8 Answers to Help You Achieve Amazing Fat Loss Results
Angela Moyer was unhappy with her life and how she looked. Belowis an interview I had the honor of conducting with Angela. Readher amazing story.1. Angela, what was it that finally motivated you to get inthe gym and start eating properly? C...
...orrect me if I'm wrong, butif you are like most people, you had been unhappy with how youlook for some time. If this is accurate, how long were you unhappy before youdecided to take action? What do you think kept you from takingaction all that time?After being diagnosed with toximia and advanced gestationaldiebetes, I spent the duration of my pregnancy on mandatorybedrest. I gained 90 lbs and delivered at 240 lbs. My husbandwas away serving in the middle east. I battled with postpartum depression teamed with lonliness anddisgust for my appearance. I longed intensely to return to thebody I had when my husband and I were first married and I wantedto build that body before he returned home.2. How did you get started with your new liftestyle? In otherwords, what changes did you make, or planning did you do, togive yourself the best chance at success?I was a size 18 with a goal of size 9 and I had given myselfthree months to meet it. I joined a local gym and signed up formy first Body for Life challenge. I planned my workouts and entered each one into my newly createdworkout log book. I noted each improvement I made no matter howsmall. I took photos of myself regularly and taped them to thecover of the book as a motivational tool. I made significant changes to my diet. I excluded fast foods andregular sodas as well as ate more protien and lesscarbohydrates. I stopped allowing myself to go hungry by eatingmeal replacement bars between meals. If I wasn't so hungry whenit came time to eat I ate less at the actual meal. I madeworking out six days a week a mandatory step toward reaching mygoal. I did resistance training four days a week and cardio two.In three months I reached my goal of 150lbs, wearing size 9pants!3. What problems did you have to overcome in order to stay ontrack with your new fitness program? Some of the popular excusesI've heard from people I've trained include "not enoughtime"(both for exercising and eating right), "eating healthy istoo expensive", "don't see results fast enough", "weights willmake me big and bulky", "have trouble sticking with an exerciseroutine". What were the obstacles you had to overcome?Some of the obstacles I encountered along the way were: Where doI go from here? Now that I've reached my goal, what's next? Howdo I maintain the same level of commitment when my husbandreturns home? How do I maintain a clean diet for myself andstill prepare meals that my husband (who wasn't dieting) wouldalso enjoy?4. How did you overcome those problems? What specifictechniques did you use to make your dreams a reality?Upon his return my husband was very proud of my achievement. Hewas very supportive and encouraging. Fortunately, this made iteasier to overcome what I once thought to be obstacles. Hebrought with him lots of wonderful foreign chocolates and beers,which I had to enjoy in moderation but other than that, healthymeal planning was not as difficult as I imagined it to be. I just changed the ways I prepared the food we normally ate. Ibroiled, grilled, and baked meats instead of frying them. I used virgin olive oil and spices to season in place of butter.I also switched from canned to frozen vegetables to controlportion sizes so that we wouldn't be encouraged to eat the leftover amounts of prepared food just because it was there. I continued to set goals for myself and completed a secondchallenge, finishing at 127lbs wearing size 1 pants. Balancingschedules with my husband, I managed to make it to the gym atleast 4 days a week if not the 6 that I wanted. I allowed myself breaks from my routine spanning anywhere from 3days to 2 weeks to enjoy time as a family, but kept the stayingpower to return to the gym when my break was up. The most significant advancement I made along the way wasencouraging and convincing my husbant to join me. It was anadvancement for me because I found it to be very motivatingworking with him and my weights lifted have increasedtremendously with him there. We are currently working on what is my third challenge and hisfirst. We are now competing as a couple! Instead of leaving himat home every day, he joined the gym and we now go together sixdays a week! Teaming up with my husband has made yet another oneof my dreams come true. I have finally found a balance between the two main thingscompeting for my time, the two things I love the most, workingout and spending time with my family. The two hours I spend atthe gym, my husband and I now enjoy that time together, and whenwe are finished we take the kids to the park on the way home.Uniting the family through fitness has been a dream come true inand of itself.5. Moving forward and knowing what you know now, what wouldyou have done differently?Knowing what I know now about fitness and the way the bodyresponds to the things you eat and do, I wouldn't have allowedmyself to get to the point I was durning and in between mypregnancies. I see now that a lot of my health issues were aresult of my own unhealthy living and could have been avoided ifI just applied myself earlier.6. What would you have done the same way, and will continueto do, going forward?If I had to do it all over again I would continue to hit eachworkout with the same burning desire to change and the samecommitment to intensity. I would especially have included myhusband. Doing it over I would have included him sooner. There are so many positive changes popping up in our life as aresult of including the family in fitness. I will continue tokeep that part of my life open to my husband and children asthey grow older. It certainly benefits us all.7. Do you feel that ongoing feedback and motivational toolswould help in maintaining a fitness program?I feel ongoing feedback and motivational tools are a criticalpart of maintaining a fitness program. If you're not much of apeople person journals and pictures can give the feedback neededto keep going. I used the timer on my camera and took most of my picturesmyself. Pictures can be very inspiring because they are theclosest honest description we can get of what others see of us.I found that mirrors don't quite capture a person the way that apicture does. Another great source of inspirational feedback is to team upwith someone. Allow yourself to be pushed by them and them byyou. A support system is very motivational. If you can, bring it intothe family. A fit parent is setting an excellent example forchildren and pushing yourself that hard next to your spouce willintroduce to them a new respect for you. It can also open up the lines of communication and trust alittle more as well. Working out with your partner candefinitely bring you closer.8. If you were to advise a close friend or family member hotto follow in your fitness footsteps, what would you tellthem?If I was to advise someone of how to follow in my fitnessfootsteps I would tell them to above all stay in touch with howthey truly feel about themselves and their desire to grow andimprove. Hit every workout like it is the only thing they have to do, theonly thing standing in the way of them and their dreams, becausein reality it is. I would tell them not to sell themselves short by setting a goalof what they think they can achieve. They need to cling to theiractual dream because they have no idea yet just how much theyCAN achieve. And please give the same level of commitment toexcellence that they would to perhaps a best friend or theirjob, to themselves. Be that committed to yourself, and give yourself enough time tosee the results. Don't give up! After you see those results butare not quite to your goal yet, don't settle. Don't give up. And once you reach that goal, to keep those results, don't giveup. I tell people all the time that they don't have to be whothey have become, they can become who they want to be. If youare not happy with who you are, become someone else, it's thateasy. And above all else, don't give up!Thanks, Angela and congratulations on your success. Check outAngela's before and after pictures below.Please, don't just read the interviews like Angela. Think aboutthem. Angela, and other success stories have invaluableinformation that you can use to become a success story yourself.She is not different than you and her success can be yours.To paraphrase a wonderful blurb in her interview, "You don'thave to be who you've become, you can become who you want tobe."Please go to Angela's Success Story to see Angela's amazing before and afterpictures.
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