Diet... No

I've been doing the on-again-off-again diet & exercise yo-yo for decades.

But to the current situation:

For about the past 6 months, I've been dieting and exercising. My goal was to get my gut down to a reasonable diameter, say about 38 to 40 inches at the belly button line. Be nice to go slimmer, but that size would be spiffy. This goal was to have been reached by December.

In order to exercise, I must get up at about 5am so I can work out and get to the office by 8:30am. Working out at any other time of day is simply out of the question.
So, I would always try to get to bed by 9pm (that's 2100 to you 24 hour clock folks), but almost never could make it in until an hour to two hours later.

I tried to eat healthy, basically a high protein diet with most carbs coming from green veggies.

The fat loss was excruciatingly slow. It was apparent that I would not make my goal unless I did something extreme. But I'm 50 years old, so extreme anything is a bit dangerous. Still, I felt confident that I could get there somehow.

Despite the exercise, which should have revved me up, I was almost constantly tired.
Despite eating healthy, even to the point of a lot of expensive organic foods, I would start nodding off at my desk by about 2pm and have to walk around and guzzle coffee just to look awake. I couldn't concentrate well at all.

I was always thinking about what I could eat. What am I allowed to eat, what can I pack for lunch, etc. I had to be sure to cook up my lunches in the crock pot and Foreman grill so I'd have something for the week. Lot's of cooking! I had to keep a stash of nuts in the car because I couldn't eat at delis or fast food joints if I got the munchies on the road.
I went to three stores when food shopping. It was a half a day excursion! Costco, then Trader Joe's, then Stop & Shop. I couldn't afford to buy the organics anywhere but Trader Joe's and Costco.
All I ever could think about was getting sleep and what to eat.
But I figured I'd get used to it and get back to normal. I still felt this way about 6 months later.

Then, I started a huge project (more on that later!), which ate up so much of my time that I had none left for anything, including my family unfortunately.

I stopped working out completely and eliminated much of the eating healthy. Speed and convenience trump all.
Now:
Breakfast: 4 raw eggs blended in water and a bit of cocoa powder.
Lunch: Whatever microwave meals are on sale. I just bought a bunch of Marie Callender's for $2 each.
Dinner: Whatever I can scrounge or whatever the rest of the family is having. I discovered Subway $5 footlongs, for example.
Snacks: Cheddar cheese, various nuts (walnuts, peanuts, etc), instant soups.

I am staying up until near midnight most nights, and getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 am.
I'm cooking nothing outside of the microwave.

You know what?

I FEEL GREAT!

I am much more alert. I'm not falling asleep at my desk. I never think about food unless I'm hungry, and then it's just a minor annoyance. I never think about sleep unless I'm tired, and even then, it's easy to stay up a little longer and so much easier to get out of bed in the morning.
Food shopping takes minutes instead of half a day. I can get most of what I want at Wal-Mart or Target, except the microwave dinners.
I'm in the car and I get the munchies, I hit the deli. Yeah, I still keep nuts in the car, but it's not critical anymore.

I was planning on getting back to the diet & exercise after the project wound down, but I really don't think so anymore.
Let's see, tired and consumed with thoughts of food and sleep, or fat and working well.

Guess I'm gonna be a fudgy pucker. That's OK, I can concentrate on living.

Romney / Palin 2012

Check this out:

Rasmussen Pole

Soooo, what if there were a Romney / Palin ticket?

I do believe that would be a winner.

NOT a Palin / Romney ticket thanks, I don't think that would win. But it would be damn close!

I don't like the idea of voting Republican as I feel the party has turned to crap over the last few years, but I would have to seriously think about it with THAT ticket!

YOU HEAR THAT REPUBLICANS? GET THAT TICKET DONE!

The Goode Family is Great!

I am NOT a TV reviewer or critic, and outside of Anime, I don't intend to be.
But this show is just so good that I have to write a little about it. I'm not going to go into detail, just a few paragraphs. I also don't intend to give anything important away, no spoilers.

This is an animated series from the same guy that brought us King of the Hill and Beavis & Butthead.
It's about an incredibly liberal family (the Goode family), and their friends, enemies, and neighbors.

The show does make fun of libs, as you no doubt suspect, but it also pokes fun at Conservatives, sometimes with more teeth. So if you're a liberal yourself, please don't stay away from this show, and if you're a Conservative, don't think it's all gonna be your way.

The Goode family consists of dad, mom, biological daughter, adopted son (a white South African they adopted as an infant and named Ubuntu), and their dog Che.

Here's an example of poking fun at libs:
They are vegans, to the point of not feeding Che meat or meat products! They feed him Soy biscuits and meatless dog food. Naturally, Che is in a constant state of near starvation and craving meat, but they don't notice.
In one episode, mom buys a new bag of dog food, puts the dog food dish on the kitchen table, and is pouring it into the dish. The dog smells it and bounds into the kitchen, slobbering, almost ready to pounce on the dish. Mom is just moving to set the dish on the floor and the dog is ecstatic, when mom sees the "now made with meat" sign on the package. She gasps and immediately withdraws the dish. The dog is crushed, he is starving for that meat. He is so upset he just stands there shaking. The children come in and when mom explains that Che almost ate meat they exclaim "look, he's shaking with fear over what he almost did!"
Don't worry about Che, he gets a real meal now and then. And the ways he does it is one of the recurring side bits and occasionally part of the main plot of several episodes.

Unfortunately, I can't give you any decent examples of making fun of Conservatives without delivering a spoiler. Suffice it to say that Conservatives often come out very creepy, very often. As much as I like to make fun of libs, I have to admit that I laugh just as hard at his treatment of "my side."

I never thought it could happen, but I find myself pulling for these ultra liberals, and liking them a lot. When they go up against some big ol' BBQ sauce dripping, meat eating, Limbaugh loving Conservative type, I find myself rooting for them. This is the exact opposite of my attitude outside of the show.
Hmmmmmmm, intent?

The Goode Family is a very fun, likable show. It skewers both sides, but at the same time shows compassion and even admiration for many.

If anything in this show offends you, then you should perhaps take a long look at yourself, as you aren't as great as you think you are.


ABC, The Goode Family

Hey, I just noticed that the Google spell checker capitalizes Conservative, but not liberal. What does THAT tell you?