Category — Uncategorized

The web is littered with countless inactive or dead blogs, blogs that started with much energy and hope.  The dream of writing a daily blog that would not only inform and entertain other readers of your thoughts and ideas, but also help maintain structure in your own life.  Many of these sites, after a few articles, quickly die and become internet tomb stones to eventually fade off when the domain expires or the an ISP bill goes unpaid.

In the case of a diet blog, I think it goes a little farther in that when a person is no longer on a diet, either due to success or due to falling off the saddle, the blog also suffers.  In my case, now that I am back on the saddle and have lost some weight again due to my Calorie Nazi diet, I hope to parallel that experience by maintaining this blog again. I have posts on this site that claim to want to maintain the blog again, but to my two or three audience members our there, I do intend to try.

• Plants too try to defend themselves from harm. What will vegans eat now? http://bit.ly/4YIw0A #vegetarian #newyorktimes #

I must say, it’s been almost two months since I fell off the wagon of my regular routine diet-wise and contributing to this blog. Not that I necessarily had more weight to lose, although a few more pounds would have been nice. But for the most part I was in maintenance mode since reaching the magic number of 50 pounds lost at the beginning of last summer. After a few weeks in Germany and Austria last July, which is one way of saying that I imbibed slightly higher amounts of meat and beer than normal, I managed to gain only a few pounds. However in the last three months, I managed to fall off the wagon and not visit the gym very often and allowed myself somewhat higher amounts of caloric intake that I normally allowed.

But NO MORE! Now that the holiday is close to passing, I plan on repeating my successful new year’s resolution from last year of shaving off some body fat. Last year I succeeded in losing 50 pounds, and I think it’s fair to say that losing 10 pounds should be a somewhat easier task than what I managed last year. Going to the gym today and working up a good sweat and 15 laps at the pool was a good feeling. Now that the Christmas meals are past, for the most part, it’s time to return to my 1,200 calories per day until I reach my 10 goal. Last year during my diet, I managed to lose about 9 pounds a month maintaining the 1,200 daily calorie limit. I know how it feels to lose the weight and need to force myself to get back on track as I was before, but after a hiatus of a few months, starting up a diet is like revving up the starter engine of an old 1920’s biplane that hasn’t flown in a long while. Just need to spin that propeller a few times!

this should be a surprise:

Childhood obesity experts say more American youths are becoming obese because so many are addicted to television, video games, testing and fast food.

Our study suggests that more of these young adults will have heart disease when they are 35-50 years old, resulting in more hospitalizations, medical procedures, need for chronic medications, missed work days and shortened life expectancy.

Via CNN.com

Ezra Klein wrote in today’s Post about how fast food chains may soon come out with ad campaigns boasting about people being able to buy more calories for less money. This seems like another twist in the ’super size me’ generation, with a well intentioned law losing it’s punch thanks to the ingenuity of mega food corporations. One example sited is Subways current ad campaign on the foot-long sandwiches and their popularity despite the high calorie amount listed in the menu.

It’s not hard to imagine Hardee’s — home of the Monster Thickburger — kicking off a campaign promising 2,000 calories for under five bucks. And if that campaign works, other fast food outlets could move in a similar direction, putting at least one or two mega-calorie options on their value menu. Fast food outlets have long asserted that they were giving you a lot of food for your money. Now they’ll be able to make that argument with numbers. Indeed, you might end up with some outlets advertising how many calories you get for your money, while others tout the lightness of their meals.

I find this rather discouraging to say the least.

Via the Washington Post.

• First results of New York City calorie law are in. http://tinyurl.com/yfvo28j #caloriecount #diet #

• Calorie intake comparison between 1977 and 1994. I wonder when today's stats will be available. http://tinyurl.com/yhnsn8k #calories #

First Lady Michelle Obama yesterday gave out a few healthy food tips while speaking at the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Switching from soda to water,’’ said the first lady, who also suggested more exercise and walking instead of driving, whenever possible. “Adding a vegetable or fruit to a dinner plate.”

Via the New York Times

• Interesting food chart from 70 years ago on food and calories: http://tinyurl.com/lydg2a #calories #food #fat #

The New York Times reports today that Mayor Michael Bloomberg, while instituting strict regulations on New York City for the use of trans fats, salt, restaurant displays of calorie amounts and more, isn’t always one to practice what he preaches.

“Friends of the mayor said that, like most New Yorkers overwhelmed with food choices, he swings between two dietary poles: indulgence and abstemiousness. After a dinner loaded with fat and salt, they said, he will consume a grapefruit for breakfast, then a bowl of soup for lunch. He keeps a running calorie count in his head, and rarely exceeds 2,000 a day, they said.”

Too many people after getting married or reaching beyond the age of 40 feel that there is no need to lose weight or maintain a smaller waistline. It’s quite refreshing to see someone as rich and powerful as Michael Bloomberg following some sort of regimen in losing weight, even if he too often splurges. But as I have described myself doing in previous posts, heavy duty meals are followed by lean and overly healthy meals the following day. As long as one falls under the weekly estimate of a 2,000 calorie per day meal, or in my case, 1,200 calories when aiming to lose more weight.

Unlike Mayor Bloomberg, I tend not to trust my head in tabulating calorie numbers for a day, because it’s all too easy to forget the small little nibbles that come up throughout the day. This adds up and might lead one to a false comfort in thinking that they ate under the calorie limit for the day. Software tends to be more efficient than my memory in this department when recording one’s daily intake.

Read the New York Times report.