The Adventures of Bloggard

Been Around the Block. Got Some Stories. These are Them.

Getting Stronger, Seems Like

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Mount Shasta, CA, June 23, 2026: In addition to my morning wake-up routine–about 10 minutes of taichi, stretching, and tension exercise–and my X3-Bands resistance-training at home with the heavy-duty stretchy bands and the occasional kettlebell, and my sometime stride up the 4-block hill behind my house, I’ve added 1-2 weekly sessions of workouts with some folks from the gym.

Overall, my plan to restore health and strength is working. I’m down almost 90 pounds, back at my post-college weight around 155#, bloods and blood-pressure and everything my doctor can measure is better than before. Energy up, mood superb, sleep better, and I had to give away most of my clothes and get smaller ones.

Cool beans.

Now if you do not believe me, here is evidence. Observe the desperado second from the left …

This is a little advert for a free 6am Sunday morning exercise, and we normally meet at what used to be a gas station downtown. It’s a CVS pharmacy now, but the main thing is that they aren’t open at 6am on Sunday. 🙂

In addition, I normally do one session in the gym, similar kinds of exercise. The guy that runs this, Scott Rodriguez (third from the right) has a degree in kinesiology and knows functional movement, so it’s different each time. That means it hits on places that my regular exercise doesn’t catch. I can’t keep up with most of the others, but I don’t need to.

I simply follow two rules:  1) keep moving, and 2) lean into the difficulty.

My target is to have my muscles shaking by the end, or maybe even going weak a bit, but not cramping. All I gotta do is push it to that point and I’ll grow stronger. My secret plan, of course, is to see if I can last longer.

Will the Last be First?

Those who knew me back in the day will either be surprised or appalled that I’ve already outlasted most of my peers, many or most of which were in better shape, didn’t smoke, were much smarter about things that matter. But life, and our culture and poisoned foods take their toll, so most of them are gone now.

Leaving me. Who would have thought?

The Moment that Things Changed

I was around 35, living and working in my business in San Francisco. My wife and I had a small apartment near Carl and Cole, on Grattan street. I then received a small publication called Brain-Mind Bulletin, which reported on left-brain/right-brain types of things, and there was a brief blurb for a book by Dirk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, called “Life Extension.”

And I thought … “Now who WOULDN”T want to get that book?”

Living Longer. What a Concept!

The idea that we could purposely extend our lives. What? I’d never imagined that idea before.

I read about a bunch of exotic vitamins and how growth hormone works. Now, as it happens, ten years earlier, living in a house of creative folks in Los Angeles, a minor starlet named Carolyn Judd lived there, and she told me about vitamins, back when NOBODY took vitamins. There were only two health-food stores in all of Los Angeles. She helped me get started.

These vitamins seemed like a good idea, so since that day, back when I was 26, I’ve been taking my vitamins every day.

And after reading the Life-Extension book ten years later, I continued taking my vitamins and even added a few. Some for longer life, some to make learning how to play music go faster, things like that.

At 40 I finally Quit Smoking

After over 200 failed attempts to quit smoking, finally one worked, and I successfully stopped smoking and never returned.

So these are the only three things I’ve done for my health in all my past decades:

  1. I started taking vitamins at age 26.
  2. I read a book about Life Extension at age 36, and thought that would be a good idea.
  3. I stopped smoking, finally.

But after a While, Health Started to Slide

In the years following, now and then I tried different kinds of exercise, tried to eat healthy, but it was haphazard, and no particular plan lasted for long. I tired of going to a gym, I tired of weights in the garage. I tired of healthy food and returned to pizza, and bread, and fast-food hamburgers.

And my weight climbed up.

Up, up, up.

Year after year.

And by my mid 70’s I was 238 pounds, round and flushed, out of shape, and–one day–I’d finally had enough.

And Then I Stumbled Across a Particular Sequence that Changed Things

I can’t claim any particular discipline, wisdom, or toughness. It’s just that one thing I tried worked, and it made the next thing I tried easy, and that led to the next, and so on.

(For specifics, if you want them, see this article in my online “How to Do Things” publication: It’s called “How to Restore Your Ideal Weight,” and you can click on the title to open it in a new tab.)

And first thing you know, I got unaddicted to carbs. And then I stopped eating all day from dawn to into the night. And then my weight started coming down and energy resumed, and many annoying symptoms faded. And then I searched for the lowest-common-denominator exercise I could do quickly at home for the best results, figured that out, got the X3 Bands system, and became fairly regular at using it, because it’s not all that hard, takes only 15 minutes, improves testosterone, and increases strength, which is the best indicator for longevity.

Now I’ve added a bit more.

Because I say, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth OVERdoing.”

Just kidding. It doesn’t actually take me much time, and it actually feels good. This is all due to the special sequence for putting it into a place, just one step after another, each step making the next one surprisingly easy.

And I’m delighted with the results.

🙂

PS: Along the way, my research showed how the food supply of my youth has been increasingly poisoned by corporate interests who have changed the food chain from farm-to-table as it was in my childhood … to a more profitable (for them) chain of food-and-chemical ingredients to factory to distribution to restaurants and grocery stores of “convenience” products, the vast majority of which are now intentionally designed to addict us and keep us coming back. Unfortunately, the stuff added that does that also fattens and sickens us and causes the current pandemics of obesity, diabetes, immune disorders, Alzheimer’s and other health and mental breakdowns.

Just a reminder. Average 25-year-olds in 1940 …

(For details on this study of 15,000 subjects in 1940, see: “The Tyranny of the Taste-Bud Trap.”)

And average 25-year-olds today …

(The two studies are not exactly parallel, but it’s the closest I could find. I’m surprised that the *average* 25-year old is so overweight, but that’s what the recent study revealed, and this image is created to show today’s weights.)

We aren’t weak of will. We’ve been poisoned. Tricked and poisoned. And as we undo this silly situation, and give the body what it needs, the natural healing in your body restores your health, and lengthens your life.

If you’re interested in this kind of thing, I’m placing the science and experiments and things that actually work on my online publication, which is called “How to Live Long, Prosper, and Find Peace.” There is never a cost. Nobody pays anything. Just visit, find one or more written-up systems, try them. They’ll work. Enjoy the gift. 🙂

You’ll find it here —

“How to Live Long, Prosper, and Find Peace.”

(Click on the title to open in a new tab. Check recent articles or Table of Contents. You’ll find something useful.)

 

 

How to Drop the Weight, Look Better, and Feel Better … Made Easier

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Healthy Folks Walking at Sunset

Mount Shasta, CA, December 31, 2025: In a recent move, researchers at Beth Israel Medical, Harvard, and Yale University have recommended adding the obvious waist circumference to the definition of “obese,” with good reason. But that also means that three-quarters of all U.S. adults are obese.

Here’s what happened: Over time, in this culture the food-sources have changed, and if you eat “normally,” your health goes downhill fast. But it’s actually not complicated to fix that.

It’s not *fun* to fix it, because you can’t continue eating corporate-engineered addictive fake-foods and fake-food snacks. That’s what has cost you your youthful body and energy. Those “normal” foods are engineered to keep you fat and addicted, so you gotta tell them no. However, it’s not actually difficult … if you know how.

The Magic Trick

When it comes to re-training your body, here’s the trick that makes it much easier. It’s a sequence …
  • Do each step then go to the next, and you’ll first remove the addiction.
  • When you remove the addiction, you’ll stop creating the obesity.
  • When you stop creating the obesity, your body will revert to a more functional, stronger, healthier, better-feeling state.

Here’s the magic sequence. It can take some weeks or months, so be prepared for a slow marathon and not a wild sprint. Calm your mind to be patient and simply continue day after day. Weighing yourself every single day will aid your motivation. Yep, it will go up and down a bit, but there is learning to be found in that. 🙂 Here’s what to do …

1) Get off addictive foods

These are fast-converting carbs (all grains, all sugars, all seed-oils, all salty “snacks), and they keep your body craving more, just like a junkie wants heroin, and a smoker wants cigarettes. The best way to do this is: for a period of time, eat *only* single-ingredient foods that you prep yourself.
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Think about your great-grandparents. If they could get the food–anywhere in the world–it’s actual food.
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But anything “invented” after 1950, anything that requires an advertisement, anything prepped or packaged is probably not actual food. All soups, sauces, chips, prepped-meals, frozen meals, snacks, all fast food, restaurant food is no longer actual food.
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The best approach: Eat things like eggs and bacon (no toast), huge salads without croutons or sweet things like sugared nuts or cranberries, make veggie and meat soups without potatoes (other than japanese or purple potatoes, which are a different species). Eat meat/fish/fowl with low-carb veggies. Have a very few fruits from: berries, citrus, pears, peaches, apples, kiwi. Absolutely *stuff* yourself with these things, to stay away from the newer, invented, damaging “normal” foods. Those are the problem, and they are killing us.

2) “Intermittent Fasting” — Eating Only in a Window of Time

Once you’re free of addictive foods, your addiction will fade away over a number of days. You’ll still have bad habits, but if you focus and continue, those bad habits will weaken after three weeks. If you cave in, your three weeks starts over. But now, once free of addictive foods … stop eating all day long.
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Set a window of time, for example, 8 hours and eat ONLY within this window. This allows your body 16 hours to rest, take a break, and focus on stuff other than digestion. Your body will function better, and you will sleep better, feel stronger, and have better energy.
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And since you’ve weakened the addiction, you’ll find that now … it’s reasonably easy to only eat within this window. Especially if you really, really tank up, especially in the beginning. Got the impulse to eat some more? Tank up like crazy, if necessary, with these non-poisonous, non-addictive foods before the end of your “eating window.” 🙂

3) Learn to do a One-Day Fast … It is now Easy!

Once you can do this “intermittent” fasting and are no longer gobbling food all day long, then learn to take a one-day fast. Nothing other than water, coffee, or tea. That’s it. No carbs of any kind. No protein of any kind. No fats of any kind. (So no milk or cream or fake sweetener in your coffee; take it black.) Now here’s the surprising part.
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Since you’ve already turned off the compulsive “gobbles,” and you’ve regained the ability to say no to eating, you will find that a one-day fast is actually rather easy. You may still have some habits, or thoughts, but your body and addictions will not actually stop you.
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And now, finally, your body can begin to function as it was designed, because it uses this time to clear out the “trash” in the body, removing damaged cells, and restoring even better response to insulin. Again, your sleep, energy, and mood improves. It’s like taking the trash out of the kitchen. Before, it just piled up forever, and that’s lousy.

4) Find some Easy Exercise

Begin some kind of exercise, whatever you can do every day is best. Doesn’t have to be difficult or painful, just something you can do *regularly* like walking or gardening or yoga or lifting tiny weights at home or calisthenics or taichi. What matters, at first, isn’t what or how hard. What’s important is regularity.

5) Remove Poisons

Remove all poisons from your house, they keep you off-balance. They’ve become “normal” during the same time we became near-universally sick and fat, but these things are totally damaging your body. So these poisons include all kitchen tools, pots, food-containers, plates, glasses made plastic, silicone, teflon. This includes plastic air-fryers. Remove all scented cleansers or air-fresheners or laundry-sheets or pods. All are toxic. Swap out your undergarments that use synthetics, then pants and shirts and dresses and skirts and outer clothing built of plastic. All these damage the hormones that keep you healthy and feeling good.

And If You Want to Go a Bit Further …

  • You’ll feel even better if you add some daily sunlight, and if possible, give your body doses of too-cold (cold shower) or too-hot (sauna), and add some form of higher-intensity exercise.
  • There are other things like mold, EMF exposure from electrical devices or powerlines, and light-pollution disturbing your sleep. But by now you’re already in way better shape.

Congratulations!

At this point, you’re no longer obese. Wow! It happened along the way, just by changing “normal” poisons all around us into actual food, actual movement, actual sleep. Cool!

Want more Better-Health Methods that Work?

Here are two ways …
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Visit my unusual micro-methods for a longer, happier life! 🙂
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Friend me on Facebook!
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Hope to see you there! 🙂

What Goals Make You Happiest?

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Mt. Shasta, California, June 15, 2022: When I was 26 or so, I figured out a handy truth …

a) Havingness goals, once met, most often satisfy for a few days or a few weeks.
b) Beingness goals may bring benefits, but if you try to dwell in satisfaction, then you’re no longer in that beingness, so you usually spend little time experiencing the satisfaction of attaining a beingness.
c) Doingness goals can satisfy as long as you’re doing the thing you intended to do.
For example, years ago in Dallas, one particular day, I found myself uncomfortable and ill at ease. And after a few days of pondering realized that I’d accomplished the goal for which I had gone to Dallas, and that I needed a new goal–because humans function well when seeking a goal.
And so I chose “creating music” because that is a doingness goal, and you can never reach the end of creating music.
It worked.

Easy-Peasy Exercise and Eating – Stay Trim, Strong, and Healthy

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After failing, since age 26, to find an exercise-and-eating method that worked well and that I could keep up, because I never actually quit trying, not long ago I stumbled across a combo that works for me: (Exercise = X3Bar stretchy bands 15 minutes is the main part.)

Eating: Turns out that fast-converting carbs are my nemesis. Once I have more than about 30-50 grams of “fast carbs” like breads, potato, sweets, then I have the “gobbles” for the rest of the day. Further, these carbs make me feel bad, and I grew fatter and fatter from 40 up through almost 75 years old. (Picture to the left is me at age 40.)

Not because of any real wisdom but really through accident, I found a “gradient” of changing things that made each step easy, and yet it took me in just a handful of months to a low-carb diet largely free of processed foods and fast foods, a daily intermittent-fasting schedule of eating within an 8-hour window, and 14 days during the month when I fasted completely (no food, no juice, no broth),

Seen in retrospect, it’s become clear why this sequence worked —

THE HIDDEN “FOOD” THAT DOOMS YOU TO BEING FAT

a) First, get OFF the fast-carb roller-coaster. You will NEVER be healthy eating todays high-carb diet. The invention of agriculture was destructive to individual humans, but elongated the survival of the species. But, the body body wasn’t originally designed on such a diet. Recent changes from big agriculture and big business have made carb-heavy foods even more addictive and more damaging. So the first step is — how to cut the foods that have you addicted and ruin your health?

The answer is to find low-carb veggies and clean protein, and TANK UP all day long. After some number of days, your urges to gobble grains and sweets will diminish, and (by avoiding processed foods) you’ll avoid poisons which trigger over-eating (like MSG) and hidden sugar.

Don’t be afraid of eating fat. The energy from fat will keep you feeling satisfied, and you’re replacing sugar/grains with fat as your main energy source. Just make sure they are the clean and healthy fats. There’s lots of lies in food marketing. For example, Canola Oil is a manufacturing byproduct, Crisco is harmful, “vegetable” oils are mostly bad for you, as are most commercial salad dressings with soybean oil, and as is margerine, and any “low-fat” imitation fat.

If it’s a fat without manufacturing, it’s probably OK: olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, and butter are all pretty good for you. Others aren’t. They were made up to make money for their makers, not for your health.

You want to get your carbs UNDER 40 grams a day. To calculate, here’s a free tool: https://cronometer.com/

Use it till you got this down. Note: three normal corn tortillas are about 45 grams of carbs. But you can tank up on salads, soups (without potato or grains), and stir-fries of the right ingredients. All leafy greens and the sulphur veggies, and many others. So for example: huge salad with seeds and healthy salad dressing, curry made with cauliflower and spinich or other greens and coconut oil, soup made with chicken carcass and all the healthy veggies you want. All these will fill you up with high nutrition and satiety, without addictive, fast-converting carbs. All the steaks and chicken and pork you want, avoiding additives as much as possible.

THE EASY WAY TO DROP WEIGHT WHILE EATING TONS OF FOOD

b) As your compulsive urge to over-eat fades away, choose an eating window for every day. Instead of eating all day and all night, eat ONLY within a 6-hour to 8-hour window. Eat TONS so you cannot be hungry. And in a surprisingly short time, you’ll find it’s actually easy to only eat within this window, which is MUCH closer to how we ate over 100,000 years, and for which the body was originally designed.

If you have to, you may need to start with a longer window (eg: 10 or 12 hours) and then when that’s comfortable, narrow it down.

LIVE LONGER, AVOID ALZHEIMERS, KEEP YOUR IMMUNE HEALTHY

c) When the 6-hour or 8-hour window becomes easy — probably a matter of some weeks since you began this … Try a ONE day fast.

I discovered that it wasn’t a big deal. Seemed weird, but I wasn’t particularly hungry. To make it really easy, start your day with “Bulletproof Coffee” (look it up), which is black coffee with butter, or MCT oil or coconut oil added in. This gives your body some fat, producing satiety.

And once you can do a one-day fast, then you can do another one. My first step was to fast one day on the first and 16th of each month. After a couple months of this — easy peasy — you can add another day or two. Once this was comfortable, I thought to try a 3-day fast. Holy cow! It wasn’t all that troublesome.

Now at this point, your body is already making your immune stronger, and autophagy is starting to kick in, which recycles dead and damaged cells, and the study above suggests you’re getting some protection from Alzheimers.

You just keep adding some more fast days. I finally got to a 3-day fast on the first and 16th, then three one-day fasts in each two-week period. And … it’s bloody easy, energy goes up, sleep gets better.

EXERCISE FOR BETTER STRENGTH, ENERGY, AND SLEEP

d) Now, I combined this with an exercise plan. I do not know if this is essential or not, but that’s what I did. I purchased the X3Bar system, which is heavy duty bands and a short routine of 4 whole-body exercises most days, takes 15 minutes, and takes your muscles to exhaustion in a clever manner, with super-low chance of any injury.

Now, because my work is sedentary, I found that a couple more very short exercise periods kept me awake better. I added a walk up the hill behind my house in the morning, and when that became comfortable after a month or two, then I began short bursts (sprints), and now it’s a couple blocks of hill sprints. I wear minimal clothing, because low cold strengthens the immune system, and the impact of the sprinting is good for bone density. And this takes under 10 minutes.

And then I added a brief kettlebell session in later afternoon, kettlebell swings and presses just enough to make me breath heavy.

That’s it. I dropped 70 pounds fairly quickly, got stronger, sleep better and my mood seemed to improve as well.

IF YOU GIVE IT A TRY —

If you try it, I’d love to hear your experience.

Creating Your Reality

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Today I was online reading something, and I was *so* tempted to respond in argument with something that someone said.

Even knowing better, I find it hard to stop myself, all too often.

And my particular reason for desiring to restrain myself is this —

A) We greatly create our own experience of life (our reality) by the thoughts we harbor in our heads. Some say these thoughts actually create reality, but for certain they create our experience of life.

B) If you create ill-will thoughts, no matter where you intend to aim them, you are creating ill-will thoughts. And it’s in YOUR head.

C) You suffer as a result of the painful thoughts in your head, and it paints your picture of your universe, and you create your painful experience of life.

D) The more you focus thought on negative stuff (problems and pain), the more you overlook (or miss) many of your opportunities, and you miss out on enjoying the bliss you could be enjoying from your life.

E) So it boils down to — It’s your gun. It’s your foot. Do What Thou Wilt.

Want to live in a world of devils? Or a world of bliss? Although it may seem strange the first time you hear this, with a bit of practice, it is actually possible to control your own mind, and your thoughts WILL create your happiness (or suffering) in this life.

(A word to the wise is sufficient. Let he that hath ears hear!)

🙂

Band of Thieves

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Shady Shores community, near Dallas Texas, 1964: Paul H. was the largest roommate, and visiting his girlfriend in Fort Worth, he drove that highway often. A large and quiet guy, when he returned that day, all excited, we knew something was up.

“What is it?” asked Hardy M., the art student, a rugged fellow of sour demeanor. Paul lowered his voice.

“It’s a boat, with two big Evenrude motors,” he said, “It’s just sitting on a trailor beside the highway!”

My roommates, and myself, instantly became criminals.

The Plan …

“You mean … just sitting there?” asked Pat M. Always affecting calm, always worried.

“Trailer hitch,” Paul said. “I’d have grabbed it but I don’t have a trailor hitch.” On his car, he meant. They all looked at me. My car had a trailor hitch.

“OK,” I said. And so off we drove, to steal a boat.

After the Thieves Left the Hideout …

Along the way, Hardy in the back seat was dozing. Each time he nodded off, Pat jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow. “Stop it!” Hardy said, irritable. Pat told him not to be leaning on him. Hardy said ok, and a short time later, was dozing again.

With the two of them bickering like children, we drove. The day was late, and daylight fading. I’d forgotten a ham in the oven. We found it the next day, much smaller and very salty.

But There Was a Problem …

Watching for the boat as we drove, it seemed like we’d never get there. And finally, Paul said that either we’d missed it, or somebody had picked up the boat. So we turned around.

By now, Hardy was deep asleep in the back seat. He woke occasionally, but Pat told him we weren’t there yet. This continued until we were pulling into Shady Shores, where we lived lakeside in a concrete-block house.

A New Plan Appeared …

About a block from our house was a small copse of wood, and, as it was now full dark, instead of going home, I pulled my car into that tiny wood. And in the darkness, the nearby houses were invisible from within the trees.

Hardy woke as we exited, but we told him we were going to get the boat, and we needed him to stay with the car. Sleepy, he agreed, and promptly fell asleep again. We walked to our house, and stayed up late, talking about our big adventure — failing to steal a boat — and then eventually everybody went to bed.

Hardy, of course, woke up sometime during the evening, but didn’t dare leave the car. He didn’t want to be stranded in an unknown place near Fort Worth.

Next Morning …

In the morning, about coffee-time. Hardy came through the door.

“That’s not funny,” he said.

Are You a Pirate?

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In one of the last scenes in the fun movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” the heroine makes a statement about the leading man. She says, lovingly, “He’s a pirate.”

As you may recall from the movie, that young man started out hating the pirates, and yet, in the course of his adventures, he’s become bolder and he has dared great things, and by golly he has become a pirate. And that’s a good thing.

And so … why is it a good thing to be a pirate?

[Read more…]

 
 

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