I’ve mentioned Dances With Fat before, today there’s a great blog post; 11 Reasons to Focus on Health Rather than Weight. I found it particularly validating after all my diet vs lifestyle squawking.

My current favourite is Fit Bottomed Girls. Lots of great advice, information, motivators, challenges, reviews on products and programs, give aways and the writers are a little bit cheeky so it’s a fun read.

I love that mission statement and I was going to add that badge to one of the sidebars, but somehow it still felt like a gross exaggeration. Can I get a “I’m a good-effort bottomed girl!” badge? Like the “participant” ribbons everybody got on track and field day in elementary school? “I’m a participant bottomed girl!”

Some “fun” facts about Oatmeal:

• The oat is called a groat after the hull has been removed.
• Oats are a source of soluble and insoluble fiber.
• Oats are a whole grain.
• Oats were the first grain recognized by the FDA to help reduce blood cholesterol. 
• Oats contain unique antioxidants and more protein than other common cereals. 
•  Eighty percent of U.S. households have oatmeal in their cupboard.
• Oats were one of the earliest cereals cultivated by man. They were known in ancient China as long ago as 7,000 B.C. The ancient Greeks were the first people known to have made a recognizable porridge (cereal) from oats.

With all those credentials, it’s no wonder oatmeal gets it’s own month. Personally, I like mine hot in the morning with almond milk and dried blueberries, but I found loads of recipes worth sharing, the best ones (so far) are posted at lijit.com.  I’ll start a string on the Promises Facebook Discussion Board for oatmeal favourites if anyone has recipes they want to post. We’ll have our own little NOM celebration!

When Taco Bell introduced the Fresco menu I had to check it out. (I was trying to imagine what diet chilli cheese fries might look like and this may be the art school talking, but the word fresco doesn’t mean ninety nine cent burrito to me.) What I found easily was the promotional info:

Fresco Crunchy Taco:
7 grams of fat – 150 calories

What took significantly more digging was the rest of the story. Sadly anticlimactic, the breakdown of those fats plus more than a days’ dietary allowance of carbohydrates, and enough salt to thaw my driveway in January, did not add up to a “healthy choice”. At least not by my understanding of the word “healthy”.

Luckily, in my Googling I tripped over this Open Letter to Taco Bell at Mark’s Daily Apple. The super fun and informative site that brought us the Rejected Food Pyramids:

Submitted by: Chuck Norris

Whoop ass (4-6 cans/day)
You (for breakfast, 2-3 servings)
Nothing (Chuck Norris doesn’t need food)

and the Many Uses of Junk Food. It’s a very clever commentary and really funny. If the information doesn’t put you off fast food, the pictures certainly will.

Google it, I’m not making that up.

Truthfully, I don’t even like bananas, but out of  respect for the banana’s contribution to decades of comedy, I jumped on the bandwagon and did a banana comic.

Here are links to some of the others on the forum who are taking part:

• The Wannabe Pirates
• Robot Beach
• Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic
• Capes & Babes
• Life’s a Witch
• Beartoons
• Familiar Ground
• Neko the Kitty

In other news; this is the big weekend for Toronto Fan Expo!

Brian and I will be parked in Artist’s Alley with the Kitchen boys again sketching our little fingers off. I’m looking forward to it enormously, along with the Promises mini, I’ve put together a little sketchbook of some of the work I did for Utopia Kingdoms and Legends of Zork. Hope to see y’all there!

Since it’s a whole page now I’ve added some Promises Promises banners, links to some of my super-talented friends, (waiting on banners from others so check back) favourite comics and favourite health and fitness resources.  (Say what you want to about reality TV, I’m probably right there with you but biggestloser.com is a fantastic site and let’s face it, that Bob Harper is a cutie!) Heh, I should put up a Team Promises on the Biggest Loser Club and see how we all do… That will have to be a project for another time.

So link up friends, readers, countrymen!  It’s a small but really attractive  little community.  Honestly, we’re probably the best looking people on the entire Internet.  HOT!  You’ll fit right in.  We have a nice little Alternative Kitchen started on the discussion boards, some convention photos, links, it’s a work in progress but the more people the more involvement, so welcome!

Well, Josh got me all sorted out here and I’ve managed to re-load the July archives!  I’m terribly impressed about this.

I also managed to figure out how to upload my links! Well…by “figure out”, what I actually mean is “Josh told me how and I did it.” Heh, only took three or four tries too!  So you’ll notice that super cute little guy at the bottom right.  He links to my Weekend To End Breast Cancer page.  (more on that later, but feel free to check it out.  Awesome cause!)

Lots more to upload, and on to the next story soon.