Basement Bar & Gym

Welcome to the Cats and Kilos website. Cats and Kilos is the name of our basement bar and gym where I hang out with our cats, work out, and provide my 2 cents on various topics on the Cats & Kilos YouTube channel. For the 5 or 6 people that may check out that channel, please feel free to give me feedback on topics you may be interested in as I build this with new material each week.

This website, and the YouTube channel, are meant to serve as a source of information to help build and maintain physical and cognitive function, especially as we age. I will provide practical advice, demonstrate simple exercises and share nutritional supplement information that I have found helpful in my quest to "age youthfully". However, I'd like to do this in a fun and relaxed way, perhaps even considering some broader topics that people of all ages will find interesting.

Ultimately, if you are interested in the opinion of a middle aged married dude with a bunch of cats who likes to toss some weights around, revive some old skills (like a martial art move or two from back in the day), learn some new skills (like shuffle dancing! what!?) while sipping on a beer and discussing random topics, this site is definitely for you. I can't wait to see where this goes, I hope you will join me on my journey!

All animals are amazing - Cats, Racoons, Possums, they are all great. For the purpose of a residence in a suburb (laws, domestication, self sufficiency, amazingness, etc), cats make the most sense for us. Our cats are all rescues - if a cat tells you they need a home, it's hard to say no!

As cats are part of our family and almost always hang out with me while in my basement bar or gym the "cats" portion of Cats and Kilos makes sense. Cats may also represent the cognitive aspect of the training and philosophizing we do here. For example, our cat Max (the one in the header of this page) happens to be a Jedi. We know that all cats are thinkers and can play mind tricks on both humans and other cats but Max is a master.

If it is not already obvious, "Kilos", short for kilograms, represents the gym portion of Cats & Kilos and reflects the fact that the gym is structured to emphasize resistance training. However, we have a punching bag and small area to do some non-resistance training as well. The bar area of Cats and Kilos also has a dance floor area where more "creative" physical training can be done. Mixing things up keeps it fun!

The bar portion of Cats & Kilos is about relaxing and barstool philosophizing. If you don't drink, great, no reason to start now. However, I personally like to drink a little beer while I think about various topics and, for me, it's mostly Heineken. Ok, I know it's not for everyone and it has its "skunky" reputation, but I still kinda like it. Why "still"? I don't have proof that there was a formula change but I'm pretty certain that Heineken did change their formula a few years back. I remember it being 160 calories per bottle at 5.6 percent alcohol. At that time, chilling it to just above freezing made it taste amazing.

However, at some point it became 142 calories per bottle at 5.0 percent alcohol. I believe Heineken purposely did not announce this as I could not find anything from the company to verify a formula change but I know for certain that it tastes different now than it used to. I think it used to be better but it's still pretty good, especially when chilled just above freezing. If you don't like Heineken, hey, you're not the only one, it's not for everybody. I also like Fat Tire, Two Hearted Ale, Boddington's (even though I can't seem to get it around here anymore) and others.