Back in skinny jeans

Your Two Cents: Larry the Cable Guy for Nutrisystem, Brilliant or Head Scratcher?

This weekend I saw the new TV commercial for Nutrisystem featuring Dan Marino and Larry the Cable Guy. I had to do a serious double take because I would never have expected to hear "Git-R-Done" and Nutrisystem in the same sentence. Larry has shed 50 lbs and I have to say that he looks much healthier. You can see the commercial here at USA Today.

Larry the Cable Guy as a weight loss spokesperson is definitely thinking outside of the box, and showing Nutrisystem's ability to have a sense of humor. I have to say that a "Git-R-Done" workout t-shirt would be hilarious.

Larry was brought on to pitch Nutrisystem's Men's Plan, and from the looks of it, to speak to the crowd that normally would drink beer and eat nachos while watching Dan Marino. So, time for you all to weigh-in...

Your Two Cents: Is Larry the Cable Guy as a weight loss spokesperson a brilliant idea or an idea that makes you scratch your head in confusion?

Your Two Cents: A kid's book that explains Mommy's plastic surgery: Yay or Nay?

Coming out this Mother's Day is a children's book called "My Beautiful Mommy", the brainchild of a plastic surgeon, to help mother's explain to their kid's about the plastic surgery mom is going to get.

On one hand, I can see how this book is a reflection of our times, and how it could be helpful to explain to young Johnnie and Jane why mom is all bandaged up, and why she has a different nose or chest. I mean, how do you explain plastic surgery to a 5-year-old?

On the other hand, book's like these could also teach kids that plastic surgery is normal and that they should expect to have work done on themselves one day after they have kids or because they can't live with the looks they have. I can easily see a child justifying in their head, "Well, if mom had work done, then why shouldn't I?" This is just potential breeding ground for body image issues. But, time for you all to weigh-in....

Your Two Cents: Is a children's book that helps to explain Mommy's plastic surgery a good idea or not?

Your Two Cents: Where are the uplifting places for girls to hang out online?

Last week, I came to learn of the site Miss Bimbo (You can Google it if you are really interested in seeing it as I have no interest in linking to them) Basically, MB is a multi-player online game where mostly young girls ages 8-17 hang out to do things like earn Bimbo points for boob jobs and jaunts around with a sugar daddy. You even get to feed or not feed your Bimbo so let's throw in learning about eating disorders shall we for extra appalling.

Yes, I have never been so horrified in my whole life, and NO! I do not care what anyone says, this site is NOT  harmless fun. In my opinion it is actually quite dangerous, and the founders of this site are two men in their 20's who think that girls can learn how to nurture and care for their own Bimbo. Yes, they actually said that.

But, I do not want to spend time and energy trying to knock down sites like this. I think it is better to shine the spotlight and heavily promote the online sites that DO something positive for young girls. So time for you all to weigh-in....

Your Two Cents: Where online can girls hangout and learn positive images and uplifting things that teach girls more substantial life things beyond beauty and popularity contests?

Your Two Cents: "Is a liquid only detox for a 14-year-old a wise decision?"

I try not to criticize people's parenting choices, but sometimes there are things I see on TV that make me wonder. In an episode of The Real Housewives of New York City, mom Jill Zarin, takes her 14-year-old daughter Ally to the Martha's Vineyard  Detox Center which is the center that is the basis for the book, "21 Pounds in 21 Days: The Martha's Vineyard Diet Detox." The detox is based on a diet of liquid only vegetable juices every two hours for one week.

Now, I've done a detox likes this before and it was fantastic, but I did this as a grown adult. Ally is still a growing teenager, and the idea of a teen only drinking vegetable juices for a week doesn't sound wise, at least to me. In a newspaper article, Ally's mom said the motivation for the detox was to help Ally with an arthritis issue and on the show, she said that dropping some pounds would be great too.

Ally wanted to drop some pounds because of the "scrutiny" a teen can face starting a new year as a sophomore in high school, as well as a desire for looking good for the TV show. When I heard that, red flags went up for me because there are other ways a teenager can drop weight that don't involve liquid diets. Ally ended up shedding 11 pounds in that one week, which is an enormous amount of weight in a short period of time. Most of it was most likely water weight and results from colonics. That's another thing, should teens be doing colonics?

Doing detoxes are really a healthy thing to do for your body to help rid you of toxins, and they better serve you if your intention is for detoxification versus weight loss. My question though is the wiseness of having teenagers do a detox process because their young bodies are still growing, and mentally they may not fully understand the difference between detoxing and dieting. As well, many other teenage girls are going to see this on TV and want to do the same thing, drop 11 pounds in one week. This is a bit of a controversial subject, but time for you to weigh-in...

Your Two Cents: Are health detoxes where liquid only diets are involved a wise or beneficial choice for teenagers?

Extending story submission deadline: "How has your work life affected your weight?"

I'm extending the deadline for story submissions for, "How has your work life affected your weight?" Some of you have asked me for more time, and I totally get busy schedules, so no problemo. The new deadline will be midnight PST Saturday March 15. Here's all the submission details.

For those who have submitted stories already, thank you so much. Not to worry, you'll see your words on the screen here very soon.

I was going to hold off sharing my own work story until after the reader week, but I'm going to do it this upcoming week as a way to ease into other's sharing their story. I know sharing stuff about work can be tough, so I'll go first to help soften the lead. Again, thank you all for reading and sharing your stories. I enjoy helping others on their journey to better health, and it's more fun and supportive when their are others to help along!

"Your Two Cents": Padded bras and underwear - cool enhancement or false advertising?

Yesterday, I had too much fun talking about booty enhancing undies for women and men, as well as padding for enhancing bulging you-know-whats. But putting all the humor aside for a moment, it got me thinking about all this fantasy that people are creating.

So now, first, you're a guy, and you're going ga-ga over some hot girl with this heaving chest and butt cause you're all about the Jessica Rabbit look. You get her to the hotel room to get somethin'-somethin' and then she takes off all her clothes and you come to find that the real her is not quite the Jessica Rabbit you first saw. Vice versa, for gals, imagine seeing said hot guy and he's selling the fact that he's Mr. Bulge, yet when you get him naked, he's the size of a Gerkin versus a Deli Dill, and better yet, he's wearing padded booty undies too. So, time to weigh-in....

Your Two Cents: Is all this padding false advertising or is it cool creating a sexier image using padded under garments that make you appear bigger than you really are?

"Your Two Cents": Your Personal Health Records Online - exciting or cause for concern?

It's inevitable that absolutely all of your health records will be available online for you, your doctor, and for potentially lots more people. There are a slew of companies now like Google, Microsoft, Aetna, and WellPoint who are working to provide ways to help you (the consumer) digitally manage your health records. They are touting it as a "consumer empowerment tool." Sounds all fancy and exciting, no?

But, and this is a trunk full of loads of unknown junk, the privacy protection surrounding your health records is not all cut and dry and simple. You may think that just because a record is "medical" or "health" related it is automatically protected with privacy policies. Oh no!

You may have heard of HIPPA, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which will provide privacy and security protection for your health records, but this protection is only covered for records covered by protected entities like health-care providers, health insurers, health-care clearing houses, such as billing services, and business associates, such as companies that administer health plans.

Tech companies like Google and Microsoft are not HIPPA covered because they are only providing the digital means to manage your records. They are a technology service not a health service. They can have in their privacy policies clauses that are similar to the HIPPA laws but they can change them at any moment because a company can change their policies whenever they want to.

There is an interesting report put out by The World Privacy Forum that illustrates in more detail how not all "Personal Health Records" companies (PHRs as they call it) are HIPPA protected. It is great food for thought. There are lots of things that I never would have thought of like linkage between your different doctors or health stays like rehab. If you are not careful or aware of the privileges you allow, your dentist can see all your rehab records, your GYN can see that you were treated with anti-depressants and see your psychiatrists records, and stuff like that.You may not want all your health professionals knowing EVERYTHING about you.

You as a consumer need to educate yourself about your health records online and what it means. The idea of having all your health records online sounds like it would make life easier, faster, and more organized. Because many people are not tech savvy, or privacy protection savvy, and the laws governing health records online are all in their infancy, there is also so much room for doubt, error, and confusion. So, time to weigh-in...

Your Two Cents: Does the idea of your health records online with greater accessibility possibilities make you excited or cause you concern because you are not sure really what is involved with privacy protection?

"Your Two Cents": The concept "Trophy Wife/Husband" - complimentary or pompus?

Since the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition just came out, I over heard a conversation at Starbucks (a table of mixed company) where the topic was about "trophy spouses." One guy mentioned that having a wife who was a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover girl was an ultimate trophy wife. (btw Marisa Miller, the current SI cover girl is married.) One woman mentioned that both Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the billionaire founders of Google, both recently married, were examples of the ultimate trophy husband.

I found it interesting in this Starbucks conversation yet not surprising that the benchmarks for "trophy" spouse status was generally beauty & hotness for wives, and money & power for husbands. In terms of BISJ, it got me thinking if many of us are (consciously or subconsciously) trying and wanting to be thin & pretty because a part of us wants to be considered a coveted societal trophy. So, time for you all to weigh-in...

Your Two Cents: Is the concept of the Trophy Wife/Husband something complimentary or pompous?

"Your Two Cents": Queen Latifah for Jenny Craig, disappointing or inspiring?

Queen Latifah has officially signed on to be Jenny Craig's next celebrity spokesperson. Her campaign will not focus on getting into a particular dress size or losing a specific amount of weight, but will be about creating a "healthful lifestyle."

Queen Latifah says, “I am taking the first step to improving my health by announcing my goal to lose 5-10% of my body weight with Jenny Craig. My hope is to help educate people and motivate others to take their first step to have a positive impact on their health. By losing just 7% of your body weight, and increasing weekly activity, you can lower the risk of developing type II diabetes by 58%.” FYI, Queen's grandmother died from Type II Diabetes, and Queen was the spokesperson for the Be Aggressive! Control Type 2 Diabetes campaign.

Your Two Cents: Do you think it is disappointing that Queen Latifah, someone who has always said how proud she is of her fuller curvy figure is promoting a weight loss program and "selling out" or do you find that her promotion of Jenny Craig is inspiring in that even if one if proud of her fuller figure it's still good to have help to lose weight to prevent diseases like Diabetes of Heart disease?

"Your Two Cents": Diet books: scam or helpful?

Today, I'm introducing "Your Two Cents" a weekly discussion on "weighty" subjects. It's an opportunity for us to share our thoughts and insights on helping to create a healthier you. I'm going to throw out a question for discussion and you get to throw in your opinion. The intent behind "Your Two Cents" will be enlightening and a way to help each other see different perspectives. I know I learn more when I hear other people's point of view. There are no right or wrong opinions here. What you think matters!

Your two cents: Do you think the onslaught of diet books in January capitalizing on people's New Year's resolutions is a scam or a source for much needed help?