When I was a kid playing little league baseball my favorite baseball team was the Cincinnati Reds. This was in their '70's heyday with Johnny Bench and Pete Rose who always bet his team would win. My grandparents lived in Marion, Ohio and "Pops" Glenn was an AVID baseball fan. He would have a game on the radio and one on the tv going at the same time intently listening/watching both games.
In those days a lot of the pros chewed tobacco and the big tobacco companies promoted chewing tobacco as safe alternative to cigarettes. Laughable now, serious marketing then and a nice chaw of tobacco produced more spit than bubble gum during a long inning in the sun. It also gave a noticeable little energetic buzz that is really obvious the first time a person takes a chaw. Didn't realize then that that feeling was the start of a 40+ year addiction and the only habit that I miss on a daily basis.
Sometime in my teens I learned that I LOVE beer and I drank a lot of beer in 40+ years. I only wish I had discovered Bavarian and German beers a lot sooner in life. The beer was different in the '70's with an emphasis on taste not low carb diet beer. Getting a buzz tasted better back then.
Around age eighteen I discovered the joys of whiskey especially bourbons and that led to a lot of great decisions that I can't recall right now. What I do remember is often shameful and sometimes painful and most regrettable.
In my early 20's I had a "mini stroke" due to my all American diet of fast food and alcohol. My cholesterol and triglycerides were too high to measure and I wound up in the hospital after keeling over in the bathroom. So for a year and a half I stopped alcohol and fast food and switched to smoking weed and eating healthier. That was working wonderfully until the government really cracked down with the drug war and drug testing and changed my kinder, gentler and healthier trajectory. Thats what happens when you have imaginary freedom instead of real freedom.
Fast forward 25 years and I'm in the dentist chair having 14 teeth pulled due to the long term exposure to Copenhagen chewing tobacco (just a pinch between your cheek and gum...). I quit cold turkey. I honestly believe the tobacco companies "spike" the already addictive tobacco with other chemicals to complicate the withdrawal making it more difficult to quit. I was sick for days with pounding headaches. I drank extra heavy during this phase and I still have cravings for the wonderful sensation of taking a big ol' plow of tobacco before I walk, drive, work...
Fast forward another 5 years and I'm in the heart ward. Time to change my habits once again. At least this time I have access to "medical" grade marijuana. I stopped with the alcohol. No AA bullshit. I don't believe sobriety is for everyone thats why we have so many varieties of intoxicants made by nature on this planet. Escapism is the reason so many people get buzzed.
This world is an absurd place designed for suffering. You are going to suffer one way or another. It's about mitigating the suffering. Thats why the thought of heaven is appealing. Getting a buzz is like a little taste of heaven in the middle of all this suffering. If you are currently not suffering remember every second of it so you can think about how nice it was when your turn to suffer comes back around.
Trying to eat healthy is no easy task in our corporate food world. Trying to avoid sugars, fats and salts is no easy task especially when food manufacturers buy the necessary politicians to keep food labels confusing and misinformative.
It's like the old saying; If it feels good or tastes good it's probably unhealthy, illegal or immoral, sometimes all three!
Take care of your carcass, you never know when you're going to need it. Peace and Love!
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