Today we have an interview with Kris West who placed 2nd in the Open Level 2 Division in the latest Venus Index Contest.

Check out her pictures:

Would you like to build a body like this?

I bet that you think Kris had to follow a very strict diet and work out every single day for two hours to prepare for a photoshoot like this in just a couple of weeks or months.

Well, if you’d think that, you would be wrong…

The Magic of Maintenance Point – The Minimalist/Maximalist Approach

After placing in one of the previous Venus Index Contests last year, Kris wanted to just maintain her physique. This contest for her was all about finding a way to put the least time and effort into the training and diet to stay looking good. She wanted to spend as little time as possible in the gym to keep her look and ate the maximum amount of calories she could eat without gaining fat.

Do you think this worked?

Well, judge by results not words:

Kris always wanted to look like Rachel McLish, well take a look at how well she stands compared to her role model.

How’s the Maintenance in Reality?

Kris trains during her launch breaks and her workouts are usually about an hour long, because she needs to get back to work. Her fitness is made around her work schedule and kids. Not the other way around as some magazines or “experts” would have you do.

This time Kris didn’t want to have more than 3 workouts a week. And being with Venus Index from the beginning and having lots of experience in fitness, she could play with different programs and “lego block” them into various ways (not something we’d recommend for beginners) and since the Venus Index workouts are designed this way, you can cycle them however you want. She combined the main Venus Index workout with one of the workouts from Adonis Index and cycled them week by week.

Since Kris didn’t do any cardio and wasn’t obsessing over her training she had more time for herself and even if something came up on the day of her workout, she would just go to the gym the next day.

She didn’t strive for some strict workout structure in her weekly schedule and just went whenever she wanted. And as long as you are consistent, you can keep it flexible, the key ISN’T to make your fitness your life, the key is to look good WHILE having a life.

And it’s really not that important when you go to the gym anyway. If you have four workouts a week and you do them four days in a row, that’s fine, but remember that leaving some rest days in between will help you to be stronger in your next workout thus get better results out of it.

For diet, Kris changed her approach a bit. She was always a one meal type of person. This time, she didn’t do any fasts and tried eating more meals a day. Not because she was afraid of Starvation Mode or some other fitness media myth, but rather because she wanted to test out some new things.

She started doing several mini meals during the day to keep more energy and out of cravings. While this may sound as a surprise from a Venus, the truth is that there is a big difference in how you should eat if have 50 pounds to lose vs maintaining visible abs all year round.

We are starting to find more and more evidence that not only does weight loss slow down and gets harder towards the end, but it also seems that once you get really lean (visible abs for women and single digit body fat for man) you need to eat more often and just can’t do 24 hour fasts anymore.

When you get very lean your body has very little fat in its storage and your appetite will be higher as a result and your body may will want to naturally store more fat. So, to stay lean and avoid binging it seems like a good idea to eat more often and not creating large calorie deficits on a daily basis.

“It’s all about obtaining/keeping “the look” with the least effort and not stressing over the scale numbers.”

– Kris West

Links from Kris’ interview:

• VI Phase 1 and VI Phase 2 – Venus Index workouts focused on building your ideal hourglass shape
• Venus Index Community – Forum full of amazing women, sharing all their fitness and lifestyle tips and tricks
• Eat Stop Eat – Program that will teach you how to take simple breaks from food to lose weight while enjoying social eating events and eating the foods you love
• Adonis Index – Just like the Venus Index, just for men
• Vince DelMonte Interview Part 1 – The interview with Vince over at Adonis Index that Kris refers to in the interview
• Muscle Building is a Lifestyle: Interview with Kris West – The first interview with Kris

Read Kris’ experience with Venus Index in her own words:

After the last Open I pretty much decided I didn’t want to be in a deficit all the time.  With that being said and after listening to the Vince podcast I kind of had an AHA moment.  Physique competitors seemed to be the best at changing their look within the shortest amount of time.  What was their “secret”?  They also always speak of eating “mini meals” throughout the day.  I had tried this concept years ago when first trying to build muscle but could never really conform to the thought of eating every 3-4 hours so never really gave it an honest effort.

Maybe there was something to it…

Click here to read the rest

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Today we have an interview with Terry Clauss who placed 3rd in the Transformation category in the latest Venus Index Contest.

Check out her pictures:

12 weeks is not much, but will help you get going in the right direction. And every bit counts, it will slow towards the end, but you will get there.

There is a good chance that Terry’s story will resemble to yours, because it’s just so common.

Issues with weight and eating often times start at an early age, we just don’t realize it.

When Terry was 13, her mother was worried that she was getting fat. She took Terry to a doctor who prescribed her diet pills (At the age of 13? WTF!?).

She would not eat and then binge afterwards. The weight loss and weight gain never ending cycle began.

Terry tried EVERY diet there is. From Atkins, to South Beach to Naturally Thin, Diet Solution, Weight Watchers, you name it, she did it.

She had little bits of success, but the issue with all of those diets was that they were all too restrictive. It wasn’t about eating less, it was all about cutting out entire food groups. This may be the conventional approach, but it’s just a ticking time bomb.

You will always make up for whatever you have removed from your diet.

For Terry it was starting to be pretty depressing to be constantly losing and gaining pounds of fat. Today Terry is 53 years old and has 40 years of unsuccessful attempts of dieting behind her. At first she was skeptical because she wasted so much money, time and effort on other programs in the past.

Could you imagine trying to lose weight for year after year for 40 years in a row? Without any significant or long-term success, how would you feel, would you think that it’s even possible to lose weight anymore?

At this stage most women think that it’s their hormones and they just can’t lose any weight no matter what they do.

Well, Terry decided to give Eat Stop Eat and Venus Index a chance.

At first she tried ESE and got some results with that, so she trusted Brad Pilon. When he sent an email about the results from the third Venus Index contest and she saw that the girls all looked like normal people and just after 12 weeks they got in great shape, she jumped right in.

She improved her physique and she is finally on her way to building a body she can be proud of and keep all year round.

What really drove her to do this was that her son was going to have a baby and like she said: “I didn’t want to be a chunky grandma.”, so she decided to get in better shape.

It’s never too late and even if you’ve been trying to lose weight and get in shape for the past 40 years without any results, you still have a chance to do so, you just need the right approach.

Terry is proof of that.

Don’t Be Afraid of a New Approach, You Have Nothing to Lose

When we are trying something new, we feel anxiety and excitement at the same time. Usually, we are excited about it, but once it’s time to take action we realize that it’s new and doesn’t feel very comfortable. On one hand it’s exciting, but on the other, we would rather go back to our previous habits.

Well, the biggest growth happens outside your comfort zone and if you want to get different and new results, you need different and new approaches. Doing uncomfortable things at first will expend your comfort zone.

It’s really up to you whether you will shape your future or just accept whatever comes your way.

Terry sat down and compared the pro’s and con’s.

She asked herself: “What is the worst thing that can happen?” and “What is the best thing that can happen?”

She also admitted that without having to send the before pictures at the beginning, she wouldn’t be so committed and would have probably dropped out during the first few weeks.

The Venus Index contest works as accountability and will help you stick to your plan, it will keep you motivated, because you want to send pictures that shows at least some kind of difference.

And after the contest?

Well, first this get’s you moving and then gives you momentum to continue and take it further.

Take Home Message:

• Focus on the Venus Index workouts, they work if you follow them as written
• Work out when you have the most energy, but make sure you go to the gym, don’t make excuses
• If you are not losing weight after weeks of dieting, your weight loss plan is not working, change it
• Some people don’t want to hear the truth about diet, it’s not sexy, what about you?
• Find what works for you and stick to it
• Don’t look for excuses, life does get in the way, but you have to deal with it in order to succeed
• Do it covertly, you don’t need to tell anybody
• People will start to ask you what you are doing, that’s when you can tell them about it if you choose to
• Enter the contest, don’t be afraid it, it’s a good motivator
• Venus Index is for normal people that have a job and a family
• If you take a break, don’t make it too long

Programs Terry Used:

1. Anything Goes Diet – Diet that allowed Terry to eat anything she wanted, without any meal plans to follow or list of “forbidden foods”
2. Eat Stop Eat – Terry did the Eat Stop Eat fasts twice a week
3. Reverse Taper Diet  – Diet protocol that Terry used along with AGD and ESE to avoid overeating after the contest was over
4. Venus Index Circuits – Venus Index workout plan Terry followed that helped her optimize her Venus Index ratio and get her closer to her idea body shape
5. Venus Index Community – Forum full of amazing women, sharing all their fitness and lifestyle tips and tricks

Read Terry’s experience with Venus Index in her own words

My journey through VT4 has been a wonderful one. I started the workout and have followed as best I could with some modifications when needed because of previous injuries and bad weak knees. In the beginning I was doing the 3 workouts per week and trying to do some cardio 3 other days. I eventually skipped the cardio and have just been doing the VI workouts because I was getting so tired from the cardio I was doing that I was losing my motivation to do anything…

Click here to read the rest of the story

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Today we bring you an interview with Shannon C who won the latest Venus Index Transformation Contest.

Check out her pictures:

In just 12 weeks you can transform yourself and look like the girls on the magazine covers, the question is will you stop making excuses and finally do it?

A few years back Shannon hated her body and every single picture of herself. Being over 30 and not satisfied with the way she looked and felt about her body, she decided to get back in shape. She started doing roller blading and slowly got into weight training.

This helped her, but not in a way that she could stand in front of a mirror and say “wow”, it just wasn’t anything exceptional. It was one of the previous Venus Index winners Naomi who introduced her to the Venus Index approach. She would listen to the podcasts and hang around for a long time before trying the workouts.

It’s important to say that when she decided to start training with the Venus Index Shannon was pregnant, which many people would be against. Pregnancy itself is a challenge and most women would not want to train and watch their diet on top of it. However, Shannon herself told us that her first pregnancy was a disaster. During her first one she gained a lot of weight, and like she said, she just used it as an excuse to eat whatever she wanted, anytime she wanted without setting any limitations at all. As a result she gained a lot and felt terrible, having all sorts of weird health issues.

She admitted that it was completely ridiculous.

But this time, it was different. She didn’t allow herself to gain so much, felt great the whole way through and even her doctor told her to keep doing what she was doing, because it obviously improved her well-being.

Disclaimer: If you want to train or follow the Venus Index approach while being pregnant, consult your physician first, this is for information purposes only.

This time, for the second pregnancy Shannon followed the Venus Index workout, she would just do fewer sets than in the plan and was slowly lowering the intensity of the workouts towards the end of her pregnancy.

And you can’t really argue with this because like she and her physician both said, this time the pregnancy was healthier and felt way more comfortable. And her doctor was monitoring her the whole time.

And while she ate a bit more then she would normally, she still managed to stay at a reasonable weight.

She walked a lot and lifted weights and even received comments on how beautiful a pregnant woman she was. Pretty drastic difference compared to her first time, when she felt (in her own words) ‘like a whale’.

Obviously guys can’t imagine what it means being pregnant, but she told us that despite the challenges of being pregnant, it still should not be used as a licence to not move around (walking, weight lifting) and eat too much, that’s just plain unhealthy and it will be tougher for your to get in shape afterwards.

This time Shannon had more of a plan. She would even use Facebook and follow other pregnant athletes to keep motivated and inspired. Another technique she used was visualizing her post-pregnancy time.

She reveals more of her approach in the interview.

Shannon’s Challenges, Well…Apart from Being Pregnant

Obviously pregnancy is not the easiest and most fun time in the life, but Shannon still decided that she will stay at a reasonable weight and keep fit and it worked, she did gain less weight and was fit and felt “pretty good”.

And once she started nursing, she decided that she will enter the Venus Index competition. Which is exactly what she did and not only that, but she won the whole thing too!

Here are a few of her challenges that Shannon talks about in the interview:

• Waking up in the middle of night to take care of the baby
• Making sure that she was walking a lot during the day
• Nursing and staying in a caloric deficit
• Not seeing results on a daily basis
• The weight loss was slowing down towards the end of the contest
• Having to feed the baby in the middle of the workouts
• Not being able to set a fixed schedule
• Having to readjust her expectations
• Having to take care of her 7 year old daughter too
• Working around all the variables like job, kids, weight loss, sleep, workouts

And those are just a few of Shannon’s challenges.

No transformation we ever had was without mistakes, errors, challenges and struggles, however Shannon proved that no matter what is happening in your life right now, you can still get in great shape, even though there are other priorities and pressing matters to take care of. And quite frankly doing so will only help you with those challenges.

Like many other Venus Index contestants Shannon used stickers for her calendar to see how many neutral, bad and good days she had. That helped her a lot despite her challenges. It’s about simplicity and it’s pointless to record everything, this simple method will help you keep on track. You can easily see how many workouts you had, when you stayed in a caloric deficit, when you did cardio, and when you overate and didn’t train. And at the end, it all comes down to whether you had more positive days than negative ones.

Remember that nothing is ever perfect.

“They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.”

Thomas Edison

As long as you are moving forward, you are doing great. Don’t beat yourself up, just because it’s slower than you want. Even falling is a movement, as long as it’s forward, you are doing good.

Take home advice from Shannon’s interview:

• It’s helpful to look at your first before pictures to keep yourself motivated
• Don’t beat yourself up for having bad or neutral days, that’s normal, nothing is ever perfect
• Don’t deprive yourself of the foods you like, you can even have a Mocha and cheesecake every day if you want, just make sure you cut the calories on the other stuff and stay in the deficit
• Some people like suffering and they feel that you absolutely have to make fat loss difficult, but that’s BS, fat loss is simple, it’s just about calories in and out
• If after pregnancy, a nursing mother of two with a regular job can do this, anyone can
• It’s possible to travel and maintain your level of fitness
• Venus Index approach still requires effort, but it isn’t restrictive, it’s rather about directing your effort intelligently
• The body you will build at the end is worth every drop of your effort
• Don’t talk about your fitness approach with other girls outside the VI Community, they will not understand or believe you and will try to convince you that what you are doing is wrong
• Get in the Venus Index Community to be around same minded girls, it’s important to have social support and this is the easiest way to get it
• Don’t turn your lifestyle constrains into excuses, that’s easy and anyone can do that, be different and figure out a way around them
• Being in shape will translate into being a better mother, wife and friend
• It’s okay to let your daughters try the Venus Index workouts and learn healthy exercise habits at an early age

Programs Shannon Used:

• Reverse Taper Diet – Most fitness diets fail, because they get tougher as you are getting towards the end. Why not reverse it and make dieting easier?
• Anything Goes Diet (Aka AGD) – The first ever designed diet that’s not giving you a list of forbidden foods and meal plans, eat whatever and whenever you want
• VI Phase 1 and VI Phase 2– Venus Index workouts focused on building your ideal hourglass shape
• Venus Index Community – You will not find a more friendlier and supportive women’s community in this industry

Read Shannon’s experience with Venus Index in her own words:

These 12 weeks have been a continuation of a 6 month transformation that I began September 27, 2011, when my son Hunter was born.  I weighed about 185 lbs just before his birth, which was 45 lbs over what I weighed in early 2011 when I found out I was pregnant.  Despite the weight gain, I had a very healthy pregnancy.  I continued to work out with weights right up to the weekend before he was born, I walked, I swam, I barely bought any maternity clothes, I even wore a bikini all summer!  The blood pressure and swelling issues I experienced during my first pregnancy 7 years ago did not resurface…

Click here to read the rest of the story

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Here is an interview with Lara Campbell. Lara placed 2nd in latest Venus Index Transformation Contest.

Check out her pictures:

Would you like to make a transformation like this in just three months?

Once you get in shape it's all about showing your new body. A nice tan with a good pose will do the trick.

Lara's back shot. 12-week difference.

The Secret of Having Good Fitness Photos

When you are preparing for a photoshoot you basically have two options. Either set up the shoot at your apartment or hire a photographer and a studio. Several girls (and guys) have proven to us that you can shoot great pictures at your home and still place well in the contest.

However, there are certain benefits to hiring a professional. When you book a session with a photographer 12 weeks prior to the photoshoot (or 6 weeks like Lara) you suddenly have accountability and it will force you to stick to your plan and really show up at your best. When you have a booked session it suddenly feels “real” and you will be more motivated.

At the beginning Lara was probably like most girls, she wanted to do the contest, but wasn’t sure if she really should and could.

Then in week six, things changed, because she decided to book the session.

Lara also started going through fitness magazines and searching for photos online to learn the different poses that a fitness model would use for the cover shot.

If you thought that a picture is just a snapshot of reality then you would be wrong.

There is a lot more that goes into it a picture, especially if the object of the picture is a person.

In this industry showing up in killer shape is just the beginning of a good shoot. Tanning, lighting, posing and of course editing is all necessary to get a magazine cover calibre picture. And even then the photographer picks just two or three pictures out of a thousand that will make it to the editor table for a final edit.

Put simply there is a lot more than you are aware of.

And this is exactly what our Venus competitors experience.

Lara took it seriously and learned several poses, fasted before the shoot and really did her best.

Her husband was supportive and constantly reminding her to flex certain muscles during the shoot. Her photographer knew what he was doing and advising her on how to pose, where to position her body, how to show her abs etc.

Through the eyes of the camera and in a picture you will look completely different then you do in reality. Pictures can hide your shape. Looking good in reality is one thing, but to look great in a picture, you need to take things a little bit further.

During the 12-week preparation for the photoshoot you will find that the last week will be really intense prep and then almost three hours of shooting to get four or five great shots. However, it’s worth it. You will get into an amazing shape, discover things about yourself you were never aware of and as a bonus not only get a chance to participate in a fitness contest and win, but you will have great pictures of yourself for the rest of your life.

Lara’s History of Weight Loss Attempts

At university she had a pretty sedentary lifestyle and just typical student life, drinking and eating. She became a victim of emotional eating and at her height of little over five foot she got to an unhealthy bodyweight of around 160lbs.

And was understandably unhappy with her physique.

As a result she started running, steadily increasing distance and eating a bit less.

She lost about 30 pounds and got to 130 pounds.

At this point she began feeling a bit frustrated, because she wanted to lose more weight, but what more could she possibly do? Did she really want to run even more?

After a while her eating start to creep up again and she started gaining weight again.

Lara realized this and started introducing more things to her lifestyle that would possibly help her. Little did she know back then that by taking classes in Taekwondo was just hijacking her goals and wasn’t helping her lose any weight. In the class there were some overweight people and after a while she realized that having a black belt requires a lot of work and doesn’t necessarily mean being lean.

At this point she was 150 pounds and felt really heavy and upset when she was running. She hit rock bottom and didn’t know what she was going to do.

She decided to train for a marathon for 12 weeks, but she didn’t lose a pound.

Since she really wanted to get this area of her life handled she started reading more books and consuming fitness media. At one point she was even considering becoming a fitness trainer and getting the certificate to “learn all their secrets”.

She started learning that cardio isn’t necessarily the key to fat loss and that she can out eat cardio and that after a while you get pretty efficient at certain styles of training and the effect it will have on your fat loss won’t be as significant as it was at the beginning. This made sense to her, since her biggest fat loss happened when she started running. She went from couch potato to runner and since she was inefficient at running at first she lost a ton of weight fast.

After searching the internet for some time she found Eat Stop Eat and ultimately the Venus Index community.

The Diet Part is the Most Important Key for the Contest

After going through ESE and VI she found out that the missing piece in her plan were calories. She never really cared about this and once she started paying attention to calories, she lost all the weight she wanted.

She always thought that people who count calories are in some weird weight loss groups and that this approach never works, but there is a difference between just counting calories and doing it right.

She just took the BMR estimate provided and calculated how much she needs to eat below that to lose a pound every week.

She had an excel sheet to track her calorie intake and just log what she ate. This is it, she never worried about macronutrients and running anymore.

Before, the marathon running was her identity, she was eating a lot to be able to run, and always increasing the distance, she began to relate and identify with the suffering part of the running. Like she said the running was like a badge of honor. The thing is, she totally forgot why she got into running in the first place – to lose weight.

Another case of goal hijacking. Starting something because you have a goal then changing your focus into a different goal that you never wanted. Building muscle and powerlifting, getting in shape and taking drugs, losing weight and running are just a few examples of goal hijacking.

Take a look at yourself and examine your lifestyle, do you allow your goals to get hijacked in any areas of your life?

If your real goal is to lose weight it’s just about calories.

What to do if you want to look like Lara:

• Accept that you may be the kind of person that eats too much if you don’t think about it
• Listen to the stories of other people who’ve successfully lost weight
• Workout consistency is crucial
• Make sure you give your best in the gym, workout after workout
• Don’t be afraid to imagine how you are going to look once you get in shape, think of the life you will have, your mind will only do what it’s seen before
• Get some pictures of fitness models and look at how they stand and pose, try it yourself
• There is no plain front view look in fitness posing, that’s the least flattering one, you always want some twist
• You absolutely have to pay attention to calories if you want to lose weight
• Start fasting on a weekly basis
• Don’t be afraid of skipping meals, all the girls that are in shape do that even if they don’t speak about it
• If you eat a bit more on the weekend, save up the calories during the week
• It’s okay to slip if you get back on track, it’s all about a controlled stumble forward
• Don’t identify yourself with physical activities and diets
• One bad day is nothing if you have a whole string of good ones
• Look forward, never back
• You can have a chocolate every day, it can be something to look forward to
• Don’t label foods as good or bad, it’s just food
• All foods are okay in moderation
• Learn to be guilt free in your diet
• Don’t hide what you eat from others and most importantly admit it to yourself
• Read the fitness media with caution, most stuff is not revealed to you

Programs Lara used for this contest:

• Venus Index Workout – Workout programs focused on building a toned and natural feminine body shape.
• 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.
• Anything Goes Diet – Diet protocol to help you gradually lose weight week after week
• Jason Haynes Interview

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Today we have an interview with Brooke Kramer who placed 4th in the latest Venus Index Transformation Contest.

Check out her pictures:

You may be just 12 weeks away from this shape.

Do you want results like this? Read the blog and scroll down to listen to the interview with Brooke and learn how to get them.

Are you willing to stop making excuses and find the time to finally get in shape?

Brooke was pretty surprised when she saw her after pictures and the amazing transformation she went through. Like she said, you don’t realize how far you got until you put your before and after photos side by side. While the mirror is a far superior tool for tracking your progress than a weight scale, it can only show you your current look.

You see yourself every day and those daily changes are small. You may know that you improved and may see some lines you haven’t seen before, but this is nothing compared to the pictures where you can compare how you looked three months ago and how you look now.

When you take a look at your pictures after a transformation it’s usually such a big difference that most people don’t believe that it’s actually them. Sometimes not even their friends believe it.

This makes the camera one of the most important thing you have for tracking your progress.

Things Won’t Go as Planned, Anticipate It

Most people expect that when they make a plan everything will go accordingly. Well, that’s not how things work out, because put simply…sh!t happens.

You will slip up, you will make mistakes, you will doubt yourself and will be challenged along the way. And that’s perfectly fine, it’s called being human.

We are not machines. We are driven by emotions, beliefs and routines. We are also immensely affected by the environment we live in, people around us and by their emotions, beliefs and routines.

The truth is that if you understand and accept that you’re not going to be perfect all the way through your transformation you actually have better chance of succeeding.

Most people get discouraged when something goes wrong because they expected everything to be perfect. The minute they stray from their plan the feelings of giving creep in. You can’t let this happen. You’re not perfect, and you don’t have to be to make a big time change.

It’s what you do after you slip up that counts.

Stop blaming yourself for eating that extra slice of pizza…get your butt to the gym even though you didn’t fast 24 hours like you planned…As long as you keep getting back up every time you fall then you will achieve your goal and you will succeed.

Don’t let the number of times you fall define you…instead let the number of times you get back up define you.

This is what Brooke experienced. She doubted the training program, didn’t believe she could get the results and as a mother who is working over night she was extremely busy and always pressed for time and energy.

However, the great thing about Venus Index workouts is that we don’t tell you when to work out. If you do three workout sessions a week, you could workout on Monday, Wednesday, Friday if it fits for you. However, you can also work out on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday if you like. You can go to the gym in the morning before work or in the evening after work. Whatever suits you.

The important thing to understand is that there is no perfect time or perfect day to work out. The perfect window is when you can make it happen. Since we are all regular people with jobs or school, family and friends your fitness lifestyle should be structured around those things not the other way around.

Brooke decided to workout when she can and just have her son with her while training. There just wasn’t any other way for her to do it. And if you doubt her approach, just scroll back up and take a one more look at her 12-week transformation.

In order to stick to most of your plan and make sure you get back on track when you slip it’s a good idea to surround yourself with people that will support you and give you a hand when you need it.

Whether it is somebody on the Venus Index forum that you can text when you feel down or your boyfriend that will go with you to the gym to make sure you stick to your workouts. Do whatever you have to do to achieve your goal.

Brooke goes to the same gym as Naomi (previous winner) and saw how she transformed her body, so she decided to approach her and ask for advice. Naomi helped her figure out a way to make her goals reality and supported her along the way. And like Brooke told us, the most important thing was that Naomi made it seem realistic for her.

Brooke Has Been Dieting Since She Was 13

For Brooke the Venus Index and Eat Stop Eat was about finding something that would work long term, she wasn’t looking for some quick fix. Brooke tried dieting in the past…it seemed  like she tried every diet there is. While she got results from a few of them the issue was that since she didn’t understand the process, she always went back to eating like she did before and gained all the weight back.

For her (and her husband) it was always about finding a new diet. Truth to be told, she was dieting since the age of 13. And this is pretty crazy. Dieting for weight loss shouldn’t be a long term process. While it needs to be sustainable for some time, it should really only take a few months to get in contest shape…not decades.

If you allowed yourself to get out of shape in the past and gained weight as a result of your lifestyle, you need to create a deficit on a daily/weekly basis to lose weight. After that the goal is to find a way to stay where you are with minimum work. However, for Brooke it was always all in or nothing. She just couldn’t find the balance.

This time it was different. After reading Venus Index and Eat Stop Eat, she figured out how many calories she needed to first lose weight and then to maintain afterwards.

Based on that she decided to create a 3500 calorie deficit each week.

She typically did this by simply skipping meals during the day.

Fat loss is really just about calories in and calories out. Eating more often won’t do anything and it’s not going to speed up your metabolism either.

Brooke also allowed herself to eat whatever she wanted. She did focus on a high nutrient foods and a balanced diet, however if a social eating event came up, she wouldn’t restrict herself in terms of food choices. Rather than that she limited the total amount of what she ate.

Most people do the opposite and follow a diet that restricts them from eating foods like chocolate, pizza, burgers, fries, sweets, hot dogs, peanut butter, hot wings or ice-cream…in a nutshell all the naughty fun stuff. Well, no surprise that most people fail with their diet attempts and conclude that they can’t ever lose weight so they go back to where they started.

Don’t limit your food choices, limit the amount. Thus you can have anything and stay in a caloric deficit, which means burning fat.

When planning your diet, the smartest thing to do is to work from the meals you want to have and that you ‘need’ to have during the week…these ‘need to have’ meals would be dinner with family, lunch with boss, brunch with boyfriend, whatever. The ‘want to have’ meals are the social events like weddings, weekly barbecues or Friday/Saturday nights out.

Let’s make a step-by-step plan:

1. Calculate your BMR (this is the amount of calories your body burns without any additional exercise)
2. Decide how much weight you think you need to lose (it will probably be more than you think, but you need to start with at least some number)
3. Decide how quickly you want to lose this weight (more rapid weight loss means more restriction during the week)
4. Take a calendar or blank sheet of paper and start writing all the social eating events and meals you must have
5. Add an amount of calories you usually have during those meals
6. Calculate the difference…or in other words what you are left with after subtracting the social events and ‘must have’ meals from that number from your BMR

Brooke did something similar, she calculated how much she should eat to lose weight and how much she could eat to maintain her weight and then worked with that number around her social life.

Brooke usually did partial fasting skipping breakfast and lunch three times per week.

This pattern seems to work for most people. While there are those who prefer something sweet with their morning coffee, most people just go through the day fasted and then have a bigger meal or two in the afternoon and evening.

This works quite well for several reasons:

1. Fasted state helps you focus on studying or working
2. Fasted state is best for working out
3. Evening is a time when we socialize, have fun or rest – all those states are associated with eating , drinking or both

If you eat during the day, you may feel less energetic, less productive and you are more likely to skip your workout.

Let’s make a summary of everything Brooke talks about in the interview (link at the end of the article).

Take home advice from Brooke:

• First step is to JUST DO IT
• Don’t make excuses and reasons why it’s not the right time
• You need to make your program fit into your life’s schedule
• See what works for you and adjust along the way
• If something comes up, you can still do it, the point is that you are moving forward
• Learn the mindsets of the past winners
• Make sure you stick 100% to your workout at the beginning to create a routine, once you are past that state, you will miss not going to the gym
• In order to stick to the workout, you must enjoy the plan, this is why the Venus Index is so amazing, it changes and keeps the training fun all the time
• As soon as something is off limits it raises desire to have it, so don’t limit your food choices
• Make your diet-week based on social events and what is happening in that given week in your life
• If you eat one cookie don’t eat the whole box, one cookie won’t ruin your progress…don’t blow the rest of the day because of it
• Use calorie counters on your smart phone, you probably don’t even realize how many calories there are in certain foods you eat…you can access a food database just by pressing a button and check the calorie content in a matter of seconds

Links from the Interview:

• Venus Index Workout – Workout programs focused on building a toned and natural feminine body shape.
• Venus Index Community – What if there was a forum where all the cool girls hang out and were exchanging tips on how to get in shape and what works for them to build a healthy, good looking body?
• 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.

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Here is an interview with Kim. Kimberley placed 4th in latest Venus Index Contest in the Open category.

Check out her pictures:

Do you have what it takes to get this lean?

Kim placed in the last contest, so she wasn’t new to competing. She is actually the first girl to do two a back to back Venus Index contests.

She felt great after finishing her workout plan and had a massive boost in motivation. However, she wasn’t sure what to do next. This is where the community comes into play. She asked the girls on the forum and they helped direct her and push forward.

The Second Contest

Kimberley changed the way she ate and fasted. This time she decided to get this over with at the beginning of the week, so she fasted on Monday and on Tuesday and then started incorporating more meals back in, in the rest of the week and when she felt like it was getting out of control she would throw in couple of fasting days again.

There are countless ways of staying in a caloric deficit you just have to find a pattern that works best with your lifestyle circumstances and your own preferences. If you work and train a lot during the week and have fun and relax on the weekends then just restrict yourself during the week and let go a bit on your Friday nights and Saturday barbecues. And since you will be working a lot during the week, going to the gym and training you will find it easier to diet then compared to being out with your friends or at a barbecue.

Just remember that there will always be new sets of challenges. We all like to think that if we could get this one thing handled or once we achieve that one goal everything will be just fine, well it won’t. It will be different. And that’s totally okay, because you always need to have something to move forward towards.

In other words, once you get your waist down, there may be a different challenge figuring out how to stay there.

Kimberley had a really hard time figuring out how maintenance should work. This was probably the hardest thing for her.

There are basically three ways of eating.

1. The way you ate before the diet – Too much
2. The way you eat on a diet – Low
3. The way you will eat after the diet – Maintenance

Figuring out how to maintain requires a completely different approach and while it takes significantly less effort and involves way more food and fun, it will take you some time to find that sweet spot when you finally can say that “this is exactly how much I need to maintain”.

When Kim realized that there wasn’t really much to lose anymore, she stopped fasting, however once she did she started gaining weight again. So, she had incorporate fasting back in and started searching for a different way.

You see, there will always be a slight swing of the pendulum. Sometimes you will eat more, sometimes less.

Things will change, you will move to a different city, change jobs, start a family and suddenly your eating habits will be different. That’s just how it works. Sometimes there is a phase when you don’t have breakfast or dinner, sometimes you’ll be eating lunch, sometimes you don’t.

Don’t try to identify how maintenance is gonna be for you for the rest of your life and just roll with your current lifestyle circumstances.

Does It really Take Time to Build Muscle?

Kim had no idea how she was going to look once she got to her ideal VI numbers, she was a bit scared, and she still has some room for improvements, but the final pictures are great and since she didn’t have to lose much fat, she could just focus on gaining muscle and reshaping her body.

Here’s the deal with building muscle though. Gaining more muscle takes a really long time and you have to accept it. It’s not dramatic like the first fat loss transformation you may have been through.

You can get quite lean pretty quickly and then “grow” to your idea VI numbers.

Kim suggests to do as many workouts in a row as possible. When she got sore, she would take the day off. So, if you feel like you can handle the workouts more often then don’t treat them as a weekly outline per se, but rather as one series and go from one to the next.

Most of the time Kim would do 4-6 workouts a week. This pattern really worked for her, she loved it. If you feel like that’s too much, then do less in a row and work your way up to that. Kim also works out in a fasted state, which might help you with the strength and energy.

Once you have been through all the workouts you can also decide which ones felt the best and seemed to give you the best results and stick to those for as long as possible.

Now that Kim knows how certain workouts feel, she can decide which module was the best and gave her the best results and roll with that one. And you can do the same. If you have been through all of them and you feel like one module was really good and that you could squeeze some more muscle growth from it, then do it again right after the first one.

What to do if you want to look like Kim:

• The forum is great, girls help each other move forward and are constantly checking on each other
• Sometimes you need to step away from everything, to see it from a new perspective and keep rolling forward
• You will hit peaks and valleys, figure out why you are feeling like this and what to do to get past or through it
• Don’t worry about macro-nutrients, eat whatever you want and just stay in the caloric deficit
• It’s okay to read about fitness, but try to spend more time actually figuring it out yourself and implementing it in they gym
• You can’t rely on what one person says, take it and test it to see if it works, then make a judgment for yourself
• Don’t get upset if you gain a pound or two, find out the issue in your diet and push forward. Also remember to account for daily fluctuations in your weight due to water, food and hormones
• Don’t compare yourself to others
• Compete for your best look not against others
• Be happy with your after’s and progress and not worry about other people
• You have to be one of those people who can deal with the change when its thrown at you. If you are not then you must learn how to be one

Programs Kim uses:

• Phase 1 & Phase 2 – Workout programs focused on building a toned and natural feminine body shape.
• Venus Index Community – What if there was a forum where all the cool girls hang out and were exchanging tips on how to get in shape and what works for them to build a healthy, good looking body?

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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