Make Yourself Healthy Again

As we ease towards 2025, it has been interesting to follow all of the news stories about making America healthy again, including quite a bit of data about the general slide from the 70s to today in the general health of people. Is the food really to blame? I tend to think it may be a combination of things: more fast food and highly processed foods + more time spent at computer screens/staring into a smartphone + a lack of accountability.

The last part, lack of accountability, is completely within the control of most people. The standard American diet (SAD) of food that is delicious but not really good for you is pretty easy to eat. And very hard to stop eating. Very few family doctors have much to say about it. but are super eager to offer a statin prescription. No thanks.

It would be awesome to go back in time about 20 years and leave myself some notes for healthy success. I never would have guessed how easy it could be. Three easy steps: Track what you eat & do, walk more, and adopt a Carnivore Diet for six months. A bonus fourth step is stop regular alcohol use. Crazy easy.

Each trip to the store can be as simple as beef, butter and eggs. Add just a few additional foods to find your boundaries (fish, a bit of poultry, an avocado, sugar free nut butter, etc). Prep meals in advance to avoid snacking. You’ll save money, too!

The Big Red Wave

In honor of what looks to be a big red sweep of the elections, I figured today was a good day to pop some champagne (of beers). I decided to make a big red Dutch oven full of chili. This protein dense recipe (to say it is heavy on the meat is an understatement) will last me a month or so, as some will head into the freezer. I didn’t have any beer in the house, so I picked up a single can (24 oz), which is why the photo looks odd. So now I’m day drinking after a long walk on a beautifully sunny late fall day.

DJ-LX - Searching for the 2000s

Hey, what’s new? In music. Certainly not 90 percent of my Spotify music choices. I’m man enough to realize that maybe the problem is me. Have I not tried to find new music as I’ve aged? Or am I just burdened by buying so many awesome cassette tapes in the 70s and 80s and CDs in the 90s that this whole new century (so far) can’t compare?

From a sheer number of years, 1976 - 1999 vs 2000 - 2024 is a fair fight. I can’t fight brain biology, so everything that was burned into my mind as a younger person is really burned in. On the other hand, access to music this century is easier and less expensive.

Since I had nothing to do this evening (I’m waiting for paint to dry), I made a list of musicians who rose to fame this century. I looked far and wide, to make sure I wasn’t excluding anyone. Heck, I even listened to a Radiohead album. I scoured my Liked songs and playlists in Spotify.

Here is my unedited/unordered list of bands/performers (this doesn’t include “One Hit Wonder” types. I’m looking for staying power.)
Shins/Broken Bells
Alt-J
My Morning Jacket
Death Cab For Cutie
John Mayer
Chris Stapleton
Alvvays
Pete Yorn
Ryan Adams
War on Drugs
Luke Combs
Khruangbin
Courtney Barnett
Mark Knopfler (post Dire Straits)
Brothers Osborne
Foo Fighters
Kings of Leon
Coldplay
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Green Day
White Stripes
U2
Pearl Jam

You may have noticed the Coldplay Parachutes image. That album was released in 2000. A Rush of Blood to the Head followed in 2002. Both of these albums are stacked with great songs. Nothing needs to be skipped. American Idiot by Green Day is similarly good. Mark Knopfler made an album with Emmylou Harris called All the Roadrunning in 2006. I listen to this all the time still. If I can’t sleep, I play An Awesome Wave by Alt-J. Puts me away every time.

I have lots of songs from John Mayer, Ryan Adams and Death Cab for Cutie in my playlists. Possibly just a side effect of being divorced (kidding/not kidding). I have entire playlists of country music now - most of it from this century.

Even after searching, I’m not finding the same quality of entire albums this century. I’m going to blame the iPod. We are in a “song at a time” era. Or maybe it is just me…

DJ-LX: The Voice of Harold

Putting together a perfect playlist of REM songs is a daunting task. The first issue I ran into is many of their albums are burnt into memory via side A/side B order. To grab a song here or there and dump them into a pile just feels wrong. Yet, Spotify makes wrong easy. It still takes some time to assemble. After piling all of my selections into the playlist, it adds up to exactly three hours. Over the last few days, I’ve been giving the list a test run on walks, drives, and garage puttering. I set the list to alphabetical order, which feels random enough.

How did I select the songs? Most of my favorites are based on places, road-trips, and the people who surrounded me at the time, especially during the 1980’s. Their music is a memory-jogging, timestamped imprint in my mind.  REM is/was the quintessential college rock band and rose to fame while I was in college (sooo long ago) - so it is interesting how fresh the memories are when I listen to this playlist.

Spotify Playlist Link

REM albums by release date:
Chronic Town (1981)
Murmur (1983)
Reckoning (1984)
Fables of the Reconstruction (1985)
Lifes Rich Pageant (1986)
Document (1987)
Dead Letter Office (1987)
Green (1988)
Out of Time (1991)
Automatic for the People (1992)
Monster (1994)
New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)
Up (1998)
Reveal (2001)
Around the Sun (2004)
Accelerate (2008)
Collapse into Now (2011)  - nothing from this album made the list

DJ-LX - The Precursor

I’ve decided it is time to work on an all-time favorite REM song playlist. I’m not sure where to start, except I know this song will be on the list somewhere.

I’m not sure how the list will turn out, but you can bet the genius skill of Mike Mills will be as obvious as this one song teaser.

DJ-LX - The Pearl Jam Playlist

Even though I lived in Seattle in the early 90’s, it wasn’t until later that I dug deep into Pearl Jam. When Backspacer was released in 2009, the CD had codes for free downloads of concerts from iTunes. I chose the Grand Rapids and Halifax concerts.  I can’t recall why. Over the next few years, as I started traveling via motorcycle (with ear buds connected to my trusty iPod Nano), I came to appreciate the quality of the live performances and would buy the CDs that I hadn’t previously owned. Alone in my helmet, many miles were accumulated with Pearl Jam as the accompanying soundtrack. You may have even spotted my helmet in the corner of the photo above. Extra credit to anyone who knows the location.

The other day I had the random thought - I should put together my own Pearl Jam playlist. Spotify doesn’t allow sections/chapters, so I’ll show those here. In the playlist, the order is the same. Some PJ songs mean more than others to me, either lyrically or just from a life timing standpoint. Regardless of the when or why, maybe you’ll stumble across a song that resonates.

Playlist
Link to the Spotify Playlist

Man Trilogy
Man of the Hour
Betterman
Leatherman
Nothingman

Surfer Eddie
In My Tree
Unthought Known
Given To Fly
Low Light
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
Amongst The Waves
Love Boat Captain

Deep Thoughts
Gone
Parting Ways
Sad
Undone
Thumbing My Way
I Am Mine
Faithful

Composed
Inside Job
Off He Goes
Around The Bend
In Hiding
Immortality
All Those Yesterdays
Hard To Imagine
Nothing As It Seems
Of The Girl
Sleight of Hand
Army Reserve
Crown of Thorns  

Indispensable
Down
Present Tense
Daughter
Rearview Mirror
Alive

Man & Machine

When I picked out this van, the one feature it did not have was a pre-installed hitch. That is one of the factory options that is a better deal than the aftermarket. So I am contemplating whether to add a hitch so that I could pull a motorcycle trailer. Or, maybe switch to a much smaller trail bike that could come along on trips on a bumper rack. Or what about just a hitch-mounted bike rack. Pedal-power works, too. So many options…which I think can wait until 2025. Plenty of time to over-research the options this Winter.