Village on a Diet

As much as I dislike exercise, I love watching other people do it. E and I used to watch the Biggest Loser every Tuesday until the producers thought it would be a good idea to make the show 2 hours long each week and we quickly decided we had better things to do with our time! We had a quirky [secret, until now] routine of eating Taco Bell takeout while watching the BL participants trying to change their eating habits for the better.

Now Canada has its own version of a Biggest Loser-type show called Village on a Diet. It's about a small town in northern British Columbia where 60% of its inhabitants are overweight or obese. The entire town wants to get healthy and in the process, try to lose a collective 1 ton in 10 weeks! And health and fitness experts have been flown in to help them do just that.

We watched the first episode last week and the second tonight and I have to say, I'm hooked. Though there are moments that are a bit overly-dramatic [trainer being "tough" with trainee], this documentary-style show is done so well, giving viewers an inside look at the struggles and triumphs of an entire town.

Village on a Diet is definitely giving me motivation to stick to my own goals. Hopefully, the rest of the season won't disappoint.

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No Phone Zone

I record Oprah everyday, and watch maybe one entire a show a week. [I only watch the first few minutes of each show to see if it's something interesting.] Today's show was one I watched in its entirety. The topic was *distracted driving.*

I admittedly talk on the phone while driving, though it's always hands-free and I get the call going before I start driving. I have sent a text while sitting at a red light. Before today, I saw no real harm in it, thinking that it was the compulsive texters/dialers who caused accidents, not I.

Tears sprung to my eyes as I watched and listened to the stories of people who lost loved ones to distracted drivers, the stories of drivers who thought they could safely use their phone and drive. I can't imagine what life would be like if I lost someone to distracted driving or if I ever caused an accident because I couldn't wait to use my phone.

According to University of Utah researcher David Strayer, talking on a cell phone quadruples your risk of an accident. "For comparison purposes, someone who's drunk at a 0.08 blood alcohol level has a four-time crash increase. So talking on a cell phone is about the same as driving drunk," he says. "When you're text messaging, the crash risk goes up to eight times."

In October, the province of Ontario implemented a law making it illegal for motorists to use hand-held wireless communication devices or any hand-held electronic entertainment devices while driving.

This evening, I took the pledge to make my vehicle a *No Phone Zone.* Too many people have died completely preventable deaths. Too many people have caused accidents they could have avoided. Won't you take the pledge too?

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