1) Your Diet Promises Overnight Results

Normal, healthy weight loss should be 1-2 pounds each week.  Any more and you risk losing muscle.  And we want to keep as much muscle as possible because it looks good and burns the most calories.

Did you know? Reducing calories by 3500-7000 calories a week will result in safe weight loss of 1-2 lbs. Tracking your daily food intake is a good way to see how many calories you’re getting everyday. Can you ditch 500 excess calories? How about holding the mayo for starters?

2) You’re Eating Fewer Than 1,200 Calories A Day

Calorie deprivation causes your body to go into starvation mode and your metabolism slows to a crawl.

Eating too few calories can be the start of a vicious cycle. When you cut your calories so low that your metabolism slows, you’ll stop losing weight. You’ll become frustrated that your efforts are not paying off. Frustrating diets usually  lead to quitting and gaining  back anything you lost.

Eat as many calorie permitting small meals during the day as possible to keep your metabolism working at its peak.

 3) You’re Required to Eat the Same Thing Daily

If your diet restricts you to one type of food (e.g., whole fruit, cabbage, etc), you risk depriving your body of important nutrients. Plus, it’s boring! Even if you have crazy willpower, getting bored with your daily diet can cause you to cheat, and cheat BIG.  

Here’s a helpful tip: plan your food the night before. Don’t deprive yourself of your favorite foods but keep the portions in check within your calorie range.

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Why is it that cravings for certain foods grab a hold of us and won’t let go till a run through the drive through has been completed? Last week I was craving a big juicy burger! I don’t mean a kids meal burger I mean one that you have to disconnect your jaw to bite into. This insatiable craving really shocked me because I’m not much of a red meat person. However, I’m happy to report that I didn’t give in, instead I thought about why I wanted something so out of the ordinary. Then it occurred to me that I must not be getting enough protein. I have been trying to eat less and move more and I think my body was screaming for tools to repair and build my muscles. I decided to try adding a scoop of Biggest Loser Protein first thing in the morning. I added 50 calories 17 g chocolate powder with a tbs of peanut butter to my oatmeal. After a few days I noticed I wasn’t drooling at the big burger commercials any more!

Food cravings are our bodies sometimes annoying way of helping us get the nutrients we need. If we listen carefully and don’t get distracted with the rush of giving into temptation we can still meet our fitness goals. Now I need to figure out what my body needs when I must eat a wonton

Have a wonderful week! 
Burgandy

Burgandy Keel received free product in exchange for her blog.

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My favorite Biggest Loser Protein Product is the All Natural Protein Bar with Fiber. I love the Vanilla Almond Bars. They are so easy to grab quick, on the go, and throw into my gym bag to have after my workout. I am training now for my second marathon, The Boston Marathon, in April, and having energy to finish my long workouts is key to my success. The Biggest Loser Protein Bar really helps to curb my hunger in between meals, and give me that boost of energy to make it through the rest of the day. If there is one thing thats always in my gym bag, it the Biggest Loser Protein bar.

All Natural Biggest Loser protein bars

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There is nothing more frustrating than false starts. That is why I pulled my whole plan together before starting it in earnest so that it would not fizzle out. So here is the rundown of my plan:

I am going to renew my 24 Hour Fitness gym membership. A little over 2 years ago I bought a 2 year membership at Costco that I used occasionally at first and then a lot at the end. It expired in November ’10 and I am going to renew it when I get back to CA from Christmas. I am learning to love running and plan on doing that lots. I also like to use free weights to work out my legs and back and the machines for everything else. I hurt my back using free weights for arms/shoulders when I was in high school and I am still leery of that since I tend to aggravate it when I do too much. I am also going to start running outside of the gym too since there are not many 10Ks that are treadmill based.

So the past 2 years I have actually been pretty good at going to the gym and I totally feel better, but I have not really seen the physical change I was hoping for. I realize that I need to change my eating habits in combination with the exercises, so I have a plan for that too. I am going to start using protein products from Designer Whey for breakfast and lunch and then be better about what I eat for dinner. Also I am going to include healthy snacks, which is what I already do so that should be easy. I started using Designer Whey a couple weeks ago and I actually really like it.

I will write more about the specifics of the working out and the nutrition, but that is the plan for now. I am also planning on tracking my exercise and caloric intake but using the Livestrong website, but I just found that Designer Whey has a similar tool so I will have to try it out. I have used the Livestrong site before for about a month and I liked it and it really helped, so we’ll see.

Any feedback on my plan? I know I need more specifics but am sure there will be lots of trial and error. Another big part will be writing on here…to keep me motivated and honest. Here’s to the 87% of me that will be left!

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The last time I started a new “Blog Segment” I made the mistake of saying how many posts it was going to encompass (4) and I ended up branching out with many new ideas on the subject and ended up with a total of 14. So this time when I start fresh I am not going to limit myself because as I have come to find out, when it comes to the fitness world and getting my thoughts on paper the little mice in the cage that is my brain are constantly turning that wheel.

While in the  midst of my last set of blog posts, I was reading a fellow Designer blogger’s post, Nathan’s well written piece on Motivation, and saw something that really intrigued me; “the playlist.” And I thought to myself I will write a post about the playlist and its importance. But then when I began to think about it a little more, what playlist would I talk about.  I know that I alone have 6 different playlists for each day at the gym – in which I cycle songs in and out of. But while listening to one of these mixes I saw someone else at the gym, a significantly older man, who had his head phones in and looked like he was rocking out and really using the music to push him through his workout. Then I thought to myself I know that everyone listens to different music when working out but I wonder what types of music gets certain people going, moving and shaking at the gym.  And honestly how hard is it to find this stuff out. In my email archive alone I have tons of people that I know from all different races, ages and slices of life that would probably be able to answer this burning question for me, so of course I threw it out there.  I got a lot of responses with a lot of different playlists, so I pried even further and asked questions about their playlist and reasoning behind it, which helped me narrow down the responses that I received, and found a few that really stood out to me. 

I decided to take all of these electric correspondent interviews that were a cut above the rest and write blogs about them (of course with the consent of the interviewee) and just change the name of the person.  But in the course of doing so I realized that this might not be as enticing as I thought. To make these posts a little more intriguing I thought I would pick out a couple of my playlists that most closely corresponded with the playlists that I received and add a little blogging pizzazz to it – Ok you caught me that makes them more intriguing to me but hey it might make for a good read for you.

The bottom line behind doing this series of blogs was to determine the overall importance of the playlist to different personas within the fitness world. Who’s to say that what I use a playlist for at the gym is what others use it for? I use some playlists for motivation, some for rhythm, some for tempo, and some for empowerment. In trying to unearth the different uses and motivators that the playlist can contain, I wanted to be able to offer what I found to everyone else so that these findings might be applicable to the many different personality types that read these blogs. My main struggle with the fitness world as I have commented on time and time again, is finding the proper motivation to stay in that world. If I think of something that will serve as a little extra motivator that I need or that little piece of mind that I come across that will make my experience in the fitness sphere  a little bit easier and more enjoyable I want to pass it on because chances are someone out there might find it helpful. So over the course of these next blogs I will be exploring “the playlist” pertaining to the benefits they have on different people who are trying to keep fit. As always please feel free to comment especially on the different playlists that are thrown out there and the reasons behind them.  I will make one disclaimer, I was not able to find someone in the 58 or older category to complete this interview and am not going to chance asking someone at the gym what their age is.  So if you know someone of this age that exercises on a regular basis to some type of sound track, let me know and I will get back to you.

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This week, I want to touch on two subjects.  The first, and foremost, is that having good friends to watch my back while my relatively strict diet has been crucial to my success.  Just last night I was tempted to cheat by eating a Philly Cheesesteak, because technically I hadn’t declared Jersey Mike’s as fast food.  My friend Bruce refused to stop nagging me on how I was quitting my diet and my pledge to not eat fast food.  His dedication to my diet reminded me that I’m in this for more than just the thrills of dieting, I’m in this to prove to myself and to everyone that it’s possible for me to lose the weight.  Even though my weight loss has been good thus far, I have to keep focused, and he reminded me of that.  So instead I got a much healthier sandwich at Jersey Mike’s, and I was very proud of both myself and him for demanding such perfection.  Likewise, my friend Jessi is constantly making sure that I’m working out, even if I’m just watching TV at home.  Her dedication to my weight loss reminds me of why I’m doing this in the first place, to be a healthier person.  It’s great to know that I have friends that care this much about me.

The other thing I wanted to talk about today was the constant standing on the scale.  For years I’ve been told not to weigh myself every day because weight loss isn’t instant, and that it could be discouraging to stand on the scale and see that I’d only lost a half a pound over a couple of days, or worse, gained weight.  While it is certainly true that your weight can fluctuate quite a bit, I’ve found that keeping a month-long calendar in my bathroom, and weighing myself the first thing in the morning EVERY morning has been quite wonderful.  I’ve talked about this before, but it’s never been more evident than now.  In the course of a month I lost 20 pounds, and on the days that my weight went up from the day before I made sure to double my weight loss efforts.  On the days that my weight went down, I patted myself on the back and thought about what it was that I had been doing to help me lose that weight, like walking to school and working out, and I made sure to do it more often.  Basically, so long as you take the positive look at your weight, no matter which direction it went, you can’t be defeated! So I challenge everyone that’s trying to lose weight to start stepping on a scale every day for a month.  I prefer to do it in the morning, because you don’t have the fluctuation of what you ate that day to affect the outcome.  Yes, some days you’ll weigh more than the day before, that’s normal.  But watch your weight loss over the course of that month, and if you’re honest with yourself and work hard you can see a downward trend that will have you grinning from ear to ear by the end of May, just in time for beach season!  So until next time, keep at it people!

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Hey Friends,

Back from vacation and back to reality. We had a great time. It was cold in Florida; we wore our winter coats to the beach! We took a boat out to watch for dolphins. We were able to spot few dolphins and it was one of the warmest days we had. Kids swam with the dolphins on another adventure but it was only 58 degrees so they were just a bit little cold. My older two kids did indoor sky diving, lots of fun! One thing I noticed on vacation is I do not over eat; nor am I stressed. I feel like having my kids live out of a suit case and only a few toys. I don’t know why but my kids do not trash grandma’s trailer. My conclusion is a few things and that is at home they do not respect our home; they have too many clothes and way too many toys, too much TV and not enough fun. Now to bring the vacation behavior back in our home!

I finally got to watch the Biggest Loser show. I missed the first one because we were in Florida and did not have access to TV. But I did get to watch the 2nd show and am very excited for the new contestants. Their success is my hope. The difference between the contestants and me is they have a support system, they have the education, they have the equipment and the trainers. So I have to figure out how to have such a system.

I did join our local Fitness 19 and I can tell, physically, I am improving every time I go. It feels good to accomplish exercising. Sometimes I wish my family would step aside and make sure I get the time to go more often. It would be even better if I could have a treadmill at home but at this point we can’t afford it so at the gym it has to be. Fitness 19 is only $12.00 a month per person so it’s affordable. I am proud to say I was able to walk on the treadmill for 5 miles at an incline 4.0-4.5 and the rate of 3.0-3.5 and I burned over 1000 calories!

Today, Fox Reality had a Biggest Loser Marathon from Season 4 when Bill Germanakos won. I wonder what ever happened to Kim the trainer.

Some cool tips I wrote down…

If it had a mother it is protein.
All meals and snacks should have a combination of Carbs, Protein and Fat.
If your body is burning sugar it is not burning fat.
Anything is possible if you put in the work.

Remember to eat, move, then rest. I used to move, eat, then rest. I had it wrong. It’s all about moving forward and working toward our mark. For years I ate next to nothing and now have learned that is not the right way. You have to eat!

Oh! oh! oH! OH! I figured out a cookie recipe using Designer Whey Vanilla Protein Powder.

Designer Whey Chocolate Chip Cookies
Kid tested!
Makes about 3 dozen

½ cup butter (room temperature)
½ cup Sun Crystals (new stevia/cane mix) or splenda
2 tablespoon regular brown sugar or 1 tablespoon brown sugar splenda
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
1 ½ cups of Designer Whey Vanilla Protein Powder
½ teaspoon baking soda (you can add an extra ¼ teaspoon if you like puffy cookies)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon milk (2 tablespoons if you like thinner cookies)
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate mini-chips

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium mixing bowl, beat butter and sun crystals or slenda until well blended. Add the egg whites and vanilla; beat well. In a separate bowl mix the Designer Whey Powder, baking soda, salt, slowly add to the butter mix along with the milk until well blended. Stir in the mini chocolate chips. Drop by using a teaspoon onto an ungreased non-stick cookie sheet. Bake 7-8 minutes. Remove from pan right away onto a cooling rack, Cool completely. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Version

Add ½ cup peanut butter
Increase baking soda by ¼ teaspoon
Increase milk to 2 tablespoons
Omit the chocolate chips if you want
Smash down with a fork making criss-cross design

When you first take the cookies out of oven they have the consistency similar to cake but let sit over night out and they will be crispy. It is true you can replace flour with Designer Whey Vanilla Protein Powder in baking! Yey Whey!

Have a great week friends. Watch Biggest Loser Tuesdays!

Camille

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If your training with a trainer…

LET THEM KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT AND NEED!
A few months ago I bloged about me getting a personal trainer to help me with my figure competitions. I was so excited about letting someone else figure out my training schedule and what I needed to be doing. I thought it would be fun for me and a really neat experience. Here is my story.

When I compete for these things my main goal is to learn something new about myself and of course do well. But my training failed me badly and I should have said something but didn’t. Lesson learned. I want everyone to know some signs of a bad trainer. Yes, this is what I experienced and it was very stressful for me. And my contest did not go well.

1. When your trainer can’t remember if it’s an arm or leg day.
2. When your trainer can’t remember your last name or how to spell it.
3. When your trainer is at least 7-10 minutes late EVERY SESSION.
4. When you pay for private training lesson and your trainer brings another girl without asking you and you end up paying for her to workout with you when you wanted a one on one.
5. When after working with your trainer for a month they can’t remember what weight you need for a 12 rep bicep curl.
6. When you want to workout with your trainer one week before contest and he/she doesn’t want to come in at 8am because it’s too early. Then you miss 4 workouts that you really needed the support on.
7. When your trainer tells you not to do cardio. (Weird one)
8. When your trainer makes fun of everybody in the gym and doesn’t pay attention to you.

I should of stopped training with this guy as soon as he said that he thought Designer Whey protein drinks would make me bloated… RED FLAG RIGHT THERE!!!!! I think the only thing that kept me sane during this time was my Designer Whey drinks and protein powders!!! Yes… that’s pretty sad but my drinks got me through.
I think I was just trying to be nice but ended up losing in the long run.
So as a trainer I learned a lot with this horrible experience by making sure I’m smart with my clients!

So be aware of these trainer downfalls and if you experience any of these… RUN!!!!!!!!!!

Trainer Becs

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Hey Friends!

Hope this finds you healthier then the day before. Today is National ‘start eating healthy day’. So I ask you, what changes are you going to make to eat healthier? Me, I started eating breakfast again. I discovered I like Greek yogurt with frozen fruit and a little granola for some crunch. Greek yogurt is packed with protein! I also have 1 cup of skim milk with a scoop of my Designer Whey Protein Powders. I mix up the flavors for a variety. Some days I have chocolate, some day’s vanilla, some day’s strawberry and some days The Biggest Loser brand. I like the variety. I find that when I do this I have fewer cravings for sweets and for me that is a major plus! I have been packing my lunch and snacks. Lately I been packing whole wheat 100 calorie bagel with good turkey slices and just a smidgen of low fat mayo (I don’t like mustard) along with fruit and a string cheese for my snack. My kids love the 100 calorie bagels.  They think they are cute! Hey, if cute has them eating better… Go for it!

Did you watch the Biggest Loser this week? Wow, they were at The White House this episode.

At The White House

All the people who came out to exercise with Bob and Jillian and the contestants were amazing! This proves Americans are not lazy we just need a plan and guidance. I am disappointed our President did not come out with his family that would have been the frosting on the cake. I felt bad for Tracey for all the havoc she took for doing what she did to remain in the game. I probably would have done the same. Did you see Tracey’s “How are they doing now” segment? Holy cow! She looks great. I cried when she re-ran that mile that the contestants ran on their first challenge. And Daniel almost at the 200 pound mark, Shay under the 400 pound mark! Wow, what opportunity! Like Bob said, this is the “Biggest Loser Movement”

I recently bought the Biggest Loser Jump Start book and Jillian Michael’s Master Your Metabolism; still have to read them. But one cool thing is you can look up the old contestants and request to be their friend on Facebook. Designer Whey has a Facebook fan page as well. You will want to add Designer Whey to your friends list because they will let you know when coupons are available or special promotions. They have recipes, encouragement and lots of great people to support you. Plus it can save you a few bucks and that is always good!

I got the Biggest Loser Wii game and so far my kids are doing the game and they love it. I need to find time for my time to play too! The other day my 9 year old sweetheart got my Jump Start Book out and my Biggest Loser music CD. She went in our living room popped in the CD and was reading how to do the exercises. Then got a towel for her mat and was doing the exercises. So I asked her what made her just start doing the exercises and she said, “well, mom first of all its fun and second I want to stay fit. Why don’t you come do some of these with me sometime”, bless her heart! Maybe it’s that easy, think exercise as being fun and wanting to be fit… hmmmm OK, Note to self… Exercise is fun and keeps you fit.” end of note.

Have a great one friends, today day a great day to drink your whey and start eating healthy.

Camille

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Hey Friends,

I hope this finds you healthier then the day before. I have been extremely busy. Too busy and that stresses me out! There never seems to be peace in our house, something is always going on. I even have had to record my favorite show and watch it later. Which I don’t like because then I hurry through it and miss a lot of valuable info.

Oh, I discovered a great new mix using Designer Whey 100 Calorie Strawberry protein powder . I bought a bag of frozen fruit mix which has pineapple, strawberries and mango. It mixed up in a blender so creamy it was like ice-cream… A very good combination. 

 The last two Biggest Loser shows have been so emotional. Man, its draining. But I am happy to see the contestants break through difficult emotions that they have carried in their lives. I am blown away by Abby’s break through. She’s an amazing person to give up her spot. She said in her ‘how are they doing now spot’, ”Even in your darkest hour, there is always hope.” I love that saying. I counsel people addicted to crack cocaine and tell people who I am working with, ”No matter how low you go there is always hope and sometimes hope is all we have left” As long as we are breathing, we can change, we can make a difference, we can overcome, we can try new things. Go to new places and if we embrace each day with that attitude we can make our own break throughs.

Take Care Friends,
Camille

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