Saturday posts

Saturday Posts . . .

I have a confession.  I know that I have not been doing a good job of keeping these Saturday Posts going lately.  There is a reason – my own shortsightedness.

You see, when I first started this, I had enough materials to make a post every week for over 3 years, and I have been getting new things every few months throughout.  However, I didn’t set up a system to keep track of what I’d already posted, so eventually I couldn’t just look at the file folder and know what had or had not been used.  I know that there is still a lot in that folder that I haven’t posted, but it’s a mess.

So, I’m not sure what to do next.  The way I see it, I have a few options:  I can start over and just post everything in alphabetic order; or, I can start over and move the freshly used files to a new folder that is “used”; or I can do a labor-intensive search of the past Saturday posts to identify what I’ve already posted and move them from the active folder.  Of course, there are probably other ideas that you might have, and I’m willing to hear them.

So, if it matters to you – please leave a comment to let me know what you think my best course of action should be.  I’ll consider everything suggested – so long as you follow one rule.  Please don’t post any links to other sites or blogs in the comments.

Thank you for your ideas, and your patience.

Saturday Posts . . .

Recently my wife and I were talking, and somehow the lyrics to “This Land is Your Land” by Woodie Guthrie came up.  Well, I have a peculiar ability to screw up the words to songs, and come up with something that actually makes sense, but has no bearing on the original song, and that happened again.

Here are my new lyrics to that song:

This land is my land, this land is your land,

From the bloated egos, to the trampled minions,

From the hostile bigots, to the liberal half-wits,

This land was made for you and me.

Saturday Posts . . .

Kudos to my wonderful wife for sending this to me!

_______________________________________________

WE DO LIVE IN SUCH A DUMB COUNTRY!!

By Jeff Foxworthy:

If plastic water bottles are okay, but plastic bags are banned, — you might live in a nation (state) that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for entering and remaining in the country illegally — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or to take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you MUST show your identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book and rent a video, but not to vote for who runs the government — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If the government wants to prevent stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines that hold more than ten rounds, but gives twenty F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If, in the nation’s largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not one 24-ounce soda, because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If an 80-year-old woman who is confined to a wheelchair or a three-year-old girl can be strip-searched by the TSA at the airport, but a woman in a burka or a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If a seven-year-old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher is “cute” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government regulation and intrusion while not working is rewarded with Food Stamps, WIC checks, Medicaid benefits, subsidized housing, and free cell phones — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big-screen TV, while your neighbor buys iPhones, time shares, a wall-sized do-it-all plasma screen TV and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE IN ALL UPCOMING ELECTIONS. MOST OF THE IDIOTS RUNNING THIS COUNTRY SAY ONE THING AND DO THE OPPOSITE KNOWING THAT THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED THEM IN DO NOT PAY ATTENTION

LET’S SEE IF I GOT THIS RIGHT!!!

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.

IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.

IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT.

IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET ……. !!!
A JOB, A DRIVERS LICENSE, SOCIAL SECURITY CARD, WELFARE, FOOD STAMPS, CREDIT CARDS,
SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE, FREE EDUCATION, FREE HEALTH CARE,
A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON, BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE, THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY’S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DON’T GET ENOUGH RESPECT, AND, IN MANY INSTANCES, YOU CAN VOTE.

Saturday Posts . . .

The Lectin-free diet is a bust – for me, at least.  If you’ve been following my story, you know that at one point my weight was just a couple of pounds short of 250.  To get that under control, I started the Paleo Diet, and lost nearly 60 pounds.  Well, when we switched to the lectin-free diet, my weight went back up to 230.  The solution, then, seems to be that the best diet for me is the paleo, sometimes also called the Caveman Diet.  So, we’re switching back.

Saturday Posts . . .

I’ve written before that one of my fitness challenges is the existence of a huge tear in the upper abdominal wall, which several different doctors and fitness instructors have told me makes exercising my abs dangerous.  Yet, through the years that I’ve carried  this trouble, I’ve found no way around the problem.

Until very recently.

About 3 months ago, I began to wonder if something like the old-fashioned women’s girdles might offer enough support to the hernia to allow me to exercise.  I kept this suspicion to myself, because I don’t want to spend money on anything – ANYTHING – without a good chance that it’s worth the cost.  I’ve been burned too many times.  So, I tried to research the idea myself.

Then, about a month ago, my wife came to me with the revelation that she’d read an actual medical journal article about a trial of this very idea – with incredibly positive results.  That was when I first shared with her what I’d been looking into, and I agreed to try it.  She found an adjustable girdle with velcro fastening that I could place high enough to support the heria, and I began.

I had to start slow – I haven’t exercised  my abs in over 25 years.  But, as I built strength and endurance, I also started to see a physical change.  I haven’t lost much girth, perhaps an inch, but I do see definition starting to form in the muscles, which is encouraging.

Saturday Posts . . .

I’m feeling a bit vindicated at the moment, over the whole “Lectin Free eating” idea.  But, it isn’t the idea itself that has me grinning, but a thought I remembered having as a kid.

If you were like me, your parents probably did two things: told you to take a multi-vitamin every day, and told you that drugs were bad.  That was probably the end of the similarity between us, because when I was a kid, my family got our vitamins from the local drug store.

I admit that this is very simplistic thinking, but to my childhood understanding, if drugs were bad, why were drug stores legal?  If vitamins look like drugs, why take them?  Shouldn’t people be able to get all the nutrition they need from the food they eat?

Well, it turns out that the “Lectin free eating” idea was a huge chunk of the missing data.  You see, if we never damaged our intestine, most of our standard health problems would probably never happen to us.  So, that 10 year old (me, a very long time ago) was right – we can get our nutrition from our food, at least as long as we’re not deliberately eating things that work against us.

Saturday Posts . . .

Well, it’s time to slam on the breaks, for me anyhow.

As my wife and I approach the one months mark of the lectin-free program, we have had mixed results from taking Dr. Gundry’s Total Restore product.  I have no problem with that – it was fairly obvious that I was in worse shape than my wife to start with.

No, what is giving me pause is the price of continuing.  When we ordered the first shipment of the product, we paid about $130 for 3 bottles – a 6 week supply with both of us taking it.  I knew that was an introductory price, but I did not expect for the refill price to be over $190 for 3 bottles.  Which is just what we learned it would be when we started getting ready for our spending on bills that needed paying yesterday.

As for the diet part, I’m going to continue with it.  If nothing, that makes the grocery shopping a lot easier for my wife, so it’s worth doing just for that.  However, the Total Restore is an expense I can’t justify,  at least not right now.  We have a lot of other needs, and they all require spending money.  This one will have to wait.

Saturday Posts . . .

Lectin-free, Week 3 update . . .

Well, this is exciting.  Not really.  This is currently my 3rd attempt at posting this update.  Firefox is giving me fits today.

There hasn’t been much change from last week, as far as physical symptoms go.  What has changed is that the local weather has gotten so hot during the day that I can’t sleep, making doing our laundry at night a serious challenge.  I think I’m going to have to adapt a “1 load per day, just before sunrise” type of program to get through the summer.

Going lectin-free is proving to be a more difficult challenge than we had hoped.  Some of our basic staples have lectins in them, and finding substitutes is a continuous experiment.  For example – sweet potatoes can substitute for Idaho potatoes in some things, but sweet potatoes make lousy hash browns.  They don’t cook right.  Rutabaga has an unusual flavor, but will do a good job as a potato substitute.

Anyway, we’re still trying to meet the challenge.  Life is Strange.

Saturday Posts . . .

If you found your interest peaked by my previous post about leaky gut and removing lectins from your diet, this will be an update to that.

If you are new to the leaky gut idea, please see my previous post.  I have a link there to a website run by a former world-class cardiac surgeon who now focuses his practice on healing instead of surgery.  He explains, far better than I can, what this is all about.  Just realize that, according to him, symptoms of leaky gut can include brain fog, arthritis, migraine headaches, chronic fatigue, obesity . . . .

Now, to the update.

It has been just over 2 weeks since my wife and I started taking the daily supplements recommended for this program.  My wife saw almost instant benefits – she told me on day 3 that she’d already noticed that her nearly-constant craving for refined sugar was almost gone.  After a week she told me that when she wakes in the mornings it isn’t a struggle to get out of bed anymore, she wakes with more  energy and mental sharpness.  The two together have her convinced that this was a definite move in the right direction, for her.

My results would best fall into the category of “proof that one-size definitely does not fit all in health care”.  I’m not saying this has failed to work for me, just that at the 2 week mark my results are far less spectacular.  If anything, my mental fog has worsened.  I’m constantly tired, and get confused if I have more than one thing going on at a time.

So, what makes that a positive result?  Let me regress – to the results of my doing the paleo diet.  When I started the paleo diet, I weighed 248 pounds, at 5’8″ tall.  I was just short of 100 pounds more than what I weighed when I got discharged from the US Army in 1982.  Without exercising, using the paleo diet my weight dropped to 190 pounds.  However, with all of that weight loss – my abdominal girth did not decrease AT ALL.  I’m now convinced that this is, perhaps, the greatest proof of my having leaky gut – and that all that girth is due to toxic waste that had built up around my intestines.

I’m not sure if this qualifies as proof, but one thing that has changed is the smell of my waste when I go to the bathroom.  Of course, I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t smell bad before, but now it is so offensive that I wait until the last possible minute and hold my breath as much as possible until the event is over.  Passing gas can clear the living room – of our cats!

I’m choosing to take this as an indication that my body IS trying to process that toxic waste, and flush it from my body as quickly as possible.  It is just overwhelmed by the scope of the job at this point, but continuing should eventually get me over the hump.

At least that is what I’m thinking right now.