I admit. I LOVE watching Dr. Oz. He’s so informative and brings to light a lot of our health issues….especially weight gain!

Have you ever taken his Real Age quiz?? I have!

Find out your real age here.

Below are some of his weight loss commandments.

—

With obesity reaching “biblical” proportions, Dr. Mehmet Oz will share his “10 Commandments of Weight Loss” on The Dr. Oz Show this Friday, March 12^th.   Some of his Commandments include:

• Thou shalt not wear pants that stretch.
• Thou shalt not eat meat that walks on 4 legs more than once a week.
• Thou shalt not eat while standing up or in a car.
• Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s plate nor sneak bites from it.

Watch his informative show on Friday for the rest of his commandments!

Listen to the doctor!

I really enjoyed writing about this inspirational woman below!
—
MAX MUSCLE ‘SAVED MY LIFE’
By: Maria Kang

Robin Decker was losing the battle to anorexia and a painful past. But with max muscle’s help, she is now a rising star.

Everyone has a story. Some people gained weight because they were called fat in elementary. Some became complacent during college or lost motivation after having kids. Then there are the minor few who can resonate with the turbulent story of Robin Decker.

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Robin, 33, was an active child who enjoyed sports. While she was never classified as overweight, her negative body image escalated when she was teased for her muscular build at the young age of 8. That distinct memory marks the beginning of her life long battle with anorexia. “I began counting calories and trying to get skinny. And, even though I’ve recovered from the cycle of starvation, it always stays with me. Anorexia never goes away,” confided Robin. Her parents’ divorce and constant moving created an unstable external and internal environment for her.

At 5-foot-4, Robin’s weight would at times stand healthy at 125 pounds or plummet dangerously to 97 pounds. While in middle school, she got pregnant. Robin’s choices, which led to her battles with anorexia and promiscuity, were plagued by deep-seeded past issues she had never recovered from. Privately, she followed the genetic path of a mother who not only suffered from an eating disorder, but also dealt with a personal history of sexual abuse. Like her mother, Robin found herself victim to her father’s sexual abuse and as a result developed self-hatred and extreme insecurity. “My addiction to being intimate with others was because I always related sex with love,” she said. read the rest of the article here.

FABULOUS AT FIFTY
By: Maria Kang

Paula Fuller, 51, had all the warning signs. She was stressed. She wasn’t exercising or watching her diet. She had a mini-stroke. She had no stamina…and as a result – she was taking a lot of medication.

So, she decided to make a choice. She quit it all cold turkey. Instead of taking five different pills for cholesterol, blood thinners and pre-diabetes, she decided to take a chance and create a life without medication.

Born in Palmdale, California, Paula was considered a skinny kid who enjoyed dance, acrobatics, softball, basketball and track. She married young and had three kids before the age of 30. “I didn’t lose the baby weight,” confides Paula. “I gained more weight after each pregnancy.” While she was active as a child, she admits becoming more of a spectator than a participant as she raised her kids and worked as an elementary school teacher. Eventually, her weight ballooned to 202 pounds, a heavy load on her 5-foot-5 frame.

Paula experienced a small taste of success three years ago when she dieted her way down to 160 pounds, but eventually she gained her weight back because she lacked exercise, supplementation and motivation. Frustrated, she turned to her best friend, Debbie Prosser, a woman she met at church five years ago. While they didn’t have much in common, their personalities instantly clicked. They moved in together and decided to start a fitness plan together. Read the rest here.

Go Paula!

REAL LIFE

A BETTER MOMMY

By: Maria Kang

Heidy Champagne stopped the endless dieting cycle and changed her lifestyle for good.

Heidy Champagne of Layton, Utah, will adamantly claim she was “born and bred to worry about the weight on scale.” She’s experienced almost every diet in her 31 years of living. So just like the majority of people in January 2009, she decided to make a resolution to lose weight. She put herself on a strict diet of one shake for lunch, another for dinner, then a meal at dinner. One week into the diet plan however, she was already starving! While she lost eight pounds that week, she had a “failure’s mentality” and knew that while this diet provided short-term weight loss, eventually she would fail herself once again if she stayed with this unrealistic meal plan.

Like many dieters, Heidy wasn’t dieting to change her lifestyle. She dieted to lose weight. After a few months of following a strict diet and achieving significant weight loss, she would continue her old eating habits and gain everything back. In addition to having a “failure’s mentality” and not permanently changing her lifestyle, like many people who struggle with unhealthy habits, she was also an emotional eater and food addict.

When Heidy married at 19, she weighed 150 pounds, a good size for her 5-foot-6 frame. However, after the birth of her first child she weighed 220 pounds and continued to gain and lose 45 pounds with each of her four children now ages 10, 7, 6 and 4. She didn’t work out, she lived on McDonald’s drive through and had an outrageous sweet tooth.

Read the rest here.

I’m going to start publishing articles of Real Life transformations I write about monthly for Max Muscle Sports and Fitness magazine. I hope you will find inspiration, encouragement and motivation in these people!

–

REAL LIFE

LEADER OF THE PACK

By: Maria Kang

Phil Odekirk started his weight loss journey three years ago, but needed the extra push of a contest to head to the front of the pack.

For some people, a photo of themselves overweight motivates them to set a new fitness goal. For people like James “Phil” Odekirk, 46, it was a photo he saw four years ago taken when he was 28 and in the best shape of his life that motivated him to plan a new lifestyle. Phil recalls, “I decided right then that I needed to lose 40 pounds. I gave myself four years to do it. I wanted to change my habits slowly so that I would ingrain a new lifestyle.”

At 6-foot-3, Phil’s weight fluctuated between 250 to 260 throughout his 30s and early 40s. However, he knew that if he didn’t get in shape during his 40s, he would have a hard time losing weight as he got older. So he took pictures, posted them and made a “no excuse” plan to lose the excess weight.

Phil began working out early in the morning in his home gym training six days a week and performing “double days,” training both morning and evening, four days a week. He switched his workout routine dependent on mood, season and contest prep. He used variety in his workouts, switching from distance running, trail runs, hiking hills, intervals, track workouts, swimming and full body lifting.

For his diet plan, Phil stayed away from the 950-calorie-a-slice small meat pizza, one of the items his small restaurant company sells in one of his 18 mall food court locations. Instead he ate six to seven meals a day consisting of 30 percent protein, 25 percent fat and 45 percent carbohydrates. His weekly consumption included egg whites, protein pancakes, egg sandwiches, baked chicken, chicken tacos, chicken soup, chicken chili, tuna sandwiches, bananas, apples, oranges, mixed green salads, rice and smaller amounts of red meats. Depending on his activity level, on a daily basis he consumed anywhere between 2,800 to 3,400 calories. read the rest here.