If I have learned anything in the last five years since I became the first female to win NBC’s hit show The Biggest Loser it is that the only real losers in life are those who are afraid to ask questions. This week on my show Live Big With Ali Vincent, which you can find on the Live Well Network, you are asking the questions and I am answering. In fact, the whole show this week is specifically dedicated to all of the “Ask Ali” questions that so many of you have sent in – ranging from calories and exercises to balance and, yes, the skin questions!

You see, when I first started Live Big With Ali Vincent, one of the creative ideas behind it was to design a world of girlfriends. I thought if I created a space where no matter where I was in the country at any given time, I could feel as if there were people close by to help me stick with this new, healthy lifestyle. I needed to be able to stay in the conversation. I also acknowledged, like so many of you who have struggled with weight loss and can relate, that I was unhappy and alone.

I was so convinced of this that I actually created it, I kept people 112 pounds away from me and I quit talking which made it true that nobody could understand how I felt. I just didn’t know which came first – was I fat because I was unhappy? or was I unhappy because I was fat? It’s the whole chicken and the egg debate and quite frankly it no longer mattered because both were true!

As I started to open back up and ask questions I realized that many people felt as I did and what was extremely surprising was that they came in all shapes and sizes! Because of this I was forced to realize that maybe not all my issues/problems had to do with my weight. This idea itself is hard to grasp, in one moment I get it and in the next I’m clueless! You’re probably starting to understand why I need a world of girlfriends and if we are more alike than not that means you could use a world of girlfriends, too. By sharing our stories, asking questions, and researching answers we get to learn from each other and be inspired by each other to stay in the conversation. This truly is the journey of the rest of our lives, there is no destination. Being healthy is more than our weight. Our weight, however, is a good place to start asking questions.

I remember when I first realized that a pound was 3500 calories. I was dumfounded that for so many years I had been up and down and up and down and up and down with my weight and NEVER knew what exactly a pound was made up of. I was too embarrassed to ask because in my mind people would look at me like I was crazy because I was 112 pounds overweight, how could I NOT know what made up a pound?

Well, that fear of embarrassment only created embarrassment. I was embarrassed that I got winded going up a flight of stairs. I was embarrassed that I couldn’t fit in to the latest fashions so I declined social invitations time and time again. I was embarrassed that my body physically stopped me from doing things that I really wanted to do in my life.

Now I know that weight issues are so much more than just knowing about calories and I also know that time and time again since I won The Biggest Loser I have gone back to the basics of weight matters and physical goals to assist me in staying healthy. By using nutrition, exercise, and endurance events I can easily ask a question that leads to another question which keeps me in the conversation. Before I know it, the conversations touch on many levels that help me know how I feel about different events/issues in my life. That has allowed me to really start living my life and living BIG.

Please join my world of girlfriends and allow me to be one of yours and together we can create anything we want one moment, one step, one choice at a time. Start asking questions, get in the practice of it. If you feel like you don’t know where to begin, start with me! Go to my Facebook and Twitter pages and post your questions there. Ask anything you want and if I don’t know I’ll do my best to find out. Honestly, quite often, there is someone there who does have an answer and they too will share with you.

Tell me what you think of my “Ask Ali” show and until next week…. LIVE BIG!