Your April 23 article was right: “Diets don’t work.” But lifestyle changes do work.

On April 1, 2006, I became homeless; a significant lifestyle change. I weighed 260 pounds at 5-foot-7-inches, and I was 100 pounds overweight and morbidly obese. I had a snug 46-inch waistband.

On April 1, 2007, I was still homeless. I weighed 200 pounds. and was 40 pounds overweight, with a snug 36-inch waist.

I’m no longer morbidly obese, just obese. I am still losing weight, and have had an average weight loss of 5 pounds a month. I expect to be in a 32-inch waistband by fall. This is the easiest diet I have ever been on.

The key to losing weight is a smaller refrigerator. If you can’t store ready-to-eat food, then you are less likely to eat. If the food you store is low-calorie, then what you can eat will not put on weight.

And, if the frig is small, you will not be worrying about eating the leftovers before they go bad. The food in the frig will not be there long enough to go bad.

If a smaller frig doesn’t work, then throw out the stove and stop eating at the fast food stand.

You don’t need fancy, expensive, diets or bariatric surgery. You just need a smaller refrigerator. It worked for me.

Hundley J. Bergstad

Corvallis

Gov flunked food stamp, budget tests

Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s food stamp shopping spree shows his incompetence. Shoppers stated “He was all over the place” and “obviously he does not shop often,” indicative of how he handles the state budget and our tax dollars.

Simply shopping Fred Meyer advertised specials would have scored him three chickens and two pounds of Tillamook Cheddar cheese for $12, basics for cheese sauces, fried and baked chickens and great soups, much better than his planned canned and dried soups and peanut butter sandwiches. For $2, he could have bought two pounds of various noodles, rice and flour which would have made fresh baked breads, excellent soups when boiled with the chicken bones, backs and necks — so much better than his planned cup-o-noodles. Another $1 would have yielded him many choices of tomato sauces for the basics to chicken cheddar.

He scored on the 10 pounds of potatoes for a buck, which should last for weeks giving him extra dollars to spend next week. Fred Meyer also had broccoli and cauliflower on sale for 69 cents a pound, lettuce for 49 cents two cans of tuna for 90 cents, a month’s supply of mayo for $1.50, cucumbers 50 cents and tomatoes for $1.

I would love to see what Jan Dominguez could have done with $21 (or $42 for two people), which would be the more likely scenario. I am sure we will soon hear that he cannot stay in the budget constraints and needs to raise our taxes.

Larry Henderson

Corvallis

Chamber doesn’t ‘get’ growth goals

Our Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition appears to be reluctant to adapt to what the citizens of Corvallis envision as a livable community. This coalition has enacted a paradigm of seeking political influence, attempting to change a sustainable growth vision for our city and portraying Corvallis living standards in a negative light. These goals have been stated in the Gazette-Times by past and current presidents, Patricia Mulder and Mysty Rusk.

Now an outside “consultant,” with no ties to the community, has been hired to recruit new members to the chamber to help lobby “for business friendly laws.” Their goal: revise or eliminate laws that make this community unique and inviting to new residents. Their means: “The more memberships you have, the more political clout you get.”

Our City Council must represent and advocate for their constituents, not for the wishes of the Benton-Corvallis Chamber Coalition. With the merger of the Corvallis Benton County Economic Development Partnership to the Corvallis Chamber of Commerce, the chamber now has close ties with taxpayer dollars. Neither Corvallis nor Benton County need to have our governing bodies closely aligned with the chamber through “political clout.” Could Chamber President Mysty Rusk describe the type of “political clout” the chamber is considering?

Dennis Marquering

Corvallis

Skeptics on warming lack facts, credibility

Reading the letters from global warming skeptics, I’ve found it rather interesting how they can write with such certainty that humans are not to blame for the rise in the average global temperature.

Many of them will often admit in their letter they have no idea what’s actually causing the temperature to rise, yet they’re certain it’s not our fault. Which begs the question: If they don’t know what is causing global warming, how can they be so certain it’s not humans?

The weakness of their argument is compounded by two factors: First, those who submit an explanation can’t come to a consensus concerning an alternative to human causes. Each letter seems to come up with a different explanation as to why humans aren’t to blame.

Second is the weakness of the explanations they actually do offer. The most popular seems to be that global warming is just a natural cycle. Ironically, this theory isn’t an aide to their argument but a hinderance. In fact, almost every scientist knows the Earth goes through natural temperature fluctuations. How else do these skeptics think scientist can say what’s going on now doesn’t fit with the pattern of the past?

However, my favorite explanation for why global warming isn’t the fault of humanity was the one offered by California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher: “We don’t know what those other cycles were caused by in the past. It could be dinosaur flatulence. Who knows?” I think that statement sums up my point pretty well.

Noah Tinker

Corvallis

Why no grief over dead Iraqi children?

I find it interesting that the death of 33 people in the Virginia Tech killings cause far more anguish and soul searching among Americans than 1,000 times as many children killed in Iraq.

Interesting, and sad.

Bruce Carsten

Corvallis