First off: holy crap check out this weight loss transformation. Absolutely incredible. They don’t even look like the same person. The amount of work that must have had to go into a transformation like that is staggering. It really puts into perspective for me what I need to do to lose 15 pounds.

Next check out this post from Jillian Michaels on her Facebook. Always wondered how the biggest loser contestants lose so much weight each “week”?

What do Losing It families eat: I basically put them the Master Your Metabolism diet. Then I set the women’s calories at 1200 intake & men’s cal intake at 1600 daily. I have the guys burning 4,500 cals a day and the women burning 3,500 cals a day.

Umm…what? Do you think the “burning 3500″ includes normal body functions? Like your basal metabolic rate? Even so I would still have to burn around 2000 calories per day while only eating 1200 calories. That would be like running 20 miles every day! If it DOESN’T include BMR I’d have to run 35 miles a day! Holy crap. Maybe I’ll wear my HRM one day to see how many calories I’m really burning per day.

Reading something like that makes me feel really antsy. Like I’m not doing enough. It’s part of my “all-or-nothing” mindset when it comes to losing weight. I think a lot of it is because I want results NOW, and when I don’t get them I think: well, duh, it’s because I’m not eating 1200 calories and running 6 miles a day I should do that. And then I try it for a day or two, burn out, give up, fling myself face first into a pie and they cycle starts all over again.

I’ve decided to tackle this weight loss in 5 pound chunks. I’m going to set my Weight Bot app to a 5 pound loss, I’ll maintain that for a week, and then reset for another 5 pound loss. I hope by looking at small manageable goals I won’t freak myself and be more realistic about the whole process.