Old Gimmicks Never Die…
I was idly surfing around the web today, and came across a pic of an old, 1920’s ad for a bogus weight loss product: La-Mar’s Reducing Soap. Here’s the spiel:
Archive for January, 2009
Life Really Shouldn’t Imitate Art
I have kids, so naturally, I’ve seen a lot of kids’ movies. These have varied in quality…most have been in the forgettable-to-annoying range, although there were also a few I’ve actually enjoyed (Toy Story and Shrek come to mind, here).
I’d include “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in the latter group: not perfect, but it had its moments of inspired insanity and dark humor. And, of course, it has a cool premise: wouldn’t it be awesome to find a golden ticket in a candy bar, and visit a fantastic place where everything around you was made from chocolate?
The beauty of the chocolate factory in the movie, however, was that it was big, and lots of things were going on…there was more to it than just oohing and aahing over the chocolate. The chocolate was just the backdrop for the action, not the focus of the plot. It would have been a dull flick, otherwise.
Which is why this publicity stunt seems like a perfectly dumb idea…
On Motivation: Part I Of A Series On “Getting Going When You Really Don’t Feel Like It”
Coming from the word “motivate”, meaning, to provide with a MOTIVE.
Strangely, I’ve never looked at this word from that particular perspective before. And that leads me to realize that I’ve never truly understood what motivation really is.
Target Women: Yogurt
Ran across this during my travels across the blogosphere. I have a tough time as it is with gender-specific marketing for ordinary products…so it was amusing to see these particularly lame yogurt ads get skewered by comedian Sarah Haskins.
Actually, I prefer Greek yogurt to all that sweetened Yoplait junk – higher in protein, and sinfully rich-tasting – even the nonfat. Great stuff.
(h/t Shakespeare’s Sister)
NYT: Fitness Isn’t an Overnight Sensation
That’s the title of this New York Times article by Gina Kolata…which is one of the best ones I’ve seen on the subject, lately.
Get A Freakin’ Clue!
It’s a good thing my hair is shaved down to a fraction of an inch, because frankly, if it were not, I’d be mightily tempted to tear it all out. Let me explain…
As you know, part of my duties at UltimateFatBurner.com include moderating visitor feedback comments over at its sister site, Real-Customer-Comments.com.
10 Secrets of the Effortlessly Thin
…is the title of a little slideshow over at MSN.com. It’s actually pretty good, except – of course – for the title. According to the slideshow, those of us who manage to stay thin…
Bench Day – Update II
Ok, I didn’t do such a great job on my weight this week…started out well, but got distracted from mid-week on and didn’t keep tabs on my meals as closely as I should have. So I ended up under 124 lbs. again this morning - grrrrr!
Still, I didn’t do too badly today – this was my first attempt at a 5 x 5 at 130 lbs. My sets were: 5/5, 5/5, 4/5, 4/5, 2/5…I was pretty fried by the last set, and got stuck in the middle of the 3rd rep.
Hopefully, I can improve on this next week.
Counting Calories for Cooked vs. Raw Foods
I get questions on this all the time on the forums I moderate, so I figured this was worth discussing…it seems like a common point of confusion.
Simply put, foods change in volume/weight during cooking. Certain foods, like meat or fish, shrink. Others, like pasta or oatmeal, expand. But what’s important to remember, is that the difference between cooked vs. raw is mainly due to changes in water content. Meat shrinks because moisture is lost. Oatmeal expands because water is absorbed. Water has no calories, so the absolute calories and macronutrient content of the cooked food doesn’t change to a significant extent…just the calories and macronutrients per unit volume.
Taking Pollen with a Grain of Salt
Someone over on the “Bodybuilding Revealed” forum asked me about bee pollen today. This was a blast from the past…bee pollen and royal jelly were popular supps when I was a teenager. But these things never really go away, so I shrugged it off and replied that it was a nutritious, concentrated food, but, personally, I never noticed anything in particular when I tried it many years ago. In other words, it wasn’t something I considered as a “must have” in one’s supp stack.
Evidently, my response was judged insufficiently enthusiastic. The woman who posted the question linked me to this page in reply.
Exercise Machines and Calories
I ran across this article by Julie Deardorff in the Chicago Tribune today, which discusses the accuracy of the calorie counters on cardio machines…the take home is that you may not be burning as many cals as you think you are, depending on the machine you use…
Kevin Trudeau, Makers of Lipodrene in FTC Crosshairs
The FTC’s been busy. For starters, Kevin Trudeau, author of “The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About” recently had his original, $5 million dollar fine for civil contempt upgraded to $37,616,161 – the amount of money consumers paid in response to his infomercials.
Some People Take Themselves Too Seriously…
I have to admit, I got a bit of a chuckle out of a recent article by Debora Yost, entitled “Inaugural Luncheon No Model for Healthy Eating.” Take it away, Deb…
Exercise Gimmicks: Vol. 4: The Wii Fit
Nintendo released the Wii in late 2006. I have two teenagers, and both are gamers, so naturally, they wanted one. We said “ok” – but there was no way to get one in time for Xmas…the consoles were “hot” and were sold out within minutes of delivery at the usual retail outlets. And “mother love” only goes so far: there was no way in Hell I was going to freeze my buns off, standing in line in front of “Best Buy” at 4 a.m., or pay 3x what the damn thing was worth, just to see their not-so-little faces light up on Xmas morning. I checked into a few places, then said “tough luck, kiddies” and that was that.
Bench Day – Update
Still working on the bench…and I was more than a bit concerned this morning, when I stepped on the scale: 123.6 lbs. That’s down, not up…and not a good sign, either. I can’t afford to let my weight slip while trying to increase my bench.
But all’s well that ends well: my new 5 RM is 130 lbs. 
Ten pounds to go…but I really need to watch my diet this week to make sure I stay in the 125 – 126 lbs. range – at a minimum.
Cookie Diet Taste Tests
I’ve been aware of the various “cookie diets” for quite some time, now. I’ve always thought they were kinda goofy (just another take on the “Slim Fast” plan), but I figured it might be cool to review the products for the Functional Food section.
So I headed over to the Dr. Siegel site…which was enough to make me change my mind. The first issue was the price: nearly $60. The second was the number of cookies: 42. That was a week’s supply, and the smallest unit I could buy. I simply can’t eat that many GOOD cookies…let alone potentially not-so-good ones – and the latter would be impossible to flog off on my kids. Finally, no “sampler” packs were available. The cookies come in 5 different flavors, but you can only buy one flavor at a time. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me – so I said “forget it” and moved on.
But the LA Times has kindly done the work for me. And not just for the Dr. Siegel diet, but for the “Hollywood Cookie Diet,” the “Smart for Life” diet and something called the “SoyPal Cookie Diet.”
And what was the verdict? According to the accompanying article:
And how do the cookies taste? Four unbiased (albeit nondieting) cookie-lovers performed an unscientific taste test of four brands of diet cookies: Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet, Hollywood Cookie Diet, Smart for Life and Soypal Cookie Diet. None of the cookies won raves, but some were deemed not bad. Comments ranged from “Sawdust comes to mind” and “Sort of a chemical taste” to “Pretty good” and “This could pass for a regular cookie!”
“None of the cookies won raves” – lol. Now I’m really glad I decided to take a pass.
CSPI Sues Coca Cola Over Vitamin Water
LOL – I’ve written about Vitamin Water before…turns out I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Dumb and Dumber
2009 is still young, but I already have one candidate for “Stupidest Food Article of the Year” on my screen: “Cheese – It’s Grosser than You Thought” over on msnbc.com.
Perception is Reality
In “All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek,” author Dave Marinaccio offers up this little tidbit, about his days as an advertising exec:
“Superbooze”???
I stumbled across “VeeV” today – it’s the “World’s First Acai Spirit.” It’s a clear, vodka-like beverage, which sorta begs the question of what happens to all those marvelous antioxidants (like those dark purple anthocyanins) during the fermentation, distillation and filtration processes used to produce whiskey and other spirits. The site is packed with info about the wonders of acai…but there’s precious little about the product itself.
I think that tells us something right there…
As it says at the bottom of the page: “Information is not intended to imply VeeV or any other alcoholic beverage provides any health benefits.” Do tell.
Points for trying, though. ;-)