JimGorski.com

I smoked cigarettes until Karen became pregnant (and honestly a few weeks after until she beat me up). Prior to that I would break up my workday – every workday – with several trips outside to poison myself.
Now that I’m older and theoretically wiser I have begun breaking my workday up with walks rather than smokes.
If you can, I highly recommend giving this a try at your job. Even if you aren’t trying to lose weight (as I am), the break from staring at the computer is invigorating. Not kidding, I meant to use that word. Three months ago I hated my time at work, now I can’t wait to get my next big chunk of work done and get outside. Two words of caution would be to start slow and short. No one wants to work near the smelly crying guy. Also make certain that you do enough work to justify a break before heading outside. You do not want to be the underperformer who is never at his desk. Now go get some sun!

Seems that Wordpress went a little nuts there. A quick upgrade and we’re back in action.

I have not eaten from the following “restaurants” in 2010:
* Burger King
* McDonalds
* Arbys
* Wendys
* Popeyes
* KFC
Basically any place where I cannot watch someone assemble my meal is out.
Last year I ate at all of these places at least twice over the year – usually a different place each lunch.
This year I haven’t had a sick day or food poisoning once – not yet at least.

However last week the boys wanted Taco Bell (Hell) and I hadn’t had any dinner myself.
I ordered two steak soft tacos ‘fresco style’ and I’m happy to report that they weren’t half bad.
Maybe thirty percent bad.
They come with just meat, lettuce and a mild tomato salsa – that’s it – low fat and low calorie.

But I probably just dodged a bullet on the food poisoning.

I can’t ask my boys to skip out on fast food if I don’t set a good example – this year is the proof.

It’s impossible. I have to bite the bullet and work on an all veggie basis if I’m going to make this work. Don’t get the wrong impression – the fruit based smoothie is the winner. I’ll rely on that for breakfast without a doubt. But if I can find a way to add more raw veggies without resorting to another bag of carrots I’ll be even happier than I am today.
This morning I put enough spinach in the smoothie to cover a salad plate. It was still blue and creamy. Gotta change the base.

Okay, here’s what I like to kick-start my day now that I have given my favorite molecule (caffeine) the boot:
* Quarter cup 1% milk.
* Two teaspoons cold milled flax seeds.
* One teaspoon Benefiber heart health (with some B vits!).
* Two tablespoons greek yogurt.
* Two tablespoons Matrix protein powder (chocolate today).
* Fruit (strawberry(5 big fresh)/blueberry(10 frozen) today)
* Four ice cubes

Today I added a double handful of washed raw baby spinach greens on top and hit the button.
There was no difference in taste or color – it was exactly like the day before!

Tomorrow I’m making it green if I have to blend the whole bunch!

On the plus side – it was much tastier than a V8!

Okay, I’m a conservative eater.  Not in volume so much, but rather in quality and ingredients.  I like my burgers plain with a little salt and mayo.  I like my noodles with my Wife’s red sauce or just a little garlic and oil.  Put a piece of beef on the barbie and just brown the edges – I am a happy man.

Then I bought a blender.

To lose weight I had been skipping breakfast (the most important meal) because anything that was good and good for you took foresight or too much morning time to prepare.  I was crabby and hungry well before lunch and needed a new plan to make this work.

Enter the basic smoothie.  Half a banana, some skim milk and greek yogurt, a few flax seeds and some berries – bam – drink it in the car and you’re good to go.

Recently I learned that some lunatics are actually putting GREEN VEGETABLES in their smoothies.  Not sweet carrots or juicy red sweet peppers – green – like spinach and broccoli.
I’m just blender crazy enough to try it – I’ll report in later this week with the results.  Can you imagine having a satisfying and convenient salad for breakfast?  I can’t see it happening.
If I show up at the office with green teeth and a scowl – don’t even ask.

My friend – let’s just call him Jeff – came up with a great proposal a few weeks ago where he and I would both lose unwanted pounds and the guy who loses the least takes the winner (who lost the most) out to dinner later this year. Wives are probably invited as well, depending on venue.  We’re still working out the details, but the point of this posting is to discuss motivation.

Three weeks ago I was fat and happy – quite literally.  I had just abandoned my second love (first is family) and I haven’t had a drop of coffee since.  It was keeping me up and wearing me down until I felt truly frazzled if I wasn’t on the juice.  Now I sleep better, feel better and spend less money on the bean.  Then Jeff comes along with his bet and his sense of humor and suddenly I am watching what I eat again and counting the calories I burn each day.

So what’s changed?  Why am I doing this now?  I’m not complaining – I’m loving it.

Makes me wonder what else I should be casually competing in…

My ancestors came to America from another country on both sides of my family tree.
When they arrived they spoke a different language than the native New Yorkers, dressed differently and had different customs and mannerisms.

If they were formally asked to prove that they were American citizens, they probably had no papers to show for it – at least none that they themselves could read.
They probably wouldn’t even understand the language well enough to realize the importance of the question.
I’m certain that if you could speak Polish well enough to ask them, they would proudly declare that they were now American and show whatever proof they received at the border.
There would be proud of the fact that they scraped together money and survived an ocean journey to make it to the country that believes in freedom for all citizens.

If they lost that paper and were dragged off to a ‘holding facility’ to be validated or even sent away to another country it would crush them – it would crush my spirit if it happened to me.

My ancestors were legal immigrants.

What if they were not legal?

What if they survived a march across the open desert, crept past men with guns and over barbed wire to be here?
I’m sure they would be proud that they survived that ordeal as well.
People who want to live in America as citizens that much should be welcomed with open arms.

And here’s the hard part – this is the crux of the issue – even those people really aren’t welcomed any more.

To become a U.S. citizen you need to be born a citizen, marry a citizen or be offered a job or a place to legally live from a citizen.
There are other ways as well – help us fight a war (war on drugs, war for oil, whatever).
There is a whole slew of red tape and such around citizenship – an entire industry dedicated to ‘welcoming’ immigration.

So we make a few changes.
Anyone who walks up to a border station and asks for an application for citizenship gets it.
There is a background check, a three day wait (just like for handguns) and a test of basic english language skills – no charge.
Your kids come along free – no english test – but you must provide legal proof or pay for a DNA test.
Your parents have to apply and pass as individuals.
If you pass – you’re now an American – paying taxes and buying things legally to support our way of life.

Oh yes – if you try to sneak across the border (any U.S. border) you are shot and killed.

This way the people who would be proud to scrape together an ocean voyage, or march through a desert at night are still welcome.
They are welcome if they don’t kill other people for a living (illegally that is).
They are welcome if they want to be American – not just enjoy what the American life enables.
Everyone else is considered up to no good.

The people who are here in country now illegally – they get amnesty – no exceptions.
What the hell – we’re already counting them in the U.S. census – why not?

Then we can stop diluting the phrase ‘illegal immigrant’ and make illegal more than a policial buzz word again.
Illegal immigrants are illegal.
Make them legal, make it easy for them to be legal, or send them home to their own country.

Saturday was another day of worshiping the mighty power of hydraulics – both good and evil.

The evil was the hydraulic force of the water seeping downhill and pushing the concrete pylons of the deck up over a foot in places.  The good was the incredible power of the front loader on my little tractor (JD2320) that made tearing the whole thing out (pylons and all) the work of a single day.

I’m not sure who thought that three feet was below the frost line here in Rochester, but they were off by about a foot (and no flare at the base).  The result was a ramp from the door to the trees, and a backyard that was more than a little embarrassing to show people.

Now I have another few days of work to transplant the flowers that lived around it, and a few weeks of muddy puppy paws before any grass comes in.  But it already looks more like home and less like a shipwreck.

I’ve been playing outside, getting ready for Summer in the yard.

Nothing to report – not even a gripe!