A speech on fat cells

Good afternoon, all. Today was the first day of my new exercise routine and I did get to the gym. However, I guess a drank too much coffee before going to bed because I could not get to sleep - and laid away until around 4:30 a.m., which was the time I was going to get out of bed and get to the gym - didn't happen. I finally went to sleep and woke up around 8:30 a.m. and then got to the gym. I did my treadmill - walked a whole 1.2 miles in 20 minutes (I used to walk 4 miles an hour and will again, as soon as I get my body back into shape) and lifted the weights, which told me that I lifted 3,600 lbs. today - that should do something, don't you think? Now, I am going to change the subject. I am a 15 year veteran of Toastmasters. If you don't know what Toastmasters is, it is an international organization that helps anyone and I mean anyone, become competent and maybe even professional speakers. The organization is wonderful because it affords a comfortable and friendly setting to learn in and while the fear of speaking is always with you, you learn to overcome the fear and make great presentations in a short period of time. Wednesday night I am going to give a speech on "How Fat Cells Work". In researching this subject I learned a lot. I learned that while you may be born with a predetermined number of fat cells, these cells continue to multiply until you reach puberty and then level off UNLESS, and that is a big UNLESS you find yourself becoming quite overweight and then the cells can divide and multiply. I found it most interesting and somewhat disconcerting to learn that the fat cells never go away. Once a cell is born, it never dies, it just deflates and goes off in a corner hoping that the body will start eating more and more and fill it back up again, which is what happens when we release and regain weight. My speech reveals several more facts about fat cells and how they affect our bodies, but what I would like to do is give you my opening paragraph - it will make you think twice before eating again - This is taken from a great little book (hard to read, but really very good) written by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in 1875 and entitled "THE PHGYSIOLOGY OF TASTE". Are you ready? O.K., here goes: “Man is omnivorous; everything that is edible is at the mercy of his vast appetite; hence, as an immediate consequence, he must possess powers of degustation proportionate to the extensive calls due to be made upon them. Sure enough, the machinery of taste attains a rare perfection in man; and to be convinced of the fact, let us watch it in action: As soon as an esculent substance is introduced into the mouth, it is confiscated, gas and juice, beyond recall. The lips cut off its retreat; the teeth seize it and crush it; it is soaked with saliva; the tongue kneads it and turns it over; an intake of breath pushes it towards the gullet; the tongue lifts it to help it on its way; its fragrance is enjoyed by the sense of smell as it goes by, and down it plunges to the stomach, there to undergo further transformations; and throughout the whole of this operation not one particle, not one drop, not one atom had escaped the attention of the apparatus of taste.” I didn't realize how violent eating was until I read this. I kind of feel sorry for the food I eat. I am going to have fun with this, though - I am going to provide everyone at the meeting with something to eat, maybe a cookie, maybe a Hershey Kiss, something, and will ask them to pop it in their mouth while I read this passage. That should wake up everyone for awhile, don't you think. I am really enjoying researching, detecting, uncovering, disclosing all these neat things about food and the body and how and why it affects each of us the way it does. You know, it could be possible that everyone in the world could be obese, or everyone in the world could be thin, trim and beautiful - it is mostly determined by each person's decision and their thought process about food and themselves. I find it facinating. Until next time, talk at ya later, adinear