That’s 36 pounds gone at the average rate of 3.6 lbs per month. The reason for this “low” average, hitting a plateau a few times.
The weight I discarded, was all excess bodyfat. A little water retention too, but for the most part, it was all fat.
If you want to know how I did it; if you want to do the same thing yourself this coming year; read on.
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It all started in February 2008 when Jon Benson released his Every Other Day Diet e-book and sent me a copy to review http://www.everyotherdaydiet.com/aff/FitnessFor This link now takes you to the second edition of this amazing nutrition book. It may have the word “diet” in it, but unlike the traditional diet you eventually have to give up, this is a total lifestyle plan for the reader to use forever.
Simultaneously, almost, I was all but goaded into joining a training program challenge. Well, why not? I needed a training program to go along with the Every Other Day Diet plan (EODD for short) so I joined. Incidentally, I didn’t win, never mind, because 12 weeks later, I’d dropped over 24 pounds of fat. Between this meal plan and a decent training program, I was in fairly decent bikini-shape. I could at least wear one without looking too bad!
I “maintained” over the summer vacation, staying with the EODD plan because it was easy to do, a real no-brainer. No counting calories, no weighing the food, no measuring, no calculating macro-nutrient ratios (you know, percentages of protein, carbs and fats); it’s just all worked into the plan so you don’t have to wonder or worry, you just know you’re doing this right.
We had friends over for grill-parties, went to their place for grill-parties, there were desserts, there were restaurant visits, family gatherings, even two trips out of town for 4-day weekends staying with friends. Yet my weight stayed stable, because I knew how to manage the foods tanks to EODD. How many people bring their kitchen scales to the table to weigh the food – be it at friends’ or at a restaurant? With EODD http://www.everyotherdaydiet.com/aff/FitnessFor you don’t have to, and you still know you’re eating the right amount. It’s a great plan, a fantastic system!
Skip on ahead to about mid-summer. Jon Benson now comes out with a short-and-sweet training program. 7 Minute Muscle 7minutemuscle.com/aff/FitnessFor is literally 7 minutes of muscle training daily, 5 days a week. Followed by 9 minutes of cardio, you’re in and out of the gym before most people have left the locker room going in! Yes, you get strange looks, you see a few snickers, you know they all think you’re an idiot who has no clue what you’re doing. But a few months down the line, those smirks and head-shakes turn to wonder as these same people see the changes in your body – while theirs stay the same, because they’re doing the same thing they’ve always done.
7minutemuscle.com/aff/FitnessFor is great. Frankly, this is one routine I will cycle throughout the year – I’m tempted to say forever. If you have a minimal set-up in your home (selectable dumbbells and a bench or exercise ball, and a cardio machine) you can get your workout done before you start your day! True, everyone says not to train on an empty stomach, but there are exceptions to every rule, and this is also explained in this e-book. What could be better than this scenario:
You get up, grab a coffee and some amino acid capsules, then hit the gym (even if that’s in your bedroom or living room or garage, it’s still the gym). 7 minutes of concentrated muscle training followed by 9 minutes of cardio while drinking a liter of cold water and you’re done. You now head for the shower, get ready as usual, grab your shake on the way out the door, and have breakfast on your way to work. When you get there, you’re alert, awake, ready to tackle whatever the boss throws your way. And your co-workers are sitting there, bleary-eyed, drinking their third cup of coffee to try to come alive, hating you for being so chirpy and energetic; wondering how they’ll have the energy to go the gym after work – if they even have a gym to go to. All because of 7minutemuscle.com/aff/FitnessFor
Now, this of course just got me onto a new training program; which was good because the previous one had become “old” by then. You should always switch programs, to keep your mind interested and your muscles wondering what’s going on. Depending on how long you’ve been training, you can switch programs every 8 to 12 weeks, taking a week off (meaning out of the gym, but not moving in at McD’s) between programs.
Jon launches a new version of EODD. The EODD 2.0 SNAPP! which is, well it’s a snap to follow. It’s meant to be simpler to use than the original EODD http://www.everyotherdaydiet.com/aff/FitnessFor At the same time, he decides to do a challenge, using EODD SNAPP! as the base. Not only are the participants going to use the SNAPP! program to shed their fat, but they are invited to change whatever they feel they need to in order for the plan to fit in with their lifestyle, and then write about their changes in the final entry.
This was my entry-photo, at 149.8 lbs and about 21.5% bodyfat. Because yes, I entered the challenge, along with others. Frankly, I think I was a little “nice” to myself with regards to that bodyfat test, so it was probably a higher percentage, closer to 25 or 26%; but my official entry number was 21.5%
There are trics to use to get to the point you want to reach, to your goal. One of these trics, is to find a photo of a person whose body looks close to what you want yours to look like. You then cut this person’s head off and paste your own in its’ place. Your mind sees you, as a whole. It doesn’t see the little line where the scissors cut, the slight difference in skin-tone; it sees a slim, lean, tight, muscular body with your face on top and deduces that this is in fact you.
It will then do whatever it has to do in order to get your mirror image to look like the photo. Of course, you still won’t be able to eat any junk you find lying around, but your subconscious mind won’t want you to, it sees the doctored photo of you and knows you won’t get to that if you eat the junk; the temptation is reduced. You resist. The next day your weight is down a little more. You know the fact that you resisted is the cause of this, and next time it’s even easier to resist, until these junk things are no longer tempting – or at least, fewer are and not to the same degree.
I Googled a round for “fitness models” and found one who is the same height as me, started at the same weight I initially started from, and has reached the goal I’ve set for myself. Tracey Hartley’s body soon decorated my bathroom mirrir and my desk, with my head pasted on top! If you comparethe two photos (me above and the next doctored photo below) then the final photo of me today, you’ll be able to judge for yourself if this is a tactic that works or not.
I still found that even with the EODD SNAPP! http://www.everyotherdaydiet.com/aff/FitnessFor and knowing what to eat and leave out, even with this photo, I still had some issues at family dinners once a week. I devised another ruse!
My cell-phone would send me a message shortly before meal time, reminding me of my goal – 136lbs/15% fat and the date, 01.30.09. I would decide what to eat that supper, what to leave well enough alone, and this, combined with the message from my phone (i.e. me) and the knowledge from the e-book, kept me on track many a week. There were slip-ups, of course. I have a hard time resisting a homemade lemon meringue pie, so if that’s on the menu …
Overall, there were no hassles, no problems, no hunger, no frustration, just a plateau before this challenge and one during. The first one I got help (from Jon) breaking, the second I smashed through on my own.
I know this is a very long post, but bear with me. I don’t just want to share the journey with you, in a short, summarized way, but maybe even more the feeling I have now it’s over.
First of all, three days before the deadline, Jon informed me that the challenge was a fiasco because of “issues” promising details later. In other words, there was no more challenge, I’d done it all for naught. Well, as far as being the potential winner and getting some money to buy a new wardrobe anyway – a necessity, as almost nothing fits anymore, my old clothes all but fall off me!
I did feel a little “deflated” at first, like a sailboat with the wind died down to nothing, stranded in the middle of nowhere. But then I thought “hey, I won!” And I did. I have no idea how many entered this challenge, nor how they fared on their journey, but I know that I won. I won a victory I’d have won regardless of whether the challenge had gone to the end and someone else took first place.
I won, because I defeated the odds. I’m female (we lose more slowly than the guys), I’m 50 in a week (age is a favourite excuse used by too many), I’ve had two kids (another excuse), I was obese (205 lbs 46% fat at the worst!), yet here I was, a winner:
I won, because I can literally feel my organs being lighter (in weight) from not having a casing of fat around them, my bowels are lighter because there’s no build-up from junk food that can’t get out because soft-drink don’t hydrate the way water does; my clothes are literally falling off me, and that includes underwear, and I’ve dropped a shoe-size! I know, that made Jon laugh when I said it, but it’s true. The better circulation in my body, including my legs, has taken away the swollen feet that I had to get one, or even two, sizes shoes larger than before to be able to wear. Summers were spent in flip-flops because I couldn’t squeeze my feet - mainly the left – into even a light sandal! I can now even fit into zip-up knee-high winter boots that aren’t too large at the foot just to get the calf in!
I lost however, in the sense that I now have some expenses ahead of me to renew all my clothes! But hey, that’s price I’m happy to pay! Especially since it’s almost the end-of-season sales, and jeans are jeans regardless of seasons, T-shirts and cute tops are short-sleeved even in winter, underwear has no season, and shoes? Well, I never threw out the smaller sizes I grew out of, so I’m good there too!
The combination of EODD http://www.everyotherdaydiet.com/aff/FitnessFor and 7 MM 7minutemuscle.com/aff/FitnessFor is one I will keep as I said at the start, probably forever. The only variation will be one or maybe two other workout programs to interject, making my year alternate between 12 weeks of 7minutemuscle.com/aff/FitnessFor one week rest, 12 weeks of something else, one week off, 12 new weeks of 7 Minute Muscle, one week off, and the last 12 weeks either the same as the second, or different thing altogether. But always with EODD.
I will use 7 Minute Muscle in the dead of winter when the dark evenings don’t inspire me to go to my gym after work, and in summer to coincide with my vacation. I’ll also make darned sure to have a 12-week program span the Holiday Season. It’s a great way to stay on track. A week off at this time of the year can throw you off course seriously, making it hard to come back afterwards, mentally more so than physically.
Check these two programs out for yourself, they are super simple to use, it does take a personal effort to stick to it and you have to focus, not neglect to write down your goals and read them daily, but with these two tools, you are set up for success.
My 50th birthday is in a short week, and I will be at 15% bodyfat that day. That’s a promise!
Here are those pictures again, just to remind you that it CAN be done …
… with “just” EODD 2.0 SNAPP! http://www.everyotherdaydiet.com/aff/FitnessFor , 7 Minute Muscle 7minutemuscle.com/aff/FitnessFor and in less than one year!
Sarah, CPT
www.trainwithsarah.com
when Lewis said he’s been out for 2 days, the doctor said he was "lucky". Lucky? Seems most of those 40% of the population with this flu is down-and-out for an average of 5-6 days. I can believe that. What I can’t swallow, is this doctor’s verdict of "luck" .