healthnut

Thanks for the comments. Glad to be a part of your inspiration. No matter how much you want to lose, you’ve got the inspiration and perspiration to fulfill your dreams. In life, the possibilities are endless. Always look beyond the horizon.

I will talk more about my diet after the holidays, but it looks like a good healthy diet and exercise are the key ingredients to achieving this healthy look. My blood pressure now hovers around 105 / 71, and my thighs measure 21″ each.

Up until 8 years ago, I was on the “junk food diet” (aka. “Britney Spear’s diet) but without the caffeine, drugs, and booz. No one could stop or change me at that time. I did not listen. Just up until two years ago, I had “luv handles” and a “pot belly”.

But last year, my body started to change, and I managed to loose the “luv handles” that had accumulated from all the years of eating processed foods. By the looks of this recent photo, I’ve managed to keep the “luv handles” at bay, in addition to shrinking my tummy this year. Here is the result.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Here’s one weight loss drug to avoid. It called rimonabant (Acomplia) and leads to depression, anxiety, and possible suicide.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/Depression/story?id=3872658&page=1

Some people choose plastic surgery to improve their “looks” after a major weight loss. But be careful of this famous smooth talking Discovery Channel’s doctor. He was featured on Oprah and is under investigation for possible malpractice.

http://www.oprah.com/health/beauty/slide/slide_beauty_fake_01.jhtml

http://www.oprah.com/health/beauty/slide/slide_beauty_fake_08.jhtml

For those consuming organics, you may be interested in Barron’s food article, which came out this weekend.

http://online.barrons.com/article_print/SB119465909085388805.html

“Many consumers think organic food has been tested for pesticides. But organic certifiers spend most of their time shuffling papers and auditing the files of farmers for records indicating that forbidden chemicals weren’t used. Inspectors are typically free-lancers who receive a couple of hundred bucks for visiting a farm. ”

“Mischa Popoff of British Columbia, Canada, was one of those inspectors. He visited hundreds of farms on behalf of organic certifiers and believes most of the farmers were credibly organic. But Popoff was frustrated when he’d see farms whose “organic” fields were as green and pest free as their conventional fields. One farmer’s garage hid gallons of the herbicide Roundup. When Popoff made a fuss about these suspicious findings, he says he was blacklisted by some certification outfits. ”

“Conscientious farmers go to a lot of trouble to be organic, so they worry about competing with cheaters who just want the price premiums that an organic label can command. Popoff argues that routine pesticide tests could catch cheaters, the way that drug tests snare doped athletes. But in the 1990s when the organic industry was helping to draft the federal law on organic labeling, the industry considered and rejected a requirement that organic food be residue-tested.”

“Organic is an alternative method of agriculture,” says Joe Smillie, who founded the San Diego-based organic certifier QAI. “It isn’t a food-safety claim and it is not a free-from-pesticides claim.”

“Large-scale operations like Aurora have been the subject of complaints by organic-watchdog groups such as the Cornucopia Institute and the Organic Consumers Association. In August the USDA obtained a consent agreement from Aurora in which the dairy promised to increase dramatically the pastureland available to its cows (without admitting to any violations of organic food laws). “

“… Aurora Organic Dairy, which was started with seed money from the Harvard University endowment. As the private-label supplier to the likes of Wal-Mart and Safeway, Aurora’s 2007 revenues could surpass $100 million.”

“BUT THE GROUP NEVERTHELESS DRAWS the criticism of organic farmers, because it hasn’t barred growers like Chiquita Brands from using pesticides. Nor does the Alliance guarantee a floor price for commodities — which Fair Trade groups say can allow companies like Procter & Gamble or Kraft to get an ethical-coffee certification on the cheap. The Alliance is also dependent, to some extent, on donations from the companies it certifies: the Alliance’s 2005 tax return (the most recent available) showed its biggest contributors were affiliates of companies such as Kraft, H.J. Heinz and Canadian forest-products producer Domtar.”

“Rainforest Alliance sustainability director Wille says that banana growers need fungicides to produce in commercial quantity, though his group requires companies like Chiquita to use pesticides safely.”