One topic that has come up time and time again amongst my group of friends is weight loss.   This is what I hear time and time again:

“I am working out so hard and regularly, but I can’t seem to lose any weight” or some variation of that.

The truth of the matter is exercise is only 20% of the total equation. Nutrition and Diet is the other 80%.   I think you need to really realize those facts when you head into a fitness program looking for results. Many trainers are not necessarily well-rounded. They may kick ass in the gym, but not so knowledgeable in nutrition. You have to really understand what you want. If you are joining a fitness program to lose weight, make sure your coach/trainer incorporates that into the program. Putting up average weight and body fat %s of men/women without any explanation isn’t going to make a dent on the scale.  Your trainer should take pictures, measurements and body fat %s as the baseline when you start, and use those as a guide.  If you want just a hard/challenging workout and want to handle the diet/nutrition stuff yourself, then there are trainers for that as well. Can you hear me say – there’s an app for that? and there are a ton of apps for handling the nutritional side of healthy living. Just know the 80/20 equation. I have personal proof of how true that equation is.

I have a whole new life, a new outlook on life, and have had so many new experiences because of this path I have taken.  I am a new person, and this new me thinks it’s time to share my progress pictures.  The old me would never have shared these, but I have nothing but pride at how hard I have worked so what’s to lose?? I also turned 39 on Feb 5th.  It’s my last year in my 30’s – so no time like now!!

I know many of you want to see them but I also think it clearly shows an example of how diet plays the bigger part in getting healthy.

May 2009 – I had been working out with the boot camp for almost a year, and July it was 13 months, and although I had lost some weight and was faithfully eating salad every day for lunch, clearly it was not the same as when I started to get really serious about diet, gave up Diet Coke for good, and just generally started to pay more attention to nutrition.

These pictures are not retouched or anything…And anyone that knows me real well – I’m pretty shy about body pictures, so this is a big step for me, so I hope it helps inspire you some more!