4/24/2010 What does one ounce look like?

It's been a crazy week!  I have not had any time to devote to reading, let alone writing anything.

In my last post, I pointed out just how much sugar is in some of the most popular foods and drinks we consume. A can of Coke has over one ounce of sugar in it, some Starbucks drinks have over two ounces of sugar in them.

You already know that there are roughly 28 grams in an ounce but what the fuck does an ounce look like, you ask?  We'll I'll show you... Keep in mind that these photos are of ONE ounce, your 12 ounce can of soda has more, your capa-frapa-chino likely has more than two ounces.  And these are just beverages!  Remember that HFCS (sugar) is in close to 90% of all foods you buy in the supermarket!

This is what an ounce looks like:

This is one ounce of wasabi rice crackers

This is a one ounce jalapeño pepper

One ounce of butter

One ounce of raw almonds

One ounce of dark chocolate

 One ounce of natural sea salt, complete with sand

One ounce of Kosher salt... no sand

 ONE OUNCE OF SUGAR!

One ounce of chicken breast (post cooking weight)

One ounce of... I have no fucking idea!  Lisa and I measured all of this stuff out a few days ago and for the life of me, I can't recall what the fuck this is!... But it is just one ounce.

One ounce of coins (a half dollar and a quarter)

One ounce of Russian 7.62 X 39 ammo

One ounce of cocaine flour

One ounce of DVD's

One ounce of cyphering sticks

A one ounce, total weight of a 3/4 empty bottle of Lidocane

Imagine swallowing one, two or three of these items, That is how much sugar you are consuming when you drink a soda or an energy drink or any one of the thousands of commercially available bottled drinks.

If you do nothing else, try to cut your sugar consumption down.  Be aware that it is in most of the foods for sale in your local supermarket, read the labels.

Don't consume any "diet" sweeteners.  They are worse than natural sugar.  They have no nutritional value, they tax the Hell out of your liver, not to mention that they have been proven to fail to trip your "I'm full" sensors.  So you might actually gain weight eating/drinking this shit.

READ THE FUCKING LABELS!

Corn syrup can show up in numerous ways, look for these:

Cellulose, Xylitol, Calcium Stearate, Ethyl Lactate, maltodextrin, saccharin, xanathan gum, sucrose, gluten, sorbital, ethel acetate, high fructose corn syrup, citrus cloud emulsion, citric acid, ascorbic acid, di-glycerides, baking powder, fructose, sorbic acid, vanilla extract and starch.

All of these compounds can be made from corn, and are basically sugar.

EAT REAL FOOD! 

Go to PBS.org and search Food Inc.

You can watch the entire movie online there for free.

(you know the one ounce jalapeño pepper in the above photo?.. I ate it)

On that note, I'm heading to bed.  Thanks for reading!

Bald Bill

One last thing.... here is the burger:

4/16/2010 Cheeseburger update

Well at least the stench is finally gone!  Hindsight has shown me that this experiment left a little to be desired.  Putting fresh tomatoes in you office drawer will stink.  And it will stink a lot!  Have you ever driven by a dead possum, that has been on the side of the road for several days?  Take that smell and multiply it by ten, now you are close to the smell of my office, at least what it smelled like for the last week or so.

After our cat, George, ate the first burger and we substituted a stunt double, we decided to add fresh, real lettuce and fresh, real tomato to the plate (Bad idea).  We also decided to keep it in one of my office drawers.  After a few days, holy shit did it stink!.. mercifully it has finally dissipated.

Here is the burger on its first day:

Here is the same burger a few weeks later:

To be honest, I am surprised that the burger developed mold.  It may be that the juices from the "real" lettuce and tomato were absorbed by the bun and that is what prompted the mold growth.  I will start a second cheeseburger experiment without the lettuce and tomato, in the same drawer and see if the same mold develops.

Am I the only person that finds it odd that of all the foods on this plate and stuck in a drawer, the only ones that rotted were the "real" lettuce and tomato?

Instead of stopping at the "Burger joint" to pick up dinner for you and the kids, stop at the local co-op or butcher.  Buy some fresh ground (most pre-packaged ground beef is made from old dairy cows) beef.  Grass fed is best (Omega 3's vs. Omega 6's, blah, blah, blah, you have heard my rant before...) and rolls made by a local baker.  They may not be the best health wise but they are leaps and bounds ahead of the commercial buns.  Will it cost more? YES, in the short term but in the long run, NO.  Is it more of a pain in the ass?  YES, but come on; how fucking lazy are you that making burgers is "too" difficult?

Think about this:  For thousands of years Humans not only existed but thrived eating "natural foods".  Now we eat processed foods and are getting fatter by the day.  You could diet... however...  Diets suck!  They are not the answer.  Common sense is the answer!  Eat and drink "real" food, in moderation, exercise in moderation and you will loose weight.

Will you be able to eat at your favorite local restaurant?  Perhaps a few things but really, NO.  However if enough sheep people demand (by not eating there) that restaurants serve "real" food, things will change.

Don't be a sheep!  Every time you go to a restaurant, ask "is this organic, non processed and is it HFCS free"? if not, don't order it.  Will this limit your choices? YES... for awhile but if enough people do it restaurants will get the message that this is what their patrons want and they will provide it.

I never said that I thought that this would be easy.  Some parts of eating healthy are hard but I think the trade off is worth it.

Thanks for reading!  Please pass this link along to others: http://bald-bills-blog.blogspot.com/

"Eat Real Food"

Bald Bill

4/15/2010

In my continuing quest to find out what shit the major food manufacturers are loading into the food we eat, I am noticing things like "iso glucose, glucose-fructose syrup, fruit fructose" and a few others.  Guess what?  They are all High Fructose Corn Syrup!  It's getting to the point where in order to avoid eating HFCS you need a dictionary, thesaurus and an organic chemist!

I have found the following information in several, well respected publications:  "Americans' number one source of calories is...HFCS"  No wonder we (as a nation) are so fucking fat! Our main source of calories is sugar!  No wonder we have so many ADD kids, the little bastards are on the mother of all sugar highs.

For reference: 1 ounce = 28 Grams

These numbers are "per serving"

• Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream -- 16 grams
• Starbucks caffè latte grande (16 oz) -- 17 grams
• Subway 6″ sweet onion teriyaki chicken sandwich -- 17 grams
• Yoplait original yogurt -- 27 grams (WTF? That is basically an ounce!)
• Vitamin Water (20 oz bottle) -- 33 g (Fuck me!  Water with more sugar than yogurt?)
• Oscar Mayer Lunchables crackers, turkey & American cheese -- 36 grams
• Coca-Cola Classic 12 oz can -- 39 grams
• California Pizza Kitchen Thai chicken salad -- 45 grams
• Jamba Juice blackberry bliss 16 oz -- 49 grams
• Odwalla SuperFood 450 ml bottle -- 50 grams
• Starbucks caffe vanilla frappuccino grande (16 oz) -- 58 grams (more that two ounces!)

And finally the one that will fuck you up, pinch your nipples and or kick you in the nuts; The Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut.........ready?....................(grab the Vaseline).......are you sure that you are ready?..............Okay, here it is.................don't say I did not warn you......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... A Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut has,,,,,,,, 10 grams of sugar (per serving).

JUMPING JESUS ON A FUCKING POGO-STICK!   A bottle of "Vitamin water (you  fucking lying ass bastards, vitamins my ass!) has three times the sugar of a fucking glazed doughnut!!!!!!!  How the fuck can a person eat healthy, without spending hours a day decoding this shit?.... (other than you, who read this blog religiously) 

I'm working on a little side project,  I'll post it A.S.A.P.  And i am sorry that i have not posted more often this week.  Work and personal obligations have kept me from the keyboard.  I have gone so far as to get an app that converts voice to text, so that I can work on the blog throughout the day and email it to myself to edit later. 

Thanks for reading!  Pass this link on to friends.

Bald Bill

4/14/2010

Yesterday, work brought us into Philly.  We decided to treat ourselves and have lunch at the White Dog Cafe.   The White Dog was one of the first Philly restaurants to buy as much as possible of their foods from local farmers.  I started with the "Crisp Narragansett Bay Calamari" with Kalamata olives, oven dried tomato, hot cherry peppers, artichoke hearts and lemon-caper aioli.  Yeah, I know, it is not the most dietetic first course on the menu.  Remember my goal is to find a sustainable, healthy lifestyle.  Once in awhile I have to be able to drift a little off center.  The Calamari, olives, artichokes and peppers were cooked perfectly.  Two minor complaints. First was the omission of the oven dried tomato, not a big deal at all.  The next thing is one of those little things that can just drive you nuts.  They buy their cherry peppers with the stems on.  We once owned a restaurant, and I know why they buy these, they are cheaper.  When you get one of these in your mouth it's like biting down on a knotted shoelace.  Now imagine frying that shoelace.  Normally this was a problem for me when ordering a hoagie or cheese steak, not at a "high" end cafe.

For my entrée, I went with the "Blackened Bistro Steak Salad" with baby iceburg (sic) lettuce, organic toy box tomatoes and Birchrunhill farms blue cheese dressing.  Steak, medium rare.  It arrived on a nice big rectangular plate and served "de-constructed".  If you are not a dyed in the wool foodie, and are not familiar with that term, allow me to 'esplain.  Instead of putting all of the ingredients in a bowl or on a plate and then pouring dressing over it, you instead pour a little dressing on the large plate and then place each ingredient separately on the plate.  What's the difference?  'bout $10.00.  I'm only half kidding.

The salad was great.  Lisa had the "Free Range Amish Chicken Cobb Salad" with Satur farms organic bibb lettuce, Nodine bacon, Cluster (not to be confused with toy box) ten minute egg, Danish blue cheese, avocado and sherry vinaigrette.  Holy shit!  When the fuck did chickens take up religion?  Amish free range chickens! (however, I am glad that they let them outside)  First of all how do we know that they are not Mennonite?  Does this mean I should look out for Hasidic Jewish chickens for chicken liver pate... or Rastafarian chickens for Jamaican jerk chicken... Southern Baptist chickens for Southern fried chicken?

It is hard enough to search out good, natural, healthy foods but now I have to check if my chickens are circumsized, stoned or hiding beer?  This healthy eating thing is harder than I first thought!

I guess I'll have to cut nuts totally out of my diet, as the must surely be Muslim extremists.  I'm not even going to touch "extra Virgin olive oil"!

Before I digress into fart jokes, I'll sign off for the night.

One last thing,  remember what Confucius said: Man who fart in church, must sit in own pew.

Thanks for reading,
Bald Bill

4/11/2010

Well, another weekend shot to Hell!  I had great plans, however none of them seemed to come to fruition.  We did have a great night out with friends and also missed meeting up with other friends, Yin and Yang, I guess.

As you know, i am trying to read several hundred pages a day on the subject of food and nutrition.  A few things are starting to become clear.  This is not just for people trying to loose weight but for everyone.  If you like living and wish to continue to do so for a long time, I offer these suggestions.

• Cut out all soda.
• Go out and expose your flesh to the sun; in moderation.
• Drink more water!
• Take Krill oil (Omega 3's) supplements.

Does this sound like a lot of my previous posts?  It should!  I keep running into these four everywhere I look.

Today I was researching eczema for a friend whose child has it.  In a nut shell here is what I learned:

• Eczema is "the itch that rashes"  It's not really visible until you scratch it.
• Put a compress of warm water and natural sea salt on it to stop the itching.
• Stay hydrated.  eg: drink more water.
• Increase the amount of animal based Omega 3's in your diet.
• Increase the amount of vitamin D, sunlight is the best source.

So it doesn't matter if you are a fat fuck, like me or a "normal" person just looking to get a little healthier, there seems to be overwhelming (what comes before overwhelming? whelming?  I've heard of underwhelmed and overwhelmed but never whelmed?... Just a thought) evidence that these things are really fucking good for you.

So here is what I want you to do:

• Every morning when you wake up, drink a glass (plastic cup, half a bottle etc...) of good clean water.
• Before you eat breakfast, drink a glass of water.
• Before you eat lunch, drink a glass of water.
• In mid afternoon, drink a glass of water.
• Before dinner, drink a glass of water.
• Before bed drink a glass of water.

This should not be difficult.  Remember, it takes two weeks to start a habit but only two days to break one.

I also encourage you to add the following things to your routine.

• Get natural sunshine.  Yes you need to use sunscreen but you still need sunshine!  Because I am such a magnanimous individual I humbly invite all cute nubile... scratch that... all women to sunbathe on my lawn.  Clothing optional.
• Either take krill oil or eat real natural line caught fish, once a week, or more.
• Kick that shit out of anyone you see spit in public!... Okay maybe you shouldn't do that, but you could...

One final thing.  Read the nutritional information for everything your eat or drink!  If you don't immediately recognize any ingredient, put it back on the fucking shelf.

Companies do not give a flying fuck about you!  They want to make shelf stable, cheap, highly profitable food.  It is up to you to wake up and start making smart decisions.

You may feel that you do not have the time to implement a fully healthy diet.  You can still drink all the water.  You can bring a few organic apples with you.  

Do the best you can at every meal.  If you are female, sunbathe on my front lawn (Guys, go to my friend Bob's) eat good fresh fish and or krill oil.   Most important: read this blog!

Tomorrow I'll have some killer recipes for you!

Night all!

Thanks for reading.

Bald Bill

4/10/2010

Our first meal out in almost five weeks!

Tonight we met two (four if you count their kids) of our closest friends, for dinner.  This was our first meal "out" since we embarked on this healthy eating experiment.  Before hand we agreed to each get a healthy salad and share a healthy entrée.  This proved to be a good plan, to the outside world we seemed to be a "normal" couple out to dinner with friends.  After that we even stopped at our local brew pub and met up with several other friends.  I had my first "real" beer in five weeks.  Yes, it was fucking great!

Real quick, back to the grass fed beef;  We tried some grass fed ground beef today and it did not suck!  I need to double check what farm it came from, but i will let you know.

With each passing day i find more evidence that all soda is pure fucking evil!  If you decide to eat at the local fast, overly, processed food restaurant; do your self a great big favor, don't drink soda!  Drink water! Depending on your age, you are somewhere between  55 and 75% water.

So, if you are between 55 and 75% water, would it not make sense to drink a large percentage of your daily needed fluid intake pure water?  Call me a fucking nut...but water tastes good (provided you have a good filtration system.  If you do, be sure to change it as often as needed, as not doing so can result in the "dumping" of all the shit it filtered out, back into your water)

Speaking of water, allow me to speak about the other end of consuming water... No! not peeing.  Spitting!  What the fuck is with so many people spitting?  What the fuck is wrong with parents?  Do they no longer teach their children basic manners.  I think most people can accept a person spitting if they ingested a foul substance, or an errant bug.  However in most cases that does not seem to be the case, I can't count how many people I see everyday that spit in public.  Call me crazy, but if you "need" to spit in public, you need to see a doctor.

Thanks for reading, please refer this site to a frend.

Bald Bill

The burger experiment....

Holy Fuck, is this thing starting to stink!  i think it is actually the fresh tomato that is the cause of the oder.  I don't know how much longer I can take it

An overview for the new comers.

Wow!  Although I only have ten people following my blog, it seems that many more are reading it.  Thank you!  The people that read this are the people that keep me focused and on track.

I'm getting several emails a day, either complimenting me on my quest or asking questions about specific food details.  However the most common subject is that they do not have the time to eat right.  I get it.  Been there done that.  If the economy was not in the shitter and I did not have a gourmet cook for a wife, this would be soooo much harder.  To that end, I will try to outline what I have learned as the most important first steps, to a healthy eating lifestyle.

Please remember: I am not a doctor or nutritionist.  I'm a fat guy, sick of these fucking fad diets.  I'm reading everything I can about diet and nutrition.  I do my best to vet everything I read, three times.  I pass along the things that I think are relevant.

So, from everything that I have read, what would be the "best" first steps?

• Take your weight in pounds and divide by two.  The result is the number, in ounces, that you should drink per day.  For me, when I started this experiment I weighed 250 pounds. 250 divided by two = 125.  I drink a minimum of 125 ounces of water a day.  You can do that without spending a penny (yea, yeah, yeah, if you are buying bottled water, it will cost you a buck or two)
• Cut out all soda.  Regular or diet, it does not matter, it is all toxic.  This will actually save you money.  While you are at it, cut way down on fruit juices, you can get the benefits of fruit juices in other ways that do not have so much (natural) sugar.
• Stop eating "prepared foods"  Yep, that means; no fast food, no Wawa food etc...  

I know that this is not practical for most of us, however it is an attainable goal.  Read the label, if your fourth grader does not recognize the ingredient, don't eat it!

I will continue to due my best to read all I can, and cull the best nutritional information from what i have read, and vetted.

Please challenge me on any of the topics, that I have posted.  I'm not claiming to be an authority, I just want to find a healthy way to eat and lose weight.  My email is: baldbill@verizon.net 

Think about this; for almost 200 years Americans were not fat. Now it is an epidemic, what changed?

The answer?  We started to fuck around with food in order to increase profits. (Don't get me wrong, I am an independent voter that firmly believes in capitalism)  Okay, I'll get off my high horse...

My parting thoughts;

Eat as much natural food as you can, drink lots of good clean water and do not drink any soda.  If you do this for a month, I guarantee that you will loose weight.

Thanks for reading,

Bald Bill

4/8/2010

This whole grass fed beef thing has me pissed off!

I typed "why does grass fed beef taste like shit?" into Google and got 1,610,000 hits.  I am not alone in finding the taste "off putting" to say the least.

As I dug deeper looking for the reason so many of us don't like it.  The first thing I ran into was our old friend Omega 3 and his nemesis Omega 6.  I wrote about these two guys before; Omega 3 is very good for you.  Omega 6 is very bad for you.

Grass fed beef is high in Omega 3, when that cow is finished with corn feeding at a feed lot, he packs on the pounds and much of that weight is Omega 6.  So it looks to me that the very thing I love about beef is the very thing that is the worst for me!  Fuck me!  Next they are going to say that vodka is bad for your liver!

Just when I was about to resign myself to a lifetime of eating my old boots grass fed beef, I stumbled upon this site: Blackwing  I'm going to order some and see if it is as good as they claim.  Notice that even on their site they mention the balance of Omega's 3 and 6.  I keep bumping into a ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 that should not exceed 4 to 1 with 1 to 1 being the ideal.  I'm going to email Blackwing and ask about their meat.

That said, I am still going to try a few more purely grass fed steaks.  Which got me to thinking, I wonder how close to my home, I could find an organic herd of walking New York Strip steaks?  That search led me to this site; Here!  Within an hour and a half drive I can get to all kinds of fresh organic foods!  I found that many of these farms sell directly to many of our areas "better" restaurants.  Places like "The Whip", "The White Dog" and "Southwark".  I just might be able to eat outside of our own four walls!  I may take a drive this weekend and visit some of the farms, if I do, I'll take pictures and report back to you.

One last thought for the day.  Summer is fast approaching and that means corn and tomatoes.  I'll likely blather on endlessly about both as they are two of my favorite foods.  Yeah, I'm a little worried that I'll find that eating too many tomatoes will cause my testicles to roll out my pant leg, or something else equally horrifying.  Anyway, this summer, go out of your way to find a corn stand that sells Mirai corn.  The season is absurdly short, something like three weeks.  It is the best corn I have ever eaten.  You can read about it here.  In short it is a cross between two types of corn, they were trying to get a breed of corn that would be ready for picking before the 4th of July.  Mirai (Japanese for "taste of the future") was the result, there is a downside... it is too tender to machine harvest.  That is why you will only find it "roadside" farms and stands.  And try it raw.  Yes I said raw!  Trust me, just do it.

Thanks for reading!

Bald Bill

4/7/2010 (Lame post, feel free to skip)

Last night we ate a grass feed, no antibiotic, hormone etc... etc... etc... New York strip steak.  I cooked it to a perfect medium rare, leaning toward rare.  It was like eating a baseball mitt!  My jaw is still sore from chewing it.  And to top it off it had a lousy flavor.  Meal failure number two.  Still not a bad average for just over one month.  I am going to have to do more research on grass fed beef, so far, I'm not a fan.

Tonight we had meatballs, cooked in the oven and then fried, finally finished by a bath in a butter, red wine and beef broth reduction. We also had a nice spring mix salad and some blanched asparagus.  Delicious! 

This morning, I got curious and stepped on the scale.  Good news!  I'm now down 17 pounds!!!!

I had every intention of working on the bicycle today but as so often happens the day got away from me, tomorrow is not looking very good either.  Maybe over the weekend.

I have a question for you:  What month is it?  I could have sworn that it was April, but I may have over slept by a month... or three.  It feels like July!  It is 10:00 PM as I write this and my office is sweltering.  I'm going to cut this short and go back downstairs, where it is cooler.

Thanks for checking in!

Bald Bill

The one month mark!

Damn!  Has it been one month already?

Today was weigh in day and I am pleased to report that I have lost 14 pounds.  A few of my friends have commented that they "don't know how I can live on oat bran and fruits and vegetables".  My answer is "I could never survive that diet!"  I've tried to keep from boring you to death with what exactly I'm eating everyday but let me just recap some of the food I have eaten in the past few days:  Chicken and Feta cheese sausage with fried potatoes and sautéed peppers and onions.  A filet mignon sandwich with cucumber and horseradish mustard.  Oatmeal with raisins, dried cranberry's and cream.  I sure don't feel like I'm dieting! I'm eating plenty, and often can't finish my meals.  The best part is that I feel fucking great!

Don't get me wrong, there are a few things that suck.  Having to shop for "real" food is time consuming.  However I was pleasantly surprised to learn that even places like BJ's wholesale club carry some organic foods, so I imagine that it will get easier as more and more Americans buy local and or organic foods.  We (and by we I mean Lisa) needs to prepare and cook damn near all of our meals.  There is no, we are in a rush, let's grab a pizza.  At least until we reach our goal weights.

A few friends have also brought up the fact that I have greatly reduced my beer intake.  Yes I have.  Beer is now a treat not a staple.  But let's crunch the numbers:  I used to have, on average four "good" beers a night, none of this light beer bullshit!.  4 X 120 (calories) = 480.  Now I have six ounces of vodka a night.  6X 73 (calories) = 438.  That is a 42 calorie difference per day.  Come on!  Do you really think that makes a fucking difference?  I lost 14 pounds in a month by cutting my alcohol calories by 1,260 calories a MONTH?  If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.  That is exactly two "premium grilled chicken classic" sandwiches (from a big fast food restaurant that employs a red haired clown) a month.

You would think that your "friends" would be more supportive.  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a good healthy debate on any subject, and the vast majority of my friends have been behind me 100%.

I'm not reading several hours a day and then trying to write a semi coherent blog to prove a point.  Quite the contrary, I don't know shit!  I've read a ton of material and the one thing that most seem to agree on is that the more natural your food is, the better.  So I decided to test this hypothesis and document my results here.  I'm no fan of eating healthy per se , I just want food that tastes good and if I can eat some foods and still lose weight, then all the better.  If I did not lose weight or even if I put weight on, I would have posted that as well.

Fer fucks sake lets move on to another topic!

The Cheeseburger experiment:  Well dip me and call me stinky!  I thought it would never happen.  The burger is growing some mold!  The cheese, roll and bun... none.  The burger does show some mold, though not as much as the "real lettuce and tomatoes".

I really do appreciate your taking the time to read my blog!  I you like it, are amused by it or find any useful information, please pass the link on to friends and family!

"Eat Real Food"... and quit drinking soda!

Bald Bill

4/4/2010

As I am about to add some exercise into my new health plan and my finances are not what they once were, buying  a new bike is not in the cards.  So, I've decided to "tune up" my old mountain bike.  By old I mean early 1980's.  Then it was a state of the art mountain bike, now it is more of a beachcomber.  No suspension, no brake rotors and then there is the fact that it is day-glow orange with purple handle bars!  Holy shit!  Is this thing atrocious!  I decided a tune up was not enough.  A complete rebuild was in order.  I began taking off stuff: seat, derailer, wheels, handle bars, brakes, cables etc...  Soon I had quite the pile of bike parts sprawled out in front of me.  Then it crossed my mind that it probably would have been best to take some pictures of the bike before I started taking the thing apart.  This will be fun.  I've done the important work, I've decided on a color scheme.  Satin black with gloss black highlights.  More to follow...

While working on the bike, I of course had my ubiquitous bottle of water with me.  What the fuck are these assholes doing to my water bottles?  Have you bought bottled water lately?  In an effort to reduce the impact on the planet, they are using less plastic in the bottles and caps.

Depending on how well or if you even know me, you may or not know that I have lost a lot of the feeling in my right hand.  The best way I can describe it is; it feels like I'm wearing a thick rubber glove.  Also, the longer I hold something small, like a pen ( I wrote PEN.  I'm just clarifying), the tighter my grip gets.  My handwriting was never great but now it is horrible. Doctors looks at it and say "Damn that is some bad handwriting"  Okay, back to the fucking plastic water bottles.  If I have one open, the odds are pretty close to 50/50 that the next time I grab it, I will  squeeze it too hard and send a geyser all over myself.  This happens a lot.

I decided to weigh the "old" style and the new style bottles.  Empty with the lid on, the old bottle weighed 14 grams, the new "Earth friendly" bottle weighed 12 grams.  Two grams difference.  24 bottles in a case X 2 grams = 48 grams.  That is a savings of 1.69315 ounces per case.  Save the planet my ass!  Those fuckers are just trying to save a buck.  Don't most of us recycle plastic anyway?  That two gram difference makes a difference to me.  I either look like a semi normal person drinking a bottle of water or I look like a person having a Gran Mal seizure drinking a bottle of water.

They must be using rocket scientists to develop these new and "improved" water bottles.  I swear they are only one molecule thick.  I'm pretty sure that you don't have to open them, you can just suck the water right through the plastic.

That'll do it for tonight.  Thanks for reading!

Bald Bill

4/3/2010

A few things tonight...

First we had a fantastic dinner!  Broiled Sockeye Salmon with a red wine reduction sauce.  A Shallot, Crimini, dried cranberry (rehydrated) rolled oat and wild rice side dish, finished with crushed raw walnuts and a little cold pressed walnut oil.  And a salad of Campari tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, spring mix, Extra virgin olive oil , vinegar, etc...etc...etc...

I think that what I am  getting at, as the nutritional guru that I am middle aged fat guy trying to live a healthy life style.  I really am starting to believe that EVERYTHING they are telling us is BULLSHIT!

Fuck these assholes telling you that you can't eat pizza! or eat steak.  You can, You just have to do your homework and just do it in moderation, and here comes the fly in the ointment; Your probably going to have to make it yourself.  One hundred years ago, the majority of people were not fat, today they are.  A small percentage may be because we are eating more food, but the overwhelming evidence is that it is not how much we eat, but WHAT we eat.  I can hear you now;  "What the fuck happened to bald bill?  He seemed to be a normal (in context) guy but now he seems to have become a tree hugging, green living, Eco-Nazi.  Trust me, I'M NOT!  It is just that after reading a shit load of material; And being a skeptic at heart, questioning everything, I'm learning how bad most of what we eat is!

The next paragraph I vetted, as well as I could.  If you doubt it, vet it for yourself.

Think of America as a whole, east coast, north east, mid-west, south, north west, south west, north west and south west.  Take all 300,000,000 of us.  What do you think is the number one source of the total daily caloric intake of Americans is?  Fried food?  Nope.  Fast food?  Nope.  The answer is SODA.  If you do nothing else, stop drinking soda!

Have you heard about Genetically modified foods?  Some of them are great!  They (Bill Gates) are developing a strand of rice that will deliver as much beta carotene as a carrot.   That will be great for the people of Africa.  The benefits clearly outweigh the detriments.  Google it, you will get it.

How about what we are doing here in the good old US of A?  85% of all the corn we grow is genetically modified.  91 to 93% of all US grown soybeans are genetically modified.  What does that mean to us?

Most of the soy we grow in this country is GM (genetically modified; 91 to 93%)  They call it "Round-up Ready"  What does that mean?  It means that the crop has been modified so that after it ha taken root and begins to grow... it is sprayed with "Round-up" (Round-up is a very effective herbicide.  It is our big box version of agent orange) which kills all plants, however the soy lives on. Great, The weeds were killed, but what about the soy which we eat?  Well thanks to our modifications, the plant that lived and will now pass along all of the toxins found in Round-up, yum.  The people selling us food, could give a shit!  They are just concerned with the bottom line.  We need to learn to select good natural foods.

Who the Fuck would want to eat a plant that survived being sprayed with round-up?

Look at it this way; would you willingly squirt two shots of Round-up into your mouth?

Buy organic foods from local farmers as often as possible!  Ween yourself off soda; 21% of all the sugar Americans consume is from soda.

That's it for tonight.

Eat well, live well.  Thanks for reading.

Bald Bill

4/3/2010

As I write this, it is Friday night but the clock tells me it is Saturday Morning.

We just got back from our first party, since we began this new eating regime.  I have to admit, I was worried.  I knew that there would be tempting food, Pizza, Pretzels, Chips, etc... not to mention good fresh beer!.. and good whiskey, bourbon, tequila and vodka.

We decided to have a hearty meal before hand.  Grilled Buffalo sausage, Grilled red onions, yellow and red peppers and grilled zucchini.  Yeah, yeah, yeah... Grilling food over charcoal is carcinogenic.  What the Fuck?  I'm eating organic, sprouted from mother earth's own bosom, as healthy as I can find... even going so far as to start reading organic chemistry (Shannon, you must be out of your mind!)  I have to keep some vices.  We like to grill and to barbecue (if you don't know the difference click here: Outdoor Cooking   We use only natural hardwood lump charcoal.  We never use briquettes or lighter fluid.  We have not do so for years before starting this diet.  Use natural lump charcoal and light it with a small propane torch.  Never use Lighter Fluid!!!  it will make your food taste like shit!  Remember; I'm a "Joe average" guy, trying to find a way to lose weight.  I'm not a health nut.  I love a lot of food that is "bad" for us.  I am trying to find a way to eat as much as you like, within reason, and still loose weight.

As far as the charcoal, as long as it is 100% natural lump, it is up to you.  What kind of flavor to you want?  Are you looking for a high heat or a low heat fire.  Here is a site that you should check out if you are interested in good charcoal: http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpindexpage.htm?bag

Now that I have derailed this train... How did I do, tonight at the party?  First off, we brought own 'Lemon Lime seltzer" which we both drank all night.  I did have one vodka on the rocks and a small shot of vodka.  However, I can say that I did not eat anything!  And, you know what?  I wasn't hard.

Hey One last thing.  I had stopped writing down how much water i was drinking.  My water intake declined.  Though now, I am not recording everything that i am eating, I will go back to recording how much water i am drinking.  (take your weight and divide by two. e.g. 240 pounds divided by two = 120 pounds.  120 ounces is how much water you should drink a day).  This number varies depending on who or what you read, but I have found  nobody disputing this.  It is not "TOO MUCH" water.  Felling hungry?  try eight ounces of water, weight 20 minutes and see how you feel.

Fuck me!  It is late and i have to work in the morning!  Pardon the typo's, no time to re-read this post

Thanks for reading!

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Thanks for reading,

Bald Bill