Starting stats:
Body Fat % = 14.50
Lean body mass = 48kg
Total body mass: 57kgs
I know that most of you reading this will start by thinking “why on earth would Justine need to set herself a goal to lose body fat”?. Well I will start by telling you that I am a normal girl who, like all of you out there, works dam hard to look the way I do. I am not genetically gifted like some and pride myself on my hard work and commitment to good nutrition to look the way I do. I am the 1st admit that I don’t have abs all year round, I do however, like to keep myself in great shape and not far off from photo shoot ready all of the time. I like to live more as a fitness ‘role’ model, someone who is passionate about overall health and well being.
Towards the end of 2011 I needed a break, mentally and physically, so I decided to have 6 weeks off over Christmas to indulge and relax. I wanted to be able to enjoy time with my family in New Zealand and just let myself BE for a change.
Was it hard- yes, but was it worth it- YES! I came into 2012 fresh and ready to tackle what I knew was going to be a very successful and exciting year. You can see by the before pic’s that I was out of my ‘usual’ fitness model shape, I still looked healthy but no where near where I needed to be for fitness shoots etc.
The 1st thing I needed to do was set myself a goal to get me back on track so I booked in for a photo shoot with the very talented Nicole Miller one day before my 32nd birthday on Sat 25th Feb. I gave myself 7 weeks to get my bod back into what I call ‘bikini body’ shape and also to be feeling awesome for my birthday.
This was so exciting for me as normally for shoots I have to look a certain way for jobs but this goal was all about ME and how I wanted my body to look.
On Monday 9th January I started my depletion diet and hypertrophy training program that was calculated by my coach Donny Henderson-Smith. He put me on a hypertrophy training program so I was lifting heavy 5 days a week, I broke up all of my muscle groups making sure I hit all of them well but also made sure that I gave them adequate rest to grow and recover.
I went on a high protein/high fat diet and was allowed one treat meal per week. The biggest changes I made were I cut out ALL alcohol, dairy, Soy lattes and sugars. I actually didn’t find the diet that hard as I already ate a lot of the foods that were prescribed to me anyway. It was more about making sure I got the right amount of macronutrients into me at the right time especially around my training, nutrient timing around training is crucial.
Donny wanted me to focus heavily on hypertrophy training so I could gain some lean mass rather than doing so much cardio. I am a group ex instructor and I love RPM and Body attack so during this time I had a break from teaching Body attack but I kept up my RPM as I couldn’t give them both up. High intensity cardio is great don’t get me wrong but in the scheme of things it can work against you when you are trying to put lean muscle on.
So here are my results 7 weeks after I started my challenge and the results speak for themselves. I am so happy to be able to share this mini goal with you all as my main aim is to show you that it isn’t easy for any of us and that we all have to work hard for it.
It takes determination, focus and commitment. You need to surround yourselves with those that only inspire and support you on your journey and kick the rest to curb because this is about YOU and your body.
Tell people about your goal so you are accountable and never for one second lose sight of that goal because the taste of success is so much sweeter than anything else you can imagine!
Stats on Sat 25th February:
Body Fat %= 6.71
Lean body mass= 52.24kg
Total body mass= 56kg
Results- Total BF lost in 7 weeks= 7.79%
Total lean muscle gained in 7 weeks = 4.2kg
If I can do it I know you can to,
you just have to WANT it and BELIEVE:)
After Pics
