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I haven’t been through the Biggest Loser auditions yet, but I have been researching about the auditions.

Also, I have been receiving emails from folks that went to last weeks audition in Florida, and I’ve also read articles about the audition process in years past. Here’s the audition process:

1. Line up at the entrance to audition.
2. Wait.
3. Receive one page application and be placed in a group of aprx. 10-15 people.
4. Wait.
5. Wait a little longer.
6. Be taken back into the audition area where you sit at a table with your group and a casting director. The casting director may ask a question and have everyone discuss it, or they might get everyone to give a very brief intro about themselves (name, age, where they’re from, etc.). They will also ask you to mail in a casting video.
7. That’s it. You wait a looooong time in line and sit down for 10 minutes with a casting director.

You better make that 10 minutes count!!!!

Here’s my Biggest Loser audition best practices based on all the videos I’ve watched and articles that I’ve read on auditioning:

1. Show Up – Don’t be scared. Everyone that is auditioning has the same fears that you do. Some people have said that waiting in the audition line changed their lives. They got to meet other people going through the same emotions that they are going through, and as a result, they used this to fuel their motivation to finally get the weight off.
2. Dress Nice – Don’t show up to the auditions in your pajamas or five year old gym shorts. Dress up like you’re going on a job interview. Also, make sure your clothes are pressed and neat. The casting people do not like sloppiness!
3. Have Good Hygiene – This one’s pretty obvious, but I saw this mentioned in pretty much every article I’ve read and every video I’ve seen on auditioning. So, do the basics: take a bath, shave, wash your hair, brush your teeth, put on deodorant etc. Be sure to comb your hair (this goes with the sloppiness bit). It’s a good idea to take some sugar free breath mints with you. Gum might be okay, but it might be a turn off if you’re smacking away during the interview. Be careful with after shave, cologne, and perfume, it’s probably best to not use it because some people are very sensitive to strong smells.
4. Think of the viewers – The casting directors are looking for people to put on a reality TV show. What will people find interesting about you? It appears that most contestants that appear on the show have some sort of interesting story.
5. Personality – The casting directors are looking for personality. You must be outgoing!!
6. DON’T COMPLAIN -The audition process is what it is. Everyone there is going through the same process. Nobody, including the casting directors, wants to hear you complain about waiting!!
7. Know a little about the show. – At least know who the key people of the show are: the host and trainers. Also, it’s a good idea to at least know who the winner was from last season.
8. Have fun!! – Meet people in line, take picture, and have a good time. Like I mentioned in #1, so many people have said that the biggest loser auditions changed their lives!!!!
9. Be prepared to not make it on – I have experienced this one first hand. I was so desperate to get on to another weight loss reality show that I cried and cried when I didn’t make it. What are you going to do if you don’t make it? Think about this: If you can go on a television show and bust your ass for twelve weeks to lose weight, what’s to stop you from changing a few things in your life RIGHT NOW??!! – Also, they are doing two seasons of BL per year, so they will be auditioning in approximately another 6-8 months. You have time to lose weight and prepare for the next audition!!! NEVER GIVE UP!!!!

I asked Danny to write up what he told me this morning, and I want to share it with you. Here goes:

Regardless of our goals, be it to lose weight, run a mile, run 10 miles, work out 3 times a week, make more sales calls, whatever, each day, each 24 hour period plays a vital role…To build to running a mile you may have to go out and run 1 lap each day for 5 days….to lose weight it would be to eat smart AND exercise – each DAY, each day that you successfully complete that component, look in the mirror and tell yourself, “Well done” …. It’s a cliche, but the old saying “nothing succeeds like success” works! Nobody else may be aware how hard you are working to achieve your goal, but YOU know. So tell yourself each day, reinforce the ‘good’ that you did EVERY DAY! Look in the mirror at the end of the day when you are brushing your teeth and tell yourself, “Good job”…reinforce the GOOD, each day, every day. If you screw up, have a bad day, drop the ball – whatever, tell yourself, “Today’s gone, just a speed bump, tomorrow – back in the saddle” and do NOT look back. Each morning tell yourself, “today’s the day” and if you string enough good days together, regardless of your goal, one day today WILL be the day! Make you believe in you, one day at a time!

Your body is a remarkable machine – it adapts to whatever stress it is presented and OVER TIME adapts to meet that stress. People start lifting weights, they aren’t bulging with new muscles in 3 days, you start a diet, you don’t lose your weight in a week. You begin a running program, it takes 7 weeks to build from zero to a 5K (doing it smartly). As you progress in any physical discipline the body adapts, but it also ‘learns’ to operate in the most efficient manner possible. So we need to continually ’surprise’ it with easy days and more difficult days (work out wise). For ex. if a man goes out and runs 5 miles a day he will burn up an average of 800 calories +/- each run. After a while the body will adapt and he’ll only be burning 400 or so each run. So keep variety – run 3 miles one day, 5 another, then 6, then 4 and AVERAGE 25 miles a week! One day lift heavy (heavy weight/low reps) and the next session reverse that (low weights – high reps). The body responds best when it is continually ’surprised’. For ex. if your run hard one day, easy another, long another, etc. the body will gear up for max energy burn for EVERY run because it doesn’t know what’s coming…keep it guessing for best results…..

To learn more about Danny, visit his website at: http://www.rununiversity.com/meetdanny.html

Hey everybody,

This is just a quick check in to let you know that I’ve recovered from the crud and that I’m back on track. I’ve already put in two good workouts this week and look forward to my next one in the morning.

Now, I need you to do me a favor and not look at my weigh in from last week. Due to feeling cruddy, I gained just a little weight. I’ll also note that you probably shouldn’t look at tomorrow’s weight in. The number will definitely be smaller than last week’s number, but I’m not gonna be happy until I get back down to 498 pounds, my lowest weight from last year. Anyhow, I’m back on track and I’m feeling good.

Finally, I hope to post a book review of The End of Overeating by David A. Kessler, MD tomorrow, but I might not be able to post it until later this week.

Have a great hump day!!

SHV

I have been a bad boy this weekend, but it’s okay because I’m sick. I’ve got a sore throat and chest cold. I have eaten a lot of stuff this weekend to sooth my sore throat. Shame on me. Ha ha ha ha ha!!! My weigh in will not be a good one this Wednesday.

I went to a doc in-the-box this morning, and I don’t have strep, but he did prescribe antibiotics. So now I must be patient and let the meds do their thang.

Dish Network

I finally switched over from cable to satillate. I decided to go with Dish Network because they have the lowest prices and the best DVRs. The tech came out and installed the service last Wednesday, the day after I placed my order.

I was very impressed with the tech that performed the install. He quickly installed the dish and did a neat job with the wiring. There were no loose wires and all connections were clean. I could tell that he enjoyed what he was doing. I even hired him to come back out today and run a network cable for me. I knew he wouldn’t run it when performing the dish install because it’s outside the scope of installing a dish. He quickly ran the cable in the crawl space underneath the house, and we got things running.

I needed the network cable for the slingbox, a network appliance that allows me to watch television anywhere through the internet.

SPEED Channel

One of the primary reasons for this upgrade to DISH was to get the Speed channel. I have missed out on a lot of NASCAR races and coverage because I didn’t have Speed, but no more.

This weekend I watched both the Rolex 24 at Daytona, a 24 hour endurance race for the Grand Am Road Racing league, and I also watched  the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown in Irwindale, California, a race for the all-stars of the NASCAR divisions below the Truck Series.

My boy Moses Smith, driver of the #16 Hasa Pool Products Toyota Camry NASCAR Camping World West Series car, did not finish the Toyota All-Star race due to damage from a wreck, but I look forward to watching him in upcoming races.

Have a great week!!

I was hoping for more, but this morning I weighed in at 510 lbs, which is a 2 lb loss from last week. At least the numbers are moving the correct direction.

I have got to work out more, but I am pleased that my eating is going very well. I will start walking more when the weather gets better, but I need to get some walking in for the upcoming 5k race that I’m walking in February.

I don’t know why I’m using the cold as an excuse not to run. My buddy Randy here in Birmingham runs approximately 4 to 7 miles a day. He uses tracking devices like a Garmin GPS watch to track his runs, and then he posts them on facebook. It’s encouraging to log on to facebook to see what Randy’s doing every day.

Do any of you pre measure your food for the day in the morning? I am thinking of doing this. Like, pre measure snacks and meals, and when it’s time to eat, just grab one of the plastic containers. This way I’ll know how many calories and such that I’m eating.

Also, what do you do to motivate yourself to exercise. Lately I have a bad habit of thinking that I’m too tire to go lift weights. I’ve reduced my weight lifting down to just 3 sets of 3 exercises to get back in the groove of exercising, and I feel so much better after I workout.

Aside from those minor issues, I’m losing weight, and that’s my main objective. Things are going very well at work and I’m looking forward to the future.

Last night I attended our monthly Make A Wish Junior Board meeting, and I look forward to our annual Wine for Wishes fundraiser at the end of April. It will be on Thursday, April 29th at the Wine Loft in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. It’s a fun event for a great cause. I’m thinking about applying to coordinate a wish, of course I won’t do this until I lose a good bit of weight, but I think it will be a great way to help someone in their time of need and it’ll also be a great life experience.

Last week I purchased some avocados because they were ten cents each. The problem was I didn’t know what to do with them. So, I asked my friends on facebook what I should do, and they gave me some fantastic suggestions. Here’s what I ended up making:

Avacado and Roma Tomato sandwich with homemade chicken noodle soup.

Closeup of the goodness.

I also did another quick workout this morning including a bench press and dead lift. I can’t remember the name of the other exercise. It’s similar to a reverse curl.

Have a great playoff Sunday!!

Alright, I FINALLY worked out!! I just did 3 lifts. My goal right now is to do a little consistently, rather than do big workouts inconsistently.

Tomorrow I hope to do a little walking. The 5k is next month.

I am so ready for warm weather. This cold crap has to go.

I lost four pounds last week. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before I’m back in the 400’s. My lowest weight last year was 498 pounds and I’m ready to go even lower.

Bring on the beach!!!!!!

Panama City Beach

So I have doing well on my nutrition the past couple of weeks. I discovered that I like raw carrots and celery. Also, I’ve discovered some fantastic salad recipies. I’ve done so well that I’m gonna stop logging my food everyday. Now, I’ve just got to get my a** to exercise.

I have been wanting to go to the beach for a few years now. I went about five years ago with some friends and had a blast. So I researched some prices and discovered that I can afford a weekend trip to the gulf. I can drive there in about 5-6 hours, so hotel, food, and gas for a Friday-Sunday trip should cost no more than $500 (I can probably get it down to $400, but I included a little padding.)

So, I’ve come up with my own reward for when I reach the 200 lb loss milestone, which will be when I get down to 432 lbs: I’m going to the beach.

If I can average 5lbs a week, I can be at the beach by the middle of May. Which will be perfect because the kiddies will still be in school, so no overcrowded beaches. I might just do a three day/two night trip during the week. No crowds, and the hotel should be cheaper.

In a nutshell: no weight loss, no beach.

I know one thing, I’m not staying here:

Fell asleep before blogging again.

I tried a new salad dressing. It was two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, teaspoon of EVOO, and tablespoon of Dijon mustard. I tossed it with romaine lettuce and low fat feta cheese. It was GOOD!!

More later this afternoon for Sunday’s post.

Food

Breakfast: Shredded Wheat, skim milk, and clementine

Snack: Granola bar

Lunch: salad

Snack: Jello

Supper: ham and cheese sandwich, southwest vegetable soup with shrimp

Drinks: a little water and a couple cups of coffee with splenda

Exercise

None

I fell asleep last night before blogging, so I’m posting it this morning.

I’m tired this morning.

Have a great Saturday!!

Food

Breakfast: Shredded Wheat, skim milk, and clementine

Snack: kashi granola bar

Lunch: 2 ham sandwiches and wheat thins

Snack: kashi granola bar

Pre-Supper Snack: carrots and hummus

Supper: homemade chicken soup with rice and sugar free jello

Drinks: a little water and a couple cups of coffee with splenda

Exercise

None