Old Sailor on a low carb and cleaner diet

Dear Bloggers,

Eat more of the good. Eat less of the bad. That is what the dietitian told me a couple of weeks ago. And yes I was skeptic until I started losing weight.
That’s the whole idea behind clean eating. It’s all about, well, cleaning up your diet so that there’s a greater focus on whole foods (think fruits, vegetables, protein and healthy fats), and less reliance on processed or refined foods.
The benefits of adopting a clean diet are pretty clear (reduced incidence of disease, increased quality of life, and a longer life expectancy, just to name a few). But ditching the donuts, pizza and mocha lattes can be a lot tougher than it sounds. (Seriously, if you need proof, check out how many people around you are more obese than you?)

The good news is there’s no need to wing it. Here’s your plan to help get your eating on track.Start Clean Eating Without a Hitch

“Trying to loose some weight and the best motivation to inspire change comes from within.”

Pinpoint your reason ‘why.’
Building any new healthy habit will absolutely require some effort, and eating clean is no exception. That’s why it’s so important first to determine what’s inspiring you to change. Maybe you signed up for a race or have a reunion coming up and want to look your best. Maybe you’ve been feeling sluggish and want to increase your energy throughout the day. Perhaps you’re thinking about your long-term health like me as I am a diabetes type 2 and about 40 kilos overweight and I wondered about what I can do to stay healthy in the near future. These are examples of getting motivated, positive reasons to aim for cleaner eating. And that’s a good thing. So I started with checking in with a diabetes nurse and a dietitian.Cleaning up your diet because someone told you to do it, or because you feel guilty about your current eating habits just isn’t as powerful.It has to come from within.

Determine first of all how much time you’re willing to commit.
Making meaningful life changes can often take several months or more. “People need to be aware that any goal worth achieving is going to take time. There is no fast-track to developing life-changing habits,” says a clinical counselor of health behavior change.

After establishing your ‘why,’ it’s time to sit down and think about how much you’re willing to devote to the process, from meal planning and doing grocery shopping, to food preparation and cooking. Making a relatively minor diet twists is like changing your usual snack from a bag of chips to a piece of fruit each day, might be a habit achievable in the short-term. But shifting towards a truly cleaner diet is a much longer-term objective for most. Have an hour to steal from your Sunday TV line-up? That could mean prepping healthy lunches for the entire week. Have 30 minutes a day? How about kicking your greasy takeout habit for good with preparing healthier meals within 30 minutes. Expensive is not the word even on a budget you can cook more vegetables and eat less potatoes for example.

Do a thorough audit of your current diet.
Despite the growing obesity epidemic, 90 percent of our Dutch adults report themselves as having a healthy diet. But how healthy is it really? I kept a food journal, and there’s no escaping the truth, I talked to a certified wellness coach who is training ice skating youngsters. “So often we think that we are on track, but when we actually see on paper what we are consuming, it is easier to tell where we might need to cut back,” he says. He told me to start a food journal (or download a fancy apps), and begin tracking everything you eat and drink for at least three days. This will help you gouge your starting point and allow you to identify any patterns emerging. Next, simply make two lists:

1. The not-so-healthy foods you want to reduce or remove from your diet. Note: If this list gets long, pick three to five obvious choices that you would like to deal with first (e.g. soda, fast food, sugary snacks, etc.).
2. The nutritious foods that are missing from your current line-up. A clean diet focuses on eating high-nutrient foods, not simply cutting out the junk. How many veggies are there? If you’re coming up short, come up with three to five you like most and add those to your weekly grocery list.
   
   
   

Choose your targets wisely.
After listing the less-healthy foods you want to reduce or eliminate from your diet as well as the healthy foods you want to incorporate, the next step is to make some strategic choices. Setting a few small goals that you can consistently act on is a much more effective approach than trying to take on everything at once. And they can add up fast.

Changing your life starts wit selecting one habit…only one habit per month.You can choose any habit whatever you think will have the biggest impact on your life.” What small clean eating habit are you going to target first? And which changes will likely to offer you the best chance of success? At the start of every new month, simply add on from there.

Make your goals specific and measurable.
Let’s say you want to begin the process of cleaner eating by tackling your evening cookie obsession or your bag of chips. But how exactly do you go about defining this goal? Maybe you’ll make a statement based on moderation: “I’m going to stop eating so many cookies.” But what does that mean exactly? Is one cookie per day allowed? Does the type of cookie matter?

Be specific and make your intentions measurable: “I will put all the cookies in the jar and will only take one out per day.” Or better yet, “I will stop eating preserved prepacked treats and allow myself one of these healthier homemade protein bites after dinner.” There is no ambiguity in this statement. You have a clear path that will lead you to control your sweet tooth.

The same goes for adding healthy foods to your diet. Saying “I will eat a low-fat quark instead of bread each day for breakfast” is a specific action that will ensure your breakfast is already healthier than before. It's your life and you choose.

Shop with a purpose.
Just like eating itself, grocery shopping is based on habits. You likely follow a certain route when you hit the store, so be prepared to forge a new course (hello, green stuff and meat!). Bring a detailed grocery list, and stick to it. (Extra tip: Avoid those chips and soda aisles altogether.)

Sure, some research shows that clean eating will put a bigger dent in your bank account than a diet filled with cheap convenience foods, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Some clean eaters practise a meatless Monday to reduce their grocery bills. Looking for in-season products, and buying in bulk are two other ways to keep your food costs down. I am eating sometimes two days in a row the same vegetables to keep the costs in hand. I am saving money by doing it like this.

Meal prep now, eat healthy when it counts.
Last but not least, it’s time to turn those healthy ingredients into clean,wholesome meals you’ll love. Start by searching out simple recipes that you can whip up quickly. You can find inspiration on healthy food blogs around the web, or get one of these free recipe magazines in the supermarket and check out which recipe is something for you.

Sure, preparing a meal is likely going to take a little more work than slapping together some pasta or grilling some burgers or anything like fast food’s, but you don’t have to do it all by hand either. There are all kinds of kitchen gadgets or pre cut that can help get the job done with less effort. And be sure to prepare in extra large batches so that you have plenty of leftovers to freeze for easy clean eating all week long.

When it comes to clean eating or any other health-related goal, achieving a sense of mastery is vital. When you experience success, you are likely to want (and get) more. Keep working on it until it becomes manageable, effortless, or even automatic.

When the effort is gone you’re ready to take on a new challenge, something that will move you closer towards a truly clean diet. What is the next “20%” that you want to work on? Again, the clean eating process takes time. But imagine how you will feel when you can look back, you might be ready to pick up something sporty, and see all the positive changes you’ve already successfully made. 

In my case I started with walking in the park with our dog and with my family. After half an hour I was done. I do this once a week and I challenged myself within six months I pushed myself to walk for 2 hours and approx. 10 kilometres. And yes I lost nearly 10 kilo grammes in the last six weeks. Yes you can do it just be positive.

The Old Sailor,

The commercial feast of Valentine.

Dear Bloggers,



Happy Valentine's day daddy, that is what my kids are yelling to me this morning. Yeah right another "happy"day. I slowly wake up out of my half sleep mode, the weather is nice and it is snowing a bit.
Ah Valentine's Day. The first thing that comes to mind is a heart shaped box of cheap chocolates that should be directly applied ones hips. And then there is that sweet little cupid. He's an over weight angel aiming a bow and arrow at you to inspirer you to fall blissfully in love. I mean let's face it. Cupid's arrow is a weapon that literally and metaphorically could be the death of you. But all jokes aside. Do you even know why we actually celebrate Valentine's Day? I didn't think so.

In ancient Rome the date February 14th was a holiday to honor, the Roman Goddess of women and marriage. The next day was celebrated as the pagan Roman Feast of Lupercalia. During this time in Roman history young adults were strictly segregated by sex.

No surprise, it was 269 AD. Eventually they needed to give their hormones a chance to flourish. So it was customary on the eve of the feast of Lupercalia for young men and woman to be partnered for the feast by the men picking the girls names from a jar. Sometimes the pairing lasted for a year and with the young couples falling romantically in love and eventually marring. It was all very sexist in a provocative way. It sounds like a non commercial dating bureau in the ancient days.

Unfortunately this didn't last for long. This euphoric ritual of hormonal teenage partnering would come to an abrupt end during the tyrannical rule of Emperor Claudius II, also known as Claudius the cruel. Emperor Claudius had Rome fighting in many bloody and unpopular battles and was having grave difficulty recruiting soldiers to sustain his military forces. In his warped mind Claudius believed the reason he couldn't get soldiers was due to women. He convinced himself that the men's love of his family, wife or girlfriend prevented them from leaving there side and joining the military. It had nothing to do with the little matter that they didn't want to die a savage death for an Emperor they despised.

Fun loving Emperor Claudius proceeded to cancel all pending and future marriages and engagements in Rome. Claudius then made it a crime punishable by death to associate with Christians.

The legend says, no doubt a bit is polished up if it is not entirely fictional, has it that Valentine was stricken with the unbearable belief that many young souls would be destined to be sinners. So Valentine, a roman priest, married young lovers against Claudius' decree in secrecy. He was of course apprehended and condemned to death for his deeds. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, in either 269 AD or 270 AD. Nobody really knows what yearly exactly but they know the date was February 14th now known as Valentine's Day.



SO WHAT IS ST. VALENTINE NOW IN OUR PRESENT TIME?

The Netherlands, duh! What you may not know for some unknown reason is that Valentine's day was not very famous during my childhood and still isn't. First signs of this feast was seen in the late fifties, as our country was still very pro American due to the help after the second world war. Although the thought was good it never became very populair. Also the roaring seventies did not bring the turn around. In the late eighties it finally was picked up by the commercial stations.In the nineties the internet was being spread into all living rooms and Holland was having a bit of money to spend. So Valentines day was getting a bit of character and the retail business was happy with their success.Until in 2009 the recession broke out and evryone was sitting on his or her money again, Valentine was scratched of the calendar again. The reputation of the greedy is really showing and the retailers keep on pushing it, especcially in the flower business. But the cheap population of our country compares the prizes with last week. If you are to expensive you can forget it.

Oh the Dutch are wonderful people as long it is for free or they can make profit out of it. They just about have their hands in everything good and pleasurable. The romantic patron saint of lovers who's feast day has become so commercialized it actually makes Christmas seem well, less commercial by comparison. In any event Board and any shopwindow you see the signs, if it didn't see the Euro signs next to it. That is the trouble if your Dutch, romance is beautiful but it has to be affordable.



The Old Sailor,

End of the year, end of the money.

Dear Bloggers,

Are you scared for your future?
Now our economy is slowly but surely tumbling down, but why are these bankers and economists so surprised? Did it come earlier then they had expected, or don’t they have any common sence? Is it part of the show they have to put up, as the banks cannot pay us out as we have made money out of air for many years. It is the best fairytale ever made.



These questions are running through my head as I have seen the news about our ressesive economy and banks are tumbling down.

And we have all followed the delusion that was created by other human beings that were just a bit smarter then the rest.
It is time to turn our backs towards these crazy ideas, but it is hard to tell it to everybody.
Like a falling guillotine blade, stock markets around the world come crashing down, chopping off the head of the old economy.
Something old is dying so that something new can emerge.
It’s scary but in some ways it’s also a relief.




It seemed like the old economy was turning us into obsessive, compulsive, out of control creatures we politely call “consumers”.
Can anyone really say they’re surprised at what’s happening.
For years I’ve been conflicted about being a consumer.
We are caught up in a consumer society, we had to keep buying and consuming more and more stuff to keep the economy going (even if it made us sick in the process).
Maybe what we had was more like an addiction than an economy.
Are these falling stock markets a wake up call?



Call me an idealist for thinking about what we can become and the role that technology could play in helping us get there.
It’s always been an allegory about how technology can help us be who we want to be.
Tell me how you would like to be: kind, loving, considerate, well-balanced, humane… and let me run ahead on the path to do just that."

Stock markets are crashing on fears that global recession is at hand, yet in the process maybe we are waking up.
The same thing happened in the early 1900’s.
The world itself is a stock market.
It unfolds moment to moment (as it’s doing now) in bewildering and unpredictable ways and this is reported back to us in massive real-time flows of data, voice and video (like the information feeds coming out of a stock exchange).
These real-time flows show what’s happening and they show the effects of our actions as we act.
This is a mirror.



It is the world’s database, our common identity, the basis for discussing our mutual problems and our mutual opportunities.
All we need to do is look into the mirror and see who we are and see if we are becoming who we say we want to be (or not).
Something like Google Earth is just a hint of what our mirror could soon look like. Instead of the still pictures we see today, we could see moving pictures of world events from satellites and aerial drones as they happen.
The technology and the data flows already exist to make this a reality.
If we could see things happening as they happen would we learn faster?
Would we get better at going where we want to go?
Would it be easier to make the changes we need to make?



We should all look forward to the future and simply see that money is just part of the game to control us, but there is actually no need for it anymore.
I was discussing this matter with my colleague how is taking over in the night time hours. And we think in the same direction that this whole thing, moneywise, political and power is based on a truth we were made to believe, they could have kept us stupid if internet would not have become such a success. But still only some of us find out slowly, how whe have been tricked for so many years by a little elite group of manipulating people that profit from this modern slavery.



I have watched the movie zeitgeist and zeitgeist addendum and I think it is right time to start watching this and change your opinion.
Put the higlighted words in google and watch the movie (it is either subtitled or in your own language synchronised)
But let me warn you, this is not a video for persons that are being mentally unstable or afraid of changes. It is time for the big change very soon, as our old economy is falling apart.

The Old Sailor,

Parade of the bums

Dear Bloggers,

As I am only home for a short period, we had to go shopping on a Saturday.
And that is definetly not my favourite hobby, as you get pretty irritated by pensioners that have to pick up their social lives and block in the mean time with their shopping carts the alleyway.
Another thing with them is that can hold up the cue with counting out all their cents at the till.
Further there are mothers with children, which she can not handle on her own, as they are screaming and running through the shop.
And these are absolutely the spoiled kids, and I just wonder what is daddy doing at this moment?
Is he like me not home, or is he not willing to go with his family.
He was only the producer of the seed to make these little monsters, but she was the only one that wanted to have kids.
So that is why daddy is sleeping in, and she does not dare to fight him.
She still loves him, but something inside her is telling her that she is not fully happy with her live.
Ok, he is having a great income but he did not turn out, to be the romantic prince that he was when she just met him.



At that time she was young and had a lot of guys around her that tried to get her attention.
Or was it a pure sexual thing that these young blokes wanted.
Today she is there in the supermarket just in her thirties and she is joining all these other women, she is one of them, who is not getting any attention of her husband anymore.
They have a set live, they make love on Wednesday and Saturdaynights when the kids are sleeping and the soccergame is over.
Today she has done something very naughty.
She got out of her regular informal clothing, and dressed herself up as she was dressed when she was just eighteen.



Today she became a member of the parade of the bums.
She is wearing a short jackett and a thight pair of jeans, real eye candy, my mind is spinning another woman is playing with me.
I have to get myself down to earth again, for crying out loud what is happening to me.
And she is not the only one dressed like this, there are more women on the hunt.
The future is scaring me, more and more I get affraid of growing old.
Before I could hide myself as I fell for young girls, and tell myself you are to old for them.



But now I can’t hide as they are from my age, maybe my wife should do a better job to keep me away from all these tempting ladies.
I am thinking of sex all day, I am just like all the other guys and there is nothing wrong with a happy fantasy.
I feel like I am eighteen again and the hunters blood is crawling up in my body again.
The only difference is that we all have more live experience.
It never struck me before, but today it did.
Maybe I got as well a different look on women as before.
Still I am a man who is running around in the world watching other women, if I stop looking then there is something wrong.
I have to get hungry outside and eat at home.
But today was a good day as there was a lot of competition for the parade of the bums.

Bad luck for me that when we got home, I got horny, but she didn’t.
Another day without any kind of sex passed by, has my time come to only watch women, and have only sex on set days.
Is my wife starting to get old now or did she loose her interest in me?
This is really scaring me.

The Old Sailor,