Food, The Government Shutdown and Congress

The sunshine disappeared, the skies turned gray and the winds picked up. All that means is the weather is about to drastically change again. This time we are headed for temperatures back in the teens by the weekend and possible snow by Tuesday. That change was off to a good start as the hounds and I stepped outside after their lunch. As you can see neither hound was too enthused about staying outside. I could feel a very cold wind coming from the west, whereas the weather channel shows the front blowing in from the Northwest at first then a big western front early next week. No matter what, our routine will stay on course.

Stella and Heidi waited for me to return from the mailbox. Besides my small card for the water bill, a bill that has not increased in the last four years, mail was nothing more than added fodder to my recycling bin. Those landscape bricks are going to be swapped out for something taller this spring OR I am going to have a load of dirt dumped in this corner then rebuild the yard. I have lost that much ground in the 20 years I've lived here. Meaning, the ground use to be level with the carport floor. Too much erosion? Or not a concern? Let me know what you think.

So I was ready to go back inside where it's warm ... so were they.

Heidi wanted to do something most of the day but was having a hard time conveying to me exactly what she wanted. She acted like she wanted to play but that wasn't it. She didn't want outside again. She had been fed. She had fresh water and she had plenty of attention after she woke from her morning nap. By late afternoon we still didn't have an answer. She finally gave up and went to sleep.

A little after 2:30pm Stella and I decided it was a perfect time for an afternoon walk. I had some pasta for lunch/dinner and I need to walk off some of those extra calories. That meal brings up some of my recent thinking about food the past couple of days. Since I have blood pressure below the normal range for someone my age, height and weight, plus a low resting pulse rate, and I get some sort of daily exercise ... what if I really don't need to lose weight?

What if my body has decided this is where I need to be just as long as I stay away from fast food, junk food and sodas? What would happen or what would the results by the end of December 2019 if I will have eaten nothing but healthy food minus the cookies, candy, sodas and quarter pounders with cheese? I've not eaten like that since my mid to late 20s. Would I still lose weight?

Obviously I cannot follow the Keto way of eating because after one banana and one apple I am already over their 15-20 grams of carbs. I can't go strictly vegan or even lacto-vegetarian because when I tried that last year I felt lethargic most of the time. If I follow meals similar to the Mediterranean Diet I gain weight because there is too much pasta or too much bread or grains. What if I forgot about counting carbs and calories, fat or protein and just ate good healthy food every day. No processed foods, just food from the produce and meat/chicken/seafood isles? Except for coffee.

As far as calories go, those are tracked in the food apps I've used and use today. Most tell me, along with medical articles, that a man my age, height and weight needs 2200 calories per day. That is more than enough food for me. Overall I average somewhere between 1600-1800 per day. There will be days I go both extremes of 1200 or 3000 depending on what I eat that day. I try to shoot for 1500 but with that number I am too hungry after 7pm. 1800 calories seems to be the best ... still those 1800 calories do not include any packaged food, maybe a can of tuna for spreading on a salad, or pasta sauce from a jar (no I'm not making my own). Meaning, my cabinets are not filled with packages of cookies, chips, crackers, candy, breads, ice cream, etc. It has been months since my last gouge on bad food.

I read the other day a study showed that a high carbohydrate diet was good for longevity .... as long as your lived in Okinawa.   :)

The path was wet this afternoon. Since it was 30° that is still cold enough to keep the ice around.

So I am leaning to do what I have been doing. I'll eat when I am hungry with my biggest meal of the day no later than 4pm. I'll keep eating bananas, apples carrots, other fresh fruit and veggies because they are good for you  and carbs don't matter when it comes to good healthy fruit. I'll have a lot of salmon because I love salmon plus I have a great source nearby for fresh caught wild salmon.

I will still have a steak occasionally along with a burger every 3-6 months because they taste good, high in protein and fat - no carbs to speak of. The BIG KEY will be, to resist that urge for a candy bar, a package of oatmeal raisin cookies or "just one" container of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. This spring and summer will be the hardest time of year to stay away from that kind of food.

I will not care knowing that if I had any amount of pasta to my day, most likely that will shove my calorie count over 2200 for the day ... who's counting? who cares?

I know my limits. I have to stay away from any kind of cows milk, any kind of cottage cheese and even the best of the best yogurt. Why? I can drink milk nonstop and within 24 hours a gallon of milk in my house is gone! I know with a container of cottage cheese that it will not last much longer than the milk does, once I open the container. Same with the yogurt ... only a difference ... I have yet to find a yogurt yet that does not give me some sort of indigestion. So  ... none of those kind of dairy ... Kerrygold butter, yes. Eggs, yes, cheeses, yes.

am I am anxious to see how these new thoughts on food shows on my monthly spreadsheet. I'll adjust my food intake from what I see there.

I've must have turned on my tv and off within 5 minutes a million times the past few weeks ... trying to listen to the news, since I do not sit and watch the news. For those that have never worked in government, let it be known that things operate a little differently than a job in a company. I have been in both worlds, corporate and government in the accounting field.

There is so much more to government finances than the media lets on. So much that I cannot even cover all the points of differences here. I'll just mention a couple of things that make this 'shutdown' confusing.

As a government contractor in 2013 I was sent home during a shutdown in the Obama administration. It wasn't long, a week to ten days. By the time my boss called me to come back to work I told him I am somewhere between Arkansas and Missouri driving and being at work by 8am the next morning was not possible. "After all YOU are the one that told me to go home" :)

I was still paid on a regular basis during that shutdown because I took vacation days as did EVERYONE ELSE I worked with!! There was no hardships by those married with kids - they were happy to have the time off!!!

I have also been in a government position. In most cases throughout government nationwide, funds to pay people salaries are already on the books in THEIR department, especially in January the start of the second quarter in a fiscal year. So the shutdown isn't a money thing, there is money available within their departments to pay salaries.

There might be some people in between projects, or a new hire that doesn't have funds set aside for them but I know from personal experience those kind of employees are paid on time with the project money already on the books. The kicker is, depending what type of funding it is, they will have to spend all of it some way by September 30th or lose it as DC takes back the balance. When people are not paid, those balances grow astronomical.

From the personal side ... I'm sorry I don't agree with the "sob story" of food lines, trying to feed my kids, missing a mortgage payment ... etc.

WHY??? "That's terrible" "You suck saying that"

Even the new employee hired a week before the shutdown, they make good money. Very good money. IN MY OPINION after being in their shoes ... the people who are crying to the heavens that Trump or the shutdown is destroying their life .... really???? ONLY BASING THIS ON WHAT I HAVE SEEN WITH MY OWN TWO EYES WHEN WORKING ... those kind of people have a house that they couldn't  afford when they bought it. I mean, they mortgaged out more than they could afford. God bless them if they don't have a fixed rate mortgage. They stretched that monthly payment as much as they could within their budget .... called income and expense.

See along with that house are one or two NEW cars, trucks or suv's. They have $700-~$1,000 per month going out for car payments. "Ah you want at that $65,000 pickup truck but can't afford that monthly payment ??? Let me help you and stretch that loan out 7, 8 or 9 years. Is that better?" says their friend car salesman.

I haven't even got to the credit card mess yet. For those government workers that are strapped for cash driving an older car and bought an older cheaper home or even renting ... I'll bet all the money I have that their credit cards are max'ed out to the maximum balance and there is no more money available .... why??

WHO BUYS GROCERIES WITH CREDIT CARDS THAT HAVE INTEREST RATES OVER 20% ????? Who? .. More people than you can imagine.


Again, based on my personal experience of working for the government, having lunch with co-workers and even having some co-workers show up at my desk more times than I can count saying -----

"I hear you do spreadsheets. Do you think you could make one for me that can tell me where all my money is going , I never seem to have any money left after I get paid?"

Those were people making over $65,000 per year, with kids usually, possibly a single parent. Or a young graduate just starting. Or someone as old as me that just figured out they really want to retire but has not saved a dime for retirement and could see they were not going to have enough to live on after working for the government all their life. They had refinanced their house to keep their lifestyle of the 'rich and famous' going strong all those years.

Now there are those that are innocent, have a savings accounts, have paid for college tuition for their kids, are responsible for their money and stays within budget ... but those people are not the ones crying to the heavens how they are getting screwed.

BTW do you know that most airports hire their security checkers from private firms and not all are TSA employees?

Do you know that 4 out of 6 illegal immigrants have an education level below high school? What kind of job can you get with that?  (Yes, I know Gates nor Zuckerberg finished college) Do they deserve a "living wage" or $15 per hour minimum?

So it's a mixed bag of thoughts for me on this shutdown stuff. I am guessing that Congress will come to some sort of agreement, after both of their bills fail to get passed this afternoon. It will be a deal behind closed doors ... then all the whining and bitching can move to another topic in the media. Just like referees in ballgames, the media reporters make me puke!!!

I did well playing Mahjong today. I also found a new tv series I love on the History Channel called "Project Blue Book" ... my DVR had taped three shows for me. I watched them all back to back. If you like true stories, if you like UFO's, you like history ... then you will like Project Blue Book on the History Channel. Another show I mentioned a few posts ago, is about the start of the internet, the anti-trust suit against Microsoft that they lost, the destruction of Netscape (my favorite browser in the 90's) ... Valley of Boom, their last show is on Sunday night.

Stella of course is not affected by the government shutdown but you can't say she hasn't thought about it. That is a look of some deep thinking from a bloodhound.

While playing Mahjong at the kitchen table I noticed the water rising from the flooded creek that borders both fields across the highway.

By 5pm there were signs of unexpected snow. No urge to nap after that pasta I ate. No urge to read ... just urges to hang out and enjoy another day of retirement. Tell me what you think about my food thoughts or my thoughts on the government stuff.

It's been another nice day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Dieting Is A Pain In The Ass

I can't call it a diet really. I have changed what I eat over the past 5 years, watch what I eat and log in to MyFitnessPal app EVERYTHING I eat. I don't cheat on that logging procedure no matter how hard I fall off the wagon into great junk food, pastries, chips,  ....  you know, all the good stuff.

I've tried Paleo, Mediterranean, Keto, Vegan, Lacto-Vegetarian, Blood-Type Diets along with my own by adding some 'personal modifications' to those just mentioned.

I was in utter shock when I found out that any blend of Ben&Jerry's ice cream wasn't included. That is almost UN-American !!!!!! I LOVE ice cream and especially Ben&Jerry's. Cost of it be damned!!!  Can't I even have two scoops a week?? I can't do a scoop for any length of time because the word "scoop" is not in my vocabulary ... "whole container" is right at the top, under The 10 Best Ways To Eat Ice Cream.

After years of staying away from the beef, except for a Nick's Stromboli once or twice per year, I was happy to see that the Paleo Diet was letting me have one of these. Now any smart dieter knows it would be best to cut this in half or into 4oz portions, or whichever is smaller ... but I don't recall anyone calling me a smart dieter. I have heard "where do you put all of that food you eat" but not 4oz portions.

The Paleo Diet and the Keto Diet told me I need to eat lots of FAT and PROTEIN .... buy bacon again, ham, pork, all that good tasting stuff and have it for breakfast too. I did and the amazing thing was, within days of eating the Paleo Diet way ALL of my heartburn disappeared ... within days!!!

I tried the Keto Diet last spring only for short period of time. When I couldn't have my normal portion of pasta, or even a tiny weeny bit of pasta I knew that my chances of being a "Ketonite" were slim and none. I would be up to 16 carbs in a 15-20 carb limit by two cups of coffee first thing in the morning because my brain requires two teaspoons of pure granulated sugar per 12oz cup of coffee. (Black coffee this morning) See what I mean .... the Keto Diet and I weren't friends for very long.

Now one thing it did do, it helped me measure out my portions with a measuring cup and this 1cup of dried pasta is now my new portion size when I have pasta, which is few and far between. That chip on the edge of the plate took place when I left the house one night for a short 10 minute junk food trip.

Stella had the run of the house and was sound to sleep on the couch with Heidi when I left. While I was gone she must have smelled food on the plate sitting on the counter waiting to be washed. By the time I got home that plate and it's co-plate were on the floor ... the 2nd plate was smashed into 4 large broken pieces. I guess that was Stella's way of telling me JUNK FOOD IS NOT ALLOWED!!!!

I tried cooking in advance. What better way than to slow cook some homemade 15-bean soup with Cajun spices when colder weather hits. There again I have some issues. I admit it. I stand tall saying my first name and telling the world "I am a mess" when it comes to food portion control.

Just because you pat yourself on the back for a job well done after eating only 2 measured cups of this, that doesn't mean the game is over and you will be awarded. Hell no!!! NOT EVEN CLOSE !!!!

Those regular size soup bowls that come with any cheap set of dishes just doesn't hold a lot of bean soup, if you know what I mean. So I had a BIG choice .... a LOT of those 2 cup bowls or serve it in a bigger bowl and make fewer trips from the football games on tv to the kitchen. Guess who won? Not the game ... which size of bowl.

Within 48 hours of the first bean coming out of that crocpot .... that stuff was GONE !!!!

So I decided I need to start doing some aerobic exercise. What better way to get your pulse rate up than with games of Mahjong Deluxe while trying to get rid of those tiles as fast as possible. 160 games total and I even set a goal. Exercise and goals ... what could be better??? You can see I was already more than 7 seconds behind by the time I set my iPhone down, taking the picture.

My goal was to complete all the 160 games in under 3 minutes each. I admit I was out of shape when I started but like any kind of exercise you have to start out slow and build up your speed and endurance. It wasn't long before I cut my time in half, sometimes more. Currently I have only a few games left over 3 minutes completion time and I HAVEN'T LOST A DAMN POUND OF WEIGHT !!!!!

At the same time I read that for 'old' people hand and eye coordination is something that needs to be practiced. No better way than with your index finger on your laptop touchpad, moving fast to match two tiles and make them disappear. You would think if I sat at the table playing this game literally for hours ... the fat would just burn off of my body !!

I do from time to time get series about this dieting shit. I mean really serious. If you remember I am a man of extremes, all or nothing, $5 bets on the crap table or $,1000's at a time, drive the speed limit or fly way above it, feel good after an hour sleep and like crap after 10 hours of sleep .... on and on and on ... you get the idea. There is nothing in between in my life.

So this chart had me focusing on how I need to shop for groceries. The fat in Pale scared me with my family history of cardiac arrest, sometimes not having the best results. So I went Vegan for a while until I got tired of feeling lethargic all the time.

This gave me me too much heartburn, gone were the days of cold orange juice at 2am or 3am after waking up from a deep sleep, drinking it right out of the container ... just like milk. I LOVE orange juice but not quite as much as Ben&Jerry's ice cream.

I had flashbacks when I saw this on the shelf the other day at the local Super Walmart. Holy shit that stuff would change my personality drinking it some 30 some years ago. You talk about "WILD" ... damn. They labeled that whiskey right. I'll only say this, YES me and my three friends DID go to court that year when Whidbey Island WA has an unexpected 27" of snow in 24 hours. But .... we were young and dumb.

Whidbey Island might get a dusting of snow sometimes but no more than MAYBE an 1" at the most. I found this out in my research in 1984, when trying to decide if I wanted to move from the beach in Carlsbad CA, to the rock beaches of Oak Harbor, WA.

So how do you end up talking to a judge in a court of law?? With a lawyer, hired by you? Well what started off as a good Samaritan act in the neighborhood ... by blowing snow off sidewalks with high speed snowmobiles, turned into large quantities of Wild Turkey being consumed because it was cold out there in that freezing weather ... we needed something to warm up.

Of course you always come up with the best ideas when you are drinking ... especially that stuff in the picture. Oh yes .... we were about to become famous ... really famous.

Not only did we have smaller bottles of this under our North Face down parkas but we were also riding these snowmobiles all over Island County back roads, and AT TIMES crossing the major north south highway ... Hwy 20. I admit there were times that we might have been airborne with the snowmobile. It did feel like we were flying a few times.

Things were going pretty good. We were safe, drunk, cold and happy. Things turned exciting really quick. I mean really really quick ... just about the time all four of us on four different snowmobiles FLEW by this white car ... If I wasn't going so fast I might have recognized him as a Oak Harbor Police car .... he put on those bright flashing red and blue lights you hear other people talking about sometimes ... sometimes.

When you are doing over 70mph on those snow machines you tend to get way ahead of the chasing police car. WAY AHEAD .... but we were considerate and knew we were busted. All four of us stopped, turned our machines off, put the Turkey away and waited .... and waited ... while watching these red and blue lights along with headlights slide all over the highway from side to side ... to catch up to us.

He did thank us for waiting for him, asked us what brand name of machine we were riding. (We did not know that was for ticket purposes) That was as far as his amusement went. In the end it was an even trade off ... we keep the machines to ride back home (escorted) in trade for a ticket for speeding .... and numerous other violations.

All of us paid for that decision .... I am not sure with around 30 years of inflation, what our fines, court costs and lawyer fees would be in today's money. I do remember clearly eating a LOT of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after that for a LONG TIME. Not just for lunch either.

There are times I fall off the wagon hard.  It's 11:30pm and the west coast baseball games are just starting on tv. What better time than to run down to the local mini-mart for a 20oz coke, a small bag of chips and all that other junk food not seen in the range of the camera? Believe me, there is A LOT not in that picture. :) This is never good for diet discipline.

No more stuff like this for dinner ... all of that ... not allowed.

No more pizza at DeAngelo's Pizza in Bloomington.

No more pizza at Mother Bear's in Bloomington. Even the smaller size of pizza, and fewer slices still puts on the pounds fast as well as sending your carbs goal for the day out of this world.

No more opening this, just pouring it over ice in my blender and dreaming of the times on the beaches at Rosarito Beach south of Tijuna at the Rosarito Beach Hotel in the late 1970's. Great times, great memories, great people.

Due to allergic reactions I rarely have a beer anymore. I think I have one or two beers a year when friends fly in to break bread at a local eating establishment.

While I was using this last year to change the oil in my Z4 I had a splendid idea ... but I'm not an engineer. What if .... I could slide that rubber tube down my throat into the internal fat surrounding my stomach ....  then pumping that pump with the black handle to build up the pressure needed for extraction .... hmmmm, I'll have to put more thought into that. That would be much faster than any stupid diet. Don't you think?

It does say on the label it is "Multi-Purpose" .... Vacuum Pump ... oil from an engine or fat surrounding my stomach, what's the difference?

I stare at the bottom of my feet sometimes, with this chart in hand but I have no idea where my answer is for losing weight. I am stuck at 202 unless I eat too much pasta .... then 206 ... but that is better than the 214 in May 2018 ... or the 230 in November 2010. I've set my calorie intake at 1,500 per day. Most of the time I am within that range. My resting pulse is 48-52 bpm, top number of my blood pressure reading is never over 110.

I'm not that stupid though. I know the answer. I know the correct portion size I should have, the discipline it takes, and I know that I can't lose weight playing hours of Mahjong.

I need to ride this.

Or walk, jog or ride my mountain bike around the outside edge of this field.

If I rode the bikes, jogged or walked on a daily basis around that field, stayed away from pizza and pasta ...

COULD I HAVE JUST ONE OF THESE !!!!!