Hmm, That Could Be the Problem

Sweetie has been trying to drop a few pounds.

Now, considering that we've been married over 26 years, that's probably typical. After all, even though i'm thin now, after the kids i don't look the same as i did when i got married.

He is built exactly like his father, who put on 40 pounds in the 20 years after age 40, and then never really lost it, nor did he gain more. In fact, the last 17 years of his life, his weight stayed just the same, no matter how much or little he ate.

Sweetie, his father's spitting image, is on track to do the same, and he doesn't like it.

He grew up skinny. As in, 149lbs. at 6'2" skinny. And he grew up in a farming community, where in the summers he would spend from 7am to 9pm in the hay fields, throwing 100lb. bales of hay all day long.

So he grew up eating. Not only could his mother never keep him full, he and his twin brother were known throughout the community for being skinny dudes who had voracious appetites. Some days, after the aforementioned work in the hay fields, they would come home and split a whole loaf of bread and gallon of milk between the two of them, as well as eating all of whatever their mother had fixed for dinner.

Thus while his current work does require that he do some lifting and moving and carrying, he does not burn the number of calories he did when a teen. Nor does he have a teen's metabolism any more.

Now, he wants to reverse the trend of the last few years, and drop some of what he has gained. He's not obese by any means, but if he lost 25-30, he would feel better about himself. As for me, i don't care, i married him for him, not how much he weighs. He is welcome to drop a few if that would make him happy.


And he's been trying, for several months now, but without much success, which has disappointed him.

He started out by taking smaller servings of things like rice and potatoes, or skipping them altogether. He also claims he is eating less, although i haven't noticed it, but with all the appetites around here, he very well could be, and everyone else is just picking up the slack.

He says he's not losing, or not losing very fast. He's always been one to doctor up his food a little, add a bit more butter, get another bit of mayo for the sandwich, melt a little extra bacon grease into his portion of something, and i began watching to see if i could spot the problem.

Then, last night, #2 Son wanted to cook some steaks Grandpa had brought us for dinner. When he started the steaks, i started fixing a few things for sides. Sweetie decided he wanted green peas, which no one else did. When i went to get peas from the pantry, he said he would fix them himself, since he was going to be the one to eat them.

Surreptitiously watching him, i saw him open the can, drain out the water, pour the peas in a pan, mash a few of them with a fork, and then add, not a pat or two, but an entire half a stick of butter.

Well.

That could be the problem.


Today is:

Alligator Wrestling Day -- internet generated, and i wonder if a cat that doesn't want its meds counts?

Discovery Day -- Puerto Rico

Equal Opportunity Day / Dedication Day -- anniversary of the Gettysburg Address

Family Volunteer Day -- to get families working together to better their communities and the world

Flag Day -- Brazil

Garifuna Day/ Carib Settlement Day -- Belize

"Have a Bad Day" Day -- for the hidden, or not so hidden, grouch in all of us

Herring Festival -- Etaples, France

International Men's Day -- Australia; Canada; Ghana; Hungary; India; Ireland; Jamaica; Malta; Singapore; South Africa; Trinidad and Tobago; United Kingdom; United States

Kalamazoo Russian Festival -- Kalamazoo, MI, US

Liberation Day -- Mali

Natchitoches Festival of Lights -- Natchitoches, LA, US (over 350,000 lights go on every night from now until Jan, 6, with carolers on Friday and Saturday evenings downtown, festivals and events every weekend; come celebrate the season in the Oldest Settlement in the Louisiana Purchase)

National Adoption Day -- US (encouraging us to find a home for every child)

National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day

National Holiday -- Monaco

National Survivors of Suicide Day -- US

Please Maintain Your Focus Today Day -- internet generated, but a good idea

Rally of the Tall Pines -- Bancroft, ON, Canada (an event on the Canadian Rally Car Race Circuit; through the 21st)

Ranch Hand Breakfast -- King Ranch, Kingsville, TX, US (a real ranch hand meal, cooked and served outdoors, on a working cattle ranch where you can watch cowboys round up longhorns)

Remembrance Day -- Gettysburg, PA, US (in conjunction with the Gettysburg Address Anniversary)

St. Mechtilde's Day

St. Nerses' Day

St. Obadiah's Day

Surin Elephant Round-Up -- Surin, Thailand (through tomorrow; includes elephant football!)

"What Ever Happened to Gary Pucket?" Day -- internet generated, and a fun question to research

World Toilet Day -- sponsored by the World Toilet Organization (yes, really)


Birthdays Today:

McCaughey Septuplets, 1997
Kerri Strug, 1977
Jodie Foster, 1962
Meg Ryan, 1961
Calvin Klein, 1942
Ted Turner, 1938
Dick Cavett, 1936
Larry King, 1933
Indira Gandhi, 1917
Tommy Dorsey, 1905
James Garfield, 1831


Today in History:

The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land, begins, 1095
Rabbi Isaiah b Abraham aha-Levi Horowitz arrives in Isreal, 1621
The Jakobinen club forms in Paris, 1794
The Jay Treaty, the first US extradition treaty, is signed with Great Britain, 1794
Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first European Americans to cross the continent, 1805
Warsaw University is established, 1816
The St. Petersburg flood, caused by storms, kills 10,000, 1824
The second Canadian railway line, the Montreal and Lachine Railway, is opened, 1847
Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address, 1863
Boss Tweed is convicted, sentenced to 12 years, 1874
Carrie Nation attempts to address the US Senate, 1903
NY receives the first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy, 1911
Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures (anybody want to guess what this eventually became?), 1916
The first issue of Time Magazine is published, with Emperor Hirohito on the cover, 1928
Télé Monte Carlo, Europe's oldest private television channel, is launched by Prince Rainier III, 1954
The first automatic toll collection machine is introduced on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway, 1954
Ford cancels the Edsel, 1959
Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon, 1960
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement, 1977
Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril of Canada arrives in Africa to lead a multi-national policing force in Zaire, 1996
Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of the Artist Without Beard sells at auction for $71.5 million USD, 1998
The People's Republic of China launches its first Shenzhou spacecraft, 1999