April 2007 Archives

Congrats to...

And the winner of the Book Giveaway for Think Yourself Thin is....drumroll please...

EVERYBODY!!!!

[Oprah voice]

Everybody gets a book...Everybody gets a book...Everybody gets a book...lol

Congrats to you all: Lynn, Janey100, Peggy, Gina, Mrs. Chubster, Allison, Bret, Suzanne, Shelley, neca & jodi!!!

Give me a few days to get things sorted, the end of the month is hectic for me in general and especially when it comes to site maintenance. Later this week/early next week I'll contact each of you offline to get your shipping address.

Congrats again and I hope you enjoy the book & CD. Thanks for playing :)

PS: The contest is over.

IntheGym.net

Tanya from IateApie.net just sent me this FYI to pass along to fellow fatfighters:

IntheGym provides workout music playlists and reviews of 'workout fuel' like high protein bars and protein shakes, as well as reviews of workout gear. Whereas there are tons of great sites that talk about exercises, we thought we would focus on things that help keep you motivated and comfortable while at the gym.

Show a fellow fatfighter some support and check out her site!

Kashi GOLEAN Crunch

Get a free sample of Kashi GOLEAN Crunch.

Book Giveaway: Think Yourself Thin

I was very lucky to get a copy of Think Yourself Thin to giveaway to a lucky fatfighter. As for the book itself, I've read it and really like it. It also comes with a CD to help you work on hypnotizing yourself and if you are looking for a different approach when it comes to weight loss and consider yourself open minded, may as well give it a try.

Details on how to enter and who can win are below:

Entering for a chance to get a copy is easy, just leave a comment saying "Think Thin!"

Please make sure you use a valid email address. I don't post email addresses on the site and don't spam my commenters. Comments will be accepted from the time this entry posts, till 8PM EST Friday April 27th. I'll put all names in a hat and the winning name will be picked over the weekend. The winner will be announced on Monday the 30th and will have 24 hours to confirm the win by replying to my email with their mailing address. If they don't reply, I'll award the book to the next name I pull out of the hat. Sorry I have to be strict about that, I don't like dragging contest out for weeks on end and would like to promptly send out the book a week from today.

Lastly, the drawing is only open to US residents. Sorry everyone else. I've shipped prizes to other countries and it's quite pricey. Oh and please enter only once, multiple entires will be ignored and uh, that's about it. Easy right?

5/1/07: The contest is over.

Fruity Cheerios Family Fun Contest

I just got word of the following contest:

The Fruity Cheerios "Family Fun" contest encourages families to capture how Fruity Cheerios contributes to family fun by creating a picture or video inspired by Fruity Cheerios and featuring family members.

Between now and May 18th, 2007, we'll be gathering Fruity Cheerios-inspired photo and video entries. A panel of judges will select five finalists in each (photo and video) category, and then we'll take the final decision to the Modern Mom community!

Modern Mom visitors will vote for their favorite entry in each category June 8th through June 16th, and the Grand Prize winner in each will win a case of Fruity Cheerios (YUM!) and $500 in cash!

So get creative and get your entries in before May 18th! Get in on the fun!

More info here.

Watch Online

In case you missed it or are unable to view it in your area, you can watch FAT: What No One Is Telling You online.

(PS, GMTA, as Rachel posted a link to the series in comments on Friday)

Review: FAT: What No One Is Telling You

If there is one word to sum up my feelings about the documentary, Fat: What No One is Telling You, that word would be, sobering.

It doesn't sugarcoat the issue at all. Losing weight is HARD. Not only is it hard, there are subtle reasons why one person can eat fast food all day long and gain weight while another doesn't. So many issues come into play, poor food choices, lack of exercise, overall sedentary lifestyles, prevalence of cheap food, not sleeping enough, genetics and on and on.

And the thing is, what makes losing weight for hard, may never be known. Maybe I don't get enough sleep, so despite all the efforts in working out and eating right, I may just need to sleep x amount of hours for it all to come together. Frustrating to say the least.

Wanna hear the worse part? The majority of people who embark upon a weight loss program will fail and drop out. The majority of those who do lose weight via a weight loss program will gain it back. The majority of people who attempt to do a weight loss program, won't lose much weight.

The documentary showed that once you gain a considerable amount of weight, it is very hard to return to your old size. The brain in your head fights with the "brain" in your gut. In the battle for eating, your subconscious primal brain takes over, ever single time. One of the doctors gave a great example of how hard willpower really is. He said try walking up a flight of stairs and tell yourself you will not breathe hard. He said that'll work for about 5 minutes or so but at some point, your body will take over and whether you want to or not, you will breathe harder.

That's almost what's at play when it comes to dieting. The "brain" in our gut is constantly fending off starvation and any drop in calories, any loss of precious fat, any extra physical exertion, makes it fight to keep things the way they are and that's why for some of us, the truth of the matter is, we will not lose, or lose very little, weight.

Very hard news to hear. So what are we, as fatfighters, to do?

They did provide a modicum of hope. Basically, if you are willing to put in the work and be consistent, it is possible. One of the featured people was a comedienne who lost weight by changing how she ate and working out about 3 hours a day. Sad but true, that's what she HAD to do to stay slim.

You can also opt for weight loss surgery, a young budding filmmaker went that route and lost over 100lbs.

You can just accept your size, they had a woman on there whose point of view was fat people are unfairly attacked and labeled as slobs and lazy because it's safe. As long as your happy with yourself, stop making yourself upset with failed weight loss attempts and just love and accept yourself.

And an approach I can personally get behind is, eat better and exercise to be healthy. Rather than look for quick fixes, which they proved do not work, as cheesy as it sounds, eat for health.

If after all this, you still want to see it for yourself, thought I don't blame you if you don’t, it's showing again this weekend. Again, check your local PBS station for times (Find out when it airs in your area). The entire documentary ran an hour and a half and was followed up by a 30 minute discussion with medical and community experts on what we as a nation can do to solve this problem. They gave no quick fixes, blanket statements or trendy phases. But if you want the practical way to approach this, you'll appreciate the frank discussion.

FAT: What No One Is Telling You

I caught a preview for this PBS documentary earlier this week. It's airing tonight:

Face it: We're fat.

With 66 percent of U.S. adults either overweight or obese, our girth is a serious public health issue. Yet many of us still view being overweight as a character flaw, a lack of self-control, or even a moral crime.

But does fat really equal failure? FAT: What No One Is Telling You explores the myriad psychological, physiological and environmental factors that can make it so tough to shed pounds and keep them off.

In this documentary, Executive producer Naomi Boak and producer/director Tom Spain, both Emmy Award honorees, share new scientific knowledge about hunger, eating, and human metabolic operation. This film also explains our psychological responses to food, and shows how external pressures (such as oversized restaurant portions and the unending barrage of food advertisement) make fighting fat so difficult, both on the personal and national levels.

FAT's engaging personal narratives create snapshots of our national struggle with obesity:

• Meet Rosie Dehli, a Minnesota grandmother, battling to get fit so she can enjoy an active, playful relationship with her grandchild.
• Meet Mary Dimino, an actress and comedian, in New York, NY, who exemplifies the hard work people must do to lose pounds and stay healthy once they've been obese.
• Meet America Bracho, a public-health professional in Santa Ana, California, who is educating families about nutrition while encouraging her Latino community's children to move, both in school and at home.
• Meet Rocky Tayeh, a Brooklyn, New York teenager grappling with the very personal (and highly criticized) solution of undergoing Lap-Band surgery.
• Meet Dr. Lee Kaplan of Harvard University Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, who is a clinician, researcher and above all an empathetic warrior in the battle against obesity

The voices of these and other real Americans tell the story of the biological barriers, cultural habits, and economic realities that contribute to our nation's expanding waistline.

Sounds like an interesting show. I've already set my reminder and will try to post a recap/review of it later this week. Find out when it airs in your area.