The Sugar Blues
14/06/15 07:34
Not sure what kind of animal keeps emptying out our hummingbird feeder but it is highly annoying. It looks like whatever is doing it is doing it by tipping the feeder to one side or another to get to the sugary red-colored concoction inside. I have an idea. I'll secure the base of the feeder with something so that it can't be tipped. This is a "Are you Smarter than a Fifth grader" moment so I don't want to get it wrong. If the Wright brothers, a couple of bike mechanics by trade, can invent manned flight then I ought to be able to figure this out. I suppose I could get one of those cameras that starts recording when there is activity at the feeder so I can start by figuring out what kind of creature we're dealing with. If it's a deer, then maybe I get some kind of deer repellant and focus my attention away from the feeder itself. I mean, how ingenious do I have to be? It's bad enough that while we saw hummingbirds in spades early on this season, they seem to have moved on although I catch sight of one or two now and then. I gave up long ago trying to figure out if we have return guests year after year because I simply haven't done the homework to make the identifications. They all look alike. Right? Wrong. Then there is the possibility that they are raising their nestlings and when that happens they stay closer to the nest. Just don't know. As long as Nancy maintains an interest in the birds and all the related paraphernalia I will do my best to stay involved in a loving and caring capacity. I still can't help but wonder, what would the Wright brothers do?
This has been a bit of an odd duck of a day. Nan went to work in town and expects to be home later in the afternoon. I always try to make the best of my time alone but sometimes it just depends on how I feel. Last Monday, when I had the day off and Nancy didn't I busied myself in the house the better part of the day. It was non-stop. It certainly felt good to get a lot of things done and I was a man on a mission. As I sit here today I can't remember half of the things I did but I know they were important and I know that I was particularly proud of my accomplishments. Today, well that's another story. I think I started feeling a little under the weather yesterday when I took my bike ride in the morning. Nancy went to the annual Market Square day in Portsmouth and I took a bike ride after going to a local Valvoline to get my tires rotated. It felt a little flu-ish to be honest. I thought that if I pushed myself that I could squeeze the ride in before succumbing to a full scale bout of the flu. Not unexpectedly, I felt worse after my ride but was satisfied I got the ride in. Today, I'll ride with Nancy when she gets home but have otherwise spent the better part of the day in bed. I'm well enough now, or just tired of laying in bed, and have prepared myself a large iced coffee made with cold brewed coffee from Trader Joes. Fill your cup a third with the cold brew; a third with water, and a third with milk and give it a good shake. Out-fucking-standing!
I really need to have a come-to-Jesus talk with myself about sugar. God, that stuff is insidious. The more you eat the more you want. The more you want the more you find ways to ingest it. You have to make a concerted effort to avoid the damn stuff if you want to stay healthy. Staying healthy is a full time job. Don't let anyone kid you. I'm not a label reader so I don't track grams of sodium, sugar, and all the rest but I know enough to know that you just need to stay away from certain things when you're trying to keep your diet on the up and up. Something as simple as fruit, while seemingly healthy and proper, can spike your blood sugars and encourage you at the same time to consume even greater quantities of foods that are sugary and dreadfully bad for you. I know I'm getting off the wagon when I start eating things like white bread (BLT's only), handfuls of fruit like blueberries and strawberries right out of the fridge, and crackers laden with cheese, hummus, and god only knows what else. You can feel the badness! I used to think that I needed to avoid the very worse things like high fructose sugar and preservatives like BHA, BHT, etc. and that's true. But the chemists have been hard at work finding ways to get consumers to buy and consume even greater quantities of their products and they have been largely successful. Try walking through the supermarket when you're hungry and tell me that your cravings are not out of control. That's just one example. Today is the first day of the rest of my life so I'm going sugar free to break the bond. I feel better already. Maybe that's the cold brew talking. Keep talking, baby! I'm all ears.
This has been a bit of an odd duck of a day. Nan went to work in town and expects to be home later in the afternoon. I always try to make the best of my time alone but sometimes it just depends on how I feel. Last Monday, when I had the day off and Nancy didn't I busied myself in the house the better part of the day. It was non-stop. It certainly felt good to get a lot of things done and I was a man on a mission. As I sit here today I can't remember half of the things I did but I know they were important and I know that I was particularly proud of my accomplishments. Today, well that's another story. I think I started feeling a little under the weather yesterday when I took my bike ride in the morning. Nancy went to the annual Market Square day in Portsmouth and I took a bike ride after going to a local Valvoline to get my tires rotated. It felt a little flu-ish to be honest. I thought that if I pushed myself that I could squeeze the ride in before succumbing to a full scale bout of the flu. Not unexpectedly, I felt worse after my ride but was satisfied I got the ride in. Today, I'll ride with Nancy when she gets home but have otherwise spent the better part of the day in bed. I'm well enough now, or just tired of laying in bed, and have prepared myself a large iced coffee made with cold brewed coffee from Trader Joes. Fill your cup a third with the cold brew; a third with water, and a third with milk and give it a good shake. Out-fucking-standing!
I really need to have a come-to-Jesus talk with myself about sugar. God, that stuff is insidious. The more you eat the more you want. The more you want the more you find ways to ingest it. You have to make a concerted effort to avoid the damn stuff if you want to stay healthy. Staying healthy is a full time job. Don't let anyone kid you. I'm not a label reader so I don't track grams of sodium, sugar, and all the rest but I know enough to know that you just need to stay away from certain things when you're trying to keep your diet on the up and up. Something as simple as fruit, while seemingly healthy and proper, can spike your blood sugars and encourage you at the same time to consume even greater quantities of foods that are sugary and dreadfully bad for you. I know I'm getting off the wagon when I start eating things like white bread (BLT's only), handfuls of fruit like blueberries and strawberries right out of the fridge, and crackers laden with cheese, hummus, and god only knows what else. You can feel the badness! I used to think that I needed to avoid the very worse things like high fructose sugar and preservatives like BHA, BHT, etc. and that's true. But the chemists have been hard at work finding ways to get consumers to buy and consume even greater quantities of their products and they have been largely successful. Try walking through the supermarket when you're hungry and tell me that your cravings are not out of control. That's just one example. Today is the first day of the rest of my life so I'm going sugar free to break the bond. I feel better already. Maybe that's the cold brew talking. Keep talking, baby! I'm all ears.