More About the New Diet Pills

 Yesterday I wrote about the new diet pills that we hear about and read about almost every day now. I will not be able to get a prescription for the pills to try it out. My body fat index is too low, and a doctor won't prescribe to people in my condition. I know that the FDA has tested the product, but their testing is only to see how many people any reaction to the drug and how many people have will benefit from the drug.

I still would be skeptical until I see real results. Is the drug safe for people with high blood pressure? Or people with heart problems. Only your doctor that is prescribing other drugs for you, can tell you if it's safe for you. I know it's popular for some people to go to a doctor who is out of their network to prescribe drugs that their doctor won't prescribe. This is never a good idea. The doctor who has all your drug history and your medical history should be the only one to prescribe any new drug. 

The pill is more than a diet pill, it's a drug that will do much more. This drug will certainly help millions of people, but it probably won't help everyone. No drugs help everyone with the same health problems. Some drugs on the market will only help about 33% of the people who are prescribed the drug. So why is it on the market? Because the drug will help some people and it doesn't harm or only harms a small percentage of people.

But the reason I want to wait, is that long-term side effects are not known for some time. I don't like the fact that you are putting more chemicals into your body. Chemicals you put in your body can't be process and will be stored in fat cells and will simply accumulate and after years of accumulation what does that do for your body. I have to think that medical research knows what causes cancer, but no one is talking about it. I have my own opinion on that subject. But that's for another post.

My finally word on these pills, Novo has this drug that has been approved, and it will lower your risk for heart problems. Medical professionals are predicting that in 10 years overweight will be treated like high-blood pressure. You see the doctor and he or she will prescribe a pill and you will lose fat in weeks. When you think about the possibilities this drug alone could reduce disease simply by reducing your body fat. A pill that could reduce body fat to a safe level could be the magic pill. But for now, I want to see more results. They claim it reduces the desire to eat or rather to crave food. Some people have even stopped drinking alcohol. Novo is trying to get insurance companies to cover the cost for patients. 

Later this year Ely Lilly has a weight loss drug coming to the market that may be better than Novo's.

Follow me on X or Twitter @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want to Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

                                     

Improving Our Health

 It all starts with what we eat. Every physical health problem you have starts with what you eat and what you do all day long. This is not when you through in the towel and just say. It's too late for me. 

Any thing you do at any point in your life can improve your health. Simple things like changing your diet will help you feel better. Walking more stimulates blood flow, so you feel better. These are very small changes you can make that will help you over time. Small changes will matter. 

Changing your diet is the best thing you can do for your health. So many of us just do what's easy. We don't think about nurishing the body. The body will heal it self, it will burn the excess fat and keep you fit. It all starts at an early age. Our parents feed us foods that we like to eat. That's not really the right thing to do. Parents worry that the child isn't eating enough food so they will feed you anything to get you to eat. May years ago when my chilren were small our family doctor told us not to worry, children will eat when they are hungry. When parents force a child to eat on their schedule they are probably overfeeding the child. 

Overfeeding a child is the beginning of overweight problems. Overfeeding will also cause food dependance. That is like an addiction to thing like sugar, that as parents we all have experienced that when raising a child. 

If you have a weight problem, think about your food habits and activity levels and you may discover how the problems began. That is the best way to solve your weight problem and get back to a health body. 

In my case the weight start to pile on when I was in my middle 30s. I didn't really pick up weight while I was working in the trades. But after a bad accident, I was on crouches for almost two years. I couldn't return to the same job. I bought a business and we moved. My activity level was all nothing. I made the mistake of not changing my diet. I was overeating and drinking more beer. I was packing on the pounds. At that age I was strong enough that the extra weight didn't bother me. I didn't realize how the extra 50 pounds was effecting my body. When I was in my 40s it became increasingly difficult to work. I would become tired in the afternoon. I know I had to lose some weight.

My wife and I joined a Health Club. This club had everything. A indoor track, indoor pool, weight room, all different types of machines to strengthen the body. And exercise classes for anyone in any condition. 

That lasted to a couple years but I wasn't seeing any results. I got discouraged and stopped going. I regret that now, we enjoyed playing racquet ball the most. But our lives became more complicated and we didn't have the time for the gym and finally stopped the membership.This is a typical story that I hear from many of my friends. The most common reason for quitting is that you don't see the results.

For overweight people losing body fat is a life long struggle. It's not easy to change your life. To admit that everything you know about taking care of your body is wrong. That your have actually been neglecting your body for years and the road back to good health will take the rest of your life.

Being fit and healthy is worth the effort. Being healthy will put a smile on your face and change you for the better. 

Follow me on X or Twitter @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

 

                                   

Tips For Improving Health and Slimming Down

 I'm not going to bore you with all the reasons you should improve your health. I'll get straight to the point. Slimming down is about losing body fat. Losing body fat is about your diet and your lifestyle. I want you to realize that the changes to your life that will be needed to lose your fat will be permanent. You can't go back to indulging like in your past life. I can put you on the right path, but it's up to you to stay there. As you slim down you will improve your health, they are tied together. It's your body fat that can cause your health problems.

To slim down you should stop eating anything you eat now. Dietatitions tell us to eat fresh whole foods. So what does that mean?

This pyramid shows foods that will help you lose fat. The trick is how you pick items from these. Meat should be eaten in small amounts. Experts will say that only 20% of the food you consume should be meat. 50% should be vegetables and beans. 10% good fats like avocados, olives, olive oil, etc. That might sound funny that you need to eat some fats, but the body needs good fats to lubricate your joints, help your heart keep pumping, and good fats will even help your brain function. 

Your body knows the difference between good and bad fats. That's why you have extra fat stored around your waist. That fat in fat cells couldn't be processed so the body has to store it in fat cells in case the body might be able to use it later. That storing process is automatic, the crazy thing is that your body has no way to track how much it stores. That is how people can gain hundreds of pounds and the body doesn't know how much is too much.

Your body stores fat on your body the same way it stores fat on a bear in preparation for the winter. The primary function of the body is survival. Constipation is another survival tactic to help you survive if the body thinks you will hibernate.

This is one reason that cutting back on food doesn't lead to weight loss. If the body thinks you are starving it will hold the food you eat and store it to prevent you from starving. Eat plenty of the right foods and drink zero calories and after a few weeks, the waist will start to shrink. 

Doing any light exercise like biking, walking 10,000 steps a day, or swimming will help you slim down quicker.

 Follow me on X or Twitter @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

       

                             

The dangers of consuming food or drink that contain chemicals

 The World Health Organization (WHO) today classified aspartame, a popular artificial sweetener, as a possible carcinogen. The decision was based on limited evidence and doesn’t change the recommended acceptable daily intake levels for aspartame.

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in many low-calorie products like Diet Coke and sugar-free Jell-O. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decades ago, but some people continue to question the safety of this sugar substitute.

I want to insert my comments now before you finish reading this. The Food and Drug Administration or FDA allows chemicals in food because it's in very small amounts. But because most of these chemicals are commonly used in several different foods and drinks no one knows how much the average person is consuming. And because chemicals in the body don't pass through, they normally get stored in fat cells, and those fat cells can become cancerous.

The human body can only process natural food and drinks, like water or juice from fruits or vegetables. Any food or drink additives that can't be processed will be stored in the body. The body can't pass through anything that it can't process.

So the question is what can I eat and what can't I eat.? Recently, eating natural food and drinking bottled water has become the new trend.

                                                                                                                                                             

Eat only fresh food, which pretty much eliminates canned foods, anything that comes frozen, and even dairy products. I forget to mention bakery goods. You can make your own bread, pies, and cakes because you know what ingredients you use. The problem with buying ready-made food is that commercial food companies will substitute natural ingredients with chemicals that taste the same to keep the price down. Read the label when in doubt.     

The WHO’s cancer research group, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), uses four categories to classify carcinogens or cancer-causing agents.

Aspartame is now listed in Group 2B alongside things like gasoline, lead, and whole-leaf aloe vera extract. Group 1 consists of harmful substances with “sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans,” including tobacco smoke and ultraviolet radiation.

To be placed in Group 2B, the research group must find “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans,” or “sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals,” or “strong evidence that the agent exhibits key characteristics of carcinogens (regardless of whether from exposed humans or human cells or from experimental systems).”

“For current consumers of diet drinks, this news isn’t cause for major alarm. Aspartame has been classed in IARC’s Category 2B, which means there’s limited evidence that it might cause cancer, not that it does or is likely to,” Alexandra Jones, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow in Food Policy and Law at the George Institute for Global Health in Australia, said in a statement.

How Dangerous Is Aspartame?

Some people have turned to aspartame and other artificial sweeteners as a way to reduce their sugar intake. Consuming too many added sugars has increased the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

But with the news that aspartame is a “possible carcinogen,” some people may wonder if the swap from sugar to aspartame is worth it.

“No one ingredient or food increases cancer risk. It’s the amounts and patterns of food we consume over time, along with other genetic and lifestyle factors, that influence health risk,” Debbie Petitpain, MS, RDN, LDN, a registered dietitian in Charleston, South Carolina, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Verywell in an email.

Aspartame is one of six sweeteners currently approved by the FDA as “safe for the general population under certain conditions of use.” The FDA determined that it’s safe for most people to consume up to 50 mg/kg body weight of aspartame every day.

Most of this article was written by experts in the field and it only pertains to sweeteners put into drinks because it's widely used. This is not the only chemical widely used in our foods and drinks. Most low-fat or low carb foods or drinks have little taste so chemical food additives are added to adhance the flavor.

Think about your health when your shopping.

Follow me on X or Twitter @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Health and Fitness

 There are so many new things happening in health and fitness right now. Social media sites have new posts almost every day. I want to caution you not to listen to all the noise you hear. Most of these announcements are really ads that want you to buy their product. You don't have to spend money to lose weight.     

Some of us are simply going about this the wrong way. The object is really about losing body fat. Don't bother using a scale to see how you're doing. The scale can lie, but a tape measure never lies. If you're losing inches you're doing it the right way. You want the old-school tape measure like a seamstress uses. Don't measure frequently, twice a month is enough. It Takes time to lose an inch. Your jeans maybe a better way to measure gains. 

Losing fat is about burning body fat. I start in the morning by doing some exercise. Because I'm in my 70s and my body is used to exercise. I only work out for 20 or 30 minutes a day. I do stretches and yoga first for about 15 minutes, than some days I use dumbells for about 10 minutes or I bike ride for 1 hour. I only bike once or twice a week. I use the dumbells every other day. Using weighs will build muscle and that means your body will burn more fat. The more muscle mass you have the more fat you burn. That's why a very slim, lean, muscular people can eat more carbs and more fat then a people trying to lose fat. 

Exercise is only a small part of losing fat. The hard part for me was changing my diet and only eating food and drinking things that would help me lose fat. That was hard because I was drinking alcohol every day. Not hard liquor but beer and wine. There are too many calories in alcohol. Yes, you still should count calories. I counted calories for about two weeks. First I counted calories while I was on my old diet. Then after I changed my diet I counted calories for another week. I add all the calories I consume in the week and divide by seven to get the average per day. Then I do the same for the new diet and compare. You have to reduce the calorie count by 600 calories a day to lose weight. It's easy to accomplish, because the new diet should have less carbs and less sugar. 

The average overweight American consumes over 3000 calories a day. Drinks alone are more then 1000 calories. So you might think that just just cutting back on the drink calories will reduce the calorie count and I will lose weight. Yes and no; yes you will lose some weight but you won't be losing body fat. To lose body fat you need to eat food that burn fat. 

I had to change to a diet of protein shakes with plant-based protein and non-dairy milk like soy or almond milk. That's about 30 grams of protein or about of my daily alotment. For lunch I would eat a chicken breast with two vegetables. or beans and one vegetable. I always drink water with a meal. That can be another 30 grams of protein. Some days I vary the meal with a salad with spinach, beans, chicken, chick peas, celery, and maybe beets. This again is high in protein. Be careful what type of salad dressing you use, most of the jar dressings are high in calories. Later in the afternoon, I eat something small like an apple and after that I stop eating. You want to give your system about 6 hours to digest your food before bedtime. 

It will help you reduce calories if you stop drinking calories. There are several brands of zero calorie drinks on the market. Drinking plain water with food is still the best thing you can do for your body. There are several good purification systems on the market or just buy bottled water. 

For those of you who have tried and failed to lose weight or regained the weight, you can get help on the internet, but ebooks might be an easier way. You can spend hours looking through countless websites trying to find the right plan for you. I went that route myself. I did months of research reading everything I could find and nothing I tried work, I always gained the weight back.I found that skimming through ebooks was quicker and easier.

 Follow me on X or Twitter @gertsraymo70369 or @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K. If you are using Amazon you want to get the Kindle app to purchase my book.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “Getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Losing Body Fat

  “According to the Mayo Clinic, there are many factors that affect your weight, such as genetics, age, gender, hormones, medications, stress, sleep quality, and physical activity. However, the most important factor is your diet. What you eat and drink has a direct impact on how many calories you consume and how many calories you burn. Therefore, choosing the right diet plan is crucial for achieving your weight loss goals.”

So why is the diet part the most important part of weight loss? The larger the percentage of body fat you have to more difficult it is to lose weight. You can actually be a small person who is not overweight and still has a large percentage of body fat. If your percentage of fat is 30% or more of your body mass, you have too much fat. When you have too much fat, it's easy to add more fat. That's because of a person's lifestyle. The way you live your life can add fat which adds pounds. A middle-aged person can easily add 3 to 5 pounds a year.

This happens without you realizing it until one day your pants don't fit. But Why You might ask? As a person ages, you are usually less active. If this is you it can be because of many different things. Maybe at work, you spend more time behind a desk, Maybe you don't get as much exercise as you did a few years ago, and maybe as you gained weight over the years, you consume a little food, or drink. Everything has calories except water, tea, and coffee. 

The title of this post is "Losing Body Fat" which is the only thing you need to lose. If you lose inches you will lose weight. You don't need a scale, you only need a tape measure. But don't expect instant results, Losing one inch can take a couple weeks. 

You can't starve yourself, some food and drink will add fat, and some food and drink will help you lose fat. 

Follow me on X or Twitter @gertsraymo70369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

You Can't Exercise Away a Bad Diet

 When it comes to losing weight, the evidence is pretty clear – “you can’t outrun a bad diet,” according to a recent editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

If your goal is weight loss, that gym membership is going to do little to drop the pounds when your diet is out of shape. If you hit the gym five days a week for 30 minutes a day and you’re not losing weight, you now know why. It’s not your metabolism. It’s not your hormones. It’s what and how much you eat. We would be surprised if we knew how little calories we really need. Foods like fish or seafood, grains, fruits, and vegetables don’t have that many calories. The average American will consume more than 3000 calories a day when actually 1500 is plenty. Unless you run 5 miles a day you don’t need a lot of calories. We consume half our daily calories in the drinks we consume. If we only drank water, coffee, and tea we could cut more than 1000 calories a day.

We’re talking about more than just your expanding belly and butt. A wicked diet causes more disease than physical inactivity, alcohol, and smoking combined, according to the editorial. Even those with a normal body mass index (BMI) often have metabolic abnormalities we usually see with obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease. Why? Their poor diet, despite their weight being seemingly healthy.

You often hear, “You’d have to jog 30 minutes to burn off that double cheeseburger.” But it’s more than that. The editorial cites a study showing an extra 150 calories of sugar causes more diabetes than the same number of calories in fat or protein. This isn’t permission to load up on all the fatty foods you want — too many calories is still going to lead to too much body fat.

In addition, research has shown that cutting carbohydrates in your diet is the most effective thing you can do to reduce problems including high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and manage diabetes, the editorial notes. Those benefits are seen even if you don’t lose weight.

Don’t sit down just yet. Exercise is still critically important for optimal health. Exercise is medicine. If you’re active, your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and some cancers plummets by at least 30%. No drug can do that. Exercise just doesn’t help much with weight loss.

If you’re looking to slim down for bathing suit season, take a good hard look at what’s on your plate. Load up on veggies and lean protein. Skip the starchy carbs and junk food. And when you’ve hit your goal weight, hit the gym to continue on your journey to good health.

Follow me on Twitter @gertsraymo70369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.