September Newsletter

September 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Hey Welcome to my September Newsletter. I’m using this post as my newsletter this month because August got a little crazy. But it’s important to me to stay in touch with you so here it goes…

You may have noticed that I haven’t been creating as many blog posts, been as active on FaceBook or Twitter, or launched any cool new programs during the last month. Sometimes life throws an unexpected curve ball at you when you least expect it. And it happened to me this August.

Turns out the owner (I want to name names, but I won’t) of the fitness center where I deliver my super awesome fitness programs in Scottsdale AZ. hasn’t been paying his lease. I won’t go into the details but here is a brief overview.

  1. He told us, on August 1st,  he was negotiating his payment so that he/and we could stay.

  2. He said we should consider this our 30 day notice in case the landlord doesn’t agree to the changes.

  3. Everyone found somewhere else to work.

  4. Everyone except a few of us who decided to open our own place.

  5. The landlord agreed to the reduced lease payment.

  6. Because most of the trainers were leaving the owner decided to close anyway.

  7. We agreed to buy a significant percentage of his fitness equipment.

  8. The landlord caught wind that he was going to leave even after negotiating a new lease payment.

  9. The landlord wasn’t happy about this.

  10. On Friday, August 26th, the landlord locked him out. And took possession of the equipment that we were going to buy.

  11. We had 15 minutes to grab our personal items before the locks would be changed.

So 7am Friday morning I’m standing in a parking lot with my client. I’ve got nowhere to train and no equipment to train with. We’re about to sign a lease on our new place and we’re effectively out of business.

I scrambled to find a new place and I’m back up to speed as of yesterday morning (August 31st).  We’re still moving forward on opening our own place, but we’ve had to start from scratch.

Every once in a while some unexpected and seemingly bad things happen. And you can’t always control the situation. But you can control the way in which you react to the situation. Always! I just want you to know that I have some challenges in my life, just like you. Yes, your’s might be an ongoing struggle to lose weight or improve your fitness and mine isn’t. But we all experience challenges. And it’s how we react to these challenges that shapes the lives that we lead and who we are. It’s important for you to know that I understand.

While I was struggling with some uncertainty, this video showed up in my life. So I thought I’d share it with you, enjoy….

Filed Under: Blog, WTF (Miscellaneous) Tagged With: ,

Why “Fitness Tutor”

August 3, 2011 by 1 Comment

One of the more significant changes that you may have noticed recently, is my use of the term. “Your Fitness Tutor.” I want to take a little time and explain the reasons and importance of that phrase. I want to explain what it means for you and how I can continue to help you.

I began my career in fitness almost 18 years ago. If you know me personally, then you most likely would consider me a Personal Trainer or Boot Camp Instructor. But I no longer consider myself either. I’ve created and developed Fitness Know How Headquarters to help more people to improve their health and fitness. I believe through this new approach people will get better faster and permanent results from their fitness programs, compared with working with a Personal Trainer

The Personal Trainer model is broken, it doesn’t work for the vast majority of clients. It only works for the Personal Trainer. They continue to take your money and don’t teach you a thing about how to get results. Don’t get me wrong all of the trainers actually want you to get results, but they’ve got bills so they will continue to tell you that what you really want is a trainer. Plus a common flaw is that people think that the actual hiring of the trainer or joining of the gym is all they need to do to get results. I’ll teach you what you really should be doing.

Here’s the Deal. You don’t join a gym because you want a gym membership. And you don’t hire a Personal Trainer because you want a Personal Trainer. You want results! You want to experience some meaningful and significant health and fitness results. Now everyone has different reasons and goals, so I’m not going to tell you what your goals should be. But the bottom line is when you join a gym or hire a trainer you want results.

So here is my question. Have you joined a gym in the past or hired a personal trainer and not gotten the results that you wanted?

If you answered yes, then I’m going to share the secret why?

You don’t know what you’re doing.

Now don’t freak out and get mad at me. There is a lot of stuff that I don’t know how to do. If the transmission fails in my car, it’d be a really bad idea for me to try to fix it myself. I’d take it to a professional, a mechanic. And it’d be expensive to fix. But you know what, I’d get the results that I want (a fixed transmission, not a mechanic).

A Personal Trainer is way more expensive than a mechanic. Why would you keep spending money on a gym membership or a Personal Trainer when you don’t have to?

The Good News is, you don’t have to. You just need some simple, basic, and honest information on exercise and how the body works. Then you’ll get the results that you want. You don’t have to master the information. I’ve already done that. And I’m happy to share it with you.

That’s where “Your Fitness Tutor” comes in. If your struggling with math, you don’t get different parents, or change teachers or move to a different school district. You hire a tutor. Someone who understands the subject thoroughly. And you spend just enough time with that tutor to bring you up to speed to get the results that you want.

That’s why I use the term “Tutor,” because a teacher, trainer, coach, instructor, etc., is there on a daily basis. With a tutor you pop in, get the information and help that you need then you’re on your way.

Then you can come back to Fitness Know How Headquarter when you aren’t experiencing the results you want, and learn what you need to. Then go off on your own and experience incredible success.

All of my programs are designed to teach you what you need to know so that you can be successful on your own for the rest of your life.

And I provide that information at a fraction of the cost of just one year of Personal Training. If you trained with me 3 times/week for a year it’d cost you over $11,000. And you may or may not get the results that you want.

But if you are willing to take the time to learn just a little, then you’ll get the results that you want and you won’t spend that much in a lifetime (and once you learn it, you’ll have a very long and healthy life).

Now there is a catch. You’re going to have to take personal responsibility for your behavior. I can provide you will all of the information that you’ll ever need to know to be successful. But if you don’t apply it, nothing will happen.

But that’s really not that big of a deal. Who in their right mind wouldn’t make their own health a priority once they are equipped with accurate and honest information?

The Benefits of having a Fitness Tutor

1. Super Low Cost
2. Affordable and Effective Fitness Solutions
3. You’ll Be Empowered With Knowledge For Life Long Success
4. The Results That You Want!

In Good Health,

John Preston
Your Fitness Tutor

Filed Under: Announcements, Blog Tagged With: , , ,

First Annual Update

July 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Welcome to the First Annual State of the HQ address! This is going to be fun. About a year ago, you elected me to lead you as “Your Fitness Tutor”. Ok, not really. I decided all by myself that I wanted to drop some fitness and nutrition knowledge on you.

So, how have we gotten to this day?

About 14 months ago, I decided that I wanted to build a website/business that would allow me to reach out and help more people (way more) than I was able to as a Personal Trainer. I did a little research and decided to build a blog website using wordpress. Based on what I read, this would be easy and allow me to make updates to my site quickly. Plus, according to wordpress, I’d be blogging in about 15 minutes.

Two months later, I launched Fitness Know How Headquarters (fireworks in the background). Now, two months is a lot longer than 15 minutes (remember I’m a fitness person not a computer person). Fitness Know How Headquarters is one year old this month.

I want to thank you for being a part of my first year and trusting me as a credible source of fitness and nutrition information (on that note, DON’T BUY A SHAKE WEIGHT, THEY DON’T WORK!).

But seriously, one year ago when I launched Fitness Know How Headquarters the site had:

1. A free give-away “10 Tips to Boost Your Metabolism.”
2. One featured post.
3. My Bio/Story.
4. A bunch of promises on what the site would become.

Now in all honesty, the site will never be finished. I’ll always be adding new information.

Today, Fitness Know How Headquarters is a much different place to visit online than it was just one year ago.

Here are just some of the changes:

1. There are now 8 featured posts.
2. There are now 60 pages to the site (though many are hidden, terms conditions, etc).
3. There are now 89 blog posts (that’s a lot of fitness 411)
4. There are 12 exercises and descriptions in the photo gallery.
5. There are also 12 exercise videos in the video gallery.
6. You can “like” the Fitness Know How Headquarters fan page on Facebook
7. You can follow me on Twitter or connect on Linkedin.

In addition to those changes, I’ve also developed 7 effective and unique programs

1. My FREE give-away “31 Days To A Much Improved You”, and as you’ll see when you sign up for it, it’s “So Much Free Info, It’s Crazy!”

2. I released my first ebook, Secrets Of A Personal Trainer. This book is for everyone who has gone to the gym and is honest enough with themselves to admit that they weren’t sure of what to do. Or, people who were positive that they knew what they were doing, yet didn’t reach their goals. “Secrets” will take all of the guess work out of what you should be doing. You’ll learn how to design workouts that are specific to your goals. After you read it and apply the info, you’ll reach your goals.

3. The STAX Nutrition System. Ok, I didn’t develop or create this program. But, my friend Chris Powell did, and it works. If you want to lose weight safely and effectively, STAX is the best way to do it. STAX focuses on three basic principles; eat whole and natural foods, eat proper portions, and eat your meals frequently. If you want to lose weight, you should start STAX.

4. Fitness Know How Headquarters’ Workout Of The Month Program. Every month you’ll get a completely different workout. When you change your workouts often, your body is forced to adapt. This means that you can expect incredible results. The workouts are unique. I guarantee that you won’t come across workouts like this anywhere else. Plus, it’s only $3.99-$7.99/month.

5. John Preston’s Weight Loss Coaching Program. This is a local program for people in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. On this program, I’m your personal coach. I’ll teach you everything you’ll ever need to know to lose weight, reach your goals, and keep the weight off.

6. Fat 2 Fit 56 Day Makeover (live). This program is also for people in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. This is a 56 day personal challenge. The goal of the program is to lose as much weight (body fat) as possible. This is a short term physical challenge where you’ll learn that you are stronger than you previously thought. You’ll amaze yourself at the things you’ll accomplish.

7. Fat 2 Fit 56 Day Makeover (online). This program is exactly the same as the “live” version, except it’s for people who don’t live in AZ. The only difference is that you’ll work out on your own, without supervision. Because of that, the price is lower.

Wow! It’s been quite a first year. As you can see, I’m very serious and committed to helping people improve the quality and length of their lives by sharing accurate fitness and nutrition information.

And, I’m just getting started. Here a few things that you can look forward to this upcoming year.

1. I’m revamping “31 Days To A Much Improved You” into a down-loadable ebook called “31 Days To Ultimate Health”. That way, you’ll have the information available to you at all times instead of having it get lost in the clutter of your inbox. But, I’m not stopping there. I’m creating additional free bonuses as part of the “31 Days To Ultimate Health” program. So, even if you’ve already signed up for 31 Days, you’ll want to be a part of this. Stay Tuned.

2. At least 3 more featured posts are coming your way.

3. If you live outside of the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, an online version of my Weight Loss Coaching Program is being developed.

4. Later this year, I plan to launch my Fitness Seminar Program. These seminars are very low cost events. At these seminars, you’ll learn why you should do certain exercises and how to perform them properly. The seminars will cover topics like: low back pain, nutrition, hotel and travel workouts, stability ball workouts and many more.

5. Soon to follow the Fitness Seminar Program will be simulcast webinars, so no matter where you live in the world, you’ll be able to attend.

6. Plus, there are some secret programs I’m not yet ready to reveal.

It’s been a busy year, but I love it. Sharing what I know with you and helping you to live a better life is my passion. It drives me. I wake up every morning (though not super early) ready to go.

With all of the stuff out there vying for your attention, I’m honored that you trust me and that you are a part of my program. Thank you. Until next year (ok, I’ll send you some more stuff before then)…

In Good Health,

John Preston
“Your Fitness Tutor”

Filed Under: Announcements, Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10 Tips To Help You Get More Fit

June 21, 2011 by 1 Comment

Here are 10 simple tips that can help you to improve your fitness starting today

1. Know yourself – Want to stick to your exercise program? Choose a schedule that works for you. If you’re a morning person, heard for the gym first thing. All of your good intentions could be gone by the end of the day. If your not a morning person, don’t force yourself to the gym at dawn.

2. Have a ball – Exercise balls are one of the best trends for a good reason. They are versatile, can be used at home or the fitness center. They help to improve balance, stability and coordination. Plus they can be fun and relaxing. They are accessible and not threatening.

3. Hit the weights – There’s no substitute for strength training to improve your body’s ability and appearance. You may not see the scale move right away, but as you gain muscle mass and lose fat, you’ll notice that you look slimmer and leaner.

4. Cut yourself some slack – If you get discouraged about your fitness progress, think back to your first week. Give yourself credit for what you’ve accomplished already and for overcoming the biggest obstacle; getting started.

5. Beat the six-month barrier – Half of all people who join an exercise program drop out in the first 6 months. And half of those drop out before they even attempt a single workout. If you break the 6 month barrier, you’re likely to make exercise a lifelong habit.

6. Get it on Disc – Can’t make it to the gym? Have a stash of workout videos at home. You can work out at home any hour that you choose.

7. Do something different – Try an exercise activity that is very different form what you do at work. If your job is demanding and time-pressured, get outside and hike. If your job is task-oriented and full of details, you might like a cardio machine. Which allows you to zone out and concentrate on anything.

8. Split it up – Aim for 60 minutes of exercise a day, and break it up into 20-minute chucks to make it more doable.

9. Engage your brain – Lots of people give up exercise because it involves your body and leaves out the mind. Look for way to get fit that also ask you to learn something. Like belly dancing, ballet, hatha yoga or Tai Chi.

10. Believe in yourself – Numerous studies show that exercisers who believe in their abilities perform at a higher level, and are more likely to stick with a regular routine.

Filed Under: Blog, Exercise and Fitness, Top 10 Lists Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our Brand New Workout of the Month Program

April 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Tired of the same boring workout routines, can’t seem to reach your goals, have you hit a plateau, or just never worked out before…?

If so, then Fitness Know Headquarters can help.

Fitness Know How Headquarters’ Workout of the Month Program will help you to get into amazing shape




When you follow a structured exercise program, you can expect incredible results. Our workouts are designed to shock your body with a brand new, fresh workout each and every month. When your body doesn’t know what to expect next, it’s forced to adapt. That means you’ll see change and that equals results.

You’ll feel more energy, drop unwanted body and belly fat, firm, tone and shape your body, tighten soft spots, and fit into your favorite clothes.

Each month you’ll receive a brand new workout. And, every workout is different. You’ll get exercises and workouts that focus on muscle endurance, balance, stability, core training, flexibility, muscle development, abdominal training, coordination and functional movements, and increased strength.

You’re going to look and feel AWESOME!

Each exercise for every workout comes with a photo example and a detailed description. Here’s an example of what you’ll get:

BOSU Squat

Start Position

Finish Position

This is a great exercise because the squat helps to strengthen all the major muscles of the lower body, and the BOSU is excellent for providing an unstable surface.

BOSU is short for “Both Sides Up”. This piece of equipment is designed to be used with either side up (or down, depending on how you want to look at it). The BOSU is essentially 1/2 of a stability ball with a solid, flat base.

For this exercise you want to place the BOSU upside down (the ball side down/and flat base up). You want to stand on the BOSU with your feet about shoulder width apart and your toes pointing straight forward.

Start Position – The easiest way to get on the BOSU is to place one foot on the base near the edge. If you look at the BOSU as a clock, place your foot in either the 3 or 9 o’clock position (depending on which foot you choose to place first). Slowly place all of your weight on that foot until the edge of the BOSU is touching the ground. Then carefully place your other foot on the opposite side of the BOSU. Slowly transfer your weight toward the foot you placed on the BOSU second, until you are standing with even weight on each foot.

NOTE: The BOSU can be extremely unstable until you learn how stand on it properly. The good news is the learning curve is steep, so you’ll figure it out quickly. If you have difficulty standing on the BOSU, don’t attempt to perform the squat. Instead the exercise for you is to simply stand on the BOSU until you establish balance, stability and confidence. Once you do then add the Squat.

As you lower yourself to the finish position there are several things you should focus on to perform a squat correctly. One your hips (butt) should begin the decent toward the ground by moving backwards. Imagine that there is a chair behind you. If you lower your hips straight down you will never find the chair with your butt. Second you should counter balance your hips moving backwards by leaning forward at the waist (if you don’t you’ll fall backwards). Third your knees should stay over your feet. It’s OK if they move forward a little but they should not move in front of your toes. And your chest should remain upright facing forward (not toward the ground).

You should inhale as you lower your body.

Finish Position – The goal at the finish position is to lower your body until your thighs are parallel with the ground.
As you stand up and return to the start position, you should exhale. Your knees, hips, and back should all return to the start position simultaneously.
Perform 2 sets of this exercise with a tempo of 1/1/1

In addition, you’ll also get a FREE workout workbook to track your progress during the month.

You don’t have to bust your budget to get fit!

You’ll get all of this for only $3.99 per month!!

Get Started Today!

More Variety, Less Boredom and Burnout. It’s the Right Exercise Program for You!

Affordable Personal Training:
We provide all the benefits of a personal trainer without the expensive price! While most personal trainers charge at least $50 for just one hour, our comprehensive, highly effective exercise programs are affordable enough for even novices to try out.

An exercise program is more successful if it includes variety and continually challenges the body to work hard. Fitness Know Headquarters’ Workout of the Month program utilizes this concept. Our online workouts include loads of variety and frequent changes to keep your mind from burning out and your body from adapting and hitting a plateau, which can cause you to stop losing weight and/or gaining muscle.

Get ready for not only a new body but a new life! Whether it’s losing weight, toning up, building muscle, increasing stamina, improving balance or flexibility, Fitness Know Headquarters’ Workout of the Month will help you reach your fitness goals through expert instruction. And, we’ll help you learn how to stay that way for life.

Let us be your personal, one-on-one fitness consultant. As we guide you on the fitness path, we’ll help you avoid common exercise mistakes that just waste your time, and we’ll teach you techniques that will get you the fitness results you’ve always wanted.

Only $3.99/Month

Workout of the month terms, cancellation and refund policy

Filed Under: Blog, Exercise and Fitness, Resistance Training Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Biggest Loser 2011 Week 12

March 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This weeks show was really good! Here’s why.  

To start off, the very first thing that happened was the remaining 11 contestants all met Allison in the gym. This is the first time I’ve see that this season, but apparently it means that not-so-good things happen.

What happened may not be good for the contestants, but it really made the show much better.

Each person had to grab a dumbbell (which was sitting on it’s end) off of a weight rack. On the bottom of the dumbbell was a color. That color would determine which team they’d be one. There were to be four teams of 3 people. Each team would work with one of the four trainers; Jillian Michaels, Bob Harper, Brett Hoebel orCara Castronova.

What was awesome about this was that the previous two teams (red and black), had created alliances and it was pretty obvious who would be eliminated from week to week (excluding immunity winners). Plus it was also completely random. The player chose in order of total percentage of weight loss, but the dumbbells were completely random so no one would have control of where they ended up.

But there was a twist!

Since there were only 11 contestants left, one team would only have two people on it. Turns out it was the black team of Rulon Gardner and Hannah, They got to choose anyone who had previously been eliminated from the show. They had 30 minutes to make a decision. This was an interesting process, they deliberated over 3 people;  1) the person who needed to be there the most (Arthur), 2) someone who could help the team but not challenge them to win the overall title (some dude that was eliminated before I started watching this season), 3) someone who could help the team, but may challenge them to win the entire show.

Rulon quickly eliminated Arthur, he said that Arthur had “made his own bed…” So they continued to decided….

But they wouldn’t reveal their choice until the challenge.

Before the challenge the trainers did their thing and used the training sessions to get to know the contestants whom they hadn’t had a chance to train yet.

Jillian took Rulon and Hannah to her Malibu beach house (didn’t Barbie have one of those too?) to train them on the beach. Jillian used that time to learn more about Rulon. Rulon confessed that even though he had found the perfect wife and everything he wanted, that he began to eat because he didn’t feel like he was worthy of being truly loved.

I’ll admit two things. One, it was good to see that side of Jillian. She’s normally such a hard ass that you sometimes forget that she really cares. And two, I continue to learn and accept that both weight gain and weight loss is far more emotional than it is physical. It is primarily a mental challenge.

Brett took the red team on a hike to the top of a beautiful mountain in So Cal. At the top he asked them to separate and reflect upon their journey thus, far. Who they used to be, who they are now and who they want to be. Again it was another reminder of how emotionally challenging this process has been for all of the contestants. It is the change from the inside that results in physical change. And it is the source of one’s confidence and power.

Subject Change

The Challenge this week SUCKED!

Each team had to hold a rope that collectively had the total weight loss of that team hanging from the other end. It took over 45 minutes and all they did was stand there and hold a rope. Luckily TV can edit boring stuff out. What made it worse was that they were playing for the chance to video chat with their family. That seems somewhat cool except, these people aren’t in jail. I think they can stay in touch with family members during the show…

The only exciting thing about the challenge was that the black team selected Jay. This was interesting from two stand points, 1. Jay was who they thought might be able to beat everyone and become “The Biggest Loser”, so they took some risk inviting such a strong player back. And 2. Jay is Jen’s father, who is now on the red team.

One other side note before the weigh in, Kaylee, from the green team decided that her journey was complete. She was close to her goal weight and had found her confidence and was ready to get back to “real life”

The weigh in was also very good!

The team that had the lowest percentage of total weight loss would lose a player. But the player on the losing team that lost the most weight would win immunity from elimination. After the black, blue and red team weighed in, the red team was in last place (they had lost 9lbs). As long as the green team lost 10 or more pounds, someone from the red team would be going home.

But remember Kaylee was ready to go. And she meant it, because she lost zero pounds. After Austin weighed in for the green team with 3 pounds, it seemed certain that Kaylee would be going home. But Ken shocked everyone and lost 7 pounds, to make the red team the losers.

And the nine people from the other 3 teams would be voting to eliminate someone!

Then is got a little crazy.

Kaylee immediately realized that she would be staying. Ken felt horrible for two reasons, he wanted to grant Kaylee’s request to go home, and two of the more popular contestants were on the losing red team.

Allison kind of got pissed and told Kaylee that this show wasn’t a prison and everyone was free to leave whenever they wanted. Then Moses, Kaylee’s father, from the blue team spoke up and requested that he talk to his daughter.

See how fun the team shake up thing is?

Moses talked Kaylee into staying, so it’ll be interesting to how she does next week.

Turns out Jen had lost the most weight on the red team so she was immune from elimination. so it was between Justin and Courtney, two of the most popular people on the show.

Justin told everyone that Courtney needed to be on the show more than he did (which is true), and to vote for him.

So there was really no drama over the vote and who would be eliminated, Justin was gone. But everyone on the show cried anyway!!!

Now for the quotes from the show

“You’ve got to find a way to feel worthy”

“Today is the beginning of the rest of your life and today is the day your making the changes to change the rest of your life”

“Nothing is impossible, you just have to reach for it”

“I’m becoming who I want to be”

“I was looking to find myself, to find confidence, I found that”

“Get off the couch, look in the mirror. It’s time for you to be honest about who your are. Have the courage to stand up and do it. It’s the best thing that could happen to you”

OK , this post was a little long, like I said it was a good episode!

See you next week…

Filed Under: Blog, WTF (Miscellaneous) Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Biggest Loser Week 11

March 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This week’s show was very interesting.

To start things off the black and red teams were merged into one team. The blue team. The blue team had a common goal, lose more total weight than the previous week. The twelve remaining contestants lost 64 pounds the week before. If the blue team worked together to lose 65 or more pounds, then no one would be eliminated from the show.

My first thought was that this would be next to impossible. Last week the red team followed a miserable weigh in (during the two weeks spent at home), with incredible results. The thing about weight loss is that is often comes in stages. If you have a great week it’s not uncommon to not quite lose as much the next week.

The cool thing about this episode was to see how quickly the blue team accepted their common goal. The red and black teams had spent the last 5-6 weeks really battling each other. I thought there might be some tension, but there wasn’t. They got right to work!

The four trainers; Jillian Michaels, Bob Harper, Brett Hoebel and Cara Castronova all seem quite shocked by the merger of the two teams. I don’t know if they really keep the trainers in the dark about the challenges and twists or not, but if they don’t the trainers are also excellent actors. Bob and Jillian took the men and Cara and Brett took the women. In essence the trainers took the team members that they hadn’t had a chance to train yet.

Soon after the teams merged each person met again with Dr H. (Dr. Huizenga), for their mid-point check up. He reassessed them and showed their improvements by using The Biggest Loser “real age” program. This was yet another cross promotion. But it was really awesome to see how much each person really improved their health in just 10 week.

This show puts so much emphasis on weight loss that it’s easy to lose sight of the true benefits 0f exercise and proper nutrition; Good Health, Decreased Risk of Chronic Diseases, Improved Quality of Life and an Extended Life Expectancy!!!!

In the middle of the show they brought in Curtis Stone and Lorana Garcia. I think they are from the new show America’s Next Great Restaurant. This was obviously a chance for NBC to cross promote the show. Anyway the blue team was divided up into 6 teams of 2 (one person each from the former red and black teams).

Each team had 30 minutes to create a dish. The two guest chefs would vote on the best one based on calories, taste, and presentation. The winning team would win The Biggest Loser meal plan from the time they were eliminated from the show until the finale. This was yet another cross promotion. But the food they made looked great, and was healthy and nutritious. So it was cool to watch.

Olivia and Moses Won!

Before the weigh in there was one team challenge. The entire team had to pull a rope (think of the type of rope that is used to tie ships to the docks), out of the dirt. At the end of the rope were questions that they had to answer. If they got it correct they’d continue in one direction (presumably the shorter route), and if they got it wrong they’d go in another direction. Each time the got the correct answer two more teammates would help pulling the rope.

They had 90 minutes to complete the challenge. If they finished in time then the team would get a 5 pound advantage at the weigh in. They were very motivated to win this challenge.

Now this sounds really easy, but they buried the rope really deep in the dirt. They had to dig and pull. Even Rulon Gardner (who won a gold medal at wrestling and has been training hard for the last 10 weeks), could hardly pull the rope out of the dirt.  Long story short, they completed the challenge with only 15 seconds to spare and won the 5 pound advantage.

At the weigh in it seemed like they edited the order that each person wieghed in, to create the most drama. It is TV after all. Each person needed to lose an average of 5 pounds to prevent anyone from being eliminated.

After the first four people they were 3 pounds behind the pace.

After the next three people they were 4 pounds ahead of the pace.

Three people after that they were only up 1 pound with two people to go. They could do it!!!

But Marci didn’t lose any weight and Kaylee actually gained 2 pounds, So someone would be eliminated.

They had to vote for one of the bottom two; Marci or Kaylee.

Marci who had lobbied to be voted off the last two weeks, asked everyone to vote her off. There are two reasons she seemed like the best person to eliminate. She now weighs 162 pounds, and is at her goal weight. She is the mother of another contestant, Courtney, who still needs to lose more weight. Plus Marci has become a mother figure to a lot of the younger people on the show.

Everyone except one person honored Marci’s request (not including Moses, who wouldn’t vote off his own daughter, Kaylee). So Marci is gone!!!

Now for the quotes of the week:

“Nothing is more important than you”

“One step, one day, one choice at a time, and you will get there”

“I’m fully happy and fully confident and I’m proud of myself”

“The most important thing you can take care of is you”

“These small victories are everything to me”

“Parents set an example for their children”

“I just want my life back so bad”

See you next week!!!

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Biggest Loser 2011 Week 10

March 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

OK this week there was a little hiccup on my prediction that Bob and Jillian’s team would continue to crush Brett and Cara’s team.

But there is an important weight loss lesson to be learned from this!

Weight loss isn’t a linear process. There are often bumps in the road and plateaus. Think of weight loss as at flight of stairs. You’ll continue to work your way downs the stairs toward your weight loss goal. So you should expect that you’ll have weeks when you experience the weight loss you’re hoping for. Other weeks the scale won’t move. These plateaus are part of the process, part of the journey. Your body is adapting to the changes and will respond by losing more weight.

I should have seen this coming.

In the previous episode the contestants went back home for two weeks. The red team struggled with environmental and emotional issues that caused the weight gain in the first place, and they struggled with the weight loss. While the black team did not seem to have the same struggles, and they rocked the weigh in.

So the black team was primed to have a “plateau” type week. While the red team was in position to show some really significant losses on the scale. In fact what they had done back at home is a little trick that I’ve used for years to help people bust through plateaus, EAT MORE!

Eating more really shocks the body, it helps to reset your metabolism. It’s typical for the body to adapt very quickly to dietary changes, lose some weight, then stop. By eating more calories your metabolism increases, then when you go back to “healthy” eating, so you start to lose weight.

So I gave away part of the ending. The red team won the weigh in.

Here’s what happened in the show to get to that point. Both teams had to pick a captain for the week. The captain would have to make decisions for the team during the week. Kind of an interesting idea. The red team selected Justin, he seems to be the natural leader, but I don’t really see why. But it was an obvious choice for the team.

The black team chose Marci, who is the only parent left on the black team from the original “couples”. She seems to have adopted the rest of the girls on the black team and has become sort of a mother figure, so that was an obvious choice.

They had to make 3 choices for the team.

1. Select only two people from each team to work with the trainers (everyone else is on their own)

2. Pick one person to prepare all of the food for the week

3. Select the order that people would enter the challenge for the week

Here’s how it went. Both captains seemed to make really good, rational choices. The red team was all in with every decision that Justin made. There was a little drama on the black team. One lady that was selected for the workout took it as an insult that she needed the extra help. Marci also selected her own daughter to sit out the challenge, and she didn’t take that well.

Both the cooks did great but they discovered how difficult it was to have responsibility and still find time to workout – WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!

Turns out that Marci made a good choice, as the black team won the challenge. The challenge was a sort of mud pit relay, which didn’t have any real consequence on the out come of the show. But the winning team won $6000, and money is always great!

So for this episode there were no real big twists. It was pretty straight forward. The team that loses the weigh in would have to vote off a team member. As you already know the red team won.

Marci had already made it clear that she would sacrifice for the “daughters” on the team, and it was clear that she would be voted off.

BUT HERE IS THE TWIST FOR THE WEEK

Marci lost the most weight for the black team, she had earned immunity. They couldn’t vote for her. No one saw that coming. Even Marci admitted that she never considered that as a possibility. And for good reason, Marci is the lightest person on the entire show. She only weighs 167lbs. and she dropped 5 lbs. to get to 162 lbs. Plus she’s 49 and everyone else on her team is mid-20s to mid-30s.

SIDE NOTE: No more excuses for middle age women who weigh under 170 pounds to not reach their weight loss goals.

Marci is ROCKING IT!

So they voted off Sarah, who happened to switch teams last episode to avoid being voted off by the red team.

Now for the quotes of the week.

1.” The only person that is going to stand in your way is you”

2. “I have to fix what’s broken”

3. “Your journey is to take care of yourself”

4. “I cant quit, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how many times I get knocked down”

5. “I forgot to take care of me”

See you next week!

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Biggest Loser 2011 Week 9

March 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

OK, I’m a little late getting this post out but here it is….just in time for Week 10’s episode.

Remember when I made my first  post about The Biggest Loser (it was only a couple weeks ago). I said that I hadn’t watched the show since the first season. That was because the contestants kept voting off the people who were losing the most weight. WELL HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Before you tune me out because you think I’m going to rant; don’t, I’m not!

Here’s what I know…whether you have 5 or 500 pounds to lose, you can find inspiration in the success of others. And I’m going to focus on that success and inspiration, because that’s what makes The Biggest Loser good! (I might rant a little too).

In this weeks episode everyone went back home for two weeks. I was really excited about this episode because “home” is where YOU live. And if you’re going to succeed at reaching your weight loss goals, you’re going to have to figure out how to do it where you live.

I believe that it’s pretty easy for everyone to lose weight on The Biggest Loser’s compound. They are in a controlled environment, they have guidance 24 hours a day. All they have to do is workout and eat healthy food. There is little to no temptation at the ranch.

 I was most interested in seeing how everyone would handle being back in the comforts of their own homes (the place where all the weight gain occurred originally). I wanted to see how effective the lessons learned at the ranch would carry over to real life situations. Honestly I expected most of them to struggle.

From what we could see in the show, everyone made really good choices and didn’t give in to opportunities to sabotage their own success. I was impressed. I didn’t expect that the show or the trainers were really preparing the contestants for the real world. I feel like the show’s number one priority is to show huge and rapid decreases in weight each week. Not to prepare them for long term success…

When they returned to The Biggest Loser compound, everyone would compete in a 5K race. The order that each person finished would determine the order that they could each select which trainers they wanted to work with.

This turned out to be a HUGE deal. Remember I started watching the show again during the middle of this season, so I missed the main drama. But it goes something like this. Aurther (who is a member of the black team) worked out some sort of swap of teammates. And this move didn’t sit with the red team (who all have a weird reality show pact). The assumption was that  the lady that he sent from the black team to the red team (so he and his father could move to the black team) would use her vote to move back to the black team.

So he had to avoid coming in last to avoid being sent back to the red team. Here is Arthur’s delimma. He weighs 406 pounds. At his peak he weighed over 650 pound. The chance of him coming in last was very high. I’ll tell you what happens in the next post…..

JUST KIDDING!

As expected Arther came in last and got sent back to the red team. His only hope to stay on the show was to lose the most weight at the weigh-in and earn immunity.

Everyone on the black team rocked the weigh-in. They each lost between 10-14 pounds (over a two week period, when they were home). I was impressed for two reasons. One,  obviously Bob and Gillian (and/or the behind the scene trainers/staff) are teaching this team how to be successful in the real world. Two, the black team is mainly women (who tend to lose weight slower than men) and are all much smaller (have less total weight to lose), than the red team.

So the red team had to lose an average of 17 pounds to win the weigh-in and avoid voting off a teammate.  The red team sucked! Ken and Moses only lost 5 pounds each, and they are 291 and 322 pounds respectively. Kaylee did worse, she only lost 1 pound. This is over a two week period. It’s obvious the producers of the show left their struggles while at home out of the show to surprise us (and it worked).

I think that Cara and Brett are being totally out classed by Gillian Michaels and Bob Harper. The black team seems to dominate the weigh-in every single week. They are making two big mistakes. One, they mainly do boxing, kickboxing, martial arts type workouts. Those workouts are designed to make boxers, kick boxers, and martial artists perform better at their disciplines. And while they are difficult workouts they are neither fitness or weight loss workouts. And two, they obviously are not preparing the people on their team to succeed on their own once the show is complete.

So it appeared that Arthur had one last hope….lose the most weight. His new teammate on the red team Rulon Gardner lost 17 pounds (the most of anyone during the two week period). So if Arthur lost 18 or more pounds, he’d be immune from elimination. For the sake of TV drama, of course he was the last to weigh-in.

Arther lost 16 pounds and he was voted off by his team.

Now for the rant!

Arthur used to weight 650 pounds, he now weighs  390 pounds. He is the heaviest contestant ever on The Biggest Loser. This is a matter of life and death for this man. He needs to be on this show. He needs the help. Both he and Rulon lost well over 100 pounds in 10 weeks. They are the biggest losers. Plus on a show where your team can avoid having to vote each other off by winning the weigh-in, you want the people who consistently lose the most weight (i.e. Arther).

Instead of voting off, not totally committed, easily distracted, dead weight contestants (Ken, Moses, and Kaylee), they vote off Arther, because of a team pact? What idiots! OK, here’s my prediction for the rest of  the season…

The black team (with trainers Bob and Gillian) are going to continue to crush the red team week-in and week-out until only Rulon is left!

Now that rant wasn’t too bad. I want you to find inspiration in the success of the contestants on The Biggest Loser. To help here are this weeks quotes…

“I don’t want to die, I want to live and be healthy”

“I get a choice, and that’s the ultimate”

“I deserve a rest, don’t I” (actually on the nutrition program I recommend you get a cheat day/meal once a week)

“Saying no is in turn saying yes to myself”

Remember I love your comments….leave them below! Thanks.

Enjoy, see you next week!

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Biggest Loser 2011 Week 8

February 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

OK this is my second post on NBC’s show The Biggest Loser. But I’m a quick study so I think I’m pretty much up to speed.

The big deal this week is that two, not one person, will be eliminated from the show! Here’s the deal. One person would be eliminated the regular way. The team that lost the weigh in would have to vote someone off. But a second person would also be eliminated from the show. That would be the person who lost the least amount of weight. The Biggest Loser people called this “falling below the red line”.

No were talking! This is the show I’ve been waiting for. It make so much sense to me that the person who performs the worst should be eliminated. But there were two things that resulted from this, one annoyed me and the other really kind of pissed me off!

The first thing that annoyed me (and it might have annoyed you too), was the “red line”. It seems obvious that no one wanted to get voted off, so the trainers used “the red line” for motivation throughout the week. The end result was that for about 45 minutes the trainers on the show seemed incapable of saying any thing other than, “there’s a red line this week” or “don’t fall below the red line” or “are you going to fall below the red line?” and the succinct “red line”.  Anyway they all said “red line” more times in 45 minutes that you would think would be humanly possible. It was distracting and annoying.

Now for what pissed me off!

Disclaimer: I don’t have children.

Clearly the “red line” was intended to motivate the contestants to put forth their best effort that week to avoid elimination. And that is exactly what I thought was going to happen. But it didn’t. If you remember from my post last week, this season is The Biggest Loser, couples. Most of the couple are parent/children. It turns out that three of the parents sabotaged their own success to ensure that their child would remain on the show.

It was emotional and somewhat inspiring to see parents sacrifice for their children, I’m sure it is instinctive behavior for all parents. (Remember my disclaimer), But it totally pissed me off!

There are several reasons why.

In this episode, not putting forth your best effort was rewarded, and that should never be the case.

If you don’t take care of yourself, you are not going to be capable of caring for others. Sure, in the short run you’ll be able to care for your kids, but once your health fails you, you’ll no longer be able to care for anyone.

The reason that the children(on this show they are all adult children) in the show are overweight, is because they followed the example of their parents. The parents need to change their behavior, lose weight, and improve their health every bit as much as their children.

Nothing will have a more positive effect on others than leading by example. Putting forth less than your best effort is a horrible example!

The good news is that two of the three parents that sabotaged their results are off the show, as they deserve to be.

Now for the quotes of the week (actually paraphrases, I tweaked them a little so they make sense and are a little more motivational).

“You can do whatever you want to do, the key is you have to want to do it”

“You’ve got control of right now”

“Get out of your own way and accept that you can do it”

“You health is worth fighting for”

“Regardless of what’s in front of you, give everything you’ve got”

“You are not in this battle alone”

“I want to be happy”

Even though I was a little disappointed on some aspects of the show, it does provide for some great quotes. The next episode the contestants go home and are back in the real world again. I’m really looking forward to next weeks episode, because the “real world” is where you live. We’ll see how they do.

See you next week.

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