21 Day Rapid Fat Loss Success

Are you skinny-fat? That is, are you a reasonable weight but when you take your clothes off you’re soft and squishy like the marshmallow man?

Meet my client Sara. This is exactly how she’d describe herself.

Here’s what she had to say:

Now, I am fully aware that I am not a “fat” person. I have never been overweight and, in fact, my goal is not to lose any weight, but just to tone up, get stronger and feel confident and healthy. I just haven’t been able to do it to my satisfaction on my own at the gym, without the help of a personal trainer . . . which I can’t afford. So, that’s where Shawna comes in. She lives in Canada, on the other side of the world, and I have never even met her and yet, thanks to the internet, she is helping me to work towards my fitness goals. I am currently doing her 21 Day Rapid Fat Loss program and it is incredible. It involves a special diet and daily workouts that I follow on video.

I was not an athletic child. When I say “not athletic” I mean that physical activity was my own personal nightmare. I hated sports of all kinds. P.E. class was a daily form of torture, in which I tried to do the bare minimum and hope the coach wouldn’t notice. I hated exertion. All I wanted to do was sit still and read books.

(not me, but just like me!)

Luckily for me I have skinny genes, so despite the lack of exercise I was never overweight. I could eat pretty much whatever I wanted and I never gained much weight. It was a pretty good deal until I hit my 30s. That’s when my pear shaped body started to reveal itself. I was still a skinny-minny on top, but down below I was carrying a wider and wider load. I didn’t weigh much more than before, but I was 100% cellulite. From being thin and frail, I had become flabby and frail.

I had started running and weight training by then, but was never really able to get into shape because as soon as I would make some progress I’d get bronchitis, be out of action for weeks and then have to start all over again from zero. I can’t tell you how frustrating that is. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired! Thanks to the help of a good friend, I discovered that I am gluten and lactose intolerant. I have been gluten and lactose free for the past two years. It has not been easy. Imagine living in Italy, the land of pizza and pasta, breakfasts of cappuccino and cream-filled crescent rolls, and not being able to touch any of it!

My interest in Female Fat Loss After 40 and Shawna Kaminski’s 21 Day Rapid Fat Loss program is twofold. For one, I want to drop the flab. And secondly, I want to be a strong and healthy person. I don’t mind being small-framed and delicate, I love my body. But I am tired of being weak and without energy.

Let me tell you about the workouts . . . they are killer! I mean, I have been working out at the gym in my own little way for the past six years, so I didn’t expect these workouts to be too hard for me. Wrong!

The thing is they are a completely different kind of workout. The focus is on doing short bursts of high intensity work, mostly using your own body weight. Shawna runs a boot camp in Canada and, let me tell you, she really knows how to run you through your paces. When you finish one of her workouts you are drenched in sweat and feeling those muscles.

In this program you have a workout to do each day. Three days a week you follow along with a video with Shawna (I feel so on a first name basis with her, what with her being in my living-room with me, sweating it out with me every day). She does the workout and you follow her . . . or try to follow her anyway.

On the other days, you follow a routine that’s explained in a written document with pictures. The first time I did one of those workouts I was afraid I would feel all alone with no Shawna encouraging me from the video screen. How would I get motivated? But, there she was, her voice anyway, on the music tracks that accompany these workouts, calling out how many sets I had done, letting me know when I was halfway there. Awesome.

What about results? Well, I’m feeling them. Only the “after” pictures and body measurements will tell the objective truth, but I am definitely feeling the results of this program.

1. My weakest body part (my shoulders) is getting stronger. At first I could barely do a handful of modified pushups . . . now I can do about two handfuls! They are still modified, but I am doing more of them.

2. My abs are becoming visible. Wow! My tummy is getting flatter and I’m beginning to notice muscle definition down there. That really tickles me.

Not quite . . . but I can dream!

3. My energy levels are much higher. Now this was totally unexpected and I am loving it. I am getting so much stuff done around the house. Unfortunately, I work a lot on the computer and these days I have to force myself to sit down and get busy. The thought of sitting down without moving kind of irritates me . . . very surprising for this avowed couch potato!

Dust bunnies beware!

A lot of the change I am experiencing is also related to the diet plan that comes with the workouts. An integral part of the program is a 21-day diet which details exactly what you should eat, morning, noon and night. And mid-morning and mid-afternoon, since two daily snacks are included.

The food is all very healthy and simple and you truly never feel hungry. It isn’t really a weight loss diet, but is specifically about FAT loss, so each day you consume anywhere between 1400-1600 calories. The idea is to consume the right calories to help you get strong, increase energy and feed the muscles you are building in the workouts. A typical day will have you eating eggs, chicken or turkey breast and perhaps some salmon. These proteins are always combined with fresh veggies and some carbohydrates.

My experience in following the diet has been somewhat like riding an emotional roller-coaster. Since weight loss has never been a goal of mine, I had never actually seen this kind of prescribed diet. The first week was exhilarating! It seemed like a fun game to check my list and see what foods were coming up next. I noticed immediate physical results. I dropped a kilo (2.2 pounds) in no time at all and become much more, how can I say this delicately . . . much more regular! The food was delicious and I was loving it. Around about the middle of Week Two I sort of realised that there was no sugar in this diet. Huh. I really started craving chocolate! I didn’t break down and eat a cake – though I know how to make some killer gluten/lactose free chocolate cakes – but I did, upon Shawna’s recommendation, eat a small square of dark chocolate. It was good, but not great, not perfect, not as rewarding as I thought it was going to be.

Each week you get one “Sweet Treat” day. This is one day in the week when you are allowed to eat a normal meal, something you would have eaten normally before going on the diet. This day serves to give you a mental break from following a rigid food plan, and is something to look forward to. It also helps keep your leptin levels high. Leptin is a hormone that helps you feel full and satisfied. Strict dieting can lower these levels, thus lowering your metabolism. Not good since this whole exercise/diet regime is aimed at kick-starting your metabolism. But, apparently one higher calorie meal is all it takes to get the leptin back up where it should be.

I feel like I am learning so much about the science of eating. Shawna says “you can not out train poor nutrition.” Before starting this diet I was trying to do just that. I thought that if I worked out at the gym, I could then eat all the sugar and fats I wanted to. This diet has really opened my eyes.
The good news is that Sara completed the 21 days and here’s her results:

Weight: lost 5 pounds
Arm: exactly the same
Chest: gained .25 inch
Waist: lost 1.75 inches
Abdomen: lost 2.25 inches
Hips: lost 1 inch
Left thigh: lost .75 inch
Right thigh: lost .75 inch

As you can see, I had change all over, but my biggest results were in the tummy area and I can really feel the difference there! I think the diet was key, but also the abs workout.

Before
After

Congrats to Sara! She’s going to move onto the 24-7 Virtual Coaching program now, so you haven’t heard the last of her. You’ll be able to follow her next journey. You can see here blog here: http://amid-the-olive-trees.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-did-it.html

If you’re interested in doing the 21 Day Rapid Fat Loss program like Sara did, you can find it here: