10:10 Talk

Yo Adrienne, He's Gone Old School

After a morning Huge gym workout followed by a short run, I was fired up to grind a Monkey.  Imagine my disappointment when I discovered I was out of Monkey Shakes.  "Well, I'll just throw some whey protein in my shake to make do" I thought.  Crap!  I'm out of that too.  As you may know, I sold my Monkey business to a guy named Corey in Wisconsin - such that it was only a matter of time before I'd have to get off my wallet and order from the new guy (BTW, he has a buy 2 get 1 free deal going on now). 

Because I forgot to order, I found myself in a precarious place.  Maybe you wouldn't find this place precarious - more like just out of my silly shake formula.  Well, I'm in danger here.  My tired muscles needed some mojo.   Wait!  I've got it.  Oh how I wish I had the technolgy to play the theme song from Rocky.  Hold on - we do:  Gonna Fly Now.

You know what I did to solve my dilema, don't you?  I put a raw egg in my shake.  Here's another Rocky piece to demonstrate:  Rocky ' "Eggs".   I can almost hear my sister-in-law shreiking from 200 miles away as she reads this.  She's already convinced that raw milk's gonna kill me some day - raw eggs will get me there sooner.

Before anyone freaks out about the public health threat I'm about to suggest, allow me to share a few facts.  While I don't plan to replace my whey protein or Monkey Shakes with eggs, it's comforting to know I have a reliable back-up plan.

What's everyone's #1 concern about eating raw eggs?  Yes, you guessed it (very smart audience you are) - salmonella.  Yes, there have been some incidences of salmonella in raw eggs.  Do you know what the odds are?  Here's what Dr. Mercola says about that:

Some may be concerned about the risk of salmonella from raw eggs, but I analyzed the risk in a past article and found most people have a better chance of winning the lottery than contracting salmonella from eggs from healthy chickens. Personally, I consume three raw eggs nearly every morning as part of my breakfast and believe it has enormously contributed to my health.

There have been a number of previous studies that have supported the idea that eggs do not increase your risk of heart disease. So rest assured, you can go ahead have your eggs, for they are one of the healthiest foods in the world.

Knowing what to look for and where to find healthy eggs is the first step to take when selecting your eggs. Here are some important guidelines to follow to ensure you are getting the best quality eggs:

• Check the box to make sure the eggs are free range organic.

• If your eggs have omega-3 added that is a plus, but not necessary as you have to be careful of the source anyway.

• If you can, contact the company providing your healthy eggs and find out what they are feeding their chickens. An egg is considered organic if the chicken was only fed organic food and will not have bioaccumulated high levels of pesticides from the grains (mostly bioengineered corn) fed to typical chickens. If they are using flaxseed to increase the omega-3 fats they won't be as beneficial as if they feed the chickens seaweed or kelp, which have the far more beneficial DHA and EPA.

• I recommend purchasing your eggs from the farmer directly if at all possible; this way you can be certain of the quality. If you cannot find a farmer to sell you eggs directly, then organic eggs from the store would be your next best option. It is also wise NOT to refrigerate your eggs. If you have ever been to Europe or South America and gone into the grocery stores you will know that this is commonly done in those countries.

Just as important as where you buy your eggs is how you prepare them for consumption.

This may come as a shock to you but it is best not to cook your eggs. This helps preserve many of the highly perishable nutrients such as lutein, and zeaxanthin, which are powerful prevention elements of the most common cause of blindness, age related macular degeneration. This also means there is no sense in taking supplements for these incredible antioxidants when you get the nutrients for free from eggs.

So keep some organic, free range eggs in the fridge.  And every once in a while, listen to some Rocky theme music and down a few raw ones.  You know you'd feel good!

Are you in?

 

Red meat, raw milk, and butter lowered my cholesterol!

It was time for my 9 month check-up.  In addition to a CT scan, my doctor ordered some blood work.  I did both the lab work and the CT scan just before leaving on an extended work/pleasure trip.  I have to confess that more than once during that 3 week wait for results did I experience a little anxiety.  "Oh, ye of little fatih", you say.  Hey, I'm workin' on it.

So anyway, we get back from our road trip, I see my doctor the next day, and I get a stellar report!  I haven't felt this excited since I brought home straight A's in grade school*.  Seriously - the first person I called was my mother.

Doc told me the scan revealed that all the plumbing was normal.  Awesome!  Then we went over my blood work, and now I'm really jazzed.  The last time he tested me, my total cholesterol was high (246); but because my HDL was high and my ratios were good, he wasn't concerned.  BTW, if that last sentence isn't clear to you, you have some homework to do.

We are the Egyptians

Some of you may have read that my brother was recently diagnosed with stage III melanoma cancer.  If you’re not familiar with the stages, here’s a Wiki explanation:

• Stage I cancers are localized to one part of the body.
• Stage II cancers are locally advanced.
• Stage III cancers are also locally advanced. Whether a cancer is designated as Stage II or Stage III can depend on the specific type of cancer; for example, in Hodgkin's Disease, Stage II indicates affected lymph nodes on only one side of the diaphragm, whereas Stage III indicates affected lymph nodes above and below the diaphragm. The specific criteria for Stages II and III therefore differ according to diagnosis.
• Stage IV cancers have often metastasized, or spread to other organs or throughout the body

 Incidentally, my GIST cancer was considered stage II because of the size of that thing.  My doctor said it was the size of a fist.  He must not be very athletic because I thought all tumors were supposed to be compared to a ball, like a baseball in my case.  Am I digressing?  Sorry.

 

Remember this guy?

 

"Socialism only works

in two places:

Heaven where they don't

need it and hell where they already have it."

-Ronald Reagan

What are you supposed to do?

I've been unusually busy.  But I like busy - so I'm not complaining.  In the midst of my busy-ness (much of which the hot brunette would label self-imposed), I've found the excuse not to write.   After having separated myself from this discipline for several months, I've discovered a void.  Some-thing's missing.

I've come to realize that I possess a belief - I'm supposed to write.  It's what I'm supposed to do.  The reminder for that came from today's Word for You devotional; but that was just the final confirmation.  My real wake up call came on my phone when I got the news of my brother's condition after surgery yesterday.

10:10 Wellness 7/2/11

Being a holiday weekend, I wasn't sure who might appear at the RP for a workout - except Dave and George.  They had to come.  The three of us, plus 2 others who couldn't be there Saturday are preparing for a backpacking trip in SW Virginia starting 7/15.  Here's the 3 hiking stooges just as they begin their climb on the early side:

Patty soon joined us as we caught her on the trail.

3900 Marbles

My bro-in-law forwarded this to me in an email.  Perhaps you've read it - it's a must.

3900 Saturdays

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.  Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.  Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.  What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.

Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net.  Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice.  You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business.  He was telling whomever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.'  I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

'Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job.  I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much.  Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet.  It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital' he continued.  'Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.'  And that's when he began to explain his theory of a 'thousand marbles.'

'You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic.  The average person lives about seventy-five years.  I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.'

'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.  Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.  It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail', he went on, 'and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.  I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.  So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had.  I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles.  I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the s hack next to my gear.'

'Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.  I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.'

'There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.'

'Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast.  This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container.  I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time.  And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.'

'It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band.  This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!'

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off.  I guess he gave us all a lot to think about.  I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.  'C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast.'  'What brought this on' she asked with a smile.'  'Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids.  And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?  I need to buy some marbles.'

A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.

And so, as one smart bear once said...'If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.' - Winnie the Pooh.

You can work your life away, but one day you'll realize ... your life was worked away from you.

Pick Up Your Mat and Walk

Today's Word for You Today devotional used Jesus' miracle at the swimming pool story to remind us that we have to want to be healed.  While the story is about a man crippled for 38 years, I think it apllies to all of us because we're all crippled in one way or another.

And it's not a stretch to apply such a story to our wellness.  If our health and vitality is not where we want it to be, if our abundance falls short of God's potential for us, then we too need to pick up our mat and walk...

The Word for You Today:  Do you want to be healed?

Antibiotics in Your Dinner?

Good, quick read by Dr. Al Sears that was posted on the US Wellness Meats blog:

Antibiotics in Your Dinner?

The Ritual of the Run

Because I'm stubborn and cheap, I gave myself a case of achilles tendonitis.  I'd rather have a case of Newcastle.  In a future piece, I'll share how this happened, but I bring it up to set up this piece.  One of the cures for a nagging injury like this is rest - so before today, I'd only run once in the last few weeks.  While the condition is improving, I'm still not 100% ; but I ran today anyway - and I'm glad I did.