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

Yesterday, the second ever TT Transformation Contest winner shared with us one very valuable tip for losing weight. So if you missed it, then head back to read up on her her fat loss food pyramid.

In today’s interview excerpt with fat loss inspiration, Catherine Gordon, we learn not only about the type of social support she had in place, but also a couple of really insightful tips I know will help you in reaching a complete transformation.

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Craig: Let’s switch gears again and talk about setting up social support and how you went about doing that and how it’s important for other people to do that as well.

Catherine: Have you noticed that there seems to be a correlation between how much you support other people and how well you do?

Craig: Absolutely.

Catherine: It’s very clear to me. The biggest surprise to me about being in the contest and writing posts and what I posted is that what I wrote to others and the time I spent thinking about what they were dealing with and what they were going through was actually more helpful than putting in my own posts and putting in, “I did workout B today and I ate 1400 calories.”

The very fascinating thing to me is that I actually GOT MORE OUT OF seeing what other people were going through. I wasn’t even one of the most prolific posters, we had some champion posters who were fast typer’s and they can bang it out.

I really think that there is a connection between how much support you give and how well you do.

Even more than just how well you keep track and keep records. So, obviously, that’s social support, it totally is. It’s really kind of counterintuitive when you think about it. Here’s a contest, this is a contest, and yet everybody on it is rooting for everybody else. It’s wonderful.

So, the social support, I think, is the key. If you look at the biggest weight loss program in the United States, their thing that they do differently, it isn’t really points, its social support and that’s one of the reasons why it works. That’s one of the reasons why this works.

Craig: What about finding social support outside of the forums? I know you had good social support at home.

Catherine: I do.

Craig: Tell us a little bit about that.

Catherine: My guys, my husband and my son, were so proud of me and they were so behind me. My husband, I think I told you, he was doing Vince’s program. He’s one of the guys who had been skinny all of his life and then all of a sudden he turned 50 and YIKES!…

…But, he managed to lose it.

The great thing about them is I could modify the meals that I would make for everybody. Any of the moms out there, this is what I did. I would make us dinner and then I would ADD starch to THEIR dinner. You see what I’m saying?

I would make everybody the same dinner, and they loved it, I’m a pretty good cook, but I would add for them. They’d get a baked potato or extra beans, extra rice, or something sweet afterwards. It worked beautifully. You can definitely do this as a mom cooking for your family.

Oh gosh, the other thing was don’t eat off of your kid’s plate. Oh lord, whatever you do don’t eat off of your kid’s plate. That’s off limits.

As far as social support goes, they were wonderful. I also had the kind of reaction that you’re trying to get away from with the situation of the gal asking if I was Colin’s mother or his grandmother and then the week before there had been a guy who said to me at the grocery store, “You don’t get the senior discount, do you?” I was like, “No, I don’t get the senior discount.” I was 44 at the time, not 55.

So, sometimes the social stuff works both ways. It’s what you’re trying to get away from too. But, this is really interesting, Craig. The beauty of the forums is, I don’t know, it’s different. You will find that if you’re going to run up into negative reactions to how much time you’re putting into your new lifestyle, you’re going to find that you may find that in your circle, you may find that that’s happening.

There are people who really don’t want to hear it and so people who are trying to transform may find that they have to be selective about those people that they’re going to talk about what they’re doing with. Sometimes people don’t want to hear it, because they don’t want to feel like they need to change themselves.

That’s once again why the social support on the internet is so crucial because so many of us are not getting it at home AND we’re not getting it at work either….

…This is where the doughnuts and the candy are, very often it’s at work.

Craig: Running off of that, let’s talk about how if you can’t get the social support from some people around you in real life, we’ll say, and you’ve got it on the forum, what about the motivation and inspiration?

The internal inspiration that you had going into this and then what you see in others, because you’ve got a finger on the pulse of the forums. You really understand what other people are going through and you’ve seen people succeed and there are commonalities between them….

…So, what do you have there in terms of internal motivation and inspiration?

Catherine: Well, once again it seems to me the thing that really stands out is the people who have succeeded and are succeeding have the DESIRE, they know what they want, and they believe they can get it and they NEVER STOP BELIEVING.

Everyone has BAD DAYS where they eat things they really didn’t intend to eat or maybe they didn’t plan a meal so they ended up having something. But, as long as you believe you can do it and you have that goal you just keep coming back to the program.

Another mental thing and I’m not sure how much I’m seeing this on the member’s forum or how much I’m seeing this in myself, but I harp on it in the forums….

…That is visualize, visualize, visualize.

You’ve got to take time and it’s a huge pleasure for me to take that time every day to just close your eyes and daydream about your ideal body.

It’s like a gift I give myself every day is that time that I spend. It’s not vain and it’s not selfish, because I want that body for lots of different reasons. I want it for me, for my family, for my relationship with my husband, for my relationship out in the community, for the things I do in the community, because I’m back getting in the public eye again.

So, it’s finding the reason behind the reason that you want to transform your body and then it’s just taking some time. I don’t know if it has to be every day, but I find it helpful to just connect with why you’re doing this and why it’s so important to you.

Craig: That’s just so powerful, what you just said there. If people only listen to one minute of the call and they listen to that, which would really help them. Sorry to interrupt there, I’ll let you keep going.

Catherine: Not at all. It’s really funny, I think I was on last night and I actually said something like that in a tip. You do need to take that time.

I’ll tell you where else it connects. One of the big problems is you go into an exercise and nutrition program and if I look at the way I ate and I look at the way I enjoyed chardonnay, 5:00 every afternoon that was my signal to have a glass of wine.

Because I essentially am a stay at home mom I do different artistic projects during the year, so that means sometimes I’m working and sometimes I’m not, but every day at 5:00 I’m in the house and it was that glass of wine that was signaling, “Your workday is over.” Then I’d make dinner and everything, but it was that time to relax.

What you’ve got to find if you’re using food for pleasure is you’ve got to find SUBSTITUTIONS.

The thing is that visualization, especially if you want to literally go for it and go into meditation, or if you want to listen to guided imagery tapes and those kinds of things, they’re a pleasure to me so they can replace the food or the noshing or the drinking.

In my opinion, you’ve got to find replacements for some of the pleasure that you got from food and they’ve got to be really fun things. Many times people suggest, “Take a walk.” Take a walk.  I’ve already worked out. It might be to read Star Magazine, or it might be to read a trashy novel, or it could be going back to things you liked when you were a kid.

I’ve started to draw again….I sit down and draw butterflies. I know it sounds silly.

Craig: Sorry to interrupt you, but that might be one of my favorite things that have come out of the transformation is to hear people like you and then there was another girl, Amy on there, who did the same thing.

So many people are talking about returning to stuff they did in their teens, early 20s, and that’s all part and parcel of this because we’re cutting down on that workout time and we’ve freed up some time for people. We’re encouraging them to be active and we’re encouraging them to do other stuff besides sit, eat, and watch TV.

Not that there’s anything wrong with doing that once in awhile, but we’re looking for, like you said, substitutions for the eating, which is generally one of the things that has gotten many people into the situation.

I think you were going to say something else about it, but that’s a really, really important thing to understand….

…It’s NOT JUST a transformation of the body, it truly is a transformation of the mind and life. I really liked what you were saying there.

Catherine: I like what you’re saying too. Very often it is something physical, people are getting back their bike riding and they’re running 5k’s.

For example, for me I’m jumping rope again. Oh my gosh, jump rope. When I first started using a jump rope in some of my intervals at home it was awful. I’d maybe skip 10 times and fall over my feet. I could remember back when I was a kid and you couldn’t stop me at jumping rope, doing the double dutch where you jump in and all that stuff. I’m like, “Where did that go?”

The thing is now, I was just jumping rope the other day, and I’m not doing 500 in a row like I think Robin is, but I’m up over 100 and I’m feeling like Rocky and it’s wonderful. Again, this is something that I was good at as a child and I’m getting that back. So, I totally agree that it can open physical activities that you had given up too.

Craig: To be honest with you, I’m pretty much a kid at heart, so I like to see other people not being so grown up and not being so structured and stuck to their workouts and the machines. I just think everyone feels so much better when they get into that.

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That’s it for this excerpt, but we’ll be back again tomorrow with more great fat loss advice from Catherine’s winning transformation interview.

In the meantime, if you want to see other TT winner success stories, then check out:

=> TransformationContest.com