Pillsbury Doughboy's fitness secret!

BBD: a novel way to track fitness or hot new boy band?

I used to have a great way to follow my body fat. It is called the BBD test. I made it up myself. Periodically, I would stuff a pencil in my belly button (important safety tip: use the eraser side) and then record the depth. It went down from like 24mm to 16mm over the course of the p90x fitness program. A side effect of the test is that it kind-of tickles. Otherwise it worked great. BBD may be more accurate for guys 'cuz we tend to carry more of our flubber in the spare tire and less in the boo-tay. But it is worth a try for anyone!

Watch for my paper on "The Relationship between Body Mass Index and BBD: a longitudinal cross-sectional regressional meta-analysis" coming soon to a respected medical journal near you.

(If you are an outie you are SOL.)

Go Bananas: The Monkey Diet.

"The Monkey Diet". (or "What will those crazy Brits think of next?")

What happens when you take a dozen Brits, lock them in a zoo for a dozen days, and make them eat a monkey-like diet? Someone wanted to find that out and televise it, so that is what they did. Researchers gave 12 volunteers a diet of 2400 calories a day consisting of raw fruits, veggies, nuts, honey, and cooked fish. "Overall, cholesterol levels dropped 23%, an amount usually achieved only through anti-cholesterol drugs statins. The group's average blood pressure fell from a level of 140/83 - almost hypertensive - to 122/76. Though it was not intended to be a weight loss diet (with a whopping 2400 calories per day), participants dropped 4.4kg (9.7lbs), on average." This is the type of food our bodies evolved to eat over many thousands of years according to the dietician who designed the experiment. It really makes you think about what you put in your body. Since returning from a New York fitness camp last summer, I've improved the types of foods I've been eating. Without watching calories at all, my body fat has cut down to the lowest level it has ever been in my adult life. The fuel you put in your body makes a difference.

Now if they'll just let me out of the zoo.