(P1) Philosophical Why Sweat Getting Fat Again?
Once again, the clothes are beginning to feel like someone else's. In the car, I unbuckle my trou. In the morning, I wonder how that guy from a year ago got back into my mirror. I begin to experience the dread of "having to" resume my program. It always works for me. I lost 20 lbs within the first few weeks after New Years Day. But the prospect of all that work!...rising at 5:45 AM...drinking water...lifting weights, doing crunches, squats, stretches...more water...a 45 minute walk up hills...but, worst of all by far- keeping meticulous track of all I ingest and holding it to 1800 calories a day! All that deprivation! Why can't I just stop weighing myself? Actually, I have. Why not just enjoy life and lasagne, and real breakfasts, and chicken fried steak and biscuits and gravy and ribs and potato chips and ice cream at night. Some people eat to live and others live to eat. I fall squarely into the second category!
But, it's not just about appearance. I don't relish the prospects of high blood pressure, arterial plaque, heart disease, stroke, or diabetes either. So, just as I adjust to this further motivation, Anthony Bourdain, on TV, from France, counsels to eat with all 5 senses and enjoy life fully like a Frenchman rather than wrinkling up like a puritanical American.
I don't have the answer this time. Help me and the other readers. Add your comments by pressing the word "Comments" , signing in either as "blogger" or "other" and making sure to add your name at the end of your comments.
(P2) Political
My friend Larry Carlin sent the following letter to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Larry might as well have been voicing my own opinions on the need to not sit silently by.
Saturday, August 6, 2005
No End In Sight
EDITOR: Bravo for your Tuesday editorial regarding John Bolton. I have been voting since the 1960's, and have never seen a president of any stripe who seems so consumed by his own vision or that of his inner circle.
To purposefully make an end run while Congress is on holiday on such an important position is unthinkable. Doesn't he hear the message from the rest of the world? Or worse, doesn't he care?
Watching a Bill Maher cable special the other night, I was struck by something he said. Maher intimated that while all these crazy things are going on, no one -- whether Democrats, moderate Republicans, a member of the media -- is speaking out loud enough.
Alas, he offered no specific solutions, but I think he's right. It's not just that the message is falling on deaf ears. No one is (peacefully) yelling, marching, protesting and creating a buzz. Yet, many of us are ticked off.
And, yet it goes on -- the war, the killings, politics in secret, health care, gas prices, Social Security, ad infinitum, with no end in sight. What will be the final straw? What needs to happen to make us step over the line?
Larry Carlin - Santa Rosa, CA
(P3) Poetical
Recently, I fell in love with a very old clock that belonged to my father-in-law George Watson and, before him, to his mother. I had the clock fixed, and it is running and ringing now at my house.
Time Travel
Waterbury Clock 1881
one hundred twenty-five
years encased in walnut
Named "Paris" a carved head
androgynous gaze
beneath a parasol dome
within a granddaughter's home
in Santa Rosa, California
doesn't run
teeth shorn
bell won't toll
time won't tell
What of a clock
speaks to love?
something of
the work it's done
movement's grinding
centennarian
thirsts for care
all it needs
to tock and tick
to ring aloud again
as it began
the Spring of '81
when Grandma
first wound
the Waterbury Paris clock
from Connecticut
she'd bought
at Wannamaker's Department
Store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
worth a hundred times
its purchase price
more than that
for the time it's kept.
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6 comments:
It is my feeling
that the wisdom Bourdain is
referring to is this:
in many parts of the world
they just don't worry about it
but the difference here
and the important piece to understand is
It isn't that you can have infinite amounts of anything you want.....you should eat and drink whatever you like WITHOUT GUILT
because guilt produces a sense of failure which leads to binging
and that is what warps balance....
if you can have whatever you like you can have less of everything
logically....it is the same with activity....if you slow down enough to enjoy any given activity including eating you will logically be more satisfied. that is why it is so easy during periods of stress to skip activites you enjoy and or binge....you feel trapped and lacking in time....it is better I think to just find that time you have and forgive yourself for making mistakes....because then you will find your natural center again when you feel more calm....and realize you are more than your skips
Right on, John! Lots of great wisdom. Yes. I'll read it and reread it and trust that other readers will read and benefit.
Eddie C.
"One needs to look no further than the White House to realize that there is
absolutely no truth to intelligent design."
From a Friend of Frank Ansley
Thanks for your response, Sis. I'd thought of that French Paradox myself. Interesting that the responses to this one so far have come from my dear family. My daughter Kathleen responded in person, and I think I'll make this a mantra, "You look great!" We agreed that neither one of us will ever step on a scale again for as long as we both shall live.
I,too, live to eat! Is that a crime? Who cares? I won't say I don't trust people who don't live to eat. By my deepest people connections are those who share that love for food. We're not talking Big Macs either. With my family, we play Pick Your Top 10 Foods. You can tell a lot from people's responses. And it's so much fun. We do it at a good** restaurant. While we're drinking some wine or a nice beer. Answers can be all over the map, i.e., a specific food (peanut butter, for example, which I do love!), a personal recipe (my fabulous stir fry lemongrass chicken w/long beans), a recipe from a particular restaurant, a food group (fresh fruit, Asian/meaning all kinds or just sushi, for example). Of course, that can lead to your list of Top 10 Restaurants. That's a whole other discussion.
Alas, I've been trying to lose the 15 pounds I gained at Xmas 2003! And, now I've just received my cholesterol tests back. I'm going to have to do better. Despite my friends from the gym who always say: "You look so trim. Why do you have to lose weight?" So I tell them to call my Doc, and ask him.
**Good Restaurant - it's ALL about the food. A hole-in-the-wall can have wonderful food. A fancy or formal cafe can totally suck..or not.
P.S. I like this game. For a few minutes I can forget about all the horrible stuff that's happening in the world. For that you'd have to check my letter about Bolton's nomination. Not much has changed!
Good one, Larry. Foodies rule!
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