mayo

I like the idea of body weight routines, but when I've tried them in the past it's usually meant that I tried to convert my apartment into a gym. I try to turn a corner, the sink lip, the floor, the walls and more recently a pull up bar into a sort of "gym" and it's never worked out for me.

I started paying for a gym a while back and have been going almost every day that I can and I've found it a lot easier to help me get into routine to the point that I think trying to start out with bodyweight was a mistake.

As a (perpetual) beginner I've always struggled finding the right intensity and variation of workout. I find the gym equipment lowers that difficulty. I can spend 20 minutes on a bike (no hills, no traffic, no stop signs, no people, no weather) and then stretch using a roller and a pad, then hop onto a machine having never used it before, glance at the instructions, pick a weight and go.

I've just noticed this over the last few weeks and I guess what I'm wondering is if you think calisthenics is appropriate for beginners or is something more suited to people who have 'graduated' from the gym.

Cheese. It's expensive in Canada. 400g of grocery cheddar goes for $10.50 unless it's on sale.

I love cheese. I wish I could have more cheese in my life. Cheese and wine, but I'd settle for cheese. I know, it's ridiculous.

Canada has a system of supply management to control dairy prices in the country. This system doesn't get a ton of attention, but recently (today) made the news because New Zealand, who is part of the CPTPP, is having their cheese imports into Canada denied due to our regulations against imported cheese. Canadian dairy farmers are happy to continue posting year over year profits, consumers suffer, and our trade partners are unhappy.

Back in the day this made sense because it supported smaller local farms, but it's 2023 and there are only a handful of large dairy farmers that dominate the industry. Other countries subsidize their dairy industry to help keep prices low.

The most compelling reason I can think of to reverse supply management is that in doing so the government could subsidize grocery items. It would cost billions, but I like the idea of using tax dollars to make it easier for people to eat.

I don't think I'd vote on this issue, but I'd take it into consideration.

I like adding things to my icecream, usually peanut butter and frozen fruit. Got to thinking that if I added oats I could actually increase the volume without impacting the flavour all that much (I like oats). I could probably use floured starches or something like that.

Are there other things you "fill"? I think juice + water is the most familiar example. What about something like adding 20% dehydrated milk to fresh milk? Substituting some butter for oil?

Sometimes I find when I'm making my own stuff it ends up being more expensive than buying the packaged variety from the store, but maybe fillers are a way to balance that out.