10 Weight Loss Myths Busted

Healthcare has a history of myths. In fact, medical history is about 99.9% mythical. And this runs even into our modern medicine. Sad to say, much of what is known today about medicine is a mythical. I have given many examples of this on this blog. And there's no better place to start than with weight loss.

You have to drink 8-10 glasses of water every day to lose weight.

Not true.

You have to quit drinking to lose weight.

Not true.

You can't eat McDonald's and birthday cake when you're trying to lose weight.

Not true.

You have to exercise to lose weight.

Not true.

Running is bad for your knees.

Not true.

You can't eat saturated fat and lose weight.

Not true.

You can't eat eggs on a diet.

Not true.

You should limit salt on any diet.

Not true.

You have to eat breakfast to lose weight.

Not true.

Diet pop causes you to gain weight.

Not true.

So, now you know about weight loss myths. This should help you find a better weight loss program that works for YOU. Personally, I'm working on a program that allows me to continue doing and continue eating the things I enjoy.

Rick Frea's Common Sense Diet

When I was a kid it was 4-4-3-2, and then they switched to the food pyramid, and now (as you can read here at UPI.com) the government is going to use a plate that reminds consumers to eat half a plate of fruits and vegetables.  I'm tired of these gimmicks, and I think they are too complex and pointless.

According to the article, "As the food icon's Web site -- ChooseMyPlate.gov -- explains, people should enjoy their food but eat less of it and avoid oversized portions. In addition, Americans are urged to make half of their plate fruits and vegetables, make the one-quarter of the plate grains -- and half of those should be whole grains -- and switch to fat-free or low-fat 1 percent milk."

Who the heck wants to keep track of what they eat.  I don't.  I can't even keep track of my check book. 

Likewise, the article notes, "Finally, MyPlate advises Americans to compare sodium in processed foods such as soup, bread and frozen meals and choose food with lower sodium numbers, and to drink water instead of sugary drinks."

So basically they want us to spend time reading labels instead of enjoying food and having fun living.  Plus they want us to drink boring and tasteless water instead of sugary drinks.  I actually recommend this in my diet below,  yet I allow you at least the option of fitting sugary drinks into your diet.

Several years ago I came up with my own food plan and it's called the Rick Frea Common Sense Diet.  It's simpler than any gimmick created by the government and it mostly involves common sense.  Here's my diet:

1.  Eat one portion of protein and one portion of carbohydrate every 2-3 hours five or six times each day.  Scratch the idea of three large meals a day and eating as much as you can to make it to the next meal.  Smaller meals more often keep your metabolism going around the clock.

2.  Serving portions are generally the size of your fist or the palm of your hand, not the serving size on the box which generally tend to be too small to fill the normal size stomach.  However, if your portions are slightly more or less the sun will still rise tomorrow.

3.  You can eat all the vegetables you want but no less than two servings a day, and two of your carbs each day should be a fruit.

4.  For fun food and drink you have two choices.  You can either have one treat each day, or you can save your treats and have what I like to call a free day.  On this day you can eat and drink anything you want such as alcohol, fried food, cake, cookies, candy bars, or whatever you want.

5.  Drink 8-10 glasses of water each day.  But this isn't mandatory to keep your metabolism going, it's simply a good way of making your stomach feel full.  If you'd rather drink coffee go ahead, and drink as much coffee feel you need.

6.  Adjust your diet according to your life.  If you have a bad day at work, or a party at work, or your friend brings in a case of donuts to work and everyone else is having fun, go ahead and take a dip.  Just remember your goal is to stay in shape or get in shape.

That's it.  No calorie counting.  No fat counting.  You can eat pretty much anything on this diet and you're guaranteed to lose weight, or at least maintain what you have. 

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The key to a healthy lifestyle

When doling out food, it is my belief that you should not go by the serving size that's on the package of the product. This serving size was made up by the manufacturer to make their product look good.

I'm not sure what all the rules are, but if you have less than half a gram of fat in a serving, then you can call your product fat free. Thus, if half a cup of corn flakes has 0.499 grams of fat in it, then corn flakes is considered fat free.

Well, corn flakes doesn't have 0.499 grams of fat in a serving, I was just using that as an example. A better example is butter spray. You know butter is bad for you. If you smear a tablespoon of butter on a piece of toast you're getting 5 grams of fat.

Yet if you take the spray version of that butter, one squirt is considered a serving. If you're normal like me, one squirt is never enough. Because the product says fat free, you think you're not putting fat on your bread. Yet you are, because that 0.499 times however many squirts you are using adds up.

Now I don't think one gram of fat is going to hurt anyone, but if you put 10 squirts of butter on your toast thinking there is no fat in it, that comes to 5 grams of fat. Now make that 20 squirts, and you're really delving into the fat with 10 grams.

If you're on a diet thinking you're eating a fat free product, you could be in a world of hurt come Saturday weight in time. You might have been good all week, and you barely lost a pound.

So serving sizes on products are meant to make the company look good. Let's go back to our bowl of cereal example. One serving is half a cup. If you're a little grandma perhaps half a cup of cereal fills you up. Yet if you're a grown man like me, half a cup of cereal is like eating a cracker.

Therefore, a serving size should be based on something other than what's on the side of the box.

That said, what is the best way to determine serving size? First, you have to do your homework. You have to decide what is healthy for you, and what you can eat on whatever diet you're on. Then you have to do a Google search to find out how much fat is in that product.

Or, if you're like me, I simply eat the foods in the Body For Life diet. Yet sometimes there's food not mentioned on this diet, and then I have to use another method of determining if it's a product I can eat.

So that brings us to the: how-to-determine-the-best-serving-size-for-you method. First, you Google your product to learn how much fat is in it. Don't go by serving size, I'm talking: is there fat in it? Or whatever content you're looking for: calories, carbohydrates, etc.

If it's cereal, for example, you pour a bowl so you have enough cereal to cover your fist. And if it's a steak, a portion size (one serving size) would be whatever fills covers your flat palm. If you have a large hand, then you're aloud to eat a little more. If you have a small palm, then you will be eating a little less.

Ideally, if you're eating the appropriate foods, a serving of two or more products should fill you up just nice. The BFL diet allows me to eat a protein and a carb with each meal, plus as many vegetables as I want. You can adjust the diet in other ways depending on how serious you are, yet I usually take the easiest route because I only have one goal: lose weight and/or don't gain.

You can adjust the diet however you want. I mean, if you're really serious, you can only purchase lean meats. You can only eat low glycogen carbs, which would be those that are basically not white, such as no white bread and no baked potato. I believe most fruits are low glycogen, yet you still have to do your homework.

Me, however, I take the easy route. I eat pretty much whatever I want, I simply make sure I get the correct serving size, not the one doled out in a restaurant, and not the miniscule amount noted on the package. As a rule, if I eat a sandwich at a restaurant, I usually cut it in half. Steaks are cut in half too. Burgers, well, it depends on how big it is.

So pretty much on my diet I am allowed to eat steak and hambergers every two hours throughout the day if I want. Of course you have to use common sense here too. How serious are you? Plus, is the meat you're eating lean or not? Usually, I limit myself to one such luxury per day. But you can do what you want.

Farmers back in time would eat when they had the chance. That's where we get our standard three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you really want to be a serioius dieter, you will want to forget about the three meal plan. You should start your own.

The problem with the three meal plan, to make it simple, is by the time it's meal time, you are starving. And what happens when you're starving? You pig out. You eat too much. Plus, by the time you're body is saying it's hungry, it's going into emergency mode and slowing it's metabolism and storing fat -- the exact opposite you want.

You want your body metabolizm to be continuously going. You want your body burning fat all day. You want your body to be a lean mean fat burning machine. To do that you will want to eat a small meal (for example, one protein and one carb with a veggie and glass of water) every 2-3 hours. This will keep your metabolism going.

Usually what I do is I plan on eating two really nice sized meals a day, and I consider these lunch and dinner. Here I will have my steak, potato, hamberger, pork, and vegetable with a bun, bread, or whatever. I want to really be full when I'm done.

Then two hours later I'll have what I call a snack. Stuff I consider snack food is: cereal, cottage cheese, oat meal, yogurt, small sandwich, etc. You might consider these meals, but these things don't satiate my hunger enough to last long.

Thus, after my "meals" I wait three hours before I eat a snack. After my snacks I wait two hours before I eat a meal. That way, I keep myself satisfied. I never go hungry. This is my own tweak of the BFL diet. Whatever diet you do, you can do your own tweaking to satisfy your own body.

I think that's one of the reasons so many poeple fail at diets, becasue they think they can read a diet and do what the diet says. Well, that would basically entail every person in the world eating the same diet, and having the same results. In the real world, that won't work. Every body is different. Every body needs a different serving size.

One more thing here. Another key to not getting hungry is fiber. If you eat a steak or a burger, chances are you will be filled up. Yet if you eat a bowl of cereal, you will probably be hungry in an hour and risk the urge of binging. So, when eating something like cereal, you need to only eat cereal that are high in fiber.

So Special K is out. Sure they say it's a good diet cereal, but you can't eat it becaue it has no fiber in it. You'll just be hungry an hour later. You'll be wanting to eat. You'll be craving that cake your spouse made the night before, or that candy Butterfinger you have in the cupboard.

A couple other rules I have is that if someone offers me something I'm allowed to eat it, or drink it. I don't want to be anti-social. If I'm at my neighbor's house and he offers me a Bud, then I drink up and enjoy. If I take the kids to my aunt's pool and she has cake and hot dogs, then I endulge.

Of course you don't want to do this kind of stuff every day, yet you can. You're body's metabolism needs to be fooled once in a while anyway.

Another rule is when you start your diet, or lifestyle, or whatever you want to call it, don't expect to feel good the first week if you eat small portion sizes. Eat big the first too weeks. Cheat the first two weeks if you need to. Do whatever you need to do to make it through.

Then in wees three or four, when you're stomach has shrunk, you can get more satisfaction from the smaller meal sizes. Then you can tinker with size. When you start you're diet your stomach is going to be full of all the junk you normally eat, and it will probably be large.

Another rule is I take one day off a week and eat anything I want. I try to make this day the one I might be tempted to otherwise eat bad, such as if I plan on going to a party, or aunt Mary's pool, or the neighbors for drinks, I try to make that my day off. Yet things don't always go as planned.

I certainly don't want to be the boring person who says, "No, I'm dieting." You'll never hear me say that. Ever. Nobody knows I diet. In fact, when I go to work, I carry with me a big bag full of food to last the 12 hour shift. I actually take more food with me to work when I'm "dieting" than when I'm not.

The fact is, if you're eating healthy, you can actually eat more and more often. The key is you want to eat several small meals through the day to keep your metabolism going. That's it.

You don't even have to exercise. Exercise helps, as it can get your metabolism going even faster, and muscle burns fat a gazilion times faster than fat, which barely burns anything. So aerobic activity, getting your heart rate over 100 for 20 minutes three times a week is important, but not necessary.

Some form of weight training helps too. Yet, if you hate to exercise, studies have been done, and common sense says this too, if you put into your body less than what goes out, you will lose weight. If you put in 2,000 calories a day and you burn up 3,000, you will lose. It may be gradual, yet if you stick to it you'll lose, or at least not gain.

I guess it all depends on what you want. It all depends on what your goals are It all depends on what kind of food you like. But to sit on the couch all day eating potato chips is not going to get you feeling better about yourself. To get results, you'll need to take some form of action.

Your choice: Eat healthy or don't eat healthy!!!

I read recently about how in New York some radicals have convinced legislatures to force restaurants into placing the ingredients of their foods somewhere visible on the walls of their restraurants. The goal here is to make people aware of what's in foods so they only eat the healthy stuff.

I don't have a problem with this being done locally, because it is local governments who should be experimenting in this way. However, while the goal by creating all these labels is to get people to make good choices, there has never been a study done that show they work.

Everywhere we look now there are labels, and there is a growing number of evidence that most people just ignore them. When I come across an agreement on the Internet I simply click yes and go on with my life. I don't want to waste my time reading all that Lawyer jargon.

When I want to eat healthy, I make the decision to purchase healthy foods. Yet at least once a week, and sometimes more often, my wife and I choose to eat out. When we do, we most certainly don't want to buy food that doesn't taste good. We want to buy food that has salt and high concentrations of triglycerides. We want to eat hearty.

So they can have labels on the walls of restaurants, or on the wrappers and napkins of McDonald's and Burger King, and I don't think it has ever stopped one person from eating a Big Mac if a Big Bac is on their minds. I don't think it stops them from eating french fries either.

I think we all know fast food is junk food and junk food is not good for us. Yet I think we can go back to the wisdom of our fathers that says, "Anything in moderation is a good thing."

Still, I think the ultimate goal of radicals is not simply to have signs on walls and napkins, they want to "force" restaurants and other food makers to make their foods healthier. A while back New York tried to pass a law making it illegal to put salt in food. They said they were doing this "for our own good."

Lest last I read it, the role of the U.S. Constitution is not to protect us from ourselves, it is to protect us from each other. So they start with napkins, and then it is printed on walls, and then they make laws that tell us what we can and cannot eat.

This all falls in line with their ultimate objective of a government run healthcare system. However, there's an old saying that lines up here well too: You are a slave to the person you are in debt to. If the government is flipping your bills, the government has a right to tell you what to do.

If the government is paying for your healthcare, then the government has a right to lell you what you can and cannot eat. The government has a right to keep you healthy.

And this is why we must be careful what we allow our government to do. The more laws enacted by Congress, the less freedoms you and I have.

Eating right should be a personal choice, not one forced upon us by a government. If you're like me, you're struggling all the time to stay healthy. Yet, if you're like me, life is stressful and you are not perfect.

So, eat well. Or, if you're in the mind for it, make the individual decision to eat poorly like this lady did.


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My common sense weight loss plan

Well, I imagine by now 90% of those people who made a New Year's Resolution to lose weight and get in shape have given up already. Hopefully you haven't. I'm chugging away.

I'm trying not to do anything crazy this time around. I'm trying to stick with a diet I think I can live with forever. It's what I call a common sense diet where you eat good but don't make yourself suffer.

I do weight training three days a week and aerobics four days a week and take one day off. However, if I don't choke myself if I miss a day, because Lord knows the wife and kids come first.

Every person, I think, must find a diet that works for him or her. What works for me may not work for you.

I'm not much of a reporter here because I can't remember the source of this information, but I was watching the Today Show this morning and there was a group of ladies talking about a study they did regarding a "sleep diet."

What they propose is simple: GET 7.5 HOURS OF SLEEP A NIGHT AND YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT.

In the high tech world we live in most people get less than 7 hours sleep a night. This is much less than people used to get 100 years ago when there was little to do at night other than read stories and play the piano. So when the sun went down, people went to sleep.

Today, instead of going to sleep, people stay up to watch the last half hour of their favorite show, or finish a video game they started, or call a friend, or check their email. Of course as long as you are checking your email you might as well follow this link and that. Before you know it its midnight.

A study showed that people who have 5 hours or less sleep are 50% more likely to gain wait. The idea is that sleep deprivation increases the hormone Grehlin. Of course this also explains why people who work the night shift are more likely to gain weight.

Most of the people who participated in this study lost an average of 6 pounds in 10 weeks.

Likewise, when a person goes to sleep early, that is one less snack they eat.

I think this diet is very credible. Most of the diets I've read about say that not only is it important that you eat a good balanced diet low in carbs and fat, you should also drink 8-10 glasses of water to stay hydrated, and you should get at least 8 hours sleep at night. Or, they at least say to go to bed early.

That's hard to do when you work 3 nights a week like I do. But it explains why it is soooooo hard for me to stick to a diet. I'm doing it right now, but it's a major challenge.

Another good weight loss idea I got from Dr. Phil of all people. And I think this idea goes right along with the sleep loss diet. He said that one of the reasons its hard to stick to a diet is that people have week moments of the day, and it's in those moments you are most likely to eat bad things.

For example, I usually diet just fine during the day, but after dinner I have this undying urge to splurge. And then at about 9:00 I have this urge to have a beer. If I can somehow cut out that 150 calorie beer, and that after dinner splurge, that's 500 plus calories I could save (and an hour less on the treadmill).

What Dr. Phil proposes is to be observant of your week periods of the day (most people have at least 2), and find something else to do during those times. For instance, if you usually watch TV at 9:00 at night when you have the urge to have a beer, or to open a can of Pringles, schedule your workout at that time instead. Or find something else to do, like a hobby.

These are just some ideas. I'm not into anything wacko when I diet, just try to be sensible. I think it is dumb to give up everything you love. And I really See nothing wrong about having a beer a day, or a piece of chocolate.

In fact, the body for life for women has a diet where you eat one piece of chocolate per day. My wife read this book AFTER she lost 50 pounds while eating a piece of chocolate a day.

The idea is this, and it's not new wisdom either as my grandma used to say it: "Anything in moderation is good."

Which brings me to another idea. When I was a kid my mom limited what I ate. She never would let me eat 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches -- just one. She never let me eat a whole bag of chips -- just one. Yet she always let us have desserts, and we were never overweight growing up.

It wasn't until I turned 25 and decided I could eat anything I wanted now that I was an adult that I started to gain weight. Well, guess what, I have my kids on the same common sense diet my mom had me on when I was a kid. And, you guessed it, they are all in good physical shape -- for the most part.

However, kids are also a lot more physical than most adults. Which is why you need to incorporate at least some kind of physical activity, even if it's just a simple walk around the park.

Well, I'm no dietitian and no personal trainer, but I've succeeded at losing 40 pounds by dieting right and working out more than four times. Plus I try to keep up to date on all the latest tips. So you can say I'm an expert my default.

As I wrote earlier in the year I'm not a big fan of new years resolutions to lose weight and get in shape because I think you should have a lifetime resolution to do these things. Yet, if you made a resolution to do this this year, I certainly hope you are like me and are still at it -- chugging away one pound at a time.

The best diet: Moderation

So you've made the new years resolution to lose weight and eat healthy and now you're struggling with trying to stick with it. If you're like me, your effort is about in the 50% range. The workout is going great, but for some reason I don't think having bacon for lunch and dinner isn't exactly a healthy diet.

But I'm on vacation. Yep, that's my excuse. The goal is to eat healthier starting today, but my idea of eating healthy is not to go on one of those ridiculous crash diets -- been there and done that and failed that. Nope. I'm going to do the diet my grandpa John recommended to my mom when she was a kid. It's simple: Anything in moderation is good for you.

I'll call it the Moderation Diet.

The best diets I've read about say that eating a lot of food three times a day as Americans have traditionally done is not good. The best way to keep your metabolism going is to constantly have a supply of nutrients for your body to burn up, and the best way to do that is to eat several small meals a day. So I try to eat every 2.5 to three hours, when I'm being healthy (which should be all the time but, again, that's easier said than done.)

Home style breakfasts are not good for you. By home style I mean eggs and bacon and omelets. Those things are "okay" in the moderation diet once or twice a week, but definitely not every day. And you should "try" to limit yourself to one egg and not two. I had breakfast with an overweight man a few weeks ago, and he had four eggs. If he eats like that every day, it's pretty obvious why he has a weight issue.

The thing is, though, you can't just buy into one of these crash diets and think that you are going to be able to maintain that for life. I honestly think the companies that sell these diets rely on people buying them and not sticking with it. There may be 1 or 2 out of 20 who can motivate themselves to a crash diet (eating chicken for every meal for example), but I highly doubt many of them are married with three kids running around.

Of course it also helps to have a pal to work out with. This is mainly important for those days you don't feel like working out. It's good to have someone motivating you.

It's good to have a wife (or husband) who is on the same diet page as you. When my wife was pregnant and making bacon and eggs every day for breakfast, it was hard to avoid eating what she cooked. Plus her desserts were way to good to avoid.

Likewise, the pal (friend or wife) who is on the same page as you can motivate you on the "bad" diet days, and vice versal.

I've learned that if you give up all the things you like you will crave them strongly, and it's that craving that will set your diet up for doom. If you love beer, go ahead and have one or two once or twice a week. If your friends go out, go ahead and go with them. But don't do this every day.

If your daughter has a birthday party, go ahead and pig out. If your aunt millie has an 90th birthday party, go ahead and pig out. You need those kind of "off" days during any diet. Likewise, you should take a day or two off each week that you do not excercise. Your muscles need a break too.

My wife once lost 20 pounds while eating one piece of chocolate a day and otherwise doing the body-for-life diet. She actually stuck with that diet a long time. I lost weight once when I was in college and I went to the bars on the weekends. You have to find a routine that works for you and stick with it, and continue sticking with it.

Easier said than done I know.

So, this time around it's moderation.

Asthmatics can be normal and have fun too

If all goes as planned, today's the day I get back in the swing of maintaining a sound mind and body. While it seems a ton of people make this their New Years Resolution, it's something we asthmatics have no choice but to think of, though I'm not necessarily the best at it.

Last summer I let myself get out-of-shape, so in the fall I started doing the Body for Life workout program. Which is one of the reasons it didn't make sense that I got sick last month, because I was being 100% healthy at that time. Go figure, hey.

When I was released from the hospital after being diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer, I felt vulnerable, and was going to do whatever I needed to keep my body healthy.

However, while I was recuperating, I wasn't really able to hit the treadmill, especially considering my hemoglobin was low. And then, once that period of vulnerability wore off, I started eating normal again. So now I'm starting to feel out-of-shape once again.

I like working out. I love how good it makes me feel. However, when I stop for whatever reason, say a vacation, a holiday, or, as was the case this time, a hospital stay, I find it easier to stay off the wagon than get back on, and I end up feeling like a do today -- sluggish.

I don't know if this is the case with normal people, but when I go so long without getting any aerobic exercise, I start to feel winded -- not short-of-breath as in bronchospasm, but simple windedness.

I observe some obese people I meet being winded as they walk, but I don't think that's the norm. In fact, I'm convinced it is not. So, when I see someone winded like that, I think chronic lung illness.

How can these people live like that? How can these people stand being winded all the time? I hate it, and that's why I work out. I'm definitely not muscular, and I'm definitely not skinny, but I'm definitely not obese either.

I have learned, both via asthma eduction when I was a kid and the hard way after I failed to listen, that excersise makes your lungs work better. It's true. It really works. It may even make your asthma better.

This is one reason why having asthma might be good for me, and why I don't regret having it. Because it forces me look at things from a different angle.

It forces me to at least keep trying to get my body in shape. And one good thing about having a stomach ailment is that it forces me to limit what I eat. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps God gave me these ailments for this reason -- that, and the fact I have the ability to share my experiences with other people.

I come from a family that loves to eat and drink and have fun when we get together. And I've never been shy about joining in. It's fun. However, one thing that people with asthma have to be aware of is this: alcohol dries out your lungs. Usually, on the day after drinking, I have at least some trouble with my breathing.

When I was younger and still participating in the bar scene, I used to blame this on the smoke. Now I know it's not just the smoke that caused this, because no one smokes around me when I'm in my home. So, if I'm using my Albuterol more than usual the day after drinking, I know it was the alcohol that caused this.

I wonder how many asthmatics don't know this. Most asthmatics, like most COPD patients, learn this by trial and error. Some people never learn, and continue to suffer.

Now that I'm an adult, it's easy for me to avoid things that I know will bother me. Sometimes, however, I intentionally walk into enemy territory because I want to be normal. I'm allergic to my brother's house, for example, but I went there recently to socialize, to eat, to drink.

I got the sniffles. I had the prototypical mild windedness the day after due to the alcohol and whatever I was allergic to at his house. But I had a great time none-the-less. While I try to stay away from irritants, I don't want to live in a bubble either.

In a previoius post, I wrote about how when I was a kid I used to play football despite the fact I'd be having an asthma attack. I did this because I didn't want to let my brothers down, and because I wanted to play football; I wanted to be normal.

I don't get that bad anymore, but then again I don't play football in the cold anymore either. And I have adult sized lungs, am compliant with my medicines now, and have a good routine of preventative medicines, which is why I don't have so much trouble when I rough house outside in the cold with my kids these days.

When I was a kid I remember wanting to be just like my dad, but my dad never once had to think twice about what he needed to grab or avoid in order to go camping. I still envy him for that. And when he took me with him once when I was a kid he had to take me home before midnight because I was so miserable.

Later I learned I couldn't be normal like my dad. For years, when I left the house, I had to make sure I had all my medicines, and especially my rescue inhaler. And no one but me would be thinking this way. It was just something I had to learn on my own.

Likewise, I had to be thinking of where I would be going, because I had to prepare for the worse. For example, if we were planning on going camping, I had to make sure I took something for allergies -- just in case.

I no longer have to rely on my rescue inhaler so much today because I know what places to avoid and we (RTs and doctors) know a lot more now about medicines that allow asthmatics to live normal lives.

And I've learned that there is only one person who knows when I'm entering enemy territory, and that is myself. No other person will notice the warning signs but me. While I'm aware of this, I think this is a major challenge for other people with pulmonary illnesses, particularly people with adult onset asthma or COPD.

Me, I've had this all my life, and when I realized I had to make life changes, it was easy for me because I was young. I bought a new house instead of an older one with allergens. People know not to smoke within a mile of my house. I learned to excercise and eat right, and got into the habit of it (well, sort of).

However, for others, I can see how hard it would be to change their surroundings.

When I was a kid doctors and scientists weren't sure about the safety of keeping asthmatic kids on steroid inhalers, now they know they are safe. And, by using the appropriate preventative therapies, there is no reason any asthmatic should not live a normal life.

When I was a kid I never tried to get out of anything because of my asthma, as my football experience should prove, but I did get out of physical education classes in high school. Now-a-days, there is no excuse for asthmatics to not excersise. Jackee Joyner Kersee has asthma, and it didn't stop her from participating in the olympics.

If you can't run, then you can walk, like the Bay City Walker, if nothing else.

Asthmatics can be normal and have fun too, they just need to pay attention to certain things, that's all.

It's good to have fun. I could not imagine going through life without social gatherings that involve a lot of great food and drinks. And I couldn't imagine going through life without relaxing at the end of a long day with two or three nice cold beers, or a glass of wine, or a whisky and diet soda. Those are just some of the things I enjoy.

We all get out of shape. We all have bad habits. But it's especially important for those with chronic illnesses to do some form of exercise, and to at least pay attention to what they eat, even if it isn't always health foods.

But, as with most people, there comes a time when the "get the body back in shape" mode comes back on. That day, if all goes as planned, is today.

I'm going to do this. I have to do this. And, as usual, it will probably last for about three weeks, at which time I'm going on vacation in Florida. When I get back I'm certain to have trouble hopping back on the wagon.

That's normal, I bet.

Have another donut Mr. Respiratory Therapist

"Have a donut." My coworker Dee slouches back in her chair, apparently exhausted after a long, busy day.

"No, I'm trying to stay fit." I grab the worksheet and sit down.

"Oh, come on, one donut won't hurt."

"Well, I suppose just one." There goes my diet. "You have a pen."

Dee reaches into her pocket, yanks out a pen, and hands it to me. "You'd think people who work in a hospital would be among the healthiest, most fit people in the world."

"I don't want your favorite pen," I said with a mouth stuffed with donut,

"I don't care. I just want to get out of here."

"Oh, well I can tell you from personal experience working in a hospital makes it impossible to stay healthy."

"Why do you say impossible?"

"Well, I get to work and you offer me a donut. Last night In ER they insist I eat the chili and apple pie in the break room. Then I go up to North and they insist I have some sloppy joes and chips, and then I go to CCU and I'm offered more food.

"Oh, I see what you mean."

"And that's not even mentioning the candy jar Jerry keeps filled in her office. And then I go into Mrs. Roger's room and she insists I take a handful of candy bars. In fact, not only does she insist I take some, but she insists I eat one in front of her. And how the hell do you say no to one of your sweetest patients?"

"And this isn't even a Holiday."

"There's no hope of dieting within a month of a Holiday around here. I try every year. In fact, I'm trying right now. The Halloween candy is already out and about. And then comes Halloween and New Years."

"True. And look around at all the overweight people working here. Well, you're not, but I certainly am."

"What do you mean I'm not fat. Look at me. I've been working out the past 5 weeks and I'm still 20 pounds overweight. In fact, I've lost 30 pounds or more 4 times since I got hired here, and every time I gained it all back.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm telling you, it's impossible to lose weight in a hospital."

"Want a piece of chocolate?" She slides the box across the table.

I grab one " Okay, now give me some times so you can get out of this unhealthy place."

"Sure, and then you can eat that last donut."

"Oh, you know I will, right after I visit Mrs. Rogers."