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Last Week Was a Better Week for My Health

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While I have no intention of going as in-depth about my health on this blog as I do with certain aspects of my finances, I thought that I’d mention how last week was a good week for my health. Specifically, my average blood sugar readings were lower last week than they have been in months. In fact, the last time they were as low as I tested last week was during late March/early April.

And that’s good news for controlling and, hopefully, eliminating the Type 2 Diabetes that I carry around. Also, last week was a good week in terms of my weight since I managed to lose about two pounds from the week prior. Again, the lower blood sugar and losing a couple of pounds are both not major huge milestones, but I hope that they are reflections of my attempt to eat less heavy snacks at night and to move around a little bit more during the day (i.e. going for walks around the block during lunch time at the office).

I’ll let you know if there is any more good news as it comes!

Congratulations Mike – The Biggest Loser for Spring 2010!

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Not much to say in this post other than a major congratulations goes out to Mike, the winner of NBC’s The Biggest Loser Spring 2010 season! Talk about a great story, here is a guy who lost 264 pounds after starting at 526 pounds. That is unbelievable – absolutely amazing. And, in truth, he looks like a completely different person. The picture that I posted below doesn’t even do the man justice – he was even skinnier and in better shape during tonight’s finale. I’ll try to get a picture from tonight’s finale uploaded to replace the image below. I’m just baffled at how much weight this man lost. It’s really awe-inspiring.

Even though Mike won (and, of course, he was the odds on favorite to win because he was the biggest contestant in show history), Daris has to have undergone the biggest overall transformation. Here’s a guy who looked horrible with his ultra curly hair and big fat man boobs, but wound up shedding 168 pounds, running a 26.2 mile marathon in 4 hours, and actually has significant muscle definition in his arms and shoulders. Daris should be extremely proud of himself – he literally transformed his body and his life. Great job!

The same goes for Ashley, who went from a massive girl weighing 374 pounds to a hottie weighing 191 pounds! Amazing! Ashley lost 183 pounds and no one even gave her a chance of winning when the season began. Ashley looked great at the finale, she really did. And you can tell by her attitude and demeanor that she has the drive and spirit to lose another 50 or even 60 pounds. Once again, The Biggest Loser has taken a girl that most guys would walk by without a second look and made her into a stunning woman that will definitely make guys turn their heads. What a transformation.

Tonight’s finale should be an inspirational wake up call to everyone who thinks that they can’t do it; that they can’t lose weight. Just look at O’Neal (lost 153 pounds) and Sunshine (lost 114 pounds) – those two may not have won the big bucks, but they looked absolutely awesome! Side note – I’m a big fan of O’Neal and Sunshine, but O’Neal’s sons (Sunshine’s brothers) have got to be the biggest fans of their Dad and sister than anyone on the planet! I love when those two guys go crazy whenever they’re around their father and sister. It’s fun to watch!

But, back to people looking good during the finale – the same goes for Darrell (lost 189 pounds). That man lost a ton of weight as did Sherry from the pink team. Awesome, awesome transformations. Cheryl looked great, too, but I think that Sam might have been a little bit too cocky for his own good. Same for Koli. But in the end, the two of them looked great after their weight loss transformations – good for them!

And congratulations (again) to Koli for being the at-home winner of The Biggest Loser competition! Not only does he look great and did he rid himself of all of that excess weight, but he takes home $100,000, too. Not so bad!

If I had any issues with tonight’s season finale of The Biggest Loser, it was that NBC (and all television networks, really), draw these finale shows out way too long. Thankfully, I started watching the show at 8:30pm and rewound my DVR back the extra half an hour so I could fast forward through the commercials and the extra parts of the show that I’ve already seen (look, if you’ve watched the whole season then you’ve already been through each of the contestants’ ups and downs so you don’t need to be reminded of them before each weigh-in). Unfortunately, though, I caught up to the real time version of the show relatively quickly – by 9:20pm. So…for the last 40 minutes of the show I had to suffer through the ridiculous commercial breaks. Blech.

Actually, I guess it’s not that bad since I was able to write the bulk of this post during the dead time in the last 40 minutes of the show. 🙂 Another complaint – the show ends too quickly in the last few minutes. Why not show 2 – 3 minutes of the post-weigh-in celebration and maybe even had a brief interview with the winner? Why cut straight to a promo for a new show or an upcoming show? Bad move.

Oh, and I hated seeing Melissa and Lance again. Talk about two wretched people. I’m not a fan of that Melissa woman – I just don’t like her no matter what she does or says. She’s a sneak who thinks that she’s getting something over on everyone each time she speaks. Dirty snake. She’s the reason why lawyers have bad reputations.

But, once again, a major congratulations goes out to Mike for being this season’s The Biggest Loser champion, $250,000 winner, and an amazing inspirational story! Great job!

Are You Exercing, But Not Losing Weight? Don’t Worry, Nothing’s Wrong!

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Way back in November the New York Times published an article on their Wellness Blog that I found extremely interesting, if not completely obvious. The article talked about the results of a recent study which proved that exercise – even intense exercise – is not the only answer to losing weight. The articles says:

But few people, an overwhelming body of research shows, achieve significant weight loss with exercise alone, not without changing their eating habits. A new study from scientists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver offers some reasons why.

Sometimes you have to stop and wonder why certain things are studied. I mean do we really need a study that proves working out isn’t the only factor in losing weight? Heck, the researchers could have come to study me (or any one of us, right?)! I think one of the most interesting parts of the article was this revelation:

To their surprise, the researchers found that none of the groups, including the athletes, experienced “afterburn.” They did not use additional body fat on the day when they exercised. In fact, most of the subjects burned slightly less fat over the 24-hour study period when they exercised than when they did not.

Have you ever heard someone tell you that you should work out in the morning because then your body burns more calories throughout the day? Well, turns out that this study claims otherwise. In fact, not only do you not burn more calories throughout the day, but you actually burn less calories after working out! How crazy is that?!

Even though the researchers proved that the essence of losing weight is all about “energy in and energy out” (i.e. burning more calories than you take in), they did come up with some additional, almost common sense findings.

Perhaps just as important, bear in mind that exercise has benefits beyond weight reduction. In the study of obese people who took up exercise, most became notably healthier, increasing their aerobic capacity, decreasing their blood pressure and resting heart rates, and, the authors write, achieving “an acute exercise-induced increase in positive mood,” leading the authors to conclude that, “significant and meaningful health benefits can be achieved even in the presence of lower than expected exercise-induced weight loss.”

Well that’s good news, huh? Who doesn’t want to be a little bit healthier or get better readings at the doctor’s office? Once upon a time I used to work out every morning and then go swimming for an hour every night. I dropped a ton of weight during that time. I also remember being markedly more upbeat during that time, too. I definitely didn’t have this stupid Type 2 Diabetes or the aches and pains in my body. Of course, this was all back when I was in graduate school.

Which begs me to ask the question (again) – where is the study showing the best methods for a working person to lose weight? If you’re busy doing something work-related from 7am to 9pm on most days, when are you supposed to work out? Further, what if you have an extended commute that is exhausting in itself? Where is that study?!

If you get a chance, I would recommend reading the article linked above. It’s a quick, informative read.

Some Thoughts on Season 9 of The Biggest Loser on NBC

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Normally, I wouldn’t post anything about this television show until after it was over and I could offer some type of congratulations to the overall winner. However, I was so happy to see Melissa removed from The Biggest Loser this week that I felt compelled to write something about it on the blog.

If you haven’t watched the show this season, Melissa spent most of her time trying to game the system and then acting like a martyr whenever Jillian and Bob called her out. No one bought any of her shit and it was obvious that she was lying through her teeth. Maybe she thinks that because she’s not so bright that the rest of the world isn’t so bright, but it was as clear as day that she was lying about the fact that she was putting game play above her health.

Anyway, on this week’s show Melissa gained a pound. One of the stipulations was that the person who lost the least percentage of weight this week would immediately go home. Clearly, Melissa lost this week and was sent home.

But before she left, this woman had the audacity to stand up there after she gains a pound (for the second time this season!) and act like she’s some type of inspirational story. Here’s my message to her:

Get over yourself, woman! No one gives a crap about you and your lying bullshit. I don’t know what type of snake oil you think you can sell to the rest of the nation, but it was blatantly obvious that you threw two weigh-ins and you squandered your chance at being this season’s winner. You’re an idiot.

And let this be a lesson to other people out there that might apply to be a contestant on The Biggest Loser – don’t waste your time trying to “play the game.” Instead, thank God that you have the opportunity to lose weight and attack each workout that you have with the trainers.

I was so glad that this woman was kicked off the show. She tried to play the game instead of focusing on her health and her lying, conniving ways came back to bite her in the ass. If there is any justice in this world she won’t win the “at home” competition either.

As for the rest of this season so far, I’ve been enjoying it. I think that the stories of the rest of the contestants are very compelling and I’m really interested in how Migdalia has managed to lose a bunch of weight now that her daughter is no longer on the campus. There’s a lot of emotional issues wrapped up between those two and I think that they need to get that worked out before they can really be healthy.

I liked how they spent the last week at the Olympic Training Facility – that was pretty cool. If I had to choose someone to pull for this season, I guess I would support either the orange, pink, or gray team. Not sure which one of them I like best yet, but they all seem to be really good people. So do the black and yellow teams. It’s still too early to choose who I want to win, I guess.

Thinking About the Last Decade

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Hey – did you know that it’s going to be 2010 in a little while? And oh, hey – did you know that it’s going to be a new decade, too? Honestly, I don’t pay attention to the years enough to be aware of the fact that this is a new decade that we’re entering. I guess that’s somewhat exciting, but it makes you reflect back on what the last ten years gave to (and took away from) all of us…

Personally, the biggest event for me in the last decade was my Father’s passing. I suppose that anyone who has lost a parent would understand how that’s a huge event in a person’s life. So in terms of what the biggest event of the last ten years was for me – it was definitely losing my Dad to Alzheimer’s and lung cancer.

However, let’s try to think happy thoughts as this year and this decade come to a close. Some big, happy events for me in the last ten years include being the first in my family to graduate from college and then the first in my family to graduate from Graduate School. Those two days were pretty great (although the undergraduate graduation ceremony itself wasn’t really that great since it was a downpour and they messed up the reserved parking for my family). I was also pretty excited to be my buddy’s best man at his wedding this past summer – so that ranks up there somewhere in the Top 10 moments of the last decade for me.

I’d also put the announcement that my older brother was engaged as well as my younger brother’s graduation from high school on that list (those events are always fun). I was also glad to be hired by the current company that I work for as well as the local college to do some teaching. I’ll be beginning the New Year teaching an online course at a second college, but I was hired by that college a few months ago so it still counts as an event for this decade.

The last decade also introduced me to the realities of trying to be healthy in a fast-paced professional world. I went from weighing some 385 pounds when I graduated college in 2003 to weighing 260 pounds by the summer of 2005 – that’s a 125 pound weight loss. I worked out and ate less (I didn’t really “diet” – I just controlled my portions) for about a year starting in March 2004 and ending with my gall bladder being removed in June 2005. My doctor told me that my gall bladder was creating huge gallstones because I lost too much weight too fast. You just can’t win, right? Since the summer of 2005, I’ve gained back about 80 pounds. I attribute that weight gain to getting hired full time in the summer of 2006 in a location that was an hour’s drive from my house. In other words, the two hours that I used to spend in the gym each day I now spend in the car…sitting…doing nothing. Not good. Plus, two or three nights during the week I wind up at the local college either taking a class or teaching a class. In the coming decade (really in the coming year), I have to figure out how to spend more time in the gym.

Finally, like the rest of America I would suggest that September 11th was a major turning point in all of our lives. It made us realize that there is real evil in this world and that those evil people don’t like the idea of America so they choose to attack that idea as it is manifested each and every day – in other words, they choose to attack innocent people.

Let’s hope for greater prosperity in 2010 and for the whole upcoming decade!