Declutter this

Like many corporations these days, the one I work for offers several ways in which associates can reduce the amount they pay for their health care.  For example, non-smokers receive a $20 incentive every month tacked onto their paycheck.  Unfortunately they don't go that extra step to verify you are a non-smoker, most likely because it would require a pee test.  I suspect it's because the cost of having those non-smokers dribble a few drops in a little vile in order to verify their veracity isn't worth the logistical expense.  Pee may not be as cheap as we think.

In the past, they have also given an additional $50 per month incentive if you participated in a "hidden health screening," where they do some blood work to check you cholesterol, triglycerides, and sugar. I always pass because, as my personal physician says, I have good genes.  Translate this to read "I can eat a gallon of real ice cream every week without having adverse effects."  The only thing I have to worry about is the weight, and if I worked out more I wouldn't have to worry about that.  This year, however, to get that extra moola in your check you also need to participate in a Health Challenge.  There is no way to option out.  So, being the cheapy I am, I signed up.

The challenge is broken down into 3 areas: exercise, diet, and stress reduction.  Starting July 10 I will need to sign in and provide answers to questions in order to earn points.  Of course there is no real tracking here.  There is no audit process for those taking the challenge.  Oh, and the questions are rather simplistic.

Which BMI would you prefer?

I can't make note that I ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia this afternoon, but I can click the button recording the fact that I ate 6 helpings of fruits and vegetables.  I can report that I did at least 30 minutes of "moderate exercise," but I can't let them know I did 45 minutes on the elliptical followed by 20 minutes of free weights.  The "stress reduction" bit is more then a little amusing with questions like:  "Did you simplify you finances?" and "Did you take 15 minutes to declutter?"  Usually I declutter every morning, before I take a shower.

The 'challenge' runs for two months.  In order to continue to receive the incentive you need to participate for at least 3 weeks.  Since they are doing it from the privacy of their own homes, associates can be as honest or dishonest as they like.  I'll bet a gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream many of them will fudge it.  Me?  I'll give them the facts as best as I am able.  Do you think they really care if, right after I publish this, I'm going to chow down on a large pepperoni pizza?  Nah.  Most likely those in charge are gambling that many of those participating will fail and the corporation will end up saving some money.  Hey, maybe they could use the money they save to pay for a pee test.

Is butter the noose around your neck?

Here's a bit of an update on the Med diet I'd talked about earlier.  For some odd reason I'd thought tons of research had been completed on diet and how it effects the heart.  The fact that some bozo somewhere began advocating a low fat diet to promote heart health seems ludicrous to me, yet the article intimates this to be true.  I mean we've been reading about the benefits of Omega 3 for years so some group of pseudo-dieticians must have at least put some thought into fish oil and how it promotes heart health.  The bit about people finding it difficult to stick to a low fat diet was very amusing.  Like, so what else is new?  What they're really saying is it's not 'fat' across the board which is bad, just the animal kind, like butter.  Holy Crap, I've known that for years, which is why I've switched to olive oil a long time ago.

Could this be the fruit of life?

In regards to the diet I was raised on, I am way out side the box.  Before my Mom eats a slice of toast, she slavers it with a thick layer of butter followed by another thick layer of jelly.  Yum.  Well, maybe not quite.  It's rare for me to ever eat toast.  This is, however, how my siblings and I were raised and is also how my mother was raised.  She doesn't like the taste of olive oil and so never uses the stuff.  With the Mediterranean Diet they are advocating at least 3 tablespoons a day.  It will be a cold day in hell before she ever follows this diet.   The only fish we had growing up was breaded fish sticks, sometimes baked, sometimes fried in butter (now how fricking healthy is that?). 

We always ate butter.  My grandmother used to make her own and believe me, it was very tasty.  When she was finished  churning, she would press it into little wooden molds.   It was pretty to look at, of course no one knew how the fat content was slowly beginning to clog arteries.

Pretty but deadly

Anyway, a long time ago I gave up butter.  I don't cook with it, I don't spread it on my bread, in fact, I don't even serve it to my guests when I throw a dinner party.  This is not to say I won't eat a croissant every now and then, but that rarity is normal for me.  Sadly, most people in the United States are not like me, they will stick with the foods they were raised with, even if their diet kills them early.

Mediterranean Diet dumps a load on the South Beach Diet

There's a lot of pooh pooh stuff going on about the Mediterranean Diet here lately.  Believe me, I've been checking it out.  I always do when I such claims as reducing the risk of heart attack or stroke by as much as 30% make health headlines.  One of the news bits I found intriguing was that a study was stopped short because the results were 'so promising,' and evidently had been for several years.  If you do a 'search' you're going to fine a boat load of diet books already on the market, none of them by the researchers ( a plus).  I always find that suspicious knowing how some people will try to make a buck off of anything and everything.  Of course, the diet books don't really tell you much.  In fact, if you start looking at the recipes, some of them don't sound to dietetic.  One recipe for Naan, an Indian flat bread, I checked out included butter.  Hhhmm, now that sounds healthy.  The only thing I could really find out about it was the Mediterranean Diet food pyramid.  Personally, I think that's a good place to start.

The first thing I noticed was you don't get to eat a lot of red meat, but then I got to thinking.  What kind of red meats do they have in Italy, and Greece besides goats and sheep?  The only answer I could come up with was... goats and sheep, ain't no Guernseys there.  This makes sense to me.  There's not a lot of sugar, but most diets also avoid it.  Let's see, there's are a few eggs, about 4 per week is what they recommend.  A little more fowl and fish, of course, being on the Mediterranean birds and seafood would be a bit more prevalent.  Then you get to the cheeses, and olive oil, and vegetables and breads.  Holy Crap!  When it comes to breads, and pastas,and rice and potatoes, you're should be eating them with every meal!  Shit, it's like most of what you're eating is Carbs!  How can that be?

I don't know.  I'm also not going to spend a lot of my time brushing up on all of the scientific lingo jingo just to try and understand.  What I do know is that every diet which attempts to eliminate carbs turns into the enemy.  Any website which allows comments is filled with South Beach Diet aficionados shrieking their pants off.  Denouncement is their only choice, they have no alternative.  Personally, I feel that if their diet works for them, then they should follow it rather then attempt to brow beat other diets into the ground.  A couple of years ago I looked at the South Beach Diet and decided it was far to expensive for my blood.  With the price of meat today you need to have deep pockets just to put their diet on you table.

As for the Mediterranean Diet, I already eat a lot of olive oil, having given up other oils and fats years ago.  I eat nuts every day, and a lot of grains and vegetables.  About a year ago, well before the hubbub broke through the surface into public opinion, I began incorporating beans regularly into my diet.  I also cut my red meat consumption down to 2 or 3 times a month.  

For those trying to lose weight just by dieting, this is not the route to go.  In order to take the pounds off and keep them off you need to exercise, regularly.  Am I advocating this diet?  No, make up your own mind.