Today I’d like to share another success story (plus tips) from my 12 week fat loss programme tester group. If you’ve just stumbled across this post you can read some background over on my website and read Kat’s success story here.
Sarah is a busy 40-year-old mum who had already lost a few pounds with intermittent fasting when she started my programme. She was looking for an exercise plan that would fit easily into her life alongside caring for her two young children. Her aims were to lose more fat, improve her health and fitness and sculpt a shapely body.
Sarah says:
“In August 2012 I discovered the concept of Intermittent Fasting and was intrigued. When something catches my imagination like that I can’t help but research it to within an inch of its life – that’s when I came across Julia as she had been blogging about IF. I really had no idea what I was letting myself in for when I signed up for the programme, but one thing is sure, Julia’s energy and enthusiasm is infectious and it was definitely the major motivator for getting through the twelve weeks.”
Sarah continued with intermittent fasting under my guidance along with following the programme and was delighted with the results. She says:
“Looking back, if I am honest, I went into the programme thinking that it would be the IF that would lose me the weight and the programme would just improve my fitness. What I came to realise was that nutrition and exercise are inextricably connected and the programme got me results that I know I couldn’t have achieved by doing IF alone.”
By the end of the 12 weeks Sarah had lost 16.6 pounds in weight, her body fat had dropped from 31.7% to 28.1% and her waist was an incredible 17 centimetres narrower!
She also went from a size 14 to slim, trim 10.
Here are her Before and After photos. Just look at the lovely sculpted abs she’s starting to develop!
Sarah says these results were better than she’d dared hope:
“I’d thought I would probably drop one dress size, but not two! Being able to follow a smart schedule of workouts in the comfort of my own home, without the substantial on-going investment of joining a gym, knowing that Julia was only a message away to support me, gave me the flexibility I needed to fit exercise into my daily routine. Julia has encouraged me to aspire to a level of fitness that seemed unattainable just a few months ago.”
Sarah was new to exercising with weights, but she quickly gained confidence doing the weights sessions, which form part of the programme. Now she loves using weights so much that she bought herself a shiny chrome dumbbell set as a special pre-Christmas treat!
Sarah says:
“I could never have imagined I would be lifting weights like I have been doing, but following the programme has shown me what is possible and what an impact a good exercise regime can have on me, both mentally and physcially. It has also made me realise that I don’t have to pound the streets or do repetitive exercise for hours every day in order to get fit.”
Sarah’s Top Tips
Based on her experience of the programme Sarah’s top three fat loss tips are:
1. “If you are new to using weights try not to let your nervousness hold you back. With hindsight, I could probably have got even more out of the programme, but held myself back in the beginning by being a bit too conservative and not lifting the heaviest weights I could. I really did surprise myself by how much I was using in the work-outs by the end after I had invested in a more substantial set.”
2. “Drink plenty of water. I noticed a big difference when I managed to drink four or five pints a day It was like the water helped wash the fat away, whereas on the days I drank less my body hung on to the fat for dear life!”
3. “Don’t be afraid to exercise while fasted if you are doing IF. I frequently found my most productive workouts were when I was fasted.”
Got a question or comment for Sarah or myself? Feel free to pop it into the comments box below.
Note on Intermittent Fasting: I do not recommend intermittent fasting to everyone and it is not a standard element of my programme. However, for people like Sarah who have already found it suits them and are approaching it wisely it can be incorporated with fantastic results.
Full details on the programme will not be available publicly until the book is published in January 2014. However, I will be taking on a small group of fat loss fitness clients during January 2013 for online coaching similar to the pilot programme. Please visit my website if you’d like more details.