Grab Bag Pie Diet:

Pie Diet?? Have we hit the motherlode? Maybe, but probably not as you would hope.

How many times do you hear people say, “I don’t know why I can’t lose weight. I’m eating a reasonable diet.” I think “reasonable” paints a MASSIVE, pudgy, gray area in most brains, and that’s the space where things go wrong.

So check out Swole.me (weird name, eh?). Couldn’t be simpler.

You enter how many calories you want to stick to for that day, and how many meals you want to split it up between.  Swole.me works off of a list of purely health-friendly foods (which you can modify from a master list, according to your tastes… more modifications will be coming on the site), and then it generates a daily meal plan, as well as a pie chart for every meal, showing you how much is allocated to carbohydrate, protein and fat at each installment.

Great for folks who don’t love to cook, and want to keep it real, as it doesn’t suggest a bunch of tricky recipes.

You can also customize each meal in “Sandbox” mode by dragging and dropping... I started one here:

It’s run by a UCLA student on his free time, so it is pretty bare bones right now, but read the FAQ page to know what it is, how it got there, and where it’s going.

If nothing else, this little “diet generator” will show you that basics are basic, and fake, packaged food … even “diet” packaged food, has no place in a healthy eating lifestyle.

Just eat the stuff you’re supposed to and get on with it, cowboy.

Pie never made you look so good. And the ∏r² through your waist line will look all the better, too 🙂

Grab Bag Take it to the Houzz:

Do you delve into home magazines, searching for inspiration for that major remodel you’re considering, or a bedroom make-over, or even just a fresh coat of paint and some new accessories for your family room?

Well I do, and I end up saving stacks of magazines and sheafs of torn-out pages…. all stuffed in a cupboard for future dreams.

So I loved it when my sister told me about Houzz.com.

This home and garden design site showcases diverse styles and tastes, so there will certainly be something here for everyone here.

Houzz gives you four very cool things;

1. A place to view thousands of free photos (152,996 and counting) for you to peruse… no more magazines to buy

2. A place to save your favorite photos to “Ideabooks” you create online… and add notations of what you liked (and didn’t like) in each….. no more cupboards stuffed with tear-sheets

3. The ability to share your ideabooks with others so you can collaborate on projects

4. A place to post your own photos to share your beautiful spaces… many pros have posted their work on this site as a way of marketing their talents.

Some really wonderful photos are here to get your creative juices flowing. Here’s just a sampling:

Grab Bag Miracle Precision:

Last November I shared an animated reconstruction of US Airways flight 1549 landing in the Hudson. Amazing.

It’s gotten WAY better. This version is gorgeously expressed in high-definition. And along with hearing the control tower-to-cockpit radio communication, you can see a written transcript of the conversation between Captain Sullenberger and First Officer Skiles which was taking place at the same time.

I could watch this a hundred times and never get tired of witnessing such incredible competency. Talk about calm under pressure.

Hitting the “Full Screen” button in the lower right corner is a MUST.

Grab Bag Damage Control:

The docs at RealAge.com recently shared this:

Next time you say “what the heck” and just order the burger and fries, here’s how to make it a little less crazy for your blood sugar. Nix the coffee and chase it with water instead.

Eating high-fat, high-calorie fast food can take your blood sugar on a wild and unhealthy ride. And a new study suggests that drinking coffee during or right after may double the blood sugar trouble.

Blood Sugar Shock
The study — which was small and done on a group of young men — requires more research to confirm the findings. But the early results were worrisome and intriguing. In several trials, participants drank high-fat meals nutritionally on par with fast-food meals. Six hours later, tests showed blood sugar levels were 32 percent higher among those who had had the fatty meal earlier compared to those who hadn’t. And drinking a couple cups of coffee a few hours after the meal produced the worst blood sugar results of all with levels being 65 percent higher, pushing them into the diabetic range. (Related: Here’s a list of 12 foods that are good for your blood sugar.)

Fat and Caffeine Factors
So what’s fatty food got to do with blood sugar? Plenty, according to new theories. Researchers think saturated fat may interfere with the body’s ability to process and clear sugar from the blood. And for some reason, caffeine makes those messy conditions even worse. Researchers suspect that both fat and caffeine may disrupt communication between the gut and pancreas — not good, because the pancreas plays a key role in expediting sugar removal from blood. (Related: Drink this to help calm inflammation after a high-fat meal.)

Coffee’s Okay. Really . . .
Other studies have suggested that drinking coffee may have some pretty great health benefits. Some research suggests it may even reduce diabetes risk. So don’t feel you have to kick coffee to the curb. But you might want to pass if you’re taking the day off from your eat-healthy diet. (Related: Find out why a coffee refill may be totally okay.)

Grab Bag Useful/Funny Stuff:

Ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, GetRidOfThings.com provides expert-sourced (by “several researchers, authors, and editors who’ve been around the block“) articles on unburdening yourself of everything from Anxiety to Zits and Mice to Manboobs.

Lots of useful stuff here, actually, with enough giggles thrown in to keep you coming back.

Grab Bag Brain Game:

With The Playboy Club TV series debuting soon, memories hark back to the 60’s. Here’s a test of how well you know 60’s pop song lyrics:

HIT SONGS OF THE 60’S

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

Summertime diversions:

Take an ample amount of  beer…. add too much time….. and what do you get?

Leisuredive.com, among other things.

Take a look at the submissions from the simple of mind and the light of heart….. then pull your head out of that trashy summer novel and snap a few submissions of your own.

This raises the bar for “what I did on my summer vacation“. Can’t wait to see Grab Bag readers taking the plunge…

Unlike other possible poor choices with your leisure time, at least all you get here is wet.