Vitamin Water; Fast Track to Fat.

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A friend of mine is a fan of drinking Vitamin Water.  I was looking at the label and just astounded at how little this drink has to offer in terms of health and nutrition, and how much it offers to the contrary.

It’s an easy one from my perspective.

The first three ingredients are water, fructose and cane sugar, with a total sugars listed at 32 grams on the label.

I discuss at length in my program why this is an issue not only for people concerned about losing fat, but more importantly, why this can contribute greatly to poor health.

My friend who drinks this is almost six feet tall and approaching 300 pounds.

I also get a kick over how the label claims “”100% vitamin C.”

They use ascorbic acid as their vitamin C source, which I don’t have much problem with, but the Daily Value of vitamin C set by the powers-that-be is ridiculously low to maintain any real sense of health.  The levels set are primarily there to prevent scurvy, and little else.

Preferring to get my C from a natural source like Camu, we get over 1000%, ten times, the daily value of C in a very small serving, and in natural form, and with its myriad of sub-components found only in a natural food source, micronutrients of which our science doesn’t even yet understand, is surely a far superior way to get vitamin C over a sugar drink that labels itself in what I feel is a rather deceptive manner.

After all: Don’t most people associate vitamins with superior health?  That the proper intake of vitamins will likely lead to a greater sense of well-being, avoiding the pitfalls of malnourishment that are common even in well-fed societies?

Their is nothing wrong in my opinion with using vitamins for specific ailments, medicinally, if understood and used properly.

But to suggest that a sugar drink has something more to offer you than a whole food source or wholefood supplements (the vitamins in Vitamin Water are all lab-made) is silly…worst of all, misleading to the public who often does not know any better and places trust in what is being advertised on a mass scale as something that is actually beneficial and helpful to them.

Love, Happiness, Health and Peace………..Tim

How NOT to do Steroids:

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Just so we’re clear, I would not suggest anyone use steroids for any reason, just about ever, except under extra ordinary circumstances of need, such as in extreme cases of inflammation when organ failure may be imminent.  This is yet another great example of how western medicine has become severely abused; methods designed for effective worst-case trauma care, have instead become a standard of acceptable abuse, ranging from the overly prescribed travesty of antibiotics to the legalized virtual hand-out of pain killers occurring in doctors offices instead of on the street corner.

The below is a gross example of what happens to a body when steroids are used.  I know men at my gym who use them, and attempt to balance the use of them with other forms of hormonal enhancements, cycling their use and claiming that it’s safe to do so.

So many problems can arise from this kind of use/abuse, a list so long, that all that really needs to be asked is this:

“Does how this man looks below in this video, look healthy to you?”

 

News: Obesity Rates Expected to Bloat Even More.

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Stats from the CDC state that over one third of US adults remain obese.

A new projection states that by 2030, that will rise another nine percent, having us approach half of all Americans.

Stats have stabilized recently, since the 80‘s and 90‘s when people were gaining weight in huge numbers, (an effect almost everyone was conscious of if one simply looked around) but the trend still points towards an slow, ever-increasing rate as we move forward.

I used to visit my Grandmother in Syracuse back when she was alive in the late 90‘s, to take her out to the local malls, restaurant, etc on a very regular basis.  She had some physical challenges, so we would have to borrow wheelchairs either from the home she stayed at, or else at the mall on occasion to help get her around.  She was born in the 19-teens or so, and was very “old school” and opinionated.

She was also hard of hearing.

So when she wanted to comment on something, she would often say it very loudly, not realizing we could all hear her easily (even though she couldn’t hear us).  

Without exception, every trip we made to see her (and we would dread this when it happened) she would find a time to comment, out loud, about what she saw all around us…

“Evvvvvery-body is so FAAAAT!”

“Gramma, keep your voice DOWN!” we would scold her.

But she was right.

Mind you, she was about 40 pounds heavier than was healthy for her frame.

But that didn’t stop her from voicing her observations.

The most interesting stat from the CDC suggests that by that same time in 2030, the number of those severely overweight will literally *double*…those already obese will continue to put on the pounds.  This will impact our youth the most, as this projection applies to overweight kids and their tendency to continue to gain.

The lifestyle I teach is not “easy.”  It CAN’T be, because the western diet is now pervasive in almost every country in the world.  We are *used to* certain foods.

But therein lies the key.

Can you get *used to* a new way of living, a new lifestyle, if it afforded you the opportunity to lose that weight and keep it off permanently via that lifestyle?
Did any of us enjoy that cigarette we tried the first time, before we became hooked?

Or that shot of cheap whiskey?

(Really, who ever tried them and said “YUMMMM!”)

You can get used to anything.  Including a new choice in foods, a new range of activity, and a new mind set above it all.

Love, Happiness, Health and Peace……….Tim

Gym Vending Machine Weirdness.

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I’ve belonged to a few gyms over the years.

A few years back, a well-known national chain had a “juice bar” of sorts, where people could go before or after a workout to buy any range of pre-post workout protein drinks or similar.

I looked closely at the ingredients of some of these drinks, and was absolutely shocked at the sugar content.  The protein powders alone had loads of sugars or artificial sweeteners, and then they would ADD a fruit juice to the drinks, or canned fruits as well (canned fruits alone often use a sugar-syrup to add to the flavor punch) on top of that.

I knew the workers there.  They confided in me that the amount of sweeteners used in the drinks that they sorely overcharged for was off-the-charts.  That basically, the only people who should even be considering buying and drinking these things down were the competitive bodybuilders, and those in their *bulking stage only* as compared to any other phase of their training.

We agreed that most anyone else, should not be getting NEAR these drinks.  That these drinks would surely only add weight and/or fat, unless enough of a workout was had to compensate for the amount of calories, carbs/sugars and fats that were being ingested.

I once saw a person smoking outside the same gym, just outside the entrance door.

I wonder if she was a fan of aerobics.

Love, Happiness, Health and Peace…………..Tim

My Baby Food Choices are Easy

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Baby Food.

My stance on this is super-easy.

Organic baby foods are almost always clearly labeled as such.

I don’t have any children, but if I did, this is a no-brainer.

I’d want my child avoiding pesticides, antibiotics, fertilizers, hormones, genetically modified foods, additives, irradiation and the like. It seems obvious that an infant, of all humans, is likely to have the most difficulty with these kinds of additions to the food, and could be the most impacted by them.  Their developing bodies likely handle these issues in a much more delicate manner than an adults would, and on top of this, most baby foods are pureed, making the concentration of these additives potentially much higher.  An adult eating the whole fruit or vegetable in comparison is likely to have less of a toxic burden.

I would never want my child consuming anything outside of organic, except for those standards that are of course higher; knowing a local pesticide-free grower of foods (or growing myself) and making the baby food on my own as one option.

I would choose labels with “organic” over “made with organic ingredients,” for which the standards on the latter are a lower percentage of organic foods in the product.

The labels on most baby foods seem pretty clear about what you’re getting.  And for me, cost would not be an issue.  This is our babies health we are talking about, making the expense a total non-issue.

Easy choices on this topic.

Love, Happiness, Health and Peace……….Tim

Complaining at the Gym

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I don’t know exactly why so many people put effort into fat loss, but never really take the time to understand how their efforts may or may not apply to them, what techniques are most likely to help them the most, how muscle factors into their weight or how their time doing cardio may actually work against them.

I recently joined a new gym, a really spectacular gym in my area that is about three stories high, has a huge pool, and all the latest exercise equipment.  This gym has become so popular, that it is often very busy, especially on Mondays.  So much so, there is often a waiting list to get on the cardio machines, and people even have to sign in to access them at times.

It has a family-oriented atmosphere, which is what I like most about it.  I long attended gyms that were basically “meat markets,” and I’m just not into that whole scene.  Was never a bar/clubbing person, so similarly, I don’t enjoy the pick-up atmosphere.

I will constantly overhear people talking about their progress.  The things that they’re doing, and what they have to complain about (LOTS of complaints going around).

99% of the time I will not interject or offer any opinion.  I’m a very social person by nature, but it has been my experience that even if really great advice is offered, it often is not valued nor implemented.  I’m also an optimist, but in a cynical mood tonight, so I’ll simply say that it’s not worth my effort to bother any more.

So I don’t.

But that doesn’t cause me to be amazed any less at the endless complaints people voice, loudly enough to their friends or even strangers, while they clearly do not do what (they perhaps know?) they should do to lose the weight and/or fat they’re contending with.

I practice what I preach in my program, and always have.  In my sincere opinion, there are no real secrets to fat loss, simply a level of knowledge involved that is then applied to the individual situation, that will most of the time produce results.

Don’t get me wrong…I do complain at times. 😉  It can be a form of venting that provides temporary relief.

But then I actively *do* something about it.  And when it comes to weight/fat loss, since it is something that applies directly to us and 95%+ of the time *can* be changed with *our own* effort…it is an ideal means of building ourselves up beyond the need to complain, a mind set of which can then be applied to other areas of our lives.

Meaning…

It is one of those areas of our lives that we can actively work on, and see tangible results with.  This in turn will foster greater belief in ourselves, and a sense of accomplishment.  This mind set can then transfer to other areas of our lives that we struggle with, to help in the development of our overall humanity.

…Or at least I will continue to complain that it can.

😉

Love, Happiness, Health and Peace…………….Tim  🙂

P.S. Seriously folks…do go easy on yourselves, the fat loss game can be a challenge.  But so many of the people I meet who know they have a problem…ALSO know what to do about it, or at least enough to create dramatic change.  It’s the complaining about it while NOT doing anything that I have a problem with.  It gets the person no where, and does not contribute to a healthy way of life, of living.

Why I Don’t Eat Fish:

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Hey there, Tim/FacelessFatloss here…

People are always surprised to hear that I don’t eat fish, not even wild salmon.

I haven’t been able to for about three years now.  Used to be a part of my diet, after being a vegetarian (lact0-ovo) for over 15 years, and it worked well for me for a short time.

But I couldn’t figure out why I was getting headaches so readily, until I traced it to my fish consumption.  I rarely to never get headaches…so I knew whatever was causing them was traceable.

“Yes,” we all know salmon are supposed to be a great protein source as well as the healthy fatty acids, but even the wild caught varieties that are supposed to have minimal to no mercury, affect me. 

I am not claiming it’s any alleged mercury content in the fish that is causing the problem, but I’m stating that it is likely the case, or else it’s some other form of toxin.  I know what my body feels like, what symptoms I’m going  to experience, when I’m detoxing.  I experience these symptoms after even a little bit of fish.

The general rule is, the larger the fish (such as tuna, shark) the more toxins you will have to contend with.  The smaller fish such as sardines are supposed to be among the least toxic.  I used to eat them on occasion as well, out of those terribly stinky cans that they came in.

Can’t do any of them any more, but might give the sardines another try sometime.

One thing is certain:

I always used some form of chelation when eating fish, and if I ever eat fish again, I will amp up the chelation even more aggressively.  The best new ways of grabbing mercury are extremely effective…BUT…I don’t have any plans of eating fish again any time soon, and will very likely keep it out of my diet permanently at this point.  At least until a serious clean-up of our environment is undertaken and some conclusive proof exists that the wonderful fish in our seas are not being poisoned by industrialization on an on-going basis.

Tim

Sucralose/Splenda…The Sweet Deception?

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It has never been an issue for me.

If a sweetener is made in a lab, it ain’t goin’ in my gut…period.

And as it turns out, the gut may be the very WORST place it can possibly go, based on a Duke University study that is being touted in some mediums as applying to humans, while the tests were apparently based on rats.

(As an aside, do we really need to be doing these tests on animals with our lab-made poisons?  Sometimes I feel like I’m living in the age of barbarism).

I certainly did not need any rat studies to tell me that ingesting an artificial sweetener might not be good for me.

All I ever needed was the headaches I experienced whenever I *did* consume them to convince me they were poison.

The study concluded that Sucralose/Splenda is responsible for destroying the healthy bacteria in the rat’s gut.  Some reports as referenced are claiming this applies to humans as well.

And I wouldn’t doubt it for a second.

And this makes it one of the most destructive food additives imaginable.  The LAST thing people would want from their foods, is the “bonus” of having their immune system dismantled in the process.

On top of this, keep in mind that when the body tastes something sweet, the body wants and expects a real sugar to be entering the body so that it can make use of the much-needed glucose as a source of energy.  We’re taking in far too many sugars as is in the western world, but we still NEED *some* healthy natural sugars for survival, the brain and muscles depending dearly on glucose.

So if the body is not getting what it wants from the sweet we’ve just eaten, what is it going to crave?

…It will crave what it wanted and expected.

Often resulting in the person eating MORE food to find it.

I personally don’t believe man is capable of building foods that could be more healthy or better for the body than what nature provides.

But that’s just me.

BUT, I think I demonstrate pretty well what the results of what eating what nature provides can do for a body.

Love, Happiness, Health and Peace…………..Tim

The hCG Diet; Now Proven to Not Work.

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The hCG diet has been around for decades now, and recently both Dr. Oz and the International Journal of Obesity have made public statements that it simply does not work, and worse, may even be dangerous.

The focus with the hCG diet has been ultra-low calories along with human chorionic gonadoptropin (hCG), the latter of which can cost up to $1000 a month.  Unfortunately, there is little evidence it works, and more importantly, little to nothing supporting its safety.

The latter of which is crucial; it always drives me nuts when people are willing to mess around with their endocrine system, and take hormones into the body without considering the consequences. 

Sure, many people use various hormones for long periods of time seemingly without side effects, but it is an option that should always be taken with extreme consideration.  All too often I’ve watched people use hormones, only to be faced with very serious illness issues within a short time of use.  These risks are often explained to the patient, but are too often not taken seriously enough by that same patient.  There are certain problems we just do not want to contend with…but unfortunately learn the hard way how much we do not want these problems, only when they actually happen to us.

Another problem with the hCG diet was that people were purchasing the hormone from the internet.

We all get spammed to death by email for prescription erectile dysfunction enhancers, and all sorts of endless prescription drugs at drastically reduced prices.

These are knock-off compounds that often carry the risk of contamination and worse.

On top of this, even genuine HCG increases the risk of gynecomastia (breast tissue development in men) and male breast cancer.

I teach basic principles that work for the great majority of people.  It simply takes some effort and discipline.  We ALL know this is what is required to obtain superior health and a great body.  There are no shortcuts…but by the same token, it’s not as terribly difficult as people often thing, AND…it is EXTREMELY rewarding.

Love, Happiness, Health and Peace…………Tim

Woman Dies from Drinking Coca-Cola? Very Possibly…”Yes.”

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Hi folks, Tim, aka FacelessFatloss here…

A news item that hit yesterday out of New Zealand is claiming that a woman died from drinking too much Coke.  Apparently she was drinking two gallons worth a day of the stuff.

It’s not too far from being realistic…not at all.  But the problem I have with it is how it will be addressed in the media, and how the story will be spun by the people at Coke.

Right now, they are claiming that ANYTHING you take too much of, including water, can kill you.

This is true.

But what is NOT covered, are all of the ingredients, in fact MOST of the ingredients in this product, and how destructive to most people’s health they can be.

The High Fructose Corn Syrup issue is an on-going one, whereby the corn industry will, for as long as possible, continue with their public service campaigns featuring an attractive, pleasant-looking and pleasant-demeanored actor assuring the audience that corn syrup is just fine, because it comes from corn, and we eat corn, and no one is dying, so all must be well, right?

They have begun to hint in SOME of the ads, but not all, that “in small amounts,” it’s perfectly safe. 

And to an extent, this may be true.

But THEN we really need to know how “safe” is defined.

After all, ingesting a little of many known poisons is considered “safe” by the standards set by the FDA…but what is not explained, nor researched (nor can it be due to the lengths of time it would require to study…a person’s entire lifetime)…is how the accumulation of these poisons racks up in the person’s biology, and in doing so, can be accountable for any of a great range of symptoms of illness; while conveniently being untraceable as a cause.

Please re-read that.

This is also designed into the laws that support these products to enable a robust economy and constant perpetuation of money movement, which the system depends upon as a debt-based machine.  (Everything we do is relegated to commerce in some way, and this is done on purpose, and by design; because where ever there is commerce, the government can and does involve themselves.  This would be a good thing, if only government was more responsible and less corrupt, which most people recognize is the way of things now and has been for a very long time).

So sure, HFCS may come into play here.

But will references be made to the phosphoric acid in Coke, or how carbonation of our drinks causes a carbonic acid condition in the body that lends itself to possible lowered blood pH levels, out of the alkaline ranges and more into the acidic ranges?

There isn’t a lot of variance in blood pH levels that is tolerable by the body.  And the body DOES have compensation mechanisms to help keep the blood in a healthy range (death results otherwise).

But this also creates a huge burden on the body to do so, possibly robbing minerals from bones and other sources to accomplish the task, and in this process, degrading the health of the person incrementally in ways that again, may never be traced back to the soft drink as the source of problems.

I choose to stay away from all soft drinks, and I cover even more reasons why in my program.

Love, Happiness, Health and Peace……………..Tim