Just Picking & Grinning

For now....but will be back soon.

Who Wears Short Shorts

I've generally avoided wearing shorts for the last few decades.  Mainly because of the pasty whiteness of my legs with highlights of scars from past misadventures, which nobody wants to see.  Also there was the unappealing look of scrawny legs topped off by a overhanging gut, which nobody wants to see either.  However; with the toning I'm getting in my legs and the increasingly hot weather that makes wearing sweat pants stupid, I'm needing to get myself into some shorts again.

Now...remember....I haven't really worn any shorts since Reagan was president so styles have changed.  My shorts of choice were just an old pair of jeans with the legs cut off.  I quit wearing those when informed that they are extremely "gay".  I didn't really care about that, but I was also told that they are extremely out of fashion and a man who wears them is considered to be a doofus and laughed at by the public at large.  So, not only would others at the gym consider me to be gay, but I wouldn't even be able to catch the eye of any gay guys because of my fashion dorkiness.  My insecurities can handle only so much abuse.

Younger guys these days wear baggy-ass shorts that seem to go down to their ankles and I can't see much point.  May as well just wear pants.  I tried looking for some workout shorts but there seems to be a conspiracy against having pockets....couldn't find any.  I got a couple of pair of nice cotton shorts but, without pockets, I had to carry a bag around like a little purse with my wallet, keys, MP 3 player, a card saying that I'm a diabetic so that if I start acting like I'm drunk call an ambulance rather than just throw me out....all the little things I need in my daily trek to the gym.  Big pain in the ass.

Then I found cargo shorts (heavenly music in the background).  These are great.  They come down to around my knees.  Comfy as all get out.  And pockets all over the freaking place!  I can't believe I had gone this long without trying on a pair.  I may even wear these things to work.

I have camouflage colored so that I can sneak through like a ninja.

Leg Day

I finally am starting to wear shorts to work out in the gym.  The weather's getting warmer so I'm not freezing in the morning though I still have the pasty white skin from a long winter.  I'm also noticing that my legs are more muscular thanks to all the months of leg exercise days.

But I don't like them.  Leg days, that is.

It's boring!  For males, working out the legs is nowhere near as satisfying as exercising the chest and arms.  I can do an intense upper body workout and feel invigorated by the soreness afterward.  With lower body..I just feel sore.

But I know it's important.  So I do it.  I can't go back to chicken legs.

Guaranteed Smoking Cessation Method

I'm thinking about writing a book filled with cutting edge techniques and advice on how to quit smoking.  I hope to make a load of money because I've discovered an absolutely sure way to quit tobacco use.  Not only are results guaranteed but the effects are immediate and very inexpensive.  I'm basing it on all the things I've learned with my success in completely giving up tobacco and nicotine after 40 years as a smoker.  

Slim book.  One page.  One sentence.

Stop smoking!

What's that?  You wanted something complicated?  Something magical?  Maybe a pill or complex system that would make the withdrawal easy?

Sorry.  The best and only way to stop smoking is to just stop smoking....cold turkey.  Yeah, it's uncomfortable for a few days but it gets easier.  It also works.  If you are considering quitting and using patches, gum, lozenges, or even vaping; you are really only fooling yourself.  That is the hard gained lesson I had to learn, and it took a heart attack and hospitalization to teach it to me.  

Quit.  Really....just quit.  You know it's the only way.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Some Motivation Required

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Snacking

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Snake Oil

The Joy of Diabetes

                                           
There is nothing like having to stab yourself and bleed several times a day.  Here I give some helpful tips on how you too can experience the wonders of a diabetic lifestyle.

Getting More Strength

Well okay....I've just about finished my first case of Full Strength and I have to say that I am very pleased with the product.  Now, I'm not claiming that I popped out in muscles just by drinking one of the shakes every day.  I got the muscles through a lot of workouts in the gym.  What the Full Strength did give me is good nutrition that was easy to fit into my busy day AND satisfied me so that I wouldn't get hungry after an hour or so and stuff my face with a bunch of crap.

It helped.  This is good stuff, I just can't say that often enough.  I'm ordering more before I run out.

....and getting some chocolate this time...

Warm for Form

There were two very different type of people at the gym this morning.  One was a dude that appeared to load massive amounts of weights and almost bust a gut doing one or two reps before moving on to something else.  Basically, wandering all over the gym trying a little of this and a little of that, but not really having any plan.  The other was a rather smallish woman who was doing multiple reps, increasing the weight a bit with each set, and maintaining absolutely impeccable form.

Guess which one was making better use of their time?  Guess which one is, pound for pound, much stronger?

I think the woman may have thought I was ogling her but I was actually just studying what she was doing...because I wanted to copy for myself.  I was paying very close attention to how she was lifting.  I would hire her as a personal trainer because she evidently knew what she was doing.

The dude may have thought I was trying to hit on him since I was smiling when watching him too.

Why The Gym?

That's what I was asking this morning while I was trying to get in my upper body workout at the YMCA.  Actually I was asking myself silently in my mind but directing it, along with my best WTF glare, at several guys sitting on the machines.  Not doing anything.  Just sitting...talking....on their cell phone....looking at the birds through the windows....hell, just about anything but actually using the machines.  Oh, I ask to work in and they were at least courteous enough to allow that but...jeeze...I really shouldn't have to ask some asshat to move his butt off of every single machine so that I can do weird things at the gym, like exercise.  Even the free weight area was crowded with guys just milling around and mostly yakking on their phones.  One laid his right by my feet while I was doing curls and I was sorely tempted to have a little oopsey and drop a dumbell on the thing.

This is what confuses me.  Why go to the gym just to socialize?  Seems that it would be a better venue to go to a coffee shop or something.  At least there you don't have to pay for a membership, just buy some crappy overpriced coffee and maybe some pastry with an unpronounceable name.  The point is, at a coffee shop they could sit on their butts and yammer till the cows came home.  They would still have about the same risk of breaking out in a sweat.

At the gym, they are in the way.  Shoo.  Shut yer pie holes.  Bodies under construction.

Got Strength?

I took the plunge and bought a case of Full Strength.  It's a nutrition shake specifically designed for men and particularly good for (ahem) more seasoned men.  It was a bit of a difficult plunge because, as most people who know me know, I'm picky about how I spend my money.  Full Strength is pricey.  Including shipping costs, this stuff comes out to about $5 a serving.  That's not outrageous for a nutritious and satisfying meal...but if it turned out to be just another BS product that sits on my shelf, then I would be annoyed and my wife would be more so for wasting money AND kitchen space.  So I had to be careful.  Had to make sure this was something that I really wanted and something that would really be beneficial for me.

I've tried Full Strength before and liked it.  It's probably the only nutrition shake that I've ever had that didn't taste like some chemical cocktail mixed in a dirty sock.  This stuff is actually pretty tasty.  The nutrients it has is ideal.  Also, it is put out by Shawn Phillips, who is a no-nonsense straight-talking fitness guru that I trust.  There was a slight problem when I tried to order a case and they were out of chocolate.  Evidently, they only make this stuff in small batches and it's not stockpiled somewhere in a warehouse for several years...which is good.  Still, I didn't know if I would like the vanilla flavor (they only make it in the two flavors).

The primary reason I need a shake to replace a meal is due to my job.  I don't get an official lunch break, I just eat when I can where I can.  Most times that means at my desk.  More times than not, it means that I don't have enough time all at once to eat a decent meal.  The nutrition shake is my answer.  I can mix it up and drink it down in a few minutes...but there are some requirements that I need for that; it has to be something that will satisfy me because I don't want to be hungry again in an hour or so, it has to taste good so that I will actually look forward to drinking it rather than holding my nose and gulping it down, and it has to mix well in a shaker bottle since I rarely carry a blender in my shirt pocket.

The Full Strength met those requirements.  Some time ago I had done a taste test on the shakes and thought they were great but I had only tried the chocolate at work in the shaker bottle.  Would the vanilla taste okay shaking it by hand at work?  Should I risk getting a whole case of something that I'm not absolutely sure will work for me?

Fortunately, there was an answer.  Full Strength and Shawn Phillips will offer free samples.  You pay for shipping but that's reasonable....can't expect a company to give out freebies to any yahoo who asks for it and stay in business for very long.  Paying shipping makes you put some skin in the game.  They only give out so many samples a day so, if you don't make it one day, try again the next.  Anyway, I sent off for a sample so that I could try the vanilla at work.  Needless to say it met all my expectations and I am now a confirmed customer.

I usually don't shill for products, but this is a really good one.  Check out the web page.  Check out Shawn Phillips.  Get a sample and try this stuff yourself.  You won't regret it.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Hauling Ass

It's one of my pet peeves.

 Yeah...I know...I have a bunch of them, but this peeve really peeves me more than usual.  They are in stores all the time.  Huge fat people using the store-provided scooters to navigate down aisles loading up on food.  Now, I really am not one to judge others, and I completely understand that some physical disabilities are not always obvious...but c'mon....these folks are using the scooters because they are fat and too damn lazy to waddle around the store to pick up their supply of Cheetos and Mountain Dew.

Don't get me wrong.  Being a few hundred pounds overweight is definitely a disability.  I would imagine that even taking a few steps for some of these people would be flirting with heart attack or stroke, and I'm not against people using the scooters who just are not as fortunate as me in being able to walk around during the day.  What it is that really burns my grits are those who use the scooter to load up on all the types of food that most likely got them into the shape they are in to need the scooter in the first place.  It's just a lack of personal responsibility.

For example.....

I have type 2 diabetes.  The reason I have it is because of a lot of bad health choices over many years.  I could have avoided it but I chose to be in denial until it hit me in the face and I couldn't hide from the facts anymore.  From that point, I could have gone in two directions.  In one, I could have continued doing what I was doing, continue with the denial, take medications to treat the diabetes as well as the host of other physical ailments that would have followed, and complained about poor little me having a disability.  In the other, I can accept responsibility.  I couldn't do anything to change what I have already done to my body, but I can damn well control how I take care of it in the future.  That required changing some things....what to eat, what not to eat, stop smoking, exercise, exercise, and more exercise

And that's the same with morbidly obese people.  I'm not blaming them for being fat.  There really is no point in that.  What I do blame them for is STAYING fat.  If I see a really fat guy at the gym, I don't sneer and ask them what the hell they are doing there.  I know why they are there.  They want to change.  I respect the hell out of that because everybody at the gym is there for the exact same reason.  If I see a fat person on a scooter in the store picking out veggies, fruit, and lean foodstuffs....I think it's great and I will really admire them for wanting to change.

I see a fat person straining the load limits of a scooter while piling their basket up on Twinkies and day old donuts....I might sneer, but I'll probably thank the heavens that nobody I care about has their short unhappy life.  I'll feel sorry for them and hope they want to change before it's too late to change.

Experts

Diet and nutrition "experts" are all full of shit. Half of them say certain foods are just what you need to be healthy, while the other half say those same foods will kill you.  I am so sick and tired of reading about this hot food item that will burn fat and build muscle, or that other food that will probably give you nose warts and double your weight overnight.  The really irritating thing is that supposedly good and bad foods will switch places every week or more. 

It's all crap.  These so-called experts fall into two camps; the super-duper body sculpted winners of the genetic pool who could live off of Doritos and Mountain Dew and still look amazing...and fat slobs that gladly take money off of people desperately trying to understand just what the hell to eat to be healthy.  Neither care.  It's all bullshit, all of it.

What I'm doing is simple and basic.  See...I have a theory that we really do instinctively know what is good for us and what is bad.  I think the problem has come with us not listening to our bodies any more.  So that's what I'm doing.  Listening.  Hearing my mother's voice in telling me what is good and what is junk.  Mom knows.  She always knows.  Eat your veggies.  Only one cookie or you'll spoil your dinner.  Clean your plate because there are poor children in China that would love to have your scraps.

Not sure what the last piece of advice has to do with anything....but the voices of my parents that I hear in my head are a package deal and I can't filter out the weirder stuff.

Now I Only Need The Sex and Rock 'n Roll

I've got the drugs.  Lots of them.  Drugs to lower my blood sugar.  Drugs if it gets too low.  Drugs for my heart, my blood pressure, my cholesterol.  Drugs to thin my blood and sooth my tummy.  A special itty bitty drug to take if I ever get that frightening tightness in my chest again.

None of them give me a buzz.  They cost a lot of money and some of the side effects are bothersome.  However; I guess one side effect of not taking them is dying...which kind of sucks, so I take them.  Several times a day.  I was the type of person that didn't do pills.  Never even liked taking an aspirin.

Those days are gone forever.

I'm Back!

Good lord...it's been a while.  The last time I posted was way back during Halloween.  Now that is gone along with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, and even the Super Bowl.

Time flies.

I am healthier than I was last October though.  I've been eating properly and have gotten into the habit of exercising daily.  Still have diabetes...which sucks...but I suppose that if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have near the motivation to take better care of my body.  A Pyrrhic trade off maybe.  Who knows?  Anyway, the photo above signals the beginning of a 12-week Body for Life Challenge.  I finally mustered the courage to download the photos.  I've kept the really revealing ones to myself for right now, but it's not as horrible as it has been in the past.  Since my heart attack, I've lost about 15 lbs and have kept it off.

AND I AM STILL COMPLETELY NICOTINE FREE!

All in all...starting off this year better than many others.

My Halloween Schedule

Before sundown with all the cute little kids ....top shelf candy, the good stuff. Hershey bars, Reese's cups, Snickers, tootsie pops, etc.

After dark with somewhat older kids but still dressing in costume ....anything left from the first round and adding the cheap crap I still have left over from last year.

After 8 pm with teens looking for free food and if they wore a costume it would be an improvement over their raggedy hoodies and droopy jeans ....the pop-tarts in the trunk of my car with a best-if-used-by date of three years ago.

After 9 pm I will be emptying out the contents of my cat's litter box.


Anybody knocks on my door after 10 pm gets a special treat.

 

 

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Twisted TV Throwback

Andy had momentarily forgotten that Helen wasn't at church this morning.

Be Weird Friday

Why "be weird Friday"?  Why not?  Friday is the day that I celebrate the precious freedom that we all have but rarely exercise...being weird.

I think it's a real problem.  Not being weird.....but the fact that so few dare to embrace weirdness.

When you were a kid, being weird came naturally.  It was called having fun.  Laughing at silliness.  Laughing at yourself.  Somewhere along the line we became so self absorbed, so self conscious, that we lost the urge to just be goofy for goofy's sake.  We became adults.  We got serious.  We grow old but, more tragically and unnecessarily, we act old.

When's the last time you were weird?  Would you dance in a pink tutu?

Celebrate weirdness.  Do something to make others laugh and you'll probably make yourself laugh as well.

And isn't that a great way to end any week?

Choices

I'm a busy guy.  I work all week in a demanding job.  Up early in the morning and going all day.  I don't have time to exercise....not today....maybe tomorrow...if I have time.

Then WHAM...in a hospital bed.  Can't even go to the bathroom without nurse assistance.  And, as I lay there in that bed with tubes and needles and wires; I think about how suddenly un-busy my days have become.

If I had exercised regularly beforehand, chances are I wouldn't have had to spend the time in the hospital.  Maybe or maybe not...who can say?  One thing that I do know is...I would much rather spend an hour in a gym than five minutes in a hospital.  Exercise may just minimize future hospitalizations.  Certainly worth an hour of my attention.

Twisted TV Throwback

Dr. McCoy never talked about why he always hated using the transporter.

Be Weird Friday

Running With the Old Dogs

The cardiac rehab I'm going to three times a week is something quite unique.  It's in a gym that's pretty much like any other gym with only a few differences.  The primary difference is that it has a crash cart available just in case somebody's ticker gives out while on the recumbent bike.  Of course, everybody is wired up to monitor their heartbeat and, every once in a while, you'll see the nurses run around to find somebody whose wire has slipped to make sure they didn't flatline.   But all in all, it is just a gym...with the exception that most of the people using this gym are, shall we say, seasoned citizens.

And that's really good for me because it means there is no intimation factor going on.  Nobody is showing off in the mirrors and nobody is trying to pick up a date or impress anybody else.  Everybody is working on their particular workout plan.  We are all there pretty much for the same reason....we want to get more fit so that we can live a few more years.

Though there is no real intimidation, there is still some things that irk me once in a while.  For example; every workout session usually starts with a brisk walk around the track for a few laps.  I usually begin at a pretty good pace and am counting how many times I'm going around the track and what machines I will be getting on afterwards.  Then.....out of nowhere....some really old dude all hunched over goes shuffling by me like I'm barely moving.  A couple of minutes later, he laps me again.  "Really?  Damn Grandpa, where are you getting your energy?"

Proof positive that age and fitness are not correlating values.  Also proof that I am way, way out of shape if I can get showed up in a gym by Methuselah.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

You Are an Inconsiderate Asshole

I'm not hating....I was one too.  Nearly a month of being a non-smoker has really opened my eyes to just how disgusting the habit is to those who don't smoke.  It has also opened my eyes to how smokers are blind to these offenses.

Cigarette smoke stinks.  There is just no way around this and the aroma hangs around a smoker like a fog.  As well, five minutes in proximity with a smoker leaves you with the same odor.  Smokers are immune to this because they are use to the smell.  It's kind of like being in a feedlot....initially the powerful smell of manure knocks you back on your heels, but after a while, your nasal passages get overloaded and don't register the stench anymore.  This phenomenon causes smokers to assume that nobody else can smell their cigarette smoke either, so they happily puff great clouds, usually right in your face. Nice folks who would be mortified if they publicly let loose with a fart that could curl paint give no thought to blowing out toxic pollution from their mouths.

"Do you mind if I smoke?" say the ever polite smoker who doesn't really expect an answer to the question.

"Hell yes!" I reply.

That response usually gets me sneers and grumbles as if I was impinging on their right to stink.   I guess that makes me the one who is an inconsiderate asshole.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Rehab

This was my first day in cardiac rehabilitation.  It's an exercise center run by the hospital staffed by nurses for heart patients.  The idea is to do cardio to help heal and repair whatever damage you may have with your heart or circulatory system.  They wire you up and monitor you closely....I guess in case you seize up on them or something.  It's a pretty nice place, very modern with lots of state-of-the-art equipment, and it is also populated entirely by older people.

Intimidation factor here?  Zero.

Some of these guys though....really can punch out a workout.

Back to Work

Not really a fun vacation....but the longest I've been off from work for several years.  Pity I had to have a heart attack to take it.  Still, it was nice to goof off and take it easy for a week.  I did peek at emails every once in awhile but managed not to really care about what was going on or feel any desire to respond.

Nice.

I could get use to this.

All the more reason I need to get my ass back to work tomorrow.

Cold Turkey

If you had suggested to me over a week ago that I quit smoking cold turkey, I would have said "no fuggin way".  I was convinced that I couldn't cut myself off suddenly from nicotine without dooming any quit smoking attempts to failure after a matter of hours.  I needed patches, gum, lozenges, e-cigarettes....anything to keep the nicotine going while not actually lighting up and inhaling smoke.

And it's really stupid when you think of it.  I mean, for all other types of addiction the course of action is to stop using the addictive drug.  Alcoholics aren't given an alcohol patch.  Crack addicts aren't given cocaine mints to suck on.  Yet there seems to be an acceptance around nicotine addiction that it is okay to keep taking nicotine while trying to detox from nicotine.

All other addictions have a 12-step program.  I've never put much stock into AA, NA, or whatever Anonymous group ...I mean, don't get me wrong...if it helps somebody I am definitely all in favor of whatever works to get somebody to stop using a harmful drug.  That's the point, when you boil it all down, of 12-step programs; stop using the drug.  So I boiled it down a bit further and just have a 1-step program....stop smoking.  I refused a nicotine patch while in the hospital.  I wanted off the cigs.  I wanted off the nicotine.  I actually used the hospital as a detox.

It worked.  I am nicotine free.  Oh, I still have the cravings and the urges, but I can deal with them and I'm dealing with them with a clean body (relatively speaking).  Cold turkey is really the only true way to quit smoking.

Also good for sandwiches...of which I would kill for one right about now...but that's another post for later.

Long Week

There's an old saying...Life is what happens while you are making other plans.

Boy, is that a truism for me over the past week.  It certainly wasn't in my plans to be diabetic with heart disease.  I didn't exactly plan on giving up nicotine cold turkey.  I didn't really plan on having to watch every morsel of food down to the last carbohydrate.  I absolutely wasn't planning last week to be taking all kinds of medications, checking my blood sugar several times a day, and injecting myself with insulin.  I didn't plan for any of this.

Yet now, one week from last Friday, my life has been completely changed.  In a funny way, it may all be for the better.

Doesn't much feel like it right now though.

Shit Just Got Real.

Isn't that the way things usually go?  Everybody talks about doing this, doing that, not doing whatever....and we talk and talk and talk, but really, where is the pressure to change?  I have the title of this blog of being finally fit after 55.  Yet, here I am, after 55, still not fit.  Probably best to change that title.

It was always sometime in the future.  Someday.  Not today though...got too much to do and reaaaalllly don't want to get into all that effort of changing my lifestyle today.  Maybe this weekend.  Maybe next month.  Before my next birthday for sure!

It was all bullshit.

Oh, I was making small changes here and there.  Losing a bit of weight.  Kind of exercising.  Eating better.  But ignoring the big elephant in the room.  My father developed diabetes.  I knew I was a prime candidate for it, but I had myself in denial.  My father had a heart attack which eventually led to his death.  I also knew I was a prime candidate and also was in fever pitched denial about the possibility of following in Dad's footsteps.

Last Friday though, I started retracing some of those footsteps of Dad.  I had been having chest pains off and on for several days.  Usually they would go away and I would forget about it.  Friday night though, they didn't go away after a few seconds...they go worse.  Now, I may really thrive in the state of denial but even I know the symptoms of a heart attack.  So, with great reluctance, I told my wife who quickly whisked me off to the hospital emergency room.

While getting poked and prodded at the ER, blood was taken and it rang the bell on the super duper sweet side.  Into a hospital bed I went with IV's, insulin, constant monitoring, and scheduled for all kinds of heart tests the next day.  The next day confirmed a problem with my heart and a stent installed.

So the upshot is....diabetes and heart disease.  Neither possibilities any more.  I'm having to make significant life changes in just about everything I do.  No choice.  No choice.

Well....I guess I always had a choice.  I just have to live with the consequences of the ones I made for myself.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Well Hell...Here I Go Again

I'm up late at night, avoiding going to bed, because I plan to quit smoking tomorrow.  Getting that last cigarette in and mourning the process of yet another attempt in giving up the filthy habit.

I've tried several times.  A couple of attempts have been for several days..even weeks...but I always relapse and quickly return to my pack a day habit.  It's really the one thing keeping me from my goal.  Not diet.  Not exercise.  Smoking is the most damaging thing to my health and life hands down.

Plus, it's costing me a friggin fortune.

Tomorrow is going to suck.  May as well suck it up and face it.  Goodnight.

No Time to Write

Actually....it's more like most of my time is writing, just not on any thing fun.  My day is filled with writing reports, reading other reports and writing responses, letters, memos, policies...I spend hours typing away.  So when I finally get home about the last thing I want to do is sit down and compose more writing.  Skip a day, then another, and another.  Before you know it, weeks have passed without doing a thing.

I think it is like exercise.  You have to set aside the time to do it or it will not get done.

Another Year Older?

Where does the time go?  It seems like only yesterday that I turned 55 and started this particular blog.  Now I've turned 56 and not much has changed.  Still kind of fat.  Still out of shape.  I think I have slowed down the spiral in turning into a blob...but I still have a long way to go.

And 56....man....that age has been bothering me all week.  Jeeze, four more years and I'll turn 60 and, no matter how you look at it, 60 is old!  I'm actually in spitting distance from Social Security.  If I make it to the national average on age, I only have about twenty more years left alive.

Then, I decided to stop worrying about getting older and started looking at age as an accomplishment.  I survived another year.  I'm in better shape physically, mentally, and even financially than a lot of other guys my age.  Let the birthdays come...fuck em.  I can take it.

 I'll keep on this goal of becoming physically fit because it is a REAL challenge.  Any 20 something can be fit.  Doing it after you've abused and neglected your body for over thirty years; that's an accomplishment.  So...away with all this self loathing just because I managed not to die young.  Back on focus.  Back to the plan.  Back in black baby.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Bleah!

I'll catch up tomorrow.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Dream On

So....today I begin a fitness challenge as a final push to get where I want to be, physically, by the time my birthday rolls around.  That meant taking the dreaded "before" photos....which I will be kind to everybody and not post them here today.  Instead, I will post my projected "after" photos.....maybe...well....the hair will be about the same color.

Another Notch

It might not seem to some that I'm making much progress in losing weight.  Certainly nothing dramatic like you see promised in so many diet and fitness programs.  Yet, progress is there.  My pants are literally falling off....as in dropping to my ankles unless I constantly hitch them up.  I haven't had much time to shop for new britches lately but the danger of exposing myself has caused me to take a nail to my belt and add another notch.  BTW, my forefinger is on top of the second notch....the one I buckled when I first bought this belt on my 55th birthday last year.

It's Friday! Be Weird.

So...What About It?

As noted previously, I had received a couple of sample packets of a nutrition shake called Full Strength.  It's a meal replacement designed for men, specifically for mid-aged men.  I was impressed with the ingredients and the nutritional value of the stuff but...man, oh man....it's not cheap.  It also isn't for sale in stores so I was a bit leery about shelling out a buncha money without even knowing what it tastes like.  Most instant shakes that I've tried have an extremely funky taste to them.  Oh...the advertisements all claim how delicious they are but they all seem to smell and taste like sweaty socks and dirt.  At around $5 a packet, I didn't want to be stuck with a box of nutrition drinks that I would never use.

Shawn Phillips, the guy that sells this stuff, solved my dilemma by offering a couple of free samples.  You can go to the Full Strength website and get one yourself.  This was great.  Now I could find out how it tastes and also see how it made me feel after drinking it as a meal.

I made the first packet for a breakfast.  Blended easily.  Nice consistency.  Good smell.  Great taste!  I'm not kidding, this is the first nutrition shake that I've ever had that actually tasted good.  Not just tolerable...but yummy good.  It's very satisfying, giving a feeling of being full without feeling bloated.  I felt pretty good for the entire morning so I'm thinking that my body had some quality fuel that it liked.

My next packet was at work.  This is what I'm primarily looking for in a meal replacement.  My schedule is usually extremely hectic and my lunch choices are almost always either gobble down fast junk food at my desk or skip lunch entirely...which invariably leads to snacking on chips and candy during the afternoon.  I needed something that was fast and easy which would also make me feel like I actually had a meal so that I could get through the next few hours without wanting to munch on something.  The Full Strength fit the bill pretty well.  I was able to mix it easily in a shaker bottle and down the whole thing in a few minutes.  I had absolutely no hunger for the rest of the workday and felt pretty good...no sluggishness or bloated out feeling.

So...I think I found something that will help me tremendously in managing my diet.  It does cost more than stuff you could pick up at a store, but the quality is definitely reflected in that price.  Besides, I can easily spend more on a bag of slop from a fast food joint.  I may as well put the good stuff in my body.  I'm worth it.

Full Strength Taste Test Part 2

Full Strength Test Taste

It's Friday! Be Weird.

Yes...I'm a Dinosaur

This is probably the attitude most have toward blogging.  Lots of web pages out there trying to sell you something but not many of the personal journal types these days.  I get the same attitude with all things of the internet.  I don't twitter; just never saw the point in it.  I do hang around on Facebook but I don't "live" there like several people I know.  I have Netflix and Hulu because I was tired of paying over a hundred dollars every month for over a hundred channels that I never watched anyway.  My cell phone is not smart; all it does is send and receive calls..no text, no surf, no camera, no 3 or 4G whatever the hell that means.  I have a desktop that meets my needs.  I have a big old laptop for travel.

All this doesn't mean that I'm some kind of Luddite.  I love gadgets and gizmos but I'm also a cheapskate.  I'm very particular about spending.  I think folks who shell out a ton of money every month for their phone service are morons.  I also think that those same folks who spend all day on their smart phones must have very little going on in their daily lives.

Anyway....what does this have to do with the price of rice?  Just that I'm going to keep this blog going whether anybody ever actually reads it or not.  I'll keep pecking away on my grandpa box even when I don't have anything particularly interesting to write about.

Like today.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Inner Strength

It's been a while.  Three months, actually.  Consistent blogging is a great deal like exercise or diet....easy to let it get away from you and, the longer it's away, the harder to go back.

But I'm back.  I have spent the last few months concentrating on getting my weight down and under control.  I've managed to keep it steady at just under 195 lbs.  Not ideal and not my goal; but this is a long way from 260 lbs when I started my 50's.  I still have a gut though it doesn't hang over my belt anymore.  Now, my focus is on obtaining strength during the next three months.

Not an easy task.  I'm going to try and tweak out my diet to help, plus increasing the intensity of my exercise.     I still have folks that do all they can to convince me that I'm wasting my time.  Men my age just get fat and lose muscle.  It's biology.  Accept it.

I refuse to accept being fat.  I refuse to accept that I have to feel sluggish and be without energy.  My thoughts are that those who say it isn't possible is that they are right....for them.

So, I'll try to get back that consistency in several areas, including writing here about the struggles, the triumphs, the setbacks, complaints, praises, off the wall stuff, and cat photos.  Let's see what happens at the end of this year of 55.

One Thing After Another

Sometimes, life just doesn't always go according to plan.  I finally found the time to take a long postponed vacation and start off with getting sick.  Then, a superduper winter snowstorm comes in to bury me and derail plans of visiting family.

and....not much in the way of any exercise at all....stuck in the house...bored...and when I'm bored...I eat

Not one to give up though.  Just whip up some lemonade.  Sugar free of course.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Day 9

Great product.  A packet of vanilla flavored, toss in a few frozen strawberries, add water, blend the hell out of it for about thirty seconds....and you get a great tasting, super thick, shake.  No fat.  Lots of fiber and protein.  Loaded with vitamins.  Fills me up and gives me good energy.  I replace one or two meals everyday with this stuff.