These are the photos from my first week of my photo shoot prep. As you can see, I had some great Week 1 changes!
One of the SKFitGurls commented about how quickly my body responds to training and nutrition and it gave me an idea to share my “trainer’s perspective” with you all:
My body responds so well because of a few different reasons:
1.) I carry a lot of muscle. Through consistently weight training (3-4 days per week typically), I am building/maintaining that muscle.
2.) I feed my body. A regular lack of nutrition (think constant dieting) will not only decrease your muscle mass but it will also slow your metabolism.
3.) I don’t do much cardio on a regular basis… typically 1-2 days of HIIT and what I call “Doggie Cardio” from walking my dog a couple miles per day.
4.) When I want to make a change, I become somewhat scientific. Not SUPER scientific but I like to have an idea of what I am doing and the results I am getting which all of the current members of the SKFitLife Challenge and SKFitGurls are seeing in the photos and the training/food logs. If I get tooooo scientific, I get burned out and just say eff it.
Thank you all for letting me share this with you. I think seeing this is super helpful because it is hard to really explain all of the different things that factor in…
With that being said, I would like to share what I see as a trainer.
There are typically 4 types of clients that come to me…
1.) Someone who works out but doesn’t eat clean.
2.) Someone who eats clean but doesn’t workout.
3.) Someone who doesn’t eat clean OR workout (typically has body fat to lose).
4.) Someone who works out like crazy AND diets quite strictly (may or may not have much body fat to lose but definitely looking for a change).
Of course there is everything in between but those are the major 4.
#1 & #2 are pretty straight forward and usually see results at about the same rate (the person who changes to eating clean will be a little quicker/more dramatic but basically the same).
You can read Alexa’s story here where she shares how she thought she could “out train her bad diet”.
#3 will see the MOST DRAMATIC RESULTS because they are changing THE 2 BIGGEST FACTORS. They also give me, as the trainer, room to work… changing their eating habits to clean fuel while also restricting their calories (which is what portions do… I just REALLY REALLY REALLY dislike counting calories and find it more maddening than anything). Clearly introducing physical activity is new to their bodies too and their bodies love it and respond well.
#4’s… BY FAR MY MOST CHALLENGING CLIENTS as far as physical changes go (this does not mean impossible, just be patient with yourself). This is because someone who is already working out a ton (and let’s face it… the majority of this time is spent doing steady cardio) has programmed their body to stay where it is because they keep giving it the same thing they have been giving it.. more of the same thing will get the same results.
And, if you are trying to gain sexy muscles, all of that cardio will burn it right back off… the nutrients don’t even have a chance to build new muscle because they are being used to fuel the next cardio session.
The second piece is that someone who has been dieting (also known as overdieted) can’t go any lower on their nutrition… someone who has been eating 1200 calories is already at survival level so to take any more away is pointless. It will just make you even more exhausted.
As you can see from my photos and from my typical training and nutrition, my body is primed to make a change.
If you fall into the #4 category, have faith… through increasing your weight training, 
decreasing your cardio, and feeding your body the right amount and the right nutrition, you can also make an incredible transformation.
You can read Lesley’s story here. She shares what her old training schedule looked like and how DECREASING her CARDIO helped her to make the changes she had always wanted.
All clients have their own struggles along the way that are not mentioned here such as consistency, the extent to which they have to change their lifestyles, etc., but this example hopefully gives you some insight into why it is important to fuel your bodies, weight train consistently, and to be patient if/when you are not progressing at the rate at which you would like.
