Biggest Loser - Work Edition

I'm getting a bunch of people together for a Biggest Loser challenge at work. The goal, to lose the biggest PERCENTAGE of weight. Winner gets a cash prize. I didn't want it to be all about the money though, and wanted to create a community of accountability, and so instead of just starting the competition and letting them go their own way, I'm scheduling weekly lunches to get together and talk, share ideas, tips, etc. Afterwards I send out an email to the group with notes I prepared and additional information gathered from the meeting. Here is email #1, in hopes it can help some of you:

There are many tools to connect with and help you on your journey. A site I showed the group today, and that I personally use is called www.DailyBurn.com. It’s a GREAT and FREE site (with a paid “Pro” added content version as well if you choose), that has MANY amazing things to help you with your goals, meal planner, daily intake, calorie counter, etc.

Tips:
1. We all know that watching your caloric intake is the biggest part to losing weight, but you also need to REALLY pay attention to your salt/sodium intake! A trainer once told me to focus on keeping it around 600-ish mg’s of sodium per meal…so around 1800-ish mg’s a day.
2. Healthy snacks, and snacks to curb your appetite are hard to find, as we all like and don’t like various things. Try unsalted almonds. Just 12 of those will curb hunger. Also, for late night snacking, if you absolutely need something, drink a large glass of milk! It gives you nutrients, healthy calories, and coats your stomach and thus tames down the stomach acid that may be churning and making you feel hungry. Protein Bars are good once in a while too.
3. Make sure you are drinking enough water. Dehydration feels the same as hunger pangs, so make sure you take assessment of how much water you’ve had, before going for your healthy snack.
4. Chew gum or ice if you are wanting food but know you don’t need it. The act of chewing may help curb your desire to eat something.
5. “Healthy shakes” (ie: Smoothie King) are actually not very good for you. Sure, they give you lots of vitamins, etc, but they are almost always LOADED with sugar.
6. Sugar is OKAY…not sugar in the form of packets of sugar, etc…but natural sugar in foods (ie: fruit, etc) is OKAY right now in your diet, because again, caloric intake is the highest thing to be aware of (followed by sodium/salt).
7. Do whatever you can to workout. Just by changing how you eat you will drop weight, but adding any sort of workout at all, will DRASTICALLY help! We all have favorite shows we watch at night (*cough* Biggest Loser is on tonight…GREAT motivation! *cough*), so try walking/jogging in place, or doing jumping jacks, etc, during commercials.
8. You’ve heard to not eat after a certain hour at night, well that’s kind of true. You should not eat four hours before you go to bed…or better yet, don’t eat bad if you know you are going to do nothing the rest of the night.
9. Try eating reverse sized meals…instead of eating a small breakfast, larger lunch, and then big dinner, eat the reverse…big breakfast, normal lunch, smaller dinner. That way you have a better chance at burning more calories that you’ve eaten throughout the day.
10. Focus on having at least 5-6 meals a day…your normal meals, and then a small snack between meals (maybe a hard-boiled egg, unsalted almonds, etc…something more protein based…or some fruit). A protein shake is a great meal-replacement, or snack. You can get the ready-made stuff you just pour, or can save money and buy the large bags of powder you just mix with water/milk. Great over ice!
11. KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL!!! How can you TRULY tell how well you’ve been eating if you can’t sit down and look at actual numbers. Sure that meal may have been small, but how many calories was in that steak…those fries…etc. There are many paper/online methods.
12. I subscribe to Runner’s World’s, “Daily Motivation” emails. It’s a daily quick sentence or two to help motivate. There are many sites like this, and many apps I’ve seen on the iPhone for this type of thing as well.


Software:
iPod Touch/iPhone users: There is a free app for the DailyBurn site, as well as a cheap app called “FoodScanner”, where you can scan the barcode on the food you’re eating and it automatically adds it to food journal for the day. This then syncs to your DailyBurn.com account, for an easy one-stop-shop website to track how you’re doing. If the food you’re eating doesn’t come up, you can input the information manually on the app, and then when you save it, it’s there for you and anyone else who comes across that food in the future!
Windows Mobile/Palm/Blackberry users: Sorry, I didn’t have enough time to find something for you, but I do know that DailyBurn was at least in the process of getting apps for your platform as well! If you know of any kind of app, let us know!

So there you have it. That was what we talked about this first meeting, and we didn’t even get to the real parts I wanted to. Each Tuesday we’ll meet and go over our victories/struggles we had for the week (if you so choose to), discuss things we’ve found that could help others (using Ms Dash spices vs salt – they have 10+ kinds of Ms Dash…Garlic, Onion, Chipotle, Lemon, etc), and other things that might help us. Even though this is a competition to find the Biggest Loser of the company, "we’re all in this together" (thank you High School Musical), and I want to see us ALL succeed! I have things planned for individual/team competitions throughout these three months, so I hope you’re excited and ready to lose with me.

And lastly, please spend time with the Father, as well as keep all of us in prayer. Being totally honest here…food has always been my “drug”, and for those like me, we all know that food is just as addictive as smoking, drugs, etc. So, let’s cover each other, and keep Satan at bay, so that we can give ALL the glory to the Father and show the world what He’s done through us, and how He’s broken these chains!