Archives for March 2012

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

Check out her pictures:

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:

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