We’ve had many success stories in the past 6 years of our boot camp program. Several really stand out and Cindy is one of them.

Cindy lost an incredible amount of weight and inches in her first session of camp. I have been traveling a lot and when I came in last week, I had to do a double take. I couldn’t believe it was her. She is in her 4th session of coming to boot camp only 3 days a week and has totally transformed.

When I post these kind of results, the first thing people ask is, “What is she doing?”. No one wants to hear the real answer. They are hoping it’s some new pill or some new gadget. No, it’s hard work and healthy eating.

Even though we see these results time and time again, we still have people complaining that they can’t lose weight. These are the people who try diet after diet, sticking to it for a week or 2 and then moving on to the next great diet/pill/gadget.

I’ve asked Cindy to write about what she is doing to see such tremendous results and this is what she wrote.

In three sessions (and one week) I have lost 41 lbs. and 49 inches. This last session I lost the exact same amount lb. wise as the second session but dropped 4 inches more than I did in the second session.

Diet: I don’t really feel as if I am “dieting”. The biggest change is counting every calorie I eat and paying more attention to portion sizes. I cut out regular sodas (still need to get rid of diet sodas but trying to only drink one of those instead of 2 - baby steps!) and white carbs (bread, rice, potatoes, etc.) but other than that I am just generally eating better with a well rounded diet. I’ve never been a big sweets eater. I’m more of a chips and bread, etc. snacker. I still will have chips with a sandwich, but I eat the baked ones and only have a few. I’m averaging 1500 - 2000 calories a day. Some days I can easily get up to 2000 calories a day, other days I have a hard time getting to 1500. One of the other biggest changes is I’ve started eating breakfast which I rarely did before. I’ve also just tried to be in the mindset of getting back to eating healthier rather than “dieting”. We have date night every other week and usually go out to dinner. I go out with the mindset that I’m just going to order what I feel like. If I feel like grilled salmon and veggies, I’ll order that. If I feel like a burger and fries, I’ll order that. Doing this, I don’t think there’s been a day in the last few months that I’ve felt like I’ve been on this restrictive diet and end up binging on crap that I’m craving. But, I’ve also been a lot more mindful of portions, especially when eating out. I rarely eat more than 1/2 a meal eating out (especially if I didn’t go with the healthiest option!) I don’t know if I’m doing this the right way but it’s working better than anything has in the past and feels like it’s more maintainable in the long run.

Exercise: In addition to boot camp I try to do a Zumba class once or twice a week (Mara teaches at her school) and I do an hour on the elliptical at the gym at least 5 days a week if not 7. The elliptical at the gym is more for my mental health than physical health. I go at night when everyone’s asleep and when I would just be sitting on the couch watching tv anyway. We have an elliptical machine at home but if I’m at home and one of the kids wakes up I have to deal with it. If I’m at the gym it’s an hour a day I can just relax and watch hulu tv on my phone. I’m up to 40 minutes at level 23 (out of 25) and the next 20 minutes going down 5 levels every 5 minutes.

The boot camp difference? Two years ago I dropped 40 lbs. (then had a bad year last year with a death in the family and put it back on). I did it doing the same thing I’m doing now (eating better though with a more restrictive diet then, zumba class twice a week and elliptical at the gym almost every day) but it took 7 1/2 months to lose 40 lbs. With boot camp, I’ve been able to do the same thing (and eat more!) in less than 1/2 the time.

As a side note: I had thought about trying BCTG probably a year ago and didn’t end up doing it. I never had a weight problem before I was about 26 (the heaviest I weighed before that was 135 / 140 after college) and was always pretty active but started putting on weight after working full time at a desk job, getting married, two kids (at 9 lbs. and 10.5 lbs! LOL). I knew I could do this on my own and thought it wasn’t necessarily worth the money having a trainer when I should be able to do this on my own even if it took longer. This past February, I read your January blog and that inspired me to go ahead and try this. That was the blog that you talked about having an eating disorder when you were younger. This was never an issue for myself but for my best friend. She was diagnosed with anorexia when we were 11 and spent 6 months in inpatient treatment. A month after we turned 14, her mom and dr. decided that she needed outpatient therapy for anorexia and she decided that she couldn’t go through that again and took her own life. It’s because of this that with my 7 year old daughter I am vigilant in the fact that “diets” and “losing weight” are not discussed in our house. When it comes up I talk about how we are eating better so that mommy (and everyone) can be healthy and I am doing boot camp in order to get fit and healthier, not skinny.


So, what’s your excuse?