Diet

I hadn't gotten onto a scale in about 2 weeks until this afternoon.
I kinda got tired of seeing the same weight and figured if I just plug away at it, take my "falls" here and there but basically stay on course, the weight will come down, even if ever-so-slowly.
Last time I got on a scale it showed 205.
Today? 198!!

Trust me when I say that some of the things I have had to resist were NOT easy to do. Just for a small example, I walked into Fry's today to put money onto the power reader card. AS soon as you step through the door, there is a stand there. This stand had a man making root beer floats. Ummm, I absolutely LOVE root beer floats. When I was a kid, a weekly family ritual was for dad to go out and buy A&W Rootbeer, get some vanilla ice cream and serve it up!

I RACED past that stand. My mind was telling me: "What could it hurt to have just one?" They were large cups - that cup of diet poison there at least 500 calories. Lots of FAT calories at that. Went in, got my business done and quickly walked past that setup. It's great that Fry's is doing that, really, I just can't have any of it, lol. DQ had a 2-fer deal going, that was also very tempting. Today I was passing by McDonald's and Arby's and Wendy's and this that and the other thing. I was ravenously hungry, it was 2:00 pm and I hadn't eaten all day.

It definitely takes some discipline to just keep driving past all of this food and not stopping and getting any - there were LOTS of places where a semi could have easily parked. I have a minimum 15 pounds to go. It's going to take a while, is all I can say. I am determined to win this fight. Each day provides it's own battles, sorta like Alcoholics Anonymous, though I am hardly "addicted" to food. I LOVE certain foods, yes, but I have forsaken them almost to the point of never eating it. Ice cream? ADORE it. I think I've had it once this year. Stopping at a fast food place to get a quick bite to eat? Very tasty stuff, cheap and fast. I have forsaken that at this point as well, except Subway.

And then, when I started looking at how much calories and fat cheese had, I had to stop having that on my salads and I also stopped using Ranch dressing - which I also love. Now? Vinegar and pepper on top of whatever the salad is. Cheese? Probably something that has caused me to gain the weight without even realizing it. I seriously had no idea just how much calories I was consuming on a daily basis in adding cheese to just about everything. LOVE that stuff. It's necessarily the main part of whatever dish you are eating that is the diet killer, I am finding, it's the stuff you ADD to it. Sauces, creams, cheese - it all adds up, incredibly.

A successful diet? You better be paying attention to calorie and fat content on every single thing you stick in your mouth. If you don't want to do that, then you better try one of those companies that sends you all the meals you need for however many days worth they send it. I had thought of doing that, but I simply cannot afford that kind of expenditure right now. It's not cheap. It probably works if you eat that stuff and ONLY that stuff, but I just can't afford it. The best alternative is to just tell myself no, don't eat this that and the other thing, eat stuff plain, add some interesting spices to it, do whatever you can with it while keeping the calories down.

Anyway, I'm home for the day. I stopped by the store that is now stocking pond plants. Their prices were very high. I will not pay $39.99 for a lily plant. They had a few in their ponds and they didn't even look that healthy. Not only that, but when I asked the guy behind the counter if there is a guarantee on them, he flatly stated no. Are you serious? Spend that kind of money on a plant, it BETTER have some kind of replacement guarantee on it, period. I said no thanks, but I DID get my bio-balls. I found lily plants online for $15. Better, not really great, but less than half the price of that store. This is an individual who has a pond and sells off the excess that grows from within it.

I will also be visiting this pond show and hopefully score some plants then, but - I need something in there now. The bio balls will help, but isn't enough in and by itself.

Whatever, I'm not going to stress about it. This thing will morph into whatever it morphs into on my timeframe. That frame is dicated by available finances. Electric use is going up and up and up. Expected but not desired.

I have more but I want to get out there and put those bio balls into my filter bucke.

G'day.

ben

So, I'm listening to the news on the way to work. They always have this guy named Tony Flamino giving an opinion minute. No clue who this guy is.
He's sitting there asking why he's using the U.N. to deal with Iran instead of dealing with it himself.

This question is easily answered. Obama gave a definitive deadline for Iran to come clean earlier this year was it? When the deadline came, Iran did nothing, the U.S. also - did nothing. His deadline was totally meaningless. Iran knows we will do nothing, what impetus is there for them to change anything? Sure, they continue to say their nuclear ambitions are peaceful only, but who in this world believes THAT pile of rhetoric coming from a man who wants Israel to be "levelled"?

Obama doesn't have the nerve to deal with Iran himself, that's the answer. I am not advocating starting WWIII, but I seem to remember us destroying other facilities around the world in the past that posed a danger to the U.S. and/or it's allies. As I stated before, what is Iran going to do if we wipe out their nuclear facilities, send an army by plane to invade the U.S.? Now there are rumors that Osama bin Laden is hiding out in Iran and that he is living quite comfortably there. If Iran is ALREADY harboring terrorists and their organizations, then what difference makes it if we go take care of business? They ALREADY hate us, they already want us dead, it isn't going to make anything worse.

Okay, the probability that they would try to start doing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil would definitely increase in such a scenario, that's the only threat I can see coming from such an attack. Of course, we can just sit here and wait until they have nuclear warheads.......

And look at Iran posturing again, starting up a fresh series of war games. Do you think the U.S. military is now on it's knees, trembling in fear? Iran has a president with a big mouth and there is no-one, apparently, willing to do anything about shutting him up. Arrogance and pomposity is all I see, the man is in love with his own voice and his own image being spread on news media all over the world. Giving a man like that center stage in the U.N. talks and allowing him to speak the way he has been against the U.S. causes me to give very little credibility or credence to that organization. If there is to be a boycott of anything, perhaps the U.S. should boycott the U.N. until someone in the ranks of the governing structure finds enough balls to stand up to Iran's president and tell him to -- shut the bleep up, actually - or at least show respect to everyone there and every entity being represented.

Whatever. Some of the junk in the news I find humorous, this particular subject I do not. Anyway, I found a place that sells fish, plants - everything - that is only a few miles away from my house! Imagine that. Not only that. but there is a Pond club that is having 12 open houses to show off their ponds - an annual event - I had an email conversation with the president of the club who says lots of members bring plants to share - free - to any meetings. Well goofy loofy dooooo!
I mean, wonderful! A pond club. Heck, I might just join! lol

Ummm, I gotta get signed into work and get with the day.
Later.
ben