No More Mr. Fat Guy!

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.

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.

Normally, I avoid writing about politics on my blog. But I read something yesterday that made my blood boil, that made me so angry, that I believe the time has come for a radical revolt.

Yes, that’s right - it’s time to overthrow the government.

The long train of abuses has gone too far. The sufferable evils have become insufferable. We have no choice but to foment a new American revolution and start all over again.What pushed me over the edge and turned me into a fire breathing radical?

Was it illegal immigration?

Was it the war in Iraq?

No. It’s something far worse, far more tyrannical. A proposal by the federal government that attacks the very foundations of who we are as a people and threatens to destroy our entire way of life.

The feds are saying that the pollution problem is so bad in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that THEY MAY START BANNING DRIVE-THROUGH LANES.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency announced plans Thursday to significantly strengthen ozone regulations, saying the existing standard fails to protect the public from the damaging effects of the lung-scarring pollutant.

The proposed changes could mean drastic new restrictions on drivers, workers and industries in North Texas to curb ozone-forming pollution. Some already discussed here are banning drive-through windows during ozone season, limiting hours for motorists to gas up, restricting the use of off-road construction equipment, even banning afternoon Texas Rangers games.

See, I told ya. And you thought I was exaggerating. Not at all. If they can do it in DFW, they can do it where you live. Damn you Al Gore! Damn you to hell! This is all his fault. If he thinks America will sit back and let the feds get away with banning drive-through lanes, well, I think there’s probably a hole in his ozone layer. No, this will not stand. I have too much faith in the American people. They’ve got too much backbone (and backside) to put up with this.

During the first revolution, a popular motto was Don’t Tread On Me! We need something catchy like that to inspire people. I’ve thought of one, and I hope it’ll spread like wildfire: Don’t Make Me Have To Get Out Of My Car And Off My Fat Ass To Get My Triple Cheeseburger!

Experts are saying the diabetes epidemic is picking up speed “like a runaway train”. 1 in 14 Americans now have it, and the numbers just keep climbing. Of course, the huge growth is strictly in Type 2 or adult onset diabetes, which is preventable. It’s almost all due to obesity, overeating, sedentary lifestyles, etc. I know I’m headed for “diabesity” if I don’t change my lifestyle radically, which is what this blog is all about. And I’m hoping I can encourage some other folks to make some changes along the way. Diabetes is a horrible disease - blindness, amputations, dialysis, etc. And this is the future we’re creating for ourselves if we don’t get the weight off and start eating right and getting fit.

I’m still at my friend’s house, but I should be home sometime Tuesday. I’m on a terrible sleep schedule-going to be around 10am and getting up around 5pm. I’ve really got to figure out how to get back to the standard circadian rhythms and be a normal human being again.

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Why cut back on portions, eat healthier foods, and get more exercise to reclaim your health? Because that’s the only way to lose weight and get in shape. But scientists continue the search for a magic Frankenfood that will taste great, fill you up, and not make you fat. It’s big business for one company in Holland right now. But I say it can’t be done. That’s not how life works, or nature works. Nature already provides us with foods that fill us up without a lot of calories. They’re called fruits and vegetables, and they contain fiber. But we prefer other, tastier foods.

If something is invented that “works”, I can’t imagine how eating it could be healthy, since to have any effect it would have to interfere with or shut down the body’s natural processes. Wasn’t diet pop supposed to make us all skinnier? And yet some studies show that people who drink diet pop are fatter than those who don’t. If you’ve ever seen the Albert Brooks movie Defending Your Life, you remember that in Heaven, everyone could gorge on their favorites foods all day long and never put on any weight. I doubt very much if Heaven’s going to be like that, and I’m 100% convinced that life on Earth will never be like that, no matter how many billions companies put into research and development. We’re fat because we eat too much, we eat the wrong stuff, and we don’t get out and move our bodies. That’s the reality, and no Frankenfood is ever going to “fix” reality.

Then keep them away from the television.  The more they watch, the fatter they tend to be.  And childhood development experts say kids shouldn’t watch any TV until they’re at least 2 years old.