It’s time to talk about diets in America. The fact is they are set up for you to fail. The diet industry is all about making money. They create these diets knowing you will eventually fall back to your old behaviors and lifestyle; regaining the weight you lost, plus some. Then, you will look for another diet or solution only to continue on the journey of insanity of the yo-yo world of dieting.
I know this happens, because I used to live this life. I have tried vegan, raw, vegetarian, paleo, South Beach, Atkins, and ketogenic diet, to name a few. I have done countless detoxes, which can also be a form of dieting. I am a national fitness competitor and the ultimate diets I suffered from were anorexia and bulimia. Needless to say, I have tried them all. I can tell you, they don’t work. Another form of an eating disorder is over exercising. I have suffered from this as well. It all stemmed from trying to heal myself from the outside in. After placing 7th nationally, I was at the lowest point I have ever been emotionally. Many of us use diet and exercise to fill a hole that cannot be filled no matter how good we look on the outside. Some people may think from the exterior I look less attractive, less lean, I am not the blonde bombshell I once was. However, I can tell you I am more confident, relaxed, and comfortable in my own skin now than I have been in my entire life. It has everything to do with self-acceptance and loving myself no matter where I am at in life.
After competing, I hit rock bottom. Some of you may relate to this, whether you are a competitor or not. I was fearful of gaining weight and body fat because I was so used to the pressure of competing and having to maintain a specific image and appearance. I had not taken a break from competing in four years because I loved the look of being lean and shredded all the time. It is very healthy for a woman to be under 12% body fat for a period of time and I was really low at 8.5%. I was unable to fully surrender to my bulimia. In some ways I felt like a hypocrite in the industry and I am sure many women who compete struggle with the same issues as me.
After my last show I decided it was time to get healthy. After over a decade of not having a menstrual cycle and dealing with the demon of the eating disorder, I wanted to entirely put it to rest. I never could have predicted something like this would happen to me. As I am sure a lot of women who struggle with that have been “serial dieters.”
Forward to two years later and I was fatter, heavier, and eating less than I ever ate when I was competing. I was doing as much if not more cardio than I was prior to my last show to maintain an image. This is called metabolic adaptation. My body had adapted and become a very efficient burner, which is not good as far as metabolism is concerned. Just like a car, the more mileage we can get per gallon, the better! My hormones were shot, I did not have my menstrual cycle, and I was in full sw
ing pre-menopause at age 35. I was so frustrated. All of the things I knew went out the window due to my fear of gaining weight. I knew enough to know I was in serious trouble, but I was in denial. Even with my educational background I didn’t know how to get myself out of it. I was scared.
The truth is, I wasn’t alone. Three of my close competitors went through the exact same thing. I witnessed their struggle. I watched them blow up, struggle, and climb out of it. They are educated business owners in the field. One competitor I was close with was Jamie Debarnard at Fit Body Fusion. We shared the same coach, so naturally we shared the same techniques. We were passing on some of the very things that do not work—meals plans and tons of cardio. This may work for a while, but it is not sustainable. Most of us have lived that life. I was fed up and wanted to find a different way.
Jamie led the way. A couple years ago she started training with Dr. Layne Norton and developed her own version of the reverse diet. I took classes she offered and I found Dr. Layne Norton whom I started studying . I surrendered, realizing that I could no longer act like I was prepping for a show. My body would not shed a percent in body fat and I simply could not do any more cardio. I knew there had to be another way. I had metabolic adaptation. My hormones were so messed up; I had not had a menstrual cycle for most of my life. I became willing to do something completely different.
I loved Dr. Norton’s teachings and incorporated some of Jamie’s in as well. I began the journey of reverse dieting and flexible dieting. I found it to be empowering and rewarding. I was amazed; this was how my diet used to be when I first started training. I was saddened… How had I gotten so off track?!
I was slowly able to cut my cardio in half and my food intake was almost doubled. I wasn’t gaining any weight. In fact, my body was looking more muscular than ever! My sister told me, “You look great! You look like an athlete again.” I couldn’t believe how great I felt and I was eating what I wanted as long as I hit my macros. Don’t get me wrong, I eat very well. I eat organic, whole foods all the time, but I get to give myself treats. I just calculate them in to my day. I loved this so much and it almost instantly took away the obsessiveness of my disease that has lived in my head since I was a little girl.
I feel that if you have ever had an eating disorder, struggled with your weight, or are tired of yo-yo dieting and want to live a healthy lifestyle, this is something everyone can do. It is not easy and does take time. Dr. Norton says it all the time. It’s a hard sell because we aren’t selling you a quick fix. In fact, this may take a very long time depending on where you are at in your personal situation. A quick fix may work the first time, the problem is the time after and so on. Your metabolism doesn’t recover and your fat cells increase when you stop the diet or program you are on. Most people do this over and over again causing metabolic adaptation. Your metabolism needs time to adjust, and the more time you give it, the better metabolic capacity you will retain. Most coaches today give their clients a 1200 calorie diet and 6 days a week of cardio. They are setting their clients up for disaster! As Dr. Norton says, there is no way you can eat tilapia and broccoli for the rest of your life. People will deviate. This is not a lifestyle people can maintain or sustain. Reversing your way out of this is the only way and a lot of my clients have been able to find a healthy balance and lifestyle. This is a slow process, but it is sustainable and it works! The focus is to build your metabolism to run like a blazing fire. This has changed my life and given me my life back. It is something that everyone can benefit from. If there is a gift I can give to people as a wellness consultant, this is it!
I started at 127 pounds, eating 1400 calories a day, doing cardio 6 days a week, training my muscles at least an hour a day in the gym. Years ago I would have been shredded doing that much cardio.
Today I weigh 127.4 pounds, I am eating 2000 calories a day, going to the gym 5 days a week. I do 2 cardio sessions for 22 minutes and my body fat is the same as when I started, at 17.4%. I have more energy and I feel great! I look more muscular and my measurements have decreased.
I have several clients that have had experiences with similar results.
I will give you one more example of a client of mine who is not an athlete. She came to me eating hamburgers and Taco Bell. She would maybe eat two meals a day and would constantly drink soda. She was in love with the HCG Diet and would continually loose large amounts of weight only to gain it back. She is 5’8”, 50 years old and solidly built. She started at 260 pounds eating 1000 calories a day. She was eating 100g of carbohydrates, 100g of protein and 22g of fat. She was complaining about eating too much.
Today she is 232 pounds, eating 2066 calories a day. She eats 202g of carbohydrates, 195g of protein, and 50g of fat. She is hungry all the time because her metabolism is burning. She has been with me a little over four months. Her results are with no physical activity. We will be introducing that this month. If you fuel your body properly, it is amazing what it will do.
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