Rhoneisms

In weight, that is. Also, feeling better than I have in a while health wise.This is a more detailed follow up to the short post I made earlier.

I wan’t to start by saying that this is what is currently working for me, it is relatively new, is based on my own health requirements tailored for me in consultation with my doctor, and is in response to where I am in my diabetes diagnosis over 18 months ago. YMMV…

About a month ago, I had my first physical in 18 months. About 6 months overdue. I had been officially diagnosed as Type 2 Diabetic at my last appointment. The diagnosis was no real surprise. I have a near 100% rate of Type 2 Diabetes on both my Mother’s and Father’s side. I knew it would come upon me one day and about this age. I was prepared.

I was prescribed metformin, met with a dietician to discuss how and in what ways to change in my eating habits, and sent on my way.

I was good for a couple of weeks about all of it and then… Well, I was somewhat good at remembering to take the medication. The diet/eating part was not nearly as good. I really didn’t change much at all.

So, it was no real surprise when at this most recent appointment my A1C and virtually everything else was exactly the same as it had been 18 months ago. Make no changes and you will see no changes. So, my doctor and I had to have a bit of a heart-to-heart about it all.

She urged me to do better. Said where I’m at right now is completely manageable and the changes I make right now will stave off an even more drastic plan later. She had me make an appointment to follow up in 6 months and said if no change by then we’d have to come up with said plan.

So, here’s what we came up with…

Basically, what she is having me doing is essentially not that different from The Tim Ferriss Slow Carb Diet. Minus the “Faturdays”.

For me, it’s mainly lean meats, beans, and green veggies. Typical meals have been grilled shawarma chicken with hummus and tabouli salad or marinated steak with raw spinach and cherry tomatoes.

The idea is as low carb and high protein as possible to really reset my system and reduce the sugar cravings. Strangely enough, when I cut out most if not all sugar after about a month or so I’ve stopped craving it all together. This makes it much easier when the occasional cookie is offered to me or there’s brownies on the counter.

Another part of the plan I’ve been very good about is taking a daily vitamin supplement to account for the things I might be missing from cutting out certain foods like dairy, most fruit, and starchy carbs.

Next, I’m also making sure to do the 30 grams of protein as early as I can in the morning. I often don’t manage to do so in the first 30 minutes after waking up but within the hour for sure. Usually that’s 3 eggs (6-10 grams protein each) with a side of bacon (3 slices is about 7 grams). This jump starts my metabolism for the day and staves off late morning snaky hunger.

Also, I’m drinking a lot of water. Often at least a couple of litters a day.

That said, I’m also in the middle of what I call “Circus Rigging Season” as we are in the middle of rehearsals and shows at Circus Juventas which means for the past three weeks I’ve been essentially doing cross-fit for 30+ hours every week and that will continue for a couple of more.

All of this has me feeling really healthy. Down in weight about 15 pounds and no real bad hunger or low blood sugar crashes I can remember (and I used to have several a week).

I think I’m on the right track and hoping I can keep it up so my doctor doesn’t have to punish me at my next check-up.

Current (and long ongoing) Thought Pattern: Generational wealth and inheritance thereof is not the money, property, etc. one receives. It is the values, morals, and stewardship principles built around these things and passed down through generations. As Seth Godin has written, it is the lesson of, “people like us do things like this.” This is not only the lesson that has the power to echo through the generations but the mindset that sustains whatever money, wealth, power, etc. that will be inherited.

I often think about the fact that if you really want to understand how this plays out in, say, the inhertance of someone like Donald Trump, one need look no further than his father, Fred Trump. All of what Donald inherited is right there in his father’s values, morals, beliefs, and stewardship principles. And, one could easily see the through line from there to Fred Trump’s parents as well. It is a perfect example of the generational wealth of “people like us do things like this.”

Thinking of generational wealth in this way, one can easily see that what has the most lasting inheritance value is the “people like us do things like this.” of how we live our lives and raise our children and this transcends money/property/power. We all have generational wealth to pass down no matter our station and such things can be as much (and sometimes more) a pre-determinant of future success as any money/property/power can on its own.

“I believe you can speak things into existence.”

— Jay-Z

Let me tell you when I knew George W. Bush had beaten Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential Election.

It wasn’t when The Supreme Court ruled in his favor demanding the recount in Florida to halt and the 61,000 or so votes that the vote tabulation machines had missed not be counted.

It was when, immediately following the election where the initial count gave Bush the win by 1,784 votes, Bush and his team started acting like winners. Bush and his team immediately formed a transition team, started floating the cabinet nominees, and – in general – despite the recounts and court challenges and uncertainty — acted with absolute certainty that they’d won.

Gore and his team did not do that. They wanted to take a wait-and-see approach — citing the sacred value of every citizen vote and the counting there of. They did not want to act in any way that would be perceived as presumptuous of the will of the people.

Bush and his team had no such grounding to stay them — like it or not, right or wrong. In the hardscrabble politics of the modern era, there is no time to wax and wane philosophically. They knew that. Gore did not. That’s when they won.

Today, there is one side that is acting as if their win is assured. They are speaking as if it’s already happened. They are figuring out who will fill the various vacant positions and how they will implement their plan.

The other side is having philosophical arguments over who their candidate should even be despite the primary voters having already decided that and delegates pledged to carry out their decision.

While we are still months away from election day, who do you think has won?