Myth of Low Carb Beer
The myth that drinking "low carb" beers is better for you than drinking normal beer is pretty much being debunked.
As the accompanying article explains it's not about the number of carbohydrates in the beer it's the total Kilojoules and of course caolries. You know let's face it the more calories you eat or drink the more you have to burn off or the more your body converts to fat.
And alcohol has a high level of calories which means the more you drink the more you need to work out to get rid of the extra calories.
The difference in calories between a "low carb" and normal beer can only be less then 21 calories!
So for a bottle of beer (355 mls) the following calories are found in each:
Pure Blond (Low Carb) - 107 Calories
Average Full strength Beer - 128 Calories
Average light beer - 100 Calories
So in fact the best option for drinking beer is actually a light beer and not the low carb option.
Oh and my two favorite drinks, white wine has an average of 550 calories a bottle (750mls) and my fave vodka has a staggering 1750 calories in a 750 ml bottle. Mind you when you have a vodka you on average have say 32 mls which is a shot only has 75 calories, but then if you add in lime juice and or tonic it can add or sometimes double or even triple the calories.
Medium Glass of White wine - 108 Calories
Vodka Lime Slice and Soda - 75 Calories
Vodka Lime Juice & Tonic - 150 Calories
Labels: food, health
Pain in the back
I am suffering this week with a really bad and sore bad lower back.
I think it is mainly from slouching in the chair for hours and hours at the dining table where I am working since I have no office.
It is progressively getting better but the muscles all around my right lower back down my leg and around my hip are still all stiff and sore.
This means that sitting in normal positions hurts me as does bending over or even sitting on the sofa.
As I sit here working I have a fantastic heating pad which was originally purchased for the cat so she would be warm during summer, but I have requisitioined this for me!
It does feel great on the parts of my back it has access to, but since I would like all the hip and leg to be heated it aint quite good enough!
Oh well I think I will get some Nurofen Plus which has ibuprofin and codeine in it to help with letting me move around without too much pain.
Especially since I go to Melbourne for the weekend tomorrow for some partying and fun!
Labels: health
Some home truths about growing old
In gay years turning 30 was almost supposed to be death on the gay scene, but for me 30 was a fantastic year. Maybe I was a late emotional bloomer as I didn't really come out of my own Shell and gain the confidence I have till my mid twenties.
Regardless I have always prided myself on my mature outlook on things, youthful exuberance and the important fact that I never really looked my age.
I do still get told by most people that to look at me they think I am mid to late twenties which is a pretty big complement especially coming from 'kids' in their early to late twenties themselves. Our group of friends range in age from late teens to older friends in the sixties.
The issue of getting old is something we all have to face.
For me personally the tide of time is starting to catch up with me in a few rather significant ways. The most visible for me (and most significant) is my thinning hair which causes me much consternation and concern. One and off for the last year and a half I have used one of the topical treatments on my scalp to slow down and prevent hair loss.
When I use it the change is dramatic the hair really does start to grow back and it no longer looks as thin. The problem of course is using the damn stuff. You have to wait till your hair is fully dry before putting it on so it can take some waiting especially after a shower and you are getting ready to go to work.
But the bigger issue is it is an oil and leaves the hair quite greasy which means you can't use product in it, or you would have to blow dry your hair after putting it on and then try stying it.
At best I am a lazy time poor person so going through that whole process every morning before able to get out of the house is a push at best.
But I know by using it it stops or slows down the symptoms of male pattern baldness.
The other horrible thing about getting old is the face starts to sag, you no longer have that beautiful young subtle skin that I once did. Luckily I have been using moisturiser since I was a young teenager and it shows in my skin tone. But no mater how much moisturiser you use, nothing would be as good as a quick little lift.
Or just maybe some botox?
I don't mind getting old I just don't want to look old God Dammit!
Looking back on last year I seemed to stop working out at all towards the mid way through the year. I certainly didn't particularly watch my food intake and although most people disagree I look and feel frumpy.
It's time to actually do something about this all again, I think I was resigning myself to the 'getting older' crap and forgetting that it's not how you look only but it's also how you act.
So let's see if I can pull my finger out and get my 'mind' back into feeling young again!
Labels: fitness, general life, health, workout
Twas the Day before Christmas
Twas the day before Christmas and not even a beagle is stirring! We had friends over for dinner last night and Danger Mouse is staying in the spare room, with Beagle happily snuggled up with him being miss protector.
Some time during last nights dinner with Danger Mouse,
Margeux &
Nick we stare making Gin Martinis. Surprisingly I do not feel all that bad considering the amount of alcohol I drank but I am sure that could change!
A dampener was put on the evening early on when my sister rang to say my father was taking my mother to hospital. Knowing my family and their complex medical history it could have been anything from heart, to asthma to god knows what.
Mum has been suffering from a form of cellulitis on her leg as a side product of both Warfrin and general old age. The area had become infected and the infection was steadily moving up her leg giving her a fever and a general feeling of un wellness.
I have not heard how she is yet this morning, I am just waiting on a call from my sister or father to update me.
I hope she is OK, and I do hope that she is well enough to come to Christmas lunch tomorrow.
It's sad when parents get to this age and the body just seems to be in an ever increasing state of disrepair. You treat one thing like the Heart with Warfrin, and then it causes all sorts of other hideous problems. Will they just hurry up and find a cure for aging already!
On other more happy topics the boy and I did settle on a Christmas present for myself. We have been driven mad by the need for some more colour in our apartment, one friend even went so far as to say our apartment was boring with white, white, white and cream (bitch).
As much as I would love to buy a
Julian Opie I can't afford one which is a real bummer, but since I already have a Pro Hart & a Chagall I don't think I am too badly off LOL.
In the end for the big long white wall we decided to buy a 'decorative artwork'. What does that mean you ask? Well a decorative artwork is a piece of art that has been mass produced painted. It still looks good but it's value is a decoration and not as a piece of art.
It's pretty in your face and makes a significant statement in the room, I.E. it screams LOOK AT ME!
In other Christmas news, we gave Danger Mouse a very 'child' present, after all he calls us his gay parents (still not sure whether I like that considering I am not that much older). There is some background to the present though, every time we end up at a recovery party danger Mouse's alter ego comes out to play, and more often than not that means Danger Mouse is up on a table dancing in his underwear.
Now I am all for cute boys dancing in their underwear, but, and it's a huge but!
He wears the ugliest underwear (I have told him this on numerous occasions) so we bought him some
Andrew Christian underwear, which I am sad to say he is not wearing right now.
Sigh you try and encourage these boys to wear nice underwear and look what happens LOL
Anyway Merry Christmas and all that I will probably
Labels: art, christmas, family, health
Shoutout and congratulations
I'm a bit late in this but I really wanted to congratulate Bobby from Bobby's Body on his total transformation from in his words 'from an almost functioning alcoholic' to getting his life, body and health under control.
The work that he put into controlling his drinking, and turning his un-healthy body into something that anyone would be proud of.
It's a pretty amazing achievement to go from what is a grossly unhealthy lifestyle to a long term healthy lifestyle! Although Bobby said he was not going to start another blog he loves us all and did relent and start Bobby's Vanquish!
Thinking about his transformation I must say I feel a tinge of jealousy with the total lack of progress I seem to make, or the cyclical up and down of both my healthy eating habits and workout regime.
This time last year I was at the gym six days a week and I was really pushing my body hard and seeing the results. This year things have seemed to have gone haywire in this respect. But in my defense I can say that I have been going to the gym, but the lack of gym focus is inversely proportional to my workload. Work is busier than it has ever been we are getting far more clients in and out of the door and the financials are healthier.
An interesting related conversation happened in the office yesterday, one of my clients an attractive 40 year old married father of two was in my office for a workshop. Somehow the concept of substance abuse and alcohol came up and we started chatting about our alcohol taking and whether this made us or our respective friends / partners alcoholics.
Both of us drink every night as do our partners, we will call the client Smiles because he has a hot smile. Smiles said his friends know that if they come to their place for dinner etc they will be handed a glass of wine on entry and will most likely end up having to leave their cars and get a taxi home.
It kind of sounds like us, except most people are not stupid enough to drive to our place for dinner, they either live near by or catch a taxi for obvious reasons.
Because we drink every night we both wondered whether this was in fact alcohol abuse, the thought of not drinking every night (at least one drink) is a scary thought for me. I use a drink as the end of my work day, and don't generally have that first glass till either 8pm or when I have finally finished everything I can get done that day.
I know lots of people who will start drinking at 6ish and continue working on till 1am, I personally can't do that or I would probably a) write gibberish, b) tell my clients to fuck off, or c) all of the above.
So is this what represents a problem with alcohol? Every now and then we go outwe will have more than enough drinks to get drunk, not falling over drunk, but drunk enough to get silly and do stuff that I would not normally do.
I always thought that an alcoholic would pretty much start drinking in the morning / lunchtime and would drink till passing out.
Or is an alcoholic someone who has no off switch once they do start regardless of what time they start?
I turned to my trusty Wikipedia for a definition and found:
Alcoholism is a term with multiple sometimes conflicting definitions, but
with no formal recognition of the divergence of meaning. In common and
historical usage, alcoholism typically refers to any condition that results in
the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite negative personal and
social consequences. Medical definitions describe alcoholism as a disease which may
result in a persistent difficulty in controlling alcohol consumption. Alcoholism
may also refer to a preoccupation with or compulsion toward the consumption of
alcohol and/or an impaired ability to recognize the negative effects of
excessive alcohol consumption. Although not all of these definitions specify
current and on-going use of alcohol as a qualifier, some do, as well as
remarking on the long-term effects of consistent, heavy alcohol use, including dependence and
symptoms of withdrawal.
While the ingestion of alcohol is, by definition, necessary to develop
alcoholism, the use of alcohol does not predict the development of alcoholism.
The quantity, frequency and regularity of alcohol consumption required to
develop alcoholism varies greatly from person to person. In addition, although
the biological mechanisms underpinning alcoholism are uncertain, some risk
factors, including social environment, emotional health and genetic
predisposition, have been identified.
SourceI think at the end of the day you have to decide for yourself whether you are an alcoholic and if you are you need to do something about it! For me, I know I use alcohol to 'self medicate' or relax into many social situations and at times I drink too much, but on the balance I do not believe I am an alcoholic.
Labels: health, shoutout, work, workout
I am a thirty something married gay boy living in Sydney, almost on top of the gay scene but not in it!
Why Sometimes blue?, because I love blue, but also I am sometimes blue :)
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