Wherever you go on the internet, whichever newspapers and magazines you open, there’s a familiar marketing message. Apparently, it’s easy to lose those unwanted pounds. Yes, of course. The marketers target our insecurities. They show us “before” and “after” pictures and suggest we too can become a person in the right. All we have to do is to buy their product. “Just spend your dollars with us,” they wheedle, “and we’ll heal your pain.” There are a mass of interesting assumptions in all these ads. It seems almost everyone is a target. We all want to shed pounds. That means we must all be unhappy with our current body shape. We must feel uncomfortable, perhaps even the victim of discrimination. Perhaps the health message is getting through and we begin to feel real fear of blocked-up arteries, high blood pressure and heart disease. Whatever the reason, the advertizers scent blood in the water and they are circling round our purses and wallets ready to sink their teeth into our dollars and disappear without delivering on all their promises.

Finally if we look at this all pragmatically, if it was easy to lose weight, no-one would be obese. Everyone would have their ideal weight. What makes losing weight so difficult? We just keep putting off action to another day. As the title to this article says, “Tomorrow is the busiest day of the week”. Delay makes an easy job harder. But, in the meantime, we buy those weight loss magazines and take a few pills. Hope burns eternal. We are all the victims of one of the not-so-great American myths – that we can get what we want without having to work hard for it. Just look at the tens of thousands who queue up for American Idol and the other shows to discover the next big talent. They all believe success is theirs for the asking.

So let’s go back to the drawing-board. The scientific evidence shows we lose the most weight in the shortest time when we combine a calorie-reduced diet with an exercise program. That means eating smaller portions of lean meat and adding fruit, vegetables and a good source of fibre to what we eat. For this to work, there is no tomorrow. You have to live and work through every day, making a commitment and keeping it. But the “keeping” of the commitment is the problem. We often lack the will to keep going. Of course, with money in the bank, we could all hire a personal trainer. This would make us more accountable and focus our minds on the importance of regular activity. But, with the credit crunch and the priority of financial survival, a private trainer is a distant dream. So involve friends and family. Get their support. Invite them to join in. Motivation is reinforced when others are involved. And for those times when you are on your own, there’s always phentermine to help you through. This is the best of the appetite suppressants and has been on the maret longer than any other competitor drug. It reduces the hunger pangs and helps you manage your body’s messages to eat. With phentermine to keep your body under control, you can focus your mind on losing weight and make it work. You know it makes sense.

There has been an interesting shift in newspaper journalism. In the good old days, it used to be all about the news. Now the stories are encased in bubble wrap so nothing can cause offense. Everything has two sides and, to achieve balance, both sides must be given equal prominence. Except when it comes to stories that might boost the sales of the corporations buying ad space in the newspapers and magazines. In these stories, readers are given only the bright side – the side that sells the products or services. Who needs balance when it builds the profits of a good customer. Which brings us to the coverage of probiotic yoghurt drinks. Here everything is sunshine and light. Did you know there are bacteria living in your stomach? Wow, tell me more. It’s probable these bugs are what makes us fat! And. . . With the right research, probiotic drinks will kill the bad bugs and promote weight loss! Sounds like a miracle product is in the works and it will emerge to save us all from bad bacteria tomorrow.

This story is connected with the research being carried out at the Schools of Medicine at Washington University and the University of Colorado. This is a perfectly respectable project with funds provided by the National Institutes of Health. Their latest papers were published through the peer review system and are legitimate. But they do not conclude that high-fat diets and sugar cause obesity and the research does not mention any of the probiotics. In fact, the project experiments on the microbes in the guts of mice. It may be scaled up to humans in the future. But, for now, the researchers colonize “ordinary” mice with human microbes and then feed half a low-fat diet. The other half receives a traditional Western high-fat, high-sugar diet. Not surprisingly, the mice eating the Western diet gain weight. When the microbes from the fat mice are transferred to thin mice, the thin mice gain weight. It seems the Western diet transform the microbes into new varieties encouraging weight gain in any mouse.

There is much to follow up in this research but, just to be clear, there is no suggestion that the same diet changes the microbes in human guts nor that eating yoghurt will cause weight loss. The way the story has been presented misrepresents the science to sell the named probiotic drinks. In fact, there is no evidence published in any peer-reviewed journal to suggest that yoghurt changes a bad diet into a healthy diet. The only way to lose weight remains eating a healthy balanced diet alongside a regular program of exercise. If you find yourself feeling hungry while eating healthy food and working out in the gym, use phentermine – the only drug with a fifty year track record for suppressing your appetite. This drug has proved to be a miracle worker in being able to modify the messages coming out of the stomach and calming down the call for more food. So, to keep your motivation high when dieting, buy phentermine and feel satisfied with smaller portions. Continued over several months, you will find the weight dropping away and a new healthy body emerging. This is hard work but it pays off. Trust what you read in the newspapers about probiotics and the only thing you lose is your hard-earned dollars.

Every employer is hunkered down waiting for the recession to end. Only when all we consumers get back out into the malls and start spending again will the wheels of manufacturing and commerce start turning again. Until then, it’s the survival of the healthiest and fittest – my apologies for mentioning Darwin, but it seems appropriate when applied the the species of employer. So with self-esteem on the floor and depression lurking in the corner of your mind wondering whether it should come out and join the party, it’s all too easy to slip into really bad habits. You become one of the dreaded couch potatoes, suddenly fascinated by the offerings of daytime TV. With nothing else to occupy yourself, you snack and hit the soda bottles. The results show in the first month. With a job and all the exercise of getting out of the house and running round to earn a living, you were reasonably thin. Now you are unoccupied, you find your waist growing and everything else starting to sag. It occurs to you that this may not help you find another job when the market improves. There’s a lot of discrimination out there and, with a choice between thinner and fatter candidates for a job, employers tend to pick the thinner ones because they are less likely to have health problems.

So let’s turn this around. Now you are unemployed, you have the time to do something about those extra pounds. When you were working full time, the work was always a convenient excuse. There were just not enough hours in the day. You were tired when you got home. You needed the weekend for quality time with the family. We have all played this game. Well, no more! This is your chance to begin a daily routine of exercise. If you have a gym membership, start working out. Talk to the trainers and get them to devise a good set of programs to help you lose some of that weight. If the cost of gym membership is too much, do not let this be another excuse. Outside your home there is an endless supply of exercise equipment. It’s called the sidewalk. Dress appropriately and start walking. Find slopes and then hills. Never mind the strange and pitying looks you get from drivers. Walking is one of the best all-round forms of exercise.

This should go hand-in-hand with a calorie-controlled diet. You defeat the purpose if you exercise, feel hungry and then eat more. Put smaller portions of healthy food on your plate. Cut out snacks and stop drinking soda altogether. Remember why you are doing this. It’s your chance to finally lose some weight and get really healthy. It will lift your mood and, more importantly, help you find another job. If hunger is a problem, use phentermine. This is the best appetite suppressant on the market. With those hunger pangs banished, it’s easy to keep the motivation going. The pounds will steadily disappear and a new, more confident you will emerge. Buy phentermine online and get your weight loss program underway. Unemployment is too good a chance to miss.