The Biggest Loser...

Back in January I had mentioned Charlie's 8 week "Biggest Loser" competition at work. Well it came to a close and boy did he put up a good fight, leading in first place for the majority of the time. However, towards the end, another coworker pulled ahead with weight loss that Charlie just could not beat. Unless of course he wanted to dangerously restrict his calories. I am proud of his second place finish and he still received a whopping $295!

So his total weight loss ended up being 32 pounds! Weighing in at 234 and getting down to 202 for his final weigh in. He of course also played the game...wearing heavier clothes on his weigh in day and drinking and eating tons before hand. And then at the end he did just the opposite by wearing his lightest work clothes, cleansing his system, and doing a 24 hour fast to get rid of any water weight.

What impressed me most about this whole weight loss battle was how motivated and committed Charlie was. He used a program called Livestrong to help keep him on track. It really is a neat site where you can input your goal weight, the timeframe you want to lose it and it will tell you how many calories to take in daily. Of course it's only as effective as it's user and Charlie was completely obsessive compulsive about each entry. In fact he used a food scale to weigh out the appropriate servings of food for each meal, imputed all his food, and made sure to exercise daily as well. He even went as far as to try and have a balanced ratio of carbs-fat-and protein. I must say I could never do what he did. I think I would rather run an extra couple miles.

And as OCD as the whole process was, it really opened all our eyes on nutrition, appropriate serving sizes, and in general got Charlie on track to a healthier lifestyle. Charlie also has a family history of heart attacks, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol so I am thrilled to see these recent changes take place.

Now that the competition is over Charlie is still using the Livestrong program, but now it's a source to help him maintain his current weight. He also started up P90X and is definitely feeling the aches and pains of the intense workouts, but loves it. I can see the changes too and will make sure to get before and after shots once he is done with the 90 day workout. I told him his motivation now is me posting pics of his "before" body on our blog. I'm sure I will have some major payback coming my way post-baby #3! Below is a video of the kids working out with Daddy. Aniela especially loves being with Charlie when he is working out. She will literally stay with him through the entire workouts and Charlie loves having his little girl as a work-out buddy.