Update Season X - "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Vol. I."

[opebo]

Do you ever eat spicy food Bushie?

[opebo]

Do you ever eat spicy food Bushie?

Probably not good for his stomach, sadly.

Do you ever eat spicy food Bushie?

Bushie doesn't like flavors.

I don't know why it wouldn't be 'good for his stomach', but I'm thinking one reason for his overeating is is his sever boredom.  If he ate food that was different or unusual for him it might make him at least aware he was eating.

Try this, Bushie - eat the same food as now, but put huge amounts of black pepper on it.  See how much you feel like eating then.

[opebo]

The most depressing thing about Bushie's obesity is that it's a result of eating bland, boring, bad food. If he were obese because he snacked on buttery croissants and rare steaks with creamy sauces and duck-fat fried potatoes on the side with tasty beers the whole day, that would be one thing, but he's obese because he eats 3-4 servings of twinkies and sloppy joes for each of his meals, and washes them down with cans and cans of carbonated water mixed with corn syrup.

Haha, precisely!  All that ill-health and early death for nothing.

[opebo]

I don't think diabetes will do it. His parents both have it and they aren't phased by it.

He will need to hit rock bottom or have a near death experience before he changes, and even then I'm not so sure,

How do you propose that such people 'change', Duke?

[opebo]

How do you propose that such people 'change', Duke?

It would take tremendous discipline and the drive to learn how to eat correctly. He doesn't have either. He was raised on red meat and potatoes and I'm not going to give him a hard time about it anymore.

There really isn't any problem with red meat, and very little problem with potatoes.  The reason he's fat is eating too much of everything, but particularly snacks, soda, bread, etc.  The red meat is the least of his problems.

Lets be honest, folks, he's probably stuffing his face continuously all day long.  I wouldn't believe anything he says here about food.  If you're 260 pounds you're eating a lot, its that simple.

[opebo]

I have developed a taste for diet drinks such as DDP, Diet Coke, and Sprite Zero (formerly Diet Sprite).  The problem is I haven't lost the taste for the regular stuff, yet.  Good news is I only have a regular soda once every four or five days.

You never lose the taste for regular. I drink a regular coke like once every few months because Mexican Cokes are great, and they are damn good, but I know if I drank them on a regular basis (once or twice a week is regular), I would be far unhealthier than I am now.

If you're waiting to stop liking them, well, you'll be waiting a long time. Same with burgers, although I do feel bad after I eat a ton of food that's bad for me, like a burger or something and tons of fries.

If you have a burger once or twice a week, and a Coke once a day, its not a big deal.  He's got to be eating a lot more than that.

Personally I'd rather switch to water/coffee/tea than the diet garbage.

[opebo]

How about juice, Bushie?

Juice is very bad, man, its full of sugar.  He'd be way better off with the hamburger sans buns.

[opebo]

Come on now, a couple Cokes a week is no big deal at all.

For example, I used to drink Coke or Mountain Dew at 14 meals per week.  I've cut back to a hard limit of 3 meals per week (and 0 between meals), drinking either water or skim milk the other 18.  It was a very good decision on my part.

I used to drink Mountain Dew for breakfast, but that was ALL that I had for breakfast - I ate no food with it.  My first meal of the day was usually an hour or two later at 'lunch', somewhere between 1:00 and 4:00 PM.

Nowadays I drink a Coke for breakfast similarly.  I think high-sugar sodas are ideal for breakfast, but I rarely if ever drink soda with a meal - it seems like a kind of disgusting companion for most foods.  I do drink Coke with certain Isaan foods here, but in general I just have water with Thai foods and a glass of wine with 'farang' foods.

[opebo]

Bushie do you have difficulty getting in and out of automobiles?

Unless they are tiny Geo Metros or Mini Coopers, then no.  I have to wad myself up to get in those death traps, but any normal size sedan I'm fine.

Haha, when have you ever had occasion to get into a Mini Cooper?  Geo Metro I can definitely envision in the wilds of Oklahoma, but a Mini Cooper?  Who owns a Mini Cooper in your trailer park?

[opebo]

Random aside:
Can someone tell me why the insistence on the use "grilled" hamburgers? Are people boiling burgers these days or are we to salute Bushie that he isn't throwing them in to a deep fryer?

If it were me I'd just fry them in a pan, its easier.

[opebo]

There's really no problem with beef folks.  His problem isn't fat he's consuming, its fat on his body, and that comes from sugar and other carbs most likely.  That, and sheer massive consumption of everything.

If he confined himself to eating three beef patties fried in a pan each with an egg on top per day, with no bun, and washed down only with black coffee or diet soda, then he would lose weight. (admittedly three breakfast steaks would be better).

[opebo]

There's really no problem with beef folks.  His problem isn't fat he's consuming, its fat on his body, and that comes from sugar and other carbs most likely.  That, and sheer massive consumption of everything.

If he confined himself to eating three beef patties fried in a pan each with an egg on top per day, with no bun, and washed down only with black coffee or diet soda, then he would lose weight. (admittedly three breakfast steaks would be better).

Yeah but then he would die from not getting most of the other essential nutrients you need to live.

Yeah it would be best if he ate some liver instead of the beef patties once in a while.

[opebo]

Ok here's my new suggested crash diet for Bushie, trying to base it somewhat on what he likes:

8 AM whatever ungodly hour you arise:
Breakfast:
two sausage patties and two fried eggs.  As much pepper and salt as you like.  Coffee with full fat cream but no sugar

midmorning:
snack: yogurt

Lunch:
1:00
two thick slices of good quality ham, and two thick slices of 'real' cheese - none of that americancheez garbage.  as much mustard as you want, but nothing else - no bread. Small bowl of broth soup on the side  wash down with Coffee as above, or diet soda.

Dinner:
5:00 pm (as the savages do)
Alternating days either fried pork/beef liver with a fried egg, or a small breakfast steak or beef patty and fried egg.  serve with small bowl of broth soup.  drinks as above

late evening snack(s)
yogurt
small quantity of cashews or pistachios

What do you guys think? I thought about substituting a 'supper' for the late-evening snacks(s) identical to the menu for lunch.  The liver on alternating days for his dinner is key for getting vitamins.  How many calories would this strict diet provide?

[opebo]

Wow an entire potluck full of free food and Bushie couldn't manage to put a single vegetable on his plate.

Of course not.

Not living past age 40.

Vegetables - particularly the kind they serve in the USA - are hugely overrated, guys.  His problem is overeating, not lack of vegetables.

bushie is not going to eat liver.  period.

Too bad - its the best source of vitamins and minerals (far superior to any vegetable).

[opebo]

I used to have some kind of life insurance, a type you supposedly can't get anymore, which had a large cash value, something like $23,000.  What is the name for this kind of insurance which accrues a redeemable cash value?

[opebo]

A whole life insurance policy. They make no financial sense, except as a tax dodge for those in high income tax brackets, or subject to estate tax. It is interesting how each industry seems to have their own little tax dodge, that their lobbyists keep in place. The tax dodge here is that the interest earned on the cash surrender value is not subject to tax (well interest earned on a number high than the CSV, because the CSV is kept artificially low, so that you have a financial incentive not to cancel), and the proceeds of the policy can be excluded from the estate, if the premiums are paid technically by the beneficiaries through tax exempt gifts.

When it comes to financial products, their design, and how they are sold to those who don't have a prayer of understanding them, but who are subject to taking imprudent risks out of greed and the need to believe, that particular place is the real bad place, not St. Louis. It's a cesspool. In my world, we call it financial pornography.

Dude, I call the United States of America as a whole 'The Bad Place', not St. Louis (a place which is certainly not unusually bad compared to other parts of the Bad Place).  When that policy was purchased - in the late 1960s - my father was making money so quickly and easily I'm sure he hardly noticed the expense.  And all because of demand-push unionized inflationary Keynesian economics.  So, while I thank dad for that kind thought, I really thank Keynes and LBJ for making it possible.

[opebo]

Twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday.

So... less often than you briefly relax?  I'm scandalized.

[opebo]

Dude, I call the United States of America as a whole 'The Bad Place', not St. Louis (a place which is certainly not unusually bad compared to other parts of the Bad Place).  When that policy was purchased - in the late 1960s - my father was making money so quickly and easily I'm sure he hardly noticed the expense.  And all because of demand-push unionized inflationary Keynesian economics.  So, while I thank dad for that kind thought, I really thank Keynes and LBJ for making it possible.

I am most impressed that you so skillfully segued from financial pornography to the matter of the perimeters of Mordor to a gushing paean to Keynesian economics, all in just one pithy little paragraph. It is interesting that immediately following that so called glorious economic era as to which you tender such encomiums, the US went into the economic dumps until The Gipper came riding in on his white horse (with in real dollar terms the worst performance of both bonds and equities in US history, and that includes the Great Depression). You actually in real dollar terms from say 1966 to 1982 would have lost money. Why did it all fall apart? Well another time perhaps. I did not mean this to segue, to use that word again, until such heavy lifting into the mysteries of macro-economics. And it's Miller Time to boot here on the Gold Coast, where seemingly everyone has fancy cars but me, and everyone including me of a certain age has had a face life, where gyms are more common than churches, and fats live in other zip codes.

A mother-รucking Lexus isn't fancy??

(but thanks for the compliment)

[opebo]

...by June 1, 2014 I will take over my bills once and for all as I should have a ~$40,000 job by then and should have more than enough to support myself and pay rent, utilities, etc.

I don't think such jobs exist anymore, Bushie.

[opebo]

Is this all real?

His debts are less than the norm in America...

[opebo]

Is this all real?

His debts are less than the norm in America...

stop it

You're kidding me, surely.  You know $11,000 in debt is nothing, right?

[opebo]

Your lack of humility is disgusting.  There is no "we" in the payment of your credit cards.  You have no income.  Zero.  Zilch.  Nada.  Your parents are paying your cards.  The fact that you keep using "we" shows that you aren't learning from your mistakes.

Why don't you get a job?  There is no good reason why you shouldn't have a part time job at a local Wal-Mart restocking shelves or something like that.

Inks, he hasn't 'made mistakes', he's the victim of poverty.  I don't see what good going to WalMart would do him.

[opebo]

Inks, you're right, I have no money to support a girlfriend right now.

Good GOD man, you don't support a gf.   

You have to wonder what is in his head when he says things like that.  Perhaps he pays them for sex.

[opebo]

Just to inform the pampered denizens of this forum of the reality of the world, three cars for a household of three people in which only one member is in employment would be excessive even in a very rural area with no public transport (like the upland farming valley that I grew up in). The impression is further reinforced by the statement that one of them was bought new. This is a pattern of consumption driven by lifestyle choices (choices that I'm not judging), not necessity.

Your point is valid, but do keep in mind that used cars are still very cheap in the United States (though not quite as cheap as the used to be - I routinely drove cars that were nearly free).

Yes, exactly. Bushie's family is well-off by any standards, and for rural Oklahoma, they are living like royalty.

No, not so.  They're just very average - living pay-check to pay-check.  Having a few old beaters isn't a sign of being 'well-off'.

[opebo]

No consideration was given to buying a car a couple of years old with low miles on it I take it. That is what I do.

That's really extraordinarily parsimonious of a rich man like you!  And it is precisely what I used to do.  Back in the 50s-70s my parents always just bought new cars as they simply had no time to worry about saving money, and had so much income that the cost of a new car was an insignificant expense.  By the 80s however, when I was 'coming up' as they say, I suggested just the policy you espouse, and did the 'car hunting' for them.  Ever afterward we drove huge American luxury cars (usually General Motors) which cost virtually nothing, in perfect condition with very low miles, purchased from the elderly.