The End of Weight Loss And Diet As We Know It

By Barry Roskin Blake

With the frightening statistics just announced that we are only just a little bit away from the majority of the country being overweight and over forty percent obese, it seems like the end is near.

Just a decade ago we really started to wake up and push films and initiatives in school and at home to change things. Michelle Obama even started that garden in her back yard in Washington. So what the heck happened? Is it some sort of conspiracy, a way to make more jobs or just plain bad luck? I mean there has to be somebody to blame doesn’t there? In every good story you have the hero and his nemesis. Yet people are dying every day. I just lost my youngest cousin who was a year younger then me at age forty or so. She had become very large, had a diabetic stroke and died a day later.

Is this the future that we all have to look forward too? This disease has taken the majority of the family I love. Most of my friends who are overweight suffer from illnesses that are all either caused or contributed to by obesity. There are resources out there and that do present hope. I just think we are letting time pass us by and not getting down to the root of why we are all having this happen to us.  The thing I am tired of is hearing everyday is that someone who has taken off two hundred pounds in six months and has the answer. I hate to say it, but you’re part of the problem. Chances are in another year or less you will have put the weight back on and more. It is not that I am jealous, it is the sad fact that 98 percent of people who go on these type of diets will fail. Those are undeniable facts.

We as a people have to look at the situation very differently.  Our responsibility has to be to our own health first. Then we can focus on the ones we love or who will look out after them. It is time for a change and I am not sure that there is one particular answer. Yet, if we do not try, just imagine what the next twenty years can bring back. Maybe a]we’re heading back to a time when the average lifespan was fifty. We are a great body of people and together, I’m sure we can find our way.  It may be time to stop depending on the experts alone and start depending on each other.  I welcome everyone’s thought and feedback at such a crucial time.

Thanks for checking in,

Barry

Eating Less Can Cause Weight Gain

When Eating Less Causes Weight Gain

Ever since the last month, I have found my self not eating emotionally anymore. This was one of my biggest problems and I was so glad to get past it. A wish come true. Yet with ever road I pass, there is always a speed bump or two. The latest one came to me while working ten hour days cutting ‘Finding Thin’ and taking meetings. I discovered I was eating far less then I should be. There was just so much to do that I was neglecting to eat enough. It was slowing down my metabolism and causing me to tire easily and for my weight loss to slow. Who would have though that would be even be possible? I would have dreamed for a problem like that. Well… maybe not.
When growing up I was always thought that less was more. If you went lower on the calories, you would lose more weight. That is so not the case. It really is a game of balance. Not too much and not too little. Finding that sense of balance is not easy by any way but imaginable. Yet it is actually enjoyable since I get to eat more of the foods that I enjoy and do now feel stronger. This was one of the things that I liked about the new Weight Watchers program. It did not deprive me. It made it much easer then counting calories and made sense to me.
As a former dieter, I knew how to skip on the calories but that was not the answer.
Now with diabetes. it makes it even the more a bit more difficult sometimes in choices but nowhere near impossible. I am already finding that the diabetes is going down which means I can stay off the insulin. This of course thrills me. After all, who likes sticking themselves with needles. Though there are millions that are forced to every day and I pray we can beat this dreaded disease one day. I am so fortunate enough to be able to now control this through different eating substitutions. You notice I don’t say diet much since I hate the word.
There are some people out there that have ways they recommend to trick your body but that just seems wrong. My body has gone through enough and deserves to be treated better.
So as I make it past emotional eating, I just have to remind myself to eat enough and at the right times during the day.
The next obstacle is learning to start walking again without wanting to fall over.
I would love to hear from anyone who face those same challenges that I do.

The Weight Loss Journey Comes To A Close, A New Chapter Begins

The Weight Loss Journey Comes To A Close A New Chapter Begins

I have traveled over half the country in search of losing weight. Had the chance to meet over three hundred experts and celebrities during shooting the upcoming film ‘Finding Thin’. I started at one weight and ended up gaining more while trying some of the new diets that might have that magic bullet. This was not what was supposed to happen. Yet my mission was to set out to save the world. That was until I found out that I needed to save myself first, then I could figure out the rest. The funny thing is that it took until that last few miles when I moved out to L.A. to really have it kick in. This was my last destination on the journey and a place that I was to call home.
The last year had many changes in my life. I had lost two of my beloved pets, a very close friend who turned out to be a wolf in a sheep cloths and most importantly… myself.
Then it began to change. I suddenly began to find myself. No longer did I find the need for emotional eating. Of course that brought many challenges. Yet I never stopped and was able to continue on and grow the movie to the finest state it has ever been in as well as myself personally.
We have some of the finest names and I don’t know where to begin thanking people.
Do I start with Jillian Michaels who really opened the door for us and showed me that we don’t always have to be victims. Or was it Dr. Michael Roizen over at The ‘Cleveland Clinic’ who showed me that I don’t need to feel so old and can reverse the process. He also introduced me to the mighty ‘Health Corps’ created by the efforts of Dr. Oz and ran by the lovely Michelle Bouchard. Then of course there was Bob Harper of ‘The Biggest Loser’ who was so real and made me laugh so hard. Then there was Tony Horton of ‘P90X’, not only the strongest guy for his young age but I am not sure he ever takes a breath. He is that good.. Then I begin to think of David Wallace of ‘Weight Watchers’ who helped get me back on track’. Of course I cant forget the king of comedy George Wallace or the wit and heart of actress Carlease Burke. There are just so many great people that have changed my life and contributed to making this movie that that much more. I have enough material to make three films. There are just so many names to thank. I just hope they help to bring the change and hope to your life as they have to mine. This has been the greatest honer and chance that I could have ever been given. Far from what I ever had hoped for. Beating my wildest dreams.
As I settle in now for the final phase of the movie and make my new home in L.A., I will be writing more frequently. Not to push the film, which I hope you will see, but to be there for you with new thoughts and stories form the battles lines each and every day. Have hope for this is a journey we take together.

Be Well

Barry Roskin Blake
Producer/Director
Finding Thin

Heavy People Getting Burned At the Clothing Store

Fat People Punished For Buying Cloths

Before I begin, it is true that as an obese person I do need more material then the normal person.
That could certainly make for the higher price for the plus sized cloths. Though do consider that when buying in bulk, the price does go down.

Big Sizes Mean Big Money

I have heard many argue that the bigger you are the more you should pay. Though if we go ahead with that argument, the issue becomes much larger. The truth is that big and tall stores are charging three to four times the prices.
I went looking for a 3x bathing suit and was told it would cost me over fifty dollars. This would normally be around ten dollars in a Target or Walmart.
So why do heavy people pay such large prices. It feels as though we are getting taken advantage of at the over-sized stores.
Some people say if you can’t go to the normal sized stores then that is your problem.
The reason that I take issue with the “normal” phrase may be a shock to you. Right now   over sixty percent or more of U.S.A. is overweight or obese.

That would put the heavy people in the majority and actually the normal ones.
So my question is still why we should pay more money for something that is far greater in demand.
Wait… I think I just answered my own question. Greater demand means greater profits.
It has nothing to do with discrimination or prejudice. Instead it is pure greed.
So my hat goes off to the plus size stores for getting what they can but sooner or later the Targets’ and Walmart’s are going to catch up. So watch out.

It’s Smart To Be Healthy

A Special Guest Post By: Chris Steurer

We all know that getting healthy can bring  tremendous amount of positive results in our lives… but did you know that being healthier can also help you become smarter?

Perhaps this sounds like a strange idea, but when you break it down, it can clear up some speculation.

1. The brain is a part of the human body

2. When we are healthy all the parts of our body are able to function properly.

4. Being healthy can help your body better maintain one of its most important parts, the brain!

Strange has turned into simple.

The overall health of our brain and our bodies can have a major impact on how well we are able to perform certain cognitive functions.

If we partake in unhealthy activities such as smoking or becoming overweight, we increase our risk of unhealthier brains and cognitive abilities. In order to keep our minds in tip-top shape, we must take care of our bodies’ health and well-being. Who knows, perhaps increasing our health can also help us increase our wealth?

Bree Boyce Makes History For The Fat People

When I interviewed Bree for ‘Finding Thin’ months ago, she did nothing but intrigue me.

This woman weighed over 230 Pounds and lost it all…only to win a local beauty contest to become “Miss Cap Cities”.

She was awe-inspiring and I wished her the best of luck for her future endeavors.

Recently, Bree went on to become Miss South Carolina. Bree was making history. She was an obese woman that shredded the pounds by eating well and working out, and she could possibly be our next Miss America.

Bree is the first person to raise the bar for what can be done with weight loss and personal success.

Surely she still would have been beautiful, but had Bree stayed at her original weight, I don’t believe she would have the same outcome in pageantry.

She is not only a front runner Miss America, but a front runner in teaching our obese society that we can lose our weight and most importantly, be healthy. There are so many good looking and healthy people stuck in overweight body’s and stuck from getting out.

Bree escaped her obese path by the good old fashioned way… and she made all of us heavy folk proud, and most of all, hopeful.

She’s a hero.

I Blame Obesity

Obesity…it’s not personal; it is a disease. For every new Oreo cookie on the market, there is a new weight loss diet or food, proving the disease is falsely medicated.

Shouldn’t that put the odds at a even keel?

It doesn’t appear to be working; but it’s not our faults, right?

When I was growing up, my mother taught my family that it was always someone else’s fault.

If it was bad weather, blame the weatherman. If they came out with a delicious new food, blame the food company.

There was always a way to find solace in blaming others.

Now that I am older and spent the last three years surrounded by every weight loss and health guru around, I have changed my position.

I find that if I stop taking the time to blame others for what has happened, I have at least the fighting chance to change things.

It’s a frighting thought for some, since it is so much easier to blame others whether they are right or wrong.

After being in a terrible truck accident, I spent three years in unbearable pain and blaming the truck for it..

While of course in some ways this is true, what I did with the situation was the most important. I needed to be proactive to help myself. I needed to take control.

I would have to deal with the pain for the rest of my life. There would certainly be different ways I could take to try and lesson the pain but it will always be there.

Normally, I would eat food to comfort me and just complain about what happened. I ate the candy because the truck accident aftermath MADE me…

Now I refuse to not take responsibility for my choices of how I react to my pain. I finally realize that I am the only one who can take proper action to stop the damage. I need to be proactive to help myself.

I have to make the first step towards helping myself. I don’t want anyone else to blame. Sure it isn’t personal, it’s a disease… but I can stop being the victim.

I know it is scary, but there is hope out there.

 

Say Yes To The Dress: Big Bliss

Every girl dreams about her wedding dress. Whether starting to walk down that aisle as a flower girl or swooning over the latest celebrity wedding dress, girls inevitably become dreamers. They compare, draw opinions, and imagine what they are going to look like on their special day.

This is especially apparent when it comes to the women that travel from all over the world to Kleinfeld’s.

Kleinfeld is one of the most famous bridal stores, located in Manhattan, New York. It is also the location where TLC’s “Say Yes To The Dress” television series takes place. Women flock here to have a personalized, one-on-one experience with a professional bridal consultant in order to discuss and find their dream wedding dress. In hopes of saying “yes to the dress” for their day of I do’s, Kleinfeld’s is comparable to the mecca of the bridal gown experience.

Recently, TLC added an additional show “Say Yes To The Dress: Big Bliss” featuring plus-size brides in search of finding their dream dress at the same store.

The big girls got their own big show.

It felt like night and day when comparing the two shows. The original features all types of brides, whereas “Big Bliss” concentrates on only the plus-sized. The biggest hurdle for the original show’s brides was picking and choosing between lace, satin, blingy and A-line or mermaid shaped dresses.

The biggest hurdle for Big Bliss, was just that… being big. Every story consisted of women battling to find a dress that fit, made her look thin, show off her curves, and make her feel like the princess that she wanted to be. One woman in particular wanted to simply buy the first dress because it had fit…and she hadn’t been able to fit into a new piece of clothing-let alone a wedding dress- in years. It was disheartening, but the Kleinfeld professionals worked extremely hard at finding her the right fit for her body size and made her feel comfortable while doing so. But the reality still is that there are fewer sizes to choose from for the plus-size bride.

To some, people would say “Big Bliss” is doing a service to help plus-size brides feel as glamorous as possible on her wedding day. To others, “Big Bliss” is glorifying the struggle that these women have had to deal with throughout their lives.

Can’t one show size fit all?

 

Kirstie Alley’s Weight For Fame

Kirstie has been down this road before. First it was with her TV series, “Fat Actress” where she documents her battle of obesity. Then it was Jenny Craig’s massive paycheck which helped to keep the weight off by using their diet.

Finally Kirstie went through weeks and weeks of rehearsals for dancing on the hit show, “Dancing With The Stars”.

And just weeks after the very fast weight loss, Kirstie has her own diet that she is promoting to the public.

The problem lies in the fact that Kirstie has always used the wrong motivation to lose her weight. If it’s not for the money, then it’s for the fame.

If Kirstie made healthy choices that she could abide by, then it wouldn’t be such a problem. But the motivation remains financial and for fame.

Without it, she would most likely return to emotional eating and land herself back to square one.

I do wish Kirstie success, but I question if she is the right person to create a diet program. It seems too soon and without testimonials it can cause a very likely dangerous proposition.

She claims that she worked with scientists to come up with this new diet plan. To be honest, I think the scientific community has been at this a lot longer with very little success. Perhaps instead of talking with the researchers, she should try talking to others that suffer from the same disease.

You might get some real answers. You might get real results.