Week 11: Lose the Baby Weight

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Welcome to week 11 of the Lose the Baby Weight Challenge. Habits and routine don't have to be boring!

Exercise: Phoning It In vs. Amping It Up

Two people can complete the same workout, but achieve different results based on their effort and attitude. To keep yourself from boredom and lack of progress, step higher. Walk faster. Pull harder. Add an extra rep here and there. Add five minutes to your workout or five seconds to your plank. You'll feel like a studette and look like a goddess in no time. Learn more about amping up your workout in the article Exercise Intensity.

This week, keep up the cardio! Same interval strength workout as last week, except take the repetitions to 20 per exercise and extend the cardio segment to one minute. Depending on how you are feeling you may add another circuit after the completion of the first. Add these to your abdominal routine:

• Double knee tuck
• Double knee tuck with arms swim
• Single alternating knees
• Straight leg alternating
• Pretzels (one set of 10 each).

Do this separately from the cardio/strength intervals. Make sure your heart rate is down before going to the floor for abs.

Diet: How to Eat Out without Blowing It

Just because you're at a restaurant doesn't mean you "deserve" to make poor food choices. It's not a celebration in itself … it's just eating in a restaurant. There are three reasons everything tastes better in a restaurant: butter, cheese, and salt. And lots of them. Be aware. Eye the menu critically. Be a pain in the butt: Order your food the way you want it prepared—healthily! Need inspiration? Look around the restaurant and notice what the larger folks are eating. Odds are, it's not a healthy food choice. Here are some restaurant guidelines:

• Take only one trip to the buffet.
• Eat nothing with sauce on it.
• Ask for your chicken or fish grilled.
• Get salad dressing on the side.
• No cheese on anything.
• Skip French fries or other fried food.
• Go for veggies (steamed) and fruit.
• Send back bread or chips put on the table to munch on.
• Drink a full glass of water before you eat anything.

Think you got it down? Take this quiz: Eating Out with Confidence: Test Your Restaurant Survival Savvy

Attitude: Affirm Yourself

Write down five positive things about your weight-loss progress and post them on your bathroom mirror (or on the inside of your medicine cabinet if you think you'll get teased by someone in your house!). Instead of focusing on negatives, like "I can only do five pushups at a time" or "I ate a huge bowl of ice cream last night," put your mental energy toward positive and realistic action. For example, "I will skip eating chocolate (or chips) today," or "I will do 25 pushups by the end of the day," or "I'm a great cook and make delicious, healthy meals."

Say these things out loud when you get up in the morning and before bed at night. Stick one on the back of your car sun visor and so you'll see it when you pull the visor down. ("I will not go through a fast-food drive-thru. I will eat a healthy snack at home.") Put a few on the fridge. Read them out loud. Pro athletes do this. Top salespeople do this. It's simply vocalizing your goals and making them real. Learn more about it in A Workout for Your Attitude.

Extra Credit

Visit a website such as WeightWatchers to determine the healthiest menu items at your favorite restaurant. Write them down and put the list in your purse so it's handy the next time you eat out. Or pick up a copy of Eat This Not That!, a fabulous book that tells you which restaurant items to pick over others.