Category Health & Weight Loss

Instead of Lunch … Do What!?!

Paul - The Wry Eye Guy Leave a comment
Fasting on COVID-19 Lockdown!

I’m in the middle of a fast. Instead of spending lunchtime wondering what I wouldn’t have for lunch, I thought I’d write this. I guess I’m hoping the fast will compensate for the overeating I did last week. Worrying about this whole COVID-19 outbreak didn’t encourage healthy eating! 🤪

I’ll start with the disclaimer that I’m not qualified to promote fasting to anyone & you shouldn’t do it without learning more about it. If you’re sick, skinny, pregnant, nursing, or in any one of a host of other circumstances do not do it. And always, always, only do it in consultation with your doctor. I spoke to my doctor about it before I gave it a try. Besides, I’m not very good at it. I usually give up way too soon. The great thing about fasting is that you can re-frame the failure. When you give up early & eat, you can still say you managed to successfully completed a fast. Albeit one that was shorter than originally intended!

This one, however, has already passed the 40 hour mark. So I though I’d brag about it!

No, that’s not true. But I did think you might be interested to hear that I’ve had two of the best nights’ sleep that I’ve enjoyed in a long time since I started it. My stomach feels pretty good too. Though it’s occasionally behaving as if I was on one of those high-fiber cleanses! I started this fast while suffering from some kind of cold or flu bug (I hope!) & that doesn’t appear to be bothering me as much today as it did yesterday. I’m not quite fasting perfectly either. It was supposed to be just water, with occasional pinches of Himalayan pink salt for the electrolytes. For better or worse, I’m still having my coffee, with cream. I am trying to limit that to 2 or 3 cups in the morning. Okay, it’s 4 & they are mugs, not cups! I’m trying out tea too. To see if I can get away from the cream.

The Himalayan salt has some trace potassium & other stuff that’s good for us but maybe not enough of an electrolyte load for fasting. I should probably be taking a potassium supplement too. But this really wasn’t planned, I was just overcome with the desire to fast on Sunday & I went with it. Could that be because I’d been eating garbage all day!?! 😁

So long as I continue to feel well, I’ve got another 32 hours to go. And just in case my resolve weakens, I’m hoping that putting this out there will help keep me on track. If I screw it up, I’ll share.

The pic at the top is a screen capture of my Life fasting app. Along with the live fasting cycle above, you get other neat stuff & some useful information. You can engage with other fasters (is that even a word?) & you can sign up for one on one coaching with them. This isn’t the only app for fasting but I like this one because it has those little badges. It’s like how the kids get stars & stickers at preschool. Okay, I’m still a kid, so what, you’re not the boss of me! The cool thing about the icons is that they tell you what your body is doing when you reach that point. You get some idea of when you are in ketosis & burning fat. You know when autophagy cuts in. This makes fasting just a little more meaningful. And that helps with hanging in there.

Actually, I think there’s another icon that appears when I pass the muscle flexing arm, for the 54 hour point. And another one at the 72 hour mark. I wonder if I can last long enough to have them all show up? 😁

I’m almost enjoying this fast. But I’m looking forward to getting back to eating too.

Just not yet!

Hope everyone is doing okay with all the challenges these days. Stay safe out there.

Dieting on Lockdown

Paul - The Wry Eye Guy 2 Comments
#PleaseProtectGrandma
Comfort Food!

It’s pretty safe to say that we’re all impacted by the coronavirus outbreak now. Many of us are either working from home, or not working at the moment. If we are still fortunate enough to have a paycheck coming, we are concerned about how long that can be sustained for. The kids are off school, or being schooled online. Driving parents crazy in the process! We all have someone that we’re worried about. I have immediate family working in healthcare that I worry about. Family members in foreign countries. And I have moments of anxiety about how I might fare, should I contract the virus. Worry is not conducive to losing weight!

I went, alone, to my favourite big box store last Saturday. They had people at the door, wet wiping the carts for us. And yes, they were antiviral wipes too. I checked. Surprisingly, it might have been a little quieter than a typical Saturday. The shelves were well stocked & the pallets of additional inventory were piled ceiling high. The toilet paper was out of stock though! I filled my cart & went home. Only to be asked if I thought I was out shopping for Christmas!

I’m not allowed to go there alone anymore. Oops! 🤪😁

Yeah, I guess I hadn’t made all good choices for a lockdown. Though cookies & chocolate are good for the soul, aren’t they! I hope I’m not just looking for an excuse to break my diet this month. Though I am struggling to resist comfort food at the moment. I really don’t like baked beans all that much. But I found myself giving in to sausage, beans & chips last night. A favourite from my childhood. Funny, eh?

That said, & despite how terrible this whole situation sometimes feels, there are some great things going on too. Our neighbours are braving the outbreak to show up for work in healthcare, transit services, law enforcement, food supply & a host of other services that are essential for us to get through this. There are acts of kindness being committed that warm the heart. Companies paying people that aren’t working. Landlords forgiving rents. These are not just legal entities, there are kind people there. Hordes of people are volunteering to work at shelters, deliver food, help neighbours. A small tire shop in my old home town offered his time & his van to local charities. Opera singers doing their thing on their balconies. A guy dropping roses on people’s porches on the news this morning. There are a million ways to show kindness. To be nice. And to preserve out faith in humankind & in each other. Besides, just being nice makes us feel so much better.

I remember that wonderful feeling of immortality that comes with being young. Hey, it wasn’t that long ago! It would really help if the young crowd could brandish their immortality online. Instead of on the streets, the bars, & the beaches. I get it. And yes, I’d love to be as bulletproof as you. I am truly envious. But please protect the older folk in your family & neighbourhoods by not doing that just yet. Next time around, we’ll hopefully have vaccines & medication that will fight this thing. But this time, we need to slow it down & manage things a little more carefully. Please.

#PleaseProtectGrandma … & all the grandpas out there!

Hey, if you are a bit less emotional about all of this, try doing something practical that helps. I dunno, maybe buy a few shares in your favourite company & help prop up the market!

At month’s end, I’m not sure how the bathroom scale will be influenced by the coronavirus thing. But I might be more forgiving of my results this one time.

❤️ to all, take care out there.

Breakfast with Bento – Coronavirus

Paul - The Wry Eye Guy Leave a comment
Emergency food supply?

I have breakfast with Bento on occasion. He’s a font of dry wit & home-spun philosophy. Seasoned with an occasional outburst of passion on topics he feels strongly about. In moments of what might be fake humility, he claims to know nothing about anything. But I enjoy listening to his take on whatever the current news headline might be. His sometimes scathing assessments on political situations, gender wars & generational differences can bring me to tears. Usually of mirth!

This morning, the news was on in the diner. Bento had decided he wanted to eat out for breakfast before any lockdown might be implemented. On TV, a doctor was uncertain about, but continued to speak of, the hope for warmer weather tempering the coronavirus outbreak. Bento wondered why they ever let the bleeping bleeper escape with a medical degree! “Bleep, couldn’t the bleeper just look up the temperatures in Australia, Singapore & the Philippines?” I nearly choked on my toast at his summary. And while I grabbed my phone to check the temperatures & to see what the case counts were in those countries, Bento muttered that they were running around “that fella’s” golf resort with the virus too. “And what’s the temperature down that way? Isn’t that where all the snowbirds go for winter?” True enough that!

Bento was all on for a lockdown. Though we’re in an area that has yet to officially record a single case of the coronavirus, Bento is convinced we have them. And that we should be locking things down ahead of getting into a situation like Italy. “The horses have bolted over there,” he says, “and I hope they can round them up.” So what are you doing coming out for breakfast, Bento? “There you go!”, he waves his arms in the air. “Even sensible people do stupid things.”

“Some of us are just too stupid to be allowed to make our own decisions sometimes. Look what happens when we vote.” Bento wouldn’t be considered politically correct sometimes. “The Asians have a better handle on things. They do what they’re told. But not us. Oh, no! We like to be free to do what we like. Even if it’s stupid!” He went on a little rant about our healthcare system being overloaded already & that we had no chance if this thing was allowed to run rampant. He was loud now, & further encouraged by the grunts & nods of agreement from other customers within earshot. And that pretty much included everyone there. “We’ll be bleeped if they start rolling into emergency by the boatload!”

After he paused for a bit, I shared my thoughts on a lockdown. Maybe we should keep things open. To protect the economy perhaps. People need their jobs after all. And what about my retirement investments? “Ah for bleep’s sake, Paul, wouldn’t you be better off losing a few dollars & just surviving ’til retirement age.” I burst out laughing & nearly choked inhaling a piece of egg. Hard to argue that one!

As I picked up my cheque to leave, Bento shouts out that he expects that I’ll be wearing a hockey helmet & gloves next time he sees me. Now there’s a Canadian solution to remind us not to shake hands that just might work round here!

“No panic, Paul, but a little suffering can be good for the soul!”, was wrapped into his farewell comments.

“And quit smoking!”

I think I’ll go out & buy some toilet paper now! 🤪😁

It’s an ill wind …

Paul - The Wry Eye Guy Leave a comment
A little milk-chocolate-chip banana bread with my butter!

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good!

Now I’m of an age, a size, & a level of fitness that the coronavirus going viral causes me moments of anxiety. And I’m a smoker, so that’s another strike against me. But I’m generally pretty optimistic. At the moment, I’m looking for any sliver of a silver lining in this whole coronavirus thing. Say what!?!

Yeah, I know how terrible it is. I have older friends & family too. Indeed, I may be part of someone else’s “older friends & family” group! 🤪😁

Yes, I would really like it to just go away. But, sadly, that’s probably not going to happen. Is there anything positive to be taken from the situation?

Well, looking on the bright side, it might be an excuse to ignore my diet temporarily. In one such moment, I succumbed to the temptation of the comfort food in the pic above! However, I recovered my resolve a day later so I haven’t totally washed out the month.

Yet!

It might also be time to hunt through the sofa cushions for any spare change that might be put to work in a beaten down stock market. No!?! Yeah, you’re probably right, that might get a little worse before it gets better. But still, there is some long-term positivity potential there.

Another bright spot is that my day job requires me to travel. Sometimes at pretty short notice. But, & in rapidly increasing numbers, fewer people want me to visit them at the moment. I like visiting people but the bright side of not being able to means that I can now get some stuff done that I usually put off. There’s that minor foot procedure I’ve been putting off, for years, for example. Not having to travel means I don’t have to worry about it taking a few weeks to heal. Of course, I have to go to a medical establishment. Where there are people with potentially communicable diseases, so that’s a factor. Ferreting out those little silver linings can be challenging, eh!

It’s also a positive thing that I can go to my favourite big box store & not feel guilty about us having to go back for 2nd cart! Though I’m doing it now too, I’m not sure why we need so much toilet tissue. I know, I know, I’m such a sheep! What I’m not doing is buying antibacterial products. The coronavirus is a virus so I think good ole soap is probably the best virus killer. And I’m a little dubious about that 20 seconds being enough time for handwashing to work. Would you want your chef just doing the 20 second handwashing thing before continuing to plate your breakfast toast? No, me neither! I’ll stick to my 2 minute ritual, as an absolute minimum, thank you.

We can but pray that we, & all those we hold dear, will make it through this whole mess okay. First from the health perspective, but also from the financial point of view. I wish you all all the best for getting through it.

With my Saturday soccer matches cancelled, I’m going out shopping. Again. I’m kinda hoping I will make some diet-friendly decisions. And I’m committing to try to be patient if the lineups are long today. Might as well get a head start on practicing trying to spread some extra ripples of kindness. I’ll let you know how that goes!

Enjoy your weekend. And if you have any little points of positivity to add, please do pass them along.

Meditation & Diet?

Paul - The Wry Eye Guy
Ponder the Puffy Clouds!

Lying on a beach, under the shade of a palm tree, cold one within reach … now that’s calm-inducing, stress-alleviating & the best kind of meditation, & medication, I can think of. Can’t do that, in Canada, during the Canadian winter, without some serious risk of frostbite!

But there must be an app for that, right?

I tried a few meditation apps & they just didn’t work for me. Worse, I actually found them stressful to listen to. First one I tried starts out counting a breath in on one, out on two, in on three & then this soothing voice tells me to carry on doing that up to twenty. On my own! Is she kidding me or what? Am I going at the right pace? Maybe she counts more quickly than I do? Will I get all my breaths in before she’s back with the next activity? What if she’s slower? Do I have to hold my breath ’til she catches up? OMG, I’m hyperventilating, this is driving me nuts!

I was a trembling wreck by the time I got to twenty. Enough of that nonsense, let’s try another one.

This time it’s a guy. Great voice. Calm, soothing, very relaxed & reassuring. We’re going to do this body thing, a routine that goes from the head to the toes. With some pretty peculiar internal organ stops along the way, I might add! But this turns out to be even more excruciating. First, he tells me to get comfortable & relax. Next he’s telling me it’s okay to move uncomfortable body parts. Pick one for cryin’ out loud! I know it’s really not okay though, & I’m just screwing up, am I not? And he’s just saying all that to make me feel better about it. Right out of the gate, he knows that I’m no Zen master & that I’ll almost certainly have to move. Maybe even all the time. That’s exactly what I did, of course. I just kept squirming. And I hated every second of that little medication exercise. Next!

Then I tried this one with an irritating little bell chime thing. I’m sure if you had a real bell, while sitting cross-legged in the Himalayas, it would work far better. You know what I mean, you’d have the right atmosphere for meditation all the way up there. With the monks & robes & whatnot. But the mind-numbing consistency of a mathematically accurate & repeatable digital ding just did my head in.

I know, I know … I’m probably doing it incorrectly. I know I should probably chill out & just try it again. But my heart rate is up, I’m sure my blood pressure is too, so I’m going to resort to something I have more practice with. Something I know works.

A slice of deep dish cheesecake. With a big blob of whipped cream.

And afterwards, when I’m cheesecake-calm, maybe I’ll try that meditation thing with the sound of the waves lapping on the beach. 😜😁

PS … Happy International Women’s Day to all the ladies out there. And to the National ladies too! 🤪😁