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The WayI See It: by KFLW's Jason Pollock

6-20-2018

Diet Mania

I've been looking at diets to see if I can shed a few unwelcome pounds and I've discovered a sea of choices. It seems the hardest part of dieting isn't the calorie counting and hunger pains, it's trying to separate fat from fiction while trying to pick one that might actually work.

The Paleo diet intrigued me because it's basically just meats and some fruits and veggies with a few nuts and seeds tossed in for good measure. Seems like easy shopping and prep work! It might not even involve all that much cooking since the power of fire may not have been harnessed yet. The only diet simpler than Paleo would be the Raw diet, but it seems boring as in; "What's for dinner? Raw stuff. How do you prep that?" Wash it. "Should I warm up the stove?" What's a stove? Just toss it on the table.  Hey, maybe I can sell my stove!  

This Paleo diet would have us picturing a buff cave-couple and their extraordinarily beautiful and fit children chasing herds of wooly mammoths across the tundra. They do this just to get a little cardio in before tucking in to a lean and lightly roasted haunch of beast, sprinkled with a little ash for extra flavor, all the while ready to scamper off if one of those pesky saber-toothed tigers or a pack of wolves show up.

After packing in this perfectly balanced main course, the kids scramble up some nearby trees to retrieve a few figs and hickory nuts for dessert. They're chased back down by an angry giant sloth, springing nimbly to the ground just ahead of its slow-motion claws. Soon after, the whole family vacates the area on a brisk 2,000 mile walk to keep ahead of advancing ice age glaciers. What? You expected them to build a village? They're hunter-gatherers, my friend.

Would you like to know the secret of this diet? It works because there is little nutritional reward for all the hard work invested. If I written the Paleo cookbook, it would have said, "Catch mastodon, char over uncontrolled flame, devour entire behemoth." This is why I don't have six-pack abs!

The Way I See It: by KFLW's Jason Pollock

5-31-2018

Good Taste

Maybe I'm getting old. No maybe about it, I am getting older! Recently I've noticed that things I loved as a kid just don't satisfy anymore. Maybe these things haven't changed all that much, but I have. Soda, we called it pop where I grew up, was always a rare treat and it never failed to produce the "carbonated nosebleed" that we both loved and dreaded. Those nosebleeds came fast if it was ice-cold and you tried to chug it! Now, sodas taste overly sweet and the carbonation seems an afterthought. There is a certain seafood chain that I want to visit again, but I'm worried that I won't like it. I last ate there in 2013. It was greasy and all three items on my plate tasted identical despite being surf and turf. It was disappointing because, as a kid, I couldn't get enough of that salty, crunchy, and fried deliciousness! Maybe it's the wonder of childhood when many things are still new or so rarely tasted that makes them seem better than they are. Maybe things were awful then too and my memory is simply being kind to me, but I'd welcome a good carbonated nosebleed right now!