Archives for January 2012

Today we have an interview with Roberta Saum, who placed second in the last Venus Index Contest in the Open category.

Check out her pictures:

Roberta loves the Venus workouts and it shows!

There is no magic bullet, it really takes a lot of effort to build a body like this.

Here is a fun before and after picture of Roberta…same costume, different Roberta!

Roberta never tried any program specifically designed for look. She was running everyday and lifting in the gym, just following some advice from the guys she knew. Her training plan was pretty similar to a bodybuilding split – chest on Monday, legs on Wednesday and so on.

She was doing mostly what the guys were doing, not really thinking about training for a specific shape.

She was pretty strong though and over the years she build significant muscle mass. Training combined with running also contributed to pretty good conditioning. However, she wasn’t in the shape that she would like.

She was stuck and was doing the same stuff day after day and not getting the results she was after – a slim, toned, feminine physique.

Venus Index Changed Everything

Venus Index is completely different from anything Roberta ever done. Before VI she usually trained for about 30 minutes without any structure that would be getting her towards any specific goal, it was basically lifting to stay fit. This is why she loved the VI workouts, because there is more than one group of muscles trained in every session and it’s designed to get you to a specific goal – perfect Venus Index shape.

Not having a training plan designed to get you to a specific body shape that is attractive is a pretty common problem and it’s more common for women than men. Most women just do cardio and abdominal training while they are at the gym. Then there is a small fraction that lift weights, but it’s usually in a manner that doesn’t focus on bringing certain muscle groups up and supporting the feminine shape.

Only a few women like bikini model competitors actually know how to approach strength training to build a specific looking body.

You have to focus on training your body in a way the accentuates your shoulders and hips and minimizes the look of your waist. This requires some thought and variety with your training program, rather than following a male bodybuilder pattern of individual muscle group splits.

If you can keep your waist down and work on your hips and shoulders, then you will be moving towards the ideal VI shape.

The look is not the only thing you will build with the Venus Index.

A interesting ‘side effect’ that Roberta experienced was a strength and endurance boost. Her running significantly improved since she started training with VI. And while the purpose is the look first and foremost, you will also experience an increase in your strength and conditioning.

Roberta also proved that you can do significant work on top of the regular workouts. While she was focusing mainly on building the shape, she didn’t give up the running. She still ran 5-6 miles four to five days a week.

The combination of running and lifting with VI really worked for Roberta. The only thing that changed was that she no longer puts her running first. Now it always comes second after VI training.

It’s Okay to Eat Less Food and Feel Slightly Hungry

After reading the Eat Stop Eat protocol, Roberta learned to deal with hunger pretty quickly. She started to understand that it’s a signal that her body is losing fat and that if she grabbed something to eat like she did before, she would actually be halting her fat burning while her body digested her latest meal.

She never had a problem with overeating, but still she never realized how much food she was eating. And that’s pretty common. If you don’t really watch what you’re eating and just go through life ‘winging it’ on your diet you could end up gaining a few pounds each year, but those few pounds may easily turn into 8, 10 or 15 pounds every couple of years.

You see, most people are not obese. The reason for weight gain, is not constant overeating, or medicating with food or some metabolic issue. Most people are perfectly fine. The issue though is that today we have an abundance of food, food is a big part of our culture and we can’t resist eating a bit more at social eating events. Just try to remember how much food you had at the last barbeque, wedding, birthday party or over the holidays, probably a bit more than you usually have during your regular day, right?

And that is the point, it gradually adds up over the years and then one day you wake up wondering where those 25 extra pounds came from.

It’s really important to realize how much food we have within our reach on a daily basis.

Once you do it’s just about learning to manage yourself and plan for those events in advance.

Roberta was never what she would call ‘lean’, but with a few fasts per week and controlling the calorie intake on other days, she easily stayed in a deficit during the week and could still enjoy her weekly barbecue events.

In the past Roberta would never skip a meal and would never allow herself to be hungry. However, if you want to stay lean and still enjoy social eating events, then logically you have to make up for it later on (or better yet in advance). This is what most people don’t realize, you can eat more than you burn on some days, you don’t have to diet on weddings, or during thanksgiving and other holidays, but you have to “pay off” those calories sooner or later, otherwise they get stored as bodyfat.

Whether you prefer restricting calories throughout the day or just fasting, you gotta find a way to cut down those calories.

What worked for Roberta was fasting almost everyday and having just one big meal a day, because let’s be honest, no mater how much you think you can eat, there is only so many calories you can eat at one meal.

Then once she got leaner she stopped restricting herself so much.

This is a pretty common pattern. Once you get down to a lower body fat level, extreme dieting and big caloric deficits are not possible anymore. You have to find a way to create a small deficit on a regular basis.

It’s not that you could not manage fasting for 24 hours several times a week, but after the fasts you will end up eating it back up. It may not happen immediately after the fast, it can be delayed even two days, but the urge to eat all the way back up will ultimately come.

This is why most people change their approach to fasting and reduce it to 14-16 hours and fast more frequently when they get really lean.

It’s still about creating a deficit, but just a smaller one more often.

What to do if you want to look like Roberta:

• Follow the Venus Index Workouts and focus on building the hourglass shape
• Find a way to eat less, the key to the VI look is a slim waist
• Fasting is a great way to cut calories, just find the protocol that works for you the best, for Roberta it was Eat Stop Eat, and the length of your preferred fast will likely change as you get leaner
• Cut your portions down and think about what you are eating
• Love your workouts, you have to enjoy what you are doing to be consistent and to do it properly
• No diet will ever tone your body, you need to work out, in fact you need both – diet and exercise
• Don’t do just cardio and ab training, you have to lift heavy and focus on other muscles too

Words & phrases mentioned in the interview:

Venus Index Workout – Workout program 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 – Lifestyle and diet protocol by Brad Pilon focusing on balancing social eating events with fat loss.

Listen to the interview here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Today’s interview is with Elisa Miller, who place fifth in our third Venus Index Transformation Contest.

Check out her pictures:

Elisa at 42 years old, probably at the best shape of her life. Ironically with doing less complex and complicated things.

When you take pictures, make sure you wear high heals. That simple tweak makes a big difference.

Don't be afraid of dreaming. Anybody can be in shape. You just need to do some work and put what you learn into practice.

Elisa has a history of gaining and losing weight, orthorexia, food schizophrenia and now placing in a online transformation contest. Let’s take a look how she managed to get from unhealthy eating to surprising her husband with a body transformation and placing in the Venus Index contest.

Elisa’s History

Elisa is 5’6”, 42 years old, she is a mother and a wife. Not exactly a description of someone you would expect to place in a fitness contest. This is one of many examples that anybody can do it and no matter what lifestyle or responsibilities you have, you can look good. It’s time to put all of your excuses behind and focus on improving yourself.

Let’s take a look at Elisa’s diet history, which is rather unusual.

When she turned 30 a lot of things had changed in her life. Her child was born and her father got sick. She had to take care of them both. This wasn’t an easy task. Having her father now at home and having a baby constantly seeking attention required lot of effort and energy. There wasn’t much time she would get for herself.

At the end of day she was often times resentful and depressed. And as a result she ended up using food to escape from her reality and help her calm down. When everybody went to sleep, it was “her night time”. She took some ice-cream and some cookies and watched TV.

Nobody would see, nobody would know and she would have her few hours alone at peace.

As months went by this resulted in a decent weight gain. She knew that it was wrong and that she shouldn’t be doing it, but she didn’t care. She was caring for everyone else accept her. It was almost her way of getting back.

You might be surprised that she is actually the one that her friends and family see as the “healthy food” expert.

Her mother was a healthy food fanatic, always teaching her to eat only organic and raw food, no chocolate, no chips or any tasty burgers (boo).

And then there was her father who was going behind her mothers back and taking her for ice-cream and chocolate (yay!).

This resulted in developing almost a schizophrenia about food. During the day she was eating only “healthy foods” and if she prepared something that wasn’t on this list she would spit it out. Then at night she would eat all the ice-cream and sweats in the house.

This is a very unhealthy perception of food to always see food as either good or bad.

This lead to several things like weight gain, feeling guilty, social inflexibility with food among others. After this approach she tried several diets including the paleo approach, during those years her weight was constantly going up and down.

What Finally Worked

Elisa was sick of the old approach and decided to try something different. Which probably wasn’t easy considering the way she was raised. But she decided to take it in her hands and take a step out of her comfort zone.

Important factor for her was recognizing that what she was doing was causing her more harm than good and simply wasn’t working.

When she got her hands on the Venus Index Workout and the diet protocols (AGD  & ESE) she found out that this approach was much better and made so much sense. At the beginning she was afraid of having to be even more strict than she was so far. Also she wasn’t sure if she could do this. However, it was a huge relief since to her surprise this new approach was more flexible and enjoyable than the things she was doing her whole life.

Sometimes the simpler things work better than the complex and difficult ones.

She immediately jumped on board and completely changed her lifestyle and her view of food.

No more paleo, no more good food – bad food paradigm. Only calories in vs. calories out and an intense workout on top of that for a more feminine and sexy body shape.

She admitted that what was she was doing before was pretty much a waste of time and it’s a pity that  it took her so many years until she discovered the truth.

She was eating everything like any other person, the only difference was that she felt guilty after eating those “unhealthy foods”. She only showed other people when she ate so called ‘good foods’.

However, she made her decision to end this. She didn’t want to live the way she lived before, under the shadow of her parents and by their rules.

She unsubscribed from all the “paleo lifestyle” experts and “healthy food” nutritionists and decided to do what makes sense and is most logical.

Once she was ready to leave the nonsense behind and  started incorporating all the advice from the Venus Index protocols everything just took off from there.

And she never looked back.

When her husband got home, after several months of being away, he was astounded to see her transformation. Elisa’s goal was to hit the 140 mark when he got back. Not only that but she super-passed it by 13 pounds, her final weight was 127 pounds.

Spectacular result for somebody who didn’t believe it was possible to go from 180lbs to her pre-baby weight, or even further.

Now she is proud of herself and happy with the way she looks.

Take home message from Elisa

• Stop with the whole obsession with the scale. Focus on your shape and proportions.
• There is no bad or good food. It’s all about calories in and out. Food itself is just an form of  energy covered by taste, you don’t need to feel guilty
• It’s possible to dream, you just need to take the required action to make your dreams a reality
• Don’t beat yourself up just because you did something wrong or not according to plan, simply get back on track and adjust your plan
• Take baby steps, everyday do a little to get closer to your goal – one day at a time
• Everybody should enter the contest, it’s extremely motivating and it is so much fun
• Find a nutrition plan or a way to eat that suits you the best and that you can sustain for a longer period of time.
• Don’t restrict your calories too much, because that will result in overeating afterwards
• There are two ways of dieting for the contest, you either lower your calories at the end or lower them at the beginning and slightly turn to maintenance towards the end of your transformation. The second option (aka Reverse Taper Diet) seems to work better for most people since at the end you have little fat stored on your body that will get burned so it makes sense to eat slightly below maintenance to have less deficit compared to having big deficit, which is not sustainable for a long time and often leads to post-contest rebound
• Discover your limits and back off if you feel like your approach is too difficult
• Be clear on what you are doing, use training for building more muscles and shaping your body and use diet to lose fat and lean out
• Don’t blame others for your weight gain, it’s your responsibility, you need to accept it and handle it, because nobody else will
• Don’t use food as a medicine for depression

Programs Elisa used for the transformation:

Anything Goes Diet – “Diet without rules”, forget about carb cycling, macro-nutrients or unhealthy foods. Eat what you like and lose weight.

Eat Stop Eat – Lifestyle protocol that will help you achieve your fitness goals despite the social eating events you have to attend.

Venus Index Workout – Workout focused on building a toned and natural feminine body shape.

Venus Community – What if there was a forum where all the cool girls hung out and were exchanging tips and support 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