Katie Holmes: In Perfect Shape by January?

Katie Holmes, 27, plans on being back in perfect shape by January. January is when she needs to start filming the new Batman movie sequel.

This gives her lots of time to get back in shape given she didn't gain that much weight during her pregnancy. But she has apparently already started with a strict diet and going to the gym daily. Suri (her daughter) was born only four months ago. Can you imagine going to the gym daily when your baby is only four months old? It helps to have someone else around to do the diapers, laundry, cooking and baby minding.

Apparently Holmes is also doing yoga and has just started kickboxing.

From the current photos, it doesn't look like she has any weight to lose, but I guess she wants to get her body toned and her stomach back to perfect pre-pregnancy shape.

It's very motivating to think she can be back to perfect slimness by January. September is almost here and it makes me want to get going on my failed plan to walk a minimum of 15 miles a week. It's not as ambitious as regular kickboxing and a daily gym workout but I know I could look fantastic by January if I stuck to it. "Fantastic" only by my own relative private standards, of course.

Update October 4th: Here's yesterday's photo of Katie Holmes at a wedding planning meeting. She looks like she's completely succeeded in her goal to lose all the baby weight already. Her wedding with Tom Cruise will likely take place sometime in the next two weeks.

On the other hand, pictures can be so deceiving. Here's a shot of Katie's belly from just a few days ago. Either she is already pregnant again, or she still has not recovered her body completely since the birth of Suri. It's reassuring to know that even a super celebrity cannot get that perfect belly back so quickly.

A Weight Watchers Success Story: Anita

Anita is one person who experienced extreme weight loss success with the help of Weight Watchers. Just before giving birth to her first child she weighed 397 pounds. In the two photos here, she weighs 328 pounds in the before photo. Her height is 5'9". In the after photo she weighs about 180 pounds.

Her weight loss motivation started in earnest after she flew on an airplane and felt humiliated for needing a seat belt extension. She joined Weight Watchers (not for the first time) and managed to get to her goal weight in two years and three months as well as having a second baby during this time.

See more before and after photos as well as the full story here.

A Chocolate Lover Loses 25 Pounds

Amanda, 29, has lost 25 pounds on Weight Watchers. She started her weight loss program in mid May. And she wants to lose a lot more. Here is her before photo at her starting weight of 317 pounds in May. (She's 5'7" tall.)

Amanda has a beautiful one year old baby boy and a wonderful husband. She's moved to a different continent to be with him after meeting him on the Internet many years ago. But things really started to get out of hand with her eating habits. She says she ate a lot of chocolate in private and started to realize she had a problem;

Then all of a sudden things seemed to get out of hand and I felt nervous and I thought I wasn't coping as well as I should be... I ate to make myself feel better. And my choice of comfort food was chocolate! That's all I wanted... fun size bags, big blocks of chocolate you name it I have eaten it. Everytime I went grocery shopping I would always buy myself chocolate and I would sneak it and hide it and eat it when I was alone because I didn't want my husband to see me eating it or anyone else for that matter...I ate it alone, fat and depressed and eating chocolate to try to feel better and in the end all it did was make me feel worse and fatter.

Here's a gorgeous photo of her a few years ago when she weighed 181 pounds. She's going to be there again really soon!

See her inspiring personal weight loss story here.

Cheryl Tiegs Maintains her Figure

Cheryl Tiegs seems to have had no problems retaining her beautiful figure over the years.

Tiegs was the first real supermodel in America. Here we see a picture of her in her heyday, and a second photo of her from the upcoming September issue of W Magazine. Would you believe she is 58 years old in the second photo? She was born in 1947. Her 59th birthday will be on September 25th.

Tiegs was featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue on three occasions; in 1970, 1975 and 1983.

Tiegs has been married and divorced four times. She has three children, including twins that she gave birth to at the incredible age of 52. (It's rumored she had the help of infertility treatments and a surrogate mother). Now that the kids are in school, she's returning to the beauty business world and has partnered with Revlon to represent a wig line.

Getting Motivated to Lose Weight

It's so easy to lose weight. Change your diet and exercise more. Right? The problem with this reasoning is it doesn't get to the root of most people's battle with weight loss. We all have a good idea of what we need to do to lose weight. The real problem is -- how to get motivated to go out and actually do it.

There are underlying reasons why we eat the wrong foods and don't exercise enough. And these are personal for each of us. If there was a wise guru out there that we could tap to answer this question; - what do I need to do to find this sustained motivation - than this guru would have a big line-up waiting to see him.

But here we have the next best thing ;-). It's a free oracle that's enjoyed huge respect and reverence for thousands of years. It's called the I Ching.

Here's how it works: Think of a question you would like answered. Be careful and honorable about what you ask. Respect the energies of the macrocosm. You've only got one chance to ask a particular question. The first answer will be the most appropriate one for you.

(Please don't play yet, finish reading the instructions first)


Write your question in the box above (or write it on a piece of paper). Make sure to take the time to actually write down the question. Trust me, you will want to know exactly what you asked when you are analyzing the answer.

Hit the black submit button.

If weight loss is your wish, ask a question that would somehow relate to finding the underlying key to getting unstuck with your motivation. One example would be, "How can I change my life to encourage weight loss?" Or, "What would help me be successful in my weight loss goal?"

Your answer will come up as a number (one of sixty-four hexagrams). Go to this page to get the full answer corresponding to the number. Print out the answer. It will be at least a page long. Study the answer and decipher what it means for you.

There is a second level to this answer based on 'lines'. There are six options. Roll a dice to see which one (in the order presented) is most applicable to you.

The I Ching is also known as "The Book of Changes". Its origin goes back to mythical antiquity and it has occupied the attention of the most eminent scholars of China down to the present day. Carl Jung wrote the foreword for the most popular edition. Here Jung says "For more than thirty years I have interested myself in this oracle technique, or method of exploring the unconscious, for it has seemed to me of uncommon significance."

Was the answer significant for you? I would love to hear any comments below!

Fat Guy Does Shakira

This is the most popular clip on Google Video at the moment. It's a fat guy and his friends mimicking Shakira's Hips Don't Lie video. See the four minute Skakira spoof video clip above.

See the original vide clip here:



How much does Shakira weigh? There are reports on the web that she weighs 106 pounds. She is very petite, at five feet and two inches. Apparently she doesn't eat candy, doesn't smoke or drink alcohol. She also doesn't drink coffee. The name Skakira is Arabic for 'woman full of grace".

Here's the lyrics from Hips Don't Lie:

I never really knew that she could dance like this
She makes a man want to speak Spanish
Como se llama, bonita, mi casa, su casa
Shakira, Shakira

Oh baby when you talk like that
You make a woman go mad
So be wise and keep on
Reading the signs of my body

And I'm on tonight
You know my hips don't lie
And I'm starting to feel it's right
All the attraction, the tension
Don't you see baby, this is perfection

Hey Girl, I can see your body moving
And it's driving me crazy
And I didn't have the slightest idea
Until I saw you dancing

And when you walk up on the dance floor
Nobody cannot ignore the way you move
your body, girl
And everything so unexpected - the way
you right and left it
So you can keep on taking it

Eat Lots of Onions and Live Forever

Thomas Parr was not an overweight man. His diet consisted largely of green cheese, onions, coarse bread, buttermilk or mild ale. He was an agricultural laborer and didn't marry until he was eighty. But then he went on to live a further 72 years!

Apparently his advice was as follows; "Keep your head cool by temperance and your feet warm by exercise. Rise early, go soon to bed, and if you want to be prosperous keep your eyes open and your mouth shut".

Thomas Parr is famous for living so long. He died back in 1635 when he was 152.

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The photo above of an old man (but probably less than half as old as Parr) is by SqueakyMarmot at Flickr.