Well ok, not exactly in those words but no joke it told me something to the extent of “be satisfied by eating less” –can you believe it… what kind of fortune is that! Well I guess it must be true and hopefully LuraLean is the answer.

I did go camping and it was just too hard to mix the LuraLean packets into beverages while out in an area with no running water etc. and once again gained back all the weight I lost –awesome! Anyway, back on track and am going to heed my fortunes warning, after all I’m only a few months away from the wedding.

I did however make a great new discovery with LuraLean… Jen and I were talking about how we are sick of taking the packets just because they are so hard to mix/dissolve, plus I get yelled at home for ruining all of our glasses. Even after soaking and going through the dishwasher sometimes chunky residue remains. I’ve now started just pouring the packet on my food and eating it with my meal. I’m trying to take a reasonable or smaller portion on which to add the LuraLean, one night I was starving so had a big plate plus the LuraLean and honestly I felt sick for awhile because my stomach was so bloated (pretty picture huh). So even though you are not drinking it in advance, I think it does start to kick in and take effect especially if you are drinking plenty of water, which living in Colorado I certainly do. When you self mix/apply however, everything becomes a little crunchy… sort of the texture of fish eggs on top of sushi (without the flavor), for me that’s not much of an issue.

Stay tuned Jen and I are going try some baking and meal making soon. AHD sent us some delicious breakfast bars with LuraLean that were not only yummy, but filled us up to satisfaction so perhaps the in food is a better application.

Follow her column in the new York Times every Tuesday at http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/b/jane_e_brody/index.html

Healthy Aging will be a two-day track at the Nutracon Conference March 10 & 11, 2010. One of the most anticipated topics within this track is cognitive health and we will cover it in depth. According to the New York Times, “For all that scientists have studied it, the brain remains the most complex and mysterious human organ - and now the focus of billions of dollars’ worth of research to penetrate its secrets.” Check out their series of articles called, “Brain Power” at www.nytimes/brainpower.

Hot dogs, an All-American favorite and probably something a number of folks will be grilling over the long weekend ahead are also as hot on the grill as they are off… Ball Park Files Federal Lawsuit against Kraft Foods, Inc. Makers of Oscar Mayer Wieners -read more.

Ok, please don’t misunderstand the title of my post because I am absolutely not saying that LuraLean tastes like poop. I believe I have before noted it sort of sometimes tastes like drinking cream of wheat. Unlike say, Benefiber which I have consumed in the past it really doesn’t melt right into your water without taste or consistency… overall LuraLean doesn’t have taste, but it is a little gritty (hence cream of wheat reference). In juice like V8 and blueberry per Jen it is much better, it dissolves and absorbs more so than in water, but I don’t tend to keep a lot of juice in the house and am almost out of V8’s.

Anyway, I digress, back to the poop thing. I just wondered the other day to what lengths would people go to lose weight. Everyone’s looking for the miracle drug or the miracle supplement that will help them lose weight, and most would like to do so without changing diet or lifestyle…. Do you think if a ground breaking study proved eating poop would increase and cause weight loss, it’s gross I know, but I bet people would eat it (maybe it’s strange I even had this thought). Whatever happened to moderation, although I shouldn’t really talk. I’m a chubby chick and have been all my life. Although, I’d place a bet I eat more healthy then more than 50% of the population and practice moderation pretty well (I think, but I could be bias)… so what have we determined here—life is not fair, not really news to anyone.

Sales of weight lose products continue to climb (even those that are unsafe) and yet we also hear more and more in the news about globesity. We know poop isn’t the answer but what is… education, better school lunches, more supplements, the Mediterranean diet, a European vacation schedule (3 + weeks) to help decrease stress….. you tell me? OR just tell me I’m crazy, love my run on sentences :), whatever you want.

…it’s a virtue I know, well it’s one I don’t have. I sort of have to agree with Jen we are closing in on the end of week 3 and I’m down about 4.5 lbs. Nothing to complain about of course, but after my first week of 3.5 lbs (of course I had my slip up in Memphis) I guess I was overly optimistic that all the excess weight would just come pouring off. Dream on I know… I recently started running and it’s amazing that in my head I’m a much better runner then when actually hit the trail, go figure. Oh, well we’ll push on… and I guess considering all things such as not a radically changing in diet, although I do generally consider myself to be a healthy eater (minus the ribs, of course) it stands that the LuraLean is effective and really pretty amazing.

More from Functional Ingredients on this breaking story…

This week’s search and seizure for the ingredients company American Mercantile was swift and came without so much as a warning letter. Industry experts say there is a new sheriff in town. Food safety problems with peanuts and peppers have pushed the agency into enforcement action. “The food and supplements industry can expect a lot more of this,” says Loren Israelsen, executive director of the supplements trade group United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA). “This is the new FDA, so wake up everybody,” he says. Israelsen says the FDA has the 3Ms — “money, mandate and manpower.” Click to read more at functionalingredientsmag.com.

As of today, almost three weeks into the plan, I’m down three pounds. I was hoping for more like six, but really, all I was doing was hoping. That is to say that for some reason I’ve gone off the reservation on exercise. Where once I happily hiking and “ohm-ing” three or four times a week, now I’m lucky if I make it once or twice. So seriously, I need to start taking exercise, well, seriously. I’ve made a plan. I’ve come up with a schedule and it is going into effect on Monday. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday yoga at 6 p.m. Wednesday evenings I play on the New Hope Naturals Softball Team which means a little running around and a lot of beer, so that’s a wash. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are for long hikes or bike rides with one day in there for rest. I like it. As for fullness, the LuraLean has worked better and better. What I have to concentrate on is that I’M FULL (I’m still guilty of the “I have to finish everything on my plate” syndrome). I’m trying to slow down and pay attention. It would probably also help if I started taking smaller portions. Yeah. I have a friend who, when we go out to dinner, immediately scrapes half her dinner onto another plate so that she has to consciously reach for the other plate if she wants to eat more. I’m thinking of adopting that practice. Any other suggestions out there?

In other news I was talking to Dr. Jim Joseph, author of The Color Code and featured speaker at Nutracon 2010 who is one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on healthy eating and weight management and he was telling me all kinds of great things about what to eat and how to get the most out of your daily caloric intake. Things like wild fish (NOT farm raised) lots of red things as in peppers, strawberries, raspberries and tomatoes, walnuts, blueberries, purple grape juice, blackberries, kale and dark chocolate. Now you might think that dark chocolate would be something that I would celebrate, “Yeah, dark chocolate, Hallelujah, something I really like is on the list” but no, not really. I actually don’t like dark chocolate at all. I think it takes like tobacco. But I went to the store anyway and bought a bag of organic dark chocolate chips and some fresh organic blueberries and raspberries. At home I got out some small cupcake tins, filled them halfway, some with blueberries, some with raspberries and then melted down the chips. I poured the melted chocolate into the tins then chilled them in the fridge for about an hour or two. I figure they are somewhere between 100 and 150 calories a pop and filled with antioxidents……… Yum. You heard me right, Yum.

From Functional Ingredients magazine this morning….

U.S. Marshals seized millions of dollars worth of ingredients on May 7 2009 from American Mercantile Corporation, based in Memphis Tennessee. During an inspection of the company in March, FDA investigators discovered evidence of extensive rodent and insect infestation throughout the company’s warehouse, which the company failed to correct.

American Mercantile stores and processes food ingredients, which are sold or used in the dietary supplements, food, tea and pet food manufacturing industries. The seized articles include food products such as sarsaparilla, spearmint leaves, cornstarch, sweet orange peels powder, licorice powder, sassafras, and salt.

Read the rest of the article, click here.

Some news from our friends at LuraLean, food, beverages oh my a world of weight loss wonder….

Recognized as an official IFT Trend Tour ingredient in the Weight Management category, AHD’s condensed dietary fiber formula LuraLean(R) is now available for use in frozen foods, meat products and soups, in addition to its existing applications for baked goods and high- and low-viscosity beverages. In addition to its functional food and beverage versatility, LuraLean’s 60 human clinical trials and 14 safety studies conclude the all-natural, plant-based ingredient poses no adverse side effects and is safe for all age groups. Find out more, click here.