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TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Ali Vincent

When do we know when we need to take it easy or when we need to bring in the big guns aka doctors.  

Posted in Believe It Be It, diet, exercise, fitness, Live Big, Mother's & daughter's, weightloss, workout

Diet For The Day

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Ali Vincent

Have you ever had that special occasion that you wanted to lose a few extra pounds before attending? Well I know I have and continue to have. I think special occasions are great opportunities to reboot our healthy living. A time to check in and make sure that we are on top of all our choices. However if you switch up your lifestyle completely just to lose a few pounds you may feel better for the day but as soon as you celebrate and go back to your habits prior you will gain your weight back and probably more.

Why? Well there are a few reasons why. Many people think that if they eat a very limited amount of calories they will lose weight. This is true, the problem is that your body now thinks it starving. When your body goes into starvation mode it’s natural instinct is to survive. Survival for our bodies means that they will start storing the next time there is food. We operate on a feast and famine cycle so if there are extremely lows and highs of calorie intake our bodies will get as much as it can take during the highs so that they have reserves during the lows. 

Another reason is that often the “lose a few pounds super quick” techniques are just another form of dehydration. What does this mean? It means that as soon as your replace the water you lost you will be back where you started. This is more of an instant reaction. Whether it’s from some type of cleanse which can dehydrate your body from flushing your system. Or if you have the late night plastic body suit purchase that you wear to the gym the week before. Or if you have the time and money to go get a body wrap at a spa, you will loose some weight or some inches but don’t try to fit in your dress the next day and feel the same way in it.

These types of techniques are not what I’m talking about when I said I think special occasions can be a great opportunity to jump start or reboot healthy habits. I’m talking about setting a goal and implementing exercise and healthy eating choices months before not the week before. On Live Big With Ali Vincent, you get to meet Dominique who is getting ready for a day she’s dreamt of for years..... her wedding day. Of course Dominique wants to feel amazing walking down the aisle. However she wants to jumpstart her new life as husband and wife in a healthy way.

Check out to see what worked for Dominique or will the wedding pressure prove to be too much to handle? CLICK HERE

ali xo 

Posted in Believe It Be It, clothing, diet, exercise, fitness, Live Big, weightloss, workout

The Way We Were

Posted on June 08, 2013 by Ali Vincent

I can’t tell you how many countless people I have met throughout the years who share with me stories about when they were younger or when they were in high school. Of times when they were succeeding in many different ways whether is was through athletics, academics, social experiences, young love or all the above. Trust me I get it, I think that I was probably one of the biggest culprit of statements that started “when I was younger.....” 

I bring this up because on Live Big With Ali Vincent you are going to meet Chez Starbuck who had a pretty incredible childhood that as he entered his adult years it was somewhat hard to live up to and the pounds started to pack on. Chez was a child Disney star. As you can imagine for Chez it was difficult going from a kid use to all eyes on him to becoming an adult uncomfortable, even in a group setting, with any eyes on him. Even somewhat embarrassed because he was suppose to “make it” in the showbiz world like many of his fellow disney stars, yet felt he couldn’t because of his weight.

I think like Chez, many of us or I’ll speak for myself, I felt like because of my childhood experiences I was suppose to be something more than where I found myself. I felt disappointed and assumed everyone else was judging me. The truth was that nobody was judging me except for myself. However I couldn’t see that until I started doing something about my weight on The Biggest Loser, a huge source of my self disappointment. You see I was a nationally and internationally ranked synchronized swimmer in my youth and never imagined I would ever have an issue with my fitness or physical abilities. I was that girl that a lot of things came naturally to so in an essence although I trained extensively I really never had to work for many of my successes. 

This allowed me to never really get to own those success either and when the time came to work for something I wasn’t sure I knew how to so I would opt out because I feared failure. This fear of failing created exactly that. Slowly but surely throughout my adult life I opted out of many things that I would have loved experiencing. By protecting myself from the fear of not living up to the winner of my childhood I was failing in life because I was living small and safe which was adding up to complacency and inevitable death. I know that sounds pretty heavy, no pun intended, however not living up to your potential is dying. The opposite of living is dying and living partially is allowing yourself to partially die. It becomes an vicious cycle of events, for me the disappointment led me to try to fill the voids created in disappointment with food. I was desperately trying to feel full, complete. Which packed on the pounds leading to more disappointment. 

By working on my weight issues I started living again which filled my with pride and accomplishment 1 minute at a time. I started to own what I was creating because not even I could take it away from myself. As I started to get stronger I realized that my sport didn’t make me the accomplished athlete of my childhood it was me that did. Yes I was lucky to have natural talent and opportunity but it was I who put in the time minute after minute. And when I looked back and told the truth I failed hundreds of times practice after practice way before I ever had the opportunity to win. In fact showing up was winning. Failing was winning. Because I was actively living and nobody even my self could invalidate that. 

Like Chez I found myself through living in the moment and looking into the future not worrying about living “up to” anything especially things in the past. I hope you enjoy Chez’s story, I know I learned a lot about myself through sharing his journey....plus he’s pretty easy on the eyes which always makes things a little better ;) To watch full episode CLICK HERE

xo- Ali

Posted in Believe It Be It, diet, exercise, fitness, Live Big, weightloss, workout

Somewhere in the Middle

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Ali Vincent

I am scared and excited all at the same time. For 5 years now people have looked to me to share my experiences and lessons learned as a result of being on the Biggest Loser. And I have done so with humility, trying to put into perspective that it was a extraordinary experience that was as far from reality as can be. Reality is not being taken from your life and having 1 primary focus in life for the time being, well let me step back and speak for myself, it was not my reality.

I thought that I was lucky because of the way my experience was I had the opportunity to experience having such focus while at home. And while I did work and manage my relationships I still had a primary focus of losing as much weight as possible as fast as I could. 

As much as I was successful with that, my life is not one with the primary focus of losing weight and constantly focusing on what I’m eating when. Sure I am probably more conscious about it than those who have never had an issue but it does not define me. I have probably even gone to the opposite end of the spectrum to “prove” if you will that I don’t have to and that I can enjoy what everyone else is. 

Well over the past 5 years this has added up and now I find myself at a point of my life where I am somewhere in the middle. I am not fat by any means and in most respects pretty healthy. However I am heavier than I like to be and I know, without having the exact numbers that my body fat percentage is not where I want it to be!

I want to figure out how to get to the weight and body fat percentage that I feel comfortable in without it being my primary focus but to get there and maintain there through balance. I want to feel beautiful again which I consider to be strong and confident. I don’t want to be somewhere in the middle, mediocre. I want to be fit beyond doubt, I want to know that I can continue to challenge my self physically and emotionally, I want to know that I walk the talk and that it is so evident that not even I can invalidate it. 

So it’s time to address the elephant in the room, yes I have gained weight. I am not proud of it but I am not ashamed either, it is just where I am right now and I am going to change it. Tomorrow I weigh in and I will be documenting and sharing my journey through my show Live Big With Ali Vincent. 

Here we go!

xo-ali

Posted in Believe It Be It, diet, exercise, fitness, Live Big, weightloss, workout