Whitney has a story that hits home with a lot of women. She was active all of her life, very involved with sports and never had to worry about her weight, but then once “real” life settles in, things start to change, a couple pounds of weight gain turns into a few more pounds and before you know it, you no longer recognize the reflection in the mirror.

When Whitney and I first met, she was interested in Figure competing, it was something she had thought about for a while, but just wasn’t sure where to start or how to get there. I told her that the journey would be a tough one, but that whenever she was ready to take that leap of faith I’d be happy to help her. I saw a lot of myself in Whitney, her story reminded me of my own, I remembered how it felt to feel out of control of my own body and not quite sure how to get it back to where I wanted it.

Whitney’s journey began on March 3, 2010, she weighed in at 149.6 and had body fat of 28.7%. She had chosen a show that was in July so our journey had to begin immediately to get her to 10% body fat in order to step on stage and compete! I couldn’t have asked for a more dedicated client, Whitney followed my instructions to a T, and her body started changing immediately. Every week she was leaner and leaner, we started seeing more and more muscle definition and I could see her confidence growing on a regular basis as she told me about the many compliments that she was now receiving.

On the day of her final photo shoot, which was two days prior to her competition, Whitney weighed in at 126 pounds and 10% body fat, goal achieved!! Along the way, we discovered that this girl has some  phenomenal abs!! She competed in Springfield, MO on July 17, 2010, her very first show, and walked away with not one but TWO first place finishes in two Figure Divisions!! With a taste of success under her belt, Whitney is hungry for me, I can’t see what the future has in store for her as she continues to take on the world of competition!! Congratulations Whitney, super proud of you!

Whitney Vaughn – 1st Place Figure 2010 Musclel Madness, Springfield, MO

Hear Whitney’s story, watch behind the scenes of her training and her photo shoot with David Bickley at Hitch Fit Gym!

WHITNEY’S STORY

“Diana has given me the tools for a healthier and happier life. Five months ago I was the heaviest I’d ever been and very unhappy with myself. I’ve always been an active person; I played completive sports all through high school and every intramural sport possible in college. I’ve always loved working out and somehow got off track which caused me to gain a few pounds and then a few a more.  After noticing the weight gain I kept telling myself I’d get back on track next week but the weeks turned to months.  Finally I didn’t want to look at myself in the mirror anymore and was becoming depressed, I thought back to why I used to work out all the time and what had kept me motivated in the past. I realized I was always training for something. I had played with the idea of becoming a figure competitor all through college since I was no longer involved in competitive sports, I mentioned the idea to Diana and she jumped all over it never doubting me and said she could help, which surprised me because I wasn’t in my “normal” shape.

I started with Diana in the beginning of March and by July I surpassed my “normal” good shape and reached the best shape I’ve ever been in, a kind of shape I never thought was possible. Throughout the last four months Diana has helped me with my Diet, my biggest problem, as well as my workouts. The first weeks were the most difficult and frustrating because I knew I was capable of so much more. I learned that my body wasn’t what it used to be but if I pushed it would come back. I followed Diana’s instruction said pushed through until the workouts got a little easier and my weight and body fat began to drop. Eventually I started to feel like myself again. Diana continued to push me harder than anyone has helping me pass any kind of “good” shape I had gotten myself into in the past.

Today I’m so much happier than I was in March. I hardly recognize the before picture and don’t ever want to see it again! I placed first in my first figure competition and plan on continuing to compete in the future.  My friends and family can even see that I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time, and the change has motivated then to start working out as well. My dad has lost over 30 ponds and my mom has lost over 15.  All I have left to say is thanks to Diana for helping me get the body I have always wanted!!!!”

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It’s confession time! How many of you have a secret sabotage behavior that is holding you back from reaching your fitness goals? If I had to take a guess, I would say there are a lot of hands going up right now. I say “secret” because the majority of the time we don’t do these things when other people are watching. Perhaps that is because you KNOW these behaviors are detrimental to our fitness success, or are embarrassed of the problem, or quite simply don’t want to face it and admit it. Well I think it’s high time to get these confessions out in the open so we can end the weight loss sabotage! Here are three of the MOST COMMON sabotage eating behaviors which will prevent you from achieving your weight loss goals.

Sabotage 1: The “Mindless Snacker”. These people typically snack continually throughout the day. A little taste here, a treat there, a bit of this and a nibble of that, clean up the leftovers the kids didn’t eat… all this nibbling and snacking can add up to a LOT of extra calories at the end of the day. But since you didn’t eat them seated at the table as a “meal” you didn’t count those calories into your daily total. The “Mindless Snacker” may not even consciously realize that they are eating all throughout the day. One of the best tools for making a “Mindless Snacker” more accountable is an eating journal, if you struggle with this snacking behavior write down everything that you eat throughout the day. When you can see it down on paper it’s not such a secret anymore.

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Sabotage 2: The “Evening Eater”. Now this one I know many of you can relate to. Maybe you are one of millions who succumb to boredom eating in the evenings. It’s very possible that you make healthy choices all day long, but when you are lounging on the couch unwinding in the evenings the urge to start munching gets the best of you. Many are consuming more calories during these late evening binges than you do all day. The “Evening Eater” usually isn’t hungry there is just the urge to have….something… while relaxing at the end of the day. NOT ONLY are you potentially consuming more calories than you expended throughout the day, but since your metabolism will not be as revved in the evening due to it being a less active time you won’t be able to use all of those calories for energy. So, you guessed it, they will be stored as fat. My tips for the “Evening Eater” are to eat plenty of veggies at your evening meal so that you will feel full. As soon as you finish your last meal of the day, brush your teeth or pop in a piece of sugar free gum so that you will be less tempted to eat again. Keep the foods that are your biggest temptation OUT OF THE HOUSE, if they aren’t there then you are far less likely to take a trip out to the store to get them. You’ve got to find some alternative behavior to this sabotage, so do something different instead of just having empty space and time to fill, read at night or do crossword puzzles, or get a journal and get in the habit of writing about your day including nutrition and exercise notes. If you feel that you must have something, drink some tea or flavored water, drinking low calorie or no calorie drinks such as these will help to fill you up and decrease your urge to eat more. Once you BREAK the habit of evening eating you will be able to sustain it, you have to be willing to condition yourself to do something different and recognize the fact that this  behavior is leading you to unhappiness and lack of fulfillment rather than the momentary pleasure that you are currently associating it with!

Sabotage 3: The “Starve and Stuff”. These people typically don’t eat breakfast. They don’t eat much of anything for as long as they possibly can. But then it happens, around early afternoon they are so hungry that they can’t stand it any longer. At this point their chance of making a healthy food choice is pretty much out the window. We’ve all been there before, those times when you’re so hungry you can hardly even think, so you just fill yourself with whatever you can find. Usually this leads to overeating since it takes 15-20 minutes for your body to let you know it’s full, and this little binge could result in hundreds, even thousands of calories in a very short period of time. If you eat this way, you will be on an energy roller coaster, your resting metabolism rate will decrease, your body will probably think you are starving and when you eat mass amounts of calories it will hold onto them as fat. The best thing to do to avoid sabotaging yourself in this way is to eat consistently throughout the day, starting with breakfast. It is so important to eat this first meal in order to fire up your metabolism. Eat small snacks or meals every 2-3 hours throughout the day, this will keep your energy levels high and keep your metabolism revved up all day. When you do this you won’t ever feel like you are starving and you will be less likely to stuff yourself.

If you are struggling with a secret sabotage behavior the first thing to do is recognize it! No matter how much you are exercising, if you are sabotaging your nutrition with these unhealthy eating habits you will NEVER see the results that you desire. Take charge of those secret behaviors today and stop holding yourself back from fitness success!

Hitch Fit Trainers Diana Chaloux and Micah LaCerte

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If you want to lose weight, shed fat and own the fit and healthy body you’ve always dreamed of, step #1 is to Lose the ‘Tude!

Do you snub vegetables? Do you make faces when someone tells you that they ate a healthy choice such as chicken or fish? Do you stick your nose up and say “eeeeewwwww” when someone tells you that a healthy breakfast consists of oatmeal and egg whites? If your response to the fact that you should be drinking water instead of soda is, “I hate water it has no flavor”, if you hear that sugar should be limited in a healthy diet and your response is “I would die without sugar”, if you hear that pizza and nachos are not staples of a healthy diet and your response is “Oh, you’re trying to take away all the “good” foods”…then you are severely suffering from a BAD “Food Attitude”!

I decided that this attitude towards food and healthy eating was an important topic to discuss because the comments above are ones that I hear on a consistent basis. I hear them from people who have come seeking help and guidance on how to lose fat weight and change their bodies, and also from people who are either still too scared of failure, or insecure, or not yet motivated to make positive changes to their eating habits.

When your diet consists of high fat, sugary, high sodium, laden with preservatives foods, and you make the switch to eating clean, I’m sure it is quite a shock to the palette.

If you’ve been eating crap for a while, then yes, switching to healthy foods is going to take some adjustment. Making that choice, to allow your taste buds to try something new, foods that will help you reach your fitness goals and are actually GOOD for you, is totally yours.

You can make faces, you can stick your nose up in the air, you can say “yuck”, “ew”, “gross”, all that you want, and you can stick with eating the fattening, sugar and grease loaded foods that make your mouth water, AND you can stick with the body that you have. It’s your body so you can do what you want to do with it. If you don’t want it to change, then you can insist that healthy foods are gross and you don’t like them, and you refuse to try them. The hard truth is that your body WILL NOT change if you stick with that attitude. In fact, as you get older the problems will get worse, body fat will continue to increase, clothing sizes will continue to creep higher and higher and health will decline.

What you will notice WHEN and IF you make the change is that you feel so much better. You will have more energy, you won’t feel lethargic or bloated, your skin won’t feel greasy and you will be able to change the way your body looks. You don’t really understand how bad all those foods are making you feel until you try eating clean for a while. Many people find that once they have switched they no longer want to eat the bad foods because they will get physically ill, or just feel really bloated and disgusting.

The truth is that healthy food IS delicious, and if you feed your body healthy foods it will start to crave them. There are so many options out there as far as types of foods you can eat and ways that you can flavor and spice things up. You have a lot of tasty options when it comes to healthy foods!

If you have a bad “Food Attitude”, but you say that you want to lose weight and change your body, then the first thing you need is an attitude adjustment!

To adjust your attitude, you have to ask yourself are you living to eat, or are you eating to live? If you are living to eat, and devouring whatever you deem “good” based on how much sugar and fat it is loaded with, then you have to also live with the visual and health consequences associated with making those choices. Living to eat means that you are looking at the short term instant gratification of a literally an INSTANT that it takes to put an unhealthy food in your mouth and eat it (most of this processed garbage doesn’t even require chewing any more). You are choosing THAT moment and the pleasure that it brings, and forgetting about the amount of pain that you are also choosing. The Pain of being uncomfortable in your own skin, being insecure, having failing health, not having energy, not enjoying life as much as you could, not being confident enough to date, not being able to keep up with your children or grandchildren. In the long term, that momentary pleasure doesn’t seem like it’s worth it in the long run.

On the other hand, if you eat to live then you get to enjoy a body that you love, improved health, energy, self-confidence, and so much more! The actual pleasure that you derive from making a healthy choice is impactful and long lasting and can improve your life in ALL areas, not just the physical.

Food is your fuel. There are a lot of uncontrollable situations in this world, but one thing that you DO have control over is how you choose to fuel your body. You can have your best body possible by making the right choices. What an incredible power to have! When you lose the bad “Food Attitude” and get excited about the fact that you can choose to eat foods, that DO taste good and also make your body look and feel good, then you will start to win the battle of the bulge.

ARE YOU READY TO CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE, CHANGE YOUR BODY AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE?

IF YOUR ANSWER IS YES, WE ARE READY TO HELP YOU!

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Naturally you want to share your aspirations with the people you love and care about the most. So you go to your family and friends. You are bubbling over as you tell them how excited you are to get your health and fitness on track! Then it happens. You get that skeptical look which says, “I’ll believe it when I see it”, or you hear a comment such as, “Why do you want to do that,” or “I’ve heard you say that before”. Can you picture it?

Here’s another scenario…you have started your journey, you have been eating clean, working hard and getting lean. You feel so much more confident, have so much more energy and are loving the way that you now look and feel. But strangely the people that you thought would be so happy and excited for you start making negative instead of positive comments. The guy or girl whose been your best friend for years starts making snide comments about your new eating habits. They tell you that you’ve lost enough weight, they may start developing a bad attitude towards you. Perhaps they try to pressure you into making unhealthy food choices, anything to throw you off the fit and healthy track that you are on. They just don’t “get” it….  Do you have someone like this in your life?

Isn’t it amazing how that look or negative comment can feel like someone just punched you in the gut? Your excitement begins to drain. You lose your enthusiasm and even feel embarrassment for sharing your goals or success.  Self doubt comes creeping in, “maybe they are right, maybe I have said it before, maybe it is silly to think I can change,” or you start to give in to the temptations that they are taunting you with just so you won’t feel like the outsider. STOP right there! Don’t let those doubts creep in! Don’t give in to these saboteurs. If you have experienced this type of negativity from someone close to you, someone who’s opinion matters to you… you have been a victim of Fitness Sabotage!

Why does it seem like the people closest to us try to sabotage our fitness goals? As soon as they find out you are trying to eat healthy, they taunt you with poor food choices. It feels like they want you to fail. It feels like they are intentionally trying to hurt you. So how do you deal with it?

First, realize that you are in charge of you! You are responsible for your choices and decisions when it comes to food, exercise and the habits that you want to create in your life. Even if you have been a “victim” (I use that term VERY lightly because you should never have a victim mentality, but one of being empowered to make the right choices for your body) of fitness sabotage you must recognize that this is not an excuse to abandon your fitness goals!

Second, realize that if your saboteur cares about you, they are probably not consciously and intentionally trying to bring you down. It’s likely they are oblivious that they are hurting and not helping you.  Perhaps they are afraid. If you make these changes, maybe they will have to make changes as well, or if you succeed they will have to recognize their own need to make better choices. You see, if someone is a fitness saboteur it is NOT about YOU, it’s about THEM. Without even knowing it they try to tear your success down in order to feel better about themselves. I know it’s easier said than done, but you must recognize this and do not allow their words or actions make you feel bad about yourself, your goals or your progress.

My final piece of advice is to talk to them. Let them know how important these goals are to you, and let them know you need their support. You aren’t going to judge them for the choices they make, or try to force them to change, so make sure they know that. Ask them if they will be willing to support and encourage you as you make behavioral changes which will improve the quality and quantity of your life. If they are still negative towards you, you may have some choices to make as far as if this is a person that you should still have in your life. If this person is someone who truly cares about you and loves you, then they should listen and support and not try to sabotage.

Note to Saboteurs!! If YOU are reading this and realize that YOU have been a fitness saboteur in the life of someone you care about, then PLEASE take this opportunity to turn that negative into a positive, give your support and a word or encouragement and show this person that you care!

When you make healthy choices in your life, you are not only creating a better YOU,  you are inspiring people around you whether you realize it or not. Your story, your transformation, your hard work towards success is making a positive influence on someone’s life. It may be a co-worker, it may be a friend or family member. Even those who try to sabotage you may eventually come around to making healthier choices in THEIR lives, and YOU will be the spark that gets them on the right track. Stay strong, stay motivated and go for your goals. You have everything that you need within you to achieve whatever you set your mind to, and never let anyone tell you different!

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Thanks for listening

Micah and Diana
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Many of us who strive to have 6 pack abs that seem to never get them tend to not alter one major negative out of their life, ALCOHOL. Drinking on a regular basis keeps your body in a non fat burning state while your body is flushing the toxins from your liver. This means you could literally go through up to 48 hours of not being able to burn fat. Where do you think those empty calories are being held Men and Women, YOUR STOMACH. All that hard work your putting in at the gym is going to be a waste if your not cutting the drinking out or keeping it to a minimum while times of dieting or trying to reach a goal. Are you that person that goes and works out on Saturday morning then parties Saturday night? You are wasting your time at the gym if you are going to fill your body with toxins and terrible food later that night. You cannot live both lifestyles and expect to look and feel great.

So let’s say you’re not a big fitness person or not in the middle of a transformation, this will even affect you. What you must remember is a negative always lead to other negative. When you go out and drink all night or even have just a few drinks many times after the bar/club you are hungry with nowhere to go, very few people who have drank go home and prepare a piece of chicken and 4oz of broccoli .  You end up at the closest fast food restaurant.

Let’s draw up a little scenario here to put this all in perspective. We go out one weekend night with a group of friends. This is not some wild night in Vegas of bottle after bottle we will keep it simple.
Here is a breakdown of what you are putting in your body over a 5 hour period from 10pm-3am. This would be about average, not too crazy but crazy enough in 5 hour span

4 beers – 440 calories
2 shots of tequila-140 calories
1-Jack and Coke- 220 calories
So just in liquid you have consumed 800 calories.

Now your hungry and the closest thing to your house are a McDonalds.

Quarter Pounder with Cheese- 550 calories
Medium Fries- 380 calories
Medium Soda- 200 calories
So in food you have consumed another 1130 calories

You then get home and go right to bed which means very little of that will be burned off and being you drank you know now that your body will be at a standstill for the next few days with burning fat. You wake up the next day and you are dehydrated and full of toxins. Many people go drink in the am to cure the hangover or sleeps in till noon and misses thier first 2-3 meals.
Ok so now let’s look at those calories you ate a bit closer. You ate and drank near 2000 calories; this is what you would have to do to burn those calories off for a 200lb person

Walking 3mph- 5 hours non stop
Running 7mph- 2.25 hours non stop
Swimming moderate speed- 2.5 hours
Biking 16mph- 2 hours

That’s a ton of cardio for 5 hours of FUN.
It’s only a matter of time before you start looking in the mirror and look like your having a baby and men cannot even have babies  You start feeling unhealthy, non motivated and worthless. You will start hanging out with the wrong people, your life starts losing its purpose. You start living for the moment rather then the future. This is a path I had once lived, not to this level but I was not in places or around people that were healthy for me and it really took a toll on my body and my health. The minute I cut all that stuff out my life had purpose again and I got my body to the level I wanted it. I haven’t had a drink or partied in nearly 4 years, it has been the best and most successful 4 years of my life. Negatives always lead to other negatives as positives lead to other positives. You put yourself in places and around people that are doing things with their lives; this will make you want the same.
We are talking about 1 night here but as you have experienced one night leads to an every weekend, which then leads to multiple days weekly. So is this short term excitement worth all the cardio you must do to just get yourself back to even? Here is my advice to you, if you are going through a transformation cut all drinking and party lifestyle or you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. To those of you with no fitness goals have a drink every now but every weekend drinking will catch up with you before you know it and you will start seeing yourself spiral downhill quickly?

Some key tips t gets your body in great shape and stay away from that BEER BELLY LOOK
1. Workout 3-5 days per week
2. Drink Plenty of water
3. Cut out your sugars
4. Cut of the drinking
5. Put positive people around you
6. make the best choices you can with every choice you have

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See how this 50 year old lost 40 lbs- http://hitchfit.com/micahhitchfit-com/2010/03/17/nutrition/50-year-old-mary-loses-40-lbs/

Micah LaCerte

www.hitchfit.com

Sara 33 contacted me about 4 months ago wanting to get in shape. She was living a very hectic life juggling, relationship, job and children and had put her body and health on the back burner. She started with the 12 week online hitch fit program also coming in to see me a few times per month for a butt woopn workout and to get her bodyfat checked. Her transformation was amazing to me not just cause of the visual change but because she had so much going on in her life and she made it happen. In 12 weeks she lost 15 lbs of fat, tightened up her body but most importantly became more healthy and energized. The lifestyle I taught her was not one that called for 5 hours of workout commitment per day, it was all managable and realistic with her hectic life. She had to make changes within her nutrition, her workouts became more intense, day in day out feeling the changes happening right in front of our eyes.

Read her testimonial Below
I’m 35 years old and a proud mother of twin 3 year old boys! Needless to say, my life is a bit hectic with juggling work and home life. I have always been “active” but never consistent with my workouts. Even when I did make it to the gym, I felt like I was just going through the motions most days and I knew I was not pushing myself as hard as I could. I used to see people in the gym who were really fit and think, “well they haven’t had twins, or they don’t have this or that going on in their life…” I was hiding behind those excuses because I really didn’t believe that my body could change. I am a physical therapist and work on helping people rehabilitate and exercise everyday, yet I was not practicing what I preached. I first came across Micah through a co-worker who’s son and daughter in law trained with him (Jared and Holly), and there was an article in a magazine about their transformation. I was impressed, but I couldn’t get past how motivating Micah was. I remember thinking, “this guy really cares about these people and is not in this for the money”. I hesitated at first and then had a self-reality check that it was time for no more excuses! I knew if I was going to do this, the time was now and Micah was my guy to help get me there.

I was SO nervous at my first workout. I am pretty strong mentally so I didn’t want to fail myself or Micah. I couldn’t even do 5 push-ups in a row without going to my knees. Micah never let up though….each workout got tougher and tougher…it was like he knew my potential better than I did and he wanted to see me succeed just as much as I did. I sometimes would come to a session with him, thinking “I’m doing good, this isn’t going to be so bad today”…..yea right!!! Micah pushed me so hard each session that there were days I would sit in my car afterwards not sure if I had the strength to drive my car home

Most people who have worked out with Micah say this is more than just a physical transformation, and I completely agree! When you conquer your fears and things you never thought YOU could, the energy that transcends through every facet of your life is indescribable. The bottom line, is that there is NO limitations on your goals if you truly believe you can reach them. Excuses are like armpits…everyone has them and they all stink! Stop putting yourself on the back burner and take care of you! If you don’t you will never be able to be the person who need and are intended to be for the people around you. Let this be the year you let go of the negative! I will always be grateful to Micah for pushing me to the next level and seeing my potential when no one else could. When you are ready for a major butt-kickin, call Micah…I promise you won’t regret it!

I remember her coming in and thinking everything about her has changed. Her confidence and energy was skyrocket and she was capable of some pretty super intense workouts. Day 1 she was not able to do many pushups and 12 weeks later she is doing clap pushups, pullups and dropsets with ease.. Amazing.

Sara congrats on your hard work

I wish I could help everyone like this. Its why I do what I do.

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