I’m very excited that Be Fit NOLA is grabbing the bull by the horn and has challenged the people of New Orleans to join the Pound for Pound Challenge. From what I’ve seen of my Boot Camp classes – I know that people in this great city can rise to the challenge. I’m definitely here to help.

I’ve put together 5 easy weight loss tips to get you started:

1. Eat 5-6 Times a Day:  The hardest part to shedding pounds is fighting the hunger pains. No one likes to be hungry (p.s. that’s why you’re pledging to lose weight because in New Orleans we have 1000s of people who go hungry each day).  If you eat 5-6 times a day – three small meals of about 300 calories and 2-3 snacks of about 50-150 calories (depending on sex, activity level and amount of weight desired to lose) you will find it easier to stick with the lower calorie intake. By eating 5-6 times a day, you keep yourself nourished and you also keep your metabolism burning calories for you.

Many people think that not eating will help them lose weight; however, this simply does not work as well as some people might think. When your body doesn’t get the food it needs, it tries to conserve its energy…this means your body begins to burn less fat. In addition, when your body lacks the essential vitamins and nutrients it needs and gets from healthy food, you begin to feel tired and weak and can’t do as many activities…which means you burn fewer calories. Such a vicious and senseless cycle; prevent it by eating 5-6 times a day.

2. Drink Lots of Water: Here are some things you might not have known about the functions of water in the human body – Water:

• Transpsort nutrients and oxygen into cells
• Moisturizes the air in lungs
• Helps with metabolism
• Protect our vital organ
• Helps our organs to absorb nutrients better
• Regulates body temperature
• Detoxifies
• Protect and moisturizes our joints

(Source Mangosteen-Natural-Remedies.com)

Drinking (8) 8oz. glasses of water a day will have tremendous benefits to you and it will also curb your appetite.  Start drinking!

3. Avoid Processed Foods: Processed foods have been altered from their natural state for safety reasons and for convenience. The methods used for processing foods include canning, freezing, refrigeration, dehydration and aseptic processing. Not all processed foods are bad but there are the ones to avoid:

• Canned foods with lots of sodium
• White breads and pastas made with refined white flour, which are not as healthy as those made with whole grains
• Packaged high-calorie snack foods, like chips and cheese snacks
• High-fat convenience foods, like cans of ravioli
• Frozen fish sticks and frozen dinners
• Packaged cakes and cookies
• Boxed meal mixes
• Sugary breakfast cereals
• Processed meats

(Source About.com)

4. Reduce your Fat Intake: Fat contains twice the caloric density of carbohydrates and protein, so limit the amount that you consume. Fill your diet with lean protein (chicken with no skin, fish, egg whites, and leaner beef) and carbohydrates from plants and whole grains.

5. Add Fiber to your Diet: Two great things about fiber: it keeps everything in your stomach and digestive system moving – keeps you nice and regular. Secondly, foods high in fiber fill you up and help curb hunger pains. Check-out the Mayo Clinic chart of food high in fiber to know what to eat from now on. You’ll find fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds listed.

Just by following these tips, you will find that you are able to lose weight quickly and effectively, while ensuring that you are still healthy and able to keep doing everything you usually do activity-wise. This helps to ensure that not only are you able to continue losing weight, but you are able to enjoy yourself while doing it. These quick weight loss tips are a sure way to help get you on track towards the weight you desire.

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Jonas Deffes, New Orleans Exercise Specialist

Provides the therapeutic benefits of health and exercise at companies and events throughout New Orleans along with his very popular New Orleans Boot Camp for women. I am very serious about building long-term relationships, achieving positive results and upholding my commitment to excellence.

I started watching the Biggest Loser two seasons ago and when I heard about the Pound for Pound Challenge, I thought it was one of the most wonderful idea/program/challenge I’d ever heard…but until last night, I had not pledged in the challenge.

Yesterday was the premier of The Biggest Loser – Season 9 and when they started to talk about the Pound for Pound Challenge, I jumped on Twitter.  I need to lose 20lbs  – I really can’t think of anything more motivating and inspirational than to know that losing 20lbs will help feed those who suffer from hunger in the Greater New Orleans area.

The Pound for Pound challenge is really simple

Pledge to lose weight at PFPChallenge.com between December 8, 2009 – June 30, 2010

Lose Weight & Feed Your Community. For every pound you pledge, The Pound For Pound Challenge will donate 14¢ to Feeding America® – enough to deliver one pound of groceries to a local food bank. Maximum donation of $800,000.

Local Food bank for New Orleans: The local food bank for New Orleans who will receive the gift of pounds of food is the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana

The one common denominator for people served through Second Harvest is HUNGER. Poor families and single parents with infants at nutritional risk face the day-to-day dilema of feeding their children. The newly unemployed find themselves in an unknown situation in providing food for their families. The elderly need a nutritionally balanced diet to maintain their health. Second Harvest Food Bank can help.

Current Status

As of 10pm last night for New Orleans – 8,406 pounds were pledged by 247 team members. Louisiana actually went from 32^nd place tonight to 30^th place – would love to see it in the top 15.

As of last night – the people who answered the challenge on Twitter are:

shercole @befitnola I pledged 25

nolamaven @befitnola I pledge 5 lbs!

BrookeAshleyB @befitnola i just pledged to lose 15lbs….i’m gonna count on you to keep me motivated

JenZenator @befitnola My husband is going to do it with me! We’re thinking a Sat or Sun weigh in.

Congratulations to all who have pledged – you are changing your life and helping feed someone in desperate need!!

It would be great to find the other 242 people who have pledged so that we can all connect, support and help each other.

I invite all those taking the challenge to join the Pound for Pound Challenge New Orleans Group and/or the Be Fit NOLA Facebook Group so we can communicate with each other.

Of those who join Be Fit NOLA to get this done – I will keep updates of our progress on this blog and twitter.  Ideally, we’ll find a way to get together once a week for weight in and in-person support, get-to-know each other, workouts etc.

I’m really excited about this and I hope you are too! If you haven’t pledged – GO DO IT and leave a comment letting us know how many pounds you’ve pledged.

I will make sure the Be Fit NOLA blog is kept with quality content to help us all make this happen!

I moved to New Orleans on January 5^th, 2009 from the Northern VA/DC area.  When I moved here I was about 15 pounds heavier than what I wanted to be.  It was a New Year and a new beginning and I was motivated and set on losing the extra weight…so although the city and it’s fabulously enticing foods were trying real hard to tempt me – I was able to resist. I lost 12 pounds in a few short months and by May ’09 – I was quite happy with myself.  Unfortunately, I did not keep the weight off.

A few things happen. First, I started to feel all the hard work that went into losing the weight; my elbows and left foot started to hurt and overtime, they hurt a lot more.  Next, I got engaged to the man of my dreams and he moved to New Orleans. Injuries, Love, New Orleans and living in the French Quarter…turned out to be a solid recipe for putting on some pounds.

Do you know how easy it is to eat out when you live in the French Quarter? One Saturday, not too long ago, we ate out for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The only small saving grace is that we were walking everywhere.  Eating out is the almighty culprit to unhealthy eating – the only thing that gets slimmer eating out that much is your wallet.  We haven’t much cared or worried about how much we’ve been eating out because…well, we’re like two newlyweds on an everlasting honeymoon in the French Quarter.  We’ve been fully embracing and loving our lives in the Quarter. (Thankfully neither of us are drinkers – those extra calories would certainly have done me in much sooner)

Since before adolescence, I’ve been running and working out pretty intensely but with the injuries that I have, the only way to actually heal has been to take 100% time off from all exercising.  Depressing. Not working out has been demoralizing and depressing. I am, like many people (particularly women) an emotional eater. With depression came the chocolate cravings.

I know firsthand that you can both easily lose and gain weight in New Orleans. Like any other place in the world, it boils down to will power, saying “No” and making healthy decisions.  I’ll admit the temptations are much greater and at times the healthy alternatives are more difficult to find but where there’s a will there’s a way.

My goal is to lose 20 pounds in 2010.  I’ll log in my progress, challenges, observations, advice and recommendations as I go about losing the weight.