Slow Down and Savor your food!

If it takes you less than a few minutes to devour your meal, then it's time for you to slow down. When you eat fast, you're not giving enough time for the brain to process that you're no longer hungry and you end up eating more than your body needs. Enjoy every bite, savor your food.

If eating slowly is something that you struggle with, make sure to count how many times you chew. Chew each bite of food for about 30- 35 times. Most of us don't even chew 10 times before swallowing. Chewing is the first step of the digestive system and is crucial to weight loss. By chewing slowly, you will feel satisfied and you won't feel the need to go for seconds and your weight loss will definitely be more successful!

Jenn shares her learnings - can't miss these!

I wanted to express my thanks for the fantastic results I’ve achieved with your programs. I started out with one-on-one-training, incorporated the Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp, and then happily joined your Slim and Strong classes.

It’s been a little over a year and I’ve lost 30+ pounds, reshaped my body, and reduced my body fat percentage dramatically.

But I have to say that one of the most valuable lessons you taught me was much more subtle and it had to do with changing my mindset – letting go of my black and white thinking about fitness and weight management. You see, I’m not perfect, but I realize now that I had always expected myself to be. In the past, my prior expectation of ALWAYS staying on top of my diet and exercise, of being perfect, would inevitably sabotage my efforts – I was either all in, or all out. If I messed up… abandoning my healthy eating habits or skipping workouts…it would result in the “Oh forget it! I can’t do this…it’s too hard” mentality. It was self-induced guilt at its worst and resulted in extended periods of poor choices and several pounds of weight gain, followed by months of a very rigid diet and exercise regime which was never sustainable… cycling endlessly for years. The last straw was realizing I had gained 30 pounds in a 9-month stretch at the end of 2007 and into 2008.

Today, I think about things a bit differently. I occasionally “fall off the wagon” , but rather than feeling guilty for not being perfect, I expect it and I can plan my reaction to it! And when I expect it and accept it, a funny thing happens…I can either avoid it altogether or I can at least recover and get back on track much more easily than I did in the past. Life is really messy sometimes – insane work hours which pump up my cravings to obscene levels – must have cake!; or I’m on the road and the hotel has absolutely nothing healthy on the menu – bring on the pasta!; then I’m so exhausted with work that I can’t get off the couch – I can’t possibly squeeze in a workout! We’ve probably all been there in one way or another.

Normally, my slips last a few days at most, but very recently I had a 6-week long “bender” that looked exactly like what I just mentioned. Work had gone nuts and life felt completely out of my control. Being conscientious about what I was eating and how much I was working out was the last thing on my mind. Eleven pounds later rational thought finally kicked in. Rather than guilt myself into another chocolate binge, I accepted that I screwed up, forgave myself, chalked it up to a learning experience, and the next day went back to my good, healthy eating habits and brought my old exercise routines back into my life. Here’s the real kicker – once I’d made that decision the rest of it came easily! The cravings evaporated and in one week I lost 6.4 pounds and 6 inches!!! All by simply returning to healthy eating and working out 4 times that week. What an eye-opener! I had a big slip, but I got back on track, and saw rapid results.

So, here are the greatest lessons I’ve learned, and can pass on:

Don’t expect absolute perfection – it’s a set up that is unrealistic and will sabotage you in the end.

Plan in advance for the challenging times – staying on track is much easier when you think about how you’ll respond when challenges to your diet and fitness program present themselves – cravings, lack of time, temptation. How can you respond in a healthy way? What small changes can you make and still stay on track?

Accept and anticipate that “life will take over” from time to time and you WILL slip-up. Dust yourself off and just pick up where you left off with your next meal or workout.

Guilt is wasted emotion. Instead, focus on the 2-3 things you learned about yourself when you “slipped” and apply those new lessons next time you feel like you’re about to “fall off the wagon.”

Build in your “cheat” moments. It’s much easier to maintain healthy eating when you do this. You’re not "depriving" yourself and you’ve got some yummy treats to look forward to…absolutely guilt-free. Enjoy life!

So, Ariane, thanks for everything...and a special thanks for getting me to the point where I truly believe that life-long fitness and weight management is actually achievable.

Update by Ariane: Jenn is currently pursuing her Personal Trainer Certification to make the move from corporate to health and fitness. Talk about coming full circle!

Another incredible success story from Ben

While i didn't attend week 2, I did continue to follow the carb/protein/fat ratio advice that Ariane gave us, and that nutritional advice is going to stay with me forever (That and those red resistance bands). I followed the nutrition recommendations rigorously and worked out in the evening. Combined with the intense workouts from the first week, I lost 8 lbs during the 2 week bootcamp and have lost more since. As a vegan, it's been an interesting challenge trying to get the carbs/protein/fat ratios just right. I find that i'm eating a proportionally higher fat diet than recommended because i've cut so many typical vegan staples out, but so far i'm still losing weight! Moving the carbs consumption down has been huge. I have also tried to follow Ariane's advice to include resistance workouts with cardio. I am still the worst at push ups in our entire boot camp class, perhaps in bootcamp history, and situps, fuggedaboutit! But i'm working on them.


I'm also following Ariane's recommendation to drink at least 3 liters of water a day. I don't know what it's doing exactly but it makes me feel good. Maybe it helps gives the body a satiated feeling so i am less hungry, or maybe i just figure it's helping keep things move along in the body.

At the beginning of class, we were asked to state our goals. I met one of my goals way early. I've gone from not being able to jog for more than 1.5 minutes without having to walk to recover, to being able to run 3 miles (5K) in just over 30 minutes without stopping (hit this milestone yesterday and repeated it tonight).

Although i'm a vegan, i actually am not a huge veggie fan, and I have typically hated salads. Surprisingly i am actually eating salads now as a part of lunch and sometimes as part of dinner and am actually enjoying them. Mostly because i've actually found salads i like.

Ariane told me my snacking on trail mix was too sugary so i dropped the trail mix and kept the nuts (almonds mostly). Once I'm at my target weight and feel i've stabilized, it will be interesting to see if i occasionally allow myself certain forbidden foods--I'd list them here but i'm not sure if that would be bad manners!

The Brooklyn Bridge Boot Camp - A Video by Columbia University Students