bodybuilding..

Hello Summer and Goodbye Winter! It is time to shed those clothes and hit the beach, pool, lake, river, vacation location, or where ever your heart may desire! But, you look in the mirror and are horrified. The winter has taken a tole on your physique and you are ashamed to bare those arms, legs, and belly!
It is time to make time and do something good for yourself! Don't feel like you are being selfish because only you can take care of yourself and truly give yourself what you need. Exercising, eating right, and taking some time out of the day to pamper yourself is fair and just. It will make you a better person and the greatest reward is that you will look and feel younger!
Having a great physique is hard work for most of us, but with some persistence, patience and perseverance you can achieve a healthier and sexier body in just 20 minutes a day. I am going to share some workout advice and give you some routines to follow that should help you out. But what you have to remember is that diet is important! You have to stay away from processed foods and eat clean!
Eating clean is imperative to lowering overall body fat percentage. You also need to make sure that you eat 5 to 7 smaller meals per day. Eating fibrous foods like raw nuts and buckwheat, lean protein, veggies of multiple colors, and lots of water will help do the trick!
If you are serious about losing body fat in order to look leaner and get into that bikini, then you have to stay away from refined sugars and processed foods. No cheating allowed! If you are only going to be dedicating 20 minutes per day to exercise, a super clean diet is extremely important to adhere to. I cannot stress how imperative it is that you adhere to a clean eating diet!
I will include a healthy diet plan for your new healthy lifestyle. In this nutritional plan, I am not going to really specify certain amounts of certain ingredients simply because men and women are different in portion control, etc and because there are other factors that are important such as height, current weight, body mass goals, and more. I will leave the meals up to the individuals on exact portions.
I highly recommend avoiding artificial sweeteners and drinking mostly water. If you drink coffee or tea and have to sweeten it, try Stevia Leaf instead of other brands. Stevia Leaf sweetener is natural and not processed with chemicals, so it will not alter your bodies ability to process and assimilate it.
Avoid adding salt to any of your foods as well. To much sodium makes you retain fluids and keeps you looking puffy, which is not a goal of looking leaner and healthier. Removing excess sodium from the diet is also good for many other health purposes.
Meal #1:
• Egg whites
• Serving of oatmeal
• Serving of Ground Flax Meal (extra fiber)
• Stevia Leaf to sweeten
Meal #2:
• Grilled Chicken Breast (trim off excess fat before cooking)
• Small Sweet Potato (sweetened with Stevia leaf)
• Sautéed Spinach
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (to sauté spinach with)
Meal #3:
• Fresh Fish baked or broiled (with lemon juice)
• Pan Sautéed Asparagus (sauté in water, add fresh chopped garlic)
Meal #4:
• Grilled Chicken Breast
• Steamed Broccoli Serving of Quinoa (awesome slow digesting carb)
Meal #5:
• Canned Tuna (Low Sodium version)
• Ground Flax Seed Meal
• Flax Seed Oil
• Serving of Smart Balance Mayo
• Serving of Raw Walnuts or Slivered Almonds
• 1 medium sized apple
Meal #6:
• Tilapia
• Pan Sautéed Kale
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Fresh chopped Garlic
Meal #7:
• Low Sodium/No Sodium added Cottage Cheese or
• Allmax Isoflex Vanilla Protein Shake
This sample diet is gluten free. Condiment use is not an option when trying to lose weight fast and effectively! Ladies, I would try to get at least your body weight in grams of protein. For example, if you are 140 lbs, I would recommend eating 140 grams of protein. Try to divide it equally between each meal.
I would also limit carbs. The human body needs carbs to function properly, but you can limit them to around 100 grams a day and lose weight, but still be getting good quality carbs and fiber in your diet.
Carbs are essential partially because slow digesting carbs are higher in fiber (meaning you will stay regular) and they also assist in helping the muscle repair themselves after a strenuous workout at the gym when paired with a good quality protein.
Carbohydrates Articles:
• Sweet's Revenge: Carbohydrates Are Back! - By May Blaiz
• Are Carbohydrates Anabolic? - By Layne Norton
• Post-Exercise Carbs May Be Counter-Productive. - By Mauro Di Pasquale
• Other Carbohydrate Articles...
I highly advise getting your protein and simple carb into your body within 30 minutes of working out. Since time is of the essence in a 20 minute per day dedicated training routine, then you have to find ways to maximize your efforts to get the best gains possible.
Ladies, this is especially important for you to understand! You have to train with weight resistance! Going heavier for a workout that only lasts 20 minutes will challenge the muscles better and give you better gains. You can do less and gain more.
Please remember that working out with weights and training heavier will never make you look like a man. It is physically and scientifically impossible for a female to look like and bulk up like a guy unless they use substances that are anabolic. So, please do not be afraid to push around the iron.
You can help to ward off many health problems... start now by working out, eating right, and treating yourself with the respect you deserve! The following workout routines are going to consist of giant sets. This means that we are choosing one exercise per body part and doing each body part until the whole body has been done.
When finished with the routine, you rest for 1 minute and then you proceed to do the whole body again. Rest 1 minute, then do it again. You are going to strive for 12-16 reps with a moderate to heavier weight.
I have tried to gear this routine for the person at home that wants to get this out of the way and not be bothered by going to a gym. Honestly, if you are going to go to the gym, I would go for longer than 20 minutes.
You are going to weight train 3 times a week and do cardio 3 times per week. Cardio is only going to last 20 minutes as well. I would also recommend doing a brief warm-up to get your heart rate up and get your joints and muscles ready to work! This may make your routine 25 minutes or so, but what is an extra 5 minutes.
• Warm-Up: Jogging in Place
• Giant Set: 12-15 rep range: 3-5 Giant Sets

What Is A Giant Set?
Giant Sets involve doing multiple exercises with no rest in between.
• Bent Over Dumbbell Rows
• Push Ups
• Lateral Raises
• Dumbbell Biceps Curl
• Dumbbell Triceps Kickback
• Stiff Legged Deadlifts with Dumbbells
• Walking Lunges
• Standing Calf Raises
• Crunches
• Cool Down: Stretching
• Warm-Up: Skip Rope for 5 minutes
• Superset Exercise Groups: 12-15 reps: 3-5 supersets per group
I hope that this helps everyone out for a quick summer shape up on limited time! There is no excuse not to exercise and treat yourself well. Don't forget, you deserve the best for your body. You only get one body, so make the most of it!
If you need that extra time in the day, wake up 30 minutes earlier. Try to exercise first thing in the morning. This way you get it out of the way and you do not have to worry about it for the rest of the day.

bodybuilding..

It is time to make time and do something good for yourself! Don't feel like you are being selfish because only you can take care of yourself and truly give yourself what you need. Exercising, eating right, and taking some time out of the day to pamper yourself is fair and just. It will make you a better person and the greatest reward is that you will look and feel younger!

Having a great physique is hard work for most of us, but with some persistence, patience and perseverance you can achieve a healthier and sexier body in just 20 minutes a day. I am going to share some workout advice and give you some routines to follow that should help you out. But what you have to remember is that diet is important! You have to stay away from processed foods and eat clean!

Eating clean is imperative to lowering overall body fat percentage. You also need to make sure that you eat 5 to 7 smaller meals per day. Eating fibrous foods like raw nuts and buckwheat, lean protein, veggies of multiple colors, and lots of water will help do the trick!

If you are serious about losing body fat in order to look leaner and get into that bikini, then you have to stay away from refined sugars and processed foods. No cheating allowed! If you are only going to be dedicating 20 minutes per day to exercise, a super clean diet is extremely important to adhere to. I cannot stress how imperative it is that you adhere to a clean eating diet!

I will include a healthy diet plan for your new healthy lifestyle. In this nutritional plan, I am not going to really specify certain amounts of certain ingredients simply because men and women are different in portion control, etc and because there are other factors that are important such as height, current weight, body mass goals, and more. I will leave the meals up to the individuals on exact portions.

I highly recommend avoiding artificial sweeteners and drinking mostly water. If you drink coffee or tea and have to sweeten it, try Stevia Leaf instead of other brands. Stevia Leaf sweetener is natural and not processed with chemicals, so it will not alter your bodies ability to process and assimilate it.

Avoid adding salt to any of your foods as well. To much sodium makes you retain fluids and keeps you looking puffy, which is not a goal of looking leaner and healthier. Removing excess sodium from the diet is also good for many other health purposes.

Meal #1:

• Egg whites
• Serving of oatmeal
• Serving of Ground Flax Meal (extra fiber)
• Stevia Leaf to sweeten

Meal #2:

• Grilled Chicken Breast (trim off excess fat before cooking)
• Small Sweet Potato (sweetened with Stevia leaf)
• Sautéed Spinach
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (to sauté spinach with)

Meal #3:

• Fresh Fish baked or broiled (with lemon juice)
• Pan Sautéed Asparagus (sauté in water, add fresh chopped garlic)

Meal #4:

• Grilled Chicken Breast
• Steamed Broccoli Serving of Quinoa (awesome slow digesting carb)

Meal #5:

• Canned Tuna (Low Sodium version)
• Ground Flax Seed Meal
• Flax Seed Oil
• Serving of Smart Balance Mayo
• Serving of Raw Walnuts or Slivered Almonds
• 1 medium sized apple

Meal #6:

• Tilapia
• Pan Sautéed Kale
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Fresh chopped Garlic

Meal #7:

• Low Sodium/No Sodium added Cottage Cheese or
• Allmax Isoflex Vanilla Protein Shake

This sample diet is gluten free. Condiment use is not an option when trying to lose weight fast and effectively! Ladies, I would try to get at least your body weight in grams of protein. For example, if you are 140 lbs, I would recommend eating 140 grams of protein. Try to divide it equally between each meal.

I would also limit carbs. The human body needs carbs to function properly, but you can limit them to around 100 grams a day and lose weight, but still be getting good quality carbs and fiber in your diet.

Carbs are essential partially because slow digesting carbs are higher in fiber (meaning you will stay regular) and they also assist in helping the muscle repair themselves after a strenuous workout at the gym when paired with a good quality protein.

Carbohydrates Articles:

• Sweet's Revenge: Carbohydrates Are Back! - By May Blaiz
• Are Carbohydrates Anabolic? - By Layne Norton
• Post-Exercise Carbs May Be Counter-Productive. - By Mauro Di Pasquale
• Other Carbohydrate Articles...

I highly advise getting your protein and simple carb into your body within 30 minutes of working out. Since time is of the essence in a 20 minute per day dedicated training routine, then you have to find ways to maximize your efforts to get the best gains possible.

Ladies, this is especially important for you to understand! You have to train with weight resistance! Going heavier for a workout that only lasts 20 minutes will challenge the muscles better and give you better gains. You can do less and gain more.

Please remember that working out with weights and training heavier will never make you look like a man. It is physically and scientifically impossible for a female to look like and bulk up like a guy unless they use substances that are anabolic. So, please do not be afraid to push around the iron.

You can help to ward off many health problems... start now by working out, eating right, and treating yourself with the respect you deserve! The following workout routines are going to consist of giant sets. This means that we are choosing one exercise per body part and doing each body part until the whole body has been done.
When finished with the routine, you rest for 1 minute and then you proceed to do the whole body again. Rest 1 minute, then do it again. You are going to strive for 12-16 reps with a moderate to heavier weight.

I have tried to gear this routine for the person at home that wants to get this out of the way and not be bothered by going to a gym. Honestly, if you are going to go to the gym, I would go for longer than 20 minutes.

You are going to weight train 3 times a week and do cardio 3 times per week. Cardio is only going to last 20 minutes as well. I would also recommend doing a brief warm-up to get your heart rate up and get your joints and muscles ready to work! This may make your routine 25 minutes or so, but what is an extra 5 minutes.

• Warm-Up: Jogging in Place
• Giant Set: 12-15 rep range: 3-5 Giant Sets

What Is A Giant Set?
Giant Sets involve doing multiple exercises with no rest in between.

• Bent Over Dumbbell Rows
• Push Ups
• Lateral Raises
• Dumbbell Biceps Curl
• Dumbbell Triceps Kickback
• Stiff Legged Deadlifts with Dumbbells
• Walking Lunges
• Standing Calf Raises
• Crunches
• Cool Down: Stretching

• Warm-Up: Skip Rope for 5 minutes
• Superset Exercise Groups: 12-15 reps: 3-5 supersets per group

I hope that this helps everyone out for a quick summer shape up on limited time! There is no excuse not to exercise and treat yourself well. Don't forget, you deserve the best for your body. You only get one body, so make the most of it!

If you need that extra time in the day, wake up 30 minutes earlier. Try to exercise first thing in the morning. This way you get it out of the way and you do not have to worry about it for the rest of the day.

VENdor acquisition

Vendor consolidation heated up this May, with three deals announced in just two weeks. Austin, Texas-based Versata Enterprises said it would acquire Clear Technology, a Denver-based provider of business process automation solutions; HP (Palo Alto, Calif.) said it would buy services heavyweight EDS (Plano, Texas); and Oracle (Redwood Shores, Calif.) announced its acquisition of AdminServer (Chester, Pa.). While the deals differ in nature, they provoked speculation about whether the moves would lead to further acquisitions.

According to San Antonio-based Craig Weber, Celent senior vice president and insurance practice leader, the HP/EDS and Oracle/AdminServer deals demonstrate a belief on the part of large horizontal players that there still is strong potential for sales in the insurance industry. "For big players such as Oracle and HP to make a commitment in the insurance industry shows that they are willing to verticalize their offering and that they believe that there's a long-term play in the industry," he says.

While HP's acquisition is important to the insurance industry, it is the least insurance-specific of the three. Jonathan Steiman, a New York-based analyst with Datamonitor, views the deal as validation of IBM's business model.

"HP has focused on the difficult model of generating revenue through hardware sales -- sales cycles are short, and every year you need to sell a certain amount," he says. "What IBM and other players have done is to focus on service contracts, which are longer term, making for a much more stable source of revenue."

While EDS comes with insurance vertical solution provider Solcorp, that was not a driving factor of HP's acquisition, according to Matthew Josefowicz, New York-based Novarica's insurance practice director. "The deal has to do with getting HP a stronger services organization, beefing up its ability to compete with IBM across every industry," he comments.

The HP/EDS deal "will result in a very strong challenge to IBM," adds David West, TowerGroup's research area director for insurance.

The Versata/Clear deal fits an established pattern, Novarica's Josefowicz observes, noting that over the past several years a number of successful but not runaway players have been acquired by larger players with the resources to build out their portfolios. Oracle's acquisition of AdminServer, however, adds a new dimension to the insurance-specific vendor sphere, he points out.

Attention Getter

"Oracle has a number of insurance assets, but they had not really organized them well before," Josefowicz says. "[Now AdminServer CEO] Rick Connor will take a strategic role, so Oracle is making a very clear announcement that it is ready to play in core [insurance] applications."

Josefowicz foresees the Oracle move precipitating further deals, possibly soon. "Some larger players that weren't interested in the application space are now going to look at what Oracle did and get interested," he predicts. "Also, there has been significant private equity interest in this market for a while, and with Oracle getting more acquisitive, that's the thing that will get attention from more private equity investors as well."

TowerGroup's (Needham, Mass.) West, however, disagrees. "Oracle has a long tradition of acquisition, and in no case has any acquisition resulted in a dramatic shift in the market," he contends. "It's a market with many players; [the deal] will give Oracle more capabilities but will not make it a dominant player. I don't see any major changes in the marketplace as a result of it."

Insurance and more..

health insurance, travel insurance or medical insurancd? all of india’s insurance industry has moved into competitive and exciting times with the arrival of private players in the market. Although the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) reigns supreme in terms of market share, private insurance companies are gearing up to woo the consumer.

A recent ORG-MARG study indicates that ICICI Prudential, HDFC Standard Life and Tata AIG have experienced an increase in their market shares by 8, 3 and 2 per cent respectively. This is a remarkable achievement, considering that the doors were thrown open to private players only in 2000. Private players have recorded a 312 per cent growth this fiscal, and are expecting over 20 per cent year-on-year growth over the next three years.

At the moment, India is one of the best markets to be in. Over 75 per cent of its vast population has no insurance. Global reinsurance major, Swiss Re, points out that the industry will touch a growth of up to $50 billion in the next 10 years, with individual life insurance accounting for almost $40 billion. Little wonder, then, that top global names such as AIG, Allianz, AMR Aviva, ING, Metlife, New YorkLife, Old Mutual, Prudential, Standard Life and Sun Life are here in joint ventures with eminent Indian companies such as Tata, Birla, HDFC, Kotak and ICICI, among others. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) regulations too encourage best practices in the marketplace.

The Indian customer, like his global counterpart, buys policies for tax benefits and to ensure secure savings for the future. Although he is price sensitive, he still deserves value and sound services for his money. This has not been available to him. To fill this void, many private players have initiated education campaigns explaining the benefits and need for insurance.

In its first year Tata AIG sold 33,000 policies. This fiscal the company is expected to sell more than 1 lakh policies. The success of private players has been attributed to their innovative offers, customer-centric products, increasing awareness levels of consumers through a need-based, structured approach of selling, sound risk-management practices, enhanced service standards, reaching out to the customer through a number of distribution and communications channels, and providing advice to the customer.

The customer challenge
It is believed that one needs to protect 10 times of one’s present income through insurance, so that the family can be free of financial difficulties in the event of the insurer’s untimely death. Few in this country can provide this kind of security. The concept of a customer buying more than one policy has not taken off yet. Herein lies the challenge of the insurance company: to retain business and ensure that customer service transfers into customer comfort.

Today most products offered by private players are homogeneously packaged, but they are distinct at the micro level. For instance, most endowment plans offered by private companies offer different benefits, but the overall structure remains largely similar. However, each product has certain unique features. In Tata AIG’s whole life policy, Maha Life, the company pays 5 per cent of the sum assured as income to the policyholder through the policy period after the 12-year premium payment term. Other private players lack this feature, thereby making Maha Life a niche product of sorts.

Tata AIG Life has forayed into the corporate pension management business, where a corporate house can outsource its pension management system to the insurance company. Companies are also introducing investment-linked company schemes and credit-card insurance, where the bill is insured against death of the cardholder. These product innovations were not available in the past.

As the market grows, more generic products will be put out, but there will be a differentiation in individual products as compared to similar products in endowment policies, whole life and pension plans. Currently, LIC dominates the endowment market. Private players are major stakeholders in whole life insurance, pensions plans and term insurance. They have made a sizable dent by capturing 40 per cent of the market.

Efficient customer service channels differentiate private players from the traditional model. Many companies provide better service today than they did two years ago. The customer gets quicker turnaround of claims and has access to faster processing. This is a welcome change for a customer who was used only to LIC previously.

Agents of change
Insurance is a private affair. In the US and Japan, almost 90 per cent policies are sold through one-to-one discussions. Insurance agents will remain key figures in the industry. The profile of the insurance agent too has undergone a transformation, with private players in the marketplace. Companies have strengthened their internal regulatory training programmes.

Agents spend 100 hours of training here, and a further 50 hours are spent in securing higher education. This covers the rudiments of insurance, claims, policy protection and an exhaustive background study on the insurance industry. Later these agents are trained to interact with the customer. Private players have full-time, ongoing training programmes across the country. It is essential to impart uniform training because agents come from disparate walks of life.

The task at hand is not to merely sell policies. Instead, it is up to the agent to gauge the customer’s need and to guide him towards the right choice. Eventually, the customer must have confidence in the ability of the agent. LIC has close to 8.50 lakh agents and is adding more, while private players like Tata AIG are planning to grow to 20,000 agents by the end of 2003.

In sharp contrast to LIC, private players have invested in multiple and innovative distribution strategies. Internet and direct mailers are the easiest ways to reach the consumer. Bancassuarance, or distribution of insurance products through the branches and multiple communication channels of banks, including ATMs, tele-banking and Internet banking, is slowly gaining popularity. India’s 27 public sector banks account for almost 92 per cent of the entire network spread. This network has 33,000 rural and 14,000 semi-urban branches, where insurance penetration remains largely untapped. The link-up saves the insurance company distribution costs and helps increase the customer product offerings for the bank. The credibility of the bank makes it easier to win customers.

Rural difference
The majority of India is rural. This market cannot be ignored. In small markets, the credibility of the Indian partner goes a long way. The Tata name is valuable here. However, since the level of awareness is much lower than in urban India, the distributing strategy has to different. Distinct strategies have to be formulated for cash collection and medical facilities. In the absence of this, companies tend to offer simple and easy to buy and sell policies in most centres. This market demands tailored and dedicated products. Insurance, for them, is a matter of secure savings for the future.

Mindsets are changing, but purchase patterns are not. The months of February and March still are the busiest at LIC. The traditional hook of tax incentives and savings will take a long time to change. Private players need to step up their selling in terms of need and protection.

The life insurance industry is growing at 15 to 20 per cent, and that there is enough space for all players to thrive — because there is no such thing as too much insurance

weight management

7 Keys to Lose Weight

Here are 7 keys you should keep in mind if you want to start losing weight. These keys are simple reminders of what to do and not to do when you're in the process of decrease your weight. .

1. Eat a balanced diet, eating each meal in order from healthiest to least healthy foods. That means eat your fruit or vegetables before you eat anything else. Eat as much of them as you want, then eat a couple of servings of your whole grains, nuts and seeds. Next, eat your frozen or canned foods. After that, if you have any hunger left, enjoy a serving of dessert.

2. Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day. If you're over 130lbs, you should drink even more than that. Avoid carbonated drinks completely. Drink no more than one glass of fruit juice per week. Doing these things will not only help you lose weight, but will make you feel much better.

3. Eat food. This may sound strange, but if you cease eating food, your body will go into conservation mode. You may lose some weight by not eating over time, but as soon as you start eating again your body will pack fat on to ensure that the next time no food is available it'll have adequate energy reserves. If you follow all of the other weight loss tips, you shouldn't need to starve yourself to lose weight, meaning the weight loss will be more permanent.

4. Exercise regularly. Every fad diet program tries to tell you that there is some way to lose weight that isn't hard work. Well, they don't work long term; you have to work muscles to burn significant calories. If you don't work muscles you not only burn few calories, but your muscles atrophy and become even less capable of burning calories. The truth is that in weight loss you don't exercise to burn calories, you exercise to keep your muscles in good working condition so that your body functions efficiently. When your body is functioning at full efficiency, it will maintain a healthy weight, provided that you are eating a healthy diet in moderate amounts. Exercise is a necessary component to long-term, healthy weight loss no matter what diet program you try.

5. Eat foods as closely as possible to the way they come from nature. Fruits and vegetables that can be plucked from a tree or plant and lightly washed and eaten are generally your healthiest options. Nuts that can be picked, shelled and eaten are another healthy option as long as you don't eat so many as to affect digestion. Grains and seeds are generally healthy, but must in most cases be at least boiled or steamed so they should not be eaten quite as much as fruits and vegetables. Be careful that your grains and seeds are not bleached or over-processed. Be very careful with dairy products that must generally be pasteurized, generally contain antibiotics and other chemicals, and are often heavily processed. Also, you may wish to avoid meats, which contain disease and must be well-cooked to be safe for consumption. The same goes for canned foods, which must have a lot of additives and preservatives added to make them safe for storage.

6. Reduce animal fat and oil consumption. Fat is the most densely packed source of calories. Animal fats and oils are not accompanied by fiber, so they are extremely dense forms of calories.

7. Reduce processed sugar and fructose consumption. Your body very quickly turns these into energy. If your body already has too much energy, it may just convert them straight into fat for storage. Learn to search labels for the sugars row to make comparisons of your meal choices.

There are several effective ways of becoming fit; the question is how to find the right program for you. To learn more about it check out these articles about how to chose the right weight loss plan included rapid weight loss programs

crazy

f you are one of those who has had it up to here with the current price of gas and rising grocery bills – and are concerned about global warming - blame it on the fat people – or the obese, if you want to be politically correct.

A study carried out by a team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has concluded that obese folks use up more fuel, not only to transport their bulky derrieres, but the humungous amount of food they consume. Naturally this adds up to food shortages and high energy prices.

A short physiology lesson here, for the scientifically minded, would be appropriate. Obesity is measured in terms of Body Mass Index (BMI), which in turn, is a calculation of a person’s height to his weight. ‘Normal’ people have a BMI between 18 and 25. If your BMI is more than 25, you are considered overweight. If your BMI is over 30, you are just plain fat.

I kind of feel sorry for the fat guys (so I’m not politically correct, so sue me). As it is, they have to worry about their excess weight putting them at greater risk of cardiovascular episodes and psychiatric disorders. Psychiatric disorders? Don’t take my word for it. Researchers at the University of Connecticut Health Center analyzed data collected from 40,000 Americans. Their findings were that obese people are twice as likely, than their fit brethren, to suffer from depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions. Now, on top of the all that, they have to carry around the guilt of adding to global warming.

If it’s any consolation, they are far from being alone. At last count, more than 400 million people around the world are estimated to be obese. According to the World Health Organization, this figure is expected to rise to 700 million by 2015. Think about it. That’s twice the entire population of the United States.

And George Bush has the gall to accuse us slim and undernourished Indians of pushing up food demand by eating a lot. Shame on him. I could go on, but my large pepperoni pizza with double cheese has just arrived – and I like it hot.