Take your before pictures.   I can’t count the number of women who have gotten to week 4 or 8 and really wished they had the beginning pictures to compare to.  If you really can’t bear to look at them, don’t develop the roll until you’re ready. I had my first and four week pics on the same roll so by the time I got them back I had already begun to see an improvement.  Besides, without pics you have no idea how big your butt really is.

Do not be afraid of food.  Make sure that you are eating enough for energy. Do not be afraid of good fats and to visualize the nourishment as fuel. One HUGE mistake a lot of women make is just plain old not eating enough. Y’all have been programmed that you should starve yourself to lose weight and it just simply isn’t so. But…

Stop counting.   That means calories, protein grams, carbs, fat. Just stop. The beauty of this program is that is works exactly like Bill says it does.  Portions. I’ve especially noticed that a portion listed on a label is not necessarily a portion for me.  And remember, this is not a low-carb diet. If you are doing the program correctly, you are not going to have an equal number of carbs and proteins in each meal especially if you throw in your veggies. So STOP COUNTING.

If you don’t like the shakes or bars this week, try again next week.   I dumped my first 6 myoplexes and my first 4 bars. My expectation was that they were going to be “delicious”. But delicious is a relative term and a myoplex shake is not related to a Steak ‘N Shake shake! I finally found a way to drink my myoplex that is not only palatable, but is actually yummy!  As far as the bars – what one person finds yummy, you’re going to hate. Since the challenge doesn’t require you to use EAS supplements, try them all, just try to keep the ratio’s similar.

You’re not going to be a supermodel at week 4. Unless, of course, you all ready were and you’re just doing this program for the heck of it. Yes, you should be able to see some results, maybe a small bodyfat loss, or a few inches on the tape measure, but mostly your changes the first few weeks are going to be internal – more energy, a more positive outlook, things will start to feel more firm and jiggle less – but it’s the rare person who drops a massive amount of anything the first four weeks.

Stay OFF the scale.  Fat takes up much more space than muscle, so as you lose fat and gain muscle your scale weight may just stay put. Frustrating, I’ll agree, but that’s why we don’t use the scale to measure our progress. One of the ladies on the women’s club did the whole 12 weeks and lost only 1 pound on the scale – is that the whole story? Nope. She had her body fat tested before and after and she had lost 5 lbs of fat and gained 4 lbs of muscle. Her before and after pics told the story best, less belly, toned abs, great butt! If she had relied on the scale to tell her how she was doing, she would have thought the program didn’t work.

Don’t tweak.  I get so frustrated when I see women tweaking the program before they’ve even given it a fighting chance. I’ve seen women tweak it every two weeks and then complain that the Body for LIFE program just isn’t working for them. Well, duh, because you’re not doing the Body for LIFE program – you’re doing the “I’m gonna do it my way Program” and generally that doesn’t work. The advice I give the most often on the club is “12 weeks before tweaking”.  (I didn’t tweak)

Don’t Quit.  One of my friends was thinking of quitting on week 10 because she had had a bad week the week before. I said, “Go ahead. It will just make the fact that I finished the 12 weeks more impressive.” Boy did that get her goat!! Do you want to be part of the 10% who finish or the 90% who quit?  You think you’re the only one who isn’t doing as well as you think you should? You’re not. We ALL go through it. Actually, we’ve begun to dub it the 8 weeks slump. Go make those last four weeks count!

So, that’s my advice from the trenches. I hope you find it helpful!

…raylene