Coppell, TX Boot Camp and Personal Trainer – Dallas Area Boot Camp Testimonial
Coppell, TX Boot Camp and Personal Trainer – Dallas Area Boot Camp Testimonial
Hi this is Leslie Brown from Coppell, Texas. I have been in Get You In Shape boot camp for three months now, and I have lost 30 pounds. I have gone off of my High cholesterol medicine, and my energy is now through the roof.
Get You In Shape.com Top personal trainer Brad Linder is the owner of Get You In Shape, in the Dallas and Coppell, TX area. Get You In Shape has Fitness Boot Camps, Private Personal Training, Testimonials, Fitness Tips, Nutrition Programs, Online Training, Fitness Products, Weight Loss Plans, a Blog, and more. If you are in Dallas, Coppell, Lewisville, Irving, Carrollton, Valley Ranch, Las Colinas, Flower Mound, Plano and surrounding Dallas, TX cities, Get You In Shape is near you. Get You In Shape has helped many people get their lives back on track and change their lifestyle into a healthy lifestyle. Personal training programs include sports specific training, weight loss programs, boot camps, wellness plan, nutritional plans, core fitness training, strength training, toning and more. Clients include athletes (basketball, golf, football, tennis, baseball, volleyball, softball, and track) corporate executives, professionals, weekend warriors, cheerleaders, dancers, models, stay at home moms, and anyone looking to get fitness results. For more information, visit www.GetYouInShape.com
Have you all seen this?? It’s KFC’s new “Double Down” sandwich…seriously?! Do we really need another “make me fat combo” to choose from during lunchtime?
Don’t even think about trying to justify this as a low-carb option, you’re better off eating the bread…
Instead of two buns, the cheese, bacon, and Colonel’s “sauce” is nestled between two fried chicken breasts! It’s no wonder that there’s no shortage of obese people walking around. Forget the nutrition facts, they should just list the numerous related health issues that you’ll encounter after eating this concoction, maybe that will act as a deterrent.
Furthermore, don’t think you’ll able to burn off the “Double Down” if your workout is anything like this ridiculous exercise class.
In case you’re all wondering…No, hoopilates will not develop your arm muscles and strength. In fact, you’ll probably burn more calories waiting in line for the “Double Down” sandwich.
Want to carry around less fat? Stop wasting your time with nonsense. Trotting like a hamster on a treadmill isn’t going to get you there and neither will hoopilates. Losing fat requires discipline and hard work. It also requires that you don’t update your Facebook status while exercising.
I’m listing the workout I completed today as well as an additional one a client completed. Are they easy? No…but they’re effective.
Kettlebell Complex – Perform exercise 1A, rest 60 seconds, then perform exercise 1B. Move on to the second group of exercises after 5 sets are completed. It’s short and intense, great for fat loss.
1A. Double Kettlebell Dead Cleans + Front Squat 5×5
1B. Double Kettlebell Bent Rows 5×7
2A. Double Kettlebell Dead Cleans + Overhead Press 5×5
2B. Double Kettlebell Swings 5×10
Barbell Complex – The weight you use is determined by the weakest movement, for most this will be the Push-Press. Perform the exercises one after another without setting the bar down. The goal isn’t strength or hypertrophy so check your ego and use a lighter weight.
Deadlift, Straight Leg Deadlift, Bent Over Row, Front Squat, Push-Press, Alternating Reverse Lunges (Front Squat Barbell Placement), Pushups, Jump-rope (30 seconds).
Did you get that roughly 2 out of 3 folks in the United States are overweight? Additionally, almost 50 billion dollars a year is exhausted in the weight loss market to assist people decrease their tummy fat and other body parts. With so much force and consideration about the problem of being heavy, why are so abundant US citizens still heavy? Don’t be like so many other Americans out there that spend more and more money on products that just don’t work.
People will persist to be heavy and attempt all sorts of lotions, potions, gadgets, and tools, but sidestep this unrelenting truth : To lose weight and cut fat you have to do just one thing. You’ve got to burn more calories than you eat. Doing this is the definite way to lose weight for good.
You can continue being the 2 out of 3 folks whom purchase something in the 50 billion dollar a year trade, or you can do what Every time, WITHOUT FAIL works each time. Just burn more calories than you consume, that’s all there is to it.
Don’t be a target in the multi-billion dollar weight loss industry. Don’t fall for the false promises. If you stay on these simply rules you’ll always lose the stomach body fat.
1) Maintain A FOOD JOURNAL – this will permit you to see how many calories you are burning day to day. Remember to account for each small thing you eat – from the pat of butter to the tablespoon of sugar in your coffee. This will assist you to specifically decide what you’re consuming day to day.
(2) BUY THE BODY BUGG FOR CALORIE CONSUMPTION – You might want to buy the Body Bugg from 24 hour fitness to help with this. The Body Bugg will show you how numerous calories you are burning throughout the day.
3) MAKE SURE #2 ABOVE IS GREATER THAN #1 – So, if you ensure that the amount of calories you’re ingesting (#1) is less than the amount of calories you are burning (#2) you are doing fine.
Don’t fall casualty do the billion dollar trade who only you to go from this crash diet to that so that they can persist to plug their pockets with money. Simply stick to the above direct to lose each the stomach/stomach overweight you want.
Mia LeCron has been writing articles on the web for almost five years now. Not only does this author concentrate on diet, fitness, and burning fat, but you can also visit her latest websites about Weight Loss and Losing Weight.
Most kettlebellers will happily talk all day long about the strength, mobility and fitness benefits of swinging a kettlebell but it’s the cerebral element that I find so attractive.
Classes aren’t too bad because there is always a social element and the best instructors I’ve worked with can take your mind off what you are doing by having you laugh as you sweat. But treadmills, elliptical machines, cross trainers and exercise bikes are just mind numbingly boring, I used to dread my gym program, counting the minutes to the end.
However when I kettlebell I have to think, what is my form like, can I do more, swing heavier, use a different set of muscles…? Very often I don’t train, I practise.
This evening all I did was stretch out my lats and snatch or swing trying to make sure that my core and lats were working. The only reason I noticed a raised heart rate was that Chuzzy has asked me to wear a HR monitor and it was beeping away. Time flew and I had to make myself stop because I kept wanting to do another set, just one more to get it right.
With other trainers I simply followed their routine, now I’m writing my own routines and learning about different approaches to excercise and strength training and it’s liberating. It’s a great distraction from my all consuming job. I look forward to my workouts now because I become so absorbed in what I’m doing that I forget everything for a while. My blood pressure (Which used to be a problem) is now 100/60.
Don’t take my word for it, whenever I’ve commented on this on other forums I get a string of replies saying the same thing. How can swinging a lump of metal be so cerebral?!
The more challenging or threatening the situation or context to be assimilated and affirmed, the greater the stature of the person who can achieve it. The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.” ~ Joseph Campbell from The Power of Myth (Canada)
Getting in shape is hard work.
Getting out of shape is much, much easier.
Getting fit requires self-discipline.
Getting fit requires the ability to say no.
Getting fit requires sacrifice.
But, it’s worth it.
The demon that you can swallow gives you its power .
Thanks to TC @ TMuscle for putting me onto this quote.
Why isn’t there a universal diet that everyone can go on that works for everyone? Because diets don’t work. As a society, we’ve already established that. Why we keep flogging that dead horse is another topic altogether. If diets worked, there would be only one diet that everyone goes on and it would work for everyone. Have I said everyone enough times? So…what’s the alternative? Well…over the many years of trying this and that, I keep going back to a few things that have sort of worked for me. However, I didn’t combine them together, because it always seemed like too much effort. I either did the food thing really well or the exercise thing really well. As a teenager, I went to a GP who hypnotized me and I still have a picture in my mind of how he got me to visualize myself slim. The fact that a memory that old still recurs from time to time seems significant. As an adult, I also actually did 3 years of low carbing, then 2 years of Curves, fairly faithfully, but could never seem to combine the three [hypnosis, good food and exercise] at the same time to get something going that really worked synergistically. Seems like a really small problem for the average person that does all these things naturally, but when your primal survival fat programming is turned on full blast like mine is, everything you do is against what your instincts are telling you to do. In order to survive, your body is saying, “Get fat! There’s another famine coming!” “Don’t exercise! You have to conserve energy [fat] for the next famine!” a.k.a. diet. And after 30 odd diets, or periods of starvation, I can imagine that primal centre in my brain is practically screaming blue murder at my subconscious. Diets create a famine scenario and they mess up your metabolism. Your primal mind doesn’t know the difference between a diet and a famine. Your conscious mind gets overridden by the beliefs you hold in your subconscious, which is dictated to by the primal part of your brain that is saying “Get Fat and stay that way as long as possible!” So. Are we folks who are genetically and experientially pre-disposed to excess adipose doomed to a fat existence? I just don’t know. I’ve been overweight to varying degrees for at least 30 years. When I started Food Lovers Fat Loss Program, 17 days ago, it was the heaviest I’d ever been. Even when I carried a full-term baby. Talk about a wakeup call.
In the meantime, while the rest of the world ponders the inevitable, and finally comes to the realization that only a few of us have come to so far; that fat is not a fat person’s fault and that diets don’t work [and hopefully all the thin people feel really, really guilty for all the pain they’ve caused us], I’m pulling out all the stops. I’m battling the mind with hypnosis CD’s, and the metabolism by eating 6 small meals a day and exercising daily; cardio and weights alternating. All of these tools and recommendations are in the Food Lovers Fat Loss Program. It is completely comprehensive and fights the battle on all fronts. Because the hypnosis has started to kick in a little, I’m more willing to exercise. Because the exercise is happening, I’m feeling slightly more energetic and even increased my cardio from 15 to 25 minutes today. I was sweating like the proverbial pig, but…at least I did it. Because the food I’m eating isn’t disgusting and I’m never hungry for more than a few minutes, that seems to be going well too. I still find some of my old programming skimming across the movie screen of my mind, but I’m not buying into it the way I used to. There’s a new phrase that keeps coming to mind: “I’m just not that person anymore.” Don’t know where it came from, but it seems to make me pause when an old belief pops up, “I’m doomed. I’ll never lose weight. My family is all fat, so I will be too. Etcetera,” before I accept a belief that doesn’t work for me and wallow in it. I think the fact that I am working up to each of these things gradually has a lot to do with my recent, albeit minimal, success. We’ll just have to wait and see what time will bring.
By the way, the lasagne and sloppy joes went over well with everyone, except my son, who is built like me and has his fat programming turned on full blast. When he whined, we ignored him and the other two vultures ate his. It’s all about survival baby. Maybe I will eventually be enough of an example for him that his conscious mind will take control long enough for him to be able to put the fat programming on hold and try these methods together. Here’s hoping!
I’ve reviewed many weight loss products in the past, and the methods revealed in The Weight Loss Grail are a total revelation for those of us who are struggling with weight issues.
The Weight Loss Grail has completely blown the lid off some of the best-kept secrets to weight loss ever discovered – and this has the whole dieting world turned upside down in nothing less than a torrential uproar.
And no, nothing about their “secrets” are difficult – nor do they require that you do something completely out of the ordinary or anything unnatural.
Instead, the plan proudly boasts that you actually get to eat 6 times per day and get slimmer by simply adding certain foods to your diet.
One of the most eye-opening concepts that I read about was on nutritional starvation. It told me exactly why I still feel hungry even after I’ve eaten a meal that could satisfy an entire family.
I think that 95% of people who have trouble losing weight are fighting a losing battle unless they deal with this pervasive problem. But what put a smile on my face was just how EASY it was to correct!
The idea of eating more than 3 times per day really started to make more sense to me too. I realized that I was always eating out of routine, and that I had a set time that I would eat my breakfast, lunch and dinner. This way of eating is not very productive for maximum weight loss.
I began to follow the instructions of eating more frequent but smaller meals and eating the recommended combinations of foods. The first thing that I started to notice was that I was no longer getting that powerful appetite just before dinner because I hadn’t eaten for such a long period of time (more than 6 hours).
I would usually be very hungry by this time, and I would end up eating much more than what I really needed. I would go and sit by the TV with my plate covered with food, eat it, then go back into the kitchen for seconds.
I’ve noticed now that my appetite has dropped significantly at night and I feel completely satisfied after eating a “normal” sized portion of food. Those late-night hunger pangs that would always come back to haunt me were probably the hardest thing to fight off when ever I tried dieting.
Not eating at night was almost impossible for me on a calorie reduced diet. Feeling hungry during the day was bad enough, but at night I would always give in to the temptation and eat something horribly fattening and then end up feeling completely miserable for the rest of the night.
A few months back I tried using appetite suppressing pills for the first time, and then stopped after only a few days because I felt extremely nervous all the time and had trouble getting to sleep. I knew that these pills could not be good for me and we won’t get into the cost either!
I now feel sorry for those people who still get suckered in to buying products like these, because I now know that your body can naturally help you lose weight if you would take just a little time to understand how it really works.
I also took the time to use their really useful online weight loss diary. With it you can keep track of all the foods you eat and the exercises you have done daily.
It also keeps track of all the weight you’ve lost over the weeks and you can even post photo updates. I found this to be a very useful motivational tool and a great way to keep track of everything I had to do.
The customer support is also fantastic. I sent a “test” message to their support system, and I got a reply within 7 hours which isn’t too shabby.
The Weight Loss Grail ebook is in an easily readable format and can be quickly understood and mastered by anyone with even a 4th grade reading level.
I heard that they were going to only take in a certain amount of members so that their system doesn’t become overloaded. If you seriously want to get into better shape, I suggest you get over to their website and get a membership while you still can.
Weight loss is the happening word today. Almost everybody thinks that they are overweight and take desperate efforts to slim down. They maintain very strict diet and mostly, they almost eat nothing at all, resulting to under nourishment. Having a healthy body is very important for one’s own confidence levels. Many dieticians and doctors around the world recommend specific foods and recommend tablets to bring about weight loss. The fact is that, these do bring about weight loss without doubt, but they are not long standing. After a few weeks or months, the weight tends to appear on one’s body. This is the biggest disadvantage of all the medicines and the diet programs that are available in the market today. However the software available in this website is only about positive recordings. It has a lot of positive recordings that emphasize that nobody is overweight. The term weight itself is a negative term. The priority is to have a healthy body. One should stop worrying that he is overweight, or does not have the correct physique for his age. These negative energies aggravate weight gain. No matter how strict the food or diet is, no matter how many tablets one takes, weight loss never happens because of the negative energies in the mind. The brain is the controller of the human body. When there are so many negative forces in the brain, how can one expect to lose weight? Thoughts are more effective than tablets. Everybody should agree to this. One can download this software at a reasonable price and listen to the positive recordings that clear the myth of weight loss. This gives an insight into what weight means and how one should control it. It may appear pschycological to few people, however the fact is that, after listening to these recordings, one is bound to feel good about his physical appearance. The world always weighs us on our confidence levels. This program is sure to give enough confidence levels to project a positive picture to the world. It is not the weight, but the attitude that matters. As long as one has a healthy body, one should not bother about his weight. Continuously listening to these recordings sends positive signals to the brain and automatically controls the food that we intake. Weight loss happens naturally without any external medication. This is the best way to lose weight. In addition to that, one begins to feel so good and confident about oneself. This satisfaction is never achieved even at times of strict diet control or weight loss medications.
Trimming off the extra weight is not something that can be done overnight. A thoroughly organized weight loss program needs common sense and certain guidelines. Unluckily, there’s a lot of misrepresentation floating around and lots of people are easily targeted and deceived.
Diet reviews can easily be found on health magazines or newspaper. Another best source is online through websites. Since, most of us seem to be searching for the right weight loss remedy. A lot of Americans are trying to lose weight, pays billions of dollars annually on diet programs and health products. In most cases, they do lose some weight. But, more or less all have gained back the weight they lost. That’s why it is a must to know where to get the best information unbiased.
What’s up for today ladies? It’s COLD here today!! Feels like we’re mid October if you can believe that!! Definitely jeans & hoodie weather!! Having a good day so far… got all my housework done today, (and I did extra ’cause my grandma is coming over) so I go the ‘extra’ mile… lol! Also got in my workout (30 Day Shred) today, so I feel better about life after not getting any exercise yesterday.
I started off the day with my coffee and banana-blueberry bread again… then after my workout I ate about 1/3 of an orange, I would have had the entire thing but it was the last one and my 2 daughters wanted some too… so share I did!
Next was a nice, big, omelet! 2 eggs, some 1% milk, about 4oz. roasted chicekn breast, generous 1/2 cup of broccoli, and about an ounce’ish of cheddar cheese. A slice of whole wheat toast with butter was a perfect side! YUM!
That’s all i’ve had so far… it’s almost 3 pm here and i’m about to jump in the shower to get ready for date night with hubby! We’re going to the VIP theaters to see Inglorious Basterds. It’s a Quentin Tarantino movie, so not my usual cup of tea, quite violent, and i’ll probably cover my eyes for more than half of the movie, but it’s supposed to be really good and last time hubby let me pick and we saw The Proposal. Not exactly a “guy” movie, so fair is fair right? lol!!
For those who are wondering, VIP Theaters are new here, but they sound fabulous! Tonight will be my first time going…
The new 11-screen, 39,000 square foot Cineplex Odeon Westmount and VIP Cinemas offers an upscale urban experience with a vibrant new design. Fully equipped with digital projection systems, guests will be treated to a visually enticing experience like no other. Three auditoriums are equipped with RealD 3D technology, where guests can enjoy a fully immersive 3D experience with the great line-up of more than a dozen 3D movies scheduled to be released in 2009. With three VIP auditoriums, guests 19 years of age or older will be treated to an exclusive box office and concession stand, a private licensed lounge with appetizer menu offerings and seating area as well as oversized, premium and reserved seating.
Sounds pretty good huh? I’m excited! Hoping that I can find something ’semi-healthy’ to eat since we’re having dinner at the Theater.. I very much doubt I can sneak in my camera, so will just have to tell you how it went tomorrow!
Well i’m off… have a fabulous Friday!!!
Todays quote:
The spirit cannot endure the body when overfed, but, if underfed, the body cannot endure the spirit.
I’m not so sure I could really call where I am ‘consolidation’ because I’m now eating without being on the protocol. However, I do feel that Cura Romana has put me on a path where I do know what I want to eat and most definitely what I don’t want too.
Unfortunately my second occasion on the Cura Romana HCG+Foodplan is delayed whilst I try to sort out these blasted gallstones! I’ve purchased a rememdy from Alan Hopking at Godshaer’s Medicinal Herbalist – it really does taste absolutely grim, but I’m hopeful that it will work and that I can avoid surgery. He does have a 99% success rate, so it’s got to be worth a try.
I did think I should mention though that I have lost a further 4 kilos since finishing consolidation phase …. this has been without any effort at all, nothing in the form of conscious thought process anyway.
I still continue to feel very well and STILL, fingers crossed, have not had one single migraine since May this year. That is honestly a miracle for me. I used to be plagued with headaches for three weeks out of every four. Painkillers didn’t help to ease them, whether it was paracetamol, aspirin, codeine or migraine medication (sumatriptain). I simply used to have to retire to a dark room, close my eyes and hope that the pain would pass. They were really debilitating and hugely detrimental in terms of quality of life.
FREEDOM!!! The sense of true liberation is spell-binding!
Also other aches and pains have all but gone … still got a very troublesome ankle (but then I have sprained it severely 5 times now), so that’s hardly surprising.
I am still on ZERO medication for anything!!! A miracle continues!
Feeling in very high, motivated spirit and continue to be exceptionally busy, building a new working life for myself which is very exciting.
Hope all the visitors to my blog are finding that they are getting along well on Cura Romana. Please don’t ever hesitate to contact me. I’m happy to answer any questions
I stood on the scales one morning and suddenly became aware I had my dressing gown on. I removed the garment and proceeded to hold it out to my side at arms length so as not to add the unecessary weight to the final total on the scale display.
I stepped onto the scales holding a cup of tea. Upon realising the extra weight in my hand I set the cup down and held the mouthful of tea in my mouth thinking momentarily, if it were not contained in my stomach it wouldn’t affect my weight measurement.
Beginning to realise the weight loss I’ve finally seen on the scales must be down to vanishing brain cells.
They are ugly, filthy, riddled with disease, and if new studies are accurate, they all have shrinkage of the brain. Why that would make them retarded in a way wouldn’t it?
Why do we tolerate them?!
Man’s inhumanity to man comes as no surprise, but the unrelenting demonization of overweight people in our society never ceases to floor me.
They are today’s scapegoats. Want to openly hate someone? Hate a fat person. Everyone will understand.
Smokers can breath a sigh of relief (if their filthy stinking black lungs can still inhale…D’OH!). The pressure is off a little. Fat is the new whipping boy.
You won’t get an argument from me on the benefits of NOT being fat. They are many.
But why is there the need to turn the overweight into something less than human? If that seems too harsh then ok. Why make them seem like a human failure?
Of course the fact that estimates show our society to be incredibly overweight just makes the whole thing more galling.
Some point at the few TV shows revolving around the zaftig as proof society has compassion. Pish posh. First of all, TV on its face is MAKE BELIEVE people! It is not real. Not any of it. It is all carefully scripted and produced for your viewing pleasure (even the “news” but that’s another topic entirely!).
One such show comes to us from our friends in the UK. Overweight people are trotted out in all of their overeating glory to face how disgusting and gross they are…something that will shock them into wanting to lose weight. The food they normally eat for a week is all aggregated and laid out before them. The tables groan with the greasy, salty, fried load. For shame fat person!
Maybe I am a tad touchy having been humiliated and ridiculed from the moment I started packing on the pounds somewhere in the 4th grade? Maybe when I grew up and saw how I could be dismissed out of hand as not having anything worthwhile to contribute since I was fat, has made me a wee bit skittish? Perhaps it was the realization that I could not get decent medical treatment because every doctor I saw decided that there wasn’t a thing they could do for me because after all I was fat? Yes, yes, and yes.
How dare they dehumanize me simply based on the way I looked!
And now that I see the constant drumming in the media encouraging this vile behavior, I get mad.
I may not have the body size I once did, but I have never changed. And having never changed, I will always be that fat person. Others may not see it, but that weight is there. It is a part of me and has molded me into who I am today.
Well, I weighed myself Sunday when I got home to assess the damage and I was 229lbs, back to square one.
Weight myself this morning 225lbs again.
Phew, I haven’t lost but I haven’t gained so woo!
I’ve got another load of heavy weekends ahead of me – This weekend out with my friends from Amsterdam. Then a Photoshoot on Sat, Dinosaur Adventure park on Sun. (<3)
The following weekend I’m shooting a wedding.
The following weekend I’m in Amsterdam
Urgh, diet may go to pot in Amasterdam because I’ll have to drink beer.
On another note I got to work in 29 minutes today!
Every year I make New Year’s resolutions, and this year, as usual, losing weight was at the top of my list.
It seems simple enough when I write it down. All I have to do is hop on a treadmill every day, watch what I eat and maybe take some vitamins to make sure my body gets what it needs.
But then I remember it was also my top resolution last year.
And the year before.
And the year before that.
In fact, I’ve probably had losing weight on my New Year’s to-do list every year since middle school. Unfortunately, I have found myself falling off the dieting bandwagon year after year, which has only led to stress eating and more weight gain.
To me, eating has always been more than a matter of feeding myself when I’m hungry. It’s a form of recreation, a form of therapy and a crutch. It’s what I turn to when I’m lonely, stressed, depressed or even just bored. It’s mostly emotions that drive me to eat, and oftentimes it’s because of the eating and the weight gain that I’m having those emotions.
It’s a vicious circle, and every year, more and more Americans fall victim to it. Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 66.3 percent of adults over 20 are overweight, obese or morbidly obese, I have always felt alone in my struggles. Walking through the mall, or near UK’s campus, it seems like everyone’s profile is the exact same: They’re slender.
The release of more and more statistics on obesity and the throngs of people I see purchasing dieting books or joining Weight Watchers reminds me, however, that when I try to button my jeans and find them too tight, when I go to American Eagle only to discover I need a larger size, or when I step onto a scale to discover I’ve gained a pound or five, that I am not alone.
My goals have never been to be a beauty queen or to be the model splashed across the cover of Cosmopolitan. I, for the most part, don’t care about the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. I just want to be healthy. To not have to worry about huffing and puffing when I walk into the office just from climbing a few flights of stairs, or dread the scale every time I go to the doctor’s office and the judging glare of the nurses reading the numbers on the digital screen.
So here’s to a new outlook on life, and learning to live the healthy way!
I am praying for faith. I am on my second day of Thin Within. I know that I am being so watchful to see if it is going to work for me. It is so easy to get discouraged with my weight. I feel like this is a last effort and I am praying for God to help me stick to it and for God to give me the faith that He will give me victory in my weight loss.
I know this is where Satan always keeps a hold on me. I have to rely on God for so much and I feel like I am usually able to. Next week we don’t have orders to run my company. I am doing pretty well leaving it to God and waiting to see what he will bring. I have seen Him do so much. There is a $1500 payment that has been made every single week for months. I only have 10 more weeks to go on it. The thing is that I see the books, I know the day to day business inside and out. There is no way we have been able to make that payment every week. God has done it. Not us, not the business. He is so faithful.
It almost makes me ashamed of myself for lacking faith in any area. I can just look at my husband and I live in wonder of how God takes care of us and blesses us. We just had our 2nd anniversary. We were both married for over 22 years to other people. As much as we each went through before, and after finding ourselves divorced when neither of us would have ever considered ending up divorced, God redeemed it all. It is like he brought our lives along from that point separately and then after we had been single for a couple of years he directed our lives together in ways that couldn’t just happen. We both are just in awe and wonder of what we have together. So it is amazing to me that after all I have seen and been through with God that I can have any areas of doubt. I feel as if I am doubting me and not God. But I also know that I have laid it on God so any lack in faith is a lack of faith in Him.
I know the Thin Within program says not to weigh much, but after my first day yesterday I did weigh this morning. I lost 2 lbs. God is building my faith I know. He gave me that to help me believe. He loves me and knows that I need a lot of help and as usual He gives me the help. I just have to try to keep trusting Him and trust that He will bring the success in what I believe He has brought me to. This is a battle with my weight yes, but even more, I know this for me is a battle with Satan. That may seem overstated to someone who has never had a lifelong struggle with weight, but it is true for me.
God, help me to believe. I know that You have given me a beginning success to give me more faith. You have given me so much Father that I know I should be able to trust with out hesitation. I cannot do this on my own, but Father the times I have seen you do what can’t be done are so many. I praise you for all the daily miracles you show me. Sometimes it is hard to struggle financially or otherwise but Wow what I get to see you do. Please help me stick with the Thin Within program and help Terry with it too. I know this is so new to him, and I know that a large part of him doing the program is to support me. Thank you God for such a wonderful, Godly man who shows me his love so easily. God, please be with the people in my Thin Withing group as well as the people on the forum. Help them all to find you in a deeper way through this program and give them strength to stick with it as you strengthen me.
I finally sent a text to my trainer asking for a little training freedom tonight. Just one session a week to do my own thing would be nice. I don’t think he’s very impressed…
I have taken his advice about diet though and am slowly bringing in change.
Up until July my weekdaydiet looked a little like this:
No sugar museli and low fat soya milk, tea and fruit juice at around 6:45am
Apple 10:30 ish water
Salad wrap with either cheese or quorn, diet yoghurt, fruit 12:00 ish water
A handful of nuts/a biscuit or some fruit 4:ish water
Main meal- usually vegetarian protein source e.g. nuts, beans, quorn, cheese, egg + carbohydrate (rice, pasta, quiona,coucous) and a vegetable
fruit and juice
The problem with this diet is that it contained too much fruit sugar and carbohydrate and I was suffering badly with energy crashes.
So I’ve made some changes:
Country Walking magazine suggested fruit with the museli would help breakfast last longer (I can’t face eggs at this time)
Mid- morning – homemade protein bar:peanut butter,oatmeal, whey protein and water. This sustains me really well.
Either replace wrap with a salad or have wrap now and no carbohydrate for evening meal. Am surprised by how filling a salad can be.
Mid afternoon- small snack of falafel or quorn pieces- this really stops sugar crash and helps me through evening workout.
Evening meal: Protein and veg- small carbohydrate if none at lunch
Fruit snack and diet hot choc if get evening cravings.
My energy levels are better and I’ve lost a little weight despite less intense workouts. Weekends are slightly different because I share bread based breakfast with my partner much later in the morning. But am stll cutting do
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Yesterday I was at a friend’s house in the evening when it started to rain. Since I was stuck there for a while, we headed to the kitchen to make hot dosai with tomato chutney which is my favourite on rainy days. I was leaning against the counter while she made the dosa and we started reminiscing about our childhood, adolescent years and pre-marriage years. When I told her that before my marriage I could easily eat more than 10 dosais, she said that I was exaggerating, “you never even go for a second serve.” But it is true, I used eat a lot then. During my school days, on Sunday mornings I would return from the playground, sit in front of the TV, and mom would give me hot dosai with tomato, onion or groundnut chutney. I would count the dosais till 10 and then stop counting and continue to eat. Mom used to be really patient, something that I did not realize then, but she was always smiling when she placed yet another hot dosai on my plate and asked me if I needed some more chutney. Even after I started working, the Sunday ritual was the same, be it dosai, puri, or chappati. I would continue to count till 10 and then stop counting, but of course I would continue to eat. What carefree days. I had no clue what calories were and never even stopped to think that I could become fat.
All the other activities that filled my day took care of burning the calories. Well what kind of activities burns that kind of calories???? So many dosas and chappatis, not to mention the three cups of rice with sambar, rasam, curd, veggies for lunch, another round of idli, dosa for dinner, and all the sweets, savouries and chocolates in between???? Well, to start with, we did not have running tap water then, so we had to fetch water from our well for all our needs. Drawing water from the well with a 5 liter bucket is no joke. My mom had always insisted that we do all our work ourselves and also encouraged us to do some household chores. So every morning before going to school, my brothers and I would fill water, walk the dog, sweep the floor, do the dishes, and iron our uniforms. I used to ride my bicycle to school that was 5 kms from home. We would wash our own clothes and white shoes on weekends. So much work for such young kids??? Not at all, actually we used to enjoy doing small work around the house. We would make everything into a game. It was fun. I think sharing and doing household chores with my brothers actually enabled us to form strong bond that we have till date. Even after I finished my UG and started working, I used to ride my bicycle to office about 6 km. I think these activities had kept me in shape then.
Well, with marriage came the comfort of hiring a maid for the household work, washing machine, eating out a lot, no more riding bicycle or crowded bus since my hubby would insist on dropping and picking me up from the office. So little physical activity and continuing to eating just as before, resulted in tremendous weight gain within a short span of time. One of my colleagues said that I should burn more calories than I consume to lose weight and I asked her, “what calories?” She rolled her eyes and said, “move your body more than you move your jaw.” Since then my weight loss motto has been “move more than you chow.”
This is what I’m terrible at: making goals and sticking to them. I mean sure! I’ve met some goals. Certainly in my life, I’ve achieved things. I can’t honestly tell you the last time I remember NOT being overweight. I’ve always wanted to lose it and I’ve always told myself that I would try. I never did try, though. I gave up so quickly that I can’t even remember how long the attempts lasted. I finally feel like I have a chance. I feel like this time, I could do this.
My first goal was sort of a test run: I quit the one thing I never thought I could! Diet Coke. I’m pretty sure that most people know how the DC addiction works: one sip and you’re gone. It’s terrible. I kept telling myself that I needed it, that if I didn’t drink it, I’d fall asleep. That’s not true! At one point I was drinking five DC’s a day… going through two twelve packs a week or something insane like that. Considering my financial situation, this seemed like a good goal: quit Diet Coke, save 10-15 dollars a week, and feel better. Awesome. It’s only been about a week and a half to two weeks, but I feel like I can safely say that I achieve my goal. I’ve had DC since I quit, and it doesn’t taste good. Once it even made me feel sick. I’ve heard a lot of people say that when you quit soda you notice a difference in a few weeks. I haven’t gotten there yet, but I’m still glad that I quit it.
My second goal isn’t going to be as easy. The goal is to lose 46 pounds. Right now, I weigh about 196lbs. It’s easy for me to “hide” it, because I’m 5′10”… I think for the most part, the weight is evenly distributed (except in SOME places… thighs, stomach, arms… but even in these areas, it’s about equal). I don’t want to hide it anymore though. Last week I was on vacation in Tahoe. We went to the beach, and I wore a swimming suit. I felt okay in it, but not great. For once I’d like to put a suit on that isn’t a tankini or one piece. I want to be on the beach and not feel self conscious of my huuuge thighs. More than that, I just want to feel good. So I’m following the example of my Mom, who has so far lost over 40 pounds with Weight Watchers, and I’m going to give it a shot.
Here are my goals.
To reach the top of my “healthy weight” zone: 175
To reach a mid-point and the weight I’d like to stick to: 150
To be in shape
Not have monster thighs or arms
Feel better about myself
I’m not going to give myself a strict deadline, because I know that it’s unhealthy to lose too much weight at once. But, it’d be nice to get a good amount off this month, and the rest off by Christmas at least. That’s my goal. This here blog is to keep me honest. I am hoping I can share what I’ve learned. We shall see!
Elena Dementieva just won the Rogers Cup in Toronto. So for the last week I’ve been watching more TV than usual and it’s making me want to play a game soon. Here’s an article where Dementieva helps author Jasmine Gardner get a beginner’s grip in tennis. Skip to the bottom if you’re not a tennis fan – Dementieva has a sense of humour!
Step one: The grip
The edge of the handle should be in line with the V between my thumb and index finger and instead of holding the racquet horizontally, I should tilt it upwards and open the face up to the court, slightly angled back.
Terrified of getting it wrong, I’m rigid with tension which apparently makes for terrible tennis. “You’re main problem is that you need to relax,” says Elena — although it’s certainly not my only problem.
Step two: Forehand drive and forehand topspin
Every time I hit the ball it seems to fly past the baseline and into the fence. Elena tells me this is because I’m not following through when I hit the ball. I’m right-handed, so the key is to bring the racquet right around my body to my left side with every stroke.
To get extra control over the ball (and to make things harder for my opponent), Elena tells me to tilt the racquet forward slightly as it makes contact with the ball, so that it sweeps over the ball and gives it some topspin.
Step three: Two-handed backhand
My natural instinct is to hit backhand shots with just one hand, but as a beginner, to improve accuracy and get enough power, Elena says I need to use both hands.
So I bring my left hand onto the racquet above my right, turn my right shoulder towards the net and hit the ball as though I am taking a forehand shot with the wrong hand.
Step four: Volley
Having noticed how ferociously I thwack the ball, Elena thinks the volley will be my favourite shot. She’s right.
There’s no swing, just a short punch of the ball, and my shots are even landing in-court.
She explains that instead of just a flick of the wrist I need to use my whole arm to control the shot. “You obviously have a natural ability,” Elena tells me, to my delight. “You just need to practise every day.” Oh.
Before we leave the court, Elena shows me how to master the most important aspect of every match — the final handshake.
We approach the net and I hold out my hand. She looks me up and down, and with a sneer she gives my hand a non-committal brush, pivots around with a flick of her ponytail and walks off court. If I do lose, Elena jokes, this is how to do it like a pro.
Next week is our last chance. Last night the weather was fine but we would have ended up paying 3x more than what we would next Friday because they had the World of Outlaws last night. While fun WOO does not make that much difference to my son and not worth it to us to go to. So this opened the night to inviting a friend and his kids over to play with mine while he and I watched the Viks game and the unveiling of the Favre. I am a big Vikings and football fan and excited to have #4 on our team. While I didn’t expect much from him last night as he’s been with the team for only 3 days, it at least confirmed that he is with the team. He’s the best option for our team to win. Doesn’t mean we’ll win the SB but should make for a more interesting year.
This morning I was going to get my 6 mile run in but as I was putting my shoes on another friend called who asked if we could watch their kid as they go to the hospital. She’s 7 months pregnant and having some labor pains. They don’t have family up here so we’re glad to do it. It just may push my run until later in the day but that’s ok. Gave me a chance to paint my in-wall speakers so they now hide into the wall.
Also gives me a chance to visit my reward for my big goal. While reading the book “Are you Ready?” by Bob Harper it got me into the Effort = Reward mindset. I understand the rewards of a healthy body/lifestyle but I grabbed onto this as well. I started putting in $30 per paycheck into a savings account and it’s been exciting to see that grow. I’m not one who buys things for himself. My mp3 player is a refurbished Sansa that works just fine. I don’t do video games. I do not have a 4-wheeler or a pickup which is kinda of a right’s of a man thing up here. No boat for fishing or recreation. No motor cycle and my car is a 13 year old care we bought 6 years ago for $1500. Our budget goes to trips to Europe (although my in-laws have helped a lot with this), paying bills, and paying for our house. My hobbies are big sound which is satisfied by helping out at a church that has an amazing sound system. Small audio which I am being patient about waiting to finish our basement but love the little deals that I find here and there. The third is computers. I’m an electronic technician and I love programming and working on computers. My wife has the newest computer in the house and that one is 4 years old. My laptop is 8 years old and doesn’t have much longer to live. I have 6 keys missing and 2 others on their way out because of my little guy and then the processor is getting old. There are times when it will not type what I typed. Before it used to take it’s time to catch up to my typing, now it’s completely ignoring me. So this is what I’ve got my prize temporarily set at.
It’s an Acer AS5810T. As I just want something for general use, this puppy has an Intel Core Duo Single core that’s at 1.4GHz but that allows battery time up to 8-9 hours. It has an HDMI output in case we ever get a TV with that, LED screen which I’ve held out for a long time, it’s thin and light and will do everything I want. The setup I’ll get will have 4GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, and a 512MB video card that will help with the video processing. I’ll probably get Adobe Photoshop Elements so my wife can do some editing on it and then move that over to her computer whenever we get a new one for her. Sorry if I bored you over this but I am looking forward to this and helps to know that I’m that much closer to it. I say temporarily because another laptop could come up or another idea. But I do like this one after looking at a lot of them. We’ll see.
Weekly update: -0.6 pound; overall, +2 pounds
As local colleges gear up for the fall semester, a whole new class of students will be faced with the “freshman 15” – which, of course, refers to the 15 pounds of extra weight students pack on during their first year of college.
A recent news release from the University Extension Office gives some pointers for fighting the freshman 15, but those tips can be useful to anyone who’s trying to take off weight or keep from adding it on.
Researchers at Cornell University’s Division of Nutritional Sciences found that students gained an average of four pounds during the first semester – which would be about a pound of month. Not a big deal if it stops there, but when that rate of gain continues – for psychological, social or practical reasons – it doesn’t take long until health is impacted.
For college students, a practical perspective that can affect weight is the fact that they’re exposed to more food choices than they may have had at home. Dormitory dining halls, welcome events, parties and Greek rush activities all tempt students’ palates.
But if you think about it, an abundance of options – from calorie-laden corporate lunches to shared office goodies to quick, sugar-filled afternoon pick-me-ups – might also be considered a problem for adults in the work-force.
Not surprisingly, stress is a factor that can contribute to weight gain, and it can affect people of all ages.
It makes sense, then, that the same tips college kids can use to keep the weight off might be helpful to the rest of us.
Tammy Roberts, a nutrition and health education specialist with the University of Missouri Extension, offers these suggestions:
• Eat three healthy meals a day – with reasonable portion sizes.
• Keep healthy snacks available to avoid temptation from high-calorie offerings. (Why is it I never have an apple handy on those days when someone brings doughnuts in the office?)
• Limit high-calorie drinks. Water’s an excellent choice. (I still say diet soda should count as a good choice, but then, I’m not a nutritionist!)
• Walk to classes and events instead of driving. (The rest of us can substitute “work” or “lunch” for “class.”
All good things to keep in mind – and to put into practice.
Weekly update: A small loss is still a loss, so I’m glad to be moving in that direction. At this point in my weight-loss endeavor, I’m looking at enlisting some help, whether it’s a structured eating plan or something else. I’ve been checking out these fiber-packed bars, called Full Bars, and am toying with giving those a try. (And here’s my disclaimer: I’m in no way advocating that others do any of these things. Weight loss decisions should be made individually and in conjunction with one’s physician). This week’s rain hampered my walking goal a bit, but we’re about to begin a new week, so we’ll see what it brings.
What a completely annoying, frustrating, pain-in-my-ass week. Unfortunately, there’s not just one thing wrong, so it’s not like I can just fix that one thing and make everything better.
I think what my great aunt said to me last week is finally beginning to sink in. I’m still proud that I haven’t sunk into a major eating binge, but damn. What kind of person blames a 14 year old girl for a decline in health? Maria was a diabetic for years, and never took care of herself—I remember her eating those McDonalds meals right along with me. And the cookies. And cakes. And donuts. And ice cream sundaes.
It’s always hard when someone you love very much falls off the pedestal you put them on. In my case, she not only fell, but shattered into a thousand pieces. As time went on, I began calling her Maria, to separate the negative memories from the good ones. Pre-1997, she was Mimi, my grandma who loved me very much. Post-1997, she was Maria, a woman who became so embittered by living in a town she hated and away from her family that became jaded and lashed out at the people who loved her most. I began to rationalize that the stroke made her sick, unable to function on a normal level.
Mariwade’s letter crushed that realization. Not only because Maria was telling everyone I was to blame, but the rest of the family believed it.
I don’t even pretend to understand people.
Also, I’m tired. I haven’t had a real vacation in over two years. Normally, I don’t think this would be so bad. The difference this week is that my parents decided to book a three night, four day vacation to Virginia Beach. During a time when they knew I wouldn’t be able to go. Did they book the vacation over a weekend, so I could be there for part of the time? Nope. I’m really hurt that they chose to book a ‘family vacation’ with only their son.
I get daily emails, texts and phone calls updating me on what a great time they’re having. (The latest being that their hotel is right above the boardwalk, where the local radio station hosted Carbon Leaf. I tried to get tickets to a Carbon Leaf concert a few years ago and couldn’t.) I’ve started ignoring their phone calls and texts, and giving only short replies to their emails.
I’m not happy they’re having a good time. I’m stressed, I need a vacation, and they know it. Their perky little updates are rubbing it in my face. Unless their vacation includes bad weather, sun burns, roach motel-like conditions, bad customer service and car trouble, I don’t want to hear about it.
On the upside, I got a job at a client site, with normal business hours! No 430 wake up calls for me! On the downside, there is a TON of paperwork I need to do. I don’t have any of the information I need at my fingertips, which means a lot of researching. It’s annoying and not helping my mood.
I’m falling behind in my grad school work. It’s recoverable, in that there’s no actual due date for anything but the final research paper. I just don’t feel like working.
This is an on going habit I’ve noticed. When I’m super stressed and overwhelmed, I don’t want to do ANYTHING. So I usually don’t. This would explain why I have almost no food left (don’t want to go grocery shopping) and my bedroom looks like my closet threw up (don’t want to clean).
Let’s not even address the 1.5lb weight gain this week. I still can not wrap my mind around how that happened. Yeah, yeah, I know. Fluid retention. But I eat really healthy and have completely cut out refined sugar (with the exception of the two Subway cookies I had today. I saw them, I wanted them, so I ate them. It made me feel better and I’m completely unapologetic). I train like I’m going to the 2010 Olympics.
And yes, I know what you’re thinking. “Oh, it’s ok. The numbers aren’t everything.” But think about it…this early in my weight loss battle, they are. I need to see an actual, trackable change to measure my success.
Any body changes that occur are so small they become relative. I don’t see a difference at all when I look in the mirror, because I see myself every day. My friends help a little, but honestly, I don’t want to be talking about my weight loss (or lack thereof) all the time. If I say something, it’s like I’m fishing for a compliment, and I refuse to be That Girl. I can’t rely on my family, either. My mom thinks I lose ten pounds every time I see her, and my grandmother can’t understand why I’m losing weight.
“Men prefer women who are pleasantly plump,” she tells me. Unfortunately she fails to realize that we no longer live in the age of Peter Paul Ruben. And I passed the stage of ‘pleasantly plump’ when I was four.
I almost got hit by a car today. Twice. In the same crosswalk. Within thirty seconds. I didn’t have time to pack my lunch last night or this morning, so I walked across the street to the Subway. I bought a foot long buffalo chicken sub with lots of veggies and one tiny strip of ranch dressing, wrapped separately so I could eat half for lunch and the other half at 3pm-ish.
Coming back, I waited at the crosswalk. I hate waiting at crosswalks. Motorists seem to forget that in Virginia, pedestrians always have the right of way, and when you see one about to enter a crosswalk, or even WAITING to enter a crosswalk, you are, by law, required to stop. Finally, a car stopped going west bound so I could cross. As I stepped out into the cross walk, a Barbie-like blonde in a BMW convertible swerved around me, flicking me off as she went. That was the second time my life has ever flashed before my eyes. I continued on across the street. An east bound delivery truck crossed within three feet of me. Either he saw me and thought he could beat me across or he didn’t see me at all. Anyway you slice it, it didn’t help my day.
Today had started out crappy enough anyway. I woke up hoping that today would be better from my earlier week. Nope.
When I got to work, I saw an online news article that made my heart sink. Scottish authorities decided to release Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber.
For those of you who are unaware, the Lockerbie bombing dates back to 1988, when Pan Am flight 103, flying from Heathrow to JFK, was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland. Today, Scottish officials decided to release the mastermind, convicted to life in prison in 2001, because the poor guy has terminal cancer, with an estimated three months left to live.
Ordinarily I’d be upset over the security implications from this. The man is a known terrorists, who associated with other known terrorists. They’re returning him to Libya, a country known for its terrorist support. Yes, he’s terminal, but that does not render him useless. Osama bin Laden has been dying of kidney failure for ten years, and look what he does.
I feel emotionally tied to this as well. Years ago, I was training to be an opera singer, and I studied under a particular voice teacher. (I’m not going to use his name here, and refrain from giving any other identifying information, as I want to respect his privacy). It’s hard to explain the tie between a student and her teacher. Our friendships usually lie on a different emotional level than our other relationships—I think it’s because music is our soul, which sets us apart from the general population.
I found out some time ago that my voice teacher’s son was on that flight. I never knew him before the accident (I was four at the time, and didn’t meet my teacher until I was 18), but from what I’ve been told, it completely rocked his world, and he’s never been the same since. Completely understandable. He opened up to me once, only a little, after the Libyan government agreed to pay compensation to the survivors. I won’t go into what he said, but my heart aches for what he went through.
This man blew up a plane and forever changed the lives of 270 families and God knows how many friends. Compassion has no place here.
I’m going to bed. It’s almost 4am. I’ve been asleep since 6, but I still feel like I could pass out for a week.
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According to Dr David Heber in “The LA Shape Diet” women who are on a weight loss program, need about 100 grams of protein per day to fight against hunger and to build their best personal lean muscle
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Without the appropriate level of proteins in a low calorie diet, people and women in particular, risk losing 1 pound of muscle for every 4 pounds of weight lost!
Dr Heber recommends soy-protein shakes or soy-protein fruit smoothies as a safe and healthy way to achieve fast and permanent weight loss. Apart from the wonderful health advantages of soy,
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They have antioxidant properties also. These compounds repair, and help prevent damage to cells caused by pollution, sunlight, and normal body processes. Free radicals can easily cause harm to the immune system, whose cells divide often. They may also be responsible for some of the changes of aging.
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Time Magazine just published an article entitled “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin”. This is news to me!
It seems like the main argument is that exercise doesn’t burn that many calories AND we get more hungry after working out than we would just going through a normal day.
Whatever – even if the whole exercise to lose weight thing is a sham, I refuse to stop exercising.
On that note, I ate SO much today.
Breakfast: apple, peanut butter, Fiber One yogurt: 500 calories
Lunch: piada, tuma cheese, spinach/garlic/onions sauteed, wine cookies: 800 calories
Snacktime: Dark chocolate M&Ms, italian bread: 1,000 calories
Now I’m going to go to the gym and burn 1,000 calories. And then I can eat dinner without feeling bad. Ugh, my stomach is full.
When we are young we can never imagine a day with pain, feeling tired all the time, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Sadly the older we all get, the harder it is to avoid some or all of these ailments.
As I have grown a little more mature, I have found that my genetics are quickly catching up to me. Each day it seems difficult for me to outrun the illnesses that my family is famous for. All of us have those health issues in our family tree that dog us until we succumb. There are those that try to outrun our family history and those who just roll over and succumb.
I am a runner. I have diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol in my tree and I work very hard to overcome and outrun. Even though I have high blood pressure, I work hard at exercise and diet to overcome it and am pretty successful at keeping it under control. Then there is diabetes and with that comes high cholesterol. To combat that I have radically changed my diet to accommodate blood sugar spikes and I have added Mona Vie’s Pulse to my diet to lower cholesterol. I am conducting an experiment right now, to see if, like many of my clients I can bring my cholesterol to a normal range using Pulse. I am doing a three-month test, under my doctors supervision, to see if I can lower it enough to avoid the liver-damaging cholesterol drugs.
Whatever your genetics, the more you can do for yourself through diet, exercise and good supplements the longer you avoid drugs, that although effective and necessary, may have side-affects you don’t like. It takes discipline but it is worth the effort to affect positive change to your health. I will keep you posted regarding my cholesterol.
It started at the beginning of this year. After 9 months working a desk job, not getting any exercise whatsoever, and generally not being very happy with my life, I decided that it was time for a change. Standing on the scales I weighed in at nearly 100kg, I had a size 38 waist, I was smoking about a pack of cigarettes a day, and I jokingly referred to my man-boobs as ‘my B-cups.’
I was starting law school, and I knew I had to make a change. This was my last shot. I’d given up my Drama degree 6 months shy of finishing, and any and all hope on building a future for myself lay in my hands alone. To give you an idea, this is what I looked like (these are all pictures from the beginning of the year).
Now I’m not writing this blogpost to mark a milestone or anything like that. It’s just that I’ve had a few people ask me what exactly I’ve done to lose the weight. So I’ve decided to tell:
Find out how many calories your body needs in a day, and then take 500 calories out a day. So, for example, I know that if I eat 2500 calories in a day, then I won’t gain any weight. If I eat more than that, I either need to burn them off, or they get converted to fat. If I only eat 2000 calories a day, then my body will need to use stored fat for energy. Weight loss is really that simple.
For a while, monitor everything you eat and drink. A great way to do this is to use a website called http://www.fitday.com. They have just about every food imaginable.
Be patient. I’ve been doing this for 8 months and I’m still not even half way.
Cut sugar and other simple carbs like white bread and deep-fried potatoes. It’ll be really hard at first, but after a while you’ll hardly miss it.
I’ve managed to cut all takeaways out of my diet (pretty much), but if you want to eat a Big Mac, then just factor it into your calorie intake for the day. A calorie is a calorie. It’ll get burnt. You may just still be hungry afterward, so learn to exercise self-control if you want to do this.
My principle these days is not to eat any food that I haven’t cooked myself, with the exception of the odd restaurant meal every now and then (note: restaurant, not take away).
Walk a little bit every day. It’s good for your blood circulation, and gives you time to think. Take your iPod, and it’s even better. You don’t need a destination, just go wandering around.
The first 3 weeks are going to really really suck. You’ll eat your allotted amount of calories for the day, spaced out over breakfast, lunch and dinner, and you’ll still be hungry. In fact, the first week of my diet, I went to bed lying in the foetal position because of hunger pangs. That’s just the process you need to go through as your stomach shrinks. It’ll get better. Be strong.
The most important thing: Know the difference between being geniunely hungry, and just wanting food. Listen to your body, not your brain.
Once you’ve lost some weight, try some heavier exercise, like jogging or what not. You’ll be amazed how much more fun it is when you’re not carrying extra weight. Imagine going for a jog with a 10kg weight strapped around your middle.
Drink a lot of water. It’s really good for you.
That’s basically it. I’ve been ‘dieting’ for close on 8 months now, but I can’t say that it’s really a diet. It’s more of a new approach to the way that I live my life and the foods that I consume. Right now I’m a size 33, weigh in at 84kg, my moobs have gone, I feel better about myself, and I have more energy than before. That, and I look a bit better:
Just know that it’s a long process, and nothing will come instantly. But it is so worth it.
Today has gone fine so far. I ate an apple for breakfast (broke my fast), because I’m trying to get back to restricting. Then I had a second apple when I got home from work. Then a small portion of sugar free jello. That puts my total for the day at 150 if I overestimate by 20 calories, which I think would be fair. It’s hard to judge with apples.
To make it more interesting, I did half raw half cooked so that I could have some of each. With the cooked, I leave it in a good amount of water then add cinnamon, two packets of Equal (no calories), and a dash of baking vanilla. I feel like I binged right now, which is crazy. I intended to eat only one apple then call it a day, but I was very tired and listless at work, and tomorrow’s going to be a lot rougher day. I need to make sure I wake up feeling well, and also, it kills two birds with one stone since it gets me back to normal restricting rather than only fasting. Neither are exactly healthy, but if I eat a little everyday I will probably have no side-effects as far as physical weakness is concerned. My body seems to run pretty good on hardly anything, so long as it has something to digest.
I exercised this morning. I burned 700 calories again, and I may go at it again in a few minutes and get that total up to 1000 since I just had to have the apple and jello.
I weighed 131.2 this morning. After exercise, 130.0. Probably water weight, but nonetheless it is very encouraging. I will be back in the 120s if I stay on track. I may write more later on tonight, though I doubt it. It’s just a matter of not binging. I have to stay focused. There is no point in eating after the exercise that I did. That would ruin it.
I decided recently to get serious about losing weight. I already work out a ton (training for triathlons and cycling for fun) but I have been stuck at the same weight all summer. I’m not extremely heavy, but I would feel much better were I to lose 10-20 pounds. I really notice that extra weight running… So – it is time!
No… I am not going to pay anyone for meals. Several friends have succeeded in losing weight with that method, but I am currently unemployed and cash poor. That also rules out the weight-loss lazer that I saw on the news last night. It’s $2800 which is a bargain for 5-7 inches – but alas I am poor, and the weight would come back eventually anyway. And no… I am not going on some crazy fast, or shakes, or grapefruit, or lemonade. I say no to all of those because I need some calories or I’ll fall over dead from exhaustion. If they are lowering me in the casket, who cares if I am heavy, right?
Okay – so what am I going to do?
I am embracing my hunger.
Profound huh? Allow me to explain. There are two components to successful, healthy weight loss: Exercise and eating healthy, small(er) meals. I exercise, but I tend to eat whatever I want, when I want, and much more than I need! To lose weight I am going to have to eat less. For me, its just that simple.
So here’s my plan – exercise… And eat healthy three times a day, eat a couple healthy snacks, stay away from tons of carbs and eliminate most sweets and add a lot of fresh fruits and veggies.
Simple, right? NO – HECK NO – you see, I love to eat bad stuff… So again, for me, here’s the one critical ingredient: I have to embrace my hunger. I am hungry all the time. I do not feel full. I want more food. I want and crave junk… But I can’t – so I have to just get over it. I have embraced my situation. I am embracing my hunger and hopefully, my waistline will thank me some day!
I wanted to post a quick update between appointments to tell you about what torture Jimmy had in store for me today.
Since we didn’t workout last week (I cancelled two appointments because I was feeling under the weather), today was deemed “cardio day.” Ugh. What does cardio day mean, exactly? It means that my heart feels like it is literally going to come out of my chest. At one point it was beating so hard thaI could feel it in my brain. My pulse is racing just thinking about it.
We started out on the StairClimber. Oh, how I hate the StairClimber! It looks simple enough, just go up the steps, right? Well, in theory, yes. What one may not realize at first glance is just how high your heart rate will go, making it nearly impossible to breathe. At the same time, your butt and thighs will start to burn. Fun stuff, let me tell you. Jimmy put it on Level 5 (seriously, this guy must have a lot of confidence in me, cuz I would’ve started it at 1) and told me that I was going to do it for 10 minutes. Well, after 3 minutes on it, I was huffing and puffing so much that I could’ve blown all your houses down, and I think he realized that I wasn’t quite at the level he thought I was. He told me to do 6 minutes, which I did, but towards the end I think I actually left my body and went into another realm. Otherwise, I seriously don’t know how I made it. Whew!
Jimmy told me that he’d like me to push myself to continue on that machine, a little bit at a time. He said that I could move it down to level 4 and try to do it for at least 6-10 minutes each time. I told him I would, and I know that the more I do it, the less torturous it will become. At least I hope so.
Next we did some work with the heavy ball. He had me raise it over my head and bounce in right next to me, then make a circle with it in my hands, and again lifting it up over my head and bouncing it. We did 20 reps on each side. This may not sound like a lot, but that ball is heavy, and it takes a good amount of control to keep it bouncing vertically and not have it veer off (as it did the first few times I threw it). Plus, going overhead like that really gets the heart rate up. It was fun, though.
Next we did some boxing moves that I love. With 5 lb weights in each hand I did some cross-body punches where I swiveled my foot as I moved my arm. This really makes the shoulders burn! (2 sets of 30 reps). Next we did more boxing where I was holding the 5 lb weights and punching directly in front of me, fast. (2 sets of 20 reps). I love these boxing moves, and it really makes me want to take the Shadowboxing class that they offer, because I think I’d enjoy it. I’ll have to look it up and see when that class is offered.
Next up was a boot camp-esque set up that was almost as bad as the StairClimber. Jimmy strapped resistance bands on both of my ankles (they had a cord between them, so it was as if I had on ankle shackles). I was to run in place (”Get those knees higher, Bella!!”) for 1 minute, then shuffle across the room and then do 20 jumping jacks. It sounds a lot easier than it was. Those jumping jacks nearly killed me, especially with the resistance band on my ankles. I was supposed to shuffle back to where I started and do the whole thing over again, but I was so out of breath after the jumping jacks that I had to take a breather and some water every time. I did this segment 5 times. Whew!
Next we went down on the floor. I still had the resistance bands on, and I had to do crunches where I had the ball between my knees, my hands under my butt, and lift my knees to my chest and then tap my toes on the floor. (2 sets of 30). The hardest part of these was keeping that darn ball between my knees.
Finally, I did cross-cuts. The resistance band was wrapped around a pole and I took it in both hands, together, and then lifted from my hip on the left side over my head on the right side, while swiveling the left foot. The movement sort of looks like swinging a bat or starting a gas-powered mower. I did 2 sets of 30 of these.
I was so tired and worn out after the workout, but I burned over 450 calories in 45 minutes (I think Jimmy took pity on me and only had me do 45 minutes, because he could probably tell how hard it was for me towards the end). When I look back at what I just wrote, I am so proud of myself for doing all of that. It was tough, yes, but I did it, and I know that the next time we have a dreaded “cardio day,” I’ll be able to do even more.
In other news…
When I asked Jimmy about the measurements this week, he said he wants to wait for next week, since I missed last week. Bummer. But that means that I’ll have even better results!
Also, I jumped on the scale this morning and was thrilled by what I saw. Now to hold you in suspense for a minute longer, I should say that I had gained 2 pounds when I weighed in at home last Thursday, but I didn’t count it as an “official” weigh-in, since I didn’t do it at a WW meeting. Even though my scale is a very expensive WW scale made by Conair, it is still off from the WW meeting scale. Today when I got on the home scale, I had already had a Green Monster Smoothie, and I normally weigh in without anything in my system. Anyway, when I got on today, it showed that I had lost 4.8 pounds! Now, before you get too excited and start congratulating me, I am not going to get my hopes up until I see a similar result at the WW weigh-in. Although, I know that this week’s weigh-in at WW is going to be skewed because I’ll be weighing in at 6:30pm, rather than my normal non-eating 9am. Still, within a week, the results should show up accurately. But if I can just give myself a moment to indulge in a bit of excitement about this weight loss (if it’s accurate), that means that I lost almost 5 pounds in one week. Could this be true? Is the Wellbutrin finally out of my system? Are the workouts finally paying off? Oh, I hope so!!
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Ok, so enough writing for one day. I need to get ready to go to the dentist, then clean up a bit around here, and then go to the Aqua class later tonight. Today is a great day!
With obesity now the greatest threat to the health of Americans, finding an effective approach to weight loss is more critical than ever. According to a new study in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, portion and calorie-controlled meal replacements used in a structured weight-loss program are successful in facilitating medically significant weight loss.
The study looked at dieters using the meal replacements and the intensive behavioral program developed by HMR((R)) (Health Management Resources). Dieters used one of two weight-loss options: patients with diabetes, hypertension, or other weight-related medical problems used HMR’s medically supervised diet and ate only meal replacements (which consisted of HMR Shakes, HMR Entrees, and HMR Nutrition Bars). Other dieters used HMR’s Healthy Solutions((R)) Diet and consumed meal replacements along with fruits and vegetables. All dieters attended weekly classes, kept food records, had mid-week phone calls with a health educator, and burned a minimum of 2,000 exercise calories each week.
Patients on the medically supervised diet lost an average of 43.3 pounds in 19 weeks. Patients on the Healthy Solutions diet lost an average of 37.5 pounds in 18 weeks. These data represent two to three times more weight loss, in less time, compared to published results of any other commercial diet program.
According to the study’s co-author, Dr. James W. Anderson, Professor Emeritus of Internal Medicine and Clinical Nutrition at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, the gold standard for weight loss in the health community is to achieve a 5 – 10% loss of initial body weight. “This study showed a weight loss between 15.8 % and 16.4% of initial body weight, both well above the gold standard the health community considers successful and the point at which health improvements are seen.”
The Centers for Disease Control reports a dramatic increase in obesity in the U.S. over the past 20 years, with 2/3 of Americans now overweight or obese. Furthermore, there are more obese Americans than overweight or normal weight. Some common effects of obesity include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, and cancer. If you are obese, losing just 5% to 10% of your body weight can delay or prevent some of these diseases.
HMR is currently the nation’s leading provider of medically supervised weight management programs. HMR weight-loss programs are located in hospitals, medical centers, and university settings across the U.S. HMR also offers HMR at Home(R) Diet Kits with meal replacements and diet support materials delivered directly to dieters’ homes.
GGRRRRRRGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
excuse me, that was my stomach growling. so, i started a new way of eating today, in hopes that i will lose some weight and also break this addiction i have to feeling full. i’ve come to realize that i’m not always hungry and i don’t have an unhealthy attraction to food. what i do have is a love of the feeling of being full. you know, that fat dumb and happy feeling. the one where everything’s good because my belly says so. i’ve discovered that i will eat anything i can get my hands on to keep my tank full. if i were a car, i would stop every 5 miles and yell filler up to the service man. anyway, i’ve come out of denial and decided to do something about it. yes, i have dieted in the past and on a couple of occasions lost great amounts of weight. but i always did some fad that wasn’t helping me deal with the real issue. the core problem isn’t that i’m overweight, it’s that being full thing. so rather than do an atkins type diet where i can eat half a cow and lose weight (hey don’t laugh, it works), i am now watching calories and eating small, tiny, minute, infinitesimal, microscopic (okay you get my point) portions.
i’ve eaten every 2 hours today. 7am- 1 cup of cheerios with 1/2 cup of 1% milk- 155 calories, 10am- 4 baby dill pickles- 20 calories, 12pm- 6 slices of ham and 5 baby dills- 115 calories, 3pm- a peach- 62 calories. the plan is grilled chicken and green beans tonight. woo hoo! i know my metabolism is amped up, which is good, but i’m hungry. for real. oh well that’s my struggle for today. pray for me. i need it.
ps. starting weight – 399.4
pps. pray for my wife and family – hungry does not = happy lol, not.
Did you know that thousands of people have tried the Master Cleanse and achieved surprising results?
Besides weight loss, which celebrities like Beyonce and Robin Quiver endorsed, I have achieved a more positive mental attitude towards life.
Once you have completed the Master Cleanse program, you will also learn that your viewpoint of life also changes. You will be able to eliminate food cravings which causes you to eat more than what your body can handle.
We all have seen how good Beyonce looks after completing the Master Cleanse program. Not only does she look slimmer, she also looks 10 years younger.
It’s not surprising that with all the toxins removed from our bodies, we will have a more youthful radiant look. But doing the Master Cleanse can be slightly tricky. You need proper guidance if you ever want to complete the Master Cleanse program successfully.
Most people actually fail to complete even the first 3 days of this program because they were not sufficiently prepared.
A friend of mine told me about this wonderful book on the Master Cleanse which guided her from the beginning of the program and even after the program. She told me many secrets to help her stay on the Master Cleanse until completion and how to deal with the side-effects during the Master Cleanse. One secret that will be revealed is getting past the first three day hump and is based on what you do a few days before you start the program. But, there are just too many secrets to cover in this blog.
If you want to find out more about this particular cleanse click here Master Cleanse.
P.S. Don’t take my word for it. See what other Master Cleansers have to say about this cleanse.
I’ve lost another 2lbs this week! I weighed myself on Saturday morning as that was when I started Slim Fast again and I have lost 2lbs since then. I’m really happy with that. That means I only have another 2lbs to reach my holiday target and 3lbs for my August target! I’m impressed that was able to lose anything in the 2 days. Because I only did it for 2 days, I’ll be interested to know what I have lost by the end of this week. Going by the 2lbs loss, I’m hoping for about 4lbs next week. I’ll let you know!
I found this article on the Hartford’s Weight Loss Examiner website. So we have all seen the ads that say “#1 Rule to Lose Belly Fat” right? It shows a before and after picture of a girl, woman, mom, or some other female who followed some rule and lost weight in all the areas women most want to tighten up. Well one of the young ladies who are depicted as the “after” girl came forward to say she has no idea where the company got her picture from.
Here is a link to the local news report on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_g4bLfFzH8
If you are thinking about getting those extra pounds off forever, you probably know that you are going to have to make some changes…the most obvious being eating less, and exercising more…both are true statements.
But what about your environment? My last post tackled the refrigerator and all the temptations it can house…is your kitchen ready to support you on your journey to optimal health, or is it filled with traps and potholes? Let’s take a look at what you can do to make your kitchen a “healthy haven” instead of a “calorie minefield”!
First, take a look at your pantry…if it is like most people’s, it could probably use a little thinning out. Here are a few things to get rid of:
salty snacks like chips, and crackers (whole grain, low fat, low sodium, zero trans fats, crackers and chips are ok in moderation while maintaining your weight, but will only slow down your weight loss)
cookies, candy, brownies, etc.
white flour, white rice, and white bread…no matter how much you love it!
hydrogenated oils…which might be in the fridge too…margarine, etc.
cereals made from refined white flour
Replace those with these:
olive and canola oil
brown rice
whole wheat flour
dry roasted, unsalted nuts
multi-grain, high fiber bread (some crackers would fit here…read the labels)
beans, dried herbs and spices
Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it? By keeping your fridge and your pantry stocked with healthy food, you have a much better chance of reaching your goal of a healthy weight, and learning healthy habits along the way!
Other helpful tips, and these are only a few, which you may already know…
Don’t eat standing up, walking around, in front of the TV, or on the phone…sit down at the table and enjoy the break!
Use smaller dinner plates…literally! Smaller plates hold less food!
Eat smaller, healthier meals more often…you’ll feel great if you do!
These changes are actually easy to make, and you will be glad you did! Now, if you have teenagers and kids in the house, this can be a challenge…but why not teach them good habits too? Healthy habits can result in a longer, more satisfying life so why not start now? What are you waiting for?
Want to know more about how to live a life of optimal health? Please fee free to contact me for more information! You’ll be glad you did! TGIF!!
When I woke up yesterday my arms and legs were a bit sore from the exercise on day one, but today I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning with no muscle pain. 78° @ 7:45, no excuse not to go for a bike ride. Today I went east to Power where I picked up the bike path alone the 202.
The Gardens subdivision is on the left, the 202 (Santan Freeway) is on the right.
I road to Cosmo Dog Park where I stopped and snapped a couple photos, then back to Higley where I snapped a couple more photos (one of the mountains south of town and one of the landmark restaurant Joe’s Farm Grill. Then I crossed the road to “Fresh and Easy” where I picked up some “Yellow-fin Tuna Poke” (mmm!)
Arrived home at 8:45, the temp had increased to 85 . I must be really out of shape because I was sweating like crazy when I got off my bike, so I did a cool down walk to the mailbox then took a quick dip in the pool. Boy I’m glad we have a pool.
Since I’ve been here, I’ve some how managed to loose eight pounds (aprox 3.5 kilos). I have no idea how this is happening, given that my average daily diet consists of the following:
Breakfast - Full-fat yogurt
The yogurt here is pretty amazing and if you really like the stuff, you’ll get addicted quickly. Migros, my grocery store of choice, has a brand called Saison. The options change by season, so in summer you get yogurt that has fruit native to Switzerland at that time of the year (i.e. peach, strawberry, and some local fruits I’ve never seen before). The options then change in the fall, winter, & spring to include fruit that is seasonal and native to the region. In short, the Swiss are well ahead of the locavore movement going on in The States.
- Fruit
When I first arrived, it was cherry season. It is now plum season. I think soon it will be pear season – I think.
- Coffee with whole milk
Lunch
- Salad, normally with some sort of cheese and bread for good measure
Afternoon Snack
- More fruit
- Pear-flavored soda water (don’t knock it, this stuff is yummy)
Dinner
- Cheese
My cheese consumption has gone up exponentially. I have a favorite cheese store that I visit on the weekends. I’ve even had thoughts of starting my own cheese making venture if/when we move back to The States. I’ve become a cheese person. This is the effect this country has on you – come for a great job and then slowly become distracted hatching plans to become a cheese maker back home because the cheese is just that good and intoxicating.
- Bread
- Sausage or some sort of meat
You can buy horse in the grocery store here. I don’t speak Swiss German but I can tell you I’ve learned the word for horse – pferd- and I know to avoid it when I see it suspiciously sitting in the meat section looking like any other non-descript red meat.
- Vegetables
After-Dinner Snack
- Chocolate
Migros has a chocolate aisle. How is a girl supposed to exert any kind of will power when there’s an entire AISLE dedicated to the good stuff?
Maybe it’s the 25-minute walk I have to my office every day from my temporary abode. Maybe it’s the fact the food here isn’t laden with bleached flour, high-fructose corn syrup, transfats, Acesulfame-k, alignate, and other unpronoucables. All I know is that I like the effects it’s having on me.
If you are not prepared for what you’ll experience when you do the Master Cleanse there’s a good chance you’ll fail.
Typically lasting just 10 days, it’s easy to see why people just “jump right in” to the Master Cleanse thinking it will be easy. It’s not. During your time on the Master Cleanse you are likely to experience hunger, aches, and irritability. Most people give up because of hunger. Putting solid food aside for a couple days and only drinking liquids is harder then most people think. Even though the cravings for whole foods can be difficult they do subside after a few days on the Master Cleanse.
So rule number 1 for finishing the Master Cleanse is getting past the third day. Instead of focusing on completing the entire 10 days from the onset of the cleanse just focus on getting past day 3. Breaking the Master Cleanse down into smaller milestones will be a big help.
Rule number 2 for finishing the Master Cleanse is dealing with aches and soreness. Headaches are one of the most common Master Cleanse side effects, but some people also get body aches. To reduce aches you should drink a lot of water. It’s also good to relax and not push your self too hard when you do the Master Cleanse. Exercising should be kept to light walking and stretching. Your body will be going through a rigorous cleansing process during the Master Cleanse, and won’t be able to adequately recover from intense exercise during this time.
Rule number 3 for finishing the Master Cleanse is overcoming irritability. This affects the people around you more than it does yourself, but it’s something you need to be aware of before starting the Master Cleanse. It’s best to let the people around you know that you’re going to be doing the Master Cleanse ahead of time so they can do their best to accommodate you. Also try to plan your Master Cleanse when you’re not too busy. Most of us can’t just take 10 days off to do the Master Cleanse, but you should try to avoid doing it when you’re swamped at work, or have other stressful events going on in your life.
There’s more to succeeding at the Master Cleanse than I can cover in this small article. If you are serious about trying the Master Cleanse and want to be one of the people who do make it through the whole 10 days the Master Cleanse Secrets book is the most complete guide available for helping you get through the Master Cleanse.
