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LONDON (Reuters) - The biggest oil companies in the world have calculated that few, if any, of today's drivers will see electric cars outnumber gasoline and diesel models in their lifetimes.

While politicians and green lobby groups insist the future of transport is electric, in the past two months BP and Exxon have released data which points to electric cars making up only 4-5 percent of all cars globally in 20-30 years.

Meanwhile some governments are targeting as much as a 60 percent market share for electric vehicles over a similar period.

The oil company forecasts may appear self-serving, but if they are widely accepted could provoke a policy shift that offers greater incentives for electric cars to end our addiction to oil.

And unlike more optimistic predictions from consultants like McKinsey, these forecast are backed by cash. They guide tens of billions of dollars in long-term investment in oil production and refining and it is oil that stands to lose if they get it wrong.

They don't, of course, take into account a major breakthrough in battery technology that could give electric cars a cost and performance edge over the internal combustion engine.

In its Energy Outlook for 2030, released earlier this month, BP predicted that electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, will make up only 4 percent of the global fleet of 1.6 billion commercial and passenger vehicles in 2030.

"Oil will remain the dominant transport fuel and we expect 87 percent of transport fuel in 2030 will still be petroleum based," BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley said as he unveiled the BP statistics on January 18.

The balance is seen coming from biofuels, natural gas and electricity.

Plug-in hybrids can be powered from the mains and only rely on their small gasoline engines when the battery dies.

Standard hybrids are principally driven by an internal combustion engine whose efficiency is boosted by the recycling of energy generated from braking.

Exxon Mobil, the biggest oil and gas company in the world, says the continued high cost of electric vehicles compared to petroleum cars, means take-up won't even increase much during the 2030s.

In its 2040 Energy Outlook, released in December, the Texas-based company said electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and vehicles that run on natural gas would make up only 5 percent of the fleet by 2040.

Peter Voser, Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell, the industry number two, sees a rosier future for electric vehicles. He predicts they will account for up to 40 percent of the worldwide car fleet, although only by 2050.

A $50 BILLION-A-YEAR OPINION

The statistics published by Exxon and BP, Europe's second-largest oil company by market value, are perhaps the most detailed long-term forecasts on electric vehicle take-up.

These Energy Outlooks guide how the oil groups allocate their annual investment budgets - among the biggest in the world, at over $50 billion combined for BP and Exxon.

The expected continued dominance of petroleum partly explains the scaling back in BP and Shell's solar, hydrogen and wind power ambitions in recent years, and Exxon's continued reluctance to get involved in renewable energy.

Insofar as the companies are active in green energy, it is mainly in the production and blending of biofuels. This is driven by U.S. and European governments' insistence that a percentage of motor fuels sold must come from plant-based sources.

If the oil companies are wrong about electric cars they will find their investments in big and expensive new oil production projects, which increasingly need crude prices around $80 per barrel to be profitable, not paying off.

The companies do see an easing in the addiction to oil, though.

Despite increased car ownership in China and India, Exxon predicts "global demand for fuel for personal vehicles will soon peak" due to an increase in average fuel efficiency.

BP expects the efficiency of combustion engines to double by 2030, with a third of vehicles on the road being hybrids.

This trend will be driven by more stringent fuel economy standards in the U.S., CO2 reduction legislation in Europe and an end to oil subsidies in developing countries.

Increased airline and commercial vehicle traffic will counterbalance some of the efficiency gains from cars but BP predicts that, helped by increased use of biofuels, demand for oil for transport overall will plateau in the mid-2020s.

GREENS FUME, POLITICIANS SEE QUICKER ADOPTION

Green groups reacted with suspicion to the oil industry forecasts.

"Exxon would say that, wouldn't they. A big take-up of electric cars is not something they would like to see," said Jos Dings, director of Brussels-based sustainable transport campaign group, Transport and Environment.

"The future for petrol and deisel doesn't look good," he countered.

Nonetheless, environmentalists like Dings fear political complacency about improving vehicle efficiency could prompt governments to ease targets to cut vehicle emissions, which could in turn delay the electrification of transport.

Big Oil's pessimistic outlook for electric cars is at odds with many governments' plans.

Electric vehicles barely register on the statistics of car sales at the moment. Nonetheless, China is targeting 5 million electric vehicles on its roads by 2020, according to media reports. This would represent around 3 percent of its predicted fleet.

The Australian government's main energy adviser, the Australian Energy Market Commission, has predicted electric vehicles will make up 20 per cent of new car sales in Australia by 2020 and 45 per cent by 2030.

The UK's Committee on Climate, which advises the government, has predicted electric vehicles will reach around 60 percent of new cars and vans by 2030. And New Zealand hopes to get to 60 percent by 2040.

The U.S. has more muted ambitions. President Barack Obama said he wants to put 1 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, a figure that would represent less than half of one percent of the total fleet.

Many U.S. experts and officials predict a tipping point in the uptake in electric vehicles in the latter part of this decade, as technology improves, economies of scale kick in and consumer fears about being stranded when their batteries run flat, or "range anxiety", eases.

However, data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration may explain the lack of an official U.S. target. Last week, the agency released an 'abridged version' of its Annual Energy Outlook 2012, due to be released in full in the Spring.

Tables used in formulating the outlook show electric vehicles and plug in hybrids are expected to account for only 1.3 percent of the U.S. fleet in 2030.

Furthermore, the agency predicts that neither consumers, nor carmakers, will get over 'range anxiety'. By 2035, the agency sees few, if any, electric vehicles on U.S. roads that can travel for 200 miles without recharging.

CARMAKER ENTHUSIASM COOLS

Many of the headlines out of autoshows in the past couple of years have been captured by the launch of electric cars such as Nissan's <7201.T> Leaf, the Tesla sports car, plug-ins like General Motors' Chevrolet Volt, and the latest incarnation of the Toyota <7203.T> Prius.

Other manufacturers including BMW , Rolls-Royce and Porsche have presented electric-powered prototypes.

On the basis of this, one could be forgiven for thinking the auto industry is betting big on electric power.

Yet few auto executives share the optimism of Renault and Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn who has repeatedly said he sees electric vehicles making up 10 percent of all sales in 2020.

A survey of 200 auto industry executives conducted by KPMG released earlier this month gave an average forecast for electric vehicles to account for 6-10 percent of global auto sales in 2025 - more bullish than Exxon and BP but hardly a revolution.

"Certainly a year ago or so, you could have gotten the impression from reading the press that everyone is driving electric cars in two years time," Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said at a roundtable at the sidelines of the Detroit auto show last month.

Zetsche said he did not see "an explosion of demand for this product".

Echoing comments from the oil companies, Gerd Kleinert, CEO of KSPG, the automotive parts business belonging to German group Rheinmetall , says take-up of electric cars will be curtailed until batteries can store energy using as little weight as gasoline does, and can be recharged as quickly as refilling a fuel tank.

"When that world exists, then we will all be driving electric cars starting tomorrow. But I personally don't see that happening, not even a hundred years from now."

(Additional reporting by Christiaan Hetzner in Frankfurt; Editing by Chris Wickham)

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Oil industry sees no threat from electric car

(Reuters) - An elite California college's admission this week that it tried to boost its reputation by inflating the test scores of incoming freshmen has stoked a heated debate over the outsized influence and controversial methodology of commercial "best college" lists.

But behind the furor over the fraud at Claremont McKenna College is a crescendo of calls from academics, politicians and parents for new rating systems that would measure what really matters: how effectively an institution educates.

Reformers argue that for too long, American institutions of higher learning have been measured primarily by their prestige. The rankings with the most cachet, compiled by U.S. News & World Report, rely heavily on a college's reputation in the academic world, how much it spends on faculty and the caliber of students it attracts.

The fraud disclosed this week by Claremont McKenna - ranked the ninth-best liberal arts college in America by U.S. News - involved an administrator who falsified years worth of incoming students' scores on the SAT, a key U.S. college admissions exam, to make the college appear more selective.

Other American top-college publications try to move beyond selectivity. The Princeton Review bases its ratings on student surveys that ask everything from "Are your instructors good teachers" to "How do you rate the food on campus?" And the Forbes list considers how much debt students incur to pay tuition and how favorably they rate their professors in online forums.

International rankings, such as those produced by Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds, rely heavily on a university's reputation and influence, such as how often its research is cited in academic journals. QS also gives some weight to the views of global employers, who are asked which campuses produce the best graduates.

But by and large, the "best colleges" lists don't even attempt to measure what students get out of their years at college: Did they improve their critical thinking? Did they learn the subject matter? Can they land good jobs?

"Even the crudest measures of student outcomes, like job placement, are hard to find," said David Paris, executive director of the New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability, an advocacy group that is pushing for a new approach to ratings. "The way the system has developed, very few institutions have an incentive to ask, 'Are students learning?'"

Alternative rating systems are beginning to emerge, with the federal government, state legislatures and private groups all getting into the act.

President Barack Obama last week announced plans to assess the effectiveness of public and private colleges and direct federal aid to those that give students the most bang for the buck. The Department of Education is also developing a "college scorecard," akin to the fuel-economy stickers on new cars, that let parents and students compare competing institutions at a glance. The metrics to be used in the ratings, however, are still being developed.

CONCERN ABOUT PRESSURE TO 'DUMB DOWN'

Some states are further along. Minnesota has created an online "accountability dashboard" that uses colorful graphics to show how each college in the state system fares on measures such as the percentage of graduates who pass professional licensing exams, perceived academic rigor and even how many buildings on campus are crumbling.

Purdue University in Indiana publishes reports on alumni outcomes in such granular detail that prospective students can vividly picture their future. Those considering Purdue's landscape architecture program, for instance, might find it useful to know that one in four recent grads has been unable to find work - and that the average salary among those who are employed stands at $37,000.

Several states, meanwhile, have begun to rate colleges based on how many undergraduates are passing classes and moving steadily toward a degree. Campuses can often get bonus points for serving low-income students or awarding degrees in highly valued subjects such as math and science. Those that score well are rewarded with more funding. Those that do poorly lose out.

Indiana and Ohio have adopted this system. More than a dozen states plan to consider similar measures this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Skeptics fear that some of these new government-mandated ratings put too much emphasis on affordability and efficiency - in effect, rewarding colleges for pushing large numbers of students toward degrees cheaply and quickly. That, in turn, could prompt institutions to 'dumb down' the curriculum.

"If the goal is simply to reduce the cost of higher education and graduate more students, I can do that tomorrow at every institution in America," said Richard Arum, a professor of sociology and education at New York University. The easy way to get there? "Require less," he said.

To counteract that temptation, there are also efforts to better measure - and report - how much students actually learn, as well as what they experience day-to-day on campus. More than 300 state colleges and universities, representing 60 percent of public four-year institutions in the United States, have pledged to post extensive data about their own performance on a website, CollegePortraits.org.

Prospective students who visit the site can find out that virtually every undergraduate class at the University of Colorado at Boulder has more than 50 students; that nearly 30 percent of freshmen at Northern Arizona University don't return for their sophomore year; and that given the chance to roll back the clock, just 72 percent of seniors at the University of Missouri at Kansas City would pick their school above other options.

MEASURING LEARNING

Within four years, the online profiles will also include information about how well students are developing high-level skills, as measured by the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test of critical thinking.

Several colleges have already begun posting results. Those include not just raw scores but also a measure of average cognitive growth from freshman to senior year - and how that stacks up against comparable campuses. The data indicate, for instance, that students at California State University at Long Beach improve their critical thinking skills far more than peers at similar colleges. Students at San Diego State do not.

Robert J. Morse, director of data research at U.S. News & World Report, said he would like to include such measures in his publication's rankings. "That's definitely something very important that's missing," he said. But few private colleges report such data.

Pressure on all colleges to step up disclosures are mounting in large part because of the soaring cost of college. Tuition, room and board at the most elite schools, such as Harvard and Yale, hover around $60,000 a year. The average private college approaches $40,000. And public schools are not always bargains: The average student attending his local state university faces a sticker price of $17,000, according to the College Board, a non-profit consortium of colleges.

Parents contemplating that kind of investment want to know what they're getting, said Tom Lindsay, director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that pushes for more transparency on college costs and outcomes. "There's a lot of skepticism" from parents and students, Lindsay said. "Universities are going to have to do a better job selling themselves."

But even when statistics about student outcomes are available, parents often don't know where to look. The College Portraits website got just half a million unique visitors last year, though millions of undergrads are studying at the public four-year colleges it rates. The non-profit groups that run the site do little marketing other than mailing posters to high-school guidance counselors nationwide.

"There isn't a shortage of data ... but I don't know that anyone has come up with a good way of harnessing it and making it easily digestible," said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Without a one-stop shop for clear, comprehensive information, some parents fall back on easy-to-grasp lists like the annual "best colleges" rankings, Hawkins said.

As for prospective students, many never think to look for statistical measures of a college's value.

"I don't think any of that really crossed my mind," said Jordan Seman, a high-school senior from Denver who has applied to nine colleges spread out across the country.

Jordan, who is 18, has visited a few of her top choices in person. Others she picked after taking virtual tours and scanning course offerings online. Jordan says she hopes to do more extensive research after she learns where she's been accepted. "Otherwise," she said, "I'll just go with my gut."

(Reporting By Stephanie Simon in Denver; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Eric Beech)

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U.S. college ratings game set for shakeup

CHAMONIX, France —

Klaus Kroell gave Austria its first World Cup downhill victory of the season Friday, edging Bode Miller by 0.01 seconds in a race so tight the top five skiers were separated by only 0.08 seconds.

Miller was faster than Kroell at every split, but the American lost time on the bottom section and finished an eye blink behind Kroell, who won in 2 minutes, 4.22 seconds.

After Miller crossed the line, he spun quickly to check the big screen to see how he did. He held his head in his hands in disbelief and stood still for a few seconds.

"It's tough. ... There's so many places where a hundredth can come or go," Miller said. "I didn't really have a great reach for the finish line, which I always try to do well. That's the worst place to lose it, right out of the start or right at the finish line, and today I kind of left a little bit out there."

This was Kroell's fourth World Cup victory and his first since he won the downhill at Wengen, Switzerland, in January last year.

"Having waited so long it's a great joy, and a great relief. A great weight has been lifted from me," Kroell said. "It was a very difficult race for me because I made a mistake right at the start, and then on a turn. So it was a bad start."

Under overcast skies and with light snow falling on the La Verte des Houches course, 37-year-old Didier Cuche of Switzerland finished third in his bid for a third straight downhill victory. He was 0.03 seconds behind Miller in 2:04.26. Romed Baumann of Austria and Erik Guay of Canada shared fourth place.

"Because everyone's so close together with the ability, and the courses seem to be easier - they're slower - there's less things that separate the field," Miller said. "A lot of these races are unbelievable close. That's a challenge in itself to really make sure that you stay focused and pay attention to the things that matter."

Miller almost captured his second downhill win of the season after his aggressive run down the Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek, Colo., two months ago when he finished ahead of Beat Feuz and Kroell.

"It didn't really feel exactly like my skis were running that well," Miller said. "I knew I got away with a lot of stuff at the top so I knew I'd be fast up there, but once I was on that bottom flat I kind of felt like I was losing."

"It was really wet, kind of weird snow," he added. "And when you hit that stuff ... they (the skis) go all over the place. It's kind of hard to tell what they're doing."

Hannes Reichelt had the previous best downhill performance by an Austrian this season - second on the Lauberhorn course in Wengen last month. Kroell, meanwhile, has had three third-place finishes.

Cuche, who is set to retire this year, won in Chamonix last year and was very close to adding another win to his glittering collection in his final season. He won downhills in Kitzbuehel, Austria, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, last month.

The race was rescheduled from Val Gardena, Italy, the first classic downhill of the season. It had been called off in December because of strong wind.

Chamonix hosts its regular downhill Saturday, followed by a super combined on Sunday.

Originally posted here:
Klaus Kroell wins World Cup downhill at Chamonix

times-tribune file Western Wayne's Joseph Ingaglio, bottom, prepares to break out of a hold by Valley View's Chris Cicilioni in the 215-pound bout last season.

On average, the opponents Western Wayne's Joseph Ingaglio faces are 4 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier.

Sometimes they're even bigger than that - wrestlers who have to lose weight in order to make weight.

But rather than shy away from a challenge, the senior wrestler, all 5 feet, 8 inches and 215 pounds of him, embraces it.

For the past two seasons, Ingaglio (23-1) has wrestled at the 285-pound weight class.

Tonight, he will serve as an integral part of the Wildcats, the top seed out of the Lackawanna League, as they begin competition in the District 2 Class AA duals tournament tonight. They will face Wyoming Valley Conference wild card Wyoming Area at Lake-Lehman at 5 p.m.

The District 2 Class AAA tournament begins tonight at Pittston Area.

"Just by being smarter and quicker, I make them wrestle my style," said Ingaglio, who also plays football and is a thrower on the track and field team. "I just use my technique and don't let them wrestle their style and push me around.

"I've been doing it for a while. I'm pretty good at it. I love wrestling that weight."

After Ingaglio wrestled at 145 his freshman year, a need opened up in the lineup for someone at heavyweight.

He told coach Dante Terenzio he would work to fill the spot, regardless how difficult it would be for the sophomore, who at the time weighed just 190 pounds.

"When I did it at first, I'd do decent, but sometimes I'd get crushed, I'd get pancaked," Ingaglio said. "But then last year, I got a lot better at it, and this year, I'm just even better at it. I'm just doing well."

Ingaglio takes a different approach to wrestling at heavyweight. Whereas most wrestlers in the weight class use strength alone to win, Ingaglio uses his muscle, endurance and speed to succeed. He can move quickly and outlast bigger wrestlers who may tire after a couple of periods.

Practicing with teammates Matt Rosensweet (6-foot-2, 235 pounds) and Conner Rosensweet (5-foot-11, 215 pounds) also helps Ingaglio hone his skills to take down wrestlers who may look more imposing on the mat.

"Joseph wrestles like a 160-pounder, and that's how he wins a lot of his matches," Terenzio said. "He's very technical, very smart when he wrestles. That technique, speed and smarts, it outdoes the heavy guys."

Ingaglio's one loss this season came in the final of the Tunkhannock Kiwanis tournament, a 9-2 decision to Coughlin junior Brad Emerick (6-foot-2, 265 pounds).

The prospect of facing a bigger opponent no longer makes Ingaglio nervous. Instead, he channels that energy to excel in his matches.

And he will use that focus again tonight as the district duals tournament begins.

"I'm in pretty good shape," he said. "I don't try to throw kids around. I don't try to out-muscle kids who are bigger than me.

"I've just got to be really smart. This year, it's just my niche."

Contact the writer: ateatum @timesshamrock.com

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H.S. WRESTLING: Western Wayne senior relishes wrestling up

Every day millions of overweight women and men berate themselves for not being able to lose weight. They work out endlessly, cut calories until all they can do is think about food, try eating only grapefruit, only cabbage, or skip meals altogether -- and nothing seems to work. They feel embarrassed, ashamed and as if they're being perceived as lazy over-eaters by society.

Then they read Tara Parker-Pope's recent article, "The Fat Trap," in the New York Times and discover that if they've already gained weight, it is much harder to lose it because their bodies will defend that new, heavier weight vigilantly.[1] If they hadn't given up on losing weight yet, finding out that their bodies are working against them will certainly put them over the edge.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

It's true that genetics, hormones and overall physiology have a lot to do with how we gain and lose weight, but addressing these physiological imbalances as part of a weight loss plan can make all the difference. This concept is called "weight loss resistance."

What Is Weight Loss Resistance?

Weight loss resistance happens when a metabolic imbalance in the body causes us to hold on to extra weight no matter how much we exercise or limit our calories. And in order for our genes and physiology to turn around to accept a new weight, we have to solve the imbalance first and get the body out of crisis mode.

Get to the Bottom of Your Weight Problem First

For about two-thirds of us, losing weight can thankfully be as easy as eating less and exercising more -- we've heard this story all along. But for the other one-third, weight loss can be a huge battle because of weight loss resistance. Trust your body. It knows what it's doing! In the case of adding or holding on to extra padding, it's really the body's way of saying, "I'm prepared for whatever crisis is coming." If your body is refusing to shed pounds, ask, "What is my body protecting me from?"

In many cases, we ignore this question altogether and put overweight people on extreme low-calorie diets such as those discussed in Pope's article. This sets people up for failure by sending the body into crisis mode even further.

Here are some of the most common systemic imbalances I see prohibiting weight loss:

Hormonal imbalance (including thyroid imbalance) Adrenal imbalance (due to chronic stress) Neurotransmitter imbalance Digestive imbalance Systemic inflammation Impaired detoxification

For more information, see my other articles on weight loss resistance.

Losing Weight for Good

Once you've found the imbalance (or multiple imbalances) keeping you from weight loss, these basic steps will help put you on the road to keeping the weight off long-term. The ticket here is slow and steady. Remember that when we lose weight too quickly, the body can flip back into crisis mode and hang on to extra calories for dear life.

Stay active and strong. Dieting can deplete our muscle mass and when we regain weight, it often comes in the form of fat. Stay active and pay attention to maintaining and gaining muscle mass.

Address your emotional health. Emotional troubles can certainly sit at the core of any health issue, so don't ignore your feelings. Check in with your emotional health and find someone to talk to if you need help.

Rest and restore. Sleeping seven to eight hours a night is so important to your weight loss efforts. We now know that less sleep can directly influence our appetite and the way we use insulin in the body.[2]

Find support. Research tells us that we have much more success losing weight when we have a community to rely on.[3] Find a friend who has committed to losing weight, and talk about your process.

Getting to the bottom of weight loss resistance can feel like a miracle for people, because once they help their bodies back into balance, and take steps to maintain it, the weight begins to fall off -- I see it every day in my practice. Remove the road blocks so you can lose weight for good.

For more by Marcelle Pick, OB-GYN, N.P., click here.

For more on weight loss, click here.

References:

[1] Parker-Pope, T. 2011. The Fat Trap. The New York Times Magazine. URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=all

[2] Vorona, R., et al. 2005. Overweight and obese patients in a primary care population report less sleep than patients with a normal body mass index. Arch. Intern. Med., 165 (1), 25-30. URL: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/165/1/25.

Barnea, M, et al. High fat diet delays and fasting advances the circadian expression of adiponectin signaling components in mouse liver. Endocrinology, 150, 161-168. URL: http://endo.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/150/1/161.

[3] Dale, K., et al. 2009. Determining optimal approaches for weight maintenance: A randomized controlled trial. CMAJ, 180 (10), E39-E46. URL: http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/180/10/E39.

 

 

 

Follow Marcelle Pick, OB-GYN N.P. on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/marcellepick

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Marcelle Pick, OB-GYN N.P.: Just When You Thought Weight Loss Was Impossible

So, how are your New Year's resolutions going?

Every year I find there are many folks like me who have made resolutions for the new year, but by the end of the first month those pledges start to lose steam.

Yes indeed folks, we are through January and I have already started to look back on my New Year's resolution. I want to send some positive energy to all of you who, like me, made "getting in better shape" a priority.

As the champion for the "Healthiest Town in America" initiative, trying to be a role model has taken many twists and turns over the last five years. One way I monitor how I am doing is by having a "reality check" during the holiday season. I am happy to say I found I could go through an entire holiday season without dieting and still not gain weight.

But this particular new year is really something special in my life. You see, in April I will turn 60. As I looked at the next 20 years of my life, I decided that it was in my best interest to really try to get in a healthier state for those amazing years of 60-80. My quest has become to be "flat at 60."

I learned from my Healthiest Town in America experiences that the risk for heart disease and high blood pressure can be told by looking at a person's stomach, particularly the amount and shape of the fat on one's stomach. So this year I decided to go all out and try to reduce my "belly" as much as I could by my 60th birthday. My goal is that my stomach will be "flat at 60."

To be honest, though, I started my New Year's resolution at the end of November. As usual, I was looking at how not to gain weight during the holidays, but that is no longer an issue. So starting on the road to a better and trimmer body became my goal.

I can hear giggling as I type this. It's my co-workers taking turns getting on our office scale. You see, I have also learned over the past five years that sticking to resolutions is much easier when you do it with someone. Well, if doing it with someone else makes it easier, I figured the more people are included, the easier it might be.

So now Gina, Phyllis, Christa and Mary have joined Deb and me in pledging not to gain weight for an entire year.

If you would like to have a good laugh and follow our journey you can find our video diaries at http://www.ovfitness.com - go to the right under "Calendar/News" and click on "Blogs." The trainers have guided us to exercises specific for our ails and it's been amazing how quickly our bodies have responded!

Wishing you great health for 2012 so you can …

Enjoy the journey,

Bob

E-mail Bob Oro at northwest@azstarnet.com

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Co-workers joining me in goal to stay 'flat'

Looking to get in shape and stay healthy? One visit to Low Carb Bread Recipe .org will change your life by showing you simple tips on how to lose weight.

Long Island, NY (PRWEB) February 01, 2012

Everyone is always looking to shave off a few extra pounds. But as most people will tell you, dieting can be difficult if not handled the correct way. Being on a diet does not mean you have to eat only grass, raw herbage, or things that don't taste good. Dieting in a smart, well educated manner is the true way to stay healthy.

The owners of Low Carb Bread Recipe .org have designed a site to help people lose weight by focusing on a low carb diet. Low carb diets are a proven way to quickly and easily get rid of excess weight and fat. This brand new site has information on tons of low carb ideas but the main focus of the site is on how to make home-made low carb bread by hand as well as with a bread machine. Also there are recipes for low carb yogurt, low carb shakes, and many other awesome low carb treats.

The owners of the site commented that they are firm believers in the fact that you should know every single food ingredient that goes into your body. Ingredients that you are unable to pronounce, should not be part of any diet. Having complete control over your diet is the key to losing weight and keeping it off.

Now not everyone wants to make their own bread. For people not interested in making their own low carb bread, Low Carb Bread Recipe .org has reviews and information on the top low carb bread brands. The site also has some history on the manufacturers.

The makers of Low Carb Bread Recipe .org quoted "Many people are very under educated when it comes to nutrition and health." Obesity has been on the rise in the United States and the owners of Low Carb Bread Recipe .org felt it necessary to provide the American public with an easy dieting solution. Tips such as the differences between complex carbs and simple carbs can be found on the site, as well as the proper amount of water that a person should be drinking daily.

Low carb diets are very safe and do not involve ordering special food or depriving yourself of everything you enjoy. What they do require is discipline, control, and taking the proper supplements. Protein is also critical to a low carb diet, and protein shake information is provided on the site.

Please visit http://www.lowcarbbreadrecipe.org for more information.

###

Jim Wise
Low Carb Bread Recipe
347-363-8883
Email Information

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New Website Launched on Low Carb Bread Recipe

January is over, and the clock is ticking on perennial resolutions to shed weight. How long have you given yourself this time to lose those 10, 20, 30 or more pounds you packed on since adolescence?

And why does the weight almost always come back?

Unhealthy eating habits plus too little exercise, too much sitting around and an age-related loss of muscle mass are the main reasons, enhanced perhaps by genetics, environment, disability and other circumstances. Most of these can be overcome, dieticians say, by making small behavioral changes before setting weight loss goals.

Going on a "diet," they say, too often involves making radical, unsustainable eating changes in the hopes of losing weight quickly, only to mess up your metabolism and mind so much you could be setting yourself up for eventually weighing even more than when you started.

"Diet" is kind of a bad word to Jessica Cooper, a registered dietician in Salt Lake City who teaches people how to lose weight and counsels athletes on how to use nutrition to boost performance.

One of the first bits of advice she gives her clients is to focus less on outcomes and more on behaviors. "I talk about habits they need to change," she says. "If they start eating better, they start feeling better."

That is the gist of the second annual U.S. News and World Report "Best Diets" feature released in January, an analysis of 25 commercial and academic eating plans for their health and weight-loss potential.

Katherine Beals, a University of Utah associate professor of nutrition, was one of 22 experts who helped evaluate the eating plans, eventually breaking the rankings into bests for weight loss, diabetes, heart health, and healthy eating. The rankings also included the best commercial diet plans, easiest diets to follow and best overall.

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"Many of the, quote unquote, diets we evaluated were not really for weight loss," she says.

Nor had the claims of some of them been subject to scientific analysis, something she and the other team members do regularly.

"If you’re a consumer, it’s very difficult to wade through the hundreds [of diet plans] that are available," she says. "But what I think is simple: Forget what you weigh. What do you need to be healthy?"

One answer: exercise.

"People tell me they don’t have time to exercise," Beals says. "Really? How much time do you spend watching TV? You need to be physically active every day....If you do those two things, your weight will settle at what is healthy for you."

Craving what you need • Cooper tells clients that if they are desperate for a certain unhealthy food, they are really craving nutrients. Trouble is, "it takes a lot of cheeseburgers and fries to get those vitamins and minerals," she says, "and you also get a lot of calories."

The diets that got top billing in the U.S. News report share a common denominator: lots of fruit and vegetables. They included the DASH, TLC and Volumetrics eating plans — which were developed to fight chronic ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig were the top two commercial diet plans.

None of them restrict entire classes of food, a big plus in the analyses.

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Utah nutritionists weigh diet ratings

 

 

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla., Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- PEERtrainer, a leader in healthy weight loss solutions, has found that many people who are looking to lose weight in a short amount of time often start to add a lot more meat to their diet, and cut down on certain carbohydrates.  This is in spite of a widely cited study by the Harvard School of Public Health published in 2010 that showed an increase in health risk from a diet rich in animal foods.

Other studies that have looked into low-carb and high-protein diets have shown that despite a good short term track record for weight loss, the long term track record for keeping this weight loss off is poor.

As a result of this continuing behavior pattern, PEERtrainer would like to propose some alternative ways to lose weight in a short amount of time that don't involve the health risks, and are ultimately more effective long term.

The first thing that PEERtrainer would like to point out is that low carb diets can work, especially when paired with a reduction in sugar and a dramatic increase in micronutrient rich foods like green vegetables. One does not need to dramatically increase the amount of meat in the diet.

PEERtrainer has observed that the more important factor is the reduction of overall sugar levels in the blood, which can result from eating sugar itself, or certain foods like bread and grains which can quickly increase the amount of glucose in the bloodstream.

A reduction in carbs is a feature of the new Weight Watchers Points Plus for 2012, so this is not an uncommon suggestion. However, very few weight loss approaches are also adding a very strong focus on increasing green vegetables and a reduction in sugar.

Reducing carbs and sugar in the diet can be a daunting task, especially at breakfast. The typical Western diet is rich in different sugars and grains. PEERtrainer has seen however, that when people focus on this particular meal, it helps to set the tone for the day.

A final tip that PEERtrainer has for people who are looking to lose weight quickly is to learn how to do a cleanse the right way. The best way to do a cleanse is in addition to the advice above, focus on testing the removal of foods that serve as common allergens. Foods such as bread, dairy and corn commonly create toxic reactions in people.

PEERtrainer has observed that members of its online weight loss community usually report fairly consistent weight loss in a two to three week period when they remove these specific foods! Everyone reacts to foods differently, and not everyone reacts to these foods. But for people who have had a hard time losing weight, in spite of very good efforts at exercise and diet, find that removing these foods from their diet entirely, combined with a low sugar and high green vegetable diet, can pay good dividends very quickly.

PEERtrainer is website dedicated to healthy weight loss. It was founded in 2005 and has helped tens of millions of people get the guidance and help to put them on the path to healthy and permanent weight loss.

Media Contact: Habib Wicks PEERtrainer, 917-843-4050, habib@peertrainer.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

 

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Excerpt from:
How to Lose Weight Quickly Without Adding More Meat to Your Diet

Aaron Brilbeck Staff Writer

January 31, 2012

DES MOINES—

Monday night, two people were killed when they fell through thin ice in Madison County. Now, water rescue experts with the Des Moines fire department show us how to survive a fall through the ice.

It’s important to stress, with the temperatures we've seen lately, no ice is safe to go on right now.  But if you do fall through--you'll have to act quickly. "You're going to panic right at first," says firefighter Brad Peterson, "You're going to tense, just from that pure shock of the water. So your first thing is to be how to react to how to get out of here and you might not think clearly."

First, calm down...you don't have long to get yourself out of the icy water before your muscles start failing you. "Within minute," Peterson explains, "It's not going to take you long and with this temperature you're probably five minutes. Then the more you struggle it's just going to take away your body heat faster so your muscles will contract even more and you'll lose your strength."

Get yourself to the ice ledge, the edge of the hole where you fell through--take a deep breath and kick your feet while using your arms to try to get up on the ice. Aim for the area you just came from--if that ice held you once it will hold you again. "Get to the edge, try and expand your weight out a little over the hole where you're at and just kinda lift yourself up on it and roll," Peterson says, "And if you fall through just keep doing that, get yourself up and just roll across the ice till you where it's a little thicker and you might be able to walk along."

Firefighters also suggest bringing "Ice-alls" with you. They are chunks of wood with spikes in the ends that you can use to help pull yourself out of the water. "Wear them around your neck anytime you go out or while you're out fishing," Peterson suggests, "This way you can just take them apart, grab a hold of them when you fall through the ice, you just use these to pull yourself out."

When possible--shout for help. If you become exhausted and can't get out--try to keep your forearms on the ice so your clothes freeze to it. That, according to firefighter Brian O'Keefe, may be your last hope. "Get your arms up on the ice and basically you're going to have to hold them still long enough and hope that they will freeze to the ice because at some point you'll go unconscious and if you're not secured you're going to end up going under."

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THIN ICE: How To Survive Plunge Through Ice

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