We just had to let you know what we were able to accomplish by following and doing one of the offered workout programs in your August 2013 M&F magazine, the “Emergency Shred”. This article caught my husband’s eye and immediately he knew we had our game plan for the next 30 days prior to leaving for our wedding in Hawaii! We are both very busy individuals, Phil is in outside sales, and I own and operate a salon. We both workout regularly, running and going to the gym but had come into a slump of sorts and could not get rid of the cushion, the extra fat that came over the winter months. We had given boot camp a try for 3 months followed up with almost 2 months with a personal trainer. With a month to go we wanted an incredible beach-body for our special day and trip, so we planned to incorporate this two-week program into our schedule.
Phil’s age is 53, 6’1” and had reached a high of 186lbs over the winter but was stuck now at 178lbs and I am 47, 5’7” and 146lbs. We do not use age as a disadvantage and the Muscle & Fitness has always inspired us as we had generally just picked bits of info out of it here and there. Our summer goals were to reach: Phil- 167lbs and me- 130lbs and to gain muscle and get toned (this was our weight nearly 10 years ago).
Here is our story:
This was our first try at following a short but extremely intense program. This last March we joined a Boot-camp and took it serious. That first month we went 5-6 days a week, we were exhausted, seeing slight reduction in weight however, without really knowing what we were doing in the proper movements, we weren’t sure if we were benefiting. Where was the toning & building of muscle? By the second month, we joined a new gym, doing lots of cardio and minimal weights (trying to shed the pounds) both of us not seeing any measurable changes. In May we decided to hook up with a Personal Trainer. He took all our measurements and we spent two months of our hard earned money to train with him twice a week. Still, other than motivation and growth in proper workout form, no measurable changes.
Fast forward to mid July and Phil had found this article, it is now up to us again…”let’s do it”! A modification on diet, low carbohydrates, nothing fried, and no alcohol for the month was first on order. Next, add in a few daily supplements (as recommended in the M&F) and follow this high–intensity two-week program to the letter! Unbelievable, we were seeing the changes. NOTICEABLE in our first week even! With the changes happening before our eyes, it kept us in the momentum of the workouts, the desire to see what we could do. After our first two-week session, we could not believe what we had done, we said,” Let’s go another round!” In a month’s time Phil dropped to 165lbs and me to 132lbs. Not only did we lose weight, but we gained muscle and toned our body which was confirmed by the last sessions we saved with our trainer, mostly to get final measurements. The numbers did not lie, the scale dropped and the muscle grew! He couldn’t believe it either, we did it, on our own, pushed ourselves and we did it!
We went to Hawaii the following week in the best shape we had been in years, got married on the beach and enjoyed our success of what we had done. Now, we are even more excited to continue. Phil is a triathlete of 30 years and never looked this good, and even his buddies are commenting on his transformation, I am so inspired again that I plan on doing a fitness contest in a year. Thank you! Thank you for your articles. They are read, they are appreciated and they do work! We are enclosing the pictures of our before and after, feel free to use our letter and photo’s to inspire others! We are believers in what can be done in short periods even under a busy schedule.
