quartertonbubba

I took some personal time off. I am now back and will be back to blogging on regular basis.

I have been looking into a flexible but sensible diet plan. Many of them seem to be very lopsided. They say avoid this or eat more of that. None of them seem to me to be sustainable. I have found one online program that seems to meet a lot of my perceived needs. It is the Beyonddiet program. I am starting on it today, but I will still be researching other programs. I will update you all periodically.

    I just recently had a very disturbing encounter with a person on Facebook. I was reaching out to a cousin that is about 20 years younger than I am. He is my youngest uncle's youngest son and is about the age of my son. I have been driving a truck for the past 18 years and it can be a lonely existence. I am now home doing local work so I have more time on the computer so am trying to reconnect.     I make no secret that I am fat. I also make no secret that I am working on trying to lose it. I did not get fat from being lazy; as a truck driver 12 to 16 hour work days 6 to 7 days a week were common. I would be away from home for 5-8 weeks at a time then get 3-4 days off and have to go out and do it over and over again. I got fat from extremely bad eating habits and often eating to feel better. I ate probably 85% of my meals from fast food restaurants in the truck stops. I often would get up at 5 or 6 in morning grab a couple of breakfast sandwiches then drive  til noon. I would t

It is time for the Super Bowl. My family is gonna have a party and cheer on the N.Y. Giants. My wife is from New Jersey the true home of the Giants. We  have lots of party food and I am gonna do my best to not over over indulge. Just a word of advise if you do jump off the diet wagon for special occasion then be sure to jump back on tomorrow. Have fun and hope your team wins unless it is not the Giants.

I was watching a show on functional medicine. It is doctors who after medical school have taken medicine a step further. These doctors have studied holistic medicine and merge the two in a new way. They believe that correct diet can correct many diseases and illnesses instead of prescription medicines. I find it interesting and am gonna do some further research into the topic. What is your opinion?

My favorite is Brussels sprouts. I love them steamed or simmered in light chicken broth. They are very nutritious but low in calories or fat.  Let us hear what your favorite vegetable  is and how you cook it? What is the weirdest fruit or vegetable you have ever eaten? Is there a vegetable you just hate? Mine is okra especially if it is boiled; to me it is like sucking slimy snot down. Sorry for that mental image!! Is there a vegetable you hated as a kid but just love now? Mine is spinach, I now eat in salads instead of lettuce. I hope this gets you to craving a big bowl of your favorite vegetable and remember if you don't fry em or cover in high calorie dressing they are a healthy aid to weight loss.

Well all dieters dread calories but do you understand them? Calories are a measurement of energy gained from food. Now we need calories to fuel our bodies in order to function. The important thing is excess calories, if you take in more calories than you need your body stores them for future need. It stores them in fat cells and it takes 3500 extra calories to create 1 pound of fat. Many factors are involved in how many calories you need for daily use; some are size, activity, illness, and metabolism. We are all unique individuals so we need to become familiar with ourselves. I have found a website  (www.livestrong.com/myplate/)  that has very helpful tracking tools. It asks you some questions such as height, weight, activity level, and how much you would like to lose a week. It then computes your daily calorie needs. Now you must adjust as you track your results because no two individuals are the same. If you only need 2000 daily calories to maintain your weight or 14,000 for the week

I have been experimenting on fluid intake. It started with the cold weather. I am normally a iced tea drinker but my wife likes hot teas. Well I have been trying to drink a big glass of water about 15-30 minutes before meals to help fill me up and lower hunger threshold so I eat less. It works pretty well but I drank an hot apple cinnamon herbal tea one day before a meal and It works even better. There is a long history of the health benefits of herbal tea and I found that drinking it before meals satisfies taste cravings. Give it a try and if you are new to herbal teas most grocery stores have many varieties.

Well I have found out something amazing to me. I have been kind of lethargic over the winter and even though I am watching my food intake by eating healthier; I still am not losing much weight. I was a little disheartened until I  found out it is natural for most of us. It goes way back to olden times when our ancestors lay about the caves in an almost hibernation like state. Scientist have theorized that due to the shorter days and lower amounts of Vitamin D from exposure to sun during winter our body naturally slows metabolism to insure survival during this period of less food. The problem is that in modern times there is not generally food shortage. Now it is suggested that Vitamin D supplements may help keep our metabolism going. For me I think I am just gonna hibernate until spring.  How about you do you feel blah during winter and if so what do you do to fight the winter blahs??

I was at a national burger chain the other day and noticed that they have a limited selection of turkey burgers. I decided to check them out and was amazed to find out that their standard teriyaki burger (it has beef patty, cheese, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, and teriyaki sauce) was a whopping 875 calories. The same teriyaki burger in turkey was 375 calories; it was dressed the same just turkey patty instead of beef.     It got me to thinking and although I have been a "meat and potato man" my whole life I am working on changing that. I started looking into vegan and vegetarian cookbooks and even though I find it interesting it was a little off putting. Instead of promoting the health aspect of vegetarian diet the books were more rah rah animal rights and were extreme.     I believe that extreme restrictive diets are one of the major problems with weight loss. I am trying a more moderate approach; for instance my family likes Hamburger Helper meals every once and a while. I

Well the holidays are over and the 1st week of 2012 is over. We have all had time to make new year resolutions and break them. Just kidding. It is traditional to make resolutions on new years; but lifestyle choices can be made every day. If you make a resolution and backslide that is okay. You need to forgive yourself and keep on trying. It is important to realize that it more important to keep trying than to give up. Thomas Edison failed thousands of times trying to create the light-bulb before he accomplished it. When asked why he failed so many times he told people that he did not fail thousands of times but successfully found ways not to make light-bulbs. That may be humorous but the important thing is that the light bulb was created. If he had not keep trying we would be sitting in the dark not knowing who Thomas Edison was. It is January. Make lifestyle choices set goals and keep at it. DO NOT GIVE UP!!!!!!  Let me know what some of your goals are for 2012.