I agree with fairybasslet, America is way too uptight and there are way too many laws to protect people from themselves. I've lived out of the US for 17 years and I would have a difficult time living back there.
Hope you don't mind if I join in on your little weight loss thread. I'm just short of 3 months on a life style change/weight control program and I've 40+lbs so far. I started at somewhere about 370 (I say about as I didn't have a scale that would go that high when I began) and now I'm 324.
I've done this primarily with diet change (no fast food or processed food, little bread, lots of fresh veggies and protein mainly from chicken and fish, no soft drinks, lots of water) because about a month into the program I injured my knee (not from exercise) and so had to stop exercising for a while. Eventually had arthroscopic surgery and I started walking on a treadmill again last Sunday, did an hour on a treadmill today and feel really good.
Looking forward to doing a wreck dive in about 3 weeks on a wreck I was on last summer when I did the wreck course; there is a restriction in the wreck known as the Tunnel of Love and I turned the dive rather than try to fit through, I'm looking forward to making it through this time.
What I'm happiest about is that I have been on hypertensive medication for 11 years and the doctor took me off of it last week. Giving up the diuretic caused me to gain a few pounds but I'll eventually get those back and I'm really happy to be off the meds after so long.
Again, hope you don't mind me tagging along, its just I'm really pumped about my weight loss. My goal is to be back to where I was 20 years ago, 210 lbs, by the end of 2007, though at my current rate I'll get there well before then.
Cheers,
Drew