up, do one set of some type of exercise, and walk around the room or around the house until the commercials are over. Do this at least three evenings each week. You will find that the later into a program or movie, the longer the commercial breaks get. You aren't interested in them anyway, so why not invest the time in your health?

Well, that's an even dozen ideas. There are many more. If you would like to share some here, let me know. The fact is, you can take control of your weight with just a little discipline, and small changes in your daily habits. Too often, we see a little hill and convince ourselves it is a mountain. Don't defeat yourself. And maybe one evening a week, treat yourself to something you've been craving all week. Have a small bowl of ice cream or a piece of pie. Good eating habits the other 167.5 hours or so every week should earn you a little reward!

It's ALL Good!

I keep hearing that phrase in reference to a wide variety of situations. Lately I’ve been thinking that perhaps this flood of information in the form of glossy print advertising, telling us the secret to good health, extended years of life, energetic old age, etc. is ALL good information. After all, “they” all claim that there has been a ton of research or at least they provide page after page of testimonials from the thousands who have turned their lives around using a certain exercise product, nutritional supplement, aromatic candle, or mind-altering CD. How are we to know just what is good and what is not? How are we to decide which new product is the one we have been needing to resolve our nagging health concerns, or help us avoid future health concerns? We are clearly suffering from information overload, especially those of us who are part of the baby boomer generation who have eased into that stage of our lives when we finally start paying attention to our health. Oh, we now understand that we should have been paying attention to it a few decades ago, but we cannot turn back the clock. Well, some marketers are now telling us we can even do that if we just sink a chunk of change into their latest gadget or gimmick. With so much information coming at us how is it that I can say that it’s all good? I say it’s good because at least it is causing a few of us to pay attention, and to start asking questions. It’s stimulating some of us to take charge of our own health, instead of leaving it all to chance. But let’s say that you agree with me that there are certain nutrients that you probably should be concerned about, and that there are those that might help you with certain health issues. How can you decide what to take and what to avoid? If we invested in all the wonderful nutrients and herbs and vitamins we read about, we would probably create a few new problems to deal with. For one, we would be broke. So what should we do? Here’s my humble opinion. I am not a medical professional. I cannot, and do not, give medical advice. So what I am about to say is worth every penny you are paying for it.
First, do your own research. Second, ask your doctor or nutritionist. Third, work on only the one or two most important health concerns you have at a time. It is amazing how often resolving one major issue leads to a cessation or noticeable reduction of other problems. To illustrate, here’s a scenario that has been repeated countless times.
Ada Z goes to the doctor because she is tired all the time, she has no energy, her back hurts, her ankles ache, she gets headaches in the afternoon, she is a little lightheaded when she gets up each morning, she get indigestion all the time, her head is stopped up constantly. The list of complaints goes on and on. Ada Z (A to Z) has a very good doctor who takes the necessary time to actually do a good workup on Ada. He orders a few simple tests, and gives Ada a call when he has all the information he needs to help her. Ada visits the doctor and after hearing his recommendations, pays for the visit and leaves, silently vowing to find another doctor. Why? Well, Ada is upset and disappointed that after spending money for the office visits and getting all that lab work done, all this very good doctor did was tell Ada that she needs to lose about 30 pounds and drink more water. Ada is indignant. She knows that she is a little heavy, but that’s what happens as you get older, right? And besides, he didn’t even give her a prescription!
Sadly, that is the reaction of far too many people in similar situations. Sadder still is the fact that some doctors succumb to the pressure put upon them by patients and pharmaceutical companies to write prescriptions. Patients demand drugs, and not just ANY drugs. They want the one they saw on TV this morning. Drug companies have invented illnesses and given them names so they can sell some new concoction and do what they are all in the business for – make money for their shareholders. But this very good doctor knows that Ada is chronically dehydrated, and this causes many of her body systems to function at less than peak efficiency. In addition to that, Ada is putting a lot more strain on her back and her ankles, and soon her knees and hips, because of the “little bit of extra weight” she is carrying around. A drug to put her to sleep, a drug to clear her nasal passages and sinuses, a drug to ease the joint pain, a drug to relax the muscles, a drug for vertigo for her light headed mornings, a drug for her indigestion, a little something for those headaches, and Ada would have left the doctor’s office feeling like she was already on the road to recovery. But she would have still been overweight and under-hydrated. And all those symptoms would have simply returned as soon as she ran out of the drugs, and maybe they would be even worse on the next go ‘round.
So here is my opinion, my non-medical advice. Be honest with yourself. Do some research for yourself. Find and learn to appreciate and listen to a good doctor who is not so quick on the draw with that prescription pad. And last, either be determined to do what you need to do to maintain good health or correct the problems you can correct, or learn to endure those things you cannot or will not address. Along the way, there may be an occasion for some properly prescribed medication. Strep throat comes to mind. Otherwise, quit being satisfied with treating symptoms instead of getting to the root cause of your problems and seriously attacking those. Ada could probably manage to drink another few glasses of water each day without any major disruption to her life. She could probably park a few rows further away from the grocery store, maybe walk up a flight to get to her office and avoid the elevator, and maybe skip a bowl of ice cream or two along the way. But that would mean that she had to make her health her responsibility.

Why are gas prices so high?

Well, once again, the same tired e-mail is circulating telling us how we can supposedly force the gas stations to lower their prices at the pump. Ridiculous!!! Think about it. why would gas prices be any different than any other commodity? If there is plenty of...milk, and you don't like the price at store A, you drive to store B, check the price and, if it is lower, you buy your milk there. Now, if enough people discover that store B can save them money on milk, store A might possibly be forced to either lower their price on milk to compete, or settle for selling less milk, right? Simple theory. Fundamental example of a free market economy. Now, it is unlikely that one person switching stores would have any impact at all, but this person tells all his or her friends where to buy cheap milk, and together, they all spread the word, so that soon, store B is having trouble keeping up with the demand. To slow the demand, and perhaps to take advantage of the increased flow of customers, store B raises their price on milk. Meanwhile, store A realizes that they have lost business, and to some extent, they lower their milk price. Now both stores are selling some milk, and customers are happy. That is what happens when there is plentiful supply and sufficient demand. But let's look for just a minute at the gas situation. We have, on a global scale, finally crossed the line between a supply driven gas price to a demand driven price structure. Why? That's very simple. We now have more demand than supply. With China soon moving from a few million vehicles to hundreds of millions, that demand is not likely to drop, is it? Here is a whole new demand source for a constantly dwindling supply of fossil fuel, and the supply that remains is increasingly more difficult, and expensive, to get to. So, boycott whatever company you want to for however long you like, the supply won't grow a bit, and the demand will still have grown tremendously. You may SHIFT the demand from one company to another, but you won't shrink that demand. So it is well past time to quit sending this silly e-mail around the world, and focus instead on how to shift a significant part of the demand to some other fuel source, like hydrogen, solar power, etc. We have now produced something over a trillion barrels of oil so far, and some "experts" believe that there is still about 2 trillion more barrels in the earth...somewhere. Much of it might be under very deep water, and we're exploiting that already. Much of it is in oil shale, and technology is making that more practical to get too. But if you believe anything about the oil crisis, believe this. IT WILL NOT BE ENOUGH.

Now, that is just my opinion, based on all that I've read on the subject, and on what I recall of a very well researched lecture I saw on TV several months ago in the wee hours. I'd be happy to hear your opinion, or to try to field your questions. I'm no expert, so your input can only help.

Not in a recession yet, but this may be worse than you think

Interesting information. At present, with the decline in housing values at around 8.4% nationally, 13.5% of homeowners now owe more than their homes are worth. But this is happening with only with an 8.4% fall in the housing market. What happens with a 15% or 30% fall? Goldman-Sachs, now praised for avoiding the pitfalls of sub-prime lending, projects that this won't bottom out until we reach 15% or even 30%. First American Finance (NYSE:FAF) calculated the effect on homeowners if housing prices started falling, using data from December 2006 (and they certainly have started falling, haven't they?) Brace yourself! These numbers can be shocking. Already at 8.4%, what would happen if the prices drop to 15%? At that po8int about 21% of homeowners would be "upside down" in their mortgages. And to satisfy those who believe it could continue to a 30% decline in home prices - that would leave 39% of homeowners owing more than their homes are worth. Now, you may think that this will not affect you because you have built a lot of equity in your home. Or perhaps your mortgage is paid off. Good for you! Maybe you don't have a Adjustable Rate Mortgage. Good for you again!! But, you will still be hit with the effects of this crunch in one way or another. You see, what frankly scares a lot of lenders at this point is that it might become more attractive, and even financially less damaging, for some of these folks caught up in the squeeze to simply walk away from their mortgages. When and if this happens is large numbers, credit of any kind for anyone will become far more difficult to obtain, and prices of everything could go thru the roof. In addition, the impact on your home value, when so many homes are being seized in foreclosures, may shock you and alter your own financial planning significantly. It has already become far less attractive for many people to own a home. In fact, the new reality maybe that home ownership is not going to be the American dream that it once was. So watch the news, keep your powder dry, and stay flexible. None of us will escape the effects of this trend, recession or not. That's my opinion. What's yours?

Treatment without diagnosis is malpractice

This is not a political blog and it will not turn into one. But perhaps you would like to know a bit more about this recession we keep hearing about and reading about in the media. We have not been in a recession ...yet. Technically, Bush was correct, though many people don't want to believe that for one reason or another. A recession can only be properly identified after two consecutive quarters when there has been a decline in the GDP. Jul-Sept the economy grew at a 4.6% pace. That slowed to a .4% increase in the Oct-Dec quarter, but still it was an increase, not a decrease. Based on other economic indicators, there are difficult economic times upon us, but not a recession. If we find in mid to late April that the first quarter was a negative, then we still can't declare a recession until a second consecutive quarter of decline. That's the accurate answer to the question that the media seems to have already answered, perhaps driving the nail deeper before the fact rather than being content to simply report what has occurred. Typical. I did a little research in the wee hours of the morning. Warren Buffet says we are in a recession. He's wrong. Sometime in July we might find that the first two quarters of 2008 were the beginning of a recession, but before then it's just hype and hysteria. It's like telling someone they have terminal cancer before any lab results have come back. You will certainly get their attention, just as all this media talk about recession has. But let's not create the news. Do you agree?

Butter or Margarine? Hmmmmm...

This is interesting ...

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into this wonderful stuff wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal, so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings.

DO YOU KNOW.. the REAL difference between margarine and butter? Read on to the end...this is just starting to get interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.

Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few, and only
because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries while margarine has been around for less
than 100 years.


And now, for Margarine…

Very high in trans fatty acids.

Triple risk of coronary heart disease.

Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers
HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)
Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.
Lowers quality of breast milk.
Decreases immune response.
Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact.... HERE IS THE PART THAT
IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC!!!

This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is used to change the molecular structure)

You can try this yourself: Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or
shaded area. (open) Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things:

Ø no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)
Ø it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value.
Ø nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not find a home to grow. Why? Because it is nearly plastic.

Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

Regular readers,
If you have been keeping up with me for the last few years you already know a lot of this. I don’t use butter OR margarine. I use something better than either of those. If you want to know what, send me an e-mail.

I posted this almost the way I received it. I had to do a little editing and cleanup, but the text is mostly the way it came to me. This might be the seventh or even the twenty-seventh time I’ve received this, but I don’t believe I’ve ever posted it anywhere.

The Winter Doldrums

To those of you who regularly read my ramblings here, I apologize for my recent absence. Though I am humbled to think that anyone would purposely read anything I write, I do appreciate your kind indulgence and try to provide some sort of verbiage here on a fairly constant, if irregular, basis. But the unavoidable fact is that no matter how sleek the sail boat, without some wind to fill the sails it's just a place to sit. I hit a patch of nothingness recently, no wind, or some might say, no hot air to fill my sails. I have just been sitting, taking a small break.
If life is a grand experiment, then mine is still in progress, though at times the progress is too small to measure by any conventional means.

Since all that I write and publish in this space is free, then perhaps I cannot be fired. I hope to soon be fired up though, enough at least to write something. Ideas are percolating, vague thoughts are forming, fingers are itching to get at the keyboard. But for about three weeks I've been just coasting, both in terms of writing and music. If this was a paying gig, I would be near starvation at this point, but fortunately I do still having a J O B. And I haven't been completely idle. My wife, who is enjoying a hopefully brief hiatus from gainful employment, has kept me fairly busy at home sorting and sifting through piles of "stuff", mostly mine, and we have begun to recapture our office/exercise room. Soon we will start on the music room where the wallpaper has already begun to remove itself, either out of boredom with my music or a realization that it is no longer wanted. Then there is the foyer, the dining room, the guest bath, the master bath, and ...well the list is endless. Like the crews that paint the Golden Gate Bridge, once we get to the end of the list, if ever we do, it will be time to start over. Somewhere along the way, I will try to write a few lines here, and I hope you will find time to read them, and more importantly, to comment on them and contribute your own thoughts. This has been a too-solitary work so far. I have hoped that it would become more of a forum.

Today's Recession Update

How can you protect your retirement finances?
If you are concerned about your 401K or IRA or other investments you hope to use to finance your retirement, now would be an appropriate time for concern, but not for panic.
After the sudden emergency ¾ point rate cut by the fed yesterday, Asian markets recovered nicely, though early news from the European markets was not so upbeat. The Korean market rose nearly 11%, Japan recovered about 2%, Hong Kong eked out a point or two and Australia rose 4 ½ % after the fed announced the unexpected cuts. Will that be enough to stop the decline? I doubt it, but it may be enough to slow it down so that we have a softer landing and a shorter recession period. As I wrote yesterday, just the news headlines seem to trigger panicky investment moves by pension and hedge fund managers and individual investors alike. Cartoonist Bob Englehart had a cartoon in the Hartford Courant on January 17th with the following caption: “DESPITE THE MEDIA'S CONSTANT ATTEMPTS TO BRING ABOUT A RECESSION, EXPERTS SAY THE ECONOMY IS STILL STRONG.” Perhaps it is not so strong, but certainly the media is pouring gasoline on the burning building and shouting for someone to call the fire department. At what point does the media cross the line between reporting the news and creating the news? Or is there a line anymore?

On the flip side, there are a number of economists and fund managers who believe that any major moves from stocks to bonds might be something to regret later. In 1987 those who basically sold their stocks at the bottom failed to benefit from the recovery when stocks later soared. To a lesser extent the same thing happened in 2002. So your protection strategy should be based on just what your retirement timeline is, not headlines. If you plan to retire in 5 to 10 years, it might be best to simply ride this cycle out, because you likely have time to recover any losses, assuming that your present portfolio is reasonably diversified. If you plan to retire in less than 5 years, it might be wise to shift some portion of your holdings into bonds. Some analysts are predicting bond yields in the “high single digits” before the markets shift back to equities. The fact is, no one can say for certain what tomorrow will bring. One thing is certain though.
The is more unstable footing ahead for perhaps the next 5 or 6 quarters, maybe longer, so if you have a longer time till retirement the question is whether you can ignore all the headlines and immunize yourself from the panic while this cycle runs it’s course. One economist I spoke with many years ago put it this way. If you can’t sleep at night, you have too much at risk. If you sleep all night without interruption, you don’t have enough at risk. Maybe that’s not the proper gage for you, but it illustrates my point. If you think you can stay calm amidst all the hysteria, maybe you should just leave your 401K alone for now. Reassess every quarter, re-balance as needed, but stay with your plan. If that causes you too much heartburn, then move a portion of your holdings into bonds and then watch closely. At some point you will want to get back to your “pre-panic” balance. Likely you will miss some of the trends upward before you know it, but I don’t think that will be next week or next month, maybe not even next year. If you find yourself watching your balance every day and wringing your hands, then the next several quarters will be difficult for you.
Tomorrow we’ll talk more about how this whole scenario developed

Recession - What's Happening?

What is the trigger?

There can be no doubt that we are in the midst of some very troublesome economic times. The meltdown of the housing industry in the wake of all the greedy sub-prime lending coupled with $100 a barrel oil have put the U.S. economy in a real tizzy. Worldwide, markets are being affected by the weakening of the U.S. dollar, and there is no shortage of headlines to stir up public emotions in every major city. The problem is serious enough without the chicken little “sky is falling” headlines. But when I read the leading article headers on three online news sources before 6am this morning and they all were trumpeting the drop of every major foreign market over the three-day weekend, they seemed to me to be a sort of guarantee of panic among investors here as well, as soon as the markets opened today. Investing is so sensitive to emotion that national economies are vulnerable to such media hype. Today was a disaster for the markets in China, and that will have a serious effect on our markets on Wednesday, no doubt. People have their narrow little comfort zone and it doesn’t take much to discomfort them. But it seems clear to me that too much of what drives us is fear, not facts. Headlines, not hard evidence. You see, when the headlines around the world hammer on the topic of the housing crunch, foreign investors get jittery. When they get jittery they steer investments away from the U.S. markets, the balance of trade becomes further unbalanced, and the dollar weakens. The weakened dollar causes a whole cascade of other problems including the impact on American tourists abroad paying more than they imagined for their vacations, and that results in less foreign travel. We really do now have a global economy and just like a mobile, if you touch one part of it, the whole thing moves. What is a little scarey is that in recent times it seems that you only have to look like you might touch it, and the whole thing starts to move.

We know that it is the institutional investor that drives the markets, right? Not the individual trying to eke out another point or two from his IRA or his 401K. But I’m beginning to believe that panic stirred up by “worst case scenario” reporting can galvanize a large body of private investors and they can become a force in the financial markets too. I don’t believe that a single pension fund manager or other institutional investor with a portfolio of $500 million to manipulate is going to have much more influence on market trends than 50,000 individuals all moving around their $10,000, or 20,000 trying to decide where to put their $25,000 401K funds. The point is that if enough momentum develops based on panic created by headlines, $500 million dollars can create a pretty good shift, and I think that is what we are beginning to see repeated over and over, day after day. Abroad, the media is telling foreign investors that the U.S. is headed for a serious recession and they better protect themselves. Not too unlike my whole generation sitting in the hallways of our elementary schools with our heads covered by our arms because we were all sure that at any moment a nuclear bomb was going to land on our heads. Now, I’m not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but I do know that sitting on the floor with my hands over my ears is not going to offer much protection from a nuclear blast. But since we seem to now have a very large herd of panicky investors pushing us to the brink of recession, we do need to have a plan for protecting our retirement finances. Tomorrow we’ll talk about how to protect your 401K, or at least how to reduce your losses in these turbulent times.

Wealth and Happiness

As a young person I thought that if I could ever accumulate a lot of wealth I would surely be very happy. From what I observe today, there are still a lot of folks who believe that. They work so hard and devote so much of their time and energy to the accumulation of wealth and the acquisition of "stuff" that they have very little time left for anything that truly matters. I have known wealthy people. I have known happy people. In some few cases I have known wealthy people who were also very happy. But the interesting thing is that the ones who were both wealthy and happy were happy long before they achieved any wealth at all. When they were poor or just making their way like the vast majority of us, they really valued their relationships with friends and family above all else. For a few, they placed their spiritual well-being above wealth, but seemed to have financial success anyway. They worked hard for it, but kept such work in perspective and kept their lives in balance. Once they became wealthy, they had no hesitation in using their wealth to benefit others, to help others in need, to share their time and their wealth. But without exception, they told me they were no more or less happy being wealthy than they were at any other point in their lives. And the few wealthy folks I knew who did not have their lives in balance or their egos in check, were miserable, unpleasant to be around, and obsessed with themselves and their supposed importance. But money alone does not grant happiness or status, at least not among those who know the value of more important things.

Ross Perot found this out firsthand. "Right after my company got successful, as a young man I met some of the wealthiest people in the world. I found that they were such unhappy, lonely people... I learned that money and happiness are unrelated." So, if you are unhappy today, it would be wise to look further than your bank balance for the source of your troubles. There is no doubt that having money makes many things easier, and I recall one very wealthy person saying that "I've been rich and I've been poor. Given a choice I would choose rich." But what if you don't have that choice? Happiness is not something you can buy at any price, nor is it something that another can take from you if you truly possess it. We must learn to love what we have, and not pine for what we do not have, and choose to be happy. Appreciate what we have, reach out to help others, and happiness will find us.

Recession - Will it affect you?

Many of the folks I know and work with seem to be totally unconcerned about all the recession talk. It is not the most frequent topic of conversation. In fact, many are not even all that sure what a recession really is. Wikipedia provides this information: In macroeconomics, a recession is a decline in any country's gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year. However, in the United States the official designation of recessions is done by the business-cycle dating committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research (Feldstein, 2007). That Bureau defines a recession more ambiguously as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months."

Like the law of gravity though, you do not need to understand it to be affected by it. The fact is, if we do indeed continue toward a recession, it will affect everyone in our society in some way, though some far more than others. The phenomenon that interests me most though is the way that the media frenzy over certain things seems to push us in the direction of our fears. The mere mention of recession seems to create in us a tendency to take steps that will make a true recession even more likely, like some self-fulfilling prophecy. Many other factors are at play here, of course, but our own fears must certainly take a significant chunk of the blame for the general direction of the economy. It is not at all unusual for the herd to head in some general direction based on some murmurings and grumblings, without any clear vision of just where they are going...or why. (I also happen to believe that the tendency of the workforce to demand more pay and benefits for less and less production pushes us further from stability and closer to recession, but let's save that for another day)

To reduce or minimize the effect that any cycle of the economy might have on you, it would be wise to avoid the herd altogether. The herd of baby boomers have some things in common that are not at all to our advantage. For example, the herd has not planned well for retirement. The herd does not have the reputation for saving. The herd has not typically learned to deny themselves any instant gratification that the media pushes at them. No, as a group, we have not invested in 401K plans or Keoghs or IRA's to the extent we probably should have. We indulged ourselves with bigger and better and newer and more conspicuous "stuff", instead of fixing up what we have or making do with what we have and realizing that we don't necessarily NEED all the things we WANT. As a result, as a herd, baby boomers might be hit pretty hard by a recession, right at a time when they are least prepared to handle it. What about you? Do you have access to liquid assets to cover 3 to 6 months of basic living expenses? Have you made most of your major purchases with cash rather than plastic? Have you learned to identify what you need, and resist at least some of your wants? Are you impressed by all the "bling", or do you still have an appreciation for the simple but elegant things that are designed to serve us well and last a long time?

My wife and I were talking this morning about a new phone being advertised that has a GPS feature. We agreed that it was a really neat idea and that we would like to have one. Then we both quickly realized that the cell phone with a camera in it also seemed like such an important thing to have, that when our phones were due to upgrade, we both got camera phones. The camera feature seemed like such a great idea, but we both quickly found that the novelty didn't last and we rarely have had any reason to use it. To me, that was just one recent example of how the media helped us to waste money on something we at first knew nothing about. Constant advertising helped to create in us a want for this new technology, and then in time we allowed the constant bombardment to change that want into a need. The passage of time, and very little time at that, turned that into "I have no idea why I thought I needed this thing." And it is not just cellphones, it's everything new that is flying at us from every direction.

Will the recession, if there is one, affect you? You bet it will. but how much it will affect you has a lot to do with how you are living your life from day to day. There is a certain protection in simplicity.

Best Airfares?

When you plan your next air travel, don't settle for the best fare offered on Orbitz or Travelocity, or any of the other search sites. Use them for research. Find the flights and the fares that best suit your needs, write down all the information, and then go directly to the airlines web site and look up the specific flights there. Often you will save another $10 to $15 or more there. The reason is that these popular search sites derive their income from the airlines. The airline pays them for each ticket they sell. That means the airline must get that additional money from ...YOU!. So if XXXXXXX says your best fare to Minneapolis on Feb 12 at 9am will be $273 on WonderJet, go to the WonderJet website and look up that same flight, date and time. You might be surprised. Sure, it may only be a small savings, but you'll have enough to spring for pizza with the grandkids. One word of caution - DO NOT call the airlines to book your flight. Speaking with a real live ticket agent costs money. This extra savings only works online!

Day 7 - Weigh In

Well, everything I read and heard was absolutely true. Without any over-the-counter weight loss pills, without any real stress or strain, I lost over 7 pounds my first 7 full days on my "modified" juicing fast. Now, I know that there has been a lot of media lately regarding a book that says you can lose 21 pounds in 21 days, in fact that might be the title. But on that plan, you do nothing but juice, as I understand it. I have no doubt at all that it will work for just about anyone willing to do it. I wasn't. I want to eat something once in awhile. So I dug the juicer out of the back corner of the cupboard, dusted it off and set out to make the best tasting fruit and vegetable juices I could concoct, topped off each evening with a well balanced meal. That's the "modified" part of my plan. Oh, and I must also now admit that each morning I still have my one large cup of coffee. I consider that a moderate intake of caffeine, and my evening meal has a moderate amount of fat. What makes it possible for me to make it through the whole work day with nothing but juice is the fact that I am usually pretty busy all day. I find it harder to stick to the juice only during the weekend, but, except for the buffalo wings (boneless, skinless though), I even managed that. I've added in some time on the treadmill and at least four resistance workouts using my Bowflex.

One week might not prove anything to you, but it has convinced me that a little self-discipline and a good juicer will get me to my goal. At present I'm just making plans to continue one more week. I will reevaluate then whether to go for the third consecutive week, or stop there and do this again in a few months. The real proof, as with any weight loss plan, is whether I will keep the weight off with continued exercise and healthy eating habits. I don't expect that to be a problem, but I'll keep you posted.

Weight Loss Project - update

Tomorrow evening will mark 7 full days on my modified juicing fast, so I'll weigh in and let you know how the first week went. I actually started my project on a Friday, but didn't add the juice fast to it until last Wednesday morning.

Now I must 'fess up. I broke my own rules this last weekend while watching the NFL playoffs, and devoured an order of boneless, skinless wings. Still, I think they were fairly low-fat, and besides, the weight loss has continued fairly well, so I don't feel too guilty. No, that's not accurate. I don't feel even a little bit guilty. I want to be consistent with everything I've said in the past about dieting. DON'T go on a diet. Just don't waste your time. Instead, change your eating habits. If one certain day you just have an urge, and you keep it in moderation, so what? It is the day to day habitual pattern that will make all the difference in your life. If you are in the habit of eating a big bowl of ice cream each evening, that is likely to be a big problem for you eventually. However, if your daily routine is to eat a healthy, balanced meal each evening and you usually refrain from eating dessert, one bowl of ice cream should be yours to enjoy with no guilt. Just not every night.

Make it your goal to eat a well balanced, varied diet, with lots of brightly colored fresh fruits and vegetables in it. Try to avoid too many meals that fit the traditional pattern of meat, veggie, and a carbohydrate. The typical "white, brown, and green" meal of a baked potato, steak, and string beans. Not good. You would be better off to eat the potatoe and skip the meat, or eat the meat and skip the potato. Also, forget about three square meals a day, and shoot for five smaller meals a day. If you eat every three hours or so, smaller meals each time, you will more completely digest each meal and maintain a healthier glucose level in your system. Just make sure your last meal is at leat three to four hours before bedtime. Don't drink cold drinks with your meal either. A quick fast food burger with greasy fries and a soft drink will not do your long term health much good. Better to skip all drinks during and right after a meal.

Tommorow night - the weigh in!

Weight Loss Project - Day 7

I am pleased to report that I have lost 4.9 pounds in 7 days. I did not start my modified juice fast until the first week was well along, so I'm very happy with the results. My wife has joined me on the juice fast too. She started yesterday, and I appreciate her help cutting fruits and vegetables. We made a full 2.5 quart pitcher of vegetable juice yesterday in about 15 minutes, including cleanup. So I don't think anyone should blame lack of time for their failure to do this.

Now, about that 4.9 pounds. It is legitimate weight loss, but there is no way to say how significant it may be. Generally, health care professionals agree that 1.5 to 2 pounds per week is a good target for healthy weight loss, but that is with diet and exercise, and it is over a very long period. Not a weight loss project, but a change of lifestyle. What we are doing is more concentrated or focused, and from some points of view, a bit more extreme, though we are still eating one "normal" meal each evening. I expect the pounds to fall off at a faster rate early in the program, and taper off after the first 10 days to two weeks. We may decide to continue beyond that, up to three full weeks. That is a bit of a challenge, I admit it. Several times each of the last two days I wanted a double cheeseburger with everything right in the middle of the day. Instead I drank my vegetable juice and went back to work. About an hour later I felt a bit hungry, so I drank a large glass of water. The hunger went away. I can tell you that I look forward to my evening meal though!

It is worth mentioning here that losing weight is only one of my goals. As my doctor says, nothing much good happens over 200 pounds. With that in mind, one of my goals is to reduce my blood pressure, and another is to have more energy. I did feel more energetic throughout the day today, and I must say that I slept unusually well last night. But what about after the weight comes off? That's where the real test comes in. In order to maintain my new weight, it will be necessary to continue to eat healthy, balanced meals and to exercise regularly. For me, that should not be too hard, since I have been doing that most of my life. The weight I have put on crept up very slowly for the last 25 years, and especially over the last 10 after I quit playing racquetball two or three times a week. A torn ACL and long recovery from knee surgery was good for about 15 pounds all by itself. But I am staying fairly active even without racquetball. The real problem has been that my appetite didn't seem to understand that my activity level had changed, so I was consuming calories I couldn't burn. Doing a juice fast is an opportunity to recalibrate your metabolism and start fresh. Even if you only do it for a week, you will benefit in many ways. My plan is to do it for two weeks, and perhaps repeat it again in the summer. Now that my wife has decided to join me though, we might just stick with it the whole three weeks. Misery loves company.

Vegetable juice

My recipe is very flexible, but it always seems to include at least these items. Quantities of each vary a bit. If you want specific juice recipes for specific purposes e-mail me @ thenew50@gmail.com and I will try to help with that. Many conditions respond well to juicing. But for general health and specifically right now for weight loss with juice fasting, here's what I throw in the juicer.

1 bunch of broccoli stems and all - just cut off the dried ends
8 large carrots - cut off about an inch of the top, juice the rest
6 or 8 stalks of celery - the whole thing
1 or two stalks of fennel - the whole thing
leaf spinach - about three handfuls, squeezed together, pushed thru with some carrot

Here is where the juicing purists and I will differ. I don't feel like growing and juicing my own barley grass or wheat grass. Actually I like barley grass juice better because it is not as bitter as wheat grass. But what my wife and I decided to do is purchase some commercially prepared green juice that includes wheat grass, barley grass, kiwi, spirulina, blue/green algae, etc, and just pour that into our vegetable juice pitcher along with the rest. To juice the grasses properly requires a different type of juicer (press type) and I don't want to buy one. Besides, although I can buy bags of wheat grass at the farmers market, half of it will rot before I can use it. They don't seem to ever have barley grass. There are some excellent sites online that can help you set up your own growing flats if you really want to grow your own.

After the morning glass of water followed about 45 minutes later by fresh fruit juice, I drink an 8 oz serving of vegetable juice every two hours. I drink one more glass of fruit juice in the afternoon in place of the veggie juice. Then we have a fairly healthy, fairly low-fat evening meal. This is a variation of the juicing fast that makes it more tolerable for my wife and I both. The results are not as rapid or dramatic, but that is fine with us. I suspect that many people shy away from more extreme measures and so do nothing at all. If you decide to try this for up to 21 days, be sure you take a good multi-vitamin every day just to be sure you are getting all the basic nutrients, including folic acid, B6 and B12. These can help keep you homocysteine at a safe level. You may want to read my article on homocysteine posted @ http://wellnessafter50.blogspot.com/.

You will probably really look forward to your evening meals if you follow this plan. I know I do!
If at any time during the day you feel a little hungry, do not drink additional juice. You don't want or need the added calories. Just get a drink of cold filtered water.

Let us know how this works for you. Your comments might inspire others to do something healthy for themselves.

Fruit juice recipe

For my morning fruit juice I use the following:
4 to 6 apples
1 pear
grapes - a bunch about the size of my fist
1/3 of a pineapple
1/2 cup blueberries

I juice these items, finishing with the apple because it is most firm and helps push through the softer fruits. I find this blend to be delicious and sweet, but as I mentioned in an earlier article, it is rich in calories, so I dilute it with 1/3 water. This gives me enough for about three days, drinking an 8 ounce glass in the morning and one in the afternoon. tomorrow we'll talk about the vegetable juice recipe.

Weight Loss Project - The Juice

I want to tell you a bit about today's trip to the farmers market for fresh fruits and vegetables to juice. But first let me say that I understand that for some of you, buying and using a juicer is not practical or possible. A good juicer is not inexpensive, and it does take some time to clean and cut and juice the fruits and vegetables, and there is a good bit of cleanup as well. So if it is a matter of cost, we'll talk about some alternatives to buying your own juicer. Ask friends and relatives if they have a juicer you can borrow. You might be surprised how many people own juicers they never use. But if it is a matter of the time it takes to do this, remember that drinking your meals means you don't have to spend time preparing those meals or washing dishes. So don't talk your self out of this because you think you don't have time. You do. You have time for everything you believe is important, whatever it is. Shouldn't your health be pretty high on your list of priorities?

If buying a juicer is not in your budget, can you go to a health food store or natural foods grocery, or maybe a large farmers market? At the very least, can you take some extra time on your next trip to the grocery store to look in the produce area for bottled juices? There are now several companies that grow their own produce and market their own labels of juices, and I'm not talking about orange juice from concentrates. In our local chain grocery store there are many juices with no added sugar or preservatives that contain what juice, barley juice, spirulina, kiwi, celery, you name it. In the farmers market we found fresh wheat grass juice in addition to a number of other interesting choices. The only drawbacks to some of the bottled juices have to do with the inability to add or leave out certain things according to your individual needs or personal taste, and the fact that some are calorically very dense. To reduce the number calories in a single 8 ounce glass of juice, you can dilute it with filtered water. Lets say that you determine that one serving is 280 calories. Why not mix a half glass of water with a half glass of juice and only take in 140 calories? Easy enough. My point is that you can find ways to do this if you really want to. You might not be one of those folks whose results are not typical, losing 30 pounds in 30 days. But would you be happy to lose 30 pounds in the next 90 days?

Ok, back to the farmers market. Where we live there is a huge international market, and I love going there because you can find fruits and vegetables you've never seen before. I like to try new things, so when I see someone selecting some strange looking fruit or vegetable, I politely ask them how they prepare it and what it tastes like. they are always happy to comply. For my weight loss project though, I'm going to stick to what I know for the next few weeks. My goal is not to follow some published book or online system, but to create my own based on all I've read. The principle of of weight loss or weight gain is simple: to lose, consume fewer calories than you burn; to gain, put in more than you burn. Works pretty much like your bank account.

As you decide what juices to prepare, remember this simple guideline. Fruit juices to cleanse, vegetables juices to repair or build. But be sure to drink a good combination of both. If you are trying to lose weight, you will want to drink more vegetable juices than fruit juices. And remember that fruit juices usually have more calories per ounce than vegetable.

My shopping list today looked like this:
BROCCOLI
CARROTS
CELERY
CUCUMBER
FENNEL
SPINACH
WHEAT GRASS/BARLEY GRASS

APPLES
BLUEBERRY
GRAPES
PEAR
PINEAPPLE
GRAPEFRUIT
ORANGE
STRAWBERRY

My total bill today was about $38. I will make two pitchers of juice this evening. Including cleanup time it might take me 2 hours. I will have enough juice for the next four days, or maybe five. Each of those days I will begin with a 10 ounce glass of cold, filtered water. 45 minutes or so after that I will have a glass off fruit juice consisting of apple, carrot, parsley, blueberry, and strawberry most of the time. For variety, I will make grapefruit juice by peeling a thin layer of skin off, leaving as much white pulp as possible, and maybe throwing in half an apple. Same thing with orange juice. It taste nothing like the orange juice you've been drinking! It is thicker and creamier and a lot healthier. Every two hours I will have an 8 oz. to 10 oz. glass of juice. The water first, then fruit juice, then every two hours another glass of juice. Here's the important part, as far as I'm concerned. Each time I drink a glass of fruit juice, the next TWO times I drink vegetable juice. Perhaps because I lack discipline, or maybe because I'm not in a rush to reach my goal, I will eat a relatively "normal" meal each evening. Tonight it is a nice filet of wild caught salmon in an orange juice reduction with some steamed broccoli. Oh, and I will admit to a couple of cookies. See! You can do this! More tomorrow. If you have questions, let me know. Comments are welcome.

Weight Loss - Day 5

After a few little fits and starts, I'm beginning to settle in to a new routine. I avoided the scale until this morning because I don't see any reason to check yourself constantly. I don't want or need that kind of pressure in my life. Weigh yourself once or twice a week if you must. What is far more important is that you weigh yourself at about the same time of day and that you are in very much the same condition each time. So if you set your benchmark when you begin by weighing in at 7 am after your shower, before your coffee, wearing only your unmentionables, then try to do precisely that each time you weigh in.

Before I tell you what my results were after five days, let me just say thank you to all those who seem to be following along. The number of visitors daily is growing, and that is gratifying to see, though it appears that most of you are too busy or too shy to post a comment. If shyness is the issue, then I would still encourage you to say hello by e-mail and let me know how I'm doing. Your feedback is very important. I would also like to hear how YOU are doing.

Now, day 5. My daily routine is basic and it is not iron clad, but the results in just 5 days are encouraging. I've lost, according to my digital scale, 3.8 pounds. I fully expect that I will not be able to sustain that rate without making some iron clad rules though, so I do not plan to lose 25 pounds in 25 days. Frankly, I haven't exercised as much these first five days as planned to. Maybe I was dreaming. But I did get in several good walks and started doing some upper body work. I even threw in several sets of pushups while I was watching football playoff games.
My job in a manufacturing lab sometimes is sedentary, and on those days I really have to push myself to do more in the evening. I would prefer to get more exercise earlier in the day, but since I start work at 6 am, that's just not a practical plan. One thing I would encourage you to do as you plan your own weight loss project is build some flexibility into your plan. That way if something unexpected comes up, you don't feel like you've lost your way or that your project has been derailed. Remember this, a guided misssile is ALWAYS off course up to the instant it makes the final course correction and hits the target. So you will get off course too, maybe more often than you would like, but don't let that even slow you down or dampen your enthusiasm. If you set out to do something good, something you thought was important, remember that. And always be willing to refocus your mental image as needed. You can do anything that is important to you. Anything!

Weight loss - DAY 1

First thing this morning I drank a 16 ounce glass of cold water. No food, no coffee, just water. I then waited at least 45 minutes before my next intake. That was a delicious drink called Green Goodness that is produced by Bolthouse Farms. I am not promoting any particular products on this blog, but I will tell you what I like and why. Green juices may be an excellent source of nutrition including phytonutrients and this particular one provides 2 grams of protein in 8 ounces, containing things like wheat grass, spirulina, spinach and blue-green algae in an apple juice base along with kiwi, mango, banana and dragon fruit, that just tastes good. From this one glass of juice I get more than 100% of my daily requirement of vitamins A and C, 30% of folic acid, 15% of vitamin B6, 30% of B12, and well over 100% of Manganese and Zinc. I should also mention that I continue to take my normal daily supplements.

Over the next few weeks I will increase my juice intake and decrease my intake of solid foods. Most of the juice will be made fresh using my own juicer, but for convenience I will also use some juices purchased at the local grocery. For this first day, lunch will be a single boiled egg for protein, and another glass of juice. This time it will be C-Boost also from Bolthouse Farms. As the name implies, it is loaded with vitamin C from all natural sources. Though I really like the taste of this juice, as time permits I prefer to drink freshly made juices. That requires a well-planned trip to the farmers market, so I will have to fit that into my weekend schedule if possible.

Before the evening meal I will walk 30 to 45 minutes, either outdoors or on a treadmill. Every two hours, all day, I will drink either juice or water. This will help detoxify my body and push me toward losing weight. Keep in mind though, that healthy weight loss, and maintaining a healthy body requires exercise. There is no magic way around it, so find something you can enjoy and get busy! I sometimes walk on the treadmill while playing a game on my Playstation2, or watching something interesting on television. Outdoors, there is so much to look at while walking that the time goes by fairly quickly. Add to the walking at least three sessions each week of using some weights or working with equipment to keep the muscles toned. We lose 3% to 5% of our muscle mass every decade we live past 25 unless we actively do something to combat that loss. If you want to be healthy and vigorous well into your 70's and 80's and beyond, exercise is a key component. I'm more concerned with staying physically active than I am with my weight, and I just don't believe the Body Mass Index (BMI) is the sole arbiter of what a healthy weight is either. Good to know, but only part of the total picture. In a few days I'll post an update on how this project is going. I hope you will post your comments and join in!

Weight loss - with Juice!

I have been asked several times now about safe but lasting weight loss. This seems to be a very common thread that runs through many of the e-mails I receive. The problem for so many of us is that we have become an "instant" society. We want results, and we want them NOW!!! But weight loss generally can only be accomplished in much the same way that weight gain happens - gradually, over time. If you want to risk your long-term health using risky and often totally unproven over the counter weight loss miracle pills, this blog will not be of interest to you. I am interested in staying healthy, and helping others to do the same, not putting our health at risk. But if you are interested in really losing weight at a steady rate, and keeping it off, I will devote articles over the next three to four weeks on proven methods of doing just that. Since I have recently added a few pounds myself, I have decided to make some serious changes including losing a minimum of 25 pounds. I will keep you posted on what I am doing to accomplish this and provide updates at least once each week on how I'm doing. I hope it will inspire others to do the same. Here's a hint on just how I intend to start: juice. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetable juices. So if you have a juicer, get it out from under all the pots and pans and clean it up and let's get started. My first weight loss article will be published on 1/4/08 and I hope you will join us.
If you are willing to provide just a first name and your weight loss goal in pounds in the comment area, we'll try to all keep each other motivated and on target to reach our goals. So, until tomorrow...