Whether you have 10-20 pounds to lose or 100 or more, my goal is to help you Master Your Mind, Manage Your Mouth and Multiply Your Muscles so that you can achieve and maintain your weight-loss goals.

I’m 6’5” and once upon a time I weighed 416 pounds. You don’t get that big by being shy at the dinner table! Now I still eat a ton - about 2,400 calories a day. But thank God I learned the secret to eating the same amount of food, at a fraction of the calories. What’s the secret?

Modification, Not Starvation “Modification Not Starvation" is one of the key principles of my Lose It Fast, Lose It Foreverâ„¢ program. It’s pretty simple, really. Take my typical pre-Biggest Loser breakfast: 9 slices of bacon (720 calories) 4 eggs (280 calories) 16 ounces grapefruit juice (180 calories) That’s around 1,200 calories for one meal.

Now modify this meal by using 9 slices of turkey bacon, 4 servings of Egg Beaters and 16 ounces of Ruby Red Crystal Light to drink, and it comes in around 320 calories. I’m eating the same amount of food but cutting 900 calories!

Take the time to learn this principle and your life will change forever!

Mike Mazurek’s story: A major transformation in the making! In our last blog post you saw images of those who've made a complete transformation. This week, I want to share with you a major transformation in the making! Mike Mazurek is an amazing guy who’s on his journey to transforming his life. He’s made the commitment and he’s seeing results. He even travels 2 hours each way to attend my class and boot camp. He’s on his way and we look forward to the total transformation.

My starting weight was 462. I lost 11 pounds during the first week and when I tracked my normal calorie intake (back in January), it averaged 6,200 calories a day.

My challenge: First and most importantly I had to realize that I was truly worth the time that it would take to exercise. I have always made excuses that I could not go out and do anything because I did not want to leave my wife and kids at home to do so.

So I purchased an elliptical in the past, which I broke because I weighed more than the 400-pound weight limit. Since starting the program I used the elliptical once (I finally got it fixed) but I have been doing all my workouts out on the road. Next I had to realize that even at 460-plus pounds I could actually do some exercise and how much I could do. The first step in this realization was when I did the workout at the The Biggest Loser Season 10 Episode #1 taping in Detroit. The next step was that I started to work out at home. I was so excited after Pete started talking about exercise to report to him that I was working out 30 minutes 6 days a week. Pete’s response was essentially that you need to do more. So after this reprimand and attending the first Monday workout, I decided to step it up a notch. So I worked out about 1 hour and 45 minutes a day for 6 days. That week I lost 15 pounds. From Alma to Ann Arbor-How I ended up in Pete’s program I have been on every program in the world it seems like—Weight Watchers, The Weigh Down Diet, Medifast (total meal replacement) and several others, most notably the U of M obesity reduction program (600 calories a day)…. They all worked to one extent or another but I never been able to change my lifestyle. I always looked at it as a diet, not as a change. But eventually I always fell back.

Let's rewind to my preparation for the Season 9 Biggest Loser casting call. I e-mailed Pete a couple of times before the casting call, and then I met him while I was there. During our conversation we talked about several different things--including our faith and the LIF2 program. I also talked to him about coming up to Alma to teach the program.

To make a long story short— coming to Alma didn't end up working out so I tried to just read through the manual and follow it on my own. It went well and I lost about 40 pounds over time, but I did not have any encouragement from teammates so I fell back some. (I was 485 when I started the program on my own in January). So Pete and I talked once again and decided the best approach would be for me to come Ann Arbor and take the class, build a testimony and then teach the class in the future here in Alma. So that is the process that we are working on at the moment. Building a testimony…

A better way I really felt like I was down to very few options for my weight loss. My doctor was pushing bariatric surgery very hard (too bad the surgeons will not do the surgery until you are less than 400 pounds), but I knew that there was a better way to lose weight, and this is a better way.

The LIF2 program just makes sense. In the first seven weeks I lost 49 pounds. I know that anyone can follow the principles that Pete teaches!

It's Never Too Late Yes, it is August, but your health and fitness goals for 2010 are STILL within your reach!

If you're in the area and up for the challenge, join us for our workouts Saturday morning and Monday evenings. To receive information about the workouts, send us a blank e-mail, or you can check out our events on Facebook. If you have questions, please feel free to e-mail me at questions@winningman.com.

Finally, it doesn't matter if you've tried to lose weight before and failed again and again. You can lose it fast and lose it forever. Take it from me, there's a Winner Within You!

Pete Thomas is the Season 2 at-home winner of NBC's "The Biggest Loser." He is a full-time motivational speaker, teacher, weight-loss coach and consultant. Learn more about Pete at www.WinningMan.com.