Uechi-Ryu.com

Way to go, Panther! Keep it up!

A word of advice... Stop looking on the scale so much, and concentrate on doing what you know you must do. Make it a desireable and peasureable thing to eat right and exercise right. The results come better when you aren't focused on losing weight per se, because the body has a funny way of trying to defeat you (through lowering of the BMR) when you try to lose weight. Ultimately consistency of good food supply and regular exercise is the solution. Your body eventually will figure out it doesn't need to save for 7 lean years, and the adipose tissue is just in the way.

Furthermore, obsese people who exercise do much better health-wise. It's not the weight per se.

There are other things you are fighting as well, such as age. Age plus weight is a double whammy that discourages you from exercising. You just need to find what works for you, and do it. Walking, eliptical trainers, and swimming all are good. And weight training increases the BMR, which allows you to burn more calories even while you're sitting on your ass. What's not to like about that? Just adjust until you find out what works for YOU. That means constantly adjusting to what you can and cannot do at any one point in time.

- Bill

Just got back from Disney which seems to be the new home of 300 pound parents pushing their grossly obese offspring in big strollers. The sheer numbers even shocked my dad who thought he had seen it all as a NYC cop for 25 years. Really sad.

Good work Panther, keep it up!

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I was dreaming of the past...

So, Mike, you are confirming my observation. That is, these amusement parks seem to attract more than a random sample of morbidly obese people in the population.

The question is, why? I have my theory.

- Bill

Because those are the folks with enough "leasure time" to be able to go?

I'd love to hear it Bill as for the life of me I can't figure out why? They can't walk worth a damn, I'd think squeezing into the seats on Space Mountain or the Grizzly is uncomfortable and I'd think getting the heart pounding on a drop ride would make them think that they're ready to die.
The thing that gets me is I remember families where the dad or mom would be obese but the rest of the family would be average. But now it's the entire clan, and it's very sad seeing all the kids below the age of 12 waddling around with their folds of fat jiggling while stuffing a turkey leg or corn dog into their mouths.

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I was dreaming of the past...

My theory, Mike, is that amusement parks allow people to experience the kinds of things - in a passive manner - that they otherwise would not be able to experience in their sedentary lifestyles.

Take the roller coasters. I almost experience those kinds of G forces by the way I drive. Certainly amusement park rides can never match many of my motorcycle experiences in terms of forces, speed, and danger. And I do loop-the-loop and corkscrews with my ukemi all the time. It's just not that big a deal to me. But to someone who isn't otherwise physically active, it's an opportunity to sit back and passively have those forces put on you.

Then... There was this kind of haunted house thing at Busch Gardens. I understand it's a lot like a similar thing at Disney World. You put some 3-D glasses on, get in a car, and go through this kind of haunted house. Visually it's pretty good. Figures reach out at you. Armed warriors hurl knives right past your ear. Pretty cool. But... There was this part where the car sort of kind of bumps around a bit, and visually you are supposed to think you are falling in a hole. But... I was not convinced. My highly developed proprioceptive senses told me that my eyes weren't telling me the truth. My son was impressed, and asked me if I thought that part was cool. No... It was a big yawn to me. But if you've never gotten out of your couch before, I suppose that might seem pretty cool. You'd never know the difference, because you've never felt that before.

There was a similar ride at Paramount King's Dominion that was allegedly supposed to simulate racing in a car just like "Days of Thunder", or whatever the movie was with Tom Cruise about NASCAR and such. It showed a screen with a video of what you see in the front of a race car, and your seat jerked around a bit. I suppose if you've never driven like a maniac and lived an otherwise sedentary life, you would think you just went to risk heaven and back. But I was unimpressed.

If you've ever been in a REAL life-and-death encounter, you know how hard it is to explain to someone what it is like. And if you never have, you can get your jollies off with aspects of it that you think are the real thing. But most people would rather not go there - for good reason. Once you have, then you know all the other stuff borders on martial masturbation.

I'd rather drive a race car, do ukemi, or jump out of a plane with parachute on my back. But if you can't or you won't, well... These rides would probably be the best adrenaline surge for the money.

So... How's a couch potato going to get an adrenaline rush? And how is a jock or otherwise adventurous sort likely to do the same? Where will you see these people congregate?

Bill

We went to Kings Dominion yesterday to 'close down' the waterpark for the season.

With this thread in mind I was doing some people watching in the water rides. There are fortunatley some nice looking ladies in their bikinis but there were some very nasty looking specimens as well.

The mutants tend to stick to the passive rides so many of the rides have short lines. My favorites require climbing 5 or more stories to get to the launch area. No mutants up there as the climb would kill them. I'm surprised no one has sued KD for not having elevators to the top!

There are signs warning 'large' people that they might not fit in the seats of some rides. The really violent rides are snug on me and I'm pretty trim. Again, some day KD will be forced to have seats for the triple E bottoms.

One nice thing KD did was ban smoking from all but designated areas. It is pretty well enforced so the park is cleaner overall these days. They also put in a few 'Subway' franchises so healthy sandwiches are readily available.

Bill: The Volcano's vertical induction motor accelerates you straight up and is a very pleasent surprise. The effect is short but compares favorably with an attack aircraft. Try it some day. Wait for the front seat so you can get the bugs splattering in your face.

Rich

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Member of the world's premier gun club, the USMC!

Sound like fun, Rich. But wouldn't it be fun actually to be in the cockpit controlling that baby?

Sigh...

- Bill

The tower of Terror at MGM really freaked me out 5 years ago.
Normally rides don't faze me.

I think they have special vehicles for land whales at Epcot.
I saw some riding something around.
That is probably a favorite since they can eat around the world.

F.

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Sans Peur Ne Obliviscaris
www.hinghamkarate.com

They call them "electric convenience vehicles", found them on the website.

F.

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Sans Peur Ne Obliviscaris
www.hinghamkarate.com

Cracks me up! Recently observed a 5'8"ish,'bout 300lb puss belly,sans shirt and bent over with his gut hanging lower than his knees,cigarette in his mouth,washing his new $40,000 truck. Wonder if he'll out live the loan.

Rich,

Sometimes last month, my wife's nieces and nephew grabbed me as a sucker to take them to Six Flag's Great Adventure to hit all the coasters and latest attraction...Kinda Ka. Man! talk about a ride! Been a while since I seen any adults having to be carried off the ride at the end.

Check out the schematics and virtual ride clip which by the way doesn't do it too much justice, but will certainly give you an idea how it went...

http://www.sixflags.com/parks/greatadventure/index.asp

As for me - well I damn well peed in my pants

So if your really into coasters - then try this one.

Cheers,
William

Copy all William.

Thanks,

Rich

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Member of the world's premier gun club, the USMC!

Fred, try Tower of Terror now that they've randomized the drops and the climbs. Dang was that fun. Finally got the kids on Rock n' Rollercoaster and that is a sweet ride.


Good theory and you could be right, but they are still fun to ride. This summer the family did BG. We waited on line for that Dark Castle ride and it was very disappointing.

Epcot has some nice simulator rides like Mission Space and the new Soaring ride. Soaring is mellow but has some nice touches like a faint citrus smell while you "fly" over an orange grove. I think that's one direction "rides" will go in the future, giving experiences in a semi-passive manner.
Anybody remember West World?

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I was dreaming of the past...

Well, I guess that explains a big part of why I don't go to "amusement" parks. Never got a thrill from any of the rides. Had my breath taken away. Got the heartrate increase. Felt the G-forces. But none of it has done anything for me except make me decide it was a waste of my time. I've done the race car (both amateur NASCAR and Drag racing), done the motorcycle, been in the life and death situation, etc. I've never jumped from a plane. Something about it just doesn't "feel" right in my mind. I've been in planes plenty and even in a stunt bi-plane once (pilot was nice to me and only did a few things). My brother-in-law is USAF and was a fighter-bomber pilot, so I've got an open invite for the "bet you can't keep from tossing your cookies" ride, which I'll be taking sometime. I get invited to the fun parks with the kids all the time, but it just seems like a waste of time and money to me. On the other hand, we did have a nice paint-ball game earlier this year... The kids learned about strategy and being calm under fire... and that there's a reason why Uncle old faht routinely beats them at Chess.