Showing posts with label celebrities and weight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label celebrities and weight. Show all posts
There's an interesting interview with THE BIGGEST LOSER'S female winner Ali Vincent over at That's Fit dot com that's worth visiting to read in its entirety. Here are two Q/A snippets that I found of special interest.
The first tells us how Ali is keeping off her huge weight loss--and it's not easy, not for lazybones, shows focus and strength of will:
TF: What was your daily calories in/calories out goal on the road to winning Season 5 compared to today? (Ali was initially voted off, but did win a spot to return to the ranch.) In your book you share you still keep a food journal, but do you still strap on a bodybugg?
AV: I've got it on my arm right now. Yeah I do, I love it, love it, love it. People are like, "Do you still have to wear that?" I don't have to wear the bodybugg, but for me, it's the best tool I've found to track the calories I've burned every day. For me it's liberating. As long as I burned it, I can eat it. Now I'll stay on about 2,000 calories and I'll just make sure I burn 2,000 calories. It was hard for me to do before, but now I have an active lifestyle. I never go more than three days. On that third day, if I haven't done a workout, then I go.
When we first went to the ranch, my calories [in] were 1,200, but they didn't use the bodybugg [for the burn] like they do it now. On Biggest Loser we had one day of rest with higher calories, so I added 800 calories on my rest day for a 2,000 calorie day. [After being voted off the show] I stayed on a 1,200 calorie budget and I had to burn 3,750 a day to get me in a 50 percent [weight] loss range at the finale. When I returned to the ranch, Jillian asks me, "What in the hell are you doing?" I told her, "I go to bed when my bodybugg tells me to go." I relied on a mathematical equation. When you win the Biggest Loser, you live and die by the bodybugg. There's other tools out there, the bodybugg was the tool that I was given and that I use.
The second is advice for those starting a journey to lose fat and gain fitness:
TF: What do you tell people who are obese/overweight and don't know where to start?
AV: A, you gotta tell the truth of what you are. I didn't even know I weighed 234 lbs. You have to know where point A is before you can get to point B. Then think about what point B looks like. How much weight do you want to lose? Get clear on what your goal is going to be, then break it down in between. Start journaling everything that you do throughout the day. Go online, get support groups, get a trainer or a friend. If you want to be healthy, find the healthiest person you know and start hanging around them. Start watching them. You have to take action.
It never gets easy. Not the start, not the middle, and obviously not the finish--which is no such thing. It's just the ongoing....
Ali's Book, BELIEVE IT, BE IT
releases tomorrow. Previous TBL winner Matt Hoover also published a book. I'd like to see Kai Hibbard write a tell-all, frankly, of the manipulations behind the scenes and how the pressure of TBL seems to lead some pretty close to eating disorders, exercise addiction, and dangerous diet behaviors for the moolah.Wonder if they invited her for the "Where Are They Now" type of show coming up soon?Prolly not?
Ali, Matt and Suzy, and Eric Chopin (who has regained, btw) will be in it.
Anyway, the special airs November 25.
Read an interesting article just now about people who lose weight and are looked at as role models or inspirations, then have a hard time keeping it off. And I'm not just talking about The Biggest Loser contestants. The article includes folks who lost weight and wrote books, WW meeting leaders, etc, who regained after "doing it!"
I can understand how this would be a shame-inducing and stressful thing. Way back when, there was a lady named Neva Coyle who wrote a Christian-message diet book: Free to Be Thin. It was very popular in religious circles. She wrote other books that had to do with this topic, and she started Overeaters Victorious (at least I think that was the name of the diet group she founded). I had three of her books, including FTBT and its workbook, and another that came out years later that she co-authored with a dietitian.
Turns out, Neva regained the weight. Had bariatric surgery, but kept it secret. Had health issues and had to reverse the surgery. Regained. Came clean. And her career as a religious diet leader was kaput. (Heck, even I felt like it was major cheating to have surgery and not own up to it.) I think she went on to write inspirational and fiction type books. I have no idea what she's up to these days. You just don't hear about her.
Regaining is a spotlight problem. We've seen it with Carnie Wilson, Kirstie Alley, Randy Jackson, Oprah, Janet Jackson, even Al Roker is not looking as sleek as his peak loss post-baratric surgery days. Richard Simmons is plumper than his peak slender days. (And this week, Jessica Simpson's being blasted for gaining, what, ten pounds, fifteen, after having gotten Daisy Duke superskinny? Puhlease, people. She's not fat. She's just not a size 2.)
We know about Matt and Suzy regaining chunks of fat post TBL. And the first winner, Ryan, regaining it ALL. The article features one TBL contestant who lost 100 lbs after leaving the show, but wouldn't accept an invitation to the reunion show, cause she was back up to 200 lbs.
Happens. Has to hurt. Has to hurt more if you're a role model.
And this came to mind to me today after reading a blog by a gal named Rosy in Canada who lost an amazing amount of weight in 12 months and totally remade her physique with exercise and dieting. She looks fabulous, and her slideshow of month-to-month changes is astounding. And she now is promoting her book (self-published) about her transformation from a flabby 275 to a muscular 125, called Breakin' Free.
I wish Rosy the best. I really do. But note on her blog that there is an entry when you scroll down where she related gaining back some weight. (She may have lost it since, but I didn't see any mention of it on the blog.)The book may be obsolete in a year or more, unless she can maintain her fabulous achievement. When you sell your weight loss story, it becomes uninspiring if you get fat again, right?
Maintenance is all after you've written the inspiring tale: And that's a whole other journey--that doesn't end.
And we've all seen bloggers who struggle, regain, struggle more, maybe lose, maybe don't. I've lost some, then got stuck, then regained, then lost a bit, gained, got stuck. I'm no inspiration to anyone, I can tell you. I'm just trying to keep my head above water until I can unstick again. I just don't want to go back to the big 300.
It just goes to show that while losing weight is supertough, what happens after reaching goal weight: It's not easy either. It stays crazy hard. It may be harder, cause you don't see the number go down as a sort of ongoing encouragement. You're working to keep it THE SAME. Less of a carrot, more of a "stick"--as in stick that scale on a numeral.
So, what about those books?
Well, I can understand wanting to take advantage of The Moment--the achievement, the offers, the opportunity to share and make some moolah. Who wouldn't want a nice cash advance? And the diet industry is always coming out with the new book and new hook. Yesterday's memoir or how-to is forgotten (unless the authors manage to make a real company out of it that stokes the phenomenon of it with products, like the South Beach or Zone or Suzanne Somers or Atkins or workshops and cruises and spa weekends, etc). A following that keeps the diet machine going makes for very wealthy diet creators and spokespersons. Can we blame them for wanting to keep it going?
But, generally, a lot of those less-than-ginormous diet books become remainders and end up being out-of-printers sold for a buck on ebay or amazon.com.
Remember Neva Coyle? Bet you don't. Yeah. All those diet books of hers are out of print and irrelevant to the ongoing diet book industry. She could not maintain the weight loss mojo. She could not...maintain.
I do wonder who among the current crop of fatfighting bloggers will get the weight off and will keep it off, maybe even become the Diet Divas of the future. Interesting to consider. Frankly, I'd love it to be ME. :) Not the diva part. Just the lose it all and keep it all off part. Honestly, we could have a breakthrough star in the making, destined to be seen on TV and have their imprimatur on diet products and exercise gear, with a huge site on the internet a la TBL or Dr. Oz. (Let's hope not a neo-Kimkins.)
I hope we all manage to lose and get healthy. Even if we never make it to Divahood or the ideal weight. If we can keep 50 lbs off, or 30, or 70, even if not ALL the weight, we'll do ourselves a favor and be winners.
As the article says, it's a greater achievement to lose 30 and keep it off for ten years, than lose 80 and only keep it off for seven month.
But it's still so exciting to see a transformation like Rosy's. See those pounds go and muscles come in month-to-month installments.
A life has a lot of months (well, if we're fortunate). If you lose 2 pounds this month, and you keep it off, you've won something a lot of folks don't. So, if you get discouraged about only losing 1 or 2 or 4 pounds in a month, concentrate on them not coming back (and Lordy, is that hard). Cause that's the sort of training that you'll need for life. Not losing 10 in a month to get it back in six months. No, just keep those 4 pounds off and you're making huge progress.
It's what I have to learn. I keep my eye on that "by and by" number I long for, and then I lose ground by regaining the five or six or more pounds I worked so hard to lose. That's how we end up failing, all 98% of us regainers. We just think about the far off ideal, and forget that today, it's all about NOT gaining at minimum and losing at maximum. That holding still is a type of victory, and it takes work, doesn't it? Yes, it's not nothing, it's something, even if it doesn't look or feel like it.
Dang, I'm rambling. Sorry.
But do read the article.
~~
I can understand how this would be a shame-inducing and stressful thing. Way back when, there was a lady named Neva Coyle who wrote a Christian-message diet book: Free to Be Thin. It was very popular in religious circles. She wrote other books that had to do with this topic, and she started Overeaters Victorious (at least I think that was the name of the diet group she founded). I had three of her books, including FTBT and its workbook, and another that came out years later that she co-authored with a dietitian.
Turns out, Neva regained the weight. Had bariatric surgery, but kept it secret. Had health issues and had to reverse the surgery. Regained. Came clean. And her career as a religious diet leader was kaput. (Heck, even I felt like it was major cheating to have surgery and not own up to it.) I think she went on to write inspirational and fiction type books. I have no idea what she's up to these days. You just don't hear about her.
Regaining is a spotlight problem. We've seen it with Carnie Wilson, Kirstie Alley, Randy Jackson, Oprah, Janet Jackson, even Al Roker is not looking as sleek as his peak loss post-baratric surgery days. Richard Simmons is plumper than his peak slender days. (And this week, Jessica Simpson's being blasted for gaining, what, ten pounds, fifteen, after having gotten Daisy Duke superskinny? Puhlease, people. She's not fat. She's just not a size 2.)
We know about Matt and Suzy regaining chunks of fat post TBL. And the first winner, Ryan, regaining it ALL. The article features one TBL contestant who lost 100 lbs after leaving the show, but wouldn't accept an invitation to the reunion show, cause she was back up to 200 lbs.
Happens. Has to hurt. Has to hurt more if you're a role model.
And this came to mind to me today after reading a blog by a gal named Rosy in Canada who lost an amazing amount of weight in 12 months and totally remade her physique with exercise and dieting. She looks fabulous, and her slideshow of month-to-month changes is astounding. And she now is promoting her book (self-published) about her transformation from a flabby 275 to a muscular 125, called Breakin' Free.
I wish Rosy the best. I really do. But note on her blog that there is an entry when you scroll down where she related gaining back some weight. (She may have lost it since, but I didn't see any mention of it on the blog.)The book may be obsolete in a year or more, unless she can maintain her fabulous achievement. When you sell your weight loss story, it becomes uninspiring if you get fat again, right?
Maintenance is all after you've written the inspiring tale: And that's a whole other journey--that doesn't end.
And we've all seen bloggers who struggle, regain, struggle more, maybe lose, maybe don't. I've lost some, then got stuck, then regained, then lost a bit, gained, got stuck. I'm no inspiration to anyone, I can tell you. I'm just trying to keep my head above water until I can unstick again. I just don't want to go back to the big 300.
It just goes to show that while losing weight is supertough, what happens after reaching goal weight: It's not easy either. It stays crazy hard. It may be harder, cause you don't see the number go down as a sort of ongoing encouragement. You're working to keep it THE SAME. Less of a carrot, more of a "stick"--as in stick that scale on a numeral.
So, what about those books?
Well, I can understand wanting to take advantage of The Moment--the achievement, the offers, the opportunity to share and make some moolah. Who wouldn't want a nice cash advance? And the diet industry is always coming out with the new book and new hook. Yesterday's memoir or how-to is forgotten (unless the authors manage to make a real company out of it that stokes the phenomenon of it with products, like the South Beach or Zone or Suzanne Somers or Atkins or workshops and cruises and spa weekends, etc). A following that keeps the diet machine going makes for very wealthy diet creators and spokespersons. Can we blame them for wanting to keep it going?
But, generally, a lot of those less-than-ginormous diet books become remainders and end up being out-of-printers sold for a buck on ebay or amazon.com.
Remember Neva Coyle? Bet you don't. Yeah. All those diet books of hers are out of print and irrelevant to the ongoing diet book industry. She could not maintain the weight loss mojo. She could not...maintain.
I do wonder who among the current crop of fatfighting bloggers will get the weight off and will keep it off, maybe even become the Diet Divas of the future. Interesting to consider. Frankly, I'd love it to be ME. :) Not the diva part. Just the lose it all and keep it all off part. Honestly, we could have a breakthrough star in the making, destined to be seen on TV and have their imprimatur on diet products and exercise gear, with a huge site on the internet a la TBL or Dr. Oz. (Let's hope not a neo-Kimkins.)
I hope we all manage to lose and get healthy. Even if we never make it to Divahood or the ideal weight. If we can keep 50 lbs off, or 30, or 70, even if not ALL the weight, we'll do ourselves a favor and be winners.
As the article says, it's a greater achievement to lose 30 and keep it off for ten years, than lose 80 and only keep it off for seven month.
But it's still so exciting to see a transformation like Rosy's. See those pounds go and muscles come in month-to-month installments.
A life has a lot of months (well, if we're fortunate). If you lose 2 pounds this month, and you keep it off, you've won something a lot of folks don't. So, if you get discouraged about only losing 1 or 2 or 4 pounds in a month, concentrate on them not coming back (and Lordy, is that hard). Cause that's the sort of training that you'll need for life. Not losing 10 in a month to get it back in six months. No, just keep those 4 pounds off and you're making huge progress.
It's what I have to learn. I keep my eye on that "by and by" number I long for, and then I lose ground by regaining the five or six or more pounds I worked so hard to lose. That's how we end up failing, all 98% of us regainers. We just think about the far off ideal, and forget that today, it's all about NOT gaining at minimum and losing at maximum. That holding still is a type of victory, and it takes work, doesn't it? Yes, it's not nothing, it's something, even if it doesn't look or feel like it.
Dang, I'm rambling. Sorry.
But do read the article.
~~
Some quotes and notes I scribbled down (probably imperfectly) while watching Oprah's show yesterday about her regain and her plan to get fit again:
Oprah's exercise plan:
cardio for 30 mins a day
resistance training 5 days a week
Oprah's tools:
Best Life Diet Book
Posted meal plan in her kitchen
~~sample meals
~~~~Bkfst: egg whites, steel-cut oatmeal, green tea
~~~~Dinner: salmon, sweet potato, green vegetable(s)
She also has set aside time for her health and personal needs in her daily schedule.
Segment with Carnie Wilson: she now weighs 168, down 50 pounds in the last 6 months, and is expecting her second baby. And I must say, she looks absolutely, glowingly beautiful. Carnie said she had to get at the bottom of her own soul, asking "What do I really want?"
Bob also emphasized taking time and effort to get to the true answer to some some questions.
Fundamental Questions asked by Bob Greene in his Best Life Diet:
* Why are you overweight?
* Why do you want to lose weight?
* Why have you been unable to lose weight in the past?
~~
UPDATE: I love these questions--as a response to Bob's questions-- asked by Janice of Our Lady of Weight Loss!
"This is a problem in your life that will remain a problem in your life for the duration of your life."
-- Bob Greene
"Bottom line: you have to plan your meals."
--Oprah
"There's absolutely no way that I'm ever,ever going to maintain my weight without some regular cardio exercise...at least 30 minutes a day"
--Oprah
Oprah's exercise plan:
cardio for 30 mins a day
resistance training 5 days a week
Oprah's tools:
Best Life Diet Book
Posted meal plan in her kitchen
~~sample meals
~~~~Bkfst: egg whites, steel-cut oatmeal, green tea
~~~~Dinner: salmon, sweet potato, green vegetable(s)
She also has set aside time for her health and personal needs in her daily schedule.
Segment with Carnie Wilson: she now weighs 168, down 50 pounds in the last 6 months, and is expecting her second baby. And I must say, she looks absolutely, glowingly beautiful. Carnie said she had to get at the bottom of her own soul, asking "What do I really want?"
Bob also emphasized taking time and effort to get to the true answer to some some questions.
Fundamental Questions asked by Bob Greene in his Best Life Diet:
* Why are you overweight?
* Why do you want to lose weight?
* Why have you been unable to lose weight in the past?
~~
UPDATE: I love these questions--as a response to Bob's questions-- asked by Janice of Our Lady of Weight Loss!
So, nearly a month in absentia. My bad.
I really at first just got busy. Then I got lazy. Then I got scared. I mean, I haven't been on the scale in two weeks.
Today, at my Pilates class, the teacher said I looked great and have I been on the scale lately. I said, "No, cause I think I gained." She says I look slimmer, but that may just be the tightening effect of exercise. I know I have been eating way more than I should, and I have not been weighing, blogging, journaling, or anything other than being slacker-bad.
But, here I am. Before Christmas, hoping to manage the upcoming feasts with some fatfighting panache.
My weigh-in day is supposed to be Sundays, so I'll post a number then. I'm really just not up to weighing tomorrow. I still feel anxiety. :P
On the plus side: I've been--weight anxiety aside--very chipper, happy, up. I mean, one day I actually woke up SINGING. Just so happy, I was singing. I dunno what my hormones are doing, but I hope they keep this up. (And it's doing wonders for my sex drive, too.) It's such a relief from the previous years of depression. Even when the depression lifted in January, I never woke up singing. :)
So, hello, 2009, as you approach. May you be my best year yet!
BTW, on the movement front: I also may take up some Asian drumming. I have always had such a weak upper body, and it shows in Pilates, where shoulder/arm work just kills me, that hubby and I may try to do this together. (He's already a great dummer/percussionist, but he's never done the big Asian drums.) I figure it's a hobby that makes you move, and burn calories. Good.
I also have taken up bowling. We've only gone twice, and I suck beyond suckage at it (think a score of 51 average), but I intend to get better. This is another effort at doing stuff with hubby that makes us GET UP, rather than just sit and snuggle with the television. Movement. I'm after more movement in my life, with the hope that less eating will follow.
Portion control. My nemesis. I will defeat you.
Anyhow, that's my update. I'm moving more. I'm happy. I've added dozens of new lip glosses to my collection (I tend to buy lip gloss when I'm happy. Dunno why? Maybe to accent my persistent grin.) I'm looking forward to making this holiday season a happier and healthier one than last year's.
Over the coming days, I hope to catch up with the blogs of my fatfighting comrades. I have dropped by Lyn's, and I hope everyone goes over to hug her. She's having a major life transition. Let's give her all our support.
I hope the rest of you are doing well. I know that I'm looking forward to January 5, so that I can join Oprah in her quest to lose weight (again). She had gotten down to my own dream goal weight (160), and she looked so great, remember? The abs and all. Now, even at 200, I think she looks very good. But I understand how important it is for her to nip this before she gains it ALL back. Go, Oprah.
And go, US!
(Whoa, sorry for rambling all over the place. I had 4 espressos!)
~
I really at first just got busy. Then I got lazy. Then I got scared. I mean, I haven't been on the scale in two weeks.
Today, at my Pilates class, the teacher said I looked great and have I been on the scale lately. I said, "No, cause I think I gained." She says I look slimmer, but that may just be the tightening effect of exercise. I know I have been eating way more than I should, and I have not been weighing, blogging, journaling, or anything other than being slacker-bad.
But, here I am. Before Christmas, hoping to manage the upcoming feasts with some fatfighting panache.
My weigh-in day is supposed to be Sundays, so I'll post a number then. I'm really just not up to weighing tomorrow. I still feel anxiety. :P
On the plus side: I've been--weight anxiety aside--very chipper, happy, up. I mean, one day I actually woke up SINGING. Just so happy, I was singing. I dunno what my hormones are doing, but I hope they keep this up. (And it's doing wonders for my sex drive, too.) It's such a relief from the previous years of depression. Even when the depression lifted in January, I never woke up singing. :)
So, hello, 2009, as you approach. May you be my best year yet!
BTW, on the movement front: I also may take up some Asian drumming. I have always had such a weak upper body, and it shows in Pilates, where shoulder/arm work just kills me, that hubby and I may try to do this together. (He's already a great dummer/percussionist, but he's never done the big Asian drums.) I figure it's a hobby that makes you move, and burn calories. Good.
I also have taken up bowling. We've only gone twice, and I suck beyond suckage at it (think a score of 51 average), but I intend to get better. This is another effort at doing stuff with hubby that makes us GET UP, rather than just sit and snuggle with the television. Movement. I'm after more movement in my life, with the hope that less eating will follow.
Portion control. My nemesis. I will defeat you.
Anyhow, that's my update. I'm moving more. I'm happy. I've added dozens of new lip glosses to my collection (I tend to buy lip gloss when I'm happy. Dunno why? Maybe to accent my persistent grin.) I'm looking forward to making this holiday season a happier and healthier one than last year's.
Over the coming days, I hope to catch up with the blogs of my fatfighting comrades. I have dropped by Lyn's, and I hope everyone goes over to hug her. She's having a major life transition. Let's give her all our support.
I hope the rest of you are doing well. I know that I'm looking forward to January 5, so that I can join Oprah in her quest to lose weight (again). She had gotten down to my own dream goal weight (160), and she looked so great, remember? The abs and all. Now, even at 200, I think she looks very good. But I understand how important it is for her to nip this before she gains it ALL back. Go, Oprah.
And go, US!
(Whoa, sorry for rambling all over the place. I had 4 espressos!)
~
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