Walking for Weight Loss

     Conventional wisdom states that to lose weight you need to eat less and exercise more. Although recent science has given us a more complex picture of what actually happens when we try to lose weight, this is still the best overall advice. There are exceptions, such as hormonal imbalances, that will complicate the situation. But the simple fact is that, for the most part, you can't fight physics.

Do You Have Aphantasia?

 

    Aphantasia is a condition in which one is unable to form mental images on demand. Persons with this condition, when asked to close their eyes and picture an apple, have the experience of number 5 in the above picture. I recently discovered that I have aphantasia. It was, to put it mildly, shocking.

Style for the Older Man

 

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in Society."

 -Mark Twain

    American Gigolo was single handedly responsible for making Giorgio Armani a household name in America. This particular scene sparked my lifelong interest in menswear, dressing well and looking "put together." Although my tastes have changed over the years, I still prefer dressing up rather than down. 

Weight Loss and Motivation

     I love food. Always have and always will. From an early age my brother and I were always fed a diet of meat, poultry, fish, a lot of vegetables, and small amounts of starch and carbohydrates, which was mostly at dinner and usually brown rice. We took sack lunches to school, which were always the same: a sandwich on Roman Meal whole wheat bread, an apple, some carrots or celery, and an Archway whole wheat cookie. After-school snacks were, as you might expect, carrots, celery, apples. We never had potato chips, packaged pastries, or candy in the house. On the infrequent ocassions we went out to eat it was nearly always to one of two places: Sizzler steak house, or an all-you-can-eat buffet called Sir George's Smorgasboard. At the latter my father would always say when we entered and got in line, "Don't fill up on bread!" 

On Long Walks

    I've been an avid walker for many years, although I had a period of jogging for about 2 years--a story for another day. Aside from the obvious benefit of physical activity, there is the vitamin D produced by sunlight. This is especially important as you age since your kidneys become less effective at converting the vitamin D from sunshine into the form needed by your body.