Easy Way To Lose Weight

It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to voice political views on this blog. So I won’t.

But even though I rarely watch TV these days, I felt compelled last night to watch the ABC special, “To Iraq And Back: Bob Woodruff Reports.”

Bob Woodruff was an ABC News anchor reporting from Iraq in January 2006 when his tank was hit by a roadside bomb.

He suffered a traumatic brain injury from which he has made a miraculous recovery. He was quick to point out that his recovery isn’t complete.

It’s easy to look at Bob, still so handsome and intelligent after such a devastating injury, and think that all of our surviving soldiers get a reasonable second chance.

Of course, that isn’t true.

His report showed one young soldier trapped in an unresponsive body, seemingly aware of his surroundings as he lay bedridden, unable to speak, his arms bent and fingers curled in unnatural positions. Still alive, but no longer living.

There are many more like him.

I always watched the Nightline specials where Ted Koppel showed silent pictures of our fallen servicemen and women. I felt I owed them that.

They looked like such vibrant young people, most barely out of high school. The loss of life and what might have been, the unfairness of such tragedy, is haunting at times.

But then we get on with our reasonably comfortable lives and our mostly petty problems and our soldiers are forgotten.

So today at least, this blog will not be about weight loss.

It will be about our soldiers. My insignificant and utterly inadequate way of saying, “Thank you.”

I owe them that.

I owe them much more. We all do.

They shouldn’t be forgotten.

Technorati Tags: iraq war, afghanistan, soldier, soldiers, troops, thank you

In Wallsend, 300 miles north of London, health officials are threatening to take a 198-pound, 8-year-old boy into protective custody unless his mother improves his diet.

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Yes, in an alternate universe, I’ve been known to utter phrases like, “Fascinating,” and “He’s dead, Jim.”

But this can’t be a post about Star Trek. That would be illogical on a weight loss blog.

No, this is a post about…

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A few new diet products have been announced recently.

Diet Coke Plus will hit the market later this year. It’s a zero-calorie drink containing niacin, Vitamins B6 and B12, magnesium, and zinc.

Diet Pepsi MAX is another zero-calorie drink set for a June launch. It contains ginseng and extra caffeine to energize you.

Sugarest is a diet gum tablet that dissolves slowly in your mouth to temporarily block and neutralize your taste buds that detect sweet. Supposedly, sweets lose their taste and you lose your desire to eat them. I believe the effect only lasts a short time, probably no longer than 30 minutes.

Kellogg’s Special K2O Protein Water Lemon Twist contains 5 grams of protein in a 16-ounce bottle. It’s also positioned as a weight loss product. You can read more on the diet-blog.com post, “Special K Protein Water.”

Am I the only one who thinks this kind of stuff is stupid?

Technorati Tags: diet food, diet, weight loss, nutrition, diet products, energy drinks

While reading other weight loss blogs, I’ve noticed a lot of people hitting plateaus or just plain getting stuck.

Comment after comment describes frustration and sometimes outright desperation. Many of you aren’t sure what to do.

Obviously, every diet plan is different. But the basic principles for overcoming a weight loss problem are almost always the same, no matter what diet you’re on.

So here are my 3 weight loss tips to get you back on track with your diet plan:

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Yeah, I know it’s Thursday. But I weighed in on Wednesday. I just forgot to post it.

I’ll make this quick because I put up a long post yesterday.

This week, I lost another pound. Six to go.

I’m getting close to my target weight again. I hope the weight continues to come off steadily. But from here, there may be weeks where I don’t show a weight loss. We’ll have to see.

Later today, I plan to make another post with tips to get back on track if your weight loss has stalled. Too many people are working too hard.

If you’re interested, check back.

Years ago, I went to a hospital for a CAT scan.

In a cramped waiting room, I was sitting next to a lady who was decades older than I was. She seemed so serene as she told me of her husband’s brave battle with cancer.

At that very moment, he was having a CAT scan to check if his treatments were working. His wife was expecting good news.

Just then, a nurse brought me an oral contrast to drink before my CAT scan. I took one sip of the chalky liquid, became dizzy, and literally fell out of my chair.

The serene lady screamed.

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After reading about this in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette yesterday, I thought it might be worth passing along to you.

Hewlett-Packard has developed the HP Photosmart series of digital cameras that helps you to lose 10 pounds — instantly — with its Slimming effect.

It compresses the digital image to give you a thinner appearance in your pictures.

The camera models with this feature are HP Photosmart M527, M627, R725, R727, R827, R927, and R967. Currently, the prices before rebates, taxes, and shipping range from $149.99 to $349.99.

To see an example of how the Slimming feature works, go to:

http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/digital_photography/tours/slimming/index_f.html

Also, www.hp.com is having a President’s Day sale on some items, including digital cameras. So if you’re interested, it might be worth checking out these cameras today. There may be prices that are even better at other retailers.

This isn’t an endorsement of any of these cameras. I’ve never used one so I can’t give a review. But it sounded like a fun feature, so I thought I’d tell you about it.

It might also give you some motivation to keep dieting. Take a picture, slim it down 10 pounds, put it on the refrigerator. Then you’ll know how good you’ll look if you don’t open that refrigerator door.

Technorati Tags: digital photography, digital-camera, weight loss

There’s an old Italian saying that roughly translates into:

If you want to be betrayed, go to your friends and relatives because they’re the ones who know you and they’re the ones you trust.

It’s a dark, disturbing sentiment. I don’t know where it came from and I no longer remember the exact Italian words.

But my grandmother, who could never hurt anyone, used to tell us this. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of truth to that saying.

In a way, I think it applies to weight loss, too, especially for people who need to lose a lot of weight.

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I’ve been thinking of writing a press release with that title.

After all, the irony of gaining weight right as I start to sell a diet book is just too “delicious” to ignore.

Okay, enough with the puns already.

As those of you who read my post, “Is Blogging Bad For Your Weight,” know, I gained 9 pounds after starting this blog. I think it only took about 2 weeks.

In that post, I explain what I think happened, so I won’t repeat it here. But I also promised I would go on my own diet, I Love to Cheat, to get rid of the extra weight.

I know it’s not a lot of weight. And my latest challenge is nothing to what some of you are facing.

But I think you always need a plan to fall back on… even after you reach your goal. You never know if you’ll start to regain the weight.

I think it’s best to lose it while it’s still manageable. In fact, I should’ve never let it get to 9 pounds. I should’ve stopped it at 2 or 3.

Yesterday marked the end of the first week of my diet. Here are the results so far:

I’ve lost 2 pounds this week. 7 to go.

So far, so good.

But the first week is always the easiest, isn’t it? I’ll keep you posted.

Technorati Tags: diet, dieting, diet book, weight loss