Friday Night Videos - Just Say No!

Detox (Part Deux)

So I kick sugar. This is a huge feat gentle readers. I am a sugar addict. Cravings will hit at work or home and I'll stop at nothing for a fix. A Coffee Crisp or Coke from the vending machine at work. A brownie from the cafe in the mall at work. Robbing the last cookie from the jar on the courtier at home. Imagine, I was such a hopeless user I'd take the last cookie while my children weren't looking. What kind of father am I? Shameful.

Sugar in the morning, sugar at lurch, break time, after supper, before bed. Relentless.

After discovering how much it was affecting me I decided it was time to quit. And I did.

Then things started to happen and really quickly. I stopped crashing at work. Dozing of in meetings and in front of my PC. I always blamed my crazy schedule. Up at 4:30 in the morning, off to the gym or onto the laptop to work. To work by 8:00 where I'd work straight through eating at my desk. Taking breaks for necessaries and eh hem,, sugar fixes. Home by 6:00 or thereafter Play with the kid's them send them off to bed. Do some more work, do some work on the Torah study then off to bed by 11:00. After kicking sugar, the schedule hasn't changed much other than I'm not sleepy anymore. I'm actually quite alert and firing on all cylinders. I feel like a million bucks when I get home from the gym.

After a week and a half the spare tire around my midsection is also deflating! Oh, you ask my DW about the weight I've lost and her cute little nose wrinkles up and a "WTH" look crosses her face. I know that my pants are just that much looser trust me. The once former six pack still may be a bag of milk but it's going down and I'm not backing down.

Then I fell. Monday night DW breaks out a chocolate cake from the freezer. A home made delight she made for Little Pilgrim's birthday. I decide to have resolve and not indulge. Then I cave when I see the thick layer of home made icing screaming at me. Two larger than normal pieces later and the guilt and shame I'm expecting, stay at bay. No balling up into the fetal position and crying at the remorse of failing. Instead I feel like a bag of crap and get a headache.

Then it strikes me. That's the first headache I've had since putting a lid on the sugar bowl. I feel better.

Today the doughnuts came out at work and I resisted. It was a pivotal moment. I turned down a Tim Horton's Dutchie! Success!

Kicking sugar hasn't been as difficult as quiting smoking (11 years since my fingers lost their yellow smelly tinge). It has had much quicker results.

Next battle is to kick the excess fat in my diet. I'll let you all know how that works out when living without sugar levels out.

Kicking the habit wasn't that hard my friends and the benefits have been quick and welcome.

Pilgrim

Detox (Thank You)

Blessings can be found in the most unsuspecting places. The purpose of the first part of this thread was to inspire others to stop eating junk. It's more than junk it's poison. I'll continue on in a moment. When I checked comments I was blown away to see comments offering prayers for me. It was very moving and and very appreciated. Although my mom is praying for healing like only a mother can, I never really thought of it as a prayer request. I just accepted that I was in this situation and that my sight won't be taken from me without a fight.

Thanks to you all for your kindness, you are all very kind and it is appreciated.

Time to start praying for healing.

Pilgrim

Detox

"By law I have to report you to the Province to revoke your license," the Opthamalagist said, "however you have learned how to compensate very well so I'm not going to report you yet...." LOSE MY LICENSE! Mama Mia, when I was a kid all I lived for was getting my driver's license now I could potentially lose it for life!?! I love driving.

Needless to say I was a wee bit shaken when DW and I walked out of the office a few weeks ago. I knew my eyesight was bad, I've been told that for the past 20 years but lose my license? What's worse, there's no corrective lenses, it is what it is.

When I saw my MD a few days later I asked him what the what what was. Turns out the condition that is robbing my sight is related to the arthritis that affects me from head to toe and both are stemming from an under active thyroid problem that plagues me. Drat that little metabolism controlling gland!

The macula;r degeneration, can't be cured. I can possibly slow down it's progression maybe even stop it from getting worse by taking mineral supplements and Omega 3. The mineral supplements are deadly at first, I was driving the porcelain bus for a few days trying to get used to them.

Then it gets interesting. Mom sends me some pages ripped out of a medical journal she has. I'm supposed to eat lots of spinach and dark greens and reds. Ingest flax seed oil, yummy. Then I pick up an old Prevention magazine for some light reading. DW buys the little health periodicals at the thrift store for a dime. There are articles on macular degeneration and under active thyroid. Both talk about diet. This months Reader's Digest comes in. A piece on macular degeneration and how diet can help. Another article on good cholesterol and how flax seed oil, yummy, is good for arthritis. All articles point to cutting out refined sugar. I read another article in Prevention on the evils of carbonated soft drinks. Sugar, is once again picked out.

Pilgrim goes cold turkey off of sugar and starts adrinking two glases of OJ with flax seed oil, yummy, every day. It wasnt easy to kick the sugar, I'm an addict. I started to get used to the flax sed oil, yummy. You wouldn't believe what happens next.

Pilgrim

New Kid on the Blog

Today marks the launch of my DW's professional blog career. Two and half months after writing her first post on Blogger, DW launches into the majors. Please drop by Organizing Connections and drop a note on the blog. You might as well add it to your link list whle your on-line because both of her blogs are some of the best reading you will ever find.

Pilgrim

Not So Scared After All (Sky Is Falling Part 2)

OK so maybe the sky's not falling. I don't believe we'll be living in cardboard boxes any time soon. It's too cold up here for that. I don't think the world economy is going to collapse either, that's a wee bit dramatic. The paranoia of a pending doom is benefiting me though. As Mrs. Pilgrim and I move to live a simpler life I'm finding I'm much happier. The less TV I watch, limited to a few dozen laps of NA(p)SCAR and coming to a TV near you in April.....BASE-A-BALL.... the more time I have for other things. The more I try to live with what I have, the less preoccupied I am with getting more stuff. Cutting down on tube time and techno lust frees up more space in my head and calendar for nicer things, like playing with cars on the floor with the wee ones or siting in a cafe for a couple of hours with my oldest getting caught up and planning a book about some pretty exciting events and lessons that the young fella has learned.

No I don't think the sky is falling. I think that maybe the world, like water, is seeking it's own level. The balance is off and the free market is seeking to right itself. The only thing that can come of that Hobbesian phenomena is good.

The only thing falling from the sky right now is snow and plenty of it, over 13 feet since December 1. I'm good with that because it's going to be April soon and that means new birth is around the corner. Blossoms and beautiful green grass. Young deer running through the pastures and trees full of leaves. Gray and white will turn to green and blue.

Life is grand.

Pilgrim

S'More Blue Rodeo for Liquid

While the US/Canadian cultures may be mirror images of each other, one thing the U.S misses out on is some really good Canadian musical talent. I'm not sure if anyone from the US or UK has heard of this Celine Dion chick but she can really belt out a tune.

There was a period in the 80's that a lot of Canadian talent made it's way onto the world stage. Bryan Adams and eh-hem, Loverboy come to mind. There are gobs of other artists you haven't heard of though. Even I missed out on Blue Rodeo while I was an ex-patriot living in the Sunshine State for 10 years. Upon my return I thought their radio played material was so-so. Then one fateful day in '98 I was offered two tickets to a Blue Rodeo show in a small theatre out here on the East Coast. It was a last minute offer. Acting impulsively and an avid lover of live music I snatched them up.

What a great decision. That was probably one of the best shows I have ever seen. I was blown away by the talent. They were tight and played simple tunes that swept me away. They border on the country/blues/rock crossover line, not really falling into a definitive genre. I can't really compare them to any other bands. There's lots available on the web if you are so inclined. Amazon carries them also.

This next video is dedicated to Liquid. If you liked Bad Timing you will also dig Try.

Enjoy......

Try

Friday Night Videos on a Saturday Afternoon - Now Tha's Bad Timing

Earlier this afternoon I was listening to Blue Rodeo on the MP3 while I chopped wood. There I was outside the wood shed swinging an axe and singing Bad Timing at hte top of my lungs Imagining I was harmonizing perfectly with Jim Cuddy and Greg Keeler. For those listening it was "Just bad TUNING, that's all".

The Sky is Falling?

A very good friend of mine once said, "If you're paranoid, you probably should be.". While I don't necessarily think I'm paranoid I am afraid of a pending doom. I want to run through the streets shouting and warning people to prepare themselves. My problem is I'm not an effective orator. When I start talking about my passions I tend to sound preachie. That's a turn off, even to me. The thought then occurred to use this medium to at least begin sharing but there again when I start plotting out a thread I tend to go down roads that put people to sleep. Personally I find my best writing comes from inspirations I've been recently mulling over. I've come to rest on the solution that I'll simply tell everyone what I'm doing and let them decide if there's any merit.

The doom that is giving me the heebie geebies has to down with Western civilizations economy. I fear that we are going to be thrust into an economic down turn that may make the Great Depression look paltry. I fear that we (Westerners) have lost perspective with how wealthy we rally are. But I won't preach, I will talk about my position and what I've been doing.

My .beautiful and intelligent wife has done a wonderful job of grounding me even further than I was previous to meeting her. I have always been of the mindset that I need to live below my means. Unfortunately I haven't made the brightest decisions in the past and wound up paying a very heavy price. After 16 years of bailing out from those missteps I am finally able to have a little bit of savings in the bank instead of paying gobs of money in interest every month. Now that I'm getting clear though I'm finding that my desire to live below my means is not so easy. I make a decent salary, a bit above the average but by no means anywhere near the double income that my DW and I brought in when she was working full time outside the home.

Still we are wealthy compared to most of the world. We have one car but there's no doubt it will start every single morning. We have a lot of living space. I think we still need to do more. DW goes to great lengths to be frugal. She actually does a wonderful job of making meals from scratch. Heck, she even makes laundry and dishwasher soap from scratch. Maybe it's the Mennonite in me that makes me worry. Could it be genetic?

As the fear looms in my mind I find I am becoming more passionate in everything I do. My work, my chores and my relationships are becoming more intense. I am finding myself moving away from the luxuries of my life and desiring a simpler more plain life. I enjoy chopping wood on the weekends. I really find I am caring more for coworkers and customers. I want to make a difference in others lives more than ever before. The difference is that I don't have to force it anymore. By keeping things simple I find my head is clearer.

Maybe it's not a fear of doom but simply the fact that I'm becoming (gasp) mature? I don't know but 'm enjoying the way things are turning out. Maybe this is the midlife crisis I thought I was starting to enter. If it is I'm really liking it. Except for the part of the pending doom but if there is trouble around the corner I'll be ready.

Pilgrim