WEIGHT LOSS TIPS

Hudson Eats Cake To Add 20 Pounds

Jennifer Hudson was asked to gain twenty pounds for her role of Effie in Dreamgirls. She said she gained the weight by "eating ookies, cakes, and pies at all hours of the night. The trouble is, we were dancing so much, it was hard to keep the weight on. I'd lose an inch, and they'd yell 'You've gotta eat more chocolate cake!'"

iPod Fitness

These iPods Were Made for Walking

It's taken me a long time to get myself an iPod. But I finally went ahead and ordered one. The price is down to $79 now and you get twice the quality as a couple of years ago. They have a special Valentine's promotion where you can get it engraved with something and gift wrapped for your sweetheart. For me, I just opted to engrave it with my phone number in case I lose it.

There are so many interesting free podcasts out there now. I think it will be fun to go for long walks and listen to some of them. I'm looking forward to trying it out. Delivery may take up to eight days since I didn't pay extra for speedy delivery.

They have some new snazzy colors to choose from now, but I opted for the standard silver. Will let you know how the walking motivation works out with the iPod soon.

Getting Rid of Beer Bellies

The Beer Belly Guy Resolves to Lose It

The beer belly guy decided he was going to lose his beer belly. He started a blog about his progress at the beginning of this year. He's been at it for a few weeks. He is a tall guy, 6'2" and weighs 280 pounds. He wants to weigh 225 and have a toned belly to boot.

He says he's developed the beer belly over the last five years by sitting too long in front of the computer, drinking too many beers and eating fatty foods. He used to be in uber shape before that. But he's got a very successful internet business now, he works from home, sets his own hours and has developed a lifestyle which encourages beer drinking.

He typically wakes up at 10:00am and by the time he's had his coffee and cigs, it is past 11:00am. Then he sits down to work at his computer until about 3:00pm. After that it's the bustle of two little kids and dinner to make. Then he gets back on the computer in the evening, with his favorite beer in hand and works on the computer till almost 2:00am.

Initially he vowed to give up beer for a full month. But now his goal is to maintain some regular beer drinking but still lose the belly. He's got less of a challenge in this regard then some people who've let their beer bellies get quite a bit further out of control. Hop on over to his beer belly blog and give him some encouragement.

Less chocolates and more flowers would be the Valentine's Day wish for many women. Here's an upscale (and very expensive) floral arrangement via Los Angleles Florists. It's a tiny box of chocolates surrounded by a big box of roses.

Here via Anne Collins is the calorie count in popular chocolate treats:

Chocolate Calories
Milk chocolate, 1.5oz bar 220
Milk chocolate, 2oz bar 290
Cooking chocolate, 1oz 150
Chocolate Sprinkles (1 tbsp) 50
Carob bar or Carob chips, 1oz 140
Chocolate topping (2 tbsp) 90

How can you burn calories and make money at the same time? There's probably countless ways but here's one idea that will also help slow global warming to boot.

How long would it take to replace all the light bulbs in your home? And how many calories would you burn if it took you two hours? We're talking about a potential piddly 300 to 500 calories depending on your weight and how much you'd have to exert yourself.

But the savings to your budget would be much more impressive. If you replaced all your regular bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs you would save 50 cents to 75 cents per month per bulb. That adds up to more than a few dollars over the year.

More importantly we would make a significant contribution to slow global warming. These bulbs use only about one third of the electricity as the regular bulbs in our homes.

It's been estimated that if each home replaced only one bulb, it would be the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road in terms of global warming impact.

See more about compact fluorescent lightbulbs here.