newyearscraps.com

The new year is almost here and like always I do have some things I want to change. Maybe the very first thing I need to change is to actually stick to my goals for the year Every year I have the biggest plans and never follow thru with any.
There is always hope right so, I thought it would be good to set some goals to remind myself and hopefully at the end of the year I can look back and say…”I did ‘em all”

My main goal will be to find myself again and for that I need to change a lot about my thinking.
I believe if I get started with at least a few little goals it should bring me on the right track again

So here are a few ‘in between’ goals: (I might be adding as the year goes on. Well and hopefully I will be checking off the list as well )

1. Watch my Dads Funeral DVD…. (Long story, but I wasn’t able to be there. Not by choice at all. I think not being able to say good bye made it even harder for me to deal with everything. And ’til this day I wasn’t able to watch the DVD. I know I have to, so I can finally start healing, but I am so afraid of all the pain that will come with it.)

2. Eating healthier. A strict diet is not working for me. I know I should, but I am just not strong enough. So I will begin with changing the biggest meal of the day…the dinner. The biggest should probably be the breakfast, but for me it’s the dinner So I will make an honest effort to have healthier dinners. Tastes better anyway

3. Speaking of meals, I think getting back to eating breakfast would be a great goal. So I will work on that as well.

4. Haven’t had a workout in….hmmm….. don’t even know how long So my next goal will be to start with at least a few workouts per week. (No rule I can’t workout every day if I feel like it, but let’s be real and let’s say 2 workouts per week to start. Once that won’t be a problem I might be able to add another one :)

5. Do something just for myself at least once a week. Something that makes me feel good. A walk, a bath, reading, writing, puzzle, listening to music, dance (well, I shouldn’t call it that as it isn’t even close to dancing what I am doing ) …. no matter what it is, BUT it has to be good for me. Something that will make me smile at least for a little while

I think that should do it for now, but as I mentioned, I will be adding to it as the days go by

Well, 2012 I hope you as ready for me as I am for you

Hi everybody, not sure you guys still remember me. It’s been forever Some of you know I lost my dad 1 year and 8 months ago, and everything just went downhill from there.
Never got over the loss and still can’t deal with it. Life just really kicked my a** and somehow I can’t find my way back. I know I need to get a grip and I know I need to kick myself in the arse…BUT I can’t do it alone. I always felt great being around you guys. Even in dark days I always found support here. I am on the lowest point and I wan’t to get out of this hole. I also moved back to Germany a few months ago and try to get used to everything over here again. It’s good to be around my family again and most of all… I am closer to my dad now. I can visit him whenever I want too and I really needed to be here. But being here also makes me have to deal with it. Before I could always pretend it wasn’t true, but I can’t pretend anymore, which is really hard and gave me the last push I needed to lose it. I had a mental break down and trying to deal with a depression. I think to “deal with it” should be my main goal, as I like to ignore things like that. You know if you don’t think about it, it’s not real. Well, you all know it’s not true, but that’s what I did since the terrible phone call that my dad lost the battle. Ok, don’t want to bore you all with my problems…to make it short, I would really love it if you guys would take me back. It’s always been a place to find support, open ears (or eyes ) I could find hugs but also kicks when needed…. Just writing this blog and making this step feels good and it feels right. I think this might be a real good start to finding myself again (((HUGS)))

Anybody interested in another Longest Loser?

LONGEST LOSER 10

WEIGH IN for the starting weight will start Sunday 9/5/2010 and go thru Saturday 9/11/2010.

THE CHALLENGE WILL OFFICIALLY START SUNDAY 9/12/2010.

IT’S AN EASY CHALLENGE, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS WEIGH IN ONCE A WEEK AND IF YOU FIND SOME TIME IN BETWEEN TO CHEER FOR EVERYBODY THAT WOULD BE EVEN BETTER

THE RULES:

WAY IN ONCE A WEEK!
IF YOU HAVE A LOSS YOU STAY IN :)  (every ounce counts )
A GAIN OR MAINTAIN YOU ARE OUT
YOU WILL HAVE ONE BYE WEEK, MEANING ONCE DURING THIS COMPETITION YOU CAN CHOOSE TO TAKE YOUR BYE WEEK AND AS LONG AS YOUR NEXT WEIGH IN IS LESS THAN YOUR LAST YOU ARE STILL IN.
FOR NO SHOWS: THE FIRST WEEK WILL COUNT AS YOUR BYE WEEK, THE SECOND YOU WILL BE OUT

 

Update: The thread is up and running …. http://www.weight-loss-forums.buddyslim.com/weight-loss-challenge/6585-longest-loser-10-a.html

CONGRATS BRANDON

You are the
WINNER and THE LONGEST LOSER

If it’s not to much to ask, can you please pray for my dad? My sister just called, he was rushed to the hospital with bleeding of the brain.

Thank you all so much! ((HUGS))

 UPDATE

 First off thank you all sooooooo much for the prayers. Here is what I know so far: My dad was rushed to the hospital yesterday after breaking together screaming with terrible headaches. They did an emergency operation right away. I was able to talk to a doctor this morning and found out that they did another operation and were able to stop the bleeding for now. But a lot of blood went into the brain and he is stable but still in serious condition. The doctors put him in a medical coma where he will remain for what could be up to two weeks or longer depending on how quickly the brain heals. Once he wakes up they will evaluate if and how much damage was done.

So, please don’t stop praying, he needs all the prayers he can get.

Thank you all so much - love you guys ((HUGS))

UPDATE (May 21, 2010)

Well, he is not doing better BUT he is not doing worse either. He is still in a medical coma und there is still blood draining from his brain. Everyday I hope to hear that the doctors will start to wake him up. And from what I understand that waking up phase can take a long long time. I just want to know something you know. That not knowing is driving us all insane. Hoping they do another scan and can at least tell us that the blood got less or maybe even that it’s finally totally gone. Now they also found something wrong with his heart. Which luckily was found now, so he is getting medication and will be fine regarding the heart. We don’t get any bad news from the doctors but we don’t get any good news either. All you ever hear is that we have to wait… Holding on to the fact that the doctors don’t say anything bad and for them it seems to be all in how it should be. We know the recovery will take a long long time, which I can live with. I don’t mind waiting for that, but I do mind waiting to hear anything. If I would know at least that he is heading in the direction of recovery, that would be so helpful.
Dad is not going to be happy once he wakes up - he hates hospitals, doctors etc. hope that makes him hurry up with the recovery. Oh man, I just want him to get better, wake up, open his eyes and bitch at us for talking to much
Ok guys, getting a little to emotional here. I didn’t even know a human can have so many tears ….
I love you all, and again - Thank you from my whole family for all your thoughts and prayers. I will let you know as soon as I have just the slidest of good news - promise
Thank you - Thank you - Thank you ((HUGS))

 UPDATE (MAY 26, 2010)

I wish I could give you guys some news, but dad is still in a coma and we are still hoping he will pull thru. Yesterday they changed the breathing tube and did a Tracheostomy (at least I think that’s what it’s called). So now the tube is not going thru the mouth anymore. They say it’s better for him too. Still no word on waking him up as the pressure is still to high. Good news is that I don’t have any bad news. Trying to get my head in order again, but it’s so hard. Nothing matters right now and I know it’s not good and I need to change it. But as long as I don’t know for sure that my dad is on his way to recovery I don’t think I will be able to think about anything else.
Try to be healthy - if not for me than for my dad. It feels good to be here with you guys, I should come here more often
You are all so wonderful and don’t even know how much my family and I appriciate all your thoughts and prayers. We really do. ((HUGS))
Thanks again - I love you all ((HUGS))

 UPDATE - SORRY….I NEVER UPDATED

MY DADDY SAID GOOD BYE TO US JULY 3, 2010.

IF I CAN TAKE ANYTHING POSITIVE FROM IT - IT IS REALIZING THAT LIFE CAN END IN A SECOND WITHOUT ANY WARNING.

PLEASE CHERISH EACH DAY - YOU NEVER KNOW IF IT WILL BE YOUR LAST. YOU HAD A FIGHT WITH YOUR LOVED ONCE? GO AND MAKE UP, GIVE THEM A BIG HUG AND TELL THEM YOU LOVE ‘EM FIGHTING IS NOT THE LAST MEMORY YOU WANT TO HAVE. ((HUGS))

After 14 weeks Longest Loser 8 came to an end …..

CONGRATS to AMY our Longest Loser 8 winner

And let’s not forget our MARIE, she came in second

 

 

NOW ……LONGEST LOSER 9 …….WILL START NEXT SUNDAY 5/23/2010.

IT’S AN EASY CHALLENGE, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS WEIGH IN ONCE A WEEK AND IF YOU FIND SOME TIME IN BETWEEN TO CHEER FOR EVERYBODY THAT WOULD BE EVEN BETTER

THE RULES:

WAY IN ONCE A WEEK!
IF YOU HAVE A LOSS YOU STAY IN :)  (every ounce counts )
A GAIN OR MAINTAIN YOU ARE OUT
YOU WILL HAVE ONE BYE WEEK, MEANING ONCE DURING THIS COMPETITION YOU CAN CHOOSE TO TAKE YOUR BYE WEEK AND AS LONG AS YOUR NEXT WEIGH IN IS LESS THAN YOUR LAST YOU ARE STILL IN.
FOR NO SHOWS: THE FIRST WEEK WILL COUNT AS YOUR BYE WEEK, THE SECOND YOU WILL BE OUT

 ALL NEXT WEEK WILL BE WEIGH IN FOR THE STARTING WEIGHT - CHALLENGE WILL START SUNDAY MAY 22, 2010. YOU CAN WEIGH IN ANY DAY YOU LIKE, BUT THE WEIGH INS FOR THE WEEK NEED TO BE POSTED BY SATURDAY BEFORE MIDNIGHT

Here is the link to the challenge : http://www.weight-loss-forums.buddyslim.com/weight-loss-challenge/6295-longest-loser-9-starts-next-week.html

Regulated or Not, Nano-Foods Coming to a Store Near You

Andrew Schneider Senior Public Health Correspondent

AOL News

Second in a Three-Part Series

(March 24) — For centuries, it was the cook and the heat of the fire that cajoled taste, texture, flavor and aroma from the pot. Today, that culinary voodoo is being crafted by white-coated scientists toiling in pristine labs, rearranging atoms into chemical particles never before seen.

At last year’s Institute of Food Technologists international conference, nanotechnology was the topic that generated the most buzz among the 14,000 food-scientists, chefs and manufacturers crammed into an Anaheim, Calif., hall. Though it’s a word that has probably never been printed on any menu, and probably never will, there was so much interest in the potential uses of nanotechnology for food that a separate daylong session focused just on that subject was packed to overflowing.

In one corner of the convention center, a chemist, a flavorist and two food-marketing specialists clustered around a large chart of the Periodic Table of Elements (think back to high school science class). The food chemist, from China, ran her hands over the chart, pausing at different chemicals just long enough to say how a nano-ized version of each would improve existing flavors or create new ones.
One of the marketing guys questioned what would happen if the consumer found out.
The flavorist asked whether the Food and Drug Administration would even allow nanoingredients.

Posed a variation of the latter question, Dr. Jesse Goodman, the agency’s chief scientist and deputy commissioner for science and public health, gave a revealing answer. He said he wasn’t involved enough with how the FDA was handling nanomaterials in food to discuss that issue. And the agency wouldn’t provide anyone else to talk about it.

This despite the fact that hundreds of peer-reviewed studies have shown that nanoparticles pose potential risks to human health — and, more specifically, that when ingested can cause DNA damage that can prefigure cancer and heart and brain disease.

Despite Denials, Nano-Food Is Here

Officially, the FDA says there aren’t any nano-containing food products currently sold in the U.S.

Not true, say some of the agency’s own safety experts, pointing to scientific studies published in food science journals, reports from foreign safety agencies and discussions in gatherings like the Institute of Food Technologists conference.

In fact, the arrival of nanomaterial onto the food scene is already causing some big-chain safety managers to demand greater scrutiny of what they’re being offered, especially with imported food and beverages. At a conference in Seattle last year hosted by leading food safety attorney Bill Marler, presenters raised the issue of how hard it is for large supermarket companies to know precisely what they are purchasing, especially with nanomaterials, because of the volume and variety they deal in.

(Getty Images)

According to a USDA scientist, some Latin American packers spray U.S.-bound produce with a wax-like nanocoating to extend shelf-life. “We found no indication that the nanocoating … has ever been tested for health effects,” the researcher says.

Craig Wilson, assistant vice president for safety for Costco, says his chain does not test for nanomaterial in the food products it is offered by manufacturers. But, he adds, Costco is looking “far more carefully at everything we buy. … We have to rely on the accuracy of the labels and the integrity of our vendors. Our buyers know that if they find nanomaterial or anything else they might consider unsafe, the vendors either remove it, or we don’t buy it.”

Another government scientist says nanoparticles can be found today in produce sections in some large grocery chains and vegetable wholesalers. This scientist, a researcher with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, was part of a group that examined Central and South American farms and packers that ship fruits and vegetables into the U.S. and Canada. According to the USDA researcher — who asked that his name not be used because he’s not authorized to speak for the agency — apples, pears, peppers, cucumbers and other fruit and vegetables are being coated with a thin, wax-like nanocoating to extend shelf-life. The edible nanomaterial skin will also protect the color and flavor of the fruit longer.

“We found no indication that the nanocoating, which is manufactured in Asia, has ever been tested for health effects,” said the researcher.

(Getty Images)

A science committee of the British House of Lords has found that nanomaterials are already appearing in numerous products, among them salad dressings and sauces. Jaydee Hanson, policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety, says that they’re also being added to ice cream to make it “look richer and better textured.”

Some foreign governments, apparently more worried about the influx of nano-related products to their grocery shelves, are gathering their own research. In January, a science committee of the British House of Lords issued a lengthy study on nanotechnology and food. Scores of scientific groups and consumer activists and even several international food manufactures told the committee investigators that engineered particles were already being sold in salad dressings; sauces; diet beverages; and boxed cake, muffin and pancakes mixes, to which they’re added to ensure easy pouring.

Other researchers responding to the committee’s request for information talked about hundreds more items that could be in stores by year’s end.

For example, a team in Munich has used nano-nonstick coatings to end the worldwide frustration of having to endlessly shake an upturned mustard or ketchup bottle to get at the last bit clinging to the bottom. Another person told the investigators that Nestlé and Unilever have about completed developing a nano-emulsion-based ice cream that has a lower fat content but retains its texture and flavor.

The Ultimate Secret Ingredient

Nearly 20 of the world’s largest food manufacturers — among them Nestlé, as well as Hershey, Cargill, Campbell Soup, Sara Lee, and H.J. Heinz — have their own in-house nano-labs, or have contracted with major universities to do nano-related food product development. But they are not eager to broadcast those efforts.

(Getty Images)

A team in Munich, the House of Lords investigators also learned, is using nano-nonstick coatings to make it easier to get the last drops of ketchup out of the bottle.

Kraft was the first major food company to hoist the banner of nanotechnology. Spokesman Richard Buino, however, now says that while “we have sponsored nanotech research at various universities and research institutions in the past,” Kraft has no labs focusing on it today.

The stance is in stark contrast to the one Kraft struck in late 2000, when it loudly and repeatedly proclaimed that it had formed the Nanotek Consortium with engineers, molecular chemists and physicists from 15 universities in the U.S. and abroad. The mission of the team was to show how nanotechnology would completely revolutionize the food manufacturing industry, or so said its then-director, Kraft research chemist Manuel Marquez.

But by the end of 2004, the much-touted operation seemed to vanish. All mentions of Nanotek Consortium disappeared from Kraft’s news releases and corporate reports.

“We have not nor are we currently using nanotechnology in our products or packaging,” Buino added in another e-mail.

Industry Tactics Thwart Risk Awareness

The British government investigation into nanofood strongly criticized the U.K.’s food industry for “failing to be transparent about its research into the uses of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials.” On this side of the Atlantic, corporate secrecy isn’t a problem, as some FDA officials tell it.

Investigators on Capitol Hill say the FDA’s congressional liaisons have repeatedly assured them — from George W. Bush’s administration through President Barack Obama’s first year — that the big U.S. food companies have been upfront and open about their plans and progress in using nanomaterial in food.

But FDA and USDA food safety specialists interviewed over the past three months stressed that based on past performance, industry cannot be relied on to voluntarily advance safety efforts.

These government scientists, who are actively attempting to evaluate the risk of introducing nanotechnology to food, say that only a handful of corporations are candid about what they’re doing and collaborating with the FDA and USDA to help develop regulations that will both protect the public and permit their products to reach market. Most companies, the government scientists add, submit little or no information unless forced. Even then, much of the information crucial to evaluating hazards — such as the chemicals used and results of company health studies — is withheld, with corporate lawyers claiming it constitutes confidential business information.

Both regulators and some industry consultants say the evasiveness from food manufacturers could blow up in their faces. As precedent, they point to what happened in the mid-’90s with genetically modified food, the last major scientific innovation that was, in many cases, force-fed to consumers. “There was a lack of transparency on what companies were doing. So promoting genetically modified foods was perceived by some of the public as being just profit-driven,” says Professor Rickey Yada of the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

“In retrospect, food manufacturers should have highlighted the benefits that the technology could bring as well as discussing the potential concerns.”

Eating Nanomaterials Could Increase Underlying Risks

The House of Lords’ study identified “severe shortfalls” in research into the dangers of nanotechnology in food. Its authors called for funding studies that address the behavior of nanomaterials within the digestive system. Similar recommendations are being made in the U.S., where the majority of research on nanomaterial focuses on it entering the body via inhalation and absorption.

The food industry is very competitive, with thin profit margins. And safety evaluations are very expensive, notes Bernadene Magnuson, senior scientific and regulatory consultant with risk-assessment firm Cantox Health Sciences International. “You need to be pretty sure you’ve got something that’s likely to benefit you and your product in some way before you’re going to start launching into safety evaluations,” she explains. Magnuson believes that additional studies must be done on chronic exposure to and ingestion of nanomaterials.

One of the few ingestion studies recently completed was a two-year-long examination of nano-titanium dioxide at UCLA, which showed that the compound caused DNA and chromosome damage after lab animals drank large quantities of the particles in their water.

(Getty Images)

It is widely known that nano-titanium dioxide is used as filler in hundreds of medicines and cosmetics and as a blocking agent in sunscreens. But Jaydee Hanson, policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety, worries that the danger is greater “when the nano-titanium dioxide is used in food.” Ice cream companies, Hanson says, are using nanomaterials to make their products “look richer and better textured.” Bread makers are spraying nanomaterials on their loaves “to make them shinier and help them keep microbe-free longer.”

While AOL News was unable to identify a company pursuing the latter practice, it did find Sono-Tek of Milton, N.Y., which uses nanotechnology in its industrial sprayers. “One new application for us is spraying nanomaterial suspensions onto biodegradable plastic food wrapping materials to preserve the freshness of food products,” says Christopher Coccio, chairman and CEO. He said the development of this nano-wrap was partially funded by New York State’s Energy Research and Development Authority.

“This is happening,” Hanson says. He calls on the FDA to “immediately seek a ban on any products that contain these nanoparticles, especially those in products that are likely to be ingested by children.”

“The UCLA study means we need to research the health effects of these products before people get sick, not after,” Hanson says.

There is nothing to mandate that such safety research take place.

The FDA’s Blind Spot

The FDA includes titanium dioxide among the food additives it classifies under the designation “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS. New additives with that label can bypass extensive and costly health testing that is otherwise required of items bound for grocery shelves.

A report issued last month by the Government Accountability Office denounced the enormous loophole that the FDA has permitted through the GRAS classification. And the GAO investigators also echoed the concerns of consumer and food safety activists who argue that giving nanomaterials the GRAS free pass is perilous.

Food safety agencies in Canada and the European Union require all ingredients that incorporate engineered nanomaterials to be submitted to regulators before they can be put on the market, the GAO noted. No so with the FDA.

“Because GRAS notification is voluntary and companies are not required to identify nanomaterials in their GRAS substances, FDA has no way of knowing the full extent to which engineered nanomaterials have entered the U.S. food supply,” the GAO told Congress.

Amid that uncertainty, calls for safety analysis are growing.

“Testing must always be done,” says food regulatory consultant George Burdock, a toxicologist and the head of the Burdock Group. “Because if it’s nanosized, its chemical properties will most assuredly be different and so might the biological impact.”

Will Consumers Swallow What Science Serves Up Next?

Interviews with more than a dozen food scientists revealed strikingly similar predictions on how the food industry will employ nanoscale technology. They say firms are creating nanostructures to enhance flavor, shelf life and appearance. They even foresee using encapsulated or engineered nanoscale particles to create foods from scratch.

Experts agreed that the first widespread use of nanotechnology to hit the U.S. food market would be nanoscale packing materials and nanosensors for food safety, bacteria detection and traceability.

While acknowledging that many more nano-related food products are on the way, Magnuson, the industry risk consultant, says the greatest degree of research right now is directed at food safety and quality. “Using nanotechnology to improve the sensitivity and speed of detection of food-borne pathogens in the food itself or in the supply chain or in the processing equipment could be lifesaving,” she says.

For example, researchers at Clemson University, according to USDA, have used nanoparticles to identify campylobacter, a sometimes-lethal food-borne pathogen, in poultry intestinal tracts prior to processing.

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, food scientist Julian McClements and his colleagues have developed time-release nanolaminated coatings to add bioactive components to food to enhance delivery of ingredients to help prevent diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and hypertension.

But if the medical benefits of such an application are something to cheer, the prospect of eating them in the first place isn’t viewed as enthusiastically.

Advertising and marketing consultants for food and beverage makers are still apprehensive about a study done two years ago by the German Federal Institute of Risk Assessment, which commissioned pollsters to measure public acceptance of nanomaterials in food. The study showed that only 20 percent of respondents would buy nanotechnology-enhanced food products.

Return to The Nanotech Gamble home page. To provide feedback on this series, please write to us at nanotechreport@aolnews.com.

 

(Source: http://www.aolnews.com/nanotech/article/regulated-or-not-nano-foods-coming-to-a-store-near-you/19401246 )

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I found this article this morning and thought WTF… is there anything out there that is safe to eat? I don’t understand why companies aren’t required to just put everything on the labels - NO MORE guessing games for us consumers, no more hiding ingredients nobody knows about.

 Putting chemicals into MY body should be MY choice not somebody elses who is just out to make profits. Shouldn’t WE have the right to decide what WE put into OUR bodies? 

Hi guys:

Don’t know if you remember me, it’s been a long time since I was on here last. Things happend and my world came crumbling down… I just couldn’t get it together and instead of being strong and fighting for myself, I let myself go and decided I wasn’t important enough to fight for…

Needless to say I gained all my weight back and I am back to 198.5 just short before my “magic” number of 200 which I promised myself never to see again. If I don’t wake up and get it together I am affraid I will lose this battle forever. So here I am asking for your forgiveness for just leaving you guys…

I am important and I have to fight for myself. I can not use everything that happens in life as an excuse for letting go of myself. I have to realize that even though a lot of things that happen in life are not in my control…losing weight and getting healthy is all up to me and nobody else. My goal always has been to be healthy and to be happy, but I lost sight of that goal …yet again….I know now though that the only person in the world that can bring me there is myself…. I lost focus and I gave up on myself, but I am ready to fight the battle and will keep reminding myself every single day ….

I AM IMPORTANT, I AM WORTH IT AND I AM IN CONTROL OF REACHING MY GOAL!

Love you guys! And if you let me I am thinking about joining a challenge or two again

Hi Guys, I know I am not a good buddy this week. But I really need your help.

I just received an email from my Mom, a very good family friend is fighting brain tumors for the last 10 years and always won the battle. He has to fight another one and this time the doctors say there is nothing more they can do for him. The only thing they did was release the pressure so he was able to see again, but they say there will be no chemo no radiation nothing…. they gave him only 4 weeks to live. I know doctors were wrong before and I hope and pray to God that this is one of those miracles in the making. He is a wonderful person, always there for everybody. He doesn’t have one bad bone in his body. He is a very athletic person, very strong and very big (muscles)…it just seems wrong that somebody who looks so healthy and strong would have only 4 weeks to live. I mean you look at him and would think he is one of the healthiest people alive…. so I really hope his strength will help him to fight this and show the doctors that they are all wrong.

His name is Michael and I am asking all of you to please pray for him and maybe if we all pray it will be strong enough for another miracle. And even if you don’t believe in God, please pray to…. you never know how much power your prayer might have ….

I thank you from the bottom of my heart… Love you all ((HUGS))