Barbecuing Tips

Grilling can be a great excuse for a party. However, make sure you don't drink too much beer while cooking; nursing a beer for at least thirty minutes can be a vital skill.

Don't assume that using alcohol in something will burn off the alcohol. It actually doesn't, especially when it is used a marinade. If you flambe the meat it will, but only then. You can get drunk from meat that has been marinaded in beer.

There are pluses and minuses to rubs and sauces. A rub requires a marinade, but gives you more control of the spices. A sauce allows you to forego a marinade, but also contains more sugars, making it bad for some diets and diabetics.

Don't put the grill too close to the pool. Its just asking for trouble, both in terms of potential accidents as well as clean up.

Don't disrespect a man's method of barbecuing. Or at least wait until you taste its results first.

Healthier Grilling Sides

As barbecues get fired up, one of the rare questions is what makes a good healthy side. Too many people default to the basic salad however fancy they make it. However, if you have a grill you may as well take advantage of it.

---Tomatoes are your best friends. Although they can be pickled and served as part of salads, they can also be grilled, either alone or as part of something else. This gives them a little extra lycoprene as well as a little extra sweetness.

---Admittedly any vegetable can be grilled as well, as well as any fruit. Again, this makes it sweeter and can add a slight crunch if done right.

---Potatoes are another good add, but stock up on aluminum foil. This allows them to be cooked on the grill or in the charcoal itself. A simple recipe is to chop up some onion rings and wedge the potatoes, and put about a cup of each in some foil with two tablespoons of butter or margarine.

---Potato salads make great sides, but minimize the amount of mayonnaise used. The best salad is a mix of mustard,mayonnaise, sliced hard-boiled eggs, and various spices such as pepper salt, and a little celery seed and paprika, mostly for color. For each potato add a tablespoon of mayonnaise and a teaspoon of mustard, and you should do fine.

---Pasta salads also work. The ideal is one part pasta to one part sliced and vegetables, with a half-cup of vinaigrette dressing for every two cups of ingredients. This will make your diabetic friends happy as well, as long as the pasta/vegetable ration is about 1:1.

---If you have a large yard, you can also encourage some games as well. The more active the games the better, and building up a good sweat can help your guests enjoy the beer and food that much more.

A barbecue is about more than the meat on the grill. Have some fun with some other sides and your guests will love your dinners!

Jogging Security 101

Jog only where the path is reasonably well lit and you can see well ahead of you on the path in order to avoid potential ambushes.

An airhorn, a whistle, a small can of pepper spray, and a small taser: Any of these items are small enough to not slow you down and still provide decent self defense.

Keep in mind that you are set up to run; your attacker is not. Running is an option.

Leave all of your electronics at home. It's not only good to unplug, but not having those expensive items makes you less of a target. If you so wish, you can buy a cheap MP3 player that is as programmable as you want, but leave your good one at home.

If you can, jog with friends. If not, jog where people can see you. 

Exercise Equipment

Avoid re-using plastic bottles for anything. They are great for a one-time use, but the cancer-causing softeners used in them can be leeched out of the bottle and into your system. Recycle, do not re-use.

If you jog, map out your path in terms of both time and geography. You can then key your faster music to give you an extra burst of energy for inclines, slower music for flat areas. You can also key your workout along with your music, with faster music at the beginning to give you a burst of energy and slower music at the end for cooling down.

Make sure that your exercise gear is comfortable. The best gear is invisible but adapts to your size; the worst is that which is loose enough that is a hazard or too tight for breathing.

Your shoes should be comfortable with a lot of traction. If the shoes are too tight, too loose, or just uncomfortable before, during or even after exercise then it is time for new shoes.

Sweat bands should capture sweat. It may sound obvious, but if they do not you will soon learn to hate them and by extension exercise. If you sweat a lot find a solution that works for you and go for it. 

Diabetes Eating Tips

Seriously debate anything with "sugar alcohols". These are used to sweeten sugarless items, and may affect your blood sugar in very bad ways.

Keep in mind that fruit can be your friend.

Cheese may seem to be basically sugar-free, and it even says that there are no sugars. It lies. Go easy on the cheese as the lactose that makes it up doesn't count as sugar, even though it has the same effect on blood sugar. Ergo, watch how much dairy is in your diet.

Don't get too fanatic about your blood sugar levels. It's all about management, not control. This is not to say that you should have a huge piece of cake with ice cream on it, but you can have a small slice, if you've allowed for it.

Really debate diet sodas. The sweeteners they use can actually increase your blood sugars more than you would expect.

Diabetes and the Blog

There will be some changes in this blog, and July 2013 is why.

I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. This has led to a number of changes having to be made. For example, I need to keep a careful eye on my feet due to neuropathy; a small cut can become gangrenous. In fact, one did and I ended up losing my big right toe. I have also had to make some minor dietary changes as well.

The biggest change is what I drink. Most of my eating habits were okay, not great, but okay; I was never into sugary snacks, I love salads, and my diet was well-balanced. However, I drank a lot of Pepsi: I needed something to give me a burst every so often, and as a hyperkinetic caffeine actually puts me to sleep, but if I combined it with sugar it became a winning combinaton; the caffeine would give me a quick burst and then the sugar would enable me to ride out the fatigue. As the diabetes progressed diagnosed I needed more liquid, and so drank more Pepsi; not a winning combination. I finally had to check into a hospital for over a month.

At any rate, there will be some minor changes. Expect to see recipes with less sugar, for one, and less frying; in general, an effort will be made to make food that is better for you. However, do not expect catering to any of the various diets; the recipes and concepts may appear to be part of a diet, especially paleo, but that is so not the case. Also expect more pictures and video; I have the equipment, and I want to have some fun with it. I am also going to include a lot of health tips, but that's just to increase to traffic ;-).

Overall, I hope you have some fun and that this blog will be useful. Let's explore cooking together.