Make It Simple, Make It Work

Today we have an interview with Michelle Acorn. Michelle placed sixth in the latest Venus Index Transformation Contest.

Check out her pictures:

With a pretty simple approach, you can achieve some amazing results.

Michelle's back shot

Workout for muscle gain and hourglass shape, diet for fat loss.

Michelle Was Ready to Give Up

The Venus Index system was completely new approach to her and a pretty shocking workout style. She never tried anything like it, the workouts were challenging and the diet simple, completely contrary to what she did in the past.

Michelle worked out in the past, but it wasn’t a priority.

And from a fat loss stand point, she never dieted in her life, always just looking for better and faster way to lose weight.

She never found a good plan and never stuck to any program. Well at least until her co-worker sent her an email with a link to a previous VI contest. Looking at the girls’ transformations was a huge wake up call for her.

While she’d lost a few pounds in the past, it always got to a point where she stopped.

She was giving up, so the Venus Index came exactly at a right time. Michelle decided to enter the contest, she saw it as a way to stay motivated and have some accountability.

Once she checked the program and saw the rest of the amazing transformations, she bought it and started right away. And after a few weeks of training she added Eat Stop Eat fasts and started paying more attention to her diet as well.

It’s All about Calories

Fasting helped her understand that in order to lose weight meal timing or food choices didn’t matter, it’s all about calories in and out.

At first fasting scared her, her mind was playing with her and trying to convince her that it’s not a good idea, however she gave it a shot and to her surprise discovered that she felt fine and didn’t crave any food during the fast itself. It took her as little as three fasts to get used to them. After that she practiced intermittent fasting once a week and on the non-fasting days decided to shoot for 700-1000 calories a day.

This worked really well for her.

Fat loss is really just a matter of eating under your energy expenditure. The mix of food and the choices are entirely up to you and your own preferences and lifestyle. Sure it’s probably not a good idea to eat only pizza, because you would probably not enjoy having just a few slices for the whole day, however you can still have some tasty snacks. For example Michelle was snacking on her kids’ 100 calorie snacks, she just kept the amount low.

At the end of the contest she stopped fasting and upped her calories a bit. This is the theory behind the Transformation Diet. Here is the thing, most people start dieting slowly, and cut their calories even more when they are closer to contest shape. However, this often times leads to a lack of energy, tiredness, moodiness and all sorts of other unwanted effects. your body can handle a limited amount of systemic stress before you push it over the edge. And this is exactly what most people experience before the end of the contest, and that can lead to a rebound. Believe it or not many fitness models gain as much as 30 pounds right after their contest.

What’s the point of that? Having a great body for two weeks while feeling like crap to get it? And then immediately rebounding and being out of shape for the rest of the year?

No, thanks.

There is a better way. The way that Michelle has done it and how the Transformation Diet is designed. Diet the right way from the beginning and quickly get to your ideal bodyweight, once you are there, increase your calories intake to maintenance or BMR and have energy for the final weeks as you become leaner and leaner. This will also prevent you from rebounding afterwards.

Workouts Must Be Challenging

Michelle did the VI workouts phase one and was pretty sore in the beginning, but after a few sessions she could handle the workouts pretty well. And that’s just how it works. If you are not used to a well-designed workout, the first few weeks might be pretty challenging, because your body has to adjust to the stress you are putting it under. Once you go through this part, it will feel much better and your body will be ready for the weekly workout load long term.

So, don’t worry if you are just starting out with this, the feeling of soreness will go away after a short while. A similar thing happens with fasting, after a few fasts you get used to it and don’t even think about it.

Michelle did no extra cardio, and in her workouts she focused on training for muscle and decided to let the diet take of the fat loss, which is the best approach you can take for long term success and avoiding any risk of rebounding.

Keep it simple and effective, keep working out for muscle gaining and shape and dieting for fat loss. Remember that cardio will help you increase your calorie deficit, but you can never out train a bad diet, plus the more activities you do, the more rest you might need for the rest of the day. There is always the law of diminishing returns with ever increasing amounts of cardio. Finding a balance between exercise volume and calories consumed should be your goal.

This way you keep your fitness lifestyle simple compared to eating at certain times, watching macronutrients and spending countless hours on treadmills. In Michelle’s own words: “It’s the easiest thing I have ever done.”

And you don’t have to tell anyone about it. As soon as Michelle realized that people don’t understand how simple it is and are looking for a magic pill or an insanely complicated approach (so they could say it’s impossible to do) she just started saying that she is simply “dieting and exercising”. After a while she didn’t even bother explaining what she was doing at all. The only person that really knew what she was doing was her co-worker that is in the Venus Index Community with her.

This is the power of  VI Community, all the girls there are not only supportive, but they are on the same page as you or Michelle. She was a bit shy at the beginning, but after a while started posting pictures and talking to others about her progress and challenges, which made it even more exciting and fun.

This is important, because even if people ask you what you are doing and you tell them: “I just work out a few hours a week and eat less”, they will discredit you as not knowing what you are doing and will tell you it’s unhealthy or that it doesn’t work.

Let others comment on your results, not your approach, keep that one for yourself and you will be better off.

Take home message from Michelle:

• You really have to want to do it, there are no results without commitment
• For Michelle this was the easiest and simplest thing she has ever done and ironically, she is in the best shape of her life
• Michelle was shy at first, but admits that it’s important to ask questions and post updates in the VI community to stay motivated

Words & phrases mentioned in the interview:

Venus Index Community – You will never find a more outgoing and friendly community than this one.

Venus Index Workout – VI workouts are designed to maximize your genetic potential, build your best shape and look your best both in a bikini and clothes.

Eat Stop Eat – Diet and lifestyle protocol that will help you stay on track with your weight loss while enjoying social eating events at a same time.

Transformation Diet – Brand new diet protocol to help you keep energy towards the end of the contest and avoid post contest rebounds.

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download