Well....I've been reading the general forum postings here for several days now, and I am stunned by the amount of attempts at spamming. The sincerity of some of the posters are about as genuine as buying an authentic autographed baseball on eBay.:eek4:
I wanted to add to the Hoodia remarks I made a couple of days ago. My wife does not see any real effect, and she is using the same pills I am.
I called my brother, who lives in Indiana, and told him about them a couple of weeks ago, and he reports the same thing as my wife.
Not a great deterrent.
From my 50+ years of numerous weight loss/life change attempts (someday I'll regale all of you with the various successes, and there were many successes) this whole weight loss thing is as mental
as it can get.
Reading the history of Hoodia, I think it falls into that realm. For those of you who don't know, Hoodia is only grown in a small region of Africa. It is a cactus type plant, and was used for several centuries by some nomadic African tribes to quell their hunger urges while they traveled great distance's. It was eventually noticed by the English in the 18th century and began to be exported to the homeland and Europe for a weight loss remedy.
I have to put this product (Hoodia) in the same class as smoking solutions.
From the time I was 12, in 1959 I started smoking and worked my way up to 2+ packs a day by the time I graduated from college. I stayed at that level or more until October 13, 1981. That's 22 years of diligent smoking and about $65K in tobacco purchases at today's' dollars.
I was a traveling technical consultant to the steel and ferrous foundry industries. I was hosting a dinner for about 10 clients. I was sitting there with my cheesecake dessert and a double brandy and my usual cigarette leaning back in my chair very self satisfied. The wife of the purchasing manager that I was keying on to buy several million dollars of our product annually was talking to her friend sitting close to me.
She said.........."I THINK THE RUDEST THING IN THE WORLD IS FOR A PERSON TO SIT AND SMOKE WHILE OTHERS ARE TRYING TO ENJOY THEIR MEAL."
When I heard this, my mind did a somersault and passed my stomach which was rapidly heading out of my body. I quietly put out my cigarette.
When the evening was concluded and I returned to my hotel room, I put the carton of cigarettes, on the dresser, in my suitcase along with the unfinished pack.
I NEVER HAD ANOTHER SMOKE TO THIS DAY.
There was no withdrawal, no shakes, no fidgeting, nothing.
The mind is a hell of a complex system.
When you are properly motivated you can literally do anything. If you are not, nothing can convince you otherwise.
Losing weight is the same thing.
I started this current life change attempt because back in March of 06, I had to go from one walking cane to two. Two weeks passed. Then one morning, I could not walk to the bathroom, from the bed, and my wife had to get crutches from the garage, left over from some situation about a decade ago. I hobbled around on the crutches until I could see my knee specialist and he told me that the joint was completely shot in my right knee. He also told me that he would NOT DO REPLACEMENT SURGERY!! He would not attempt it unless I was under 250 pounds, because the joint would wear out within 5 years from the stress and because of my already poor condition ligament and tendon wise, a second replacement would be futile.
WHEELCHAIR FOR THE DURATION.
That was my mental motivator to start this weight change event. This time though it is like the cigarettes, it is for keeps.
And you know what, it isn't even hard.