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En Route Train Stop; The Venus Transformation Contest

April 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
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The contest is just an en route train stop on your fitness journey

As the 7th Venus Index Transformation contest comes to an end some of you may be preparing for a photo shoot or may have finished one by now.  Some of you may know someone in the contest and are anticipating the results.

This is always an exciting time as we wait.  Sometimes this is when we start seeing some beautiful new pictures show up in the Venus Index Community along with some amazing transformations.

The Venus lifestyle does not have an ON or OFF season

Here at the Venus Index we don’t embrace the traditional “bulk and cut” lifestyle.  There is no on or off season.

I did an internet search on “bodybuilding” and “what does cutting mean?” and I found answers like “a slow descent into hell” and “‘Cutting’ refers to the process of dropping body fat, while attempting to preserve as much muscle mass as possible.”

We know that with the Reverse Taper Diet Nutrition Calculator our life does not have to be miserable and you don’t have to worry about losing muscle mass.   As you get leaner you walk a fine line with just enough calories to have good energy, stay strong at the gym, and just a slight sustainable calorie deficit to lose fat slowly.

Just as you have had to do all along, as you get leaner you may need to experiment with what exactly works for you while walking the fine line.  Everyone is slightly different depending on stress, age, genetics, lean body mass, exercise intensity, etc.

The contests are a fun and motivational tool.  The calorie deficit needed to lose fat is somewhat sustainable even though it may be temporary corrective action for being over weight.

As John said in the recent immersion coaching call on April 4th a “refeed” is really not necessary when you only stay on a calorie deficit for 1 or 2 days, 3 days at the most.  It is why John and Brad recommend looking at the calorie budget as a weekly budget.

There is no need for “cheat days” because you don’t deprive yourself of foods you love, you include them in your calorie budget.

Some days you eat closer to maintenance calories.  There is no real need to eat too high above maintenance when you allow yourself breaks from the deficit as you move along.

quote-roosevelt-comparison-joyComparison is the thief of joy

Regardless of the outcome of the contest, rejoice in the progress you have made.  Cherish the pictures taken as your own, a memento of the accomplishments you made at the beginning of 2013.

What you accomplished makes the pictures valuable, not the placing in a contest.  You can see it in your pictures with your own eyes.  Be proud of it and continue on.

Enjoy learning what someone else did but at the same time don’t compare yourself to others.  Aspire to be the best you possible.

Beware of goal hijacking

Sometimes when you join a contest it’s easy to get “sucked in” by trying to obtain goals that were not really your intent.  Do you remember why you started practicing Eat Stop Eat or the Venus Index Workout?

What were the goals you started out with?

It’s okay to redefine goals, but make sure you have a clear focus on what you really want for yourself.  Don’t let your own goals get hijacked.

Enjoy life!

If you participated in the contest you can breath a huge sigh of relief that the 12 weeks of hard work is complete.  You did your best to transform in a short period of time.  You survived the unusual “photo prep week“.  Your can celebrate and enjoy with your family and friends.

If you’ve used sustainable practices there is no need to rebound and you can get right back on track with your new lifestyle skills to maintain or continue corrective action as needed.

Previous contest winners have these words of wisdom:

True sustainability can only come from a place of peace with and respect for yourself. It must be based on not only what you have accomplished but how you have accomplished it. It is for each of us to decide what is sustainable for us individually and in doing that, we should look deep inside ourselves, not outwardly at others. – Gillian Chase

 

I think also what’s really crucial (additionally to what Gilly said) that you won’t be able to love and accept yourself at your goal weight when you don’t start with it NOW, wherever you are in your journey. – Stephanie S.

 

Maintenance does not mean you can go back to your old habits. They were the habits that made you overweight in the first place. But you have learned the tools and approaches on how to eat. At maintenance you will get more calories but for many of us, especially if you are smaller and have less calories to play with, you need to be mindful.

A great way to live a sustainable maintenance lifestyle is to select a weight and waist range you are comfortable living within. Keep an eye on these metrics and if you are within your range, keep doing what you are doing but if you go up then it is time to undertake a mini-diet. For a week or two just go back to the principles of your transformation. What worked for you. – Kimberley Dransfield

And more words of wisdom from Lisa who has lost more than 47 pounds by following the Venus Index lifestyle and she continues to live it:

This is life. The Venus life. Where we have the tools to do what we want when we want. We are awake to the knowledge that calories are king and that life is a series of choices… and each day we get to make new choices. We are not tied permanently to yesterday’s choices and we have the freedom to decide differently each day.

The Venus journey is one that starts with an awakening.  Awakening to the fact that our bodies will respond to what we do to them… and that is a good thing… Because we can always choose to make better choices. – Lisa Etwell

The contest is just an en route train stop on your fitness journey

At the end of the contest you may be at or as close as possible to your Venus Index Ideal measurements, or you may still have more corrective work to do.  Either way the end of the contest is a mere train stop en route on your lifelong fitness journey.

Even in the maintenance phase for the rest of our lives we have short periods of small corrective action revolving around vacations, holidays, illness, and the stress of life.  We don’t just reach a goal and stay at that specific spot.  Life happens and we adjust as needed, constantly.  We float somewhere above our “striking distance” at a place where we can happily live our lives.

One of the goals we hope for as mentors is for you to see that you can look as good, if not better, than many already published fitness models.  Except that the shape is all yours and not with the help of Photoshop.  This is something you should be very proud of.  You can do this for yourself whether or not you enter a contest.

So remember, if you are in a contest it is just a mere stop at a train station while en route to the rest of your life as a beautiful new Venus.

Once a Venus, always a Venus.

-Ro

 

Filed Under: Contest, Diet, Sage Advice, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Weight Gain And Muscle Gain Escalators Part 2 – Sick vs Corrective Mentality

April 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic:  Weight gain and muscle gain escalators part 2 – Sick vs Corrective Mentality

There is a different degree of effort required to ascend the escalators vs staying at the top of the escalators.

Last time we talked about the muscle gain and fat gain escalators.  This is a new analogy and a better way of picturing what the process of muscle gain and fat loss is really like.

Today we will take the analogy further and talk about the process of getting to and staying at peak condition.

Specifically it’s the difference between viewing your body and the process from a ‘sick’ mentality vs a ‘corrective’ mentality.

There is a different degree of effort required to ascend the escalators vs staying at the top of the escalators.

Today we’ll talk about changing your mentality and what can and should be done to get to the top and stay there.

John

 

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not a Venus Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

Filed Under: change, Health, Muscle Growth, psychology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Learn How To Cook For Better Success With Weight Loss

March 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Kimberley is an awesome cook. Here she has prepared a special yet simple low calorie meal that was absolutely delicious.

Kimberley is an awesome cook. Here she has prepared a special yet simple low calorie meal that was absolutely delicious.

I’ve been preparing my own food since high school

This is Roberta up first and I’m writing this with Kimberley; I’ve been preparing my own food since high school.  It’s just what I do.  I packed my food during my long career at Hewlett Packard, while working a stressful job, driving long commutes, finishing school, continuing to workout, and raising kids.

One thing I did not have a clue about was calories which is why I gained weight slowly over the years.  I know I’m aging myself here but they did not have awesome calorie counting tools back in that day, let alone computers and the internet.

When you learn to prepare your own food you learn what spices you like and what combinations of foods you like.  You learn that with the same basic staples you can create something simple every day and keep things interesting with spices.

I like to fill up with low calorie high volume foods like vegetables and fruits

People ask me why I eat so many vegetables, doesn’t it bother my stomach?

Or, if calories are all that matter why do I eat so healthy?

I like to fill up with low calorie high volume fruits and vegetables because it makes me feel good.  I pick vegetables that don’t bother my stomach.  Sometimes I just want to feel full.  High volume low calorie is the only way I can do it and stay within budget.

With such a small calorie budget I have to make the calories count. In order to feel good and perform well I need nutrient rich foods.

Learning to listen to your body is key on this journey.  Home prepared foods made with simple ingredients make me feel better.  One ingredient foods like fruits, vegetables, meat, chicken, or fish in various combinations along with different spices are best for me.

I eat a big salad nearly every day, and usually a fruit salad if my calorie budget allows it.

I didn’t eat fruit so much in my weight loss phase when I lost 60 pounds. This was because I am small and it was harder to fit it into my small calorie budget.  Like everyone else there is always a tradeoff on ingredients;  Do I have a higher calorie protein OR avocado, or a lower calorie protein AND the avocado?

I still have to consider the tradeoff while maintaining but I had to give up more when I had a lot of fat to lose.  In the weight loss phase if I planned well I might have been able to fit one serving of fruit or one serving of grain each day, sometimes both.

Spice it up

I never buy salad dressing and have found it’s super easy to make my own low calorie versions without all the strange ingredients.  I just look at the bottle and see what real ingredients are used and make my own version, usually without the oil.  I’ve experimented with spices and various ingredients and on occasion it might not turn out so well but that is how I learned.

Sometimes just fresh squeezed lemon or vinegar, water, and some spices are all that’s needed.  Sometimes water, a splash of tomato soup, and some horseradish hits the spot for a dressing, especially if seafood is on the menu.

Spice rubs for meat and vegetables are also a low calorie way of adding a lot of flavor.  You can get pre-made mixes from the supermarket and feel like you are eating in a different country every day.

The key is finding a variety of things you like so you can change it up when you get bored.

When you prepare your own food you have better control of your calories

The biggest benefit in preparing your own food when trying to lose weight is better control of what you eat.

Another benefit is making sure your less calories really count so they fuel your body both resting and working hard.

A friend recently told me about someone they knew who could prepare his own food for a fitness contest, a sort of boring contest diet of something like plain chicken and broccoli, but didn’t know how to eat when “off season” so sort of floundered with staying at a good maintenance weight.

First of all I refuse to eat a boring diet.  Spice and fun food combinations are what make my diet fun.  By cooking for myself all these years I have found what I like.

When it comes to my diet, for either maintaining or weight loss, I don’t really plan much except to purchase a variety of lower calorie foods, good protein sources, and only a small amount calorie dense foods (just enough to add richness and satisfaction). Then I eat whatever I feel like for the day, keeping in mind what I had during the last meal regarding carbohydrates or protein.

I eat just enough carbohydrates and protein to give me enough energy, and the fats just fall into place.  Others might want to focus on protein, fat, vegetables and fruits and let carbohydrates fall into place.  The key is to find what is sustainable for you.

It does not have to be perfect.  I don’t drive myself crazy worrying about macro levels.  I keep it simple.  By being aware of what I’m eating while making choices throughout the day it falls in place as fairly balanced and within my calorie budget.

Blissfully ignorant – the real science of food

Most of us can resist a food that is sweet, salty or fatty but combine the three in the right amounts and you find you have very little willpower to resist.  This magic formula is called the ‘bliss point‘ by food scientists.

Food manufacturers and restaurant chains are well aware of the bliss point of foods and deliberately design their products to give the broadest range of the population the greatest pleasure.

Foods based on bliss point act as drugs that stimulate feel good chemicals in your brain like dopamine.  It encourages us to keep eating, and it encourages to be addicted to certain foods.

If you have ever wondered why you cannot put down the peanut butter and are compelled to keep eating, it is because of the feel good factor we have from being in bliss.  This does not mean you should avoid peanut butter, packaged foods and restaurants, it is just a gentle reminder to be aware of what you are eating, and when you are focused on weight loss a better strategy will be to limit these blissful foods.

The perils of eating out

Most of us eat out frequently with an average American adult having over 1/3 of their meals away from home.  Eating out is quick, it is easy and it is mostly enjoyable.  However women that eat out regularly eat about 300 calories per day more than their home cooking peers.  That can add up to a lot of extra poundage over the course of a year.

Packaged food from the supermarket all come with calorie and nutrition data.  This should help with guesstimating calories.  However, often the weight of the serving size is significantly lower than the actual product.  I just recently I decided to weigh a box of 60 gram protein bars.  The 12 bars ranged in weight from 62 grams to 72 grams.  That means I could be eating 20% more calories that I expected.

Recently many chain restaurants have started to provide calorie data.  However spot checks have shown that while some restaurants are reasonably accurate, some are underestimating the calories by up to 60%.

This does not mean you should not keep enjoying a lovely meal at a restaurant.  Instead you may choose to do it less often and when you do, be aware that it may very well be more calories than you think.

Recipes are a great place to start

Using simple recipes is a great place to start.  I rarely use recipes anymore but Kimberley and some of the other ladies in the Venus Community have a beautiful collection of recipes and they love to share them with us.

Here are some very simple recipes.  Cooking at home does not have to be difficult, and making larger batch sizes for reheating can provide for multiple meals.

Kimmits’ Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls

12 large prawns / shrimp

1/2 cup shredded Chinese cabbage (wombok)

1/2 cup beansprouts

1 small red bell pepper thinly sliced

1 small cucumber thinly sliced

1/3 cup fresh mint leaves

1/3 cup fresh coriander leaves

1 lime juiced

1 TBSP fish sauce

12 rice paper wrappers

Step 1: Combine beansprouts, cabbage, lime juice and fish sauce

Step 2: Place 1 rice paper wrapper in warm water for 20 seconds (until soft).  Place on clean tea towel to drain.

Step 3: Arrange 1.5 TBSP of beansprout mix, 2 slices of cucumber and bell pepper, herbs and 1 prawn in the middle of the wrapper.  fold in ends and roll to enclose filling.  Repeat with other 11 wrappers.

Serve with sweet chilli sauce.  Serves 4 as a starter or lunch.

Liss’s slow cooked Tex Mex chicken

2.2lb / 1kg of chicken breast fillet

1 large jar of your favorite spicy salsa

1 diced onion

2 diced green bell peppers

Optional: 1 tsp of cumin and smoked paprika / chipotle

Step 1: Place all ingredients in a crock pot on low

Step 2: Cook for up to 12 hours until chicken is ready to be pulled apart

Serves 6 and makes great reheated left overs for the rest of the week.  This can be served in tacos or tortillas or with a kidney bean and corn salad or even over lettuce.

Kimmits’ 5 minute berries with butterscotch custard

1 cup of low fat / 2% milk

1.5 TBSP Mr Bird’s custard powder

1 TBSP of Truvia

1 TBSP Joseph’s SF maple syrup

8 drops of butterscotch Stevia

Mixed berries to serve

Step 1: Prepare custard according to directions on packet

Step 2; Arrange berries in the bottom of a bowl and pour hot custard on top.

Serves 2.

Cooking for your family and with your family is beneficial to all

I love cooking for my husband.  I like it even better when I can get him involved in helping me cook.  When I have family members and friends over I love to get anyone who is willing involved with helping prepare the meal.

I love cooking for Randy. Here I am preparing him an omelet for a TV documentary.

I love cooking for Randy. Here I am preparing him an omelet in a TV documentary.

I really do enjoy cooking for Randy although I will admit there were days when I was fasting that it was too hard to cook for him.  For the most part I’ve found that my willpower is stronger in the morning before I’ve taken on the stress of the day.

However many of us do not have the option of not cooking for our family so it may be helpful to think about aligning your food and fasting with family meals.  For example if dinner time is important and you typically have low willpower at this time, then fast dinner to dinner.

Learning to cook with lower calorie substitutes may also be useful.  For example a steak, broccoli and sweet potato dinner may be 450 calories, whereas the same volume of chicken, roasted pumpkin and french beans may be 320 calories.

I think most of the moms in the Venus Index Community understand the importance of teaching their kids about food and learning to have healthy eating habits for life.

By cooking for and eating with your family you are role modelling your new habits and behaviors.  You are teaching them how to make good food choices.

Happy cooking!

Kimberley

Ro

 

Filed Under: calories, fat loss, Food, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

What Are Weight Gain And Muscle Gain Escalators?

March 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic:  Weight gain and muscle gain escalators

Muscle gain and fat loss are two separate concepts

Muscle gain and fat loss are two separate concepts

In order to get to your ideal golden ratio and stay there you have two things you must do:

1. Build muscle mass which gives you you’re golden shape

2. Reduce bodfyat to a level to show your muscle and shape

This requires two kinds of effort that should be viewed as separate things.

Muscle Building Effort

Building muscle is an obvious effort that requires you to move your body. It’s something that builds momentum and you can see it and feel it in the gym and every time you workout.

In order to push past your genetic set point of muscle you must follow a well designed workout program consistently. Even when you’ve achieved an impressive amount of muscle you must continue to workout to avoid losing that muscle.

Fat Loss Effort

Losing body fat requires a different kind of effort. It’s not a physical effort you put in the gym, it doesn’t require hours of cardio. The real effort that you must exert to burn fat is self control over your diet and eating habits. This is a daily effort that seems to start as soon as you wake up and doesn’t stop until you fall asleep each day. Most people who have successfully cut body fat and got in great shape will attest that dieting to burn fat is a much greater effort than working out to build muscle.

These two styles of effort should be viewed as separate things.

In today’s podcast we will use an analogy of the weight gain and fat gain escalators to explain how you should be viewing the process of gaining muscle and losing fat.

You’ll learn how getting to the muscle size and body fat levels you desire is one thing, and how staying there is another.

John

 

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not a Venus Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

Filed Under: Bodyfat, cardio, Exercise, fat loss, Uncategorized, Weight training Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

How To Survive Years Of Fad Diet Yo-yo’s And Finally Succeed.

March 11, 2013 by 4 Comments

Today we get to read what Lori Anderson wrote about placing eighth in the 6th Venus Index Transformation Contest.

But first, check out her transformation pictures from the 12 Week Contest:

Lori Anderson before and after the 12 week contest

Lori Anderson before and after the 12 week contest

More of Lori before and after

More of Lori before and after

Lori experienced what many of us have experienced; falling into the trap of complicated fad diets and regimented workout programs only to end up in a perpetual yo-yo that can go on for years or even decades.  Sometimes it is embarrassing for us to admit all the various ways we tried that did not work.  In the end, with the right tools, we can be stronger.

Why? Because depriving yourself of foods you love and over complication is not sustainable.  In Lori’s own words we will see how the Venus Index Workout and Eat Stop Eat finally helped Lori to succeed in her diet and fitness goals.

In Lori’s own words:

Donuts don’t make a people fat, people make themselves fat. The power is not in the object, but the person. Making this connection with my work-outs and eating habits helped me realize that I was the only person going to give my self the body I desired, not a protein bar or meal timing.  It took a lot of messing up before I realized this liberating principle … Continue reading here

Filed Under: change, Contest, Interview, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

What Is Maintenance?

February 20, 2013 by 1 Comment

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic:  Maintenance

What is maintenance?

What is maintenance?

What is maintenance?

The real answer is that you’re never actually just sitting in one spot at the exact same weight, and body fat %. You’re always fluctuating a little bit throughout the day, and throughout the year.

Maintenance is more of a transient state that you can dip in and out of when you you’re not necessarily trying to gain more muscle or burn more fat.

You can ‘hold’ and maintain a certain level of body fat and muscle for a given length of time and then get ready to push it hard again.

The step-wise progression

In all the body transformations I’ve ever seen it’s always a step-wise pattern. This means you will improve for a given amount of time. Then you’ll need to take a break. Once you feel ready you can push forward again. The amount you move forward is dependent on your goals and how hard you expect to push things.

Thinking about maintenance is also about managing expectations and where you expect to go based on the energy you’re putting forward.

Moments of maintenance happen for many reasons including lifestyle factors, seasonal changes, periodic moments of being sick, generalized stress.

For example over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season you may simply set a goal to just make it from November to January without gaining fat mass.

In this case you’re actually working to just maintain, and you’d probably have to consider it a win just to make through the holidays without gaining fat.

Maintenance is a mode you go into throughout the year, and it’s normal to go through phases of muscle growth vs muscle maintenance and fat loss vs maintenance.

In this podcast we discuss what maintenance is, how to define what it is and how often you should expect to be in maintenance mode.

-John 

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not a Venus Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

Filed Under: Bodyfat, fat loss, Muscle Growth, Podcast, Uncategorized, Uncensored Podcasts S02 Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Learn To Love The Gym By The Power Of Habit

February 11, 2013 by 2 Comments

Today John talks to Jessie T who placed Fourth in the 6th Venus Index Transformation Contest.

Check out her transformation pictures from the 12 Week Contest:

Jessie's pictures before the contest

Jessie’s pictures before the contest

Jessie’s pictures after the 12 week contest

It takes awhile for the mind to catch up with the body

Jessie tells John she still remembers herself as over weight with long curly hair.  She has a hard time recognizing herself in the mirror with short hair and being fit now.

It takes a while for the mind to catch up with the body.

She likes what she sees in the mirror now and was thrilled when she first started seeing her own ab definition.

Jessie said she would not have joined the contest if it were not for the Venus Index Community Forum. She said it was the best thing she ever did for herself.

The contest got her motivated to do the Venus Index Workout even though she hated the gym and with it she got amazing results.

All that matters is calories

Like many of us Jessie tried several different eating styles and did not get that all that matters is calories.

She found that most of the diets she looked at seemed to cater towards people’s desire to eat as much as they want;  all the fruit they want or all the fat and protein they want, and the list goes on.

She spent a lot of time finding many ways that did not work.  On some diets she was hindered by restrained eating.

She was sold on the program when she heard John and Brad talk about how there is no secret to weight loss;  eat what you want, just less.

Jessie loved Brad Pilon’s article “Fat Loss Divide and Conquer“and found she loves to fast.

She hated the gym, but now Jessie is a regular there known by name

Jessie had a bad experience at a gym once as so she hated the gym and didn’t really know how to lift weights.

After doing the Venus Index Workout she is not afraid to lift heavy and became a regular at her gym and now they know her by name.

Jessie didn’t have to stop running and in fact completed a half marathon during the contest.  She found that it does not matter if you do cardio or not.

She stopped doing cardio at the end of the contest and it did not hinder her weight loss progress.

Jessie was thrilled when she finally saw her own ab definition

Jessie was thrilled when she finally saw her own ab definition

Pick one thing, the power of habit

At one point after reading all the insane contradictory information in the diet and fitness industry Jessie realized she was paralyzed by analysis.

Once she joined the contest and focused on the workout and calories she realized that one victory spawns another and it starts snowballing into the rest of your life.

One good habit leads to the next as described in a book she read called The Power Of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

During the holidays she found if you just pick one thing to keep you on track it really helps.  She never stopped her workouts during the holidays and that kept her on the right path to success.

It is part of the power of habit.

She found that by doing this she learned to be consistent.

Links from the interview:

  • Eat Stop Eat – Diet Lifestyle protocol designed to help you to lose fat and regain freedom in your food choices
  • Original Venus Index Workout – Workout program for women that’s responsible for the most amazing transformations online
  • Venus Index Community – Friendliest and most supportive women’s only fitness community on the Internet

Advice from Jessie:

Read what Jessie wrote about her experience with Venus Index:

VT6 after photos and essay 250 words is by far not long enough to say all the things I
want to say about my experience. So I will simply share the lessons I realized …Continue reading here

Listen to Jessie’s interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: Contest, Diet, Interview, Podcast, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nutrition & Training: Flexible vs. Structured

February 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Nutrition & Training: Flexible vs. Structured

Are you a type of person who needs a meal plan for every day or can you handle more loose structured way of eating?

Are you a type of person who needs a meal plan for every day or can you handle more loose structured way of eating?

When it comes to nutrition & training advice, how much structure is best for you?

Our last episode was on optimal vs. practical training and today John Barban & Brad Pilon take this topic a bit further while discussing flexible vs. structured training and diet.

As stated in our last article with the rise of obesity it’s safe to say that an emergency is on our hands when it comes to our health and we must take action.  But what nutrition & training advice should we follow to become consistent obtain successful results?

The information on diet and fitness becomes more and more daunting. From nutritional strategies consisting of: macro/micro nutrients, slow/fast proteins, what foods are good, what foods are bad, and the highly controversial thoughts on meal timing, a person could become easily overwhelmed.

Things aren’t much better on the training side of the house as we are faced with a myriad of factors to take into account. Ranging from: Workout Intensity, Volume, length of actual workouts, and the rest/recovery period.

While some structure is necessary how much structure do you actually need?

At what point does too much structure hinder or stop your progress?

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • With consistency, effort, and patience anyone can change their look significantly in one year
  • Why structured metric goals along with a more relaxed approach to diet and fitness makes you successful
  • How to determine the level of structure you need
  • How the structure you need is a continuum
  • How fitness products sell too much structure with goals that are too vague
  • How Top Level athletes follow extremely strict regimes for a specific purpose that is unsustainable to the average person
  • How too much structure and restrained dieting will slow down your progress
  • How there is a minimal amount of structure needed for each individual
  • For diet the first level of of structure should be how much you eat
  • People spend so much time on diet structure that they miss the point that what matters is how much they eat
  • How to manage your diet so that it is less structured
  • How to manage your training so that it is less structured

 

Filed Under: calories, change, Diet, Exercise, stress, Uncategorized, weight loss Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Transform Your Mind And Your Body By Keeping It Simple

February 4, 2013 by 3 Comments

Today John talks to Deanne Hernandez who placed first in the 6th Venus Index Transformation Contest.

Check out her transformation pictures from the 12 Week Contest:

deanna-hernandez-befores

Deanne before the contest

Deanne Hernandez - 1st Place - After Photos

Deanne Hernandez – 1st Place – After Photos

At the beginning of the contest Deanne did the Venus Index Workout but tried to eat gluten free because it sounded like a good thing to do.  Like many of us she was eating a certain way for no particular reason other than it seems to be the latest fad.  She realized she could not lose weight because she was still eating too many calories.  Her weight stayed the same during the first eight weeks of the contest.  She did not take her diet and calories seriously enough.  Then she got really motivated and kicked into gear, got motivated, got her correct mindset, took a good look at her calories, and ended up with some amazing results. You can change the way you look.  Deanne also decided to get involved in the Venus Index Community Forum and that helped her a lot.  She didn’t realize how much support and information was available there.  She highly recommends others to get involved there to help with your success.

Stay Motivated

Deanne realized that the process was mostly about mindset.  Like most of us have also learned she found she needed mindset techniques like cause and effect; “If I do this than what?”, and “You either do it you don’t.”  She decided she needed the contest with the end date to help keep her motivated.  She said the contest was the best thing she ever did for herself.  She realizes now that what she learned how to do during the contest is something she can do for the rest of her life.

Deanne loved listening to the previous contest winner interviews and loved to imagine herself looking like the pictures of Alisha.  Not only did the process transform her body but it transformed her mind.  She had spent most of her life with a poor image of herself and a lot of negative self talk.  The process she used during the contest and listening to Olya’s interview helped her stop the negative self talk.  She started treating her workouts and diet as gifts to her body.  She now treats herself with kindness and respect.

Knowledge Is Power

Deanne learned that managing the correct amount of calories, Eat Stop Eat, and eating foods you like were the keys to successful weight loss for her.  She learned the truth about calories from the Venus Index manuals and from the Venus Index community.  Deanne learned that the process was simple but not easy.  She decided to keep it simple and tune out all of the conflicting information that comes from the diet and fitness industry.

Keep It Simple

Deanne really liked April’s interview and the plan for doing the VI workout lifting weights three days a week.  Even though more advanced weight lifters can do the workout more days per week the three days per week kept it simple for her.  She decided she would do something every day.  Mostly she paid attention to her activity level for the day and tried to make sure she was taking 10,000 steps.  She walked while she listened to the Venus Index podcasts and that made it fun and enjoyable for her.  She decided that if she did not feel like exercising she would just do it anyway, even if she decided to make the workout easier or lift lighter.  Even on the days she decided to do an easier workout she found that once she got going she felt like pushing herself hard and it felt good.  She found that by doing this she learned to be consistent.

Deanne_After

Look what being consistent and motivated did for Deanne. She looks fabulous.

Links from the interview:

  • Eat Stop Eat – Diet Lifestyle protocol designed to help you to lose fat and regain freedom in your food choices
  • Original Venus Index Workout – Workout program for women that’s responsible for the most amazing transformations online
  • Venus Index Community – Friendliest and most supportive women’s only fitness community on the Internet

Advice from Deanne:

  • Don’t wait, Do something NOW.
  • Keep it simple
  • Figure out how many calories you need and go from there
  • Join a transformation contest
  • It is mostly about mindset
  • Set a goal with a date
  • Even if you don’t feel like it do an easy exercise
  • Exercise as a gift to your body
  • The process is simple, but not easy

Read what Deanne wrote about her experience with Venus Index:

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the difference between success and failure was education. That idea now makes perfect sense after completing VT6. My failure in weight loss was completely due to my lack of education about the way the human body works. I was an overweight child, and my fittest years being in early college when I was the most active. After college, my weight crept on me and I went through …Continue reading here

Listen to Deanne’s interview here, and please “like” it when you’re done:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Filed Under: Contest, Interview, Podcast, transformation, Weight training Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Your Fitness Goals in the New Year, How Bad Do You Want It?

January 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment

What Is Your Motivation?

As we move into the New Year you might be starting to work on new resolutions or goals.  Will you be one who completes your goals this year?  How bad do you want it?  There is pain and sacrifice to achieve it, but there could be pain if you don’t achieve it.  Recently someone in the Venus Index Community posted this article “What is your Motivation?” and I was intrigued by the author’s use of pain motivation and his figurative “Alpo” as the pain.

I read this right around the US Thanksgiving holiday.   I was actually a bit frustrated on the holiday due to several weeks of social eating events and my jeans no longer fit comfortably.  Rather than have a meltdown I took a deep breath and decided I would not ruin the holiday with my precious husband Randy.  I would come up with a plan to fix the problem the next day.  The following day I decided to take a picture of the several pair of jeans that didn’t fit and place them on the refrigerator and pantry doors.  I also included a smiley face and the words “pain motivation”.  The picture reminded me of how awful I felt when the pants didn’t fit.

Be Kind to Yourself Right Where You Are, Right Now

As I was pondering this I had a thought about struggles and victories; cycles continue, struggle, victory, struggle, and victory. Self-worth issues don’t magically go away when you reach your fitness ideal. The best time to treat your body as the temple of beautiful treasures is right now, while continuing the lifelong seasons of reaching new goals.

Randy kind of frowned at me when I put up the picture in the kitchen because it was negative.  Not only that but he thought I looked perfect the way I was.   I was probably still somewhere around 12% body fat.  Since I tend to be hard on myself I have to be careful with the concept of pain motivation.  Many of my girlfriends tell me they must be careful with this concept as well because of a history of eating disorders that stem from issues of self-worth.  I’ve never had eating disorders or emotional eating issues but like many women I struggle with body image issues.  I have to remember that the images of fitness models in fitness magazines are Photoshopped.

I had to remind myself that even though I wanted to achieve a mini goal of fat loss that I was also okay right where I was.  I was healthy, I looked fit, no one saw the little extra bit of fat except me.  It was up to me to make the choice how far I wanted to take it.  Randy, knowing my personal history, warned me with his frown that he’d better not see me beating myself up over this mini goal.

Be Flexible, It’s Okay to Switch It Up

It only took a few weeks to achieve the goal of fitting into the jeans so I switched my motivator to a more positive pleasure motivator (the photo below with the quote “Nothing tastes as good as FIT feels”).  I still remember how I felt the day of this photo shoot and how ecstatic I was when I saw how the pictures turned out.  I decided to make my own (first ever) motivational poster and use it for myself to continue on with my mini goal.  So far it’s working for me.

I switched to a positive pleasure motivator.

I switched to a positive pleasure motivator.

How Bad Do You Want It

The author talks about moving from a state of “Coulda Shoulda Woulda” to a state of “Must” and that reminded me of when I reached my peak of weight gain in 2009.  My weight topped out at over 170lbs.  Something had to change.  I couldn’t possibly do more fitness so I had to change something else.  I had to change my mental mindset and I decided to simply eat less and cut my portion sizes in half.  As I made progress losing weight I constantly used a symbol in my mind of door #1 and door #2.  Door #1 represented achieving the fitness level I had always wanted.  Door #2 represented everything else, every excuse, and simply staying where I was or worse.

The vision of what was behind door #2 was so painful to me that I felt I had no choice.  I must take door #1 which meant continuing to eat at a calorie deficit.  It didn’t mean I had to deprive myself of food; I simply had to eat the right amount to achieve my goal.  This is the beauty of the Anything Goes Diet, Eat Stop Eat, and the Venus Index principles.  Every day when I wanted to eat more than I needed I simply told myself I could have more tomorrow (door #1).

I realized that I used the pain and pleasure motivators all along; door #1 was painful to go through at times but pleasure was on the other side, and door #2 was more pleasurable to go through but pain was on the other side.  Which did I want?  I chose door #1 just about every day for two years.

This dress was my motivator and my reward for achieving my goal.

This dress was my motivator and my reward for achieving my goal.

I had posted up a catalog picture in the kitchen of a swim dress from an athletic clothing company because I wanted to purchase and wear the dress someday.  The picture was a symbol of my door #1 and I kept it posted in the kitchen for about a year.  I achieved that goal and purchased the dress and wore it to the Caribbean last Christmas.  It was my motivator and my reward.

Positive Motivators Worked for Shannon As Well

My friend Shannon who is a busy working mom and wife struggled all her life with weight fluctuations up and down.   She said the tools that finally helped her nail down her success were the Reverse Taper Diet, the Anything Goes Diet, and the Venus Index Workout metric goals using the “Golden Ratio“.

For motivation Shannon said this:

       My past experiences taught me about several components to successful weight loss:  estimating my daily calories so I can be sure I am in a deficit, following an exercise program that I enjoy, taking measurements to track my progress, and working towards a set of daily goals. 

     The process isn’t all that exciting, but the outcome is!  I have been using a planner and stickers to track several daily goals since before my baby was born, including a sleep goal, a calorie deficit goal, a step goal, and a workout goal.  I get a sticker for hitting each of these daily goals, and I find that the number of goals I hit in a week is strongly correlated with weight loss (or maintenance) success. 

     It’s a simple system, and I can easily see the little wins as they pile up.   I like to think about these daily goals as little gifts I am giving to myself every day that have both short term and long term positive effects.

Shannon’s results motivated her husband to start the Adonis Index program.  I would say positive motivation worked very well for her indeed:

Positive motivators worked for Shannon

Positive motivators worked for Shannon

Experiment and Find What Works for YOU

Motivation is different for each person.  You must first define what you want and set your goal.   Then find what motivates you.  Be flexible and if something isn’t working try something else.  Make sure it’s fun and really does motivate you.  Be kind to yourself at all times.  You can change and adjust your plan any time you want.  That is the beauty of experimentation.  You don’t have to stay stuck in a plan that is not working, causes you anxiety, or ends up being destructive to your self-worth or self-image.  We all make mistakes sometimes and learn from them.

  • Set goals
  • Experiment
  • Find what motivates you
  • Make it fun
  • Be kind to yourself
  • Make it a daily routine
  • Track progress
  • Get support
  • Give yourself rewards
  • Be flexible

It is the Yew Year, 2013.  What are your goals?  How bad do you want it? Make it happen.

Ro

 

Filed Under: Bodyfat, calories, Diet, Exercise, fat loss, Food, Health, Metabolism, psychology, Shape, Uncategorized, weight loss, Weight training Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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