10 Tiny Changes for Big Weight Loss

By Chalene Johnson

Take baby steps toward eating more healthfully. If you "slip," get immediately back on track. Never let a vacation or a special holiday be an excuse to overdo it the entire time. Go ahead, enjoy the occasional indulgence, but keep it reasonable. Here are 10 tiny changes you can make for big weight loss. Wait 2 minutes. Cravings will disappear after two minutes if you walk away and turn your attention elsewhere. W.I.W.M. When you really crave something unhealthy, answer this question: "What do I Want More," that piece of chocolate cake, or a body I feel proud of? And on rare occasions, it's okay to pick the chocolate cake! No one's perfect. Don't allow one bad choice to result in bingeing the rest of the day, or falling back into old habits. Focus. Make eating purposeful, not something mindless to do while watching TV, driving, or sitting in front of the computer. Whenever you put food in your mouth, try to engage all of the senses in the pleasure of nourishing your body. Don't skip breakfast. Start eating a filling breakfast, but one that's lower in fat. It will help you eat fewer total calories throughout the day. Veggies. The majority of your plate should have veggies and/or fruit on it at both lunch and dinner. See what you eat. Eat your food from a plate instead of straight out of a jar, bag, or box. Don't buy it. Stop buying the food you snack on all day. Just eliminate the temptation. Eat more fruit. A person who gets enough fruit in their diet doesn't have a raging sweet tooth. Watch what you drink. Cut back on or cut out high-calorie drinks like soda, sweet tea, lemonade, and, especially, alcohol. People have lost weight by making just this one change. Want more Chalene Johnson? Visit Chalene's Corner Interested in finding out more about Beachbody?  You can check it out HERE!

Exercising and Back Pain...

I used to suffer from chronic back pain. After the birth of my second child, when I was in my early 20's I fell at work which caused me to start down a long road of back problems.  It's hard when you start so young and you are supposed to be so healthy.  I realized that having two children back to back did little to help the muscles in my stomach and my back.  Then to go and have a third child with an existing back injury was not the best thing in the world to do.  I suffered for years and went to physical therapy all to help my back heal.  Then I purchased Power 90 and asked my physical therapist to take a look.  She agreed I could do it with modifications.  From that point on I became the queen of modification!


Fast forward several years...I'm now in my 40's and for the most part I've had a healthy back.  Then yesterday I moved wrong.  It's been a long time since I've felt this pain and I don't like it.  Lower back into my left hip wrapping around into my left abdomen area.  Not a fun time in the least.  So yesterday I took the day off of my ChaLEAN Extreme workout, it was supposed to be Burn Circuit 3 which is focused on lots of lower back, thighs and arms.

So I went looking for information on exercising with back pain and I found a great site www.spine-health.com.  Here is a little bit:

A typical response to experiencing back pain is to take it easy - either staying in bed or at least stopping any activity that is at all strenuous. While this approach is understandable and may even be recommended in the short term, when done for more than a day or two it can actually undermine healing. Instead, active forms of back exercises are almost always necessary to rehabilitate the spine and help alleviate back pain.

Go HERE to read the entire article.

Just remember that you need to know what you are working with before you do any forms of exercise when you are experience back pain.  If you are like me and know what happened then it's important to ice and heat the first day or two along with taking anti-inflammatory's.  Stretching is also good for low back pain as it helps keep the joints lubricated and stretch the muscles that tense up around the area that is inflamed.


So while I will not be doing any heavy lifting tonight you can bet I am going to be doing some yoga.  I will not let my back get the better of me.  I am taking ibuprofen and drinking lots of water.  For the first time I feel like I have control of my body instead of the other way around.  For so many years I let my aches and pains control me.  I'm so glad I have Beachbody in my life and I know what it feels like to live a healthy lifestyle!

The Dirty Dozen...

It's not just a movie!  So, I do this thing called the Daily Challenge.  Everyday I get an email asking me to do something good for my well being.  Could be physically or mental but it is usually interesting.  Today they asked us to find out about the Dirty Dozen.  The list of fruits and vegetables at the grocery store that has the highest levels of pesticides.  So I turned to my love, Google, for the answer.  I was a little shocked at what I found so I wanted to share with you all.  Here is a little excerpt taken from HERE:

A new report was just published by a leading consumer watchdog organization — the Environmental Working Group (EWG) — on the foods with the most and the least contamination. You won't find it listed on any label, but every time you buy produce that isn't certified organic — that is, grown without conventional pesticides and fertilizers — you're bringing home potential nasty stuff that can't always be washed off. Some chemicals cling with amazing stubbornness; others leach inside the produce. Thankfully, not all conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are vulnerable. Which ones should you be most careful about in 2011?

Here are the rankings listed in descending order from the highest to the lowest for the "Dirty Dozen." This means that apples, which are ranked number one, are the most-contaminated item; in 2010, they were ranked number four — so they've moved up the list. 

• Apples
• Celery
• Strawberries
• Peaches
• Spinach
• Nectarines (imported)
• Grapes (imported)
• Sweet bell peppers
• Potatoes
• Blueberries (domestic)
• Lettuce
• Kale/collard greens

There is also a list of the "Clean Fifteen" — the fruits and veggies that boast the lowest levels of pesticides. This means that you don't need to purchase them organically grown, if doing so overextends your grocery budget, since organically grown produce often costs more than conventionally grown foods. According to the EWG, if you choose your daily recommended five servings of fruit and veggies from the "Clean Fifteen" list rather than the "Dirty Dozen" list, you would lower the level of pesticides that you ingest by a whopping 92% without needing to spend more bucks buying organic. Here are the fabulous fifteen that you want to make friends with and consume often.

• Onions
• Sweet corn
• Pineapple
• Avocado
• Asparagus
• Sweet peas
• Mangos
• Eggplants
• Cantaloupe (domestic)
• Kiwi
• Cabbage
• Watermelon
• Sweet potatoes
• Grapefruit
• Mushrooms

TIP: Copy these lists of both groups of produce to keep in your wallet, pocket, purse/tote, or car for when you go grocery shopping so that you have it for reference and can make the best choices. Talk about this with your children, too, so that they can choose foods from the "Clean Fifteen" list more than the "Dirty Dozen" list, if you are not buying organic foods.

 I am going to have to watch what I am purchasing and eating.  I'll by an apple, rub it on my shirt and take a bite.  Never mind all the people who have touched it before me and all the bug poop that is probably on it, there is also a lot of pesticides too!  You know, I've known this, in the back of my mind I've thought about it but I never really looked into it.  Maybe because I knew it might scare me a little. lol.

Evening Workouts...

I tend to go back and forth between evening workouts and morning workouts.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I work out at night.  Friday, Saturday & Sunday I work out in the morning.  What?  ChaLEAN Extreme is only 5 days a week you say?  Oh yes you are right.  Wednesday night is one of my "off" days but I have a fit club and this week we are doing some Rev Abs! Oh yeah!  So while I technically do 5 ChaLEAN workouts I throw in an extra cardio each week with my girls!  So, back to the whole morning vs. evening thing.

When I workout at night I don't get my workout in until about 7:30ish.  I get home from work around 6:20, make dinner for the family and then change and get into my workout gear.  Log into the Wowy Super Gym and start my workout.  I'm usually done by 8pm to spend a little quality time with my hubby.  The thing about this is that I don't get to eat dinner until 8.  That puts my bed time at 11.  Since I wait three hours after a meal before going to bed.  Not that this is a big issue or anything.  After pushing myself really hard I find that I have way more energy and I am just not as tired as I used to be this time at night.  Not good when it comes to getting up in the morning for work though! ;)

Now I love Friday, Saturday & Sunday!  I don't have to get up super early to get my workout done because I don't work on those days.  I can get up at 7:30am and be working out by 8am.  This is great.  I get a great workout done first thing in the morning, grab my Shakeology and hit the showers.  I am good to go the rest of the day and start my day on a HUGE high note!  These are my favorite times to workout!  I don't do morning workouts on the week days because there is a huge difference between 7:30am and 5:30am.  At least in my mind there is.  I'm working on this mental block because I can't help but feel I'd love to get all my workouts done in the morning and start on that huge high!  Except the fit club workouts, those will always be at 6pm, I am not making my ladies get up at 5:30am to come to work and workout. :) I would never do that to you guys! You are my friends! ;)

Anyone else have these kinds of issues?  What time do you prefer to workout?  Have you made the switch to mornings and have suggestions on making it easier?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

For me, I think I'll keep doing what I'm doing for now because it is working and I am getting good workouts in and for me that is very, very important.  I love pushing it as hard as I can!

Ending my first week of ChaLEAN Extreme

Wow, I'm sore.  More sore than the first time I started this program back in June.  I was still nursing a pretty severe ankle sprain back then so I guess I didn't push myself as much before as I am now.  And while my ankle still has bad days it is really doing well and remarkably strong.  I decided after I had to stop the last time and take a break on lower body that when I restarted this program I was going to give it everything I could.

The last two days in a row have taken me to that near vomit stage and it was hard to keep going.  I would recheck myself, take my energy down for about 1 minute to get back to where I could go again.  I didn't stop, I didn't dog the workout, I didn't just press play and do the time.  I realized that I need to push myself as hard as I can in order to get the most out of these workouts.  Is it easy?  Heck no!  I am always trying to talk myself out of it.  Seriously.  Even though I have made the decision to push it hard I still have to make myself do the workout!  And I am a Team Beachbody Coach!  This is part of my job!  How much harder is it for someone just starting out and trying to get healthy without having all the support of the Beachbody community?  I just can't imagine.

I think back to the first time I started working out with Beachbody products.  It was 2003.  I was a lot younger back then.  I had three children, the youngest was 10.  I had a lot of weight to lose and I had tried many other programs only to give up on them.  I didn't realize what they were lacking, I thought it was something wrong with me.  I thought it was something I was lacking.  Will power or something that else I just couldn't figure out.  I had ordered programs off of infomercials before.  I had sweating to the oldies.  I thought that was going to work.  I purchased one of those Health Riders, I thought that was going to work.  I did Slim Fast, I also thought that was going to work.  Then I saw an infomercial for a program called Power 90.  By this time I was very frustrated and didn't think anything would work for me.  I went online to see what people were saying and what I found was this amazing online community.  I saw the infomercial in December of 2002.  I decided in February of 2003 to purchase the program because of the amazing people I met in those two months were were doing the program and having amazing results.

What I didn't know was that not only was there a community of people to support me, there was also an eating plan that came with my workout to help me decide what kinds of foods I needed to eat to not just lose weight but to fuel my body.  No one had ever talked to me about fueling my body.  It was all about low fat, low sugar, low calories yadda yadda yadda.  But no one had ever said, "hey, maybe you should eat more whole foods, things like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats."  I got this great poster I put on my fridge called Michi's Ladder.  This was a break down of foods that would help and foods that would hinder my progress.

I pushed play everyday back then.  I finally realized that it wasn't something I was lacking that was keeping me from getting healthy.  It was something that was lacking from the programs and diets I had tried before.  It was the support and the nutritional information I didn't have!  

Fast forward 90 days and I was excited to see the changes!  I had gone from a size 16 and weighing 168 pounds to a size 10 and weighing 140.  I wasn't done with my fitness journey and I continued with Slim in 6 and went onto Slim Series.  I did Turbo Jam, and P90X.  I then let life get in the way.  I lost nearly 40lbs when all was said and done.  It was now 2005 and I had never been in better shape in my whole life.

I then did something I swore I would never do if I lost my weight.  I let life get in the way.  I had a surgery in December and another one the following July.  I was unable to workout after the July surgery because I had been given donor bone marrow in my hand and I'm not sure why but I couldn't raise my blood pressure by exercising until my body was healed.   I still kept eating healthy though and only gained a few pounds.  The tipping point for me was the car accident I had the following December.  Even though I wasn't badly injured I was frustrated and I just gave up.  At first my body didn't show any signs of getting heavy.  I was losing muscle mass because I wasn't working out and I was gaining fat.  Before I knew it I was as heavy as I had ever been and I had given up.  I always thought I was not going to be one of those people who lost weight only to gain it back.  If you work so hard to get healthy why would you let that slip away?  At least that's what I always thought.  Then I realized that it does happen and I let it happen.

I was so excited to find Beachbody again.  I knew that it helped me once and that they had the right combination to help me.  All I needed to do was pick a program and Decide to become healthy, Commit to doing the program and then I would Succeed at my health goals.  Decide. Commit. Succeed.  That is what Beachbody is all about.  

Wow, so I went on for quite a while just to say that I understand how hard it is to get healthy, it's even harder now that I am in my 40's than it was when I was in my 30's.  But I am not going to give up and I am not going to give in.  I am going to blog about my success and failures.  You will hear all the dirty details.  I am not holding back this time.  And I have to say I am excited and scared.

I started on Tuesday of this week.  I am currently at 171.5lbs.  I am only 5'1" and I will take my measurements in the morning so I have accurate numbers for my journey.  I will need support and I know I have it.  I have a great nutrition guide and a great fitness plan.  This next 90 days will be HUGE!