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Yesterday, the second ever TT Transformation Contest winner shared with us one very valuable tip for losing weight. So if you missed it, then head back to read up on her her fat loss food pyramid.

In today’s interview excerpt with fat loss inspiration, Catherine Gordon, we learn not only about the type of social support she had in place, but also a couple of really insightful tips I know will help you in reaching a complete transformation.

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Craig: Let’s switch gears again and talk about setting up social support and how you went about doing that and how it’s important for other people to do that as well.

Catherine: Have you noticed that there seems to be a correlation between how much you support other people and how well you do?

Craig: Absolutely.

Catherine: It’s very clear to me. The biggest surprise to me about being in the contest and writing posts and what I posted is that what I wrote to others and the time I spent thinking about what they were dealing with and what they were going through was actually more helpful than putting in my own posts and putting in, “I did workout B today and I ate 1400 calories.”

The very fascinating thing to me is that I actually GOT MORE OUT OF seeing what other people were going through. I wasn’t even one of the most prolific posters, we had some champion posters who were fast typer’s and they can bang it out.

I really think that there is a connection between how much support you give and how well you do.

Even more than just how well you keep track and keep records. So, obviously, that’s social support, it totally is. It’s really kind of counterintuitive when you think about it. Here’s a contest, this is a contest, and yet everybody on it is rooting for everybody else. It’s wonderful.

So, the social support, I think, is the key. If you look at the biggest weight loss program in the United States, their thing that they do differently, it isn’t really points, its social support and that’s one of the reasons why it works. That’s one of the reasons why this works.

Craig: What about finding social support outside of the forums? I know you had good social support at home.

Catherine: I do.

Craig: Tell us a little bit about that.

Catherine: My guys, my husband and my son, were so proud of me and they were so behind me. My husband, I think I told you, he was doing Vince’s program. He’s one of the guys who had been skinny all of his life and then all of a sudden he turned 50 and YIKES!…

…But, he managed to lose it.

The great thing about them is I could modify the meals that I would make for everybody. Any of the moms out there, this is what I did. I would make us dinner and then I would ADD starch to THEIR dinner. You see what I’m saying?

I would make everybody the same dinner, and they loved it, I’m a pretty good cook, but I would add for them. They’d get a baked potato or extra beans, extra rice, or something sweet afterwards. It worked beautifully. You can definitely do this as a mom cooking for your family.

Oh gosh, the other thing was don’t eat off of your kid’s plate. Oh lord, whatever you do don’t eat off of your kid’s plate. That’s off limits.

As far as social support goes, they were wonderful. I also had the kind of reaction that you’re trying to get away from with the situation of the gal asking if I was Colin’s mother or his grandmother and then the week before there had been a guy who said to me at the grocery store, “You don’t get the senior discount, do you?” I was like, “No, I don’t get the senior discount.” I was 44 at the time, not 55.

So, sometimes the social stuff works both ways. It’s what you’re trying to get away from too. But, this is really interesting, Craig. The beauty of the forums is, I don’t know, it’s different. You will find that if you’re going to run up into negative reactions to how much time you’re putting into your new lifestyle, you’re going to find that you may find that in your circle, you may find that that’s happening.

There are people who really don’t want to hear it and so people who are trying to transform may find that they have to be selective about those people that they’re going to talk about what they’re doing with. Sometimes people don’t want to hear it, because they don’t want to feel like they need to change themselves.

That’s once again why the social support on the internet is so crucial because so many of us are not getting it at home AND we’re not getting it at work either….

…This is where the doughnuts and the candy are, very often it’s at work.

Craig: Running off of that, let’s talk about how if you can’t get the social support from some people around you in real life, we’ll say, and you’ve got it on the forum, what about the motivation and inspiration?

The internal inspiration that you had going into this and then what you see in others, because you’ve got a finger on the pulse of the forums. You really understand what other people are going through and you’ve seen people succeed and there are commonalities between them….

…So, what do you have there in terms of internal motivation and inspiration?

Catherine: Well, once again it seems to me the thing that really stands out is the people who have succeeded and are succeeding have the DESIRE, they know what they want, and they believe they can get it and they NEVER STOP BELIEVING.

Everyone has BAD DAYS where they eat things they really didn’t intend to eat or maybe they didn’t plan a meal so they ended up having something. But, as long as you believe you can do it and you have that goal you just keep coming back to the program.

Another mental thing and I’m not sure how much I’m seeing this on the member’s forum or how much I’m seeing this in myself, but I harp on it in the forums….

…That is visualize, visualize, visualize.

You’ve got to take time and it’s a huge pleasure for me to take that time every day to just close your eyes and daydream about your ideal body.

It’s like a gift I give myself every day is that time that I spend. It’s not vain and it’s not selfish, because I want that body for lots of different reasons. I want it for me, for my family, for my relationship with my husband, for my relationship out in the community, for the things I do in the community, because I’m back getting in the public eye again.

So, it’s finding the reason behind the reason that you want to transform your body and then it’s just taking some time. I don’t know if it has to be every day, but I find it helpful to just connect with why you’re doing this and why it’s so important to you.

Craig: That’s just so powerful, what you just said there. If people only listen to one minute of the call and they listen to that, which would really help them. Sorry to interrupt there, I’ll let you keep going.

Catherine: Not at all. It’s really funny, I think I was on last night and I actually said something like that in a tip. You do need to take that time.

I’ll tell you where else it connects. One of the big problems is you go into an exercise and nutrition program and if I look at the way I ate and I look at the way I enjoyed chardonnay, 5:00 every afternoon that was my signal to have a glass of wine.

Because I essentially am a stay at home mom I do different artistic projects during the year, so that means sometimes I’m working and sometimes I’m not, but every day at 5:00 I’m in the house and it was that glass of wine that was signaling, “Your workday is over.” Then I’d make dinner and everything, but it was that time to relax.

What you’ve got to find if you’re using food for pleasure is you’ve got to find SUBSTITUTIONS.

The thing is that visualization, especially if you want to literally go for it and go into meditation, or if you want to listen to guided imagery tapes and those kinds of things, they’re a pleasure to me so they can replace the food or the noshing or the drinking.

In my opinion, you’ve got to find replacements for some of the pleasure that you got from food and they’ve got to be really fun things. Many times people suggest, “Take a walk.” Take a walk.  I’ve already worked out. It might be to read Star Magazine, or it might be to read a trashy novel, or it could be going back to things you liked when you were a kid.

I’ve started to draw again….I sit down and draw butterflies. I know it sounds silly.

Craig: Sorry to interrupt you, but that might be one of my favorite things that have come out of the transformation is to hear people like you and then there was another girl, Amy on there, who did the same thing.

So many people are talking about returning to stuff they did in their teens, early 20s, and that’s all part and parcel of this because we’re cutting down on that workout time and we’ve freed up some time for people. We’re encouraging them to be active and we’re encouraging them to do other stuff besides sit, eat, and watch TV.

Not that there’s anything wrong with doing that once in awhile, but we’re looking for, like you said, substitutions for the eating, which is generally one of the things that has gotten many people into the situation.

I think you were going to say something else about it, but that’s a really, really important thing to understand….

…It’s NOT JUST a transformation of the body, it truly is a transformation of the mind and life. I really liked what you were saying there.

Catherine: I like what you’re saying too. Very often it is something physical, people are getting back their bike riding and they’re running 5k’s.

For example, for me I’m jumping rope again. Oh my gosh, jump rope. When I first started using a jump rope in some of my intervals at home it was awful. I’d maybe skip 10 times and fall over my feet. I could remember back when I was a kid and you couldn’t stop me at jumping rope, doing the double dutch where you jump in and all that stuff. I’m like, “Where did that go?”

The thing is now, I was just jumping rope the other day, and I’m not doing 500 in a row like I think Robin is, but I’m up over 100 and I’m feeling like Rocky and it’s wonderful. Again, this is something that I was good at as a child and I’m getting that back. So, I totally agree that it can open physical activities that you had given up too.

Craig: To be honest with you, I’m pretty much a kid at heart, so I like to see other people not being so grown up and not being so structured and stuck to their workouts and the machines. I just think everyone feels so much better when they get into that.

A Half Hour of Exercise Can Boost Creativity for Hours

Article they summarize

This attitude and outlook isn’t unique to the gym.  Many whom I’ve talked to feel the same thing every day, every place they go.  They run the rat race hoping for a way out, yearning for something more.  Others walk by with seemingly better bodies or lives, but that is out of reach.  Everyone can reach their goals, but first they must realize their true values, views, and goals.

Step off of the dreadmill and write a new plan, follow a new path.

http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/10-ways-to-right-size-your-meals-and-lose-weight/article16306.html

1. Contemplating seconds? Wait 10 minutes. Your stomach needs about that long to signal the brain that it’s full, so stall before helping yourself to more mashed potatoes or lasagna. Keep the conversation going, tell a joke, or if you’re dining alone, read the newspaper or walk around the house. If you’re truly hungry after the delay, have seconds of the veggies or salad. Portion control will always lead you down the path to weight loss.

2. Quit the clean plate club. One in four Americans eat everything they’re served no matter how big the portions, surveys reveal. A better strategy: Eat a healthy portion, then stop. It’s better to waste a little food (and save it for tomorrow) than to overload your body.

3. Never eat directly out of the bag, box, or carton. Put the portion on the plate right away and put the package away, then sit down and enjoy.

4. Like big portions? Do this. Overload your plate with vegetables or salad with a smidgen of dressing or have a big, steaming bowl of broth-based soup. These water-rich, low-fat foods are so low in calories that a big portion isn’t a problem.

5. Use a salad plate as your dinner plate. Less real estate means automatic portion control.

6. Make “small” your default setting. When ordering food or drinks or buying packaged food at the store, automatically go for the smallest size of any high-calories items (The exceptions: Salads and veggies without added fat.) Get the small latte, the 6-inch sub instead of the 12-inch, the small cookie instead of the 4-inch chocolate chip behemoth. Calories haven’t bought can’t end up around your waist.

7. Go single-serve. Buy or make ice cream, sweets, or other high-cal foods, in individual serving sizes. Instead of a half-gallon of Rocky Road, buy ice cream sandwiches; make cupcakes instead of cake; and buy single-serving bags of chips.

8. But read the label first. Many packaged foods and drinks look as if they provide one serving are actually meant to serve two or more people. However, the calories and other nutrition info on the label are for just one serving, so read the number of servings per container first. Then be sure to eat or drink just one serving.

9. Pack your leftovers before eating. Sure, it’s easy to put a healthy plate of food in front of you. The trouble comes when the plate empties and you have more if each food sitting in front if you in alluring serving bowls. The answer: Package and store leftovers before you sit down to eat. That way, getting seconds becomes a whole lot harder and feels more inappropriate.

10. Round out the meal with raw produce. As you transition to more modest portion sizes, you may find yourself craving more food with your meal. The answer: a piece of fruit or a crunchy, large serving of celery, carrots, or peppers. There is no easier, healthier way to “beef up” a meal than with an apple, an orange, a big helping of watermelon or cantaloupe, or a sliced tomato.