A Walk With My Dad

Unexpected Porn

So there I was, surfing along the internet, when up flashes a website that...er...well....a website with extremely graphic sexual content. Extremely graphic. I mean the kind that singes the edges of your monitor and burns an afterimage in your eyeballs. Not a thing left to imagination at all.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no prude. I've been around the block more than a couple of times and I've seen it all even if I've never had the courage or agility to try it. But...sheesh...I need a little warning! All I was doing was looking up some information about cats and up comes the porn site. No kitties anywhere to be found and I was slamming down my escape key before the wife came in and jumped to entirely wrong conclusions.

I feel like I need to wash my computer.

Right after a cigarette.

Twinkie Diet

Mark Haub, an associate professor of nutrition at Kansas State University, has recently made the news with his proclamation that it doesn't matter what kind of food you eat in order to lose weight as long as you eat less of it. This is basically true...but he goes on to say that he not only lost weight eating junk, but that he is healthier to boot.

In my opinion....this hack should find another line of work and the university should refund the tuition of any student that has taken any class from Haub.

Here's the thing. Yes, if you want to get rid of fat, you must burn more calories than you take take in. However...and this is a big however....if you want to get rid of fat, you need to fuel your body with the nutrients it needs. Otherwise you'll loose a little bit of fat and a whole lot of muscle. You will weight less but you'll still be fat...just a bit smaller.

This is the trap a lot of people fall into and one that took me years to finally understand. When starting a fitness program the one thing everybody does is reduce calories. Boy...does it work! Combine it with an exercise regiment and the pounds just fly off. This is what makes any diet a success...at first. Many people hit a wall when their program has poor nutrition. They find that they can't keep up the intensity of exercise and slow down or quit their daily routine. Then the weight begins to creep back. People get discouraged and start eating whatever they want. Then the weight comes back in full force with a few extra pounds to spare leaving the person feeling frustrated and depressed and ripe for the next diet huckster to come along and sell them a line of BS.

Dieting is really not about reducing calories, it is about nutrition. If you're going to reduce your caloric intake and increase your activity level, every calorie has to count. There is a difference between drinking a can of pop and eating a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. They have about the same amount of calories but the oatmeal is much more beneficial to your body. Too many of us worship at the altar of the scale. Weight is a measure but it is only a number. If the goal is not to be fit...not to be healthy...then why bother going through the work and pain of transforming your body and your lifestyle? Get liposuction and be done with it.

I guess that's why this nutritionist irritates me so much. It seems he's either not very knowledgeable about nutrition or he doesn't care as much as getting his face plastered in the news. It's bad science at it's most blatant. I wonder if the Hostess company paid for his little experiment?

Stop Smoking in 100 Easy Steps

Beyond dieting, beyond exercise, if there is one thing that is critical for me to attain health and fitness....it is the need to quit smoking. Smoking sabotages any attempt in becoming fit. Other than the fact that smoking greatly increases the chances of dying; it also impairs the ability to do workouts on a level needed to lose weight and build muscle.

So...yeah....smoking=bad....I get it. Still, quiting is not easy, at least not for me. I've tried it all. Patches, gum, lozenges, e-cigarettes, behavior modification, and plain old cold-turkey. It all works for awhile but, sooner or later, some stress comes along and I wander back to this old comfortable habit I've fostered for nearly forty years. Just about the only thing I have managed to do is cut down the amount I smoke. I can't smoke in my workplace. I can't smoke in restaurants. Really, these days, the only place I can smoke without restriction is my own home.

Not any more.

My wife and I agreed a couple of months ago not to smoke inside our house. This was not that big of a deal when the weather was nice and warm. With the onset of freezing temps and shorter amounts of daylight...it's beginning to be a real pain to trudge outside for a few puffs. So much so that, often, I just skip the urge. The house smells much nicer now as well.

This is my plan...to make it so inconvenient, so uncomfortable, so un-enjoyable that given the choice to smoke or not I would rather not.

It's working. Nothing else has.

Monday Cat Blogging