As part of Extra’s “3pm Snackdown Challenge” (Pick up a pack, put down that snack!- love it) I was invited to get on a call with Bob Harper, celebrity trainer from The Biggest Loser.

I’ve been on these types of calls before. I fully anticipated being one of 97 bloggers packed on to the line, all vying for the chance to ask even one generic weight loss question at the mercy of an unenthusiastic moderator. So I was confused when I heard a man with a slight southern accent say, “Hey Nicole!”

Um… Hi Bob!

Since I had 40 fabulous minutes to myself with Bob (oo la la!) I had the chance to ask him questions about the types of things we discuss here on mscareergirl.com.

How Bob Harper’s Career Began

Bob Harper didn’t go to college and said it wasn’t even an option for him. He started his career working at a bank and feeling very out of place there. After realizing this career path wasn’t for him, Bob took the initiative to get certified as a personal trainer.

Bob knew if he wanted to make it big in personal training, he’d need to go to L.A. so he packed his car up and moved from Nashville to L.A. to become a celebrity fitness trainer. I asked him how people in his life reacted to this career shift. He said some people thought he was crazy but as soon as he started being a personal trainer he knew he found his life’s purpose. As Bob approaches his 10th season on The Biggest Loser, it’s apparent that ignoring the naysayers in his life was a great choice.

Fitness and Weight Loss

Of course we did talk about fitness and weight loss too. Although Bob has trained some of Hollywood’s finest, he said that he much prefers to train the average person rather than someone he needs to get from a size 2 to a size 0. He thinks of himself as their cheerleader and says he needs to “constantly ram positivity down their throats until they start to believe it themselves.”

I asked Bob if he thinks a lot of The Biggest Loser contestants have genetic issues contributing to their weight issues. He said, “Very, very rarely” and believes that most of the folks he sees have an unhealthy emotional relationship with food. I did confirm that contestants receive psychiatric evaluations before coming on the show, and have access to a therapist throughout.

And what about all the controversy surrounding life after the show?

Bob says that has been one of his biggest challenges over the years. He gets so close to the contestants while they are on the show and tries his hardest to stay in touch with all of them after. He said he thinks of himself as an ER Doctor and said, “I try to give them as many tools as I possibly can to get them back into their normal lives.” He feels that after the show it is the individual’s responsibility to take what they have learned and apply it each day.

One of the tools trainers like Bob suggest is Extra’s 3pm Snackdown challenge.  Rather than reach for a snack when you feel hungry, chew sugar free Extra gum instead. Bob says it is a great way to avoid mega calories because it puts something in your mouth and gives you a little bit of sweetness.  The calories you save really add up. It’s a trick they use a lot on the show apparently.

The major takeaways I got out of my conversation with Bob Harper are:

• Follow your passion no matter what anyone says.
• Weight loss is not rocket science, but it is a choice, a lifestyle and something you have to work at every single day.
• Replace snacks with Extra Sugar Free Gum.

Bob also asked that you all enter to win a trip to The Biggest Loser Resort in Utah along with a personal training session with him for you and a guest.

Now for the fun part!

Extra has sent me tons of gum to give away to you guys! I’m going to split the free gum up between 4 readers. Please comment on one of the 4 items below and I will randomly pick one winner from each and send them some Extra gum!

1. Have you made a new years resolution to lose weight or get healthy this year? If so, what have you done to stay on track? Be honest, it’s OK if you say “nothing”!

2. Did you have an aha moment that made you realize you were working in the wrong field? What did you do about it?

3. What other tools do you use to ward off cravings and hunger pangs? Have you ever tried the gum trick?

4. Have you ever thought about switching fields but been too afraid of what others may think?

Next Wednesday (1/13/2010) I’ll be on a call with celebrity trainer Bob Harper from “The Biggest Loser!”

Bob Harper and Extra Gum have teamed up to create the “3pm Snackdown Challenge.”

For those of you who work in Corporate America, you’re probably familiar with the typical 3pm slump: sugar cravings, lethargy and perhaps even a little boredom-snacking to get you through to the end of the day.

I love the tag line for the 3pm Snackdown, “pick up a pack, put down that snack!” According to the snackdown site, “experts say that even small decreases in calories can have a big impact in the long term. Chewing Extra^® gum, at only 5 calories per piece, can be a useful behavior modification tool to help manage calorie intake.”  Sounds good to me!

The site has a cool little calculator which shows common fatty snacks that some of us reach for while at the office.  I picked my personal favorite- a chocolate chip cookie- and learned that a cooke is about 190 calories.  If I ate one per work day for a year, that is 9,620 calories.  This habit would add up to an extra 2.8lbs.

So, now what I need from YOU!

Wrigley has offered mscareergirl.com readers tons of free Extra gum just for asking Bob Harper your questions about fitness and weight loss.  Please put your questions for Bob in the comments section below.  I will report back with his answers to your questions after the call.

I will randomly select winners in the follow up post after our call!

By, Nicole Crimaldi

I started using my new salad container this week and I love it!  The concept of this type of container is great!

There is an ice pack built into the top and you can put your dressing into the dispenser so you don’t have to bring a separate little container, eat a mushy salad or risk making a mess in your work bag when the dressing inevitably spills everywhere.

Now that I have this nifty container it’s much more enjoyable to bring a salad to lunch each day.  Just dispense, shake and enjoy a healthy lunch!

By, Michelle Pfeninnghaus

It’s like a scene from a movie: Snow gently falling, family and friends gather joyfully to sing songs and exchange good wishes. There’s good food, good fun, and -

Wait a minute.

Let’s pull back the curtain here. Often behind every holiday gathering there’s someone totally stressed out trying to clean the house, dress the kids and prepare a meal. The phone rings, the dog barks, someone spills something. Guests arrive early, someone says something snippy after a long car ride, and things get tense between family members. Oh, and half of the party has a sniffle or a fever.

Or, perhaps there’s a lack of friends and family in our lives. Winter can be a lonely time that brings sadness and the false comfort of too much macaroni and cheese.

The fact of the matter is, the winter months can be some of the most difficult times of the year. No Black Friday Sales or Christmas Shops are going to make it all better. In fact, the need to shop and spend and go into debt is just another reason to stress out needlessly.

This year, do yourself a favor and take care of YOU, first.

It all begins with self care. That means sleeping enough, exercising enough, eating wholesome foods, and being true to yourself. When we get busy, self care is often the first thing to go. Then we do ourselves another disservice by getting made about gaining weight or getting sick. Why not set your intention this year to get through the holidays happy and healthy?

(And that formal New Year’s Eve party you’ve been dreading? Screw it.)

Here are my top 5 tips for staying happy and healthy all winter long:

1. Do unto others.

Wish there were fewer social obligations this holiday season? Make it a point to go easy on your own family and friends. Instead of hosting yet another cocktail party, bring homemade soup to a sick relative, or call a friend who lives far away just to say hi.

2. Use low tech solutions.

A stuffy nose can be treated with a neti pot, steam bath, or some hot chicken soup. Medicine is fine but can make you feel worse in the long run. Often, natural alternatives are best put to use preventatively – so don’t wait until a cold has blossomed to take good care of yourself.

3. Create your reality.

What do you really want to do this winter? Ski? Take a trip to Italy? Paint your bedroom lavender? It doesn’t matter what it is, but choose to do the things that will make you happy and satisfied. There’s no law that everyone has to spend the winter months exactly like everyone else. Bor-ing.

4. Enjoy your favorite foods.

But skip all that other nonsense – the party platters, the cheap chocolates, the generic corn chips. Why bother? That’s not the good stuff. Allow yourself to savor homemade lasagna or hot mulled wine while talking and enjoying the company of those around you. Differentiate between eating as nourishment and eating as a way to feel less awkward at a party.

5. Give yourself the best gift, ever.

New slippers are nice, diamond earrings are pretty, but what’s the gift that you’ll cherish most? Not being wiped out on January 1st! Join me for a teleseminar that will help support you through this crazy time of year and help make these tips a reality for you.

Happy Holidays & How To Have ‘em
Sunday, November 15, 2009
8pm Eastern Time
Get more info here
Registrants will receive the call-in number and passcode via email.

By, Michele Pfenninghaus

You’ve probably tried a few diets, right? Or maybe more than a few? Most weight loss techniques have merit but they never seem to really work. (Oh, maybe they work in the short term – we lose and gain back the same 10 pounds over and over again.)This is nonsense. How much money have you wasted on diet gimmicks? It’s all marketing, really. The industry is booming – they make money on our desire for instant gratification.

Diets are simply not sustainable over time. Calorie counting, cabbage soup or diet shakes can only last so long.

Are you able to create a healthy life and relationship with food by adhering to strict guidelines set forth in a book by an author you’ve never met? Maybe. But generally, dieting is a rollercoaster in our life. We use diets to punish or discipline ourselves. We fail. And then we do it again.

Save the drama for daytime TV! It’s about time for us to stop dieting, learn to love ourselves, appreciate our bodies and get back in balance.

I’d like to share with you how weight loss can happen naturally – by eating MORE, not LESS. It’s about nourishing yourself with lots of real food and a fulfilling lifestyle. It’s about getting off the rollercoaster of dieting and into a new way of relating to what we eat. Our bodies are not machines and our food is not fuel. We are living, breathing, loving beings who deserve a long and happy life.

That’s something to celebrate, isn’t it? As a holistic health coach, I have seen people make drastic changes in their quality of life simply by getting support and listening to their bodies.

Whether you want to lose 10 pounds or 100 pounds, I’m offering this valuable teleseminar to help you get started.

Please join me on August 26th at 8pm ET to learn how you can find balance and allow your body to lose weight naturally. Eat more, weigh less, and live more than you ever imagined possible!

Weigh Less, Live More
Date: August 26, 2009
Time: 8pm ET
Teleconference information will be emailed to participants.

Sign up by August 19th for an early bird price of just $10. After that, the price goes up to $15.

Register here

All participants will receive a free mp3 recording of the call. Why? Because I want you to share the love. I want you to spread the joy. And I want you to be able to re-listen anytime your heart desires.

AND after the seminar we will be kicking off a new group coaching class. This will be a phone-based, affordable way to have support from a certified holistic health coach and a group of peers. What better way to finally make the changes you’ve wanted for yourself? Call in on August 26th to hear about this exciting new way to get support to reach your goals.

Questions? Please email me at michelle@findyourbalancehealth.com. I look forward to speaking with you on August 26th!