Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Check out the little red symbol in the ad for ground beef. I didn't see it with any ads for hearthealthywholegrain products. Click to enlarge. Sprouts sale flyer. Not Photoshopped. Sticker shock? Ask the butcher for some grass-fed fat to add to your burger.

Carb Control Works Again Something that just happened makes me wonder how often low carb diets "stop working" for people because they don't realize the extent of their carb creep. The scale and the clothes-o-meter told me last week that I was gaining weight. I had to face the idea that I can't eat peanut M&Ms without gaining. weight. Just by cutting out my few handfuls of M&Ms every day, I'm down four pounds. That doesn't sound like much, but on me, it makes the difference between having a flat belly and having the beginning of a pot belly. What really struck me, though, was how much better I felt. Once again, I can run on six hours' sleep. My head feels clearer and I've started on projects I meant to do months ago. A coworker happened to give up the M&Ms at the same time and noticed how much better she felt, too. As she put it, you know all that sugar has to be bad for you if you feel so much better without it. Who Says Thanksgiving

I just spent five hours playing video games, by myself, and I don't regret it. I don't want my five hours back to sit on a bar stool, talk about Breaking Bad, watch whatever game is on with other fans, or do something, anything, else with another person. Constant company for a good life is one more piece of conventional wisdom I've scuttled. I like going home and bolting the door. I like to read, think, watch Netflix, play with my dog, and putter around the yard. None of this requires another person. I don't keep up with the Joneses and nobody gives me a hard time about much of anything. I've read that being alone is as bad for you as smoking, but as we like to say, correlation isn't causation. Even if it is in this case, I'll take my own company and take my chances. If you're lonely, I empathize. I've been there. But not all of us loners want company. If togetherness is so good, why have houses gotten so much bigger and households so much small

Why didn't I think of this before? Yesterday, while munching on a carrot, some of the carrot got stuck in my throat. Realizing that this never happens when I eat vegetables with butter, mayonnaise or salad dressing, I had the bright idea to put a pat of butter in my mouth and let nature take its course. It greased my throat and the carrot went down. As a preventive measure, I find taking a magnesium supplement helps. (I take 200 mg of magnesium glycinate daily.) Magnesium is needed for proper involuntary muscle function: it's a standard cure for constipation, and doctors give it to patients having a heart attack.

Why didn't I think of this before? The structural strength of an object is affected by its shape. Think of an I-beam or a piece of paper folded accordion style. This could be held in place with metal stakes and reinforced with triangular wood braces to keep my dog out. The perimeter has concrete and flagstones around it. This will be far cheaper and easier than portable fencing. (I haven't gotten any further than the one panel I built.)

Are people panicking on stationary bikes? You'd think so from the signs in window of a local gym: "Keep Calm and Cycle On." Is the human equivalent of an exercise wheel so stimulating that people need a reminder to keep their wits about them? Maybe it's reverse psychology: up until now, it's been all about pumping us up with motivation a la Richard Simmons to keep up a routine that's as exciting as proofreading retirement plan financial statements. What some people really need is encouragement to continue avoiding carbs in the face of low-fat fuddy-duddies or the Atkins flu. I'm not a fan of motivational fluff, but someone in delicate health could really be frightened by low-carb scare studies and misguided advice to avoid fat. A pithy phrase might help more than a lecture on glycation, endocrinology or lipoproteins. Suggestions: Keep calm and keto on Keep calm and Kerrygold on Keep calm and tallow on Keep calm and Grok on

Some scenes from the Denver Chicken Coop Tour: The owner built top nesting boxes because the chickens couldn't find the lower ones. A simple run from scrap material. A run for a manicured yard. The Chicken Plaza. The view from my house isn't as nice as the view from this chicken house. I'm still working on my own chicken jungle. It's not a unique concept--one place on the tour provided so much cover for the chickens in the form of lamb's quarters (a weed) and a tree that the chickens could free range. After the heavy rains last week, the ground was soft enough to dig trenches around the chicken area so that I could put wire fencing below the ground to keep predators (such as my dog) from tunneling their way to a chicken dinner. While I was at it, I collected the earth worms and started a worm bin to compost kitchen scraps and junk mail and have some protein for the chickens. But as the worms go for $20 a pound, I may sell them instead--as s