January 2013
Happy New Year!
Now that I’m older here’s what I’ve discovered:
1.I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.
2.My wild oats have turned into oatmeal and all-bran.
3.I finally got my head together, and now my body is falling apart.
4.Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.
5.Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.
6.It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser.
7.If all is not lost, where is it?
8.Life isn’t fair, some days you’re the dog; some days you’re the hydrant. Learn to enjoy life anyway.
9.Kids in the back seat cause accidents.
10. Accidents in the back seat cause kids.
11. It’s hard to make a comeback when you haven’t been anywhere.
12. The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you’re in the bathroom.
13. When I’m finally holding all the cards, why does everyone want to play chess?
14. It’s not hard to meet expenses…they’re everywhere.
15. The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
16. These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter…I go somewhere to get
something, and then wonder what I’m hereafter.
Now that I have you smiling… allow me to say something ’crazy’, “Getting old is what happens if you stay alive, getting fat is far more optional. ”Obesity is THE major health problem in the United States today. As a population, we need to re-establish food concepts that include appropriate portions and times to eat. By age thirty-five, the metabolism slows down and we cannot continue to consume calories in the same quantities that we did in our youth. Adding even only one or two pounds a year can result in a cumulative effect that can eventually cause a person to feel older than their years.
I recommend a book by Gary Taube titled, Why We Get Fat & What to do About It. It is a great read to study our nation’s problem. In it, he documents past dieting advice, going back in history as early as the 1800’s. He explains how the body’s reaction to carbohydrates and sugars can cause sudden increases in blood sugar, called ‘spikes’. In essence, a rise in blood sugar causes an insulin spike to then lower the blood sugar, which often leads to fat storage (remember diet sodas cause an insulin spike, unless sweetened with stevia). For some people, even ordinary portions of carbohydrates will be stored as fat and not burned up as energy. You may be asking, “Isn’t genetics a factor?” Yes, they certainly are, but that information can help one make even more careful, conscious, and smarter food choices that nourish and help the body, rather than create problems for it. While exercise is significant, what you put into your body is far more important. Taube’s opinion is that more exercise increases hunger and is actually counterproductive.
Cinnamon is known to be a natural way to sweeten food and it helps stabilize blood sugar levels. Diabetics are encouraged to use cinnamon liberally. Group support for weight loss
seems to help most of us. Weight Watchers™ is the best system for teaching how to eat and stay slim for the rest of your life. Statistics show that the ability of Weight Watchers™ members’ to lose weight and keep it off is very impressive. Medifast™ also has a system
that my brother-in-law recently used and lost fifty pounds in about six months. His back pain also completely vanished. There are many different community weight-loss groups out there, Overeaters Anonymous is good option.
Whenever I am trying to lose weight and I get tired of salads, there is one food that I turn to that is healthy and weight loss promoting—fresh made Guacamole! It is like eating a salad because of all the fresh veggies, but so different from a salad. The natural fats in the avocados do not hinder weight loss, but actually help it. It’s important to make it fresh rather than pre-made, because the pre-made can have artificial ingredients that cause weight gain. Here is my recipe:
1 clove of garlic
1/8 to ¼ of a white onion
½ of a bunch of cilantro
½ of a jalapeno (or more if you prefer spicy)
3 ripe avocados
1 vine tomato
Juice from one fresh lime
Chop the first 4 ingredients in a food processor, or dice very fine by hand. Add mashed avocados and finely diced tomato. Mix together well with the juice from one lime. Chips for dipping can be fattening, so be careful the kind you choose. I usually get organic blue corn tortilla with half the salt and I use them sparingly. You can even try dipping celery or carrots and avoid chips all together, if they are too much of a temptation.
Debunking the health hazards of lard (from Slate Magazine, 6/02/2009)... Lard used to
be readily available by draining off and saving the fat from the cooking of meat. It could be kept in a crock on the shelf because it has a very long shelf life. Called lard or bacon butter, it was simply scooped out as needed, for making what I think are the best pie crusts, cookies, and breads. Crisco™ was the first product to be hydrogenated and was referred to as ‘shortening’ in 1911. Later on, it was decided that hydrogenated vegetable oils were healthier. The average citizen has been convinced by processed food manufacturers that lard is bad for your health, plugging arteries and leading to a heart attack. It seems they want you to believe that fat makes you fat; the term “lard bottom” comes to mind. Good research now dismisses these as myths, revealing that shortening and margarine are health hazards to avoid. Hydrogenating oils creates triglycerides and long-chain fatty acids that are more likely to lead to a heart attack. It actually can be said that lard is good for you. It is natural and mostly monounsaturated. Even the saturated fat in lard has a neutral effect on blood cholesterol. Lard has a higher ‘smoking point’ than other fats, which means that less fat is absorbed by the food than when frying with shortening. Lard also has nutrients that help the body absorb other nutrients like calcium and vitamins.
Now that I’m older here’s what I’ve discovered:
1.I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.
2.My wild oats have turned into oatmeal and all-bran.
3.I finally got my head together, and now my body is falling apart.
4.Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.
5.Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.
6.It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser.
7.If all is not lost, where is it?
8.Life isn’t fair, some days you’re the dog; some days you’re the hydrant. Learn to enjoy life anyway.
9.Kids in the back seat cause accidents.
10. Accidents in the back seat cause kids.
11. It’s hard to make a comeback when you haven’t been anywhere.
12. The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you’re in the bathroom.
13. When I’m finally holding all the cards, why does everyone want to play chess?
14. It’s not hard to meet expenses…they’re everywhere.
15. The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.
16. These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter…I go somewhere to get
something, and then wonder what I’m hereafter.
Now that I have you smiling… allow me to say something ’crazy’, “Getting old is what happens if you stay alive, getting fat is far more optional. ”Obesity is THE major health problem in the United States today. As a population, we need to re-establish food concepts that include appropriate portions and times to eat. By age thirty-five, the metabolism slows down and we cannot continue to consume calories in the same quantities that we did in our youth. Adding even only one or two pounds a year can result in a cumulative effect that can eventually cause a person to feel older than their years.
I recommend a book by Gary Taube titled, Why We Get Fat & What to do About It. It is a great read to study our nation’s problem. In it, he documents past dieting advice, going back in history as early as the 1800’s. He explains how the body’s reaction to carbohydrates and sugars can cause sudden increases in blood sugar, called ‘spikes’. In essence, a rise in blood sugar causes an insulin spike to then lower the blood sugar, which often leads to fat storage (remember diet sodas cause an insulin spike, unless sweetened with stevia). For some people, even ordinary portions of carbohydrates will be stored as fat and not burned up as energy. You may be asking, “Isn’t genetics a factor?” Yes, they certainly are, but that information can help one make even more careful, conscious, and smarter food choices that nourish and help the body, rather than create problems for it. While exercise is significant, what you put into your body is far more important. Taube’s opinion is that more exercise increases hunger and is actually counterproductive.
Cinnamon is known to be a natural way to sweeten food and it helps stabilize blood sugar levels. Diabetics are encouraged to use cinnamon liberally. Group support for weight loss
seems to help most of us. Weight Watchers™ is the best system for teaching how to eat and stay slim for the rest of your life. Statistics show that the ability of Weight Watchers™ members’ to lose weight and keep it off is very impressive. Medifast™ also has a system
that my brother-in-law recently used and lost fifty pounds in about six months. His back pain also completely vanished. There are many different community weight-loss groups out there, Overeaters Anonymous is good option.
Whenever I am trying to lose weight and I get tired of salads, there is one food that I turn to that is healthy and weight loss promoting—fresh made Guacamole! It is like eating a salad because of all the fresh veggies, but so different from a salad. The natural fats in the avocados do not hinder weight loss, but actually help it. It’s important to make it fresh rather than pre-made, because the pre-made can have artificial ingredients that cause weight gain. Here is my recipe:
1 clove of garlic
1/8 to ¼ of a white onion
½ of a bunch of cilantro
½ of a jalapeno (or more if you prefer spicy)
3 ripe avocados
1 vine tomato
Juice from one fresh lime
Chop the first 4 ingredients in a food processor, or dice very fine by hand. Add mashed avocados and finely diced tomato. Mix together well with the juice from one lime. Chips for dipping can be fattening, so be careful the kind you choose. I usually get organic blue corn tortilla with half the salt and I use them sparingly. You can even try dipping celery or carrots and avoid chips all together, if they are too much of a temptation.
Debunking the health hazards of lard (from Slate Magazine, 6/02/2009)... Lard used to
be readily available by draining off and saving the fat from the cooking of meat. It could be kept in a crock on the shelf because it has a very long shelf life. Called lard or bacon butter, it was simply scooped out as needed, for making what I think are the best pie crusts, cookies, and breads. Crisco™ was the first product to be hydrogenated and was referred to as ‘shortening’ in 1911. Later on, it was decided that hydrogenated vegetable oils were healthier. The average citizen has been convinced by processed food manufacturers that lard is bad for your health, plugging arteries and leading to a heart attack. It seems they want you to believe that fat makes you fat; the term “lard bottom” comes to mind. Good research now dismisses these as myths, revealing that shortening and margarine are health hazards to avoid. Hydrogenating oils creates triglycerides and long-chain fatty acids that are more likely to lead to a heart attack. It actually can be said that lard is good for you. It is natural and mostly monounsaturated. Even the saturated fat in lard has a neutral effect on blood cholesterol. Lard has a higher ‘smoking point’ than other fats, which means that less fat is absorbed by the food than when frying with shortening. Lard also has nutrients that help the body absorb other nutrients like calcium and vitamins.
