In last day’s post, Catherine Gordon the winner of the 2nd TT Transformation Contest referenced a video I made where I demonstrated that you can’t out train a bad diet. The key to your fat loss success is in the exercise.

Over the past few weeks, Catherine touched on the five pillars to her success. As we come to the end of our series, Catherine infectious attitude continues to inspire us which accounts for so many things.

So let’s read on.

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Craig:  I don’t have any scientific data, but I really believe that people will get more results if they love the activity they are doing and that’s why people sometimes don’t get the results with cardiovascular exercise even though they burn a lot of calories, they despise it and the body just hangs onto the fat.

Catherine: Yes, I think you are absolutely right. There’s some quantum thing going on there.  It’s that “calories in calories out” sort of mystery.
However, ultimately as we wind down and wrap up the eating is so important, so you do have to find the ways.  Look at the things you really have to have in your life and things that you need to do in order to stay with your nutrition.
So much of this is dealing with things like “cravings” and “plateaus.” I have to say that I use to do the Eat- Stop – Eat method, but not that much. In the last year, I’ve maybe fasted about 10 times.

Craig: Did it help with your cravings? You did that on regular days, right?

Catherine: Yes, that’s what it did. I’ve only done it on 10 different occasions; it does seem to shut the cravings off. It’s weird; it seems to shut them down allowing you to get back in control.

I have to say that some fasts were easier than others. Some days were like, “This isn’t so hard.” And some days were more difficult. Some people take to it like a fish to water. I think I’m kind of in the middle. I like it and it works, but I don’t fast every week out of the year.

So, in order to succeed you have to figure out how you can get to a place where you’re eating well. That’s ultimately is going to be an individual decision; you’ve got to find your way. Don’t quit, just stick with it and keep doing the workouts.

Craig: Absolutely. The last question I have for you. Your photos are pretty much famous, because they’re just such great photos. What are some practical tips that you can give here to help people maximize their efforts?

Catherine: I am so glad you asked me that. If I could have help to pose Carla she would have won the contest. Bless her heart if she is reading this. I love you, Carla.

One things that I’m seeing a lot is the a bodybuilding pose where you stand straight on, and you throw your arms way back, and you suck in your gut. I don’t think it’s that pretty.

Liz talked about a way you can stand where you have one foot back and one foot forward, just the way I always stand, and that there’s a certain relaxation. You’ve got your shoulders back, and your stomach in, but you’re not in that bodybuilders pose.  You have to ALLOW A CERTAIN GRACEFULNESS to remain in the picture.  The other thing is your smile is so important.

Craig: That’s what I was going to ask you about.

Catherine: Your attitude in the picture.

Craig: Your enthusiasm shines through so much in those photos. Maybe it’s because you’ve done a little more singing and dancing than some of the other people who are a little more camera shy, but the smile really does make the photos and brings it to life.

Catherine: It’s the happiness in it, yes. Also, let me give some practical tips. You’ve got to light that picture. If that means that you’ve got to bring lamps in and take the shades off or something. One of the big things that I see is that there isn’t enough light. You’ve got to get some light in there, not so much to have it so harsh that you’re throwing shadows.

Actually, one of my winning pictures was done outdoors. The key to that is you’ve got all that wonderful AMBIENT LIGHT, but I was under an overhang so there are no harsh shadows. You can’t have a good photograph without light, so you’ve got to make sure that it gets lit.

The other thing is that if you’re doing the photograph indoors take the stuff off the wall behind you. What we did is we put up a big piece of, silk we tacked that up behind me and I stood on it.

I suppose you could use a big piece of fabric or a big sheet. I don’t know if I would go with white, like stark white might not be a good idea. Go ahead, pin something up behind you and stand on it so that YOUR’RE THE FOCAL POINT, making sure there isn’t something behind your head. I think that’s really important.

If your transformation is fantastic you’re going to win no matter how you stand. If your transformation really isn’t that impressive you could stand on your head because it isn’t going to make a difference. Oh, I can ask you a question!

Craig: Sure.

Catherine: How do you pick the finalists? Does it just jump out at you, is it obvious? Is it really easy or is it hard?

Craig: No. It literally tears me up inside. It’s one of the hardest things. It’s certainly a great problem to have. When I did the first one I didn’t know if I was going to get one person even doing this, but it’s exceeded my expectations more than anything else in the world.

It is really tough, because I know personally how much work has gone into each one of these transformations. Fortunately, I’m assured by everyone when I speak with them after that just the journey itself is winning enough for most people.

Catherine: Yes.

Craig: That always makes me feel a little less guilty, but it’s really hard. I would say that there are always at least twice as many people that I’d like to pick than I do pick. I’ve just found that in order to be fair to the final contestants it’s really important to have as few people as possible in that final voting, because if you spread it out too much then it doesn’t become a real good selection process.

So, it’s hard, but we cut down to as few people as possible and then allow for that voting to be very significant. But, I guess it’s not any mathematical equation for picking, we take a look at all aspects of it. The essay certainly is an important part to me as well. I’m not going to say it’s an important part in the final voting, I think people really are voting on the pictures, but when I’m picking the finalists the essay certainly does play a major role.

Catherine: I’m glad I asked you that question, because I think there are a lot of people who want to know. I’m really glad to hear that the essay is important and that the journey is important.

Just one more question on that. It isn’t just you picking them, you’ve got colleagues that you respect, I know that I’ve read that in the rules, they’re helping you out as well?

Craig: Yes. It’s the majority me, but I certainly run it by Brad Pilon and Holly Rigsby. I say, “Hey, can you take a look at all these ones?” Or, “Can you help me decide between these last couple?”

Catherine: It’s nice that you have a gal in there too.

Craig: I use them to take some of the pressure off me, because like I said, it’s just such a difficult task because everyone does such a great job. I just want to say thank you to everybody for doing such a great job and I want to say thank you to you for sharing these tips.

Most importantly we want to do this call for people that are trying it out for the first time and to show them what is possible and to show them what to expect and to show them some of the secrets of a champion. So, thank you so much, Catherine.

Catherine: It’s been a great pleasure.

Craig: This is Craig Ballantyne from TurbulenceTraining.com and TransformationContest.com with Catherine Gordon, the winner of our second contest. Hopefully that has really opened up your eyes to the potential that you have.

If you get those five pillars that Catherine talked about, the nutrition, the exercise, the goal setting, don’t skip over that, the mindset, and the social support and you really will succeed and truly change your body and change your life.

I look forward to hearing about your results at TransformationContest.com.

Yesterday, TT Transformation Contest winner, Catherine Gordon emphasized the importance of breaking plateaus in your training. So if you missed it, then head back to read up on How to Avoid Sabotaging Your Transformation.

Today, Catherine continues to share with us the keys to her success.  As the winner of the 2nd TT Transformation Contest, Catherine knows it isn’t about short-term changes. As you read on you’ll see that your continued long term success is about committing to a lifestyle that focuses on both healthy eating and  training.

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Craig: When you switched over to Turbulence Training it was also I guess you would say a 180 from the way you were exercising before?

Catherine: Yes, it was. I remember being annoyed with you at the elliptical machine. I was literally annoyed at the idea that I was going to have to get on a treadmill or run up a hill. I’m not kidding.

Then I finally got over my stubbornness, and I said, “All right, I’ll get back on the treadmill.” What I realized is that if you’re not constantly in this low level of discomfort for an hour on the treadmill, if you’re doing intervals the treadmill is fun, it’s not horrible. If you’re doing intervals hills can be fun.

However, I really loved that elliptical machine, and that is why I was annoyed with you. I was reading posts from you saying, “This really isn’t the most effective.” I’m like, “Oh, stop it.” So, I think sometimes there are areas where you have to GIVE UP your stubbornness and that’s one thing that I would love to say to the beginners.

If you want to find the key to your success maybe look at your faults.  There could be a success in the things you are resisting. This might be a pretty good thing to leave people with.

Craig: Absolutely.

Catherine: Look into the stuff that you don’t want to do and try it.

Craig: Yes, the mindset stuff is so important. Is there anything that we haven’t covered? We covered the visualization, the goal setting, how important that stuff is, how important it is to do some self-reflection, how to prepare yourself for your success and not let sabotage come in.

Wow, you’ve done a really good job. You’ve got a different way of looking at the mindset stuff than even I have, I hadn’t even thought of a couple of those things. Is there anything we’re missing out here?

The program can be written as good as can be and the diet can be, you can even prepare all the food and do all the shopping, but if you don’t have the mindset things aren’t going to be as great as they have been for some of our winners. So, anything else you want to add there?

Catherine: You’ve done those funny videos where you can’t out train your bad diet, but I think that the key is in the exercise.  I know a lot of people would argue with me about this let me tell you why it’s in the workouts.

The workouts, that you’re doing in the workout spills over into your life. Exercise cuts depression, we know that. There’s a study that came out that said exercise is as good as the drugs, maybe even better. So, what’s happening is if you do the workouts it will spill over into the rest of your life.

In other words, by doing the workouts you’re going to be able to stick to your nutrition better, because you’re going to pump up your endorphins, your hormonal balance is going to be better, so even though you can’t out train a bad diet, you’re training allows you to STICK to a good diet.

Why is it that the people who don’t regain the weight are usually the people who keep exercising?

This is why. So, although I think it’s wonderful of you and very humble of you to say, “It’s really 80 % nutrition.” Certainly there are many programs that succeed that are based on nutrition, I’m thinking of the ones that celebrities are doing, those are nutrition based programs.

If you look at who is succeeding five and ten years down the road it’s the exercises. I don’t know if that’s the only thing we haven’t covered, but ultimately you find a diet that works, but it’s got to satisfy you and you’ve got to be able to stick to it. I believe with the right kind of workouts, like interval training, really getting the body going. This helps you stick to the nutrition.

Craig: Yes. Like you said, it’s a domino effect of the benefits and everything from that and also what we talked about earlier before, having some of that playful activity come back into your lifestyle. So, those are some of the most important things to help.

One of my last questions was going to be how do people make these changes stick in their life beyond a 12 week transformation program, and being consistent with the exercises is obviously one of the big ones then.

Catherine: You’ve got to find a way to MAKE IT FUN; you’ve got to FIND A WAY TO LOVE IT

You really do. I practically love doing these workouts.

The other thing is I love the “in between activities.” I’m doing yoga three times a week, whenever I can, and I love doing that. That’s the thing; you’ve got to find the love. It’s that, what is it, Nike? Do you have the love? That’s it.

If you can find a way to love it, start out with finding a way to like it, then it’s yours and you’ll own it and you’ll keep doing it. But, I do think that is the key to keeping it in your life and keeping fitness in your life.

Then the other thing that you’ve got to connect it to, I think I wrote this to Robin when she won, I think I wrote to her, “That is a fabulous body. Now, what are you going to do with it?” I think she went out and she bought a belly dancing costume.

It’s funny, but the thing is if you can find a way to CONNECT fitness to the purpose of your life somehow then that’s when you’re really going to own it and that’s when it’s going to be yours for the rest of your life. So, once again, it’s connecting what you’re doing here in the contest to the way you want to live the rest of your life.

It’s wonderful. It’s wonderful what it does for your relationships, it’s wonderful what it does for your relationship with yourself, and it’s changed my life. I’m doing so many things this year I’m like, “Oh my goodness, is that me? Am I really going to do that?” Its like, “Yes, I am.” It’s being willing to let it change your life.

Craig: Yes. You’re such a great representation of everything that you mentioned there and everything that we’ve been trying to help people achieve. Going back to what I said before about I love seeing people doing things that they may have given up for 10 years, because they thought they were too busy, too tired, too whatever to do them. I really like that.

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Okay, we’ll be back again tomorrow with part 9 where Catherine’s shares with us some activity on her day’s off that she really love to do.

Want to see some other successful TT Transformations? Check them out here….

=> TransformationContest.com

Hey folks…if you’ve been away from the blog for a bit, then you’ve found a great time to jump back in. Over the past week I’ve been sharing with readers the success story of TT’s 2nd ever Transformation Contest winner, Catherine Gordon.

Last day, Catherine shared her thoughts on the under-appreciated, yet highly valuable social support system. Not only did Catherine have a strong group surrounding her during her own transformation, but she has also been a huge contributor in the TT forums, providing countless motivational tips and inspirational advice to her fellow TTers.

Today Catherine and I discuss one factor that can quickly derail someone’s transformation – plateaus! As Catherine mentions, they’re unavoidable, but she outlines a few strategies for busting through them and continuing on in your fat loss journey.

Let’s check it out….

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Craig: Let’s talk about what you mentioned before, the plateaus, and especially some guiding advice that you would give to somebody, particularly if they were closer to the end of the contest when things are a little tougher. What words do you have to keep them motivated and inspired to keep on pushing?

Catherine: From the very beginning going into the contest, you may not have plateaus – that’s fabulous. However, as you go into this you may need to say…

“Plateaus may happen. What am I going to do?”

PLAN AHEAD for plateaus because those are the areas that lead to dropping out of the contests for some people. They work so hard and then hit a plateau, and get fed up and that’s when they then start to eat.

I don’t think everyone plateaus the same, it’s more individualistic. With some, they tend to eat up for a couple of days to crank their metabolism again, while some people not so much. For others, it may be because their diet has gotten slippery, and they are eating too many almonds and too much cheese or their portions are getting bigger – their diet creeps.

These are the things that I notice when my diet gets funny. Very often that’s what’s happening when I find I plateau.

The other thing you can do is find some activity after dinner by adding a little movement, a little more physical activity. I think you have to be really careful with TT because so many people rush to add more cardio and I really think that’s a mistake. However, I do think being active after dinner can help in plateaus.
I don’t know if you agree, but it really seems that plateaus are more a mental thing than anything. Have you noticed that?

Craig: I’ve found that what you mentioned about the diet creep, or call it whatever, seems to be one of the biggest things. People get on a roll and then if they don’t know as much about how many calories are in certain foods as they should then it just slowly starts to come back in, and it could be even self-sabotage what you mentioned before from what we were talking about.

Catherine: Yes.

Craig: Some people are even scared of achieving such great results. So, that’s where I think a lot of the plateau aspect comes. I think you made a great point about just adding a little pleasurable activity, it doesn’t have to be activity that is structured exercise in terms of getting on a cardio machine or something that you dislike.

You certainly don’t want to think about it in terms of punishment, you want to think about it in terms of lifestyle changes that we really enjoy. Have dinner, get out and have a walk or something and enjoy stuff there. I really like that point that you added in there.

Catherine: When you hit a plateau, I think the first thing to check is how much water you’re taking in, because a lot of times people aren’t drinking as much water as they need to. Then the other one, I’ll say it again, is that sense of diet creep.

There are some people I know on the forums that are very honest and are keeping those calories where they should be. There are times when it’s just a mystery. When that happens you need patience and perseverance. I know patience and perseverance, and they’re not very sexy, but you really need them.

Craig: That’s true.

Catherine: If you’re going to do a contest or a transformation or not, you have to realize that it’s very likely there are going to be these times, and you have to be prepared for using your patience and your perseverance.  Sometime you have to say, “I’m going to do whatever it takes to get my ideal body.”

What I’ve also told people, is to just trust the program. So many times you’ll see people hit a plateau and they instantly want to go out and add an extra three hours of cardio a week. I’m like, “No! Just trust the program.” Eventually the train will start moving again and the fat will start dropping.

The other thing that happens very often is you change your body ratio. You’ve added muscle and you’ve lost fat so you really need that tape measure. That’s when you need that pair of jeans to try on.

Craig: Yes. I’ll say to that, sometimes people make the mistake of not being as consistent as you were. You said you’re going to the same person every time to take those measurements.

That is so IMPORTANT that people are consistent with how they measure things, especially when you get started, If you’re a beginner and you’ve never really kept track of your weight on the scale that frequently, you will notice that there are some days where things can be very wild, five and ten pounds shifts in fluid depending on food eaten.

So, people have to understand that those things are going to happen.

The last thing I’ll say about this is that one of our members, I think it was Edenstar, I think that’s her name, she made a great graph of her weight loss, and it was like looking at a mountain range because it was this general decline over time, but there was not a straight line. It was down and then up a little, then down more and up a little.

You’re certainly taking two steps forward and only one step back, but sometimes you will, and you lose five, gain one and a half, lose five, gain one, lose three, gain a half. It’s slowly turning on down, and you don’t draw a straight line. It’s not every day you lose 0.5 pounds.

So, something to keep in mind is that there’s going to be VARIATIONS.

Some people can weigh themselves every day and won’t be too upset by it, but other people maybe it’s just best to go with a weekly weigh in and focus on the measurements with the tape around the waist and that type of stuff.

There are a whole bunch of ways to do it, obviously with experience you’re going to find the way for you. Certainly, you did.

Maybe you could answer this question. How long did it take before you really got into a groove in the program, was it a week, two weeks, even three weeks?

Catherine: I would say four; you have to remember that I had the program before I started my first transformation contest. I’m not saying that this is typical, but because of the way that I was using the program that is how long it took me.

Also, it took that long for me to realize that I had to have all the aspects of the program in place….

I HAD TO HAVE the workouts, the nutrition, the goals, the support, the mindset, it all had to be happening at once.

Just for me personally, a busy mom, and all the things that were going on, I think — oh my gosh, I was choreographing West Side Story, and I was in Steel Magnolias, so I was under a great deal of pressure. It wasn’t until both of those shows opened and closed and were done that I was really able to focus.

So, because my focus was so scattered it took like four weeks. If you are a little better at focusing in on it then it probably wouldn’t take you as long. So, yes, it does take some time.

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Okay, we’ll be back again tomorrow with part 8 where Catherine’s shares here experience with adding enjoyable activity into her weight loss plan.

Want to see some other successful TT Transformations? Check them out here….

=> TransformationContest.com

Over the past few days, the winner of the second ever TT Transformation Contest, Catherine Gordon, has been sharing her body transformation story with us. And whether you’re a newbie to the training scene or you’re a seasoned pro when it comes to resistance training, Catherine has undoubtedly shared some fat loss nuggets you’ll want to check out.

Here’s par t 5 from the inspiration herself.

Now for today, getting down to 22% body fat has been a challenge for the former winner, but Catherine has managed to figure out what works best for her body while harnessing the power of self-discipline. Read on to learn some great tips to help you get started on your own body transformation story.

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Craig: Why don’t you talk about your ultimate training environment that helps you have so much fun and that keeps you sticking to it?

Catherine: I like the gym, I really do. Even when people in the gym bug me, which sometimes they do. For example, the people who move slow. I am like, “Please, just move faster.”

I am not one of those who wear makeup to the gym or anything like that, but I am celebrating this new body….

…I love it, I love being in it, and so I like to take it to the gym and working it out.

My schedule is where my weekday workouts are at the gym, and my Saturday workout was at home. I do love working out at home, but I don’t work out nearly as hard. I guess this says that I’m a presentation exerciser, well, so be it. However, I do find that if I am in the gym, I work a little harder, and my form a bit better.

I don’t know, it’s almost as if you feel like you’re representing something.

Craig: I personally am the exact same way as you. I like going to the gym, and I definitely have better workouts at the gym. Mostly, because when I work out at home I’ve got my dog jumping on me, so that’s one of the things that stops me from having a great home  workout, but I really like going to the gym too.

I think you’re kind of right that you’re out there. Basically, when I’m training at the gym, I’ve got kids beside me. I’m trying to represent and show that I can keep up with the kids.

Catherine: Yes, that’s true and I’m sure you can. Remember, I’m 45 and I’m amazed at what I’m capable of at this age. Of course, we have Ma, who is 74 doing well. She is such an inspiration to me, and that’s one of the things that keep me doing my workouts and eating right.

I’m thinking to myself, “I’m going to be on this planet if all goes well. If I can do it at 45, I could very easily be on this planet another 40 years, maybe another 50 years.”

Craig: Yes.

Catherine: I want to take the feeling that I have right now into the future and make it better and keep it as long as I can. So, I think that’s another thing that can help you in those moments of weakness.

At some point, I don’t know where we are, we do need to talk about plateaus before we finish. I think that’s one of the big issues that we see even with Turbulence Training.

Craig: Absolutely. We’ll get there but I think a couple of things you covered in the last answer are really important to touch on.

First, what were the things you did to track your progress and to keep you going? Was it putting the measuring tape around your waist or was it looking in the mirror and taking photos, could it have been performance only, or was it stepping on the scale?

Second, you must have been approached by people your age and even those younger than you who were inspired by what you’ve done. So, why don’t you tell us how great that feels to inspire other people and how it has motivated you as well?

Catherine: Let’s start with gauging progress. Of course, I did the pictures for the contest. One thing slightly unique with me is that I’ve had an item of clothing, and it was a pair of jeans for both Turbulence Training contests, and that is really huge for me to have that, because I tend to carry most of my excess weight below my waist.

To have a pair of jeans that you can’t fit into, and to see you get closer and closer to zipping them or even buttoning the bottom button is really amazing.

Actually, I need to get them back out. I have a pair of jeans, button fly 501’s from my senior year in high school, and I’m in them again.

Craig: Oh, wow.

Catherine: Yes, it’s really amazing. I do weigh myself during the contests, and sometimes I’m weighing myself every day. I try to keep it to once a week, because I feel that’s a better gauge, and it’s almost like, “You get to weigh yourself this week, yay,” rather than every day. However, I admit a lot of times I weigh every day.

I love the measuring tape. It is my friend because it TELLS THE TRUTH a lot better than the scale does. The other thing that tells the truth, and I post this to other people, is that hips don’t lie. If you’ve got that pair of pants that keeps fitting better and better, then you know you’re making progress.

So, those would be the things. I absolutely measure myself. I also have the trainer at the gym measure my body fat with calipers, I think every four weeks. I’ll tell you one thing. The body fat measurements that we’re getting at the gym are definitely higher,  then I would have expected, and they’re also higher than some of the stuff that you find on the internet where you measure your waist, your hips, height and weight.

I want to say she’s doing at least five sites, and let me tell you, when she’s pinching the back of my biceps it hurts.

Craig: Yes, you want to have much back there.

Catherine: I’m getting so lean in my upper body, but then she goes to the iliac crest, whatever that is, and it’s like, “oh yeah, there it is.” So, yes I’m having the same person measure me every time.

Craig: Very good.

Catherine: So, when you see those drops in my body fat those are brutally honest. I think for this contest, I got down to 22%; I think I may have been a little lower than that. I don’t know, maybe it’s right.

Ultimately, I want to be at 115 and 20 percent. I don’t want to go much lower than that, because at my age what happens to be is your face starts to look little older when you get really super lean.

Craig: Yes, it does.

Catherine: So, I think about 20 is lean enough for me. What was the second half of the question?

Craig: It was about being an inspiration to people at the gym.

Catherine: Oh, that’s because I have to brag on myself. Yes, it’s fun. I do have people asking me some that are younger, some older, and some literally cornering me with a notebook and saying, “Okay. What did you do? Tell me exactly what you did?” I’m like, “Okay. I’ll tell you what I did.”

I always tell them that the workouts are a BIG thing…

…The bodyweight exercises, and yes, sometimes there’s weights along with resistance training and you pair that up with interval training. Then you add good nutrition along with the right mindset and support.

I’ll tell you one other thing that is there will be a different kind of attention from men than women.

Ladies will need to come to terms with this. The place that you deal with that is when you’re visualizing your ideas, and you really have to come to grips with, “How will I handle this? Am I afraid of it? Does it concern me?” You really have to deal with that.

I think for women out there who want to transform, take a look at Carla and at Emily and the change that happened with Robin, some of these women are just becoming incredibly beautiful.

They need to approach that with a sense of fun and a sense of humor and I think that also helps you to keep from sabotaging yourself.

Craig: I think a lot of women really, especially in the essay contests that we have on the blog, people are really talking about it and guys too, and they’re talking about their significant other almost all the time. It really is a deep emotional reason for so many people to get started here.

It’s something that they want to do for their spouse. A lot of times the spouse really doesn’t care, they love them, one way or the other, but certainly that is something that is in their minds, and it’s really good that you did touch on that.

Catherine: It’s a wonderful thing, it’s a wonderful gift that you give yourself and it’s also a gift that you give the people who really love you. When you get to the point that you’re becoming the best that you can be it really has great things attached to it.

However, it can be very difficult. So many of us, I do it myself, there’s a tendency where you get to a certain height, and you start to achieve things, and it gets a little scary, and you can sometimes sabotage yourself, whether it’s with Doritos or chocolate cake or whatever it happens to be.

You’re entering uncharted territory sometimes, and it can be scary. That’s another thing that the forums are great for. I’m here to tell you it’s fun, go ahead change, you’ll love it.

Craig: Absolutely.

Catherine: It’s turbulence, it shakes up the plane, but it doesn’t take it down.

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Join us tomorrow for part 7 where Catherine discusses more workout plateaus and the importance of staying consistent with your programs.

And finally, here are more TT transformation success stories for you to check out…

=> TransformationContest.com

We’re back with the winner of the 2nd TT Transformation Contest, Catherine Gordon. We learned in part 4 one of the keys to Catherine’s success was having a solid support circle around her.

It may seem pretty insignificant, but you’ll understand just how important that social support is the next time someone either pressures you to have a bite of  cake or makes you feel badly  for eating a healthy salad at lunch.

Okay, so we know losing weight is not just about how you handle the good days, but it’s also about how you manage the bad days.  In today’s interview excerpt with fat loss inspiration, Catherine Gordon, you’ll find out exactly how she fought through her plateaus to enjoy her best body yet!

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Craig: Now, there’s one other thing that you said, one really good line. You said you will have bad days and you mentioned that you have had bad days even when you won the contest.

Catherine: Yes.

Craig: Robin mentioned that as well. Even when she lost 34 pounds in 12 weeks there were days when you get a little off track. I think that’s a big message for people to understand that everyone gets off track and even the winners don’t go 84 days in a row without making a mistake or rewarding themselves.

Catherine: Absolutely.

Craig: The thing that you followed up with is that you have a BELIEF IN YOURSELF. If you believe in yourself  then you get back on track and then realize that there’s eight weeks left, six weeks left, four weeks left, and you can still do amazing things in whatever time is left.

It’s really such a small part of the equation of 84 days if you have one bad meal or even one bad day.

Catherine: That’s very, very true, Craig. I actually remember it was early on in the first contest,  it was around the time of my husband’s birthday there was this huge amazing chocolate cake in the house and oh dear, I think I ate chocolate cake three nights in a row.

Three nights in a row is kind of hard to come back from, but I did. You want to know what the secret was for me?

Craig: I’d love to know.

Catherine: Well, if you look at the three contests that I did, the first contest I won, the second contest I stayed with it, but I really didn’t get past the plateau, and then third contest I got down below that plateau to 123 lbs

The big difference between the first, the second and the third contest was in both the first contest and and the third, honestly, I NEVER missed a workout. I don’t want to frighten people off and say never miss a workout. That’s not what I’m saying…

…You probably can miss a workout and still win. I think that’s one of the things that even when I wasn’t eating right I always did the workouts.

I think one of the mistakes that I see people make sometimes, and I don’t know if you’ll agree with this, is that they’re trying to hit every workout so hard. Now, I understand and I agree with the philosophy of continuous improvement with every workout where you’re trying to improve making it a little bit better.

But, what has worked for me is that on days that I wasn’t feeling as strong, I gave myself permission not to work so hard.

I think the biggest piece of advice I would give people going into the contests is that on the days that you really don’t feel that you’ve got as much to give, don’t give as much, dial it back. Drop the weights way down if you need to.

There may be days when you’re doing squats or something, normally holding  two 20 pound barbells, I’d drop down to 10 or even five lbs. I think that’s one of the mistakes I see more of the guys doing than the girls. Sometimes I think they’re trying to push every workout too hard.

If you would just say to yourself, “Self, if I haven’t got as much today I’m just going to really take it a lot easier and then came back stronger in two days,” when you pick up the next workout.

Craig: That’s a really good tip there and I totally agree…

…I think that people will have a much longer shelf life in terms of them being in this contest and them extending their results and making these changes stick over the course of their life if they take into account that some days they’re going to be a little off on nutrition, some days they’re going to be a little off in training and to dial it back.

That’s a REALLY good point.

Catherine: Then come on strong later. I think another thing that has been very effective for me is to improve, and of course the reason I did so well is that I did improve. I’m looking at my biceps right now and I’m like, “Wow! Look at that.” and triceps and everything.

So, in order to improve you do have to FIND YOUR EDGE, but I’ve always felt that when you find that edge you don’t push it, you don’t break through it, you play with it. That means when you get into that pushup position and you’re doing those really good pushups and then you kind of play with it. You’re like, “Can I get one more perfect pushup out of this?”

You don’t say, “I’ve got to do 20 more.” It’s a sense that you play with that edge and keep moving it, but you don’t have to push it too hard.  For example, doing intervals on the treadmill, I’m constantly going, “Let’s see if I can push it up a little bit higher.” If it’s a problem it’s like, “Oops, no. That was too much.” Because it keeps it fun.

Craig: Sure.

Catherine: The only workouts during these challenges that weren’t fun for me were ones when I stayed up a little bit too late and overindulged the night before. Those are the only ones I didn’t enjoy, but the rest of them I pretty much have enjoyed every Turbulence Training workout that I’ve done.

Craig: That’s so good to hear.

Catherine: Music is really important for that too.

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So, just to recap…If you want to ensure you keep progressing, be sure to dial it back when you’re not feeling at your best. But when you’re ready to push your body to the limits, find your edge and push it gently.

Transformation winner Catherine Gordon figured out what works for her body while harnessing the power of self-discipline. Jump to part 6 to learn great measurement tips.

In the meantime, check out some of the other TT winner success stories here:

=> TransformationContest.com