Kathryn

Ooops ! Double post (I guess it's so long, it screwed up the system, LOL!). I'll make use of this space, though: FYI: it's "neuter" (and I agree completely!)

Hi, Jen! Here are some suggestions for you. The most important thing to remember is that losing weight is all about usinig more calories than you take in. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat, so getting a 500 calorie deficit each day (though diet choices, physical activity, and the thermic effect of food) would allow you to to lose a pound of fat in a week (1-2 pounds of weight loss is good, as it is a pretty good indication that what you are losing is fat, and not muscle or just water weight). Diet: I find that if one eats whole foods (vegan, of course!) and avoids the processed foods, it's pretty easy to lose/maintain weight. Making 'better' choices, choosing nutrient-dense/lower calorie foods over calorie-dense/nutrient poor foods (ie: an apple as a snack instead of a candy bar) is key. Your body wants nutrients, and when it is given nutrient-poor food, you can still be hungry, even though you have had more than enough calories. Add more raw foods (a salad before lunch and dinner, fruits as snacks, etc.). Try to eliminate any soft drinks from your diet, and replace them with water (you can flavor water with stevia or a flavored stevia). Just getting rid of any foods that contain high fructose corn syrup/sweetener will help you drop some pounds, if you eat it. Check out your local library, and see if they have a copy of "Picture-Perfect Weight Loss." It doesn't espouse any particular diet, nor is it vegan (though very vegan friendly), but shows in pictures the amount of various foods you can eat for the same amount of calories. Joel Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" book shows a vegan weight-loss diet. In addition to reducing the amount of calories you consume, you can take advantage of the thermic (heat-producing) effect of food, whereby you increase your metabolism by eating. Eat 5-6 smaller meals/snacks per day (but don't increase calories! Just split your regular meals into parts. I prefer having a bigger breakfast, so I don't split that, but take your lunch, split it into thirds, and eat 2/3 at lunch time, and 1/3 later as a snack---or earlier: between breakfast and lunch time. Same with dinner. And eat most of your calories earlier in the day, when you need them. A good guideline is to fuel your body so that it has what it needs when it needs it, no more, no less. That's ideal, but if you eat most at breakfast, and decrease your intake after lunch, eating the least at dinner, that corresponds more to your bodies energy needs. Also, according to Neal Barnard, any meal over 500 calories has more of a tendency to have some of the calories stored instead of burned, because our bodies can only process a certain amount of calories at once. (though YMMV, and some of the 'big guys' on the forum can certainly burn more than that effeectively, but you're not a 'big guy,' so I think it's a good guideline for you). For exercise, a gym membership isn't necessary. I workout exclusively at home, to exercise DVD's. Include both cardio and weight work (and don't be afraid of "bulking" "Bulking" is due more to genetics (stocky build, mesomorphic tendencies) and eating more calories that build muscle than to using weights per se. You can get strong without getting 'too big." Doing just cardio can make you smaller, but you can end up being a 'thin fat' person, with a high percentage of body fat, even with a slim look, or just smaller and flabby. I think everyone over 35, and every woman over 25, should train with weights for sooo many reasons. Resistance training will also help increase your metabolism (though there is controversy about 'by how much") and help you burn more calories even at rest. And weight training will help you create a nicely-shaped smaller body, rather than just a smaller body. For your goals right now, I'd recommend cardio 4-5 days a week, including 1 interval workout per week (interval workouts burn more calories than steady state, but shouldn't be overused, because they are more taxing to the body, so once a week is a good start. Maybe moving up to twice a week, on non-consecutive days, later). Start where you are comfortable, maybe even just 20 minutes at a time. And vary your cardio to avoid overuse injuries (and boredom!). I like step aerobics, kickboxing, rebounding (on a mini-trampoline), hi-lo. Also, for weight work, a 'circuit'-type workout that includes both cardio and weight work (higher reps and lower weights) would work well for you. If you are interested, to get you started, I would be happy to send you 3 workout DVD's and a CD that I'm clearing out of my collection (of 200+), for a SASE. "Slim in 6" has three workouts that are low weight, high rep and focus on leaning out the lower body in particular. It also includes a 15-minute ab workout and a 15-minute stretch. The program is supposed to be done every day, doing 1 workout for two weeks, then moving on to workout 2, but I wouldn't use it that way....too boring! I think you could get some good results alternating the different workouts every other day. Kathy Smith's "The Rules of Fat Burning" has two, long-slow cardio routines, two interval workouts, and upper and lower body strength workouts. (they are both good DVD's for beginners/intermediates, but are not advanced enough for me right now....and I only have so many days in the year to do the workouts I'm keeping!). The third DVD is a Leslie Sansone walking DVD (I use them when I do rebounding sometimes). All three of these DVD's are very space efficient (no wide-range motiions that can't be done in a living room) and varied. The CD is called "Cardio Coach" (www.cardiocoach.com ) and is a guided iinterval workout that you can use with any type of cardio equipment (stationary bike, treadmill, eliptical) I use it with my rebounder. You could even use it walking in place or jogging in place. Let me know by pm if you are interested in any or all of these. I only ask that you 'pay it forward,' and if you find these are not for you, give them to someone else, or donate them to your local library. If you have a Walmart near you, they have some racks with $1 DVD's on, including three workout DVD by Suzanne Cox ("The Fix," "Firm it Up" and "Aerobic Dance"). The music is kind of canned, but I was surprised by how good they are for the price. They combine dance-style cardio (disco, latin, different styles) and 'toning' work. HTH! If you have any questions on any of this, feel free to ask.

Because we are concerned about their long-term health. It's more than just personal preference. There's a scientific basis to nutrition, and the science shows that it isn't possible to get the nutrients one needs just from fruits. If someone 'prefers' a diet of all processed foods or eating only nuts or eating mostly jam and white bread followed by a can of some soft drink, it's not "all personal preference,' it's about finding a diet that not just 'feels good,' but is healthy. Some diets may work well in the short-term, but not long term. And if fruitarianism does work long-term for some people, I would think that it's something that works only after your body is prepared for it, after transitioning first to raw foods for an extended period of time, then into fruits. Do you know of any research on long-term fruitarians that shows that they have no deficiencies? ARE there any long-term fruitarians? I don't mean to be hostile towards fruitarianism, but I AM very cautious and sceptical about it.

I just found my "Vegetarian Journal's Guide to Food Ingredients" while I was cleaning, and can give you more info. Dicalcium phosphate is listed as vegan. It is a common food additive that has many functions, including regulating acidity in foods. Magnesium stearate can be animal or plant derived, and may be used as a preservative, or as a substance which blends together ingredients which do not normally blend (like oil and water).

Gee, I wonder if he learned that diagnostic technique in med school! My dad must have been a cocaine addict, because he had tatoos up and down both arms (from when he worked as a circus carny back in the Depression, and made friends with the tatooed man, who was also a tattoo artist). By the way, Nicole, I think you are so far the winner of the "stupidist things a Dr. ever said to you' contest!

I'm sure that's their reasoning, but all the doctors I've had since have warned me and I can stay relaxed. This woman was just so sneaky about it, chatting away, then ...boom!

I have to say, if I didn't "know' Tonya a bit through the VB&F DVD, I would not have a very positive impression of her. She came off as a man-hungry party girl, just interested in getting into somebody's tights. Kind of reminded me of Adrianne Curry on "The Surreal Life" (and that's not a good thing!) There was a viewer poll where people could text message in to vote on who they thought would be eliminated. Of the 11 contestants, she got the third highest number of votes for elimination. She missed being booted out twice (once in the beginning, when Stan Lee eliminated a contestant even before the contest began, based on video his 'spy' took, and at the end, based on her not stopping to help a lost child (but over 1/2 of them didn't stop, so 3 others got in the bottom 3). I was hoping they would show some of the selection process, the way American Idol does (but not for so long! just the first episode), and have each 'super hero' wannabe present their character. I like Monkey Woman the best, so far!

Rimes with "spunk"!

I agree. I don't think a long-term, all-fruit diet is the healthiest, but it's good for short-term cleansing. I just think there are too many deficiencies that can come about from 'all fruit" (unless someone is very liberal with their definition of 'fruit'!).

I'd stick with this guy! I prefer the minimalistic approach from doctors: just do what is necessary (though even their concept of 'necessary' may vary from mine). I just finished readiing "Overdosed America" by John Abramson (available at www.drfuhrman.com , and maybe at Amazon). Good read. Here's the blurb for it from Fuhrman: "We have a health care crisis in America. Extraordinarily expensive medical care climbing higher continuously, yet our healthy life expectancy is one of the worst of all industrialized nations. The reliance on pharmaceuticals as the foundation of medical care is a clear failure. Overdosed America is a fantastic book. It will open your eyes to the way profits, not science drive research findings and how modern medicine is not really evidence based as is claimed. Dr. Abramson makes a intelligent and coherent case that American medicine and the research journals that support doctor's decision making has gone badly astray and is controlled by profits, not science."

If you're a beginning weight trainer, it's pretty normal. The first strength gains are neuromuscular adaptations (the nervous system learns to work more efficiently and effectively) which aren't necessarily accompanied by much increase in size. Also, to increase size, you have to increase calories.

I'm not sure if you can actually smell yourself the way other people smell you. I'm sure we've all been around somebody who is wearing too much perfume or aftershave: they don't even notice it, either because they have a wonky sense of smell, or because they are used to it. Even on yourself, if you ever wear perfume or aftershave (yuk!), you don't noice it as much after a while. I'm sure it's the same with one's own apt-to-smel bodily fluids.

I think the dicalcium phosphate might be used as a drying ingredient? Or to somehow keep the right consistency? Could also be a source of calcium. Not sure about magnesium stearate (except as a source of magnesium).

Because Gorillas drink from streams and don't have chlorinated water that kills bacteria. Because they don't wash their food before they eat it, and therefore consume small amounts of soil that contains B12 (IF the soil contains cobalamin, which most conventionally-grown foods don't, vs organic foods which do). Also,, perhaps, because they eat small amounts of insects. All of these contribute to getting B12 in a natural setting. The modern world is far from a natural setting, thus our need to supplement with B12. As I stated previously, some raw food groups that didn't use B12 supplements found that almost all of them were deficient in it, and now use supplements. The epidemiological and scientific evidence for taking B12 supplements far outweighs the opinions of those who advocate against it. And it has been shown that some of the "B12 sources" that some (like David Wolfe) advocate are not true B12, but analogs that are not digestible, and in fact, interfere with the assimilation of actual B12. Just because we would like something to be so, doesn't mean it is so. And to refuse to take B12 because of some ideal of 'purity' is rather foolish, IMO. It also can lead to some ill vegans, which does nothing to promote the lifestyle. I think taking a spray of B12 once a week is a small concession to make. But noone should take this as 'proof' that a vegan diet is not natural or doable for humans. It's just that our living conditions have changed to the point where B12 is no longer easily available to us, as it was in more primitive times.

I once (and only once!) went to a woman doctor (I like to give business to women in traditionally male professions) who looked at my pale skin (yep, I'm pale, comes with the Czech heritage), asked how much milk I drank (!?) and wanted me to take a battery of blood tests (4 freaking test tubes full of my blood) to make sure I was healthy. All my tests came back either 'normal' or 'excellent' (so phooey to her!). (She also sneakily slipped a finger up my butt without advanced notice while she was doing a pelvic exam. First time I'd ever had that done, and I didn't appreciate the tactic!) So, Bloom, what does your sig say?

I keep seeing promos for this show all the time on Sci-Fi channel now. Unfortunatley, I've only seen Tonya featured once during the promos (which I'm predicting--hopefully in error--means she was knocked out of the competition pretty early on.) The 'monkey woman"and the guy in the red suit with a "V" on his chest are featured quite a bit, so maybe they make it quite far along. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

And adding a bit of nutritional yeast and some tumeric gives a bit of 'eggy' flavor and color (well, at least for me, who hasn't had an egg in about 20 years ).

K-oz: I'm especially impressed with your 'lower belly pooch' results. I know that's a hard area to lose fat from for many of us women (me included), so kudos to you!

I prefer powdered supplements, or veggie caps that I open to pour the ingredients into my smoothies. I can't imagine that hard tablets are that digestible. www.healthforce.com is a vegan/raw food company founded by a naturopath that has several whole-foods-based supplements (my preferences). www.drfuhrman.com has a good multi specifically made for vegans (though the "osteo sun" is NOT vegan because it contains cholecalciferol/D3). It's a tablet, but small and I trust Fuhrman to provide a good product. You can also check out the vitamin lines sold at www.veganessentials.com .

YOu could probably also make this with a homogenizing juicer, like the Green star (just freeze the banana ahead of time, run all the frozen stuff through the juicer, then add the sweetener (necessary? not if the banana is really ripe, perhaps) and salt afterward.

I agree. It also makes it easier to see changes when the 'before' and 'after' photos are paired up, the way they are with K-oz.

Kudos to all of you: great job! Hmm1219: please share your diet and exercise routine! Great results, girl. I can't vote until I get to my office computer, or until all the photos load on my pokey home computer.

Ich verstehe nicht sehr gut, aber.. great clip! (And I am now inspired to clean MY fridge!).

The hunter becomes the hunted!

So far, I've used dried red pepper (can't find organic locally, and I use it a lot), tomatoes, and mushrooms, but pretty much any veggie can be dried and later hydrated (the texture does change to something a bit chewier than the fresh, but you can usually find a way to work with it).