For the most part, I am a pretty laid back person, I would call myself accepting.  Unless it directly affects me, I don’t care what you do.  Let me correct that, I do care what you do.  But as long as you think that’s what’s going to make you happy, I will support it or at least not say anything, it’s the way things go, and I find trying to change people too much when they don’t want to change only creates unnecessary problems.  Plus I think caring about someone means taking them and hoping you can help them improve, but only as they are ready.  This being said, I have found that in large part, those family members and friends who are obese affect me.  When they have health problems, when I’m the one cleaning up the pieces because something happened that hurt their feelings in relation to their obesity, when they’re sitting their complaining about how they want to lose weight, that directly affects me, and it drives me a little bit nuts.  Now the whole health complications, that affects everybody.  It’s not just those suffering from it, but family members.  I’m starting to sound like a cigarette commercial.  But in so many ways, while many people I know of want to say this is my life and all that, and it is, it isn’t just your life.  So in many ways, shape up, suck it up, and think about the whole picture.

I love Red Robin as does my friend who has had some serious battles with obesity, and he’s only 24 years old.  This being said, their bottomless steak fries are a death trap, which is why we only go and plan these trips on special occasions.  If you’re going to cheat really cheat is what I say.  But my favorite one, and I don’t really try to justify it by saying it’s healthy.  I know that even the healthy parts are counteracted by unhealthy, and it’s best to really realize this if you are going to do it.  But my favorite one is probably one of their healthier ones, especially because I get it low carb with a lettuce instead of a bun thing.  But I get the teriyaki burger which has pineapple, teriyaki sauce, etc.  It’s incredibly good, and I fully take advantage of the steak fries.  This being said, if you have high cholesterol, even a slight jump in cholesterol is always a bad thing believe it or not.  But if you have reasonable levels, just really temper yourself.  Don’t fool yourself by saying anything there is healthy.

There are various foods, some of which are good for you and some of which are not, but there are some known for having parasites. For example, there is the myth of one man trying to impress a girl with raw snails meant to be escargot. But the problem is not cooking it like that allows certain parasites to thrive that go directly to the brain and eat it away essentially speaking. Likewise, sometimes they don’t get particularly fresh fish for sushi and sashimi, which can lead to parasites. Now salmon and other fish are really good for you. You just have to be picky about the types and obviously the varieties that you pick. They can lead to tapeworm, and while that may promote weight loss at first, obviously there are other serious health problems connected to it. Another one is called steak tartare, which is basically raw meat. There was an opera singer rumored to lose a ton of weight rather suddenly because she liked to eat raw beef and got tapeworms. This could very well be true. Pink hamburger has the same problem, so you may not want to get your meat particularly raw. And finally, ham and pork sandwiches have a tendency to carry certain bacterias and otherwise.

Sometimes I like to trick myself.  I like to think that certain foods are healthier than they are, and quite frankly it makes me sad sometimes.  But that being said, I know better to a certain degree, and it’s my job to correct my own bad habits.  Before I dropped soda all together, I was a bit fan of diet sodas.  After all, especially with Coke 0, how can you really get better.  Alcohol is the same way with Bacardi 0.  But anyway, basically what they do is they replace the sugar with all these artificial sugars that actually sabotage your body and make it not work the way it should in response to sugars in general.  Likewise, fruit cocktails are horrible.  You have to look for pure 100% juice!  Fruit juice is high in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc.  But fruit cocktails are not.  They are packed with sugar and maybe 10% juice, which is never a good thing keep in mind.  Likewise, unless you are getting extremely low fat cottage cheese, cottage cheese is really bad for you.  And finally flavored yogurts are not good for you.  Plain yogurt is great.  You can mix your own fruits in there.  But ya, and likewise reduced fat peanut butter not good.  The sugar free kind, I forget what the name is actually, is good, but not the low fat.

Frankly, a big problem in this country as well as around the world is dehydration. Most of us are chronically dehydrates, and many have blamed this for obesity rates, because quite frankly water acts as a natural appetite suppressant, and so often we actually think we’re hungry when we are in all reality thirsty. This being said, changes in environment can contribute, while most of the time we just don’t drink enough even for cool days. Most of our body mass is made up of water, so you definitely don’t want to let it drop too far to say the least. One of the easiest ways to tell if you are dehydrated is to check your pee. Pee in a hydrated person should actually be clear. In addition, dry skin can easily denote chronic dehydration. Obesity can easily be a sign as many don’t drink enough and then mistake thirst for actually hunger. Dehydration is obviously a bigger problem for those in desert areas where they often don’t have a ready supply even available to them. But just because it’s available doesn’t mean that more people will drink it, which is why so many suffer from the signs and symptoms. It can also cause general fatigue among other things. So it’s definitely something to watch out for.

I know that we make diet pills for humans, but for dogs?  Come on.  I mean I’ve seen those that have a higher tendency toward it.  Frankly I see a dog and then you see the parent, and you see why.  But it’s not all that.  Yes, my dog has a tendency to want to overeat, and even after I’ve fed him the proper amount that I know keeps him lean, but with enough fat to really sustain him well, he still licks the bowl, comes back to me for more, and acts like he is literally starving.  I don’t give in, because he doesn’t need it!  But ultimately, as the caretaker, you have control over what your dog eats just as you have control over what your child eats.  Children don’t need diet pills and really should never have them.  Likewise, dogs really don’t need diet pills, it’s a simple fact of life.  Some caretakers also have no backyard and choose not to take them out on walks or otherwise allow them to get a good amount of exercise, which really doesn’t help that particular problem.  Just like us, dogs are susceptible to greater diseases and joint problems when they become obese, some worse than others.  But they aren’t going to grow fat in general if you keep control over it.  If you are maintaining good foods, keeping their food in moderation, and exercising them on a regular basis, it will keep it under control, period, end of story.  And quite frankly, this may even help you to keep your own weight under control.