BIGGEST LOSER "9" -- WEEK FOUR "WHAT'S ON YOUR PLATE?"

If you recall, we started out trying to get everyone moving. Then we turned up the intensity of the workouts, and the participants started a daily calorie log. The goal was to make sure they were getting over their minimum calories.

Women should get at least 1,200 calories, but 1,500-1,650 would be better, especially with all the activity they were doing. Men should get at least 1,800 calories, but 2,200-2,400 would probably be better for them, too.

Last week we talked about how to eat right—meaning balanced meals. They learned that every meal should include a source of Protein, Starch (complex carbs), and Fruits & Greens.

Proteins are for building muscle & bone, and sources include low fat dairy products like Milk, Yogurt, and Cottage Cheese. Most people don’t get nearly enough protein. A very active person needs a minimum of a half a gram for each pound of body weight and that’s conservative.

Make sure you get a generous serving of protein at every meal. If you’re active, you might even add protein shakes or protein bars just to make sure you’re getting enough.

Starches are complex carbohydrates that take the body longer to break down, so they make good long lasting fuels. They are also a good source of vitamins and minerals which will help your body feel and work better. The problem in our country is that we way overdo starches.

Go to a potluck. Someone brings chicken & noodles. That’s one starch. Someone else brings mashed potatoes. That’s two. What about corn. That’s three. Don’t forget about the other potato dish. Four. Then there’s baked beans. That makes five. And what about the desserts, like pies, cakes, cookies, and others?

We really just need one starch per meal. If you do a buffet, you’ll have to make sure you take only a little bit of each, or the rest of it will be stored as fat. Quality sources of starch include anything whole grain or whole wheat, like breads and cereals, rice, pasta, corn, regular and sweet potatoes, and some beans. You just need to have one serving per meal.

Fruits & Greens are pretty self-explanatory. Fruits and greens are simple sugars that give you quick energy, some fiber, and lots of vitamins and minerals. Fruits go great with breakfast, as snacks, or even as part of a healthy desert. Greens include all the vegetables, and tend to go better with lunch and supper.

Most people don’t get enough fruits and greens, so if you’ll start eating more, you’ll have more quick energy and just plain feel better. They’re extremely low in calories, especially greens which are higher in fiber, so they’re almost free foods when it comes to your diet. Note: diabetics need to be much more careful with their sugar and should consult their physician.

So when you eat a meal, you want to set up your plate so you have a serving of protein, starch, and some fruits & greens. Once you start thinking that way, you’ll really be on top of things.

Don’t worry so much about the fats, especially if you’re doing low fat dairy, trimming excess fats from meats and poultry, and taking an Omega-3 and Omega-6 supplement.

Think of your plate divided into three sections with a serving of protein for building muscle and bone, a starch for long lasting energy, and finally some fruits or greens for quick energy and lots of vitamins and minerals. You can even shop that way. Build your meals at the grocery store before you bring them home. Plan them out.

Sample Meals for 1650 Calorie Days:
Here are some normal, healthy, balanced meal ideas. Try to identify each source of Protein, Starch, and Fruits & Greens. See how they’re balanced? Guys will need to add a little bit to your portions to take it to around 500 calories. If you’re a petite woman who needs less, make your portion sizes a little smaller. Shoot for 3 meals and 2-3 healthy snacks.

Sample 400 Calorie Breakfasts:
½ to ¾ cup whole grain Cereal, 8 oz Skim or Soy Milk, and a Medium Banana.
1 piece of whole wheat or multi-grain Bread w/butter and honey, a small low fat Yogurt, and some fresh Fruit.
2 eggs, 1 piece of whole wheat Toast w/butter, ½ cup fresh fruit.
1 serving of Oatmeal, 8 oz Skim or Soy Milk, and some fresh fruit.

Sample 400 Calorie Lunches:
1 cup whole wheat Spaghetti & Meatballs and ½ cup Green Beans.
6” Chicken Teriyaki Sub loaded with veggies on Honey Oat bread.
Grilled Chicken and Spinach Salad w/fat free dressing.
½ broiled Chicken Breast, ½ cup frozen Bean Medley, 1 piece whole wheat Bread w/butter.

Sample 400 Calorie Suppers:
3 oz baked Chicken, ½ cup Baked Beans, Mixed Salad w/fat free dressing.
3 oz Meatloaf, ½ baked Sweet Potato, ½ cup fresh Green Beans.
1 cup grilled Chicken and whole wheat Pasta, Mixed Salad w/fat free dressing.
3 oz fresh or frozen Fish, ½ cup long grain wild Rice, frozen garden Bean Medley
3 oz smoked Pork Chop, ½ baked Potato w/butter, Mixed Salad w fat free dressing.

Sample 150 Calorie Snacks:
Small low fat Yogurt and ½ cup Red Seedless Grapes, or Banana or other fruit.
Meal Replacement Shakes
½ small box of Raisins and ¼ cup of Cashew Pieces.
½ cup low fat Cottage Cheese and ½ cup Fruit.
Several pieces of real (not processed) Cheese & several whole wheat Crackers .
Protein Bar
½ cup fat free Frozen Yogurt and ½ cup fresh Strawberries.
Yellow Delicious Apple and 1 tbsp Peanut Butter.

Our winner for Week Four was Thomasena Collins, who lost 2.1% of her body weight and 4.0 lbs. She said she walked more, ate right, and replaced pop with water, and won a $15 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance for all her hard work.

Second place went to Vicki Riggen, who lost 2.0% of her body weight and 2.8 lbs. Third place went to Nita Comstock, who lost 1.9% of her body weight and 3.0 lbs. Next week I’ll tell you about our Park-to Park challenge, and how they’re turning it up in their workouts.

BIGGEST LOSER "9" -- WEEK THREE "KIDS & EXERCISE"

My cutie-pie had a fitness test in school last week. The third graders in her gym class had to do a 1 mile walk/run (with as much running as possible). Over the summer she’d been on the treadmill and had walked as much as 2 miles, but she’d never actually run a whole mile.

I could tell that Bailey was a little nervous about it, so we did what you should do in situations like that. The weekend before the test, we went out and practiced it. First, we walked a quarter mile to get warmed up. Then we started jogging. Right away I knew what the problem was. She took off like a little filly right out of the gate. Nice speed, but tough to sustain over the long haul.

So we worked on starting out easy and picking a slower, more comfortable jogging pace that she could sustain. We got about a half-mile when she started getting a little tired, but she hung in there for another quarter mile before we needed to stop for just a minute or so. Then she crunched out the last quarter mile.

We also talked about how to breathe properly while running. Most people wait until they are out of breath before even thinking about it. A better plan is to practice your breathing while you’re still fresh, early in the run. Time it with your steps: In-two-three, Out-two-three. As the run gets harder and breathing increases, it might end up like: In-two, Out-two.

She had a really good start and I was pretty encouraged. By learning how to start slower and pace herself she was able to keep going a lot longer than she thought. Then when it got tougher, she was able to keep the oxygen coming in with better breathing. With a little more work, she’d be able to do it.

The next day we did it again, and this time she got three quarters before she started feeling like stopping. With a little encouragement from her papaw, an easy pace, and by focusing on her breathing, she was able to hang on and keep jogging for the last quarter mile. She did it!

She acted nonchalant about it, but I know she was pretty happy about it, and I thought it would be a big confidence builder for her when she went to school. Last Thursday she told me that they had the test and not only did she finish in 14:20, but she was 10th in her class!

Now she may never be a distance runner in cross country as she seems to be built more for speed and power. She’s pretty fast over the short haul, and man is this girl strong! You should see her swing at a softball. What’s important is that she learned a couple things.

First, was simply that she could do it. That’s a huge thing for kids to learn. Once you learn you can do something, no matter how tough it was, it builds your confidence to try other things. Second, she saw that practicing a thing makes the end result better. Finally, she was getting some excellent exercise. That could lead to a lifetime of better health.

One good example is a boy in our Martial Arts program. His dad’s a teacher and avid bicyclist and triathlete, so Lance decided to try a couple of children’s fun runs. He’s completed a mini-triathlon and a couple 5 K’s too. At just seven years old, he’s already posted a time of just over 31 minutes for a 5 K. I know lots of adults who would have a hard time doing that.

Coming from a household that gives a high priority to fitness, he’ll be set up pretty well for the future. Especially with some success in some activities now, he’ll likely do some of them his entire life. That will keep him fit.

Studies show that if kids are obese into their teens, it is very unlikely that they’ll ever know anything but obesity. Put another way, they’ll always struggle with their weight. The odds are very much against them.

But if you have your kids doing tumbling, gymnastics, martial arts, soccer, tee-ball, football, baseball, running, in other words, staying active, it can make a real difference. As much as I appreciate what the teacher had the kids do at school, at best it’s three times a week. That’s not enough.

Just like adults, kids need to be active every day. Along with watching what they eat, being careful not to eat too much, and avoiding junk food, they need to focus on being more active. They need to be out there burning calories and getting moving. As cool as Wii fit is, they need to be out there doing the real thing. They need to be playing “Me fit.”

Research is showing that it may have more benefits than just in their bodies. A recent article by Bruce Barcott in the November 2009 issue of “Bicycling” magazine showed that regular, intense bouts of exercise can help keep kids more focused during the day.

It turns out that the old strategy of sending the kids out to burn off some energy has some validity. In a study done back in 1978, a researcher named W. Mark Shipman, M.D. had a group of kids at the San Diego Center for Children do some running for up to 45 minutes, 4 days a week.

Back then, Ritalin was a new drug and his kids at the center were among the first in the country to use it to treat ADHD, and ADD. What they found was that the kids who were running were able to receive lowered drug doses. The exercise was providing a drug-like benefit.

Two other studies in the 80’s found similar results. Unfortunately, our cultural dependence on medicines and need for quick-fixes has made Ritalin and other drugs a huge billion dollar industry. But no one profits when the kids are just out there exercising—except the kids.

In the article, the author interviewed several cyclists who’ve been able to keep their ADHD under control with bicycling. And in another study, kids were found to have “enhanced academic performance, decreased irritability and increased focus.” Some were even able to get off their meds.

According to ADHD experts, “Cycling, swimming, and running are tops. At the bottom are soccer, hockey and baseball.” Individual sports with continuous movement seem to be better than team sports that would involve a lot of standing around, if ADHD is an issue.

The trick is picking a sport that has a solid cardio workout along with tasks that require the brain to make decisions, use focus, and other things like balance and timing. Staying in the pack while riding would be a good example. Performing the intricate tasks demanded in gymnastics or Taekwondo would be other good examples.

Some of our Biggest Losers had no problem focusing this past week. First place went to Michelle Nugent, who lost 1.7% of her body weight and 2.6 lbs. She received a $15 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance. With her win this week, she moved into the overall lead, losing a total of 10.6 lbs and 6.5% of her body weight in just three weeks.

Second place went to Tammi Hewitt, who lost 1.6% of her body weight and 2.2 lbs. Third place went to Karen Brown, who lost 1.5% of her body weight and another 4.0 lbs. Karen is in second place overall, having lost 17.6 lbs and a close 6.3% of her body weight!

BIGGEST LOSER "9" -- WEEK ONE "GETTING MOVING"

Our goal in Week One was to get everyone moving. To that end, they were supposed to walk a mile every morning. At a very comfortable walking pace, it should take just 20 minutes or less, so it wouldn’t take up too much time before starting their day.

Then, later in the day, they were supposed to get in their “real” workout. Those alternated between using the strength machine circuit on M, W, F and hitting the cardio equipment on T, TH, and SA.

The point to using the weight machines was so they could start building muscular strength and endurance. Being stronger will everything easier—in and out of the gym. More muscle will also increase their metabolism which will help them burn more fat.

On the cardio equipment, the goal is to get their heart rate up and keep it up for 20-30 minutes. With a warm-up and cool-down, that means their workouts will last around 40-45 minutes.

Their first Biggest Loser workout consisted of walking/running a mile, and then 50 Pushups, 50 Sit-ups, and 50 Body Squats. After everyone got back from the mile, they did 10 Pushups, 10 Sit-ups, and 10 Body Squats. They then repeated the sequence for a total of 5 sets, back-to-back, without taking a break. While it was pretty tough, it will seem pretty tame later, after we keep adding to it for twelve weeks.

I gave them a calorie log so they can start thinking about how much they’re eating. While quality is important, the first step is to make sure they’re not eating too much or too little. Nine out of ten women don’t eat enough; guys usually are over-eaters.

So, we’ll prove it. Each day they’ll write down everything they ate along with their calories for each thing. Usually they can find the calories/serving on the box, can, or bag somewhere. If they can’t find it, they can go online.

There are lots of websites that will give you the calories for all kinds of foods. Some sites are free, others want to charge you. One free site we use a lot is www.calorieking.com. They will try to make you a subscriber, but you don’t have to do that to use the free stuff.

Once you start writing things down, two things happen. First, you’ll become accountable. Second, you’ll quickly learn what your food values are. Most people don’t have that much variety and need to learn around 20 things. Once you know them you know them.

For example, an egg is around 78 calories. An apple, orange or pear is around 64 calories. A normal slice of whole grain bread is around 100 calories. A cup of quality whole grain cereal is around 150-180 calories, depending on the brand.

Knowing these things, you can quickly figure out that a good breakfast for a woman would be around 400 calories: 150 calories for a packet of oatmeal, 120 calories for a glass of 2% milk, and around 130 calories for a large banana. You might eat that breakfast a lot, so it will be easy to figure out. If you had that breakfast, you just write down “oatmeal, milk and a banana: 400 calories.”

If you were paying close attention to last week’s Biggest Loser TV show, they said that the women needed to make sure they got their 1,200 calories in. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, women should never go below 1,200 calories a day, and guys should get at least 1,800 calories. That’s where that came from.

But that’s a pretty severe and restrictive diet. Some can handle it, but we suggest women should shoot for around 1,500-1,650 calories a day. That breaks down into three 400 calorie meals and two or three 150 calorie snacks.

It’s a little more food which will make them feel better. They’ll have more energy to get through your day, and still lose lots of weight because with exercise, they’ll be burning around 2,000-2,500 calories. The difference will be made up by using fat for fuel.

Usually, if the ladies weren’t eating enough, my first goal is to just get them to hit their minimum, or twelve or thirteen hundred calories. Then, if they can, work up to 1,500-1,650.
For guys, even though they can get by on as little as 1,800 calories, they usually feel better eating 2,000-2,400 calories a day. It’s still pretty low compared to what guys usually take in.

After you get a handle on how much you’re eating, you can start looking at the quality of your foods and how they’ll help you feel and perform better. The thing is to understand what functions each type of food perform—what they’re for. I’ll talk about that more next week.

Of the 28 people that started and finished week one, 17 lost a pound or more, including Pam Arrasmith who said: “That’s 4 sticks of butter!” You know, she’s right, and that’s a great way of looking at it.

10 out of 28 lost two pounds or more, and 7 out of 28, or 25% lost three or more pounds. Remember, a pound a week is good (and 4 sticks of butter), two pounds is great, and anything over three pounds is fantastic.

The winner of Biggest Loser “9” Week One was Michelle Nugent, who lost 3.4% of her body weight and 5.6 lbs. Michelle said she quit drinking pop and started taking bottled water with her to work. She also started working out harder than ever, and wonders what she could have lost if she’d done even more. She won a $15 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance.

Second place went to Karen Brown, who lost 3.2% of her body weight and an amazing 8.8 lbs. The big change for Karen was increasing her activity level, working out twice a day. She made sure she walked a mile each day on her lunch hour, and then came back to the gym later for her “real” workout.

Third place went to Vicki Hefner, who lost 2.4% of her body weight and a total of 4.4 lbs. In fourth place, Heidi Walls lost 2.2% of her body weight and 3.0 lbs. Fifth place was a tie between Hilary Chaney, and Jessica Hopper, both losing 1.7% of their body weight. Hilary lost 3.6 lbs, and Jess lost 2.2 lbs.

BIGGEST LOSER "9" -- INITIAL WEIGH-IN & TESTING

Well, the TV show Biggest Loser is a couple weeks into the new season, and we just started our own Biggest Loser “9” here in the community. It’s a smaller group again but I’m not quite sure why. I’m pretty sure it’s not because everyone’s thin now.

Last fall, we started with 67 people and the winner lost 57 lbs in 12 weeks. This year we’re starting with 23. So we’ve still got room if you want to get involved. You’ll need to get registered before this weekend. The group will meet again next Saturday morning at 10:00am and you’ll want to get there a little early to weigh-in.

About a third of the participants are members of the YMCA, while the rest have memberships. Some have been members for awhile, and some got a short term membership for the 12 week contest. I think one will be working out at a gym at their workplace.

After a quick introduction and overview of what the 12 weeks will be about, we got right into the action. It turns out that it’s exactly a mile from our front door, down Wood St. to High St/5 Points, back up to Court, and back up Court behind the building to our back door.

The goal was to cover the mile as quickly as possible, whether walking, jogging, or a combination of both. Most people can cover a mile in 20 minutes, which would be a very comfortable walking pace. A slow jog would get you there in right around 12 minutes, which would be a 5 mph pace. An average runner would do it in 10 minutes, which is a 6 mph pace.

In this group, only two were able to do the mile in less than that, posting 9:15 and 9:30 times. Two other gals did it in right around 11:30, but the majority needed at least 13:30-13:45 to get it done. Still, that means they were jogging quite a bit, and taking walk breaks when needed, which is just fine.

Finally, there was another group that had to walk the whole thing, as they were new to exercise, but that was O.K. too. It doesn’t really matter how fast they were, because it was a starting point. All that mattered was that they did their best.

In 12 weeks, they’ll be amazed at how much they improve. It’s normal to see 2 to 3 minutes come off their 1 mile time and we’ve seen as much as 6 and 7 minute improvements! To accomplish this, I told them to try to shave 15 seconds off their 1 mile time each week. That’s a very reasonable goal, especially with people just getting started.

After everyone was back, we hit the mat room. Some people call it the “house of pain.” That’s just cold. Anyway, the first thing was to do a minute of pushups. To count, they had to go all the way down until their chest hit the floor, and then all the way back up. If they wanted to do them on their knees, that was fine. All but one did.

A minute doesn’t sound like much, but most people struggle with pushups right out of the gate. After 30 seconds, they’re usually about done, and it’s tough getting more out of them, but they kept trying. In 12 weeks, some will do a third more, and some will even double the number of pushups they can do.

Then it was on to a minute of sit-ups. While we do all kinds of crunches and other abdominal (abs) exercises, for this test, they had to cross their arms in front of them with knees bent and someone holding their feet. Then they had to come up and touch their elbows to their knees. If they didn’t touch they couldn’t count them.

Once in awhile, someone will not be able to do a single sit-up, but everyone got at least a few. In 12 weeks, their numbers will double and perhaps even triple. Taken together, the three tests provide a pretty good measure of starting fitness, and something we can compare to when we do the tests again at the end of Biggest Loser “9.” More importantly, they serve as a good wake-up call that let’s people know where they really are.

As they lose some weight, everything will get easier. They’ll also get stronger and have more confidence. That’ll let them push harder when they’re working out, burning more calories, and losing even more weight, which creates a cycle of success.

At first, they’ll have to kind of fight their own bodies to get things going. Later, their bodies will become allies in the process, working with them to take more weight off.

Another important thing we went over was to not think they were going to get the same results as the TV show. On TV, they live on a ranch, isolated from most temptations, with a kitchen filled with good food choices, a full service gym at their disposal (although our 24 hour gym kind of helps out there), no job, no kids, no distractions, and they often work out 6-8 hours a day.

Here, they have jobs, kids, lots of temptations, junk food at home, and at best, they’re going to work out twice a day, for perhaps 1 ½ hours, total. They won’t get the same results. So they need to get over it.

If they can lose a pound a week, that’s good. Two pounds a week would be great. In fact, the American College of Sports Medicine says for healthy weight loss, you need to lose 1-2 pounds a week. Perfect. Three or more pounds would be fantastic. If they can come to terms with that, they’ll be just fine—and still have great results.

Finally, we talked about what it takes to be successful. Without fail, half the group will quit, for one reason or another. I asked them to spend some time thinking about that. No one wants to stand up and say, “Yes, I’m going to be a quitter.”

Everything thinks they’re going to make it. But when push comes to shove, life starts intruding, and Murphy comes knocking, that’s when you need to be tough. They need to make the decision now, on what they’re going to do when things don’t go their way.

I left them with the instructions to focus on getting moving this week. Walk a mile every morning, or at noon, to get their body working. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons or evenings, they’ll do a strength machine circuit after a quick 10 minute cardio warm-up. They should pick a weight that they can do comfortably 12-15 times. The workouts should take 30-45 minutes, total.

On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, they’ll focus on doing longer cardio workouts. Each workout should last a minimum of 30 minutes, and 45 minutes would be even better. This way, they’re always doing at least a mile every day in the morning, and alternating between cardio and muscle workouts later in the day.

Next week, we’ll start talking about food. They’ll learn exactly how much they should be eating, which should hold some surprises for them, especially the women. We’ll also step up the workouts, and they’ll have their first training session with me. I’ll tell you all about it next week!

BIGGEST LOSER "8" FINAL RESULTS

This week marked the end of Biggest Loser “8.” Our smallest group since BL “1, we started with just 24 participants. To put that in perspective, last fall we had 67 people signed up for BL “4”. Of the 24 that started this time around, 9 made the final weigh-in with another 8 people still involved that had to miss for one reason or another.

Last summer, we didn’t even do a Biggest Loser because of all the different things going on, but I wanted to give people a chance to participate even if they couldn’t make all the weigh-ins. That way they could still get some information and start making progress.

Even though it was a pretty small group this time around, especially at the end, there were some really nice accomplishments. Heather had a serious problem with asthma and I was pretty concerned during her 1st 1 mile walk/run (18:43). In just 12 weeks, she took 2 minutes off her time (16:47).

Even though she only lost 7.6 pounds overall, she learned not only how to exercise, but also that she can do it—which is powerful. Now she can push harder and do more, which bodes well for her next 12 weeks.

The average improvement in the 1 mile walk/run was around 1 ½ minutes, over the 12 weeks. Shawn Bowers, on his 5th Biggest Loser, posted a starting 1 mile run at 9:12, but finished with an amazing 7:15 mile during the post-test!

Everyone improved dramatically in the pushups, often doing 50% more in a minute than they did 12 weeks earlier. Sit-ups improved as well, with most people doing around 30% more than they did on the pre-test.

Quite a few said that they also started understanding how to eat right, and several had given up drinking pop. While everyone had trouble once in awhile, they found they could stick with a sensible diet: more fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, low fat dairy, leaner cuts of meats, more chicken and fish, all in the right amounts for them. They also avoided most of the junk foods, most of the time.

Our winner for Week Twelve was John Crow who lost 3.4% of his body weight and 3.6 pounds. He won a $20 gift card for all his hard work from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance. John lost the most body fat during the twelve weeks, posting a drop from 29.8% to 21.5%, which represents around 30 pounds lost. Since his weight went down just 8.6 lbs, this means he’s put on an amazing amount of muscle!

For the final results, Vicki Riggen took third place overall. A grammar school principal from Chrisman, Vicki told me the weekly meetings and workouts really helped her learn what to do during the week. This contributed to her losing 7.3% of her body weight and 11.0 lbs over the 12 weeks, despite having a vacation cruise, dental surgery, and knee surgery!

Shawn Bowers, who finished in second place overall, has found out how important it was to “do the work.” In the end it comes down to calories burned, and he found lots of ways to burn them. When work made it hard for him to hit the gym sometimes, he was able to keep up with his running and use hard yard work to help him lost 12.9% of his body weight and a total of 37.9 lbs. He’s now only 15 pounds away from his long term goal of losing 100 lbs.

Tammi Hewitt was our overall winner for Biggest Loser “8” and the first ever female to win the whole thing! She walked several miles every day to lose 16.5% of her body weight and a total of 28.2 lbs. Her goal is to lose another 12 pounds to get to her ideal weight, and she’s already signed up for Biggest Loser “9” which starts this Saturday.

As I mentioned earlier, last fall we had 67 people signed up for BL “4.” I don’t know how many we’ll have this time around, but I’m expecting a pretty nice sized group for Biggest Loser “9.” The first meeting will start at 9:30 am, Saturday 26th, right after the Honeybee 5K.

Everyone will do the initial weigh-in, and then the 1 mile walk/run, minute of pushups, and minute of sit-ups to get an idea of their starting fitness. Then I’ll hand out their BL information, tell them what to do in their first week, and cut them loose at around 10:30 am so they can watch or walk in the parade which starts at 11:00. The following Saturday, we’ll meet at our normal time (10:00) for their first weekly weigh-in and workout.

If you’d like to be part of this community-wide group and participate in Biggest Loser “9” you need to get registered by Friday, September 25th. The cost is $50 and you don’t have to be a member at Tom’s Fitness, although you should probably be a member somewhere.

Half of the participants will be members here, but half are always members elsewhere, like at the YMCA, Curves, the gym in Marshall, or at work. A few even do their workouts at home. That’s O.K. too—you just need to have a place and stuff, so you can get your workouts in.

Why not make this fall your time to watch the weight fall off, and change your life at the same time. By Christmas, you might have to give yourself a nice, new wardrobe! I’ll see you in Biggest Loser “9!”

NO PAIN, NO GAIN

Last weekend was “Blues at the Crossroads” in Terre Haute and they scheduled a half-marathon run early Saturday morning as part of the festival. While I’m not a good runner by any means, I like doing a race in the spring and then again in the fall. That gives me a goal, and also helps keep me training. That helps keep me in shape.

After a pretty dismal performance (2:25) in the last one at Sarah Bush Lincoln last spring, I wanted to do better this time. Part of it could be blamed on the extreme wind that day, but the bottom line was I was a lousy runner and needed to train more.

I’d always been a little cautious of running too much, because of all the other workouts I’ve got going on, so I didn’t want to over train. I’d also run into knee problems during the long runs at the end of a training cycle, right before a race.

Still, I’d read about how runners (real ones) often run every day, 5, 6, even 10 miles! That always amazed me and I wondered if I could do it, too. Maybe if I increased my mileage and running days, I could build a better base. That might make me strong enough to avoid the runner’s knee issue, but also take some time off my long runs.

So, in June, I started running 3 miles each day—even on the days I did strength training. Before long, I went a little farther on the running only days, going 4 and 5 miles. Then, I upped it to 4 miles on the strength training days, too.

It wasn’t too long and I was running twice the mileage. I also started feeling a little like Forrest Gump—“I just felt like running.” My neighbor Brad started calling me the ghost who haunted Horace Brocton road.

I finished June with just over 100 miles and I was wondering if I could do 120. Here’s where the obsessive-compulsive part of my personality kicks in. Even though there were some hot days, I passed 120 miles with a little less than a week to go in July. So I pushed hard and ended up with 140 miles—averaging 35 miles a week and feeling like a real runner (some days).

With 6 weeks to go before the Terre Haute half-marathon, I started thinking that maybe I could stretch it to 40 miles a week. That was pretty tough. There were a lot of days I didn’t feel like running, but I wanted to do better in Terre Haute. My theory was an old one: no pain, no gain. Build a better base. Actually be prepared.

Then, occasionally, there would be a run when I just went out there and—ran. It felt great. The whole run was effortless. If I was running 4 miles, I could keep going faster each mile and charge the last one. I’d always considered myself a wanna-be runner, at best a jogger trying to go the distance. But on days like that, I felt like a real runner.

By the end of August, I was pretty tired, and on the last day, hit 160 miles in the 10 mile long run two weeks out from the half-marathon. Even though I was pretty happy to hit the goal, I also knew that I’d probably never run quite that many miles in a month. 40 miles a week is probably just right for some people, but probably a little too much for me.

During a two week taper, where I took a few running days off and decreased the mileage, I felt pretty good. If ever there was a time to do better, this was it. The week before the race, I ran even less, and took two days off everything before the event.

It was nice having the race in Terre Haute, even if we did have to get up pretty early to get over there. As usual, my son Chris was with me, and I’d talked him into taking off and running his own race this time. He ran the last one with me, and I could tell he was like a race horse with a jockey that wouldn’t let him go—especially with my lousy time running into the wind.

We got there in time to park at the ending point and took the bus downtown to where the start would be. I was amazed at how many runners there were. It was a calm, crisp morning, and 291 of us stood around listening to some Blues while we waited for the start.

As they said go, Chris told me “see ya” and took off. I wouldn’t see him again for a couple hours. I felt pretty good, and tried to not get sucked into running faster than I should—it was going to be a long 13.1 miles and I didn’t want to get burned out early.

Within a few minutes, I heard someone saying, “Hi Tom.” I looked over and it was Dan Lynch. We talked a bit and he told me he ran the Indy Mini in about 2 hours. I told him that was fantastic and that I was just hoping to finish in 2:10, which would be averaging ten minute miles. He said he’d be doing that, so I hooked up with him. Right around then, another friend, Ken Hall, blew by us both.

Dan and I ran the next 8 or so miles together, not saying much, but he’ll never know how much he helped me. It was ironic. He was in one of my first Biggest Loser groups two years ago, and then did it again a year ago. The first time, he was there for himself, to get back into a routine. The second time, he was there to help out a friend.

Now, he was not only running a half-marathon, but he was running it faster than I ever dreamed of running. I kept thinking if I just stayed with him, I’d run it faster than ever and get my best finish.

He pulled a little ahead of me at mile 4, when I walked for a moment to eat my runners goo, which is a simple sugar packet that tastes a little bit like thick honey. As I splashed it down with some water and got going, I could still see him just in front of me. Finally, about a mile later, I caught him again.

At mile 8, when I did my next goo, he pulled ahead of me for good. Try as I might, I just couldn’t catch him, although I was always able to see him up in front of me. At mile 10, a group of guys passed me and I overheard one say to the others that it was 1:31. That was a pretty great time for me, and I knew I just needed to hang on for my best finish ever.

So there we were, Dan running up ahead like a little machine. I’m back a little bit, trying to maintain. It was almost as if he was pulling me along. Then the hills came. It’s not very nice putting the hills at the end of a race. That’s when my hips and legs really started getting tired. It’s funny—it’s never about breathing for me. I’ve always got plenty of wind. It’s the muscles that just don’t want to do it anymore. And they didn’t.

But Dan was still running, and so then was I. We got to mile eleven, and then twelve. I had a brief moment where I thought I might be able to catch him in the last mile, but my old familiar right knee started acting up a bit, and I needed to walk a few seconds to give it a brief. Once we turned off the road, into the grassy area for the last quarter mile, it felt a lot better.

Up ahead, I could see the clock. It said 2:04 something, and I knew it was going to be a personal best. I crossed at 2:05:12, and 150th overall (out of 291 runners). As I finished, I realized that thanks to Dan, and all those extra miles, I’d just taken 10 minutes off my best time ever, and a whopping 25 minutes off the fiasco last spring.

Dan was there waiting, having finished over a minute ahead of me at 2:03:43, and 143rd over all. I didn’t have words at the time to thank him (although I’ve got plenty of them now). Chris was there too, having finished in 85th place at 1:49:17. He’s such a stud. Ken Hall congratulated me as well, and told me that he was trying to catch Chris, but couldn’t quite do it, ending in 88th place and 1:49:30. He’s also a stud.

If you want to know what the fastest time was, it was 1:16:44 for the guy who won the race. The fastest gal finished in 1:29:26. You see, there are different levels for everything, and everyone has a goal. Even the guy who won likely looks up to world class runners, who do it in just over an hour. I used to be near the end of the pack, but now I’ve fought my way up to being squarely in the middle.

I figure I’ll never ever be able to match times like those of Ken or my son, but I am thinking that maybe next spring, with enough training miles in, and someone like Dan to follow, maybe I can do it in 2:00. I can’t wait.

The winner for week eleven in Biggest Loser “8” was Cathy Kemper, who lost 1.3 % of her body weight and 2.4 lbs. Cathy received the $20 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance for all her hard work. Second place went to Shawn Bowers, who lost about a little less than 1.0% of his body weight and 2.0 lbs.

Join us for Biggest Loser “9” which starts Saturday 26th at 10:00 am. You’ll need to get registered by Friday so we can hit the ground running, so to speak. You’ll get 12 weeks of challenging workouts, and lots of help getting your diet squared away. Last year at this time, we had 68 people in BL “4”, so get signed up now.

FINDING INSPIRATION

When writing this column, I usually come to my laptop with a pretty good idea of what I want to write about. Sometimes it’s a continuation of a topic from the week before. Sometimes it’s something I’ve been thinking about for awhile.

There are times, though, when I have no idea what to write about. That can be pretty tough, especially with a weekly deadline. Thank God it doesn’t happen too often. But when it does, even the act of writing often brings an idea or two (seems to be working).

It works when writing songs, too. You can’t just lie around waiting for inspiration to strike. You’ve got to go digging for it. Play your instrument. Listening to the sounds and paying attention to what’s going through your mind.

Whether it’s with this column, or in my music, I’ve usually been struck by something someone has said, done, or something that’s happened. Sometimes it’s me, but usually it’s about other people. The best songs and stories are about people and the things they go through. Those are things we can relate to.

In the end, it’s always because something seemed important enough to dwell on for awhile, that I end up writing about it. I can’t let it go. I want to make sense of it.

Once in a while I have to find inspiration for a workout. Usually, I’m pumped and ready to go. I’m lucky that way—I really like to do it. For some people, it’s the absolute last thing they want to do. Tough finding inspiration if you’re that person.

Now there are lots of chores to do around here—cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping and mopping the floors—that I’m not really inspired to do. It’s never ending. It would be nice to use a Steven Covey approach and “think with the end in mind.” Just visualize those sparkling urinals, squeaky clean floors, and happy customers, and I’m all over it, right?

That approach works pretty good when planning and building a business, but it just doesn’t motivate me to stick my hand into a toilet. Nothing really does. You’ve just got to do it. Thank God for plungers. I mean really. You wouldn’t believe what some people will do. And guys are pretty much pigs compared to the gals. I never have to plunge the ladies toilets.

At moments like that, the only way to find inspiration and motivation is to simply just get started. That’s what I do. Just get started. You put it off until you can’t put it off anymore, and then you hold your nose (figuratively speaking) and just get started.

An interesting thing happens. Once you’ve actually started and gotten past all the reasons you didn’t want to do it, it takes on a life of its own. You start feeling good about the fact that you’re actually doing it.

Then you start liking the results. In the bathroom, for example, it is nice seeing the mirrors clean, and the counters shining. The toilets sparkle and the floor looks good. It smells good. There’s a certain pride in a job done well, or even just a job done.

It’s the same thing with a certain workout we do in our groups. Some of the tougher workouts have names, like “Cindy” and “Angie.” I think it’s based on how the hurricanes have names, and how these workouts make you feel like a hurricane just blew through.

This one’s a great CrossFit workout (for more info go to crossfit.com) called “Fran.” Like I mentioned before, I’m usually pretty motivated, but this gives me great pause. It’s 21 thrusters (95# front squat with a shoulder press), 21 pull-ups, 15 thrusters, 15 pull-ups, and then 9 thrusters, 9 pull-ups, non-stop, as fast as you can do it. I’m fine with the pull-ups, but the thrusters just take it out of me. It’s going to be hard, I know it, and pretty much dread it.

It doesn’t matter how good it’s going to be for me, and how it’s going to build power and explosiveness. It doesn’t matter how it prepares you for a fight, so you have the stamina to not only engage the aggressor, but keep going, full bore, until you have control over the situation.

With this one, I have to treat it like I treat the toilets. Just jump in (figuratively speaking). Just get started. Once I start, I’m fine. It’s tough, but I’m O.K. Then later, there’s a real sense of accomplishment, because I did something I knew was going to be hard, but I did it anyway.

Marathoners and those who do triathlons understand this. They know there’s going to be pain, but they thrive on it. They push through it to get the finish. For them, the test is everything. They want to know they’ve been measured, and aren’t found wanting. I think even in our simple workouts, we can find that same feeling. In life even.

I’ll forever be in awe of the soldiers that have served our country under live fire. Watch “Band of Brothers” sometime and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Whether it’s WWII, Kosovo, or nowadays, Afghanistan and Iraq, these people knew what they were getting into and still faced it anyway.

Or the police and firefighters that went up the stairs of the Twin Towers. It’s not the instinctive thing to do—run toward the problem—but they did it. Even if it was their job, it was still heroic. It was so inspiring that I had to write a song about it. I sing it in my head when I’m running, especially when the miles get tough. I know you can’t hear the melody, but maybe someday I’ll get to sing it for you.

“IT TAKES A HERO” ©Tom Dolan 2009

Remember pictures of the airplanes; police and firefighters everywhere
They went runnin’ up the staircase; then we couldn’t find them anywhere
And I know they had their orders, but all the weight was on their shoulders

(CHORUS)
Sometimes it takes a hero, to do the things that must be done
And the hero keeps on going, when the rest of us would want to run, away
It takes a hero

They were driving down the highway; it’s not as easy as it used to be
Now the desert makes its own rules; instead of bullets, it’s I.E.D.’s
And I know they had their orders, but all the weight was on their shoulders

(CHORUS)

A hero isn’t always what it seems to be, it could be you, it even could be me
But a hero doesn’t really always want to be, there

He was stumbling up the pathway; the pain of everything was pressing down
Cause he knew a cross was waiting; and the truth was he’d done nothing wrong
But he knew someday we’d need him, so he chose to buy our freedom

(CHORUS)

First place for Week Ten of Biggest Loser “8” was a tie between Brittany Cline and Tammy Hewitt, who both lost 1.1% of their body weight, and 1.6 lbs. Since Tammy has more weekly wins, Brittany got the $20 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance. She’s lost 16.4 lbs in the ten weeks, and Tammy has lost 27.0 lbs. Now that’s inspiring.

Maybe you can find your inspiration by signing up for Biggest Loser “9” before Friday, September 25th. BL “9” starts Saturday, September 26th at 10:00.

STAYING POWER

Over the years, I’ve seen lots of people come and go in my classes and at the gym. If you look at who’s lasted a year, the number is easily cut in half. Go back two years and it’s probably cut in half again. Go back three or more years, and it’s probably down to 5%.

Even in our Biggest Loser classes, the attrition rate is always around 50% and that’s just in 12 weeks! So it’s pretty rare to see someone working out on a regular basis for more than a year or so.

Things always seem to come up and get in the way. Life intrudes. When that happens, if fitness isn’t a priority and really, really important to them, it’s usually the first thing to go.

But when people come back, if they do, they often say they just kind of quit working out. Many that lost weight have gained much of it back. It’s so common it’s called the yo-yo syndrome.
People really go after it for a few weeks or months, lose a little weight, and then get tired and stop the process. Then they put the weight back on, perhaps even more than before.

This is because your body really wants to get back to that comfortable state of having all that extra fuel. When you lose weight, you’ve used the fat from the fat cell for energy (fuel), but the fat cell is still there, empty, waiting for you to screw up.

Eat more than you burn one day, and you’ll fill that fat cell right back up. If you do it on a regular basis, pretty soon you’ll be right back where you were. This is why eating right and exercising smart needs to become a lifestyle—something you do the rest of your life.

It takes commitment. It takes staying power. These are the things that ultimately determine how successful you’ll be. If you really want to know the steps to success in weight loss, firming up, getting out of debt, building a business, or really anything, here they are:

1. Know what you want to do.
2. Know that you need to do it.
3. Make a decision to do it.
4. Want it badly enough to be willing to make changes.
5. Copy someone else’s success.
6. Just get started.
7. Don’t stop doing it until you get what you want.

A lot of people can get through the first few steps, and some even give it a try. Unfortunately, few follow through all the way to the end, but that’s where their dreams can come true.

Here’s an example of some guys and gals that have stuck with something for a year or more. You can see it in their performance in our “boot camp” workouts. Most guys struggle with one pull-up at the start and some of these gals are doing 5-10 of them—in a row! They’re doing real pushups, often 50 or 100 of them!

They’ve burned fat, toned up and gotten very strong. They look good and feel great. Everything they do is easier now. They used to slug through the workout, just trying to survive. Now they charge through it, to see how well they can do. They believe in themselves and look forward to new challenges.

It’s the same thing with running. When you get started, you plod along, trying to get through it. But later, you can do more. You’re running form has improved and you’re stronger. You can run faster and farther. It becomes fun.

It’s also why if you’re pretty active, you can kind of eat what you want, if it’s in moderation. You’ll simply burn it. No storage. It’s just fuel. I like that, especially on cookie days.

On days where I have a long run, I eat Chinese after. A milk shake (real ice cream and milk) goes down just right, too. I’ll just burn it. It’s free food. Of course this only works if you’re really active and also at your “ideal” weight—that is, the weight you want to stay at.

If you’re not quite there, you have to be a little more disciplined about it. You have to be more meticulous about getting all your workouts, too. It’s much easier to maintain your weight than it is to lose weight.

When you’re trying to take it off, you’re actually fighting your body. It wants to stay the same. You have to impose your will over it and say, “No, we’re doing this.” It doesn’t want to work out. You have to say, “Yes, we’re doing this.” It takes staying power.

The winner of Week Nine for Biggest Loser “8” was Tammy Hewitt, who lost 2.2% of her body weight and 3.2 lbs, but couldn’t be present at the weigh-in. Tammy’s lost a total of 25.4 lbs in nine weeks.

Shawn Bowers lost 1.9% of his body weight and 5.0 lbs for second place, and won a $20 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance. He said he has less than 20 lbs to go to reach his overall goal of 100 lbs. Now that’s staying power. Heather Brown lost 1.5% of her body weight and 3.4 lbs for third place.

Last fall, we had over 60 people in Biggest Loser “4.” Our next community Biggest Loser “9” will start with a bang on Saturday, September 26th at 10:00 am, back at the center, right after the Honeybee run.

You’ll need to be registered before then to save your place. It’s still just $50 and you don’t have to be a member to participate, but you probably should be a member somewhere. That way you can get the help you need plus have all the stuff you need to do it. What kind of staying power do you think you can come up with?

PLAN "B"

So what do you do when things don’t go your way? If you’re like anything like me, you might throw a tantrum. It might not be a big one, probably no one can see it, but inside, it’s definitely a tantrum.

Once in awhile, it’s visible, and my wife tells me it looks pretty silly. I once knew a guy who was about 350 lbs and when he threw a tantrum, he actually jumped up and down on both feet. Now that worked (for awhile) when we were two, but at 32?

If you look at the 5 steps we talked about last week (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance), the tantrum would fall into the anger category. But it really doesn’t change anything. You can be as mad as you want about it, but when you get done, the problem is still going to be there.

There are a couple of things we can do, to help make things a little better. First of all, give yourself permission to be angry. At the very least, it’ll keep you from feeling guilty about it—and that’s something.

It might even be healthier to express the anger a little bit rather than holding it in. Experts believe that many health issues are affected by our mood and disposition.

At times like that, I can get perspective by thinking about a couple things. The first is how good I really have it, compared to others that might not have it quite so good. Most of us live pretty well compared to the vast majority of the rest of the world.

Even on a bad day, we’ve got it pretty good. We have plenty of food, clean, comfortable clothes and shelter, and jobs where we make pretty good money. We have lots of extras that many people can’t even comprehend. If you just think about it, we’re pretty fortunate, really.

I got shingles earlier this year. Prior to developing it, I didn’t know what it was. It’s basically the chicken pox virus coming back out through the body and man is it painful. But even so, I remember feeling lucky that it was just on my back—some people get it on their face and can even lose an eye—I saw the pictures.

The pain would come out of nowhere. I’d be doing alright and then it was as if I got stabbed by a knife—even as the scabs were going away. It wasn’t fun, but I’ve known people that have pain like this all day, every day, for their entire life. Serious burn victims can feel like that all over their body for a year! It gave me some perspective. Compared to them, I had it pretty good.

There is an old Christian song that goes “count your blessings, name them one by one.” If I’m thinking about all the neat things God has helped me with in just the last year or two, the current problem starts to seem a little smaller and much more manageable. Plus, I’ll start to see that if those other problems have been solved, then God will help me through this one too.

It’s easy when it’s easy. The real test of character is what you do when things don’t go your way. Stop for a moment and say, “O.K., now what do we do?” If you’re fortunate, you’ll already have a “Plan B.”

A family was leveraged to the hilt with two car loans, a bunch of credit card and other consumer debt and then found out that the husband just lost his job. Now they were in real trouble. What do they do now, especially in a down economy?

But a different family had previously sold the expensive cars they couldn’t afford and got cheaper ones that they owned outright. They cut up the credit cards and quit using them, and finally paid them off. They’d also saved up 3-6 months expenses in an emergency fund. Now they won’t be overwhelmed with the added financial pressures because they have a “Plan B.”

This is biblical too. Jesus talked about building your house on a strong foundation, so when the winds come, your house will still be left standing. But if you build on shifting sand, when the winds come, you’re in trouble. I think he’s talking about faith here, but it applies to practical things, too.

Finally, even if you didn’t have a “Plan B,” thinking about possible solutions, or things you can do, help give you a pretty good perspective. Then taking action, even a simple one, can make you feel better, because at least you’re doing something. When things start to seem out of control, go do something that you can control.

I’ve heard in industry, when they’ve run into an unexpected problem, they brainstorm and try to find a “work-a-round.” N.A.S.A. had to do this with Apollo 13, when they had an energy problem on the space capsule that was days away from home. What type of “work-a-round” or “Plan B” might make sense in your situation?

And remember, for most things, “This too shall pass.” It even applies to working out and feeling better. The Biggest Losers went out to the track and had to walk or run a ¼ mile (one lap) and then do 25 pushups, 25 body squats and 25 sit-ups. Then they did it again for a total of 4 laps (one mile) and 100 pushups, squats and sit-ups.

It was a pretty tough routine—try it and see. A couple of them did it 3 months ago in the last Biggest Loser. You should have seen them this time around. Where before they had to walk most of it, this time, they jogged the whole thing, pushing pretty hard!

Now they know how to push themselves so they need to get that feeling in each of their workouts so they can continue to progress. A useful device is to tell yourself that it’s only for a little while longer.

When I’m out running longer distances, I’ll focus on getting through the next mile. “Just 10 more minutes, I can do that.” Then, I’ll do it again. I like to set up workouts like that for my groups, too. “Just run another lap and do that stuff again. Don’t worry about the rest of it.” Just get started and often times the rest takes care of itself.

Things aren’t always going to go your way. Life intrudes. Things happen. But if you look for perspective and try to figure out a “Plan B,” you’ll find a way to make it through. Climbing the mountain is pretty hard—otherwise it wouldn’t be a mountain. Once you get up there though, the view is unbeatable.

The winner of Week Eight in Biggest Loser “8” was once again Tammy Hewitt, who lost 2.1% of her body weight and another 3.2 lbs. She’s down 22.2 lbs overall and won another $20 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance.

Second place went to Cathy Kemper, who lost 1.2% of her body weight and 2.4 lbs. She was tied by Vicki Riggen, who also 1.2% of her body weight and 1.7 lbs. If you’ve been wanting to make some changes the way they are, Biggest Loser “9” will be starting in just four weeks. Now that’s a pretty good “Plan B.”

GIVING UP & MOVING ON

This week I want to talk about two kinds of giving up. The first type of giving up or surrendering is actually healthy for us and even necessary, if we’re going to move past difficult times or events in our lives.

You may have heard about the different ways we (humans) handle a crisis. These are also used to help explain the grieving process when someone close to you dies. The first stage is denial—trying to ignore the problem exists, or trying to pretend it isn’t really happening—but it is.

Once you’re forced to deal with it, though, the next stage is anger. You start thinking, “why me? You want to strike back and look for things or people to blame. But most often, there’s no one to blame. Things happen.

At some point in the process, we’ll often start bargaining, trying to come up with some way of making things the way they used to be. But usually, there’s no way to change the outcome.

Once reality sets in, and we’re moving past the anger and bargaining, depression can set in. Here’s where things seem hopeless. You can’t see a future and the past hurts too much.

Finally, if you give it enough time, and with lots of prayer, help and support from your friends and family, you can move to the final stage, which is acceptance. You’re acknowledging your loss, and getting some perspective about it. It doesn’t mean you quit hurting—just that you’ve come to terms with it and have made a decision to move on.

This acceptance is healthy, critical even, if we’re going to ever going to get over things. I’ve heard it said that it takes a minimum of a year to do this when you’re grieving over a lost loved one. It’s true.

It took a full year after Mom died from a sudden stroke before I could think about it with any perspective. Then it took another year before I was able to talk about it. I saw the same thing with my wife and her mom.

A friend of mine has had some pretty tough years due to a disease that put him in a wheelchair. Recently though, I’ve seen him start thinking about things he can do now, instead of things he couldn’t do anymore. It’s making a difference for him, I think.

I’ve had several different times in my life when I lost jobs that were important to me, for one reason or another. It was difficult at the time, but through faith and prayer, and some hard work, it always worked out for the better and things always ended up far better than they were before.

Still, sudden memories can come out of nowhere and just pierce your heart. You can be going along just fine and you’ll see or do something that triggers a very strong emotion. That’s part of the healing process too.

I call them bittersweet memories—you think about them with a kind of sad smile on your face. You’re accepting things and are moving on. The memories are there, but you only get to touch them for a moment and then they’re gone.

And moving on is crucial to living. A stream that stops flowing gets stagnant and dies. It’s got to keep flowing for life to continue there. It’s not dishonoring their memories or them, for they’d want us to go on and have a good life, right?

So finally, after much struggle, we fall into acceptance. We surrender the memories, the things we’ve lost, the lives we’ve had, the people we’ve loved, to God, to the past, and we pick up and move on. It’s in the bible. Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies… right?

Great things can happen in the moving on. We can see things that we never would have seen before. We have empathy for others that we never had before. We get a new appreciation for life, relationships, and want to make the most of it. That’s very healthy.

But there’s a different kind of giving up that’s not so healthy. For some reason, we become too willing to just settle for things. It’s the notion that this is the way things are and the way they’ll always have to be.

Acceptance is one thing, but settling for less than our best is another. Just because you’ve struggled with your weight for years doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to being fat forever.

Just because you have a hard time quitting smoking doesn’t mean you should just quit trying. Just because you’ve lost a job doesn’t mean you’re worthless. Just because you’ve had a hard time sticking with an exercise program doesn’t mean you can’t do it so you might as well just give up.

Things happen—some that we’ve caused and others through no fault of our own, and we’re going to go through the same stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. The quicker we can get to acceptance, though, especially in the small stuff, the quicker we can figure out how to start moving on.

Identify where you are and what you’re facing. That’s called being realistic. State the facts and don’t sugarcoat them. But don’t just live there. Figure out where you need to go, and start thinking about what it might take to get to that different place.

One strategy is to pretend you’re bringing in a “consultant.” If you had a bunch of money and paid a brilliant strategist that knew exactly what to do, what would they tell you? What would they say you needed to do?

Often, you’ll already know the answers—you just didn’t want to do it. So what’s your “consultant” saying you need to do? Sometimes, it’s just a matter of starting again. You’ve heard the old saying: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

So what’s that still, small voice inside of you saying? What are you hearing these days? Where is your stream flowing? Why not listen awhile, and then maybe, jump back in. It can be a most interesting journey.

The winner of Week Seven for Biggest Loser “8” was Shawn Bowers, who lost 1.5% of his body weight and 4.0 lbs. Shawn won a $20 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance for all his hard work. Second place went to John Rigdon, who lost 1.3% of his body weight and 2.6 lbs, and third place went to Tina Foote, who lost 1.1% of her body weight and 1.8 lbs.

ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS (EFA'S)

Hundreds of people from the community just participated in the 2009 Relay For Life out at the Edgar County Fairgrounds. Always a touching event, participants walk to raise money and awareness for the American Cancer Society, often in memory of someone they knew who has battled cancer.

With that in mind, it’s always good to think about things we can do to prevent cancer before it occurs, if possible. So I’d like to share some information from an interesting book I just finished: “The Hidden Story of Cancer” by Brian Scott Peskin, B.S.E.E., M.I.T., and Amid Habib, M.D.

With a background in engineering and mathematics, Peskin has applied his particular expertise to the cancer research that has been completed in the last century, and come up with some interesting findings. He says much of the relevant information was actually known in the 1930’s and 1940’s, but researchers didn’t want to believe it, so they went off in a different direction.

The current trend in research is to use the Genome Mapping Project to try and figure out genetic causes. Unfortunately, after mapping 1.3 genes, and spending over $1.3 billion, there hasn’t been any real movement.

Other research has been disappointing. Several 5 and 7 year studies have been recently published, showing that eating more fruits and vegetables had no significant effect on preventing cancer.

But Peskin’s research is suggesting that the real cause of cancer isn’t genetic at all. Instead, it’s due to poor cellular respiration, because of the unhealthy foods we’ve been eating, especially in the last 50 years.

What he means is that our cells aren’t able to take in oxygen in sufficient quantities, so they start to become unhealthy, and eventually, cancerous. The primary cause is due to a lack of what are called Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s)—called Omega 3’s and Omega 6’s.

As we’ve shifted from whole, natural foods to more prepared foods, manufactures started adding Trans Fats to give them longer shelf life. They also started using more Omega-6 (vegetable oils), including cheaper Canola and Soy based oils, which Peskin says were never meant for human consumption.

Instead, they were originally meant to be used as food for farm animals and also for industrial applications. The Trans Fats and unhealthy Omega-6’s that are wide spread now, actually can “poison” otherwise healthy cells. Anything that had vegetable oil in the ingredients is suspect.

Even foods with “0” Trans Fats might still actually have some, because the government only requires that there are less than .5 grams to be called “0” grams. So if you eat several portions with “0”, you might still be getting several portions with .49 grams—still a ticking time bomb.

Researchers have established that cancerous cells have poorer “respiration” than otherwise healthy, normal cells, which means their ability to uptake oxygen is compromised. Research also shows that EFA’s in the correct amount and balance can improve cellular respiration.

In essence, the EFA’s act like anti-inflammatory drugs, directly in the cell. They also help improve oxygenation which is the breath of life, even at the cellular level. This helps explain why people taking Omega-3 supplements often see improvements in a wide variety of inflammation driven conditions.

Recent studies of cancer patients being treated with radiation, but also supplementing with EFA’s, have shown significant improvements over treatment with radiation therapy alone. The EFA’s apparently help keep new cells from being affected by the disease and the treatment.
Peskin has also shown the recent trend to avoid Omega-6’s altogether, in favor of supplementing only Omega-3, isn’t the best approach. It might even be putting people at risk.

The research shows that our cells actually need a healthy amount of what is called parent Omega-6. So not only do we need to curtail our eating of the different processed (especially junk) foods, we need to make sure we’re getting enough of the pure, “good” Omega-6.

The first of five anti-cancer steps Peskin recommends is that we get a blend of 1:1 or 2:1 of what’s called parent Omega-6 to parent Omega-3. That means we need an equal amount of Omega-6 and Omega-3, or no more than twice as much Omega-6 as Omega-3, quite a bit different from what health practitioners (and myself) have often recommended.

For me, the surprise is that there are “good” Omega-6’s, and that the cells actually need them. Also, overdosing on Omega-3 (fish oil) can be very harmful, because it can cause other problems in the cells. It’s a little complicated when you try to look at the bottles, but here are the things to look for.

When you buy Omega-6, it should have these derivatives of “Parent” Omega-6: GLA and CLA (or LA), like Flaxseed Oil, Safflower Oil, Sunflower Oil or Pumpkin Oil. Other oils aren’t nearly potent enough, and some are downright harmful. If you eat anything cooked in vegetable oil (packaged or otherwise), your cells are undoubtedly getting the harmful Omega-6’s, so it’s important to supplement this with the good Omega-6’s to offset them.

When you buy Omega-3, it should have these derivatives of “Parent” Omega-3: EPA and DHA. Typically found in fish oil, it’s important to not over do these. Make sure that you are getting close to a 1:1 ratio between the quality Omega-6’s to offset any poor Omega-6 you might be getting.

You’ve got to look closely at the blend to make sure it’s balanced. One strategy is to buy them separately, but I went to the GNC website, and they offer several products that combine the two, for around $20-$24.

Adding high quality EFA’s to your daily routine is probably the simplest, yet most important thing you can do, and people that do it report back to me quite quickly that they feel better. They might also help keep you from getting cancer.

Peskin had 4 other anti-cancer steps, including (2) getting enough minerals, which can improve cellular function. He also suggests (3) eating enough animal based protein, to ensure proper cellular development.

He says we need to (4) limit the number of carbs we eat each day. The amount is pretty radical, and quite restrictive: no more than 60 g of carbohydrates a day. This is very similar to the Atkins diet.

His reasons are because carbs (glucose) are the primary fuel for cancer cells—they can’t live on fats or proteins. Glucose also “sticks to your blood proteins, slowing down the blood flow due to high viscosity, reducing the amount of oxygen reaching the cells. This plays a big role in whether the cancer will metastasize or not, which is what kills you.

Finally, he suggests (5) we take a herbal detoxifier each day to help minimize the effect of any carcinogens and harmful additives in our foods. Look for one containing Sheep Sorrel, Burdock Root, Slippery Elm Bark, and Turkish Rhubarb Root.

Wow, that was pretty intense, but worth it, I hope. It was a tough read, but I tried my best to break it down to what we really need to know. In my opinion, the EFA’s are a no-brainer. We’d be dumb not to do them, along with more minerals, and good protein, too.

The carbs, I’m not so sure about, but we certainly can restrict them to just one a meal, and avoid the worst of them, most of the time—especially the junk foods. Just cutting back could make a difference.

If you already have cancer, restricting carbs might prolong your life because it could choke off the food supply to the cancerous cells. The EFA’s could then help keep it from spreading and keep your good cells oxygenated. The herbal detoxifier is another one that most people probably won’t do, but I could be wrong. You can find it at GNC or your health food store.

The winner from Biggest Loser “8” Week Six was Tammy Hewitt, who lost 2.5% of her body weight and 4.0 lbs. She won a $20 gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance. Second place went to Shawn Bowers, who lost 2.1% of his body weight and 5.9 lbs. Third place went to both Vicki Riggen and Brittany Cline who both lost 1.8% of their body weight and 2.7 lbs.

BUT HOW DO YOU FEEL?

I was talking with a new member who had been working out for a few weeks. When I asked her how things were going, she told me “things were fine.” That was too generic an answer for me, so I asked her how she was feeling. Kind of reluctantly, she replied in a shy voice, “Better.” I said “so you’re feeling better?” She smiled and said, “Yes, I feel better.”

I said, “So you’ve been exercising every day and you’re feeling better?” She laughed and said, “O.K. I’m feeling better. I didn’t want to admit it, but I’m feeling better.” I asked her how her clothes were fitting and she said they fit more loosely.

I told her that was great, and just the way it should be. The most important thing is always how do you feel? After that, what are your clothes doing? Do they fit better? Often times, we’ll see these two long before it starts showing up on the scale.

It’s kind of funny that she really didn’t want to admit she felt better. She told me that she wasn’t expecting it to work and didn’t want to admit she was wrong. Now she knows she needs to keep doing it because it does work. No excuses.

The amazing thing is that once you feel better, you can do more things because you’re stronger and carrying less weight around. Before you start an exercise program, your body feels like it’s working against you. You’re heavier and things are harder. But after you lose some weight and put on some muscle, you body starts working for you.

Regardless of age, losing fat and gaining more muscle makes everything easier, and that makes it better. Studies show even people in their 80’s can gain muscle mass in just six weeks!

What you have to do is get past the early painful part when you’re starting out. It’s going to be difficult. You might be sore, but you’ll get better. But it won’t feel that way forever.

Now if you don’t care how long it takes and don’t mind slower, less obvious progress, you don’t have to experience much pain at all. You can start out very easily and just do a little more each time. Some people don’t like this, because they can’t see the changes quickly enough.

That’s when you need to ask yourself those questions: “How do I feel? Do I feel better? How are my clothes fitting?” Usually, you’ll feel much better and your clothes will be looser. That will give you some motivation to keep going and turn it up a bit.

Once you get to where you start looking forward to your workouts, and start trying new and different challenges, that’s when you’re going to get what you want. It will be part of your lifestyle.

I had a gal in Biggest Loser “8” tell me how she hurt her back last week. She’s done a couple Biggest Losers and has been feeling pretty good lately. Last week, she was running and biking with her son and was feeling so good, she decided to race her son up the hill on the bike, standing up on the pedals.

The good news was that she was feeling that good. The bad news was that her back wasn’t quite ready for that extra loading with the body twisting side to side while pushing too. She paid for it for a week, and needs some therapy to get things back to normal.

What’s amazing is that she felt like doing it. That’s what I’m talking about. This is a woman who used to read magazines while walking on the treadmill. Now she’s out there running and biking, and she actually felt like racing up the hill! Read that again. She felt like it. Sure, she paid for it, but with some more core training and building up to it, her back will be fine.

Finally, I got an email from another friend in Biggest Loser “8.” She’s had to miss a couple workouts due to going on a mission trip, then a cruise, and then another meeting. I told her to be careful on the ship, because they have plenty of food. I also told her to be sure to make sure she got her workout in every day, since they’d have a great gym on the ship, and she could do lots of walking, too.

She emailed me her weight after the cruise and she lost 1.8 lbs—on a cruise ship! Here’s what she said: “I took your advice seriously and only ate at meal times. I made good choices when picking entrees and exercised for about an hour each morning. BUT—I had dessert each evening. Eating right does not mean starving or denying! Hard to believe, but eating right and exercising are the keys---just like you always say!”

If they can do it, you can do it. So how do you feel? How do you want to feel? Brittany Cline feels pretty good, winning Week Five of Biggest Loser “8.” She lost 3.2% of her body weight and 4.9 lbs and won a $20 Walmart gift card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance.

Second place went to Tammy Hewitt who feels pretty good too—losing 1.4% of her body weight and 2.2 lbs. Third place went to Cathy Kemper, who lost 1.0% of her body weight and 2.0 lbs. I think she’s feeling pretty good too.

NO KINKS!

My dad had another birthday last week. He’s now up to 86 and still counting. He’s also a pretty good example of what we should be like when we get older.

Even in the Bible, people lived a long time, and they were productive. Moses looked out on the Promised Land before he died. Apparently his vision was still good enough to let him see out over the valley.

Abraham and Sarah even had a baby when they were ninety! O.K., that might be an extreme example (and special case), but you get my point. We’re designed to be productive and useful even in our later years.

But too many times, something goes wrong. People get sick and then they die. Or they just go down hill and linger on. My wife’s mother was that way. She had lots of health issues and was way ready to go home, but her body kept holding her back.

My mom made it to 81 and was pretty active. A former surgical nurse, they practically had to pry her out of surgery to make her retire. Well into her 60’s, she’d train the new ones coming in, and I heard that she could still run rings around them.

Outside of a knee problem that finally slowed her down, she was fine until a stroke got her one night while she was lying in bed. It was quick and then she was gone.

As we get older, I think we fall into one of two categories. You either have it, or you don’t. Your health, that is. I’m not talking about minor things that come up from time to time. I mean generally, you can move or you can’t move. My parents would tell you that moving is better.

Dad says he’s lucky he got good genes. I’m sure that’s true. But he works at it too. He walks about a mile in the morning before breakfast. Later in the day, he walks a half hour on the treadmill and does another half hour on the exercise bike, along with some flexing exercises.

Then he spends a couple hours helping keep things cleaned up in the gym. I keep telling him to take a day off, but he growls at me that it’s his job and he’s going to do his job, so I can just be quiet. O.K.

Right now, he’s looking into whether he’s a good candidate for shoulder surgery to straighten out an old rotator cuff injury. He wants to get it fixed so he can lift some weights!

Now he may not remember this, but I do. Thirty years ago, in his late fifties, he used to have quite a belly. He’d eat pretty much anything he wanted and they were big portions—trust me. He used to joke that he was the “human garbage can” cause if there was anything left on my plate, he’d eat it too.

At that time, he was the typical middle-aged male with an apple-shaped middle. As you know, that’s the most dangerous for your heart. As a high school teacher, he wasn’t all that active, and his weight was up around 200 lbs—a little too much for someone 5’7”.

Then something changed. Around 1980, he started working out in a gym. Sometimes he went overboard and did too much, but he was pretty consistent, and worked out until he retired.
After that, he bought twin Schwinn Airdyne exercise bikes and a treadmill and he and mom worked out at home.

They also ate very healthy. No longer eating any junk food, he got his weight down to a much healthier level, and that apple shape in the middle went away. His weight went down to “one-six-two point five” as he put it. Now he’s living down here with us and working out at our gym.

Recently, he’s been cooking lots of vegetables in a crock-pot. It’s perfect, because he can set it and forget it. He also cooks beef in a smaller crock to make sure he gets enough iron and protein. Sometimes he’ll eat salmon or sardines, too.

He eats lots of fresh fruit every day, and whole grain cereal and shredded wheat in the morning, and whole grain bread with his vegetable soup and beef. He has lots of skim milk too, along with some water throughout the day.

He almost never eats junk food or anything that “has that gunk on it.” Spices and seasonings are out. No salt. No pop. The only time he doesn’t eat “his food” is when he’s eating with one of the kids or us. Usually, it’s his food, his way. And it’s tough to argue with the results.

The only thing I’ve talked to him about is watching his portion sizes. He likes to eat his food, so sometimes he’ll just keep eating it. Or he’d have some bread with his cereal in the morning. That’s two starches, and his body only needs one. Better to just go with the cereal early, and have the bread later.

Now he’s managing his portions a little bit better and he’s seeing his weight drop again. His weight this morning was “one-five-three-point-four.” In a couple of months, I think he might come in around 145 lbs, just five pounds over his fighting weight of 140 lbs as a 20 year old soldier back in WW II.

And man can he move. Sure, it’s at a fairly slow pace, to make sure he keeps his balance, but he’s doing everything he wants to do. His flexing exercises let him bend over and pick things up, and all that walking has given him strong legs and a strong heart. He says his joints feel fine.

Last week he went to Bubby’s tee-ball game. Everyone else had a lawn chair to sit on, but he didn’t know that he was going to need one. So he sat there on the ground, for an hour and a half! He told me after he got up he was surprised he had “no kinks!”

He’s worked at it for 30 years, but that’s what we need to do. Dad started in his 50’s. Now he’s reaping the benefits of having no kinks. How about you? Will you be moving when you’re 86? What about 66 or even 46? Maybe it’s time to just get started.

At the end of week four, our winner in Biggest Loser “8” was Brittany Cline, who lost 3.9% of her body weight and 6.2 lbs. Since she had to leave, we gave the $20 Walmart Gift Card from Terry Elston and State Farm Insurance to Curtis Vaughn, who placed second by losing 1.1% of his body weight and 3.0 lbs. You’ll have to ask them, but I’m pretty sure they still have kinks—but they’re working on it!

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

Wouldn’t that be nice? Someone walks up to you and says, “Here. These are keys to that brand new house over there. It’s all yours. Congratulations!” This actually happens on a popular T.V. show. I’m sure they appreciate it, but in at least one case, the people promptly took out a mortgage against the house and then lost it all in foreclosure.

How many lottery winners end up broke after spending it all on foolish things? I’m sure some are prudent and even increase their charitable giving, but most? They’re like the rest of us who get a (much more modest) raise but then promptly spend the increase.

Instead of living on what we made before and saving the difference for a rainy day, we increase our spending. Instead of getting rid of credit card and car payment debts, we load up expecting things to always go our way.

But rainy days always come. What then? If you don’t have a plan to survive the storm, the storm will eat you alive. If you’ve thought about it, though, and made plans, when the winds come, you’ll be left standing, even when everything else is blown away.

Another problem many of us face is that we don’t handle success very well. Popular life coach Tony Robbins says that we often sabotage our own success. Right before we make it, we back off, because we fear how our life is going to change. It’s like we have this goofy impulse inside to mess it up, right when we’re almost there. But if we’d just keep going, we’d get there.

Some people are what I call “drama queens.” Everything becomes a drama. They have to be the center of attention, if only in their own minds. Instead of just grinding it out, week by week, in small, predictable steps, they have a heroic week, followed by a poor week because it wasn’t sustainable. They continue to repeat this pattern until they just get tired and quit.

Remember the old story about the turtle and the rabbit (tortoise and the hare)? What was the moral of the story? Slow and steady wins the race. While I’m all about building intensity in your exercise (more on this another time), you’ve got to be slow and steady in your commitment.

Don’t expect too much, too soon, but be like the turtle. When everyone else gives in, you’re still moving forward. I call this winning through stamina. You get what you want, simply by enduring. You make a decision that you’re not going to quit, no matter what. You’re going to keep making progress.

It’s like setting up weekly or monthly automatic deposits into a savings account. Even if it’s a small amount, it starts to add up. If you leave it alone for a year or two, pretty soon you’ve really got something there for a rainy day.

Then, if you get knocked back a step, you take two more steps forward. When life intrudes, you don’t make a big drama about it. It’s O.K. to be disappointed, angry, and even grieve sometimes when life really strikes you a blow. But at some point, you’ve just got to get back up and start figuring out what your next step is.

You may have heard it said that the best degree comes from the school of hard knocks. I think it’s true. The lessons sink in deeper. They make a lasting impression on you. Whatever it was that caused things to be the way they are now, if the treatment’s painful enough, you’ll never do that again.

Getting out of debt is tough, but you can do it. Once you do it, you’ll never want to go back. Radio talk show host Dave Ramsey says it takes most people 2-3 years to be debt free (all but the house) and 7-8 years to be completely debt free (including the house). It takes a huge commitment, but is so worth it in the end.

Getting in shape is just as tough, but it doesn’t take nearly as long. Even if you’re 100 lbs overweight, you can take it off in a year, two years at the most, if you stick with it. That’s quite a commitment too, but it’s worth it.

Once you can move around easily, and don’t have all that extra weight dragging you down, you’ll never want to go back. Once you feel great and can finally do all the things you want to do, you’ll have enough incentive to keep it that way.

So what are the keys? It’s pretty simple: hard work, being consistent, and not giving up. Now those keys will really get you somewhere.

HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT

This week let’s take a look at how to get what you want. Some things are very difficult to accomplish, like becoming president or an astronaut. But for most things, you can usually get what you want just by following some simple steps.

Get a goal!
If you don’t have a goal, it’s pretty hard to stay on course. Most people don’t just get in their car and say “where do we want to go on vacation?” It’s planned out. You’ve thought about it a lot, and you know where you want to go. You even have things planned out when you get there.

Changing your life works in the same way. You’ve got to have an idea of what you want to accomplish. Set a concrete goal. I want to lose ____ number of lbs in 12 weeks. I want to be less fat and weigh ____ lbs.

Write it down.
Experts say written goals are much more likely to be accomplished. Tell other people. It makes you accountable and keeps pressure on you to work to achieve the goal.

What do you have to do to get there?
Make a list of the things it’s going to take. If you need to lose weight, you’re probably going to have to start watching what you eat. Cut out the junk. Quit drinking pop. Eat more fruits & vegetables. Eat whole grains instead of white breads. Have a daily checklist.

You’ll probably need to start exercising and burning some calories, too. Get with an expert or someone who’s already done it. What are they doing? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just follow their example. Log your workouts every day.

Say you want to get a job in a certain field. What are the requirements to get there? Do you need a college degree? If so, and you don’t have one, what are you going to have to do to get started on that? Will you need to work a different shift? Get enrolled at a community college? Who do you need to talk to? Be specific. List the steps you need to take.

Just get started!
I take a lot of heat about this one around the gym. It’s time for another set. Just get started. If we’re doing 100 pushups and you’re resting at 70, you need to just get started again.

Often, just starting is all you need to do. Once you’ve done that, the rest will become clear. You’ll figure it out. There’s a certain momentum that’s created just by getting started. But if you don’t get started, you can’t get anywhere.

Don’t wait until all the planets are in perfect alignment. Get a few ducks in a row, figure out the first step, and then just get started.

How are things tracking?
Imagine if you got on an airplane, and the pilot said we’re just going to try to stay headed in that direction. If you’re traveling across country, a shift in even half a degree will take you way off course. They’ve got sophisticated radar and GPS keeping them exactly on track. They know where they are all the time.

That’s why we weigh in every week. It helps keep us on track and lets us make some adjustments if necessary. It gives us information that lets us ask more questions to try and figure things out.

“I didn’t lose any weight this week.” O.K. Are you getting all your workouts in? “Well, not really.” O.K. there you go. If yes, then what about food? Are you eating enough? “Uhmm… I was pretty busy and missed a few meals.” O.K. then maybe you need to start writing it down so you can see where you’re missing them. Keep track.

Stay motivated!
It’s easy when it’s easy. Sounds pretty simple, but it’s true. It’s easy when everything’s going your way. But what do you do when things start stacking up against you? How do you handle it? Some people stick their head in the sand. The problem with that is that your neck is still sticking out.

Avoiding the issue doesn’t necessarily make it go away. Sometimes you need to deal with the problem. Sometimes you need to accept the fact that there are going to be problems, but you need to keep on going, anyway. Sometimes you’ll have a major setback.

If you have bad knees and don’t exercise because you have bad knees, you’re just going to be fat with bad knees. We’ve had plenty of people with bad knees that found another way to work out so they wouldn’t have to be fat anymore. There’s always something else you can do.

If you’re exceptionally busy, join the club. We’re all busy. Ultimately, people will do what they want to do, and they won’t do what they don’t want to do. How bad do you want it? In the end, if you want it bad enough, you’ll do the things that have to be done. You’ll find a way. That’s how to get what you want.

Enjoy the process!
I believe we’re designed to seek things out—we need a quest, a journey, to fulfill a destiny. But once we achieve a thing, the pride of accomplishment doesn’t always last that long. Artists commonly get depressed between creations. It’s in the creating that they feel fulfilled. Once it’s done, they’re left a little empty.

That’s why we need to learn to enjoy the process and the journey along the way. How are you feeling? Do you feel stronger? Have you lost some inches? Take pleasure in that. Are you having fun getting your workouts in? Enjoy them. When you step on the scale and lose a pound, be glad you lost a pound, not disappointed that it wasn’t more.

Biggest Loser “8”
The winner from Week Two of Biggest Loser “8” was Tina Foote who lost 2.2% of her body weight and 3.8 lbs. She won a $20 Walmart gift card from Terry Elston & State Farm Insurance. Second place went to John Rigdon who lost 2.0% of his body weight and 4.0 lbs. Third place went to John Foote, who lost 1.5% of his body weight and 2.6 lbs.

THE "EXTRACTION DIET"

Now I’m not recommending this particular diet, but… it seems to work pretty well. Here’s what you do. Go to an oral surgeon, have two teeth removed, and eat or drink nothing for eight hours before the surgery. That way you can go with the IV drip sedation where you talk to them for a few minutes, and then wake up and it’s over.

The down side is that you’re going to bleed for a couple days afterward, and are pretty sore and tender. That means no solid foods for a few days. Here’s where the “extraction diet” really kicks in, because you’re only getting calories through liquids.

For me, it was four of those protein shakes a day, four hours apart—at the same time as the pain pill and antibiotic. It’s pretty humbling. Run 13+ miles, throw a bunch of weights around, roll around on the floor with sweaty guys trying to choke you, but miss that pill by a few minutes and wow!

Normally pretty active, I went two days without working out, either. That was even tougher than the diet. I’d just finished running 16 days in a row, the day before the extractions, and after just one day, I was going through withdrawal symptoms.

Kathy about had a cow when she came home and found me outside walking the lane. One trip to the mailbox and back is exactly .3 miles. Four trips was a little over a mile. On the second day, I made 7 trips to net 2.1 miles walking. You got to do something, right?

On the third day, I had some yogurt, cut up toast and got a regular workout in. By the fourth day, I was eating soup and cereal softened with milk and the like. The workouts were back in full force, too. In the end, I lost a few pounds, but it’s probably better to just Eat Right & Exercise Smart.

All it really takes is following a few of the following basic principles, and the results are very predictable—and it’s more fun than the “extraction diet.”

Get Started
Nothing happens unless you start. You’ve got to make a decision and take some steps to get the ball rolling. Sitting still never got anyone anywhere until cars and planes came along.

You’ve Got To Hit Your Minimum:
Everyone needs a certain number of calories each day to live, and if you don’t hit it, your body won’t let you burn fat for fuel. Women need at least 1,200 calories while men need at least 1,800 calories. Most women don’t eat enough. Men usually eat too much.

Eat 3 Healthy Meals and 2-3 Healthy Snacks:
Smaller, more frequent meals satisfy your hunger and keep your insulin levels stable. Missing a few meals just sets you up for a disaster later.

Eat Balanced Meals (Protein, Starch, and Fruits & Greens):
Proteins build muscle and bones; Starches give you long lasting energy; Fruits & Greens give you quick energy, some fiber, and lots of vitamins & minerals. Get off the junk.

Take Omega-3:
Research shows that eating the good fats helps you burn the bad fats. Omega-3 fish oil provides the good fats. Avoid foods cooked in vegetable oil.

Stop the Pop and Drink lots of Water:
The winner of our last Biggest Loser told me that he drank nothing but water for the entire 12 weeks. He lost over 50 lbs. Enough said.

Walk at least a mile a day:
This starts the calorie burning off right and gives you an edge. This is the first of two workouts. If you can’t do two workouts a day, that’s O.K. This just gives you an extra edge and could be the difference between losing a pound a week versus losing two pounds or more a week.

Do a 2nd workout each day:
Lift weights on M-W-F. Do your cardio workouts on T-TH-SA. Resistance training builds muscle which will make everything you do easier, and make you a fat burning machine. The cardio workouts will build your endurance and keep those calories coming off.

Don’t Worry Too Much About It:
Focus on the big picture. How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? What is your waistline doing? Have you lost fat? Then worry about the weight. Remember, a pound a week is good, two pounds a week is great, and anything above that is fantastic.

Stick With It:
People that can learn how to stick, get what they want. It might take awhile. So what? Time is going to pass anyway—whatever you do. Be thankful for the good things that are happening and stick with it.

THE WIND, MATH, AND YOU!

I had the opportunity to do a couple concerts and “Bodies-in-Balance—How to Eat Right & Exercise Smart” seminars recently. One was at a church over in Chenoa, IL last Wednesday night. I’d never heard of Chenoa before, but it was a nice drive and a nice little town.

Map Quest took me the most direct route, which is through the country, right through the middle of a wind farm. I’d seen them on TV, but it was something to see up close: 50 or so giant wind turbine generators, all turning slowly and majestically.

Someone told me that each turbine can produce enough electricity to power 3,000 homes. I’m not sure if it’s true, but it sounded pretty good to me. There are some drawbacks, though.

They’re expensive to build (what isn’t), and some people don’t like looking at them, although they were smack dab in the middle of corn fields. You could see them for miles, though, so it’s an issue. My dad was telling me that they also make quite a roaring sound. Still, they’re pretty impressive.

We need to be like those wind turbines. Like them, we need to be moving all the time—sometimes slowly, sometimes a little faster, but always moving. Being lean and fit is about looking for every opportunity to keep our generator turning.

Take a walk in the morning. Take the stairs. Park further away. Ride your bike to work. Do outdoors work. Play basketball with your friends. Play softball. Play games with your kids. When they’re swimming, don’t just watch them—you swim too.

An active lifestyle will help you burn more calories throughout the day, and in the end, it’s just math. Burn more calories than you consume and you’ll lose weight, assuming you’re hitting your minimum. According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), women should never go below 1,200 calories a day, and guys need at least 1,800 calories.

A good strategy is to do some exercise in the morning first thing. Walking a mile a day takes just 20 minutes at a very comfortable pace (3.0 mph). Then later, you can get your main workout in. If you’ve sprinkled a bunch of little workouts in during the day, you can end up burning quite a few calories.

Moderate activity burns around 5 calories a minute. Intense exercise can burn as much as 10 calories a minute. You can even get up to 15 calories a minute if you work hard enough, but it’s tough to sustain that very long. If you’re in pretty good shape, you can do 10 calories a minute for around an hour. That’s 500-600 calories.

Plus you have another 100-200 calories from the morning walk. Then you might have another 200-300 calories from doing other little things throughout the day. That means you might be able to burn around 800-1,000 calories a day through activity.

Now add that to the minimum calories your body uses to live and you can be burning around 2,000 calories a day. Let’s say you’re a woman between 5’ and 5’6 (average size) and want to lose weight. If you do all that activity and end up burning 2,000 calories a day, but only take in 1,500 calories, that’s 500 calories less than you’re going to need. So where will those 500 calories come from?

They’ll have to come from fat. You needed 2,000 a day to live, workout, and do all the other stuff you do. You took in 1,500. The 500 calories you’re short are called a calorie deficit. We know all about deficits, right? It means spending something you don’t have.

Debt can lead to huge problems, but in this case, it’s a good thing. A pound of fat is 3,500 calories. So at the end of the day, if you have a 500 calorie deficit, seven days in a row, you’ll lose one pound of fat. See how it works? 500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 total calories. It’s just math.

The ACSM says for healthy weight loss, you should try to lose between 1 and 2 lbs a week. That means you need at least a 500 calorie deficit to lose a pound a week. To lose 2 lbs a week, you’ll need a daily deficit of 1,000 calories. That’s a little tougher, and definitely is going to require that second workout.

This is why weight loss from diet alone isn’t usually sustainable. It’s much easier when you add an active lifestyle, like working out every day. For best results, you have to be like those amazing wind turbine generators, turning all the time.

Next week I’ll give you the outline from the seminar so you can have a game plan this summer. It’s the same stuff we do with our Biggest Losers. I’ve found it gives people hope—especially if they’ve tried to lose the weight in the past but failed.

Just like those wind turbine generators making energy in a different way, sometimes you need a new approach to taking off the weight. It’s not too late to sign up for Biggest Loser “8,” but if you wait another week it will be. It’s a pretty small group this time, so this could be your chance this summer. Don’t just sit there and let the wind pass you by!