We were thrilled to be there last night to see Bernie win the Biggest Loser at-home winner. Bernie was never one of the big guys in the house, but beat the odds by losing more weight than Curtis, Dan and final four contestant Mark. He lost 130 pounds to lose the highest percentage of weight in the house and he’ll be taking home $100,000.
He told DietsInReview.com after his elimination that he planned to use that money to help his mom repair her badly damaged basement due to three floods in Indiana this past year. Last night, he kept to his word and assured that will be the first thing he does.We had the pleasure of meeting Bernie’s entire family and they are truly some of the kindest and funniest people. Bernie is blessed with an amazing family and they certainly have a lot to be proud of in him.
Today is the day we’ve waited four months for- the Biggest Loser finale. Live at 8pm EST tonight from LA, we will find out who America voted for and who will be the new Biggest Loser. Will we finally get a female Biggest Loser in Ali or Kelly? And, who went home and took on the challenge themselves to win the $100,000 at-home prize. These answers are just a few hours away.
As we’ve mentioned, I’m in LA covering the event. I’ll be sitting in the audience and then catching up with the winner and other contestants immediately after. You can tune in here to the DietsInReview.com Diet Column tomorrow for videos and full coverage. We’re actually staying at the hotel with Bernie‘s family. We’ve met the aunts, uncles, brothers, mom and friends. They are all very nice and make it more understandable why Bernie is such a fantastic guy!
If you haven’t grabbed this week’s People Magazine (the issue with Beyonce’s surprise wedding on the cover), toward the back is a one-pager about Biggest Loser trainers Jillian Michaels and Kim Lyons. They each weigh-in at 115 pounds, with Jillian 5’2″ and BMI of 21; Kim 5’3″ with BMI of 20.4.
Don’t forget to check out the new review for the Biggest Loser Meal Plan! Now you can eat just like the contestants.
There’s another weight loss show, following the immense success of The Biggest Loser series. Where that show is more about hardcore fitness, and strict adherence to healthier eating, TLC’s “I Can Make You Thin” is about transforming your mind, and the weight loss will follow.
Host Paul McKenna comes across sort of like a TV magician in his presentation, but that’s a part of his self-help zeal. It’s certainly uplifting, and even funny at times. McKenna has four golden rules for eating:
1. When You’re Hungry, Eat!
2. Eat What You Want (Not What You Think You Should).
3. Eat Consciously.
4. When You Think You’re Full, Stop.
It sounds painfully simple, and number two even seems ridiculous on the surface. But in reality what he means is, eating shouldn’t be about punishment.
Episode five of I Can Make You Thin aired Sunday night. The theme centered around confidence and self-esteem. The show talked about the scientific reasoning for why overweight people are stuck in a rut. Basically, when you visualize yourself as “I am fat,” then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since “I’m fat” I can’t do certain exercises, etc. But when the visualization is tweaked a little, to “I am not at my ideal weight” the person sees themselves as being able to change because the real you is the healthy version.
McKenna went through one of his self-help techniques, this time addressing the little voice in your head that says mean things about you. His theme tends to be that you take the negative element and you visualize it in a completely different way, thus transforming your habit.
Last week, it was visualizing the nastiest thing you could think of eating when you are about to give in to your comfort food. So, maybe you see worms instead of spaghetti. Eventually, you begin to associate those foods with the nasty substitute.
In this week’s episode, he took a pretty comical approach to defeating the negative voice in your head: change it to a comical/goofy voice. So, every time you hear that voice you can’t take it seriously. On the surface, it seems like these techniques are sort of ridiculous. But what it’s all about is transforming your involuntary habits.
One particularly striking case was Bevin the lawyer. Here was an attractive woman, who if you were to look at her you would figure maybe she could lose 15 pounds or so. But, she acted like she needed to lose 150. Her self-esteem was what held her back. When McKenna taught her how to transform her negative thoughts, she began to look at herself in the mirror differently.
The results best illustrated what Paul McKenna’s approach is all about: Losing weight is a byproduct of transforming your self-worth. Bevin even said that the 12 pounds that she lost came as a byproduct to her new self-confidence.
Towards the end of this week’s episode of I Can Make You Thin, McKenna took the audience and viewers through an exercise centered around the phrase “I accept myself.” If you can sum up the positive approach that Paul McKenna espouses with one phrase, this is it. You need to work on your mind before your waistline.
Paul McKenna’s techniques are certainly unconventional. He doesn’t talk about specific dietary measures, other than how you approach eating mentally. In fact, he doesn’t tell people that any food is off limits. But, if you follow his golden rules, you can eat sensibly and anything in moderation. The weight loss will follow.
It’s been two solid weeks of this new get-fit lifestyle and I have to admit that I like it. I feel fantastic. A little more energy, sleeping a little better. And while no one is going to walk up to me and tell me it looks like I’ve lost weight, I like to think I can feel a difference.
This week and next week are going to be big tests. I’m traveling today through Wednesday, LA for the Biggest Loser finale and then to Kansas City and all of next week in New York. Plenty of temptations all along the way that are easy to ignore in the comfort of home, but I think I can do it. I know this because toning up and being fit isn’t a phase- it’s a standard I’m setting for myself.
Does this mean I won’t drink? No. Will I have as much as I usually would? Definitely not. Will I have dessert? Sure- but a few bites to quench my sweet tooth and know that I don’t need to finish the entire thing. Instead of sitting during a two-hour layover I’ll walk around the terminal. Surely that and lugging two very heavy pieces of luggage count as exercise.
I’m not of the school of thought that that thinks it’s all or nothing. I fully believe the school of thought “all things in moderation.”
Flying today was a good experience. I was nervous as I’ve always hit the quickest fast-food burger in between flights. Today, I packed some Kashi granola bars for fighting off the munchies and I made my way to the Au Bon Pain in the DFW terminal. It was light, fresh and delicious.
I won’t get to meet the trainer on our regularly scheduled days this week. Will have to pull a Saturday morning to get it all in. I plan on getting up in the morning to hit the hotel gym as well.
With that said- I’m so excited to report that I’ve lost five total pounds, another two pounds last week. That’s a bag of sugar!
I have recently been struggling with a bout of back pain. Whether it is from carrying around my toddler for the past 2.5 years on my hips or the wear and tear of moving and sitting in a way that has misaligned my lumbar spine, my introduction into chronic pain has not been pleasant. But then again, it’s pain and what pain is truly pleasant on the physical level?
One positive note that has come out my ongoing back problems is that now I am so aware of how I move myself. Whether it’s simply standing waiting for the water in my tea kettle to boil, picking up my daughter from her nap or just sitting at the computer, my awareness of how I use my body has increased exponentially. And for that, I’m grateful to this injury.
As a yoga practitioner and instructor, I’m very aware of how our movements affect us and how over the years, our conditioned ways of moving create misalignments in the body. I have always known this on an intellectual level and now, I am experiencing it first-hand. However long it takes for me to rehabilitate my back, I do know that because of this injury, my posture and my minute-to-minute movements have markedly improved. And my prowess as both a yoga practitioner and teacher have also markedly improved.
If you have dealt with chronic pain, I’d love to hear from you and how your injury affected and influenced you.
