Friends let me tell you that now you can have your cake and eat it too! I saw this CNN story here that announces that twinkies are cutting their calories by one third. Now dieters the world over can safely eat the occasional twinkie with whatever diet they are on because they are only 100 calories. 
Ok you might be thinking that I am making fun, but in this day and age of cities trying to outlaw fat in food… Hostess is stepping up to the plate and making twinkies “healthy!” I found this video entitled, “I’m having an affair with a twinkie” for your perusal.
Americans and much of the developed world have started gaining weight in the last 50 years. Is this your fault? NO I say. What you may be thinking (or yelling at your computer screen)? Well let me explain. My thesis is in the good old days (you know before I was really aware) people had roles in life. People did not get to choose what they wanted to do when they grew up as much as they did today. While the 50’s and 60’s were not the stone age, one did have to launch himself off of the couch to change the channel on the boob tube (tv for you young-ins). If a woman of the house wanted fresh bread - she did not merely call the hubby on the cell phone and tell him to stop by Albertsons on the way home and grab a fresh loaf of French bread. And while we are on that tangent - if a man wanted fresh fish - Albersons had that too? No wasted day of hiking up the mountain to the family creek to fly fish for the trout!
Get my drift? What I am saying is the work went out of the equation. I remember when I was a teenager on my parents ranch, hungery for breakfast - having to go out to the chicken coop to grab eggs if I wanted to eat. Or on thanksgiving having to prepare Gobbler to have the 30 pound feast! I only spent a few years on my fathers ranch as he bought it as I was older but I was aqqainted with the concept of choirs. If I wanted to take the horse for a ride - I had to clean the pen and comb the horse after the ride.
In this post I will speak of the changes in the obesity level over recent history and point out some of the differences that may have contributed to this sorry state of affairs. I generally like people but today we do not take responsibility for our own actions (of total lack of action and the results) as we should. I will also point out the obvious remedies. In earlier - simpler times, people used to get enough exercise in their daily activities. Today many people have desk jobs like me and have to work at getting enough exercise. I found this video of a Cowboy Breakfast that while is was a staple for working ranchers - would not pass any current dietary muster today! Too much fat, carbs, calories, meat and no processed newfangled tofu or such!
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I was scourging the Internet today and noticed a NPR article entitled, “Hotel Maids Challenge the Placebo Effect” that caught my attention. The article is in reference to a study by Harvard psychologists, Ellen Langer and Alia Crum entitled, “Mind-Set Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effect.” I do not like articles like this that do not have the study information. As much as I like NPR, I want to read the underlying study myself to see if I agree with the gist of the article. I had to search by the researchers name along with the word maid and I finally found the name of the study. I then connected to my alma matter (university) library and pulled a copy of the study. I will evaluate this study from a layman’s perspective (I have a MBA and while I can read this study and draw some conclusions, I am not a psychologist).
While researching this topic I did find the link to the Surgeon Generals Health Weight Advice for Consumers here. The advice in a nutshell is to have a goal, keep active and eat well. The page has a lot of information that can assist a person to make wise decisions about diet and exercise. I will go over this study and point out some areas I think have merit as well as a couple of logical problems. I think anyone interested in this study should read the actual study for yourself but I will be glad to venture my opinion.
In this day and age where low-fat diets are starting to lose their allure as well as claims that other diets are better, I am going from a moderate-fat diet to my low-fat diet! The main reasons for this change of tactics is the results of my physical at Kaiser as well as only treading water for the past month on my weight loss! I’ll address both issues in this post but first I would like point out a Time article here, that basically stating that low-fat diets still have validity even though many people are not sticking with the diet (I’d say most diets have this problem!). Here is a funny clip of a woman trying to be alluring.
Have you missed important family holidays because of your latest diet? If so you are missing out on much that makes life worth living! I have missed some holiday festivities during past diets and know how you feel. On the one had you feel the need to reconnect with family, friends, and sweethearts but on the other - you do not want to fall off the wagon again!
I took the night off to spend Valentines day with my sweetheart (yes my wonderful wife of of almost seven years!)! It was a cold - rainy night that was not very motivating for us but I had told my honey that I was barbecuing steaks for our dinner. I was hoping the rain would quit but I caught no such break. During the ensuing talk of what restaurant would be a nice plan B - my wife mentioned that she loved my cooking and would have rather dinned in! I told her that I would still cook steaks and dragged the gas burner to the front porch!
I gladly cooked steaks and mushrooms during a cold, rainy night for my Valentine!
I like many people like to jump into diet and exercise plans with both feet but this is not the best way to proceed. My wife knows this about me and made me promise to first lose 40 pounds and get a check up before I started to do high-intensity cardio-pulimanary workouts. This makes sense because my knees hurt when I squat to lift things. When I started this diet I was 260 pounds. It makes total sense to lessen the load on my knees before I kick up the pressure on my body!
We just joined Kaiser Southern California and I’ve signed up for my annual physical at the end of February! I had this done nine years ago when I had Kaiser and was very impressed. They (Kaiser) have a couple of close departments devoted to nothing but physicals. You go into the first one and get checked out thoroughly and then schedule a second appointment to go over the results! Talking about taking your health care seriously - way to go Kaiser!!! Here is a commercial about Kaiser I found on youtube.com
Why every year do people decide to try and achieve good health? Why isn’t that important at other times of the year. In my case, New Years comes after the eating season. You know, Thanksgiving and Christmas - the two main holidays where there is plenty of food. People everywhere offer you food and seem put off if you don’t try some of grandma’s cookies.
Every year I gain weight during the holiday season and then promptly make a resolution to take the weight off. One can argue that it would be easier to not overindulge in the first place but that is logic and the holidays are the holidays.
This is the year that I will change my habits and start living a healthy lifestyle more often than not!