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I’m a big fan of a varied diet and I have to admit that I love food and I love to eat. Going out to a restaurant is always a fun adventure and I try to order different things off the menus to expand my culinary horizons. Of course, there are some places where I have my favorites and then it is a toss up if I will stick with the familiar that I know I love or take a chance and try something new.

This time of year looking good is even more important when the clothes you wear are shorter and more revealing than what you wear in the winter. Sorry to say that tee shirts and even golf shirts are very unforgiving about showing all the love handles and belly bulges that most middle age guys are carrying around with them. On the plus side, there are plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit for fresh salads and grilling, and it is easier to get exercise when the days are longer and the weather more conducive for outdoor activities.

Maybe I’m in denial, but I believe that eating right and getting exercise will be the best things I can do to maintain a healthy weight. And I don’t consider myself overweight, but I would like to lose a few pounds, maybe those 10-15 pounds that have been creeping up on me these past couple years. And then I ran into a guy that I used to work with at the real estate company and, holy cow! He’s lost a lot of weight and he really looks good! I had to ask him what he’s done to drop about 60 pounds since I saw him last, and he told me that he had gone on the Medifast diet. Well, that’s the first real life testimonial I’ve heard about a good diet plan and that really got my interest. If John can lose 60 pounds on the Medifast diet, then surely I can lose 15 pounds the same way.

In fact, John has inspired me to get serious about a diet and getting back into shape. I checked out the web site called “Weight Loss Diet Help” and read through the different top diet plans that they profiled on the site, like Nutrisystem and Weight Watchers. I was especially interested in what they had to say about the Medifast diet and it sounds good to me. A deal clincher for that diet was the links from this website to money saving coupons by entering a Medifast coupon discount code. So now I can save money and lose weight with a diet plan that I have a lot of confidence will work for me.

At the grocery store tonight there was a sign on the freezer doors in the vegetable sections saying that due to acts of nature and circumstances beyond their control, there will be shortage of frozen broccoli and possibly other vegetables this summer.

I’m not sure where the top broccoli producing states may be and what acts of nature were involved, but I suspect that with all the flooding in the Midwest these past couple weeks and the fires in California, there may well be shortages of other vegetables and fruit later this summer.

On a good note, there are plenty of cantalopes and they are wonderfully sweet and at a great price this week. I plan on eating fresh cantalope daily while this bounty is here in our local stores. And my tomato plants are producing 2-3 ripe tomatoes every day. Last night we dined on BLTs and they’ve never tasted better.

Night time sure brings out the critters in our neighborhood.

I was freaked out to discover there is a family of skunks living amongst us. I took out one of the dogs for a late night potty break and ran up on them in the driveway. It is an obvious mother skunk with 4 babies, although the babies aren’t tiny - they are about half the size of the mother. They are the weird mostly white color of skunks. Not like the Pepe Le Peu cartoon skunk that is almost all black with just a little white stripe. These skunks are about half white. At least that makes them easier to see in the dark - so I turned a 180 and cut short the potty break.

This morning we detailed the yard and got up any and all trash or food source that they could get into and I replaced the lightbulb at the back door so we don’t walk out of the basement in the dark and unexpectedly encounter Mama Pepe or any of her brood.

Talking with a friend from college days, we were exchanging stories of kids draining our pocketbooks and some of their recent misadventures. You know, sharing gripes and exchanging sympathies. That’s what friends are for.

Her latest worry is that her son has reluctantly disclosed his last girlfriend has suffered a miscarriage, and shortly after that she broke up with him. Well, that is sad news and I’m sure has been distressful for him and her both, and his mother was confiding in me that she wasn’t quite sure if the baby was even his. What I brought to her attention was that if there was any chance the baby was his, then it is obvious that he is not using protection during his sexual encounters and she needs to bring this up with him again.

In a way, even more important than preventing an unplanned pregnancy is the exposure to STDs. I hope I have got that message through to my own kids, but you can never be sure that they listen to you. I have a web site to share with her and then probably my son about STDs and protecting yourself and your partner. It’s pretty adult oriented, so be aware if you choose to click over to it. Since the younger generation is all about videos, this site has STD Videos to present the important information in a format they will embrace.

It’s a brand new site. Here’s the press release that I read:

Press Release:

When Sex Health Guru (www.SexHealthGuru.com) went live today, it became the first website of its kind in more ways than one. Most online health websites are focused on the baby boomer generation and rely upon the oldest media – text. By contrast, SexHealthGuru.com is built around new media – video content – and was created for an overlooked portion of the online health market – 18 to 40 year olds.
Effective communication with this demographic requires a different approach then the formulaic one typically taken by traditional health websites. While the content still needs to be built on a foundation of easy-to-understand expert information, it is only relevant to this audience if it’s presented in an engaging, media-friendly format.
Sex Health Guru offers over 200 videos in categories including Birth Control, STDs, Sex Health, Sex Skills, and Sex 101. These videos were created to entertain as well as inform, and deliver an enjoyable viewing experience, on par with the best short-form web clips in entertainment. Even so, every video is hosted by a medical expert, like an OB-GYN, and provides valuable information in a straightforward, easy-to-understand format.
Although SexHeathGuru.com is a new website, this is not the first foray into web video for FullTurn Media, the site’s parent company. FullTurn Media, through the illumistream health brand, is already the largest provider of health video on the web, with over 30 million video views in each of the last two months.
In the wake of the recent CDC study which concluded that 26% of American teenage girls have an STD, FullTurn Media CEO Joshua Silberstein said, “Sex education in the United States isn’t working. People need easy access to accurate, unbiased information about STDs and birth control. More than that – they need that information in a format that will resonate with them.” Sex Health Guru (www.sexhealthguru.com) may be a real first step towards that vision.
About FullTurn Media
FullTurn Media produces and distributes “expert-centric” short-form video content under the illumistream health and SexHealthGuru brand names, and has a library of over 750 videos. Each video features a doctor or relevant expert, and answers a complex question in a straightforward manner. The videos are developed in a dynamic, engaging format, and organized into easily accessible series.
Contact: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Joshua Silberstein, FullTurn Media
Phone: 917-804-5728
JSilberstein@fullturnmedia.com

They say, “a cat has nine lives.”

They call musicians, “cats.”

I wonder if musicians have nine lives?

Or is there some other meaning to Steve Winwood’s newest album, “Nine Lives”? Has Steve gone through 8 of them already and this is his last? Scary thought, especially if he believes that. There is nothing in the liner notes - yes, I read all the liner notes in every album - to explain the title of this album. I don’t get it - so I’m going to have to dig deeper.

Steve Winwood and his songwriting partner, Godwin, wrote every song on the album. There’s only 9 songs on the album - a little light on the load for today’s typical CD. On the other CDs that I bought today, there are 13 on Willie’s, 11 on John’s, and 14 on Tom’s. (Can you guess the last names of these 3? I’ll talk about those in other posts, so read on, my friends. Heh heh.) So I guess Steve is having us pay for quality - not quantity.

On the first track, Steve plays all the instruments himself. But the reason I bought the album, unheard, is that I know his good friend, Eric Clapton plays a kick ass guitar solo on the song, “Dirty City.” This is depressing look at a working man’s life with an odd upbeat, and it lasts 7 minutes 44 seconds. Another great bathroom break song for the radio DJs, and my favorite of all the tracks.