If you’re familiar with the television show The Biggest Loser, then you have seen the bullying, screaming, tough as nails trainer Jillian Michaels. But did you know that she does a radio show every Sunday morning? When I found this out, I decided to give it a listen. One of the first shows I listened to, Jillian talked about the dangers of Splenda. She completely trashed it. Said that it wasn’t safe as the manufacturer’s want us to believe. That they claim it’s calorie-free, but that it wasn’t true because what they do is take sugar and wash it in chlorine which causes your body to not absorb the calories. At that point, I looked down at my coffee that was sweetened with-you guessed it-Splenda in disbelief. This couldn’t be true, could it? I mean, I love Jillian, and I’m sure she knows her stuff when it comes to working out, but this just couldn’t be true. So, I decided to do a little digging of my own.

What I found is that experts aren’t really sure if Splenda is safe or not. Some people have side effects and some people don’t. What I do know is that to make Splenda, they take sugar (chemically known as sucrose) and replace parts of it with chlorine atoms (I found this on http://www.womentowomen.com/nutritionandweightloss/splenda.aspx). Now, I’m by no means an expert, and can only give my personal feelings and opinions on this, but did you catch that? Chlorine. Just like Jillian said. According to the article, your digestive system doesn’t recognize it. So, technically, it has calories, but your body just doesn’t absorb those calories.

The more I thought about it, the more I kept thinking about that chlorine. Is that something I want to put into my body? Like the article said, they don’t know if it’s safe, so why would I want to wait until the experts find out if it’s safe? Ok, decision made, I’m going to switch to a natural sugar substitute. Problem. I don’t like any of the ones that I’ve tried so far. I’ve tried Stevia, erythritol, and the new product on the market Truvia (which contains both Stevia and erythritol). I don’t like the aftertaste that Stevia and Truvia leave. And it takes so much erythritol to get my coffee sweet enough for my taste that I might as well just use sugar. The one natural sugar substitue that I haven’t tried is xylitol. I haven’t tried it is because I haven’t been able to find it yet in the area that I live. Yes, yes, I know I can order it online and will probably do so soon, but what if I don’t like it either? I can’t use regular sugar. There are way too many calories in sugar for that. I might as well go to Starbucks every day (hmmm-no, I can’t do that). And I won’t give up coffee. It’s not happening. I mean, soda is one thing I think I can give up(well mostly), but coffee? Nope. I guess the thing to do is to just try the xylitol and see what happens. I’ll keep you posted.

Oh wow, two posts in a week? Jeez. But, something someone said to me today got me thinking. And those of you who know me, KNOW that sometimes can be a dangerous thing. Just sayin. :o)

A girl at work complimented me today on my weight loss. It blows my mind that I'm still getting compliments. And the question, "were you trying to lose weight" amuses me. First of all, I've not been out of work and I don't look sick, so yes, I've been trying to lose weight. But I guess that the issue of weight loss can be a touchy subject, so instead of saying "here's your sign", I just smile, nod, and thank them for the compliment. (Note: in the past I would probably have not taken the compliment well and would shyly nod or something, but now I proudly say, "Yes, I have lost a lot of weight". I've worked hard dangit.) Anyway, so then she asks me was it hard to lose the weight. I have trouble with this question because part of me wants to scream, yes it's hard, I've worked my ass off. But honestly, once you have all of the puzzle pieces in front of you and you figure out what works for you, it isn't hard at all.

Now, is it tedious? Can be. Is it a struggle? Sometimes. But it isn't hard. No seriously. It isn't. So, if you want to know my secret, here it is: there is no secret! It's "calories in" versus "calories out". That's it. Simple math, right? Now, for those of you that are thinking what a headache counting calories would be, you're right. At first, it stinks. I had to first figure out how many calories a day I was eating. Once I had that, I figured out my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate: this basically is how many calories you burn in a day if you just sit and do nothing), then I set my calorie limit that would sustain me, but create a deficit. So, basically what this means is that I can have anything I want as long as I stay within that limit. Additionally, I made the choice to cut out as many processed foods as possible. This gives my body the right kinds of foods to fuel my body for working out. Which is the next part. I created (with the help of my fitness hero #1), an exercise plan that I could follow no matter what my schedule is. If there are days/weeks that I can allow for more exercise, awesome, if not, then that's cool too. Also, I started strength training. For years and years, all I could think was cardio, cardio, cardio. Which is fine, but strength training builds muscle which in turn boosts your metabolism. Once I put all of these puzzle pieces together, the weight started to melt off. And eventually I learned how many calories things have in them, and really don't have to journal how much I eat. (I will spot check myself every so often.)

Of course that's the short of it. There are dozens of details that I could talk about all day. But I won't (unless you want to know). And if some of you think that it sounds familar, it's basically what they do with the contestants on the Biggest Loser. The key is to figure out how many calories are right for you (but NEVER go below 1200!). Or really, the key is to figure out what method works for you. If it's Weight Watchers, great! If it's another program, great! The point is to remember a diet isn't something that you go on and come off, your diet is how you eat (thank you, Bob).