they lied, there is no global warming - it's COLD!

Al Gore the king of global warming - well he flies around in a private jet, nice mode of transportation for a life long politician.

Well it's cold outside - damn cold.  I fondly recall golfing in 65 degree and sunny weather a half decade ago, I played golf on Thanksgiving Day back when global warming was real.

Oh, they want to call it "climate change" today - duh?  The climate is always changing.

I don't get the mentality that the earth is under attack by human beings.

It is just a banal narrative of future government control or a tax.

But right now, we could use a little global warming here in Western Pennsylvania - it's too damn early for temperatures in the teens.

Al Gore is a liar!

all Bourbon tastes the same, but not all Bourbon costs the same

Spent two wonderful nights in Louisville, Kentucky.  If you ever get in that area and need a place to stay - pick the Brown Hotel.   Highly recommend this old property and the location is great.

Back to Bourbon.   This town has it, invented it and sells it by the barrel full.  Bourbon has to be made of 51% corn, after that the chemist can pretty much mix in whatever he wants.  Bourbon

This area of Kentucky is home to the biggest, greatest Bourbon distillers on the planet.   Louisville is the major city in the area.

When you first taste Bourbon you will probably think - "this is what gasoline tastes like if I was stupid enough to drink it"  yet, there was actually a "pour" of Bourbon on the bar menu for $250.00.

I'm going to guess a normal bar "pour" is 1.5 oz.  So that particular aged Bourbon was $21,333.00 a gallon.  What's the difference between that and W.L. Weller?

Cost.

Bourbon is good - it's alcohol.  I love Manhattans and I had one at the Lobby Bar in the Brown Hotel and it was excellent.  Bourbon makes the best cocktails in my opinion.

So it really comes down to cost.  Bourbon tastes the same but costs differently.

Bourbon "neat" is all the hip.  I personally prefer mine with one cube of solid crystal clear ice.  Neat - burns, and you'll get all the supposed flavors.

Here is my observation - a Mint Julep with any Bourbon will taste good if properly made and mixed.

If you want to enter the "neat" trail - order Bourbon flights and work your way down the line.  Be careful.  I had a flight of Four Roses at the BBC Brewery Restaurant and it kicked my ass.

All Bourbon tastes the same, and it sure doesn't cost the same.  Acquired taste has no price tag.

Education goes a long way.

the American dream is dead!

Living the dream?  The American Dream?  What a joke - we've been sold a joke and a scam.

Want proof - look at the state of our politics and rule of law in their once great Republic.  Socialism is for the people, not the Socialist.   The political elite that preach socialism are never going to live that lifestyle or ideology, they just want you to live it, yeah you the American Dream chaser.  The tax payer and law abiding citizen.

sometimes you just don't give a fuck, I'm GAF

Interesting day for me - I purposely slept in.  Brand new experience for me.  I never purposely slept in for 60 years.  It was a perfect Western PA fall morning, cold, damp no rising sun, no where to go, nothing to do (except my pull ups), fuck it - I laid in bed. Got up at 0712.

I don't give a fuck anymore.  I'm focused, laser.  On my life - I really don't care about anyone anymore.  I'm 100% selfish, at this age can you blame me?

I love my existence and I feel I can out live anyone that was born in 1958, a worth while challenge.  Becoming a Social Security millionaire is a worthy goal.  Being the oldest in my high school graduating class seems like a winning proposition.

The best thing about being GAF is you get very simplistic in your basic American needs very quickly.

food
clothing
shelter
transportation (if needed)

How much food can you live on each day? What is the cost of that necessity?

Do you have nothing that you do not wear?

Shelter is a human necessity, is yours adequate?

What type of transportation in necessary to provide your lifestyle?

GAF is an attitude and is easily achieved when you give in, give up and say - I've had enough and I am not taking it anymore.

Why do we keep listening to the lies of America?

Voting

Today is Voting day here in the good old USA.  You have two selections to make - Democrat or Republican.  Our country is run by the political elite class. Executive branch, Legislative branch and Judicial branch, 546 total people.  Executive branch (2 people) is elected by the states electoral college, Legislative branch is made up of the Senate (100 Senators) and the House of Representatives (435 Representatives) and are elected by the citizens of each state, the Judicial branch (9 Justices) is nominated by the executive branch and confirmed by the legislative branch.

It is not a perfect system and is ripe with corruption and collusion.  Most politicians are lawyers and produce absolutely nothing in their lives.  When it comes right down to it, 3-5 people run this country.  Most legislative branch members vote straight party line once they get to Washington DC. If they do not, then the faucet of money will be shut off for their next campaign and they will most likely lose their coveted position.  We only have term limits on the executive branch.

I've been following politics my entire life. I started to get interested in 1968 as I watched riots and the escalation of the Vietnam War.   I was in 5th grade at the time and I remember an announcement of a brother of one of the kids in our grade school was killed in the Vietnam War, that shocked me and I started reading the daily newspaper and watching the nightly news.  We were told that the war was to fight against the spread of communism, the domino theory - hmmm.

50 years later we have one of the major political parties advocating a form of government that we fought a war against.  Crazy times.

The Democrat political party is advocating Socialism.  The Republican party is not to far off either, they support socialist programs also.  The difference is the Democrats look at Socialism through the individuals eyes and the Republicans look at Socialism through the eyes of big corporate interests.  Both are Socialism - and Socialism leads to Communisms.  Both political ideologies are seriously flawed experiments over the past 100 plus years.

The United States is not a Democracy - it is a Republic and has a written charter or Constitution which specify the rules.  Here is the rub - the 546 people (3-5 important people) we have running the country do not follow the rules.  They also seem to be above the law.

Does your vote really count?  it is hard to tell now a days.

My war is this - I will vote, not for something but against something, I do not vote for a man (humans are flawed in so many ways).  I AM VOTING AGAINST SOCIALISM/COMMUNISM.

Final thought - Socialism is for the people, not the Socialists.

Intermittent Fasting has Changed My Life

In my last entry I talked about IF and the Ketogenic diet and my experience - I promised an update.  This is my 6 month update on the overall effects that IF and Keto have had on my life.

Results:  I reduced by body weight from 194 pounds to 174 pounds, my Levis jean size went from 36x32 to 32x32.  I lost a lot of body fat over the last 6 months though the mid section and hips.  Losing body weight was never my goal, health was my primary goal.

My feeding protocol morphed into one meal a day (OMAD) Monday through Friday and two meals a day on Saturday and Sunday.  I started OMAD in April and continued through the summer months.

I did one 72 hour fast in mid September to see how it felt after I came off a week of vacation, but I primarily stuck to the 23:1 protocol.  23 hour fast, 1 hour feeding window during the week and 20:4 protocol on weekends. I ate LCHFMP - low carb, high fat, moderate protein. I did drink beer at times, so my abstinence from alcohol ended on April 23, it was a 6 month abstinence window.

I walked as my primary aerobic exercise with 2-3 mile walks each morning, slow steady leisurely pace.  Strength training migrated to body weight movements like push ups, single leg Bulgarian split squats, and dead hang pull ups.  I stopped all barbell training in mid summer.

I went to OMAD slowly and didn't push to hard on my training.  What I found is pushing through the hunger was primarily mental and once I got into ketosis and burning fat for energy fuel my hunger subsided rapidly.

Observations:

• Educating yourself on the benefits of IF and Keto eating is easily done through You Tube and reading.
• Reading two amazing books by Dr. Jason Fung, The Obesity Code and the Diabetes Code really opened my mind.
• Our government/food industry has been lying to the people for over 50 years and the proof is the epidemic of obesity in this country.
• Learning to prepare and cook some great tasting LCHFMP meals was fun.
• On my 60th birthday I performed 38 strict push ups and 15 dead hang pull ups at a body weight of 177 pounds.
• Alcohol in the form of craft beer was consumed as the summer progressed and I noticed a huge difference in how I felt after the consumption.  I cut way back on drinking alcohol.
• On rare occasions I ate cheat meals, I really felt the effects for a few days afterwords.
• Performing a 72 hour fast was not as difficult, breaking that fast was a bit rough.
• The sweet spot for me is fasting for 18-23 hours daily.
• You do not need carbohydrates, once you flip over to fat burning (ketosis).
• When I do not feel well the solution is fasting.
• Fasting costs absolutely nothing - eating OMAD saves you a lot of money.
• Preparing and cooking food at home is way better than going to any restaurant. 
• Abstinence from alcohol has great benefits and I will continue to practice periods of abstinence.
• Sleep is way better when you eliminate sugar and refined carbohydrates from your diet.
• Fructose (fruit sugar) is not as good for you as you might think and I cut way back on fruit consumption.
• Read your labels, there is a lot of hidden sugar and chemicals in packaged and prepared foods.
• Raised energy levels and mental clarity is a great benefit from IF and Ketogenic eating.
• Feeling better and health was my primary goal in this experiment.

I will update this as I progress through the next year. 

If you have not tried intermittent fasting or ketogenic eating I highly recommend you give it a go.  The word of caution is you have been brainwashed to believe the opposite of this lifestyle protocol.

Stay strong, stay hungry, stay disease free.