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“I [started out] among the skeptics who felt food addiction was a copout. But after meeting Prager and reading his book, my view has shifted.” — JENNIFER LaRUE HUGET, Eat, Drink and Be Healthy columnist, Washington Post
“A compelling description of the process of addiction.” — JOSEPH FRASCELLA, National Institute on Drug Abuse
— Buy it. // Visit the website —
Above: a contemporary photo; Below: the "before" picture.
I had a fat and troubled childhood that lasted almost 35 years, and my body reached 365 pounds. I could lose weight, but I always gained it back and more. Then, on the advice of others, I started accepting standard addiction treatment, and now I'm approaching 20 years in a normal-sized body. In that time, public acceptance of food addiction has barely moved, and insurance support for treatment has regressed.
Both of those need to change, and my story tells why. I'm no diet guru, and this isn't a diet book, but if I escaped more than a decade above 300 pounds, lots of others can find relief too.
It's a good read with a happy ending, and it could change your life.
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Energy-harvesting wall switches
An interesting product I came across at GreenBuild was the home-control system being offered by Verve Livings Systems. The tech-candy for me is their wall switches, which convert the energy you use to flip the switch into a pulse that sends the instruction to a a central controller, dousing or dimming the light in question, or performing more complicated routines if programmed that way.
First of all, this is just plain cool, no? But it's more than an oddity. This frees builders from having to run wires to switch plates, which is both a time and materials savings. For that matter, you wouldn't have to affix switches to walls at all if you chose not to; you could put one in your car, and turn your lights on as you pull into the driveway. And if you do put it on the wall and then decide to put it elsewhere, you can.
The signals go to a central controller, which can handle not only lights but fans, electrical outlets, exhaust fans, etc. Verve's Dianne Pisarek says the company is at work on being able to control more, too — HVAC, security, etc. She estimated the cost for a 2,000-square-foot home — 18-24 switches is typical for that size, she said — between $2,000 and $2,500, but said if you consider the time and effort saved by avoiding the old way, a better figure is $1,000 to $1,500.
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