Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

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 had my 2nd week weigh-in and lost an additional 2 lbs. So currently I am down 12 lbs overall since the beginning of the challenge.

I won the most weight lost for the first week of the challenge and I think I am in the lead. My weight-loss has slowed as I expected for the second week since I got back my carbs.  Next weeks weigh-in will be the real signifier as to whether or not my diet is kicking in gear as it should.  If I do not lose then I will have to make adjustments to my carb load as well as pick up on more activity.

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.

If these guys can do it... I know I will!

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.