Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

A while back, I wrote an article about Papa Joe Avaiance. He lost over 250 pounds on a budget and reached his goal without surgery. He is truly an inspiration and I'm so happy he agreed to do an interview for the healthylivingct website. Papa Joe has kept his weight off by eating right and exercising every day. Papa Joe, thank you so much for the interview! I think Papa Joe will motivate those of you who are thinking of losing weight and for those who get discouraged, he offers some great advice. Check out the interview below. For more information about Papa Joe, go to his website by clicking here.

I know there are some people that get offended if you don't take the food they offer you. There are others who simply don't understand healthy eating and will criticize the foods that you're eating. Some people expect you to eat junk food or they won't stay your friend.

Peer pressure is usually tied in with talk about drugs, but can very easily be applied to food. There are relatives or co-workers who will beg you to eat certain food and when you tell them you don't eat that, they don't let it go. They hound you and hound you, as if they will convince you to partake in the food. I remember one job a while ago where I was pressured to eat junk food all the time. "Rich, have another candy..." "Finish this bag of candy..." Of course, I would always eat the food offered as I was obese and didn't care or think about the effects of eating too much junk food.

Doctor Oz did a segment about aspertame on his show recently. I'm happy he finally acknowledged some of the problems with aspartame, but I don't think he went far enough about the dangers of this chemical.

That's right, aspertame is made of chemicals, nothing natural about it. Do you know how aspertame was discovered? A scientist was working on a new medication back in the 1960's and accidentally had a taste of what would become known as aspertame when it landed in his mouth. Doesn't sound too good for you, does it?

I feel a lot stronger and athletic after my weight loss. It's not perfect, but I do see improvements in my muscles. I'm able to do things I never would be able to do before with the extra weight.

I've been practicing doing chin-ups. I use a weight-assisted machine and eventually I won't need the assistance to do them. Push ups were always difficult for me. I can't do them properly just yet, but I practice daily. Push ups are such a good work out that I want to be able to do them correctly. I do the modified version and gradually, I'm getting closer to doing the traditional push up. It's a good sign of strength and physical fitness to be able to do them.

I might have a biased view since I've never been a smoker, ever, all of my life. But this article is about a certain breed of smokers.

When I was at a local grocery store the other day, I noticed a morbidly obese man, probably around 400 pounds. He was limping along, as he had a lot of trouble moving around with all his extra weight. There he was standing in front of the store, and what does he do? He proceeds to light a cigarette. This is not the first time I've seen an image like this and why I thought I would write an article about it.