I read this article on Salon today called My big fat obnoxious former self, an article by a woman who used to weight 571 pounds and had gastric bypass surgery. At this point, seven months after the surgery, she has lost 180 pounds, which means she’s down to 391. Which is fine.

What gets me is this paragraph, where she talks about what she did to prepare for the surgery.

“I stopped eating fast food and drinking soda pop and made an appointment with a surgeon. I joined the Y and stuffed myself into the world’s ugliest bathing suit — a backless, braless “swim dress” with matching underpants — so I could do water aerobics and swim laps. My Russian surgeon required me to keep a journal of everything I ate, to eat six times a day and to take vitamins. I learned that after surgery I would need to do these things for the rest of my life. I developed a taste for protein bars and grilled chicken.”

Now, if she had just kept doing that, and avoided surgery, she could have lost weight. That is everything you need to do!! Exercise, even a little. Don’t eat junk food, fast food and sugary soda. Eat healthy lean protein like grilled chicken breast. Eat frequent small meals to keep your metabolism working.

If she had just kept doing all that, every day, she would be losing weight. I admit, it wouldn’t be that fast. But at least it would be a healthy way to do it, no dangerous surgery. But it would take longer. And God forbid, we here in America have no patience, we want a cure RIGHT NOW! Much like small children, we want all the bad things in our lives to go away, without us having to work at it.

I personally know four people who have had this surgery. One is doing fine. Two others have constant problems with what they can eat, getting nauseated and sick a lot. The fourth, spent weeks in the hospital afterwards due to complications and she is home now, needing a nurse to help her. Gastric bypass is a bad choice. For more eye-opening articles about the dangers of gastric bypass, check out Newstarget.com.

Barbara

I recently downloaded an ebook about diet and exercise. Now if you are one of those people who want to lose weight but don’t actually want to get up off the couch and do something, then leave. Otherwise, stay.

The book is called Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM for short). Now, I’ve been reading diet and nutrition and exercise books for a very long time. This is the first one that made perfect sense.

I have been using the guidelines in the book for two weeks and already I’m impressed. I’ve lost some weight and more importantly, I’ve lost bodyfat. I’m not hungry and I have a strange problem. I actually can’t eat all the food that I should! Now that is a nice problem to have!

Now you’re saying to yourself, sure, but two weeks isn’t much time. What about long term results? Go to the author’s site, burnthefat.com, and read the testimonials. I spent about 20 minutes reading them and still hadn’t reached the end. Those alone should convince you to buy the book.

You get a lot of value. There are 341 pages, a lot of reading. And you will probably have to re-read it a couple of times as your weight loss continues.

The author, Tom Venuto, is a bodybuilder. Don’t let that turn you off. He knows his stuff, and he’s done it. He explains in layman’s terms about calories, carbohydrates, proteins and the best way to eat. He lays out how to figure out how many calories you use up on a daily basis, and how many you need to eat to burn fat. He rightly points out that weight loss is not as important as fat loss.

Most diets reduce your calories to starvation level. Your body responds by slowing your metabolism and taking protein from your muscles. Muscles burn a lot of calories, so the combination of slowed metabolism and less muscle mass, leads to even more trouble losing the fat. This way of eating increases your metabolism and lets you keep the muscles you have.

This book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, really does work. You owe it to yourself to go take a look. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed.

Barbara

I found a long, well-written article about soda pop, diabetes and the pandemic of obesity in this country. It is long, but well written. It’s scary even.

There are two types of diabetes, they are technically called Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 is genetic, the pancreas doesn’t work right and doesn’t produce enough (or any) insulin. This type of diabetic usually must use insulin their whole life to make up for what their body does not produce. This is also called juvenile diabetes, since of course it was something diagnosed in young people.

Type 2 has also been called adult-onset diabetes. It usually showed up in your 50s-60s. Whether for natural reasons or due to diets high in sugar and other useless carbs, a person’s pancreas would produce less and less insulin naturally. This (usually) milder form of diabetes can be treated with insulin and milder cases with other prescription drugs.

This Type 2 diabetes will need to have the name changed, because more and more children are getting it. How horrific is this?

Children are getting fed by their parents so badly that not only are they overweight and obese, but they abuse their pancreas so much that it has reached a level of damage as badly damaged by their teens as the level it took some adults 50-60 years to reach.

Do we really need any more evidence that we need to change our diet drastically if we want a healthy future? More to come.

Barbara

I’ve come across a free ebook that you must get and read. It’s available at jonbarron.org, in pdf format. It is called Lessons from the Miracle Doctors. Not the best name, but the best book I’ve read on health and nutrition in a long while.

It covers how to get healthy, in detail. It covers many subjects from colon health to avoiding cancer to what supplements you need to take daily and even at every meal. He writes very well, clear and understandable avoiding technical and medical terms.

For example, I’ve read in several places that drinking colas leeches calcium from your bones, causing brittle bones. Jon explains exactly how that works, but in an easily understandable fashion.

I’ve changed my schedule, diet and supplementation since I read this book and I’m already seeing results. I’ve actually written up a schedule using Jon’s ideas and combining it with information from Dr Elson Haas’ book, A Cookbook for All Seasons: A Healthy Eating Plan for Life. I’ll be posting about that book soon.

So, what are you waiting for? If you want to find out how to improve your health, go download this book!

Barbara

The BBC has an interesting article about drug firms. They keep trying to find new diseases so that they can sell more drugs.

High cholesterol is a risk factor, not a disease and neither is menopause. The important thing to know is that you need to live healthy, and not let the conventional medical establishment tell you that you are sick.

Barbara

People are starting to realize that it is not smart to drug yourself with the toxic prescriptions of conventional medicine. This article at Newstarget talks about how more people are turning to forms of alternative medicine, where they actually get results and get healthier, not sicker.

You only get real health by taking charge of your own life and health. Get rid of those toxic, cancer-influencing chemicals in your food, your personal care items and your life. You’ll feel better, lighter, and sleep easy knowing you aren’t poisoning your family and yourself.

Barbara