Posing Routine: Not the typical!

Every Diet Review!

I just found this awesome website, called Every Diet

I found it through Diet-Blog ..

Wow. A place where every diet has been reviewed and commented on. Very Very cool.
Definitely worth bookmarking!

Different pace of things …

I’ve been busy at work …

This is my baby, Crispin. This picture was actually in a local newspaper advertising the Boston Terrier Meetup Group here in Toronto.

 

 

RIP Jagger

 

Today at 3pm we will be saying goodbye to Jagger.
He has necrotizing encephalitis which will only get worse with time.

My little Jaggerbot, i  love you forever.
You will be going to a place with unlimited cheese and treats. And tons of kisses and snuggles.
I will see you soon.

 

Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you feel the same
If I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on
cause I know I dont belong here in heaven…

Would you hold my hand
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand
If I saw you in heaven?
Ill find my way through night and day
cause I know I just cant stay here in heaven…

Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees
Time can break your heart, have you begging please…begging please

Beyond the door theres peace Im sure
And I know therell be no more tears in heaven…

Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you feel the same
If I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on
cause I know I dont belong here in heaven…

PumpPod: iPod Video Workouts

Most hi-tech gadgets seem like nothing more than a bunch of expensive toys. Every now and then someone will think of a very cool idea. PumpPod is just that, and is a lot cheaper than a personal trainer. You can download different video-based workouts to your portable device – such as one of the newer iPods.PumpPod currently have about 10 different workouts covering Strength, Endurance, Weight Loss, Flexibility, and Heart Health.

Each workout contains pictures and guides for each exercise. This means you could be listening to music at the same time as viewing your exercise instructions. Very cool indeed.

The downloadables are about $19 in price and can be found at PumpPod.

Death By Obesity: ???

Over the last 40 years the number of individuals classified as obese has continued to rise unabated. Strangely enough, life expectancy at birth has not fallen, but has actually increased.

The “obesity epidemic” scaremongering of the last few years seems somewhat hollow. New research published in the American Journal of Public Health reveals even more startling facts.

Data from more than 33,000 American adults show that male life expectancy is greatest for BMIs of about 26 – overweight under the old rule, and equivalent to 24lb extra for the typical man. For women, the new research found an optimum BMI of about 23.5, about half a stone heavier than the standard.

The researcher Dr Jerome Gronniger concludes

“I found that the current definitions of obesity and overweight are imprecise predictors of mortality risk.”

Our infamous and well-publicized obesity statistics are based on BMI, and the UK Telegraph reports:

It’s now widely accepted that the BMI is useless for assessing the healthy weight of individuals” said Dr David Haslam, the clinical director of Britain’s National Obesity Forum.

Not faulty, not inferior… but useless. It’s no wonder the CDC had egg on its face after faulty pronouncements of deaths from obesity. In fact, Dr Gronniger believes that only those with a BMI of over 35 face a markedly reduced life expectancy.So what is going on?

• Poor fitness and health are no fun – and both of these situations are often found in those with lots of body fat. However neither BMI nor the scales are a reliable indicator of such conditions.
• To infer health risk – it’s better to use a simple measurement of waist circumference (apparently waists greater than 40in for men and 35in for women are a health risk – regardless of height).
• Pursuit of the perfect weight or BMI is a vague goal – the goalposts will always be changing. Aim for goals such as fitness, strength, endurance, good health. These are lofty goals – but be prepared to be at odds with the rest of our image-obsessed world.

Vanity Sizing

Smaller clothes sizes are becoming an obsession.”Size zero is the new size 6. “
“40s are the new 30s.”

At least, that’s what popular media seems to be saying. It’s the quest for eternal youth – and also an irrational addiction to being tiny – or at least appearing to.

According to the Seattle times, fashion label Banana Republic now has a size “00″. Another designer has a size “subzero” – apparently for “women with 23 ½-inch waists.”

Are women shrinking – or is there a fixation on clothes size?

“When a woman is 50, and she’s spending $5,000 on a dress, she doesn’t want to know that she is a size 18,” says Galindo [designer]. “She wants her designer to make her an 8.” [...]“A woman will buy a dress that doesn’t fit her,” he says. “A woman will buy it because she is going to get into it one way or another. I know customers that will come in and if it’s a size they don’t think they are they won’t even take it off the rack.”

Designers are pandering to perceived insecurity. Perhaps it creates more sales. Unfortunately – like so many other size-obsession issues – it may have a negative influence on the impressionable people among us.Is your self-esteem wrapped up in your clothes size?

LA Weight Loss: Caught Again

One of the most heavily debated weight loss ’services’ is LA Weight loss, and their underhanded sales tactics. Comments are always overwhelmingly critical of this weight loss clinic (however there were some occasional positive testimonials).LA Weight Loss has been caught out again – and must pay out $100,000 in refunds to misled customers.

The Attorney General’s office used “under-cover” shoppers to investigate LA Weight Loss and found a:

“classic bait-and-switch routine in which employees pushed the sale of protein bars and nutritional supplements after consumers had enrolled in the program,” (source)

LA Weight Loss also claimed that their protein bars would “prevent you from getting saggy, baggy skin when you lose weight,” – a complete load of nonsense.Consumers who believe they were misled when they enrolled in the LA Weight Loss program between Dec. 23, 2005, and Aug. 31 2006 may request a refund within 30 days. Get the full details here (in sidebar).

Enviga = Weight Loss?

Enviga (“the calorie burner”) will be on shelves all over the US by January. Backed by the marketing muscle of Coca-cola and Nestle – expect this drink to be heavily advertised.Enviga is being touted as a “negative calorie” drink – it contains no calories and yet claims to burn calories.

Is there any evidence for this?

Coca-cola / Nestle point to a single study of Enviga – undertaken in the University of Lausanne. The full study has still not been published anywhere – yet there is now an abstract up on the enviga site (PDF).

The study tested 31 people aged between 18 and 35. All of the test subjects were in the normal weight range – which seems peculiar when marketing a drink that “burns calories”.

The results were:

…3 servings/day of the test beverage significantly increased in 24-h EE [Energy Expenditure], without any adverse effects on heart rate or blood pressure.

To be precise an increased burn of 106 kilocalories (+/- 31) was experienced.There are a number of studies around (here and here) that point to increased energy expenditure resulting from green tea catechins (EGCG in particular) and caffeine. However - one cannot be assured of the quality of extract in a supplement or drink.

How Much Enviga Would You Have to Drink?

Let’s just say the Enviga is true to it’s word and the increased energy expenditure actually leads to fat burning. According to Nestle you need to drink 3 cans per day. So, to burn 1 pound of fat (3,500 Calories) you would need to drink 105 bottles of Enviga over 35 days. That amounts to $147 (average $1.40 per can).

Enviga is sweetened with aspartame and ace-k. At 3 cans a day – that’s a lot of aspartame going down the hatch.

This isn’t a weight loss wonder – but simply a stepping stone in a market where carbonated drink sales have been falling.

And on a personal note …

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. -Roger Caras