Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas loses over 100 lbs in 3 years

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Sept. 8 — Mike Huckabee has been the governor of Arkansas for a decade, but he is most famous for what he has done in the last three years: lose more than 100 pounds and encourage other Arkansans to follow his example.

[...]

But for those who would join the health crusade, Mr. Huckabee’s tale includes a cautionary thread. In the South, the fight against obesity is essentially a culture war. And while the campaign may have raised Mr. Huckabee’s national profile, not everyone here appreciates a governor whose policies include weighing schoolchildren and sending home report cards on their body mass index.

Mr. Huckabee, a teetotaler who now rises before dawn to jog five miles, has been accused of nagging the populace, banning birthday cakes in schools (not true, he says) and trampling the personal freedoms of smokers with an indoor smoking ban. While he says he uses the carrot, not the stick, to encourage better health, his virtue alone has a way of making people like Pearletha David, the owner of David Family Kitchen, a soul food restaurant here, feel henpecked.

“I think it’s fine for him,” Ms. David said, putting her hands on her hips. “But he ain’t got to make the whole state lose weight.”

After the governor’s nutritional guidelines for school lunches took effect, one girl wrote a letter to him demanding “real food” like nachos and pizza. A columnist for The Baxter Bulletin imagined a future of diners picking at their “sautéed soybeans with flavor-free dressing” and discussing the criminalization of cheese curls.

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Mr. Huckabee’s health obsession began in 2003, when he received a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, which can sometimes be controlled by diet and exercise. At the time, he weighed close to 300 pounds.

With the help of doctors at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the governor went on a strict diet and began to exercise, shedding weight so rapidly that it was as if he simply unzipped a fat suit and stepped out. He wrote a book called “Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork.” In March 2005, he ran the Little Rock marathon in 3 hours 38 minutes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/us/10wei...agewanted=print

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Sept. 8 — Mike Huckabee has been the governor of Arkansas for a decade, but he is most famous for what he has done in the last three years: lose more than 100 pounds and encourage other Arkansans to follow his example.

Give up that fried chikin'? Not in Arkinsaw.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Wow.... mental note. Never move to Arkansas.

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Wow.... mental note. Never move to Arkansas.

Because their Governor lost weight? I don't get it.