Fitness Evolution - Personal Training Studio serving Denver Metro Area

My first fitness column,Wow! Seems to me the best way to start is to go “back to basics” - to talk about consistency, about staying on track with a program, and about how an average person lost 125 pounds in a little over a year.

Yes, that’s right. Not twenty-five pounds -- one hundred and twenty five pounds.

This is Debbie’s story. We at Brian Miller’s Personal Training studio are all very proud of this wonderful lady. Her before and after pictures are the highlight of our new client orientations. The pictures are so amazing; a lot of people think they must be fake. But when they meet Debbie, they know it’s all for real. When she walks through the door at the studio in Lakewood, she fills the place with energy and excitement.
I’ll start with the question everybody wants to know: how do results like this really happen? Is it the Body for Life program? Thousands of different books and videos on getting in shape? Regular sessions with a fitness coach?

Steve Adele recently wrote an article on www.nutros.com about this very subject. He told about a friend who, after years of procrastination, took on the challenge of changing his body. Steve said he believes that, in cases like this, success boils down to the 4 C’s: Clarity, Commitment, Concentration and Confidence.

Bill Phillips, likewise, wrote about nine tried and true tips for getting fit. Today, I want to concentrate on the first one - making a decision to change. This is the step that makes all of the other steps possible - the one that closes the gap between knowing and doing!

Bill says that this decision has to be about more than a simple “new year’s resolution.” It has to be a concrete, committed decision to change. Once that happens, the mind connects with the body, and the wish to reach your full potential turns into a burning desire. That’s when the changes happen.

I’ve worked with well over 200 clients, and I’ve come to believe that what people starting out need most is hope. Getting through the first five or six weeks of a hard training program is not an easy thing to do. But if you stay consistent, the results can be amazing. It’s like a dream come true. I’ve seen people who have hated exercise their whole lives. But when they “cross the abyss,” they actually start to like it. Clients have told me that they look forward to their workouts, and that they’re excited about what lies ahead in their program.

There are a lot of different programs out there today. If you don’t believe me, just go to Barnes and Noble and check out the exercise/health section. You’ll find over 100 books on how to get fit. It can all be very confusing. What Bill Phillips does with the Body for Life program is to cut through all of the confusion by setting up a simple structure. He offers a simple nutrition program, so planning meals doesn’t feel like a second job. And, most important, he offers people hope.

That’s what we try to do at Brian Miller’s Personal Training. We give people hope. And we help them with consistency, which we believe is the real key to success.
Okay, back to Debbie’s story.

On February 20th, 2001, Debbie hit rock bottom. She weighted over 250 pounds, and she felt like she was dying inside - dying both physically and mentally. She was slowly killing herself. On that morning, she woke up and said, “No more!” She committed, right then and there, to changing her life.

Debbie started out simple, by walking 20 minutes a day on a treadmill the local YMCA. She joined Weight Watchers to help her with her diet. In four weeks, she added ten more minutes to her walks. Soon after that, realizing she needed a change, she moved her walks to the neighborhood streets. Within 12 weeks, she was walking over four miles a day, and exercising for an hour and a half. At that point, Debbie started to incorporate running into her walks. By staying committed to her program, Debbie finally ran around a local lake - in 45 minutes!

Debbie kept some amazing stats in her logbook that year. She ran or walked over 1638 miles. She spent well over 250 hours at the gym. And, best of all, her pants went from size 26-28 to size 6!

After Debbie lost all of that weight, she realized she needed more muscle and tone. She contacted Brian Miller’s Personal Training Studio through a referral, and starting training with Mike Taplin.

Her beginning measurements on December 18th, 2001 were:
Weight: 161
Body fat: 30.5%
Lean mass 111.7 lbs.
Fat weight 49.2 lbs.

On May 23rd, 2002, Mike followed up with her measurements, and the results were right on schedule:
Weight 135
Body fat 14.46%
Lean mass 115.5 lbs.
Fat weight 19.5 lbs.

Today Debbie is proud, full of confidence, and very happy to be alive. I asked her to write down a short sentence that summed up her journey, and this is what she wrote:
“ I was just surviving. Now I’m living.”

Debbie says that training is not for 12 weeks, 16 weeks or 54 weeks. It’s for a lifetime. And she’s right!

That’s why I believe the only word that explains results like this is consistency!