Now that the gym is closed I exercise at home, usually watching free YouTube exercise videos. To add a bit of weight I remembered something from more than 10 years ago, the Knife & Forklift! I still had them at the warehouse. Here’s the story:

For years we’ve been told that you if you slow down while eating you won’t eat so much. True or not, here’s something that will slow down even the fastest eater and give them a bit of exercise at the same time! The Knife and Fork Lift is a combination of utensils and dumbbells! Yep you read that right! These dumbbell utensils can serve as a constant reminder that eating puts weight on and requires exercise to take it off. Lifting food with these utensils is like doing curls with dumbbells because each one weighs 1.5 lbs! So if you’re cutting a piece of steak with the knife & fork you’re working with 3 pounds of stainless steel. Knife and Fork Lift’s inventor, Tom Madden says. “Everybody approaches it as a joke, but when you think about it, it does require you to eat more slowly.” Eating more slowly, say many health experts, allows the brain time to register feelings of satiety, resulting in eating less. That’s why Tom came up with a knife and fork encased in a dumbbell-shaped handle. I ate with these things and you definitely feel you’re lifting some weight! They’re beautifully made and can be used a table centerpiece if you don’t want to actually use them. They can stand on end as a silent reminder to slow down and chew! Heck, there’s even a medical warning about using them to exercise on the company website! And now there’s a newly added matching spoonlift.

UPDATE: The website link below still works 10 years later. But the inventor is looking for investors and is not selling the product himself anymore. 

http://www.knifeandforklift.com/

But you don’t need the knife & forklift. Here are some items you most likely already have at home that you can use for “free” weights: 

An 16.7 ounce water bottle weighs approximately one pound 2 oz, a bit less than the knife & forklift.

Quart of milk approx: 2 pounds 4 oz or 2 ¼ pounds

A 2 liter bottle of soda is a little over 4 1/2 pounds.

A gallon of milk weighs approximately 8.5 pounds.  Laundry detergent jug could be used too. Just make it’s okay with your doctor to exercise with any weights.

Here’s a great article about lots of ways to make your own ‘free’ weights!

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Homemade-Weight-Set

See or hear this show: www.gizwiz.tv/episode/1773

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Letter of the week: (Well, email of the week.)

George F emails us:

Subject: Telehealth and COVID-19

Hi Dick and Chad. Thanks for creating the podcasts. Just wanted to provide some background info on Chad’s telehealth experience. Basically, the Federal Government has provided waivers to doctor’s offices, hospitals, etc to use “non-HIPAA compliant” means of communication to their patients due to COVID-19 emergency declaration. This is temporary and the waivers will expire when the emergency is lifted.

https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/hipaa-and-covid-19-limited-hipaa-waiver-bulletin-508.pdf