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Athletic Challenges and Achievements by Ordinary People

Archive for category weight loss/overweight

Change Your Mind To Change Your Body…And Change Your Life

Sep 5

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, diet, photos of celebrities, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

Robin Quivers drank sweetened lemonade with red pepper to lose 70 pounds

The three people below (two friends, one celebrity) were all able to change their body weight by finally making some change in their minds. Something clicked that allowed them or compelled them to alter their eating patterns of many many years.

How does that happen, especially after so many frustrating attempts or inability to even deal with their unsatisfactory situation? Sometimes people have life-threatening situations—a heart attack, a doctor’s warning of a probable stroke. But that didn’t happen in these cases.

If we could only harness this energy and discipline in so many other aspects of our lives, we might all be super powers.

Now here are their stories:

Met a friend I hadn’t seen in four months, and she was 25 pounds lighter…positively THIN. She said she’d seen some pictures of herself and finally was fed up with how she was feeding. So she gave up red meat, most carbohydrates, ice cream (which like me she loves), and eats more vegetables. The weight just melted away.

One continuing disappointment for this lady in her 50’s is that she still can’t look like she did in her 20’s, before she was a parent. Not sure there is any solution to that problem. It’s best to be glad we lived all those years, rather than having died earlier, and accept that things change with time, including our bodies. And also to be proud of how much wiser and smarter we are as adults.

Another friend’s scales had needles pointing to 230 pounds, and he finally changed his eating routine, so that he now weighs 189 after about six months. No more skipping breakfast and lunch and then eating enormous meals late at night that fail to satisfy his starving body. Though he is in his late 60’s, he still works full-time with the energy of a man half his age. Now that he is so much lighter, he is probably moving like a teenager.

Scanning the radio stations, I bumped into Robin Quivers for the first time and learned how she lost 70 pounds (of her former 218) by spending weeks drinking just water laced with lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. It’s called a Master Cleanser, and she was thrilled to also lose some joint pain and aches, sleep much better and make some best-dressed and most-beautiful people lists.

Most impressive about Robin’s words were how she went from not being able to be in a house that lacked ice cream in the freezer—so she had to run out and buy a pint or two to feel sane—to becoming indifferent to the dessert. She no longer felt the deprivation and was not avoiding or curtailing her urges. The desire for unhealthy, fattening foods had gone away.

The video will give you more details, which include a skeptical point of view that this cleansing diet is safe and sound.

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Aging Doesn’t Have To Look Like This

Sep 2

Posted by ira in aging, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

A friend intended to make me laugh by sending me the three pictures below. He suggested that they are all the same females over a lifetime. The images actually make me angry that some folks let themselves fall apart so badly, increase their odds of sickness or even deadly health, and just lose any interest in being attractive, fit or toned.

The article I posted yesterday explains it all—people are lazy and won’t accept how unfit or fat they really are. And if they do notice, they are unwilling to do much about it. What I hear all the time is “Life is short, so why should I deprive myself of a little pleasure.” (…like some ice cream or tasty meat treat with loads of delicious fat). I have to keep reminding myself that my doctor says I just happen to be able to avoid the foods that are bad for me, while others who are overweight neither can nor want to.

On the other hand, one friend told me last night that he now weighs 189 for the first time in years, and that he has lost 30 to 40 pounds in the last few months. His secret: eat small meals and healthy snacks throughout the whole day instead of skipping breakfast and lunch and gorging himself at a late dinner that barely digests while he is sleeping.

young girls at the beach

teen-age girls at the beach

grandmothers at the beach

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Many Americans Don’t Even Know They’re Fat

Sep 1

Posted by ira in aging, diet, exercise, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

First I read an article by Amanda Gardner suggesting that fat people don’t realize they are fat. Then a friend sent me some pictures of females at the beach over a 60 or 70 year period. You can see these above and wonder if aging has to lead to such blubberous decay.

I am including some snippets from the article. The biggest culprit suggested by this poll is that overweight comes from lack of exercise more than bad food. I can easily understand this resistance to exercise. These days I find it almost impossible to “exercise” by lifting weights or driving to the gym. That is boring and tedious. But I have no trouble making myself go to the tennis court—over 42 hours last month. That is fun, and I am eager to play. The article does point out, however, that just walking is considered exercise…you don’t have to make beautifully sculpted muscles.

(HealthDay News) — Many Americans have skewed perceptions when it comes to their weight, often believing they are thinner than they really are, even when the scales are shouting otherwise, a new poll finds.

Thirty percent of those in the “overweight” class believed they were actually normal size, while 70 percent of those classified as obese felt they were simply overweight. Among the heaviest group, the morbidly obese, almost 60 percent pegged themselves as obese, while another 39 percent considered themselves merely overweight.

These findings may help to explain why overweight and obesity rates in the United States continue to go up, experts say.

“While there are some people who have body images in line with their actual Body Mass Index, for many people they are not, and this may be where part of the problem lies,” said Regina Corso, vice president of Harris Poll Solutions. “If they do not recognize the problem or don’t recognize the severity of the problem, they are less likely to do something about it.”

And that means that obesity may be becoming the new norm, raising the specter of increasing rates of health threats such as diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.

“I think too many people are unsure of what they should actually weigh,” said Keri Gans, a registered dietician and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. “For many, they have grown up in a culture were most people are overweight and that is the norm, or they have been surrounded by too many celebrities and fashion in the media and think very thin is the norm.”

Most respondents to the poll who felt they were heavier than they should be blamed sloth, rather than poor eating habits, for their predicament.

“We’re seeing the couch potato stigma [syndrome],” Corso said. “Three out of five Americans overall are saying they don’t exercise as much as they should.” Read the rest of this entry »

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New Army Training Program Eliminates The Situp

Aug 31

Posted by ira in exercise, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

Just read a New York Times article about how the US Army has instituted a new training program for recruits, who are often overweight and can’t pass the physical tests at boot camp.

…That familiar standby, the situp, is gone, or almost gone. Exercises that look like pilates or yoga routines are in. And the traditional bane of the new private, the long run, has been downgraded.

…the program was created to help address one of the most pressing issues facing the military today: overweight and unfit recruits.

“What we were finding was that the soldiers we’re getting in today’s Army are not in as good shape as they used to be,” said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who oversees basic training for the Army. “This is not just an Army issue. This is a national issue.”

Excess weight is the leading reason the Army rejects potential recruits. And while that has been true for years, the problem has worsened as the waistlines of America’s youth have expanded. This year, a group of retired generals and admirals released a report titled “Too Fat to Fight.”

“Between 1995 and 2008, the proportion of potential recruits who failed their physicals each year because they were overweight rose nearly 70 percent,” the report concluded.

Though the Army screens out the seriously obese and completely unfit, it is still finding that many of the recruits who reach basic training have less strength and endurance than privates past. It is the legacy of junk food and video games, compounded by a reduction in gym classes in many high schools, Army officials assert.

As a result, it is harder for recruits to reach Army fitness standards, and more are getting injured along the way. General Hertling said that the percentage of male recruits who failed the most basic fitness test at one training center rose to more than one in five in 2006, up from just 4 percent in 2000. The percentages were higher for women.

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The Difficulty Of Thinking About Your Future

Aug 10

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, aging, diet, my background, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

I spent yesterday visiting with two great kids around 20. The girl was beautiful and bronze. She admitted that she tans easily and didn’t use sun screen yet this summer. He admitted that when you are 20, you never think about what life will be like when you are 40. We were talking about staying fit and healthy, and I had mentioned how many women I saw who may have gained just two pounds a year after college, so they were 40 pounds heavier at age 40, or weighed an extra 60+ pounds by the time they were 60 or 70.

The concerned parent in me told the girl how I worked as a cabana boy in Florida during high school and even used baby oil to intensify my tan. My blond hairs against a bronze skin were often admired by the tourist girls I was trying to impress.

At my annual physical, when I was in my 50’s, my new doctor in Connecticut was also very impressed: “Lots of sun damage here.” He explained that it can take decades for the harm from excessive sun tanning to show itself.

My doc insisted that I see a dermatologist every six months. It may have kept me alive, because in addition to various, benign skin cancers that appeared and needed to be removed, there was one very deadly cancer, melanoma, that surfaced. It was removed early enough that five years have passed without a flare up or serious consequence. Lucky me. But a friend’s friend died of melanoma after years sailing joyfully, and unprotected, in the sun.

So it’s hard to be young and worry about consequences later, when you are old. That was me too in college. I was just trying to pass some courses, get a date, have fun, earn some respect. Normal and very understandable. Maybe many people don’t ever see how earlier actions are connected to later results. I read that the human brain can’t think very far into the future until it is around 25 years old. That is why insurance rates for drivers are so high until age 25. At that time those drivers still alive have a bit more “common sense.” It’s not true when it comes to eating. Not when one third of the people are obese and another third are overweight.

And it may not be true when it comes to our leaders anticipating international relations, economics, climate change. So we just have to muddle along, trying not to be fearful of all the foods we encounter. Being aware enough to not fall into the hole of denial. Controlling what we can of the choices we have. Taking the time to become informed.

Most of us don’t have the energy to do this in addition to all the demands of a busy overstimulated, overwhelming life. We are simply trying to survive, to make it to the next day, the next paycheck, the next vacation or family dinner.

Sometimes we can’t change our behavior, even when we know what the consequences are likely to be. My father used to say, “If the crime is worth the punishment, then commit the crime.” I read an essay about cancer this week by Christopher Hitchens, a famous intellectual who wrote books, high-brow essays and appeared on talk shows. I saw a video today in which he states, “I am dying. Read the rest of this entry »

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How To Contol Your Life…And Your Death

Aug 6

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, diet, exercise, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

I read two articles recently having nothing to do with abs that made me think of how to fit crunches and exercise into a busy life…and all of us have busy lives.

David Brooks wrote a piece for the New York Times describing two ways to live a life: as a Well-Planned project and as a more fluid exploration, the Summoned Life, that starts with the particular circumstances one faces.

“Once you have come up with an overall purpose,” he continues, “a person following a Well-Planned life has to make decisions about allocating his time, energy and talent. When he is done, life comes to appear as a well-designed project, carefully conceived in the beginning, reviewed and adjusted along the way and brought toward a well-rounded fruition.

“The person leading the Summoned Life starts with a very concrete situation: I’m living in a specific year in a specific place facing specific problems and needs. At this moment in my life, I am confronted with specific job opportunities and specific options. The important questions are: What are these circumstances summoning me to do? What is needed in this place? What is the most useful social role before me?”

When I say I want to crunch abs at least twice a week, I am often disappointed at failing to reach this goal. I visit kids and friends, see a movie, dine out, travel. I don’t hit my target. Other people do make and exceed those goals. I saw the gym rats who said they were pumping iron four times a week. I was never ever one of them. I made different life choices involving others I have relationships and obligations with. I am also playing tennis five to 14 hours a week. The muscle builders are probably not doing that also. But I want to have the muscles too.

I’d be a lot happier, I am concluding if I could just adopt the more relaxed attitude of accepting my circumstances and the time-limited opportunities in my life to: carry out survival functions, work for money and causes, write for this site, spend time with loved ones, play tennis for fun and cardio, handle car and house repairs, and also squeeze in some crunches. I always think I can do it watching TV, but usually I am too tired to do much more than eat a snack and push the remote.

Any suggestions? I actually have friends who don’t watch TV, hardly use a computer. They have time to exercise every day an hour or two and also get up with the birds and the sun. I have to stop wanting it all and learn to accept my limits. But it’s almost impossible. Too greedy for a closer step toward perfection. Too interested in tennis over gym exercise. But when I was younger and working full steam, I barely spent an hour a week some years doing any kind of physical activity

The second article by Dr. David Katz, Director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, talks about “the three leading causes of death that we have control of: tobacco use, poor dietary pattern and limited physical activity. Read the rest of this entry »

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When Celebrities Lose Weight, You Can See Their New Shapes

Aug 5

Posted by ira in photos of celebrities, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

When so many people have trouble exercising or losing weight, it’s good to learn about those who somehow succeed in their quest for more muscles or less pounds. A recent story about celebrities who lost huge amounts suggests that if you are on camera, you are really motivated to do it…eventually. But catch the drastic weight losses of Christian Bale and 50 Cent below. What incredible discipline. Then there is Star Jones, who cheated a tad…to lose 150 pounds…

Jennifer Hudson went from a size 16 to a 6 as a Weight Watchers spokesperson.

Drew Carey lost a reported 80 pounds this year with a combination of no-carb diet and cardio workouts

50 Cent lost some 50 pounds in just nine weeks to play a cancer patient in 'Things Fall Apart.'

John Goodman, who once weighed 400 pounds, debuted a much slimmer look this year.

Christian Bale lost a staggering 63 pounds to play the lead role in 'The Machinist.'

Valerie Bertinelli lost 40 pounds as a Jenny Craig spokesperson. This year she ran a marathon.

Kelly Osbourne lost about 40 pounds on 'Dancing with the Stars' and has kept it off.

Star Jones rapidly lost 150 pounds in 2003, and it took her until 2007 to admit she had had gastric bypass surgery.

Sara Rue lost about 40 pounds on Jenny Craig.

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What Am I Missing?

Aug 4

Posted by ira in humorous stories, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

I hate being so out of step with the world. Two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Yet one clothing manufacturer, Ann Taylor, still feels that taking a very slim model and letting her wear some clothes naturally makes her look what? Fat? Overweight? Plump, chunky, pudgy?

losing weight by retouching

So they retouch the natural picture digitally to reduce her hips and waist a few inches. What was wrong with the picture on the left? She looks good to me. You can see how much more space now exists between her arms and her body in the picture on the right.

No wonder women hate their bodies, thinking they are “fat” and are upset with what they see in the mirror. But does it really take such strong character to laugh at such idiocy by the marketing types? A part of me says that any women who looks like the model on the left and thinks she is too heavy deserves any grief she feels for wishing she looked like the cartoon on the right. What do you think?

Now here is the “sensational expose” of how this retouching was discovered.

Some sort of tech error on Ann Taylor’s website mistakenly revealed how the brand’s photos look before retouching. Jezebel first noticed the pics on Tuesday afternoon, explaining:

As the page loads, you’ll get to see what the Chiffon Trim Tank looks like on a real woman for a few seconds. Then she shrinks into a awkward creature barely able to support the weight of her torso with her tiny child hips.

By Tuesday night, the glitch, involving thumbnails and other terms beyond us, had been fixed. But we were able to take some screen grabs before Ann Taylor cleaned it up. Check out the before and after images of the “Chiffon Trim Tank,” an item from a set of Photoshopped pictures we’ve previously written about.

To be fair, at the time, Ann Taylor did apologize, saying, “We want to support and celebrate the natural beauty of women, and we apologize if in the process of retouching that was lost.” Now, we just know exactly what was lost: a few inches off of the model’s waist and thighs.

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Jason Statham’s Workout Routine

Jun 14

Posted by ira in abs pictures, diet, exercise, gym stuff, photos of celebrities, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

After admiring his physique, I bumped into this Men’s Health article about how Jason lost 17 pounds in six weeks and how he grew all his muscles. It’s an eye opener to someone like me who loves sugar and spends 30 minutes doing only abs exercises. Jason’s entire routine takes just 35 minutes. But he does it six days a week, and the pictures show he is doing something very right. I love his comment in the article: If Statham’s workout is your model, you should understand that, at times during our talk, he referred to it as horrible, nauseating, bastard, murder, nightmare, and priceless, preceding each description with the word “f–king.”

Jason's muscles pop in Transporter 3

Statham’s Secrets of Superlean

Actor Jason Statham took on a brutal new training regimen and dropped 17 pounds in 6 weeks. So, what are you waiting for?

“He’s a bit lardy, isn’t he?” Jason Statham says in his gritty British voice, chuckling. He’s referring to the man in two pictures he’s holding, a pair of classic “before” shots, one from the front, one from the back. Indeed, the man in the photos has some extra dough, and not the green kind. There’s muscle there for sure, but no definition at all. Jason Statham isn’t ripping on just anyone: He’s the guy in the photos.

Jason Statham’s weight gain came the same way it does for most of us: a few too many beers and a couple of extra servings, compounded over time. Work out hard and you’ll crave calories as fuel at the same time you loathe the millstone they can form around your middle.

“I never gave a f–k about a calorie,” Statham says. “An apple? It’s good for me. I’d have five. Bananas? Eat the bunch.”

Statham was staying active at work, filming the shoot-’em-up War, in which he has his first fight scenes with a worthy adversary — Jet Li. But the pounds crept onto his torso and hung there like the remembrance of meals past.

Now Jason Statham brushes aside the ugly photos on the coffee table in his living room and gives me a dose of his current reality: He lifts up his shirt. He’s shredded — rumble-strip abs, cords in his chest, veins in his arms.

“That’s 17 pounds in 6 weeks, mate,” he says, and then plops down on his sofa again. “And that’s working out 6 days a week for, at most, about 35 minutes a day. I’ve never, ever gotten results like this before.”

That’s a bold statement from a man who used to be on the British Olympic diving team and lists mixed martial arts (that’s UFC-style fighting) as a hobby. In fact, he sounds like an infomercial. So what’s the secret?

Prepare to sweat. And hurt. And, well, eat. But only enough to stoke your fire, not smother it.

Jason in jail in Death Race


The Workout

If Statham’s workout is your model, you should understand that, at times during our talk, he referred to it as horrible, nauseating, bastard, murder, nightmare, and priceless, preceding each description with the word “f–king.”

What follows are his general guidelines and some sample exercises. For a typical week’s complete workout, go here.

He works out every day but Sunday with Logan Hood, a former Navy SEAL that runs Epoch Training (www.epochtraining.com). Saturdays are reserved for hour long sustained trail runs in the Hollywood Hills while the other 5 days are spent at 87Eleven, a full service action film company and stunt studio located in a converted warehouse near the Los Angeles airport. Hollywood stuntmen own and train at the unique facility. There are trampolines, climbing ropes, heavy bags, barbells, kettlebells, crash pads, and a complex apparatus of pullup bars.

There are only two real rules to the workout.
1. No repeats. “I haven’t had one single day in 6 weeks that has been a repeat,” he says. “Every single day has had a different combination of exercises. Obviously, you repeat exercises over the course of 6 weeks, but you’ll never do that workout you did on Thursday the 23rd of August again. It always changes, and that’s what keeps it so interesting.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Can Anyone Fit In An Hour Of Exercise Each Day?

Mar 23

Posted by ira in aging, diet, exercise, gym stuff, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Healthy middle-aged women in America will be hard pressed to get in the full hour of moderate exercise it will take to avoid gaining weight as they age, and it may be too challenging for some.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday found that middle-aged women need to get at least an hour a day of moderate exercise if they hope to ward off the creep of extra pounds that comes with aging.
“Time is a four-letter word,” said Eva Lazarra, 48, a pharmacist at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, who was taking a break from work to lift weights at the facility’s fitness center.

“In a realistic world of a working mom with a family, it can be difficult. I’ve done my best,” said Lazarra. “I have done marathons. I have done triathlons. Unfortunately, we have to start looking at prevention, and that being part of our daily life.”

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are already waging a war on childhood obesity. It may take a similar push in adults to help them avoid the health consequences of obesity such as heart attacks, strokes and diabetes.

Already, two-thirds of U.S. adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese — a condition that increases their risk for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses. Read the rest of this entry »

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Older Women Need Exercise PLUS DIETING To Lose Weight

Mar 23

Posted by ira in aging, diet, exercise, gym stuff, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

CHICAGO – Rev up the treadmill: Sobering new research spells out just how much exercise women need to keep the flab off as they age — and it’s a lot.

At least an hour of moderate activity a day is needed for older women at a healthy weight who aren’t dieting. For those who are already overweight — and that’s most American women — even more exercise is called for to avoid gaining weight without eating less, the study results suggest.

“We all have to work at it. If it were easy to be skinny, we would all be skinny,” said John Foreyt, a behavioral medicine expert who reviewed the study but wasn’t involved in the research.

Brisk walking, leisurely bicycling and golfing are all examples of moderate exercise. But don’t throw in the towel if you can’t do those things for at least an hour a day. Even a little exercise is good for your health even if it won’t make you thin, the researchers said.

Their findings are based on 34,079 middle-aged women followed for about 13 years. Most were not on calorie-cutting diets. The women gained an average of almost 6 pounds during the study.

Those who started out at a healthy weight, with a body mass index less than 25, and who gained little or no weight during the study consistently got the equivalent of about an hour of moderate activity daily. Few women — only 13 percent — were in this category.

Few already overweight women got that amount of exercise, and the results suggest it wasn’t enough to stop them from gaining weight. Read the rest of this entry »

High Protein Diets Can Make You Gain Weight Not Lose It

Mar 12

Posted by ira in diet, exercise, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

Since I began this web site, it’s obvious to me that there are thousands or millions of articles telling people how to be healthy and fit: just eat “right” and exercise. So easy as to almost be boring. How many times do people need to hear or read these almost identical words of well-meant guidance? But humans aren’t logical. We are emotional and often take actions that are against our better interests. As one friend said to me over 20 years ago, “I knew what I was doing, and I didn’t want to do it. I just couldn’t stop myself.”

Maybe it takes the 10th or the 99th article to stimulate a reader to make a meaningful change in her behavior. I will keep trying. So here is another good one by author and wellness expert Kathy Freston, who interviewed Dr. Dean Ornish about diet and losing weight. You can read the whole article here after glancing at some of the excerpts below.

Everyone knows that diet and exercise play a role in how much we weigh, but many are surprised to learn what a powerful role emotional stress has in causing us to gain weight and how stress management techniques can help us to lose it and keep it off…

Good carbs are whole foods. These include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and soy products in their natural, unrefined, unprocessed forms. Because these good carbs are unrefined, they are naturally high in fiber as well. The fiber fills you up before you eat too much…

Diets that are high in animal protein are usually high in saturated fat, which promotes both heart disease and cancer…Fat (from any source) has nine calories per gram, whereas protein and carbohydrates have only four calories per gram. Thus, when you eat less fat, you consume fewer calories even if you eat the same amount of food—because the food is less dense in calories…

As you begin to eat more healthfully, your taste preferences change. You begin to prefer foods that are more healthful. And you connect the dots between what you eat and how you feel…

KF: What is a reasonable rate of weight loss?

DO: In most cases, no more than three pounds/week.

KF: What if we want to lose weight faster; is there a healthy way to do it?

DO: Do more exercise and meditation and eat smaller amounts of healthy foods and less salt. Regular exercise not only burns calories, it also raises your basal metabolic rate, the number of calories you burn while at rest. Thus, exercise helps you lose weight even when you’re not exercising. Do some strength training as well as aerobic exercise. Walking a mile burns even more calories than running a mile. Exercise in ways that you enjoy, then you’re more likely to do it. If it’s fun, it’s sustainable.

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Your Chair Is Your Enemy

Feb 23

Posted by ira in diet, exercise, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

Ahhh the frustrations of living a fit and healthy life. I already referred to an article suggesting that if you exercise, there is a good chance you will GAIN weight…because you will be hungrier—and eat more—after all that calorie burning. Now here are excerpts from a New York Times article by Olivia Judson suggeting that even though you exercise daily, you can still gain weight if you mostly sit the rest of the day. What a battle for those trying to lose a few pounds…

It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting—in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home—you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.

That, at least, is the conclusion of several recent studies. Indeed, if you consider only healthy people who exercise regularly, those who sit the most during the rest of the day have larger waists and worse profiles of blood pressure and blood sugar than those who sit less. Among people who sit in front of the television for more than three hours each day, those who exercise are as fat as those who don’t: sitting a lot appears to offset some of the benefits of jogging a lot…

For many people, weight gain is a matter of slow creep—two pounds this year, three pounds next year. You can gain this much if, each day, you eat just 30 calories more than you burn. Thirty calories is hardly anything—it’s a couple of mouthfuls of banana, or a few potato chips. Thus, a little more time on your feet today and tomorrow can easily make the difference between remaining lean and getting fat…

…But it looks as though there’s a more sinister aspect to sitting, too. Several strands of evidence suggest that there’s a “physiology of inactivity”: that when you spend long periods sitting, your body actually does things that are bad for you… Read the rest of this entry »

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Guess What Most Motivates People To Lose Weight

Feb 4

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I saw a friend this week I hadn’t seen in two years. He looked good. Here is our conversation:

me: You look a little thinner. Have you lost any weight recently?

him: No. I’ve weighed the same the last few months.

me: Well what about in the last year or two?

him: Oh that far back. Yeah, I lost 30 pounds.

me: Congratulations. You look great. How did you do it?

him: I changed my diet—stopped eating junk food. I started exercising. Then I quit drinking. I haven’t had a drop of alcohol in over a year.

me: That’s amazing. What motivated you to do it? It takes a lot of discipline to make all those changes.

him: (totally straight-faced) I had a heart attack and thought I was going to die. Had to go right to the hospital, and had two stents put in. Only took a day.

me: (silence)

So the fear of Death is a great motivator. How come so many wait until it comes that close before we are prodded to do something about our health? Or make changes in other parts of our lives? I’m a big procrastinator myself…when it comes to taxes. But not when we are talking about that other certainty in Life: Death.

Another overweight friend and I were talking today. Read the rest of this entry »

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Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin

Dec 17

Posted by ira in diet, exercise, gym stuff, weight loss/overweight | 2 Comments

Here is a challenging article that John Cloud wrote for Time Magazine’s August 9, 2009 edition. (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html)
A summary of the main thesis is as follows:

“…The conventional wisdom that exercise is essential for shedding pounds is actually fairly new. As recently as the 1960s, doctors routinely advised against rigorous exercise, particularly for older adults who could injure themselves. Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases — those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer, diabetes and many other illnesses. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated…

“…The basic problem is that while it’s true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn’t necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder….

“…Yes, it’s entirely possible that those of us who regularly go to the gym would weigh even more if we exercised less. But like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise, so I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don’t. Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight?…”

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Cyclist Frank Krasowski’s Year-Round Rides Create Endorphin Satisfactions Exceeding Food Pleasures

Nov 18

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, cycling, diet, weight loss/overweight | 2 Comments

At the therapist the other day for my arm, I mentioned “Beth’s Story” (see November 6th post below) to Frank Krasowski, the owner of The Hills Physical Therapy in Bantam, CT. He had his own ideas about what it takes to diet, exercise, and lose weight.

“Some people are disciplined, and others aren’t. Food gives some people so much pleasure that they can’t give it up…unless there is another pleasure to compensate for that loss.”

For Frank, riding his bike on hilly, scenic roads does the trick. The sweating, the big gears, and the views he enjoys outdoors trigger endorphins into his system that easily make up for his more limited diet. “I love biking. It changes my mind set, so that food becomes fuel, rather than a source of pleasure and satisfaction. This doesn’t happen for me with other kinds of exercise.”

Frank Krasowski resting from a ride—2007

Frank Krasowski resting from a ride—2007

He admitted that his ability to be disciplined with food goes in spurts. And he really admires people who can stick to their own rules with consistency. He also volunteered that he rides in the winter as long as there isn’t much snow on the ground. He has all the necessary clothing layers, masks and gloves to build up the warmth needed to ride comfortably in freezing temperatures. Sounds pretty disciplined to me…

After hearing Frank’s words, I did a few searches on the net about sugar rushes and endorphin highs.

SUGAR RUSHES

Time and again you’ve experienced the intense effects that food can have on your moods. Cakes, cookies, and fudge are known as pleasure foods not only because they delight your taste buds but because they can make you feel calm and happy – at least temporarily. This sugar induced sense of euphoria comes from several chemical mechanisms in your brain. First of all, the sheer pleasure of tasting a chocolate treat or powdery donut stimulates your brain’s pleasure pathways and the release of dopamine and endorphins, the chemicals that makes you feel exhilarated. You also get a quick surge of energy as the sugar hits your bloodstream. Unfortunately, that energized feeling lasts only as long as the sugar rush. Once your blood-sugar levels drop (about an hour or two later), you’re left feeling drained and out of sorts. You become an addict looking for another hit.

Clearly, then, food can be as powerful as the most addictive drug. If you’re experiencing carbohydrate cravings as a result of taking antidepressants, you’re probably well aware of the addictive nature of certain foods. Addictive foods are almost always processed foods. (I have never known anyone addicted to lima beans.) And you probably know that feeding your cravings only makes you crave the food even more. In fact, some studies suggest that food cravings may be triggered by low levels of neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins), a phenomenon that may also occur in people who are addicted to alcohol and drugs.

NOW SOME INFO ABOUT ENDORPHINS Read the rest of this entry »

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Zumba Dancing With 26 Mostly Latina Women

Nov 8

Posted by ira in Zumba dancing, exercise, weight loss/overweight | 1 Comment

Yup. I did it. Struggling along, trying to keep in step and move my arms at the same time. A bit like rubbing your stomach and patting your head with the other hand simultaneously. But I could do much of it. And I survived…for half of the hour.

Here is what happened. I was staying at the Biltmore Hotel in Miami and headed for the gym there to do something that didn’t hurt my injured arm and shoulders. I started stretching outside a room filled with women doing a quiet, low-light, yoga-like class. But the small area was so crowded with chattering ladies waiting for the next class that I just went inside, where there was a quiet empty space. I was doing crunches on a floor mat just fine, until suddenly all the lights went on jarringly, and women poured in talking real fast…in Spanish or Cuban.

It was hopeless to stay on the floor, so I took my mat outside and planned to leave for the machines. Then I heard a Zumba class was what was starting in a minute. I remembered a high school friend urging me to try this kind of aerobic, high-energy dancing, so I figured “What the Hell, I’m only young once.”

my first Zumba class—10/27/09

my first Zumba class—10/27/09

It’s a blast! Zumba is a Colombian word that means “to move fast and have fun.” Dead-on accurate. The music is all Latin, and many of the steps are taken from salsa, meringue, samba. The instructor keeps changing the steps and upper body movements. I could do the cha-cha-cha moves easily—I grew up in Miami Beach—but I found shimmying my shoulders back and forth like a stripper pretty challenging. I’m sure I looked idiotic.

Of course I had trouble keeping up with the ladies who’d done the routines before. And I was also standing right behind a post, which was the only space left by the time I’d decided to brave it. I looked around for another guy, but there was just one, in bright red shorts and shirt up near the front. He was fearless. The women were mostly younger, but some had grey hair. Many were totally out of sync, but who cared.

It was hilarious. Fantastic. I don’t think Zumba builds bulk muscle, but it definitely can lead to weight loss and body toning. One woman claims she lost 60 pounds in the 2007 Today Show video below. Zumba was created by a Miami man, Beto Perez, in 2001, and there may now be 40,000 studios worldwide offering classes to 5 million people in 75 countries. Really caught on. Millions of DVD’s have been sold. And I may do it again here in Connecticut.

I found some videos on YouTube for you to look at. Beto says on one of them that “people hate the exercise, and love the party. So we turned the exercise into a party.” I love just looking at the happy energetic people on the videos. There are four below.

Read the rest of this entry »

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How Beth Lost 28 Pounds So Easily That She Is Unimpressed With Her Achievement

Nov 6

Posted by ira in OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, diet, gym stuff, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

Met a very attractive woman named Beth a couple of months ago who admitted gradually as we talked that she lost 28 pounds in about a year: “From 170 to 142,” she responded matter of factly. There was no excited pride or emotional celebration in describing her achievement. She was completely nonchalant, which surprised me. Acted as if anyone could do it. I think she may be too shy to ever show me a “before” picture, but these days she looks healthy, fit and stands tall.

“How did you do this?” I wondered, “and what motivated you to start?”

Her answers make it all sound so easy…

First her sister-in-law joined a WeightWatchers Program, followed the recommended menu and started losing pounds. That inspired Beth to finally change her own life. She modified her sister-in-law’s plan to suit her own needs and preferences.

Mainly she cut out all junk foods and reduced her portion sizes.

Next she began exercising at least three to four days a week, an hour each time. She limited this effort to running on a treadmill while shadowboxing simultaneously for her upper body. She demonstrated how she throws punches in the air, and I was glad that I was a few feet away.

The frequent exercise apparently reduced her desire for non-essential calories. Now when she goes out with girl friends, she simply avoids the desserts that she used to love and crave and thought she could not possibly do without.

I asked Beth to write about her life-changing accomplishment, but she thought there wasn’t much to say. It was easy, and she looks and feels great. End of story!

But we all know that giving up desserts and other taste treats while somehow making yourself exercise three or four hours a week takes major determination, time and continuous discipline. Beth may be unimpressed with her success, but I am applauding her silently every time I think of her. What is your reaction?

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Obesity Can Be Contagious!

Nov 5

Posted by ira in diet, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

(Edit: When a friend told me today that 75% of the people who were called up in the past for military service were too heavy and out of shape to pass the physical, I thought of some of the reasons obesity is such a problem, according to Shahreen Abedin’s article in Time Magazine, Thursday, Sep. 03, 2009.)

Really, an “obesity bug”? In 2007, Harvard researcher Nicholas Christakis and his colleagues analyzed 32 years’ worth of data from an interconnected social network of 12,000 adults and found that a person’s chances of becoming obese increased 37% if a spouse had become obese, 40% if a sibling had and 57% if a friend had.

Socializing with overweight people can change what we perceive as the norm; it raises our tolerance for obesity both in others and in ourselves. It’s also about letting your hair down. Past research has shown that adults tend to eat more around friends and family than they do with strangers. They shed their inhibitions about how it looks when they go back for thirds or order the alfredo sauce instead of the marinara.

Finally, there’s the idea that we like to hang with people who are like ourselves. Cornell food sociologist Jeffrey Sobal explains that “especially among two overweight people, there’s a sort of permission-giving going on. We’re encouraging each other to eat more.”

Clinical psychologist Sarah-Jeanne Salvy, who is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York at Buffalo, refers to this phenomenon as a sort of feedback effect. Conversely, she suggests, overweight diners are more likely to tone down how much they eat in front of skinny people to avoid the stigma of overeating.

You can read the whole article by clicking on the following link: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1919885,00.html?iid=tsmodule

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Josh Sobel Eats Scorpions, Snakes And Sea Horses While Getting Fitter And Losing 20 Pounds

Sep 21

Posted by ira in OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, basketball, diet, exercise, weight loss/overweight | 1 Comment

To put it simple, I felt like shit when I got up in the morning. My back ached, my legs hurt and my body didn’t feel like it belonged to a 21-year-old. After I reflected the obvious, I concluded that being overweight and out of shape would become a thing of the past! I had never been on a diet, and I knew that it would be hard to change my eating habits, but I was committed to feeling healthier. That’s how it started. After talking with some friends, some of whom were personal trainers, I was told that the most important thing would be transforming from ‘Static Josh’ into ‘Active Josh.’

Static Josh—1/09

Static Josh—1/09

I started simple: I changed my eating habits and started exercising. I became a man of habit. I tried to eat the same meals over and over again, and made it a point to exercise every day. My diet was boring, and I struggled to stick with it, but I started feeling better after Day One. Every morning I started the day with an egg white sandwich, followed by some turkey and salad for lunch, and had fish or chicken for dinner. I would often allow myself to cheat and have something sweet at the end of the night; I don’t think I would have been able to live if I
didn’t.

Active Josh 20 pounds lighter—8/09

Active Josh 20 pounds lighter—8/09

The diet wasn’t that hard to stick to. After I was able to shake my diet-coke habit (aspartame is highly addictive), no one could stop me. I began climbing the stairs of my 17-floor apartment building and playing basketball in the park. I recalled how well I used to play basketball as a kid, but when I tried to play this summer, I realized how out of shape I was. A game to 11 would leave me gasping and limping for water. Fortunately, I had my roommates who would soon double as my personal trainer and nutritionist. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jealousy Of My Diet Discipline Hits Me In The Abs

Aug 17

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, diet, weight loss/overweight | 2 Comments

Oh boy oh boy oh boy. So I am making all this progress towards fitness and better health, and some people around me are really upset and pissed.

The reports are coming in gradually in roundabout ways, but here is the basic story. My ability to be disciplined in avoiding high-cholesterol foods is contrasting with others’ inability to cut back on their own caloric intake. So they are embarrassed and annoyed by my success. They don’t want to hear about it, and I have been asked not to talk about my diet, my web site and its content in their presence.

When my cholesterol numbers were just one digit away from the heart attack zone, and I was scared I could die, I suddenly stopped eating high cholesterol foods. I thought possible instant death was a pretty good motivator. I mean we aren’t talking here about a few extra pounds of cute chubbiness. I was terrified.

No matter. It’s offensive and insensitive at some people’s dinner tables for me to be saying “No” to cheese or creamy soups in their’ presence. It would be better if I just ate what I consider life-threatening foods that are offered. Even in restaurants, I shouldn’t be asking about the ingredients of certain dishes. All this discipline I am displaying is really not nice. It’s even very inconsiderate of those in the room who are not able to avoid foods that are making them weigh more than they would like to weigh.

Talk about social pressure. Read the rest of this entry »

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How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains

Aug 2

Posted by ira in diet, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

Here are various excerpts with some of my own insertions from a New York Times article written by Tara Parker-Pope. While my quest is for a six-pack…

…the result of Dr. David Kessler’s quest is a fascinating new book, “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” (Rodale).

(Kessler was the head of the Food and Drug Administration.) He is perhaps best known for his efforts to investigate and regulate the tobacco industry, and his accusation that cigarette makers intentionally manipulated nicotine content to make their products more addictive.

In “The End of Overeating,” Dr. Kessler finds some similarities in the food industry, which has combined and created foods in a way that taps into our brain circuitry and stimulates our desire for more.

When it comes to stimulating our brains, Dr. Kessler noted, individual ingredients aren’t particularly potent. But by combining fats, sugar and salt in innumerable ways, food makers have essentially tapped into the brain’s reward system, creating a feedback loop that stimulates our desire to eat and leaves us wanting more and more even when we’re full. Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Houldin Tells How He Lost 130 Pounds and Became a Marathon Runner!

Jul 26

Posted by ira in LIFE LESSONS, OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, diet, gym stuff, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

I’LL START WITH A CONCLUSION: DIETS ALONE DO NOT WORK. YOU HAVE TO EAT PROPERLY AND EXERCISE REGULARLY. YOU HAVE TO ADOPT A DIFFERENT LIFESTYE.

HERE’S MY STORY:

Peter Houldin in 2008

Peter Houldin in 2008

Growing up, I always carried a few extra pounds, but never considered myself obese. In high school, I played football, basketball, and golf and was in decent enough shape.

Not until I reached college did the weight start pouring on. In the fall of 1992, I entered my freshman year of college and probably weighed 210 pounds and wore a 38-waist pant. I had a large frame and am six feet tall, so wasn’t overly worried. Certainly didn’t feel fat.

Over the next few years—probably due to too little exercise and too much cafeteria food, pizza, and cheap beer—the weight slowly–ok quickly–started to pile on. By junior year, I weighed 284 pounds and was squeezing into a 44 pant. I had gained 74 pounds in 2½ years!

Peter Houldin in 1994 at 284 pounds

Peter Houldin in 1994 at 284 pounds


Peter Houldin in 1990's before weight loss

Peter Houldin in 1990's before weight loss

While I was having a great time putting on the weight and playing collegiate golf, my studies took a back seat. Over the holiday break of my junior term, I received a letter from the academic dean suggesting I stay home for a semester and prove that I wanted to be in his school.

As it turns out, that was one of the better letters I ever received. I took it as a challenge. I enrolled in a local state college and spent the spring semester working hard at both school and on my weight. Not only did I excel in school, but by the summer, I had dropped a ton of weight.

To be honest, the first pounds were the easiest ones to lose. Given I had put the weight on so quickly, fortunately, it came off equally as quick. That’s not to say I wasn’t diligent about it. I took stock of the habits that caused the weight gain, namely, fast food, pizza, beer, and zero exercises. I decided to do just the opposite. I began a cardio regimen and went back to the basics with regards to food. I ate very boring and plain foods – turkey, mustard, and whole wheat sandwiches. Chicken and veggies for dinner, and eliminated alcohol and snacks.

When I returned to my original school the following fall, I had taken off 60 pounds. Read the rest of this entry »

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David Is To Be Returned To Italy

Jul 20

Posted by ira in diet, humorous stories, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

A bit of cultural news for a welcome change:

Michelangelo's David

Michelangelo's David

After a two-year loan to the United States,
Michelangelo’s David is being returned to Italy . . .

Ooops, look what happened in just two years

Ooops, look what happened in just two years

His Proud Sponsors were:

American Adults Getting Fatter

Jul 19

Posted by ira in diet, weight loss/overweight | No Comments

TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICAN ADULTS ARE EITHER OBESE OR OVERWEIGHT, AS DEFINED BY THEIR BODY MASS INDEX OR BMI.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Obesity rates continued to climb in the past year with 23 U.S. states reporting adults in their states are fatter now than they were a year ago, two advocacy groups said on Wednesday.

Obesity rates did not decrease in a single state last year, and the groups warned that the U.S. obesity epidemic must be addressed as lawmakers reform the nation’s health system…

Being overweight or obese raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, arthritis and other conditions… Read the rest of this entry »