Take Time for Living

Good diet, nutrition not complicated — just hard to stick with

A good diet and proper nutrition are really not that complicated -- just hard to stick with for most of us. If it were easy to maintain good nutrition and eat a proper diet, all the authors of diet books and makers of diet pills would be out of business.

It's true that a lot of folks, like my son for example, find it no problem to eat a solid, balanced diet, avoid between meal snacking, and control their calories -- AND get a nice balance of sleep and exercise. The result, in my son's case any way, is a healthy body and an active lifestyle.

His mother and I, on the other hand, are typical overweight, under active (especially ME) Americans.

What's the difference? I honestly think it's more a case of over indulgence for most of us, rather than a lack of nutritional knowledge, or a lack of income, or some physical defect/disability. Most of us KNOW that a good diet and proper nutrition means eating a balance of fruits and vegetables along with protein, mixed together in a moderate to low calorie package and consumed throughout an active day, and topped off with adequate sleep.

The formula for weight loss and generally good health is really that simple: Moderation in all things.

But, for most of us, daily stresses, emotional difficulties, and just plain apathy win the day. We eat stuff like "comfort foods" and we overeat for a variety of reasons.

May all your meals be healthy ones and may your days be long and healthy upon the Earth! (Back up. Walk AWAY from the ice cream!)

Poet Robert Frost often misquoted, but he knew about fences

There's a famous line in Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" that just about everyone who's a native English speaker in America has probably heard even if they haven't read the poem. That line is about fences: "Good fences make good neighbors."

Sadly, those who know the line rarely understand the point of the poem or the quote itself. Further down in the poem is what Frost really wants us to understand about fences and walls:

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.

Frost wasn't pushing the importance or popularity of fences. The fun of the poem is all about fence installation and fence repair with his neighbor each year. And the point of the poem is in the quote above: We really need to know and be very careful about the reason for our "fences" before we build them.

Today saw the largest single trading day point drop in the Dow Jones in the history of the U.S. Stock Market -- 777.68. It doesn't take a genius to understand why this radical sell-off took place. It happened because the U.S. House of Representatives is filled with too many little people in a day when our economy, and the economy of the world, demands big people -- demands statesmen -- at the helm. Instead, the majority (a nice mix of Democrats and Republicans, though more Republicans than Democrats) were afraid they might lose reelection. It seems the average, dumb American voter is so stuck on building walls and fences they cannot see the bigger picture. And the average Congressman/Congresswoman is so fearful about reelection that he/she won't stand up and say, "Sure, this economic bailout plan is a horrible thing and a miserable choice. But it's a choice we MUST make to salvage the economy for all of us.

But, rather than giving the nation an economic bailout, American "leadership" decided to huddle down behind the wall and keep those fences in place.

Ah, well. So what if we loose more billions throwing up patches to the wall/fence than we would if we'd just knocked it down and started over?

Speaking of car stuff: How long has it been since you’ve used tire chains?

Some mornings, I'm not quite sure how my mind works. LOL! I was sitting here thinking about outdated car insurance pitchmen -- and my mind went from car insurance to cars and car parts, and ended up on tire chains. How long has it been since you've used tire chains -- or have you EVER used tire chains.

My son makes a trip once or twice to the mountains of Colorado, and he assures me that tire chains are an essential in the high country where the snow lies over the land (and the roads) early and deep. For such areas, I can see the use of tire chains.

But I don't recall having used tire chains personally for more than 30 years. Okay, I take that back -- one winter here in southwest Missouri we had a dozy of an ice storm about 15+ years ago and I actually dug out a pair of chains I didn't recall having, put them on, and got myself unstuck in my driveway.

Other than that, I hadn't used tire chains since our winters long ago in South Dakota. For most regions of the country, all-season radial tires long ago supplanted tire chains, even "snow tires" aren't commonly sold anymore.

Is it winter yet where you live? Perhaps so in some parts of the world, and even more mountainous regions of America. I don't know how early snow comes to the truly high country anymore. But if you live in such terrain or regions, my wish for you is this: May you never need tire chains, but if you should, get 'em early BEFORE you need 'em!