The Longer the Whiskers, the Fatter the Cat – Eat Your Weight!

Thinking about marketing and stuff on the Southcoast, MA – FOOD.  FUEL.  NOSH.  SNACK.  TREAT. DINE.  COOK. PREPARE.  HEAT & SERVE.  CHEW & SCREW.  READY TO EAT - A report was released on April 13, 2011 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, whose mission is to, “promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.”  According to the report, “Americans spend the least time cooking each day (30 minutes) and Turks spend the most (74 minutes)”  When I first heard this on the evening news broadcast, I was astounded.  Then I heard that, according to this same report, “Americans also spend relatively low amounts of time eating, a habit that correlates with higher obesity rates.”

What the hell are we doing to ourselves?  If we are what we eat; we’re dead!  Yet, in spite of all of the evidence and reports and studies, we keep killing ourselves.  Obesity is rising and along with it diabetes.  Kids don’t know the difference between a snack, a treat and a meal.  How often does a family eat at the same time and at the table?

It’s not just what we’re eating.  It’s also how and when we eat.  I’ve heard many people I know who returned from a trip to Europe say that the Europeans take way too long for lunch – two hours!  What’s wrong with them?  Well?  Out of the two-hours they allot for lunch, they also sit, talk and relax.  They take their time to eat. 

Here, in the States, many employees only have a half-hour for lunch.  If they haven’t packed their lunch, it’ll take that long just to pick a food category, the restaurant, get there or call in the order or order it there and, either eat it there or return to work to eat it at our desks.  Even an hour isn’t enough.  Eating with your eye on the clock isn’t conducive for good digestion.

Eating on the run, whether in our cars, standing up or at our desks is no way to treat ourselves.  The insanity is supported by the amount of money people spend on diets, diet food and diet books.  What’s even worse is the amount of food that we throw out.  We do not respect food.  If we don’t respect food, we don’t respect our health.  Why does shortened eating times correlate with gaining weight and higher obesity rates?   

It takes your brain awhile to catch up with your stomach.  In other words, the faster you eat, the more you eat.  But, your brain takes awhile to register or notify you that you’re full so you end up overeating.  Take time to eat.  You’ll get (or your brain tells you) be full in a shorter amount of time and, be less prone to overeat.    

So, all of this leads to the phenomena of the fatter the cat, the longer the whiskers.  Cats use their whiskers to feel their way around their environment.  If a cat can fit their whiskers through an escape hole, the rest of them will follow.  In humans, our belts are like the cat’s whiskers.  If the belt doesn’t fit, we get a bigger one.  Our comfort overrides our attention to our expanding girth.  If you want to lose weight don’t loosen your belt.  Being uncomfortable make you more conscious of your weight.

Here are a couple of observations or tips or whatever to help you be more conscious of your weight.  In case you’re wondering, I weigh less than I did my junior year of high school and I’m still within ten pounds of my lowest weight of 165.  Easy?  No!  I’ve had to be more aware of what I’m doing in order to be a skinny guy.  The result of this is being in my late fifties with a good weight, normal blood pressure and cholesterol – no age appropriate meds.   Look I’m not an expert.  Your weight is what it is by nature or by nurture. I also feel I could stand to lose ten more pounds.  It's not a vanity thing - it's a comfort thing.  I've been there.  I know what it feels like and I want to get back there.  Being sedentary for a month because of an old back injury wasn't as much a cause of the weight gain as was the boredom and stress of being sedentary.   

The three squares a day myth – If you want to lose weight, don’t skip breakfast especially if your getting older.  Don’t eat your breakfast on the run.  Eat good stuff.  Have a snack around ten when most of us have a drop in blood sugar.  Dr. Pepper was one of the early mass produced carbonated beverages in the United States.  During World War Two, the company was facing sugar rationing.  They convinced the Government that, according to a research study most people had an energy slump at 10, 2 and 4.  Having something to eat, or drink like a Dr. Pepper, at those times was helpful in avoiding the slump.  So, have your three squares and a little something at 10 AM, 2 and 4 PM.        

The big guy is a strong guy myth – Um, the big guy is a fat guy and not a really healthy guy.  My dad was a real honest to goodness Canadian Lumberjack.  They ate massive amounts of high calorie foods but quickly burned them off working.  Strong – yes.  Fat – no. 

Several small courses are better than one – We have some penchant for portions in this country.  People mainly rate their restaurant experience on how big or how small the portions were.  It’s no wonder that the waitstaff has to push desert – there’s no room for it!  Soup, salad and entree offers more variety and leaves some room for desert, which is, the gustatory way for shutting down your appetite.  Try ordering a large salad and several appetizers and graze off of them the next time you go out to eat.

Vanity sizing – Yeah, blame it on marketing!  If you once wore a large and now fit into a medium, it’s more than likely because of vanity sizing.  Large isn’t large, it’s really an extra large and so on.  The odd thing is that the Hip-Hop culture has crept into our clothing decisions and most people wear their casual clothes, especially t-shirts, way too big.  Stop fooling yourself and start taking care of yourself.  

Eat slower – Enjoy your food.  It’s not fuel.  Slow Food is an international organization that promotes, better eating according to their website, “Slow Food was founded in 1989 to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.”   

The two hands on the table diet – Step One: Take time to select, prepare and eat your food.  Step Two: Eat slowly and savor your food and the conversation of table mates.  Step Three: When you begin to feel full, place both of your hands on the edge of the table and push.  Leave the table.  It’s as simple as that.

Discover and explore Ayurveda – If you have any Indian restaurants nearby, see if they offer ayurvedic foods.  There’s nothing exotic to the food at all.  What makes it different?  Ayurveda is perhaps one of the oldest of the healing sciences.  It is a holistic approach to health that is designed to help you live a long, healthy, and well-balanced life.   Ayurveda has been practiced in India for at least 5,000 years.  It is about preventing and treating illness, maintaining balance in the body, mind, and consciousness.

Snacks, treats and eating – Children don’t know the difference between snacks (in between meals), treats (stuff that’s not really good for you on a regular basis) and eating (the meals where you get the vitamins and nutrition you need to live healthy.  Snacks that are beneficial to you are great for the 10/2/4 energy slump of the day.  Treats are about indulging in chips or ice cream or soda once in a great while – not as part of a regular diet.  If you give your kids treats all the time they’re no longer treats.

So, shorten up the whiskers by thinning out the cat with fresh, local if possible, food.  Remember single or less than five ingredient foods are better for you.  Prepare the best way possible to enhance the flavor, aroma and nutrition.  Don’t eat alone.  Eat with other people whenever possible.  Eat slowly and enjoy those sitting at the table with you. Eat smaller portions but more courses.  Eat more than the traditional three times per day.  Ben Franklin said, “In general, mankind, since the improvement in cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.”  

Mac ‘n Cheese – I’ve been Bitten!

PROLOGUE: I continue to evolve – hopefully – and explore and pursue my passions; art, food/wine (sustainability) and marketing all in one blog: In Search of a Personal Stability Zone…

NEWEST POST: Why is my first official food-focused blog on Mac ‘n Cheese? I’ve been bitten. I had my first taste of Mac ‘n Cheese at the tender age of 58 and ever since then, it’s rolled around in the recesses of my mind. Why so late? My cultural background never introduced or indoctrinated me to this culinary phenomenon. Yes, I’m a late Mac ‘n Cheese bloomer because of the orange stuff in the blue package that, even though it’s been around since 1937, was not tolerated or allowed in my mother’s kitchen.

No packaged foods in my mom’s pantry! And, even though, later in life, I had the occasion to sample the orange stuff, I could see my mother’s reason for not buying it. It tasted, in my opinion like, well, crap. Same goes for the Ramen Noodles. Now this from a guy who was brought up on traditional Portuguese dishes like Cacoila; a stew of all of the parts of a pig most people, regardless of the current economy, wouldn’t touch, buy or use. These pig parts needed to be stewed because long and slow cooking was required to make the “meat” tender enough to eat.

Residents of this part of southeastern Massachusetts who think they know what Cacoila [ka-soil-uh] is are shocked, when after asking me if I like it, they quickly find out that my memories of it are quite different from their current experiences. You see, this is a dish of the very poor and was traditionally prepared right after the annual slaughter around harvest time. It contains the pig’s heart, lungs, liver, ears, snout, and tail and, I’ll stop there. What is offered today is the same recipe only with a better cut of pork (butt or shoulder). It is now more commonly served as a sandwich in a Portuguese bread roll. It’s been referred to as Portuguese Pulled Pork.

So what does this have to do with Mac ‘n Cheese? To me, the same thing - people who know what real Mac ‘n Cheese is might understand my knowing what real Cacoila is. As the old Motown tune used to go: ain’t nothing like the real thing baby. Well, maybe more so in the case of Mac ‘n Cheese. With all of this in mind, I moved on to looking up a suitable recipe for Mac ‘n Cheese. Something told me not to follow it to the letter but I did. I was right about being wrong! My granddaughter wanted me to make her some so I did (from that recipe) and she said it was okay. She was being wonderfully nice. I loved that kid from the first time I set eyes on her!

My next attempt, using the same recipe, but eliminating one ingredient (egg that’s what set off my radar), received a much better response and the admission that the previous batch was really not as good as she claimed. My next attempt really hit the nail on the head. It’s a keeper and it’ll enter my repertoire. There’s more about my still developing Mac ‘n Cheese adventure and I’ll get into that in a follow-up blog along with the idea of a Mac ‘n Cheese cook-off for charity.

The one thing that my mind couldn’t let go of as I got into all things Mac ‘n Cheese was how is Mac ‘n Cheese connected to African-American culture? And this is where it got interesting for me. Many of my non-Cape Verdean (Black Portuguese-Americans) friends, especially around the New Year, would go on and on about the food served during this time of the year, especially the Black Eye Peas and the Mac ‘n Cheese dishes. I can understand the going on and on part since I’m easily distracted by the thought of food, cooking and eating. Good food, a nice bottle of wine and the Gypsy Kings pretty much rounds out a gastronomic experience for me.

I remember when I was in college in the Seventies; Soul Food was one of the big things. My friends of color invited me to a restaurant to share their culinary tradition, billed as Soul Food, with them. Well, we ordered, had a few beers and had some good table conversation going when someone asked me what I thought of the Soul Food. I said I didn’t know. I hadn’t had any yet. Everyone laughed. What did I think I was eating then? Well, I had Red Beans & Rice, Ham Hocks and Greens. Obviously, I didn’t have the real Mac ‘n Cheese.

At that point, however, I don’t know who was the more shocked; my table companions or me, when I said that this is what I ate at home. But, they said, “You’re not Black. Is your mom?” “No,” I said, “She’s Portuguese.” That moment has been with me ever since. It taught me that we are more connected than not. When it comes to our culinary cultures, the similarities are even more astounding. As a result of that event, I’ve been interested in culinary connections.

But, what does all this have to do with the Mac ‘n Cheese connection to African-American culture? Here’s the quick version. Mac ‘n Cheese has its origins in Thirteenth Century Italy – big surprise! It could also be considered a proto-type for Lasagna. Somehow, one of our founding fathers Thomas Jefferson brought a pasta machine to Virginia from one of his trips to Italy. His daughter Mary Randolph is credited by some food historians with inventing the dish. Makes perfect sense but how did it get on the African-American table and become a part of their culinary heritage? It’s so simple that the simplicity shocked me. I was especially shocked when I realized a sustainable similarity in French-Canadian and African-American “cuisines” because of one simple reason – hard work.

My dad was an authentic Canadian Lumberjack. He went into the woods in 1942 at the age of twelve. The food they served in the lumber camps is not only reflective of French-Canadian cooking as it had evolved from Old World France in New France. Hey, it’s cold up there! French-Canadian food is calorie-intensive! By today’s standards, it makes McDonald’s Supersize Menu seem wimpy. It’s, in short, working folk’s food. It’s cheap, plentiful and available. It’s also loaded with what it takes to keep you working. Working burns off the dreaded calories. End of story. Did I mention that most of these calorie laden dishes are also simple to prepare?

To wrap this up, this is what I’ve learned and have hopefully been successful in relating to you; we are related more through our ability to stave off hunger though hard work and creativity. Every culture has a culinary tradition of sustainability. Whether sustaining our bodies to deal with the harshness of the climate to assist us to endure our labors, we all share more than we imagine. Many of these lowly foods have been elevated to fine dining menu status or, labeled comfort food or have become a part of either our everyday lives or, of the rites, rituals and celebrations of our culture.

In many cases those foods have evolved and today satisfy needs other than their original purpose of fueling our stamina, stretching our budgets or filling our bellies. I’m already thinking of Mac ‘n Cheese variations. Just had some with hot peppers and boy it was a great remedy for my suffering sinuses! One more thing – there are more recipes for Mac ‘n Cheese than there are hairs on a dawg…

A Pipe That’s Not & Hoodwinking with Cheese to Gain Perspective

PROLOGUE: My Business Engineering blog has evolved into something that allows me to explore my cultural background as represented by food and the customs of the family table, my connections to what I am and where I live and sustainability, survival and culture in general. The exercise of concentrating the blog site’s original focus on how to become a better a "Marketing Engineer" has allowed me to focus on my marketing consulting skills. In the course of my postings, I was able to discover and understand what my original Business Engineering concept was really all about.

The hidden benefit of the marketing oriented blogging became a form of self-analysis. And, as such, I’ve discovered that I could pursue my passions of art, food/wine (sustainability) and marketing all in one blog: In Search of a Personal Stability Zone to explore our collective aspirations. Yes, the idea was inspired by Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock. The blog’s new direction will hopefully allow me to describe directly what I’ve learned so far in life and, the posting topics will indirectly serve me as a launching point for what I’m currently pondering. The latest posting follows…

NEWEST POST: In the movie Kung Fu Panda, the main character, a panda named Po said to his Kung Fu master that the reason he didn’t quit was, “…because every time you threw a brick at my head or said I smelled; it hurt, but it could never hurt more than every day of my life just being me.” Am I suffering a mid-life crisis? No, I don’t think so. So, what’s with the introspection? Maybe it’s that I am older and hopefully a lot wiser. Perhaps Shakespeare said it best in this soliloquy (Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19–28)…

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Why not merge work and play? Why not let our passion(s) be our guide? Why not do what we love? Because there’s usually no money in it! And, we all need an income. But, what if we could make a living doing what we love doing? If we could, would we strutting and fretting our hour upon this stage?

Marketing teaches us the principle of supply and demand. Is there a demand for a blog about someone’s thoughts and experiences in art, food/wine (sustainability) and marketing? As for my art passion, I’ll explore some of the World’s masterpieces and offer my perspectives on it or, what drawing is really all about and what it takes to develop the skills needed to develop as an artist.

Food and wine? I’ve spent a lot of time cooking for a living and for sheer enjoyment. My heritage has given me a solid culinary tradition with the appurtenant rites, rituals and celebrations. And, a tongue-in-cheek exploration of wine, a joke really, turned into something real interesting. Together, food and wine are, to me, the basis on which to delve into a sustainable life; not lifestyle. Of course, marketing is what I do to pay the bills but it is also the thread that connects these pearls.

These passions are what helped shape my life and I hope I have a steady supply of knowledge, experience and information to provide my readers. So, if I may, here’s my first attempt to tie all of these interests and passions into one neat bundle. ART – I’ll begin with Rene Magritte and his painting: Treachery of Images (La Trahison des Images), shown here. It was painted between 1928 and 1929. Magritte (1898-1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist popularly known for his thought-provoking images, which challenged the observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality.

In this painting, an ordinary object teaches us an invaluable lesson. The script under the image of the pipe - ceci n'est pas une pipe – in English it means this is not a pipe. It seems that the visual, a pipe and the text, this is not a pipe are a contradiction. To quote another famous artist, Pablo Picasso: We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth. At least the truth that is given us to understand. This painting then, is not a pipe, it is an image; a painting if you will, of a pipe. I don’t think I could have found a better painting to illustrate my three passions. The Treachery of Images represents all art. It is an illusion. It is one individual’s interpretation of a subject or situation. It is more than it represents.

FOOD - Food and wine are two subjects that can also teach us that, they too are not all that they seem. Take French onion soup for example. It has reached a high status. It’s not considered diner fare. Yet, its origins may be found in abject poverty. Why else then would a culture glorify it? Many of our favorite dishes have their roots in poverty, necessity and sustainability. In this area, which is heavily populated by Portuguese, kale soup is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. It graces the average household and reigns as table d’haute in fine Lusitanian (Portuguese) restaurants. It is a soup that can be placed in a variety of recipe categories. It is the Portuguese equivalent of the Italian minestrone soup. It too is a hodgepodge of whatever is available. It represents an Old World culture of: waste not want not and offers us a valuable lesson is sustainability.

WINE - Wine has taught me much as well and I hope to share what I know and what I’ve learned with you. For example, the old wine merchants had a guideline which went as follows: Buy on apples - Sell on cheese. This adage suggests the true simplicity of wine. After all, according to the ancient Romans - in vino veritas – in wine (there is) truth. Buying on apples is from a marketing perspective, common sense. Apples strip a wine to its basic elements. The wine will either withstand the scrutiny of the (acidic properties) apple or it will not. Only those that pass the test are worth purchasing. As for the flipside of the coin; cheese is fatty. Serving it to enhance a so-so wine and entice a buyer who knows no better is not necessarily considered unethical. It is however, a good lesson in caveat emptor, another gift of the Romans which means – let the buyer beware.

I hope I’m off to a good start with this new blogging perspective as I search for my Personal Stability Zone and I hope inspire and assist you to find yours. In a world in constant flux, a place we can carve out in our heads or in our off-hours with significant value that offers a respite from the everyday is where I want to be. I hope to discover and share how we can all be more conscious of our decisions, reduce the stresses caused by the change and over-stimulation in our lives and occupy our homes and control us at work. We need another place, another environment, a zone of stability that allows us to accept or refuse, embrace or resist or, breakaway or run towards the forgotten ties that bind us. We need a place that offers us enduring relationships regardless of the insanity that assaults us every day, a - Personal Stability Zone. As with Shangri-La, it’s there if you look for it. I think it’s worth a shot to set off in search of it.

Cheddar Man – Local Hero

In 1903 in a place called Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England, the skeletal remains of a man dating back to approximately 7150 BC were found. Yes, Cheddar, England is where Cheddar Cheese originated and has been made for about one thousand years. The remains are Britain’s oldest complete human skeleton and have been called, what else but, Cheddar Man.

In the 1990’s, the dawn of DNA testing, Cheddar Man and at least 20 residents of Cheddar had their DNA tested. Cheddar Man’s DNA was extracted from one of his molars. Cheddar Man was proven to be related to the living residents of Cheddar village, which brings us to the point of this posting. Cheddar Man was a local guy! His descendents didn’t wander too far from their ancestral home either.

What does it matter? A locality that is sustainable is a locality that sustains. If your location provides everything you need to survive such as food, shelter and clothing, why wander? Well, okay, what about the need to be self-actualized? A location’s culture must also be sustainable and sustained. I’ve written before that in this area, the south coast of Massachusetts, that our greatest export is educated youth. Even with a school system that others would envy, if there is no industry, commerce or enterprises for our young people to join, they will move on in search of employment.

Our economic system is such that a job or some form of livelihood is needed to fulfill our daily physical needs. We’ve got to work to buy food to eat to live. This area once subsisted on toil focused on the bounty of land and sea. The Industrial Revolution brought us the textile mills. Our standard of living increased with the nation’s. The automobile gave us mobile freedom and the suburbs (where the farms used to be). Are there Cheddar men amongst us? Are you one? I am not. One side came to New Bedford via Canada and Normandy. The other side came to New Bedford via the mountainous region of the Portuguese mainland. My roots in this area are only one hundred and thirty years old.

Yet, my ancestors brought what was local to them here. So, is local a place, a state of mind or something else completely? In the real estate profession the key factor in selecting the right property is location, or, as they like to say: location, location, location. Location requires locality. Locality is both a physical and an emotional sense of place. Where are you located? Where are you situated? Where do you live, work and play? How much and in what way does your current location sustain you?

Is self-reliance a benefit, an advantage or feature of your location? Is self-reliance a form of independence? Does change force us to change? Is change the result of external uncontrollable forces? Are we left to decide whether to change or be changed. Someone once said that what we are never changes. But, who we are never stops changing. Ben Franklin said we could only depend on death and taxes. In a letter he wrote in 1789 after the turmoil and triumph of the American Revolution he stated, “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Permanency, like that of the Cheddar Man and his modern cousins on his mother’s side is not certain. Alvin Toffler described that: The rate of turnover in our lives, for example, can be influenced by conscious decisions. We can, for example, cut down on change and stimulation by consciously maintaining longer term relationships with the various elements of our physical environment. Now, remember that Toffler wrote this in the Seventies, another period of turmoil and uncertainty in America.

He went on to say that: Thus, we can refuse to purchase throw-away products. We can hang onto the old jacket for another season; we can stoutly refuse to follow the latest fashion trend; we can resist when the salesman tells us it's time to trade in our automobile. In this way, we reduce the need to make and break ties with the physical objects around us.

We can use the same tactic with respect to people and the other dimensions of experience. There are times when even the most gregarious person feels anti-social and refuses invitations to parties or other events that call for social interaction.

He was talking about the creation of a “personal stability zone” in which: We consciously disconnect. In the same way, we can minimize travel. We can resist pointless reorganizations in our company, church, fraternal or community groups. In making important decisions, we can consciously weigh the hidden costs of change against the benefits. Perhaps stability is sanity?

Why else is it that when we find ourselves outside of our stability zone, home and hearth if I may, we either bring some of it with us or look for it, or something similar to it where we find ourselves? Why else is it that Hoo Mee Chow Mein Mix brings such joy to the expatriated south coast Massachusetts resident along with Portuguese sausage products and coffee syrup just to name a few stabilizers within our personal stability zones?

Perhaps it’s because we all need something we can identify with and with that thought in mind, I present for your sampling, the concept of food, location and sustainability. The more I post, the more (hopefully, I think) evolve. The more I evolve, the more I am convinced that in order to be truly happy, as I learned in Psyche 101, we need a sense of control, belonging and verifiable affection. So, for all of the other Cheddar “men” out there, please consider this: sustainability is anchored to locality. And, a sense of place is represented by what we share at the table. It is with this thought, or revelation, that I am contemplating shifting my thoughts on my vocation – marketing, to something that has always intrigued me – food!

To me, food defines my personal stability zone in many ways. It represents my cultural background, it is engaged in at my family’s table and it connects me to what I am and where I live. It is about sustainability, survival and culture. It allows me to describe directly what I’ve learned and supports me indirectly as a metaphor for what I’m thinking. And, it may redirect me to rename this blog to: In Search of a Personal Stability Zone to explore our collective:

• Conscious decisions
• Environmental relationship
• Ties to physical objects
• Social interactions
• Pointless reorganizations

As well as, perhaps assisting in the investigation in to the strengths and weaknesses of current or popular short-term and long-term investments that are supposed to benefit us rather than destroy us. So yes, what I am has not changed but who I am is changing – again.

They say, go with your passion and food and everything about it is a passion of mine but not, in a gourmet sense. Or, in any matter connected to traditional food writing but, more so, it is about the one personal stability zone we can control – the table. Here is where we are identified, how we identify with where we are right now and perhaps where we’re going. It is also a way for me to tie food, art and marketing into one package in one place just to sustain myself and my sanity.