Hold the rope! The final countdown to VT15

Hold the rope for the final countdown to VT15!

Hold the rope for the final countdown to VT15!

 

Don’t let go of the rope now!

Contest photo and data submissions for VT15 will be due no later than Monday November 23rd at midnight Eastern Time.

For some motivation here are some beautiful pictures of previous Venus contest winners:

 

Vegetarian Venus

Jonda!

Jonda!

Learn how a Venus Vegetarian did it with Jonda.

 

You can do this in your 50’s!

Therese!

Therese!

Learn how Therese did this at age 5o against all odds!

 

You can keep on living the dream!

Pam, Helen, and Roberta

Pam, Helen, and Roberta

 

See how three Venus winners take it to the streets and keep on living the dream!

 

The success of the contest winners!

Pam and Roberta!

Pam and Roberta!

 

Learn the success secrets in the Tale of Two Venuses!

 

 The Venus Transformation contest!

Several times a year we have transformation contests in which 10 winners are recognized for their achievement in staying committed to their fitness goals.

All these contestants have one thing in common. No matter how tough it became throughout their transformation, they did one thing — they held the rope! What is “holding the rope?” Imagine that you are hanging on a rope like I did here a few days ago. There was only thing between myself and a fall to the floor, and that was hanging on!

When the going gets tough, you can rest assured that friends are there to help you. Whether it is clarification with nutrition or a mental stumbling block, or encouragement, motivation, or picking your own coach in the Venus One on One Coaching. Rest assured, all you have to do is “Hold The Rope!”

The person that holds the rope when the going gets tough is a winner. When you’ve had a long day at work and choose to go to the gym afterwards that is a “winning” decision. If you are frustrated and have lost the willpower to track your calories come and visit with some friends in the various place in the online community where other successful Venus women hang out.

In a matter of speaking, they will tell you they have been where you are, just “hold the rope — let it burn but don’t let go!”

Win or lose, remember that your transformation is a personal achievement and you should be very proud of your accomplishment. Personally for me I know it is the Venus golden lifestyle that enabled me to climb up that rope for real, and never let go.

 

Get empowered!

The Venus workouts are very empowering. You will learn you can eventually do things you never dreamed of. Just the other day I was at the gym doing my standard cardio when I saw a kid climbing this rope. I’ve never done it before so I thought I’d give it a shot. See there, at 54.5 years old Venus made me strong enough to do it!

Believe me, I was very scared at the top!  My heart was racing from the effort and I was shocked when I looked down and realized I can’t let go!  It took all of my focus to hang on until I got back down.

As for preparation for photos, there are many ways to do this. For the most part the work has already been done during the last 11 weeks. You can do some final last week “prep” but it not required to do anything special.

So hold onto that rope for life!

Never Settle!

Never Give Up!

Live Your Dream!

-Coach Roberta

PS if you have any trouble with submitting pictures or data you can email me:  roberta.saum@gmail.com

How do you BUILD your own MOTIVATION?

Gold Run Sunset Sept 23 2015 FRAMED

Motivation happens when you STEP into it and then feed it.

You can’t feed your own momentum with negative thoughts.

And you can’t feed it with positive thoughts without ACTION first.

The other persons success that you might admire does not give it enough fuel.

You must create your own momentum.

By taking steps.

By taking action.

And the focus on your own process and your own momentum with those positive thoughts.

You have to have the end goal in sight, but even it is not enough.

You have to EMBRACE the process.

You have to BUILD the constant reminders in your mind, the mnemonics, of why you make those hard little choices throughout each day.

Make those choices your daily victories.

Make each day a victory in your mind then.

Have a string of daily victories.

And ride each victory to the next.

Constantly tuning out the negative from yourself and others.

What action will you take today?
What step will you take today?

To build your own motivation.

BOOM!

Never give up
Never settle
Live your dream

-Coach Roberta

Therese found she REALLY COULD LOSE WEIGHT in her 50’s!

Therese-BnA-

Therese finally found she could lose the weight. She had lost hope.  She really and truly believed it could not be done.

She found Venus and decided it would be her last ditch effort.

Sound familiar?

So many of us in mid life and even younger have felt hopeless.

But don’t believe that!

Yes, it requires some effort, but in the end we find it’s kind of simple in a way.  But we have to learn the process.

And we have to give ourselves a bit of time to learn.

But it doesn’t take long.

Soon we find our groove with it.

And we are a constant work in progress.

Because it truly is a lifestyle.

 

The shorts I am in I bought in the beginning of the summer. They fit perfectly, size 10. They are my smallest shorts as I don’t want to waste money on clothes I am going to be too small for to wear in the near future. Now, they are too big. The swim suits I am in I have had for 20 years and have not put them on for the last 15 years.

The shorts in the middle picture I bought in the beginning of the summer.
Now, they are too big. I now have swim suits that I have had for 20 years and have not put them on for the last 15 years!

 

 

Here’s what Therese wrote in her own words:

The Venus Factor Program has been life changing. It has not only changed my weight but my body shape and mental attitude. I am nearly 54 years old and thought I was stuck as a fat, tired, old person until I did the research that brought me to the Venus Factor Program.

I started this research in Jan. 2014 when I weighed 204 pounds. As I was spending the time to make the best choice possible I continued to work on my weight loss with the vast knowledge I had gained over the many years of using every diet I came across from fad, Weight Watchers, injections, specialty foods etc. only to become an expert on loosing and gaining weight.

Even having a degree in Family and Consumer Education with an emphasis in nutrition wasn’t enough. This time I needed to make it my last time so in June of 2014 I started with Venus Factor weighing 193 pounds.

I had only lost 10 pounds during the 6 months prior. This contest has only been a process in my journey.

Yes, and what a journey it has been! I have changed habits that I thought were impossible to change.

I no longer eat in the evening–a childhood habit that I have had all my life. I now exercise every week at least three times per week. I have not done this since high school–36 years ago–WOW.

I also believed I could not loose weight during the school year as being a school counselor is too stressful and has many evening obligations.

I have proved that wrong.

The pictures I have included really show my journey.

The shorts I am in I bought in the beginning of the summer. They fit perfectly, size 10. They are my smallest shorts as I don’t want to waste money on clothes I am going to be too small for to wear in the near future.

Now, they are too big. The swim suits I am in I have had for 20 years and have not put them on for the last 15 years.

The pictures showing my before Venus pictures and were I was during the journey before this contest show where I have come from and the direction I am going.

This contest is not the end but just one more step in my journey.

Today, I challenged my husband to who can get abs first–me or him. It is going to be me!!!

Since I have been doing the Venus Factor my husband has lost 30 pounds and two of my four children who are home for the summer have both lost weight.

The journey I am on has no finish line.

I will continue the weight loss with maintenance process until I reach my Venus Factor figure and then I will continue to strengthen my body and maintain the weight loss.

 

Here is Therese giving her very own video testimonial:

 

And I had the opportunity to interview Therese over skype: Игровые автоматы бесплатно и без дополнительной загрузки. Игровые автоматы абсолютно бесплатно и без регистрации, запустить их можно онлайн без регистрации, запустить их можно онлайн казино Вулкан на интерес каждому предоставлены на интерес каждому предоставлены на интерес каждому предоставлены на интерес каждому предоставлены на интерес каждому предоставлены на выбор виды бесплатных . игры онлайн бесплатно автоматы Выбираем сначала платформу автоматов, потом — сам аппарат. Вы можете попробовать игровые автоматы бесплатно абсолютно бесплатно абсолютно каждый посетитель нашего игрового зала, без регистрации и без регистрации, запустить их можно онлайн может себе это позволить, подобраны залы с наивысшими показателями всех важных параметров достойного азартного клуба. Игровые автоматы абсолютно каждый .

Pam learned you can’t outrun too much food!

 

FRAME-Pam-BnA-Venus-Article

Like so many of us Pam used to be a long distance runner.  There is nothing wrong with distance running, but it may not be the best strategy for fat loss like most of us thought.

The excess endurance workouts make us fatigued, drive some of our needed hormones down, thus makes us extra hungry and then we overcompensate with extra food.  This hinders fat loss.

Pam has always loved working out, but when she switched her focus to resistance training and diet she found success.

 

Pam LAF gym

Pam has always loved working out! The right workouts and diet helped her succeed at what she loves most.

 

Pam was one of our Venus Transformation contest winners.  Here is her story in her own words:

Here I am a personal trainer who is supposed to be helping my clients get fit and I was not fit and a bit fat! I complained to my husband a lot about how horrible I felt. I just really didn’t know what to do and was feeling very low. I was at a high weight for me 159.8 and pulling my hair out.

Then I remembered Venus.

I had purchased ESE a while back and read it and it all made sense but it just wasn’t the right time in my life to implement it. I had listened to Venus podcasts before and thought the whole concept was nuts! I mean, I am a fitness professional- eating below 1000 calories and skipping meals is horrible for your metabolism!

Yes, I fell into so many of the fitness fallacies, it’s not even funny. I got every fitness magazine, email from too many health experts, books by the loads of people in the health field- I thought I knew it all. Well, obviously I didn’t.

So, I bought Venus in August and jumped in with both feet. The time was right for me and I needed to make a change. I kept the first month under wraps. I didn’t want to tell my husband and then have it not work. I remember finally telling him and being amazed at the results and happy to have finally found out what works for me.I feel like I have an advantage over a lot of the other girls in Venus. I have a lot of exercise experience, was familiar with all of the exercises, thrived on the weight workouts and have a bench and weights in my backyard so it was super easy to fit into my day.

Reading the blogs from newbies who haven’t really exercised or aren’t able to do more than a couple workouts a week made me feel like I was so far ahead of the game! And not only do I love working out, I really love the Venus workouts. I love how it’s hard work but not so crazy hard it leaves you wiped for the rest of the day. I was working for a women’s boot-camp style gym for the prior 3 years where we did a lot of box jumps, burpees, jump lunges etc and it was super fun but really exhausting.

 

Beautiful-Pam-LAF-gym

 

I never felt like that after a Venus workout. In fact my body felt so great that I lifted almost every day of the last 2 months. And felt better and stronger every single day. 1-2 times a week I even got in double days. My body has always thrived on movement and the Venus workouts really have made a huge difference in my world.

There are so many things I have learned along the way these last 12 weeks.  I was a holier than thou, super judgmental, food snob who needed to relax, stop reading everything regarding health and fitness and just make it happen. Venus put me on the right path. The one I’ve wanted now for so, so long. I finally feel like I’ve got the magic ticket to life long health and fitness. There were a few stumble forwards along the way just like I had heard on so many of the podcasts. But that is life- it’s never just all smooth sailing.

 

FRAME Pam-Sherman-pretty-after-picture

 

On a final note, I cannot really believe how this year has turned out for me. The beginning was so horrible. Death, illness, depression, injury- I was just a huge mess. To have turned almost all aspects around and be in the best shape of my life at 47 is thrilling! Not only did I go through with it, I rocked it and had a hell of a time along the way.

Thank you for this amazing program.
The community is amazing.
The program is phenomenal.
It is life changing.

Pam

 

 

Pam is on the left and still enjoys the Venus Lifestyle.

Pam is on the left and still enjoys the Venus Lifestyle.

 

Pam still loves working out even more than ever now.  She enjoys summer vacations and time with her family.  We all have seasons of the year and seasons of our life.  We fluctuate a little as our bodies have these ebbs and flows and seasons.  But that is life.  Because of Venus we know what to do if we want to “work a little off”.   Sometimes we might get a little “off peak” after summer vacations, but it’s no big deal.  We slowly and patiently bring it back, and we KNOW it’s never the end of the world when we take the time to enjoy life a little.

 

Shampy Sherman-Boughner (the dog), and me with Pam couple of days ago when we recorded today's podcast.

Me and “Shampy Sherman” and Pam a couple days ago when we recorded today’s podcast.

 

You can find Pam active in our online community as an Ambassador, you can read her blog in there, and you can see her in a video interview.

 

Here’s the audio podcast where you can hear Pam tell her story:

Vanessa Quit Endless Running to get her Venus Body

Vanessa before and after Venus

Vanessa placed in our recent VT14 Venus Transformation Contest.

She did a phenomenal job and her results display the hard work she put in.

Vanessa bikini after

Here is what Vanessa had to say in her own words

Like many women, I have struggled with my weight my whole life. I was the chubby girl growing up and at the age of 16 decided just not eating would be the only way to lose the excess fat. I was trim and fit during early 20s when I was in the military, but after six months onboard ship; I packed on 20 pounds. I got married, and then had a child and I continued to fight with my weight dropping to a size 6, then back up to a size 12. At the age of 38, I finally had enough and went on a program and managed to lose 35 pounds and dropped from a size 14 to a size 2. I was able to keep that off for close to 7 years. But, again like most…”life happened”; we sold our home, we moved to a new state, I got a new job; we built a house (and lived in a hotel for a few months, which I strongly recommend against). During this time, I also decided I wanted to run a half marathon, so I started training for that. A lot of the materials talk about carb loading/glucose stores for long runs. That combined with a few overuse injuries and my job changed to work-from-home full time…added up to putting on weight again. So, what was my experience with Venus? I busted through two different weight plateaus that two years and several diets and exercise programs could not accomplish. But, not in two years; no I was able to finally lose the weight following the Venus Factor System in 12 weeks when I couldn’t do it with every other diet and exercise program on the market in 24 months. I call that a true success! I lost 8.2 lbs during this 12 week contest period but even greater, I lost 13 inches off my body. I had moved up to a size 6 but I am finally in my 2s again!! Do I still have work to do? Of course; I haven’t yet achieved my goal weight or goal waist size, but I know with hard work and dedication (never giving up or quitting); I will reach that goal once more and now I have the tools to truly stay there!!

 

Vaness at her heaviest to now using Venus

Vanessa at her heaviest to now using Venus

 

Vanessa after back

Vanessa loves the online Venus community

You can find Vanessa active in the Venus community and read her blog!

Vanessa Blog

Vanessa’s Metrics

Weight Height Waist Shoulders Hips
Before 130 lb 62 in 25.8 in 38.5 in 38 in
After 122 lb 62 in 24.7 in 38 in 36 in
Deltas -8 lb 0 in -1 in -0.5 in -2 in

 

Vanessa before and after Venus side

 

VANESSA  AFTER

 

Listen to Vanessa’s interview with Liss below, or download it for later:

It is peculiar that when he was assassinated, many of his warmest all the way from Robin Hoodlum to Pop-eye the Panama. pay to write an essay xat exam And one shall for certain gain by ordination his papers from the trump scribes. as parting of your college admissions lotion.

Be stronger than your EXCUSES!

Coach Carla is stronger than any excuse!

Coach Lita is stronger than any excuse!

 

The thing I love the most about Coach Lita is she never stands behind a list of excuses.  Like all of us, she wears a lot of different hats, and her life is full of other things called LIFE.  She just owns it and moves on.

I’ll tell you a secret.  Even once you are done raising kids, life still fills up your plate.  You move from one season to the next, and life just keeps throwing things at you. The parents have aging issues, the other jobs place demands on you, the car breaks down, the bills pile up, your spouse needs your support, forest fires, tornado’s, hurricanes and other natural disasters threaten your home, your friends get sick and need help, tragedies happen around you and your community needs you, your aging pets get sick.  Family members have tragedy and illness. You have illnesses. It is endless. There will always be a huge list of excuses.

But they are not really excuses, it’s just life.

So, the best thing to do is just own it and keep moving.

Today is a new day.

We all have 24 hours.

We all wear different hats.

We all have responsibilities.

We all have stress.

We all have adversity.

We all have our own unique genetics.

We all have possible excuses.

We all make mistakes that give us doubt.

Even yesterday.  Whatever mistake you made, let it go.

Today is a new day.

Learn from it and move on.

DECIDE what you want today.

Make it a victory.

Nobody wants to hear the excuses.

Just do what you gotta do without the excuses.

If someone else succeeded in what you want, applaud them instead.

Don’t demean them just because you haven’t done it yet.

Don’t make excuses as to why you have not achieved it yet.

Just do it.

Just do it anyway.

Once again it’s the little steps every day and biding your time.

YOUR time will come too.

If you let go of the excuses already.

If you make today a new day and let yesterday go.

This is how we do it!!

Never give up
Never settle
Live your dream

Have a wonderful weekend.  It’s full of opportunity to make good choices.  A clean slate.  Like every fresh new morning.

And of course if you need help with those day to day choices, you can always choose your own Venus coach, or you can find friends in the Venus forum, or the Venus Facebook group.

-Coach Roberta

 

 

Michele Carved Five Inches off her Waist with Venus

Screen Shot 2015-07-05 at 9.18.43 AM

You would never know it by looking at her, but Michele is a mother of three and grandmother of two.  At the age of 58, she came to Venus wanting to tone up her legs, but was blown away by the changes she was able to make to her entire shape.  It is unusual that someone comes to us with the nutrition component nailed down, but Michele’s mother had instilled in her the ability to intuitively portion control so it was the workouts that made the difference for her.

We talk a lot at Venus about stumbling forward because that is how life will always be.  There are going to be ups and downs and parties and hardships and it is our goal for you to walk away with not only an improved physique, but also with a few tools to roll with the punches.  You are stronger than you think.  Michele broke her toe during the first week of the contest and endured a major health scare, but she stumbled forward to success.  Her pictures are the undeniable proof!

Screen Shot 2015-07-14 at 9.28.50 PM michele

You can listen to her interview here:

And the Venus Contest Winners Are … VT 13 Winner Announcement

The 12 week contest only shows the small window of time at the end of their transformation.

The 12 week contest only shows the small window of time at the end of their transformation.

 

Before I announce the winners of the 13th Venus Transformation contest it’s important to note that what you see for the contest is merely the last 12 weeks of a long transformation for all of these women.

What makes our contests unique is that they are not fat loss at all contests. The focus of our program is to learn a sustainable healthy lifestyle. That is why it is important for so many to stay active in our private online community for women only.

Our program is designed to build your best female shape while losing weight at the best rate for yourself.  For many women that might only be 10-20 pounds in 12 weeks.  Our program is designed to help women keep their hormones stable while sustainably losing fat and building muscle tone.

In the weeks ahead you will have the chance to see and hear the bigger story for all of these new Venus winners.

Alright then, on with the announcement so many have been waiting for:

 

First Place – Kirsty

VT13-1st-place-BnA

 

Second Place – Karen

VT13-2nd-place-BnA

 

Third Place – Michele T.

VT13-3rd-place-BnA

 

Fourth Place – Michelle N.

VT13-4th-place-BnA

 

Fifth Place – Tracie

VT13-5th-place-BnA

 

Sixth Place – Amparo

VT13-6th-place-BnA

 

Seventh Place – Annette

VT13-7th-place-BnA

 

Eighth Place – Laura

VT13-8th-place-BnA

 

Ninth Place – Melisia

VT13-9th-place-BnA

 

Tenth Place – Michele A.

VT13-10th-place-BnA

 

 

The deadline for the Venus Contest VT-13 is one week away; April 13

Come join our community of successful women!

Venus has winners of all ages!

 

What about “prep” for the Venus contest?

It’s totally up to you if you want to do any version of “prep week” before your final photo’s or not. It’s not a requirement and it’s completely personal preference. The Venus Factor “Slim in Seven” is a good program and not as drastic as the old school fitness competitor prep week.

If you decide to follow the Venus Factor “Slim in Seven” there is a daily diet protocol designed by John Barban. A lot of people ask how do they know what percentage their protein, carbs, and fat are? The best way to do this is to use a tool like Myfitnesspal to set your macro percentages. In the MyFitnessPal menu you can do this by going into your Home menu, then Goals, then the green “Change Goals” button, then select “custom”, then Continue.

 

To set your macro percentages in In the MyFitnessPal menu; go into your Home menu, then Goals, then the green “Change Goals” button, then select “custom”, then Continue.

To set your macro percentages in In the MyFitnessPal menu; go into your Home menu, then Goals, then the green “Change Goals” button, then select “custom”, then Continue.

 

Keep in mind it doesn’t have to be exact.  You can change things up depending on how you feel or how much stress you are under.  As you can see from the experiments of many of us what matters most is all the work in the weeks and months ahead of time.

Whether you are finishing the contest as a transformation, cover, or calendar girl you are not required to have a professional photographer.  Be proud and make your best presentation ever!  Celebrate your hard work and success by giving it your best effort and having pictures that you will cherish for the rest of your life.  It’s a record and a reminder for you on what you have accomplished.

Preparing For Your Contest Photo Shoot – Part 1: Posing Practice

Preparing For Your Contest Photo Shoot – Part 2: Photography And Lighting

Preparing For Your Contest Photo Shoot – Part 3: The Final Week

 

What to do with your final Venus contest photos?

When you submit your final photos the bikini type outfit will be used primarily for judging purposes only. Please feel free to submit other final pictures in nice clothes of your choice that still show off your new shape; for example a dress, skirt, jeans and tops, sports outfits, hobbies outfits like tennis, golf, yoga, etc.

We would also love to have a before picture that tells your full weight loss story so others can see that there is more to the story then just the 12 week contest window.

Get ready for AMAZING!

Will you be next?

Get your final entries in by midnight Eastern time April 13th.

Use the contest entry form (the same that you used to enter the contest).

The contest entry form has easy steps that will prompt you to enter the following items:

  • front pose
  • back pose
  • side pose
  • newspaper pose
  • up to 15 cover pictures of your choice
  • your 250 word or more essay (please include your age in the essay)

and your measurements:

  • height
  • weight
  • shoulders
  • waist
  • hips

Note: If you have errors with the contest tracker please clear your browser history or cookies and try again.

We are looking forward to the amazing results of your hard work.

Coach Roberta

If you have any questions or problems with uploading your pictures email me: roberta.saum@gmail.com

Contest rules and regulations

Contest schedule for 2015

What does exercise actually do for us? Uncensored Podcast

What benefits do we get from exercise?

What benefits do we get from exercise?

 

What is cardio training?

What is resistance training?

What training is oxygen dependent?

What type of training causes muscle growth?

What is cross training?

What is low intensity training?

What is high intensity?

What is interval training?

What happens at the muscular level?

What makes the muscles stronger?

What about the angle of the muscle fibers?

Can you get stronger yet not bigger?

What makes the muscle get bigger?

What about capillary density?

What about the shape of the muscle?

What about the tendons, bones, and ligaments?

What is sustainable exercise?

What about stress and repair regarding adaptation?

What is over training?

What about muscle memory?

How does cardio effect health markers?

How does this effect insulin sensitivity?

How does this effect fat loss and energy usage?

Do you have to know how this all works to get benefit?

What about cumulative effects and stress?

What about consistency and transient benefits?

 

Listen to what John and Brad have to say about this topic:

 

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