Creation Day Today - Exercise Needed with Nutrition

The Fat-Sugar-Salt Diet has proven to be astonishingly effective in ruining the health of America - at a great financial cost in buying the chosen foods. Yesterday the pharmacy tech said, "Only one prescription?" I said, "That is why I am healthy - only one prescription, for my eyes."

Studies have shown that those who concentrate on vegetables, fresh fruit, nuts, and seeds will enjoy cascades of great nutrition and loss of weight. Many disorders - like diabetes - can be cured without needles and pills, especially useful since insulin itself harms health.

But now let us turn to the other side of health - exercise. It took me some years to realize how seductive the sugar and fat components produce such powerful addictions. When we exert ourselves, the body uses fast-acting sugar to get going, often called the glycogen (sugary) stage. That is when we have no desire to move an inch, so we make coffee and cinnamon-sugar toast - or Danish! Once that glycogen wears off, we want more sugar and even less exercise. 

We feel much better and want exercise when the fat-burning begins. That is why the start of a morning walk is odious at first on sugar and the end of the walk is delightful by burning fat. Fat is powerful and is an 8 cylinder engine compared to a 4 cylinder, rocket fuel instead of artificial maple syrup. 

High blood sugar is indicated by the constant fake need to consume even more sugar. Ice cream, colas, and breakfast and "protein" bars are one way to start the day and run into a sugared-energy slump. 

Dr. Joel Fuhrman's books reminded me that strenuous exercise is needed most days, not just once or twice a week. I tried five days at the gym,  for two weeks in a row. I was much more energetic from daily exercise than using on and off attempts. 

Some food items to ignore - snacks of sugar, salt, and oil; processed expensive food; desserts; famously fat foods - white bread, white rice, milk, all cheeses, butter, cottage cheese, nutrition bars and plans, protein drinks, meats in large quantities.

Exercise

More important - exercise is most significant in strengthening bones, building muscles, and helping connective tissue in reducing injuries. Many people I know are battling bone breaks, knee and hip replacements.

Medicare offers a program called Silver Sneakers for free gym membership. That is a good way to obtain guided exercise instead of hospitalization. 

I start out each weekday on the dread-mill, a machine that makes me stare at a wall of TV screens, walking with no sound. A 30 minute exercise room has a gauntlet of machines for every body part. Afterwards, I stop at the gardening store or Walmart for more walking. 

Exercise gurus emphasize modest starts and a slow, steady increase in effort. Gardening is a good way to do extra work while enjoying God's Creation. The creatures enjoy the company. Rabbits casually walk by when I am digging. Birds remind me they have babies to feed. Squirrels run away from food and stop, flicking their tails and figuring out a quick return to the food. The more fresh water I provide, the dirtier the water features. "Aha! You are feeding the soil, so I can have more plants to feed more creatures to beautify the garden to make the snap, crackle, and pop relax my spine."

Craving What Is Good - From Ichabod the Glory Has Departed

 

 

Craving What Is Good - First Posted Here

1. As pants the hart for cooling streams
When heated in the chase,
So longs my soul, O God, for Thee
And Thy refreshing grace.

2. For Thee, my God, the living God,
My thirsty soul doth pine;
Oh, when shall I behold Thy face,
Thou Majesty Divine?

3. Why restless, why cast down, my soul? \

Hope still; and thou shalt sing 

The praise of Him who is thy God, 

Thy health's eternal Spring.

4. To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
The God whom we adore,
Be glory as it was, is now, 

And shall be evermore.

Hymn #525 from The Lutheran Hymnal

This began with thoughts about food - craving foods we know are useless, even harmful. As one medical person said yesterday, "Check just the fresh produce and frozen vegetables at the giant grocery-snacks-beverage store - shopping all done."

When certain vegetables and fruits are tried instead of the fatty, salty, sugary prepared foods, craving for the new/old foods is lacking. New incentives help appetites - fresh, delicious, removing bad ingredients, losing weight, feeling better, and startling the doctor with the blood panel results.

When lots of frozen uncooked vegetables and fresh fruits are eaten, the desire for prepared meals fades, albeit with flashes of junk-food days. I can carve a pineapple in seconds and have a blast of vitamin C, manganese, and other vitamins, with delicious flavor and fiber. Fresh food is medicine, but most pharmaceutical medicines do not really work, though they may address some symptoms.

Flipping the food diet from fat-sugar-salt to vegetables-fruits-nuts-greens will create a craving for valuable but low-cost foods. 

The Congregation

We can set aside the worth of denominations. They devour the income of widows and orphans, grow fat and sluggish with feeding themselves at expensive restaurants, and impose programs invented and recycled by apostates and blasphemers.

Is the desired outcome of a congregation "happy campers"? I heard a Church Growth expert say that repeatedly at a costly conference at St. Paul, German Village, Columbus, Ohio. I do not know if the non-Lutheran speaker has been arrested yet - so many Fuller graduates are - but the congregation went from large to almost gone in a few decades of hard work spreading false doctrine.

I doubt whether a pack of balding, pot-bellied Boomers will provide church music that addresses the craving of individuals for peace, forgiveness, joy, and love. In fact, I am still waiting for a Baptist or Presbyterian hymn about Holy Communion. Did I overlook a masterpiece?

Just as slowly starving people become listless and hollow-eyed, so the congregations have become lifeless, uninterested, noiselessly moving away. The leaders are trying to hide the horror they see in front of them, worse than losing the ice cream king to death and finding out his money solves nothing at all.

Something To Crave

The basics of the Christian Faith are simple:

1. The pan-Christian Bible - King James Version - this is the only one which is faithful to the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek - Apostolic - New Testament. Lutheran leaders should not only be ashamed but deprived of food, chased by dogs, driven out of town, and pelted with manure. The KJV is truly ecumenical while being precise and faithful.
2. The great teachers - Luther, Melanchthon, and Chemnitz are enough for a lifetime and written for all of Christianity - not just a Midwestern abusive sect _________________ (fill in the blank).
3. The best hymnal - The Lutheran Hymnal. The apostate leaders have replaced the best hymnal with junkfood, often with their own awful "hymns."

Luther Said It First - 

And I Agree

Cubs Fans - One Day More

Growing up in Illinois, the only baseball team I knew about was the Cubs. My father was the ultimate Cubs fan, always waiting for his team to continue its winning ways through the summer. I went to games as a kid, even though we were on the opposite side of the state. When I served a parish in Sturgis, Michigan, our youth group went to Cubs games.

My favorite moment in baseball was early. I knew very little about it. I asked my father what grand slam was. He explained the bases loaded and a home run hit. I asked,"Could that happen now? The bases are loaded." He laughed, "That hardly ever happens." As soon as he said it, the player hit a home run and emptied the bases. That story was told around Moline for a long time.

Once the Cubs rain up a three-game deficit, I told Mrs. Ichabod, "One more loss and the Cubs lose the World Series." Instead, the Cubs began winning again. Last night must have been exciting for every Cubs fan in the world. A grand slam almost certified the win early, and the game ended 9-3.

One day more.


Watching baseball at the park is great, but baseball on TV has never intrigued me. I watch interesting games on the computer by calling up the scorecard and refreshing it every so often.

 Dad sponsored fast-pitch softball teams,
and we watched the King and His Court play locally.

My father was born in 1910 and experienced the drought of losses that plagued all Cubs fans. He would have needed to live to 106 to have watched these games. He would have sold his car to be at one of the games - that is certain.

 Cousin Dean posed for this picture.
We had tons of these hats to wear - and had to wear them
for cute calendar poses, no matter how old we were.

 Many years later, those paper hats were still
available for poses. Here is Little Ichabod previewing
how his son would look at the same age.

Refreshing Roses

Norma Boeckler, our artist-in-residence, wrote me a thank-you for showing how to refresh roses, in another post, so I am repeating the advice.

The moment roses and other flowers are cut, the stems begin drawing up air instead of water. To make cut flowers last longer, cut several inches from the bottom of the stems, just before placing them in fresh water in a clean vase.

Cut flowers can be put into a dishpan of clean water to hydrate them, or floated in a tub. I would do this before cutting the stems and placing them in the vase. I became an immersionist when soaking rather dry bare-root roses before planting. I also heavily pruned them upon planting them. They began growing at once and bloomed quickly.

Soaking Because
This is why soaking works. The stems and leaves take up water. When I water rose bushes outside, it is often through a soaker hose at the base. However, I still spray them down completely, to hydrate the stems and leaves. Plants are like people, as one book argued. If you feel great after a shower, so do they. The leaves and stems take up water fast, so they have a crisp look and grow better. Rose bushes are like sponges in taking up water, and they like to have their pores clean rather than dusty.

Change the Water Daily and
The decomposing process begins the moment the stems touch the water in the vase. If you looked at the water in a microscope, a lot of swimming little creatures would entertain you. Given a few days, that mildewing water will smell like death. God is reducing the death plant into new chemicals for the soil.

For maximum benefit and long-lasting cut flowers, change the water daily and make sure the vase is cleaned out thoroughly. I am much more a fan of clean water and vases than magical chemicals added.

Refresh the Flowers Again Each Day
The way to make the flowers stay fresh is to soak them again each day and pour water into the blooms. Simply spraying the flowers will help too. A very low water pressure will avoid the sink hose giving the budding a florist a free shower.

Roses have so many petals now that the bloom will cup the water and hold it in place for more hydration.

Trained, experienced, certified in Linux,
and confident in all matters rosarian.

The Butler's Pantry

Zoning or facing the shelves will make them
far more useful.

When we move I hoped to make use of the old library shelves, which lined the library of our home in Phoenix.

We made the winter a time of giving away anything useful and hauling away the rest. The last of the books were just mailed a short time ago. The Michigander said, "Throw away anything still in a box after one year." We gave away items, even a large table, all greatly appreciated.

The back wall of the Great Room (formerly - garage) was already lined with matching shelves. We just had to fix a few and clean them up.

These shelves are are now the Butler's Pantry. Tools and miscellany are banned from this area. Those items belong in the last third of the Great Room, near the Festival Door (garage door).

When we enter the Great Room, the Butler's Pantry is on the left, well lit from a new LED light donated by our gracious landlord.

The laundry area is on the right. Part of our renovation included adding framed photos where we had space.

The idea of the pantry holds food and supplies ahead so we do not run out of frequently used items.
In a small kitchen, extra supplies clog the cupboards so much that the space becomes useless.

We got used to drinking Sam's Club water, so I have four cases ahead. Thanks to the relative cool of the Great Room floor, they are always cool. If we have a big storm, fresh water is handy. Besides that, anyone working here gets water, and everyone loves free access to it. When our helper's children worked in the yard (for wages) they happily took home their water bottles.

We promote the idea of pure water being the best and most refreshing drink. Colas and juices create their own habits, so we end up buying more and drinking more - and paying more. When I worked at Walmart I was always stunned by the families hauling away cases of Gatorade. The plastic casing for Gatorade is made to sling the bottles on the shopping cart. I told my co-workers the mere thought of it gave me acid reflux. The labels of all the flavors made me laugh. And we had variations on the same, such as flavored carbonated water with fakey sucralose, in another area. Or - flavored and carbonated with no sweetener in a third area, fairly good but way overpriced.

When I buy things we need--since I am the main buyer--I put extras in the Butler's Pantry each time. Also, we now know how much we have ahead in some areas. For a time I was getting paper towels each time, thinking maybe we needed more. We had 3 cases at one point. Now the paper area is in one place and easily audited before the next trip.

When we shop together, we use separate carts. The cashiers are often confused. "Are you together?" 46 years - Mrs. Ichabod says. "Please don't complain in public," I respond. Sometimes we double up on the same thing, so that goes in the pantry.

I have a post in mind about cleaning tips. I was the store's self-appointing cleaning expert. That was as much fun as working in baking supplies and condiments.

Roses Like To Be Trimmed and Watered - More Than Most People Allow

John Paul II -
he got an honorary degree at Notre Dame,
so we are alumni.

I picked up some groceries at Walmart and saw cut roses for $5. Daisies for $5 or roses? - Not a tough decision. I looked over the various roses and pulled out some that looked fairly good. Retail roses do not last long in the vase, so I wanted the ones that looked fresh. I had a plan.

Roses are considered a thorn bush, but I think of them as sponges. Cutting roses after a long rainstorm is difficult, if the shears are not sharp and scissor-like, (The anvil cutting shears tend to crush rather than cut. They are better for small branches and tough plastic packages.)

I brought the roses home, got out the shears, and cut inches of stem away. The stems draw up air rather than water when going through the trauma of retail, from packaging to bringing them home. Cutting a few inches off is a good start.

I also cleaned the vase, which reeked of rot and mildew. I hear various tips about cut flowers. Changing the water daily makes them last longer, but even then, the forces of decomposition fire up and slimy mildew forms inside the vase. Scrub, scrub, scrub, detergent, rinse, scrub, scrub, rinse, rinse.

I paid $5 each for two Paradise roses.
Roses around a maple trees are far more attractive
than weeds and maple tree suckers.

Key Step
I use the sink sprayer and sprayed the roses all over, stems, blossoms, leaves, I would toss a bunch in a tub of cold water if they looked like they needed it. They looked completely refreshed when I put them in fresh water in a clean vase. Mrs. Ichabod loved them. I will repeat the fresh water and the cold shower today and Sunday morning.

Outdoor Roses
Our helper and I transplanted 8 roses from the front and backyard. The next step after planing a group,  is to water them thoroughly and prune them. Watering washes the soil down among the roots to remove air spaces. It gives the roots a start, because the new root growth will stabilize the plant and feed it. Pruning makes the roots grow even faster, even when the established plant seems unharmed by digging and replanting.

By watering I mean spraying all the upper parts of the roses so they get a real shower for their branches, not just water for their roots. I will repeat that on the second and third days too. Our helper did the first watering while I did another chore. I said, "Do not spare the horses."

A FB friend and I were discussing  bare root roses versus potted ones. I like to order bare root ones because I can choose exactly which ones I want. But potted ones are just as good, in spite of what rose snobs say. The three steps to have great roses are:

1. Prune
2. Water
3. Mulch.

Our 8 KnockOut roses became a neighborhood  wonder last year. They were all potted, dug into holes in the lawn, then mulched, watered, and pruned. Every time they reached 6 feet tall, they were pruned to 3 feet tall. We had dry spells so I gave them cold showers with the hose on the waterboarding setting. That dislodges dirt and loose flowers that need pruning anyway.

Veteran's Honor simply glows red
in the garden. The cut roses are splendid
and fragrant in the vase.

Bare Root Rain Soaker

We have added a memorial row for the main rose garden, with three more bushes planned, perhaps two more in the maple tree rose garden.

When the bare root roses come, I will soak them first in rainwater. I used to be skeptical about the soak, but I saw the value when I planted 20 at once last year. I had the rain barrels full of water and needed to open packages while planting and digging. I felt like the sorcerer's apprentice the rest of the afternoon, with dreams of every rose I wanted planted turning into a nightmare of digging, soaking, pruning, sorting, watering, measuring. 

The roses took off beautifully, better than I ever saw with previous efforts. 

If rainwater is not available, the other solution is gray-water (recycled in some homes from the wassh water) or tapwater left in the barrel at least one day. Chlorine evaporates out of city water, and chlorine is hard on plants. For the best results, use rainwater first, gray-water second, and soaker hose when there is no other way.

Mr. Lincoln has long, long legs,
magic beanstalk growth, fragrance,
and low cost.

Coffee - Better and Cheaper at Home

The congregation in Sturgis had an idea about the coffee left in the urn. "You could warm it up to drink during the week,"

Instead of taking up that frugal suggestion, I made my own coffee. Reheated, percolated coffee left in an aluminum urn was not my culinary fantasy.

At Melo-Cream I was always happy to go down to the coffee barrel where the Yuban coffee was kept. My father mixed Maxwell House and Yuban, used a drip coffee maker, and insisted on keeping coffee no longer than 15 minutes.

The favor of coffee is mostly in the aroma, so drinking it fresh is the key to enjoying it. Here are some key steps in making delicious coffee.

Pure Water
The water has to have its off-flavors filtered out. We use a tap filter for that. Otherwise, the coffee competes with the flora and fauna of the lake water we get on tap. I would get spring water and use that ($1 gallon) if I had to.

Fresh
The freshness of the coffee grounds will make an enormous difference. I stopped grinding it each time because the early morning or late night sounds were like gravel being ground up, and the results were uncertain. I put in too much in one batch or two and had truly awful coffee, too weak or too strong.

But we keep the coffee sealed up tightly in sealed containers, one from Gevalia, which we no longer buy. They used to offer wonderful coffee storage devices, and we still have one for the favorite variety of the day. We got a free one each time we tried Gevalia, every six months, so we did, and kept the jar. Alas we only have one jar left.

Now the free offers are for one measuring spoon, so I have two spoons I keep, and I keep track of the amounts used for a good pot of coffee.

Let us pause and consider cost. A large Starbucks cup of coffee is $2 plain. Their fancy concoctions are $4 and up, $24 a gallon, if you take 6 x the 20 ounce cup! Starbucks' plain coffee is one step above restaurant coffee, two steps above church coffee.

High quality coffee is $2 per 10-cup pot at home. The cost is even lower with premium grocery store coffee. Gevalia is found at Walmart and is fairly good. Some other brands can be found there too, and many favored ones as well.

K-cups are more costly per pound but convenient with a large group of people wanting fresh coffee - or hot cocoa - at various times. I was converted Keurig in Seattle, of all places, but the numbers are not favorable for beginning the day with a pot of fresh coffee.

I like Boca Java for several reasons. They have every possible kind and flavor of coffee, and they roast it once the order is in. Therefore, the coffee is quite fresh and the choices nearly reach infinity. They have the best flavored coffees, which are always risky. Most flavored coffees have a bad after-taste and a tendency to be bitter when made. That does not matter when balanced with 50% sweetener and fake cream, as the Starbucks customers know.

The only Boca Java flavors I enjoy are Blueberry and Chocolate Hazelnut. Nevertheless, the other attempts at flavoring are pretty good. I can make perfect cinnamon coffee by shaking some cinnamon on the coffee grounds before making the pot. Others do the same thing. It reminds me of apple sauce with cinnamon at the store. I remembered my mother doing that on her own, not picking it out at Geifman's store.

Roasts vary the flavor and the caffeine content. The light roasts are higher in caffeine and lighter in flavor. Dark, French, and Expresso roasts are not my cup of tea.

The Machine
Our previous drip-maker was a Mr. Coffee that emptied into a thermo-carafe. That wore out after six years. Their latest model  was panned in the Net so I looked around and settled on a Black and Decker thermo-carafe.

This maker is easy to fill and works very well. My only problem is the clock blinking 12:00 all day long, but I ignore that.

Coffee Varieties
The most expensive is Jamaica Blue Mountain, half the crop used for coffee liquor, a terrible waste. Boca Java must have made tons for Father's Day, because they sold it cheap afterwards. Otherwise, it is something like $50 a pound.  JBM is mellow but has a good flavor at the same time. If I had a choice between JBM and Kona, I would take Kona.

Kona is from Hawaii and combines a great flavor with smoothness. Often a coffee will get a bit much after a few cups, but Kona is so smooth that overdosing is likely. Fortunately, the high cost of $40 a pound will prevent that problem. I bought some on sale at Boca Java - and wow.

We favor light and medium roast coffee. Some come from on location, like Costa Rican and Kona, and JBM.

Another benefit of regular Boca Java ordering is their free sample. One two-ounce packet is offered free each time, so we have tried Banana Foster (a slight chocolate flavor with bananas), Maple Bacon (noping that one), and types with coconut in the background. Since coconut is so easy to obtain now, an artificial coconut flavor in coffee is not choice. Now I am more likely to pick various roasts, but they snagged me with Chocolate Hazelnut.

Amendments
I used to make my own whipped cream to add to coffee, a slippery slope. Sometimes the old cup would be found in the basement, with howls of outrage coming from Little Ichabod, Mrs. Ichabod, or both.

The coffee aisle at Walmart is heavenly, because the coffee aromas are mixed with the artificial cream fragrance. Bending down into a case of half-pound coffees in bags, I thought about the old coffee barrel at Melo-Cream.

However, I would never put those artificial powders and cremes in my coffee. Whipped cream is off the menu for obvious reasons. I could easily finish a bowl off, but that is not wise.

The only amendment approved by the Melo-Cream Little Chef is Cream of Coconut, which is found in the mixed drink aisle of stores. How do I know, with my aversion to drinking alcohol? One customer came looking for it at the Neighborhood Market and the assistant manager directed us to the cubby hole for beer and liquor. On display was Cream of Coconut, used  for pina coladas. The concoction, made of coconut juice, coconut oil, and sugar, is perfect on desserts (like pineapple) and also good for taking the bitterness from a cup of coffee made a little too strong. The bottle is not expensive, a few dollars, and lasts a long time without refrigeration.

Combat typos - start the day with coffee.