Weight Loss Versus Spiritual Retreats

Many people who want to lose weight will go (or dream about going) to a weight loss retreat for a week or two. These retreats are typically quite pricy and the emphasis is on low calorie meals, physical activities and nutritional counseling.

But another option that is often much cheaper and can be much more successful in the long run is to attend a spiritual retreat instead. I attended a Buddhist retreat several times a few years ago (in my pre-baby days). The objective wasn't to lose weight. At that time I didn't have any issues with my weight. My incentive for going was to work through and let go of some of my hang-ups and deeply ingrained habits and thought-patterns.

It was no holiday. It was a very rigorous schedule of group meditation for a seven day period. We had three meals a day. These meals were extraordinarily healthy and nutritious. I never failed to lose a few pounds on these retreats though I never felt hungry while there. And my physical body felt incredibly invigorated after returning home. Not to mention the mental and emotional breakthroughs that occurred at each retreat. If only I could do it again. My son just turned three so I am fantasizing about starting up a serious meditation schedule again and getting away for one of these retreats later this year.

Just as there are many different levels of weight loss retreats (some go as far as going entirely without food for a whole week, and some are quite indulgent) there are also different degrees of difficulty in spiritual retreats.

I wouldn't recommend anyone who hasn't got some experience with group meditation to the kind of retreat I went to. It would be almost impossible to handle mentally and physically if you have not had some prior practice. But there are many less demanding spiritual retreat options out there. A relaxed and easy-going scheduled yoga retreat would be a more realistic alternative.

The Buddhist sesshin I attended was non-profit and run by Zen monks. It cost only $350 for eight nights stay including meals and shared accommodation (four people to a room). The typical weight loss retreat, in contrast, would cost $3,000 or more.

So for those people who feel that a focus on mental barriers and hang-ups may assist with their weight loss struggles, this is just an idea thrown out there for your 2007 vacation plans.

Marathon Training for Extreme Fitness

Steve Bezner is a recent convert to marathon training. He used to make fun of people who ran. Two and a half years ago he weighed 330 pounds. He lost most of his weight by changing his diet and didn't start exercising till he weighed 200 pounds.

At that point he joined a gym for the first time in his life and started walking on their treadmill each morning for about 20 minutes. Once this was too easy he started to increase the intensity and length of his workout.

He started jogging outside (for just 1/2 a mile at the beginning) and began training for a marathon just months later. Today he is a committed runner. The before photo above was taken in August 2004. The after photo was taken a couple of weeks ago at the start of the Houston Marathon.

See his inspirational weight loss story here.

Smoking Adds Fat to Your Belly

Smoking cigarettes creates countless health risks and we all know that. But how many people are aware that smoking can change your body shape?

We do know that a lot of women continue to smoke because they think they would gain weight if they stopped. And in reality, most smokers do gain a bit of weight when they quit. The average weight gain in the short term is about five pounds.

What most people don't know however, is that smoking actually changes your body shape. As reported in the ASH fact sheet, the people who smoke, while they may on average be a few pounds thinner than non-smokers, tend to store fat around the waist and upper torso, rather than around the hips. This is because smoking effects the endocrine system and changes the normal hormonal composition and secretion process.

So smokers have been found to have a higher waist-to-hip ratio than non-smokers. A high waist-to-hip ratio is related to lots of negative health implications.

The good news is that this higher waist-to-hip ration need not be permanent. A Swedish study found that women who stopped smoking experienced less upper torso fat deposition than would be expected by their accompanying weight gain.

Do Celebrities Lie about their Weight?

Do celebrities lie about their weight? The short answer is a resounding yes. We can't really prove it without forcefully getting them on a weight scale but there is no doubt that many celebrities lie about their weight.

Someone made a comment here about Kirstie Alley where we wondered if she was telling the truth about losing 75 pounds and weighing less than 150 pounds. If Kirstie was five feet tall, this would be believable, but she is somewhere between 5'7 and 5'8. If you see her on the Oprah video here, and have a look at her legs, you too would probably doubt she is telling the truth.

Here's what one reader had to say about Kirstie's weight;

Most of your weight is in your legs, and man, she's still got some of those. It's hard to tell though. Some people can weigh very little and some people a lot; it's not all about size. I have a friend who weighs about the same as I do; she's a size 12, i'm a size 6, go figure and we are both about 145 lbs.

If you really want to crack-up on people who lie about their weight, check out Serina Williams, the tennis player, who claims she weighs about 130 lbs. One tennis commentator actually said... "what when she was 13?" Her sister has it right, Venus claims she weighs about 170 lbs.

So we went and checked it out and indeed it does say on Serena Williams profile at the WTA that her height is 5'9" and her weight is 135 pounds.

This really seems unlikely based on the pictures here. These photos were taken last week at the Australian tennis tournament. My guess would be she does not weigh less than 170 here based on her height and especially as she is so muscular. Muscles weigh four times as much as fat does.

I'd lie about my weight too if I was a celebrity. It's not a big deal except that it sets a very bad example for young women who might think they need to weigh a lot less than 135 pounds in order to look very slim.

For this reason I'm hoping people send in more examples of large discrepancies between celebrity stated weight and their true weight.

Fat and Seeking Love

Online dating is incredibly popular these days. And many people are much happier for it. Apparently for every seven couples who get married today, at least one met via online dating. I personally know several couples who met online so I don't doubt these numbers.

There are a lot of people who visit online dating sites who don't know what BBW stands for. Some people, especially men, think it stands for Big Breasted Woman. Other people think it stands for Big Black Woman.

But most people who have spent some time on the online dating sites already know what these terms mean;

BBW - Big Beautiful Women
BHM - Big Handsome Men
FA - BBW Admirers

If you are obese and think that you need to lose weight before you find love - think again. The regular dating sites are teeming with BBW's and BHM's and FA's and the demand is obviously very large because there are now an incredible amount of online dating sites that cater only to BBW's, BHM's and FA's.

Here are just a handful of them, along with their pitches;

LargeFriends.com
Get out there and socialize!! Meet Large & Lovable singles near you. Free access. Browse and search thousands of photo personals of single BBWs and their admirers. Benefit from unlimited access to profiles and enjoy the freedom of anonymous contact. Get priority listing on search results pages.

BBWPersonals Plus
Meet BBW singles now! Detailed BBW personals and photo gallery, live BBW chat and more. Comfortable BBW dating community for Big Beautiful Women, BHM's

Plus Size Hearts
One-page registration makes getting started fast and easy. Upload up to 5 photos (free scanning available). Be online in minutes to start looking for the special someone. Be it a BBW, BHM or a sweetheart, with your FREE membership, you'll met good people and have fun. Romance is what we're all about!

BBW Datefinder
is an award winning, premier site for the large and lovely crowd and their admirers. BBW Datefinder offers top notch customer service, voice mail capability, over 200K members with ads, and absolutely no commercial or pop up ads. Your privacy and security is always top priority at BBW Datefinder.com.

BBW Singles
Big Beautiful Women, Big Handsome Men, Plus-Size Beauties, BBW, SSBBW, Sexy Full-Figured Women, BHM and their admirers can find romance, a soul mate, a best friend, a lover or just have fun chatting. Place your personal ad today

If you're new to online dating there are a few things you should be on the alert for. One is that people don't always tell the truth, and not just about their weight and height. Watch out for lines like this, as they could mean (that) ;

Athletic (Stupid)

Attractive Appealing personality (physically repulsive)

Bubbly (Bipolar)

Down-to-earth (Slob)

Educated (Condescending)

Free spirit (Raring to ravish your friends)

Honest (Brutally insensitive)

Must know how to treat a lady (Platinum cardholders only)

Prince Charming (Charismatic psychopath)

Recently single (Enmeshed in cut-throat child custody battle)

Shy at first (Embarrassingly boisterous after one drink)

Zany (multiple unstable personalities)

See more funny lingo here.

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The photo above is by eye of einstein.

How to Become a Supermodel

In this one minute video we see an average woman being transformed into a supermodel. What's her secret? A ton of digital retouching and airbrushing.

Note how her neck is slimmed and elongated, her eyes are made much bigger, her eyebrows lifted and her face slimmed.

This ad was created by the Dove Self Esteem Fund to show young women that what they see on TV and billboards is not the true reality. See more examples here and here.

Orange Prices Soar: Some Vitamin C Alternatives

A severe frost has destroyed seventy percent of the current crop of fruits and vegetables in California. Prices of oranges and lemons will be very high this year.

If you're wondering how to get enough vitamin C from alternative foods, here are some ideas.

A typical orange provides 116% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C.

Red bell peppers are still probably even pricier but for less than half the calories, a cup of red peppers provides 291%. And one cup of steamed broccoli provides 205%.

Other foods which provide well over 100% of your daily needs for Vitamin C include a cup of boiled brussel sprouts (161%), a whole papaya (313%) or one cup of cantaloupe cubes at 112%.

For superman vegetables that have very high vitamin C counts but also pack in the highest amounts of other vitamins and minerals check out kale and swiss chard.

WHFoods has a complete list of the best Vitamin C food sources. The photo above is by Carla216.