Choose Black for a Slimming Color

My father-in-law was visiting us over the holidays and he commented on how I wear too much black. He said I would look younger and slimmer if I only wore some lighter colored clothes.

Well I thanked him for his fashion guru advice and told him he's the first person I've heard say that a woman looks slimmer in white or light colors. I think almost every woman knows that black makes you look a bit slimmer.

This reminds me that I saw a photo of Catherine Zeta Jones in a black outfit from about a month ago and I was going to post about how she seems to have lost a lot of weight over the past months. This was before I saw photos of her two weeks later (from an event on December 14th) where she is wearing the red dress. It's amazing how she can look so different weight-wise in a matter of just two weeks.

Check out "Half their Size"

People Magazine is hitting the newsstands tomorrow with their annual "Half their Size" weight loss issue. Check it out when you do your grocery shopping over the next week. They always have some very inspirational stories of people who've lost over a hundred pounds.

This year they feature Mary Smith, who went from size 28 to a size 4 with low-carb eating, Janene Campbell who lost 207 pounds in two years with the help of LA Weight Loss and Tiana Silva who lost 150 pounds by walking, cardio kick-boxing and lifting weights.

They also interview Mia Tyler who's happy to be a plus-size model and says that if you feel healthy, some extra pounds shouldn't get in the way of your happiness.

I wasn't able to find a photo of the upcoming issue but above is their cover for last year, featuring success stories by Cathi Lee and Angela Hefel amongst many others.

The Secret to Losing Weight?

Every so often a big bestseller comes along that serves to inspire and motivate people. This Christmas season, the big winner is The Secret. The Secret is all about how people can inspire themselves to creating a new lifestyle and a new future for themselves.

'The Secret' is probably the ultimate truth; which is that our thoughts are the major factor in determining our lives and our futures. If one can somehow move to a different mind frame, and take on everyday life in a new mindset, this can completely transform the texture of our daily lives and can be the easy driver which enables us to meet our goals.

The Secret comes in DVD or book format and has become the surprise best-seller in the couple of weeks since it was released. This must be due to word of mouth because it hasn't benefited from a massive marketing campaign.

All the small bookstores are promoting it as a great Christmas gift. (Here's one example). Most people are saying that the DVD even more so than the book is incredibly inspiring for making profound lifestyle changes.

Update January 29th: The Secret is being featured on the Oprah show on February 8th. Rhonda Byrne will make her first TV appearance since she released the film. She'll be joined by Jack Canfield, Michael Beckwith, Lisa Nichols, and James Ray.

Here's the trailer video clip of the Secret DVD;

The Master Cleanse Diet is Back in Vogue

The Master Cleanse Diet is back in vogue according to a recent article in the New York Times.

This is a liquid diet recommended for ten days. Beyonce Knowles may be part of the reason for this diet's resurgence. It's been widely publicized that she lost 20 pounds on this fast to get ready for her role for the movie 'Dreamgirls'.

And Robin Quivers, Howard Stern's long-suffering sidekick, told People magazine that she did the fast on three separate occasions in 2004 and shrunk to 145 pounds from a peak of 218.

I've personally tried to fast, three or four times in the last 10 years, but never lasted more than five days. However, the results were great. If you are overweight, it's probably safe to go without food for a few days if you can muster it (but do ask your doctor, as I am no medical advisor and most doctors are reluctant to recommend this route to weight loss.}

My sister, who is very beautiful at the age of 50, has followed this Master Cleanse fasting diet twice in the last two years, for ten days each time. From personal observation, it worked extremely well for her.

The simple recipe for the Master Cleanse Diet is two tablespoons lemon juice, two tablespoons Grade-B maple syrup, 1/10 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 8 ounces of spring or purified water. You can enjoy this drink as many times a day as you want.

No More Binge Eating for Boston Guy

Chris Stockbridge was all set to get weight loss surgery a couple of months ago. He weighed 340 pounds and wanted to lose more than a hundred pounds.

But the story happened to get out that he was binge eating as his surgery approached. The Boston Herald took photos of him binge eating at a buffet. And many radio stations interviewed him.

His doctor was upset with him. He thought he was setting a bad example for other people who were about to get weight loss surgery. But he's since found out that it's quite common for people to go on a big binge before their planned weight loss surgery.

However the doctor was upset and told him he had to lose forty pounds first on his own, before he would accept him for weight loss surgery.

The good news is that Chris Stockbridge has now lost 56 pounds (in less than three months) and he had changed his mind about taking the surgery route. He thinks he may now be able to lose all his excess weight with the lifestyle change he's made over the past few weeks.

See the full and very interesting story at CalorieLab.

Getting Rid of Flabby Excess Skin

Some people who have recently lost a great deal of weight are paying $50,000 or more to have excess skin removed surgically. These are typically people who have lost over 100 pounds via bariatric surgery. Though they are much slimmer, they often have extra flaps of skin hanging from their arms, legs or stomach.

Wired Magazine has some good before and after photos of body contouring surgeries. Though this seems like a relatively easy way to get rid of sagging excess skin, it can be painful, will leave scarring, can result in further complications, and costs a fortune.

See how other people have gotten rid of their excess skin naturally over time, via regular exercise.

Getting in Shape for the Wedding

Jason Taylor was getting married in a few months and wanted to look his best for the wedding. He weighed 225 and his height is 6'1'.

He succeeded in losing 25 pounds over two and a half months. He also lowered his body fat percentage from 15 to 8.

One can achieve a lot in just two months but he says it took discipline.

Taylor did it by exercising on an elliptical machine six days a week. He also limited himself to 2,100 calories a day and gave up on refined sugar. He ate most of his carbohydrates at breakfast.

See his story here.

A Complete Lifestyle Change for Camille

Camille Tirzah, age 47, was obese for many years. But she finally succeeded in losing all her excess weight. She lost 100 pounds over three years by making a complete lifestyle change her top priority. She began to exercise regularly for the first time and dropped junk foods from her diet.

She says she feels 10 years younger. "I can run and jump. I feel like the Energizer Bunny.”. She's became a certified personal trainer and is now a mentor to others in the Portland-metro area.

Marcia Brady Joins Celebrity Fit Club

I used to watch Brady Bunch when I was a kid. Marcia Brady (Maureen McCormick) was the beautiful oldest daughter on the show. And now it's been announced she's joining the Celebrity Fit Club because she wants to lose weight. McCormick is 5'3" tall.

How old is Maureen McCormick now? I was amazed to find out she turned 50 this year.

She says she has put on about 25 or 30 pounds since her mother died. She has one daughter who thought it would be a good idea for her to sign up for the Celebrity Fit Club show.

She is joined in the fifth season of VH1's weight-loss series by Tiffany, Kimberly Locke, Da Brat, Dustin Diamond, Warren G, Cledu T. Judd and Ross Matthews.

Red Apples for Christmas Cheer

Designing Spaces decorator Veryn Yip has some great (and inexpensive) ideas to get your home ready for the Christmas season. One is the red apple (and low-calorie) trick;

Put a large bowl in the entry way or on the dining room table and fill it with bright red apples (yes, real ones). It costs less than $10 and will last about a month. Best of all, it instantly adds a mass of red to your room.

The apple photo above is by Bialy-Fox.

Fatter than Oprah at her Heaviest

Sour Girl, 28, has just started a site about her new weight loss journey. She says she's now fatter than Oprah was at her heaviest. She wants to lose 85 pounds. She is starting today and wants to reach her goal weight of 150 pounds by the end of September. She's just joined L A Weight Loss. Her mom has given her the membership as an early Christmas present.

The above photos are examples of the before and after success stories at L A Weight Loss. One of their clients, Michele pictured here, lost 125 pounds in 41 weeks.

See Sour Girl's story from the beginning and help encourage her here.

An Artist Loses 50 Pounds

Lon Calhoun is an artist with a studio. He's lost about 50 pounds by joining a fitness center that opened up next door to his workplace. He's also tried sticking to Weight Watchers principles in his daily eating habits.

Two years ago he was up to about 250 pounds. He says he was pudgy as a kid and never did any kind of exercise and started to gain a lot of weight in his thirties.

He's happy he's been successful in losing the weight because he was starting to suffer from painful back problems.

Five years ago, I started having back problems. For about three years, my back would go out about every six weeks. I would be flat on my back for a few days. In the past two years, my back has gone out once and I was only down a day with it, so I've obviously strengthened my back. That is one of the greatest reasons to do all this - to not be in that kind of pain.

To help people motivate themselves to become more fit, he has this to say;

There are a lot of other benefits than just looking better, such as back pain. Your energy level is much higher when you exercise. This is coming from a person who did everything I could to get out of gym when I was in high school. I was never an active, physical person, but there are so many benefits. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you're just getting older.

Another great thing is that if you build up the muscles, the muscles really do burn calories [more than fat], even when you're just sitting around. You can get away with a little more with your diet.

See the full article about his weight loss here.

Karen's Rapid Weight Loss Story

Karen Wright, 46, weighed 342 pounds and lost an astounding 164 pounds in 50 weeks.

She got her start by joining a local TOPS program ('Taking off Pounds Sensibly') and wasn't very optimistic about succeeding. She didn't like the idea of writing down everything she ate. She gave herself one week to try out the program. In the first week she lost 17 pounds and was hooked.

After she lost a bit more weight she started walking. Initially she couldn't do even a quarter of a mile, but she gradually increased the distances.

She says the key to her continued weight loss was having the support of people around her who were struggling with the same problems. These days she walks three to five miles a day.

See her story and a more recent photo here.

Adriana Lima Gains a Few Pounds

Here's a couple of photos of Adriana Lima getting outfitted for the Victoria Secret's 2006 Fashion Show. It looks like she's put on a few pounds recently. See her earlier this year on the GQ cover. It's refreshing to see a supermodel who isn't stick-thin.

Got Calcium? The Best Non-Dairy Alternatives

Getting enough calcium helps us maintain strong bones and avoid osteoporosis. Over 20 million people in the US have osteoporosis.

Calcium has also been found effective in preventing and treating colon cancer, kidney stones, PMS and inflammatory bowel disease. Aside from deteriorating bones, people who are not getting enough calcium often suffer from muscle pain and spasms as well as tingling or numbness in their hands and feet.

How do you know if you're getting enough calcium? Dairy products are the main source of calcium in the North American diet. Three glasses of milk daily would give the average adult about ninety percent of their recommended daily amount. If the milk is 2%, that would add up to about 370 calories.

I don't drink milk (except in my coffee) and I don't see my friends drinking milk. I eat other dairy products which are high in calcium, especially lots of cheese, but this is probably not the healthiest choice of calories on a serious weight loss regiment (in my case I usually eat it with bread and rich slathers of butter). And I can't be smug about pouring milk into my coffee because coffee is actually one substance that depletes calcium reserves in our bodies.

Fortunately there are some great alternatives to dairy products. Topping the list would be spinach, collard greens, sardines, tofu and soya drinks.

Eating four cups of boiled spinach in a day would provide you with 100% of your calcium requirement for only 165 calories. Spinach is so incredibly rich in other nutrients though that you would be getting mega doses on some of the other key nutrients such as Vitamin K; four cups of spinach provides 4,500 percent of daily requirement(!), Vitamin A; at 1,200 percent; folate; 260 percent, iron; 140 percent, vitamin C; 120 percent; dietary fiber; 70 percent, and the rich list of spinach nutritional benefits keeps on going. (Read more here.)

Calcium is not sensitive to cooking. So boiling or frying your spinach until it is complete mush will not cut down on the calcium count.

No one is going to eat four cups of spinach on a daily basis, but the other foods mentioned here also provide an incredible wealth of other nutrients. Dairy products don't stand much of a chance in this competition. It's worth checking out their health benefits and incorporating them more often in your diet. See more about the benefits of collard greens, sardines, tofu and soybeans here.

The photo above is a tofu-based lunch by Blue Lotus.

Fat and Seeking Comfort

With all the billions of dollars worth of weight loss products and services being pushed at us it's easy to overlook the growing market for making life more comfortable for obese people.

There are some people who have gotten fed up with being uncomfortable in a world outfitted for average-sized people and have gone out and started businesses which focus on easing the daily lives of those who are overweight.

Business 2.0 had a very interesting article about this a few months back.

As an example of large corporations paying attention, Toyota has recently added three inches to the width of the seats available on their RAV4 car model (shown above). Many other large corporations are also starting to pay heed. But the most interesting stories are about the people who have personally started a business to help overweight people be more comfortable in their daily lives.

Tim Barry is one entrepreneur who took matters in his own hands. He was upset and embarrassed about flying with extra sized seat-belt extensions, especially when the airlines ran out and didn't have enough on board. He started selling seat-belt extensions online and has done extraordinarily well with it. Now he's expanding his products and also sells extra strength coat hangers, high-capacity scales, and extra-large plush bath towels. So far he has only two employees, but his sales will be over $1 million this year. And his only marketing costs are online ads with Google adwords.

He says the demand is there and the market is wide-open.

How many Calories per Day?

What's the optimal number of calories one should eat per day if they are trying to lose weight?

The Biggest Loser Club has a good answer for this. They recommend a simple formula.

Your present weight X 7 = Your daily caloric needs for weight loss

This means your ideal calorie intake will continuously adjust as you start to lose weight in order to break through plateaus.

The photo by Rockstar Gilly above is lemon pepper chicken with green beans dinner totalling only 200 calories.

Kristie Alley Gets into a Bikini for Oprah

Kristie Alley, 55, is going to go through with her promise from one year ago to appear on Oprah's Show wearing nothing but a bikini. Watch for the bikini program this Monday on Oprah. She has lost a lot of weight over the past year and been working out even more rigorously over the last few weeks to get her body in perfect form. Here's what she said on her Jenny Craig blog three weeks ago;

"I’m working hard to get myself in shape for my bikini debut on Oprah. I’m walking vigorously (hiking) every morning for one hour on these big ole hills by my house. Then I try to get in an afternoon workout of weights, circuit, palates or yoga. The A.M. thing is like clockwork, the afternoons are hit and miss. But that’s my goal this week; 2 times a day for five days a week until I do the show and then for the whole month of November as I shoot the new Jenny Craig commercial the beginning of December! Yikes!

She also addresses some of her concerns with seeing herself in the gossip magazines, photoshopped to look fatter than she is;

"...my kids are always in the pool or the ocean or some lake beckoning me to come in and I’m always worried that at least a couple of the 8 to 10 paparazzi that hang out in front of my house 24-7 will snap hideous shots of me for the cover of some trash mag. This problem is unique to actresses, but because it is very real, I would like to feel that I look in good enough shape to not die of embarrassment if this should occur. These creeps are ruthless and relentless and with the invention of the digital camera, they can now instantly “doctor” any photo they take to make actresses look any weight they want them to. You might have recently seen some gross picture of me looking fat again with a squirt gun in my hand. Well, it’s the exact same photo that was in People Magazine a few months back. In the People shot (same day, same photographer, same picture) I looked slim and cute; in the rag shot I looked fat and distorted. (Somehow this is not illegal!)"

Anyway- if I like the way I look in a bikini and I don’t feel self conscious or nervous, I will be able to have my attention on my children or my boyfriend or my life; not who’s lurking in the bushes to take a cheap shot. I’ve worked very hard, as you have, to get my body healthy and slim. It mostly makes me angry that you might believe it and give up. Don’t - it is not true and it’s only purpose is to make money with some made-up scandal.

The most important reason I want to wear a bikini on Oprah however, is because if I, a 55 year old woman can look even half way decent, imagine how all of you could look in a bikini. Then all of us can breathe a little easier. Hell, I’ll never look like Giselle, I never did! But maybe close to Bridget Jones or a Dove girl or something that is just fine and healthy and happy with no surgery, no lipo and no drugs-that’s saying something!"

Watch for the bikini show on Oprah this Monday. See more about Kirstie Alley's weight loss progress over the last year here.

Update November 6th: Here she is! This is today's shot of Kirstey Alley in a bikini on Oprah's show. Also see the video clip of Kirstie wearing the bikini on Oprah's show.

Update November 17th: The National Enquirer has Kirstey Alley on their cover this week with the blaring headline; "Kirstey's Secret Liposuction!" That just seems like pure 'made-up story to sell more copies' bunk to me.

Trying to Lose Baby Fat Gets Harder

Suzi Godson put on a few extra pounds during her last pregnancy. She has never been overweight but now the pounds don't seem to be slipping off as they did with her previous pregnancies. She has a hilarious writing style. Read her weight loss diary here. Here's an excerpt;

On my 41st birthday, I gave birth to seven and a half pounds of the 50 pounds that I had gained during pregnancy. When I came out of hospital, everyone assured me that the rest would “fall off” while I was breast-feeding. It didn’t.

After a couple of months I realised that my jelly rolls had no intention of “falling off” without a push. I couldn’t fit into the clothes I wore when I was six months’ pregnant and breast-feeding had increased my appetite to such gargantuan proportions that I was constantly starving.

I had very little energy because Velvet refused to sleep for longer than two hours at a time, day or night, so I lived on a diet of sugar and caffeine to keep myself awake. And my breasts were so enormous that I felt ridiculous whenever I tried to exercise. So I didn’t.

Instead of beating myself up about it I gave myself permission to play earth mother until I stopped breast-feeding, so, for at least six months, I hung around the house nibbling biscuits, feeding the baby and watching re-runs of 1970s American legal dramas while the kids were at school. It was blissful, though occasionally I made the mistake of buying celebrity gossip mags which, at the time, seemed to be plastered with pictures of stick insects at premieres, who had just given birth the night before.

The only real nuisance was that I couldn’t get any of my old jeans past my thighs. It was when I found myself contemplating a pair of XL trousers with an elasticated waistband that I knew the party was over. I was fed up with being a fattie. Fed up wearing DD bras. Fed up with LA Law. I wanted to get my life and my body back, so I began to wean the baby and I went on a diet.

Foods that can Boost your Mood

There's a very good article on MSN by nutritionist Joy Bauer that discusses all the foods that can boost your mood. If you are feeling depressed or cranky, it's much easier to overeat. These foods will help regulate your blood sugar levels and can help avoid emotional swings as well as drastically improving your daily mood.

See further info on foods that help alleviate depression here.

A Free Body Fat Percentage Calculator

There's a way you can test your body fat percentage online. All you need is a cloth tape to measure different parts of your body.

The test tells you how much fat you have and how much muscle you have. The test is supposed to be quite accurate (within a couple of percentage points either way) except for very fit people who can get up to 5% higher number for their body fat than what they actually have (because they have much more muscle than the typical person) and very skinny but unfit people may show 5% less body fat than they actually have because "though they look thin, unfit skinny people really have more than the usual amount of fat inside their muscles, which you can't see from the outside."

The most valuable aspect of taking this test is doing it over time. If you plan to start exercising, you will see noticeable changes in the measurements over time.

Try the body fat percent test here.

The average American man has 22% of body fat. The average American female has 32%. But these are not healthy percentages.

A healthy normal body fat differs for different people. According to the makers of this test, healthy percentage of body fat would be 15% for a Caucasian male and 22% for a Caucasian female. Whereas it would be only 12% for an African-American male and 19 percent for an African-American female. Asians have the highest 'healthy ratio' at 18 and 25 percent for males and females. The difference is due to the bone frames having significantly different weights on average. Asians are much more likely to have porous bones that don't weigh as much relative to other races.

I've never heard this type of distinction before. Someone please tell me if this is complete bunk.

A Vegan Diet for Alicia Silverstone

Alicia Silverstone, age 30, became a vegan recently. Her story is featured in next month's Shape magazine.

She says that at first she seemed to be eating all carbs; lots of pasta, bread and fruit smoothies. This caused her some energy crashes by midday. After she changed her diet and added a lot more vegetables and whole grains she started to feel good all day. She had much more energy and also noticed great improvements in her skin, hair and body.

For the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday she looks forward to a vegan feast of salads, green beans with almonds, stuffing, fall vegetables like brussels sprouts, tofu casserole and pumpkin pie.

Update January 2010: See the scoop on The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone

Nicole Richie deals with her Anorexia

The BBC reports that Nicole Richie has checked herself in to a treatment centre. It is probably to help deal with her anorexia.

The filming for The Simple Life, in which she stars with Paris Hilton, has been postponed. She has gotten extremely skinny and frail. But her publicist says she is not there because she is anorexic, but rather because she needs to focus on nutrition. He says this is not about treatment for an eating disorder.

Regardless of any public statments, for Nicole Richie to do this of her own volition, it seems like a very good sign for her future good health.

Getting From Obese to Overweight

PastaQueen has one of the best personal stories of weight loss progress online. She is 25 years old and used to weigh 372 pounds. This week she is down to 203 pounds. Her goal is to lose 43 more and get down to 160 pounds. (She is 5'9" tall.)

She tells us her new weight every Monday. (It doesn't always go down each week.) This Monday she could potentially get below 200 pounds and that would mean, that for the first time in her adult life, she will be crossing the threshold from obese to simply overweight.

That's a huge accomplishment, especially considering that when she first started losing weight she was not only morbidly obese, but super morbidly obese (according to BMI calculations). She had a couple of false starts at the beginning of her online diary but started losing weight in earnest two years ago.

See her inspiring weight loss progress photos here. (You can rotate them 360 degrees.)

Congrats to PastaQueen and wishing you a very happy 26th birthday!

Healthy Eating with the Food Mover

Greg Overholtzer made the decision to change his life and begin dieting and exercising about four years ago. At that time he weighed a dangerously obese 600 pounds. Today he is down to 242 pounds.

He started by working out to Richard Simmons tapes (which he had bought several years previously but which had been collecting dust up to then). He worked out in his bedroom consistently and though it exhausted him at first, he soon saw encouraging results. He then starting using the Richard Simmons Food Mover tool which is a program with windows that you shut after you've eaten a particular item for the day and when all the windows are shut you have to stop eating.

The main change he made to his diet was to drop all foods that contained sugar or wheat and to emphasize vegetables and proteins.

Today he has a new lease on life. See the full story in the Evening Sun.

Oprah Lost 30 Pounds?

In Touch Weekly has Oprah on their cover this week and the caption reads "WOW! Oprah lost 30 pounds!" In the meantime, Life & Style Weekly said last week that she's lost 15 pounds! So what is the truth here? At any rate Oprah does look slimmer these days. Though whether she's sticking to a sub 1,000 calorie diet and exercising daily are debatable. Here's what some people had to say about Oprah's weight loss at the Skinny Website;

Oprah goes up and down in her weight so often that you will never really know what it is that she is doing. Like the last time that she lost a ton of weight and it was this huge deal, and it was “for good”. I remember hearing on more than one occasion that she didn’t even have a piece of her own birthday cake at that huge 50th birthday pary that she threw for herself. What happened next? She went on vacation and ballooned again. I have a very hard time believing that even if she is eating that way, it will be for any lengthy period of time.

Her body looks very fit and glam, but her face is looking elder…Maybe becouse of the yo-yo dieting. I hope she’s not going too far! Skinny isn’t a synonyme for beautiful.

sadly, i am not convinced that this weightloss is going to last. with that diet, barely over 1000 calories, she’s setting herself up for an intense face-stuffing fest. i admire that she lost the weight, but there’s only so much time before your body cannot handle that sort of deprivation.

That can’t be heatlhy… I ate more than that even when I was severely anorexic. And def. not sustainable. I bet her body will force her back into over-eating to make up for starving herself.

she’s starving herself. a woman her size should not be eating less than 1400 cals a day. no way can she sustain it. f’cking up her metabolism even more than it already is from her past diet failures. i don’t understand why somebody with her kind of money doesnt have people cooking and weight training with her constantly. sheesh… if i could afford to have my meals prepared i’d be eating the finest seafood, fish and lean meats and i’d have a hot personal trainer working me out every day. poor Oprah. she must not have time to do anything but starve herself. her diet sounds nasty. i rather have a cup of coffee and a cigarette than the slop she’s eating. her face looks bad. SEND IN THE BOTOX!

See here for more on Oprah's weight loss experiments over the years.

Girdles are hot with Hollywood Celebrities

Is Nicole Kidman wearing a girdle beneath this beautiful dress? Or is it the all new 'bumbum'? It's very likely something. Most celebrities probably wear some kind of girdle or shapewear when on the red carpet.

Forbes magazine has a good article saying that the latest hot topic for bridesmaids chatter is a new type of girdle that firms up the butt, tucks in the tummy and doesn't have the unwanted side effect of creating "muffin top"; the inch (or more) of skin that pours over a tight waistband.

And they attribute all this talk to SPANX, a relatively new shapewear company. SPANX sells a lot shapewear but last year they created the high-waisted control-top girdle that goes right up to the bra line. It's their biggest seller, the Slim Cognito, (pic shown here) a seamless midthigh bodysuit. It appeals to both slim and overweight women.

Forbes also reveals that In Touch Weekly plans to feature SPANX as "Hollywood's Big Secret" in an upcoming issue and to highlight all the celebrities (including Oprah, Jessica Alba and Beyonce Knowles pictured here) who are into wearing girdles. I'll link to this feature here when it comes out. (P.S. Thanks much for the tip, Roger.)

Do you have metabolic syndrome?

Weight loss is not a typical topic for Wired magazine, but this month they have a cover feature story on The Thin Pill.

The article is all about what's called the metabolic syndrome, "a condition that though only concretely defined five years ago, is now said to afflict as many as 75 million Americans – whether they know it or not. We sit, indeed, amid an epidemic of metabolic syndrome, a fact all the more remarkable because so few people are familiar with it. For this is no virus on the loose, no plague that has spread unchecked. Rather, metabolic syndrome is just a new way to think about a cluster of well-known and increasingly prevalent conditions. Metabolic syndrome is characterized by five risk factors: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides (fatty acids in the bloodstream), low HDL ("good") cholesterol, and obesity. Of the five, obesity – which is itself often referred to as an epidemic – is the most important, because the rise of the morbidly overweight is directly driving the rise in the syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is, in fact, almost indistinguishable from obesity – at least 85 percent of those who have the syndrome are obese or overweight."

The article debates whether 'metabolic syndrome' is a disease that was invented by the pharmaceutical industry in order to push diet pills at us in the guise of medical authority.

Update: Where is Star Jones Now?

Star Jones lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago (about 150 pounds) and has kept it off.

In June, she says she was kind of fired from The View, a very popular show she had been cohosting for nine years.

So the question is, what is Star Jones up to now?

She has not updated her website as to her current activities since July. In July she hosted a week of a program called "House Hunters in New York City". Here she helped New York house hunters find their dream home. This program got the highest ratings in HGTV's cable channel's history while she was hosting.

But since then there has been no update posted on her site. So it seems she is taking a well deserved break to relax and regroup from her nine years of TV.

Star Jones is hugely ambitious; she grew up with a single parent, in a housing project, became a lawyer and then became famous on TV. I have no doubt she will be in the public eye again sometime soon.

Update November 17th: Here's a very recent photo of Star Jones at the after party for Dancing with the Stars taken in November 2006.

From ET Online: "ET breaks the news that STAR JONES REYNOLDS will be executive producing and appearing on a new TV program. "We are executive producing the first year ender on Black America," Star told us Wednesday night in Los Angeles. "We are doing a full look at the issues, the people, the conversations that were held in Black America, something that... has been a project that I've always wanted to do." Star told us that her show will air on TV One, a cable/satellite network geared towards African American adults."

Coca Cola and their "Negative Calorie" Green Tea

Enviga is a new soda that we'll soon be hearing about everywhere. This is because it's a new product from Coca Cola and likely to get massive advertising dollars.

Enviga is being promoted as a negative calorie green tea. It can be considered negative calorie because it speeds up your metabolism. Ingredients include caffeine and EGCG (a naturally occurring antioxidant that increases metabolism).

Coca-Cola says that if you drink three servings of Enviga you will burn between 60 to 100 calories more than normal that day.

Nestle partnered with Coca-Cola to develop this tea, which is sparkly and served as a cold drink.

Enviga first launches in New York and Philadelphia next month.

Found via The Guardian

P.S. To me it looks like the logo branding of this 'negative calorie' soda, with that little flame above the 'i', along with some of their marketing materials, looks and sounds a lot like their competition; the Celsius drink.

Gwyneth Paltrow Diets Strictly

Gwyneth Paltrow, 34, is reportedly on a very strict diet now. She's fed up with not being able to lose the last of the post-baby weight. Her second baby, Moses, was born in April this year. She also has a two year old daughter, Apple.

Above is a photo of her from last month and a before pic (right) taken a few years ago.

Paltrow is known to practise yoga regularly. She has followed a macrobiotic diet for a very long time. But in 2005 she told People Magazine that she's not as stringent as she once was and that "Now I'll have cheese once in a while or white flour, but I still believe in whole grains and no sugar."

But now Life Style Extra is reporting that she is going on a special diet designed by health guru Dr Joshi where she will only be eating the following foods for the next few weeks;

* turkey

* chicken

* white fish

* vegetables

* bananas (the only fruit allowed)


She is not to eat any;

* dairy products

* wheat

* tomatoes

* peppers

* fruit

* sugar

* gluten

* red meat

The diet regime she's on also requires taking herbal supplements to flush out toxins, regular colonic irrigation, reflexology and cupping treatments. (Cupping treatments? What the heck is that?)

The British newspaper also says Gwyneth has taken to wearing corsets to make her appear slightly thinner but she hopes to ditch these when she's finished with this temporary diet.

Tara Reid regrets her Liposuction

Tara Reid has never been overweight. She says she weighs 110 now and has fluctuated about 10 pounds over this point at times. (Her height is 5'4".) But despite being very slim, Reid decided a couple of years ago that she would like a flatter stomach. She wanted her stomach to be taut, like a six-pack.

She went ahead with a liposuction operation (at the same time as she was having her breasts enlarged). But this week she told Us Magazine that the lipo work was a disaster. Her stomach became "the most ripply, bulgy thing".

Last month she went in for reconstructive surgery to try to get this fixed. It's one more case of warning about the risks of liposuction surgery for people who are seeking an easy way to quickly lose belly fat.

Has Suzy Preston kept the weight off?

It's been a while since Suzy Preston was on the Biggest Loser show and lost 95 pounds. (She went from 227 to 132). Has she managed to keep the weight off since then?

Suzy Preston and Matt Hoover got married last month. It's the most recent photo I've been able to find of them. They both look like they've put on a few pounds but they look fabulous and very much in love. Their wedding photographer had this to say about whether they've managed to keep the weight off;

"They both look great. They may have added a few pounds since the finale of the show but they still exercise and eat right."

Update November 6th: Us Magazine reports that Suzy Preston is pregnant and they are expecting their first baby in April. Congrats to them both.

See more background on Suzy Preston here.

A Healthy Lunch for Daycare?

My baby recently started daycare three days a week. (I keep calling him 'baby' all the time even though he will be three years old in four months.)

So I've been making daycare lunches for him for the first time.

I'd like to make healthy lunches but I find it hard to think of good ideas for his lunch container. He's not a 'sandwich' eater yet. When we're at home for lunch I usually reheat leftovers from the previous dinner, or make him some scrambled egg and toast, or open a can of tuna or sardines or salmon and give it to him with healthy crackers. Then there is fruit, yoghurt and basically the entire contents of the fridge and cupboards are open for me to offer him, as he can often be a finicky eater.

But at the daycare they ask that the food does not require refrigeration or heating-up. So that limits it a bit. They also don't allow any kind of nuts which is hard because nuts are so good for him and he can eat a lot of them. I once included a flax granola bar in his lunch but was quickly educated that this is not allowed as it may contain traces of peanut products.

I would love to get some ideas from people as to what they put in their toddler's lunch box. Here's what I've been doing so far;

Yoghurt
I often include a yoghurt in his lunch. I prefer to buy the large (non-premixed) containers and give him an individual serving in a small re-washable plastic container rather than buying the individually portioned cups. It's usually a lot cheaper and much better for the environment.

Fruit
I usually include a piece of fruit, most often a banana, but sometimes grapes or berries (rasberries, strawberries or blueberries as they have been in season). I put the berries in a small plastic container as above.

Sandwich
I often make a cheese sandwich (with a bit of ketchup, as this multiplies the odds of him eating it), cut the rinds off, and cut it into little squares. He often doesn't eat it.

Crackers and Cheese
This is a current food fad with him. A little cracker with a slice of cheese on it.

Leftover Chicken
I often include little pieces of chicken in another plastic container if we happen to have some leftover.

Carrot Sticks
He seems to like finely cut carrot sticks right now.

Heavily Diluted Juice
I give him a sippy cup filled with about 1/4 cranberry juice and 3/4 water.

So, other than the carrot sticks, the vegetable quota in the lunches is almost zero. And it seems I must be missing on some good stuff. I'm thinking there must be more good ideas for what to make. Would love to hear from people about this!