Heather placed third in the Venus Index Transformation Contest.
She lost pounds of fat and toned her body and now she is very closed to her ideal proportions.
Check out her picture:
Heather did a great job losing weight and build a tone, slim body.
Heather's front photos. She transformed her body completely and placed third in the Venus Index contest.
Due to various experience and some personal tragedies in her life, Heather ended up overeating at the age of 14.
Before the Venus Index Contest she tried everything. Therapy, all sorts of diets and fat loss programs.
One expert told her that the flavored and processed food is the devil, so she stopped eating everything that was highly processed or flavored.
After that she heard that sugar is not that bad, but eggs can cause a heart attack and are the root of obesity. So, she stopped eating eggs completely.
All of this often times conflicting advice lead her to trying different diets like Atkins and she ultimately ended up being a vegetarian. After being a vegetarian for a while she decided to be a vegan in order to be “really healthy“.
This new eating style was causing a lot of trouble to her relationships especially to her marriage. Her husband was really struggling with her diet preferences, even though he never said anything it was obvious that he had idea how to help her.
Heather wasn’t eating with him and their families on holidays like a normal person, she always had her special meals. She wouldn’t eat with the family, because it just wasn’t part of the rules she acquired.
Now when she looks back it just wasn’t fair to him, but at that time it seemed like the only option for her.
The reason for doing all those crazy things was the fact that she just couldn’t stand her weight anymore and wanted to make a change.
The thing is, you can’t put foods on a ‘never have it again’ list, because when you label some food as bad you will tend to binge on it even more.
The truth is that you can eat pretty much anything you like, the important piece of advice many experts don’t know and don’t tell is that the key is the volume. The secret is in controlling the amount not limiting the choices.
There is really no reason to make it complicated and make a devil of saturated fat or processed food.
If you had no education in biology or chemistry and never been influenced by marketing and advertising, what would be your answer to “What is the best way to lose fat?”
What do you think a kid would say?
…just eat less.
This is the only way to lose fat, create a deficit, so your body will have to use stored bodyfat. Yes, you can create a bigger deficit with cardio and some other physical activities, but the foundation is in the diet, because you can’t out train a bad diet.
However, in the current conventional fitness community, the approach is quite different. It’s not only different, but it’s a complete scam made only to increase sales and not help people, no surprise being in shape seems like a fairytale.
One day carbs are labeled as bad for you, the next day fat is the evil.
And when you try to go on such a diet for a longer period of time that’s when things get ugly and you get really frustrated by not seeing any results.
The longer it’s drilled in your head, the bigger the threat of eating that cake and burger is. And ultimately you will end up overeating big time.
For Heather it was happening over and over again.
And she just couldn’t live like that.
She would follow some crazy dietary advice and then after a while crack and overeat massively. This is the pitfall of labeling some food as bad, once you tell someone it’s forbidden, the desire to have it is even bigger.
Plus it’s forbidden for no good reason, because no food is actually bad for you.
It’s like seduction, if there is an attractive man and he is just not returning calls, always takes days before replying to a message and generally just seems not interested at all, you will feel even more desire to have him. It’s a pretty basic law of nature.
This is exactly the same.
We want things we can’t have and that are forbidden.
It Took Her Years to Find the Truth and Learn the Lesson
Heather went through years of failure until she realized what the truth was and learned her lesson.
She’d gone through extremes, tried all sorts of things. Eliminating sugar, fat, processed food, eggs and the list just goes on.
Later on she realized that the devil is always in the dose and not in the food itself like all the “fitness experts” keep saying.
After listening to several of them you would even believe that chocolate or a burger can kill you. In reality there is nothing wrong with a burger or sweet chocolate. What can screw up your weight and health is having those foods every day and over eating on them.
Obviously there is nothing wrong with the occasional chocolate bar, cake or fries with a burger, as long as you account for those meals in your weekly calorie budget you are fine.
This is why the “concept of dosing” is so amazing. There is no more flexible and more enjoyable diet than this one. You can be someone who can eat whatever she wants. The benefit of not overeating is also the fact that when you don’t overdo it, you don’t feel stuffed and enjoy it, it’s positive reinforcement. You can actually feel great after eating, not full and guilty, what a change, huh?
Controlling calories only and not the meal choices gives you the ability to go out, have a meal wherever and whenever you want, not be a pill, enjoy the company of others in a restaurant and not worry about saturated fat and processed foods.
Obviously if you have spent the last 15 years overeating then it’s not going to be pretty at the beginning, it will require some effort, strong motivation and serious work on your will power and dedication. It is pretty similar to strength training. You need to make a habit of it and balance the past 15 years of doing it (eating) the wrong way. It’s like doing reps and sets in the gym. The more you do, the easier it becomes and the better the results will be. After a while it will all become natural to you.
Of course you will always have to watch how much food you eat and stay in a healthy caloric range, but it will be pretty natural and most of the time not even a conscious decision. Something to look forward, don’t you think?
Take home message from Heather:
- Make a diet based on your preferences, remember that you need to enjoy your food
- Never identify yourself with your food choices – Atkins girl, low calorie girl, vegan girl etc.
- Accept that the amount of calories your body needs is very low (RMR + daily activities, for average woman it’s around 1400 calories!)
- We want magic, but reality is different, you can’t eat 5000 calories divided into chicken wings, pasta and ice cream
- You need to find a way how to make it enjoyable and transforming at the same time
- You can and will enjoy food when eating less of it, it is a completely different experience
- If you don’t want to do cardio, you don’t have to, you can just add some low intensity walk, cardio will increase your appetite, so it might be even better to cut it or completely eliminate it from your schedule – Find your sweat spot with cardio and diet
- Keep it simple – Diet for fat loss and training for muscle growth and body shaping
- If you want to do something for relaxing your body and mind and stay away from injuries you can try yoga, such an activity won’t take a lot of physical energy from your workouts
- In this society overeating can get out of control very quickly, we just tend to overeat a little at a time, but consistently, be aware of the amount you eat and then you will stay immune to all the advertising
Quote to remeber:
“It’s easier to eat less of the food you like rather than the food you don’t like and cut out what you like completely.”
John Barban
Words & phases mentioned in the podcasts:
- RMR/BMR – Resting Metabolic Rate/Basal Metabolic Rate (The amount of energy your body burns per day at rest, calculated in calories) – To get a somewhat accurate number without having testing yourself in a lab, try the WHO Equation
- AGD – Anything Goes Diet
- Venus Index Workout
- Venus Index Workout Specializations for additional muscle growth
- Venus Index Community and Forum
- Venus Index Podcasts
- Erik’s interviews – Links to Part 1 and Part 2
Listen to the interview here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
About John Barban & Vaclav Gregor
I’m a little surprised that you say it is some kind of secret that the amount of food you eat, and I think you mean the number of calories, is the real key to weight loss. Weight Watchers, for all its changing programs, pretty much says the same thing. You have to eat under a certain number of calories and you can choose whatever you want. You will have to eat much smaller portions of high-density foods and farther between. I do know that they are nuts about avoiding fat, which is a shame, but it’s only because it is so easy to overeat dense calories.
I think limiting food choices is more about tricking yourself into eating less, and some people DO respond very well to these restrictions. But if its a struggle, then something’s got to give.
Let’s also admit that though Heather may have gotten a little cuckoo with her eating, she did not have the drive that obese have to eat. In fact, she had a body most of them, and many of the population, would kill for even before she started. And honestly, she has not maintained for the 2-5 years it has been shown indicates that relapse goes down significantly. I affirm for her that she has found what will work for the long run.
I LOVED this podcast, it high-lited so many great controversial topics:)
I finally get it. Basically, it’s easier to eat Less of the food you like, instead of cutting it out completely and replacing it with food you Don’t like as an alternative.
“It’s easier to eat less of the food you like rather than the food you don’t like and cut out what you like completely.”