"The Biggest Loser "

The 11th Season of "The Biggest Loser" TV show starts tomorrow!  I have to say when I first heard the title of the show and that it involved a bunch of overweight people, I thought it would be a very wrong, worthless show.  I never even considered watching it.  Then a friend and my sister started talking to me about how great it was at the same time, so we watched the Season 8 premier and were hooked.  If you are trying to lose weight, and even if you aren’t, I highly recommend this show.  It inspires me to get up and do something! The show is committed to promoting healthy lifestyles.  It is packed with tips on eating healthy (though some of them are actually commercials) and the contestants are taught how to exercise.

Here are some things I have learned from the Biggest Loser.

1. I need to figure out why I overeat.  I’ve heard that before, but it never really sank in until I started dieting.  Partly because I didn't realize that I was overeating a lot of the time.  It’s a process I’m still working on.
2. Diets don’t work.  I need to be committed to a lifestyle change.  Even if I get to my goal weight, I can’t go back to eating out 5 times a week or eating gigantic bowls of ice cream every night.  This is emphasized in a special episode where they follow up with past contestants.  Some of them have gained all their weight back because they went home and returned to their past lifestyles.
3. People need an outside motivation.  A lot of the contestants lose weight so they will be here for their kids or other family.  One of the contestants this year discovered that her daughter was anorexic “because she didn’t want to be fat like her mom”.
4. I can look thin.  I’ve seen people lose a lot of weight, but not really look thin.  I didn’t think it was possible to look thin again until I saw this show.  And then there’s the whole rabbit hole of vanity that I’m just ignore for the purpose of this post.
5. Push harder – “If you don’t puke, if you don’t faint, and if you don’t die, then just keep going.” Do it with “reckless abandon.” Bob Harper (Biggest Loser trainer)  I have always been afraid to push my body, but watching what the contestants can do on the show has given me courage to push beyond what I know I can do and do just a little more.

If you made a New Year's resolution about weight loss or fitness, here's a great tool to assist you!  Tune in to NBC, Tuesdays at 8/7c, or catch it online on NBC or Hulu, available the next day.

 

First Fitness Goals

In the absence of Bob & Jillian, I decided I should set a couple of fitness goals at the gym to motivate myself.  They are probably laughable to anyone who knows anything about fitness, but I have to start somewhere, right?  Baby Steps…

#1) Finish a mile in under 15 minutes.  A good walking pace for me is a 17:30 minute mile.  It gets my heart pumping and any faster would require a jog.  But I remember from high school that a 15 minute mile is a basic fitness test, and I remember that I barely passed that test.  So earlier this week I did a 16:30 minute mile and last night I slashed my time to 15:19!

#2) Leg raises - 3 reps of 10.  The equipment at the gym requires me to hold up my body weight while trying to pull my knees up to my chest using my abdominal muscles.  So far, I can do 3 reps of 2.

I feel pretty good about my leg strength.  After all, they’ve been moving my 200 pound body around for years.  So after the treadmill, I do the circuit of machines that work my arms, back and abs.

Thank you, Biggest Loser, for giving me the courage and motivation to go to the gym!  If they can do it, so can I!  And if I can do it, so can you!!!