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How Are They Doing Pt 2? Latest Update on Our Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™ Contest Winners  

It’s been a few weeks since we last checked in on our Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™ Contest Winners, so here’s an update on how they’re doing, and we have some great stuff to shout out!  For background on Cindy and Cheryl CLICK HERE

man with megaphone

Contest Winner Cindy Musiel broke through an important weight loss benchmark in early December-getting back down to a weight she hadn’t seen since 2009!  Since my last post on 12/3, Cindy is down another 14 pounds-21 since we started working together in early October and 69 since she started her overall weight loss journey in April 2013!

Cindy was a little frustrated when the scale refused to budge over the holidays despite her keeping her workouts up-only losing about half a pound-but as I tell all my weight loss coaching clients, if you can just maintain your weight over the holidays when most people gain weight, you’ve done an outstanding job!  And in her case, like it is for most people, it’s just temporary as sometimes the body just needs a chance to catch up.

Getting close to the end of the 4th month of our work together (out of 6), now Cindy is focusing on increasing the intensity of her workouts as she’s lighter and more fit, increasing the speed on the treadmill and elliptical, doing some HIIT (high intensity interval training) using work-at-home videos that she’s modifying for some prior injuries to make them right for her and keeping up the resistance training she added when she joined a gym in November.

Interestingly, Cindy was using an app that she felt was giving her too low a daily calorie target for all the activity she was doing, and when I reviewed her records I agreed.  So we actually had to adjust her consumption upwards to give her the proper amount of fuel to support all her activity.  And the pounds are coming off steadily again.  Yes, sometimes when you’re trying to lose weight, you actually have to increase your calories to strike a proper balance.

Contest Runner-Up Cheryl Behrens finished her 3 months of coaching with me earlier this month, and dropped a major surprise announcement on me during her final session. As you recall, while Cheryl had come to enter the contest for weight loss reasons, when we got to talking, she really wanted to focus on getting more energy, organization and a regular, healthy eating pattern into her life, reducing stress, get more work-life balance and maintaining her ability to do all the activities that she wants to in life as she gets older.  So we put the weight loss aside…or so I thought.

By the end of our time together, Cheryl did achieve all that and more.  She’s been feeling way less stressed, more positive as life’s challenges come her way, achieved greater work-life balance all on increased energy.  Cheryl has learned to not try to take on too much at one time and scatter her focus, as well as to be creative in organization of her time and space so she feels more in control of her world-something we can all aspire to do.

She’s taken new measures based on ideas we’ve brainstormed together to ensure she eats regularly and healthfully even if she doesn’t want to cook for herself.  And when it’s not snowing too badly and doesn’t feel like Siberia out (or CHIberia as my husband has been calling it), she gets to the gym.

So the BIG surprise from Cheryl, was that without even trying, by addressing all the other aspects of her health and wellness she wanted to work on together, she sneakily LOST 10 POUNDS during our 3 months together!  She had told me that she wanted to surprise me with this happy, unexpected change, and she sure did!

It goes to show you that like I always believe, weight loss and weight management are intertwined with all other areas of wellness-nutrition, fitness, stress reduction, work-life balance and life satisfaction.  Needing to lose weight is usually a sign that something else in your life is off, and until you get to what’s really getting in the way of being the happiest and healthiest you, it’s going to be a struggle to get to where you want to go.  But once you do, it’s not as hard as you think to lose weight and keep it off for good.

I learned this lesson myself through my own weight loss journey that led to a 48-pound weight loss I’ve kept off for 4 years now, and I’m privileged that as a Certified Health and Wellness Coach, I get to spend my days helping people like Cheryl and Cindy make their healthy lives easy and break down these barriers every single day ?

 

Copyright 2014 SunLover Publishing LLC

How Are They Doing? Update on Our Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™ Contest Winners  

It’s been a little bit since Healthy Lombard Partner and Certified Health and Wellness Coach Melanie Jordan started working with the winner and runner-up of The Greater Lombard Area Weight Loss Transformation Contest, so let’s see how they’ve been doing!  For background on Cindy and Cheryl CLICK HERE

Our Winner, Cindy Musiel is what Coach Melanie calls “an absolute rockstar!”  As of 11/25-her last weigh-in, she’s lost seven more pounds. Cindy also smartly planned for the Winter weather by joining a gym and taking her workouts indoors, added water aerobics, and is now strength training and doing Zumba®-new experiences for her.

Another new achievement for Cindy was walking her first-ever 5K (The Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot in Elmhurst) to kick off her Thanksgiving celebration. Now she’s eager to do another one!

For runner-up, Cheryl Behrens, she’s decided to focus more on stress reduction and feeling more energized with Coach Melanie.  So together, they’ve been working on time management, getting more organized and being more in control of situations where it’s possible.  Cheryl has been making great strides in these areas, and is already reporting improved energy, feeling better and being more active.

Way to go Cindy and Cheryl!

contest

Enter The Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™ Greater Lombard Area Weight Loss Transformation Contest  

Residents of Lombard, Villa Park, Glendale Heights, Glen Ellyn, Downers Grove and Oakbrook Terrace who are 18 years or older now have a great opportunity to change their lives by getting healthy and losing weight with the Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™ Greater Lombard Area Weight Loss Transformation Contest.

The Grand Prize Winner will be coached personally by Lombard neighbor and Healthy Lombard Partner Wellcoaches® and ACE® Certified Health and Wellness Coach and Weight Loss Coach Melanie Jordan for six months for FREE!

And EVERYONE who enters the Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™ Greater Lombard Area Weight Loss Transformation Contest will receive 1 free month in the Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™ Do It Yourself Healthy Weight Loss Program at the Deluxe Level (which includes email coaching)-so everyone is going to be a winner and get some help with healthy weight loss!

Entries are being accepted by Coach Melanie from August 15th to September 15th, 2013 at http://www.yourhealthylifemadeeasy.com/weightlosscontest.html where full contest details and rules are listed, and the winner will be announced on the Healthy Lombard site and at Melanie’s blog at YourHealthyLifeMadeEasy.com on September 22nd, 2013.

This contest is Coach Melanie’s way of giving back to the community and helping others who have struggled with their weight like she did in the past before she lost and kept off 48 pounds and went from a size 14 to 6.  So get your entry in and please share this post with someone in the area whose life you’d like to help change.

5 Tips for a Healthy Summer Barbecue  

hot dogs and hamburgers copySummer just wouldn’t be the same without hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill.  But is it possible to have these favorite Summer comfort foods without having them damage your waistline?  Absolutely!  Here are 5 ways to give these foods a healthy makeover:

 

1.  Trade traditional hot dogs for products such as Jennie-O Turkey Franks

Each has just 70 calories and 6 grams of fat (just 1.5 saturated fat) which is about half the amount in a traditional hot dog.  Grill them and add mustard and sauerkraut and you will not know the difference!

Just read the label of any turkey product carefully, as many turkey dogs are not made with the leanest cuts and could be just as fattening as a traditional beef hot dog.

2.  Trade traditional beef burgers for Boca Burgers (or your favorite soy-based or veggie burger)  To me, the soy-based most closely mimic the real thing vs. veggie burgers, but they are both healthy choices.  The original Vegan Boca Burger is only 70 calories, .5 grams fat, 0 grams trans fat or saturated fat and packs 13 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber into that tasty burger.

TIP:  substitute an extra lean turkey burger, but again check the label of the ground turkey to make sure you are getting 97-99% fat-free extra lean turkey (like from Jennie-O), or if buying a package of ground turkey, look at that closely to make sure you are getting the leanest possible turkey burger.

3.  Ditch the potato salad and cole slaw

Both are full of fatty mayonnaise even though they seem light.  Use Baked Lays, Baked Ruffles or any variety of baked snack with a maximum of 3-4 grams of fat as a side dish instead and save tons of fat and calories.

4.  Swap white flour hot dog and hamburger buns for whole wheat or whole grain buns

Make sure you are truly getting whole wheat by reading the label and seeing 100% whole wheat or stone ground whole wheat with a good fiber content of 3 – 7 grams per bun.  I like Healthy Life 100% Whole Grain hot dog and hamburger buns with their 6 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber and just 1.5 grams of fat.

TIP:  Here’s how to do it even better!  Take a whole wheat round and use each half of the round like a bun to hold the hot dog-to save 100 calories when you have two franks, or use the whole round to hold the burger for a lighter variation.

5.  Swap regular cheese for fat-free or light cheese

Enjoy that cheeseburger makeover, but don’t ruin it by adding full-fat cheese on top.  Use a fat-free brand like Borden’s fat-free American or Cheddar cheese or Light Jarlsberg Swiss and save calories and fat.  Plus, it melts beautifully!

So there you have it-5 tips for making your Summer Barbecue a healthy one.  It’s a great example of my core philosphy for healthy eating-you should never deprive yourself of anything as long as it’s made over to its healthiest form.

Want more healthy and easy ideas to help trim your waistline?  Get the 5 Essential Keys to Healthy Weight Loss FREE 5-Day E-Course

About The Author:

Healthy Lombard Partner Melanie Jordan is a Wellcoaches® and American Council on Exercise (ACE®) Certified Health and Wellness Coach who helps others get back to their dream weight for good, without gimmicks or deprivation, so they can live the full, happy and healthy lives they’ve always wanted with her Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™ Program. She’s living proof of what’s possible despite a poor family history, as she’s overcome her own weight struggles and maintains a 48-pound weight loss and rocks size 6 jeans.

Melanie is also an ACE Group Fitness Certified Zumba®, Zumba Gold® and Turbo Kick® Instructor and is the author of 8 books including her bestselling Kindle book Weight Loss Secrets Revealed For the Happiest and Healthiest You!

Copyright 2013 SunLover Publishing LLC