"Sugarholics" - Jack La Lane (1958+/-)

My doctor has got me thinking about all the things I eat which aren't good for me. Like the 5 pounds of sugar which goes into my iced tea each week. The red meat is also no good for, but I do eat a fair amount of chicken. However, most of the chicken I eat has probably been treated with antibiotics, which are also not good for me. Then there is my evening milk shake; a long time staple of my life. It causes mucus to form which is bad for my stomach and also my breathing.

Man, I am really up a tree! Everything I eat, or drink, is bad for me in some way. And I have been eating these things for my entire life. I thought I really had done well about 15 years ago when I realized that I was "binge eating" without realizing it! I had just fallen into the habit of polishing off boxes of donuts and half gallon containers of ice cream. I've always been very thin so I figured I was okay.

Then my daughter started to educate me about food disorders. I quickly realized that I was engaging in "binge eating", and put it down to smoking too much. It works like that sometimes. So, I just stopped doing it. The "binge eating", not the smoking. It wasn't very difficult as I wasn't doing it out of any deep seated emotional reason. I was just having a bad case of the "munchies."

So now, here I am 15 years later, still skinny; I had thought when I slowed down the rate at which I was eating I might gain some weight, but that never happened; and wondering what my next step will be. Will I be up to this 1958 challenge by Jack LaLane to eat better? Will I be able to quit sugar, or at least slow it down?

I'm not sure. But I do know that it's lunch time and there isn't anything in the house that I feel safe eating. The sausage is bad, the iced tea is bad, jello is just sugar, Gatorade is crap, eggs are not really heart healthy, and I am getting hungrier by the minute. I guess the mashed sweet potatoes are okay. And the banana. Nothing wrong with a banana.

Well, I guess it's off to the store to see what kind of foods appeal to me which are healthier. Wish me luck; this is like re-inventing the wheel after 59 years of rolling along unconcerned.

Real Women Have Curves

I love these new mannequins. They look like real women. Not those scrawny alley-cat looking Goth models slinking down the runways at Milan or in Paris or New York. These mannequins look like real women; ones who hold real jobs, and have real kids like so many of us do. In an age where a woman is valued more for her looks than her brains, this is a very refreshing change.

As a boy growing up in the 1960’s and early ‘70’s, I was always confused at how women wished to be perceived. In the films and books of the times, women were housewives and mothers, nurses, waitresses etc. And the models were all waif-like and almost asexual; I never could get the “hots” for Twiggy.

As the women’s movement grew and changed their perceptions of themselves; in many cases freeing them from a life of few selections; something strange happened. For decades men had been accused of valuing women only for their sexuality, and men had to learn a hard lesson in how to treat women properly. Then came the confusing part; many women took Roe vs. Wade as being the apex of victory in the Feminist Movement. Indeed, it is a pet peeve of mine that women never did push further for the ERA after Roe was decided. Instead they took the sexual equality as being the victory itself, rather than merely a component of a larger goal. And until this very day, America remains one of the only industrialized nations on Earth without an Equal Pay Act for Women.

The war against women is full on in America today, with many of the leading culprits being women politicians who have been elected, in large part, by women. It will never cease to amaze me at how many women turned out the vote for Hillary Clinton as she traveled the world demanding Equal Rights for women, while remaining silent on the same issue at home. Condolezza Rice and Madeleine Albright, along with every woman congressperson and senator, all share the blame in this.

Excuse my rant; I am just happy to see that someone, somewhere, is taking a vital step towards having women view themselves through the lens of accomplishment rather than the size of their dress.