It is SO gorgeous outside here in the Bay Area! Can't wait for my riding lesson in about 1 1/2 hours...
Last night I babysat until 10:30 for my sister. Did you guys watch the 20/20 feature last night on fitness frauds? I must say the guy who runs the company that markets the Ab Energizer has no shame whatsoever. He said he has studies, but when asked to see them, he said that they were 'proprietary' and refused to let the reporter see them. Then he was asked if HE used the product and he said yes, but refused to show his abs because he was 'shy'. Sheesh. Talk about chutzpah...of course he has made millions on this shoddy product, and will continue to do so because even if the FTC bans him from marketing it here in the States, he still has the rest of the world to sell it to!
Here's the story link:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/...ds_010301.html
There was a similar story on KRON 4 last night:
http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=686832
The night before KRON did a story on Body Solutions:
http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=686758
Carly - I don't have kids myself, but if I did - I sure as heck wouldn't keep cookies, ice cream, Lunchables, etc around the house as staples, the way I see so many parents do...instead I'd keep stuff like fresh fruit, fat-free fruit flavored yogurt (such as Dannon Lite N Fit or Yoplait Light), FF/SF Jello Pudding, etc around for treats. Here's a quote from
The Fat of the Land by Michael Fumento:
Quote:
...Families were never meant to be democracies. It is the duty of parents to continually exert pressure to bring up their children to be intelligent, well behaved, responsible, thrifty, and compassionate. And, yes, healthy. Rosemary Green, author of Diary of a Fat Housewife, told me that parents are always saying to her that their children won't eat healthy food. Her reply? "I advise them to hold out a hand to their child and say, 'Put your hand next to mine. Now, whose is bigger? Mommy is going to tell you what to eat because Mommy is bigger.' "
It would be one thing for me to just sigh when I see my super-sized neighbor lying next to the pool with a super-sized bag of potato chips next to him and a super-sized soda balanced on his belly. It would be quite another to do the same with my son or daughter. We are sacrificing our children in the names of such fads as self-esteem and overveneration of personal freedom. A 1996 poll showed that a teenager's likelihood of using drugs was directly related to how resigned the parent was that the child was going to go ahead and use them, no matter what. "What is infuriating," said Joseph Califano, director of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, "is the resignation of so many parents to the present mess." I hear you, guy. And it's the same with obesity.
How ludicrous it is that the director of nutrition for a school district in Southern California says one of her "biggest" problems is that high school kids want their French fries fried, when baked ones are so much healthier. Lady, you tell them that baked fries are all that's on the menu. Problem solved. Now the schools can concentrate on the "little" problems, like violence and teenage pregnancies.
Whew! Time to get dressed and cut up carrots for my equine buddies. More later!