A Penne for Your Thoughts: Blandom Rog Day
By 6wd | March 20, 2008
Okay, it’s down to these finalists for today’s title:
A Penne for Your Thoughts (as in penne pasta, yeah?)
Thought for Food
Thood for Fought
I Fought the Thood and the Thood Won
So, yeah. Titles for random blogs…them’s they.
Anyway, according to my calendar, it’s Blandom Rog day, so I’m going to blandomly rog about a couple of things.
First, did you know that less than one tablespoon of HORSERADISH has TEN TIMES the beneficial substance (glucosinolate) as does broccoli or any other cruciferous vegetable, all of which are so highly recommended specifically because of their glucosinolate content?
And that the substance in horseradish works best when pulverized–exactly as it is in horseradish sauce?
And that that same substance is so powerful that it has REVERSED the growth of cancerous tumors in scientific tests, and being looked at as a potential anti-cancer drug?
I eat horseradish every night by mixing a teaspoon full into ketchup and using that as a dip for my raw vegetables. It tastes SO GOOD (it’s the same sauce most people use for dipping boiled shrimp) and has almost zero calories.
Next blandom rog topic: Absolute truth versus relative truth (I TOLD you there would be thood for fought in this blog!)
Absolutist: There is such a thing as absolute truth.
Relativist: There might be for you, but there’s not for me.
Absolutist: No, I mean, there’s absolute truth that applies not just to me, but to you, too.
Relativist: Could be true for you, but that’s not true for me.
Absolutist (starting to freak out): Do you UNDERSTAND ME? There is absolute truth that applies to everyone everywhere at all times whether they believe in it or not!
Relativist: True for you, but not for me.
Credit for the above and below: Robert Nozick Invariances
Ever had one of these conversations? If you’re the absolutist, it’s frustrating.
And of course ANY relativist can be shut down by the following:
Relativist: All truth is relative.
Absolutist: Are you saying that the statement you just made is absolutely true? Because if so, you just admitted the existence of absolute truth. Your position is therefore philosophically “unstable.”
Well, Robert Nozick liked thinking and writing about these things. And being the comical genius that he was, he decided to look behind this kind of interchange and to wonder: Why is that some people WANT the truth to be relative, while others want the truth to be absolute? And which people want which?
So he started asking his students two questions: Do you believe truth is relative or absolute? And which do you WANT truth to be: relative or absolute?
In so doing, he made an amazing discovery about truth and about the people who take one or the other position in regard to truth (believing either that it’s relative or that it’s absolute).
He began to see that truth works one of two ways: Either the truth makes it HARDER for some people to achieve their goals; or the truth makes it EASIER for some people to achieve their goals.
In other words, if you and the truth butt heads, and you’re not achieving your goals and the real reason you’re not is because the truth and the facts are keeping you from doing so, then you find truth “constricting”.
But if you are the other kind of person–the person who faces truth and accepts it, and then USES the truth as a stepladder or platform to attain the goals you want to attain (not ALL the things you want, but in general, to succeed often at achieving your goals), then you find the truth to be “enabling.”
He found that the people who found truth to be constricting were the people who began to claim that all truth was relative. They didn’t like the truth because it thwarted their goals and desires, and rather than change themselves to fit with truth, they began to try to change the effect truth was having on them–not by trying to change truth, because they couldnt do that–but instead by stating that truth was relative. This gave these people a feeling of freedom, because they were no long constrained, they felt, by the truth. The truth lost its authority over them, and they had escaped the truth, they felt, by stating that it was only relative. These people, sociologically, tended to find other people who called truth relative. This gave them comfort. These others also tended to be people who could not achieve their goals. And they tended to be people in groups which were “subordinate” to the more powerful groups in society. In general, their modus operandi was not to stop failing, because they couldn’t do that in the face of obdurate truth, but they stopped their PERCEPTION of themselves having failed by changing the rules into whatever allowed them to create a perception in which they were “winners” under the new relative truth they created.
Similarly, he found that the people who had used truth and facts to achieve their goals, such as by avoiding pitfalls, or by submitting to facts and acting accordingly, were the people who considered truth to be absolute.
His quote: “So which is the true character of facts, constraining or enabling? Clearly facts have both aspects. (Rationality, too, can be seen as a constraint or an enabling means). If generally you are achieving your important goals, achieving them well enough, even if not perfectly or optimally, if there are paths leading out from your actions that enable you to reach your level of aspiration, then you will view facts, in general, as enabling. If there are no such paths, however, then facts will appear to you mainly as constraining. Whether people welcome or oppose relativist doctrines depends, I conjecture, upon which of the two situations they are in. According to this explanation, the desire that truth be absolute arises from satisfaction with the particular truths that are believed to hold, and the desire that truth be relative stems from dissatisfaction with particular truths. The philosophical preference for absolutism or relativism, then, is a derivative one.”
So which situation are YOU in today?
And how, you may ask, does this apply to dieting?
It applies like this: If you are a person who wants to know the truth and the facts about weight, and you believe that fat is bad and trim is good, you will search out the truth about how eating relates to weight, and you will follow the truth in your choices, so as to reach your goal of trimness, which you acknowledge is a good thing.
On the other hand, if you are a relativist about weight, and you simply cannot be obedient to the facts about how what you eat relates to your trimness or fatness, (you can’t even begin to stop eating the things that make you fat), then in order to protect yourself from looking like a failure at weight loss, you will begin to let go of the concept that fat is bad and trim is good. You will begin to say that whether fat is good or bad is only RELATIVE , and that while some people may think fat is bad, other people believe that fat is good. And then you stay overweight, and you join the “Fat is Beautiful and Thin is for Stupid Conformists” club, and in so doing, you just revealed some very telling things about yourself.
And does failing at a diet mean that you are a relativist about weight? Absolutely not. If you believe the facts about fat versus trim, even if you can’t DO it all correctly or even at all, you’re not a relativist. You’re a person who believes the truth, and just has trouble following it.
A relativist is a person who fails, like we all do at times, but rather than admitting that they failed, they simply start claiming that the facts aren’t actually facts, but are relative, and that each person can make up her own facts.
This holds true across the board in life, of course.
If someone with great authority comes along and says, “Here’s a way to live that is consistent with truth,” the people who believe it and try and, to SOME degree, succeed in following those rules, even though they also fail at it every day–those people are people who give honor to truth, who recognize truth, and who honestly acknowledge the truth, even if they don’t like that truth. And even if they don’t succeed in their actions, they have succeeded at truth by recognizing it and admitting that it IS truth, EVEN IF they cannot follow it very well. Kind of like winning by faith, and not by being perfect in your works.
But if another person finds themselves constrained by that true way of living, so that their desires aren’t being met–in a big way–and if they are people to whom truth and honesty aren’t as important as is their getting ahead or looking good to themselves and others, then they will simply throw out the truth because the truth makes them look bad. And they will begin to say that truth is relative.
And even though both groups may fail at following that truth, the difference between them is that the first group admitted that it was THEIR failure, and not the failure of the truth to be true. But the second group didn’t have the integrity to admit their own fault, so instead, they threw out the truth. And they did that by proclaiming it to be “relative.”
Relativist, after reading this blog: The points you make in your blog are all fine and dandy, and they might be true for YOU. But they aren’t true for ME.
Hmmmmmm. I wonder why you say that.
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Arrested Dogvelopment
By Beth | March 16, 2008
I’m putting my dog on the Six Word Diet.
He’s a Boston Terrier, and I never knew this, but Boston Terriers are born with appetites that would rival Chastity Bono’s.
I feel sorry for the little guy. It must be horrible to be hungry all day long.
When I first got him, I didn’t realize that he was incapable of feeling satiated. No matter how much food I gave him, it had no effect whatsoever.
I felt not only sorry for HIM, but frustrated at being unable to have any impact on his problem–probably the way George Bush’s speech tutor feels when they work on the word “nuclear.”
One night, when I was cleaning up the kitchen after a fried chicken and rice and gravy dinner I had made for 5 guests, I looked over and (true story!) he had crawled all the way inside the dishwasher and was hiding in the back of it, licking gravy and butter off of all the dirty plates I had just put in there.
The final blow came one morning when, AFTER I had fed him his kibble, then a few slices of hot dog, then a piece of bacon, then the end of a buttermilk biscuit, then let him lick my peanut butter spoon, then indulged him with two baby carrots and a little pile of grated cheddar, he sneaked downstairs and stood up on a shelf and pulled down the entire 40-pound dog food bag.
When I noticed that things were abnormally quiet, AND that there was an abnormal crunching sound coming from the pantry, I looked in, only to discover that he had gotten the dog food bag open and was standing entirely INSIDE OF IT, with only his back legs sticking out, sucking down kibble, hell for leather, as they say in the south.
When I dragged him out of the bag, his girth actually appeared to exceed his length, and I swear the little stinker was grinning. I’m sure that pulling off a stunt like that made him feel like Tim flippin Robbins in the (warning! spoiler!) final scene of Shawshank Redemption.
Anyway, I don’t want him to plump up for life like my now-deceased Yorkshire Terrier, who was so fat when he died that I’m sure the Rainbow Bridge collapsed when he tried to cross it.
So I thought for a while about how I could make sure my little Boston’s path to greatness would slow down, and make sure he could get trim and stay trim for life.
That’s when I got the idea of putting him on the Six Word Diet.
And, no, I don’t mean he should eat 100 calories of anything he wants, every 90 minutes. (Oops. He got mad at me after I wrote that last line, because after the line before it, he had begun to imagine that his life was about to become some kind of islamic paradise, only instead of the 70 virgins, he was seeing 70 eternally stocked hot dog stands.)
What I mean is that I will take his normal daily quotient of food, and divide it into lots of smaller meals, and feed him those over the day, instead of giving it to him in one big pile in the afternoon.
What if it works?
I don’t see how it could hurt the dog in any way, and how great would it be if it were that easy to svelticize all the fat dogs in the world? Creating thousands of Tim Gunns where there were once only Michael Moores.
Anyway, I’m doing it. And I’ll let you know how it works. I have a lot of hope.
But now that I’ve made this decision, my little Boston has officially stopped speaking to me.
That’s okay, though.
I probably couldn’t understand him anyway, with that mouth full of penne pasta he just stole out of the garbage can.
Disclaimer
Okay, I’m so used to typing out disclaimers when I write about the Six Word Diet that I almost went: Always check with your veterinarian before you put your pet on this or any other….wait. No, actually I SHOULD include a veterinarian-based disclaimer. For one thing, I don’t want to get sued if you try this and your dog goes Karen Carpenter on you, nor do I wish to receive hate mail after someone tries this on a canary.
And for another thing, perhaps by sending everyone with a fat dog to a veterinarian (which would be 97 percent of all American dog owners), maybe I’ll get a nice kickback on my bill the next time I go to a vet because of my Boston’s having gotten into the 18-pound jar of cheeze whiz I accidentally left sitting out on the table, and my being unable to figure out how to get that little orange smirk off its face.
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Releasing your Inner Smart*ss
By 6wd | March 7, 2008
When I use–or ALMOST use–the a-word in that title, I’m referring to an intelligent donkey, not to a body part. I live in the (James Earl Jones voice here) DEEP SOUTH, where you don’t use words like that without carefully ’splainin yo foooo seff. Or inserting an asterisk over a vowel. Or should I say *sterisk?
But I regress.
Okay, so you’re in a restaurant, right? You’re there with close family or medium-close friends or really-not-that-close-at-all office pals (the farther your relationship distance from your dining companions, the greater the chance you’ll need these weapons with which I’m about to equip you).
Comes time to order.
They go first.
They order NOT by considerations of health, but by considerations of whatever the heck looks good to them on the menu.
Cheesy mayonnaisse-sour cream sauce over fried pork rinds with (choice of 3 sides)–lard-fried beans, creamy bacon-butter noodles, and cheddar-beef batter-dipped onion rings. Bread choice? Um, banana muffins, extra butter on the side.
And a diet coke. Yeah.
Your turn.
“I’ll have the house salad with the dressing on the side.”
Waitress (EVERY time): “And?”
You: “And nothing. That’s all.”
Your dining companions: “But what are you having to EAT?”
You: “Just the salad.”
Waitress AND dining companions: Wordlessly stare at you. Three seconds of clumsy silence.
You: Shrug, smiling weakly back at them. Feel the embarrassment start creeping up your neck. Drop eye contact down to the location of your silverware. Study fork prongs as you meekly hand menu back to waitress.
AND HERE’S WHERE IT BEGINS.
“Is that ALL you’re having for LUNCH?” “That’s your LUNCH?” “That’s not a LUNCH.” “Is this some kind of new DIET?” “Can’t you just get a cheeseburger and take the bread off?” “You’re saving room for the cocoa-rum-butter cheeesecake, right?”"You can have some of my fries.”
And THIS is why so many of us (me, too!) cringe when we have to eat in restaurants. Because our dining companions are not just, well, inconSIDerate, but they are displaying all the symptoms of the extreeeeeemely common psychological disease I call…
Pigorexia You’vegotcher Nervosa.
This disease is characterized by an overwhelming need to calm one’s own guilt about eating like Kirstie Alley in a Fettucini Alfredo factory.
The victims of pigorexia have consciences that lie dormant as long as everyone around them is consuming either butter, gravy, or cheese burritos.
But should one brave soul, sitting amongst these pigorexics, choose to eat intelligently, the pigorexic conscience is kicked out of its sleep, and awakes with a vengeance.
It knows only two modes of operation.
One is to attempt to equalize the dining errors among everyone at the table by seeing to it that no one at the table is innocent of self-destructive menu selections.
The other mode is to use lame statements to attempt to punish and/or shame the intelligent diner by suggesting that they are making stupid food choices. Or that the person eating CORRECTLY is the one being rude, by waking the consciences of all the pigorexics at the table.
So what do you do?
Well, you can either practice your patience, your humility, your forgiveness, or your ability to make rational decisions when everyone else is doing cartwheels down the nutball lane.
OR
You can simply release your inner smart*ss.
Oh, all right. I’ve never had the nerve to do this one. But I’m going to tell you some things I’ve WANTED to say.
The scenario would be that they’re in the middle of their Raymond Burr-ito megalunch, and you’re in the middle of your salad.
Pigorexic: I don’t think you’re eating enough.
You: Really? Well, I think YOU’RE eating enough…For a family of six.
Pigorexic: How long do you think that little salad is going to stay in your stomach?
You: Not as long as that cheesecake is going to stay on your thighs.
Pigorexic: If you’re going to eat a meal like THAT, what’s the point of coming to a nice restaurant?
You: If you’re going to eat a meal like THAT, what’s the point of ordering a diet coke?
Pigorexic: Why are you trying to lose weight anyway? I certainly wouldn’t enjoy walking around with a body that looked like a skinny little stick.
You: I certainly wouldn’t enjoy walking around with a cholesterol level that triggered containment measures by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Well, you get the point.
When I’ve thought up a few more Weapons of Pigorexic Destruction, I’ll post them.
Till then, have fun in your next restaurant. And PLEASE remember the actual comments you hear, and send them to me. It will help us build up our artillery of intelligent donkey replies.
Even if we’re not brave enough to actually SAY them.
We can still THINK them.
And thinking them goes really well with a side s*l*d.
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Divorcing Your Scale: The Final Addiction
By 6wd | February 13, 2008
[Okay. Start with a huge orchestra playing dark, low, minor chords…..and then bring in one of those scary choirs they always have in scary movies, where they bark out little “AH”(pause)”AH” (pause) “AH” (pause) “AH” things that make you KNOW that, like, Rosemary is about to have her baby, and such……
Got the soundtrack going?
Okay, now add the low, gravel voice of James Earl Jones, saying…..]
“Sooooooooooo…you’ve beaten back all your addictions now, you say? The final frontier was overcoming overeating? Goooooood. Gooooooood.”
[He talks all spooky like that, but cool at the same time, right? He continues…..]
“But nowwwwwwwwww….NOWWWWWWWW it’s time to take the final step on your journey to freedommmmmmmmm………
“It is time……………..
“to…….
“DIVORCE YOUR SCALE!”
[Choir goes wild with the Ah-ah-ah thing, and the orchestra music swells…]
“Your addiction to your scale is the true final battle you must engage in, on your way to complete freedom, complete power over your fears, complete control of your emotions and actions, by the power of…YOUR OWN MIND…”
[Yikes. Maybe I better fire James Earl Jones. He’s starting to sound like Darth Vader! But it’s too late to get Jerry Seinfeld to do this speech, so Jones will have to continue.]
“Think back, oh earthlings!” [Wait. He’s an earthling too, isnt he????]
“Think BACK, I say……..and call to mind….HOW MANY DIETS HAVE YOU GIVEN UP ON IN TOTAL DISCOURAGEMENT………..BECAUSE OF SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED ON YOUR SCALE?????? A LITTLE NUMBER that appeared, a number that surprised you, a number that depressed you, a number that you didn’t think was fair, a number that left you feeling angry, defeated, and WORST OF ALL………….HOPELESS!
“Even worse, perhaps……… How many mornings–or even entire DAYS–of your precious life have you allowed to be destroyed by ONE ITEM THAT IS IN YOUR HOME…..YOUR SCALE!
“Sadly enough, the number you saw on that scale may not have been telling you what you THOUGHT it was telling you! You THOUGHT it was giving you a report on how well you had done your diet! But the scale was NOT telling you that. It was telling you how much salt you ate yesterday, how much water the salt was retaining inside you, how much muscle you had added by your new exercise program, or it was telling you that your body has a built-in procedure for losing weight over a long period of time…plateaus…. where your body just holds on to its weight, even though you are actually shrinking.
“But YOU in your excited mindset, expected the scale to tell you that you had stayed on your diet, because you knew you HAD stayed on your diet!
“And when you saw the number that the scale gave you, you said to yourself, [Let’s use the voice of Spongebob Squarepants for comic relief here] ‘Well, the heck with it! If I can try THIS hard, and all for nothing, why should I keep trying?! I’m just a born not-loser! I could be having a lot more joy in my life if I were eating, but here I’m suffering like this, and LOOK AT THAT NUMBER! IT’S ALL FOR NOTHING!‘ you say.
“When this happens, YOU HAVE FALLEN VICTIM TO THE DISORDER KNOWN AS…
SSO: SCALE SCREW-OVER!
“Your scale has screwed over your valiant courage, your hard work, your struggle toward dominance over your appetites…SSO makes you say
‘SSO WWHAT!’
“at which point you give up and are doomed.
“But there’s good news…..”
[Orchestra music starts to get a little more cheerful. Choir starts to sound a little more like Mister Rogers Neighborhood and a little less like Night of the Living Dead…]
[Suddenly, in walks Jerry Seinfeld, and James Earl Jones goes out for coffee…things lighten up. Jerry continues the speech.]
“Hey everybody. If YOU’RE suffering from SSO, I’m here to tell you that there is only ONE SOLUTION….
DIVORCE YOUR SCALE!
“GET THAT SCALE OUT OF YOUR LIFE! SCALES HAVE RUINED MORE DIETS THAN ALL CANDY BARS, CAKES, AND COOKIES COMBINED!
“You must either throw it away entirely, or give it to a family member, ask them to hide it, and to only give it to you when you absolutely demand it–which should be six months from now, at least! Yes, you heard me right!
“From this day forward, you will use one pair of jeans, or one piece of clothing as your ONLY measure of progress!
“Your weight loss goal will NO LONGER BE A NUMBER BUT A CLOTHING SIZE!
[At this point, the orchestra has swelled into a crescendo of Beethoven’s 9th, and the choir is belting out a final chord so high only dogs can hear it. The crowd is on its feet, cheering, screaming. Jerry takes a bow. The red velvet curtain slowly falls. It hit James Earl Jones on the head as he returns from Starbuck’s. No one cares. Everyone is rushing home to……]
DIVORCE THEIR SCALES!
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Yes: 1200 calories a day CAN be safe!
By 6wd | February 11, 2008
There are two things I love.
One is when people who have not read the Six Word Diet mini-manual feel free to pontificate about its flaws.
Love it, love it, love it.
Another is when people who have not read the New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association, the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, the Annals of Internal Medicine, Canadian Medical Association Journal on a regular basis for YEARS bust out authoritative statements to the effect that people cannot–notice they don’t say MAY not, but CANNOT–get adequate nutrition on 1200 calories a day.
Look. I am very well educated. I read nutrition studies like some people read People magazine. Does it seem likely that I would just make up some random number of calories and pretend like it’s an okay number of calories, without having done my HOMEWORK? Without having studied medical journals for decades?
People CAN get adequate nutrition on 1200 calories a day.
I didn’t say everyone WILL, if they eat trash all day long. But if they know the basics, and follow the recommendations in the book, and most importantly, if they actually DO check with their doctor for advice about how to adapt the diet to their own needs, then people CAN get adequate nutrition.
And if 1200 calories isn’t right for you, your doctor would have told you. The very first page of the Six Word Diet (for the smack-talkers who didn’t bother to read it) states that you should talk to your doctor before you start any diet. Your doctor will not only advise you on the number of calories you need, but will almost certainly give you information on how to get nutrition with those calories.
What? Do I hear the question, “What if my doctor tells me to eat 2000 calories per day?”
You can STILL do the Six Word Diet!
Cliff Note number two for the naysayers you encounter who diss the diet without reading it: The number one feature of the Six Word Diet is that it is adaptable to everyone in every situation: calories can be adjusted by gender, exercise level, work situation, hours of sleep, and much more. See if “How to Modify the Six Word Diet” is not one of the main informational articles on the educational forum.
Next, to my beloved naysayers: Ever heard of a logical fallacy? A logical fallacy is when you assert a fact that is built on faulty logic.
Let’s look at one.
“You cannot get adequate nutrition on 1200 calories a day.”
Well, apart from the fact that that is patently FALSE, let’s look at the underlying logic.
Might this person be saying that the more calories you eat, the better nutrition you will intake?
Um….yyyyyyyeah……go sit at your local McDonald’s and watch all the healthy people waddling around with their healthy kids. They’re eating more than 1200 calories in one MEAL. Good nutrition, yes?
Uh, not so fast there with the head nodding.
Look, people who rip on the diet without reading it–or at least without reading the latest medical research on nutrition which, by the way, has stood old research on its head, so that if you got your bachelors degree out of books that were written in the 1960s, time to go back to school, hun…but as I was saying, the New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article (oh yeah, the author has an MD and a PhD, before you rip HIM) which stated that…
by the middle of this century, more people will diet of obesity than from all cancers combined.
Yeah.
So if we have finally designed a diet that can save THAT many lives, WHILE utilizing the latest research in calorie counting, AND recommending the latest methods for getting proper nutrition, AND which advises you to go to your doctor to tailor the diet to your needs, AND which features TAILORING THE DIET TO YOUR NEEDS as one of its main tenets, AND which has its practitioners stating repeatedly in writing on its forum that they have never eaten so many fruits and vegetables and low fat proteins in their lives while losing weight (reversing death sentences) at an unprecedented rate….
Then why diss it?
Instead, why not hop on the scale and make sure YOU are at the recommended weight for your body (based on the latest medical recommendations) and if not, grab a copy of the Six Word Diet and take authority over the things that are killing you.
But then, that would require a little up to date medical research.
And we wouldn’t want to suggest that you enter the realm of fact.
Or anything.
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Six Word Diet: We are already beautiful
By Beth | January 27, 2008
We call ourselves Sixers, those of us women–sisters, really–who are on the same Six Word Diet journey to get rid of fat and be free of it forever.
And we just want to point out one point.
We aren’t doing this because we don’t think we are beautiful already.
We are already beautiful.
We even tell each other so! Because it’s true.
And the reason we Sixer sisters (and brothers, too!) are on the Six Word Diet is not to be beautiful, though that would be a pleasant side effect, but rather because we want to be healthy, and we want to be the ones in charge of how large we choose to be. However large that is or isn’t.
Us in charge.
Not our lack of knowledge in charge.
Not the unavailability of any other decent diet in charge.
Not our inability to afford expensive weight loss money making machines in charge.
But us in charge. Us.
We decide our size.
And we pick up the tools to get the job done.
The Six Word Diet is the tool we’ve chosen, and we’re on our way.
But we just wanted to make that clear.
We’re not on this diet because we don’t think we’re beautiful right now.
Because all of us on the Six Word Diet: we are already beautiful.
Right now.
Just like we are.
Beautiful.
Damn straight we are.
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Six Word Diet loves Oprah Winfrey
By Beth | January 27, 2008
Oprah Winfrey’s Favorites List: Six Word Diet at the top? I’m believing for it!
There are so many reasons Oprah is going to love the Six Word Diet once she hears about it!
First, it’s such a simple solution to a worldwide catastrophe! Oprah truly cares about her viewers and about women in general. And Oprah knows the pain and the deathly dangers of obesity, and Oprah knows that her viewers, like any cross section of America, probably include many obese women who are grieved that they cannot find a way to lose their weight. When Oprah finds out that the Six Word Diet offers SUCH a simple answer to questions such as: How can I lose weight? How can I lose weight safely? How can I lose weight and not be hungry? How can I lose weight fast? How can I lose weight easily without needing an Excel spread sheet to figure out all the rules? How can I lose weight on a plan that opens my eyes to my habits, and allows me a simple way to stay skinny forever, because it’s so easy, and so pleasant, and so effective!?– she is going to
FLIP RIGHT OUT!
Second, Oprah is going to LOVE the fact that the Six Word Diet is just a grass roots movement, operating on a small scale, woman to woman, but spreading around the globe! Oprah will love the fact that this diet is SO CHEAP that anyone anywhere can afford it–as cheap as 99 cents for the entire booklet in some cases! Oprah will love the justice of that. Because the Six Word Diet is something that everyone can afford, not just the Starbuck’s crowd that frequents every Barnes and Noble, and when Oprah finds this out, she is going to
FLIP RIGHT OUT!
Finally, Oprah Winfrey is going to love the way the Six Word Diet has formed into a community of warm and loving women (some men, too!) from all over the planet, who are meeting each other on our unique international forum, and are making friends , and finding–on a daily basis!– the support and love and encouragement and ideas and answers that are so supremely important to the success of a diet. When Oprah finds out about that, she is going to
FLIP RIGHT OUT.
Oprah Winfrey! Find us! We need you to help us get the word out, and make a simple little program into the escape key for a world full of people in bondage to their bodies–all because they don’t know how simple their escape can really be.
As simple as the Six Word Diet. With your help, of course.
Oprah! Love to you from all the Sixers! We’ll be posting to you again, trying to reach across the world and touch your heart through cyberspace.
And if one day, by some miracle, we ever really do make contact with you, we will be so happy that I think we will all
FLIP RIGHT OUT.
Happy shrinking to all,
Beth
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Why the Six Word Diet can fix the world
By Beth | January 27, 2008
I’m not kidding when I say that the Six Word Diet can fix the world.
Global Fattening has become just as big an issue as Global Warming–maybe even bigger, because Global Fattening can kill so so many people so quickly and so directly, whereas Global Warming, while potentially equally threatening, is not expected to start wiping out human life THIS YEAR as is the obesity epidemic.
Global Fattening is ALREADY wiping out human life by the thousands, all over the planet every day!
The New England Journal of Medicine carried an article in December of 2007 which stated that by mid-century, obesity will kill more people than all cancers combined.
The article even stated that the worldwide obesity epidemic that I’m calling Global Fattening was comparable to Global Warming, only that the obesity epidemic could potentially have simple answers, whereas Global Warming would be much more complex to resolve.
Simple answers.
Yep.
The answer to Global Fattening can’t get much simpler than a formula that can be stated in six words: Eat 100 calories every 90 minutes.
Six Word Diet.
Ready to fix the world.
Topics: weight gain | No Comments »
Why did I gain weight? I never cheated on the diet, and I exercise daily!
By Beth | January 21, 2008
Q: Help! I gained 6 pounds today, and I know I didn’t cheat on the diet! Not only that, but I exercise every day, too. What is going on? How could I GAIN weight eating a low calorie diet?
A: I’m sure you already know that what you’re experiencing is normal, and that, by way of comfort, you definitely did NOT gain six pounds of FAT. In order to do that, you would have had to eat 21,000 MORE CALORIES than you burned, since one pound equals 3,500 calories. And 3,500 times 6 is 21,000. You probably haven’t even eaten 21,000 calories in a whole week!
And there is definitely no way you ate 21,000 more calories than you burned.
Thus there is NO WAY that those pounds are fat pounds.
It has calmed me down to remember this many times when, for a second, I saw the scale had gone up, and thought I had gained fat, but there was a different cause for what the scale said.
It’s fun, also, to know that when I did an internet search, in just my first search, I found 2,710 pages on which a person on a diet and who was exercising had gained weight, couldn’t believe it, and was reminded by others that weight gain in that situation cannot scientifically be fat, and is almost certainly attributable to muscle gain AND water gain, combined. (A couple of those links are at the end of this post.)
One thing everyone should remember is that it is FAR more important to judge what is happening to your body by using ONE pair of jeans, so you can keep track of how baggy they get. Use them all the way to the end of the diet. They are a delightful way to see your progress!
Jeans don’t lie, but scales do!
If I made a list of the 5 biggest things to watch out for (and if anyone wants to add to this, I might include this in my next 6WD edition):
ANYONE ON ANY DIET SHOULD ALWAYS WATCH OUT FOR:
DANGER NUMBER 1.
Trusting scales more than trusting jeans.
Scales giving us only ONE number, while they are actually measuring THREE things: fat, muscle, water. We get the one number, but the scale doesn’t tell us whether it is reporting our water content, our muscle content or our fat content. This is why scales can be dangerous. Jeans just give the size.
DANGER NUMBER 2.
Forgetting that what we are really trying to achieve is a SIZE DECREASE.
The weight number is just a way to see if our size has decreased. Think about it this way: would we care if we weighed ten thousand pounds, if we were wearing a size 8? No, we wouldnt! And would we like it if we weighed 125 pounds, but were still wearing a size 28W? No, we wouldn’t! So the reality is that on a diet what we actually want to lose is SIZE. The weight is just a second-hand way of determining whether our size has decreased or not. Instead of second-hand information, which is what we get from the scale, if we want to know our size, we should measure our size. Use jeans!
DANGER NUMBER 3.
Weighing too often.
Our scale weight will go up and down; we will hit plateaus (my longest was 6 weeks at one point!); we will eat a lot of salt sometimes; etc etc. If we don’t get on a scale at all, we will never know that we have hit a plateau, or that we are retaining water sometimes. That will save us days of agony, if we are all emotional like I am! hahahah I can’t overstate how much more we will know by using the jeans method than the scale.
DANGER NUMBER 4.
Forgetting that it takes 3,500 calories–not just of food intake, but of UNUSED FOOD INTAKE–to gain ONE pound of fat.
So when we see pounds appearing on the scale, think back. Did we eat 3,500 calories EXTRA in the past day? If not, then it is physcially impossible for that pound to be fat.
DANGER NUMBER 5.
Forgetting that there are three things fluctuating all the time, in our bodies: Fat, water, and muscle.
Therefore, when we see weight change, up OR down, we have only a one in three chance of guessing which thing caused it–yet we dieters ALWAYS want to guess that it was fat!
For everyone’s amusement, I am including some links here.
The first link will take you to a random page where a girl has been dieting and exercising and has suddenly gained weight and is quite unhappy about it. A lot of people write back to her. It’s fun to see that they all say the same thing that we are saying here.
http://malaysia.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080119170725AAkkiSU
The second link will take you to a search result page, so anyone of us can read any one of the nearly 3000 pages on which, for the most part, someone has had this identical experience, and an advisor or professional has replied, saying the same things we are saying here.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%2B%22diet%22%2B%22gained+weight%22%2B%22muscle+weighs+more+than+fat%22&btnG=Search
Hugs,
Beth
Topics: weight gain | No Comments »
FIGURED OUT HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT FAST? BEWARE THE 52,300 SUPPORTERS OF THE AMERICAN DEATH DIET
By Beth | January 20, 2008
Can you imagine that all over America today, an appetizer is being served that has FOUR TIMES the number of calories as a Burger King Whopper, and FIVE times the fat!?
In an APPETIZER!?!?
At the end of this blog, you need to see–no, you REALLY need to see–the list of the top 20 horror foods that are being served in American restaurants today–even served to children!
And I bet you suspect that the next thing I’m going to say is something about how terrible the American diet is.
Well, you’re right.
Sort of.
After all, up to one-third of US citizens are clinically obese these days, thanks to the fact that we’re all on the American Death Diet.
What’s the American Death Diet? See the list.
But moreso, I’m actually going to say that I think there is something WORSE going on than the American Death Diet.
What’s worse than the American WAY of eating may be the American way of THINKING about eating.
Get this: In a half-second Google search, I just now found 52,300 supposedly-intelligent, published writers who think that the American Death Diet is the “normal” way to eat.
Now, wait.
If you walked UP to any of these 52,300 writers and asked them if they think that the American Death Diet is the normal way to eat, they would look at you with a shocked expression and answer, “Of course not!’
But sometimes a person doesn’t know what she actually thinks, until she talks–and as she does, a listener notices that what she SAYS when she talks reveals that she believes something very different from what she THINKS she believes.
Our 52,300 writers, for example, who would never believe that they think the Death Diet is normal, proved in their writing that they actually DO think so.
How do I know this?
Because 52,300 writers made statements in writing, which were published on the Internet, to this effect:
“Beware of many weight loss diets. You may lose weight on a particular diet, but when you go back to eating normally, you will gain all the weight back.“
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
(Suddenly Beth realizes that laughing is inappropriate at this point because she is laughing AT people and not WITH people…She abruptly stops laughing…holds breath…makes serious attempt at a quick straight face…Attempt fails…breath bursts out in another round of...)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Ahem.
(Regains composure. Re-assumes mature tone and proceeds with blog.)
I find it remarkably shocking that I would find not, say, 52 writers who would say that, but 52 THOUSAND.
Let’s break down what is so preposterous about that statement, and anything similar to that statement.
I mean, we might as WELL break it down because if you’re on a diet, you’re going to either hear that comment made directly to you from at least someone, or you’re going to see zipped lips on the face of an acquaintance whose expression reveals that they are THINKING it.
That statement–that diets might cause weight loss, but that you will gain it back when you return to a NORMAL way of eating–means that the speaker or writer believes that the way you were eating when you turned into the Goodyear Blimp is NORMAL and that the way you are eating while you lose that weight is NOT NORMAL.
OMG.
And 52,300 writers are published as having said that very thing.
People. This is a whacked out, cracked out culture we live in, where the American Death Diet is literally KILLING us by the millions, and no one is blinking!
Well, those of us who have decided to climb down from the scaffolds are blinking–or rather dieting–and undoing the death sentence this culture had tied in a tasty bow, right around our chubby necks.
And be fair: we can’t honestly blame the culture entirely, as if we are innocent victims. If no one BOUGHT that food, it wouldn’t remain for sale. After all, we vote with our dollars in this American market economy, and every time we throw a dollar at some godawful, heart-popping food, we are voting in favor of its existence, so it’s going to remain available.
But we CAN blame the people who are so damned blind that they say, write, and publish statements that are this arrogantly AGAINST our heroic efforts to stay alive–by folding their arms over their chests, raising an eyebrow, and saying with an air of understated, self-adoring cleverness–and a smartass expression– “Well, you may lose weight on that diet NOW, but you’ll gain it all back when you start eating NORMALLY again.”
Next time you hear that comment, or read it, try to do a better job than I did here, of keeping a respectful straight face, and not laughing to scorn these blind guides, who don’t even know that they have lost sight of the fact that the American Death Diet is NOT “eating normally.”
Stay on your diet. Don’t listen to them. A thin, healthy body is NORMAL. And any way of eating that gets you healthily into that body is a “normal way of eating.”
And if you’re one of those writers, and you’re reading this, we’d like you to know that we Six Word Dieters are happy to accept all 52,300 apologies.
* * *
On to the list, now, which someone forwarded to me. I don’t know who put it together, but they did a great job.
This is REALLY HORRIFYING, and eye-opening, as well. In the past, I’ve eaten so many of these things in restaurants, thinking I wasn’t doing too badly. Eeek!
To keep your perspective as you read this, remember that a Burger King Whopper (not even on the list) has 700 calories and 42 grams of fat. That is BAD, but it’s NOTHING compared to the horrible calories and grams of fat you’re about to see!
Also, remember that the recommended number of carbs per day is as follows:
Atkins says 20 grams (that is SUPER low).
National Academy of Sciences says never less than 120 grams per day.
Either way, wait till you see these carb counts!
Finally, as many of us know, if we are salt sensitive or have blood pressure issues, the sodium in your diet has a STRONG effect on blood pressure! The USDA recommended amount of sodium is no more than 2400 mg in an entire day (and that’s just a teaspoon full!). Wait till you see the sodium counts below!
And wait till you see what these places are serving to CHILDREN!
No WONDER obesity is an epidemic! But how can we choose if we don’t have the facts–and restaurants sure aren’t going to easily tell us THIS stuff you’re about to read!
Okay, here’s the list I received:
Twenty Worst Foods in America (These start at the LEAST bad and get worse and worse!)
20: Worst Fast-Food Chicken Meal - Chicken Select Premium Breast Strips from McDonald’s (5 pieces) with cream ranch sauce. 830 Calories, 55 grams fat ( 4.5 trans fat), 48 carbs. Add a large fries and regular soda and this seemingly innocuous chicken meal tops out at 1,710 calories.
19: Worst drink - Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie (30 fl oz). 900 calories, 10 g fat, 183 carbs, 166 g sugar. Jamba Juice calls it a smoothie, MSNBC calls it a milk shake. The beverage contains as much sugar as 8 pints of Ben & Jerry’s butter pecan ice cream.
18: Worst supermarket meal - Pepperidge Farm Roasted Chicken Pot Pie (whole pie). 1,020 calories, 64 g fat,
86 g carbs. Label may say this pie serves two, but, who ever divided a small pot pie in half? Once you crack the crust, there will be no stopping.
17: Worst ‘healthy’ burger - Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. 1,145 calories, 71 g fat, 56 g carbs.
16: Worst Mexican entree - Chipotle Mexican Grill Chicken Burrito. 1,179 calories, 47 g fat, 125 g carbs, 2,656 mg sodium.
15: Worst kids’ meal - Macaroni Grill Double Macaroni ‘n’ Cheese. 1,210 calories, 62 g fat, 3,450 mg sodium. It’s like feeding your kid 1 1/2 boxes of Kraft mac ‘n’cheese.
14: Worst sandwich - Quiznos Classic Italian (large). 1,528 calories, 92 g fat, 4,604 mg sodium, 110 g carbs. A large homemade sandwich would more likely provided about 500 calories.
13: Worst salad - On the Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef. 1,450 calories, 102 g fat, 78 g carbs, 2,410 mg sodium. This isn’t an anomaly: Five different On the Border salads on the menu contain more than 1,100 calories each.
12: Worst burger - Carl’s Jr. Double Six Dollar Burger. 1,520 calories, 111g fat. Carl’s Jr. brags it’s home to this enormous sandwich, but the restaurant chain also provides convenient nutrition info on its Web site — so ignorance is no excuse for eating it.
11: Worst steak - Lonestar 20 oz T-bone. 1,540 calories, 124g fat. Add a baked potato and Lonestar’s Signature Lettuce Wedge, and this is a 2,700 calorie blowout.
10: Worst breakfast - Bob Evans Caramel Banana Pecan Cream Stacked and Stuffed hotcakes. 1,540 calories, 77 g fat (9 g trans fat), 198 g carbs, 109 g sugar. Five Egg McMuffins yield the same caloric cost as this stack of sugar-stuffed flapjacks, which is truly a heavy breakfast, weighing in at a hefty pound and a half.
9: Worst dessert - Chili’s Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. 1,600 calories, 78 g fat, 215 g carbs. Would you eat a Big Mac for dessert? How about three? That’s the calorie equivalent of this decadent dish. Clearly, Chili’s customers get their money’s worth.
8: Worst Chinese entree - P.F. Chang’s Pork Lo Mein.
1,820 calories, 127 g fat, 95 g carbs. The fat content in this dish alone provides more than 1,100 calories. And you’d have to eat almost five servings of pasta to match the number of carbs it contains. Now, do you really need five servings of pasta?
7: Worst chicken entree - Chili’s Honey Chipotle Crispers with Chipotle Sauce. 2,040 calories, 99 g fat, 240 g carbs. “Crispers” refers to an extra thick layer of break crumbs that soak up oil and adds unnecessary calories and carbs to these glorified chicken strips.
6: Worst fish entree - On the Border Dos XX Fish Tacos with Rice and Beans. 2,100 calories, 130 g fat, 169 g carbs, 4,700 mg sodium. Perhaps the most misleadingly named dish in America: A dozen crunchy tacos from Taco Bell will saddle you with fewer calories.
5: Worst pizza - Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza. 2,310 calories, 162 g fat, 123 g carbs, 4,470 mg sodium. Downing this “personal” pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino’s Crunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza.
4: Worst pasta - Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce. 2,430 calories, 128 g fat, 207 g carbs, 5,290 mg sodium. This meal satisfied your calorie requirements for an entire day.
3: Worst nachos - On the Border Stacked Border Nachos. 2,740 calories, 166 g fat, 191 g carbs, 5,280 sodium.
2: Worst starter - Chili’s Awesome Blossom. 2,710 calories, 203 g fat,194 g carbs, 6,360 mg sodium.
1: The worst food in America - Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing. 2,900 calories, 182 g fat, 240 g carbs. Even if you split these “starters” with three friends, you’ll have downed a dinner’s worth of calories before you entree arrives.
Topics: Restaurant Food | 1 Comment »
