Should I try this again?By Greg Todd

I’m still here, and still fat, two years after my experiment started.

I want to try again.

What’s Up?By Greg Todd

Besides my weight that is.

Don’t ask.

I’ll fill you in on all the sordid details of why I’ve been gone in a few days.

But I’m back now, and ready to get back on the horse.

Stay TunedBy Greg Todd

It’s been 100 degrees here every day for over two weeks straight.  Hot weather wipes me out.  Until it cools off, which I hope will be soon, I’m not exercising.  Or doing much of anything besides writing, delivering, and taking care of the goats.  But I haven’t quit.  And I’m staying at right around 280, which is a great thing.  If I can get it off I can keep it off.  Keep your fingers crossed for cooler weather!  I’ll be back soon enough.  I’m still shooting for 100 pounds off, but I don’t think I’m going to do it in a year.

It’s been two weeks since I blogged?By Greg Todd

Man, that’s incredible.  Which also means it’s been two weeks since I walked.  I don’t know how that happened.  Lack of focus, I guess.  I was too busy for a couple days to do any walking, and then I got bummed out about missing two days, and things in general, that I just sorta forgot about it.  Well, that’s got to change.  I’ll be back to walking soon.  I’m still right around 280.  100 pounds by 1/1/08 doesn’t look very realistic right now. . .

No weight reportBy Greg Todd

Don’t worry; I haven’t given up on exercise.  I didn’t go to the gym for the past few days, so I didn’t post a weight.  But it wasn’t that hot yesterday, so I walked an hour or so last night on a dog-free stretch of my back roads.  The day before, I didn’t walk, but I spent an hour and a half using a push mower, so that was my workout that day.  It’s only 65 degrees right now (I almost felt like I needed a jacket when I walked outside this morning), so I think I’ll skip the gym again today, and head out on the back roads.

Obesity epidemic linked to debit & credit cards?By Greg Todd

Here’s an interesting article.  It seems people are more likely to eat at fast food places that take plastic, which is pretty obvious, since these days many people don’t have much cash on their person.  But it also claims that the average credit card/debit card order at fast food joints is 30% larger than the average cash order.

282.4 PoundsBy Greg Todd

Well, I only walked an hour and 15 minutes tonight.  And then I ate a big meal, although, except for a quart of goat milk, that’s all I’ve eaten today.  I was planning on walking the full two hours or more, but the gym was very crowded today.  The walking track surrounds a weight room on the second floor, and it was pretty packed.  The weight area only takes up half the room; the other half is empty, and that end of the track looks over a basketball court.  Normally there will be one or two people in there from time to time when I walk.  But today, after about 45 minutes, about 10 kids showed up, and each one had his own ball.  With the acoustics of the place, the noise was deafening, despite my earmuffs.  So I got out of there.

Set The Ugly Tomatoes Free!By Greg Todd

Most tomatoes you buy at the store look nice, but don’t taste very good. Especially in winter. So one Florida grower bred his own version of tomatoes that still taste good even after being shipped hundreds of miles. Customers swear that they taste much better than ordinary tomatoes. And they’re willing to pay twice as much for them as they pay for regular tomatoes. But they don’t look so hot; in fact, they’re marketed as UglyRipe Tomatoes. But you can’t buy them anymore, thanks to the Florida Tomato Committee. They have the power to determine which Florida tomatoes can be sold and which can’t. And they’ve decided that UglyRipe tomatoes are, well, too ugly to be allowed to be sold, no matter how many people want to buy them.

Oh, well. At least we still live in the freest country on the planet, where you’re allowed to burn the flag, cable and satellite companies provide hard core porn 24/7, and our government allows all kinds of genetically modified Frankenfoods on the market, while protecting us from less than aesthetically perfect natural produce.

And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free!

Update: I didn’t notice until after posting that the story was three years old. So I Googled around and found out that in January of this year, after a three year battle, the USDA finally granted UglyRipe tomatoes an exemption. So the ugly tomatoes are free at last!

280.2 PoundsBy Greg Todd

Did 2 hours and 15 minutes of walking today. Plus, I chased one of the kid goats who got out of the pasture and into the yard for about twenty minutes, which was not fun. But one day he’ll be my supper, so it all evens out. Speaking of supper, I didn’t do too well on that front. Stopped at Hardees. They’re having a Buy One Thickburger Get One Free campaign, so I got two of their third pound mushroom burgers. And fries. And a Pepsi. I know, I know…

Is this the wave of the future?By Greg Todd

The Mayo clinic has come up with a solution for the sedentary lifestyles of office workers. White collar workers don’t burn many calories sitting around all day, no matter how much mental energy they expend. Well, the folks at the Mayo think they have the solution - the treadmill desk. It’s not a joke. They claim that walking very slowly (1 mph) all day instead of sitting would enable a person to drop 66 pounds in a year. It will probably be a while before this trend takes off, but as our obesity epidemic only worsens, it wouldn’t surprise me to eventually see treadmill desks in offices all over America.

Long walks good. Short sprints good. Long runs bad.By Greg Todd

That’s what this former runner says. He racked up thousands of miles running, but now advises against it. He says our bodies are designed for long periods of low intensity aerobic activity, such as walking, and for short bursts of extremely high intensity activity, such as sprinting. But they’re not designed for long periods of high intensity aerobic workouts, such as running or jogging. It’s a very well written article, and I highly recommend that you read it.

Get fit for only $1000 a monthBy Greg Todd

Have you heard of Fitness Together? It’s a booming business. It’s a chain of health clubs that now has over 500 locations. I think there’s one in Huntsville. At Fitness Together, trainers work with you one on one. And it’s only a grand a month for three visits a week. If you want to work out 6 days a week, it’s only $1800 a month. The more you buy the more you save!

Bob Milke is upfront about Fitness Together’s clientele. “We are not for everybody,” he observes. “You have to have the money and the desire to take care of your body in a specific way.” Members can sign on by the month — three sessions per week cost $960 per month; six weekly workouts cost $1,800 per month — or purchase a number of different packages, including an $8,574 Couples Plan.

Wow. You’d better be fit before you even walk in the door. Or you’re likely to have a heart attack when you hear the prices.

That don’t even sound rightBy Greg Todd

The parents of an Indiana toddler are suing the makers of a food product. They claim the product made their kid sick. The name of the product?

Veggie Booty.

And they’re surprised you can get sick from it?

That’s the first time I’ve heard of this food. Up til now, I’d always thought Veggie Booty was a straight-to-DVD Jamie Foxx movie.

283.4 PoundsBy Greg Todd

Back on the horse. I just finished milking the goats after I got back from a 2 hour walk at the gym. And I think I solved the noise problem. As regular readers know, I’d started walking at the gym instead of outside in my rural area on account of two things: the heat, and a couple of unpleasant interactions with dogs. But a few days after signing up for the gym, they began playing the radio so loud that it was difficult to hear my mp3 player. This was after they had assured me before I plunked my money down that they didn’t play the radio very loud at all. I’ve complained a couple of times, but was told that most people like it that loud so there was nothing they could do. I thought about calling the director or manager of the place, but past experience tells me that that might bring a couple days of respite, and then things would go back to normal. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to quit going to the gym because that would mean quitting walking unless I buy a treadmill. But I simply can’t put up with that kind of noise level. I was looking at some noise canceling headphones on Amazon, but from what I’ve read, they don’t work very well when it comes to blocking noise such as music. They’re good at blocking steady, constant noises such as bus or airplane engines, but not noise that’s constantly changing. Then I remembered what a friend of mine used to wear when he mowed his lawn - shooter’s earmuffs. So I stopped by Wal-Mart and got a pair of them for $14. And they worked great. I slip the earbuds from my mp3 player into my ear, and then put the muffs on. I could hardly tell the radio was on, and I was able to turn the volume on my player way down. It’s not the most comfortable solution in the world; the earpieces are very tight to keep noise out, and after a while it’s slightly uncomfortable. And because of the pressure on your ear, if you adjust the ear pieces, the earbuds tend to fall out. It can be tricky to get the buds in just right, and then get the earmuffs on without dislodging them. But these are minor problems, and they’re not that big of a deal. Ideally, the gym wouldn’t play the radio at all, and everyone would just listen to whatever they wanted with their own players. But I don’t see that happening for a long, long time. Until it does, I can live with this arrangement.

I work weekends, so no walking til Monday. Check back then.

Same Fat Time!

Same Fat Channel!

I’ve missed two days in a rowBy Greg Todd

Not good.  Yesterday my half shift turned into pretty much a full shift.  By the time I got home it was too late to do any walking.  Today, I don’t really have an excuse.  Unmotivated and not feeling good physically at all.  As I said, no real excuse.

281.2 PoundsBy Greg Todd

Well, today didn’t get off to a great start.  I was going to blow off heading for town to walk, but I talked myself out of it and got in the truck.  Went to the gym, popped my earplugs in to listen to George Noory, and took the first few steps.  And before I knew it, an hour was gone.  By this time they’d turned the radio up again, and so I left.  Sorta felt like a quitter, since I usually walk at least two hours a day, but then, that’s the nice thing about walking two hours a day - even when you only do half your normal workout, you still walked for an hour, and that’s a pretty good walk.  Then about 8 pm it had cooled off quite a bit, so when my friend John went out for a walk on the back roads, I went with him.  Got another hour in, and some good conversation.  So I made my quota after all.

Gotta work part time tomorrow.  Not sure if I’ll have time to walk or not.  Tune in to find out!

The Good Ill Humor ManBy Greg Todd

Don’t tick off the guy that drives your local ice cream truck!

GRAPEVINE — Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying an ice cream vendor who beat another vendor Saturday in an apparent turf battle. The beaten vendor, Mario Hernandez, refused treatment at the scene, Sgt. Todd Dearing said.

According to police reports, Hernandez, 30, was peddling his ice cream from a bike cart between 7 and 7:20 p.m. near 3107 Mustang Drive when a white ice cream truck abruptly pulled up next to him. A man got out of the truck and approached Hernandez with a baseball bat, Dearing said.

The man began striking Hernandez’s back while yelling, “This is my area, so get out of here!” police said.

The attacker, who is described as a short and skinny man who might be of Indian descent, fled in the truck, Dearing said.

“If they are competing for this area, he’ll be back,” he said.

280.0 PoundsBy Greg Todd

Just got back from the gym, where I did 90 more minutes of fitness walking.   That’s a total of three hours today.    Back at it tomorrow.

Same Fat Time!

Same Fat Channel!

Weird PostsBy Greg Todd

You might’ve noticed some posts over the past week that didn’t really seem to fit. My apologies for that. I subscribed to this free service that was supposed to add highly targeted health articles to my blog automatically. Unfortunately, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. First, many of the articles really have nothing to do with health. I don’t think people are interested in reading about clambakes and Johnny Depp’s organic vineyard on my site. I’m certainly not interested. Second, they’re formatted to appear as if I wrote them, which isn’t true. Third, many of them appear to be a disguised form of advertising.  So I’m in the process of canceling the service. You may see a few more strange posts for a little while, but I’ll delete them as soon as I see them. And in a few days they shouldn’t appear any more at all. Sorry for the distraction. I’m trying to figure out this blogging thing as I go, and I doubt if that will be the last mistake I make.

Early to bed, yada yada yadaBy Greg Todd

I didn’t sleep much on Saturday night; probably only about 3 hours all together. Then I worked all day Sunday. When I got home I was beat, and went right to bed. Woke up around 5:15 this morning, and by 5:45 I was out on the back roads taking a long walk, enjoying the lack of a blaring radio, and listening to George Noory. Did 90 minutes. Later on I’ll head into town and do some more walking at the gym, and I’ll have an official weight to post tonight.

Incredibly Insensitive Headline Of The WeekBy Greg Todd

And, if you ever hope to emigrate to New Zealand, another reason to drop your excess weight.  Doctors in NZ are urging the government to ban immigrants that will strain the health care system.  The newspaper sums it up this way:

Keep Smokers And Fatties Out: Doctors 

Golden Years? Probably not, if you’re fatBy Greg Todd

First, your odds of living to a ripe old age are greatly diminished if you’re obese. But if you do make it, odds are that it won’t be pleasant:

Soaring rates of obesity could cause a dementia epidemic with 2.5 million Britons suffering from the condition by 2051, experts have warned.

Around 700,000 already have Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia and the number is predicted to reach 1.5million in the next 40 years as the population ages.

But rising levels of obesity, which increases the chance of developing dementia, threaten to add an extra million to the figure.

Professor Clive Ballard, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Obesity is a huge risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.

People who are overweight at 60 are more than twice as likely to get dementia by 75. That is a big, big risk. If we are not careful, it won’t be 1.5 million with dementia, it might be two or 2.5 million people.”

. . . .

Experts have warned that unless the Government acts now, an entire generation faces old age blighted by heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other conditions brought on by obesity such as dementia.

It’s never too lateBy Greg Todd

Don’t let age hold you back from getting in shape because you think it’s too late to make any difference.  It’s not true:

Adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle makes a difference, even if the change doesn’t come until middle age.

In fact, people who eat right and exercise more can substantially reduce their risk for cardiovascular disease and death even if they’re in their 50s or 60s, researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina report.

Consuming at least five fruits and vegetables daily, exercising at least 2.5 hours per week, maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking can lessen your chances of heart trouble by 35 percent, and your risk of dying by 40 percent, compared to people with less healthy lifestyles, according to the report in the July issue of the American Journal of Medicine.

Jack LaLanne still rockin’ at 92By Greg Todd

He’s got it goin’ on, baby doll, and he’s on fire.

I want one of his juicers.

Our basic maladjustmentBy Greg Todd

We don’t move enough.  And the little we do do move doesn’t get our heart rate up. That’s why we’re fat and out of shape, even if we don’t eat all that much.  A few extra calories a day can turn into an extra 50 or 100 pounds over a couple decades. Here’s an article by a Washington Post fitness columnist who used a snazzy new device to measure his activity during the day, and was shocked at just how few calories he burns.