A True Story of Binge Eating

Jane Brody used to be a binge eater. Her binging started when she was 23 years old. She could eat 3,000 calories in one sitting and often did. She's written a helpful article in NYT about her experience.

About one in every 35 people is estimated to be a binge eater. That's almost three percent of the population. Yet unlike anorexia or bulimia, binge eating is not considered a formal diagnosis.

A Daylight Savings Time Health Boost

Daylight Savings Time normally begins the first Sunday in April but this year it will start three weeks early, on March 11th. It will also go one week further in the fall, instead of ending the last Sunday in October it will now be the first Sunday in November.

This is great news for all people who enjoy outdoor fitness activities. We can now get in an extra hour of tennis, golf, soccer or any other sport or outdoor activity we enjoy. It's also very good news for the many people who suffer from mood disorders and depression due to a deficiency of sunlight or daylight.

The main reason for the change is to reduce global warming as people will need less lighting for one hour and the change is estimated to reduce greenhouse gases by one percent.

Belly Fat Liposuctions Will Not Improve Our Health

Belly fat is the most dangerous kind of fat in terms of serious health effects. On the photo here you see what just five pounds of fat would look like on your belly. The excess fat surrounds the organs and forces them to work harder.

Dr. Gonzalez-Campoy says "It is not the fat under the skin that really matters. It is the fat inside the abdominal cavity that matters. If you put this (5 pounds of fat) inside of your abdomen around your intestines, that's the fat that we really want to get after."

He says liposuction is not the answer. Liposuction only removes the fat just under the skin. It doesn't get rid of the fat deeper inside the abdomen. And this is the fat that leads to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

See the interesting video and interview of Dr. Gonzalez-Campoy by Angela Davis here.

A Size Twelve Hits the Catwalk

Everybody in the fashion industry is taking notice that one of the biggest department stores in London, John Lewis, has chosen a size 12 model to show off their summer swimwear collections on the catwalk.

The model is Lauren Moller. She is 5'8" and her measurements don't seem like size 12 at a 26 inch waist and 37.5 inch hips, but Lewis claims she is a size 12. She has a body mass index (BMI) of 19.8. Although they don't state her weight this BMI and height calculation would mean she weighs 130 pounds.

Apparently the typical catwalk model is 5'9" and weighs 110 pounds. That's a dangerously unhealthy BMI of 16.

This is the first time I've heard of a 130 pound 5'8" woman wearing size 12. I don't know much about British sizes but I am 5'9" (with big bones at that) and am quite sure that if I weighed 130 pounds like Lauren Moller I would be easily slinking into size 8 or lower.

Sarah Ferguson Used to Weigh 200 Pounds

Sarah Ferguson is now 47 years old. She is celebrating ten years as spokesperson for Weight Watchers. When she joined the Weight Watchers program in 1997 she was about '200 pound odd'. Weight Watchers has reportedly paid her millions of dollars per year since then. Ferguson says they saved her life. She first became fat at the age of 12 after her mother left the family.

Ferguson says that not only does she watch what she eats, she also does some exercise daily be it pilates, yoga, jogging or lifting weights.

She says "It's very, very difficult to keep focused and motivated. You have to learn to control the darkness in your mind. And you have to be honest with yourself about what your triggers [to overeat] are. Because if you don't, you'll choose food instead of anything else."

Bob Greene on How He Met Oprah

There is a good interview with Bob Greene on Bankrate. He tells the story of how he first met Oprah in 1992 when she weighed 237 pounds. At that time he didn't have a TV and he barely knew who she was. They hiked together at a spa resort that day and have been great friends ever since.

Fitness guru Bob Greene is the kind of guy who was reading nutritional magazines when he was a young kid. He remembers saying to his parents that they shouldn't be eating bacon for breakfast back when he was nine years old.

Bankrate asks him if Oprah is typical in her battle of the bulge. Greene replies;

I think she's typical of a fairly large majority of women and men whose major coping mechanism is food. When they're happy, they want to celebrate with food; when they're sad or feel a void in their life, food really fills it. They don't mistreat people. Everyone has coping mechanisms. You either mistreat people, you abuse alcohol or drugs or you overwork. We all have our thing that gets us past stressful moments, and hers is most definitely food. I think it is for a majority of people. It's the most socially acceptable.

A Mom Resolves to Lose 40 Pounds

Kris Robinson decided she wanted to lose weight this year. She has a history of diabetes in her family and felt it was time to begin moving her family's diet to healthier foods.

She started her diet and exercise plan on January 7th. She's lost 12 pounds already and would like to lose thirty more. She is working out on her new treadmill at home and has started to eat more legumes, nuts, brown rice and vegetables. She is trying to cut out the white flour and white sugar. Her family is eating whole wheat pasta for the first time.

In the process, she is already a size smaller and has gone out and bought a new pair of pants. This mom stopped wearing 'mom's jeans' a year ago;

I didn't know that there was a real distinction until I bought my first pair of 'sort of' low rise jeans. They weren't TOO low rise, just enough to sit below my belly button and look stylish. I have to admit, they were much more flattering than my other jeans. Then Payton (my 15 year old) said, "Cool, no more Mom jeans?"

"Huh?" I replied. What do you mean? "You know, those ones that come way up towards your chest, like Erkel? Those are Mom Jeans."

Smart ass.

Holy Crap! Had I become a Mom? Really, like an uncool Mom? Unbeknownst (?) to me, apparently, sadly, I had. I thought I was just resisting the trendiness in favor of a more classic look. How was I to know that the kids actually had something right this time with the low rise style? Like I said, they ARE more flattering. In the next several weeks I got more compliments than ever including "are you loosing weight?" Well, no, I'm just not wearing Mom Jeans anymore!

Check out her weight loss progress at her site at A Mom on a Mission.