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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Hey Friends,

I had to take a few days to absorb the Biggest Loser Finale.

I am just amazed.  Danny and losing as much as he did…over 200 pounds in 7 months! That’s about a pound a day. To accomplish that, you have to have total cooperation from your family and friends. I need that. I started a weight loss group just for those of us in the Grand Rapids area in Facebook. You can become my friend, just look me up, Camille Gibson. Designer Whey also has a fan page as well. Start a local group of your own. The Biggest Loser Show said many times how much having supports helps. Oh, did you hear Danny’s song? It’s only 99 cents and part of the proceeds goes to make a wish foundation. His new website is http://www.thedannycahill.com . I think Danny looks a lot like Mel Gibson. What do you think?

I felt bad for my girl Liz. She worked hard to be one of the final three. I think Amanda was picked because America chose her in the beginning. I am happy for her as well. I was amazed at all the at home players. I think the one I least recognized was Julio.wow! What a difference! Whey to go Rebecca! You did an awesome job! I can’t believe the next season is only a few weeks away in January.

I am proud of myself! I signed up for at Fitness 19 to work out Monday, Wednesday, Friday. My husband encouraged me and my daughter to just go and he made the time for us to do it. I have been walking 3 miles in one hour on the treadmill and my daughter did 3.2 on the elliptical in 45 minutes. I need this equipment in my home! Life Fitness is having a contest to win a home gym and I entered on Monday. Send to Life Fitness “pick Camille’s essay”  good vibes would ya? I love the Life Fitness treadmill. It told me what heart rate I needed to lose fat and it took my pulse then adjusted itself to keep my heart rate at the level it needed to be. Nice not to have to think, I just kept walking and the machine did all the figuring! What’s great is because my heart rate did not go too high I was able to keep my breath and finish the work out. That felt good to do. Now, I just have to keep doing it!!

I don’t know about you but Christmas is sneaking up on me. I am far from being ready. Our tree gets decorated on December 15th every year. That’s my oldest’s birthday and it’s now a 17 year tradition. Though her sisters would have like to decorate the tree when we got it this weekend. It was cute, we got our tree and it was soaking wet and full of snow so my youngest 2 suggested we blow dry the tree with a hair dryer. FUNNY!

Well Friends, I am trying… are you? Drink your whey… every day.

Camille

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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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James Ellis shares a quick tip on taking breaks during your cardio workouts. Stay safe guys and look forward to a new episode of DESIGNER WHEY Healthy Minute every week

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I started walking with a friend at the mall and I am looking to get a treadmill, hopefully find a good used one for an affordable price. You know the Biggest Losers” walk 14 miles a day! That comes out to be about 3 hours a day…I think WOW 3 hours a day, I can’t even seem to squeeze in 20 minutes! 

I have been thinking about the second question that I am suppose to be answering from the “Best Life” Series sponsored by Oprah last week. The question is… Why are you worthy of getting healthy this year? My first reaction is to say…I am a child of God therefore worthy of being healthy so that I can glorify Him. That is a great answer; it is a politically, morally correct thing to say and sounds wonderful but is it reality? Partly YES, but I need to dig deeper and discover that truth for myself. I also think of longevity and quality of life as I get older. I used to work in nursing homes and have horrible thoughts of having to get 3 people to help me get out of bed because of my weight. I know crazy but those thoughts cross my mind all the time. I think my kids deserve a healthy mom. I think about my darling husband and how he deserves to be proud to have a healthy wife by his side. You may not know this about me and by me sharing this it could cause a credibility issue with people I help. I council crack cocaine addicts and have been for over 10 years now. I think about how I am able to help one stop their addiction to crack yet can not stop my own addiction to food.

 

 I need to figure out why food has this power over me and over come it. I need to find the desire to exercise. I want the results but do not have the desire to do the work. I love watching the “Biggest Loser” and some of the people are 100 pounds heavier then me and they are able to walk the 14 miles a day, work out, sweat, huff and puff, eat right, and drink their Biggest Loser Protein shakes, follow an eating plan. Though, I suppose if I had someone pushing me and cooking my meals and a chance to win 250,000 dollars it would not be so hard. So I am not sure…is it the fear of failure again, fear of sweating or being out of breath, having to “restrict” what I can not eat or what is it? Maybe all of these…If I figure it out maybe it would be the cure for obesity! Or maybe I am not supposed to “figure it out” and just do the right thing to be healthy. 

So am I worth it? Yes and so are you if you struggle with weight issues.

 

Bye for now, 

Camille from Michigan

 

To learn more about The Biggest Loser Protein by DESIGNER WHEY visit www.thebiggestloserprotein.com

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Hello Friends, 

Hope this finds you well. I sure am tired of the snow here in Michigan. It has been the second snowiest year so far and I am ready for spring. It’s hard to get out and be active in this weather.

 One of the questions I have been thinking of is…

 What is holding me back from getting healthy?

 My first thought is…time. There just doesn’t not seem to be enough time for me. I am always doing for others. Mostly my kids and family and a house keeping job I have. By the end of the night I am spent, someone said, “well, just get up earlier and give that time for you”…I am like yeah right…I already stay up late trying to get everything that needs to get done and forgetting half of what I set out to do for that day. I barely can get up to start the day, but with kids to get off to school it’s one thing I must do.

 My second thought is lack of desire…I don’t get up thinking… hmmmm I’m gunna jump on my treadmill and run 10 miles or yummmm… salads for breakfast, lunch and dinner… I don’t know how people do it…where does that desire come from? I like cookies, sweets, chips and junk food…I do not know how to change that. I don’t like to be out of breath or sweat like some national rain forest. I know I should and need to do this but finding the motivation and time seem to hold me back. I need to over come that.

 My third thought is stress…Mostly over trying to get everything that needs to get done…done. One thing that stresses me most is being on time. I like to be on time…my family doesn’t seem to care unless it is something they want to get to on time. My biggest pet peeve is being late for Church…my family, if they sit down after the music has started…no big deal.

 Well, I thought I would share my thoughts on the first question that I need to search myself for the answers to. Now to find the solutions to the things that hold me back for losing weight and keeping it off.

 Save on your next purchase of DESIGNER WHEY with a $2 off coupon you can download from the website, and enjoy your weekend!

 Camille from Michigan

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Hello Friends! 

Did you see the Biggest Loser Protein by Designer Whey promo on last night’s show? I did, and I was very excited. I can’t express how happy I am to see my favorite product helping so many people including me! I am finally back on track and am on my way.

I am very disappointed in my lack of keeping up with my healthy me plan. Unfortunately, I gained 10 pounds over the holiday…WHY???? did I do that. Do I not value myself enough to believe I am worth every pound lost?  

This year I need to make myself a priority. Hard to do when you’re a mom of 3 busy girls and a wife to a great hubby; not to mention, taking care of our home, pets and all that jazz. But I must and you must take care of our selves.

My motto for ‘09 is…  In 2009 I will take care of what is mine… meaning me. I don’t know if you have been watching Oprah this week with her ‘The Best Life Series’ or heard of Dr. Oz who heads up the Best Life Series. Dr. Oz asks everyone to answer these questions in his workbook that you can find on Oprah’s website. 

What’s holding you back from getting healthy?

Why are you worthy of getting healthy this year?

What are your specific health goals for 2009 and what hurdles are you concerned about for each goal?

I intend to think about these questions and answer them. Right now I do not know the answers to the questions and when I figure what or how I feel about the questions I will share what my thoughts with you all.  

I just want to say again how happy I am for Designer Whey and the Biggest Loser Protein, it is really cool. Did you catch that the contestants on the show exercise for 8 hours a day and walk 14 miles a day? HOLY MOLY…I need to get a treadmill and hook my computer on a stand on it then walk while I blog and chat. Even have my TV there. Treadmills are expensive and I like a lot of us am limited financially right now. So I have added a treadmill on my wish list for 2009.

I hope this finds you all well and know I am thinking about you heal too. Seriously, add a Designer Whey product to your healthy eating plan. Try The Biggest Loser Protein and keep moving forward.

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