Just finished the Biggest Loser's, "Did They Keep the Weight Off?" episode. One of the things that surprised me was how many of them actually now have shifted their carreer to fit their healthy lifestyle. Everything from being a diabetes spokesperson to personal training, most of the past contestants featured do something for a living that has to do with inspiring others to be healthy too. I thought that was really cool and it got me thinking...
How does your job "fit" with your priority to be healthy? I know some of you work in an office, some are students, teachers, wedding planners (that's for you Meg), etc. Any Krispy Kreme managers out there? How DO you do it?
Being a stay-at-home mom has *some* challenges (I do realize some of these are unique to our situation):
I have a kitchen at my disposal at all times.
I am constantly faced with things like peanut butter and blue-blox mac n'cheese.
Sometimes I'm tempted to eat three lunches. no joke. 1) with the kids, 2) when I finally get a minute to myself after they've gone to school, (p.m. kindergarten and preschool) 3) When they're eating a snack after school.
I've got an amatuer baker on my hands.
I have little people in my house who occasionally beg for things like sugar cereal. (Although I nipped that one in the bud with a frightening lecture on sugar and cavities. Let's hope they don't have any at their next checkup...)
I don't sleep a whole lot.
HOWEVER. It is also important to note:
I call the shots. I plan and cook all the meals and snacks (lots of times "'cooking" is unwrapping a Zone Bar).
I don't have anyone bringing crap into my work space (well, actually Aaron does...but only occasionally).
Despite our crazy schedules and LOTS of choas; I do have some flexibilty.
I've got a supportive husband (baking tendencies aside) and family. Aaron is always willing to move our schedules around so I can get to the gym (thanks honey).
So what about you? Anyone else want to whine or share some tips? Own a deli like Eric did? Would you ever change jobs or careers if it didn't fit with a healthy lifestyle?
Anway, here are the rest of my thoughts on Biggest Loser:
*I would've like to have seen more contestants from previous seasons. Most of them were from last season.
*Poppy and Pete were my favorites (Poppy, because she was never actually a contestant on the ranch, Pete, well, he and his wife were just so cute, and he looks fantastic).
*Things that I am excited about for next week: Bob. New faces. 3 teams.
*Haven't made up my mind about Alison Sweeney yet. It's not that I DON'T like her, I just kinda miss Caroline. Thoughts?
September 4, 2007
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19 comments:
Darnit! I missed it again. I need to post a sticky note onto the TV.
And, so true about careers and weight. I used to have an office job, it was awful because I was sitting all day long. Not only did it work against my ADD personality type, but it also made my muscle tone deteriorate. Yeah, for graduate school and a career at the University! Lots of walking and time to exercise!
is it wrong that i am now having impure thoughts about bob and cake?
I work for an IT consulting company so my job is sitting on my keister most of my day with spurts of going out to see clients. eating healthy can FIT here and I make it. I bring carrots and cucumber with me everyday or try to stick to 100 calorie packs or high fibre granola bars to snack on. The only temptations are my coworker's lunches and the candy dish down the hall.
i too noticed a lot of the "did they keep the weight off" losers were from recent editions, but maintaining is realllllly hard so I can understand. I would have liked to see the good, the bad and the ugly though.
I like the new host. To me, she's not as annoying and I think she really seems to care. She teared up a few times last night.
I'm at a desk all day and I plan my lunches. I eat what I bring and don't hit the food court where tempation is everywhere. The worst for me is birthdays, they seem to be all the time and it's always donuts for everyone. Since I'm doing Weight Watchers, I just have one, get it over with and count it in my day.
The hardest thing for me when I had a full-time office job was working in exercise. I'm a morning exerciser which meant showing up for a 6am aerobics class, which meant heading out the door at 5:15 which meant getting up at... well, you get the idea.
Being able to customize my exercise schedule really helps keep the habit up.
engineer, desk job. not thinking of changing. However the more in shape I get and the closer to goal, and the more I blog and yell at you other weight losers, the more I want to be a fitness instructor. I think I could do that as a part time thing. Just teach a couple evening classes a week. I don't really know how much work goes into becoming one, but I do know that I love teaching and it would be a great way to get workouts in. We'll see. I won't quit my day job over it.
the only real challenge my job gives me are monday morning snacks. But I know they're coming and just eat a smaller breakfast. That and sitting for 8 hours straight. that's not good.
I sympathize with you stay at homers. When I was just part time and part time student (stay at home student finishing thesis) I would eat so much on my at home days. Just anytime I needed a break, to get up and stretch I'd go in the kitchen and munch! terrible. However I think stay at homers also have more opportunity to workout and make big fancy recipes for lunches and suppers (though I do realize you do more than just watch soaps all day)
The hardest part for me (grad student) is handling all the free food all over the place...we have meetings and seminars a LOT, and there is always free bagels, cookies, donuts, sandwiches, etc. I pretty much rely on the coffee to take me through the meeting, so I feel like I am munching, without really "eating" something evil and carby.
I also have trouble going to the gym because my lab moved away from campus. boo. So I'm adjusting to working out at home instead.
My biggest problem is that I work in a lab, where you cannot have food or drink inside. It's a huge battle for me to stay hydrated here.
The upside, is that my coming into work (instead of working from home), I have to eat whatever healthy things I packed for myself, instead of grazing in my kitchen.
Anyway, great post - made me think about my environment!
I always say that my job is what has made this lifestyle change possible for me -- I office out of my home, kinda call all the shots in terms of scheduling, etc. and I have a boss who is COMPLETELY supportive of my marathon training goals (haven't talked to him much about the weight loss goals, but he knows I've lost a great deal of weight, and he sees how i eat, so I assume he "gets it"). anyway. When I was 9-to-5'ing, I got really fat. When I was an event planner, I got REALLY fat. And of course, the lifestyle change has enabled the writing stuff that has come along in recent months...
yea, i am a SAHSP (stay at home single person) who works from home...so i feel like my challanges are a lot of the same things that challenge moms. well, minus the mac n' cheese and preparing food for kids...or any of the other challenges moms face...so, ok maybe we're not that similar(!?) anyway, having the kitchen there ALL THE TIME is the biggest problem for me. i've often thought of getting an office space partially for the lack of food access...but i think no matter where you work there will be challenges, i just have to work on finding a solution to the ones i face now...
Mia, don't feel too bad. It wasn't the actual show, just sort of a reuniony type thing. And any work that includes lots of walking is a great thing!
maire, lol. Ok, to be honest, that picture of bob is kind of creeping me out. I thought of taking it down but I laugh every time it pops up so it's staying. And good point about making healthy eating fit into whatever you do. For some it's harder than others. And I also agree with seeing the whole picture. I have a hard time believing everyone from the first or second seasons just put all the weight on and that's why they weren't featured. But it would've been nice (and maybe a little more true to life) to see a broader sampling.
Anne, so you like her? SHe did seem genuine, it just seemed like Caroline was pretty fond of all the contestants so I thought it would've been cool to see HER meet up with them again. Dunno though, I'll give the new one a chance for sure.
And preparing ahead of time seems to be the common theme for office jobs. (as for office birthdays, good job for sticking to the one!)
Okay, (I'm pulling a Crabby here), I'll be right back...
Totally miss Caroline :(
I have a feeling many contestants may not have kept off the weight and didn't want to weigh-in on public tv. I was surprised that none of the past contestants were able to maintain their "lowest" weights. And aparently the show didn't want you to notice that and thats why despite asking each contestant "did you keep the weight off?" they didn't show the final weigh-in weight but their starting weight.
Makes me a wee bit nervous about my own maintenance phase...
Crabby,
"Being able to customize my exercise schedule really helps keep the habit up."
Ditto.
Randi, you would be an awesome fitness instructor! lol! Although I must disagree with many stay at homers having MORE time to workout. Most I know with more than one child are getting up in the wee hours of the morn to squeeze in some exercise. But there are always exceptions. And there's no time for fancy dinners over here. But I did put a lot of time into dinners when I only had 1 kidlet...
Bri,
Free food is SO hard for me to turn down! I need to have some sort of truce with my economic self and weight-conscious self. As far as the gym goes, you made me think of Poppy last night. She said something to the effect of, "I'm single-handedly keeping the aerobics DVD industry profitable." lol, anyway, it sounds like you've got
challenges but are working around them. Planning seems to be the key.
Jessica, You are the poster child for working + maintaining healthy lifestyle. I totally thought of you when I wrote this post!
ok, coming back...not that any of you are waiting or anything....:)
Meg. I totally laughed at your comment. I actually think in some ways it's harder when you don't have the monkeys hanging off your heels. Anytime you want to eat, you're able to! And I think you're totally right. Unless you're Bob Harper or Kim Lyons or some other bigshot hoo-haa -- you're going to face lots of challenges in any work environment.
Mrs. Furious
'And aparently the show didn't want you to notice that and thats why despite asking each contestant "did you keep the weight off?" they didn't show the final weigh-in weight but their starting weight. '
Yeah, I actually went slow-mo with my Tivo so I could see their actual leaving-the-ranch weight. THe only contestant whose weight they actually read aloud was Pete's. (maybe poppy and wiley too?) Dunno, but it was definitely a little shifty. But all in all, most of them still looked pretty healthy.
I never actually watched the last seasons (only watched bits of a couple shows and then saw the finale last year) but you have me really excited for the new one to start so I watched last night. If you think about what they were doing to lose the weight and how it's pretty much impossible to keep that kind of effort up then it's no wonder they've put some back on but I think it's pretty amazing that they've kept even that much off and seem determined to stay healthy. I agree, it would have been nice to see more of the other contestants, they should have done a two hour show.
I really like Alison Sweeney. I used to be a Days of Our Lives watcher. I think she'll be great because she's been there in a way and knows how hard it is to lose weight. She was a little overweight for years and people were really mean about it but she's really made a lifestyle change and managed to keep off her weight and looks great. I think she's genuinely a really nice, caring person who will really empathize with the contestants.
As a SAHM, I actually don't have a problem most of the time with snacking because I keep healthy snacks around to keep me in line. My downfall is dinnertime when I've done great all day and then way overeat the dinner I make for my family which is rarely superhealthy because they just won't eat stuff like that. It also seems like living around my family, we're constantly having celebrations of some kind where there is always cake, ice cream or some other yummy treat I can't resist. I usually can't exercise during the day because with the kids it's just too hard to find a time so I have to get up and go before they get up which can be really hard sometimes (like today, that thunder kept me up all night). Plus I find that when I try to do a workout tape here then it's easier to quit early but when I'm at the gym, I've made the effort to go there so I stick with my workout till the end. Anyone else like that?
Thanks for the comments Katie!!
...and I so wish that I didn't work on my butt all day long. I need to get moving a little during the day. I try and bring my lunches to alleviate the temptation to go out and get junk.
Well, I'm a SAHM and I thought it would be easier to lose weight and exercise but it's not. When you get woke up at 4:30 to the sound, "I need to go pee pee." and then get up at 6:30 a and then the boy won't take a nap it gets hard to fit in any real exercise. The eating varies. When I'm feeling lonely and we're stuck at home all day I tend to eat more. I weighed myself today and I'm up. AAAAAH! I missed the Biggest Loser last night. I was at a swap meet party eating my heart out on symphony brownies and southwestern dip and chips. Bad mama (as I slap my hand).
I think I like Caroline better.
I am SO excited about Jillian coming back. I think it's awesome that there will be three teams, and that the other two teams don't even know about jillian!!! AHHH I can't wait!!
I was a little shocked that Eric sold his deli, but fantastic that he wanted to change to help others.
As far as past seasons...I've looked for some of them in the internet or myspace, and quite a few of them have gained weight back. I am just wondering if they didn't want to weigh in, and that's why you didn't see them. Matt for one looks nothing like his final weigh in day, maybe he feels bad about that.
I loved Poppy. Did you catch that she has only gained 10 lbs from the final show? I think that is so fantastic!!
Hip hip horay for BL, and Bob! :D
So have you been taking pictures of your food? I'm glad you're joining me. If you haven't started yet, you still have 4 days left! Make sure you post by Sunday night (or Monday morning)! :D
Katieo, I totally watched the show for the FIRST TIME last night because I KNEW you would be watching it. I thought, "if I'm gonna keep commenting on Sister Skinny, I better keep up!" Are you proud?
I wonder why Caroline left the show. I really liked her a lot. I'm glad to see Jillian back though. I really liked her a lot and missed her last season.
Hmm...Careers and a healthy lifestyle. That is a hard question and it really makes you think. I work in an office where treats are ALWAYS at your disposal. I guess it makes it a little harder but at the same time, my career doesn't define who I am. It's a small part of me but the healthy lifestyle I lead, that is a choice I make every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everytime I eat or workout, I am living my healthy lifestyle, that is more of who I am because it's a choice I make every single day. I don't think that where you work or what hours you work will define your success on WW. Don't get me wrong, it may make the journey a little more difficult but being healthy is not a hit or miss thing. You either make the choice and stick it out (granted everyone is bound to make a slip up or two, but one unhealthy meal does not an unhealthy person make) or you don't. I guess I'm going against the grain on this one but what can I say? I'm an opinionated girl :)
em, thanks for coming by and for your 2 cents! :)
jeanne, totally agreed with your comment. I understand here you're coming from with the gym AND dinner time. And thanks for your thoughts on Alison Sweeney.
Amber, I totally laughed at your comment!! (ANd sorry you're up. boohoo.)
Sarah, thanks for the reminder about the food, I may only be getting you a couple of meals. Love hearing your thoughts on BL, and that is so sad about the past guests gaining, but like marie said, maintaining is reeeeeeeallllly hard!
becca! yes I'm proud! What did you think? Are you going to keep watching?
Carolyn. Excellent comment. I don't think you're going against the grain, in fact I think you're a great example to people who are maybe using work as an excuse as to why they're overweight. But I do think some careers for some people may impede their ability to lead a healthy lifestyle (like Poppy from the show. She was a stand-up comedian who relied on her weight for a lot of her jokes) For most of us though, I do think it just takes making a the decision and lots of determination to stick with it.
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