I just came back from working out (legs today) and saw that a HUGE new Sprinkles is opening up, ONE street over from another cupcake store.

The only reason they are renting space for these stores is because, clearly, people are BUYING cupcakes all the time.

When will this stop. Are you buying cupcakes? Okay, once a year, for your kids birthday party, I’m totally cool with that. But how many of you are making regular stops on random days to buy these fat and calorie laden products?

Jim

I was just getting my haircut (yes, for those of you who read this blog, I do get my hair cut all the time, but I never want it to look freshly cut in the event I get a last minute booking on TV), and they serve the BEST unsweetened, organic green tea. I was teasing this, well, terribly overweight woman that all the tea was mine, as I was pouring a big glass.

She looks at me, smiles, and says, “Oh, no problem. I just love their lemonade” and serves herself a 180 calories glass.

And I bet she says, “I just can’t lose weight!”

Jim

I am just leaving Southern California. I have been in LA and Orange County for 2 weeks and have been around a lot of people.

Inevitably, the subject of weight loss comes up and my first question to people who are struggling with weigh issue is “How often are you weighing yourself?” The answer, almost 100% of the time is, “Never!”

Then, I ask the people at a far more appropriate weight (I’m not talking size 2 women or men with 4% body fat, so understand what I mean when I say “appropriate”), and they say “Oh, I weigh myself almost every day.”

That’s the right answer as so do I.

You have to get on the scale as often as possible. I get very tired of OVERWEIGHT nutritionists who say “weighing yourself too often is not healthy for you.” Wrong. These women, themselves, are overweight, so they are as frightened by the scale as everyone else.

I have been saying for year, “The scale is the data.” Get on it, everyday, first thing in the morning, and please, invest in a good, balance beam scale. Don’t use an inexpensive scale that you can manipulate.

I remember as an overweight child and adolescent, i would get on the scale and know how to stand to make it say less. Don’t make that same mistake.

Jim

Why do the drug companies keep trying out new diet drugs? Well, it’s probably because nobody wants to do the actual “work” and eat less and exercise the right way.

PLUS, almost all the drugs say that you must follow a certain eating/exercise program for it to work.

But the side effects are horrible. The most recent drug by Virus, Inc., caused anxiety, sleep disturbances and depression, in addition to other.

PLEASE, stop even thinking about drugs. Think about the behavioral changes you need to make to get the weight off and keep it off.

It’s so interesting, in light of the article about the brain and hormones, to note that your friends have a HUGE influence on your weight.

I see it all the time. I used to have a lovely woman work in my office, and we watched her gain about 20+ pounds over a few years, and keep in mind, she’s working for a PERSONAL FITNESS TRAINING FIRM.

She was and is still very pretty. We didn’t understand. Then we met her friends. SHE was the lean one. The other girls were 50+ pounds overweight. She was only about 25. But that’s a big problem as these women were in their 20s. Can you imagine what will happen to them post childbirth and on???

Look at your friends. Then look at your weight. You may see some startling reasons why you struggle.

They are both HUGE. I’m sorry, as some of you don’t like when I say things like this, but Clay looks like a middle aged, overweight man, stuffed in a suit and tie on “The View” and Caroline was on “Regis” and, since she left “The Biggest Loser,” she, herself, is clearly NO LONGER a loser.

It disappoints me that these celebrities don’t role model. I’m sorry, they can live their own life, but it’s tough to see and tough on our kids, who now think that this “plus” size is the norm.

When I take from this article is GET ALL THE CRAP FOOD OUT OF SIGHT AND THEREFORE, OUT OF MIND.

It just makes sense to remove the temptation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704288204575363072381955744.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA

I would love to hear your thoughts.

PLEASE. Good Morning America just did a segment on the new drugs and the side effects are ridiculous, tingling in fingers, constipation, memory loss, possible heart issues (since one of the ingredients is old fashioned speed), etc.

Why do we need these drugs? They weren’t needed in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Americans started BALLOONING in size. What happened?

We ate to much. We didn’t move, at all. We embraced huge portions but most of all, we accepted obesity. We now think a size 14, the average size for most women, equates to an average sized woman. We supersized our food AND the size of clothes. A friend of mine wears Tommy Bahama shirts. He said that when he first bought one, about a decade ago, he was a large. Now he wears a small. He’s the same size. The shirts just got a whole lot bigger.

Thoughts?

You know how I rail on most vinaigrette, since it’s 3 parts oil and 1 part vinegar? Don’t even think of using it on your salad.

Well, try fat-free organic balsamic vinaigrette for the Maple Grove Farms of Vermont product called “Organics.”

It’s 5 calories for 2 tablespoons, it’s all organic and it tastes amazing!