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What does it feel like to be a 53 year old Figure Competitor?

March 23, 2015 by Roberta Saum Leave a Comment

The best part for me was showing John this picture and his reaction was "Holy smokes! Ro you look fabulous!" That means more to me than any trophy!

The best part for me was showing John this picture and his reaction “Holy smokes! Ro you look fabulous!” That means more to me than any trophy!

Today we are exactly 3 weeks out from the Venus Transformation VT13 deadline. The last day of this contest will be April 13th.

Many Venus ladies have been asking about my recent experience with a fitness competition so I figured this would be a good time to write about that. It’s a good time to discuss how to prepare for your final photographs for the current contest as you will need to plan ahead.

What made me decide to do a fitness competition?

I found Coach Miles though my friend Lauren Monday. Lauren is the model who helped me with a photo shoot for the final pictures I submitted for Venus Transformation contest #4.

Lauren is a bikini model and now a bikini competitor with several shows under her belt.

I saw Lauren’s posts with Miles on Facebook. I decided it would be fun to try something new so I gave Miles a call. I had no intention of competing in a fitness show but I found myself surrounded by other fitness competitors who had a lot of energy. I quickly made friends and was easily accepted into the group. It didn’t take long for my friends and Miles to convince me to join in the fun and try to compete as a masters figure competitor.

We decided on the Sacramento Pro Show in November 2014. I’m 54 now, but I was still 53 back in November last year.

I increased my workout sessions with Miles and got started with some posing practice.

I found posing practice to be harder than working out. As Miles knows I LOVE to workout, and I love to work hard. I quickly learned that posing was going to require many hours of practice at home, which I did.

Here’s a picture of me with coach Miles just last week. Even though I don’t plan to compete again, I still train with Miles once a week to “keep my head in the game”.

What changed with my diet?

Diet was really fun because I already knew what to do. Miles taught me to get a little more protein in with egg whites and protein powder. I already knew how to diet with Venus by using lean meat, vegetables, and just enough healthy carbs for energy. I taught Miles about Eat Stop Eat and working out fasted and we quickly became a dynamic team. Those principles helped Miles tweak his own plan and keep his fitness goals.

Miles began helping his other clients with the Eat Stop Eat principles and it was pretty exciting to watch others achieve better success by using what I had learned from Brad Pilon and John Barban. It’s great to see others ditching the fitness myths regarding when to eat and how often.

Miles taught me to get more protein in with the same amount of calories. I hadn’t thought of using egg whites and it for some reason it was a hard concept for me. What, you mean throw away the yolks!? So I got the liquid egg whites in a carton.

I have never had much use for protein powder. I prefer to eat solid protein as opposed to protein drinks. I don’t get much satisfaction out of drinking my calories.

Miles teaching me to include egg whites and protein powder along with the lean meat and fish I already consumed was a real eye opener. You can really pack in a lot of protein in a small calorie budget! I didn’t really like egg whites or protein drinks so worked to come up with various protein custard recipes and that suited me fine.

As far as the calorie deficit I took it nice and slow. I didn’t do anything drastic. I just set my own schedule and did a nice slight deficit for about two months. Even then it’s pretty hard to do when you are already pretty lean. I started out at about 12% body fat and got down to something below 10%. Even with a slight calorie deficit there is nothing easy about doing it.

What changed with my workouts?

I learned from Miles how to do some very precise weight lifting splits to develop the specific muscles for a figure competitor. My having done the Venus workouts were a perfect base to start with. I mainly needed a spotter to help me push just a little harder and add in the splits. For me I needed to work the the muscles harder in all areas but specifically needed the most work on my shoulders and upper back for the Figure physique.

I still did the Venus workouts on the days I didn’t work with Miles.

I learned those last 2-3 reps with a spotter were crucial for developing more muscle definition.

The competition mindset

I knew going into the show that I would need a strong mindset. I knew I needed to be happy with how I’d built my own body and not let the judges decide upon my own happiness.

Even going into it with that strong and positive mindset, the competition day was a hard day for me. It really threw me for a loop emotionally.

I have absolutely no regrets, but I can not say the day itself was fun. It wasn’t.

The Lauren Jacobson interview with John was helpful for knowing that even a few years ago when the Bikini and Figure classes were just starting that it was unclear as to what the judges were looking for. It seemed like bikini class is not quite as lean and muscular compared to the figure class, but it turns out that is not always the case. Every show is different and with every set of judges; it’s a constant moving target for each show and it has not gotten any better.

Here I am in the open class lineup with much younger women.

What about “prep week”?

It was a difficult week because I decide to experiment with the traditional old school “prep week” or “peak week”. It’s a much more hard core version of our Venus “Slim in Seven”.

I ate fairly normal all week except I cut out foods that make me bloated. For me that is dairy, wheat, and foods with a lot of long ingredient names (which I typically avoid anyway). I ate more nuts, dried fruit, salmon, turkey, banana, and gluten free crackers. I ate a little more low carb and higher protein at the beginning of the week and increased the carbs later in the week.

I limited my water all week which was a disaster. I was miserable and probably ate a little too much fruit/nut mix the last few days. It’s hard to keep track when you have containers of it and are staying in a hotel (and miserable, thirsty, stressed, and sleep deprived.)

This is what Kristen Shaffer has to say about water intake for prep week:

—DO NOT DECREASE WATER INTAKE—

You’ve heard it a thousands times – deplete your water the last week. DO NOT DO THIS. You will step on stage looking stringy and flat.

Why?

Because studies have shown that water is mostly stored within our muscles. So if you decrease your water intake, your body will adjust by actually retaining more water outside the muscles, making you look bloated. Additionally, your total water retained will decrease, but since most of it is stored in your muscles you will lose precious muscle mass.

The only time you want to limit your water intake is the day of your competition, and the only reason is to not have a full-looking tummy. So only sip water that day when you are thirsty.

Coach Trish Wood IFBB Pro not only thinks the same, but she also thinks you just drink the normal amount of water on competition day. Trish has been at this game a very long time and knows what she is talking about, in fact her client (Rachelle Mittelstet) just got first place in both Figure class A and 1st place figure Masters’s 40+ this past weekend and the Governors Cup competition in Sacramento.

If I had competed again I would have been in those same classes with Rachelle. I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready for that again. But it’s okay, I don’t have to compete to be happy with what I’ve achieved.

I have a comparison picture from approximately 5:30 pm the night before the competition and approximately 5:30 am the day of the competition. I’d spent a miserable night in the hotel room tossing and turning, I was thirsty, hungry, stressed, and the tanning solution painted on me was absolutely atrocious.

With the difference in angles and the tan it’s hard to say if there is much of a difference or not. Both Miles and I thought I was a little flat on competition day, but I'm not sure it matters much. The work was done and there wasn't much fat left.

A 10 hour overnight comparison. With the difference in angles and the tan it’s hard to say if there is much of a difference or not. Both Miles and I thought I was a little flat on competition day, but I’m not sure it matters much. The work was done and there wasn’t much fat left.

With the difference in angles and the tan it’s hard to say if there is much of a difference or not. Both Miles and I thought it seemed like I looked the best a couple days prior to the show and then got slightly flatter and less defined each day.

Regardless, everyone agrees – even John and Brad – that the real difference is in the work during the weeks and months prior to the event. It’s best not to torture yourself too much this final week if you don’t need to.

The process affects everyone differently. I’ve heard a couple of people say the Slim in Seven process is no big deal, but others have reported that it was hard. It’s a good process to follow but keep in mind it’s a guideline that can be adjusted to your own needs, just like everything in the Venus program.

How did the competition day go?

Participating in a competition is a pretty big investment. You need a good coach for your workouts and posing practice. You need an expensive competition suit, shoes, tan, hair, makeup, nails, hotel, entry fees, and a membership to the fitness organization you are competing under.

Several of my friends met up and got our hair done in the hotel room. Even though I was nervous this was kind of fun!

I’d only seen a couple of fitness shows, so I really didn’t know enough. I had misconceptions about the judging “callouts” as you shall see in the following story.

The first time on stage in the morning is when all the real judging happens. The audience is small. The “entertainment” part of the show happens in the evening. In some ways the evening is more fun because they have fun music and a master of ceremonies.

Being up on stage was totally different compared to practice at home. There are bright lights in your eyes and you are crowded up on stage with not much time to move from one pose to the next. They rush you though everything like cattle in a line. It didn’t seem like there was enough time to get the figure poses correctly set.

The venue for the show I was in wasn’t comfortable for the competitors. We had long staging hallways and the stage floor was uneven with a lot of metal hinges and screws sticking up. It’s hard enough to walk around in 5 inch heels, let alone trying to balance on an uneven floor. I was deathly afraid of tripping on the metal pieces. It made it really hard to balance. I’m sure each of us felt we were in the worst spot ever.

When they do the judging they move you around in the lineup for comparison. You aren’t supposed to compare yourself to others right? But it’s hard when you are in an environment where they are doing just that. I didn’t find that at all fun, especially at my age around young women with pretty skin. Man it was hard.

In every class I ended up out at the end of the lineup, which I assumed was “last place” in the call out. I was literally in tears up on the stage wondering what the heck I did wrong. I’d entered five different competition classes so it was a lot of work to keep getting up on stage. Every time I went up I got more discouraged. My coach and all my friends were not with me. I felt alone and lost. It was nothing like all the weeks and hours I’d spent practicing and having fun with my friends at the gym.

After the morning judging session I ran to my room and cried for hours. I finally mustered up the strength to go find Miles and some of my friends and I know they felt bad because there was nothing they could do to make me feel better.

I didn’t want to go back up on stage for the final evening show. I knew I was in last place and I was just filling the gap for the show. But I was determined to go and do my best out of sheer principle.

I took a nap and finally mustered up the strength to go face Miles and my friends downstairs.

When evening came I cleaned up my tear smeared makeup best I could. I hadn’t brought any makeup and the makeup artists were gone. I didn’t really care. I just wanted to get it over with. I was driven with sheer principle that I wouldn’t quit or pack up and go home, although I desperately wanted to.

Then we lined up to get on stage again. In the evening the schedule was a little different because they had NPC novice competitors (of which I was a part of) mixed with the IFBB pros. When the show got behind schedule they held up the NPC women’s masters groups I was in so that the IFBB pro men could be on schedule. That meant two of the groups I competed with had to wait in the hallway in high heels for nearly an hour. It was pretty darn miserable for us because we couldn’t sit down without messing up the glue that held our suits in place. We couldn’t get our “pump” on with the little weights there because we were waiting too long.

Even though all of us girls were so miserable being held hostage in the hallway, ironically it was the best part of the day for me regarding social interaction with others. We had a chance to really talk about real fitness life nitty gritty. I told the ladies there in the line that it was the best part of the day for me.

Here I am with the top 5 winners in the Masters Figure 35+ class. I'm actually the oldest one there at age 53. I'm in 5th place.

Here I am with the top 5 winners in the Masters Figure 35+ class. I’m actually the oldest one there at age 53. The others are all under 40. I’m in 5th place.

I got a lot of compliments from some of the other girls. They told me my whole package, suit, hair, physique, etc were put together nicely. It made me feel good because I was pretty darn insecure about the whole thing. It sounded like they were genuine and that’s what felt good to me.

That’s where I learned from the others that each show is different regarding the judges. Whether it’s figure or bikini class it’s hit or miss if they want a softer smoother look, or a ripped shredded look. You have to decide what you like best for yourself and know that you’ll do well in some shows and not others.

It’s a pretty big investment for a hit or miss like that.

I was in absolute shock when I got a fifth place trophy for Masters Figure 35+, it made me realize I was wrong about the callouts. Only the judges know what’s really going on. It really was hit or miss like the girls said when we stood in the hallway.

I was in shock that I got a trophy! I took a quick selfie before I stepped into the elevator to head up for a shower I couldn’t wait for.

As I walked back through the maze of hallways with my trophy I passed the huge lineups of other girls going up toward the stage. I got a lot of congratulations and high fives. But I realize how few actually get to go home with any hardware. I barely got the one I got. I didn’t feel like it meant much. Don’t get me wrong, I was darn happy to have it, but at the same time I realize that each and every woman that showed up to compete that day deserved a trophy.

Every single woman there worked hard and put in the same effort I did. They were all beautiful in my eyes.

Even though I didn’t get a trophy picture with Miles, I was just so happy to shower and be done with it. We waited for the other competitors so we could all go have a yummy dinner.

I was so happy once I was done with the ordeal, got my shower, and could sit in comfort with my dear friend Miles. I was happy to get the trophy. I was happy to get John’s response because I still like it when John is proud of me.

What about the Venus contest?

It’s totally up to you if you want to do any version of “prep week” before your final photo’s or not. It’s not a requirement and it’s completely personal preference. The Venus Factor “Slim in Seven” is a good program and not as drastic as the old school fitness competitor prep week.

If you decide to follow the Venus Factor “Slim in Seven” there is a daily diet protocol designed by John Barban. A lot of people ask how do they know what percentage their protein, carbs, and fat are? The best way to do this is to use a tool like Myfitnesspal to set your macro percentages. In the MyFitnessPal menu you can do this by going into your Home menu, then Goals, then the green “Change Goals” button, then select “custom”, then Continue.

To set your macro percentages in In the MyFitnessPal menu; go into your Home menu, then Goals, then the green “Change Goals” button, then select “custom”, then Continue.

Keep in mind it doesn’t have to be exact. You can change things up depending on how you feel or how much stress you are under. As you can see from the experiments of many of us what matters most is all the work in the weeks and months ahead of time.

Whether you are finishing the contest as a transformation, cover, or calendar girl you are not required to have a professional photographer. Be proud and make your best presentation ever! Celebrate your hard work and success by giving it your best effort and having pictures that you will cherish for the rest of your life. It’s a record and a reminder for you on what you have accomplished.

Preparing For Your Contest Photo Shoot – Part 1: Posing Practice

Preparing For Your Contest Photo Shoot – Part 2: Photography And Lighting

Preparing For Your Contest Photo Shoot – Part 3: The Final Week

What to do with your final Venus contest photos?

When you submit your final photos the bikini type outfit will be used primarily for judging purposes only. Please feel free to submit other final pictures in nice clothes of your choice that still show off your new shape; for example a dress, skirt, jeans and tops, sports outfits, hobbies outfits like tennis, golf, yoga, etc.

We would also love to have a before picture that tells your full weight loss story so others can see that there is more to the story then just the 12 week contest window.

Get ready for AMAZING!

Will you be next?

Get your final entries in by midnight Eastern time April 13th.

Use the contest entry form (the same that you used to enter the contest).

We’ll need from you:

front pose
back pose
side pose
newspaper pose
up to 15 cover pictures of your choice
your 250 word or more essay (please include your age in the essay)

and your measurements:

height
weight
shoulders
waist
hips

We are looking forward to the amazing results of your hard work.

–Coach Roberta

If you have any questions or problems with uploading your pictures email me: roberta.saum@gmail.com

– Contest rules and regulations

– Contest schedule for 2015

Filed Under: psychology, stress, Uncategorized Tagged With: Anything Goes Diet, becoming a venus, Bobbie Carper, body composition, brad pilon, diet for weight loss, Eat Stop Eat, Fit at 50, goal setting, john barban, muscle growth, The Venus Factor, Venus Index, weight training, working out for shape

Why Right Now Is the Best Time to Lose Fat – Uncensored

January 22, 2014 by Roberta Saum Leave a Comment

Liss gained fat due to the effects of our modern North American culture and learned how to take corrective action through the Venus Factor system. Not only has she lost the fat – but she has successfully kept it off with the Venus lifestyle.

The experiment you don’t ever want to be in!

John and Brad are going to talk about an experiment you never want to be part of. Yet it’s exactly what our modern North American society unknowingly engages in and is why our society is becoming obese.

I found this study interesting because I am an identical twin. I’m really glad my twin sister and I were not a part of this experiment! Even so, I think I have experienced the same thing as the guys in the experiment simply by living in the environment of modern North America. Like many of you, I gained a lot of fat due to not understanding the effects of our modern environment on our health. The good news is that anyone who decides to can get their health back and the Venus Factor program is designed to help you do just that.

The study was done in Quebec in the late 1980’s. The subjects consisted of 24 sets of male twins with ages ranging from 18-27. They were sequestered in a university dorm for 120 days. The experiment was to see what happens when you overeat by 1000 calories a day. During this time they were not allowed to train -they were only allowed to walk for 30 minutes a day – supervised. They only ate the food they were provided in a very controlled environment.

They were young men in very good shape. Their average body fat went from 11.3% body fat up to 18% body fat by the end of the experiment. The average waist size increased from 29.5” to 33”.

The average fat gained was 18 pounds, the fat weight gained ranged from 9.5 pounds to 30 pounds. The twins in each pair had similar gains. Everyone gained fat.

Why did some gain more than others?

Metabolism was the pretty much the same for all.

There was a fair relationship with testosterone preventing some fat gain – just a little.

Cardio training seems to help prevent future fat gain

Those that gained the least amount of fat were in the bestVO2 max cardio shape at the beginning of the experiment. Remember they did not train during the experiment.

The cardio fitness has lasting effects; it seems to prevent or protect against weight gain. Cardio doesn’t seem to affect actual fat loss much, but it seems to help prevent the gaining of fat and be a sort of buffer or shield against future fat gain.

Research shows it only takes 6-8 weeks of cardio training for both the up regulation of Vo2 max and the muscle enzymes responsible for increasing their oxidizing potential (or ability to burn fat), after which they begin to plateau. A good experiment could be to have a block of cardio included in your exercise routine every so often, especially as part of primer before starting a fat loss program.

The bottom line – take corrective action and the sooner the better!

The dark side of the experiment is that everyone gained fat. None of them ever got back to the level of leanness that they were at before the experiment. They continued to gain weight over five years and ended up being close to what they were at the end of the study.

The bottom line is that no matter when in your life you allow yourself to overeat and gain fat, if you never do a compensatory under eat to correct it will never go away. Corrective action must be taken, the sooner the better.

Don’t ever stop training. Don’t let your waist size increase much.

If you have corrective action to take – get serious about taking the corrective action as soon as possible.

To hear more about what John and Brad have to say about the experiment you don’t ever want to be in and listen to today’s uncensored podcast click on the link below.

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

(If you are using Venus Index Mobile, go to the left menu -> My products -> right menu -> Uncensored Season 3 -> enjoy, you can assign star to add it into Favorites for easier access next time, if you don’t have access to Uncensored Podcasts you can purchase Immersion Package inside the App Shop)

Not a Venus Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more…

Filed Under: Bodyfat, calories, Diet, Uncategorized, Uncensored Podcasts S03 Tagged With: body composition, brad pilon, diet for weight loss, john barban, The Venus Factor, Venus Index, Venus Index Workout

Ten Thousand Ways that Won’t Work

August 10, 2012 by Roberta Saum 1 Comment

“Ten Thousand Ways that Won’t Work…”

As I finally started finding success with my weight loss I exclaimed to my husband Randy “I can’t believe how simple this is yet I failed at it for at least 15 years!”

So Randy reminded me of the quote Thomas Edison made regarding his process for inventing the light bulb:

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ― Thomas A. Edison

Randy and I both laughed at how I found probably the 10,000 ways how not to lose weight! Although the victory is still sweet for me, you don’t have to take 15 years and wait until you are 50 years old like I did.

Lifelong Eating Habits Engrained

As a young child I grew up in a poor family with four siblings and a single mom who tried her hardest to care for us under extreme adversity. This was in the 1960’s and although we lived in the land of abundance it did not always make it to our table.

This was back when bringing food stamps to the store felt shameful yet my mom held her head high and did what she could to provide for us. I remember how she treated all the food in the refrigerator as a precious commodity.

Circa 1969, I am on the far left and that is my identical twin on the far right.

We didn’t go out to eat much and she prepared healthy meals for us and packed our school lunches. She would get mad if we tried to skip breakfast and she was always there in the morning to cook something simple like one fried egg and a piece of toast with butter.

We didn’t have a lot of snacks. On occasion we might get a treat and go to taco bell. I laugh at the memory of it because there were 5 or 6 menu items to choose from, all pictured up on the overhead wall. Looking back, I think she had it right back then.

But I also remember her making us popcorn and placing it in a big bowl in the middle of a round table. All of us kids sat around the table and scarfed it down as quickly as we could afraid that others would get more.

Overall I think this season of my life taught me to appreciate the food we had and to not mindlessly eat.

The next season of learning about food happened for me in the foster homes I lived in after that. I was fortunate to live with a Filipino family and an Italian family who both taught me how to cook their ethnic foods.

I was always ambitious and loved to be the one who cooked dinner and receive the praise for the meal. We prepared our food at home and going out to eat was a rare treat. At this point I started eating more and eating seconds was encouraged in both families, but I was young enough and luckily wasn’t too chubby (yet).

This was probably where learning about food portions started becoming distorted for me.

Me at California International Marathon a while back.

Learning to Love Exercise

My first high school job was as a summer camp counselor and I decided then that I loved the outdoors and being physically active.

I started my first full time job at a high tech company during my senior year of high school. The company I worked for encouraged physical activity and the work environment was like a college campus. There was a par course and running trail, gyms, locker rooms, showers, basketball and volley ball courts, and even a softball park.

I took an aerobics class in the campus gym when I was 19 years old and that is when I met a 50 year old instructor who had the body of a teenager.

The image of her always stuck in my mind and I decided I wanted to be like her when I was 50.

I didn’t stick with the aerobics class because it didn’t fit my schedule but I learned that music made exercise more fun.

I started running outside and lifting weights at the gym and bought my first Walkman. Walkman’s were expensive and it was a big clunky thing that used cassette tapes and ran on double A batteries but it was well worth the investment. It helped me look forward to exercise (If you are not feeling like working out, music will always give you that needed pump).

If you are like me then you may also hate running and even weight lifting. However, if you stick to it for some time, you will start seeing some amazing results and the positive effect exercise can have on your mood and life in general, and you WILL LOVE IT.

The Slow Weight Gain Creeping up, Sounds Familiar?

The fact that I spent my lunch hour exercising meant I had to pack my food rather than go to lunch with other employees.

For years I packed my food and ate when I could during breaks. These were habits that serve me well today. What I didn’t realize was that my portions were still too big and I ate too much.

I exercised hard and at one point realized I had run six miles a day, six days a week for 10 years, along with weight lifting and other physical activities.

This was in the 1980’s when eating fat free and high carb was the in thing and so I did this for many years. The memory makes me cringe now. All the running made me hungry and I ate too much.

I ate this way for years while running marathons and couldn’t figure out why I was not the athlete that I wanted to be.

As time went on my weight kept doing the slow creep up so I tried several popular diets which only worked temporarily and some didn’t work at all.

These were the diets I tried (if you been in involved in this industry for a while chances are you’ve tried them too):

Low fat high carb
Slim-Fast
Weight Watchers
Atkins
Organic
Weston Price Diet
The Schwarzbein Principle
Eat Fat Lose Fat
The Ultimate PH Solution
The Makers Diet
A friends diet from a personal trainer/dietician

I finally just got sick of it all and made up my own diet with healthy foods I enjoy and smaller portions.

I ate my meals from small desert plates and bowls. I stopped eating in the evenings. I started calling what I did mini-meals and mini-fasts and I lost 40 lbs. Then I found Eat Stop Eat, The Venus Index Workout, and the Venus Index Community.

I recently read the Anything Goes Diet. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in losing weight or maintaining fitness. I found this book to be amazingly insightful and John Barban covers all bases. Honestly the book is so good that I can’t see how you wouldn’t succeed if you actually read the book and followed the principles. It gave me some new ideas for my own maintenance plan.

Even though we still have so much diet confusion and conflicting advice in the media it seems like the simple truth is buried there, eat less, move more.

Here are some examples where the truth does exist in sometimes humorous ways. I do not necessarily agree with everything in these articles but you can see some points of truth:

Forbes “Ten Diets That Work”
Wall Street Journal “Is your Personality Making you put on the Pounds?”
Wall Street Journal “The 27 Rules of Conquering the Gym”

After attempting various diets and eating restrictions over the years I have learned to cherry pick from them and found what works for me. Some days I temporarily change things up and eat low carb or try something different.

Still, my all-time favorite books about thinking of successful ways to eat are John Barban’s Anything Goes Diet, Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat, and Bethenny Frankel’s “Naturally Thin”.

Before and After. The slowly the weight crept up year after year, but the Venus Factor gives you hope.

Before and After. Slowly the weight crept up year after year, but the Venus Factor gives you hope.

Don’t get Discouraged by Failures

Don’t get discouraged by failures.

Every successful person has failures and part of why they are successful is that they learn from their mistakes.

It is just like Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb. You don’t have to reinvent the light bulb or the wheel.

The tools are right here right now. Using the available tools may not stop you from all your mistakes, but you can keep your chin up and learn from them. Most likely these tools will prevent some wasted effort and you won’t have to wait until you are 50 years old to achieve your dream.

If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

Thomas A. Edison, Encyclopedia Britannica

US inventor (1847 – 1931)

Since you don’t have to learn the 10,000 ways how not to lose weight like I did, what are you waiting for?

It is never too late to follow your dreams!

-Ro

Filed Under: Bodyfat, calories, cardio, change, Diet, Exercise, fat loss, Food, Health, Shape, weight loss Tagged With: becoming a venus, Bobbie Carper, calories, cardio, diet for weight loss, exercise, Fit at 50, High Protein Diets, low fat diets, organic diets, running, weight lifting

Body Image Is Relative

March 14, 2012 by John Barban Leave a Comment

The modern industrialized western civilizations that most of live in share a common characteristic..and that is the label of being an ‘obesogenic environments’. It seems that as our societies become wealthier the people that live in them eventually become heavier.

Food abundance, variety, accessibility and low cost make it almost impossible to avoid overeating without some degree of self restraint and attention.

As an analogy you could imagine that you’re a fish in a fast flowing stream. If you go with the stream you will gain weight. If you swim hard enough to stay in the same spot you’ll maintain your weight…and if you swim even harder you can actually start moving up stream and lose weight.

This is generally how you must view the environment you are living it. It’s a constant flow or push towards weight gain. If you don’t actively put energy into fighting this you can easily be washed away into the flow and start gaining weight just like the rest of the population.

Until we find a way to overhaul the entire society that you live in, it will always take some amount of effort on your part to either lose weight or maintain your weight without gaining unwanted fat. This is a fact of life and of the current societies we live in so you might as well accept it and get used to it.

In todays uncensored podcast we’ll discuss how this unrelenting force towards weight gain seeps into almost every social interaction and how you can learn to deal with it.

You’ll learn how feelings of envy, guilt, pride, shame, and suffering all play a role in the way people will react and interact with you.

Its All Relative!

It’s All Relative

The look and shape of your body will be viewed from a relative standpoint compared to everyone else. You can be the most ‘in shape’ person in one room, but then be the most ‘out of shape’ person in another room depending on the company you are keeping.

The type of social reactions and interactions you experience are also dependent to some degree on where your body and fitness level is compared to everyone you’re surrounded by.

With the Venus Index we remove this fitness relativity competition between individuals and give you a metric to only compete and compare yourself to yourself. This is a key factor to learning to be proud of your own body and not worry about what other people think.

If you allow the judgement of other people to affect the way you view your own body you will quickly become just like them. It’s your job to take your health and fitness into your own hands and also be proud of your accomplishment.

You’ve got to be satisfied with your body and building a great physique has to be a positive and motivating experience. It’s the only body you’ve got and the effect it can have on your life is too important to leave your satisfaction up to the subjective feedback of other people.

Your body, your success.

John

For more information as well as how to get access to Venus UNCENSORED, click the link below:

Venus UNCENSORED Premium Podcast

Filed Under: Podcast, Uncensored Podcasts S01

Taking your “After” Photos

March 28, 2011 by John Barban Leave a Comment

It’s getting close to the end of the contest and it’s time to consider your final pictures. There are a few things that go into taking your pics and we’ll cover them in todays podcast including lighting, clothing, nutrition, and posing.

Lighting

The simplest answer for lighting is to find the spot in your house where you seem to look your best, you probably already know the one or two rooms that have lighting that hits you just right.

If you want to get a bit more creative with the lighting you can use side lighting from a window or even set up a light a few feet infront of you (hitting your body roughly a 45 degree angle compared to the camera)…you’ll likely find a sweet spot with lighting where you show up your best (this is usually standing relatively close to the light, maybe 2-3 feet away)

You can use any lamps from around the house to experiment with the look and shadow it gives off…also you can use a mirror to assess what it looks like, afterall, whatever the mirror shows is also what the camera will show.

In the end you just want to create an environment that gives you the best looking shape and curves, so spend an hour or two with it until you’ve got the look that you like best.

Clothing:

Bikini and heels is the outfit of choice for figure models, and of course Venus models! Some people have been asking (Alisha) if they can wear a new bikini for the after pictures, and the answer is of course yes. In some cases you’ll have no choice because of the changes that have happened to your body so it’s a great success if you actually need to get a new one!

Nutrition:

There has been a discussion about carb loading and water depletion etc. Keep in mind that these are advanced techniques used by pro bodybuilders who are also using powerful pharmaceuticals to help with their final look…in many cases the water depletion and carb loading strategies won’t have much of an effect for natural figure models like you.

What you can do is as follows:

Water load for 24 hours, that means drink lots and lots of water, like an annoying amount…anytime you think of it drink water…about 12 hours into your water load start a 24 hour fast…12 hours into your 24 hour fast cut the water completely so your last 12 hours of fasting are a complete fast, no water or food. Then take a round of pictures after the fast is done.

Once you’ve taken this first round of pics eat a normal meal, then monitor your look and take another round of pics within 12 hours (likely this will be the next morning sorta deal)

There is no real necessity to ‘carb’ load per se, you can just eat a normal mixed meal of various foods including carbs, protein and fats.

Offset feet and a slight twist makes a big difference in your overall look

Posing:

We will not be judging you on a specific round of poses, but the better you present yourself the easier it is to pick the winner. First off you will need to do the standard front, back and side relaxed poses (the same as the ‘before’ pics). From there you can add in various poses that are subtle changes from the standard poses but make a big difference on the overall aesthetic of the photo. Fitness models rarely stand facing the camera directly, the goal is to get multiple angles with multiple poses. One leg slightly forward, with a slight twist at the wait goes a long way for creating a great illusion for the camera so I suggest you practice this. You can also do other poses like this with varying hand positions.

One key factor is to keep your arm away from your waist so we can see the curve from your waist to your hip. Try a few poses, take lots of pics and send in the best ones (send in your best 10-20 pics…but go ahead and take 100’s to choose from).

Long hair should be moved out of the way of your back on your back shots (throw your hair over your shoulder to the front of your body so it’s not covering your back on the back poses)

I’ve including a few examples of poses from a photoshoot I did with Becky (one of the venus models in the main manual exercise gallery).

Becky has lots of muscle and we just went through a few relaxed poses that really show off her curves. Nothing crazy, just a slight step forward, hand on hip, and a bit of a twist at the waist. Study these and take some for yourself.

Finally you can go through any serious of poses you like to further show off what you got (if you feel so inclined).

This should be a fun day for you so get your spouse, or close friends, family whoever to help out.

Try to schedule 3 days to take pics and try some of the nutrition techniques to see if they change your look.

Make sure you include a pic of the current days newspaper each time you do your pics (this can be a separate pic that you send in just for me to validate the date)

You also may want to try a round of pics after a workout…you probably already have a good idea of what your best look is so if that happens to be post workout then go for it.