HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE TANITA WEIGHT SCALE?

I have become obsessed with measuring my waist, which is visibly getting smaller. I can now tweak my measuring tape to 35-1/2'', which is so encouraging. I can see myself at Xmas wearing the beautiful clothes in my closet that I could NEVER wear before. Jorge's program is the simplest thing in the world to follow, and sooooo delicious to. I have become more conscious of my eating habits, made easier with the help of food labels as well as websites like, http://caloriecounter.about.com/

I've been reading about the intestinal problems people are having with the sugar substitutes. When I purchased my Stevia and Xylotol at the Natural Food Store, the nutritional specialist who served me, said that these products do not pass through the pancreas, but go directly to the intestines. I was very happy to learn this, but when I started reading all your problems with malatol, and the ice cream, I then understood that effectively these sugars do go through the intestines. I don't know if the body ever gets used to them, and I don't know that I would serve deserts made with them to my guests. I haven't even started using the products purchased three weeks ago.

For those of you who love to weigh yourselves, my friend Gilles has a great scale. It is made by Tanita, and provides more information than just your weight. He tested it on his family members who confirmed that the information was exactly like the one they got at the hospital. It gives what they call ''Body Compositions Readings'' comprising of: weight, body fat %, body water %, muscle mass, physique rating, bone mass, DCI/BM, metabolic age, and visceral fat. When I weighed myself last year with it, my weight was 192,2 lbs, I had 44,7% body fat, 39,3% water, 100,8 muscle mass, physical rating of 2, 5,4 lbs of bone mass, DCI/BMR of 1485, metabolic age of 50 (I was 61), and visceral fat of 11 (healthy level being: 1 - 12). According to the chart that you can get on their website http://www.tanita.com/data/File/Charts/bodyComp_chart_eng.PDF , with a 5.4 lbs. bone mass, my ideal weight is in the 110lb - 165 lb. range. I learned that my water was not in the healthy range of 45-60 %, ant that my ideal body fat % range (for my age group) should be situated in the 25 - 35% range. The physique rating reading gives you a view of your body, proportionally muscle versus fat. I was classified in the obese between slightly obese and morbidly obese. That was an eye opener for me. I was a very skinny child/young person till about in my mid-forties, so I have trouble seeing myself as obese. It's a lot like obese people who have lost a lot weight who still see themselves as obese, even though they are slim. This chart is available on their website in several languages that you can print out. If you want to get yourselves a nice present for Xmas, this would be a good one.