Another Month Gone + No More Garcinia Gambogia

Well, another month has slipped into the past. or where ever it goes. I'm not sure about parallel universes just yet.

I decided to quit the garcinia gambogia. I don't need it. I'm not the pill popping kind of guy. In fact it made me very nervous, and I've got enough anxieties already. It also made me hungry, which really isn't a problem for me any longer. It's advocates claim it takes away your food cravings. It did the exact opposite for me. That's after only two weeks. I can make it through the day without constantly going to the cupboard or the fridge.

I want to meet some of these people who have taken it, and had these "amazing results." I'm like my wife Geraldine, a skeptic.

Dr. Oz, who is promoting this product, says, "It's not a substitute for a good healthy diet and exercise." Then why champion it? Why not champion a healthy lifestyle instead of a pill. I'll take Richard Simmons over the great and powerful Oz. Sweat it out baby.

Let's say for a minute that it does burn fat and lowers your cholesterol like it claims. Does it also clean out your arteries, and your liver. The serious problem I see here is that people are going to keep on eating an unhealthy diet of food, and any way you cut the mustard that's a recipe for a heart attack, garcinia gambogia or no garcinia gambogia.

We have to make the time in our schedules to do the hard work. We need a well balanced variety of protein, fruits and vegetables in our diets, not a double double from In and Out Burger and a chaser of garcinia gambogia. It's akin to "You don't need to protect yourself against STD's. Hey, if you get aids, all you need is a nice cocktail of drugs every day and you can live forever. Can't get old glory up any more, have a little blue pill.

I'll substitute a hike with my wife and the dogs v.s. garcinia gambogia, a block of cheese and a wide screen TV any day. Fucking gimmicks.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

What I ate Today;

Breakfast; 1 piece of wheat toast w/butter, 1 potato pancake olive oil, s & p, 2 poached eggs, black tea w/agave

Lunch; crackers and 2 oz. salumi, 2 handfuls of nuts, water melon

Dinner; leftover pasta & Brussel sprouts from Th. night,  and kale salad w/black olives, cucumber, red bell pepper,

Exercise; 5 miles walking

0 Fast day

That's what I got. A big fat 0. These fucking blogs are insipid and stupid.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

What I ate today;

Breakfast; black tea w/agave

Lunch; 2 large crackers and 8 thin slices of Genoa salumi

Dinner; a small little pasta rigatoni w/cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh garlic, olive oil, red onion,  salt & pepper,  Italian chicken sausage. I had 1 1/2 sausages, salad w/lemon herb vinaigrette, black olives, cucumber, red bell peppers

Exercise; 6 miles walking

Running Smooth

Life is going along rather smoothly I'm happy to say. I've settled in a comfortable eating pattern that seems to be working for me, finally. There are and will be more "slips",  but this is not a strain for me any longer. I will always have to be conscious of what I put in the old pie hole. The days of unabashed oral food orgies are numbered.

Geri and I were on our nightly constitutional this evening when she posed the question, "Wouldn't it be funny if you became an anorexic?" My reply was, "I thought of that myself just today, but then dismissed it because I loved food too much, and always will." And it's true. In fact this whole process of changing my relationship with food has made me appreciate and love food even more.

At 60 the consequences of bad choices are more potent than ever.

Today was a beautiful day in Oakland.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

What I ate today;

Breakfast; 2 poached eggs, chives, s & p, olive oil, 1small potato pancake, 1 piece wheat toast w/butter, 1 cup black tea w/agave

Lunch; nothing

Dinner; pulled pork sandwich on chabatta bread w/2 tbs bbq sauce, leftover grilled corn on the cob

Dessert; 2/3 cherry, almond, chocolate bar, mint tea w/lemon, agave, 1/2 shot Jack Daniels (hot mint toddy) Alice visited, always.

Exercise; 7 miles walking/hiking

Herbs and Corn

The herb garden is doing great, and at this rate we will have to plant at least two crops of herbs this season, maybe three before the rains come again. Good thing pesto freezes.

Corn is already in season and we have been grilling a mess of it already this summer. The vegetables and fruit at the market right now is amazing.

Very busy day today.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

What I ate today:

Breakfast; 2 poached eggs, 1 piece of wheat toast w/butter, 1 potato pancake cooked w/olive oil

Lunch; 1 Italian chicken sausage on a small piece of Chabata bread, fruit juice

Dinner; Grilled turkey sandwich on Chabata bread, Dijon mustard, avocado, smoke Gouda cheese

Dessert; water melon

Exercise today; 3 miles walking

Herb Box

savory & marjoram left

basil

chives

Memorial Day & Fasting

It was a nice weekend spent close to home.

I have nothing but respect for the people who have chosen to serve their country. Of course when I was young I got in quite a bit trouble, and it was brought up that maybe the service would be good for me. A Marine recruiter pointed out to me that it wasn't weather military service was good for me, it was weather or not I was good enough for the service. Or in the immortal words of JFK, "Ask not what your country can do for your, but what you can do for your country. Not going in the service is what I did for America. We are all better off as a result of that fact. 

Sleep tight America. I'm not on the job.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

What I ate today;

Breakfast; Black tea w/agave 

Lunch; Noting (fast day)

Dinner; Cheese burger, fries, half corn on the cob, water, pop corn at the movies

Exercise: 3 miles walking

Ice Cream + Memorial Day + The John Buchard Syndrome

I broke down and had some ice cream last night. The craving was so intense I just had to give in. I have watermelon in the fridge, which I had earlier in the day, but I had to have ice cream.

There's a scene in the movie Down By Law, where Roberto Bertolini, Tom Waits, and John Laurie from the band Austin Lounge Lizards, are in the Parish Prison in New Orleans and they're yelling
"ice cream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream." That's kinda how I felt last night. I ate 3/4 of a  a pint of bittersweet chocolate by the Three Twins. It is addictive for sure. Had to have it, gave in to temptation. So much for the benefits of fasting. Whatever benefit I did derive from fasting yesterday was negated by the 4 million calories of ice cream I consumed. Ice cream is the perfect combination of salt, sugar and fat. Of course today I felt guilty. Well, I haven't had a beer in two weeks.

Memorial Day weekend and I'm staying close to home. It's another amateur weekend. Too many people on the road, with too much alcohol in them, and not enough drunk driving experience. Of course New Years Eve is the grand daddy of amateur night, followed by Memorial Day and July 4th.

Memorial Day is of course the holiday we celebrate to honor our brothers and sisters who have given the ultimate sacrafice for our country and wall street. Read Labors Untold Story if you want the real truth about America.

I went to the bathroom this morning trying to hock up a loogie I had lodged somewhere in my throat and strained my neck from coughing it up. Now I have no range of motion, and it's very uncomfortable, painful actually. I call it the John Buchard syndrome, for an old boss of mine. I worked for John for 3 seasons building driveways, and landscaping. we were good friends and we spent time fishing, hunting, eating, having fun, fighting, and drinking a lot. I learned a lot about construction from John.

John and his wife Florence were both old French Yankee farm kids way up near Lake Champlain Vermont. "Eleven miles to Canada as the crow flies." John would say. He and Florence spoke French as their first language. They had three girls. When you pissed him off he'd start swearing in French. That's when you knew when to back off. He was a tough farm boy, and a man you did not want to cross. He had a habit of busting peoples spleens. If he put you in a bear hug you might be visiting the hospital. He also had a reputation up north as being the toughest man around. No body at the firehouse in that neck of the woods could beat him in a fist fight. John was about 6 feet tall. He had a massive belly that was as solid as concrete, huge meaty hands with long fingers, and a thick healthy blue grey head of hair with streaks of white frost in it. He had a funny accent, and a wonderful charming smile.

One day John and I were working on a job site somewhere in Wilton CT. He was on the bulldozer back-grading this driveway, and I was working some rocks out by hand when he stopped to help me with this rock that I couldn't budge. As he steps off the dozer onto the ground his back went out, and I start laughing. He was 40 years old at the time and I was maybe 22. He looked at me with these dead  serious eyes and said "You wait, you'll be like me before you know it."

Every time something like this happens to me now I call it the John Buchard syndrome. It's a good excuse to finish the bitter sweet chocolate ice cream from the Three Twins. Pain killer.

That it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

What I ate today;
Breakfast; 2 poached eggs, 1 potato pancake, 2 pieces of whole wheat toast w/butter, 2 thin slices of ham

Lunch: Chicken salad sandwich w/mayo, mustard, s & p, herbs of Provence, fresh parsley, 2 pieces of whole wheat toast

Dessert; Ice Cream, water melon

Exercise; 3.5 miles walking

Boring Blogging

That's what this blog can be and life in general, boring. I have nothing to write about. I ate some happy chocolate today, you know, Alice. Maybe that's why I'm bored. She hasn't been in my life since Saturday. In fact when Alice is present I don't have hunger pangs. She has the opposite effect on me than she does on other people.

I'm tired from walking dogs all day and hungry, as it is a fast day.

I have found myself eating fruit and nuts on fasting days which technically means I'm not fasting. Maybe it's not sustainable? I have to make my blue agave drink. Maybe it's reassessment time.

Tomorrow is another day. The chocolate helps.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

What I ate today;

Breakfast; nothing

Lunch; banana, apple, nuts

Dinner; Roasted chicken, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, small kale salad

Exercise;  5 miles walking