Showing posts with label magazines and books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magazines and books. Show all posts
New Blog Updated: Motivation Mojo: Looking to those who've done it already...and "Refuse to Regain"!
Read the new entry at the new blog:
Motivation Mojo: Looking to those who've done it already...and "Refuse to Regain"!
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Have a slimming Saturday!
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.
Today was a tough weigh-in. I had avoided the scales for, what, just over a week, but it was time to face up to the damage done. (Cue classic Neil Young, one of my fave hippie-era songs, only the Princess version would be "The Eating and the Damage Done.")279.6
That's the highest I've been since October of 2007! A huge step backward, really.
It is just too damn easy to regain, people. Look upon my weigh-in and be very afraid if you are thinking of slacking off even a little. Don't!
Ah, well. At least I felt calmer today. Not worse. And I didn't have crazy cravings. For breakfast I used 9 points, about 450 calories as follows:
~2 lowfat blueberry pancakes from Diet-To-Go (found them stuffed in my freezer from late last year) with one soy sausage.
~I made some sugarless compote from some blueberries hubby bought me Monday, because the berries were super-gritty and not fun to eat. The compote was passable. Start with a not-great berry, get not-great compote. But, hey, it was fruit and a pretty juiciness on the pancakes.
~I also had 1 organic, free-roaming, vegetarian egg, fried in Pam, with 1 slice Horizon organic American cheese. Just the egg and cheese was 4 points, but I wanted the extra protein/calcium.
~The highlight of my breakfast was using--for the first time--my birthday gift from hubby: a hand-made Technivorm Moccamaster coffeemaker with the gourmet coffee I ordered with it. Yum. Best cup of coffee I ever had.What a wonderful coffeemaker. But not cheap. But hey, I'm turning 49. I need the consolation of superior cuppa joes.
So, breakfast went okay.For lunch (which I just had, so it's more like dunch or linner), I decided to go vegetarian with spicy Indian food, so I could maybe feel comfortable with lots of flavor without having to eat a bingey 2000 or 2500 calories. I had half a cup of dal and half a cup of matar panir with a cup of rice and a very small piece of nan (about 3 inches by 2 inches) with a tablespoon of onion chutney, and one veggie samosa with a tablespoon of tamarind chutney. I had water and another cup of coffee, too.
I have no idea what the calories are (have to look it up), but my guess is that it's gonna be something like the following in points(respectively) 3 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 1. That's 19 points. About 950 cals.Total Points: 28 so far, about 1400 cals.
And I still need to get more fruit and maybe a small salad before bed, so I get my produce in.
Now, on that Model Thing: I was browsing the March 2009 issue of Ladies Home Journal, and I noticed the model in one of the fashion/style spreads was a regular at my Pilates studio. If you want to take a look, go HERE and it's the model in the green dress, smiling. If you click the back arrow at the top left, you go to a previous page with her looking to the right out a window. Though I've only chatted with her a few times in passing, she's very amiable. (If you own the magazine, she's on page 51, 52, 54, and 56).
Updated: Thanks, Lyn. I have no idea why I wrote Neil Diamond. That's weird. :)
I've had a tough few days, breathing-wise, and as a consequence, eating wise. I've been wanting salt, and I have slacked off mywater, so I'm bloated as a result. (Time to guzzle water and coconut water.) Bleh.
But I decided not to get into that negative mindset that goes into attack mode: Why didn't you eat more potassium-rich foods, dummy? Why did you have to have that salty soup, idiot?
No, none of that.
Here's why:
Yes, I weighed myself this morning, and got bummed over the bloat-weight. BUT...
I was listening to the radio while getting ready to go to Pilates (my first class since over three weeks ago, when I stopped going due to my breathing issues.) I am still not completely well. I'm still congested. But instead of feeling like someone was sitting on my chest and strangling me, it feels like they got off my chest and just have their hands around my throat and pressing a bit. It's improvement, though hardly wonderful. But I figured if all I could do was stretch, then that's what we'd do. I felt all stiff from sitting/lying around for 3.5 weeks. So, I needed, NEEDED, to get some exercise/stretching.
So, back to my morning moment: I was listening to the radio show in the bathroom, one on a local Christian station, and a lady who got up to 350 pounds was talking about her personal journey. And she said that the thing that clicked, that got her to begin to shed the weight was realizing and accepting how very much she was loved. That even at 350 pounds, her husband loved her, and God loved her. Being fat or skinny has no effect on true love. It shouldn't.
Hearing that reminded me that even I don't have a right to hate myself. It's counterproductive.
I turned my thoughts toward the loving and positive. I asked God to help me through the day, and I prayed for a few other folks,too. I decided NOT to berate myself, but love myself TODAY. I refused to get on the self-insulting bandwagon.
Pilates went better than I expected. It was very hard--some positions didn't let me breathe, so we couldn't do some stuff. But my wonderful trainer is a pro at finding how to make stuff work, no matter the obstacle. I didn't get as tough as workout as when I'm well, and yet I got to the point of some muscles burning and trembling. And I got props for keeping my abdominals engaged. Tough when oxygen is at a premium and I had to use mouth-inbreathing (which is normally a no-no in Pilates).
Next, I come home and I put on Oprah. The show (just finished) was a follow-up to the Best Life week of shows. And Oprah, talking about her own weight loss journey of today, says, "It begins with love."
So that's two women with weight issues who both say this: START WITH LOVE.
Accept love--from God, from others, FROM YOURSELF. Give love, especially when you are hating yourself for whatever slip or bad choice. Don't ever hate on yourself (much less others). That doesn't help.
And love the body you have now, as Oprah said, because it's the body that God is blessing you in..now..today.
So, with that said, on to a book review:
Yesterday, I got myself a new "weight loss" book as a bit of motivation. I actually do find it motivating. It preempted a possible binge this pm (I was still insufficiently hydrated, and that thirst sensation was about to spur on some bad eating mojo.) But THE BIG SKINNY put a brake on it. (thank you, Carol Lay) It's a charming, amusing, practical, inspiring, friendly, useful book. It's done in comics strip/book style--all illustrated with writing in the panels--and it's just too cool. The author is honest about what worked for her, about the pitfalls, the saboteurs, exercise, whole foods, calorie counting, etc. She has a list of common foods and their calories, easy ways to eyeball measurements, shows the exercises she does, and displays in visual form how she fights off temptation.
I did a review for it for amazon just now.
If you like comic strips or comic books, I would really recommend this. Such fun. And so smartly done.
You know what, I recommend it even if you never have read a comic book in your life. Honestly.
Now, please be kind to yourself today. Be grateful for your body, yes that one. No matter how imperfect. It's the one in and through which you are blessed in so many ways. That's the body that lets you hug loved ones, the one that carried your kids (if you have 'em), the one that lets you swim or dance or make love or see the sky or smell the ocean or sing a song or savor a delicious cup of coffee. Your body is amazing, even if it's fat and mushy. Even if, like mine, it's medically defective. Yes, I can still do so much. And it can become BETTER, every day.
Love yourself, and go do something happy and healthful or that miracle-body of yours.
But I decided not to get into that negative mindset that goes into attack mode: Why didn't you eat more potassium-rich foods, dummy? Why did you have to have that salty soup, idiot?
No, none of that.
Here's why:
Yes, I weighed myself this morning, and got bummed over the bloat-weight. BUT...
I was listening to the radio while getting ready to go to Pilates (my first class since over three weeks ago, when I stopped going due to my breathing issues.) I am still not completely well. I'm still congested. But instead of feeling like someone was sitting on my chest and strangling me, it feels like they got off my chest and just have their hands around my throat and pressing a bit. It's improvement, though hardly wonderful. But I figured if all I could do was stretch, then that's what we'd do. I felt all stiff from sitting/lying around for 3.5 weeks. So, I needed, NEEDED, to get some exercise/stretching.
So, back to my morning moment: I was listening to the radio show in the bathroom, one on a local Christian station, and a lady who got up to 350 pounds was talking about her personal journey. And she said that the thing that clicked, that got her to begin to shed the weight was realizing and accepting how very much she was loved. That even at 350 pounds, her husband loved her, and God loved her. Being fat or skinny has no effect on true love. It shouldn't.
Hearing that reminded me that even I don't have a right to hate myself. It's counterproductive.
I turned my thoughts toward the loving and positive. I asked God to help me through the day, and I prayed for a few other folks,too. I decided NOT to berate myself, but love myself TODAY. I refused to get on the self-insulting bandwagon.
Pilates went better than I expected. It was very hard--some positions didn't let me breathe, so we couldn't do some stuff. But my wonderful trainer is a pro at finding how to make stuff work, no matter the obstacle. I didn't get as tough as workout as when I'm well, and yet I got to the point of some muscles burning and trembling. And I got props for keeping my abdominals engaged. Tough when oxygen is at a premium and I had to use mouth-inbreathing (which is normally a no-no in Pilates).
Next, I come home and I put on Oprah. The show (just finished) was a follow-up to the Best Life week of shows. And Oprah, talking about her own weight loss journey of today, says, "It begins with love."
So that's two women with weight issues who both say this: START WITH LOVE.
Accept love--from God, from others, FROM YOURSELF. Give love, especially when you are hating yourself for whatever slip or bad choice. Don't ever hate on yourself (much less others). That doesn't help.
And love the body you have now, as Oprah said, because it's the body that God is blessing you in..now..today.
So, with that said, on to a book review:
Yesterday, I got myself a new "weight loss" book as a bit of motivation. I actually do find it motivating. It preempted a possible binge this pm (I was still insufficiently hydrated, and that thirst sensation was about to spur on some bad eating mojo.) But THE BIG SKINNY put a brake on it. (thank you, Carol Lay) It's a charming, amusing, practical, inspiring, friendly, useful book. It's done in comics strip/book style--all illustrated with writing in the panels--and it's just too cool. The author is honest about what worked for her, about the pitfalls, the saboteurs, exercise, whole foods, calorie counting, etc. She has a list of common foods and their calories, easy ways to eyeball measurements, shows the exercises she does, and displays in visual form how she fights off temptation.
I did a review for it for amazon just now.
If you like comic strips or comic books, I would really recommend this. Such fun. And so smartly done.
You know what, I recommend it even if you never have read a comic book in your life. Honestly.
Now, please be kind to yourself today. Be grateful for your body, yes that one. No matter how imperfect. It's the one in and through which you are blessed in so many ways. That's the body that lets you hug loved ones, the one that carried your kids (if you have 'em), the one that lets you swim or dance or make love or see the sky or smell the ocean or sing a song or savor a delicious cup of coffee. Your body is amazing, even if it's fat and mushy. Even if, like mine, it's medically defective. Yes, I can still do so much. And it can become BETTER, every day.
Love yourself, and go do something happy and healthful or that miracle-body of yours.
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