That’s right, James Ellis is here to give you an awesome new tip to eating healthy. Add a little Designer Whey protein to your SALAD!!

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Hey Friends!

I know you all are watching our favorite show that our favorite protein powders.…Oh yeah baby… The Biggest Loser show has begun and Designer Whey is the chosen protein meal! I love it and it’s good for us too!

Biggest Loser Proteins 10oz and 2GO

This season is so full of emotion, challenges and people over coming difficult past life experiences that have contributed to their weight. For me, I have never experienced being thin. I was a fat baby, a fat child, a fat teen, a fat adult, a fat mom and am a fat wife. Biggest Losers Season 8 sure has had a ton of information. So much information that I had to watch the shows two times to get the info down. I wanted to share some of my notes.

·        You can do it!
·        Realize how ill we are being obese
·        Let go of the past
·        Say you deserve to be happy
·        A lot of pounds are wounds that need healing
·        Must have plans… eating plan, exercise plan and recovery plan
·        A calorie is a unit of energy
·        Read the labels
·        Weigh your food on a scale
·        Keep a food journal…all food and all drink
·        Plan 3 meals and 2 snacks a day
·        Prepare meals ahead of time for the entire week
·        Use Ziploc bags for prepared meals and mark each meal
·        Proportion control every meal
·        3-4 ounces of meat
·        Cook your food by baking, poaching, steaming, grilling on non-stick grill or broil
·        When eating pasta eat ½ cup and fill in the rest with veggies
·        Snacks with protein are a must
·        No Soda
·        Weight loss foundation for any plan…calories in calories out
·        The way we manipulate our diet will determine the most calories out before we even start to exercise
·        To accelerate calories out…exercise
·        Circuit training for a variety
·        Protein refuels muscles, gives fullness feeling, and maintains blood sugar
·        After you workout you must get protein in to keep the body burning calories. Bob suggests 2 scoops of the Designer Whey Biggest Loser Protein Powder with 16 ounces of water
·        The contestants are just like you. They are doing it and you can do it too!
 
Well, friends keep watching… keep drinking (your designer whey that is)

I am on my Whey!
Camille

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James Ellis and Mindi Smith take a moment to show you a fun way to get a little exercise in.  Using your legs and a workout ball you can work on your strength and your balance. Doing balance based workouts also helps you strengthen your core. Enjoy!!

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NBC has given us a special treat for you Biggest Loser Protein fans. Here is the Biggest Loser Season 8 Super Teaser. Are you ready for this season? WE ARE! Let the transformations begin.

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing

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Hey Friends,

I know you are as happy as I am that the kiddies are back in school! Oh the last few weeks I was ready for them to go back to school. The kids were sick of each other and I was on my last nerve. I love my kids with my whole heart but sometimes us moms just need a break.

Hey, next week is all of our favorite inspirational show! Yep, that is right September 15th is coming up soon. I am excited to watch and see my favorite Designer Whey drinks help people just like me, people who could afford to lose a few or 2 or 3 pounds…lol. Hope you watch The Biggest Loser along with me!

Guess what the weight loss fairy delivered to my house??? My protein water! I will rate according to my tastes. In 4th place is the Orange Mango… I thought too intense orange taste. Maybe like the taste of baby aspirin or very strong tang.  Which I am not so fond of. But for you, you may love it. Probably those of us over 40 can not handle such intense flavor. To me, it was OK but not my favorite flavor of the protein water. In 3rd place is the Cranapple…the only reason it’s not my favorite is I am not an apple juice person. I do enjoy cranberry so for me it was tolerable. In 2nd place is the Pomegranate flavored Protein Water…I very much enjoyed the light fruitful flavor. Camille’s #1 pick is the Blue Raspberry… to me it is perfect! Light, yet flavorful, not too sweet and is very refreshing. My only problem is my 16 year old daughter DRANK all of my Blue Raspberry and Pomegranate Protein Water! UGH! I went to take a bottle with me to work and ALL GONE! Luckily, I found some at our local grocery store.

I have to apologize to all my friends reading this blog. Anyone who reads this blog is my friend! I promise to blog more often, summer is hectic with kids home and watching my friends’ children as well, plus my cleaning jobs. By the time I sat down I was spent. But now that school is back in session and The Biggest Loser Show will be on, I can get back into routine. When you are trying to lose weight routine is essential. I share that with you so I can share things I am doing to get back in the flow of losing weight.

One thing I do now is to always keep a 2-quart pitcher filled with my favorite Biggest Loser Protein Powder both the Red Raspberry and the Blue Blueberry. They only have 40 calories, great flavor and fiber to take the edge off when you are looking for something sweet to have. I put 6 scoops in a 2-quart pitcher and keep in the fridge, ready when I need it. Sometimes, I mix the two flavors for a different twist. Enjoy a cup before dinner and you will eat less, try it! I also

The Biggest Loser Protein Powder Vanilla Bean

LOVE the Biggest Loser Vanilla Bean Flavored Powder. I like to make a creamy shake when the ice cream man is trying to stop by! The chocolate is a great treat, as well, and makes a great meal supplement.  I enjoy adding the vanilla bean to cold coffee; add ice and you have a great low calorie, delicious, ice coffee! Some of those ice coffees can have 400 calories or more! Compared to 50 calories with the Biggest Loser Powders there is no comparison and they are YUMMY! Don’t forget to put a case of bottled water in your car (please recycle or refill) along with a bunch of 2GO packets, they really take the edge off when you are temped to stop by a drive thru, when you know you should not eat fast food.

You can enjoy any of Designer Whey’s Protein Powders. Whether you are trying to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight or building muscle, it’s all good! It works too! I lost 30 pounds in a year. Not a huge change like the Biggest Loser Show but progress; and we need to accept any progress as good! Make your kids a healthy shake after school instead of cookies and milk! I know my kids act a lot better after a Designer Whey Protein shake instead of climbing the walls after cookies. Calmer kids equal calmer parents; and that my friend is a happier home. How about starting their day with a shake at breakfast! They will think you flipped making them a shake for breakfast! But studies show good protein in the morning gets their brain ready for thinking. Kids who have a good breakfast do better in school!

Alright Friends,

I think about you and hope you are healthier today then you were the day before. Drink you whey every day!

Your friend,

Camille

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Phase Eight of “appropriate behavior at the gym: the do’s and don’ts, according to a guy with an opinion about anything and everything”
Don’t: Use three to five machines/benches/weights at once

Ever since the p-90X and cross fit workouts have become so popular, this has been a phenomenon that I have witnessed in the gym. And While both of those types of workouts are insanely good for you (in most cases) and do yield substantial results, they don’t really pan out in the common gym dynamic, the way that people tend to go about them. When I say “the way that people go about them,” I mean the way people go about hording equipment. For instance, yesterday when I was at the gym, I noticed that a guy on the cross cables had three different types of attachments on the ground next to him and then one that he was using on the cross cables themselves. I just thought they were there because someone just didn’t put them up when they were finished, but that was not in fact the case. A man came up and asked, can I use that one (pointing at the attachment for triangular tricep extension) and the guy on the cross cables said “no I’m using that one.” The guy asking, looked puzzled but then fine, and then he asked can I sue that one (pointing at the attachment for the straight bar) and the guy said “no I am actually using all of these right now for a cycle workout – I will be done in about 20 minutes if you want to use them.” Really though??!!! I wanted to walk over there and just snatch one and give it to the other guy, but then I would be doing the crap that I hate that other people do at the gym. In a sense that a person is restraining other people from being able to use the gym when they come in and the only time that should ever really happen is when the gym is actually packed to capacity and you have to wait to use a machine. In this case, it was not even close. It was 11pm at night and hardly a soul was around at the gym – which is why (I later found out) is the reason that the guy trying to use the equipment goes late at night. It is probably why the other guy goes as well, so that he can get those types of cross fit workouts in- which is fine but not when you are taking up four pieces of equipment and not letting others who want to, use them. But this does not just simply happen at big gyms at late hours, this happens during peak prime time hours when equipment is scarce to begin with and it also happens at smaller and residential gyms where equipment is scarce to begin with. I was in my building gym and a guy was on a five machine cycle and I went to hop on one and he was like, bro I am using that, so I said alright. Then, I hopped onto the next one and he was like, man I am using that one too. At that point I laughed (because I had already seen him use three other pieces of equipment) and worked out anyways letting him work on that machine in between sets – which mind you, out of five sets, he only needed to work in once. He probably thinks that I am rude for laughing at him and going about my workout and to an extent I am but – you can’t take up ¾’s of the gym and expect no one else to try and cut in.

Do’s: be MINDFUL (it’s broad but the explanation covers it)

I am all for these types of workouts, because like I said previously, they are quite effective and they are becoming more and more popular. Just be mindful when doing them. If you are using four pieces of equipment and two people jump on two of those machines go about your workout and when you get to those two machines see if you can work in with those people on their accord in between their sets, so that you are not holding people up. And the guy late at night, that is perfect planning. Go later at night when less people are there, so you can do these types of workouts. But if other people want to use the equipment you have stock piled, by all damn means please let them and if it is that crucial to your workout, ask if you can work in with them. People have just as much right to the equipment as you do. In all essence, you can even be more of the hardball in this situation and it would still be fine. Meaning if you really want that extra piece of equipment you can say “yeah I am using that one too but if you want you can work in with me.” It still makes you look like the little ass on the playground that took all the good toys but at least you are not inhibiting people from doing what they came to do at the gym. I am not saying that it is bad to do these workouts in the common gym or that you should not do them, but all I am saying is just be mindful on how you approach going about them. Once again this is simply my opinion, take it or leave it.

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Fix Your Goals

Not reaching your fitness goals? The problem may not be with what you’re doing — it may be with the goals themselves.

The fitness goals you set need to be SMART: Specific, Motivating, Achievable, Relevant and Trackable.

Specific: What exactly do you hope to achieve? Instead of making the mushy goal “I want to get healthy,” say “I want to lose five pounds, drop an inch from my waist, be able to run five miles, and eat five servings of fruits and veggies per day.

Motivating: You need to be excited about what you want to achieve! If the idea of walking regularly on the treadmill makes you want to snooze, even if it’s a goal for a lot of fitness buffs, maybe it’s not the right goal for you right now.

Achievable: Nothing is more discouraging than a goal that’s too difficult to achieve. No one can lose 20 pounds (healthfully) in a month or be ripped in a week. Give yourself a break!

Relevant: The goal needs to make sense for you. If you choose some pie-in-the-sky goal because it looks good on paper, chances are you’ll ditch it within a month.

Trackable: If you can’t measure or track your goal, how will you know when you’ve achieved it? We’re talking numbers here! Instead of setting a goal to get fit, resolve to lose a certain amount of weight by the end of the year.

More on the Motivating goals: The reason we don’t reach our goals may be that they’re not exciting enough to motivate us. If this is the case for you, heed my life coach, who recommends setting big, audacious goals. For example, instead of making a resolution to walk three times per week, how about vowing to train for a triathlon? Instead of losing five pounds, why not resolve to enter — and win — a fitness competition? And rather than making the vague goal to nosh on more veggies, why not promise (as I’ve been doing for the last month or so) to eat a big salad every day of the week.

A quick note: I’m taking a hiatus from the Designer Way blog due to other commitments. I hope to see you — and motivate you — again soon!

Stay healthy,

Linda

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Phase Seven of “appropriate behavior at the gym: the do’s and don’ts, according to a guy with an opinion about anything and everything”
Don’t: Leave a stack of weights on the machine, bench or bar

    If there is anything that I am truly guilty of on a regular basis, it is this. I have a hand full of excuses as to why I do not do this. One: I am super exhausted after finishing a set at 100%, and just don’t feel like lifting any more weights. Two: they were on there when I first got onto the machine or when I first started using the bench, so why should I have to do double duty and pick up after myself and the person before me? Three: I see the next machine that I want to use or the weights that I want to use next, open and available, and I want to grab them before someone else does- I don’t have time to re-rack my weights. I constantly cycle these thoughts through my head when at the gym, but are any of these excuses actually valid? The answer is simply NO. By not re-racking the weights I am essentially perpetuating this vicious cycle of taking accountability away from myself and placing it on others.

Just like you hate it in real life when people pawn their workloads off on you for the simple fact that they know you will do it, and they can get away with making their lives easier at the expense of others. This is may seem like a harsh example or personification of the matter at hand, but in reality it all boils down to the same issue – you not taking accountability for your own actions.

You put the weights on the machine, you used the machine and now you need to put the machine back to its original form. But what if I got to the machine and it had weights already on it? Well, who the hell cares! If you are constructing a building and someone forgets to fill a corner a concrete foundation, do you just build continue to build around it? And when the building later falls do you say it wasn’t your fault because the foundation was incomplete? Or if you walk your dog and you see that there is already dog crap on the ground so you just let your dog do its business and leave the mess? Is it ok to just leave it because someone else did? No, it is just as much your fault as it was their’s for not completing the job or them not picking up their dog’s crap, for not saying or doing anything about it. I will be the first to admit that I need to be way more mindful of this at the gym and that I need start practicing what I preach with this one. For one reason and one reason only – this week’s “gym redemption.”
Let me explain further, I was watching TOSH.O on comedy central and I saw a segment that was titled “This Week’s Web Redemption.” This segment was simply taking someone that has failed miserably in front of the entire nation on YouTube or some other video streaming site, and giving that person a chance to redeem themselves in front of the entire network audience. I thought to myself ‘I bet this could be applied to the gym segments I do’, and after a weeks worth of watching people at the gym I realized that it was the absolute truth. The cool thing about these types of redemption is that the people on them are not asked to redeem themselves; they simply just make the transition on their own accord – shocking, I know. So for this week’s DO section I will give you all the weeks “gym redemption.”

Do: Re-rack your weights

    Case and point: This week’s “Gym Redemption”
For two weeks in a row I have noticed that these two extremely loud, foul mouth and definitely out of place vacationers, down for the summer break (probably), have been an absolute spectacle at the gym. Dancing around, jumping in on people’s sets uninvited, being extremely loud and obnoxious, grunting, trying to lift way more weight than they can handle and in doing so completely misusing the machinery and of course they never re-racked their weights. When it comes to misusing the gym, you name it they did it.

Anyway, one night they had three plates on each side of the bench (although they really only should have had two). Of course when they were done, they left those three plates on each side. The next person to use the bench was an older tiny lady. She was struggling just to move one of the plates. Now only one of these two people gets to be redeemed in this section. They were both talking to another person on the other side of the gym. Both of them saw the lady, and they both looked over, but only one of them actually ran over and re-racked all of the weights and apologized for not doing so in the first place. The other one continued his loud god awful conversation that I could here clear across the gym. I applauded (in my head of course – otherwise it might be awkward). The lady looked extremely happy that this person showed such gentlemanly manners, and looked excited that she could actually now use the bench because before she could not, being that she could not lift all the plates off.

Mystery Vacationer number # 1 you rock and have completely redeemed yourself. Mystery Vacationer number #2 you suck and you are still part of that sect of society that just doesn’t care: stop ruining it for everyone else. So, it is in fact important to re-rack your weights because you never know who will need the machine or weights next. Even if you are using dumbbells, why do you leave on the ground or by the bench? If someone wants to use that bench but can’t move the weights because they are too heavy, why should that person have to wait or have to move those weights? Well they shouldn’t have to, period! I personally am going to really work on making sure that I am constantly re-racking my weights when I am done with them…you should do the same. Once again this is simply my opinion, take it or leave it.

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Scaling Down on Serving Sizes

Okay, here’s the deal: For breakfast I have a blueberry smoothie. For lunch I have a grilled chicken salad with nonfat vinaigrette or a PB&J on whole grain bread. For a snack, I have raw nuts or another smoothie.

And for dinner: All hell breaks loose.

I’m a good cook, so when I make dinner, I tend to fix a plate overflowing with food. But we’re meant to eat one serving of each food, and I’m pretty certain one serving of pasta is not one giant bowl. I’m also not so sure a serving of mashed potatoes is “as much as I can eat.” So I decided to educate myself on what a serving size really is. Luckily, experts are starting to understand that we humans have trouble eyeballing measurements such as a half cup or a tablespoon, so they’re comparing proper portions with everyday objects. Here’s the scoop:

One serving of this food = The size of this item.

Veggies or fruit = One baseball.

Cooked rice or pasta = A rounded handful.

One snack, such as pretzels or chips = A rounded handful.

Meat = A deck of cards or the palm of your hand (not counting fingers).

Fish = A checkbook.

Nuts or dried fruit = One large egg.

Ice cream = A tennis ball.

Baked potato = A computer mouse.

Pancake or waffle = A CD.

Peanut butter = One thumb tip.

Cheese = Six dice.

Boy, some of these serving sizes seem so tiny! A thumb tip of peanut butter on a sandwich? A single CD-sized pancake, when we’re used to getting a stack of plate-sized flapjacks at the local breakfast joint? But there you have it — we eat way too much.

I know that if I can manage to keep my portion sizes under control, especially at dinner or when I have an occasional treat, I’ll become more fit and healthy. How are your portion sizes — are they reasonable or way too big? Do you plan to cut portion sizes to reach your weight-loss goals? Please share your experiences in the Comments below.

Stay healthy,

Linda

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Trainer Becs here reporting in on my training!

This is me last week, the week of Aug. 24th. I have realized that even if I just take a sip of some sort of Designer Whey product it helps me out with my cravings. I crave sweets like it’s my job too!

I’ve been eating six small meals a day and putting in Designer Whey whenever I crave the sweets and always BEFORE and AFTER my workouts. Every meal I eat I have a protein, 6oz and a veggie, 1 cup. I won’t eat any kind of bread product unless its my oatmeal in the morning. Bread will make my stomach puffy and I can’t have that for my contest. Eating the protein and veggie combo as many times as I do makes my body able to burn more calories because it has to work at digesting it. Drinking the protein before and after my workouts are easier to digest and won’t take as long to get the nutrients to my muscles. If you eat solid foods to close before working out then all your blood goes to your digestive system instead of your muscles and you feel weak or like you just can’t function in the gym…not good. So it’s best to get a liquid in.

I’ll be doing some long cardio sessions this coming week as well to trim off some more fat and will drink my protein water during!!! Pictures will come soon!!!
 
Trainer Becs

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