Having been eating less for the past several weeks and noticing that I was feeling full after eating considerably less, I started wondering if the stomach shrinks with dieting. Heck I thought, if the stomach shrinks why would a person need to have the size reduced surgically.

After surfing the worldwide web for a while I learned that The European Food Information Council states, “When you have not eaten for about four hours your stomach will be relatively empty, looks a bit like a deflated balloon and in this state, holds about 50ml. Once full, however, it can greatly expand and hold up to 4 liters of food and drink. Fasting can not therefore shrink the stomach; it simply remains in the empty, deflated state. As soon as you start eating and drinking normally again, it expands once more.”

As I continued to surf I ran across a study that had been made of

In a study of 14 overweight people, Allan Geliebter, Ph.D., a psychologist and leading researcher in eating behavior at the Obesity Research Center of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, NY inserted a gastric balloon into each subject’s stomach. The balloon was filled with water to measure stomach capacity. Each person needed about four cups to experience a feeling of being uncomfortably full. Geliebter then put everyone on a low-calorie diet for four weeks. When the stomach capacity was measured again, he found that each subject needed only about three cups to feel uncomfortably full equaling that of normal weight people.

Unfortunately it appears that this shrinkage is only temporary so I guess we won’t be able to put the bariatric surgeons out of work.

A distraught senior citizen phoned her Doctor’s’ office. ‘Is it true,’ she wanted to know, ‘that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?’

‘Yes, I’m afraid so,’ the doctor told her.

There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied, ‘I’m wondering, then, just how serious is my condition because this prescription is marked ‘NO REFILLS’.’

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An older gentleman was on the operating table awaiting surgery and he insisted that his son, a renowned surgeon, perform the operation. As he was about to get the anesthesia, he asked to speak to his son.

‘Yes, Dad, what is it? ‘

‘Don’t be nervous, son; do your best and just remember, if it doesn’t go well, if something happens to me, your mother is going to come and live with you and your wife….’

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Aging: Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

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The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

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Some people try to turn back their odometers.

Not me! I want people to know ‘why’ I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way and some of the roads weren’t paved..

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When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.

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You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

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One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young.

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Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

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Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft…

Today, it’s called golf.

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Two old guys are pushing their carts around Wal-Mart when they collide. The first old guy says to the second guy, ‘Sorry about that. I’m looking for my wife, and I guess I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.’

The second old guy says, ‘That’s OK, it’s a coincidence I’m looking for my wife, too. I can’t find her and I’m getting a little desperate.’

The first old guy says, ‘Well, maybe I can help you find her. What does she look like?’

The second old guy says, ‘Well, she is 27 yrs old, tall, with red hair, blue eyes, long legs, and is wearing short shorts. What does your wife look like?’

To which the first old guy says, ‘Doesn’t matter, — let’s look for yours.’

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Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.

Normal weight or obese, the next time you choose to eat a chocolate bar think about the number of insect legs it contains. Here are a number of funny and strange food facts some that will help you loose weight. Others that may help you gain weight. And a few of them that might encourage you to stop eating anything you don’t prepare yourself!

American’s eat about 18 billion hot dogs a year.

Eating lots of processed meats has been linked to an increased risk of cancer.

Hot dogs are often made from animal byproducts from lips to ears and other parts you may not want to think about.

Apple is made of 25% air, that is why they float.

Apples are more effective at keeping people awake in the morning than caffeine.

Apples, onions, and potatoes all have the same taste? Try the test: Pinch your nose and take a bite out of each.

Avocado has the highest protein and oil content of all fruits, most of which is the healthier unsaturated type.

Cabbage is 91% water.

Carrots were originally purple in color.

Celery requires more calories to eat and digest than it contains.

Cherries are a member of the rose family.

Children in North America spend close to half a billion dollars annually on chewing gum.

The can opener was invented 48 years after cans were introduced.

Seaweed is used to thicken ice cream.

An average woman consumes approximately 20 kg of lipstick in her life.

The longest sausage made in Australia was 11 kilometers (6.9 miles) long.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

Ketchup was sold in the 1830’s as medicine that would cure anything from baldness to athletes foot.

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.

There are more nutrients in the cornflake package itself than there are in the actual cornflakes.

Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing.

Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave. You have been warned!

The average chocolate bar has 8 insects’ legs in it.

Corn represents only about 8% of the weight in a box of corn flakes.

Corn stalks always have an even number of ears.

Eggplants are actually fruits, and classified botanically as berries.

Every time you lick a stamp you gain 1/10 of a calorie.

Honey is the only edible food for humans that will never go bad.

Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.

Orange does not rhyme with any other word.

Peanuts are legumes and not a tree nut.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite.

Pear is a fruit that ripens from the inside out.

Rabbits and Reindeer like to eat bananas.

Strawberries are the only fruit which has its seeds on its outer skin.

The oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old.

The toothpick capital of the world is Maine.

Yams have 10 times more vitamin C than sweet potatoes.

Want to know how well you are chewing your food? Eat corn need I say more!

The following is a story emailed to me by one of our readers.

A young man had been to Wednesday Night Bible Study. The Pastor had shared
about listening to God and obeying the Lord’s voice. The young man couldn’t
help but wonder, “Does God still speak to people?”

After service, he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they
discussed the message. Several different ones talked about how God had led
them in different ways.

It was about ten o’clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting
in his car, he just began to pray, “God…If you still speak to people,
speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey.”

As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought
to stop and buy a gallon of milk. He shook his head and said out loud, “God
is that you?” He didn’t get a reply and started on toward home. But again the thought, buy a gallon of milk. The young man thought about Samuel and
how he didn’t recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli.
“Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk.” It didn’t seem like
too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the milk. He stopped and
purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home.

As he passed Seventh Street, he again felt the urge, “Turn Down that
street.” This is crazy he thought, and drove on past the intersection. Again, he
felt that he should turn down Seventh Street. At the next intersection, he
turned back and headed down Seventh. Half jokingly, he said out loud,
“Okay, God, I will.”

He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop. He
pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in a semi- commercial
area of town. It wasn’t the best but it wasn’t the worst of neighborhoods
either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like
the people were already in bed.

Again, he sensed something, “Go and give the milk to the people in the
house across the street.” The young man looked at the house. It was dark
and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep.
He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat. “Lord, this
is insane. Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, they are going to
be mad and I will look stupid.” Again, he felt like he should go and give
the milk.

Finally, he opened the door, “Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the
door and I will give them the milk. If you want me to look like a crazy
person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess that will count for some
thing, but if they don’t answer right away, I am out of here.”

He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise
inside. A man’s voice yelled out, “Who is it? What do you want?” Then the
door opened before the young man could get away. The man was standing there
in his jeans and T-shirt. He looked like he just got out of bed. He had a
strange look on his face and he didn’t seem too happy to have some stranger
standing on his doorstep. “What is it?”

The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, “Here, I brought this to you.”
The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway. Then from down the hall
came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following
her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down
his face.

The man began speaking and half crying, “We were just praying. We had some
big bills this month and we ran out of money. We didn’t have any milk for
our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some
milk.” His wife in the kitchen yelled out, “I ask him to send an Angel with
some. Are you an Angel?”

The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had
on him and put in the man’s hand. He turned and walked back toward his car
and the tears were streaming down his face. He knew that God still answers
prayers.

Perhaps one of the most basic and most overlooked forms of tuning ones body is flexibility training or stretching. Even though I understand the power of stretching I had allowed myself to become physically lazy. Over two years ago I stopped exercising as frequently as I should and was no longer stretching on a daily basis. For the past two years my mobility and balance have not been nearly as good as they should be and I have not been able to raise my arms above shoulder height. During the past two or three months I have again been devoting 10 - 20 minutes each day to stretching. Additionally I recently started adding 4 to 5 minutes of stretching each morning to limber up my arms and legs. Day-by-day it has been easier for me to walk, get up from my chair and even get in and out of my car. With the increased mobility I have increased my walking, spent more time doing yard work, performing neglected chores around the house and have been working out with lightweights.

This past weekend stretching provided me a special gift. We had arrived early to my grandson’s Babe Ruth baseball game. He wanted his dad to play catch, as he knew grandpa was no longer able to lift his arms high enough to do so. His dad was busy helping to prepare for the game and without thinking I grabbed my sons glove and a ball throwing it to my grandson. My grandsons through it back. With ease I caught the ball. For the next ten minutes we continued to play catch. What a wonderful bonus stretching had provided me.

Let me share with you an article I wrote during a period in my life that I was working out on a regular basis. Unfortunately I have a tendency to be better at giving others advice than taking my own. The following is an article that I had written for use in a sexuality book that I was writing at the time.

Flexibility Training (Stretching)

Great sex requires good flexibility, physical and muscular endurance. If a person is out of shape it is never too late to get started. At the gym I will regularly see both men and women in there 70s and 80s that work out 2 - 4 days per week and they look absolutely great. Seeing these people has certainly been a good motivator for me.

Stretching is a key ingredient to improving one’s health and yet many individuals overlook this very important aspect of their training program. Daily stretching or even yoga is one of the best things you can do for yourself. If you have time to vegetate in front of the television you have time to stretch and, in fact, you can do both at the same time. Experts recommend that you stretch for at least 10 to 15 minutes and a minimum of three times per week. As an alternative they recommend shorter bouts of more frequent stretching. We hit age 30 and it’s downhill from there if we don’t take care of our bodies. The great thing is you can start the climb back up the hill and stretching is a good place to start.

Stretching will also:

• Help you to feel better in all of your daily activities.
• Reduce risk to injury, muscle soreness and stiffness.
• Improves your performance and range of motion in your joints.
• Reduce arthritis pain.
• Reduce the incidence of back problems while improving the back.
• Expand range and mobility, allowing a broader variety of sexual positions.

Basics Stretching Safety

• Warm up your muscles before starting to stretch.
• Stretch slowly and smoothly, avoiding unnecessary bouncing and jerking.
• Exhale while extending your muscles to the point of tension, (not pain) and hold the position for 20 to 60 seconds. Breath evenly and continuously while stretching. Do not hold your breath, for this causes muscle contraction and raises blood pressure.
• Inhale while returning to the relaxed position and as you prepare to repeat the stretch.
• When performing stretches that involve the back, relax the spine by keeping your lower back against the mat while working only the abdomen or other muscles required for position changes.

Stretching should not be performed before warming up and is appropriate for the cooling down period. When the muscles are still cold they are more easily injured by over-stretching.

As the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased in the United States, so have related health care costs-both direct and indirect. Direct health care costs refer to preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services such as physician visits, medications, and hospital and nursing home care. Indirect costs are the value of wages lost by people unable to work because of illness or disability, as well as the value of future earnings lost by premature death.

Most of the statistics presented here represent the economic cost of overweight and obesity in the United States in 1995, updated to 2001 dollars.[10] Unless otherwise noted, these statistics are adapted from Wolf and Colditz,[11] who based their data on existing epidemiological studies that defined overweight and obesity as a BMI > 29. Because the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased since 1995, the costs today are higher than the figures given here.

Q: What is the cost of overweight and obesity?

A: Total Cost: $117 billion
Direct Cost: $61 billion*
Indirect Cost: $56 billion

*A recent study estimated annual medical spending due to overweight and obesity (BMI >25) to be as much as $92.6 billion in 2002 dollars-9.1 percent of U.S. health expenditures.[12]

Q: What is the cost of lost productivity related to overweight and obesity?

A: The cost of lost productivity related to obesity among Americans age 17 to 64 is $3.9 billion. This value considers the following annual numbers (for 1994):

Workdays lost: $39.3 million
Physician office visits: $62.7 million
Restricted-activity days: $239 million
Bed-days: $89.5 million

Article provided by the National Institute of Health

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Well, gotta go, have to write to the Hefty bag people.