Posts by sbarbe

Original Post by monarch777:

A health insurance provider in our state just granted children up to the age of 19 a totally free health insurance plan for two years....if they are undocumented.

A majority of people here have NO health insurance for their kids...citizens who were born here. They cannot afford it.

Wow.

I think a big issue has not been addressed here based on the original post:

"A health insurance provider in our state"

This indicates to me that it is a private company providing the insurance.  If this is the case, fair or not, it is their right to do it.  Also if it is a private company, it is not costing tax payers anything, so what is the question here? 

Should everyone have free heathcare?  Absolutely, in my opinion.

Can healthcare professionals make a living if everyone has free healthcare?  No

These are very thorny issues and there is no easy solution.  If there were, even *our* government could have solved them already :)  The healthcare system in this country is broken in some pretty fundamental ways, and the insurance companies, in fact, do not really help the situation because like all businesses, their goal is to make a profit and show returns to their stockholders.  In order to achieve universal coverage to all people, the government has to be the one to provide the coverage.  No private enterprise ever will, because they cannot recoup the cost of providing care to those that cannot afford it.  Say what you want about socialized medicine or a national health service, if you want universal coverage, it is the only way.  I, for one, would much rather have my tax money spent on that then on many of the other things tax dollars get spent on.

Tuna, Chicken and Peanut Butter are my favorites.

Also, When I find I am not getting enough, I keep whey protein powder on hand and will have a shake to help bring my amounts up for the day.  Some of the brands actually taste pretty good.  I usually use 1 scoop of powder and 1 cup of skim milk to make a quick protein drink with about 28g of protein and 220 calories.

Definitely don't pull on your neck...that is a good way to hurt yourself.

And almost always, the best way to get better at bodyweight exercises like this is to do more of them.  Do them 3-5 days a week, start with as many as you can do without feeling completely spent and do 3 sets of that number with about 1-2 minute rest in between sets.  Just keep doing them and when you feel you can do more in the first set, start doing more and increase all sets to the new number.  Just keep doing this until you reach the goal.  As corduroy said above, it's not the most effective abdominal exercise, but if you have to do it, plain old sets of reps will get you there.

Good luck!

Unless you have a specific medical condition that makes it problematic for you to eat certain vegetables, as far as I know you are absolutely fine.  I have a genetic factor that makes me more prone to blood clots, and the "Dark Green" veggies (Broccoli, spinach, cabbage, etc.) react with blood chemstry to make my medication less effective (I am on Coumadin).  That being the case, I limit my intake of those specific types of vegetables, but I eat carrots, green beans, peas, corn, squash, lima beans, etc. like they are going out of style.  So unless you are in this kind of situation, I think you are not only fine, but better off eating tons of veggies.

Congratulations!

And I hope you enjoyed every bite of that cheesecake.  You deserve it!

Baby Carrots.  Always a good option.

My biggest reason is that I am tired of being fat.  I was always the skinny geek in High School (6'1" 160 lbs), and at age 28 woke up and realized I was pushing 300.  I've been losing and gaining ever since (I'm 38 now and about 250), but I finally want to be a healthy, good looking weight instead of over or under.

The other major reason is to set a good example for my son.  The last several times I've seen him (he lives with his mom) he has looked bigger and bigger.  It's not much of an issue yet, since he is not overweight by any means, and is only 17, 6'2" and still growing, but both his mom and I have both been overweight for awhile, and I want to set the example that you can and should be fit no matter what your age.

If you are toning up, you are likely trading out fat for muscle, which is still a good thing.  You have not given any details, but it seems that you are already at a healthy weight for your height, so my advice is to pay more attention to how you look and feel and less attention to what the scale says.

Just my $0.02