In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want. ~ Traditional Irish toast

     Today is the day we reflect on the year past and consider the year ahead.  It is a time to set new goals, as insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.  In addition to reflection, it is a time of celebration, for whatever else, we are still here  Just to be alive is a grand thing. I wish you a strong and beautiful new year.





She Smiles, She Wonders

Beauty and sadness.

     I hope your Christmas was merry.  Mine was wonderful....as a friend of mine put it, "beautiful and sad."   Alex told a few electric jokes, but the "undercurrent" was of their absence.  Who knew we'd miss electric jokes?
     My family and I were all together in Austin this year. Thanks J and Kuldeep for hosting all of us.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather; such a contrast to home.  It was a crisp but sunny 9 degrees when I arrived at my home airport yesterday. My car actually started right up, but I had to do a fair amount of scraping of windows. This morning it was 7 degrees when I arose.  Austinites.....appreciate your weather.
     While in Austin we saw the Texas Capital and the Trail of Lights, ate out at food carts (a picnic in December), and hiked. I loved the sounds of children's laughter.
     Charleigh was absolutely wild to see me when I picked her up.  She was all over me for at least 10 minutes of jumping and pawing.  We still have a lot of work to do on her behavior, but at least she was happy I was back.
   
     
     Qu◍tables.. 

"Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store." ---Dr. Seuss

Happy Holidays to everyone.

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
                                                 Charles Dickens

Exercise with intensity, and flying monkeys.

     Here is an interesting blog from Dr. Andrew Weil.  I don't have heart disease, at least to my knowledge, but maybe this explains why years of walking my dog didn't make me more fit or help me to lose weight.... we need some degree of intensity in our exercise.

EXERCISE INTENSITY CUTS HEART DISEASE RISK

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 AT 6:44AM | POST A COMMENT | SHARE ARTICLE

You can walk for an hour a day, but that won’t necessarily affect your risk of heart disease or stroke. But walking fast or jogging is a different story, according to results of a newly published Danish study. Researchers at Bispebjerg University Hospital, in Copenhagen, followed more than 10,000 Danish adults, between the ages of 21 and 98, for 10 years looking at the amount of physical activity they performed as well as its duration and intensity. When they joined the study, one in five of the women and about one in four of the men hadmetabolic syndrome, a combination of conditions that when taken together dramatically increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. This disorder was most common among study participants who had a sedentary lifestyle. After 10 years, the researchers analyzed the data they collected on the study participants and found that walking fast cut the risk of heart disease and stroke in half; jogging cut it by 40 percent. Unfortunately, taking hour-long casual walks had no apparent effect at all. The study was published October 8, 2012 in the online journal BMJ Open.
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My Grandkids and nephews jumping on hay bales at my parents farm, Thanksgiving 2012.  Photos by Ben Johnson.

Grrrrr. The dog ate my dinner.

     I had my leftover BBQ tofu sitting on the counter while I heated my tea.  When I came back, my tofu was gone and Charleigh was skulking out of the kitchen.  Tofu?  She steals and eats tofu right after eating her own dinner.  What kind of a dog eats tofu?  The same kind of dog who eats plastic, paper, cloth and anything else within her purview.  I've got to give her credit....she left the cauliflower alone.  Looking at the photos from the Dog Shaming website lets me know that I'm not alone.

     Interesting report published just before the high-calorie holidays........
     CNN just reported on an article published in the British Medical Journal, the Lancet.  Obesity is a bigger health crisis globally than is hunger, and is the leading cause of disabilities around the world.  500 researchers in 50 countries compared health data from 1990 to 2010 for the Global Burden of Disease report.  With the exception of sub-Saharan Africa, every country faces alarming obesity rates, an increase of 82% globally since 1990.  So, obesity causes more of a health burden globally than does hunger.  The Western lifestyle is being adopted around the world and the results are the same.

Love is all you need.

     How cool is this?  Watch Pastor Terry Jones drowned out by NY crowd singing "All you need is love."

America's Health Rankings by State

     The national health rankings are out.  Every state is going backwards when it comes to health.  Colorado is ranked #11, with the lowest levels of obesity and diabetes in the country.  However, in 2012, obesity in Colorado rose from 19% to 21.4% and diabetes rose from 5.7 to 6%.
     Nebraska is ranked #15, Illinois at #30, and Texas came in at #40.  Mississippi and Louisiana are tied for 49th place and are dead last. Vermont is again #1.
     Read  more about health in your own state on the link below.  Thanks to the Healthy Eating Healthy World blog for bringing this topic to my attention.

United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings.