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Posts tagged: Idaho

Bucket List

It’s odd how death turns people into the noblest of chaps. And of course, in turn, the chance of death turns the living into the nicest, loveliest people you ever wanted to have met. This transformation, isn’t so crazy I suppose, it is even expected. Who would want to say chance that said people might go to their said demise, having been treated by said people with naughty like badness when said deceased might then go to heaven and tell God in person how dumb you were (oh I mean said whatchumacallit) and stop said party in question from entering ‘the party.’ I doubt that’s actually possible, nonetheless, I bet said people believe some version of what was said although probably a far less complicated version than what I said.. you get the picture.

If you cannot tell, I am going on a trip, leaving on a jet plane. In all reality, it will be a plane with propellers, maybe as old as the Wright brothers. I’ve never flown with Allegiant Air before so we soon shall see. And oh the wonders I shall see. We’re heading up to Vegas and then a hop, skip and hopefully a prolonged enough jump right over to Idaho. Land to Bear World. They always say take baby steps in reaching your dreams or something close to that effect, and Bear World is one step closer to the dream. Since, I can remember, I’ve always wanted to go hunting. And not just any hunting, I am not into killing bunny rabbits for fun. Bugs Bunny never made it look fun. Still, I want a fair match up. So in my estimation, the only thing out in the wild blue yonder awesome enough to match my awesomeness . . . is a bear. A one time dream, I do not fancy spending the rest of my life tracking my furry (mortal enemy) friends around, just a one time shot to enjoy a seemingly lifetime supply of bear jerky. What else would you do with that much bear meat!?!

Seriously though, I am looking forward to a few days off with my wife and three boys. Then maybe I will hit it big in Vegas, scratch that, my bear aspirations are more likely to come true. And yet, one can dream. Though back to my original thought, is it wrong to remember the dead as they truly were. Or is it more than that, does such a catastrophic event truly cause us to forget the inconsequential, to remember the good, the important things in life. To as, the favorite singer of many woman across our great states, Tim McGraw, belts out in good ol’ country like fashion, “Live like you we’re dyin’.”

To that cause I wrote, in no specific order, my own ‘to do’ list (I was almost tempted to entitle this the ‘boot list’ or Bakancslista, which is how the movie I’ve never seen, The Bucket List is translated in Hungarian).

The Boot List:

~~Have someone I don’t know read this blog and enjoy it’s contents~~

Of course there were several that came to mind that I’ve already accomplished, two of which, if I we’re to die tomorrow I’d be content with my life having experienced:

I’m sure I could add countless items to either list if I thought more about it, but it’s a start.

Tags: Allegiant Air, Bear Jerky, Bear World, Boot List, Bucket List, Bugs Bunny, Dying, Idaho, Living, Said People, Tim McGraw, Vegas, Wright brothers

Random Nonsense | random | September 30, 2009 10:38 pm | Comments (0)

Cutting the fat..

I finally got on the scale the other day, and I’d say my eyes more than widened at the result. As I mentioned before I am now weighing in at a super-sized 250. Wow, I figured I had gained 5, 10 pounds. If I were more realistic probably 15, but 25-30, damn. Even at 220 or so I wasn’t the skinniest of guys, but I was a fair weight and looked, well, I suppose I could turn a head or two. Now, I’m not sure heads would have to turn, as much of the screen as I take up. Well, it isn’t all that bad, I am six foot four. Nonetheless, damn, have I already said that? My wife has gained weight as well, though her excuse is far greater than mine, her just giving birth and all. And while I cannot say I look great at the moment, having lost some of that debonair luster. My wife looks amazing. She doesn’t believe me of course, I take that back, she believes I believe it, but thinks I’m deluded. How deluded she is about my delusions.

Now we’re both back in the mindset of healthy living, having had our last hoorahs, maybe one or two more, since this Thursday we’re heading off to Vegas and then Idaho. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas right? If only that was true of the weight gain as well, I know it’s true of the contents of my wallet. Seriously, the exploit of paramount importance to me in our upcoming adventure is Bear World. Oh Bear World, here I come (no, no hunting bears and making bear jerky, but I will get to feed one. One step closer to the dream). At any rate, Aly’s been contemplating going back to Weight Watchers, a program that was at one time very successful for my wife, granted at the same time made her miserable.

Weight watchers is based on an allotment of points per day (several sites disagree with the low allotment WW gives). You can eat whatever you want as long as you stay within your allotment. Their point calculation can be found in this patented formula:

meaning one Weight Watcher’s point is equal to the number of calories divided by 50. The value increases by approximately one point for every 12 grams of fat in each food serving and drops by one point with the first four grams of fiber. Now albeit, that sounds lovely in essence and there are variances in the formula, although undeterred by however you tabulate the weight watchers points, in my view, there are three major flaws in their philosophy.

First and foremost, it makes people obsess over food. You can never stop thinking about food nor calculating everything as you go throughout your day. Everything is about the cookery delights. It makes cuisine a priority and thus, often their dieter craves more because they are forced to overly-think about that very thing. However, quite a few people have the will power and self control, if only for a time, to resist the temptation they so often put themselves in front of, so this is not its greatest flaw.

The greatest of these came to me as I watched my wife on Weight Watchers and observed her not wanting to eat a chicken breast because it was too many points. And therein lies what I consider to be the second biggest flaw with the program and the most heinous flaw concerning their formula: it doesn’t take protein into consideration. Too many points!?! it’s practically pure protein, you can’t get fat on essentially what is unadulterated protein. Although you can lose muscle mass if you are not eating protein. And loss of muscle mass equals weight gain. Which brings us to the last and yet certainly not least of the flaws I see in the Weight Watcher’s diet. It isn’t balanced. You can eat whatever you want as long as you portion control. In the long run, I believe many people end up starving themselves as WW sets users up for failure, especially if they ever leave the program. From what I’ve seen (and from the amount of research I’ve found online), a fair percentage of people on weight watchers do not lose their goal weight, and if they do, rarely keep it off. A great payoff for WW, as they charge 40 bucks a month to do nothing more than facilitate meetings and weekly weigh-ins.

The Biggest Loser advises that you keep it simple. Their program: ‘The 4-3-2-1 Biggest Loser Pyramid sets the stage for number of servings from each of the food groups:

4 servings of fruits and vegetables
3 servings of protein — lean [meat], vegetarian, or low-fat dairy
2 servings of whole grains
1 extra of fats, oils, sweets, alcohol, or your choice, equivalent to 200 calories’

Eating healthy and good old-fashion exercise will cause you to lose weight, decrease blood pressure, lower cholesterol, (for me) help control diabetes, and become stronger and indubitably more energized. They also advise that however many servings of fruit you eat that you eat twice the servings of vegetables. Now that’s something that makes sense to me. Their dietitian and chef Cheryl Forberg, RD adds elsewhere, ‘We emphasize the quality of the calories so you can meet your nutritional needs [and] enjoy more natural, healthy whole foods and lean proteins that will help you deal with hunger before it happens.’ I think my wife is much happier when she’s just eating healthy and not obsessing over food, which definitely makes me happy to see her happy.

I’m not saying don’t count calories at all, I’m saying if you aren’t trying to portion control a plethora of naughty foods and merely eat healthier you won’t have to worry as much about going over your points. The Biggest Loser tells us that your starting calorie level should be determined by multiplying your current weight by 7 and once you reach your goal weight, they recommend 10-12 calories per pound plus exercise.

They also supply five nuggets of wisdom from contestants who have lost the weight and have also kept it off:

Eat a healthy breakfast every day
Enjoy fruit and/or vegetables with every meal
Have protein with all meals and snacks
Plan your meals, snacks, and exercise
Stay active

People also get in this mind-set that if I eat less, I’ll lose more. This is a very common misconception, staving yourself, eating less than 1200 calories a day causes the body to go into starvation mode: slowing your metabolic rate. You need to actually eat to lose weight. Your body is a machine, and it can not run properly without food. And the better grade of gasoline you put in, the better it’ll run (although this may not be true anymore with actual gasoline in today’s automobile (check your owner’s manual (a parenthesis within a parenthesis within a parenthesis, I am that awesome)), but you get the point). Thinking of this and our busy schedule, I’m not sure if I suggested it or if she did, but we equally decided to go on the Nutrisystem food plan. We may have decided simultaneously, my wife and I our often on the same wavelength and can seemingly read each other’s thoughts. Strange but true.

Now it may seem lazy to give over control of our diet to a Corporation, and sure it is, but I just want to focus on eating healthy right now, and preplanned meals seem like a great way to do that. And well, I am a lazy man. My wife on the other hand, can juggle as many things as I can think of at any given time. Nevertheless, to save her the stress and take the chainsaw out of her juggling act, I figured we’d go for it, convincing her with the time and money we’d save in food preparation time and by not always going out to eat when the day got away from us and preparing a meal seemed less then appealing. I know, getting in shape also means working out, at least going for strenuous walks at night, another plan being put into motion. Although, my wife loves the gym, so she’ll be doing that as well as hopping on the Wii-fit (Mmm, how I love watching her do the Hula-hoop). We’ll see how this preplanned meal-plan goes. I remember when I met my wife, with all her healthy cooking I dropped down to an amazingly low weight, by eating healthy with her, and I did eat, she’s a wonderful cook. Now, we’ll being doing the same and saving some time we can to spend together. Yes, all you girls can ‘ahhh’ now, I think I lost most the guys when I started talking WW.

‘No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.’ -George Bernad Shaw

Digg it.

Tags: 4-3-2-1 Plan, Bear World, Calorie counting, Diabetes, Diet, Food, George Bernad Shaw, Health, Idaho, Nutrisystem, Points, The Biggest Loser, Vegas, Weight Watchers, Wife, Wii Fit

Random Nonsense | random | September 28, 2009 5:01 pm | Comments (1)