Losing Snacking Weight

It was a story we could not ignore. We don't believe it and it's not so much research as it was a single person trial. Unfortunately its much todo about nothing because as wonderful as all the stories make it appear.

"PROFESSOR USING SNACK CAKE DIET TO COUNTER POPULAR HEALTH BELIEFS - His special four-week diet started Aug. 25. It includes products like peanut butter-chocolate bars, chocolate cake rolls, breakfast pizza, donuts and sugared cereal. Within the first four days of the diet, Mark Haub, associate professor of human nutrition, had lost seven pounds by eating foods high in saturated fats and sugar while maintaining his calorie goal of 1,800 kilocalories a day. "It's portion controlled. I'm eating foods that are deemed by many to be unhealthy; we will see if they are," he said." - Kansas State University (News Services)

You're hooked and ready to jump on the trial and be test subject number two (2) understand that it includes vegetables by the can, a fresh tomato and the dreaded exercise of over an hour to actually result in actual weight loss. Just when you thought you could eat your weight in snacks and actually lose weight. It is more like a commercial for eating snack food using the right portions. For how unreasonable that is read the back of your snack package and determine how many serving are actually in the pack.

"Many think increased weight gain leads to diabetes, heart disease, mortality and more. But associate professor Haub said research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found overweight people have lower mortality rates and health care costs. Haub said his diet also is easy on a budget. "It's very inexpensive and I get all of my calories for about five bucks a day," he said. "I am not promoting this or recommending it; it's just an exercise in nutrition." - Kansas State University (News Services)

The story was more a come on than an actual fact based account. Not that the associate professor is being dishonest or that the story isn't true - actually the headline from all the news services and Kansas State University is misleading. It's not so much the foods that you eat as it is in the calories you burn when you eat whatever you eat. Less calories and more burning of the whatever is left results in weight loss. Thankfully the YouTube video fills in all the gaps in the both the news stories and KSU website.

"Deakin in the news - a new snack food developed by Dr Keast who also happens to be a qualified chef. Consisting of a parmesan cheese cracker and organic mashed potato, the snack also contained natural additives – such as an antiinflammatory agent, oleocanthal, and omega 3 fatty acids – and a natural appetite suppressant. Dr Keast said it was the first time oleocanthal had been included in a manufactured food and research was continuing into its flavour and health promoting properties. ‘Overall, the snack is a vehicle for these health promoting compounds ... while it is not a natural food it is an innovative food,’ he said. A senior lecturer in the area of sensory science, Dr Keast’s research has also helped reduce bitter taste in pharmaceuticals with particular emphasis on paediatric formulations." -  Media buzz PDF (April 2, 2008)

The magical properties of oleocanthal was going to make snack food more tasty and better for us. The miracle ingredient was going to allow us to eat all the junk food we wanted as cheesy, greasy and tasty as we love and have been so far unable to resist. Oleo, the olive oil based ingredient (that makes us think of Oreo) would make our weaknesses palatable, pleasurable and make portion control possible. We could eat the whole container and our bodies would tell us that its time to stop.

"The SENECA (Survey in Europe on Nutrition and the Elderly: a Concerted Action) study, developed from 1988-89 to 1999, showed that the food pattern of southern European elders appeared to be the healthiest, since it was rich in grain, vegetables, fruit, lean meat and olive oil; however, a sufficient energy intake seemed to be necessary for an adequate micro nutrient intake. ...Nutritional status of free-living people in Palma de Mallorca is defined by a high prevalence of overweight and obesity and a low risk of undernutrition. This elderly population showed an imbalanced dietary intake, mainly characterized by low energy intake, too much energy derived from fats and proteins and poorly derived from carbohydrates, low dietary fibre intake, risk of atherogenic potential, and inadequate mineral and vitamin intake. An increased risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures may be expected, due to their high animal protein intake and low calcium and vitamin D intake. An increase of dietary complex carbohydrate and fibre, a decrease of fats, mainly SFA, and a balanced intake of animal/vegetable proteins and fats is recommended. Dietary supplementation, especially with calcium, vitamin C and E, and occasionally vitamin D, may be useful to improve nutritional and health status of freeliving elderly people in Palma de Mallorca." - University of Navarra (05 TUR e/c/7)

Why is this Spanish research important? We want you to live longer, stronger and better lives. We also think to be successful you should first see who is and emulate them which is the what the European Survey did. We'll admit that less than two hundred and fifty (250) people aren't a substantial population. We don't dismiss their findings. The "freeliving elderly people" from the now Palma, Spain are apparently "fat and happy." Since they have long life and health even they could have better lives with some supplementation. When science helps us to enjoy our lives of excess we're all for that kind of research.

Exercise It Well

There's a new OLD NAVY commercial featuring mannequins where the end line of the commercial is "Walk it off son!" That was going to be the headline for this story as a way to combat the flu among those who are healthy and want to stay healthy. The research has been fairly consistent and indeed many people believe that you can jump start your immune system when you're sick by "walking it off" with exercise. Or if you're a running by running it off though the research for that isn't supportive.

"Upper respiratory tract infection is reduced in physically fit and active adults - For more than 20 years, Dr. David Nieman and his colleagues at Appalachian State University have studied the effects of exercise, diet, weight, gender and education levels on one’s health. His work shows exercise has the most influence on a person’s health. “Exercise is probably the most powerful thing you can do to reduce your sick days this winter,” Nieman said. Nieman is a professor in the Department of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science in the College of Health Sciences at Appalachian State University. He also is director of the university’s Human Performance Laboratory located in the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis." - Appalachian State University (University News)

We're not big advocates of exertion of the sweaty kind. We know its value and don't ignore its usefulness but we're constantly in search of alternatives to exercise. We admit that we are carrying more weight than our frames should effectively and efficiently maintain. We admit that our health and wellbeing would only improve with such habits and that they are indeed good. We just think that its better to find another way and save the exercise for rehabilitation rather than recreation.The news is a review of the efforts of the Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey (WURSS) and from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health directed us to further and current research on a smaller group but its holds the hope and promise we're constantly searching for to validate our slothful intentions.

"UW study wonders: Can exercise or even meditation ward off the flu? - Scientists know meditation reduces stress and exercise can prevent chronic diseases. But they don't know if either activity makes the immune system better able to fight respiratory infections, said Dr. Bruce Barrett, a UW Health family physician heading up the research." - Wisconsin State Journal (October 30, 2009)

The study deals with the age group of us and their feelings, much like our, do not particularly enjoy exercising but when you add the very enjoyable meditation to the mix. Then we're interested in this type of research. The group is less than one hundred and fifty (150) men and women fifty (50) years of age and over. That meditation might also be or offer some protection against the flu is a wonderful, if proven true, benefit that we wholeheartedly support. If proven true. We're hopeful and remain so we also know that if the research is proven they'll be another study that would find the findings to be faulty or wrong. Until then we'll get our shots once they're available and take our vitamin D until they are.

Take 2 Aspirins & Exercise

This is not the story we wanted to write. If it says that exercise is good for you and you need to exercise then who really needs to read that again and again. Besides the information isn't recent its kind of old. It's being repeated by the Caregiver's Home Companion and called to our attention. We don't care to know what we already know. The good news is it doesn't take much exercise and there is a way to super-size the effects of the exercise. We just don't like the way to make the exercise more effective.

"Elderly Restore Muscle with Painkillers while Exercising - Elderly men and women who lift weights for exercise experience a substantial increase in their muscle mass when they take the daily recommended dose of ibuprofen or acetaminophen, according to Ball State University researchers." - Caregiver's Home Companion (June 2008)

We went to the source to verify the information and we include the report and the research directly from Ball State University (BSU) website after we found the information presented at the Experimental Biology 2008 conference in San Diego. The techno babble is what we look for before we find the plain English. There the researchers said:

"This study examined the influence of chronic consumption of ibuprofen or acetaminophen during 12 weeks of knee-extensor resistance training in the elderly. Thirty-six (36) individuals were randomly assigned to one of three groups and consumed the drugs in double-blind placebo-controlled fashion... These results suggest that chronic consumption of ibuprofen or acetaminophen during resistance training induces intramuscular changes that enhance the metabolic response to resistance exercise, which promotes additional muscle hypertrophy and strength gains during resistance training in the elderly." - The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (2008) 

At the BSU website we found what it all meant. Our concern was what was meant by the term chronic consumption. We take the occasional low dose of aspirin for daily health the same as we go for the dark chocolate each evening as a health regiment. We recommend that all the time. Science says its good for you so that's good enough for us. We find all we can that says we can do something other than sweat and grunt.

 "Combining pain relievers with weight training may increase muscle strength, mass - Thirty-six men and women, between age 60 and 78 years, were randomly assigned to daily dosages of either brand versions of ibuprofen, acetaminophen or a placebo. The dosages were identical to those recommended by the manufacturers and were selected to most closely mimic what chronic users of these medicines were likely to be taking. Subjects participated in three months of weight training that included 15- to 20-minute sessions three (3) times a week in the Human Performance Laboratory." - Ball State University NewsCenter (April 2008)

 If you're going to exercise you can increase the benefits of your workout but taking either aspirin or acetaminophen. That's the good news. We're including the story because we were told to and because we discovered that tumeric is considered "Asian aspirin." Which makes us speculate that adding the spice to your daily diet prior to exercising with offer the same or comparable results as well. We admit that this is speculation based on the results. We also can't ignore the size of the study it's not a large group studied.

"Exercise but not Diet Induced Weight Loss Decreases Skeletal Muscle Inflammatory Gene Expression in Frail Obese Elderly - Many obese elderly persons have impaired physical function due to increased body fat relative to strength. We evaluated 12 weeks of exercise (aerobic and resistance, E) or 12 weeks of weight loss (WL) on skeletal muscle... ...exercise in frail obese elderly individuals had a beneficial effect on markers of muscle anabolism and inflammation while weight loss had no effect." - The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (2008) 

The above information from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO is included simply because it was found at the same FASEB conference attended and presented by Ball State University. Did you know that David Letterman graduated from BSU? We don't know Mr. Letterman beyond viewing him on his late night program but we thought about that bit of trivia when we started doing this story.

Exercise works better than anything else including eating the right among of food. You have to do what works and doing the most effective way to exercise. It's not quite an exercise pill but it's a way of doing less and getting more from what you do.

Sitting To Death

The first story we were going to publish when we returned was going to be the story featured on ABC News which called it "Sitting Linked to Dying Early - Link Is Independent of Exercise, Obesity and Other Factors. So What Gives?"

We call it "the great wake the hell up and get you butt out of that seat now" news. It reminds us of the scene from the movie T2 (Terminator 2 where the now Governor of California says: "Come with me if you want to live!" You're scared as all get out because you're thinking this information is from the source that wanted to kill me. If you're still alive and reading this you might want to know the specifics before you "get your butt out of the seat". We know and we're still sitting but we've always been hard behind-ed. We hope you aren't but if you're like us you probably are.
We'll get up Mom, just five more minutes (actually we really mean - leave us the hell alone we're going to live forever we don't care what you say!) The facts are specifically and not generally:

"...queried by questionnaire on 53,440 men and 69,776 women who were disease free at enrollment. The authors identified 11,307 deaths in men and 7,923 deaths in women during the 14-year follow-up. After adjustment for smoking, body mass index, and other factors, time spent sitting (>6 vs. <3 hours/day) was associated with mortality in both women (relative risk = 1.34, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25, 1.44) and men (relative risk = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.24). Relative risks for sitting (>6 hours/day) and physical activity (<24.5 metabolic equivalent (MET)-hours/week) combined were 1.94 (95% CI: 1.70, 2.20) for women and 1.48 (95% CI: 1.33, 1.65) for men, compared with those with the least time sitting and most activity. Associations were strongest for cardiovascular disease mortality. The time spent sitting was independently associated with total mortality, regardless of physical activity level. Public health messages should include both being physically active and reducing time spent sitting." (American Journal of Epidemiology) 

Why risk it? Why take a chance and the difference in sitting and not is most apparent in women than men but its obviously important and though its a questionnaire response its not twenty or even twenty thousand and its not a five year review or even a ten year review its over one hundred thousand and over fourteen years. We can say its not that important but the reality hard as it is to accept is that when Dr. Oz says you need to get 10,000 steps a day to maintain optimum health he's probably right and we probably need to heed his advice. As hard a pill as that might be to swallow.

Follow your doctor's advice, if you want to live. It sucks we know. But the facts are the facts. Though we sit more than six (6) hours a day whether working at our desk or sitting before the screen silver or tiny its effects can only be compounded. The only thing we can think to do is to offer to seek ways to maximize our efforts with the minimal amount of pain. It's old news but considered we haven't' posted for so long we felt this would be the story to lead with as we explain our absence from the site. We hate exercising. What should you do? Dr. Oz has some suggestions.

No or Little Exercise

We were looking for: ways to exists, reasons to be. Then we encountered the same research but interpreted two different ways in the media. While watching the NBC Nightly news with Brian Williams we heard what "couch potatoes" love to hear that exercise doesn't work even if you do it for an hour. If you aren't thin you aren't going to lose weight even if you work out for an hour. Then we see in the LA Times, News Channel 8, Reuters, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal that women need to exercise at least an hour or in Reuter's case that an hour "may be too much" for women.

How do they get that from this conclusion?

"Among women consuming a usual diet, physical activity was associated with less weight gain only among women whose BMI was lower than 25. Women successful in maintaining normal weight and gaining fewer than 2.3 kg over 13 years averaged approximately 60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity activity throughout the study." - The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) March 2010.

We love it! We love it! We love it! We are "couchers" from way back. Another reason to not get up early or to cancel that gym membership. It's in the genes after all. Commercials are for stretching and bathroom breaks. We don't mind the leg lift that comes from lifting them off the lounger but after so long even that gets to be difficult.

NBC and Reuters got it right and everybody else got it wrong. That's why we exists. The news isn't always the facts and the facts aren't always the news.We will admit that the researchers in the talking heads say something completely different than what their published research concludes. NBC even used the contradiction in their report and you can see and hear it below as well.

The video says that to simply maintain your weight and not get fat that exercising for at least one hour a day is the minimum daily requirement. You can't do that from the couch - we don't love that. Again that's not the conclusion in the research even if the researchers don't standup and say it.

We'd rather go with, if we have to exercise, John Gray's "super exercise" that only requires us to stand for at least ten (10) minutes and shake in a non-vigorous way. We haven't reviewed the science and research behind it but it requires a lot less sweating and is a lot easier than doing what the women in the video are doing when working out. We admit that our desire to do something "super" and requires less effort is whats most appealing about the Ph.D's advice more than anything else. Since it's unverified we also have to admit that as well. You might want to check out the PBS broadcast for yourself: Venus on Fire, Mars on Ice. We want to believe. We really want to believe.

You didn't put it together but we did the news from Cornell University where they studied art work through art history comparing food portion size as compared to head size to current portions. As we've gotten older the research suggests that our food serving size has increased. This is especially noticable when we visit other countries where their health exceeds our own and compare their individual servings to the United States standard portions. The utinsels and the food portions are much much smaller than the standard American sizes.

As published in the ChronicleOnline by Cornell University:

"The size of food portions and plates in more than four dozen depictions of the Last Supper -- painted over the past 1,000 years -- have gradually gotten bigger and bigger, according to a Cornell study published in The International Journal of Obesity (April, online March 23), a peer-reviewed publication."

This information is important only because Pearlie Mae would also say: "You eyes are bigger than your stomach" when we piled our plates so high with food and couldn't finish everything on our plates. Not eating more seem like something we can do from the comfort of our loungers or couches. Just use smaller plates, have a variety of food and just have smaller portions. That's still alot easier than exercising! If we have to exercise we can stand and shake per John Gray's suggestion and call it a day!

Death By Couch

An editorial putting forth the argument that exercise is beneficial which on its face appears to be an accepted premise. Hopefully the actual research will offer a bit more detail and specifics. When we tried to verify the claim that couching can kill you.

We found this information at University of Kansas Medical Center (UKMC) Exercise and the Brain: KU Medical Center Collaborating with the YMCA in Innovative Study, the results of which should be available in about a year.

While we could not find the Swedish editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) we did find this article relating to exercise and Alzheimer. What do you do when you can't remember if you exercised or to exercise?

Exercise is beneficial for patients with Alzheimer's disease: A call to action - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurological disorder associated with aging, and has a global prevalence of 6% in people over the age of 65.

1. It is also the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 50-60% of all cases.
2. The increase in life expectancy of the world population is expected to translate into many more cases of dementia – it is estimated that 1 in 85 persons worldwide will be affected by AD in 2050.
3. Clearly Alzheimer’s disease is a major public health problem. (BJSM)

"Long periods of sitting at desk can cost you your life," according to the Yahoo News Article. Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), Elin Ekblom-Bak and colleagues from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said that sitting still should be recognised as a risk to health, independently of taking too little exercise.

"One study compared two groups of sedentary office workers, one of whom had regular breaks to move around while the other remained sitting for up to eight hours a day. The group that had the breaks had better blood lipid levels and blood glucose and less obesity."

"Another study from Australia showed that for every extra hour women spent sitting, their risk of metabolic syndrome - a pre-cursor of diabetes and heart disease, rose by a quarter, regardless of how much exercise they took. Dr Ekblom-Bak said: "It is important to have a five minute break from desk work every 45 minutes. Don't email colleagues - walk across the office to give them the message. Take a coffee break or put the printer in the next room. I am a desk worker and I try to do it. It is not difficult but sometimes you get lost in your work and you forget about it."(ANI)

When the story appeared in Medical News Today (MNT) it includes a PDF from the British Journal of Sports Medicine that says - "We need to consider that we are dealing with two distinct behaviours and their effects:

1.  the benefits of regular moderate to vigorous-intensity physical exercise and
2.  the risks of too much sitting and limited non-exercise everyday life activity. If found to be true, the clinical importance and implication of this new paradigm is extensive. In the future, the focus in clinical practice and guidelines should not only be to promote and prescribe exercise, but also to encourage people to maintain their intermittent levels of non-exercise daily activities. Climbing stairs rather than using elevators and escalators, 5 minutes of break during sedentary work, or walking to the store rather than taking the car will be as important as exercise. In the demanding and stressful society of the present, to prescribe these low and minimally time-consuming efforts may encourage many people with problems in maintaining a sufficient level of exercise.

We found it. Thanks to the MNT we actually find the editorial though only in this PDF format.

If the goal of the father is to as, Chris Rock says to "If you can keep your son off the pipe and your daughter off the pole, you're ahead of the game." Then the goal for children and the married is too keep your parents and mate from being alone in old age.

"Elderly women are less likely than men to live in a family setting. After age 75, most women are widowed and live alone, while most men are married and live with their wives."

"Elderly women (16 percent) were more likely to be poor in 1992 than elderly men (9 percent). Of the 2.3 million elderly poor who lived alone in 1992, 2.0 million were women."

"In 1990, elderly with a self-care or mobility limitation were more likely to be poor (20 percent) than elderly without such limitations (11 percent)."

The Census article "65+ in the US 2005" (PDF)

Sitting Time and Mortality from All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer(ACSM) comparing the editorial to a twelve (12) year study of 17,013 Canadians 18-90 yr of age. Results: There were 1832 deaths (759 of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 547 of cancer) consistent with our areas and the nation's causes of death.

We can agree with the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in that we should get off the couch to use the bathroom every 45 minutes. We'd even go so far as to suggest we do so every half hour as long as we don't have to walk up stairs. After all - all that sitting isn't good for the gluteus maximus.

In March 2008 Australian researchers began testing a trial in Melbourne and Sweden called PBT2. Now there's been progress as the trials move to "a very preliminary stage of development, examples of new exciting drug therapies include: PBT2, which opposes A-beta production, and has been shown to improve the brain function of people in early stages, Rember, a drug which is showing an 81 per cent improvement in the rate of mental decline, and AL 108, a drug administered by way of nasal spray." The article refers to Alzheimer's Society of Canada but the research information is old and starting on its second year since its revision in 2008.

More Coffee Please...

It probably comes to late for actor Dennis Hopper, reporter Bryant Gumbel probably won't be helped by the news nor movie star Nick Nolte and we've long since made known the earlier results in our July coffee health benefits story. The story that "Coffee drinking linked to significantly lowered risk of prostate cancer" has been the lead story on CBS News from Boston, Chicago (WATCH), Los Angeles (WATCH), San Antonio to India:

"The research involved 50,000 males over 20 years old. Kathryn Wilson, a scientist at the Channing Laboratory at Harvard, led the study. Her team found out that 5% of the men, who had at least 6 cups of coffee a day, had a 60% lower risk of obtaining the more complex form of the disease than those who had no coffee. Those who consumed 4 to 5 cups a day had a 25% lower risk, while those who drank 1 to 3 cups had a 20% lower risk. This is the first study to disprove the belief that prostate cancer and coffee are not connected in any way. Wilson and her colleagues used a different approach, that is, by looking at the link between the drink and the different stages of prostate cancer, instead of treating them as a single entity. However, more research needs to be done to confirm their findings, she said."

Though India is more associated with tea than coffee. Their reporting dealt with the recent research on prostate cancer in connection with our old "nemesis" exercise:

"[T]he researchers found that men who walked four or more hours a week had a 23 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to men who walked less than 20 minutes per week. Men who walked 90 or more minutes at a normal to brisk pace had a 51 percent lower risk of death from any cause than men who walked less than 90 minutes at an easy walking pace. Walking didn’t show any effect on prostate cancer specific mortality, but more strenuous exercising did. Men who engaged in five or more hours of vigorous physical activity a week were at a decreased risk of dying from their prostate cancer." - IndiaTimes

DNA or no DNA "optimum health" is still and probably will always be related to some amount of strenuous exercise. If you or someone you knows needs treatment for prostate cancer the gold standard for care in the area is with following DC hospitals: "Howard, Providence, and Walter Reed". To see the seven (7) results for the state of Maryland, the seven (7) results for the state of North Carolina, and the thirteen (13) results for the state of Virginia. The Gold Seal is issued by the Joint Commission:

An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 17,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.

So enjoy your extra cup of "joe" just remember how you sweeten it can affect your health though thankfully it might have no effect on your prostate.

Diet and Exercise - You Still Die!

Right after our live lazy and be happy complaint from yesterday comes another study pushing lifestyle changes and diet to live a healthier life. Our argument used to be that the evidence wasn't conclusive. We admit that Diet and Exercise is a better way to live a healthier life. It's not always easier or convenient but yes it is better. But that's just more blah, blah, blah! Tell us something that we don't know something that doesn't just point the finger at us. Blaming the victim isn't what the victim wants to hear. We weren't born not exercising. Lifestyle changes is how the latest research in THE LANCET puts it.

The US News and World Report examines the full report in todays edition and we were praying that they'd get it wrong. They didn't. Thanks reporter Steven Reinberg kids! Thanks Mr. Reinberg! Ignoring us they report: "(N)ew research, published in the Oct. 29 online edition of The Lancet, shows that losing weight and exercising can delay or prevent the onset of diabetes more effectively than the prescription drug metformin or a placebo."

What's the difference between exercise and sloth: "58% with intensive lifestyle intervention and by 31% with metformin" (a diabetic drug).

We like the idea of intensive lifestyle intervention because it doesn't just say exercise you fat lazy bum. For instance winning the lottery is an intensive lifestyle intervention. Vacations are intensive lifestyle interventions. Where are studies showing how working forty (40) hours a week or five (5) days is bad for your health? We've railed against diets in past articles and will probably continue to do so.

We've also shown how our jurisdictions aren't very well regarded in the areas of health. Even included in yesterdays articles is information showing that the things that are killing us other than accidents are largely preventable. We're rather think of the problem as ours rather than ours. Is that understandable? Rather than "me blaming you" and "you blaming us" that we all have a responsibility to create an arena where we all can tackle the problem and reach a mutually agreeable solution.

Maybe its the word "die" in the word diet that really gets our gall! Nawww. It's just that food that's bad for you just taste so good!

Walk You Lazy Bums Walk

When we were younger we walked everywhere. I think we did it because we couldn't afford a car to drive or just didn't have the patience to wait on an elevator. We're the generation that invented moving sidewalks. They're not just for airports any more. Then we'd really be interested in walking or exercise. When we can slow down and still keep moving other than our bellies and thighs we'd be all for it.

We constantly rail against solutions/suggestions that calls us fat lazy pigs that are going to die because we don't exercise. We know we need to exercise. We are the generation that invented the La-Z-Boy lounger and the microwave. We have loungers with built-in refrigerators now we just need couches with built-in toilets and we'd be in hog heaven. Hey if its good enough for the cats its good enough for us. Anyway here's a suggestion from Wendy on how we all can get ourselves in shape as part of a design suggestion.

Now we can get behind that - that doesn't say that we're the problem. The problem just might need another way of looking at a problem to reach a solution. Sometimes when your hands are full and you're carrying bags or whatever at the end of the day after a very long day we'll need to take the escalator.

All that exercise - we think we might need a nap!