Lifestyle Blogs (2,464)

Eco-friendly creation helps in keeping us connected with nature.

From the time you're born, through childhood, when you spent all day playing, eating, sleeping, being cuddled, fussed over, treated like you're so special, til young adulthood when you fall in love and have sex, all Summer off from school, don't have to work, hang out with lots of friends, parties, play sports, go away to camp, the list is endless. Then you start on a rewarding career, start making lots of money, buy a new sports car, meet a great partner, have beautiful kids, buy your own house. Then the kids grow to adulthood, they meet that special person and move out and start their own family. One day, becomes hard to tell from the day before, your knees start to hurt, your partner isn't that young hottie he/she use to be but starts to get wrinkles, puts on weight, You remember what they looked like when you met and you try to find some similarity but it gets more difficult every year. Your kids have kids who call you Grandpa or Grandma. All your friends are either dead or far away waiting to die, or you don't even know where the hell they are or even if they're still alive. You don't go to parties or make love or play sports or hang out at the candy store. Your wife or husband gets Cancer and passes away and you find yourself all alone. Everything you did that you enjoyed is gone.

It's about this time when you start to think about the life you use to have, and you realize that life is kind of backwards. You don't get your reward after paying a lifetime of dues, it's given to you in advance. It's not like waiting for Christmas morning when you can open your presents, you already got your presents.... but you didn't even know it.
Until now.
Now, when it's too late to appreciate them. When all that's left is slowly slipping away.
I wish somebody told me about this when I was 5 years old. I think I probably would have done things a lot differently knowing that I was going to lose it all one day. I wouldn't have taken life for granted and I wouldn't have squandered the things I had that wasn't going to last forever,
Time, Youth, and Health.

Just something that crossed my mind...what if the internet itself is like a form of AI and it is...well, I won't say controlling us, but maybe has some control over us.

Think about how much it influences us in our lives.
If you think about it, it is sort of bringing us into an alternative reality.
Perhaps even controlled by some sort of artificial intelligence....if you consider how many bots they claim are on Twitter.
Gradually, we are being taken away from the scent of a flower, a view of a river flowing....to listen to podcasts, check our social media accounts....addicted to our phones.

We are becoming immersed. We own nothing...and are happy.

#Changing your lifestyle could be a big step toward diabetes prevention — and it's never too late to start. Consider these tips.

Lifestyle changes can help prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. Prevention is especially important if you're currently at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes because of excess weight or obesity, high cholesterol, or a family history of diabetes.
If you have been diagnosed with prediabetes — high blood sugar that doesn't reach the threshold of a diabetes diagnosis — lifestyle changes can prevent or delay the onset of disease.
Making a few changes in your lifestyle now may help you avoid the serious health complications of diabetes in the future, such as nerve, kidney and heart damage. It's never too late to start.
1. Lose extra weight
Losing weight reduces the risk of diabetes. People in one large study reduced their risk of developing diabetes by almost 60% after losing approximately 7% of their body weight with changes in exercise and diet.
The American Diabetes Association recommends that people with prediabetes lose at least 7% to 10% of their body weight to prevent disease progression. More weight loss will translate into even greater benefits.
Set a weight-loss goal based on your current body weight. Talk to your doctor about reasonable short-term goals and expectations, such as a losing 1 to 2 pounds a week.
2. Be more physically active
There are many benefits to regular physical activity. Exercise can help you:
Lose weight
Lower your blood sugar
Boost your sensitivity to insulin — which helps keep your blood sugar within a normal range
Goals for most adults to promote weight loss and maintain a healthy weight include:
Aerobic exercise. Aim for 30 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise — such as brisk walking, swimming, biking or running — on most days for a total of at least 150 minutes a week.
Resistance exercise. Resistance exercise — at least 2 to 3 times a week — increases your strength, balance and ability to maintain an active life. Resistance training includes weightlifting, yoga and calisthenics.
Limited inactivity. Breaking up long bouts of inactivity, such as sitting at the computer, can help control blood sugar levels. Take a few minutes to stand, walk around or do some light activity every 30 minutes.
3. Eat healthy plant foods
Plants provide vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates in your diet. Carbohydrates include sugars and starches — the energy sources for your body — and fiber. Dietary fiber, also known as roughage or bulk, is the part of plant foods your body can't digest or absorb.
Fiber-rich foods promote weight loss and lower the risk of diabetes. Eat a variety of healthy, fiber-rich foods, which include:
Fruits, such as tomatoes, peppers and fruit from trees
Nonstarchy vegetables, such as leafy greens, broccoli and cauliflower
Legumes, such as beans, chickpeas and lentils
Whole grains, such as whole-wheat pasta and bread, whole-grain rice, whole oats, and quinoa
The benefits of fiber include:
Slowing the absorption of sugars and lowering blood sugar levels
Interfering with the absorption of dietary fat and cholesterol
Managing other risk factors that affect heart health, such as blood pressure and inflammation
Helping you eat less because fiber-rich foods are more filling and energy rich
Avoid foods that are "bad carbohydrates" — high in sugar with little fiber or nutrients: white bread and pastries, pasta from white flour, fruit juices, and processed foods with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup.
4. Eat healthy fats
Fatty foods are high in calories and should be eaten in moderation. To help lose and manage weight, your diet should include a variety of foods with unsaturated fats, sometimes called "good fats."
Unsaturated fats.
#Do you wanna Try the-POWERFUL Blood And Sugar Support? INBOX ME- FOR MORE DETAILS.

The CS blog community has a (relatively) recent arrival who writes some nice blogs and doesn't appear to have any personality quirks that are often found with members of online communities.
That said, I'm guilty of only reading her blogs and not being a contributor with comments.
My thoughts are many of you... like me, are holding back to contributing to her blogs.
Is it the material not relevant to me... maybe yes and maybe no.
Or is it 'blog apathy' from the group to someone they know little about?
That's what blogs are about... letting people know about you and the things you are interested in.
She did a marathon sweep of her blog comments last night and I'm curious to start reading her material with more interest.

It is my 40th birthday in September so I am taking a trip to the Grand Canyon on the 20th of this month.

My car mechanic informed me that in order to take the trip I will need 4 brand new tires which my father has volunteered to pay for. Thank God because tires are expensive. I will be driving so my mechanic recommended all 4 tires be replaced.

I’ve never taken a trip out of state alone so that’s a reason why my father has obliged to pay for my tires. He is encouraging me to take this trip. I couldn’t ask for better parents.

If I was younger I would be terrified to take this trip alone but since I’m an old fart now I have no fear whatsoever. I would just like some advice from some older wiser folks here about taking trips alone.

So far I have secured a hotel in Williams, Arizona. A city just below the Grand Canyon. It was cheaper than the Air BnB that I was eyeballing. Arizona is cheaper than California I’m noticing.

Anyway any travelers here are welcome to give me advice as this is the first time I will take a trip and trek out of state alone. I have already secured a ticket for my vehicle to enter the Grand Canyon as well.

Thank you in advance.

P.S. I chose to go this month instead of September because a lot can change in our country in 4 months. Might as well go now.

Driving doesn’t come naturally to me: 4.5 months of no-driving made me insecure and cautious, even only at the start. But as soon as my hands felt the paddle, I didn’t have to control my movements. They happened automatically. As if they were waiting all this time just for this moment: to get the grip and start paddling. It felt like liberation. Like the piece, previously missing in my life, at last fell on its place.

Saw a heron. Saw 2 female eiders with 5 or 6 tiny eiderlings and a couple of gees with their newly hatched goslings: so small, it’s difficult to count at the distance and against the sun. Saw a pair of swains mating: there will be small singlets in a couple of weeks.

Paddled and drifted with the elements and then paddled again. Saw no seal.

Overbrimmed with happiness and already longing for the next time

May I start a new month with you?
I submitted my quarterly corporate tax returns yesterday... before the deadline.
Corporate and personal taxes are on extension.
Nothing new.

After many years of studying, then working, then studying, then working, then studying & working at the same time, followed by a lack of work but more studying, then some more working, more studying & working, and then more working…:D, I decided to retire from it all.

I ‘adopted’ a puppy, and had plans of lazing around the house, and doing whatever I felt like doing/not doing, such as tutoring students privately, teaching English online, visiting people and places at home and travelling to countries that I’ve always wanted to see.

I didn’t plan on having all that being ‘interrupted’ by COVID, but that is indeed what happened. Its initial devastation had put such a ‘cloud of depression’ over everything that I’d experienced of, and expected from life, that I thought my retirement plans would never be realized.

But, thanks to God, the ‘cloud’ is lifting, and hopefully my retirement plans may still be realized. Wouldn’t it be a shame, that after spending so much of my earlier life on the ‘hamster wheel’ chasing after personal “achievements”, I spend even less time enjoying the fruits of my efforts?

I think that if even I laze a lot, and get some travelling done (maybe next year), I’d be enjoying some of what a “retirement” ought to be…:)

When I worked at a grocery store as a cashier about 29-30 years ago, I remember an older nice gentleman who I would see from time to time in the store waiting to be checked out. He was a regular customer, and I remember hearing that him and his wife would sit out in their car outside in the store parking lot almost every day and "people watch". I thought this was strange, but I thought maybe it was a rumor. Well, when I would come to work in the late afternoon hours, their they would sat, in their car watching people. I chalked it up to them just being very lonely, and enjoyed the "people watching".

Have any stories of anyone you know of strange behaviors?

Do you have any strange quirks?