Sunday, July 31, 2011

Japanese Beetles, You are Mine Now.

I have a live and let live attitude toward insects and other creepy crawly things. We all have to make a living, so I am willing to share to a point. Have a snack, nibble around the edges…I am OK with that. But, start destroying my stuff or come into my house - we have a problem.

My occasional posts on this blog are typically headier topics, but there is nothing like a hoard of Japanese Beetles to get the synapses firing.

We have had a few Japanese Beetles in years past and they particularly like the green bean plants in my garden. In years past, they have not been an issue. This year; however, they are ransacking my green beans to the point that if I did not do something fast they would kill the plants. This year they are attacking beyond a little “lacing” here and there – they are methodically stripping the leaves down to the veins.

I saw no other choice other than to approach the buggers in a strategic and aggressive fashion. A multi-prong war plan was needed and needed quickly. This is what I am doing and if you have additional ideas or things that have worked for you, please share.

1. Spectracide Bag-A-Bug Japanese Beetle Trap
The trap has a disc of scented material that the beetles are attracted to. The beetle land on the lure and fall in the bag. The scented discs are not classified non-toxic, but the material is not being sprayed on the plants and it is not in the confines of your home – so I am relatively OK with it. I do not use spray pesticides or non-organic fertilizers, so I am pretty hesitant when it comes to these types of solutions. But desperate times call for desperate measures and for the reasons listed above I decided to go ahead and use them. This approach is not a solution in and of itself, but I have one trap on either end of the garden and they have been trapping 100-200 beetles a day per trap as long as I change the bags every other day or so.

2. In the mornings and evenings when the beetles are lethargic a garden blogger suggested knocking the beetles into a bucket with water and dish soap. This seems to be helping and it is pretty easy to do. In the morning in particular they fall right into the bucket by knocking them off of the plant leaves and they drown right away.

3. Another garden blog suggest spraying a mixture of garlic powder and cayenne pepper powder dissolved in water on the plants the beetles are attacking. I just did this tonight, so I will let you know if it helps. 8/1/2011 update - this seems to be working. There were still a few beetles on the green bean plants this morning, but only a handful not the dozens and dozens of previous mornings.

4. Japanese Beetles do not like garlic (hence the solution above), so a number of garden bloggers recommend planting garlic around the perimeter of the plants the beetles most love – they love green bean plants, roses, they eat my zucchini plants a bit and there are several other plants they like. It is too late to use planting garlic as part of my solution this year, but I am definitely going to plant it next year.

5. Japanese Beetles like and tend to breed in piles of dead wood. We had a couple of piles of logs not fit to bring indoors that we burn outside in the fire pit in the fall. Some of that wood was on the nappy side so I got rid of it.

6. Japanese Beetles send scouts the beginning of June or so to survey for feeding grounds. A number of garden bloggers recommend being very vigilant during this period in terms of having your garlic planted and going, spraying the plants the beetles most love with the garlic and Cheyenne pepper solution and knocking the beetles in to soapy water and leaving the bucket with the dead beetles in out in the middle of the plants Japanese Beetles tend to like. These actions will cause the scouts to look for feeding grounds other than your garden. I did not know this beetle behavior, so will have to be on top of this in June next year.

7. 8/1/2011 Update - a friend reported that she had a problem with Japanese Beetles in past years and she sprayed water with dish soap on the affected plants and it worked. I think I am going to stick with the garlic/pepper mixture more one more evening, then try the soapy water approach. 8/3/2011 Update - I have tried spraying the plants with soapy water and I think it works. Seems to have the same level of effectiveness as the garlic/cayenne mixture. The nice thing about the soapy water mixture is that it is a little easier to deal will than the garlic/cayenne.

Any other ideas or things that have worked for you please let me know. I am willing to try it all. The only thing that is off the table are spray pesticides as if I am going to all of the trouble to garden in order not to eat pesticide coated vegetables, using toxic spray pesticides is fairly pointless.

Whatever it takes, these darn beetles are mine!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

What a Difference 25 Months Can Make

Tonight, after 50 weeks and a 64.2 pound loss, I hit my Weight Watchers goal weight. I am thrilled and feel a sense of accomplishment. But, my journey really began 25 months ago - the day I quit my pack-a-day smoking habit.

I believe it is safe to say that for many of my fellow Weight Watchers, food is their drug of choice. My drug of choice unquestionably was cigarettes. Cigarettes were my constant companion when I was happy, sad, stressed, relaxing, angry, anxious, excited, pensive, in a sociable mood or feeling solitary. Unlike sometimes people, cigarettes never let me down.

The only problem was just a couple of concerning side effects. I was beginning to show signs of early stage emphysema (aka smoker’s cough) and my husband’s doctor found decided lung damage in his lungs due to second hand smoke. Although I never smoked in front of my stepson Alex, he knew that I smoked and I knew well that I was not serving a positive role model in this area. Everything I owned reeked of smoke all of the time, the expense of the habit were getting ridiculous and my addiction had taken over my life to a much larger degree than I felt comfortable.

Some people sit in their closet and stuff Oreos in their mouth, others try to hide the fact that they drink too much. I had rigged up a system so that I could smoke in our downstairs bathroom when Alex was over or when we had weekend guests, as interfering with my smoking habit could not be tolerated. So I committed to quitting, and with the help of modern pharmaceuticals succeeded.

On my cigarette quit date I was fat, but over the course of the year after I quit smoking, my weight went completely out of control. Although food would never be the faithful companion cigarettes were, it amazed me the degree to which food could fill in as a substitute drug.

By the one-year anniversary of my cigarette quit date, I was officially obese, my blood pressure was high, my energy levels were fairly low and I was in horrible physical condition. Playing soccer in the backyard with my stepson was not fun and I begged for mercy quickly playing with my nieces. Little girls excited to play with their Aunt Tonia, and I had to sit down. "Let Aunt Tonia rest for a few minutes," my sisters would mercifully step in and say. I was far too young for this.

So, I joined Weight Watchers. This weight loss effort was different than efforts of the past. This time I was not losing weight to look good in a wedding dress or in some vain attempt to participate more comfortably in the swimsuit season. I was not a kid anymore and this time it was about my health. Did I want to begin to belly up to the full buffet of pharmaceuticals, or did I want to get this under control now before it became even more difficult and more dangerous?

The reality is, being fat will age you much faster than necessary and it will kill you. The toll obesity takes on your body is tremendous. Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, joint pain….we all know the list. I love living – truly living – and I am far from ready to accept the need to “slow down.”

108 weeks later I cannot stand being around cigarette smoke, let alone the thought of smoking a cigarette. I am a healthy weight, am in good physical condition and I feel great. My "drugs" of choice are yoga, gardening, walking at the
Rollins Savanna, running, vegetarian cooking and Indian food.

How I did it is no secret. This time on Weight Watchers I left my ego at the door and followed the program. I track religiously, I exercise 4-5 times per week, I weigh and measure "danger" food especially when I start to feel myself becoming out of control, I stay within my points and I attend weekly meetings. Maybe most importantly, I step on a scale at least once per week.

I am looking forward to ongoing participation in Weight Watchers and to becoming a Lifetime member. I am also looking forward to encouraging as many other people as I can to reach their weight and health goals. We only get one shot at life - LIVE!



June 2010


June 2011






Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Avoiding Self-Delusion Through Objective Behavior Tracking


I think this post will resonate immediately with my fellow Weight Watchers, but for patient non-Weight Watchers there is a message for you as well.

I have been committed to the Weight Watchers program for eleven months. I have lost 62 pounds, in much better physical condition, and I feel great. For those not familiar with Weight Watchers, the program is designed to bring focus and awareness to food consumption via daily planning and tracking. In addition, the program forces accountability and provides support through a multitude of tools and venues like weekly meetings and online tools.

I had an unusual week last week and I am sharing it because it is a shining example of how easy it is to fool ourselves. I am not sharing this to beat myself up as although there are a few things I would have changed if I had it to over again, there are many things I would not or should not change if a redo magically presented itself.

It is awfully easy to fool ourselves in many areas of our life – eating habits, drinking habits, relationships, time management…the list goes on and on. My experience this past week merely illustrates the need to monitor ourselves within areas of our lives we want to change as changing anything is nearly impossible unless we are able to truly “see” the behavior that is causing the problem.

My Weight Watchers stats and approach at a glance:
  • Daily PointsPlus Allowance - 29 pts
  • On a typical week I exercise 4 or 5 times and earn 21 – 24 Activity Points
  • I typically eat about half to two thirds of my earned activity points on weekends and virtually never dip into my weekly PointsPlus allowance.

Last week was not a typical week. My PointsPlus and activity points log tells an interesting tale.

Monday, May 30 (Memorial Day)
Breakfast – hummus, pita and a banana – 6 pts
Lunch – Jimmy John’s Beach Club no mayo and Skinny Chips – 16 pts
Dinner – hummus, pita, cheese, salads – 14 pts
Dessert – McDonalds Vanilla Ice Cream Cone – 4 pts
Total: 40 PointsPlus consumed
Activity: Three and a half hours of gardening (light and sometimes moderate intensity level) 9 activity points

Tuesday, May 31
28 PointsPlus consumed

Wednesday, June 1
25 PointsPlus consumed
Activity: Walked 60 minutes – 4 activity points

Thursday, June 2
29 PointsPlus consumed

Friday, June 3
35 PointsPlus consumed
Activity: Bikram yoga class – 4 activity points

Saturday, June 4 (Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Day 1 - 26.2 miles)
Breakfast – eggs (2) and 2 slices HealthyLife Bread – 6 pts
Lunch – turkey sandwich, Sun Chips, apple, carrots, cookie– 18 pts
Snacks – Uncrustables, pretzels, Ritz Bits Peanut Butter crackers – 15 pts
Drink – Gatorade periodically – 5 pts, lots of water – 0 pts
Dinner – bread, pasta, meat balls, green beans, salad with a little dressing, piece of chocolate cake– 22 pts
Total: 66 PointsPlus consumed
Activity: Walked 26.2 miles (and then some), about 7.5 hours, 22 activity points

Sunday, June 5 (Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Day 2 - 13.1 miles)
Breakfast – eggs, potatoes, oatmeal, fruit – 15 pts
Lunch – turkey sandwich, Sun Chips, apple, carrots, cookie– 18 pts
Dinner– Sushi and dumplings- 16 pts
Dessert - McDonalads Vanilla Ice Cream Cone - 4 pts
Total: 53 PointsPlus consumed
Activity: walked 13.1 miles (and then some), about 4 hours, 13 activity points

Weekly Summary:
  • Walked 43.3 miles (and then some)
  • Expended significant time and energy gardening
  • Sweated profusely and worked hard in a Bikram yoga class in which the studio temperature is about 105 degrees
  • Total Activity: 52 activity points (again, my normal week is 21- 24 activity points)
  • Total Food Consumption: 276 PointsPlus (my typical week is about 203 – 210)
So, about 66 more weekly PointsPlus than my norm and about 28 more activity points than the norm…..hmmmmm.

Again, I am not posting this to beat myself up. When I look back on the week, there are about 20 – 25 PointPlus I could have easily and arguable should have trimmed.

It was really hot for two thirds of the day on Saturday during the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. I needed to drink some Gatorade (which I never do) in addition to lots of water and I needed to eat some salty snacks to balance dehydration and water retention risks - both uncomfortable and potentially dangerous outcomes of being active in intense heat for as long as I was. Also, eating a small piece of cake and having a McDonalds ice cream cone after walking the distances I did seemed like reasonable rewards. However, the Ritz Bits and the Crustables on Saturday was pure “entertainment eating.” I also could have trimmed a few points on Friday and eaten Subway instead of Jimmy Johns on Monday.

There are some specific learnings and things I would have done slightly differently had I to do it over again. For instance, who eats Uncrustables? They are not even good. I can certainly live without Ritz Bitz (I never eat that kind of stuff) and I did some random noshing at a couple points in the week. However, the larger point and the point I wanted to illustrate to you is just how easy it is to lose track of what we are doing and to fool ourselves. If you walk a marathon and a half, plus a lot of other activity in the week you should be able to eat anything you want to, right? Wrong. But, it is so easy to fool ourselves as it relates to our eating habits as well as in a whole host of other areas of our lives.

Non-Weight Watchers if you for some reason hung in this long, this is my point for you. In any area of our lives, if we are not getting the outcomes we want we have to honestly and objectively access what is going on. The power of the Weight Watchers program is that the program is designed to bring objectivity and clarity to our food intake and activity levels. But, what if we applied a similar approach to other areas of our lives where we are experiencing outcomes other than those we desire?

If we are having time management and prioritization problems, a Weight Watchers approach I think would work brilliantly and I am going to try it. Just as Weight Watchers outlines how many PointsPlus (which translate into calories) we can eat per day, we all only have 24 hours in the day - seems like a similar dynamic. If our life feels out of control (work and/or personal), if we log our time there will undoubtedly be a lot of wasted time we did not realize we were wasting just as most Weight Watchers members were eating a lot of calories they did not realize they were eating.

This type of approach could work in a lot of other areas too. For instance, a modified approach could work for trying to improved strained relationships. This is tricky because close relationships tend to be so emotional, but maybe we could figure out a way to gain clarity on our contribution to strained or failed relationships by somehow logging our behavior in these relationships. Just as I hate looking at days I have gone over points in my Weight Watchers food journal, maybe I would hate looking at a record of unflattering behavior just as much. I am not sure this would work, but it is a thought.

If you are concerned that you might be drinking too much, watching too much television, spending too much time playing video games….log it so that you can analyze an objective picture rather than the heavily modified mental image we all create for ourselves. Pictures that are always full of justifications and delusion.

We can’t log every aspect of our lives all of the time or we would spend all of our time logging and no time living. But this past week, a week where it would be so, so easy to fool myself then be disappointed when I got on the scale because after walking 43.3 miles it is simply not "fair" not to lose, brought clarity to the power of tracking in order to facilitate change.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Reflections on the Death of Osama Bin Laden

Often, our days and weeks are marked by a series of small rituals. Most every Sunday night I turn on CNN for a few minutes before shutting off the lights to go to sleep primarily to make sure that there are still 50 states in the union, that most of Europe still classifies themselves as allies of the U.S. and that the population of some unfortunate locale has not unexpectedly sharply decreased due to a horrific disaster. On Monday mornings I fire up my computer as soon as I wake up to check CNN.com largely to make sure that the market is not predicted to crash upon the ringing of the opening bell.

Nearly every Sunday and Monday these little rituals deliver uninteresting results. Of course, Sunday, May 1, 2011 was not a normal Sunday night. Rather than a desperate CNN program host trying to make a meaningful analysis of Paris Hilton’s latest stunt, America and the world was informed that Osama Bin Laden was dead. Not suspected to be dead, but dead. Indeed, this was not a typical Sunday night.

After making sure that I was hearing Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer correctly, I immediately surveyed how I felt and started to think about what this might mean.

Nine days later, my feelings about the killing of Osama Bin Laden are basically the same – almost an eerie lack of emotion. Sort of the same emotion as having a wart removed. Having the wart removed was not an option – it had to be removed before it spread further.

As perhaps you have guessed I was not shooting fireworks, or out in the streets shouting U-S-A…U-S-A. My thoughts immediately turned to the 9/11 families and our nation on that horrible day and to initial projections about what the death of Osama Bin Laden would actually mean after the fanfare died down. I am not a pacifist (by and large I tend to align with Just War theory), but celebrating the death of anyone seems quite barbaric to me. Killing Osama Bin Laden was the correct decision, just not a result that feels worthy of celebration to me. Reverence and reflection was and is more my state of mind.

I do not claim to know what his death will mean and I am highly suspect of anyone who claims to have conclusions. But, there is no doubt that his death is important. Some of the factors that seem important to me are:

  • The cache of intelligence information we captured from the compound’s computers seems to be quite extensive. Only time will tell how meaningful or actionable the information will actually be.
  • The United States fulfilled a promised and regained some strength on the world stage. We promised to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden and we did it. Let’s face it, we are floundering a bit as a nation. The Iraq War was a fair disaster in my opinion and we have struggled for meaningful results in Afghanistan. I greatly admire and am thankful for our military and their families. No matter how much I have disagreed with these wars, I am always proud and thankful when I see a member of our armed forces in uniform. However, I do believe these conflicts were misguided and for many years mismanaged.
  • Perhaps America now has a different picture of what military success can look like – what some wars of the future will look like. People that continue to support HUGE military spending on traditional types of weapons and systems are nuts. They are merely supporting the military industrial complex and wasting billions and trillions of dollars. We can blow up the world with our nuclear weapons dozens of times. More nuclear bombs to facilitate yet another occurrence of global annihilation is ridiculous. Kill him. Kill him dead….seems a bit redundant does it not? Yet, we continue to spend billions on our arsenal of 20th century weapons.
  • Maybe America will redefine the definition of “ally” a bit. Pakistan is an “ally” of necessity, but are not our friend. We have known this for quite some time now. Perhaps our sometimes Kindergarten-style approaches to foreign policy in which we lay out all kinds of rules before a conversation can happen might be replaced by a more common sense approach. Almost a “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer type of approach.” An approach that recognizes that unfortunately we all aren’t going to be friends, but we all reside on the same giant sphere.

The only thing that is clear is that the death of Osama Bin Laden does not mark the end of anything. I suppose the world is safer without Osama Bin Laden, but not really. This event was prepared for and only time will tell how quickly Al-Qaeda will restructure and re-strengthen.

While we watch the pages of history unfold, we should be wildly thankful for our armed forces, the brave and highly skilled Navy Seals, our intelligence forces and our Commander-in-Chief whose orders should inspire us all to find the courage to make extraordinarily difficult decisions.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Love-Hate Relationship Continues

Walmart and I have an odd relationship. For the last several years I very rarely, in fact almost never, shop at a Walmart or Sam's Club. I am not a Walmart shopper very much by conscience choice.

On one hand I am disgusted by the lead role Walmart has played in hammering down prices to the point that way too many have become modern slaves providing cheap labor for a beast (the American consumer) that cannot be quenched. Direct and indirect environmental impacts are atrocious, not to mention the company's highly questionable approaches to fair labor and equal rights practices.

In general, I also do not like the power Walmart wields over suppliers of consumer products. A consumer products company with a mass product would be committing economic suicide if their products that did not meet with Walmart's approval.

However, tremendous power can be used for both good and evil. Walmart did recreate the entire American food industry supply chain creating a much more efficient system. Although the arrival of a Walmart drives many independent retailers out of business, Walmart's arrival also brings a greater variety of affordable products to communities that previously had very limited choices.

Walmart is also making strides to "green" their stores. They are driving the creation of technologies and products that will allow other retailers to follow suit.

Now, the airwaves are buzzing with the announcement that within five years
Walmart pledges to offer a greater assortment of healthier foods including more affordable fresh produce. Once again, I find myself applauding their decision while simultaneously holding my breath waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I admire their commitment to support First Lady Obama's campaign to better America's eating habits, especially that of children. However, Walmart does nothing (especially not a commitment this large) that does not promise healthy profit returns. If they can make money, help Americans to eat healthy diets and honor moral approaches to doing business, I would be thrilled. I must confess, however, to having my doubts.

This post is by no means meant to accuse them of doing things that they have not done yet. However, having watched Walmart for quite a number of years now, the following are some of the potential issues I see.

1. "For instance, Walmart has identified "key product categories," or thousands of foods sold by both national manufacturers and Walmart's house brand, that the company says could be reformulated to be healthier. The goal is to reduce the sodium content in foods such as deli meats and salad dressing by 25 percent by 2015." (
cnn.com, January 20, 2011)

A 25% reduction in obscenely high sodium levels is a start, but will not necessarily result in a healthy food product. Be mindful of the buzz. One frozen dinner that has two days worth of sodium will hardly be healthy after a 25% sodium reduction.

2. "Added sugars in various sauces, fruit drinks, or dairy items will be reduced by 10 percent, while all trans-fats will be completely removed from packaged food items." (
cnn.com, January 20, 2011)

How about no added sugars in things where sugar should not be added...like canned diced tomatoes? The inclusions of transfats is simply ridiculous.

3. "The company estimates it could save Americans $1 billion a year on fresh fruits and vegetables if its plans are successful." (
cnn.com, January 20, 2011)

Watch this one closely. I can tell you that today's produce industry is awfully lean. To keep prices low, the industry already uses illegal labor, breeds Frankenstein-like hybrids that are tasteless and often uses pesticides and fertilizers that are frightening to think about.

I will be curious as to exactly how they plan to lower costs further. There is no way Walmart will agree to accept lower profit margins. Again, I do not want to accuse Walmart of something they have not yet done, but there will be incredible temptation for produce suppliers to do what they have to do to either win or maintain Walmart as a customer.

Although I do not know of cases where Walmart directed suppliers to behave in immoral manners, I do know that Walmart is quite good at shielding themselves from the facts. They most often do not care how suppliers are able to give them the wholesale prices they need. Both suppliers and Walmart have to make a profit, so the money has to come from somewhere. Agriculture workers and food safety practices are the two areas most likely to take a hit.

Hopefully, Walmart is pure in spirit as they make this move. But, we need to pay attention and vote with our pocketbooks.