CONTROLLING OUR EATING HABITS

One last article on obesity and I'll shut up about it, I promise. This is going to be about losing that excess and unnecessary body fat we have been carrying around since lord knows when. This is not about a new super-duper diet no one has heard of. So, don't get upset already. We all know diets just don't work. We have been there and done that until we are blue in the face. Just thinking about it triggers our gag reflex, and that doesn't work either.

The thingy that is to blame

Point one: I think we all know what has caused our overweight dilemma. If you are thinking it's anything other than overeating, you need to see a specialist, one of those headshrinker types. However, this is closer to solving our problem than you may think, because what causes our problem is a gismo located in our brain. What we have to do is reprogram the little sucker.

The gismo

This gismo evolved back when early man was a hunter-gatherer and lived from meal to meal. When the hunter brought down a mammoth, everyone gorged themselves until they passed out. The gismo tells the body to store all that excess fat, not immediately needed, for later use when pickings are thin. That storage area is usually around the belly or in some of us on the hips and thighs.

For most modern man, and woman too, no longer requires the gismo, but it still keeps on working and we must make a conscious effort to watch how much food we stuff into ourselves. "But I like eating. It brings me so much comfort and contentment." Most of us plead. That is until we realize another pound of fat has appeared around our waist. This process continues and gets out of control. Now we continue punishing our body because we hate what we have become.

A surprisingly simple fix

Point two: there is a way to fool this process. It is a simple process, so put aside that box of Twinkies and listen up. I'm going to show you how to make that box of Twinkies last you a week instead of just a snack after consuming that whole baked chicken you just downed for lunch. If you are like me, I must have a sweet treat after a meal, i.e., a habit I acquired as a child. This is not a good thing for someone overweight, but it is allowable in moderation. In our case, moderation is half of a Twinkie.

Another problem of our overeating is how fast we eat. I have just recently experienced this phenomenon, which scared the heck out of me and made me realize what overeaters face every day.

I was eating one of my healthy fresh vegetable and fruit meals I had been eating for the past six months in an attempt to rid myself of my belly fat that is so hard to shed. I stood at the kitchen sink shoveling in my meal with wild abandon, barely tasting what I swallowed. I stopped dead, realizing my actions were that of a crazed maniac who hadn't eaten in a week. I stopped in mid chew as bell pepper and cucumber crumbs fell from my gaping mouth into the sink. I realized too, why I ate at the sink. I viewed the sink already littered with bits and pieces of the meal I was stuffing into my mouth. I disliked that picture. Since I retired, I eat most of my meals alone. I don't bother sitting at the table or messing up a bunch of dishes. I have acquired a habit of eating at the sink while watching what my neighbors were doing.

Slow down and taste the roses

I was at a loss as what I should do about my conundrum. Later, I found an article on the internet on how to eat what you want and lose weight. I thought you had to watch what you eat to lose weight. It took me a long time to learn what I should eat to remain healthy and not gain weight. I only had to lose ten pounds. Anyway, this article sounded simple and logical, so I tried it. It seems to be working. Therefore, I'll pass it on to you. I hope you benefit from it as much as I do.

Why we eat too much

One of the reasons we eat more than we should is that the message our stomach sends to our brain that we are full is slow reaching the gismo that tells us to stop eating. I'm sure you have experienced this. Remember all those times you cussed yourself for eating too much, e.g., thirty minutes after eating that whole pizza and downing three beers, you feel miserable and bloated. That is the delay reaction kicking in. Why this system is so slow is beyond me. Everything else that involves a reflex action from the brain is instantaneous.

The cure

The recommendation is, eat small portions and chew them well. Picture yourself as a dainty southern maiden about to have tea and crumpets with her neighbor. Don't forget to extend your pinky finger and only take a few crumbs at a time. Savor their flavor and texture; let your saliva mix well before swallowing. This is not something new. I remember as a kid, and that's been a long time ago, we were told to chew each bite twenty times. Remember that, now? This gives you stomach time to phone you brain that it is reaching its optimum capacity and your brain sends a text message to you so you know it's time to stop stuffing your puss.

There now, isn't that simple? It's a matter of starting a new habit. Remember also, it takes thirty to sixty days to acquire a habit or change one. However, overcoming our cravings, stresses and emotional eating habits is not an easy feat. Give yourself plenty of time. As for my problem, I'm losing about a half pound a week, and have about eight more weeks to go. Get professional help if you need. I prefer to save my money, besides; I required no help getting to where I was.

Other things to do

Don't forget to exercise. I don't think it's essential, but it does help speed up the process and it's better for your heart, lungs and circulatory system. If I didn't exercise every day, I would either slowly atrophy into something similar to what Stephen Hawking looked like, or bloat up into a glob of lard. When I'm not on the computer, I'm glued to the boob tube. Well, I do manage to get up every 30 or 45 minute to make a trip to the fridge for a snack. Drink plenty of liquids too, preferably water, and stay away from all sodas, even the sugar free ones. They are a slow poison.

Hey, thank you all and have a pleasant day.

Ray

CHINA'S NEW OVERPOPULATION AID: FAST FOOD

Or how to feed a country to death

What has been a silent killer for over a half century in America has now spread to Third World countries. China now has an ally to aid them in controlling its overpopulation problem.

Fast food sales have been popular since Ancient Rome times, but never has it been as fashionable as present day.

It began in our country in the late teens and early twenties after the First World War and exploded in mid 20th century and now, fast food joints are so ubiquitous one cannot go more than a few blocks without passing one. Most exits on any expressways' are polluted with their signs cluttering the skyline

The problem:

Fast food joints have been sending us down a self-destructive path ever since they gained popularity and began killing us weak-minded gluttons. They started as what seemed like a novelty and quickly spread into an epidemic.

Of course, they never held a gun to our heads and forced us to eat their slow poisoning slop. What they did was hit us where we are most vulnerable, i.e., they hypnotized our impressionable children with their ads promising fun, frolic, and play toys. They made it easy for moms and dads, who both worked to live the American Dream, to make a five minute stop to carry home ready-made suppers. Schools served our children the same fat injected swill for lunch and served leftovers for breakfast the next morning. We grew up with the idea that hamburgers, fries and sweet drinks were our security blanket. A blanket that grew into a smothering monster we could not escape. Is it no wonder our kids bulged into butterball piglets ready for marketing/hospitalization.

The statistics:

Overeating has become an addiction as destructive as any street drug. Meat laced with growth hormones pollutes our bodies urging us, as it did the beasts the polluted meat came from, to eat more, forcing a third of our population into obesity. This lays us open to all manner of debilitating diseases and early deaths.

Obesity and its related diseases is the number 2 preventable killer in our society, right under Smoking. Of course, neither one is the actual killed. It's the diseases that erupt from our obsessive behavior.

The statistics, read it HERE yourself.

Our gluttonous habits steal from the mouths of starving children, not only here in our country but also from countries around the world. It raises our health cost and depletes our resources.

A solution:

We need to stop eating like the gluttons we are. If we cannot do it alone, we must make an appointment with a psychologist. One has to know what is causing us to expand is not coming from the air we breathe and our body does not require a half side of beef to exist on each day. All that slop we gorge ourselves with in not normal. It is a disease, a disease of the brain brought on by a habit. Our sick brains simply needs reprogrammed and for most of us, this requires help from a specialist. This does not mean a diet specialist. A diet has never cured obesity. There I go again. Never say never. Thanks and have a pleasant day. Ray

OBESITY: AN EPIDEMIC

Overeating is an addiction

Up until recently, I have never been overweight in my life. Now that I'm well into my seventies, a time when a normal male is supposed to be losing the weigh he usually gains in his sixties, I'm having trouble loosing the ten pounds the chart says I'm overweight. It's all around my waist. I think I'm running ten years behind the normal. However, I have been a little abnormal all my life.

Back, what seems three lifetimes ago, I look upon a lifetime as around 20 years, i.e., the time I spend with one woman before moving on to another life. Right now, I'm 12 years into my third lifetime. Anyway, it was in the early 1960 and I was just starting lifetime number one. The Navy assigned me to a Shore Patrol unit in Jacksonville, Florida where I met some unforgettable characters while patrolling the downtown area.

Most were hookers, but I met two rather jolly individuals. One, we'll call him John, the other, we'll call her Mary, and I believe that was her real name. In fact, she went by Fat Mary. They both were happy, vociferous, and not ashamed of their obesity, at least outwardly. John boasted of tipping the scales at over 400 pounds plus or minus fifty as he put it. He had his goal set on reaching 450. He wanted to join the circus and become a trapeze artist. Ok, he would do his painting of trapeze artist on the side and sit on stage as the fat man to earn his keep in the circus.

Mary was not quite that heavy. She had the foulest mouth of any woman l had ever encountered up until then, i.e., I was only 21 and had virgin ears when it came to foul mouthed women. I met many since then that would put Fat Mary to shame. Every time I encountered her, she grabbed me up with a bear hug, pressing me into her rolls of fat to the point of suffocating me. "One of these days, you cute little f***er you, I'm going to catch you off duty, and f*** the S**t out of you."

I made sure I never went down town when I was off duty.

My first wife was overweight, not when we first met. However, after 5 kids and 6 years into our marriage, she had gained quite a few pounds. My brother and sister-in-law introduced me to her with the idea that she was a promising partner. When I informed them we decided to get married, they changed their tune.”Can you afford to keep her in Cokes and cigarettes?"

Long story short, she died in her early sixties from emphysema. I visited her once when I was between my second and third wife. She was still grossly overweight and still had a Coke sitting beside her at all times. I remember scolding my oldest daughter, who was a younger image of her mother, for smoking in the same room with her mother attached to and oxygen bottle.

The odd thing is, through the years we were married, she seldom sat down with us at mealtime. It seemed to me, I ate three times what she did. Looking back, I ate horribly then. I could and did eat everything and anything sat before me, things that would kill me on the spot if I ate them now.

As for me, with my gluttonous eating habits, I was never overweight in my life. I drank too much, and I smoked into my late thirties. Three years from the time, I declared myself smoke-free and eating healthy, I learned I had bladder cancer. My oldest brother, the one that introduced me to my first wife, died from this at the age of 72. Once, when he learned I no longer drank, he made the statement, "I don't trust anyone who doesn't drink." I wonder if he felt the same about non-smokers. He never gave up either habit until he died.

Have I been lucky or what? I know it's not because of a divine being looking over me. I do not believe in them nor have I ever asked for their help. I guess what I'm saying is it's different for everyone, and luck or prayers has nothing to do with it. I do believe one stands a better chance by taking proper precautions. I speak from experience most of which came the hard way.

Do you know your ideal body weight? Check your proper weight here. I was surprised to learn I am 10 pounds over my ideal weight. Like I mentioned, it's all around my midriff. I have been eating healthy for over twenty years now and I still have a cloistral problem. My problem is, I'm eating too much healthy.

Here is one on my recent experiences. For the past year or so, I have been carefully watching my diet and 98% of it consists of vegetables, fruit, and nuts, lots of nuts of all kinds, and no, or practically no refined sugar or fat. It's nearly impossible to find food that is both fat free and sugar free. I exercise the required 30 minutes a day six days a week. Yet I cannot rid myself of my midriff roll. I cut out some of my snacks and drink more plain water. Instead of eating cooked vegetables, I went to eating them raw and organic. If I don't live to at least 102, I'm going to scream bloody murder.

An example

Let's say we have a group of 30 people who venture to a place where they must exist on their own without any aid from an outside source. Everyone must do his/her part in order for the group to exist. Let's say, a third of the group who are heavy eaters and the group has no restrictions on how much one is allowed to eat. They have an open door policy to their supply stores of food. They grew enough for them to exist on until the next season. I think you see what lies ahead.

The one third is going to eat two thirds of the food. They will continue to gain weight until they can no longer do their share of the work. They become sick more often than the others thereby exhaust not only the group's food supply but also their scant supply of medicines. They drink more of their water supply, which has to be hauled up from a deep well. They can no longer do their share of the work because it is more difficult for them to get around. Everyone else must do more to take up the slack.

Should the group ration the food, put someone in charge of distributing it or charge a tax or fee upon it? Should they ban the ten laggards, run them off with sticks?

Is this group of 30 any different from the group of 300 million in the U.S.? We over eaters are taking the food out of starving babies and children, not only in this country, but also in countries around the world. If we keep up the way we are, there is going to come a time when the world is not going to sustain all us gluttons.

"We're living in a food carnival, constantly bombarded by food cues, almost all of them unhealthy," Kessler 

What's the solution? It seems obvious to me that we individuals (especially individuals like me, who believe we are the product of all our life's choices) are not going to take it upon ourselves to do what is required. We are just too damned used to having it our way. I do not believe our government has a solution either. They seem only to aggravate it, especially with their school meal selections. Their answer is, they give the children a variety and the kids choose what they want. I watched a food documentary yesterday where a school brought out huge portable shelved twice a day loaded down with every candy bar on the market. When asked why they sold this crap to the kids, the principal said, "It's what the kids wanted, and it brings in money to fund other projects in the school" Where do they find these anal jerks, and they are teaching our kids. That principle had a big smile on his puss the whole time, like it was a big joke. That's it. I'm finished and disgusted. Thanks and have a pleasant day. Ray

FOURTH OF JULY BLUES

Are you proud to be a citizen of the United States?

Are you celebrating this Fourth of July with enthusiasm and happiness for your country? If you are, you are doing exactly what the leaders of this country want you to do. For twenty years, I proudly served in the military defending the American Way. If I had know then what I know now, I seriously think I would not have ventured there.

Yesterday, I watched the movie Zeitgeist. Now I kind of wish I hadn't. It is a three-part movie. The first part is on religion. I found nothing new there, because, for the past two years I have been studying religion. It was part two and three that somewhat shocked me and convinced me of what little I knew, i.e., I pay little attention to the news, which I feel is mostly propaganda. Besides, the news media and the government pretty much controls what goes in it, and I never did like history. So, what I learned from this movie filled me with sadness and disgust. I no longer feel proud to be an American.

Part 2 is about the attack on 9/11. While I am somewhat gullible, but I'm not a damn fool. Some of the things they bring out here are ridiculous. All I can say is watch the movie and decide for yourself. One thing is blatantly obvious; we were far from being ready for a terrorist attack. So many airplanes out there ready to go and no one had an idea what was going on. We dropped the ball there.

Part 3 is about Federal Reserve banks and wars. Much of what they say here may or may not be true. I do not like banks, especially large banks. A few extremely rich people own most of these banks, which I think is not healthy. As for wars, I do believe they are deliberately started, mainly because they do stimulate the economy

That's all I'm going to say about this. I'm going to bed and cover my head. Maybe tomorrow will bring a better day. I hear thunder outside. Another wet day or night if you may. Thanks and have a pleasant day. Ray