Quotes About New Year's Resolutions

I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me. ~Anaïs Nin


I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's. ~Henry Moore


One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things. ~John Burroughs


I do think New Year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on New Year's Day, don't you? Since, because it's an extension of New Year's Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system. Also dieting on New Year's Day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second. ~Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary

Poll Results: How Much Weight Do You Want to Lose?

Thanks to the 804 people who answered the first poll. The question was - How Many Pounds Do You Want to Lose?



The results were surprising as I had thought a larger percentage of people would have wanted to lose more than fifty pounds. But it turns out that 65% of the readers here want to lose less than 50 pounds.

I haven't focused too much on weight loss success stories which involve losing less than fifty pounds. So as a result of these poll results, expect to see more of these stories here soon, though I realize everyone (like me) is inspired by the really big weight loss stories and these are also easier to find and write about. But for anyone who has succeeded in their goal to lose 10 to 50 pounds, please let me know about it if you'd like your story featured here.

Thanks again for voting.

Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone very happy holidays ahead.

I'll be back to posting in a few days. Thinking of New Years resolutions yet anyone?

The poster here is Santa Skiing.

Biggest Loser Finale is Tonight

“The Biggest Loser” finale is on TV tonight. One of the four finalists - Hollie, Isabeau, Julie or Bill will win $250,000.


A lot of people seem to think Bill will be the winner. If you've been following the series and have a firm opinion on who's going to win, go place your vote for the winner here.

Update: Bill is the winner. He lost 164 pounds for a current weight of 170.

Here's a photo of Bill before his weight loss.

A Chef Says Goodbye to Muffins and Danishes

Kevin is a chef in a Four Seasons Hotel. He has succeeded in losing 85 pounds in the past nine months. The pounds crept on as he was sampling most of the food that was created in his kitchen. He had a weakness for the muffins, danishes and croissants.

But he finally made the decision to lose weight after he saw how he had no energy to play with his four year old son. He is 6'1 and used to weigh 355 pounds. Today he weighs 270 and his health is greatly improved. See the chef's weight loss story here.

The above poster is Muffin Man by Barbara Olsen.

Carrie Loses 75 Pounds

Hi There -
I love your blog, and read it frequently. It's always such a motivator to see others who have lost weight and taken their lives back. I'd like to share my story with you.

My name is Carrie Falquist, and I'm a mother, wife, artist and online weight loss group leader. In December of 2006, I found myself 230 lbs and trying out for weight loss reality shows such as NBC-TV's The Biggest Loser, and ABC-TV's new show, Fat March. During casting, I ceased all efforts to take weight off, and put on an additional 18 lbs through the 2 month process.

I received call backs, requests for more information, more photos, more video, etc from both casting companies, but at the very end, I did not make the final cut from each show. Having promised myself I would not stay fat long enough to try out next season, I banded together with other reality TV rejects to lose weight on our own. I started Reality of Weighting, which was a blog where we could all come together, share our struggles and offer support.

Support has been key for me, as I have never had to try and lose weight in the past, at least not to this extent. Up until I was 26 (1999), my body was naturally slim. I ate anything I wanted and maintained a weight of 150, which, at 5'10" is a healthy one. A horseback riding accident caused trauma to my thyroid and the result was a weight gain of 60 lbs in 4 months. Having grown up with a super metabolism, I did not know what to do with my body in that condition. Weight loss was a constant struggle, so I just stopped trying. I stayed between 220-230 for years. Until casting for The Biggest Loser and Fat March.

Fast forward to March, 2007. Reality of Weighting forms from 20 other casting hopefuls, and we promise each other "No Drama, No Whining, and NO EXCUSES." We made a vow that we weren't going to hang onto what made us fat, because we were keeping us fat.

I weighed 248 lbs at the end of March 2007 with a BMI of 36.8, and am now, in December 2007, I am a healthy 173.8 with a BMI of 24.8. My goal is to lose another 25.8 lbs and reach 100 lbs lost, and 148 lbs. I believe the group has been instrumental in my success. Not only do I have added accountability as the group's leader, but there are now over 170 members, people I can count on me to believe in myself when I falter.

Others in my group have lost 50, 70, even 90 lbs since March, and we celebrated our first annual get together in Las Vegas in October, meeting in person for the first time as well as being interviewed for a feature in a major health and fitness magazine. Several of us have appeared on local talk shows, the newspapers in our home towns and radio interviews.

My goal, through Reality of Weighting, is to spread the message of empowerment to others who feel like they need some sort of magic formula to lose weight. I want to lead people to a healthier lifestyle, and help them reach their goals without extreme measures, without tv shows, pills, surgery, etc. I've recently been invited by a previous Biggest Loser contestant to join them in coaching people online and creating healthy nutrition and exercise plans. It's an honor to be working with some of the past BL contestants as well as one of the trainers in this project. I'm always looking to meet other health minded folks, so anyone is welcome to friend me on myspace! www.myspace.com/carriefalquist.

www.carriefalquist.com
www.realityofweighting.com

_______
Also see Carrie's beautiful artwork here

Dropping Sugar to Beat Fatigue

A few months ago Yin Teing started trying to avoid sugar in her daily life. She says she discovered that her eating habits were contributing to increasing fatigue and yearly weight gain. She started a blog about Saying Goodbye to a Lifelong Addiction. In Goodbye Sugar she details her journey, discoveries and slip-ups to her way back to health and shedding pounds along the way.

She has only lost about 12 pounds but her clothes fit so much better since she started her eating and exercise plan. Although her main reason to change her eating and to start exercising was to beat fatigue, she says looking better in clothes is definitely a great bonus and motivation to continue.

See her story at Goodbye Sugar.

Jeremy Loses 25 Pounds

Jeremy has lost 25 pounds in about four months. He kick started the weight loss with a simple diet plan recommended by one of his coworkers. He stayed on this diet for two weeks and this really helped to lessen his appetite for big portions. Since then he's added other food to his daily eating but is still managing to lose a pound every ten days or so.

See his diet plan here.

See a good recipe for chili at the World's Healthiest Foods.

Which Habit is Your #1?

Thanks much to everyone who answered the first poll. The results are surprising, I'll sum them up when the poll is finished.

Now for the second poll, I'm wondering if most people share the same habit in terms of what is keeping them from losing weight faster.

If you were to state only one habit that was MOST responsible for you not being able to reach your goal weight, what would it be?

It will be interesting to see whether a couple of habits really stand out with the majority of readers. Please consider your answer to be as honest as possible.

(Don't worry about the reasons why you have this habit, we can go into this later.)

I'm leaving this poll open for just six days. The poster above is Kitchen - cupboard.

Ayres' Huge Weight Loss Story

Ayres topped the scales at 550 pounds not too long ago. It was in early 2006 that he started a drastic program to lose weight. What finally motivated him to do it was that he started losing his vision due to diabetes. This really frightened him and got him motivated in a big way. A year and a half later, he was down to 225 pounds. That's an amazing weight loss of 325 pounds!

He completely changed his lifestyle and what he ate. These days a weekly exercise regimen includes going to a personal trainer at VQ Fitness four times a week plus an additional four sessions a week of aerobics at the YMCA. And on weekends he walks as much as 10 miles.

Because he lost so much weight so quickly he has a great deal of sagging skin. He wants a surgical body lift at this point and he'd like to go on the Oprah show to help him pay for it. But maybe this sagging skin would also disappear after a couple more years of regular exercise?

See his incredible weight loss story here. The main page of his website is here.

Changing Attitude for Weight Loss

The New York Times has a perplexing but interesting story today about how a study showed that women (hotel maids) lost weight and decreased their blood pressure without increasing their daily exercise but by just being more mindful that they were getting some exercise.

See the mindful exercise story here.

How Many Pounds Do You Want to Lose?

I've been featuring weight loss stories here for many months now. A lot are about people who have lost a huge amount of weight (over 150 pounds). But I am curious about how many pounds the typical regular reader here wants to lose.

Do most people just want to lose less than twenty pounds for example? Or is the average number more like 50 or 100 pounds of desired weight loss?

Please vote in the poll at the top right of the sidebar. I'm leaving the poll open for 16 days and it will be interesting to see what people's desired weight loss numbers are.

Thanks!
Isadora

Carol Alt Eats Like a Horse

Carol Alt celebrated her 47th birthday a couple of days ago. She looks absolutely amazing. (See her in person on the video below). Her skin is radiant and she has masses of shiny hair for someone who's almost fifty. Her figure is also incredible.

Could this all be the result of her raw food diet regimen? Alt has long been an advocate of eating raw foods and she has written a couple of books about this. She says she 'eats like a horse' but eating raw enables her to stay slim.

The Raw 50 contains her favorite raw recipes — 10 breakfasts, 10 lunches, 10 dinners, 10 snacks, and 10 drinks.

Fighting Fat and Acne at the Same Time

The author of The Clear Skin Diet recommends people who have acne try switching to a diet high in fiber, fish, vegetables, lean protein and matcha green tea.

The typical teenage diet often contains too many burgers, pop and donuts.

Alan Logan, a New York naturopath says the wrong diet is not the only cause of acne. Stress is also a critical element in acne flare-ups.

See more about his food recommendations here.