Candy isn't as dandy as it used to be.

Since the last post I did in 2019, a few things have happened to me and I've discovered and realized a lot of things, now being 100% aware of said things. This topic will be relating to something my grandmother gave me.

A lifelong curse.

I have a sweet tooth. It can't be helped. As someone who was a husky kid and also at risk for obesity and other health problems, not at that point but overall something that would have been a problem if I didn't sate myself early on. I think I covered this but I'll tell the story again of my path to a healthy lifestyle and the times I cheated, my first blog post to be exact.

So I was sixteen and during my checkup the doctor told me if I didn't take the initiative to exercise or at least take better care of myself, I was going to keep on gaining weight. Later that year, I moved to Georgia. As I mentioned, I have a sweet tooth, so that meant I was buying candy and chocolate and ice cream and other confections that caused my grandmother's curse to tug at me. One instance, I ate a bunch of candy that may have been Hershey's Nuggets, a sweet mix of chocolate with a hint of strawberry and cookie crumbles. I have not found that particular flavor of nuggets since.

I ate bags of that stuff, one dollar at the dollar store in the neighborhood. I ate so much of that shit to where I fractured one of my teeth, I still feel it to this day. Just thinking about them is making want to search online for them for nostalgia's sake. It really was a one-of-a-kind flavor.

In addition to sweets, I also had a taste for soda. I had a habit for making my own twists on cola, mimicking the various flavors of Pepsi and Coca-cola. Vanilla, lemon, lime, ice cream floats, you name it. I had a taste for peach soda. Delicious. But I hated root beer and cream soda. Around 2014, I decided to cut the drink entirely. At that time I had grown to love fruit smoothies and fell back on those instead.

Best choice I ever made.

But despite cutting out soda, I still picked at candy and chips, another habit that needs to be culled. I tried to cut candy out and go for alternatives like sweet potatoes. The first potato I had, I couldn't get into it. My tongue was still adjusted to candy. It took a while but I eventually made sweet potatoes a regular food in my current diet, and I don't regret it.

Around this time, about 2017 I noticed that some things didn't taste the way they used. But another factor in the difference in taste was that some candy I used to love had a change in the recipe, mainly to cut costs. Too many items, not just candy but a lot of stuff. Look it up. My adult tongue could taste the corn syrup a lot better. I especially noticed a change in taste with one of my favorite holiday drinks, eggnog. Eggnog was a nectar of the gods as a kid.

As an adult, it's still good so long as you don't buy the cheap stuff. And I don't care for alcoholic eggnog myself, I don't think mixing alcohol and dairy is such a good idea, right?

But overall, candy isn't as dandy as it used to be. Getting older, my body doesn't agree with it as much due to all the healthy eating I've been doing over the years. I'm fine with it and it shows how your body can adapt. A co-worker of mine mentioned that his body rejects vegetables due to years of eating processed food and junk. While he doesn't look sickly, how he feels is another story. There were times where I cheated and had a sweet and my body felt like shit afterward, so I can understand what he was saying.

Even when eating sweet potatoes, I still caved in and ate candy, brownies and ice cream. My grandmother did just that and I get it from her. She'd keep a box of brownies under her bed and a big jar of peanut butter with a big spoon all for herself. I'd do the former but the latter was too much for me. Fighting old habits is hard, but rewarding.

It's not just candy, I've stopped eating chips or buying chips to try to build up a habit of not eating junk food. Back in 2003 I discovered Utz no-salt chips and they're my go-to flavor after the Chesapeake-seasoned crab chips. I would pick those whenever I saw them on the shelves and down in Georgia it took a while for Utz to arrive down where I was living. I leaned on low-sodium vegetable juice in that same time, the difference is literally night and day.

I'm happy to say I don't have any pre-existing health problems and in my last post, I mentioned Covid-19 claiming so many lives of those who had health problems before. All the healthy eating I've done over the years has made a difference. It took a while, but I'm starting to see the fruits of my labor. There's still some work to do, I'm not out the woods yet. There's still meat, cheese, bread, sugar, you name it. As I get older and older, I'll likely have to cut those out eventually, and meat especially with the seedy underside of that industry. I took the knowledge The Jungle gave me for granted.

Cheese however, is the biggest hurdle. I can't give up muenster or havarti. I've loved cheese since before I could walk.

Live by the gruyere, die by the gruyere.

Dusting off the blog.

Man. It has been a while. So, I'll do a general tumult of topics.

-First, the Fighters Pass from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The pass finished in January and well, here's a rundown on things from my perspective.

Joker
Joker from Persona 5. While I am a fan of Shin Megami Tensei, I'm indifferent to Persona. I played Persona 3 and enjoyed it but and I have a copy of Persona 4 unopened but that is it. So, no connection to Joker. Neutral. I do get this little jingle if I play on Mementos with the P3 music, so there's one positive to highlight.

Hero
Hero was a pleasant surprise shown off at E3 2019. The default hero from Dragon Quest XI appeared at the start of Nintendo's presentation and with that hero come the protagonists from Dragon Quest III, IV and VIII respectively. As a Dragon Quest fan, I was hoping for the iconic mascot, the Slime but I call Hero a pleasant surprise because of their execution with having all the various spells from the series in their moveset. I won't get into too much detail, but Hero was a plus for me. I need to pick up XI.

Banjo-Kazooie 
Whoo. This one knocked it out the park for me. Not only was this reveal the highlight of the pass, it managed to overshadow the sequel of Breath of the Wild afterward. What is there to say? A literal never-ever pick comes to reality. I wanted Banjo-Kazooie in Brawl and my sixteen year-old self would have probably shit himself with hype.

Nothing else to say here. This prompted me to buy the pass.

Terry Bogard
Terry hails from Fatal Frame, an IP by SNK Playmore. I've played their games so I knew who he was. A lot of the Smash Bros. fanbase however did not. You gotta love how quickly people were attacking Terry because they don't know anything about him. Even better when you hear the talk about 3rd party characters being more exciting and hype and then those same people get a very iconic 3rd party character added and then complain. Which is it, hype 3rd parties or boring 1st parties in their own words? It can't be what you want personally, and I'm guilty of this as well.

During Terry's initial reveal, Sakurai also dropped this as well.

Joy. More shitflinging.

That said, we come to the very last pick of this pass.

Byleth
Byleth hails from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Yep. ANOTHER Fire Emblem character, totaling to eight characters. Naturally, everyone was outraged. I wasn't mad. In fact I called it given Corrin in the last Smash Bros. game. Nintendo and even Sakurai himself are that conceited and out of touch to do it. And if the second pass is anything to go by, it's going to be the same with the last character. By buying the pass instead of each individual pack, I technically got Byleth for free. But that's like getting an extra skittle in a bag containing an average of forty or so candies with forty-eight being the max and then you get fifty-one in a bag. Not the best analogy.

I'm not buying the second pass until I see what they're showing, like the first. I may have to hold off on buying the pass, even if I see a Banjo-tier character.

With Smash out the way, let's change gears.


-Covid-19. Or the Coronavirus. The Coronavirus festered in 2019 and started to blow up around late February of this year. Since then, plenty of businesses shut down and millions of not billions of dollars were lost as a result. But for me, it was the people's reaction and response to the whole situation. As a recluse and introvert, I had no issue with staying inside. I've been doing so for the last...fifteen years. The amount of times I've gone out with 'friends' and associates can be counted on my hand.

But to those who can't handle a little bit of isolation is laughable, to some very hilarious results.
And this is not the only incident. Seriously, I could get outraged and pissed off, but I have to laugh at this. If at least the thought of a few months in isolation from a potentially fatal virus is enough to drive you to suicide, that only shows how weak your will is as a person. There are way more serious matters to deal with and you pick this as an excuse to kill yourself. Natural selection at work.

The virus itself, I'm sure I have. In fact, I know that just about everyone has it in some way shape or form. I had a stomachache around the time of cases popping up in the US and the following diarrhea that came with it was not pleasant. I may as well have been shitting out my stomach acid at that point. Covid-19 can kill anyone at any given moment, no matter what. I'll risk Covid-19 but I won't pretend I'm fully immune from it, and I know I'm not and wasn't. But I know I'm in a good spot due to one thing...

Years of eating right and exercise can do wonders for you. It's not just for wanting to live long and healthy, it's also to be prepared for situations like Covid-19 so that your body has the resources to fend off new and unknown threats. Covid-19 can be detrimental and fatal to those who have preexisting conditions. Of course with black people, at least in America, that is a very common factor. The Coronavirus should not have been the turning point where you eat healthy.

In good times and bad, you should be eating your vegetables. Matter of fact, fruit is a double-edged sword as it does contain natural fructose. Vegetables however have dietary fiber, minerals and vitamins needed for a healthy body and how coincidental that most 'adults' do not like to eat their vegetables.

Overall, I'm not bothered by this too much. Wearing a face mask is a bitch and a half but that's one inconvenience. This was a decent wake-up call for the world and the way things are set up. Perhaps this awakening will be the start of a new status quo.


-Third topic, I got fired recently from my job back in February, right at the doorstep of Covid-19 coming to fuck everything up. Let's just say this much about that job: I don't need it as much as some people would think. The work is too much for the little amount of pay you get and the work I was doing was far beyond what one person can do. Two and a half years of that shit. Never again. Covid-19 made me reconsider my stance on retail and working in general. A kick in the ass if you would, one everyone needed, me included.

I was ready to find a new job, but then quarantine happened and well...

I won't say that I won't work another job again, but I will say I'm at that point in my life where I can't stomach the bullshit that comes with a job. Keyword, job. A career is another story. I don't need to get into detail the situation that comes with a black man trying to get a job in this world. Last to get hired, first to get fired. I didn't get my job because I was hard-working, I knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy. That's it. I knew this for years, but I finally realized what came of that scenario and it shows.

You don't have to be competent at your job to get it or keep it. Competence means jackshit, just know the right person and you're in. That is it. Know enough people and you're set. For me being an introvert, that is a death sentence in this social world we live in. This is why I wasn't mad at being fired and this is why I enjoy the situations above with people committing suicide just because they couldn't socialize. Building a social network is beneficial, but working on yourself is a plus as well. Sometimes you just need to fall back and relax. Just chill out.

The general politics with working in retail irks me. I don't like most customers, I want to do my work, I don't do small talk and if I don't like a manager or supervisor, I really don't want to interact with you. I'm here to make money, not friends. And don't pretend I had a chance to grow, your actions say otherwise even if I don't tell you my actual ultimatum. The benefits of being an introvert, you can tell who's genuine and who's a goober. No offense to the candy.

For introverts like me, it was just another lonely day to myself. Some people will never have that problem and this pandemic forced the hands of a lot of people for the better. You can look at my past posts and see where I stand on social distancing.

So, that's that on my job. I won't go on detail with my scenario for now but I'm happily content with my current situation and will try to build my own brand and platform.


So, that covers up most of the relevant stuff. Will I go into dormancy again? I'm going to try to put some material on this blog if it's still around. May as well go for it.

Pay a visit to my site while you're at it. Volume 10 of The World of Mission is finally out!

I love my natural hair.

Every day, when I get up, I look in the mirror and look at my hair. It's rugged, nappy and all over the place. And you know what?

I love it. It's me. It's who I am.

Six months and still going strong.

 I didn't have a say in what my hair or my genetic code was going to be.  I admit to having some envy over other people whose hair was straight or not as woolly. But this was when I was considerably younger and didn't know better and I've since gotten over that insecurity. My hair was always an issue with my mother, and I don't like it. And lo and behold, hair happens to be a problem in the black community. Now, I'm a man, and I can easily comb my faux afro into something neat, or just outright cut it. Women on the other hand, hooo boy.

When they ask about your hair, being real doesn't mean a thing if it isn't yours.

This is a subject that to this day is a cancer to our community. The amount of women who wear fake hair is grossly at an all-time high. And it's not appealing. It's not attractive, it's not natural, and in some cases, it's outright dangerous. My own mother is guilty of this. Now, I have no problems with someone growing out their own hair and styling it to their own tastes, but that of course takes time and effort, and we all know that's too much for people to do. But, it takes a hell of a lot of time to stitch artificial and 'natural' hair into your scalps.

But even then, not too many people do that. Look up any fight on the internet with black women present. You are guaranteed one shot of a wig on the ground. Madam C.J. Walker's efforts were in vain. I remember the old hot comb we had in our junk drawer. I never used it, nor did I see my mother use it. At least not before I was born. But even that has its drawbacks. Black hair for whatever reason is looked down upon. Ditch that - The ideology of beauty and the standard of beauty is to blame. White and straight hair is considered beautiful, and coarse, woolly 'nappy' hair is considered ugly. I noticed it as a child, and I see it moreso now. Remember when I said we can set the standard? Now is the time. But moving on. Here's some reasons as to why natural hair (IE the actual hair grown out of your own damn head) is superior and better in all ways.

-It's cost effective. 
Managing your own hair is virtually free. Be it short, long, etc., you can simply comb it, wash it and there you go. To use weaves and the like cost money, and for 'quality' hair, you'll be shelling out some money. One co-worker mentioned she paid $120 for someone's hair. to put in her own head. Now, of course everyone wants to have good looking hair, so there's a high demand for quality hair. The money you use for that hair could be used for paying bills.

-It's versatile.
Your natural hair is strong, and can withstand wind, air, water and earth. You can swim and not worry about the fake exterior on your head getting wet, runny and ruined. You can grab your hair when you're frustrated and pissed off and feel it sift through your fingers and it'll go back to its normal state. It's also its own living life form. You nurture it, it grows and stays healthy. You neglect and abuse it, this happens.

And just because THEY do it, doesn't mean YOU should.

And if that's not bad enough, prolonged usage of weaves can result in molded hair and infections. Your hair is you and is a part of your health. If you don't take care of your health, it will show. We've got enough problems with weight, diet and the like. Tommy Sotomayor is much more informed on this matter than I can care to research. Countess Vaughn suffered from this, too. Steroids and weaves are one in the same. How ironic.

-It looks better.

 -You look better.
I like seeing natural hair on women. It looks better, it looks better, it looks better. Short black hair looks better than long, beige hair that isn't yours. And some women can't pull long hair off. Their faces are either too fat or too greasy. Not surprising. The time you spend stitching and damaging your scalp can be time used to exercise and take better care of your body. Your hair is a part of your body, treat it as such. That said, I hate the Raggedy Ann hair most black women in commercials go with, it's been about eleven years now. There's more to it than that, white marketers.

-It shows we take pride in ourselves
Now I know that coloring your hair and shaping it all kinds of ways can be fun and stylish, and especially when you're at a party or a cosplay convention. But how many of you actually go to parties and conventions? And really, with some of the outrageous shit I've seen online and in real life, there's no shame to be had, and there's nothing to be proud of. We spend all of this money on synthetic hair and imported extensions from India and Brazil and yet not a single cent comes back to us. Half a fucking trillion dollars spent on our hair and we can't even fund our own schools, banks and grocery stores.

What the fuck is going on??? Why are you women so hellbent on spending so much damn money on something that isn't yours and has to be removed every two weeks or so or it becomes moldy and a threat to your health??? All of that money, and it doesn't come back to us. Why? Do you not see what you're doing? Chris Rock's documentary, Good Hair talks about this. I remember a clip where one idiot called out Chris for exposing 'secrets' about black hair with his film. It's not a secret that's not your actual hair, lady. We all know it's faker than Pam Anderson's tits. It says more about you, really. And I know I may strike a nerve with this post, but I don't care. If you spend $1000 on hair that isn't yours, you're an idiot. If you do not take the initiative to grow it out yourself, and style it, you are lazy and not worth anyone's time. If you think that your natural, nappy black hair is ugly and disgusting, as far as I'm concerned you're part of the problem. I love my nappy negroid hair, and I don't care about appealing to a group of people who already look down on me to begin with.

We all gotta start somewhere, and it's either now or never.

Eat your vegetables, adults.

Wanna know why America and Americans are so fat? Why we have so many that are obese and out of shape? Plain and simple: We don't acknowledge or appreciate vegetables. And I know I addressed this in an earlier post, but I'm doing it again. Vegetables are underused, underrated and overlooked so much, it's an absolute crime. As a kid, I loved vegetables. Granted, some weren't appealing to me, like squash and okra, though I can eat okra gumbo in spite of the okra. But I ate them with no problem. I didn't even need ranch or spices to make them more appealing. And that brings me into my next topic: Why the hell were there so many kids who hated vegetables on television?

They didn't represent me. I loved eating them for the most part. All of these shows were written by adults. Some kids may not have liked them, but never to the extremes that they made them out to be, and if they did, it's the parents' fault for not being more cordial with their child(ren) on proper nutrition. Even worse, the kid that DID eat his vegetables was treated like a criminal. Those same kids are now adults who are borderline obese and are having children with the same habits. But as of the last forty or so years, obesity has skyrocketed, and only those people are to blame for people like this:

Now, I understand television has to amp up the drama for the sake of the idiots who watch reality television in the first place, but I truly believe she thinks this way about all vegetables, and with what I've seen in my short twenty-something years of being on this rock, it's likely an accurate depiction. She's anything but traumatized. Case in point, when I was at my old job, I'd take a bundle of turnip greens or some kale and eat them as is. The looks I got from my co-workers said it all. And I simply told them: If I take care of myself now, when I reach your age, I'll have less chance of being sick or unable to rely on myself. And lo and behold: A good chunk of them have high blood pressure, diabetes or are overweight. Back in school, I had classmates (if you can call them that) wince at the thought of eating carrots without ranch, proving my point on poor parenting.

I've made it a life rule to eat as many vegetables as possible with a meal. I always try to have some fresh greens and a portion of radishes with my fish, chicken or steak. And that's usually the right thing to do with a meal. You cannot eat just fast food or frozen dinners. I've cut out soda since sometime in 2014 and I don't miss it. Next, I'm trying to cut out frozen pizzas and junk food. And with how expensive most of that stuff is now compared to when I was a kid, I won't miss any of it. Eggnog doesn't even taste right anymore.

But back to my original point: Adults need to eat more vegetables and encourage their children to eat more vegetables, and according to this little site, Georgia is a red state (HA!) And holy shit at Arkansas, West Virginia and Mississippi. But considering the states, it's to be expected. Cooking a vegetable with a bunch of salt and meat doesn't count, and it's one of the reasons I don't really eat collard greens anymore. Try as many of them as you can. Peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, radishes, onions, you name it. A lot of variety to be found. Fruits are a start, but vegetables are more detrimental for proper nutrition.

P.S: There's a flavor of Bolthouse Juices called Daily Greens. I didn't like it at first, but I've slowly come to love it, until I tried a bottle two weeks ago. They made it sweeter. I know they put banana and apples in that recipe, but one look at the ingredients and they added pineapple. Pineapple is so sickeningly sweet it can overpower anything else. I can't even drink it now because of it. Thanks for fucking up a flavor of vegetable juice, you fat slobs. Even worse are the vegetable juices that are fused with fruit juice and High Fructose Corn Syrup. I remember that commercial, too.

"Don't you wish vegetables weren't so vegetable-ly?"

No you dumb bitch, that's the whole point.

Time to vent: My own views on the world and people: America and Food II

Merry Christmas to you all!

Back to this lovely subject, we Americans love to eat. Especially on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Ah hell, anytime is fine, so long as we can eat. Now what we're eating is another story. We're not cooking a turkey or a ham? We're buying frozen dinners instead? Why? Do you know how much sodium are in those trays of poison? They're cheap at certain times of the year, but that should not be a reason to substitute it for a real meal. And to buy them en masse? Bad. It may be cheaper than a nice-sized turkey but it isn't better. At least you cook your own bird. The slices of meat that you get with a TV dinner is riddled with MSG, moreso with the gravy. And you get sup-par vegetables that are shriveled from the heat of the microwave. It's much better for you to buy your own vegetables and meat. And less cheaper to do so, too.

How? Well, simple.

Look at the prices of what you have a taste for. Sometimes at say, Kroger you have some meat and the like that are at a discount price. Yes, they may not look as appealing but trust me, even that discount meat is more healthy than what you'll find next to the ice cream. You cook it as soon as you get home or you put it in a deep freezer. You also clean it thoroughly. Some people will say "That meat has salmonella or it'll give you some type of stomach virus!". Guess what? You can't eat anything nowadays. Pasta? No. Sandwiches? Nada. Seafood? Nyet. Red meat? Nien. You can't eat anything without facing a risk. You know what'll decrease your chances of facing these risks?

Moderation.

Shocking, isn't it? We can eat these things and live a nice healthy life. But what do we do? We eat. And eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat. We grow obese, we blame others as opposed to ourselves and we sue. We get that large sum of money and buy more stuff to eat and eat and eat and eat and eat. And then on BBC or whatever network wastes their money, they waste their money on airing an hour-long special based around these beasts. These same fools will call their obesity a disease. Taxpayer money is being put into funding these fat asses and their excuses. On average, America is fat or overweight. And these same fools will treat a vegetable like a rapist or a black man(gasp)at night.

And going on vegetables. They're not gonna hurt you. They're gonna keep your liver and bloodstream clean and clear of diseases. They're also considerably affordable. But you'll go to a box of cookies before you grab a bag of fresh kale. Speaking of fresh, some vegetables can be eaten raw and the ones that can be should be eaten as is. But you won't cook vegetables. Because you weren't taught how to cook. All you know is seven minutes, punch a few holes in the wrapping and reheat for a minute for the rest of the ice to melt. And for those fat fucks who say I eat a salad every day, putting dressing, cheese and croutons on three slices of lettuce does not mean you're eating healthy. Try some olives, baby carrots, mushrooms or onions with the usual spring mix. Try to eat it as is. You can't. You won't. You'll go for that Whopper before you touch an actual salad. You'll buy ramen before you eat fresh kale greens. You'll bite into a block of blacktop before you bite into a fresh tomato. You're a waste of space and in the wild, your ass will be eaten first. And those lions will never want to eat an antelope again. You don't exercise after eating a large meal, you eat heavily late at night and then you wonder why you have diabetes or a foot on the chopping block. It's all your fault and no one else. Well, probably your parents. They didn't care enough to teach or moderate your eating habits. So you do have someone to blame.

Who knew?

Time to vent: My own views on the world and people: America and Food

Well, if you've read my How I Became Slim, Fit and Healthy series(Like anyone really reads these), you already know what this one is gonna be about.

Americans in general love to eat. As of recent years we've gotten very fat. On average Americans are either overweight or obese. Now I love to eat. Love it. However there are certain things that need to be limited and that's where the problem lies. Back in the day, a bottle of cola was considered a treat, akin to ice cream. Something you have say, on the weekends or if you were a child who got a good grade on his report card. I can go with that. Actually, my mother did that with me. If I was brave during a shot at the clinic or if I got my grades up, I got McDonalds or even something else as a reward. Now that was understandable and reasonable. Now, we have a bottle of soda every fucking day or whenever we eat a meal(and I use that term loosely with what America considers a meal nowadays).   McDonalds is a treat. It's not something that you can eat every single fucking day. My grandmother took me to McDonalds every day when she picked me up from school in the 1st grade. That may or may not have contributed to my adolescent huskiness. You cannot buy a bucket of chicken from whatever chain and pass that as dinner. Personally, it's not that good. I'd rather cook my own damn chicken(and it costs less, too!). All skin, all MSG and no meat. All of these fast food places that gain a shitton of revenue from ignorant Americans who either don't know how to cook or don't want to cook is contributing to our childhood obesity dilemma. What the parents do, the kids will likely follow suit. If the parents don't encourage healthy eating or healthier alternatives to McDonalds or Burger King, their children will think that it's okay to eat at those places every single day. It's not the companies' fault that some people become obese and die from heart attacks from overeating their food. Far from it. Ironically, some places have salads as an alternative.   But that's neither here or there. The point is dinners should not be planned at or with fast food chains. Even restaurants that serve home-cooked food(You'd be surprised at the truth)should be avoided, but that's mainly because they're expensive as shit. It's not expensive to buy your own meat and vegetables, which is another topic I'll dive into in the next part. It's not expensive if you take the time and energy to look over prices and quantity. If more people learned how to or attempted to cook their own meals, these problems wouldn't be present.   I can see that this topic is too big for one post. I'll post another entry on this subject in the future. Keep a lookout for it.

How I became slim, fit and healthy Part V: Diet is important II

I like meat. Meat is delicious. Be it meat from say, a cow, a bird or some other type of livestock, it's damn good. It's also important for protein. I usually bought steak and other forms of beef around 2011. I liked chicken but for some reason, I didn't like to cook it or rather, I was too scared to cook it. Salmonella is no joke. But eventually, I tried to cook it and it came out better than expected(Wasn't the first time I cooked chicken. At twelve, I fried a drumstick and it came out okay. Burnt on the outside for the most part). Plus, the amount of protein was even higher than the beef I purchased.  I would then make a rule to alternate between the two.

What would I eat with my meat?  In the beginning, mixed vegetables in a can. A nice variety, but not ideal for nutrients. That said, I still go for canned fruit when making smoothies. I then noticed a pack of spring mix for a discount price. Since then, I would switch out the canned vegetables for the fresh leafy greens. They go great with a sirloin, breast or on the bottom of a serving of pasta. Even better if you mix it with your sauce. I know pasta isn't good for you, but moderation and alternative ingredients for your spaghetti noodles/sauce is key. MOD. DER. RATION.

Moving on, fish is now my top priority food when it comes to protein and overall taste. A nice salmon fillet fried in some vegetable oil can be the best thing to me on a bad day. To think I avoided fish altogether because I didn't know how to cook it. Seafood in general is delicious and some of the smaller organisms have more to offer than say, a large slab of flank steak. But again, alternate between all of them. They're all good in their own right. Sometimes I'd go for salmon, other times I'd lean toward tilapia, swai, and whiting. In a blue moon, I could find swordfish. Not too many people can say they got to try that. I'd love to try it after being on a grill. It's made for it. Perch and flounder, however aren't my forte. too flimsy. All in all, there's a great amount of variety to be found within fish and seafood. Try it sometime, there's something for everyone.

On the subject of vegetables, I'm still picky with them. I hate squash and okra. Some others like eggplant and asparagus don't even look appetizing to me. I do enjoy carrots, celery and radishes. Basic stuff, to be frank. Leafy greens are a big favorite. I can eat them bare just cause and it's fun to chew through them. I'm very cautious with mushrooms. Even some of the edible ones can be harmful and the harmful ones can be mistaken for edible fungi. Maybe I'll muster up some courage and go for them in the future.

That covers this entry. I think that I was lucky to have moved from New York. It forced me to make different choices for my diet and I still see the benefits from it now. But even with a good diet, exercise is still important for a body's growth and development. Remember that!

How I became slim, fit and healthy Part IV: Calisthenics and the like

I was already doing great with sit-ups but I needed to do more. I attempted to do push-ups and at first they were hard to do. I managed only twenty-ish before I would tire out. At some point I reached maybe thirty-ish before I stopped doing them altogether. Laziness, you are truly a thorn in my side...

But moving on, I started to do them again. Making small progress within each set. I made it a rule to do some every morning to give myself some bloodflow to get through the day, especially if I had to work that day. Funny enough, if I were at work cleaning bathrooms, I would try to sneak some in. Around twenty to avoid detection. If it was at night or early morning, I'd try for thirty. I remember being able to do forty around Christmas of 2011. It was that slow. I would then try to do less in sets. Around ten sets of ten or fifteen if I could muster up the strength. It was stimulating to say the least. At some time, I'd get lazy, but not too lazy that I wouldn't do any at all. After all, sleep is the most important thing to benefit a developing body, no?

However, after being healthy over a year, I caught a nasty cold and had to put my training on hold. It was horrid. When I got better, I couldn't reach forty push-ups anymore. It hit me hard. But again, there were other ways to exercise. In addition to push-ups, I would attempt jumping jacks and some yoga exercises my gym teacher taught me in 11th grade. I loved her. She was an amazing teacher and I still do said exercises to this day. Jumping jacks were easy and efficient to do in the bathroom. Once I managed a thousand and ten(Had to add some to break the even number). I've yet to do so again, but I think I got it in me moreso now.

There's still a lot for me to do and achieve but I think by another three years, I can look more polished than I am now. I've only just begun.

How I became slim, fit and healthy Part III: The Pokéwalker

On August, I purchased a game. It was Pokémon SoulSilver Version.  In it was a little pedometer called the Pokéwalker. You can transfer your Pokémon from the game to it and take it for walks, similar to a Tamagatchi or virtual pet. The walker keeps count of how many steps you take and your Pokémon often gives you gifts while it happens. I was enticed by it, moving around and seeing my progress day by day. Eventually I moved around the area, trying to get some more progress in the Pokéwalker. It was pretty enriching for me, as I saw a lot of things and places. I love animals and nature and I'd often take a gander at the flower bushes in Forsyth Park and even encountered birds like Cardinals and Blue Jays.

I only moved around the park and then around the area near it, coming back home. I would do this often, and I noticed I lost more weight. Seeing this, I would expand my tumult to downtown and River Street. I would do this after I got my first job. I would get 10,000 steps in on average, maybe more. Most I got was 44,400+. When you get in ten million steps, you no longer can register any more steps for your max total but still can keep a look on your weekly tumult. I don't use it anymore but I keep as a memento for starting me off on the path to fitness and health. I give a big thanks to the minds at Game Freak for developing the device. They're by far my favorite video game developer and I look forward to Pokémon X & Y in October.

Next up: Learning how to build muscle in place of the fat that I used to harness.

How I became slim, fit and healthy Part II: Diet is important

The days I went without lunch were gruesome but as the days went on, I didn't mind at all. The next thing I know, the school would start to give out fruits and vegetables. I liked both, but with vegetables, I was(and still am to a lesser extent)picky with them. There were carrots and I believe celery some days with ranch dip. I wasn't too fond of putting fresh vegetables into a fatty condiment, so I would eat them as is and occasionally used dip if I had a taste for it that day. Fruit-wise, we would get grapes, oranges, tangerines or pears. I LOVE pears. Absolutely love them. The grapes were often sour and no good. In a blue moon the school got strawberries. But moving on to the pears, I finally found my compensation for lunch and whenever I was hungry.

The pears were often Anjou, though I'd see Bosc and Bartlett from time to time. The other students didn't care for them or the oranges, so I'd have my pick. One day I took thirty+ pears with me home. That's how many were leftover. Some days the same bag of pears would be still where they were from yesterday. Because I had so many, I went and put them in a juice with some of the carrots and the canned fruit I'd get from my cousin. It was really a great way to finally get something inside of me after a hard day and I didn't have to waste any money on junk and the overpriced pizza. I was blending since I was sixteen, but finally I had access to more ingredients. After I graduated, I noticed that I slimmed down from my waist a little. Wanting to keep that appearance, I attempted sit-ups. I would do a lot of them whenever I woke up, around 100-150 during the morning. Sometimes more if I was in good condition. It was slow, but it steadily showed some more results. I would do this often and eventually found myself to moving up to bigger and better things. Keep in mind that this was done by someone who didn't have to attend gym at all during his last year of grade school. It's a miracle I didn't balloon up more.

However, I still had a yearning for junk food. I still would munch on the packs of cookies and fig bars and potato chips. I would still drink juice cocktails, the beverages known to have very little juice and using High Fructose Corn Syrup to sweeten them even more. I had to try to drink more water, as it's the one thing your body can't do without. The tap was my go-to source, and to the people who don't drink tap water for fear of chemicals: There's nothing to worry about. In New York, I was raised on the tap. The tap isn't gonna kill you. I understand that spring and mineral water is supposed to be more healthy and better for you. But unless your tap comes from a polluted area, I think you can succumb to a few pitchers of the stuff. Get a filter if you feel the need. At least you can save on needless water bottles and cash.

Right around August is where I would discover a little device that actually encouraged me to walk around the area more. I think this one little bauble potentially saved my life in the long run...

How I became slim, fit and healthy

As a child, I often was lazy and preferred to sit at home and stuff my face with junk food and the like. I still do from time to time but I've limited the amount severely and switched to more healthier alternatives instead.

When I was still in New York as a high school student, I would go to a dollar store and buy various junk foods. Chips, candy, you name it. When I was twelve, they had these gummi bunnies that were to die for. I loved them in spite of how hard they were to chew. One day, I bought some Hershey's Nuggets(They resembled them, so it's a possibility they were the same brand. This store was known to have some bootleg merchandise at times). They had a hint of strawberry in them along with cookie crumbles. It was an orgasm in my mouth. I bought them more than I should and it came to a point where I think I fractured a tooth on the right side of my mouth. Months later my dentist would claim there wasn't anything wrong with said tooth. I still feel something off about it though. On the subject of my teeth, all of that junk would do a fair amount of damage to them.

Finally, when I moved to Savannah, I would still indulge in candy and junk. But one thing I noticed were the increased prices for simple things like Skittles and Snickers bars. Eighty-Nine cents for one of those treats was too much. In New York, you'd only pay fifty cents for one of them. Sometimes sixty cents. The prices did go up a little. For a quarter, you can buy a pack of seeds or a fudge pop. Got a dollar? Four of those for you! But that was long ago. Now, they were thirty-five cents or even more. Down here such treats weren't around. I would spend the $2 for a can of Pringles, as they were the same price, more or less. But this didn't last long. I had to tighten my belt and my waistline. I could live without the junk food. It wasn't a dire situation. I was husky and had a gut but nowhere near the obesity line. That's probably why I don't miss such things as much and why it was easy for me to lose the weight. But the one thing that really got to me was the school lunch system in my second high school. For a slice of pizza, you had to pay $3. One slice of pizza for fucking 3$. Now that's worth its own subject. I only did it once and it wasn't spectacular. I went the rest of my days at that school without lunch but that wouldn't a problem for me after New Year's Day, when we returned to school...

This is only the beginning of my journey into staying slim, fit and healthy. And it hasn't even ended yet. I still have a long path to tread. Stay tuned!