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| Patterdale-Chihuahua Charlie Sue is a constant delight. |
We are having a real drought here, and it is quite hot in the afternoon. Charlie Sue manages me skillfully. She loves to see me put on my clodhopper shoes to go outside. We go out together and she practices leaping at me. When I have a heavy shirt on, she jumps up to gently clamp on my forearms, grinning about her nimble running, leaping, and teething.
She has a lot of friends along the north (doggie day care), south (DustMop and Porchie), and west (Pug). Patterdales are sociable and bossy with other dogs and cats.
Even our weeds are drooping, so I did some extra work today. I made sure she had fresh water in a clean dish and brand new rigid play pool, just like the old one with cracks. An even older pool was was torn apart by Charlie. I soaked all the roses yesterday and expect rain tonight.
I hosed the Joe Pye Weed and Poke Weed. Joe Pye will soon be blooming for the hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. The hummingbird feeders are so busy I can take them apart with bees sipping the ports (no stinging, they know who loves them).
The pesticide salesman was impressed by the magnificent splendor of all the large flowers and shrubs. All the large and small plants work to shelter the beneficial insects fashioned by the Creator at the beginning of time. Imagine the predators taking billions of years to wait for the prey. They would have starved much sooner than that.
Animals can teach us about our food too. They only eat plant-based and raw meat foods. The meat comes from nasty little bugs that eat my roses. The beneficial bugs prosper where the damaging insects are having a riot. Soon the populations balance. The elegant roses provide branching stems that make wonderful nets to hold the spiders' webs. Those roses have almost no damage.
Can anyone imagine animals eating large amounts of fat, sugar, and salt in their diets? Those are the main ingredients in our grocery store foods. I only buy fresh produce, frozen vegetables and greens, and a small amount meat for the week.
Charlie digs her own, besides getting Science Diet. She rushes into the garden before the sun is up. Creatures rush out.
I finally caught on to the Crash Diet program, which has increased the weight of anyone who tries it. Certain foods are eliminated, such as all ice cream and candy. Weight drops immediately and that loss continues, until the craving comes roaring back, doubling the previous delicacies to come back to the norm and beyond, even way beyond. Crash Diets have paved the way for many medical types to earn fortunes as they process the Crash Du Jour plans.
Dr. Joel Fuhrman gave me his ideas about craving. It is bad to take away everything - or too much - only to lose a lot and get it all back. Many are the pour souls - like me - who decide they have sacrificed enough and now want vengeance upon that aching, empty stomach and general lack of energy. Race to the top! of the biggest weight gain of the past.
I have learned to take away one temptation at a time, over two years, close to 45 pounds (with many small ups and downs). Here is my list of fat-makers, weight-gainers, health-wreckers:
All Dairy Products
Ice cream in particular - fat and sugar.
Any form of cheese - fat city.
Butter - the hardest to give up, the best to excommunicate.
Eggs - fat bombs with choline, which is bad.
All Sugar Products
Candies - betcha can't eat just one.
Chocolate - delicious but a fat product.
Candies with nuts and chocolate.
Fruit juices - a burst of pure sugar, not healthy at all.
Meats
All drive-through fast foods - grease, sugar, salt, cheese.
Fish - high in grease and pollutants.
Too much meat at home because of fat and salt content.
Prepared Meals
Driven to your house - guaranteed expensive, fat, salt, sugar.
Frozen at the grocery store - pizza, various "meals," easy to eat puddings, yogurts.
Restaurants and bread palaces.
Sugary Fruity Fails
Caramel apples - guilt and health balanced in the process.
Apple and fruit sauces - huge sugar, no fiber.
Orange juice - no fiber at all, often has corn syrup added (Paul Newman)
All juices - no fiber, lots of sugar, no excuse for "sugar free."
Big Bucks for Horrible Food
In conclusion, all the processed food is expensive and loaded with excessive fat, salt, and sugar. Eating from the simple foods at home is far less costly and truly delicious. I will post more on the good foods. I reached the lowest weight so far because I cut out almost every thing on the list above, a certain amount at a time, a few steps backward, weighing and charting every day.
Food is medicine. Bad food is toxic medicine. The pharmacy and the Over the Counter fakes will reduce symptoms but few of them actually heal.
A nutritional choice in foods is healing, as revealed in my blood tests. I tested diabetic and got serious in 2022. All my tests came back normal over time. I am working on blood pressure now. Our bodies sent out capillaries to feed and manage our blubber. Ove time that pushes the blood pressure higher, but it can go down when its extra mileage is gone from weight loss.
