Ali at her Ideal VI
In last weeks interview with Alison Scott we talked about the workouts, the mindset of focusing on proportions and shape and setting the target of the Venus Index Ratio instead of body weight.
In today’s podcast we’ll talk about diet, the Body Centric approach to eating and specifically what Ali did to get into her current shape.
We’ll discuss the social eating patterns and thought processes that she went through developing her own personal body-centric eating patterns that helped her shed between 15-20 pounds of excess weight to reveal her true Venus figure.
At any given moment in our modern western societies food is available, and lots of it. Even if we’re not intending to eat somehow food seems to finds it’s way into our mouth if we’re not consciously avoiding it. If this sounds like an issue you have dealt with in the past (or are currently dealing with) then today’s podcast should help you out.
Ali shares all kinds of tricks and tips that helped her navigate the daily minefield of the North American 24/7 food culture and get into the best shape of her life.
She’ll also share more insights and mindsets that helped her navigate her social circles and daily routine to keep her on track.
As you might have already guessed, getting to your ideal Venus Index requires more than just a workout, and more than just a diet…it’s the combination of the right workout with an eating pattern that fits your lifestyle.
There is no right or wrong way to eat, there is just the way that fits for you that gets you to your goals. Your life has it’s own unique set of challenges and it would be foolish for me or anyone else to tell you exactly how to eat, when to eat, what to eat, what not to eat etc.
Following inflexible diet “rules” will just lead to failure. Instead general dieting “principles” that are flexible to your lifestyle are the real path to weight loss and body transforming success.
With that said, there are many useful tips and trick in today’s podcast that I think you will find useful. Not ALL of them will apply to you, but I guarantee SOME of them will.
John
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Becoming a Venus PART 2: Interview with Ali Scott
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About John Barban
Another great podcast. 🙂
A few questions for you:
When cutting calories, was there a time when you were failing continuously before finally drawing the line and keeping your deficit goals?
Were you eating an average of 700 calories a day (over the week) when dieting? How long did you stay that low?
How did you get past those mental/physical sticky points such as feeling faint, thoughts that this is unhealthy to do, it’s not working etc?
I feel you on the BMR calculator activity level flaw of doom! It kept me from my goals for years. 🙁
I was so sure it would be detrimental to my health if I ate any less, especially because I was working out a lot. I felt like I was starving at 1500 calories….just shows how most of this is in our head.
Thank you for sharing with us. Your stories are a great heads up to those just starting out and I can certainly relate. I really admire your discipline, this stuff is tough! My quote of the day…
“Everyone wants to be a hot chick, but nobody wants to know one.”
Funny, huh?
Inspired,
Amber
Hey Amber!
When I was cutting calories, I tried to hit a 500 calorie deficit every day, but that was through a combination of exercise and diet. 1200 calories is not a lot, so some days I would eat up to 1200, and then exercise off 500 calories, which normally required two workouts a day. Not realistic all the time, but some days it felt good to eat a little more. That said, some days I fasted or only ate about 300-400 calories and felt fine, so you just ride your momentum either way.
When it comes to successes/failures, the food journal – with a calorie count, got me to learn how to count my calories. For a while, until I factored significant counting error in, I didn’t see that many results. That’s what made me realize I had to do a lot of overestimating what I was eating. After I lost the weight, the food journal also helped me keep it off by just getting me really accustomed to counting calories in my “maintenance” state too.
Because I’ve read the research, and talked it over with John and Brad personally, I never felt like I was being unhealthy. Being 20 pounds overweight was though! Especially psychologically. As for feeling faint, etc, I only ever felt that through one or two days in the whole process – and those days I was well below “zero” – aka I was in a 1500+ deficit in one day and doing a big workout. As a (not fun at all) experiment for John, I ran a 1/2 marathon 48 hours fasted. It felt terrible, and after that one I really did “need” something to eat, but it was do-able and I finished so it proved to me that a lot of the other stuff that one can feel when eating low is pretty much all psychological. I kept most of my weight loss journey a bit of a secret to avoid social backlash and just found the right team of supportive friends to keep me on track.
Hope this helps.
Cheers, Ali
Thanks for the great interview.
What i loved the most is that Ali actually verbalised so much of what i already do to lose or keep control over my body fat/ composition. I had not really thought about it, i knew that I live by certain rules, routines & actions but i had never thought about them in this context.
Needless to say i find you (Ali) very smart, articulate and down to earth and your past two interviews really resonated with me. Thank you for your input and i look forward to hearing from you in the future. Congrats from me on your success and I wish you great things going forward. i know that it is not easy but I feel the efforts are well worth it, especially for your own self esteem/image, which at the end of the day is all that really matters.
How long did it take you to lose the 20lbs?
Hey Melissa,
I took off the first 18 or so pounds in about 12-15 weeks (I can’t really pinpoint the day I “started”). At that point I was at my VI when fasted, but not when fed. I kept that weight off and then a month ago, I did a mini-cut down and lost about 2-3 more pounds in about 3 weeks for my “after” photo-shoot.
Cheers, Ali.
Great tips and insights! They have all worked for me for close to 20 years! 🙂
Awesome interview and great transformation! I’m really impressed and so is my sister! I was just wondering if there’s a way for here to try out the Venus Index program before diving in…
We’re discussing having a trial offer right now as we speak.
But then again, this may be a few weeks down the road.
For now, just jump in while the value’s good. The community isn’t going to be included forever (which is the most valuable part), and the bonus “time” will be reduced as of the 19th.
I might get it for her as a late Christmas present since, coincidentally, a coat I got her is too small for her. Maybe now she’ll be able to fit in it!
Ali did you do the same venus index workouts that we all are doing?
Hey Flowerd,
Yes, I’ve been doing Venus workouts with the same style workout and exercises for over a year now. Of course, John made some tweaks and formatted the exercises a bit differently with the finished product, but what I was doing was essentially the same! I was a bit of a guinea pig for the workouts, and it’s been really cool to see them come together.
Cheers, Ali.