Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Nerd Christmas Gifts - Logo Etched Beer Steins

My husband and his friends are geeks. Comic books and Doctor Who are their favorites. So for Christmas, I'm making them some personalized beer steins with their favorite symbol of geekdom.

I'll be posting a pictorial (picture tutorial) of how I made the Batman one for my husband, since the guys sometimes see my blog and I don't want to reveal theirs.

Materials needed:
  • Beer Stein ($1 at the Dollar Store!! Made in US even!)
  • Clear packaging tape
  • Paper stencil (printed on normal paper)
  • Armour Etch paste
  • Xacto knife
  • Qtips


Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Obesity - the 70s and 80s were the perfect storm

I recently started the ketogenic diet (also known as the caveman diet), so a lot of my mental energy is being used researching fat loss and low carb options.
*If you don't know - keto is a diet plan (lifestyle change) that involves only ~25g carbs per day. 70% of your daily calories should come from fat, and 25% from protein. So no grains, corn, potatoes, and very little fruit. As much meat and butter and leafy greens as you can eat! It forces your body to switch from using the easy-burn glucose (sugar from carbs) as energy to instead use your stored lipids (fats) - a process called ketosis.

Also, my mother in law is a diabetes educator at a prominent kids' hospital in the area, so we chat about diet and sugar often.  I've come to the conclusion that the obesity epidemic is the result of a few different things, all stemming from the 70s and 80s:

1. The food pyramid
2. The 'low-fat' movement
3. Invention of video games and readily accessible TV
3a. Social media

See the differences in the waistlines of the general populace?
Sugar is mostly the culprit, but it's been shoved into our timeline in pretty sneaky ways...