BDW Biggest Loser Season 2 Official CHAT thread...

Ok, I am still waiting for weights from the following people ...

ButlerGirl08 (Alex)

ErinB

jkcz0702 (Jen)

nueland (Nicole)

Saraha

sodria (Sandra)

twinkletoes (Christina)

Alrighty, I was a bit bad tonight. I gave into temptation & had a cinnamon bun! But in my defense it was tiny (and stale!) & sooooo not worth it!! At least I ate decent the rest of the day so I don't feel so guilty about it.

Back to the gym tomorrow after a day off. I can't wait. I felt so BLAH just sitting around today. It was so chilly & rainy outside that I barely even walked at all!

Hi girls! I wanted to randomly babble a few thoughts:

1. As corny as it sounds I think it really helps to continually post here. Its almost like it makes you accountable and you are more likely to want to work hard if you know that you will have to come back and tell us what your eating. LOl. Sounds stupid but its true. That's why a lot of people who lose a significant amount of weight on WW are the ones who attend meetings.

2. I used to be horrible at portion control. But here is what I learned to do. Buy yourself one of those WW Smart Ones or Lean Cuisine meals. After you are done eating it, wash the plastic container that your food came in and use this plate from now on. When you make you food, keep in mind that you should not be stuffing your face with more than that plateful. Yes it seems tiny, and yes at first it is really hard. But once you get used to it (after about the second full day) you will realize that you will start to feel satisfied with much less food in your stomach.

3. Drinks lots of water. I usually drink lots of water before I start eating. Then I drink water in between bites so that I fill up on water more and less on food.

4. I also get dizzy and even nauseas sometimes from working out. Here is some stuff you can do. Before working out eat some peanut butter. It will give you the sugar you need and it is a great source of energy. It usually stops you from feeling dizzy. For the girls who come home from the gym and want to eat everything in their path, STOP and first drink lots of water. Your body is exhausted and dehydrated. Once you have liquid inside you eat a spoonful of peanut butter. It will balance out your insulin levels and help you stop craving sugar. If you must have a soda drink a zero calorie sprite or coke. I promise you they taste pretty much the same thing as the real ones. They also have zero carbs which is great.

5. You will always lose a lot of weight in the first week. So don't feel like 7 or 8 pounds is not normal b/c everyone's body is different. Most of it is water weight. A lot of us lost a lot of weight the first week and then we staggered off to a 1.5-3 pound weight per week.

6. For the girls who are plateauing like me. I got an exercise program from a friend of mine (who was dating a trainer). This is a cardio program for anyone that wants to try it. You have to do cardio 6 days a week and rest one day a week. The first day you do the pre-core/elliptical/arc trainer (any of those is fine). You will do 45 minutes. You do 2 minutes going as fast as you can (at whatever speed that maybe) and then 1 minute at a regular pace but at a high intensity (meaning that its hard for you to move forward). You keep alternating for those 45 minutes (2 minutes super fast, then 1 minute at a difficult intensity and then back to 2 minutes of super fast again). The second day you do the treadmill. You should do a light job for 30 minutes. Then the third day you go back to the elliptical machine doing the same thing I mentioned before.

You keep doing this so your body is constantly in shock and so that you don't injure your knees running too much on the treadmill. Once you get more advanced you can do 2 minutes of your fastest speed on the treadmill and then 1 minute at a regular speed. I started yesterday and I burned almost twice the calories that I was burning before. I warn you though, this is super tough and challenging.

The trainer warned her not to do it if your just starting so I would only reccomend this if you are physically active or if you have at least got a couple of weeks under your belt.

Also, instead of doing weights with rests in between you can do supersets back to back so that you are fatiguing your muscles more and it becomes almost like a cardio workout.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for these tips Glenda!

Just a little side note:

For those of you that may or may not know our wonderful host Ann is in the hospital in California. She was away on a business trip for work and she wasn't feeling right so she went to the hospital to get checked out. It turns out that she went into preterm labor and was admitted. Tammy (the host) is visiting her as we speak. So while we're exercising and eating healthy let's keep a prayer going for Ann & little Nugget so that everything will be okay. Let's send her those good BDW vibes we are good at sending!!!

You're right Glenda, posting does help. I've been bad about and gained a whole bunch.

I'm really restricting my carbs and fat right now.

Additional tips I've found work are:

1) For portion control, I use a divided toddler plate. The big portion at the bottom gets the veggies, the smaller section gets the protein, and the last one gets the whole grain, additional vegetable, etc.

2) Try to separate carbs and proteins. So, have oatmeal and fruit for breakfast and a chicken salad for lunch. Don't eat a steak and a baked potato. They theory is that your body uses different enzymes, etc to process carbs, fats, and proteins. If you eat them all together they can't be completely broken down, but if you split them up, they are.

3) Set an eating schedule. It is best to eat within 30 minutes of waking up. Continue to eat small meals during the day. Give yourself cut off times. For example, don't eat fruits or carbs after 2pm. No meals after 8pm. This gives you the chance to burn off what you eat.

4) Keep healthy snacks in the fridge like celery sticks and sugar free jello. You actually burn more calories walking to the fridge, opening the package and eating & digesting them than are in the foods themselves!

5) Everyone already knows this, but really monitor your salt and drink lots of water!

Now, if I can just practice what I preach, I'll be good to go!