A Frugal Guide to The South Beach Diet

Carbs are cheap. You can get a loaf of bread for $1.00. Meat is much more than that per pound and prices seem to just go up. Here are some great ways to save money and stay on your south beach diet phases. Don’t eat out. This is an important thing to think about when considering how to save money. Restaurant food is mark-up so much that you can easily spend the entire grocery budget for a week for a family of four during a night out for those same four people. Home cooked food is more nutritious, better tasting and creates great family memories. Let’s talk about how you can save money when purchasing that food that you are going to make at home. The best way to save money on meat is to buy in bulk and buy a lot during really good sales. Since I always seem to miss the really good sales, so I usually stick to buying the bulk packages. I am talking about the bulk packaging that is available at your local grocery store not the Club stores. They always have portions that are way to big for what I can store. If you have memberships in these stores and can store the food, by all means, get your meats from there. For the rest of us, buy the bulk chicken, beef and pork at your grocery store. To make sure that you don’t waste any of it separate the meat when you get home. I usually cook most of the meat in different ways and put a smaller portion in the freezer. 

For example, if I buy bulk chicken I cook some in the oven for a oven fried or bar-b-que chicken. At the same time I will also boil some of the chicken to use as a chicken salad or similar recipe. I will also throw a third of the raw chicken in the freezer to use when I need to make a chicken recipe. I will also freeze some of the cooked chicken if I don’t think I will use it in a day or two. This way I have prepared food in the refrigerator, prepared food in the freezer and raw food in the freezer in case company comes over. Use coupons. It is possible to get your entire grocery cart for free if you use double, triple and manufacturers coupons. I have seen others do it and I have come close myself. It might not be possible to get the entire bill down to zero when you are on the south beach diet because many times you have to buy some packaged food. Usually packaged food falls into the category of carbs. You can save a lot of money if you clip coupons. It doesn’t take any time if you do it while you are sitting in front of the TV. Buy your produce seasonally and locally. Vegetables are also expensive these days but you can save by purchasing the produce that is in season. You can usually get some great skills. South beach diet phase two & three dieters can practice on their baking skills by making fruit dishes with sugar substitutes that are ok for the south beach diet. Local produce also will cost less especially if you go to the local farmers markets. I find gorgeous produce at my local flea market and the prices are unbeatable. This is a www.weightshapes.com diet guide.

Depressing

The month of December has been a very good month for adoptions. We seems to have adopted out a lot of dogs and things are going pretty well for the rescue. But man oh man is it a depressing world when you look at the shelters. Yesterday I went to Richland County Ohio shelter listing on Petfinder. They have 90 dogs! I have been to that shelter, they do not have room for 90 dogs. I was talking to the women that works there last night via email and she said in July they put to sleep 16 dogs in one day. 16! I know that there are just too many dogs and not all of them can be saved but that is a lot of dogs for one shelter to put down in one day. That is just depressing. Dog rescue and really cat rescue is worse, I think is such a pointless war. I mean you aren't ever really going to end or change anything. For every one dog you save some asshole just created an entire litter more and nothing changes it only seems to get worse. I feel like a crazy person... fighting a battle that I will never ever win nor will I ever put a dent in it. And the sick thing is I hear stories from people all the time about how their dog had puppies, how their co-worker is buying a dog, how this person or that person has a dog that isn't fixed. It just isn't going to end, is it? Nothing will ever change will it? The suffering, the killing, the abuse will continue forever...

$4M in Cocaine Found in Bean Cans

The Canada Border Services Agency, in Halifax, says its officers seized 32 kilograms of cocaine, after finding the drugs hidden in a shipment of beans, from Cartagena, Colombia. Two men from the Montreal area face charges. Border officials say they found the drugs in 122 cans, with false bottoms, during a routine container search on 01 Oct. Dominic Mallette, the agency's chief of operations in Nova Scotia, said, according to News Bite press release, though Colombia is known for drug exporting, it wasn't the reason for the search. "We do, often, target for those countries, but in this case, we were not, necessarily, targeting for the fact it was coming from there," Mallette said. "It just happened to be a good, random examination". 

He said thanks to state-of-the-art equipment, officials were able to see the contents of some of the cans were more dense than they should've been, had they been carrying beans alone. "They put in the cocaine in there, put a false bottom to close it, then added sand". The cans were in a shipment destined for a legitimate food importer in Saint-Jerome, Quebec. Border officials called RCMP, and an investigation was launched. Federal officials estimate the drugs are worth $4 million, on the street, which Mallette said is about average for the size of seizures the Port of Halifax sees. He estimated the seizures happen four to five times a year. "I wish it was every day, but it's not," he said. The names of the men charged have not been released.

Mr. Robert Barron, Esq.

This is another example of my weird / eccentric, possibly mental illness-spawned sense of humor. One of the hallmarks of my sense of humor is the creation of characters. Like a television sketch comedy show, i have recurring characters that i bring up for certain situations, turns of conversation, political debates, etc. Whenever some discussion arises regarding a seemingly obvious solution to an endemic problem, say for instance single payer healthcare, i tend to trot out this character called Mr. Robert Barron, esq. He’s a fat and balding 19th century Robber Baron (hence the name) dressed in a 3 piece worsted wool suit with a gold pocket chain watch and a monacle, who at the mention of absolutely any form of government intervention in remedy of a social ill, pipes up in a stentorian, patrician baritone: “but... that would be so-see-all-izzum!“ Inevitably when Mr. Robert Barron, esq. speaks out, there are one of three reactions: (1) nervous laughter, (2) sighs of resignation, or (3) enthusiastic nodding. I wonder if any of you have recurring characters, like billy crystal’s “paprikosh” man in “when harry met sally”, or Jerry Seinfeld’s obnoxious “hel-looo!” guy. I have several of these characters that i allow to express themselves from time to time. this may in fact be a coping mechanism of some sort, but i doubt that it is a sign of real mpd because they do not “take over” my consciousness, leaving me with periods of blackout. As far as i know.

It Is More than Just Subsidy

In the past 2 weeks, all that has filled our airwaves, media and social networks has been the raging issue of fuel subsidy withdrawal. The debates for and against are ever on-going, with those against unarguably being the larger numbers. Personally, I started by being vehemently against its removal as indicated in in this October blog post of mine. After reading endless articles and engaging in debates about it, offline and online, I somewhat shifted ground a bit in my next article about it. I gradually shifted to being somewhat for it, this article by Sanusi Lamido finally got me convinced about supporting the withdrawal. The article answered for me all my questions and reservations. My main bone of contention is the timing of the withdrawal, as January is the worst month to do so. Families are coming from Christmas spending, and thinking about paying for school fees, and now, they have to face price hikes almost across board. The earlier agreed date would have been much better. This is not to say that this removal would not have brought about such opposition, because any tampering with fuel price is always unpopular. The concerns of those against it are very legitimate: 

Widespread poverty, endemic corruption in the system, it being the only welfare people receive from their wealth. This is also because NLC as a body is opposed to any price hike from an ideological perspective. Fast forward to today, and after endless negotiations, the Federal Government has shifted ground and has pegged the price at N97/litre. Not only that, the Ministry of Petroleum has also announced moves to probe the importations and allegations of corruption, as well as pressure the National Assembly to pass the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill. Not only that, the President and cabinet is now making cuts in their pay, starting from a 25% cut in salaries, though tiny considering that allowances are the bulk of the pay, it is a start nonetheless. This represents a victory. From day one, I realized that 65/litre as an official price is gone forever. Not only that, it takes someone who is either very sure of what he is doing or totally devoid of wisdom and leadership skills to look at the strong opposition to such policy move and still go on with it. I would like to give the President the benefit of doubt that he belongs to the first group, knowing the catastrophic effect this would have on Nigeria should this fail.

The Orchardist

The Orchardist is a book that is at peace with violence as a fact of life closely seated near beauty. The characters face horrific tragedy and the plot revolves around it. The prose is not over-emotional, yet it is pregnant with emotion through the personages, who are like cartoon characters reactions to what they face and the descriptive nature of certain passages. (I sighed over certain passages for the sheer beauty). The plot is strong but it isn’t the sole focus. The focus instead is the people, their inner worlds, their regrets, their private hopes, the truths they face about themselves and one another. Present within the text is a recognition that life is ugly, and that within that horrific lack of beauty is a potential for love that is bounded in the things we face, and the truths we reveal to one another, and what we can withstand. Secrets begin the tale, but it is within those secrets that love is planted. Yet the author maintains distance throughout. Quotation marks are left off all dialogue, creating the sensation that we are remembering the book rather than reading it. Violence, and joy too, is smoothed by the aloofness created by this muffing out of speech. It’s difficult at times to be certain if the characters are speaking now.

Or if we are listening in on their story a hundred years later. This distance from the action creates a faraway texture that intrigues me: violence is refined, buffered. We are made to receive the tale through the characters' memories, through each of their jaded and all-too-human perspectives. In contrast, the descriptive moments are as close as a leaf dripping with dew filling an entire canvas. Life is in the little moments, this says to me. Life is in the beautiful. Contrast is created by the placement of scenes, as well. At one point a joyful campside scene at twilight is contrasted with a scene of violence and a hollowing out of hope that shatters the prior sweetness. It's in those quick contrasts that the author creates her tension and speaks her point: that it’s the butting up of violence against love that births memories, and it’s the memories, the emotions, the love that makes a life. Especially in the middle of the book, chapters come by so quickly the author risks losing her audience as she flicks between characters, perspectives and memories. But she never lost me. Euphoric hope collides with loss which melts into the rebirth of hope. Cathartic.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I’ve just moments ago finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! So very good! I have piles and piles of books I need to read, so I hadn’t planned to pick up the next in the series for a few months at least. When I finished tonight, I felt this sad “Aw, I want the next installment” feeling and remembered that most people read this book for the first time with the amazing knowledge that the next installment didn't exist yet, which makes me want to wait just to have to suffer along with the rest of the world, a few years into the future. This is definitely my favorite in the series so far. I love how Rowling opens and closes each book in Muggle world, almost like a theater curtain rising and falling. She’s reminding us that Harry lives in a fanciful world, and that his next experience at Hogwarts there will wait for his readers. When I finish one of the books, I feel like the house lights have gone on and I’m reminded it’s 2012 and I’m a Muggle! I love all the contrast of innocence versus evil, and emotion and depth versus magic and action in this book. I love the intrigue throughout, and the intricate “I didn’t see that coming” finishes! The plot had me hooked pretty quickly (though I do feel restless when a book starts at the Dursleys’ house; I want to get back to Hogwarts). This book felt less funny to me than the first two, which I confess I was dreading a bit. People told me Books 3 and 4 veer away from the “children’s literature” feel, but I love children’s literature. So I sort of worried the books would become dull. The humor in the first two books really made me laugh. Earwax and vomit jellybeans!
 

The humor is comparatively minimal in this book. (Although the talking mirror made me laugh!) There’s much more tension among Harry, Ron and Hermione. I noticed some hormones in Harry at one of the quidditch matches when he looked at a girl, so I assume that element of his story will build as the books go forward. I haven’t felt much like reading for a few weeks (preferring to write), so this book has sat on my bookcase gingerly loved for nearly a month, half read. I finished the bulk of it today, under an afghan and a cat, racing through the pages. I cried at the big quidditch game, and at some of what happens at the end of the book. Not sobs or anything, but I got misty-eyed! Rowling really, really knows how to sweep up a reader in story! I’m never disappointed by how she wraps up all the loose strings. She’s a keen story-teller! And Hogwarts, amidst all of the terrible villains, is a cozy place filled with friends of valor and honor. My goodness, no wonder so many people like these books. It’s like... reliving your school days in a castle with heroic friends and a magic wand and intrigue every two steps, and this overpowering sense that you are a hero unrealized. To grow up on these books would have been amazing. I would have read them and wondered out the window during history class if there was ever really a Hogwarts under London, and if one day I might turn out to be a great wizard that a whole other half of the world believes saved fate.