Archive for January, 2008

 Yes folks, it's 2008 and Super Bowl fever is right here in sunny, warm Arizona! It's just one week before the big game and last night The New England Patriots (18-0) arrived in Phoenix for Super Bowl XLII (for you un-Romans out there XLII means 42nd Super Bowl). Their plane touched down at 7:35 pm on a rare, rainy Sunday night At Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and to put everyone's mind at ease, Tom Brady actually walked to the waiting bus UNDER HIS OWN POWER! Speculation had run rampant about his injured foot, ankle, tendon, toe, fill in the blank, and the infamous "boot" that was nowhere to be seen. He declined an interview with yours truly and I don't blame him, he stubbed his toe getting on the bus, and was in obvious discomfort (just kidding)! The New York Giants kinda snuck in, preferring to let their football do the talking.

 What does the Super Bowl and Tom Brady's foot have to do with Low Carb dieting or golf, you ask? Not a darn thing! This is just an opportunity for me as a resident of Scottsdale, Arizona (and as the owner of this site) to brag about what a great sports town Phoenix and her neighboring cities are. In less than one week from today the greatest football game of the year will be held in Glendale, Arizona at University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the (snake-bit) Arizona Cardinals. This year Arizona is providing new meaning to the term "Super Sunday", not only is that the day of the big game but just prior to kick-off and just a few miles to the east in Scottsdale, the PGA Pro's are putting the finishing touches on the final round of the FBR Open, a PGA TOUR event.  After a week of partying at the TPC Scottsdale, golf fans will be anxious to crown a new champion and get in front of the most gi-normous big screen TV they can find! I feel sorry for the fans if it turns out to be a sqeaker or, God-forbid, a playoff – because only the true, die-hard golf fan would remain – everyone else storming the exits to get home in time for coin toss.

 And just for the record, The FBR Open at the TPC Scottsdale always sets PGA TOUR attendance records (mostly by breaking their own) each year. (The secret if you want to know is; unlimited parking). It is the home of the infamous 16th hole, a delicate little Par 3 that Tiger Woods aced in his first FBR Open appearance. What a year that was (1997), the fans were salaming Tiger and tossing their beers into the fairway in tribute. And that was before the stands resembled those of the Roman Colliseum, lining the length of the hole and around the tee box, sort of a stadium within a stadium. Deane Beaman, you are a genius!

As if a Super Bowl and the final round of a wildly popular PGA TOUR event on the same weekend werent enough, Scottsdale is also host city to the first Super Skins Celebrity Golf Classic on February 2 hosted by Nick Lachey and NASCAR'S Jimmy Johnson. All the stories I read by press time quoted Jenna Fryers article in the AP which was a nice fluffy little piece but declined to disclose a location (golf course) for the event or which of our fine golfing celebs would be playing. I know a couple of choices I would make; Sean Connery, Joe Peschi, Clint Eastwood for sure. Bill Murray will be finished clowning around at the TPC Scottsdale Silver Pro-Am by then so he will probably be there.  Nick Lachey, the former Mr. Jessica Simpson, and Jimmy Johnson of NASCAR fame are hosting the first of three contracted events held in Super Bowl locations. The AP story details how NASCAR star Johnson had broken his wrist last December clowning around on top of a golf cart and how embrarassing it was but that the event is a great way to get friends together to raise some money for charity. Each hole will be worth $20,000.00 but both Nick and Jimmy declined to be interviewed for this article nor would they disclose the route the celebs will take for the short trip from Scottsdale to Glendale for the Super Bowl on Sunday. As of this writing flight plans had not been filed.

So, with all this cool stuff going on, culminating on the Sunday of Super Bowl XLII, which I am predicting will be one of the greatest Super Bowls' ever played – I hereby – by the power invested in me as Scottsdale's #1 Golf Fan, former ABC Sports Golf Spotter, charter member of the Scottsdale Golf Packager's Hall of Fame, Scottsdale Golf Industry Insider and a player of some notoriety himself – proclaim that Sunday February 2, 2008 will be forever known as SUPER DUPER SUNDAY. Remember, NFL Films and Steve Sabol, I said it first!

Pat's by 3.

I thought I should pass on this interesting article I saw on MSN's website, Health & Fitness section that rates the sugar substitutes, the good, the bad and the so-called unacceptable. Written by Sylvia Geiger, M.S.,R.D., Eatingwell.com

In my opinion this article is not only a review of sugar substitues but a reassuring bit of information that helps to enlighten the public as to their options when it comes to FDA approved sweetners. A quote that appears in the article by Manfred Kroger, Ph.D., professor emeritus of food science at Penn State says it all for me. "The public should feel confident that any approved sweetener is truly safe and has been closely scrutinized." And it's not just me, most food scientists agree with that statement. That's comforting news for those of us who have been subjected to the cancer scares of aspertame – even though most are aware that you would have to consume buckets of this stuff daily to maybe get the big C. The sugar industry does what it can to mis-direct and mis-inform us about other sweetners that challenge their markets but from the looks of all the low fat foods out there that depend on sugar for taste I dont think sugar has much to worry about. But when I see some of the big guns out there like Coke and RC with labels that proclaim "sweetened with Splenda," it does my heart good.

Ms. Geiger goes on to talk about the fact that sales of "diet-friendly" sugar substitutes have gone through the roof, up a factor of 50% from 2000 to 2006 primarily because health experts are now recommending the use of them to their overweight and diabetic patients. A staggerting 66% of Americans are overweight and 20.8 million have diabetes. She mentions that according to a recent survey, seven out of 10 adults say they want to reduce or avoid added sugars. And in order to do this they are forsaking regular sugar for sweeteners that deliver zero or minimal calories. 

For me Splenda is the only choice for sweetning beverages both hot and cold, especially coffee. I am a sweet freak that has to have sweet in his life and Splenda does it for me. I have to use 10 times the amount of sugar to get the same sweetness and that is just unacceptable. Bottom line is it just depends on what you get used to and what you believe the experts like Sylvia Geiger have to say. I started using Splenda when I read about it in Dr. Atkins book, The New Diet Revolution. He recommended those sweetners like sucralose, not because he thought aspertame caused cancer but because it seemed to derail his patients efforts at the Induction phase of his low carb plan. They were not able to lose as much weight as quickly. Bottom line, read the article and decide what is best for you.

Scottish superstar golfer Colin Montgomery uses the Atkins low-carb nutritional approach to losing weight. This is not exactly a current story since Monty started the plan back in 04 when it seemed like everyone was trying it but it still has relevance here because most golfers know who he is and what he used to look like. Not only that but the fact that he has kept it off using the same plan would seem the bigger story here. I got this story from Jimmy Moore's Livin La Vida Low Carb Blog and he got it from the Glasgow Sunday Mail.

Monty was the guy that everyone loved to hate because he let everything and everyone on the course bother him, especially during Ryder Cup competition, and he was subsequently branded a whiner as a result of his constant complaining. Monty let his clubs do most of his talking and you would be hard pressed to find a guy with a better record in Ryder Cup play. Personally I think this is what rattled his drunken detractors (true golf fans would never be so rude) - he always found a way to beat us. But at some point over the last few years he suddenly became the darling of the US Tour whenever he showed up to play. This might have something to do with his record in the majors here (0 for a million) or his light and funny press conferences about how good a player Tiger is. At any rate the story in the British newspaper reported that he is a big fan of the Atkins lifestyle and has used it to slim down.

I didn't see the original story but Jimmy Moore (my low carb idol) says that it refers to Atkins as a "no-carb regime" (a fine example of a reporter too lazy to do his homework and I agree with Jimmy when he says – when will these people ever learn?!) It still had some great quotes from the man golfing fans (now) affectionately refer to as "Monty (more…)

If you have been away from low carb for a while or maybe even never bought into it in the first place I have good news! There are thousands of people out there that believe, like I do, that the controlled carbohydrate nutritional approach is the best way to lose weight. There are so many resources for great tasting food products out there that offer more variety, are better tasting and a heck of a lot better for you. Weight loss is about substitution, not about depriving yourself of the things you love like bread, pasta and, Heaven help me, sweets, my personal nemesis. Sugar was a staple in my life until I was able to find things that tasted just as good without it. And when I do need something sweet for my decaf coffee or low carb drink I reach for the Splenda!

The typical American diet is what makes you fat, especially if you buy into the low-fat lifestyle. The only way they can make low-fat food palatable is to add sugar. I am all for cutting out fat when I can but not by adding a ton of sugar to food. The best way to cut out fat on a low carb diet is to watch your portions, have two slices of bacon instead of four, 8 oz of meat instead of 12 or mix low-fat mayo with regular mayo for your salad dressings and dips.

If you don't believe me just take a cruise through your nearest health food store or even grocery store. Look at some of the low-fat products and read the Nutritional Facts on the back of the product label paying particular attention to the carbohydrate content. Prepare yourself for sugar shock because 99% of a products carbs are added sugar. Shoot, even a lousy one-cup serving of low-fat 2% milk has 13 grams of carbs and 12 of those grams are added sugar. If you are trying to watch your carbs this one cup of 2% low-fat milk will derail you. You are better off drinking cream!

I don't know about you but when I tried living the low-fat way all it did for me was make me tired, irritable and caused me to lose sleep. I also wondered why I was hungry all the time and why I couldn't resist eating even more sugar-laced "low-fat" products. Well, if you are a sugar slave like I was you don't need me to tell you that sugar begets sugar, meaning, the more you eat, the more you crave. 

Now I am able to eat sugar-free chocolate and actually enjoy it! Malitol, Sorbitol, Splenda and even Stevia have weaned me away from sugar and now I don't miss it at all. Don't believe it? Just visit Netrition.com, try a few things and you will be surprised. I lost 115 lbs doing this and, more importantly, have been able to keep it off. Stay tuned to this site for more ways to overcome those things that made you fail in the past. I am loving life right now every time I put my clothes on and I want you to feel this way too.

You may remember that low- carb dieting became a fad not too long ago and a bunch of us Americans jumped on the bandwagon, thinking this was another quick fix. In restaurants around the country it became trendy to order a hamburger without the bun or to ask for Splenda for your coffee. You might have tried low -carb yourself with some success but went back to your bad habits after losing a few pounds, possibly ending up with a few extra for good measure. This "fad" fizzled because most of us just don't have the staying power and because the low-fat crowd twisted the solid research behind this plan and convinced us that it was "unhealthy." Bullcarb!

I'm here to tell you that the Low-Carb movement is alive and well and is just as active as ever in trying to convert us Americans (who get fatter every day) to a more nutritional approach to eating and losing weight. I personally believe that a combination of the Atkins Low Carbohydrate Nutritional approach combined with aspects of the South Beach Diet AND a low-fat approach are the way to go. If this sounds like an oxymoron bear with me. I know what you THINK you have heard about fat not being a consideration with either Atkins or The South Beach folks – you know those people who just can't let go of their bad habits and start the Atkins diet with a pound of bacon a day!? This is simply a mis-conception and spin from the low-fat folks who support the sugar industry. Just go into any supposedly health food store and look at the low fat stuff. Its all LOADED with sugar. And to us metabolically challenged, processed sugar is our number one enemy! NO ONE, especially Atkins, advocates eating unlimited quantities of fat-loaded foods. PLEASE, if you are going to do this, READ THE BOOKS first, then get with your doctor and see if this approach is something that is safe for you.