Not to keep on harping on the whole nuclear fission thing, but two weeks ago, I paid a visit to Bomb City, and it was a really cool place. Situated in the Llano Estacado, it's arid high plains country, reliant upon the Ogalalla aquifer for water, and so ultimately doomed, right? Or is it?
Thing is, if global warming follows projections, West Texas and the surrounds become even more arid, looking more like the southern neighbor of Chihuahua, and that's doom, right? I mean, a man would have to be kind of crazy to leave the lush plenty of Chicago to live down there, right?
Well, that's not really what I wanted to talk about.
What I did notice, when I was down there, was I was fed like I was a horse by a lovely desert bird. I mean kind of like a horse. Horses don't eat steak (which of course I had to get seeing as where I was), but I ended getting fed a lot of salads, and fruits, and apples, and carrots, and stuff you give to horses.
And not to get too personal with you, but I gotta tell you my poops were pretty damn healthy and spectacular. Me getting away from all the starches and dairy and proteins, and getting more insoluble fibrous stuff, really seemed to get my gut bacteria all nice and happy.
So, I decided to do a reevaluation of my dietary intake, seeing as, as I age, I have to pay more attention to my body. And most especially to my gut, which is my ally. My ally is going to help me make it through the Bermuda Triangle of male health, which is your fifth decade of life.
I've also decided to look at how I exercise. I'm still exercising like I am seventeen, and I'm not anymore. Some things I won't change. I'm still about strength training, aerobics and running, but I'm starting to include balance and flexibility in the mix.
After my I had my unfortunate loss of my left kidney last year, when it turned from a functioning organ into a useless bag of water, I've not quite been able to get into the same shape I was before that all went down. So, it's time to admit I'm never going to have that flat alligator belly and chimp-like upper body strength I once had. But now that I see my own mortality ahead of me, I'm increasingly aware of staving off morbidity.
I know I'm not immortal, and don't want to be, but being immorbid is quite acceptable.
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my new personal favorite. whisk the juice of one lemon with some good olive oil, black pepper, and parmesan or romano cheese. (or cheat and use some good dressing like Ken's, but keep the lemon juice and pepper)
ReplyDeletechop some red cabbage, kale, and leaf spinach and manually smash that into the dressing to coat. this combination has the intestinal potency of a batch of collard greens with old musty pot liquor, you know, that type of situation that will "clean out" your system. refrigerate that after you make it. you'll never use an iceberg or leaf lettuce again as a tossed salad base
" you'll never use an iceberg or leaf lettuce again" You,sir, are correct!
DeleteI hear you, brother! I agree that lettuce is utterly useless, save as roughage. I'm becoming the fan of cabbage, and might even learn to love sauerkraut, which I could not tolerate for the longest time.
ReplyDeleteI used to do tai chi/qigong, but quit once my lower back felt better. I should probably take that up again.
ReplyDeleteSo, as I was trying to say from my tablet y'day, asian combat yoga all boils down to the quality of the instructor. We were lucky enough to find a true gem here in the heartland until she moved on.
ReplyDeleteYou might have better luck there in the big city. Hereabouts, we're now down to loudmouthed hucksters and grifters, desperately in need of a thorough public ass-whooping.
I wasn't even thinking about the martial aspect, although that's gravy. I'm thinking more along the lines of vigorous activity into old age, and these disciplines seem to do that...
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