We have a WINNER

Congratulations to Jennifer Miller with Miller's Chem-Dry in Pennsylvania. She has officially lost 30 lbs and wins the ipod. Please congratulate her on this great accomplishment. As a reminder, Monday will be our next weigh-in...time flies!!! I am excited to see the results and to continue to cheer everyone on.

As a side note we would love to have more people taking advantage of the blog. If you need me to walk you through how to read and place comments I am happy too...even if it is after hours you can always bug me! Keep up the great work and next week we will hand out some more prizes!

Have the itch to snack?

Snacking isn't neccessarily a bad thing, but it can be if you let it get out of control. If you are like me I always crave something sweet before I go to bed and find comfort indulging in a bowl of ice cream with a warm and gooey brownie. But as many say-character is usually defined during the hard moments in life not the easy ones. Avoiding sweets and fatty snacks is usually a hard thing for most normal people. I find if I am keeping busy then I tend to snack less and not be obsessed with these over the top calories. The time you are eating can also affect your weight-it can affect your metabolism and the way your body digests foods.

As for Kathryn and Vanessa-pretzels are their new alternative!

First to 30 lbs

Just as a reminder. The first contestant to lose 30 lbs will receive a Nano ipod to help with music while working-out. This can be accomplished anytime throughout the contest and the first one to achieve it will need to contact me ASAP! Best of luck. All other monthly prizes will be granted based on our monthly weigh-ins.

T-Shirt Pictures

Just a reminder that all T-shirt pictures need to be sent in by this week so we cn have before/after shots. You can e-mail these to healthier@chemdry.com

Weekend-Blues?

Elizabeth Jamison would like to know what people are doing to maintain their health programs over the weekends? Many times it is true that we get in a routine and do really well in the week and then by the weekend we have errands, going to dinner with friends, kids events,etc. that throw us off track. We lose sight of our goals. If anyone has any feedback on how to be strict on the weekends please comment in the comment section below.

Sometimes if you get your workout in early in the morning then you still have a full day to complete other things. Going out to eat on the weekends is another killer-counting calories and portion control can be an obstacle. I think it is important for everyone to start to develop a sense of when you are really hungry. As a society we tend to emotionally eat, eat because it is lunch time, we're bored, etc. These can be unneccessary calories and make a huge difference in the long run. Part of being healthy is learning about your body type and paying attention to foods and habits that make you feel good or bad.

EX: I don't eat a lot of meat. Whenever I feel tired or not as sharp with day to day tasks, it is usually because I am lacking iron and protein.

Fun ideas

Some franchisees are choosing to have additional prizes or rules within their franchise. John Brewer's team has a rule that everytime you are over last week/month's weigh-in you owe the pot $1 per pound. When your wallet is tied to something it makes you even more accountable. If anyone has any other fun ideas feel free to share so other franchisees can do similar things!

Community Centers

Jeff McDonald just informed me that a lot of cities have a rec center or community center with a workouot area. They are quit a bit less than a gym membership he is paying about $125/year.

***If you have discussion points you can email them to me or you can post under the comments section. Click on comments to see what other people write. As a reminder you will need to set up a gmail account to post comments on this site. I can walk you through it if you need help!

Competition Kickoff

Say good-bye to ice cream, soda pop, greasy burgers, and beer! Today the official Biggest Loser Contest begins. Everyone will need to e-mail or call me with your starting weigh-ins before 5 PM PST. (only exception being Brendan Wilson and Alice Payne in Australia...since their in a completely different time zone)

If you haven't had a chance to map out a game plan, I would recommend doing so this week. Where the competition will go for 9 months it will take endurance and a health plan that won't burn you out right away.

Track your calories on www.dailyplate.com or any other way you feel fit.
It is important to drink water and to eat enough calories so when you exercise you burn fat.

The sky is the limit-this contest is being put on in hopes that each of us will live healthier and lose some weight in the process.

Best of luck and may the best man/woman win!!!

T-Shirts and Water Bottles

Alright! The T-shirts and water bottles are on their way, you should receive them the 1st part of next week. Monday will be our FIRST WEIGH-IN. I will need the weights by 5PM PST the first Monday of every month. It is important to weigh yourself around the same time and make sure that you are using the same scale everytime.

Secondly, EVERYONE will need to take a picture of themselves wearing the BLC T-shirts once they have been received. You can e-mail them to healthier@chemdry.com or mail them to HRI.

If you are not familiar with blogging-you can put comments by clicking on the comments section below every article. This is where you can ask questions to other participants, cheer people on, or just browse to see what other people are doing to change. ***You will need a gmail (google e-mail) account to post, for security reasons. You can set up an e-mail address through gmail at www.gmail.com