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It is if you’re a member of the International Federation of Competitive Eating.
“The International Federation of Competitive Eating, Inc. supervises and regulates eating contests in their various forms throughout the world. The IFOCE helps to ensure that the sport remains safe, while also seeking to achieve objectives consistent with the public interest — namely, creating an environment in which fans may enjoy the display of competitive eating skill.”
Ok, then.
And no…I don’t mean the stuff that ends up in your (and my) inbox…
Food prices are rising, and as a result, SPAM® sales are booming.
“Like millions of Americans, Ben Miller started dieting at the beginning of the New Year.
“Over the years I went from 165 pounds in the Navy to my highest of 477 pounds,” says dieter Ben Miller.
Ben’s goal -weight- is 230 pounds, but that’s not his only goal. For every pound he loses, he’s donating a pound of food to his local food bank.
“I wasn’t willing to do it for myself, but I am willing to do it for other people.”
Ben’s message and his “Donate my Weight” website has attracted media attention which in turn, has attracted sponsors.
“We were inspired by Ben’s weight loss and we really believe in the Second Harvest Food Bank, so for us it was an absolutely natural fit. We said, you know what? We can make a difference here as well as inspire others to make a difference,” says Kathy Haines, the service area manager of Wegmans in Allentown, PA.”
It’s certainly a novel way to stay motivated to lose fat/weight too.
One question that I hear over and over again from fans of this site is…
“How can I be updated of any new reviews or blog posts in a timely and efficient manner? I sign up for your newsletter, but sometimes my ISP filters it into the trash. I really don’t have time to come back periodically to search for new stuff — I just want to be notified when there’s anything new that might interest me.”
A great question, and a common concern!
There is a solution, and it’s a simple one…
This is the final week - the second bottle of IsaTest will be finished on Friday. So Friday morning, it’s off to the lab for a second set of blood tests.
John’s down to 208 lbs. He started at 214 lbs. x 17.8% body fat. I haven’t tested his bodyfat this week - it can wait until Friday, when we take his final stats. He’s definitely looking trimmer and firmer, although there’s still some lingering softness and “jiggle” around the midsection - that will be the last to go, I’m afraid. But I personally think he’s lucky here: it’s definitely subcutaneous fat - not visceral. Unlike a lot of men in his age range, he doesn’t have that protruding abdomen reminiscent of a 5 - 6 month pregnancy. Subcutaneous fat is the stuff sitting under the skin that can be easily pinched between your thumb and forefinger, while visceral fat is packed around the internal organs. Subcutaneous fat may not be pretty, but there don’t appear to be any health risks associated with it. Visceral fat, on the other hand, has been linked to a variety of serious problems, such as cardiovascular disease and risk of diabetes….even dementia.
Strength-wise, he’s seen some modest increases across the board, although nothing that I wouldn’t normally expect to see with a good program. Overall, his libido has been up too, although not so much over this last week, as he’s been under a lot of stress - he’s been studying for a certification exam, in addition to being under other work-related stress. I don’t expect even the best supp can completely compensate for that.
It will take about 10 days or so after the blood draw to get the lab results, so we’ll be able to deliver a final verdict on IsaTest - and herbal testosterone boosters in general - in about 2 weeks.
A few days ago, I spent some time digging around for information on “Pepto Pro” - a hydrolyzed casein supplement made by DSM Food Specialties. In the course of idly surfing around, I came across a product that uses it as an ingredient…a protein supplement by the name of “Tight Curves.” Tight Curves is made by Bodywell Nutrition, and is marketed as the “Perfect Protein for Women Only.”
“With your overall health, fitness, and well-being as our goal, BodyWell Nutrition and its team of scientists, and researchers formulated Tight Curves to deliver the benefits women want most. Daily use of Tight Curves promotes toned muscles, enhanced fat oxidation (fat burning), regulated moods, increased endurance, and decreased recovery time from exercise or other activity.”
This piqued my curiosity: just what was in this supp?
This is kind of cool. Walk Score was developed as an online tool for finding neighborhoods with services within walking distance.
Seems like gas prices go up another ten cents per gallon, every time I fill up my car. In my neck of the woods, it’s closing in on $4.00/gallon. At the current rate, I figure we’ll be there in less than 2 weeks. I don’t expect it will stop there, either.
There’s a silver lining in all this: we’re doing less driving and more walking/biking. I can’t help but believe we’ll be a little healthier for that. I already bike to my gym (approx. 7 mi. round trip), and we’re starting to patronize the businesses within walking distance of our home. Our “Walk Score” is 58 - not great, but not bad either. Fortunately, our current home is a rental - and we’re not settling in for the long term. When we plan our next move, I’ll be using “Walk Score” (or similar tool) to help decide which neighborhoods to look at. It would be awesome to find a place that’s an 80 - or even 90.
Yesterday I received a particularly nasty e-mail from an extremely irate visitor. It wasn’t anything I haven’t seen a zillion times before — the e-mail contained accusations of misleading the general public; it called me a liar (several times), and it used “UltimateFatBurner.com” in conjunction with the word “bullsh*t” several times.
Frankly, e-mails like this aren’t that uncommon. Sometimes, people get a little defensive when you “burst their bubbles” and explain — however gently, that what they believe has no basis in fact. So why am I bringing it up? Well…
I’m off to the gym in a few minutes for a chest/back workout…which reminded me of this vid that my bud Will just posted on the “Bodybuilding Revealed” forum on Seated Cable Rows. They’re one of my favorite back exercises.
I took the Special K Challenge this morning…the link caught my eye during a Google search, and I couldn’t resist. Special K is a real blast from the past: I recall the old “pinch an inch” ads from daze gone by. Can’t say I ever ate the stuff much, however. Didn’t really care for the taste, to be honest, plus, I had a hard time figuring out what was really “special” about it from a weight loss perspective…it had roughly the same calories and nutrients as other packaged cereals did.
At any rate, the “Challenge” is to lose 1 inch off your waist in 2 weeks by following a ”personalized” nutrition plan devised by the Marketing Department at Kellogg’s. To create my plan, I had to answer three multiple choice questions, none of which concerned my height/weight, age, activity, amount of (hypothetical) excess weight I wanted to lose…or any other info that you’d think would be important. The questions were all subjective, like “What’s the worst part of a diet?” I thought that was a bit odd, so I submitted the questionnaire several times, using different answers. Sure enough, each submission resulted in a “personalized” plan that was structurally identical to the first one. And what a plan it was, too! Here’s a sample day:
I thought I’d call attention to a classic article by a friend/colleague of mine, Will Brink, on the value of blood work for both health and physique improvement. A lot of us get routine blood chemistry tests as a part of our physical exams (as well as before various medical interventions), but these still leave things out that are important for health/fitness, such as hormones like thyroid or testosterone. I know several people on the forums I moderate, who’ve really struggled with losing fat and/or building strength due to sub-optimal hormone levels. If your hormones aren’t up to snuff, it’s like pushing a noodle.
On the flip side, I also know people who randomly experiment with various over-the-counter hormone-based products, like DHEA, pregnenolone, and/or progesterone creams (not to mention various quasi-legal bodybuilding supplements). I don’t have a problem with some experimentation, but it shouldn’t be done blindly. Just because these hormones occur naturally in the body and are available without a prescription is no guarantee of absolute safety. Even naturopaths don’t advise winging it - even for something as (seemingly) basic as DHEA. More isn’t better.
If you’re trying to get into shape/improve your health, you should know if your hormone levels are within normal limits, and whether you have disease risk factors that need to be improved, such as LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, homocysteine or C-reactive protein, for example. Your success - and long term health - may depend on it.
You will need a referral to get tested…this should be available from your doctor or doctor-affiliated wellness organizations, such as the Life Extension Foundation.
No, blood tests aren’t cheap…but then again, they’re quite cost-effective when you consider the knowledge you get for your money.
I love it. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse…
Antioxidants are “in” - and “superfoods” and supplements are everywhere you look. Naturally, each new one is better than all the others that came before it. And how do you know this? Is it because of human clinical studies? Nope. It’s because it has the highest ORAC score. As one supplement ad sez:
“Fruits and vegetables tend to have the highest ORAC values. Per 100 grams - Apples score a 218, Bananas a 221, blueberries 2,400. And what about fresh Acai? Acai has an amazing 5,500 ORAC score.
Time flies when you’re having fun…
There hasn’t been a report in the last couple of weeks, largely because there hasn’t been a lot to report. John’s weight is down a bit more - he’s at 209 and 16.6% body fat now. The last time we benched, together, he seemed stronger, and has moved up a little in weight with most of his exercises. This isn’t a radical increase though…and I hesitate to attribute it to the IsaTest. Seems to me it’s within normal limits.
He is reporting a greater frequency of morning “wood” however, and overall, his libido is kicked up a notch.
I went ahead and ordered another blood test for him: the Life Extension Foundation is having a sale on their tests right now. The “Test” Test has another 2 weeks to go…and then we’ll see what happens.
Lately I’ve been reading Morgan Spurlock’s “Don’t Eat This Book; Fast Food And The SuperSizing Of America”. Morgan, if you remember, is the guy who did the “SuperSize Me” movie — which you absolutely must see, if you haven’t already (”SuperSize Me” is a documentary movie where Morgan consumes nothing but McDonalds “food” for thirty days straight, all the while having his vitals monitored by a series of medical professionals).
Anyhow, I’m about a third of the way through the book and I’m sure I’ll have something to say about it once I’ve finished it up. What makes me bring this up now, however, is the fact I just came across an interesting piece on the CSPI web site.
When I was a kid, my best friend and I would often stop at a local fast food restaurant called the Red Barn, for a burger, soda and fries. She’d be finished with her entire meal before I’d eaten even half of my burger…one time, she nearly made me choke from laughing, as she went through an elaborate pantomime of me, eating sooo slooowly. I tried to eat faster at times, but it was hopeless - I just couldn’t seem to manage it.
When we were teens, she and I were about the same size: a Junior Size 5. When she got married in her late 20’s, I was still wearing a 5/6…while her wedding dress was a Size 9. The last time we talked, she lamented that she’d “never see 180 lbs. again.”
I’m still pretty much the same size I was in high school…and still a slow poke at the table.
A “citizens” petition has just been filed with the FDA to regulate weight loss claims made for dietary supplements as “disease claims.” If the petition is granted, manufacturers of weight loss supps would be required to pass FDA review prior to making claims about the efficacy of their products.
The “citizens” filing the petition are the American Dietetic Association, The Obesity Society, Shaping America’s Health, and…Glaxo Smith Kline (the makers of Alli).
A copy of the petition can be viewed by clicking here.
If there’s something that keeps coming up over and over again in the daily feedback I receive from visitors, it’s this whole “detox” thing. And it’s not surprising really, since detox diets and detoxing are a pretty popular fad. You can find detox diet books on Amazon, and pills on the Internet and in your local health food store. Everywhere you look, everyone — including several high profile Hollywood celebrities — is “detoxing” or doing a “cleanse” or some such thing to “rid their body of toxins.”
But is there really anything to this whole fad?
I have to rendezvous with my husband in a few hours, and have a bunch of things to do before then. I should be in the shower - not hunched over the keyboard. But it’s all Paul’s fault: he got me going on this.
What set me off was his previous post: “Mangosteen, Noni, Goji, Zrii Juice…What’s Next?“ In the text, Paul linked to an expose on Goji juice, produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The video featured an extended interview with one of the promoters of a particular (and hideously expensive) MLM product: “Dr.” Earl Mindell.
Over the years, I’ve been approached a bazillion times about promoting the aforementioned products, and many others. It’s always some kind hearted marketer doing his or her best to ensure I’m “in on the ground floor” of this “opportunity” (and nothing, I’m sure, to do with having me under them in the “commission matrix”).
Heaven forbid I miss out on the “wave” of “financial well being” and good health that will ultimately follow the heels of the product.
It comes as no surprise to those who know me, that I steer WAY away from products such as these. Sure, the promotional materials look great; pictures of pristine, cascading waterfalls, untarnished, vibrant rain forest, a montage of happy, healthy indigenous people… you know what I’m talking about. And of course, there’s the obligatory “stock” photo of the “average” users of the product; usually slim, attractive people, beaming with sheer delight as they frolic care-free in some idyllic natural setting with their absolutely perfect 2.5 children in tow.
