WEIGHT LOSS TIPS

Kristie Alley Gets into a Bikini for Oprah

Kristie Alley, 55, is going to go through with her promise from one year ago to appear on Oprah's Show wearing nothing but a bikini. Watch for the bikini program this Monday on Oprah. She has lost a lot of weight over the past year and been working out even more rigorously over the last few weeks to get her body in perfect form. Here's what she said on her Jenny Craig blog three weeks ago;

"I’m working hard to get myself in shape for my bikini debut on Oprah. I’m walking vigorously (hiking) every morning for one hour on these big ole hills by my house. Then I try to get in an afternoon workout of weights, circuit, palates or yoga. The A.M. thing is like clockwork, the afternoons are hit and miss. But that’s my goal this week; 2 times a day for five days a week until I do the show and then for the whole month of November as I shoot the new Jenny Craig commercial the beginning of December! Yikes!

She also addresses some of her concerns with seeing herself in the gossip magazines, photoshopped to look fatter than she is;

"...my kids are always in the pool or the ocean or some lake beckoning me to come in and I’m always worried that at least a couple of the 8 to 10 paparazzi that hang out in front of my house 24-7 will snap hideous shots of me for the cover of some trash mag. This problem is unique to actresses, but because it is very real, I would like to feel that I look in good enough shape to not die of embarrassment if this should occur. These creeps are ruthless and relentless and with the invention of the digital camera, they can now instantly “doctor” any photo they take to make actresses look any weight they want them to. You might have recently seen some gross picture of me looking fat again with a squirt gun in my hand. Well, it’s the exact same photo that was in People Magazine a few months back. In the People shot (same day, same photographer, same picture) I looked slim and cute; in the rag shot I looked fat and distorted. (Somehow this is not illegal!)"

Anyway- if I like the way I look in a bikini and I don’t feel self conscious or nervous, I will be able to have my attention on my children or my boyfriend or my life; not who’s lurking in the bushes to take a cheap shot. I’ve worked very hard, as you have, to get my body healthy and slim. It mostly makes me angry that you might believe it and give up. Don’t - it is not true and it’s only purpose is to make money with some made-up scandal.

The most important reason I want to wear a bikini on Oprah however, is because if I, a 55 year old woman can look even half way decent, imagine how all of you could look in a bikini. Then all of us can breathe a little easier. Hell, I’ll never look like Giselle, I never did! But maybe close to Bridget Jones or a Dove girl or something that is just fine and healthy and happy with no surgery, no lipo and no drugs-that’s saying something!"

Watch for the bikini show on Oprah this Monday. See more about Kirstie Alley's weight loss progress over the last year here.

Update November 6th: Here she is! This is today's shot of Kirstey Alley in a bikini on Oprah's show. Also see the video clip of Kirstie wearing the bikini on Oprah's show.

Update November 17th: The National Enquirer has Kirstey Alley on their cover this week with the blaring headline; "Kirstey's Secret Liposuction!" That just seems like pure 'made-up story to sell more copies' bunk to me.

Losing Baby Fat

Trying to Lose Baby Fat Gets Harder

Suzi Godson put on a few extra pounds during her last pregnancy. She has never been overweight but now the pounds don't seem to be slipping off as they did with her previous pregnancies. She has a hilarious writing style. Read her weight loss diary here. Here's an excerpt;

On my 41st birthday, I gave birth to seven and a half pounds of the 50 pounds that I had gained during pregnancy. When I came out of hospital, everyone assured me that the rest would “fall off” while I was breast-feeding. It didn’t.

After a couple of months I realised that my jelly rolls had no intention of “falling off” without a push. I couldn’t fit into the clothes I wore when I was six months’ pregnant and breast-feeding had increased my appetite to such gargantuan proportions that I was constantly starving.

I had very little energy because Velvet refused to sleep for longer than two hours at a time, day or night, so I lived on a diet of sugar and caffeine to keep myself awake. And my breasts were so enormous that I felt ridiculous whenever I tried to exercise. So I didn’t.

Instead of beating myself up about it I gave myself permission to play earth mother until I stopped breast-feeding, so, for at least six months, I hung around the house nibbling biscuits, feeding the baby and watching re-runs of 1970s American legal dramas while the kids were at school. It was blissful, though occasionally I made the mistake of buying celebrity gossip mags which, at the time, seemed to be plastered with pictures of stick insects at premieres, who had just given birth the night before.

The only real nuisance was that I couldn’t get any of my old jeans past my thighs. It was when I found myself contemplating a pair of XL trousers with an elasticated waistband that I knew the party was over. I was fed up with being a fattie. Fed up wearing DD bras. Fed up with LA Law. I wanted to get my life and my body back, so I began to wean the baby and I went on a diet.

There's a very good article on MSN by nutritionist Joy Bauer that discusses all the foods that can boost your mood. If you are feeling depressed or cranky, it's much easier to overeat. These foods will help regulate your blood sugar levels and can help avoid emotional swings as well as drastically improving your daily mood.

See further info on foods that help alleviate depression here.

There's a way you can test your body fat percentage online. All you need is a cloth tape to measure different parts of your body.

The test tells you how much fat you have and how much muscle you have. The test is supposed to be quite accurate (within a couple of percentage points either way) except for very fit people who can get up to 5% higher number for their body fat than what they actually have (because they have much more muscle than the typical person) and very skinny but unfit people may show 5% less body fat than they actually have because "though they look thin, unfit skinny people really have more than the usual amount of fat inside their muscles, which you can't see from the outside."

The most valuable aspect of taking this test is doing it over time. If you plan to start exercising, you will see noticeable changes in the measurements over time.

Try the body fat percent test here.

The average American man has 22% of body fat. The average American female has 32%. But these are not healthy percentages.

A healthy normal body fat differs for different people. According to the makers of this test, healthy percentage of body fat would be 15% for a Caucasian male and 22% for a Caucasian female. Whereas it would be only 12% for an African-American male and 19 percent for an African-American female. Asians have the highest 'healthy ratio' at 18 and 25 percent for males and females. The difference is due to the bone frames having significantly different weights on average. Asians are much more likely to have porous bones that don't weigh as much relative to other races.

I've never heard this type of distinction before. Someone please tell me if this is complete bunk.

Alicia Silverstone, age 30, became a vegan recently. Her story is featured in next month's Shape magazine.

She says that at first she seemed to be eating all carbs; lots of pasta, bread and fruit smoothies. This caused her some energy crashes by midday. After she changed her diet and added a lot more vegetables and whole grains she started to feel good all day. She had much more energy and also noticed great improvements in her skin, hair and body.

For the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday she looks forward to a vegan feast of salads, green beans with almonds, stuffing, fall vegetables like brussels sprouts, tofu casserole and pumpkin pie.

Update January 2010: See the scoop on The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone