How Jennifer Hudson Lost 80 Pounds

Do you want to know how your favorite Diva lost 80 pounds? Jennifer Hudson was able to lose the extra weight when she focused on her diet, through Weight Watchers, and hired a Personal Trainer to help her get started with an exercise routine. Bottom Line: Diet and Exercise.

“It’s all about self-motivation because at the end of the day, you can have all the trainers and all the money in the world, but if you don’t have that mindset, it’s not possible.” – Jennifer Hudson on Oprah

Jennifer Hudson’s Diet

For Jennifer Hudson, it all started with Weight Watchers, which is basically a support group for those who want to calorie count their way into their skinny jeans.

The great thing about Weight Watchers is that you don’t have to buy a specific brand of food to participate in their program (such as the Special K diet or Slim•Fast), though, they do sell their own Weight Watchers products in the grocery stores. Another positive thing about Weight Watchers is that the program doesn’t completely eliminate an entire food group, such as all carbohydrates or all fruit. Other diets are just not as practical.

A couple of concerns about the Weight Watchers program is that dieters are allowed to eat as much fruit as they want. This may sounds like a wonderful thing, but all foods, including fruit, have their limitations. For those who truly want to lose weight, and unlimited amount of sugar is not ideal, even if the sugar is coming from a healthy source such as a piece of fruit.

Weight Watchers is a glorified calorie counting program that costs you money every month. You don’t need to pay a company to find out how many calories you should be eating. It’s common enough that it’s found free throughout the internet. For a free support group, let your family and friends know about your healthy weight loss goals and have them help support you with your efforts. Again, I just don’t think you need to pay for that.

If Jennifer Hudson found success with Weight Watchers, why not you? Something to consider. She was approached by this company and was offered millions of dollars to endorse their product. Trust me, I am sure that would motivate anyone to lose the extra pounds that they wanted to lose anyways.

Jennifer Hudson’s Exercise Routine

In addition to Weight Watchers diet plan, Jennifer Hudson hired a Celebrity Personal Trainer, Harley Pasternak, to help her start an exercise program that would work for her.

Harley started Jennifer with a 25 minute circuit training routine that included cardio, shoulder presses, lunges, sit ups, and ab exercises for five days a week. As Jennifer progressed, she worked her way up to a 50 minute routine. In addition to a traditional style workout with her trainer, Jennifer also gets in at least 25 minutes of cardio every day.

Jennifer tries to keep her cardio workouts fun, so she will enjoy playing some basketball or even jump roping. You don’t have to be in a gym on an exercise machine to burn calories and lose weight!

I am proud of Jennifer Hudson for learning how to eat well and starting an exercise program to help her become healthy. Yeah, she lost weight – but even if you aren’t trying to lose weight, it’s important for your health to eat right and exercise on a regular basis.

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Image Credits: jenniferhudsonweightlossx.com

Tags: Celebrity, Harley Pasternak, Health, Jennifer Hudson, personal trainer, Weight Loss, Weight Watchers

Win a Signed Copy of Harley Pasternak’s Book!

One lucky reader of ours will receive a signed copy of Harley Pasternak’s latest book, 5 Factor Diet, and a coupon for a free bottle of any Centrum Multivitamin! Keep reading for details on how to enter (it’s pretty quick and easy!)

First of all, do you know who Harley Pasternak is? He is a fitness and nutrition expert and one of the most sought after celebrity trainers! Harley has already been featured on Good Morning America and the Today Show.

Harley has trained many celebs including Megan Fox, Orlando Bloom, Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Katherine Heigl, Jason Segel, Alicia Keys, Jimmy Fallon, Hilary Duff, Halle Berry, and Jessica Simpson- just to name a few!

What is 5 Factor?

The 5 Factor program was created to be an effective way to get you in the best shape of your life – and it’s been proven! Harley has recently worked with Jessica Simpson, and you can see the difference with this starlet – just check out the before and after picture below!

Harley provides tips to help you get started and stay where you want to be! He even encourages you to have one day a week to “indulge”, such as sleeping in or eating a piece of dark chocolate. This technique helps you stay focused and committed for the rest of the week! For more information, check out 5Factor.com

Free Personal Training Session with Harley Pasternak!!!

Centrum® Multivitamins  has recently teamed up with Harley Pasternak to provide tips on living a healthier lifestyle. Through June 22, 2011, consumers are invited to text the word CENTRUM to 89800 to learn how to enter for a chance to win an all expense paid trip to Los Angeles to receive a personal training session with Harley Pasternak. This is another opportunity for you to win something amazing, so go ahead and enter both contests!

SkinnyTwinkie.com Giveaway:

One lucky reader of ours will receive a signed copy of Harley Pasternak’s latest book, 5 Factor Diet, and a coupon for a free bottle of any Centrum Multivitamin!

How to Enter

1) Join this website (through Google Friend Connect) and make a comment on this post. If you are already a member, just log in and make a comment on this post.

Yup, it’s that easy!

Please note: This is a mandatory step if you want to enter into the contest.

Bonus Entry Points

1) Find us on Facebook and “like” our page. We’ll have a post that you can comment on, which will provide you an additional entry point when you comment on it. Nice!

2) If you like to tweet, you should “follow” Skinny Twinkie on twitter! All you need to do is Retweet our tweet on twitter that announces this giveaway, and you will get another entry point.

3) Do you like to blog? If you blog about this contest and link to this giveaway post, provide the link to your blog in the comments section on here (or facebook), and you will have gained another chance to win!

♦♦♦You can give yourself a total of four chances to win! ♦♦♦

Contest Rules and Eligibility

This contest is open to all U.S. residents who are 18 years or older. Void where Prohibited by Law. This is a giveaway, which means you are not obligated to buy anything from anyone.

This contest starts on May 10th 2011 and will end on May12th at 12pm EST.

Skinny Twinkie will use Random.org to choose one winner by picking a random number based on the total number of entries. Skinny Twinkie will draw the winner on May 13th, and the winner will be announced that day on SkinnyTwinkie.com, twitter, and facebook. You must check to see if are the lucky winner!

If you are selected as a winner, please contact editor@SkinnyTwinkie.com to claim your prize. If you do not send an email to us within 48 hours after the winner has been announced, we will choose another winner.

Good luck everyone!!!

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Image Credits: behollywoodfit.com; mallvibes.com

Tags: Celebrity, contest, free product, giveaway, personal trainer

Katy Perry preps for World Tour with Diet and Exercise

So how does one prepare for a World Tour? If you are Katy Perry, who is scheduled for her 95-date “California Dreams” tour, you prepare by starting on a strict diet and exercise routine.

Katy Perry’s Diet

Katy started a diet that consists of eating healthy meals – with the occasional splurge.

“I’m on a meal plan, which absolutely sucks — but on Sundays I get to have a cheat day where I go buck wild and eat In-N-Out Burger”.

Katy Perry’s Exercise

After Katy enjoys her weekly splurge, the 26 year old singer is making sure she doesn’t just stay still after enjoying a burger. Katy definitely keeps herself very busy, stating “I feel like I’m training for the Olympics!”. There’s a reason that weekly splurge isn’t effecting her too much…

“I’ll work out, go to a vocal lesson, run through the entire set at rehearsals, go to dance rehearsal until 10:00 p.m. and then go home and sort through e-mails concerning the production,”  - Katy Perry

Diet and Exercise Health or Weight Loss?

Katy Perry doesn’t seem to be eating healthier or exercising for weight loss – it’s all about getting physically fit and ready for her 9 month long World Tour.  It’s about taking care of your body and overall health, and creating the stamina required to be performing on stage almost every night in front of thousands of fans. Talk about motivation, right?!

Katy Perry’s preparations for her World Tour is a great example of how eating healthy (most of the time) and exercising is important, even if you don’t need to lose weight.

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Image Source: KatyPerry.com

Tags: Celebrity, diet, exercise, Fitness, Health, Katy Perry, Meal Plan, Nutrition, personal trainer

Why you should give Yoga a try

There is a lot of hype about Yoga, and the health benefits of doing Yoga on a regular basis. I have been a bit reluctant to try it out for several reasons. First of all, I like to do cardio works outs that make me sweat (funny how I used to not like that part of exercising), and something where I feel like I am burning a ton of calories and making some progress in my weight loss or maintenance. I tend to do exercises like running, swimming, and the elliptical machine. After those work outs, my body just knows that it worked out. This again shows me that I am making some progress, and I feel good about what I have done. So now back to Yoga. When I think of Yoga, I have to admit, I thought it was just a little boring and maybe a little too easy?

I went to my first Yoga class a couple of months ago. Let’s just say all of my previous thoughts about Yoga were pretty much dissolved. I realized I wasn’t nearly as strong as I thought, and by the end of the class, not only did I sweat because of the amazing workout, but I was calling myself a “pansy” for not being able to do some of the “simple” and “boring” moves that I thought Yoga was all about. By the next day, the way my whole body felt, I knew this was something my body needed and wanted more of.

Not to my surprise, I wanted to do some more research on the benefits of Yoga.

Flexibility

I thought this was a bit of an obvious find, but still wanted to mention it. Not a lot of exercises will help with flexibility like Yoga does, and I believe that by gaining some more flexibility with Yoga, it will help out with your other exercises that you are doing. Worried you aren’t flexible enough? No need to worry. Do the poses the best you can, without causing yourself pain. You will soon find poses you couldn’t do, with time and practice, eventually you can do them. Everyone is at a different level, and you don’t need to feel like you have to be a pro your first time around.

Strength

If you want and all over toned body, Yoga is for you. Remember how I said I felt like a “pansy” after Yoga? There is a good reason for that. You have to use your muscles for the poses, and if you aren’t strong enough just yet, you can be by doing yoga on a regular basis. If you can’t do the pose yet, don’t worry. Keep practicing on a regular basis, and you will find you can start doing poses you couldn’t do a month ago. You can see your progress right before your eyes! If it makes you feel any better, there were strong guys in the class who were still struggling with some of the poses, which leads me to my next benefit of  Yoga.

Balance

Yoga will help you with your balance, which is one of the reasons some guys who were very strong still had some struggles- they were learning how to balance their bodies, and use their muscles in ways they never had to before. You will notice the more you practice these poses using your balancing techniques, you will start to get a little better and better with each practice.

Reduces Stress

Even though your first Yoga experience may be more difficult that you could have imagined, it might just surprisingly be quite relaxing all at the same time. If you are in a class setting, usually the Yoga instructor will put on some soft and relaxing music, and may even dim the lights (depending on type of Yoga). With Yoga you get to focus on breathing, flexing, relaxing, holding positions, all at the same time. If you ever have a tough day at the office, Yoga might be a good way to relieve the stress, which is obviously something good for your body-inside and out.

“Where can I do Yoga?”

-If you have a gym membership, that might just be a great place to start. A lot of gyms will have Yoga classes, as well as others like Spinning, Aerobics, and Dance. Find out what classes your gym offers, and if you are new to Yoga, feel free to talk to the Instructor before or after class and let them know if you have any questions, or if you need help with some of the poses.

-You might want to try a Yoga Training DVD, which is great because if you want something convenient, you can do this in the comfort of your own home. It can be like having your own personal trainer at whatever time of day you want to do Yoga.

-The Internet not only has plenty of reading material on Yoga, but it also includes Yoga videos. Try doing a search on Yoga in your Search Engine, or even go to a site like YouTube for Yoga instructional videos. Just realize the instructor may not be licensed, but still may know what they are talking about. Take it for what it is.

If you haven’t already given Yoga a chance, I urge you to now. If you are already reaping the many benefits of Yoga, feel free to comment about your experiences with Yoga.

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Tags: benefits of yoga, burn more, calories, cardio, dance, elliptical, every day life, exercise, flexibility, gym, gym membership, gymnastics, Healthy, motivational, personal trainer, progress, running, Skinny, spinning class, stay active, strength, sweating, swimming, toned body, training dvd, Weight Loss, working out, Yoga, yoga poses

Don’t buy Temptations!

There is a reason why you are healthy or unhealthy. Duh, right? Well…if it were all so easy, then everyone would be healthy and fit. Reality is most Americans are not healthy. Here are some tips on how you can make sure you are making the healthiest decisions while you are shopping at your local grocery store.

Plan Ahead

Be sure that you come up with a complete meal plan-even one with a little wiggle room! I have noticed that I am the healthiest when I come up with a plan- healthy snacks and all- before I head to the grocery store. Be sure to come up with a grocery list based on your eating habits for the upcoming week, and stick to it!

Buy Yummy foods!

Be sure you enjoy what you are eating! If you aren’t going to look forward to your lunch or your 3:00 snack…what makes you think you are going to stick to your healthy meal plan rather than hitting the vending machines to splurge on your latest craving? If you treat yourself with healthy foods that you love, you are more likely to stick to your planned food.

I love Strawberries. To me, they are a wonderful treat. A dessert! So when I know it’s going to be a tough day sticking to my healthy eating habits, I am sure to include a nice bowl of fresh strawberries in the mix. I have delicious food to look forward to; comes with everything healthy and won’t leave me with any type of regret when putting on my skinny jeans! Moral of the story? Just because you are on a “diet”, doesn’t mean you can’t be happy when it comes to what options you have to eat.

Don’t buy your biggest Temptation!

Be sure to set yourself up for success! When you are at the grocery store, be sure to only buy healthy foods that you will enjoy eating. If you buy chocolate, candy, cakes, cookies, etc and you may think “it’s just a little bit” or “it’s just one”, but you are setting yourself up for failure (aka “weight gain”). You may think your not chowing down on a lot of goodies, but more often than not,  you are chowing down on more calories (the fat and sugar kind) than you realize, and they will add up faster than you can say “Skinny Twinkie”. If it’s not in your house, it’s not likely you will run to the store at 10:00 PM to pick up your craving food. If it is already available in your house, there is a good chance you will just eat it as you watch “The Biggest Loser”, which of course causes regret and unhappiness.  Do yourself a favor. Don’t buy anything you know you can’t control yourself with.

Up, Up, and Away!

Are your jeans getting tighter and tighter every week? Don’t give in to the horrible temptation of going up a size. Ok, if you are in the 6th grade going through a growth spurt, that doesn’t count. But if you are a grown woman gaining weight that is just “fat” due to poor eating habits and lack of exercise…don’t just go up a size and forget the weight gain ever happened. If you go up a size…you will more likely go up another size…and another size…    Do you see where this is going? One day you go to the Mall to just go home and realize you are a size 16 when you used to be a size 8. Ever heard of “letting yourself go”? This is how it happens. One French Fry at a time. Good news, there is hope! Don’t take that route again. Let’s start eating healthy NOW! Don’t wait until after the holidays…after your Birthday…or after this or that. Start an Exercise program NOW, or as soon as you speak with your Personal Trainer on what exercises you can begin with.

The choice starts now. Make the right one, please.

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Tags: craving, diet, exercise, failure, Fitness, gain weight, Healthy, Lose Weight, personal trainer, plan ahead, snack, strawberries, success, temptation, win