[Minuteman23]

If a person knows or should know that eating copious orders of supersized McDonald's products is unhealthy and may result in weight gain," Sweet had written, "it is not the place of the law to protect them from their own excesses."

What part of that is hard to understand?

I have my own dream. That someday we get real tort reform. But I won't hold my breath.

I have the same dream Lark, and the same cynicism that it will happen.

And anyway, we can't sue one corporation for causing our obesity. If we list all the corporations that manufacture all the high-fat and high-carb food we eat, we'd be spending our lives in court. It's called supply and demand. If we didn't demand it they wouldn't supply it. A little personal responsibility might be a better idea?

And that this lawsuit was brought on behalf of two children is just another example of widespread non-parenting.

Joanie, I am down 12 pounds in the last month, thanks 20% to your input and 80% my amazing willpower. :-) How's your conditioning going?

[joanie-f]

Congrats on your twelve pounds! Thirteen to go? You must be beginning to feel the difference, clothing-inches and physical stamina wise? Continue to keep me posted! (As for the 20%/80%, I would beg to differ, but why quibble with the seeds of success? :)

Re: this article, you’re right. It’s yet another example of the modern American philosophy that we deserve to have whatever we crave (be it food, money, sex, or relationship-related) and the negative repercussions of our self-indulgence must elicit collective sympathy, and sometimes recompense, from those who 'allowed' our vices to be satiated. Punishing the (so-called) 'enablers' has become a cottage industry. Tort lawyers and leeches surely sprang from the same primordial slime (token remark for the evolutionists among us).

Reading about such imbecilic cases like the above tend to make those who are rigorously watching their nutrition intake even more furious than they might otherwise be (you didn’t say that in so many words, but I sensed it between the lines? :)

Thanks for asking about my conditioning progress.

Am biking between twelve and fifteen miles a night, and twenty or thirty a day on weekends (barring snow on the roads, in which case I use the fitness room at a nearby rec center). Rick doesn’t do biking with me, but he does go to the gym with me, and has learned to really enjoy that. He is starting to benefit, too. (BTW, have you seen the Citi Premiere Pass credit card commercial with the heavyset black man weighing himself in the gym? I won’t say anymore about it, except that it’s priceless! You’ll know it when you see it. :)

Am eating mostly complex carbs (mostly baked potatoes, carrot juice, dried beans and lentils) and proteins (lean chicken, cottage cheese), and fresh fruit (mostly grapefruit, oranges, and bananas), and fresh spinach. Am losing a little weight (which is not my goal), and am gaining muscle (which is).

The canal tour is in late May, and the New England race is in late June, so I hope to be at my personal best by then, for both.

Congratulations, again, on your excellent progress … maintain the momentum!

(psst ... this is the end of my post … so don’t scroll down … really … I mean it … no joke … you hear? …)

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~ joanie ..