Being Active is Only Human

...And being inactive is not very human at all. Humans became what they are today because of the ability to run on two legs for a long periods of time thanks to perspiration. There are other species on earth that are much faster or stronger but they can't run long because they overheat. Not people. Till about ten thousand years ago running the distance of a Marathon was an everyday thing. Our species survived as others did not from that period.
What does this tell us? Well unfortunately for you, it says that to keep healthy, you need to keep active. It's not so easy though, is it?
You actually have to plan and take an effort to make it happen. Walking and running daily is feasible even on the road. Yes it only takes willpower. And of course it is the hardest one because we are accountable for only to ourselves. And we don't want to disappoint ourselves, do we? This would be good to start to motivate us. Forget the doctors and the drug companies and take charge!
Become active, eat well and focus on doing your job well and you will live a long life.
Think and be your own boss above all bosses.

Thoughts on Sleep Apnea, Snoring, and Being Obese

Sleep apnea is a hot topic these days as so it should be. Screening it and keeping it under control will be mandatory in the US and soon after that Canada will follow.

Unfortunately or fortunately? the government or the employers cannot tell people straight into their face to live healthy. Why not? Not just because it would be against personal rights but because even doctors or scientists let alone politicians can agree what healthy is. If you are older than 30, you remember the fat free wave, the carb free wave, eat 6 times a day, eat 3 main meals only, eat when you feel hungry etc. So if you believe the latest diet what's right what not, you will probably have to change next year. Naturally professionals do learn from past mistakes and by now they have a much better idea of what is healthy. But by now enough time passed that huge corporations and the profit oriented food industry made us pick up bad habits and get addicted to sweets or greasy or salty food. All in all they already made the nation fat and they are globalizing it. So here we are, heavier employees have less energy, can harm their tendons and ligaments easily, develop premature illnesses that used to start after a ripe age when most of social duties are fulfilled like raising children and have enough years to retire. Having these conditions show up earlier and earlier strains the medical and social system to the point when our children's future standard of living will be jeopardized.

So officials have to go indirectly to get everybody make changes in their lives that ultimately increase the length of their own lives!

Sleep apnea screening is a step to help people live better, work better. Regrettably, people will only make changes when they absolutely forced to. People will always go with the easier, that is yes, lazier choices, requiring less effort. But when we are forced - well we'd better get started!

First, you snore.

first of all snoring will not disturb the snorer, only everybody else. The snorer will have a good night sleep if    

it's just that. However please note that snoring can have way too many reasons. Smoking raises the risk of snoring. 

 Snoring, like all other sounds, is caused by vibrations that cause particles in the air to form sound waves. For example, when we speak, our vocal cords vibrate to form our voice. When our stomach growls (borborygmus), our stomach and intestines vibrate as air and food move through them.
While we are asleep, turbulent airflow can cause the tissues of the nose and throat to vibrate and give rise to snoring. Essentially, snoring is a sound resulting from turbulent airflow that causes tissues to vibrate during breathing. 

When we are asleep, the area at the back of the throat sometimes narrows. The same amount of air passing through this smaller opening can cause the tissues surrounding the opening to vibrate, which in turn can cause the sounds of snoring. Different people who snore have different reasons for the narrowing. The narrowing can be in the nose, mouth, or throat.Who are those most likely to have it?

• Overweight or right at being obese (have BMI of 25 or more)
• Males (What can I say? Most truck drivers are.)
• Smokers (I don't know the statistics but I would guess it's a huge percentage.)
• Have a thick neck (Yes, either fat or muscles)
• Having a receding chin.
• Do you still have your tonsils? They can enlarge and cause the inability to breath.

Your airway may be blocked or narrowed during sleep because your throat muscles tend to relax more than normal. Your brain in REM sleep maybe telling all your muscles to relax and muscles and the soft palate loosens too much.

It's not permanent if it's your allergies or your nose is congested. 

Work on it!

What about sleep apnea?

What is it that you experience if you have it?
You just don't have a restful sleep. It doesn't mean you actually wake up but because you cannot breath in your resting beauty sleep, your brain pulls you out of this deep sleep and puts you into a shallow sleep to make you breath.That will eventually make you tired not just the next day but it will accumulate to a point you will feel sluggish and lousy.

Like obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea is more common in males and people over the age of 65. However, unlike obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea is often associated with serious illness, such as heart disease, stroke, neurological disease, or spinal or brainstem injury.

While a diagnosis of sleep apnea can be scary, it is a treatable condition. In fact, there are many things you can do on your own to help, particularly for mild to moderate sleep apnea. Home remedies and lifestyle modifications can go a long way in reducing sleep apnea symptoms.

Lifestyle changes that can help sleep apnea
Lose weight. Some people find that even moderate to severe sleep apnea can be completely corrected by losing excess weight. For others, even a small amount of weight loss can open up the throat and improve sleep apnea symptoms.
Quit smoking. Smoking is believed to contribute to sleep apnea by increasing inflammation and fluid retention in your throat and upper airway.
Avoid alcohol, sleeping pills, and sedatives, especially before bedtime, because they relax the muscles in the throat and interfere with breathing.
Avoid caffeine and heavy meals within two hours of going to bed.
Maintain regular sleep hours. Sticking to a steady sleep schedule will help you relax and sleep better. Apnea episodes decrease when you get plenty of sleep.

Bedtime tips for preventing sleep apnea

Sleep on your side. Avoid sleeping on your back, as gravity makes it more likely for your tongue and soft tissues to drop and obstruct your airway.
Try the tennis ball trick. In order to keep yourself from rolling onto your back while you sleep, sew a tennis ball into a pocket on the back of your pajama top. Or wedge a pillow stuffed with tennis balls behind your back.
Prop your head up. Elevate the head of your bed by 4 to 6 inches or elevate your body from the waist up by using a foam wedge. You can also use a special cervical pillow.
Open your nasal passages. Try to keep your nasal passages open at night using a nasal dilator, saline spray, breathing strips, or a neti pot.

Throat exercises to reduce sleep apnea

Studies show that throat exercises may reduce the severity of sleep apnea by strengthening the muscles in airway, making them less likely to collapse.
Press tongue flat against the floor of mouth and brush top and sides with toothbrush. Repeat brushing movement 5 times, 3 times a day.
Press length of tongue to roof of mouth and hold for 3 minutes a day.
Place finger into one side of mouth. Hold finger against cheek while pulling cheek muscle in at same time. Repeat 10 times then rest and alternate sides. Repeat sequence 3 times.
Purse lips as if to kiss. Hold lips tightly together and move them up and to the right the up and to the left 10 times. Repeat sequence 3 times.
Place lips on a balloon. Take a deep breath through your nose then blow out through your mouth to inflate balloon as much as possible. Repeat 5 times without removing balloon from mouth.

What would happen to McDonald's...

Can you imagine what would happen to McDonald's or Tim's if everybody learned the truth about the harm and danger these places hold to every one of us. Cheap processed food, cheap spicing up with salt, using corn syrup for sweetness that will eventually destroy our health but gets us addicted enough will provide good profit to those corporations.
Imagine all the people... living active and in health...
Imagine all those countries... spending less on sick care and more on raising everybody's life standard...
Imagine all those children... playing active and getting smarter...
Imagine all the women... without the threat of cancer becoming happy active grandmothers...
Imagine all those men... still going strong in their late years providing the family with wisdom...
Imagine all the drug companies... switching to test and control healthy clean food without pesticides and additives...
WOW, This'll be the day that I die... happy and content.

When you eat too much you gain fat

Isn't that simple? Eat and live in moderation and sensibly and there will be no problems.
Use food for something else than nutrition or keeping your body healthy, trouble is on the way.
So break the fast and have your breakfast, eat some lunch and your supper. You might not need much in between but in case you do, have some fruit or nuts.
So what happens when you have a coffee date? Then you go to the movies and watch the game on TV.  You have a latte and a slice of something, in the movies you have your soft drink and pop corn, during the game you have a slice of pizza and a beer. You deserve it after a hard day. And what you end up with is double the calories that you would have needed otherwise. Using up the calories? Well, unless you do hard physical work  all day, sitting or standing around at work, sitting in the cinema and in front of the TV will not use up much.
I sometimes call North Americans the Dessert Nations. When I was a child, my grandmother used to love making delicious cakes and delights for us. But only on the weekends. During the week lunch and supper consisted of soup and legumes, or some simple main course, for breakfast some hot cocoa with a slice of bread or such.
Overweight children were very rare. Not every class had an overweight child. Size eight was the regular size that is now probably size four in the US today. There had to be a health reason like hormonal imbalance for the kids to be fat.
And now? Clothing sizes had been adjusted so we wouldn't feel so awful all at ones that instead of size 14 it only shows size 10. People are not at all well dressed and they do not know how to match their clothing with their natural colours and personalities. Why? They are more sluggish with less energy and it wouldn't even look good on them anyway. Just check the people on the streets. They are not at all those ones that eastern countries used to envy having a comfortable lifestyle.
So let's change that. NOW.

The so called FOOD PYRAMID

UH! After a Scandinavian 1972 model the US developed their own food pyramid model that showed the food choices and proportions we should eat. They have been trying to improve it since 1992. A newer variation is the Healthy Plate.
I have some problems with this.
Who could eat consciously and in scientific proportions of essentials molecules and by counting building blocks?
Nobody. It's like when we are told don't think about something. In that moment you have already thought about it and it's too late. We get hungry, and before we know it we eat. Sometimes if we listen to our body we eat what it needs such as the first fresh strawberries that still has the flavour of the sun, the seasonal water melon, the fresh peas or the small new potatoes that is so good with parsley. Our body lets us know that it is getting low on some nutrition so please, fill up. Hopefully you listen and respond well.
We are all different. In North America we came from many different countries and culture, only a few years or decades, maybe a hundred years tie us together with our neighbour. We are all people of the same species so why would it matter?
It does matter. Our own survival depends on the survival mechanisms our own ancestors developed, where they had been, how they survived. They passed it on through their genes to many generations and finally to us.
This is what we need to know and listen to. A few hundred years back it was no problem at all in close knit communities. But now?
I can't even advise you to go to your mother because in North America mothers have been part of the convenient, processed food generations. But try to find out where your grandparents and their parents came from and how they lived.
Did they live in Asia and ate fish rice and vegetables but no dairy or beef?
Did they come from Middle Europe and had a lot of pork and potatoes, some basic vegetables, seasonal fruit, apple and nuts all year around?
How did they prepared their meals? Try that!
All millions of species on Earth have survived for hundreds of millions of years by passing on the knowledge, the habits to the new generations. They didn't have to know why they just ate the right stuff and survived.
So if dairy doesn't agree with you maybe you shouldn't have it. If pork is too heavy for you maybe you should eat something else. No fancy meals, or exotic plants that promise magic power because it is the best for the people that has had it for hundreds of years.
As my father used to say, eat modestly and sensibly and it will be fine.

The Fat You Eat is not the Fat You Carry

We can't - and believe me, you don't even want to eliminate fat from your diet. It is very important to become and stay healthy. 

Vitamins A D E and K are fat soluble which means they can only be digested when fat is present. (So when you take multivitamins or vitamin pills of this sort, you need to take them with food that contains some fat.)

For healthy skin and hair as well as maintaining regular body temperature and healthy cell functions we need fat.

But what kind of fat? Meat with white chunks or spots full of fat or lard, butter, heavy cream, so you get it for sure? Or the fully man-made margarine that used to be a butter substitute during the war when food was scarce? Definitely not!

Humans up till about ten thousand years ago needed fat to survive the ice age of the time when they had to walk and run a marathon-a-day to find and kill their prey. That prey was wild, lean with strong muscles itself.

Do you run many miles a day to find and kill your prey and try to share it and save it for later? Do you eat strong wild game? Oh, no? The animals you eat only live for some months or maybe a year, stay idle and artificially blown up to maximize its size so it would provide the most profit in the shortest period of time. 

Not very appetizing. 

So the fat we need is plant based  in small amounts.

Nuts, beans and legumes, good oils like olive oil, avocado gives you what you need. 

Remember, fat calories are more than twice as much as carbohydrate's or protein's. 9 calories per gram, so you need only a small amount to satisfy your daily needs.

THE FAT YOU CARRY

Remember, our body builds makes its own building blocks. Your fat that you gain under your skin or around your organs can originate from proteins, sugary food as well as grains or carbohydrates. The body is a great factory that can create its own building blocks from almost any combinations. It transforms fat you eat or even protein you don't need to simple sugar for energy and then when you are covered as far as energy goes, it will store the excess in fat cells that will be released in need for energy so it will become sugar again at that time. 

We not just need to eat though, we want to eat often and at every occasion to eat when we socialize, entertain, go anywhere. There is no way we would ever go without food for days. The longest fast is during the night when we sleep so we usually don't eat so when we wake up we break the fast very fast not to go hungry.

So we pile up fat everywhere our body can store it. Bulge here and there, oops, we begin to have a hard time to bend, we might walk funny because our thigh are so close they are rubbing each other, we grow breast like bulges on our backs and it is only the outside. Meantime our organs are getting imprisoned by fat all around them. So they fight and finally they get exhausted and fail. So you go to see a doctor where you want to be repaired when your cure is in your hands and mouth. So is your toxins and poison. 

So you decide. Fat or lean, healthy or sick, energetic or sluggish. I guess that is democracy too when you have all these choices.  

Protein Sources (formerly only known for meat)

 Every cell of our body needs protein for staying healthy. Although most people only associate proteins with muscle and body building and as such it is considered almighty good. BUT STOP!
Each and every cell of our body contains some protein and the number is in the trillions. The protein structure is distinctive to every species. It works many ways. Our body itself creates its main elements called amino acids while we digest our food. Our digestive system takes all that we eat apart and rearrange it to our body's needs. So even if we eat some animal proteins that we need exactly the same way, in our system all that protein is taken, dissembled and reassembled into amino acid sequences we need just at that moment. So don't think that you eat animal meat you get more proteins you need than if you ate plant based protein. Your wonderful body-factory assembly line will do its work anyway. Remember, you will never know what each of your cells need at the moment but your body will!
How much you need minimum? You need not count anything if you eat your nuts, beans and legumes. But there is such a thing as TOO MUCH PROTEIN.
This might become simply fat, so instead of muscle building you just get overweight.
Our excretory system will try to get rid of excess protein so you pee it out. But it can get worse. It can add to building blood clots that will lead to heart and cardiovascular problems.
When you eat a plant based diet your body can metabolize most of the food so you need not worry about your cells or muscles. When you want to get stronger just exercise more and eat you nuts beans and legumes. They are delicious!
Meat? Well, your ancestors had no other way of surviving droughts, ice ages, only if they followed the herds and ate them. There were times when there was simply not enough plants available to survive. Eating whatever we could wherever we could meant life or death at the time. Just like pigs, you might say? Yes. But our original diet did not include meat and our system still did not fully accommodate this alternative. it was good enough until we found better.
And now we have. We don't need to starve in this part of the world so we can clean ourselves and rid our body of cancer causing toxic food.
So, poultry, beef and pork: we will let you become chickens to live over 15 years, turkeys of the wild, cows that will only need to feed their own calves and not mature people, and pigs that resemble our biological system the most so it looked like we committed cannibalism!
REMEMBER TO EAT EVERYTHING IN THEIR NATURAL RAW FORM? CAN YOU DO THAT WITH MEAT? (Oh, you say you like tartar beefsteak? Yukky! )

Those Fruits and Vegetables: YOU NEED CARBS

Our base food has always been and always will be those greens and beautiful coloured wonders of the plant family. Easy to digest, full of vital vitamins and nutrition, less calories that make us fat, clean our body and keep it in top shape. There has been no harmful effects shown from plants. So we can enjoy them without feeling guilty.
One rule of thumb though: use them as fresh and unrefined and unprocessed as possible! It is a good rule to follow for everything.
Eat them as salads, smoothies, peel them, slice them, bite them.
Don't forget the spices that you can use fresh or dried.
Onions, garlic are the base of cooking but healthy in raw form as well.
Nuts should be essential part of our daily meals or snacks. Raw!
Beans and legumes fresh or dried to cook or juiced. Think about soy!
Different cereals and starches belong to the pants family too. Eat them as close to raw as possible which means no refined flour! You can use your own mill to make your own flour for your own bread. You just need to buy some equipment and finally you will know exactly what you are eating!
Believe nobody that says you will be undernourished if you eat plant based food!
Most of the people in North America are way undernourished although they are mostly overweight or simply obese. The umpteen times more calories still do not provide the minimum amount of vitamins, minerals and -surprise! - good fat or useful proteins either. They just stain and clog their systems and make them expire way too soon.
To get good service and life time warranty for your system you have to switch your service provider to the plant family. They will look after you and provide maintenance that will not need extra expensive fixing and mending!
And it was a free advertisement that will only benefit all of us at the expense of nobody. Win-win and enjoy!

We don't have to live in a garbage dump or do we?

I often wonder.
When I was pregnant with my third child and my other two sons were 6 and 8, we used to walk a lot. One time there was a big fridge carton box on the road between two pedestrian crossings, cars could hardly get around but nobody bothered to pick it up. So when I stopped the car flow and took the box there were eager people to help. Not before. Same happened when some glass bottles were broken in the middle of the walk path. We went into the store just a few meters away and asked for a broom and a pan. Some more faces reddened. When we go to a cafe they still pick up their cups and return everything where they belong. We even take the recyclables home if there is no recycling there.
Of course that was in a different country at different times. Now we are here in Ottawa; in a big city with big mess.
I couldn't care less about people eating and smoking while driving, it's their car and their mess. But when gallantly they roll the window down and throw their butt or McD. bag to our windshield, that bothers me. These people not only act juvenile but they are irresponsible enough to be parents too. Ouch!
As far as I know the city has a good garbage removal system, there are many public garbage cans, butt out stations and recycling places but I wonder if most of the population knows what they are for.
I wonder how it is that they were born here in Canada, raised and educated here and still live in the stone ages where it was custom eating with fingers (MacDonald's) not knowing what a table and plates are for, spit wherever they please, pee on the side of the road towards the cars and this is the point you can bet I don't want to  see more of anything else they do!
Do you ever wonder why we have our environment full of bacteria and viruses and we are getting addicted to antibacterial hand lotions?
Can you spot the connections?
TRUCKERS, PLEASE! You are on the roads all the time. That is your workplace. Everybody likes to take care of their own work environment. So please set a good example and find the trashcan. When smoking, leave your butts in the designated sand box. We don't actually have to see a butt bed instead of a flower bed. Support recycle stations. Did you know that only a few percent of plastic bottles are recycled and the rest goes to the land field? Every week Americans throw away so many bottles they could go around the planet 5 times if we put them end to end!
Responsible ways to handle our excess materials may just help ourselves in the long run. Has responsibility become a scary word by now? Have we become so ignorant and careless that we just trash our world?
Just to remind us everything and everybody on Earth comes from nature and after being used ( eaten, pooped, shed, created, used, stored, thrown away etc.) goes back to the air, the earth, water and will become US again, YOU AND ME. The earth is a huge recycling system where every atom has been going around and around for over 4 billion years. They had been part of the first fish, the dinosaurs, trees and have been within the volcanoes as molten rocks.
Do you know what is missing from teaching the water cycle? Yes, we were taught it goes from the oceans to the clouds and it rains again down to the rivers and underground wells, resurface again or with an earthquake it goes under for a few million years where it again gets mixed with lava and creates fertile soil where we eventually grow our crops and by that we get the precious water again within us. WOW!
Isn't it majestic and makes you humble?
It does with me. I awe and serve this earth that is our greatest emperor and nurturer of all times.
Amen. So be it.

Lawyers that don't even bother to personalize the template

I just want to show the way this game is played. You see ads on TV and in the paper about "Compassionate lawyers" that are eager to help you to get "what you deserve". You hear how successful they are. And now it happens to you! A truck changed lanes on a slushy road and couldn't spot you on time, so the wheel screws scratch your door and before the truck can stop, hits your mirror on your side. There is not much property damage, but it's a truck accident! You call the police, they call the ambulance and the MTO (Ministry of Transportation). The ambulance leaves after a while, no personal injury was detected. The MTO sees no problems with the truck, everything was in order. The police takes notes for their accident report. It is very rare to see that neither the police nor the MTO issues any fines to the driver or his company. Why? Because it was a true accident and nobody could have been blamed. No major damage was done either.

So here is an example of the lawyers' website:

When the Trucker shows the pictures that he took on the site and tells about it, the Safety Manager is surprised that there was no violation or points taken away from the driver. The driver's records stay spotlessly clear and life goes on.

Not for you, of course. You dig and search and finally find those "compassionate" lawyers that would take your side. Well, it seems clear that nobody would make money on property damage, it was only a scratch. Let's sue them for personal injury!Heck, nobody knows if you had prior problems or you can just fake it! From the pictures, the police and the MTO report there was no mention of possible personal injury but who knows what a scratch can do for you!

See the following claim. How much they are suing and how they neglect to attach any other reports of the accident.

 Now, of course your lawyer will claim that you minded your own business and ensured that all safety measures were taken.

And now the driver!

Please look through carefully the next two pages because they don't even bother to personalize their claim, they go A to R (That is 19) and list all the possible ways the driver could have gone wrong. Did he? Who cares. It's better than a lottery. Something must be a full hit.

I love r) any or all of the foregoing. 

a) proper lookout  Maybe Have you ever travelled on a truck and tried to see what the driver sees? It absolutely terrified me. When I travel separately in my car following his truck, I have to go to the driver's side to wave to him because he couldn't see me properly on the right side. Always beware of the truck's right side!

b) excessive speed No. He couldn't have stopped right away and the police would have detected that. Fine would have been issued.

c) failed to yield Maybe. If he didn't see the car, he couldn't have. 

d) other users? Are we repeating ourselves?

e) speed he couldn't control the vehicle  Really? If that happened, the rest of the truck would have dragged the car like a matchbox.

f) failed to apply break on time Really? You feel you touched something and just go on? Again, the driver stopped next to the car. 

g) repeating again. Has the lawyer ever seen a truck?

h) warning? signal and honk? or maybe turn all his lights on?

i) Traffic signals? No comment.

j) How about some more repitition

k) fail in care and skills - Insults

m) unexpected, without warning. Hmm. 

n) vehicle in proper condition. The truck is still running after 2 and a half years. The company takes care of it, MTO inspects it regularly. Who is Mr Lawyer to coem up with these allegations?

o) consumption of alcohol or drugs? He drink less than a bottle of beer a month. On celebrations and then I drive. Drugs? Never seen them, don't even know the names.

INSULT

p) incompetent lacking of skills - Really? He has driven some kind of an over sized vehicle in the past 30 years. No major accidents or problems. He can maneuver in places not many driver even attempt to enter.

INSULT

q) repetition. Insult to the company. 

Oh yes, r) any or all - take your pick!

Lovely list on all the things you can suffer of after someone scratches your car. Specially when at the time of the accident nothing could be detected. All the physical, mental and psychological trauma that makes you incapable of working, enjoying life, even looking after yourself. Permanent pain and therapies for a long-long time.

Oh, and after all this you and your lawyer is eager to settle out of court for 50 K. That you have sued for almost a million? Money is money. And you all knew it's cheaper to settle then go through all the legal pain and expenses.

You WON!

Did you for just a few moments ever think about the driver and his family? His work place is the roads. He tries to do his best and keep his good records up. 

This Claim was settled and paid for a few months when on a Saturday morning this was served to the family. It was a long weekend and there was to be a celebration. The claim was dated 6 months earlier, that was strange. After it almost ruined our weekend, we called the company that told us it is over and done with, it was settled. So what was this serving papers and finding the driver at his home address when it was supposed to be between the company, the insurance company and the lawyers. All business addresses. Why did they have to disturb the driver on his only day off? Did they care that this driver had been the only supporter of his family for tho whole years and this way he was ten times more careful than anybody else? That he takes pride on his work and work ethics? 

No. It was a WIN FALL.

Life giving vital Water

H2O, clear, transparent, pure, non-complicated.

We can live without it for a few days but during summer heat waves we pass out in a few hours without it. Do you have enough of this life maintaining potion? Our body is 65-70% water that we should maintain. (Watermelon is 95%.)

Test yourself. Look at the colour of your urine each time you go to the bathroom. It needs to look bright yellow with no smell. Coffee, alcohol and some meat creates foul odour. 

We feel down, lousy, tired, and sluggish when we lack of it. 

So WATER IS YOUR SECOND BEST MEDICATION. (Air is the first, when you feel down, you should take deep breaths.)

After you took some deep breaths and had a glass or two of clear water, see how you feel. Most of the time you have no need to reach for head ache pills or coffee. (Coffee would dry you out even more so you need to pair it with some more water)

So when we should be drinking it?

After you get up, you break the fast by not eating first but having a glass of water. A good way to hydrate yourself is having some tea with your breakfast. Tea contains some caffeine but has a much longer lasting effect than coffee. 

After getting up              a glass

before each meal           a glass

with snacks                    a glass

before and after exercise a glass

with drying drinks like coffee and alcohol 

on a hot day sip as you go

and finally before you go to bed. Remember, you will be "fasting" for about 7-9 hours. 

Did you notice I didn't tell you how much you should be drinking? You hear often the 8 cups (2 liters) amount.

This is just like any average amount, rarely works out exactly that way. It depends on the weather, your activity level, and what you eat. Fruits contain 80-95% water, some vegetables have high content as well. A nice clear broth soup will help your intake.

Unfortunately the traditional truck-stop food is the driest as well. Sweets, hamburgers, sausages, fries, buns, bread, with heavy gravy doesn't help your body. So if you want to order poutine, my deepest condolences to your body. You surely just eat for the taste not because you need it. Specially when you wash this meal with coffee after.

So give you body the best food, medication or substance it needs. AIR and WATER.

For your Health!

Thank God a Truck Scratched my car - Free Win-fall!

A trucker is just on the way to deliver your toilet paper and paper towels to your local Walmart. It is getting a bit too close to you (or the other way around?) You both stop and you start yelling: "Do you want to kill me?"  You show him the scratches on your car. Can you see what you have done? Your girlfriend is really getting onto it. She yells and screams and at the end she bites the trucker's finger. It bleeds. You want to know all about the company because they will pay for the damages to the car! You just neglect the fact that there are no residues found on the truck and the scratch was probably caused by your girlfriend when she wanted to park. Heck, these are just minor details. 

You hit the Jackpot because a truck got too close to you! Now you can finally balance your checkbook. You already checked out a lawyer firm that would represent you. 

Would you stop to consider that the trucker is a person with feelings and has 50 more hours to drive this week? That he drives 12-14 hours a day on roads where drivers make it a sport not to signal or change 3 lanes at ones. They have to deal with all of us recreational drivers day in and out and swallow their frustration. Their wives and children are waiting for them at the end of the week after they will have driven 70 hours that week. 36 hours later they can be back on the road again.

Maybe you could start treating them as human beings and appreciate the work they are doing for you and for all of us. Oh yes, and try to climb up to a truck and see the world from up there. You will be surprised how hard it is for them to see your little car if you get too close.

Maybe we all need to learn new words in our vocabulary like compassion and integrity or decency. Right, mister compassionate lawyers?

WHAT HE DOESN'T HAVE DURING THE WEEK

Let's talk about the drinks and food he doesn't have during the week.

Why does he limit himself? He doesn't want to gain fat just lean muscle to get stronger. It is very hard to do on the road.

He never goes to a fast food place. So no coffee at all. The 3 whites are out: no milk, no white flour based food, (no bread at all on the road.) and no white sugar. I don't think he ever needed to sweeten anything at all ever during the week. 

He eats fish during the week and some chicken. No pork or beef on the road.

No traditional side dishes like rice or potatoes either baked or fried. No chips.

No donuts or cookies or other traditional desserts.

Only the food that is listed on the side. And it's enough. He won't get hungry, and won't feel sluggish while digesting all day. 

Happy Longer Life!

Nuts and Seed Mix

My Trucker keeps a container of this mix next to him so when he really needs to munch on something, he has goodies to reach for.
You can buy mixes ready made but I do not recommend them. They are salty, have some dried fruit that is high in sugar calories that you don't need when doing a sitting job.
I buy unsalted, raw or roasted on low heat so the heat doesn't kill the goodness of the nuts.
Now remember, although nuts and seeds are very important for their good fat, protein and vitamin-mineral content, they are high in calories so you only need a handful a day.
He mixes Brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and filberts.
I also recommend some walnuts into your mix.
In one day you are advised to have up to 20 almonds or 9 walnuts or 5 Brazil nuts.
So he has a few of each every day to keep a nice balanced diet.
For Your Health!

A Salad a Day

My Trucker has a nice mixed salad with some tuna or eggs every day.

What we need: 

1 bag of Romaine mix (short cuts here we go)

1 bag of coleslaw mix

1 small bag of carrot, cauliflower and broccoli mix

grape tomatoes

1 bunch of green onions

He eats his salad on a paper plate in his car, so our challenge is to prepare the salad upside down so when he transfers it onto his plate, it looks right.

I make 5 portions.

I lay some coleslaw on the bottom, put 4 grape tomatoes in, cut up the green onion and divide them between the salads, cut some broccoli, cauliflower and carrot rings.

I finish it up with the romaine mix on top of each.

He doesn't need any salad dressing because he uses the liquid in the tuna. At times he keeps some olive oil in the truck and uses a spoonful on the salad.

Yummy! And I am not kidding!

Eggs and Cheese

I make 14 hard boiled eggs and put 2 in each spinach puree (4 portions all together) and 6 just separately.
He has 1 hard boiled eggs a day with or without a salad.
We get nice cheese he likes and cut it into 1 oz pieces. (Size of your thumb)
He munches on 1 a day.

Spinach Puree with Eggs

I buy frozen spinach (300 grams) and I cook it from frozen in a cup of water for an extra 15 minutes after it nicely melted.
I only put some chicken soup base in.
After it cooled down, I blend it and put it in containers. It makes 2 portions.
I put 2 hard boiled eggs into it. Good hot or cold.
Enjoy.

Cabbage Soup

The main challenge is not to use any oil or greasy stuff in soup. That doesn't taste good if it needs to be consumed cold. Otherwise this soup is almost as great cold or hot.
 I use filtered water for everything that will be consumed by us.
We use the following but feel free to add whatever vegetables you might have at home.
1 red onion
1 bag of coleslaw mix (yes, short cut again)
Some carrots, broccoli and cauliflower,
a tomato,
a potato (cut up)
The followings have healthy properties:
leeks, green onion, bell pepper, celery, parsley.
You can use some of your favourite spices as well.
I let it simmer for a good hour when I add some soup base to it for taste.
When it cooled down, I put some into a container and I blend the rest. He likes the soup in a container for the first day but then the following days he drinks it from a bottle on the road. So after all is blended (I put in the onion and all) I put it in bottles (400 ml) and cool it further. I would have the left over for myself. Healthy and good for your waistline.

Cottage Cheese Delight

Cottage cheese is very good for you but the regular tub of it is far from the thing our taste buds could appreciate. So we use a different kind of cottage cheese.

Soak a half a cup of raisins in filtered water.
We use Pressed Dry Cottage Cheese (Western, 500g)
In a medium bowl we mash the cottage cheese with a fork.
Add some sour cream until the texture is smooth.
Add honey to sweeten, add raisins. (Experiment with the taste, too sweet is not good for you)
For extra indulgence we add chocolate powder and sweetened coconut to it.
Other times we add shaved chocolate or small M&Ms.
Keep it in fridge.

This fills two 500 ml containers. He just has 2 tablespoons at a time to satisfy his need for a dessert.

Easy-to-make Cold Fruit Soup

You could use real fruit but to make it easy on myself through the years, I have been using canned fruit. 

We like the following blend of fruit:

  1 can of peach slices in light syrup (saving on the cutting up)

  1 can of pear (I could only find halves so I quickly slices them)

  1 small can of apricot (Also halves so slicing is good)

  1 jar of red sour pitted cherries in light syrup (I get it from the international isle because it is from either   

       Hungary or Croatia - Go Hungarians!)

  1 jar of apple sauce

 When I use all the fruit and the syrup, I only need to add a cup or two filtered water. 

I add 2 tablespoon of sugar or honey 

a dash of cinnamon and ground cloves.

I bring it to boil and the meantime I mix 1 tablespoon of flour with 2 tablespoon of 1% sour cream for thickness.

I add a few tablespoon of liquid from the pot to nicely smooth the flour in.

After boiling I add the thickening mix and stir it in. When it boils again I remove the foam and turn off the heat.

After it cooled down in the pot I portion it out and and keep it in the fridge. It's great cold!

My boys love it too.

If you use the 796ml cans of peach, pear and apple sauce, it makes 9 portions of about 450 ml each.

He takes 5 for the road.

Liquid food

We tend to think that if something is drinkable, we call it a drink. If we need to use a spoon or fork to eat or we need to chew on it, we call it food.

Well, sorry to burst your bubble but it isn't so at all. Probably after my last two posts you can guess that I will tell you that your only drink is water. Liquid mixes are there for you to enjoy but has nothing to do with what is good for you.

So if you drink milk or pure fruit juice, you drink or eat?

Milk, fruit or vegetable juice, soy, rice or almond drinks are actually considered food.

So what is food than? Food supplies your body with nutrition (carbohydrates, proteins, fat) and necessary vitamins and minerals. In that sense it doesn't matter how you take it; blended, stirred or shaken, cup-of-soup, from a glass, from a bowl, from a plate, with a spoon, knife or chopsticks.

So you have your coffee with triple milk and some fruit juice?

Enjoy your meal.

Drinks other than water

I praised water in my previous post and it is my belief that water (or tea without anything in it) is our only real drink. 

Of course cafes and drink companies would like you to think otherwise. They come up with new flavors, new packaging, hot or cold, sweet or bitter, any way you like it.

Just Remember: DRINK IS TO HELP YOUR BLOOD SUPPLY YOUR CELLS WITH OXYGEN AND NUTRITION. IT IS ONLY the NON-CALORIC WATER.

Anything else only caters to your taste buds and gives you pleasure. They have nothing to do with quenching your thirst. Actually, most of them dry you out. Like coffee or alcoholic drinks, you should actually drink a glass of water along with them to keep your body in good order. 

So you are welcome to have some coffee or ginger ale or a beer on the weekend just be aware - you don't drink it because you need it.

They are not all without benefits though.

Coffee has some beneficial oils when it is fresh like a nice espresso always freshly brewed. Timmy's Always Fresh is only good for you if you drink it within the 20 minutes it was made not just sold to you within that time. Adding sugar - just for your taste buds, adding milk - could be OK (see my next post about liquid food), adding creme - well, sorry, that can even hurt you. 

Wine, oh, yes, it's great if you drink no more than a glass a day. Resveratrol naturally found in wine is proven to be good for your cardiovascular system. But don't buy into the hype to get it in supplements.

What about fruit drinks? Sorry that has nothing to do with your thirst either. It has a lot of sugar you don't need but no real fruit. Just so called empty calories you don't need. 

All in all stick with water and water rich fruit and vegetables and enjoy the rest at you own guilt.

I personally love my espresso and my glass of wine on occasions.

Cheeers.

Home made yogurt

You can buy yogurt makers at different price range, I bought Total Chef Yogurt maker for 30 some dollars.

I buy yogurt starter called  Yogourmet from Rainbow Natural store (kept in the fridge). It takes an hour to heat up the milk and cool it to room temperature and then another 11 hours in the maker. I keep it there overnight. You can put flavors in it but we like it natural with blueberries. (I put 10-14 pieces and some chocolate shave in each, depending on the size. 

When he is ready to eat it, he migh puts in some ALL BRAN Buds (11 grams of fibre per portion, 3 grams of protein) 

Green drink

You need : 1 field cucumber
                  3 handful of spinach leaves (I buy them in a bag, cleaned, not the baby - that's too expensive)
                  1 green apple
                  1/2 orange
                  1 banana
                  1 lemon
                  1 stalk of celery
                  some parsley
                  a bit of ginger
                  I use honey to sweeten
You need a blender and small juice bottles 250-300 ml each

Clean all ingredients. Peel and chop field cucumber, green apple, orange and banana. Chop up celery.
I buy tube of ginger and parsley to be kept in the fridge or the freezer. So I only need a medium size squeeze from each.
I squeeze the lemon juice.
I put some spinach leaves and the chopped up ingredients into the blender. I add a cup of filtered water and the lemon juice with a good squeeze of honey, the ginger and the parsley. I top it up with spinach leaves and blend it all together.

I fill up the plastic juice bottles. I chill them for about 15 minutes in the freezer just because it needs to be cold to keep. After that I transfer the bottles to the fridge.
I know that the juice would be best fresh every day but what can a trucker do?

Our weekend routine

Our time together is very short and precious. My Trucker comes home early Friday afternoon and leaves home at 11 am on Sunday. You see, he's not even home for 2 days. We need to squeeze in some family time, some our time, some entertainment, some time to do his workouts. But most importantly, we need to prepare everything for his following work week. Oh yes, he needs to catch up with his sleep after working different times of the day during the week. So as strange as it is, we relax on Friday night and do most of our work Saturday night. It used to be very demanding but by now we worked out all the details and work together to prepare.

I will start with his menu for the week. it takes about 4-5 hours and I integrate it into my weekend cooking so my workload is not more than it is necessary.  He cuts the fruit and vegetables for the green drink, my son makes the cottage cheese delight mix, and other small tasks, I make the soup, spinach and the yogurt and the blending. So it is a true team work.

What he takes:

Soup - 1 for every day - cold fruit soup or cabbage and vegetable soup or pea soup

Yogurt - 1 for every day - home made, with blueberries

Cooked spinach with 2 eggs - 3 portions

Cottage cheese blend - 4 x 500 ml container

Green drink - 5 small bottles

Salad mix - one for every day

Mini carrots to munch on

Cooked eggs - 6

Cheese portions - 6

He buys 3 different apples about 10 each with a small container of grapes or strawberries for the road.

He fills up his pill case with vitamins and supplements.

He takes ginger candies.

He keeps his canned of tuna and sardines in the truck.
There is a small container of nuts beside him in the truck as well as some gums.

He keeps some protein bars and small bits of dark chocolate there too.

He takes at least 12 bottles of 500 ml water with him to drink.
2 liters of tap water to rinse the containers. (We reuse the food containers)