There is, I think, a healthy trend that I am seeing with celebrities and so-called influencers towards better body acceptance. Nudity acceptance, to be specific. I don't mean social nudity, but comfort in your own skin nudity. Acceptance that nobody - nobody - possesses a perfect body.  Just this morning is a news report on singer songwriter Shania Twain posing nude for her most recent album cover.  "If I look at myself from head to toe in the mirror I see my faults … I’m just tired of that lack of freedom. I wanna be more relaxed and comfortable in my own skin," she said. "When you’re naked, now you’re relying entirely on your own love of yourself and respect for yourself." It's a trend, particularly among singers and female singers in particular, and actors - male actors in particular - who are intent on breaking up the taboos and limitations of being embarrassed by our own bodies. Singer Amy Sheppard,of the Australian pop group Sheppard, launched a camp...

As I write this I have recently been banned from a particular online sexual forum which shall remain nameless. It was unexpected and a bit embarrassing. I ran afoul of their age-related guidelines when I responded to a question regarding your first sexual experience. Since mine was a few years before 18, I commented on my first post -of age sex while noting it wasn't my first actual  time and made reference to that fact with a link to this blog for the details of that first fuck.  Oops. Sorry guys. So, lifetime ban. Yeah, I get it and am not protesting it. Just moving on. Anyone who reads me regularly knows I am dead-set against both underage- and victimizing sexualization. I'm sanguine that the moderator just has a solid red line and I'm okay with that, though it has to be acknowledge that for many of us sex began before 18. But it brings up the subject of our various taboos. What we can talk about, and what can we do, depends greatly upon who is there and what are their o...

I haven't done this before, but I'm gonna post my more private New Year's resolutions here. Give myself a benchmark to measure how I do throughout 2023 versus 2022. First, background: The first half of 2022 was spectacular. I dropped 30 pounds, exercised regularly and felt tremendous. Then I went on vacation and was very self-indulgent. But in those three weeks I only gained 4 pounds, and still felt great physically. "I see thin people." The last three months of 2022 were a physical mess. I ate, drank and dropped my regular workouts. Purely self-indulgent and I own that. So, for 2023: -   Back to Ketogenic eating. Exceptionally low carb, with an emphasis on green veggies and healthy fat  consumption. (Avocados here I come!) - Intermittent fasting. 16 hours a day. The jury is out medically on this, but I found it improved my sense of health and well-being. I didn't walk through the day like a zombie after eating (carbs are also largely responsible for this). - ...

It's New Year's Eve 2022, and yet I'm up at my customary 4:30am. Out of habit rather than necessity, since it's Saturday and I don't need to rush off to work. I'm in my robe sitting in the dark family room listening to the sound of the rain on the roof and the gentle snore of my dogs as they sleep. In an hour I will doff the robe and run through my morning exercises. The holiday season has made a rather serious dent in my physical improvement. I had been down thirty pounds, and exercising up to 45 minutes a day, but since mid-November my habits have slipped. I fell off keto and have gained a handful of pounds back, and gotten lazy with the exercise. That all changes tomorrow. Back on keto, back on intermittent fasting. Love this picture... Much of my thoughts lately have been on physical enjoyment. I'm, as I've described myself, a Bohemian Hedonist at heart, even if my day-to-day lifestyle doesn't seem to reflect it. I have a deep appreciation for th...

(There are far more important and weightier topics, but it's the holiday season, so a little lighthearted Scrooginess for the week.) Here we are on the cusp of a whole new year. 2023. When I was a kid that was the far off future. Now it's a week away. Wow. If you are of the Christian persuasion, Merry Christmas. If you're Jewish, hope you're having a Happy Hanukkah. If you're something else, Happy Holidays. This time of years always brings with it some time for reflection, some time to consider what we're doing, how life is going, and hopefully some time with the family. It also brings tons of advertising for products retailers and other hope we'll buy for our loved ones. One such product caught my eyes, and for a few wrong reasons.  Pajamas. No nudity required. There's a company called Pajamagram , who specialize in, you guessed it, pajamas. Bedtime attire. For men, women, boys, and girls, according to their advertising. And what they produce is pretty ...

(The title, for those who don't speak Spanish, translates as "Dance with Me." You'll understand in a moment.) Here it is December of 2022 and the year has flown by, as I'm sure it has for you. I don't even remember much of November. It seems we just celebrated Halloween when Thanksgiving rushed by. And now we're on the verge of the December holidays.  Unreal. I've struggled with a topic for this entry. I'm worried about the repetition of my entries, and while I try to do something new and have a reason for posting, at some point when you have a hundred-fifteen articles you tend to duplicate a lot of things - though hopefully with updated thinking rather than reposts of the same information said a different way. It may seem to some readers I'm obsessed with labels. In my own way I like to categorize myself and things around me. Not for any reason of needing to do so, but because I hope to convey a particular sense of something to a casual reade...

 So my weight keeps fluctuating, and the holiday season - starting with Halloween - is making it harder to maintain let alone lose weight. I'm up a few pounds against my lowest last June, and struggling to get back on program. One of the positive factors is that I am exercising regularly, which ought to change the course of the weight I'm gaining. (This is purely a willpower thing, kids. I know that.)  My morning workout routine is going quite well, and I'm up to a half hour of high activity most mornings. And I can readily feel the improvement in my musculature. My ass and abs in particular, though my abs are still embedded in a stubborn layer of fat and my ass - which itself is resuming its "bubble butt" appearance from my college days - rests below a similarly stubborn pocket of back fat clinging to my lower back and oblique muscles.  Not me...yet Much of all this, of course, is psychological. Mental. And I've noticed a shift lately in my self-perception th...