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Scared Str8
September 25, 2006 by Renee @ 10:35 AMMy weekend was pretty okay. I went to the movies Saturday, just to get out for a bit, I was feeling overwhelmed w/all the unpacking I still needed to do. By Sunday, I was up for the challenge of getting all my clothes crammed into the closet. Staying in all weekend, I vegged out on TeeVee, which I hadn't been watching much of, but since I plopped the tube in front the bed, and the computer was way across the room in Bug-stackistan, I figured I was better off staying in bed w/the remote in one hand and my trusty can o' Raid Country Fresh Scent in the other.
Sat night, I caught a program on TLC called The Shrinking Woman, she weighed 600lbs, had bariatric surgery and was now left w/a body that was pretty much a mess. Before I get into how that show scared me str8, a quick aside.
I also watched, for the first time in my entire life, The Simple Life. Why? Nothing else was on, and the teaser did it's job, it sucked me in. I'll never watch that show again, 2 episodes was more than enough thankyouverymuch, but I must admit, the scene, where Paris encountered what she called a cockroach, but looked like a huge beetle, and she simultaneously tried to squish it, while running away screaming, had my rolling in the bed laughing (note, I did not say floor). Then when she took the leaf blower and blew that sucker out the door, I had to give it up to her for creativity and started googling my own mini leaf blower.
Okay, back to the real topic, life post surgery.
Now, I don't make judgments on people who opt to do surgery, to each her own, but I know that's not an option for me. No matter how frustrating losing weight is. When I was signing up for L.A. Fitness, and the sales guy tried to convince me of paying the initiation fee, he made some comment like, If you can go to the store and spend that $100 on a drink that'll shed all your weight now, you'd to it won't you. And I said no. And he was like, yeah right, come on. And I was like, I'm not losing weight so much to lose weight as I am to be healthy and physically fit. He still gave me a skeptical look, but we all know how that story ends don't we? 
But this woman, who'd been abused as a kid and food was used as a sign of love by her mom, was always overweight, in her 20's she hit 300lbs and when her dad died, she blew up to 600. She needed to get surgery to remove the lining in her uterine, she was hemorrhaging, and while no other doctor would perform gastric bypass, too risky @ her size, one doctor would, so she did the duodenal switch.
Over the course of 3 years, she got down to about 225, but when she took off her clothes, good lord the loose skin. She was surrounded in it and opted to get plastic surgery to repair it.
The entire hour was about her experience, the ups and downs, and while the end result was she managed to shed about 20-40lbs in excess skin, I believe she got down to 180-something, after seeing what I saw, I knew I couldn't do it. Talk about pain.
Continue reading Scared Str8Companies Offer Workers Deals to Get Fit
September 29, 2005 by Renee @ 11:10 AMJim Brown started doing aerobics, running and lifting weights two years ago to slim down. Now his employer is giving him another reason to stay in shape and eat right: Money.
Cha-ching...sign me up!
Continue reading Companies Offer Workers Deals to Get FitHere it comes
September 19, 2005 by Renee @ 11:15 AMUnleash the grains...
Kraft Introduces 2 Somewhat Healthier Cookies Made of Whole Grains
heh...I love the phrase "Somewhat Healther"...translation...NOT HEALTHY AT ALL SUCKAS!
In the efforts of food companies to appease nutrition advocates and serve an increasing number of health-conscious consumers, Kraft Foods has crossed an improbable threshold - a healthier cookie.
Something tells me this is going to go the way of McDonalds Go Active Meal. Never heard of it? Exactly my point.
Continue reading Here it comesObese Australians to get cash to slim
September 13, 2005 by Renee @ 08:31 AMSo. Jealous.
THE Australian government is considering subsidising weight-loss programmes to help tackle the country's growing obesity problem.Continue reading Obese Australians to get cash to slimDespite its image abroad as the home of a fit and healthy population which enjoys an outdoor lifestyle, participates in extreme sports and lives off a diet of barbecued seafood, Australia in fact has the second-highest obesity rates in the world. The problem costs the government about A$1.5 billion a year (£940 million) to treat the diseases it causes, such as diabetes, strokes, heart disease and some cancers, and the country's health-care and hospital system is collapsing under the weight of it all.
In her image
August 05, 2005 by Renee @ 10:40 AMI believe the messages we get about our body, which translates into how we approach & feel about weight loss, are multi pronged. On top of our own personality and lifestyle, there are many factors, people and situations playing a role.
Ultimately it is the individuals responsibility to make their own choice, but I don't rule out the pervasive message the media both blatantly and covertly hits us over the head with.
Let me be clear, I am not saying it's solely the media's fault.
However, since the media is showing no sign of changing it's message or going away, I've made my own choice of limiting what I watch, read & listen to.
So it's when I run across the following story, I just...oh I dunno...blow my top?
At some point over the last few months, it began to feel like an assembly line: Jessica Simpson, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan ....All of a sudden, you couldn't tell them apart: the drapey gowns clinging to skinny hips, the long blond tendrils falling over matchstick-thin arms, the smoky eyes accenting bottle-bronzed faces.
[snip]
...there's actually a mastermind behind this look-of-the-moment: celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe.
[snip]
She dresses some of the world's most visible teen idols for film junkets, premieres and magazine shoots.
[snip]
...her power as an image maker cannot be underestimated. A recent entry on a Lohan fan site read: "I would do anything to look like her!"
[snip]
Thinness is essential...(Fashion insiders have whispered privately that she is single-handedly bringing anorexia back.)
She's begun preaching the virtues of tan and slinky to the rest of America, as a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan magazine and a guest on "Oprah," and she was recently hired as a spokeswoman for GapBody, where her duties include "Bra Bar" fit clinics for customers, despite the fact that most days she doesn't even wear a bra.
I'm going to dissect this badboy one segment @ a time.
Daisy Dukes booty workouts coming soon
August 03, 2005 by Renee @ 11:48 AMvia dietblog
"Jessica wanted more of a bump for her rear end instead of a flat butt," [I don't got that prob Jessie poo[snip]
...Alexander, who encouraged Simpson to eat grilled chicken, seared fish, broccoli and asparagus. She avoided bread baskets brought to the table and declined extra sugar for her iced tea. Free desserts brought to the table were refused. [source]
In preparing for the role (and to be able to fit in those short shorts), Jessica first had to give up her No. 1 vice -- dessert! "She's a big sweet tooth person," reports Mike. "She likes to cook desserts -- brownies and cookies and banana pudding and stuff like that -- so she wasn't allowed to do that. And being from the South, she loves chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes and chips and hot sauce and Mexican food -- fried and carbs, basically -- so she had to give that all up."
So you know what's next right?
Simpson Launches Treadmill LineThe singer spent six days a week getting her body into the perfect shape for her role as sexy Daisy Duke in new movie The Dukes Of Hazzard and she's so impressed with the results she wants to give fans the chance to get into Duke shape.
[snip]
She says, "I have a workout video coming out and now everybody can do the Daisy Duke workout and I have a treadmill line that I'll be selling.
[snip]
"...I was in the gym six days a week, two-and-a-half-hours a day with a trainer."
Snark aside, there is no secret.
It's a given she may have access to some super secret celeb goodies the rest of us don't. Still, I commend her for keeping it real and not pretending she just looks like that. Hell she is childless and 25 and STILL had to workout @ least an hour a day to get that bod.
All good things come to an end
August 01, 2005 by Renee @ 08:11 AMAtkins Nutritionals files for bankruptcyAtkins has been hurt by waning popularity of its namesake diet, which focuses on eliminating carbohydrates such as bread and pasta to shed weight. The diet became one of the most popular in U.S. history, spawning a virtual cottage industry of low-carb regimens — but also drew criticism from experts for its focus on fatty foods and low fruit and vegetable consumption. [source]
Ironically in the last week I've been reading a lot about the wonders of protein 
My prediction? Get ready for the High Protein diet craze, coming soon to a supermarket near you. *snort*
Government Approved
January 12, 2005 by Renee @ 02:05 PMThe government on Wednesday told Americans to slash their calorie intake and exercise 30 to 90 minutes a day, updating guidelines that advised people to lose weight but gave few specifics on how to do it.
I think for this to be really effective, they should target it at children so they grow up used to the idea of exercising 30-90 minutes. Sadly I think those of us over 18 are so used to hearing 30 minutes 3 times a week that 90 minutes is a helluva horse pill to swallow.
Kudos to Kraft
by Renee @ 09:21 AMKraft to cut junk food ads to kids Company says it will increase ads promoting healthier snacks and phase out all junk food ads by '06...it would cut back on the advertising of snack products to children younger than 12 as part of plans to increase the visibility of its more nutritious products.
This is way cool.
Exertainment
January 11, 2005 by Renee @ 11:34 AMCompany executives insist that "exergaming" or "exertainment" -- the marriage of physical exercise and video gaming -- is becoming a hot new niche, and the most bullish aficionados say it might even help reduce the nation's obesity epidemic.
Last month I kept hearing radio ads for a product that lets you simulate playing outdoor games with your family in your living room via television. Given the fact that DDR gained publicity when users like Tanya went from 220lbs to 140lbs, it makes sense this years biggest exercise trend may be home games that require you to be active.
Anyone doing this for a workout? Would you give up your Treadmill/Elliptical routine for this?
