Keeping it real

This whole "eat healthy, lose weight" thing is a challenge because every single day there is yet another study touting yet another philosophy of what's good or bad.  

Here's an article released just today in the prestigious  Wall Street Journal that finally has some credible weight (pun intended) to the results since the study group included over 360,000 men and women for ten years.   This one maintains they've shown that it's not just your total weight but where you carry that weight that can increase your risk of dying sooner than later.

So, now it's not just losing weight, but losing weight around my middle as a goal.  My problem is not motivation but rather trying to balance all the information without having to use a scientific calculator and notebook to track what I eat.   I need simple info to guide my daily choices and I found two ways.  

One is from the book "The Abs Diet Eat Right Every Time Guide" by David Zinczenko.   David promotes the Abs Diet Power 12.   He offers 12 food "groups" to help guide choices.  Each group comes from a letter in the name:

  

Almonds

Beans and legumes

Spinach and other green veggies

Dairy

Instant oatmeal

Eggs

Turkey and other lean meats

Peanut butter

Olive oil

Whole-grain breads and cereals

Extra-protein (whey) powder

Raspberries and other berries.  

Not only can I remember this one, but since I love to cook, I make a game of how many of these sometimes-called super foods I can include in one recipe.  I'll share my recipe for pancakes using 7  of them in a future post.

Another even simpler list contains only five items, taken from  several articles I've seen to help burn off belly fat.  Yogurt (and other calcium-rich foods); Veggies (fiber!); Nuts; Avocados; and Whole Grains.  

Throughout it all, water is the one element you always have on hand, and even a minimum amount of 48 oz. a day (six 8 oz glasses) will do wonders for weight loss.   Of course, studies abound that say more or less is needed, but I can easily down two 24 oz. bottles of water to get my 48, so it works for me.

I don't stress over all this too much.  I have this image in my mind of a tombstone saying "She was in great healthy shape when that bus hit her."   So, there's room in my diet for a few other necessary but fun food groups, like chocolate and adult beverages.  

Freeing the Airwaves

Another momentous decision was made on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 besides the overwhelming election of Barack Obama as our 44th President.  The Federal Communications Commission met and in a unanimous 5-0 decision, freed our airwaves.

I am not ashamed to admit I fall somewhere in the middle between "techie" and "non-techie."  Perhaps I'm even a touch above the average consumer in computer literacy, however it is that might be measured.  But, I am a total fan of all things Google, and when they asked for support to "Free the Airwaves" a few months ago, I gave it a hard look, then added my name to the petition.

In a nutshell, "Free the Airwaves" was a campaign Google, in cooperation with others, devised to solicit support of a favorable ruling from the FCC to open up the spectrum of unused airwaves known as "white spaces" for wireless broadband service for public use.  Up until now, broadcast TV channels used up some of the airwaves, but the airwaves spaces in-between channels - "white spaces" - were blocked for anybody else to use.  Here's an article from Google about it with the full history and explanation.   This story has been six years in the making, and for obvious reasons, the broadcasting industry was strongly against it.

Much more work has to be done now that the decision is final.  I'll be watching, and looking forward to the synergy created to further improve my fair-to-middlin' techie life.  I may not understand all of this airwaves business, but I get the gist of it - very similar to how I'm not completely sure how the refrigerator keeps food cold; I just know it does, so I use it.   

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

I have to agree with most of the comments I've heard about the results of the 2008 Presidential election.  It seems that whether your candidate of choice won or not, it will definitely be, for most Americans, an extraordinary day and event, that you will mark in your memory as one to remember in relation to where you were, who you were with, how it went down and how you felt about it.  

I was lucky enough to be traveling, taking refuge with longtime friends and one of my sons, in my hometown of 30 years in Virginia, enjoying adult beverages and catching up on news, with one eye on CNN and C-Span on the bar TVs.   Hours of  watching, listening, sometimes discussing, were finally rewarded just after 11 pm ET.   A cheer went up from Obama supporters, almost immediately followed by a collective sigh.  It seems we all were as much relieved that it was all over as we were to see our candidate win.   While most of our conversation over the hours of watching was social, it was hard to keep the chatting light-hearted while hearing the reports of financial, housing, healthcare, and job problems and how they related to voting results across the country.

Some of my compatriots were ecstatic that our first black President was elected; some gloated a bit, saying they always pick the winner; and others were saying we are headed toward certain doom in a socialistic government with this new President-elect.  I was relieved, partly, yes, because the campaigning process was over, but mostly because I feel the leader with the most potential to earn consensus, and has the calm resolve that working together we can create a fair and equitable society, was elected.   

The history of our country continues with a clean, fresh, spanking-new page,  and the title of this chapter is "The First Term of our 44th President."  I will easily remember the who, what, where, when, and how.  Now, we'll see what happens.