In the latest heavyweight bout of "burger" obesity, Australia became the world's fattest nation after 26% of their adult population was classified as obese according to Australia's Future 'Fat Bomb' report.

Cartoonist Credit: Jeff Paker, Florida Today 2006

If the report is true, than the estimated 25% of Americans who are obese can relax, loosen their belts, and play ketchup by eating Gateway Grizzlies, a Krispy Kreme doughnut Bacon Cheeseburger that packs 1,000 calories of oral pleasure.

“Baseball’s Best Burger, a meal and a dessert all in one.”

And for the ladies, Paula Deen has created the “Lady’s Brunch Burger”
to keep obesity High
on your Thighs...

May the Gravitational Force of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts be with you...
With the new revolutionary fat delivery systems, Americans are prepared to win the Burger Battle of the Bulge and take the coveted fat gold medal in the Olympic Obesity Open.

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Miss Moneypenny reporting for the Undercover Times

I will probably never get to have a studio recording of this but I really wanted to share it with someone. I did a quick video recording of the song tonight. I hope you like it.

Last week, I got a call from him at work:

Darren: We win!

Or is that "Wii win"? At any rate, the Wii Fit.

It's helluva a lot of fun. The hooping program is great - which is something Christa was trying to get me to try for awhile (although she never updates her blog, so who knows what's happening on that end). Like any video game, there are tricks to it, but it focuses on core strength and balance. And has a few aerobic programs (including a step program which is kind of silly, but good for a warmup).

This post shows the return of the "Battle of the Bulge" category - and this time it'll be all-encompassing: more cooking at home, less ordering out, 5-10 servings of vegetables and fruits a day.

As a result, this also represents the return of the WTF System category (not to be confused with WTF? category). Although I can't find that original post, the essence is it's a derivative of the FlyLady system - the "Working Twosome FlyLady System". It includes basic stuff like menu planning, daily small chores to keep the clutter under control.

Because currently my coffee table is a disaster area. You should have seen the kitchen earlier.

I have other reasons for doing this, however, not the least of which is that I've been off birth control for a couple of months. I figure, if we're going to chance bringing another life into this world, then I should get my own life as it is now under control.

They came together in the summer of 1942. It was as good a rifle company as any in the world. Here is the story of E Company -- men who went hungry, froze, and died for each other -- from the rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to their disbanding in 1945. Advancing through Europe, the men of Easy Company found the closest brotherhood they'd ever know.

As grippingly as any novelist, preeminent World War II historian Stephen Ambrose tells the horrifying, hallucinatory saga of Easy Company, whose 147 members he calls the nonpareil combat paratroopers on earth circa 1941-45. Ambrose takes us along on Easy Company's trip from grueling basic training to Utah Beach on D-day, where a dozen of them turned German cannons into dynamited ruins resembling "half-peeled bananas," on to the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of part of the Dachau concentration camp, and a large party at Hitler's "Eagle's Nest," where they drank the madman's (surprisingly inferior) champagne. Of Ambrose's main sources, three soldiers became rich civilians; at least eight became teachers; one became Albert Speer's jailer; one prosecuted Bobby Kennedy's assassin; another became a mountain recluse; the despised, sadistic C.O. who first trained Easy Company (and to whose strictness many soldiers attributed their survival of the war) wound up a suicidal loner whose own sons skipped his funeral.
The Easy Company survivors describe the hell and confusion of any war: the senseless death of the nicest kid in the company when a souvenir Luger goes off in his pocket; the execution of a G.I. by his C.O. for disobeying an order not to get drunk. Despite the gratuitous horrors it relates, Band of Brothers illustrates what one of Ambrose's sources calls "the secret attractions of war ... the delight in comradeship, the delight in destruction ... war as spectacle." --Tim Appelo The men of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, volunteered for this elite fighting force because they wanted to be the best in the army--and avoid fighting alongside unmotivated, out-of-shape draftees. The price they paid for that desire was long, arduous, and sometimes sadistic training, followed by some of the most horrific battles of World War II. Actor Cotter Smith--a veteran of numerous TV movies and Broadway plays--spins Stephen Ambrose's tale with almost laconic ease. Anecdote by anecdote, he lets the power of the story build. By the time the company has gotten through D-day and seized Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Bavaria, we feel we know as much about the men and their missions as we do about our own brothers. (Running time: 5 hours, 4 cassettes) --Lou Schuler

Order Band of Brothers from Amazon for $6.39

Don't have Amazon Kindle? You can always purchase it from here
Or if you prefer to read the Print editions instead, you can get it from here

Other Kindle Books of Interest
Beyond Band of Brothers
Flags of Our Fathers
Black Hawk Down
Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission
The Wild Blue

Back at the ranch, arrived at my bus stop carrying my Mary Poppins bag (called that because it could fit a mercedes, swimming pool and has roomfor a pony), and spent a good five minutes trying to locate my mp3 player. Found it and spent another five minutes trying to detangle the headphones. A man at the bus stop I had not paid any attention to came up to me and said in French, "Are you going to turn that on so no one speaks to you?" [Aside: My french is getting so much better yay]. I smile and say no that it is just a habit I have when I commute. So to summarise this encounter, bus stop man is from Paris, doing a course, on his way back to Paris, enquires about my relationship status and invites me to visit Paris for the weekend. To summarise my response, I tell bus stop man that I am in a relationship and my boyfriend is around (big fat lie, as if I will go to Paris to visit a guy I met at a bus stop and talked to for ten minutes. I am hungry but I have not reached starvation point, if you know what I mean). I was rescued from this uncomfortable situation by the timely arrival of my bus.

Later that day on my way back to the office, as I exit the metro via the escalators, I realise I am being one of those annoying people who stands smack in the centre of the escalator, annoying that person who wants to walk up it. I am not usually this thoughtless but I was playing with my headphones again. So a guy nudges me and I turn to him and apologise letting him past. I reach the office, trying to retrieve the keys from the MP bag and  turn around to see the same elevator guy next to me. He tells me he sells womens clothes (nice and random conversation opener), I smile and say 'good for you' (thinking, ooookay weirdo). Summary of conversation, he lives in Italy, visiting his sister here, is half Italian, half Trinidadian, he enquires about my place of residence, and relationship status and he doesn't carry a pen or a phone ;-)

As you can probably deduce, I decided to give him my number because besides the weird ice breaker, it was quite a normal pleasant conversation and I thought I shouldn't be soooo cautious all the time. Do something crazy and give a random stranger your phone number. As he didn't have a pen and as I couldn't be bothered rooting inside MP bag to get one, he memorised my number. One of my flatmates thinks he will remember it and the other thinks he will forget it. I am hinging my bets on the latter. I have had my number for over a year and I still don't know it by heart, so what chance has he got. We shall see.

The thing is I am always wary of these sort of random encounters because call me weird but I think it IS weird when a man tries chatting you up within a space of seeing you for around five seconds. In my head, I think I bet he does it a lot. I imagine that the thought process for them is like fishing, cast your net wide enough your bound to catch something. Maybe I am being too harsh about this but last time this happened, it didn't turn out well, remember Jean and the date.

I would be really interested to hear the weirdest and most random ways and places you have met people you have dated, or gone out with or even married.

It’s Memorial Day, and although my father didn’t die during the war, I still think of him on this day. My father fought in World War II. I have a photo static copy of his discharge papers which tell me a little bit about his time in the war. He was discharged from the Army on February 7, 1946 (about three weeks shy of his 25^th birthday). He had been in the Army for about 3 ½ years. He spent time in North Africa, and in Ardennes, was an expert rifleman, attained the rank of sergeant, and received two bronze stars. It shows that he was 5’5” tall and weighed 131 lbs., but I remember him as being taller than that. It also shows that he had “21 days lost under AW 107” (Articles of War 107). I’ve done a bit a research, and as near as I can tell, this was a disciplinary measure used by the Army. Basically, each soldier had a number of days that he had to serve before he would be sent home. So if he misbehaved in some way (e.g. didn’t return to the base in time from leave, or was too drunk to perform his duty) the army took days away from him making his tour of duty longer. I’ve included a war photo of my father. He is the one without a hat. You can draw your own conclusions as to where his 21 days went.

My father never talked about the war, at least not when I was around. But then, I was only five years old when he died. I’ve talked with my older brothers and none of them remembers him telling war stories either, although somehow we all have heard a few of them (probably from uncles). Perhaps my father saved his war talk for his brothers. During WWII, my father and six of his brothers served overseas at the same time, and all of them came back alive (and they say the Irish are lucky). I can remember only two things about my father and the war. I remember sitting on the floor of my parents’ bedroom playing with his patches and medals when I was very young. And I remember one night a man came to our house and purchased a German Lugar from my father.

A few years ago I watched the HBO series Band of Brothers and realized that my father was there, in the forest of Ardennes. My older brothers have told me that my father almost lost his leg to frostbite there, but he was able to convince an Army doctor to let him keep it. He ultimately lost the leg to diabetes more than twenty years later. It seems that most of the stories I know about my father involve him talking his way out of (or into) something. From what I am told he was quite the storyteller, but I guess some stories are better left untold.

The bad bits

• Feeling a tard bit lonely here at the moment, and feeling like Johnny-no-mates and no one cares blah, blah, blah
• Not too excited about my job but really don't have a lot of options
• Smoking way too much now
• Spend wayyyyyyyyyyyy too much time on tinternet (Peter Kay fans, know that word is not a typo)
• Really worrying about the future
• My car's exhaust is f*****

The good bits

• I have bought tickets to go somewhere nice for my summer holidays
• My car has been repaired by the nicest mechanic in the whole world, who didn't seem to rip me off because I was a woman (I hope)
• I DO have a job and I LIKE my boss
• I have a 'fairly' comfortable place to live in
• I have decided to start a bookclub (an idea inspired by Princesse Ecossaise)
• Currently reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde, and loving it!

Yesterday I got poked and prodded seven ways from Sunday. Well, not seven. But three, at least. The annual poke ‘n prod, the blood draw at the lab for a rubella-immunity test (which I don't think I've been immunized against since I was a tot) and the dentist for a tooth-scraping.

And I had my blood pressure taken; it was a bit of an unhappy 134/88 (last year, I was told I had the blood pressure of a teenager). "More exercise, less salt?" I say to my Doctor. "Yes," she says. "Aim for 40-45 minutes 4 or 5 times a week." I was a bit surprised at that - but hey, I have 6.66 hours free every week at work, am allowed to combine all my breaks, and the gym is across the road from work.

So no time like the present. I combined my lunch breaks and did 40 minutes on the elliptical today. I am such an all-or-nothing kind of person.

I am a wee bit tired. My arms and upper back ache from being on the elliptical. But its a good sort of ache. I am looking forward to my jacuzzi tub tonight.

I just went over to Tales from the Scales and found out that it will be closing doors on April 17. Its sad, but even sadder is Beth's story of late. She needs some time. And while the loss of Tales will be huge to those who depended on it, I would say to them that the community still exists. Help each other.

And remember that Beth is still out there.

It is raining in central Indiana. Since I grew up in northwestern Indiana, this does not surprise me. It is the reason that all I want to do is stay in, drink hot oolong/Jasmine tea and curl up under a blanket with a good book.

Actually, I love the rain. One of my favorite memories is camping with my family in the rain. Sitting in my living room, I can smell the wet canvas and hear the sound of the tent zipper. My brother and I would play Cribbage by the fire, after the rain cleared, or while sitting at the picnic table, under a tarp. He also taught me to play chess. He loved games. I don’t.  I have a compulsion to create and, the whole time I am playing a game, I feel I am wasting time when I should be painting.  But, I do make an exception for Cribbage and chess and would give a lot to have one more game by the fire.

My brother, David, was under two when our dad went off to war. He, mom and our sister lived with our grandmother during this time.  David loved our Uncle Donald.  He followed him around like a puppy dog until Uncle Donald DeWitt shipped out. One day, he woke up from his nap screaming. Grandma and mom went running in to comfort him. He told them that Uncle Donald was hurt, and they put him in a jeep, and they drove him into the forest, and he was never coming back. David was inconsolable. My grandmother said, she knew right then that her son was dead. David's dream was a warning for her.

It was true. Uncle Donald was fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. There was a company in the U.S. that ran out of gunpowder so they decided to try TNT (excuse me if I have the names of the powders wrong). Uncle Donald’s weapon exploded.  An ambulance was not available, so they put him on the back of a jeep to take him to the field hospital; through the woods. He was DOA.  When they received the death notice, the day of his death was the same day as my brother’s nightmare.

My brother was born six years before I was. I understand he liked to spoil me when we were little. I don’t remember much of that but I do remember that he was always there to listen, when the world seemed to be crushing me. I also remember him reading or listening to music. He would come to dinner with his nose in a book. In fact, one day he came out of his bedroom when mom had company, and the company asked her who the boy was, who was visiting. They had been to our home several times but he was always in his bedroom reading and they had no idea she had a son.

David went off to the Air Force and became a phlebotomist. Mr. Nasty Nice would draw blood, take bodily fluids, and test them. In those days, I believe they just put their thumb over the end of the test tube and shook it up.  However, you would incur his wrath if you took a drink out of his water glass.

When he signed up for military service, he got the deal to pick where he would be stationed after basic training. As any sane person would do, he chose Hawaii. He actually spent the last years of his service at Ernest Harmon Air Force Base in Newfoundland. The Air Force has quite a sense of irony, doesn’t it?

After he left the Air Force, my brother worked at a hospital lab in Illinois. His co-worker invited him to dinner one night and introduced him to her daughter, Terri. They married and had four wonderful kids. He was head of the lab at St. Margaret’s Hospital in Hammond, Indiana, until he got involved with computers.  It was a passion for him and when he became ill, he was able to work from home as he became more ill.

Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma took his life.  He fought it for two years.  As the disease progressed and the treatments took their tole, he developed a cough. One of the few things he could enjoy was eating lunch with friends in the hospital cafeteria. One day he was coughing in line and another hospital employee told him, “If you are that sick, you shouldn’t be here.” I kind of understand, but he wasn’t infectious and for the rest of the time he had left on earth, he ate lunch alone in his office.  Which was not right either.

People tend to panic on their fiftieth birthday. My brother didn’t.  He panicked when he turned forty. This was before they diagnosed his cancer. I joked that he should wait and get upset when he turned fifty. Something in him seemed to know he would never make it to fifty, and he didn't.  He passed away in 1990. I miss him every single day; especially the rainy ones.

A good tip for anyone doing weight watchers.. I've been very happy on the core plan for a while and have lost over 2 stone.... but things had gone stagnant and  my eating habits... although on the whole good were just not as good as they could be.

I think the thing for me is defo portion control. I don't eat badly really - I know I don't. My problem is I eat too much.

I don't eat potato - I eat 2 portions of potatoes. And while this works for a while because you're following the points system on the core plan, I think eventually if you're eating too much (whether you're following the plan or not) basically ... you're just eating too much.

So - I swapped to the points plan. I'm enjoying it. It's renewed my enthusiasm and I've lost about 5lbs in 10 days. So I feel back in the swing of it.

The only snag is that my wedding dress shop warned me not to lose too much weight as I've ordered the right size for me now and that dropping shed loads would

a) cause me to spend loads in alteration costs and

b) change the shape of the dress around my top half if too much had to be altered...

I can't drop far below the size 14 version without risking making my dress look 'altered'

So as far as I can see it - that's a damn fine reason to drink this beer next to me here :lol:

We haven't really done anything so much except potter about.

I've cleaned my bathroom from top to bottom like I usually do on a Sunday... done a coupla bits... bought mother's day card and pressie... (unknowingly intelligently I have opted to visit my folks on Mothering Sunday, meaning I have to buy a present can take the present with me)... this is a load off my mind as you can tell...   :)

We took the girls out for shopping yesterday and had lunch in a little cafe where utterly abnormally, they were a joy and a delight to be around. We found a little place with cheap cafe food in a slightly more faux-upmarket decor ... if that makes sense..?!

The result though, was a really nice lunch and the girls were an absolute pleasure to be with.

We didn't do much of anything else yesterday I don't think.... (not sure why I struggle to remember yesterday.... Surely a sign of over working myself) :roll:

We organised some wedding stuff... getting measured for the suits and stuff, I picked my bridesmaids dresses all that kind of stuff..

Typical 'weekend stuff' stuff :)

Then today - we had a pretty lazy day again. We got up late... thanks to the girls playing in their room for a while this morning... we had a late breakfast... and went to the park, fed the ducks... had a run about...

There has been moments today when they've been a little hmmm.... how to put it....? Testing? Rowan is testing the theory of bad moods and possible causes at the moment.... for example ... today she was absolutely fine in the park and then was suddenly ... foul.

Her explanation?

The sun got in her eyes and that made her grumpy.

:roll:

But.. hey. I can see it for what it is. She's just not sure what the rules are for this type of thing. She has no idea what constitutes a good reason for a bad mood. For all I know she listens to my reasons sometimes and thinks I'm an absolute fruitloop!

So... we came back and collapsed unconscious on the sofa for 40minutes whilst the girls went brain dead to Peppa Pig DVD (gotta love it) and then put Ella down for a nap.

Rowan and I made biscuits ...

(out of a ready to bake kit from M&S - really recommend it I have to say ... the biscuits were really nice and it was dead easy) and we attempted to watch a movie together... we picked Cinderella Twist in Time (Xmas present from Grampty) ... 5 minutes after this photo,

she wanted it turned off because it was boring!! :lol:

Then she specifically requested this movie (5 points if you can guess it from the still) and paid attention to it for approximately 9 minutes before she wandered off. Not quite time for the cinema yet then.

She is funny.

But one thing for sure..... she is gorgeous.

This is me now then. Battle of the Bulge not going anywhere right now really is it..?

I am still trying to watch what I eat on the whole and I am being mostly healthy. Friday nights have started to be a bit of an 'over-relaxed' affair and I have to reign that in slightly but ... on the whole... we're being reasonably good.

Almost 5 months to go now until the Big Day... and the dress is ordered. The shop I've bought it from have ordered a 16 (US 14) and that's slightly to big all round especially on the bust area and waist but it's too much of a risk (that I'm definitely not willing to take) to order the smaller size and then find later that it needs to be let out and that I'm desperately trying to lose 7lbs the week before the wedding.

No thanks to that particular scenario!!

To be honest.. I have quite a strange figure. I have a weight that I seem to carry pretty well and even my doctor didn't believe I weighed what I do. My main problem is my thighs and bum area.

The wedding dress fitting confirmed that I am in fact a mighty fine pear!

They did all my measurements and I am ... a 10/12 on top (again US 8/10) a 14/16 on my waist and an 18 on my hips.

I mean seriously - how am I ever supposed to buy a proper dress?! I was stunned.

So.. these are my new jeans. Even though I had got into size 16 jeans these are an 18. Not for any reason other than the style of jean demands the next size up. I spoke to a friend about it and told her it felt like a step backwards.

Why oh why would I want to buy a size 18 pair of jeans when I can fit into a size 16?? She reassured me that (at a lovely size 12), she does in fact have jeans from the same shop and of varying styles that range in size from 10 -14 just depending on cut.

At this point - I chilled out somewhat.

No there wasn't a secret extra 7lbs on my bottom that only appeared when I went to try on trousers at Next, it is just that different clothes fit differently.

Fine. So size 18 kickflares from Next it is then. I like them :)
I was reading a weight loss blog this morning, not something I do regularly actually .. but I got a link to it and so off I went. I went right back through the archives and found her first post.

It struck me that pretty much everyone is the same. I remember when I first lost loads of weight and got down to 9.5 stone all the way from 17 stone (240lbs)... I couldn't quite get it into my head that I'd lost loads of weight.

I was watching what I ate and of course I was aware I was slimmer. A little at first, then a bit more... a bit more and week by week the lbs dropped off and the clothes got a little bit baggier.

I was at uni at the time and I had no scales. So everything I lost could only be tracked by my measurements (which I took every month-ish) and by how my clothes felt and fitted (or didn't).

My sister was a Slimming World consultant at the time and so everything I was doing followed the basic principles of that scheme and soon I realised that you could eat shedloads and lose weight. It was great. I went to visit my sister and my niece every couple of months and weighed myself on her SW scales and saw great losses which spurred me on no end.

When I look back at it probably one of the best things was having no scales because I was following the rules in principle - occasionally I had days where I didn't behave but generally I was doing great and this meant that I never saw the weeks where I didn't lose, or gained etc. Only weighing in every 8 weeks or so means you see losses of 1st or 20lbs which is so motivating it's unreal.

The thing was - my head never really caught up. I remember a good while later, standing and taking measurements and seeing my waist was 26inches and thinking that was good as it meant that I'd lost another inch or whatever it was. But still felt like I had to wear decent clothes that covered, or 'suited'. I still behaved big even though I was small.

I was in size 10 tops and size 14 jeans (oh yes! to the pear shape) but still I felt like a big girl. An overweight girl - on a lot of days. Not every day granted, but enough of the time to stop me appreciated the result of all my hard work.

The weird thing is that 8 years later I am now back up to an unhealthy weight (following two pregnancies obviously) and in my head I struggle to remember that I'm not 10st. I walk through the shops and catch my reflection in windows and think ' Christ - who is that person?!' It's just not what I think of when I imagine myself and that part of weight loss is the hardest part I think.

You can get so caught up in the psychological part of it - about whether we should be motivated or whether we're allowed that treat, what I look like - or what I *feel* that I look like - or whether we're having a fat day or a thin day and how that affects what I eat for the rest of that day, or that week or that meal out etc. etc. etc.

I have got into a pattern where I weigh myself every day because I've convinced myself that the daily losses of a lb push me to be better behaved. But to be honest - would I still be here in March nearly, the same weight as I was in November if that were really the truth?

The fact is I've put 4lbs on in the last 7 days and I don't know how that's happened at all so how much of an eye am I keeping on myself really?

At some point, with all of the greenery that I will be eating to help accomplish this task, I am sure that I will start feeling like a rabbit. But I will persevere! You can keep track of my progress whenever you check back. I have a widget over on the sidebar ---->

that I will continue to update---Both with favorable and unfavorable results. Your encouragement and support will be most helpful. And when I lose the 25 pounds....lets go and pig out to celebrate! :)

Some of us are stuck at the holiday dinner table even though we are well into 2008. People it's time to get up and make sure we see another year, by getting healthy. I'm not in the shape I was 10 years ago when I was active in all kinds of sports. As my children grew so did my waistline, but hey man hey enough is enough.

Hip Hop artist Bone Crusher blew up the clubs and the streets with the 2003 release of AttenCHUN! which featured the energizing mesmerizing mega hit Neva Scared. He now has his own label and is ready once again to take over. His new track Transform is sure to be a club banger so make sure you put it in heavy rotation when it's released.

Bone Crusher recently competed on Celebrity Fit Club and lost over 50 pounds--setting a record for the show. He's promoting "Battle of the Bulge" a DVD for folks with a couple of extra pounds looking to slim down and stay healthy. He dropped by TSF to offer some words of encouragement to those in need. He had me rollin' during this interview. He's just one of those cats that just gets it. Enjoy.

Michael Tillery: What's good bruh? What do you have goin' on with Vainglorious Entertainment and personally as a recording artist?

Bone Crusher: I'm fantastically outstanding! I'm working on a couple of things right now. I'm in negotiations with a few people. I have a new album coming out on my label, Vainglorious--through Universal--called Planet Crusher. It's crazy! The first single is Transform with me and Fabo. The second single is me, Alpha Mega and Ludacris called Giants.

MT: I know you are loving your career right?

BC: Yes my brotha! Anytime you can wake up 10, 11 or two o'clock and your light is still on, that's a beautiful thing!

MT: I heard that. Did you enjoy Fit Club? How much of it was production?

BC: Man they didn't hide nothin'. 98% of that stuff was all real. Obviously, they edited material to fit into the hour time frame. None of that stuff was fake. All those Fit Camps we did? They were all real. They actually were longer! A fit camp lasts about 8 hours. So that was 8 hours of workin' out.

MT: Damn! I would have fell out on TV. What was it like working with Angie Stone, Nick Turturro, Ted Lange, Vincent Pastore and some of the other cast?

BC: Man that was great. Angie and I are good friends. Nick, Erica (Eleniak), and Carnie (Wilson) are good friends. I'm also good friends with the other team: Ted (Lange), Vinnie (Vincent Pastore) and Tina (Yothers). It was a wonderful situation. It was definitely a great experience for me.

MT: Since you lost so much weight, do you think you provided inspiration for everyone else on the show to do the same?

BC: Yeah man. The think about it is that a lot of people on the show were looking at me as the guy to lose weight. Every weigh in I would lose between 5 and 15 pounds. I would go out there and do my thing. I was team captain, so I had to lead by example. I had to make everyone understand the Fat Crushers were gonna win the whole thing.

MT: Talk about your DVD The Battle of the Bulge. What are your goals and aspirations regarding this release?

BC: Me and my manager had an idea doing a DVD for mildly obese people that can't move in hospitals--something of that nature. We wanted to use people that are this size to give positive encouragement in hopes people would say, "If he's doing it, then I can do it". That was the whole premise behind the DVD. We came up with the name The Battle of the Bulge while walking in New York. I thought about all the elderly people in hospitals that are bedridden. I'm actually using my DVD right now because I have a cyst on the back of my leg from working out too hard. It's working out very well man. You still get the same cardio. In three sets you can burn between three and five hundred calories.

That's a good workout!
Bone Crusher: "Cook your own foods, work out, work out, work out."

If you watch was you are eating...I've been trying to do that. Like I tell everybody, it's not easy. I'm struggling too. That's also the premise of the DVD--that we are still fighting and struggling together to get the weight off. It ain't a situation where you see a bunch of skinny people all in shape with 6 packs, 12 packs or 35 packs (Laughter)!

Then you are like man c'mon. I'll never get down. That alone is psychological discouragement. Seeing fine ladies on there with leotards looking good already in shape. You say man I'm never ever getting that little! So you are like forget this!

So that's the whole thing. Chains like Walmart and Target have pre-ordered this thing. We've surpassed 30,000 pre-orders already.

MT: Wow! That's whassup! This is more about health and not appearance right?

BC: Oh damn right.

MT: Could you comment on the steroids scandal allegedly involving some of your peers? What is the message you are trying to get across to the kids to repel the attraction to drugs?

BC: I don't think they used steroids. That's all alleged. I don't think 50 used steroids. 50 works out really hard. Mary J. Blige works out really hard to get that body. Steroids don't help you lose weight. They enhance what you are doing. Even if they were using--I'm not saying they were.

For me, it is about losing weight, getting yourself healthy, and that's the whole thing behind it. Getting your cholesterol down. There's people out here right now running three or four miles a day that die because they are eating weird. It's all about your individual body makeup. If I eat a certain way, I'll lose weight. That might not be the case for you. I learned that in Fit Camp too. It's all about the regiment. Some people it didn't work for them as well. You have to figure out your personal regiment and get down what you can and can not eat.

It's not trying to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Mary J Blige or Beyonce. Beyonce has her own physique. You have to look like your best you.

I've always been like that. If you know anything about me or ever seen me on stage, I love me! I'm gonna take my clothes off, get buck nekked and everythang! I enjoy having fun and just being who I am you know?

MT: I heard that!

Folks lose weight, get complacent and gain it all back. Any suggestions on how they can keep it off?

BC: That is a more common thing than not. People get to a certain weight and they hit a wall and then they end up gaining.

I gained a little back too. I'm trying to lose another thirty to forty pounds to get a little more weight off of me. That's hard. You have to understand that it's gonna be hard work. Nothing in life worth having is easy. That's what I had to learn from the Fit Camp. It's not just a crash diet. It's a lifestyle change. I never say diet. People say, "You should go on a diet." I say I don't diet. I had to change my lifestyle for me to live a certain way. I stopped eating a lot of pork. I don't eat pork anymore. I cut that out. I try not to eat a lot of bread. I try not to eat a lot of sugar--refined sugar.

Yesterday I went to see Cloverfield so i needed something to eat. That in itself is what it's all about--the struggle. Food is a drug for a lot of people. It's a drug for me. It's a drug for you. You like to eat. I like to eat. There's a lot of chemicals in food--not like it used to be. There's a lot of steroid induced food. Animals are injected with all kinds of drugs. That stuff is addictive. It's not like it used to be in the 60's and 70's.

People weren't openly obese or big like that. It has a lot to do with population control. It's a lot of reasons why food is so bad. That's what I try to share with people. The more you eat of it, the worse your body is going to get. I try my best to eat at home as much as possible. Cooking your own food helps to keep the weight off.

Cook your own foods, work out, work out, work out. Work out at least 30 minutes a day and you will see a significant change in your body.

Sweat is getting out all that salt in your blood. As we all know, water helps you lose weight too. Drink a lot of water. Stay off the liquor. Stay away from the sodas. Certain juices have a lot of sugar in them. Stay away from all that.

I'm not telling you to stop everything cold turkey. If you do that you will go back at it 10 fold. You were eating 1, 2 or 3 hamburgers and now you are eating six because you completely relapsed. You have to ween yourself off of it. Trust me I'm in a fight!. I'm in a struggle. My wife gets on me. She tells me I shouldn't be eating that pie! It's just a little piece of pie. You can eat almost anything you want to eat; just in smaller portions.

Instead of a Whopper, get a Whopper Jr. and a small fry. Like I said, food is a drug. It is what it is. It's no different than heroin, cocaine or those other bad things. The difference is that you have to have it. Eat to live not live to eat.

Shit, man I used to go through some food man! I used to get a hold of a 8 piece of chicken, some mac and cheese and some greens!

I can't do that now. I cut that down. I can eat a 3 piece. If I get crazy I can go for 4, but that's it. Then I go to the gym so I can work out.

MT: What do you put in those greens now that you don't eat pork?

BC: I put smoked turkey in them. Smoke turkey give them the same taste. It's no different. All you are getting from the pork is the salt. Turkey meat has a lot less fat. Cut down your fat intake.

There's other kinds of sugars. You ever heard of a place called Whole Foods?

MT: Nah.

BC: Where are you now?

MT: I moved from Maryland. I'm in Philly.

BC: Well those Whole Foods are all over the place. They sell organic foods. Fruit juices aren't sweetened with sugar. It tastes the same. It's much better for you.

MT: What's the best thing to happen to you since you've lost weight?

BC: Just that I feel good. I feel like a million dollars. My show is crazy now. I'm on a whole another level. My homeboy is on maternity leave--his people had a baby--so I'm on stage by myself. The energy level has just increased so much. I can do my same show without having a hype man. Because of my leg I can't do my full workout, so I do 500 side to side leg exercises in the bed. I take my arms and go up and down, up and down, up and down. Then I take my arms parallel from each other and hold them up for about 10 minutes. That does it to. You get a good sweat out of it. It's straight working out with your own body and you get really strong and tough.

MT: Any chance you parlay this weight loss into a role on Gladiators?

BC: (Bone laughs) Man I don't know man. We'll probably have all of those too. We're gonna make this a series and then add cookware. I'm a cook and a chef, so we're gonna add everything. We're gonna keep this going.

MT: Alright bruh! Thanks for this. Hopefully I'll see you at the All Star Game. Be peace.

BC: Thanks Mike. See you there. Peace.