livingvlc

It is officially spring. Yeah! Now if only the weather would realize it.  Saturday 3/20  31 and 2 inches of snow during the day and 3 more during the night. Sun 3/21  26 and 2 more inches of the frozen white crap.  Monday 3/21  68.  Tuesday 3/22 78.  Wed 3/23  50 and rainy.  Thur 3/24  42 and rainy (and of course today is the day our baby turkeys have arrived).

Sunday Morning

Looking out from the porch








Hard to believe these guys will grow up to 30 lbs!

Have decided that even if the weather is not cooperating that it's time to get rid of the few lbs (ok so it's actually 12 lbs) and 1/2 inch that I put on over the winter.  My blood sugar has been well controlled over the winter but it's a perfectly normal physiological reaction to fatten up for the cold season (and with losing over 100 lbs it's been a very cold winter for me - I've been wearing layer after layer of clothing to keep warm).  To that end I've decided to clean up my eating even more and use a modified version of the new Atkins diet. (I like eggs as much as the next guy but even with unlimited quantities of farm fresh eggs here I'm not going the Jimmy Moore Eggfest 2010 route.

Today is day 4. While I don't worship at the altar of the scale it is a useful indicator of results.  On Monday weight was 194.2. This morning it was 191.6, so not bad for a few days.

The important thing is that even though all of my blood work is now showing normal levels and my blood sugar is well controlled I still have a damaged metabolism and cannot process carbohydrates correctly. This means that I will be on a low carbohydrate/ high fat/ moderate-high protein diet for the rest of my life. The weight loss has been great but isn't the main objective of this WOE (Way of Eating). As long as my blood glucose levels are well maintained I will be healthy.

Well the Dems are going to have their way it looks like and ObamaCare is going to become a reality.  I would be among the first to agree that there are many problems with our current health care setup. However considering that the government is still recommending a carb heavy/low fat diet to cure our ills when that is causing a large proportion of the current "obesity crisis" I cannot help but feel a large sense of dread about them taking over health care. Further since my WOE (which has restored my health) is in direct contravention to government guidelines I can see the day coming when the government tells me that I cannot continue my WOE if I am to have health insurance. But wait - they've made health insurance coverage mandatory. So the government is then going to force me (and others eating low carb) to their "healthy way of eating". I have liberal friends who tell me this will never happen. All I know is that today's America is ever so much less free than the America I can remember from 30-40 years ago. (And while 9-11 exacerbated the process it was well under way by 2001 - but that's a topic for another post).

And to leave today's post on a happier note here is the DoggiePic of the Day.  Duke lolling in the snow Sunday.

As some of you may know Kim and I have been involved in feline rescue for a number of years (originally on our own but for the last several years we have been affiliated with Animal Allies of Texas). Due to the current economic conditions adoptions have been very slow (and of course we have several cats that will be very hard to adopt out). Unfortunately we just had to have one put to sleep this weekend due to liver failure (fortunately it was not FIP). However there's still no shortage of cats (and dogs - though we personally don't work with the dogs) coming in. There are a large number of people who feel that if an animal lives outside that it has some sort of natural right to remain unfixed and breed. GET YOUR ANIMALS FIXED PEOPLE! They'll be happier and healthier and won't be producing unwanted litters.

The majority of pets in the US (and worldwide I'd presume) are cats and dogs. Canines and felines are naturally carnivorous. Knowing what I now know about nutrition I have been trying to limit the carbohydrate count in the foods we feed our pets. I have had the unfortunate experience of reading the nutritional labels on every package of cat food and dog food at our local stores.  Grains, cereals, vegetables, potatoes.  What the heck are they doing as the primary ingredients in cat and dog food (and these are the so called premium foods). Unfortunately most of the cats have been eating these foods for years and as a result do not like the raw organ meats that we've been trying to supplement their diet with. (The dogs on the other hand will do just about anything for their servings of organ meat).  I'm currently doing online research on some truly healthy animal feeds and I will report back.

The bad weather curse that has been following me around has struck again. It started to rain here in Pennsylvania Thursday night and has been raining ever since.  It's cold and damp and my joints hurt.  At least it hasn't frozen as temperatures have only dropped to the upper 30's at night (so far).  Come noon tomorrow I'm going to get loaded into my truck as fast as possible and head for drier warmer climes.

A warm welcome to anyone coming on over from Living La Vida Low Carb.

Today's post comes live from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Live from the exhibit hall at Cold Wars, a historical miniatures convention.

Note - to convention committees if you are going to expand your convention by an extra day, you don't need to have the room open on Thursday at Noon. (If there are more than 50 people here now I'd be amazed). All the early opening does is inconvenience your vendors by forcing them to spend an extra night on the road. Most people work on weekdays.  And believe it or not, vendors do have better things to do than to sit around being bored until the attendees get off work and show up at the convention.

WARNING! As if aspartame isn't  prevalent enough in the market (at least until the FDA finally bows to public pressure and bans it), it is now being marketed as AminoSweet (in varying color packaging so be careful).

Spent last weekend vending at the North Texas Irish Festival. Decided to try an experiment and brought a dozen or so shirts of 4 different Low carb t-shirt designs. I figured with 20000+ people at the show I could see if there was any interest in Low Carb related apparel.  Sold a grand total of 2 shirts from the Low Carb section. Needless to say I'm vastly disappointed.

While at the festival last weekend I had the opportunity to try fresh fried pork rinds from one of the food vendors.  I'm afraid that this has spoiled me now for pre-packaged pork rinds. I'm going to have to find a source for fresh pig skin so I can fry my own at home (and use something healthier than the vendor at the fair was using no doubt).

Had a company out with a tree eater to clear a bunch of trees out of the pasture.  The farm is starting to shape up. Now if Mr Sun would bother to show up (and enough of the frakkin rain already) maybe we can get some grass growing. (and turning green). Kim has been busy building more portable enclosures for chickens and turkeys. With luck she'll have them done this week. Good thing too, we have baby turkey poults showing up in two weeks

Duke and Petra are having the time of their lives romping around the farm. (and keeping them out of our pond or our neighbor's pond is almost impossible). They are doing a great job of keeping the predators away from the livestock.
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I hope that Jimmy, Kristie, Tom, Mary et al are having a great time on the Low Carb Cruise. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it.

SM

Well it's Sunday in Kansas CIty.  We got 3 inches of snow last night and they're forecasting 4-6 inches more today.  With intermittant freezing rain on top of the snow.  Bleagh!  What worries me is that there's a very steep ramp out back of the convention center. One very steep ramp.  63 vendors at the show.  It's going to be a real mess getting out.  And that's if the convention center actually does anything about the snow and ice back there.  If not it's going to REALLY interesting.  Then of course there's the drive out of here.  I'm probably going to go through Wichita and take I-35 home even though it's 100 miles further. At least it'll be plowed (I Hope).

Which leads me to:

This is one of the coldest winters in the last 20 years with record levels of precipitation.  Of course the "Global Warming" activists are now pushing "Global Climate Change" instead of "Global Warming" (Fuck you Al Gore!).  Since from what I can see the level of mainstream science in climate change is about as good as the so called science in prevailing government and mainstream nutrtional theories (none or incorrect) I'll continue to believe that humanity's influence on global climate is about as much as a fart in a windstorm.

If Gary Taubes wasn't doing such important work on promoting the real science of nutrtion I'd suggest that climatology would be an ideal subject for his next book.

Well we've been open for 45 minutes and it looks like I might actually have my first sale.    F##@@$%$%king Snow! it's going to kill business today.

I learned this morning that a friend of mine (from the Old Arlington/Teresa/Filk Days has passed away. His name was Sean Kaufman and he died of a heart attack and he wasn't even 50 years old yet. He was working as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan and survived a dangerous military situation, to be done in by environmental factors.

Now I don't know this for sure, and I have a real strong bias that I'm operating from. But he was probably eating the same diet that our servicemen/women eat. S.A.D. (Standard American Diet). High in carbs/ moderate to low fat.  Most of the young servicemen/women can tolerate carbs at this point in their lives.  It generally seems that metabolic problems really start to develop from S.A.D when middle age hits. From what I understand Sean wasn't overweight and tried to eat healthy.  Too bad that what he was told was healthy  isn't.

Any way. Rest in Peace Sean.  We'll miss ya.

I'm back from Denver. Heading out to Kansas City tomorrow for Naka-Con. It's going to be an interesting weekend.

The Red Lion Hotel SE in Denver apparently has employees that cannot pick up a phone.  When they do pick up a phone they cannot tell the difference between FedEx Express and FedEx Ground.  When I packaged up all of my stuff from GenghisCon on Sunday and turned it over to the hotel the Front Desk Supervisor promised me that he would call to arrange a FedEx Ground pickup for me and that I did not need to do it. As I had to leave on the shuttle I stupidly believed that this was within his capabilities.

On Monday afternoon I called to verify that there was going to be a pickup that afternoon. I was informed that there was and even was given a pickup number. When I questioned that the pickup number didn't seem to be a Ground number I was told that it was. I left my cell phone number and was told that if there were any problems or the pickup was not made they would call me.  No call.

No pickup either. Wednesday afternoon when I discovered that my stuff was still at the hotel I flipped.  I spoke to the MOD, the General Manager of the hotel, and the Banquets & Catering Manager. None of them could explain why the pickup was never arranged. The Banquets & Catering manager assured me that he could get a pickup made yesterday.  Oops two hours later when it was too late to have my stuff taken to the FedEx Office/Kinkos to get it out he calls me and tells me that he didn't realize that he needed a FedEx Ground pickup and that their Express driver couldn't take my stuff.  Duh!

So my stuff finally was picked up this morning, which means that it'll get back here on Friday or Saturday.  I'm leaving for Kansas City tomorrow. I'm going to be very short on merchandise and have had to spend a lot of money to get minimal restocks.

Needless to say I am not at all pleased with the Red Lion Denver SE.  This on top of the hotel being very understaffed and unable to cope with the 2500 people at Genghiscon. I understand that they were told to expect a large crowd and apparently didn't believe the concom. And was unwilling or unable to call in additonal staff for the holiday weekend.

<rant>

This week Whole Foods has announced a major change in emphasis in their stores. (see WholeFools for details). They are now actively promoting a low fat/ high carb vegetarian lifestyle. No thank you.

It's bad enough that they (and many other so called health food stores) promote organic merchandise as being healthy no matter if it is so full of carbs that you may as well eat raw sugar. Organic does not equal healthy. But now they are going to not only proselytize for a unhealthy vegetarian lifestyle but actually disparage the lifestyle that I have adopted that has restored my health. And for a company that wants to be green to promote vegetarianism shows that they are not aware of the true facts about vegetarianism. (The Vegetarian Myth). Plant based diets are not only generally unhealthful but result in ecological ruination as well as being economically inefficient.

As I walk around Whole Foods I see lots of foods made with refined white flour and other starchy ingredients. I see tons of juices whose primary ingredient is sugar. Lots of fruits which may be organically grown but which have been genetically modified to have greater sweetness. Healthy?  If you have a metabolism capable of handling high levels of carbohydrates it may not do you harm (at least in the short term) but healthy? No.  As Dr Jim Carlson is wont to say  "SUGAR is SUGAR is SUGAR"! And none of it is particularly healthy.

Unfortunately as long as our government is in the business of giving out poor nutrional information things are not going to change. And with the vast contributions big agribusiness makes to politicians as well as the billions of dollars in malpractice liability as soon as the AMA, American Diabetes Association et al admit that they've been giving not just incorrect advice and instructions but dietary advice that is exactly the opposite of what is truly healthful I have little hope of things changing soon.

And while it would be easy to blame the food manufacturers, they are only giving the public what the public has been brainwashed into wanting over the last 40 years.  Even though low fat/ high carb doesn't work and has no scientific evidence behind it at all (Good Calories Bad Calories) people still want to believe the dogma. It's probably going to take massive public pressure on congress as well as congress' passing a bill exempting the bad dietary advise of the last 40 years from malpractice suits (after all its at least as much our government's fault as it is the AMA, ADA, AHA etc) before things will change much.

But there is hope.  There are an ever growing number of nutritional scientists who are proving that high fat/ low carb is the healthiest way to eat (for the majority of people) and the growing landswell of the primeo movement bodes well for this way of eating (hereafter WOE).

As I look around I see many of my friends who are either having (or about to have) major medical issues and who are vastly overweight.  I cannot blame them. Many of them have tried to diet for years unsuccessfully since they've been trying low fat/ high carb diets.  What pisses me off though is that many of them are completely unwilling to listen to a different way of eating that could really help them. After all the government has told them that low carb is unhealthy and that they need lots of whole grain heart healthy carbs. And that saturated fat is bad for them. It really pisses me off. But I have resolved myself to the fact that I cannot save them. It's up to them to take charge of their health and as my friend Jimmy Moore puts it, "FInd the dietary lifestyle that works for you; follow it exactly as written by the plans author. And follow it for the rest of your life".

However even though I cannot do anything more than support my friends and let them know that I'm their if they need me. I can promote the low carb lifestyle both through what I write online, talk in person of, and now through my new clothing line available at http://www.pegasuspublishing.com/Low-Carb-p-1-c-481.html. Eventually the message is going to get out there..

</rant>

This weeks snow made traveling to Denver for GenghisCon. interesting (to say the least). Feel bad to leave Kim behind to deal with the massive snow but gotta pay for the farm somehow. Our new dogs are certainly enjoying the snow.



Scott

First all, if you've managed to find this tiny little corner of the internet - WELCOME!

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Valentines day weekend.

This will be a place for me to update my thoughts on conventions, my healthy low carb lifestyle, the stupidity of our political leaders, the greed of agribusiness or any other thing I want to rant about.

So welcome aboard it's going to be bumpy (if occasional) ride.

Scott