During the past year I have thoroughly enjoyed following Stef’s body sculpting journey over at the Burn The Fat Inner Circle. Like me, Stef has applied the nutrition strategies from Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program with great success.
At 43 years of age Stef transformed from a fitness enthusiast to a Physique Artist who takes great pride in her physique and embraces the body sculpting lifestyle. Judging by her “after photos”, you could assume that Stef is a pro at this transformation thing and competes in female figure competitions. But that’s not the case. Prior to her transformation she was just like many other women who are not quite satisfied with their body. But unlike these other women, Stef discovered the burning desire to sculpt the physique that she deserves and refuse to settle for anything less than the best from herself.
Stef’s body transformation story resonated deep with me, because it was all too familiar. We had both attempted to get ripped in the past, but always seemed to fall short. Something always seemed to hold us back. Things would be going great and we would get 95% of the way there, but that last 5% seemed to allude us… But not this time!!!
…This time both Stef and I finally transformed for good… and continue to improve upon our physiques.
I knew that my fellow Physique Artists reading this blog would benefit tremendously from hearing what triggered Stef into action and helped her finally push through to complete her transformation. So I asked Stef to write a guest article detailing the changes that took place.
Enjoy!
How I Finally Transformed For Good
By Stef of Cougar Fitness Blog
Like many of us, I too, had vacillated back and forth with my weight. I tried a lot of different diets; I tried a lot of different workouts, and, sure, I got “results”. But, I never really got the kind of results I was looking for.
I honestly didn’t know how to change things. I “worked out” and ate “clean” most of the time. On the weekends though, I would undo an entire week of nutritious eating and weight and cardio work with a night out on the town, and Sunday football with pizza and candy.
It really got to the point of being ridiculous. I was taking one step forward and two steps back. “Cheat Day” had turned into “Cheat Weekend”. At the same time, I was putting a ton of time and effort into getting to the gym and bringing my food to work every day. So, why was I not making any progress? I was beyond frustrated.
The problem was that I was never really fully committed to achieving my fitness goals. I wanted to have my cake and eat it too, and I didn’t truly try that hard at the gym. Appropriately, my so-called results reflected my half-way efforts.
What changed to stop me in my tracks and make me take a good hard look at myself?
Well, it was the untimely passing of a family member that finally caused me to stop and think about what I really wanted in life. I realized that life was just too short to not be happy in my body, and with the huge amounts of effort I had been putting into dragging myself to the gym every day, I really could have done something with myself and my physique. I had to work smarter … and harder.
Thus began my journey to really transform my body once and for all, and to get it done quickly. I felt like there was no time to waste.
There was so much to learn and discover along the way. And, now I know that there always will be a process of learning as you go along. Living the body sculpting lifestyle is a journey of constant self-discovery, research, and experimentation. I knew what I had done in the past simply hadn’t worked well for me, and certainly not on a permanent basis. Obviously, I had to do something different.
Previously, I used sheer force and willpower to change my physique. I viewed diets and training programs as short term things to get through until I could go “enjoy myself” again. I didn’t bother to look at underlying issues as to WHY I tended to over eat, how to fix it long-term, and changing my bad habits to healthy habits.
I realized that these issues had to be addressed and that I had to begin with what was going on on the inside before I could fix the outside. I committed 100% to achieving my goals, and I set out on a mission to figure out how.
One of the first things I did was put my goals in writing. I wrote out exactly what I wanted to achieve. I was very specific about my goal weight, my goal measurements, my goal size, and what I would look like.
I figured out where I was starting and then set up a plan to burn off 1.5 pounds of fat a week. Now I had weekly goals and a deadline. Then, I wrote out a list of emotionally charged reasons why I wanted to make these changes and achieve these goals. This was a very important step and something I had never done in the past.
I put these goals and my reasons “why” on an index card. Then I found several photos of my ideal body and taped those pictures on the card as well. That became my Goal Card and I carried it everywhere with me and read my goals out loud to myself every day, several times a day.
Armed with My Plan, the next step was Taking Action. Many times before, I’d had some semblance of a plan, but I would analyze it to death and never really get around to doing anything. Action was the key. Even when I wasn’t sure I was doing exactly the right thing, at least I knew I was moving in the right direction.
I cleaned up my diet and ate mostly for fuel. I tried to eat the most nutritious foods I could, incorporating organic foods where possible, and substituting man-made stuff for whole natural foods. Water was my best friend, and I drank it non-stop. I always had a huge stainless steel bottle of water with me; it almost became my trademark. I experimented with different ratios of carbs/protein/fat until I felt I had the right percentages that worked for me. I also manipulated calories to keep myself burning fat, but I didn’t go so low as to lose muscle mass.
I started lifting weights heavier than I ever had before. Curiously, I was a lot stronger than I expected. By journaling my workouts, I was able to constantly increase the intensity of each workout by adding weight or reps. I also enjoyed mixing it up and trying out different exercises that my body wasn’t used to. Some days I even incorporated double sessions of cardio just to give myself that extra kick. I even got into yoga and stretching and it felt good.
Every week I weighed and measured myself to see how I was coming along. If anything needed tweaking, I’d make small adjustments for the next seven days and see how it went. Being flexible and paying attention to my results was a critical factor in my success. I used a Food Journal to track my nutrition. This enabled me to look back and see what was working and what wasn’t. This journal still comes in handy for me to this day.
Also, patience became a new virtue of mine. I discovered that there really was no magic pill. Making changes required a lot of hard work and dedication and it wasn’t always fun or easy. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was I was really achieving my goals this time … it was really happening. The closer I got to my dreams, the more motivated I became.
I constantly filled my head with positive and motivating CDs. I felt it was important to stay away from negative people and to stay focused on what was really important to me in my life. I learned that circumstances will never be “perfect”, and that you can’t be “perfect” on your diet. I learned to always plan ahead, and be prepared with packed food. But, also, to be able to adapt if necessary and do the best I could in certain social situations.
Fourteen weeks later, I emerged with a completely transformed physique and a new mindset. I found out that I really could do anything I put my mind to. I learned that I had to be patient and trust that results would come if I was doing the work. It was simply a matter of commitment, focus, action, tracking, and mindset.
And you can do it to. There are many great programs out there, but I recommend finding someone who did what you want to do and then emulating them. You definitely don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Use a program like Scott’s Metabolic Masterpiece that lays it out for you and takes out the guesswork. This will allow you to get started easily and see results quickly.
Everyone has the drive inside to transform themselves and your new body is just waiting to be revealed. I learned that short term sacrifices are well worth the gratifying results you can achieve when you really give it your all. And you can start to enjoy the journey along the way as you feel healthier and stronger every day.
Stef
Cougar Fitness Blog
I hope that you enjoyed today’s guest blog post and that you’ve gained some valuable insights from it. Stef is a prime example that women in their 40’s can sculpt a physique that looks better than most girls in their 20’s. Take pride in your physique and health. Become the best that you can be while enjoying the journey. Embrace the body sculpting lifestyle!