day 5...the social support shield

i had a really interesting exchange with one of my roommates the other day. she wanted to know why there was a newspaper taped up on the wall and when i told her that i was starting my second transformation contest she gave me a strange look and said in a defensive tone that she thought i might be going overboard. she voiced her concerns that people get too obsessed with losing weight and that i didn't know when to stop. being that i feel like i currently have the healthiest relationship with food and exercise that i've ever had in my life, i found her concerns to be somewhat ridiculous. i mean, honestly, by looking at my before and afters it's pretty obvious that i am improving my health. but if you decide to start making major changes in your life, even if they're for the better, don't be surprised if the people around you suddenly become resistant to or resentful of your improvement. sad but true, there is this strange phenomenon that seems to occur when you begin to make positive changes in your life...there you are feeling great about your progress and all of your hard work and then you get sideswiped by negative or less than supportive comments from people in your everyday life. this is where, once again, i really have to reiterate the importance of a strong social support network. my roommate's opinion on my decision to continue my transformation might have seriously discouraged me in the past. but, this time i had two major things working in my favor. number one, i got really clear in my mind about what it is i'm working towards and why before i ever began. having a clear reason why helps me to feel confident in my decisions despite any external resistance i might encounter. in addition, since i've read about so many other people on the ttmembers.com forum having similar experiences, and i've got such a great group of people backing my up efforts there, it barely phased me. no matter what it is you're trying to achieve, you'll greatly improve your chances of success by connecting with people who are at the very least supportive of your efforts or ideally working towards a similar goal.

breakthrough challenge!

please take note of the shiny new logo on my blog. i have joined forces with a group of other tt-ers who are also planning to join the next turbulence training transformation challenge. we plan on becoming an unstoppable fat loss force and our super mini-group will be providing added accountability and social support along the way in the form of back-patting or butt-kicking, depending on what's appropriate. there's already been a total buzz building among breakthrough challengers as we anxiously await the start date and we have been helping each other along in terms of getting prepared, deciding when to start and what programs to use, etc. i know that i will need all the support i can get as this time around i'm going to be attacking "that last bit of fat" which is infamously harder to shed than what i disposed of in the last challenge. i, like several other breakthrough challengers, am leaning towards giving the 6 month bodyweight program a go during this challenge. will be refining my plan of attack in the weeks ahead, so more details to come...

a tribute to social support

probably one of the biggest differences in my current body transformation effort and all the ones that came before is that this time i incorporated two fundamental aspects of the fat loss puzzle that i had always underestimated before: social support and accountability. i'm a pretty driven and independent persona and in all my past fat loss efforts, i had always tried to do it completely on my own. i think this is a very common trap for people because in many ways it's a bit embarrassing to admit that "i'm trying to lose weight." but if you just come out and make that statement to the people in your life, it will seriously increase your chances of success, especially if you can share your goals with people you know will be supportive. one of the problems i always ran into in the past was that, since i hadn't openly admitted that i was trying to lose weight, it was always easier for to cheat on my nutrition plan or skip a workout than it was to explain why i wasn't eating or drinking xyz or why i couldn't party until 5am. and it's soooo much easier to let yourself off the hook if you are the only one who knows what you are trying to do. but if you tell the people in your life your intentions beforehand, you have a pretty powerful reason to stay on track and you might just find a whole new source of support to boot. for example, it was definitely a little weird for me to admit to my roommates that i was embarking on a fat loss journey and that i planed to reach 15% body fat and do everything it took to get me there. but doing this all of a sudden made me accountable to the people with whom i share a fridge and i was actually surprised by how encouraging they were. it made my life so much easier because they knew what i was doing and so i could just be honest about my reasons for not wanting to eat dessert or for why i couldn't go out and party all night. it also allowed me to increase my personal accountability in little ways by doing things like putting a "15% by april 14th" sign on the fridge, something i never would have done if i hadn't let my roommates in on the action. but unless the people around you are working to make similar changes, sometimes just telling the people in your life isn't enough. to really take advantage of the awesome power of social support, you need to find a group of like-minded people who would like to make similar changes and are likely to face similar challenges along the way. i was able to find this amazing group of people at the ttmembers.com forum. these were people who were using the same workouts as i was, who were facing the trials and tribulations of trying to eat clean in our junk-food and temptation filled world, and who were committed to figuring out a way to have all that come together and make it work. the amazing thing about being a part of a group like this is that you have access to such a diversity of experiences and information that when you need an answer to a question you have one, you can learn from others' triumphs as well as their mistakes, when you are rocking out there are people there to cheer you on, when you stumble there are people there to kick your butt back into gear, not to mention that it's incredibly motivating to keep yourself on track when there are so many other people out there that are losing fat and inches week after week. as i mentioned before i always thought that i could do it on my own, but i think that creating added accountability and finally finding social support were truly pivotal in making my current effort a success. i think it's hard to simply explain how powerful the social support aspect can be...you really do just have to experience it for yourself.

five keys to fat loss success

i had tried so many times in the past to lose weight and always ended up failing miserably. what was different this time? well, this time i finally managed to integrate all five of the following components of fat loss success.

1) get really clear on what you want. sit down and write out a description of your dream body, the actions that you can take to get that body, and specific date that you plan to achieve it by. never underestimate the power of having clear and specific goals and a definite time-frame for their achievement.

2) find a social support network and create accountability. this was always a missing piece of the fat loss puzzle for me in my past attempts at weight loss. the ttmembers.com forum was my support group and the transformation contest helped to keep me accountable.

3) find a nutrition plan that works for you. nutrition is a HUGE part of the fat loss puzzle. it's commonly said that "you can't out-train a bad diet." there are tons of different nutrition plans that you can follow to lose weight. a good place to start is concentrating as much as possible on eating real foods...ie foods that don't come in a can, jar, or box (ex: fruits, veggies, meat/fish/eggs, whole grains). another great step is working to eliminate refined sugars. i also incorporated brad pilon's eat stop eat into my nutritional arsenal and found it to be a very effective fat loss tool.

4) find a strength training plan that works for you. for me this is turbulence training. there are lots of good programs out there though...the important thing is to start lifting weights!

5) incorporate interval training. this has been shown time and time again to give you more bang for your fat loss buck and is an integral part of the turbulence training system.

i will be going into more detail about each of the above points in the days that follow, but this is a good primer for fat loss success.