Marcia Brady Joins Celebrity Fit Club

I used to watch Brady Bunch when I was a kid. Marcia Brady (Maureen McCormick) was the beautiful oldest daughter on the show. And now it's been announced she's joining the Celebrity Fit Club because she wants to lose weight. McCormick is 5'3" tall.

How old is Maureen McCormick now? I was amazed to find out she turned 50 this year.

She says she has put on about 25 or 30 pounds since her mother died. She has one daughter who thought it would be a good idea for her to sign up for the Celebrity Fit Club show.

She is joined in the fifth season of VH1's weight-loss series by Tiffany, Kimberly Locke, Da Brat, Dustin Diamond, Warren G, Cledu T. Judd and Ross Matthews.

Red Apples for Christmas Cheer

Designing Spaces decorator Veryn Yip has some great (and inexpensive) ideas to get your home ready for the Christmas season. One is the red apple (and low-calorie) trick;

Put a large bowl in the entry way or on the dining room table and fill it with bright red apples (yes, real ones). It costs less than $10 and will last about a month. Best of all, it instantly adds a mass of red to your room.

The apple photo above is by Bialy-Fox.

Fatter than Oprah at her Heaviest

Sour Girl, 28, has just started a site about her new weight loss journey. She says she's now fatter than Oprah was at her heaviest. She wants to lose 85 pounds. She is starting today and wants to reach her goal weight of 150 pounds by the end of September. She's just joined L A Weight Loss. Her mom has given her the membership as an early Christmas present.

The above photos are examples of the before and after success stories at L A Weight Loss. One of their clients, Michele pictured here, lost 125 pounds in 41 weeks.

See Sour Girl's story from the beginning and help encourage her here.

An Artist Loses 50 Pounds

Lon Calhoun is an artist with a studio. He's lost about 50 pounds by joining a fitness center that opened up next door to his workplace. He's also tried sticking to Weight Watchers principles in his daily eating habits.

Two years ago he was up to about 250 pounds. He says he was pudgy as a kid and never did any kind of exercise and started to gain a lot of weight in his thirties.

He's happy he's been successful in losing the weight because he was starting to suffer from painful back problems.

Five years ago, I started having back problems. For about three years, my back would go out about every six weeks. I would be flat on my back for a few days. In the past two years, my back has gone out once and I was only down a day with it, so I've obviously strengthened my back. That is one of the greatest reasons to do all this - to not be in that kind of pain.

To help people motivate themselves to become more fit, he has this to say;

There are a lot of other benefits than just looking better, such as back pain. Your energy level is much higher when you exercise. This is coming from a person who did everything I could to get out of gym when I was in high school. I was never an active, physical person, but there are so many benefits. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you're just getting older.

Another great thing is that if you build up the muscles, the muscles really do burn calories [more than fat], even when you're just sitting around. You can get away with a little more with your diet.

See the full article about his weight loss here.

Karen's Rapid Weight Loss Story

Karen Wright, 46, weighed 342 pounds and lost an astounding 164 pounds in 50 weeks.

She got her start by joining a local TOPS program ('Taking off Pounds Sensibly') and wasn't very optimistic about succeeding. She didn't like the idea of writing down everything she ate. She gave herself one week to try out the program. In the first week she lost 17 pounds and was hooked.

After she lost a bit more weight she started walking. Initially she couldn't do even a quarter of a mile, but she gradually increased the distances.

She says the key to her continued weight loss was having the support of people around her who were struggling with the same problems. These days she walks three to five miles a day.

See her story and a more recent photo here.

Adriana Lima Gains a Few Pounds

Here's a couple of photos of Adriana Lima getting outfitted for the Victoria Secret's 2006 Fashion Show. It looks like she's put on a few pounds recently. See her earlier this year on the GQ cover. It's refreshing to see a supermodel who isn't stick-thin.

Got Calcium? The Best Non-Dairy Alternatives

Getting enough calcium helps us maintain strong bones and avoid osteoporosis. Over 20 million people in the US have osteoporosis.

Calcium has also been found effective in preventing and treating colon cancer, kidney stones, PMS and inflammatory bowel disease. Aside from deteriorating bones, people who are not getting enough calcium often suffer from muscle pain and spasms as well as tingling or numbness in their hands and feet.

How do you know if you're getting enough calcium? Dairy products are the main source of calcium in the North American diet. Three glasses of milk daily would give the average adult about ninety percent of their recommended daily amount. If the milk is 2%, that would add up to about 370 calories.

I don't drink milk (except in my coffee) and I don't see my friends drinking milk. I eat other dairy products which are high in calcium, especially lots of cheese, but this is probably not the healthiest choice of calories on a serious weight loss regiment (in my case I usually eat it with bread and rich slathers of butter). And I can't be smug about pouring milk into my coffee because coffee is actually one substance that depletes calcium reserves in our bodies.

Fortunately there are some great alternatives to dairy products. Topping the list would be spinach, collard greens, sardines, tofu and soya drinks.

Eating four cups of boiled spinach in a day would provide you with 100% of your calcium requirement for only 165 calories. Spinach is so incredibly rich in other nutrients though that you would be getting mega doses on some of the other key nutrients such as Vitamin K; four cups of spinach provides 4,500 percent of daily requirement(!), Vitamin A; at 1,200 percent; folate; 260 percent, iron; 140 percent, vitamin C; 120 percent; dietary fiber; 70 percent, and the rich list of spinach nutritional benefits keeps on going. (Read more here.)

Calcium is not sensitive to cooking. So boiling or frying your spinach until it is complete mush will not cut down on the calcium count.

No one is going to eat four cups of spinach on a daily basis, but the other foods mentioned here also provide an incredible wealth of other nutrients. Dairy products don't stand much of a chance in this competition. It's worth checking out their health benefits and incorporating them more often in your diet. See more about the benefits of collard greens, sardines, tofu and soybeans here.

The photo above is a tofu-based lunch by Blue Lotus.

Fat and Seeking Comfort

With all the billions of dollars worth of weight loss products and services being pushed at us it's easy to overlook the growing market for making life more comfortable for obese people.

There are some people who have gotten fed up with being uncomfortable in a world outfitted for average-sized people and have gone out and started businesses which focus on easing the daily lives of those who are overweight.

Business 2.0 had a very interesting article about this a few months back.

As an example of large corporations paying attention, Toyota has recently added three inches to the width of the seats available on their RAV4 car model (shown above). Many other large corporations are also starting to pay heed. But the most interesting stories are about the people who have personally started a business to help overweight people be more comfortable in their daily lives.

Tim Barry is one entrepreneur who took matters in his own hands. He was upset and embarrassed about flying with extra sized seat-belt extensions, especially when the airlines ran out and didn't have enough on board. He started selling seat-belt extensions online and has done extraordinarily well with it. Now he's expanding his products and also sells extra strength coat hangers, high-capacity scales, and extra-large plush bath towels. So far he has only two employees, but his sales will be over $1 million this year. And his only marketing costs are online ads with Google adwords.

He says the demand is there and the market is wide-open.

How many Calories per Day?

What's the optimal number of calories one should eat per day if they are trying to lose weight?

The Biggest Loser Club has a good answer for this. They recommend a simple formula.

Your present weight X 7 = Your daily caloric needs for weight loss

This means your ideal calorie intake will continuously adjust as you start to lose weight in order to break through plateaus.

The photo by Rockstar Gilly above is lemon pepper chicken with green beans dinner totalling only 200 calories.

Kristie Alley Gets into a Bikini for Oprah

Kristie Alley, 55, is going to go through with her promise from one year ago to appear on Oprah's Show wearing nothing but a bikini. Watch for the bikini program this Monday on Oprah. She has lost a lot of weight over the past year and been working out even more rigorously over the last few weeks to get her body in perfect form. Here's what she said on her Jenny Craig blog three weeks ago;

"I’m working hard to get myself in shape for my bikini debut on Oprah. I’m walking vigorously (hiking) every morning for one hour on these big ole hills by my house. Then I try to get in an afternoon workout of weights, circuit, palates or yoga. The A.M. thing is like clockwork, the afternoons are hit and miss. But that’s my goal this week; 2 times a day for five days a week until I do the show and then for the whole month of November as I shoot the new Jenny Craig commercial the beginning of December! Yikes!

She also addresses some of her concerns with seeing herself in the gossip magazines, photoshopped to look fatter than she is;

"...my kids are always in the pool or the ocean or some lake beckoning me to come in and I’m always worried that at least a couple of the 8 to 10 paparazzi that hang out in front of my house 24-7 will snap hideous shots of me for the cover of some trash mag. This problem is unique to actresses, but because it is very real, I would like to feel that I look in good enough shape to not die of embarrassment if this should occur. These creeps are ruthless and relentless and with the invention of the digital camera, they can now instantly “doctor” any photo they take to make actresses look any weight they want them to. You might have recently seen some gross picture of me looking fat again with a squirt gun in my hand. Well, it’s the exact same photo that was in People Magazine a few months back. In the People shot (same day, same photographer, same picture) I looked slim and cute; in the rag shot I looked fat and distorted. (Somehow this is not illegal!)"

Anyway- if I like the way I look in a bikini and I don’t feel self conscious or nervous, I will be able to have my attention on my children or my boyfriend or my life; not who’s lurking in the bushes to take a cheap shot. I’ve worked very hard, as you have, to get my body healthy and slim. It mostly makes me angry that you might believe it and give up. Don’t - it is not true and it’s only purpose is to make money with some made-up scandal.

The most important reason I want to wear a bikini on Oprah however, is because if I, a 55 year old woman can look even half way decent, imagine how all of you could look in a bikini. Then all of us can breathe a little easier. Hell, I’ll never look like Giselle, I never did! But maybe close to Bridget Jones or a Dove girl or something that is just fine and healthy and happy with no surgery, no lipo and no drugs-that’s saying something!"

Watch for the bikini show on Oprah this Monday. See more about Kirstie Alley's weight loss progress over the last year here.

Update November 6th: Here she is! This is today's shot of Kirstey Alley in a bikini on Oprah's show. Also see the video clip of Kirstie wearing the bikini on Oprah's show.

Update November 17th: The National Enquirer has Kirstey Alley on their cover this week with the blaring headline; "Kirstey's Secret Liposuction!" That just seems like pure 'made-up story to sell more copies' bunk to me.

Trying to Lose Baby Fat Gets Harder

Suzi Godson put on a few extra pounds during her last pregnancy. She has never been overweight but now the pounds don't seem to be slipping off as they did with her previous pregnancies. She has a hilarious writing style. Read her weight loss diary here. Here's an excerpt;

On my 41st birthday, I gave birth to seven and a half pounds of the 50 pounds that I had gained during pregnancy. When I came out of hospital, everyone assured me that the rest would “fall off” while I was breast-feeding. It didn’t.

After a couple of months I realised that my jelly rolls had no intention of “falling off” without a push. I couldn’t fit into the clothes I wore when I was six months’ pregnant and breast-feeding had increased my appetite to such gargantuan proportions that I was constantly starving.

I had very little energy because Velvet refused to sleep for longer than two hours at a time, day or night, so I lived on a diet of sugar and caffeine to keep myself awake. And my breasts were so enormous that I felt ridiculous whenever I tried to exercise. So I didn’t.

Instead of beating myself up about it I gave myself permission to play earth mother until I stopped breast-feeding, so, for at least six months, I hung around the house nibbling biscuits, feeding the baby and watching re-runs of 1970s American legal dramas while the kids were at school. It was blissful, though occasionally I made the mistake of buying celebrity gossip mags which, at the time, seemed to be plastered with pictures of stick insects at premieres, who had just given birth the night before.

The only real nuisance was that I couldn’t get any of my old jeans past my thighs. It was when I found myself contemplating a pair of XL trousers with an elasticated waistband that I knew the party was over. I was fed up with being a fattie. Fed up wearing DD bras. Fed up with LA Law. I wanted to get my life and my body back, so I began to wean the baby and I went on a diet.

Foods that can Boost your Mood

There's a very good article on MSN by nutritionist Joy Bauer that discusses all the foods that can boost your mood. If you are feeling depressed or cranky, it's much easier to overeat. These foods will help regulate your blood sugar levels and can help avoid emotional swings as well as drastically improving your daily mood.

See further info on foods that help alleviate depression here.