Main Blog UPdated: Do not miss these encores of the Paleo Summit for great info if you have 1. cholesterol issues and/or 2. gluten or autoimmune issues

Do not miss these encores of the Paleo Summit for great info if you have 1. cholesterol issues and/or 2. gluten or autoimmune issues

Main Blog Updated: A Better Day Today: A "thank you" in VLOG form...(my first vlog, woohoo)A Better Day Today: A "thank you" in VLOG form...(my first vlog, woohoo)

A Better Day Today: A "thank you" in VLOG form...(my first vlog, woohoo)

A Highly Recommended 90 Minute Video, and there goes my morning o.j. !

If you haven't watched it yet, and if you are a fatfighter who has felt out of control and ravenous, like you're always hungry, well, watch the video I link to at the end of this post. It's 90 minutes, but on a lazy evening, leave the TV alone and watch it.

It's got a lot of science (but trust me, it's relevant and it's eye-opening). In fact, I'm glad this physician--Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco-- took the time to go through each of the metabolic processes. It makes so much sense by the time he's done, it's like an epiphany. It's one, interestingly, that you can see manifested in Lyn from Escape from Obesity as she did MediFast (which is not a program I'm crazy about on paper, as the caloric level is really low and the food is overprocessed and is not like a real-life plan that's livable, though certainly it gives quick results). I think she eats BETTER when she makes her own lower carb meals chockablock with nice and colorful veggies. :)


What's important is what it does to the appetite (calm it) when sugar/fructose/HFCS are eliminated or reduced drastically. 


I also like how he exlains WHY exercise is beneficial to weight loss, and it's not about "calories out." I really, really like how incrementally he shows how Metabolic Syndrome can be traced to the ingestion of fructose/sucrose/HFCS in increasing quantities.

And even if you think you already know all this stuff, maybe you haven't seen it presented just like this:


Sugar, The Bitter Truth



This response to the video is critical of it, so I offer the link as a counterpoint.

This post has a very nice summary of the video and its own conclusions.

So, tomorrow, I'll eat the orange instead of juicing it. :D

What Have You Done Today To Make You Feel Proud?-- That "Biggest Loser" Song

I made a healthful breakfast this morning, including 3/4 fresh juice and an egg-white scramble with 5 servings of veggies (zucchini, spinach, onions, green pepper, mushrooms). I made hubby a fresh and healthful lunch to keep him shiny and handsome.

And I'm gonna start writing again after ages of not doing so. It's National Novel Writing Month, so why not? A good time to jump back in.

I'm feeling good, and I want to feel proud at the END of this day, having done my best to eat for health and move for health and think affirmatively.

We need a change
Do it today
I can feel my spirit rising
We need a change
So do it today
'Cause I can see a clear horizon

What have you done today to make you feel proud?
So what have you done today to make you feel proud?

--song "Proud" sung by Heather Small

Madagascar 2: Big And Chunky featuring Moto Moto and will.i.am

Someone loves us the way we are, plumpy and chunky.

This song rocks. I can't stop playing it. Hat tip to CC of Journeying to Lose 200 Pounds.

I'm gonna dance with my chunky self.

Fushu Daiko performing Fushu

This is the drum group hubby and I had the class with. Our instructor is the third lady of the front trio of drummers (counting from L to R).

If you're in South Florida, and you've wanted to try this, google em up. They're in Broward County.

~

The Kinda Drumming the Princess--and her Prince--Are Thinking of Taking Up

You can see why this would, er, burn calories and build fitness. :)

If you drop by YOUTUBE and search under Taiko or Taiko Drumming, you can see some of the incredible troupes at work--they will blow your mind. I tried to find more of a "class" type one. I love how the people shout out in performance (like the video with the women in red and white outfits and shorts), cause they're clearly having fun.

If you have time, do not miss THIS PERFORMANCE which is just astonishing--a combo of taiko drumming with some hip-hop moves. Such energy!

The Princess has a new Princely Crush

Dang. That Prince Nuada (from Hellboy II: The Golden Army) is something. :D I love those gothy bad boys. (The link takes you to a youtube.com tribute of the Prince using "Let Go" by Frou Frou, one of my fave songs of the last...when did it come out, two years ago?)

This vid, though, is worth posting: It has a more fantasy-connected tune, as it's "Mordred Lullaby" by Heather Dale, and it's better structured and edited. Fabulous--

Must say. His workout routine is...entertaining.

We would all be buff if hottie elves became personal trainers. :D

Ladies...enjoy.

~

What I'm Making For Supper

Quick Bites: Baked Chicken Parmigiana I'm adding artichoke hearts and broccoli. Mmm.

Weil, Taubes, Oz: The Diet Discussion and The Princess' Philosophy on Food

I probably agree most with Dr. Weil on this one. Gary Taubes ideas about fat, though, are intriguing. It's interesting that even Dr. Oz admits he eats mostly low-carb in this clip.

My mom and dad had no heart disease, had very different body types, different food preferences, and both lived to their 80's. My mother was not much of a meat-eater. She ate small servings of meat, and larger servings of starchy veggies (plantains, cassava, boniato, malanga, potato.) She loved her dairy: especially milk (whole fat) and ice cream. She loved fruits and fruit juices. And soups (usually some sort of legume.) My father loved his rice and meat and eggs and whole milk. Every day, we had whole milk with breakfast, and often with a snack late in the afternoon or at night. Butter and olive oil were our main fats, although mom used lard when I was a kid to fry stuff. Lard was later exchanged for corn oil. Our only salad dressing was olive oil and vinegar. White cheese was often consumed (Cuban thing).

But mom and dad were cod liver oil afficionados. All of us got it. It was mom's cure-all. Cod liver oil. My dad consumed huge quantities of the stuff.

With all the hoopla about fish oils now, well, makes one wonder if that was mighty helpful in keeping their hearts normal.

I wish I could still take fish oils, but my allergy to seafood makes me leery. I'm really afraid I'll end up in the E.R.

As far as my food philosophy, here it is, and I hope I do not offend any of you. This is just how I see it, and I respect your right to disagree and hold a totally different philosophy:

I believe we are meant to eat the wide spectrum. I believe this for religious reasons, first and foremost--ie, I'm a Christian, and I believe humans are created, not genetic accidents--but also because of my reading on the subject. And because I tend to shy away from food extremism. Whether it's the raw food recruiters or the no-carbs proselytizers or the no fat fanatics or the vegan venerators.

I believe we were created to consume fruits/veggies/herbs/nuts in abundance, yes, as depicted in Genesis.

I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds. This will
be your food. Genesis 1:29

But whatever and wherever Eden was, it's not here and now. Our foreparents were driven forth, barred from the ease and healthfulness and abundance of Paradise, and our diet was altered by God to suit a changed world and our changed beings:

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field Genesis 3:18

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. Genesis 9:3

And take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. Genesis 45:18

And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. Genesis 18:8

There's even a warning that, well, may apply to our age:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ... commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. -- 1 Timothy 4:1-3

I'll let the theologians wrangle that out. But it's worth keeping in mind when extremist diets are touted.

Still, back to my general philosophy: What is good and wholesome out there, given to us from the earth and its creatures, by sanction of God, is okay to eat AS LONG AS IT AGREES WITH OUR BODIES. Some of us have special chronic conditions that disallow an all-inclusive diet (say, diabetics or people with celiac disease or allergies).

Wholesome being the key word.

Yet, the way we tend to purchase it in the grocery store or restaurants can be mighty different from how it comes from nature, nutritionally sound. Whole foods, I believe, give us what our bodies need. Over-processed foods with additives can give us things we really don't want. We weren't created to consume mass quantities of salt, sugar, corn syrup, preservatives, etc. (I consume processed products for convenience's sake, but I do try to make sure what I eat includes MOSTLY wholesome, whole grain, organic, minimally processed foods. I do have special, chronic conditions, and I have to adapt, but I try to make sure I eat something raw with every meal and I've mostly--though not altogether--eliminated sugar and white flour and trans fats and minimized the consumption of foods with a gazillion chemicals with freaky names. Although, sorry, I do use sucralose in place of sugar. It's fakey, but we insulin resistant folks have to make concessions.)

Healthy animal flesh is also given to us to eat by the Creator, and by healthy or wholesome I mean creatures allowed to grow and move in a mostly normal animal manner (not penned up and unable to move more than mere inches), and who eat in a natural way (as opposed to being fed a lot of garbage), breathe fresh air, drink clean water, breed, nurture young, etc. I believe this is also wholesome to the human body. Animals stressed by overcrowding, abusive conditions, poor feed, excessive hormones and chemicals and such, I do not believe are wholesome to the human body.

(BTW, I'm not a vegetarian, but often eat vegetarian days. I just don't believe it's a moral issue, certainly not for me. If God says I can eat meat, hey, sorry, but you won't convince me otherwise. But if I choose not to eat meat--for whatever reason, health or political or conscience--then God's cool with that, too. We don't have to eat just one way any more than we have to pray just one way or sing the same song in worship or wear the same outfits everyone else does in church. I prefer beans and cheese to, say, steak and ribs. And I wish I could eat seafood, but, hey, allergic. )

In any case, the discussions provoked by Taubes in the past few years have been beneficial, I believe, to the whole diet world. And I have started to read his book,which is dense reading, I can tell you.

I hope the discussion continues, with input from scientists and dietitians and other persons, because folks like me and you really want good information, not bad science or bad anecdotal evidence or crazy theories. We just eant to eat well.

And sometimes, it's about experimenting. Seeing what works for each of us, since we're not all the same.

KTLA Does Part 2 of Kimkins Expose & LCF Regulars Find More Kimkins Fraud

Make sure to catch part two of the KTLA expose on the Kimkins diet and Kimmer aka Heidi Diaz. It's up online.

And visit the major anti-Kimkins sites (see my sidebar, far down left) to get the latest, which includes the discovery by several LCF Forum regulars of the pics that Kimmer/Heidi used as after pictures, including the one that was "Kim" in the WW article last June. (It's at HotRussianBrides.Com and she's number 169503.)

Also, at least SEVEN (so far, as of this post) of the "success stories" after pics have turned out to be photos of women/models on Russian bride sites.

Yes, Kimmer/Heidi trolled foreign bride/dating service sites in order to get pictures of attractive women for her after pictures.

I'm guessing she did this because those sites have search databases that let you choose age, weight, height, hair and eye color, etc. That means if she needed, say, a 130 pound brunette with brown eyes and long hair, it would be easy to search for one.

Evil people are crafty, ain't they?

The hunt for the Red Dress Pic continues. We know it wasn't Kimmer's image. And, you know, something about that pic always bugged me. I never could put my finger on it. The answer may lie in the eyeballs. One of the LCF ladies blew it up and the eyes are triangular. Either they were photoshopped to make them look this way for some odd reason, or the original eyes were replaced with a particular set of brown eyes to seem more "Kimmerish." We don't know. But something is definitely odd about those triangular irises when seen in extreme close-up. See below to compare unfreaky eyes on the left and the triangular irises on the "not Kimmer after" pic right:



Maybe it's just a trick of the pixellation, but hey. You decide.

I suspect many people will be using their spare time to hunt down which Russian bride/model was the one Kimmer chose to be her online representation. (Oh, and there is artwork on a t-shirt at one Russian Brides site that is clearly the inspiration for the Kimkins site logo. Heidi Diaz hasn't got an original bone in her body, it seems. She just pilfers the ideas of others.) If you go hunting and find the red dress pic, go to LCF and let them know. The evidence is being compiled.

Another success story that is highly suspect is brought to light at Kimkins Circus. See the before and after, and, if you have any information on the veracity or falsehood, please notify an appropriate anti-Kimkins warrior:



And yes, tis a jest. But hey, it's not that far from what Kimmer herself did. Honest.

As expected from a con artist, Kimmer continues to do the denial thing, insisting she's not Heidi Diaz, even though all doubt has been removed about that matter. And her admins are standing by her side, which means she must be offering them some juicy bonuses. Some Kimkinettes continue to support their scamster leader, which just makes them look like utter nincompoops in my eyes. Sorry, but dang!

~~

Seeing is Believing

Christin, the "face" of the Kimkins diet, as it were, because of her cover model status back in June when Woman's World featured the controversial ultra-low carb VLCD, has a message for those still doing Kimkins (or similar diets) and those thinking of joining even with all the scandal.

It's a moving testimony.

A woman of religious conviction and strong conscience, Christin has posted a 17-minute video on her blog describing the side effects she has suffered from doing Kimkins, and she apologizes to those who were sucked into the plan due to her success story in the magazine.

If there is one thing you sense seeing the video is how genuine this woman is, how you get the vibe of honesty. She honestly thought she was helping people back then by being the poster gal for Kimkins, and she genuinely is convinced now that she was mistaken and that the diet is dangerous. She is warning folks away from Kimkins. She is baring her errors to the world. SHE IS APOLOGIZING.

Notice the enormous difference between Heidi Diaz/Kimmer and Christin.

One woman (Heidi Diaz/Kimmer) went into this--as it alleged by those who knew her and followed her history of posting on low-carb forums and her words and actions on the Kimkins site--to satisfy her ego and cash in on the desperation of the overweight. Cash in big-time. We're talking more than a million dollars since June. Once the truth about her misrepresentations (ie, lies) started leaking out, Heidi/Kimmer has escalated her vicious and manipulative behavior at her site, and this reaction from her has resulted in numerous complaints at the Better Business Bureau. One former member has organized a class action suit. A former partner is prepared to cooperate with authorities with all the records at their disposal.

Kimmer/Heidi has not apologized for lying and berating and censoring and summarily banning members who did nothing more than ask questions about the safety of the Kimkins eating plans or about the veracity of Kimmer/Heidi's weight loss claims--which were brought into huge disarray by the photos of the P.I. hired by former partners-- or of the testimony of those making allegations against Kimmer/Heidi. No, Heidi/Kimmer has gripped more tightly to the reins of her power. She's read private messages, hired administrators without the least tact or concern for members, and has begun an avid campaign of intimidation to keep folks in line and very, very quiet. If you doubt this, visit the links on my sidebar (way down at the left) and read and learn.

Contrasting the Kimmer/Heidi behavior, Christin has done the honorable thing: Admitted she erred. And now she is seeking to keep others from taking the dangerous road she traveled through the medium of her blog.

I--an obese woman who did go to the Kimkins site after the WW article, but who refrained from joining due to what seemed the extreme low-carb nature of the diet (not my thing, I like my whole grain bread and pasta, plus I didn't feel like spending the moolah for that sort of diet)--yes, I appreciate the importance and generosity of what Christin has done with this video and is doing with her continued speaking out.

She is caring about people who might get hurt and is not making money off her revelation.

Heidi/Kimmer only cares about Kimmer/Heidi, and she wants to keep members piling into the oppressively censored atmosphere of Kimkins, bringing $60 bucks a pop for the Diaz coffers. That's why you see so much advertising for the Kimkins diet site despite the turmoil, questions, accusations, photos, testimonies, and appeals. Heidi/Kimmer wants the money train to roll on, cause, I guess, duping 40 thousand plus people into a malnutrition way of life is not sufficient, and a million plus (as estimated by those who worked there) is not sufficent.

One is trying to do the right thing. One is trying to protect an ego and bank account boosting empire.

One puts her own face and own frailties on display as a mercy.

One hides away to protect the truth about her lies.

Who are YOU going to listen to?

I know which woman I believe. I believe the one who shows herself, displays her pain, offers her mea culpas, and wishes us well. The one that so many former Kimkinites say made the boards a place of support and encouragement and affection. You can see that winning femininity and soft-spokenness in the video.

Contrast the reports people make about their contact and relationships with Christian (positive) and the reports of the relationship and contact people have had with Heidi/Kimmer (negative).

Go watch Christin's video, especially if you have been doing a dangerous or starvation type diet (like Kimkins).

And Kimmer: You could learn something from the graciousness and repentance of those who used to work for you.

His Most Important Self-Portrait

An artist creates with sight and sound his own unique bit of art that focuses on his realization of life-affecting, health-destroying morbid obesity. He charts his progress in a "round"-about way.

He did a great job, I think.

Makes me wish I had artistic skills (I can barely draw a stick figure.)