Plus Size Dresses

If you are looking to buy an awesome plus-size dress online check out the Monif C. website. This company specializes in high fashion style for plus-size women.

On her website Monif Clarke says "Who says plus size can't be sexy, luxurious and feminine?"

Her own frustration with the plus size clothing market led her to design her own line of clothing in 2004. Her designs are inspired by her love of the Caribbean, the glamour of New York City nightlife and European style.

The clothes on this website are rather high-end and relatively expensive. But if you can afford to buy one special item, the price may be worth it. The dress shown here costs $235.00. It has kimono-style sleeves and is made of rayon lycra jersey and stretch silk charmeuse. It's available in three sizes 14/16, 18/20 and 22/24.

American Idol's Mandisa Comments on Weight Loss

Mandisa Hundley is the only overweight American Idol contestant remaining in the final twenty selected. Mandisa is likely obese by BMI standards but I don't know how much she weighs. Does anyone have this info?

She says she wants to represent the "Fabulous And Thick" (FAT) sisters. The plus-size singer says the battle with weight loss has been the biggest struggle in her life but she is determined to be victorious.

Mandisa is very religious and the first person she'll thank if she wins will be Jesus because "he saved my life". She is a regular worship leader at Beth Moore's Living Proof Live conferences throughout the U.S.




Here's a brief video of Mandisa on the American Idol TV show.

Mandisa recently showed her compassionate nature during the program. One of the judges, Simon Cowell, had earlier cracked a juvenile comment "Do we have a bigger stage this year?" just after she had walked off the stage, during an earlier portion of the show and before she became one of the 24 finalists.

Mandisa responded when she first had a chance to speak in front of the judges recently;

"What I want to say to you is that, yes, you hurt me and I cried and it was painful, it really was. But I want you to know that I've forgiven you and that you don't need someone to apologize in order to forgive somebody". and "I figure that if Jesus could die so that all of my wrongs could be forgiven, I can certainly extend that same grace to you."

Update March 21st: Mandisa sang a powerful version of "I don't hurt anymore" tonight. Does anyone know where I can get a video clip?

Biggest Loser Fiona Falkiner

Fiona is one of the people participating on the Biggest Loser TV show in Australia. She weighed 101 kilograms (223 pounds) at the beginning of the contest and her goal is to lose 35 kilos (77 pounds) and fit into a size 12 dress. (Her height is 175cm - five feet nine inches.)

Just before starting on Biggest Loser, Fiona was a size 16-18 top and an 18-20 bottom.

Fiona gained most of her excess weight when she was sixteen. She is now 23 and the youngest contestant on this show. She's getting more than her fair share of attention compared to the other 11 contestants and has lost an amazing six kilos (13 pounds) during the first week of the program.

She seems to have natural star appeal and if she can hang in there she could be Australia's next big celebrity.

I'll update this post as more news comes in.

Update: March 28th: After a few weeks of relative stalling, Fiona had a great week. She weighs 86 kilograms in week six of the program. (That's 190 pounds.)

Update: April 19th: Fiona is now one of the last four finalists. At the end of week eight she weighed 87 kilograms.

April 27th Update: The final results are in. Ardo (Adriano Sarnelli), won this year's biggest loser in Australia. He lost 51 kilograms (37% of his body weight) in just four months. He has been obese all his life and still can't believe this rapid transformation when he sees himself in the mirror. This kind of incredibly fast weight loss required working out four hours a day.

What an incredibly beautiful dress. This photo was taken by Fiona Hamilton for the Herald Sun.

Fiona Falkiner lost an amazing 29.5 kilo (65 pounds) in four months. That's 29% of her initial body weight! A huge congrats to Fiona!

Update: October 3rd: Fiona has just been the first contestant eliminated from the Dancing with Stars competition in Australia. She was battling blisters but will be back for the finale. No doubt we'll see her in lots of other TV events in the near future.

Losing 50 Pounds in One Year

One of the more entertaining personal stories of weight loss online is the Hopeful Loser site. She had hoped to lose 90 pounds in one year when she first started her online diary a year ago, and has gone on to actually lose fifty pounds over the first year.

HL has achieved this with regular workouts on her elliptical trainer and by reducing her daily calories consumed.

The before picture shown here was taken in late February 2005. At that point she weighed 209 pounds and had a body mass index (BMI) of 37. (Her height is 5'3".) The after picture was taken about a week ago in February 2006. She now weighs 160 pounds and her goal is to lose 30 more pounds.

HL has a really entertaining writing style. Here's an example; an entry from when she first started her online weight-loss records;

"I was in the maternity store buying clothes (this might be my fault) with my daughter (almost 14 months) and I was chatting it up (as per usual) with the sales clerk when she asked me "When are you due?" I pointed to my daughter and said, "Oh, you're looking at her. Yup, I have no excuse." She apologized profusely as she tried to convince me that she (maybe a size 4) shops there too.

It was a maternity store after all, so maybe that led to the misunderstanding? Unless she just started working there, though, how could that not have happened to her before? Had no other non-pregnant, simply, just heavy person ever shopped there before? How could she not have asked them too and learned her lesson?"

Check out her very funny and inspiring site at Hopeful Loser.

Boot Camp

Billy Blanks has sold over three million boot camp fitness videos. He's got a TV infomercial now promoting his latest DVD; Billy's Boot Camp Elite. This video is quite popular on Amazon's best-selling lists and will likely help motivate a lot of people in their weight-loss fitness goals.

The picture shown here is one of the many before and after photos he uses to promote the DVD.

Billy Blanks is the creator of Tae Bo, a total body fitness system. He has had a lot of famous clients over the years including Paula Abdul, Charlotte Ross, Melissa Reeves, Stephanie La Grossa, Trista and Ryan Sutter, Pamela Anderson, Justine Bateman, Goldie Hawn, Queen Latifah, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal.

He was born in 1955 as the fourth of fifteen children and took his first martial arts class when he was eleven. He went on to get a seventh-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and was admitted to the Karate Hall of Fame in 1982.

Walking for Weight Loss

Beginning a routine of regular walking is a fabulous way to quickly lose weight, boost your mood and tone your body. Here's Don Cowan's story. He lost 58 pounds in three months due to his intense walking schedule. He didn't even need to bother with a diet. The pounds just slipped off.

His is my personal favorite walking story at Walker's Warehouse. Check out their site for more inspirational stories about walking and weight loss. Cowen's comments were published a couple of years ago;

I lost my job last year and was not having any luck in finding another one. I became depressed I and starting eating a lot around October last year. By Jan. 27th of this year I had gained 68 lbs, I weighed a whopping 288lbs !!!!! I was so disgusted with myself. I started the very next day to walk. I barely was able to get in a mile the first day. I slowly increased my distance everyday challenging myself to go a little further. Now it is 3 months later and I have lost 58 lbs !!!! I am up to 8 miles per day in about 2 hours time. The weight just seemed to be falling off. I am within 10 lbs of my goal, but I never plan to stop walking. Not only are there physical benefits, but the emotional, mental benefits are absolutely amazing. You can bet that I will be a lot more confident at that next job interview. I am 51 years old, so it is never too late to start walking. My neighbors who have seen me out on the roads tell me what an inspiration I have been to them. I urge anyone who wants to lose weight and improve their mental capacity to start walking. They will never regret it. Also, the exercise curbed my appetite so I lost weight without having to think about dieting.

Size Fourteen can be Ideal

Kate Dillon looks beautiful at size 14. She's been quoted as saying "I weigh myself every week to make sure I'm not losing any weight. I love my body."

She was the first full-figured model in a mainstream fashion ad (Gucci's Spring 2000 campaign). That same year, People Magazine voted her as one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world.

She's gotten a lot of recognition as a speaker on issues of body image and self-esteem. She herself is a recovered anorexic. If you are interested in seeing some of her thoughtful answers to people who have asked her questions about eating disorders and weight loss, check out her thoughts at PBS here. But if you're curious as I was to find out how much she weighs, you won't find out. She believes these comparison stats only help to perpetuate eating disorder problems and she will never discuss what her weight is at any time.