This movie was great. I feeel great. Thanks movie!

Here you go, spreadin the word – Watch !

Theres way more on this… But theres some easy to watch information <3.

{{desc}}     Check out this link. It’s hard to believe!

via Burger King and Microsoft Introduce the Windows 7 Whopper.

Do you have a Death Wish, or as Dr. Oz says..Do you want to shorten your life?   This is UN believable!    Does anyone out there think that this is  a good idea..or does it even look good to you??

Good morning everyone.  Those who are not aware of how to care for your liver, low fat diet may protect against liver cancer.  This is a good news to many. 

A new study finds switching over to a low-fat diet might provide protection against liver cancer.

Team of researchers from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Case Western Reserve University found that a high-fat diet influenced the cancer-susceptible strain to liver cancer, and that by switching to a low-fat diet early in the experiment, the same high-risk mice avoided the malignancy.

Senior co-author Dr John Lambris, the Dr. Ralph and Sallie Weaver Professor of Research Medicine at Penn believes that a similar change in diet may have important implications for preventing liver cancers in humans.  The connection between obesity and cancer is not well understood at this point.

The team hopes that the results will lead to the development of blood tests that can detect precancerous conditions related to diet.  The investigators focused their study on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a type of liver cancer that is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide.

They tested the long-term effects of high-fat and low-fat diets on males of two inbred strains of mice and discovered that one strain, named C57BL/6J, was susceptible to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and hepatocellular carcinoma on a high-fat, but not a low-fat diet.

The other strain, called A/J, was not at risk to disease on a high-fat diet. The mice were fed their respective diets for close to 500 days, weighed periodically, and then analyzed for the presence of disease.

At the end of the experiment, mice susceptible to cancer showed characteristics of NASH such as inflammation and fibrosis, and, in some cases, cirrhosis as well as hepatocellular carcinoma, in their liver.

A switch from a high-fat to a low-fat diet reversed these outcomes in groups of C57BL/6J mice that were fed a high-fat diet early in the experiment.  The switched mice were lean rather than obese and had healthy livers at the end of the study.

Esteem News – With self-esteem pushing your limits

Special News – Surprising scientific results of a high-fat diet

Innovative News - SUNN Solar Electric Kit Car

Society of Esteem – Alternative money system: Time Banking and Time Exchange

Building the Hogan – Rats with shovels and other pests

Rats fed a high-fat diet show a stark reduction in their physical endurance and a decline in their cognitive ability after just nine days, a study by Oxford University researchers has shown. 

The research, funded by the British Heart Foundation and published in the FASEB Journal, may have implications not only for those eating lots of high-fat foods, but also athletes looking for the optimal diet for training and patients with metabolic disorders. 

‘We found that rats, when switched to a high-fat diet from their standard low-fat feed, showed a surprisingly quick reduction in their physical performance,’ says Dr Andrew Murray, who led the work at Oxford University and has now moved to the University of Cambridge. ‘After just nine days, they were only able to run 50 per cent as far on a treadmill as those that remained on the low-fat feed.’ 

High-fat diets, such as those that are prevalent in Western countries, are known to be harmful in the long term and can lead to problems such as obesity, diabetes and heart failure. They are also known to be associated with a decline in cognitive ability over long time spans. But little attention has been paid to the effect of high-fat diets in the short term. 

Physical endurance – how long we can keep exercising – depends on how much oxygen can be supplied to our muscles and how efficiently our muscles release energy by burning up the fuel we get from the food we eat. In particular, using fat as a fuel is less efficient than using glucose from carbohydrates, but the metabolic changes induced by different diets are complex and it has been controversial whether high-fat feeding for a short time would increase or decrease physical performance. 

The Oxford team set out to investigate whether rats fed a high-fat diet for just a few days showed any change in their physical and cognitive abilities. 

All 42 rats were initially fed a standard feed with a low fat content of 7.5 per cent. Their physical endurance was measured by how long they could run on a treadmill and their short-term or ‘working’ memory was measured in a maze task. Half of the rats were then switched to a high-fat diet where 55 per cent of the calories came from fat. After four days of getting used to the new diet, the endurance and cognitive performance of the rats on the low- and high-fat diets was compared for another five days. 

‘With the standard feed, 7.5 per cent of the calories come from fat. That’s a pretty low-fat diet, much like humans eating nothing but muesli,’ says Dr Murray. ‘The high-fat diet, in which 55 per cent of the calories came from fat, sounds high but it’s actually not extraordinarily high by human standards. A junk food diet would come close to that. 

‘Some high-fat, low-carb diets for weight loss can even have fat contents as high as 60 per cent. However, it’s not clear how many direct conclusions can be drawn from our work for these diets, as the high-fat diet we used was not particularly low in carbs,’ he adds. 

On the fifth day of the high-fat diet (the first day back on the treadmill), the rats were already running 30 per cent less far than those remaining on the low-fat diet. By the ninth day, the last of the experiment, they were running 50 per cent less far.

The rats on the high-fat diet were also making mistakes sooner in the maze task, suggesting that their cognitive abilities were also being affected by their diet. The number of correct decisions before making a mistake dropped from over six to an average of 5 to 5.5. 

The researchers also investigated what metabolic changes the high-fat diet was inducing in the rats. They found increased levels of a specific protein called the ‘uncoupling protein’ in the muscle and heart cells of rats on the high-fat diet. This protein ‘uncouples’ the process of burning food stuffs for energy in the cells, reducing the efficiency of the heart and muscles. This could at least partly explain the reduction in treadmill running seen in the rats.

The rats that were fed a high fat diet and had to run on the treadmill also had a significantly bigger heart after nine days, suggesting the heart had to increase in size to pump more blood around the body and get more oxygen to the muscles. 

While this research has been done in rats, the Oxford team and Andrew Murray’s new group in Cambridge are now carrying out similar studies in humans, looking at the effect of a short term high-fat diet on exercise and cognitive ability. 

The results will be important not only in informing athletes of the best diets to help their training routine, but also in developing ideal diets for patients with metabolic disorders such as diabetes, insulin resistance or obesity. People with such conditions can have high levels of fat in the blood and show poor exercise tolerance, some cognitive decline, and can even develop dementia over time. 

‘These are startling results,’ says Professor Kieran Clarke, head of the research team at Oxford University. ‘It shows that high-fat feeding even over short periods of time can markedly affect gene expression, metabolism and physical performance. By optimising diets appropriately we should be able to increase athletes’ endurance and help patients with metabolic abnormalities improve their ability to exercise and do more.’ 

‘In little more than a week, a change in diet appears to have made the rats’ hearts much less efficient,’ says Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, who funded the research. ‘We look forward to the results of the equivalent studies in human volunteers, which should tell us more about the short-term effects of high-fat foods on our hearts. We already know that to protect our heart health in the long-term, we should cut down on foods high in saturated fat.’

To learn how to cook delicious meals using natural unprocessed foods which enhance physical and mental performance, please come along to a Cooking for Health course, held throughout the year in Somerset, UK.

Murray et al. Deterioration of physical performance and cognitive function in rats with short-term high-fat feeding. The FASEB Journal, 2009; DOI: 10.1096/fj.09-139691

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20080610/high-fat-diet-linked-to-poor-sleep

Poor sleep appears to be yet another problem associated with high fat diets. Brazillian researchers found that that the more fat someone consumes each day, the less likely they are able to get a goods night sleep. People who consume more fat each day are found to wake up, toss and turn more frequently, have greater chance of abnormal breathing patterns, and spend less time in REM sleep. I found this interesting because I had heard that what people eat effects how they sleep, but wasn’t sure why, or in what ways.

AFP/File – An obese man takes a walk in in Washington, DC. Americans need to change the way they live if they want …

….A new study on rats finds that 10 days of eating a high-fat diet causedshort-term memory loss and made exercise difficult…..the researcher say it might suggest that high-fat diets make humans lazy and stupid…..

“Western diets are typically high in fat and are associated with long-term complications, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart failure, yet the short-term consequences of such diets have been given relatively little attention,” said Andrew Murray, co-author of the study and currently at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. ….Yahoo News

“We hope that the findings of our study will help people to think seriously about reducing the fat content of their daily food intake to the immediate benefit of their generalhealth, well-being, and alertness.”

Rodents are thought to be good analogues to humans for studies like this, but research in humans would be needed to confirm that the effects cross over. Also, because rats live much shorter lives, study effects may play out on significantly shorter time scales than in humans.

Murray and colleagues studied rats fed a low-fat diet (7.5 percent of calories as fat) and rats fed a high-fat diet (55 percent of calories as fat). Muscles of rats eating the high-fat diet for four days were less able to use oxygen to make the energy needed to exercise, causing their hearts to worker harder – and increase in size.

After nine days on a high-fat diet, the rats took longer to complete a maze and made more mistakes in the process than their low-fat-diet counterparts.

In the fat-laden rats the researchers found increased levels of a protein called uncoupling protein 3, which made them less efficient at using oxygen needed to make the energy required for running.

“It’s nothing short of a high-fat hangover,” said Dr. Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of journal. “A long weekend spent eating hotdogs, French fries, and pizza in Orlando might be a great treat for our taste buds, but they might send our muscles and brains out to lunch.”….Yahoo News

More damning evidence that high-fat foods (I’m assuming animal fats) affect both memory and exercise performance. In a bad way. Here’s the Aug. 13, 2009 New York Times story and blog discussion on a report in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

By Marie Dufour, RD – TAKE IT FROM THE RATS…. High-fat diets have long been known to lead to obesity, diabetes and heart failure and to be associated with cognitive decline in the long run.  But what is their short-term effect?

Oxford researchers switched rats from a regular diet (7.5% fat) to a high-fat diet (55% of calories from fat) and had them run on a treadmill.  Within just 9 days, the rats showed a 50% reduction in physical endurance, some metabolic changes, an enlarged heart, and a decline in cognitive ability. 

- Decreased performance: metabolically speaking, glucose is the preferred fuel for muscle work.  Since the body is a very efficient machine, it takes glucose from the most easily accessible source of glucose: carbohydrates.  Using fuel from fat is less efficient and, as the Oxford researchers discovered, causes metabolic changes.

- Metabolic changes: the rats exhibited increased levels of an uncoupling protein in their heart and muscle cells. This protein specifically reduces the efficiency of the heart and muscles.

- Enlarged heart: since the heart efficiency was reduced, it had to work harder and pump more blood to get oxygen to the muscles, quickly growing larger. 

- Cognitive decline: glucose is also the unique fuel source for brain work.  After 9 days on the high-fat diet, the rats starting having difficulties selecting their path in their usual maze, making more mistakes.

Now, some could say that even the gym rat in us is human and does not compare to a lab rat, and some might go on endorsing high-fat diets.  It certainly is the case at my gym where I see my trainers and body builders scarf down a breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausage, a lunch of hot dogs (no bun) and ham & cheese sandwiches (double-ham, half the bread), a snack of cake butter-frosting with whole-milk protein shake, and a dinner of burgers & ribs.  “High-protein, low carb, baby!”   and I wonder what will happen to their running performance, their heart and their minds. 

The Oxford study suggests that, contrary to previously thought, the harmful effects of high-fat diets manifest themselves in a short run.  It would be wise, then, for athletes concerned about peak performance, to watch their diets and select carbohydrates rather than fat as their fuel source… pretty quickly!

Ref: ‘Deterioration of physical performance and cognitive function in rats with short-term high-fat feeding’ by Andrew J Murray and colleagues is published online in the FASEB Journal. Copy of the paper: http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/rapidpdf/fj.09-139691v1.pdf.

A mother’s health and diet just before conception and during the first few days of fetal development could have an impact on a child’s health in the long run, researchers say.

Researchers found that the effects of nutrition, such as a high-fat diet and vitamin B and folate…

Researchers found that the effects of nutrition, such as a high-fat diet and vitamin B and folate deficiencies, as well as diseases such as diabetes, during this time could trigger epigenetic changes that manifest in offspring as obesity, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease.

(ABC News Photo Illustration)

New evidence on this crucial window of time — much of it from animal studies — was presented at this year’s meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction in Pittsburgh.

Researchers found that the effects of nutrition, such as a high-fat diet and vitamin B and folate deficiencies, as well as diseases such as diabetes, during this time could trigger epigenetic changes that manifest in offspring as obesity, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease.

“All of our work suggests there should be a three- to four-month preconception period that’s included in good maternal health,” said Dr. Kelle Moley of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who presented one of the studies.

“Early dietary changes or early nutritional changes in the mom can effect epigenetic modifications,” she said. “These are persistent in offspring and can be passed down across generations.”

The researchers said that they became interested in this period of time after finding evidence of higher rates of genetic imprinting disorders in babies conceived via in-vitro fertilization.

“This opened the door to ideas that changes early in development could have long-term effects,” Moley said.

“An unfertilized egg and early embryos are very sensitive to their environments,” said Kevin Sinclair of the University of Nottingham in England, also an author of one of the studies.

Moley has been studying how diabetes affects production of a mother’s egg cells, potentially leading to mitochondrial metabolic dysfunction — and hence, birth defects.

“We’ve been tackling the question of why, even though we control blood sugar during pregnancy, we still have three- to four-fold greater numbers of birth defects than control patients,” she said.

Sinclair’s work focused on the effects of vitamin deficiency during the time leading up to conception. He looked at sheep that were fed a normal diet or a diet deficient in vitamin B12 and folate.

The offspring of those on the vitamin-deficient diet were more likely to become obese, experience insulin resistance, and have high blood pressure.

The effects were most pronounced in male offspring, Sinclair said, and he saw similar results in a mouse model.

A third study by Tom Fleming of the University of Southampton in England looked at the effects of a low-protein diet just prior to conception and during the early days of fetal development in mice.

Throughout the rest of their pregnancy, the animals were fed a normal diet.

The researchers found that this caused cardiovascular problems, particularly hypertension and arterial disease, as well as other metabolic disorders in the offspring.

Again, there was evidence of stronger effects in male mice.

Fleming said what’s happening during this short window of time is that the tiny ball of cells that is the fetus is “sensing” its maternal nutritional environment.

If nutrients are scarce, the embryo will make decisions about how best to get nutrients from its mother, potentially overcompensating.

In a fourth study, researchers have been attempting to get even closer to a human model by looking at primates. Dr. Kjersti Aagaard-Tillery of Baylor College in Houston, Texas, and colleagues studied macaques given a 35 percent high-fat diet.

Some of the animals became obese as a result of the diet, while others did not. But of those who became pregnant, all gave birth to offspring that developed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and high levels of fats known as triglycerides in the blood.

You don’t get good at burning fat by constantly burning sugar.

~Nora Gedgaudas

So I’ve been progressing on my primal journey – still not at 100%, maybe about 80% right now (have kept that going for about 5 days – yeah!). I haven’t noticed a weight loss yet but I have noticed my love handles protrude a bit less. I’ve lost about an inch from them so SOMETHING is happening, even with my diet being about 50-60% fat.

Suck that you low-fat nazi’s!…please excuse my outburst.

So anyway, in further reading of Primal Body – Primal Mind, the author mentioned a diet developed by a couple British researchers (Gaston Pawan and Alan Kekwick). The diet they developed is “the most dramatically effective weight loss approach ever researched.”

Here’s the logistics of it:

• Consisted of 1,000 calories per day
• 5 meals consisting of 200 calories each were served every 4 hours
• The meals were almost pure fat (90%)

Additionally:

• This diet has shown overwhelming superiority in burning body fat to even total fasting
• And no other weight loss regimen has ever come close to matching this diet’s ability to burn off stored fat

Chew on that low-fat nazi’s! …. Mmmm, tastes like gristle!

So why does it work? Basically, because there is no source of sugar, the body is forced to burn fat. Also, the presence of fat calms leptin levels and assures the brain that food is available so your metabolism stays revved.

Of course, the author points out that a 90% fat diet is not practical, advisable, or sustainable long-term. So the practical, advisable, sustainable take-away is that eating fat without carbohydrates does help burn A LOT of fat.

Take my smaller love handles as proof positive.

The new weight loss aid, Alli, is available over the counter to people with a BMI of 28 or more. Your pharmacist will be able to supply a pill that, taken before main meals, prevents fat from being absorbed and thus cuts the calorie intake. Fat contains some 9 calories per gram and is the most calorie dense of all the food groups.  I am sure that some people will benefit from the drug but once again, this simply addresses the problem with no advice about how to not get fat in the first place.

Take the pill and keep eating, is that the message? To get Alli you need to have a BMI of 28 or more, that’s all you need to qualify and having such a high BMI which does suggest that you don’t manage your diet very well. Surely that’s the key, education and understanding, not a pill?

I have a friend who takes it, not to lose weight, instead to allow him to eat cheese and anything else fatty, and not gain weight. The drug changes the nature of the stool as it inevitably becomes much fattier – ‘you daren’t misjudge a fart’ reports my friend, which made me laugh out loud, something I fear he may not be able to do without clenching first.

There is a piece on fat in this weeks Spectator in which Dan Jones makes the non-PC and brave assertion that being fat is the fault of the individual and not the media. I must stress that I don’t support this point of view!Take a look. http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/3556821/there-is-no-sacred-right-to-be-a-lazy-fat-slob.thtml

If anyone has tried Alli, let me know. I am sure it has helped many people, but is the answer?

Gallbladder disease is one of the most common digestive diseases. It results in over 800,000 hospitalizations in the United States each year as well as 500,000 surgeries. American women are twice as likely to suffer with gallbladder problems as men. The exact reasons aren’t clear but there is a definite pattern related to obesity, pregnancy, age, low fiber diet, inadequate hydration and rapid weight loss. A few other conditions may also affect stone formation in the gallbladder such as Crohn’s disease, oral hormonal therapy or elevated triglycerides.

 The gallbladder is located under the liver in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. It stores and concentrates bile produced by the liver and releases it into the duodenum or first portion of the small intestine when a fatty meal is consumed. The bile along with other enzymes plays a key role in digestion. Malfunctioning of the gallbladder can be caused by inflammation, infection or stones that irritate or actually block all or part of the bile duct. Symptoms can include abdominal pain, bloating, fever, nausea, vomiting. It is difficult to manage the acute symptoms with anything other than pain medicines for symptomatic relief of pain and possibly antibiotics. Severe cases too often lead to surgery to remove stones or the entire gallbladder sac. Tests to measure blood chemistries and an imaging study such as ultrasound or CT scan may be necessary to determine the urgency in the acute phase.

Gallstones compose a solid formation of cholesterol and bile salts. Research tells us that approximately 80 percent of all gallstones are cholesterol gallstones which form when the liver begins secreting bile that is abnormally saturated with cholesterol. This may be due to a genetic predisposition to form stones. Prevention is centered on good hydration and a diet high in soluble fiber (oats, bran, fruit, vegetables, and soy fiber), guar gum and pectin. High fat foods will aggravate symptoms of gallbladder disease. Research also suggests that moderate coffee drinkers and people who exercise regularly are much less prone to gallstones.

Although surgical techniques for gallbladder removal have vastly improved we still have few therapeutic options available to manage or prevent this condition. Certain genetic and medical conditions are associated with greater risk of having a problem gallbladder. Healthy lifestyle focusing on high fiber-low fat diet, good hydration and regular exercise seem to correlate with better outcomes.

I am not really sure what to say about this. I doubt I would ever win anything like this, firstly because my sculpting skills are non-existent, and secondly, and more importantly, I don’t have any lard ( I don’t want any either ). If you have some then sculpting it into something attractive is, in my opinion, preferable to eating it.

See the story here; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3683781/Gurkhas-win-award-making-sculpture-from-lard.html

It’s nice to know that the Chefs from the Queens Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment won catering awards for sculptures ( first a wire structure was made and then the animal fat added ). I am glad that they had the time to create a dragon and a Buddha statue.
“Lance Corporal Amrit Limbu, 27, used three 11lbs blocks of lard to create the Buddha statue, working for up to 12 hours a day for eight days” reports The Daily Telegraph. Eight days. That’s a good use of time, wouldn’t you say?
Lard is pig-fat that is most often hydrogenated, and therefore quite unsuitable for human consumption. Hydrogenating fats can be complete or incomplete, neither is good, but the latter are known as trans-fats, the use of which have been banned in New York City,  as well as in Switzerland and Denmark with other countries likely to follow suit very soon. The process of hydrogenation makes the fat more solid which makes it perfect for sculpting, not eating or using in cooking.
Crackling is also lard, prepared in a different way to the white lard that Lance Corporal Limbu used, as it is exposed directly to heat. Crackling, crunchy and tasty though it may be, is perhaps potentially more detrimental to ones health than the white lard as it has a low smoke point and has been damaged by exposure to heat. So that’s crackling out too.
Lard has a high smoke point, ie it doesn’t burn at lowish temperatures like olive oil would (  lard  contains a high level of saturated fats which don’t burn easily ). The food industry often use it for this very reason, as it can be heated without giving off smoke that might affect the flavour of the food.. Lard is often found in pastry, especially flaky pastry, so if you find yourself reaching for a pre-made pie, do yourself a favour and check the label or ask at the counter.

Bear in mind that the same pie is banned for health reasons in some pretty sophisticated parts of the world, so no New Yorker, Swiss national or Dane would eat it, and you wouldn’t want to break rank with a Dane, would you?

Marshmallow Candied Yams the Ultimate Dietary Suicide

Happy Thanksgiving

I had my Thanksgiving dinner yesterday because my sister & husband are going to Oregon on Thursday.

It gave me motivation to write this weeks Fitness List which happens to be seasonal.

I love stuffing but it had me thinking, which foods are the most fattening on Thanksgiving?

I created the top 5 worst Thanksgiving foods list which had foods such as marshmallowed candied yams (picture) which I was astonished to find had literally billions of calories.

Top 5 Most Fattening Thanksgiving Foods

Improving one’s diet has many benefits, and there are several occasions in life that serve as reminders. Examples are illness, weight gain, getting married and of course fertility and pregnancy related issues.

I was looking through the news websites this morning ( as I do most mornings ) and I came across a report from Rockefeller University that links a high-fat diet in pregnancy to obesity and weight problems for the child.  The study suggests “exposure to triglycerides from the mother’s diet has the same effect on the developing foetal brain – and that the effect then lasts throughout the offspring’s life.” In other words, a high fat intake changes one’s physiology so that the individual has a propensity to gain weight easily throughout life.

The study was carried out on rats and to date no human trials have been published, but if this study is correct, then what one eats during pregnancy takes on greater importance. It is true that some women see pregnancy as a chance to eat what they want, to indulge cravings and ‘eat for two’, others may worry about the nutritional benefits for the baby, whilst some are concerned about their own weight gain.

No doubt there is a case to be made for these and all approaches have some merit ( remember that women in famine hit areas successfully give birth to relatively  healthy babies too who are almost unaffected by famine until after they are born ).

However, in the west we are spoiled for choice, and perhaps too much information  ( a Google search alone on ‘what to eat in pregnancy’ gives over 10 million results ).

To help you navigate your way through this, go and see a nutritional expert. I have a few at The Food Doctor Clinic in London who are trained, experienced and professional. If you take a look at www.thefooddoctor.com then you can read about the various therapists.

I am also fascinated to hear from you about your own experience with pregnancy and diet. Unusual cravings for example, or remarkable weight loss or gain perhaps? Please post a reply!

I love to travel!  But those of us with GERD have special challenges.  How do we know if the restaurant we choose will be able to meet our needs?  How on earth do we achieve sleeping on a slant in a hotel room?  Well, its tough, but it can be done!  Let’s take a look at a few products that can help.

Slant Pillows

You can’t travel with bricks or wood blocks in your suitcase, but you can bring a pillow with you.  Some fold, like the MedSlant, into a nice size to carry on the plane.  Others would be a little more of a challenge.  Some are inflatable so that they flatten out nicely to fit in your luggage.

• MedSlant – http://www.medslant.com/
• Jobri – http://www.jobri.com/dyn/showpage.php?id=16

I bought the Jobri inflatable wedge pillow for travel.  Its great because if deflates flat to fit nicely in the bottom of your suitcase.  It comes with its own plastic pump for inflation and has a fast air release cap that enables fast deflation for packing.  Its not quite a high of a slant as the MedSlant pillow I use at home.  But works well.  I advise not inflating it too much because it gets sort of hard and uncomfortable.  Leave a slight ‘give’ for more comfort.  I ordered this online with no problems.  I opted for the 2 day shipping because I had a trip coming up.  I gota follow up phone call letting me know when it was shipping out and it arrived right on time!

BYOF (Bring Your Own Food)

To make sure you have a low fat alternative to salad dressing, bring your own packets!  I found a great site where you can buy all kinds of travel sizes of food and toiletries.  They are good brands, too!  I’d much rather have my own than have to eat a diet Italian dressing that most places keep on hand.  You can order packets of fat-free or low fat mayonnaise, fat-free salad dressing, coffee creamer, etc.  Check this site out for other travel-sized items and snacks as well.  http://www.minimus.biz