10 Unconventional Diet Tips: lose 50 pounds in 3 months
I found this inspirational post on Lifehack once about losing 50 pounds in 3 months, and I’ve had it bookmarked ever since. It seems to promote 10 positive steps to loose weight that are sensible and attainable. Perhaps I’ll give this a go sometime soon, even though I only want to loose 15-20 pounds (hello? Wii Fit?)
“The following are 10 unconventional weight loss tips that worked for me. Between January 4, 2006 and March 31, 2006 I lost fifty pounds. These tips work well because almost every tip is focused around completing a small goal. In my opinion, to stay motivated and lose a significant amount of weight, you should complete many goals in a short period of time. The reason I call these tips unconventional is that I had not seen a majority of them before starting my diet.
I will start by recognizing the typical “calories in, calories out” schpeil. Yes, to lose weight you have to eat well and exercise. But there is much more to it than that, and I don’t want to spend time regurgitating ideas you’ve heard before. That brings me to the first point:
Aquadots sweetened with the date-rape drug 1,4-butanediol
It’s amazing, with all the toy recalls this year, the Aquadots one just stands out since it apparently contians the same active ingrediate in the ‘date rape’ drug! And how could such a hazardous chemical have ended up in a child’s toy? Remember, it’s all about money… “The toys were supposed to use 1,5-pentanediol, a nontoxic compound found in glue, but instead contained the harmful 1,4-butanediol, which is widely used in cleaners and plastics. The Food and Drug Administration in 1999 declared the chemical a Class I Health Hazard, meaning it can cause life-threatening harm. Both chemicals are manufactured in China and elsewhere, including by major multinational companies, and are also marketed over the Internet. It’s not clear why 1,4-butanediol was substituted. However, there is a significant difference in price between the two chemicals. The Chinese online trading platform ChemNet China lists the price of 1,4 butanediol at between about $1,350-$2,800 per metric ton, while the price for 1,5-pentanediol is about $9,700 per metric ton.” Indeed, the Wal-Mart ‘race to the bottom’ mentality of needing everything to be cheaper rewards this kind of ‘cost cutting’.
Wii: good for the body, good for the brain
Another article extolling the virtues of playing the Wii for fitness, this time not only for the body, but for the mind. “Physical therapists are turning to the Nintendo Wii to help the injured and infirm get their grooves back while increasing flexibility and strength. [...]Nintendo’s Brain Age series is popularly prescribed to help elderly patients stay sharp as a sort of “exercise” for the mind. therepy schedules [...] The Wii, though, is moving gaming out of niche applications and into the mainstream because the console is so accessible to such a wide variety of players. (You should see my four-year-old play Wii Carnival Games.) The upcoming Wii Fit could be a real killer in this category for those who don’t have the sense of rhythm that Dance Dance Revolution requires” Hmmm…I’ve looked at the Brain game available for the Wii with the idea that it would be cool for the kids, but now I have Carnival Games in mind too! They have more coverage on the topic in their Games for Health page, all nice to see, and check out the video of the action here. Again, I’d much rather the kids (and me) play some Wii games that make us think versus just watching TV.
Sicko: The one film you must see this summer
Like him or not, Michael Moore is back with Sicko, his documentary on the failing health care system in America, on June 29th. Seems he’s made a strange, but very powerful, ally in the fight to get his movie seen; Oprah. “Michael Moore will appear on Oprah on Tuesday June 5th where he will present, for the first time on television, scenes from his new film, Sicko.” Oprah will interview Michael about the movie and the attention it’s receiving before its release. And get this — the theme of Oprah’s show is “The one film you must see this summer” Apparently, Oprah loved Michael’s film and wants to make health care for all one of her main missions this year.” Personally I think it’s about time to rethink how profits and peoples health balance out in the US. Be sure to checkout the trailer too.
Five ways to stop global warming
I’m a big fan of Working Assets, and lately they sent out an email with five suggestion how you can help to stop global warming. Yes, the last suggestion is to get their credit card (I have had one for years now), but look at the benefits you get from theirs, versus what you’re getting from yours and decide if that’s important for you. When they offer things like planting a tree and donating .10 to alternative energy groups every time you buy gas with the card, or .10 to progressive non-profits fighting for human rights with any other purchase, it makes it a no brainer for me. See more benefits here, or read more for their Five Cool Ways to Stop Global Warming.
Global warming: 51 things we can do
Time has an article about 51 things we, along with scientists, businesses and governments, can do to slow global warming and cut carbon emissions. “Here is our guide to some of the planet’s best ideas” This is getting more and more press of late thanks to Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvienent Truth, and regardless of what you think about that, thinking longterm for our environment helps EVERYONE! While we’re on the topic, to keep in this mindset and come up with new ideas, visit EcoGeek and Treehugger; both fantastic sites. I’m now researching how I can get started with solar panels on my roof along with all that it entails to either directly power something, or to contribute to the grid. What are you doing to help? At the very least we should all get a free energy audit of our homes via the local electric company.
Retirement community holds a Wii bowling tournament
The blog Popcandy has a great article about a retirement community is holding Wii Bowling tournaments! (hit the link for video of the fun too) The Wii is amazing, and it’s becoming the revolution it promised to be. This has to be my favorite story I’ve read in a long time, and it hits home. My Mom who is 65 came over add had a blast playing, so much so that she wants one for her own. The poster that said this should have happened a long time ago said a mouthful; game companies trying to out-GTA each other have left out a huge section of people and created the ‘non-gamer’ group themselves. Now Nintendo picks them up! So my kids (4 and 6 1/2), my Wife, my Mom, mii (of course) are having so much fun with this. “A retirement community engaged in a Wii bowling tournament. The seniors got hooked during the holidays, when they sampled gifts residents were giving their grandchildren. Some retirees stayed up late at night playing Nintendo games, and a tournament soon followed: Residents at Sedgebrook, an Erickson community in the Chicago area, gathered for a bowling tournament recently. Find out how much fun they had playing ‘their granchildren’s game’ and discover who won for high score and high series.“
Action video games can improve eyesight
Ah, after plenty of positive Wii news, here’s more great news about the benefits of playing video games! “Video games that contain high levels of action, such as Unreal Tournament, can actually improve your vision, according to a group of Researchers at the University of Rochester. In an article to be published in Psychological Science, they have shown that people who played action video games for a few hours a day over the course of a month improved by about 20 percent in their ability to identify letters presented in clutter—a visual acuity test similar to ones used in regular ophthalmology clinics. In essence, playing video game improves your bottom line on a standard eye chart.” In the test, “Students had to quickly identify the orientation of the middle “T” — Action game players could do it better.” See graphic above.
Fitness experts endorse Wii for health benefits
More great news about Wii playing and health! “The International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) has released results of a new survey into exercise and video games, finding that technologies such as Nintendo’s Wii “may prove to be just what fitness experts are looking for to help their clients get more active”. Dr. Josh Trout, Professor of Kinesiology at California State University Chico, who specializes in video game technology and exercise movement, is cited as saying: “Exertainment and home video consoles are the wave of the future.” He continues: “Exergaming can provide excellent health benefits, but so can a Stairmaster, lifecycle or treadmill, if you do it. If a person has chosen a sedentary lifestyle, there is not much a new technology is going to do for them. On that note, exergaming, and exertainment, is an excellent way for getting kids hooked on physical activity, producing good exercise habits that can last their lifetime.” The survey of the association’s members has them asked about possible health benefits and risks related to the use of ‘exertainment’ technologies implemented in such consoles as the Microsoft Xbox, the Sony Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii. Nichole Snow, an ISSA Certified Personal Trainer and avid gamer, was one of the more in-depth respondents, advocating Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution along with her fellow trainers as “…definitely more of an aerobic game – I see kids all the time enjoying it and losing weight – I think they gain a lot of aerobic exercise without realizing it.” She also noted of Nintendo’s new console: “The Nintendo Wii will show benefits for everyone. Whether you can sit down for the game or you have to be standing, it involves movement. The best part is its just fun – for everyone. De-conditioned and obese individuals will find it fun to play and gain aerobic movement out of the games. Seniors can enjoy gentle movements of bowling and golfing. Youth become a part of the game and don’t just turn into vegetables in front of the TV.” She concluded her comments by noting: “Everyone can burn some calories and learn some good health habits from Nintendo Wii’s fitness, and the system is just too hard to pass upwhen watching anyone play.”
Lester Borchardt, Cheerios inventor, dies
When I was a kid Cheerios were my favorite cereal, hell, I remember ~10 years back eating them at night after my wife and I would get home from bars, and I still eat them off an on to this day. Any parent is going to have a personal relationship with them since it’s one of the best first foods for infants, plus the ones that hit the floor are easily picked up by the dogs! The ‘inventor’ of Cheerios has passed on, but what a subtile legacy he left; certaining making the world a better place in his lifetime. I think it’s especially cool that he 
lived to 99, who knows, maybe it’s the cereal, we can only hop. “Lester Borchardt, a Minnesota physicist who developing the technologies behind Cheerios and Kix breakfast cereals, has died at age 99. Borchardt, who died Sunday in Minneapolis, is credited with revolutionizing the breakfast cereal industry, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. The newspaper said Borchardt’s inventions during his 36 years at General Mills included a device that could measure the moisture content of kernels of wheat, a new way of closing cereal bags and a process for treating materials under a high vacuum. He also played a key role in developing the process to fortify milk with vitamin D. The process used an electrical charge to convert ergosterol — which is part of the membrane of fungal cells found in milk — into vitamin D.“
10 steps to becoming stress free
I found this article about 10 Steps to Becoming Stress Free before the holidays, but I saved it to post for later, at a time when we’re through with thinking about that time of year, and have a chance to really integrate it (or at least plan on integrating it) into our lives. We always have more to do and less time to do it in, this causes stress, but what to do about it? See if the following give you any good ideas. Here I’ll list the 10 suggestions, read more for the list with descriptions and examples.
1. Start by saying no.
2. Simplify your day.
3. Clean your workspace.
4. Change your surroundings.
5. Light your office properly.
6. Surround yourself with happy people.
7. Sit back and relax.
8. Take a break.
9. Eat healthy.
10. Exercise.
The Wii Sports Experiment
For anyone trying to find a fun way to get/stay in shape, this is encouraging. “Six weeks ago, I began what has become a huge obsession of mine. It is called the “Wii Sports Experiment” I outlined a 6 week game plan for myself, the idea being that I would continue ALL normal activity and eating habits, and simply add 30 minutes of Wii Sports to my day. For the past month and a half, I’ve stuck to these guidelines very strictly.” The condensed version is that he lost 9 pounds and 2% of his body fat by playing the games, and he plans to stay on it even though the experiment is over. This confirms what I have heard from friends who’ve played Wii; you can get a workout from it. While I always knew I would someday soon buy a Wii as the step up from our beloved, purple Gamecube, now I have a date, next month for my birthday. That we can play all the games that I, my wife and the kiddos like love is just gravy as we transition over to the new Wii games. Who knows, perhaps I’ll try out the 6 week plan myself.
Separating the man from the soy
An amazing proclamation from a column by James Rutz (pictured), chairman of Megashift Ministries and founder-chairman of Open Church Ministries, titled, “Soy is making kids ‘gay’“. Yep, apparently it’s just that simple folks, Mr Rutz blazes on without nary a mention of sources or anything resembling science, but I’m sure those things will just fall into place. Here’s the gist of his commentary, but feel free to read it yourself from the link above.
There’s a slow poison out there that’s severely damaging our children and threatening to tear apart our culture […] The dangerous food I’m speaking of is soy. Soybean products are feminizing, and they’re all over the place. You can hardly escape them anymore. [...] Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That’s why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today’s rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products. (Most babies are bottle-fed during some part of their infancy, and one-fourth of them are getting soy milk!) Homosexuals often argue that their homosexuality is inborn because “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t homosexual.” No, homosexuality is always deviant. But now many of them can truthfully say that they can’t remember a time when excess estrogen wasn’t influencing them.
As you can see, irrefutable (errr…irresponsible?) proof! Of course there’s no mention about how lesbians come to be, but my sneaking suspicion says that it’s Dijon Mustard. What other use can there be for it? As for anyone ordering out for Chinese tonight, they can rest easy because…
P.S.: Soy sauce is fine. Unlike soy milk, it’s perfectly safe because it’s fermented, which changes its molecular structure. Miso, natto and tempeh are also OK, but avoid tofu.
Ah, so soy sauce won’t give you the gay, so it’s not all bad news! I stumbled across this nugget thanks to Right Wing Watch, but have since expanded to take in some of the better titles being given this newly stated information which includes, It’s the Soy, I Tell Ya to Soy milk will give you teh ghey or my personal favorite Gay soy conspiracy revealed! My title was the top I came up with out of six, so I feel I did my best. Meanwhile back in reality the best scientific debunking comes from a commentary from the editors of Scientific American on the topic. Hmmm, I’ll never look at my vegetarian friends the same again! {sarcasm}
I heart music
Here’s a relatively current picture of my front closet at home, with my custom/built-in cds shelves running floor to ceiling. Yes, I have a lot of cds, but note that this composite picture (roughly pasted together with The Gimp) doesn’t show the ~300 that I’ve pulled for sale/trade in. I’ve been shopping for cds since 1985, and I used to really enjoy hitting used stores all around the St. Louis Metro area. Once I moved to Austin my shopping focused a bit more thanks to Waterloo Records (sigh), but then the used powerhouse Cheapo hit town; they had so many used cds constantly coming in it was insane. Now I’m a regular at Euclid Records, browsing the racks and barking out special orders non-stop. While I haven’t seen the number of rawk shows that I used to, I still needmoresongs! Some call it a sickness, but I contend it’s just part of the therapy.
UN warning on e-waste ‘mountain’
There is a warning out from the UN about the huge amounts of e-waste that is being generated and distributed overseas. Currently e-waste including old TVs, CPUs and phones are being shipped off to China, India and more recently, Africa. It’s estimated that up to 50 million tons of waste from discarded electronic goods is generated annually, and of that up to 75% of the shipments are defunct – in other words e-waste. The article states the amazing statistic that, “A recent study by the Basel Action Network concludes that a minimum of 100,000 computers a month are entering the Nigerian port of Lagos alone.” Some of the chemicals in computers called out in the article are lead, arsenic, antimony trioxide, polybrominated flame retardants, selenium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt and mercury; all nasty stuff. If dumped the chemicals can leech into the earth, contaminating land and water, or if burnt, which is the more common disposal method, they release toxic fumes and leach chemicals such as barium and mercury into the soil.
This is completely on topic for me, right now I have 6 old computers in the trunk of my car, destined for EPC, a place in town that does proper disposal of e-waste at the cost of 5$ per computer. I’ve gathered these boxes from old jobs when they’d clear out outdated hardware, and I’d buy them to play with and learn from. Most are ~200Mhz systems, so these have gotten the cut while I still have 4 computers at home to play with, build servers from, geek out with, to keep me going. Still, think about what you’re doing when you’re done with a computer, most of the time you can pass it down to a relative or a child to use, since these users generally don’t need the latest and greatest, but if it’s too old, do some research and find out where you can properly dispose of your system. Greenpeace lists some overall solutions, while major computer manufactures like Apple and Dell have programs of their own to help deal with the issue, but it’s up to us as consumers to be educated about this, and to use this knowledge on future computer purchases.
Green tea reduces risk of early death
Back when I was in Austin, I worked with a girl from China, her accent was very hard to understand, and her database administration was a bit heavy handed, but for the most part she knew what she was doing. Also, she would drink green tea practically all the time. Knowing it was good for you, I and another chap started the practice, which I’ve carried on (off and on that is) until present day. Now in a desk drawer I have a box of green tea, and make hot or cold cups during the day, depending on the temperature and my mood. Seems like I may want to up my consumption, and it’ll be easy since I drink so much water during the day, I’ll just chuck in a bag and sip away. So even though it’s been known to be healthy, now it’s even more so according to 
a new study reported in the September 13th Journal of the American Medical Association: drinking green tea lower’s risk of death due to cardiovascular disease *and* another study that claims it may curb prostate cancer in men at risk. “Adults in Japan who consumed five or more cups of green tea a day had a lower risk of death due to cardiovascular disease, according to a new study. Researchers from Japan examined the association between green tea consumption and death due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, and the overall death rate within a large population. Eighty percent of the population in this region drinks green tea, and more than half consume three or more cups a day. The study included 40,350 adults in northeastern Japan between 40 and 70 years of age. None of them had any history of stroke, coronary heart disease, or cancer at the beginning of the study. The participants in this study were followed for 11 years, from 1995 to 2006. During the 11 years in which the study took place, 4,209 participants died. More than 800 of the participants died of cardiovascular disease, and 1,134 died of cancer. Researchers then compared participants who drank less than one cup of green
tea a day to those who drank at least five cups a day. Participants who consumed five or more cups a day had 16-percent lower risk of CVD-related death. The association between green tea consumption and lower risk of CVD was higher among women. Of just the female participants, those who consumed five or more cups a day had a 31-percent lower risk of CVD-related death compared to those who drank less than one cup a day. “Green tea may prolong your life through reducing heart disease and stroke,” Kuriyama tells WebMD. “Our findings might explain the differences in mortality profile between Japan and the United States. The Japanese age-adjusted rate of mortality due to [heart disease and stroke] is about 30 percent lower than that of the United States.”” You can find the offical JAMA report here.
Meanwhile, Dr. Saverio Bettuzzi from the University of Parma in Italy reveals his study that showed that, “after a year, only 1 man among 32 in the GTC (green tea catechins) group developed prostate cancer, a rate of only 3 percent. In contrast, 9 out of 30 men treated with placebo developed prostate cancer, for the expected rate of 30 percent. The investigator performed a trial involving men with high-grade PIN, who were given an inactive placebo preparation or one containing 600 milligrams of GTCs daily, “equivalent to 12-15 cups of green tea infusion, that is about two times the average intake in Asian countries.” “To our knowledge, this is the first study showing that GTCs have potent in vivo chemoprevention activity for human prostate cancer,” Bettuzzi noted. “There are other studies strongly suggesting that similar results could be obtained for prevention of other types of cancer. As a matter of fact, breast and colon cancer are possible targets. In the near future, we are supposed to start a collaborative trial involving both Italy and USA on this matter,” Bettuzzi concluded.” And yes, I’ve already drank 2 cups of green tea this morning!
A nursing home with a pub
A nursing home in Ireland has hit on a cheering way to keep up the spirits of its elderly patients — by providing its own pub. St Mary’s Hospital in County Monaghan, near the Irish border with Northern Ireland, believes ready access to a good pint may help its patients — average age 85 — actually live longer. “We would say the whole social aspect of life does extend the years — it means the patients aren’t bored to death,” Rose Mooney, assistant director of nursing told Reuters. The pub, which opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m. and charges normal bar prices, had also led to an increase in the number of visitors, she said. Having its own bar made the hospital, which has around 140 patients, unique in Ireland, she added. The benefits are twofold; moderate beer consumption is good for you (“beer drinking has equal or perhaps more benefit than wine or spirits“), as is socializing (“Social engagement was as strong as anything we found in determining longevity. “It was stronger than things like blood pressure, cholesterol, or other measures of health”) So, either having pubs in nursing homes is going to catch on here, or I’m going to retire to Ireland.
Hi, I'm fak3r and I've been online for over 15 years, blogging for 10. I work with open source software, various hardware and whatever else that I can hack on. I enjoy learning by doing, painting infrequently and listening to more music than the law allows. Feel free to follow me and comment on my thoughts and ideas; we're all in it together kid.
Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200
Sep 09, 2009 | Categories: commentary, featured, headline, parenting, politics | Tags: barack obama, health, politics | View Comments