I got my bling!

At tonights weigh in I officially have lost 10% of my starting body weight and then some! As a result, I got my 10% key chain. Bling baby!

Why the Biggest Loser is bad

I know a lot of people watch this for motivation, and I can honestly see that appeal. But after last night, I can too easily see the “dark” side of this show.

I was flipping back and forth between The Biggest Loser and the hockey game last night. Now, I’m aware that any sane, rational person is aware that this show is not realistic. After all the people that get choosen for it are provided their food, which they may or may not have to cook themselves. The house isn’t stocked with Doritos, pizza, beer etc. No, the house is stocked with lean meats, fruits, vegetables and other healthy options. So that’s unrealistic to normal life advantage one. And if I had a nutrionist who shopped for me and hopefully cooked for me, I would probably have no problems with my food choices either.

Unrealistic to normal life advantage two is the workouts. Normal people struggling to lose weight on their own do not have access to a trainer for 8 hours a day. Ok, ok. The red team didn’t have access to their trainer for a week. BUT these people are exercising for 6-8 hours a day. That is currently their life, that’s all they are doing. If I had the option of working out this much every day then I would drop big numbers too.

So why is this show bad? I’m a sane person. As evidenced, I’m very aware that The Biggest Loser is unrealistic. I’m aware that a safe, healthy and sustainable weight loss is an average of .5 to 2 pounds a week. That’s an average I can live with. Would I like to see the weight go off faster? Heck yeah! But it didn’t come on in a day, it’s not gonna leave in a day. I had my weigh in last night and I was thrilled with it. I’m down 2 pounds, I’m about 2 pounds away from my first 5% goal and only .4 away from 10 pounds. That’s pretty dang awesome.

But then I turned on The Biggest Loser. And the Red Team was very disappointed in Adrian’s loss from the week before. He only lost 2 pounds. That same amount that I just celebrated over. And when the Black Team was up for weigh in a couple of the women were posting 5 and 6 pound losses. Oh the shame of only losing that much. Watching The Biggest Loser can very easily turn into a head game. I wish that they would provide pratical applications/tips for people watching. I wish that they would make sure those watching are aware that it’s ok if they only lose .4 or 1.8, as long as they are working to make themselves healthier.

In my meeting each week (and I’m sure in every meeting) we have celebrations. It can be weight loss, it can be measurement changes, it can be just making good decisions. But it’s something to celebrate. Maybe it’s time The Biggest Loser starts applying that concept to their show for the normal Joes watching. They can run a ticker at the bottom where people can do their celebrations. And they could also do a “The More You Know” kind of PSA at the end where Alison, Dovett, Bob and even the contestents congratulate the fans and viewers for their successes, no matter how big or small they may be.

November AP Challenge Winner

The winner was MICHELLEO0426!  She choose the Stashbuster Tote and informed me she likes earth tones such as browns and greens.  So here is her prize.

And the lining:

This was made using Red Heart Soft in Chocolate and Toast.

AP Challenge

I’ve made no secret of being on Weight Watchers in the past and I still participate in the message boards.  I’ve even been participating in a monthly challenge on one of the boards, an Activity Point Challenge.  This challenge doesn’t have winners, each person competes as it were against themselves.  We set a goal each month and strive to achieve that goal.  Last month I had a brilliant idea, as an incentive I would offer a prize of either crocheted hot pads or a tote bag.  Everyone who has meets or exceeds their goal was eligible to be entered into a drawing and the winner gets to choose which item s/he would like and in what color(s).  The choices available are:

 Starburst Hot pads

 Snowflake Hotpads

The H Bag using one of three patterns:

  Option 1

 Option 2

 Option 3

Or the Stash Buster Tote

Each month once the winner receives his/her prize I’ll post a picture here so everyone can what was chosen.

Ornament Exchange 2011

An online group I’m a part of has decided to do an ornament exchange. I’ve been itching to do some crochet snowflakes lately and was thrilled with the “excuse” to pick up thread and itty bitty hook. My partner is getting two snowflakes from me.
This one is a Coats and Clark pattern and actually has a bit of a funny story attached.  The pattern calls for the stitches to be done as a TC, which in American terms is a Triple Crochet.  The section that seems to come to a point?  That was listed as TC Together and I was reading over the stitch instructions just to make sure I was doing it as the designer had envisioned.  I was very confused as to why the instructions say to yarn over once, when for an American TC it should be yarn over twice.  It wasn’t until I finished the snowflake that I really paid attention to the website.  It has a .uk extension; in other words it’s a United Kingdom pattern.  In the UK a TC or Triple Crochet is the equivilant of an American Double Crochet.  So all of my stitches are actually taller than they’re supposed to be.  Which, to be honest, I think actually looks pretty good.

This is the second one I made for my partner, based off a Snowcatcher pattern.  I made this one with a pearl blending filament held with the white thread.  So the snowflake has a nice pretty glitter to it.  If you crochet, definitely check out Snowcatcher’s site, she is a fabulous designer and I wish I had half of her talent.

And finally I have to share this “fabric”.  Our neighbors held a yard sale today and last night J and I were over helping move some items they needed help with (okay, J was. I’m still on lifting restrictions).  I noticed this on one of the tables.  It’s actually curtains that my neighbor had hanging at one point and decided she no longer wanted.  Which is my gain.  This fabric is so pretty and is going to look fabulous as tote bag liners.