As a young 21 year old woman, fresh out of college, I was 100% sold on the knowledge my expensive college courses gave me. I believed in and was very eager to practice what I had been taught. With my background in fitness and nutrition, I started personal training at a gym and working out consistently myself. I was expecting great results. After 6 months of working out according to the ACSM’s standards and eating according to the "Food Pyramid", I got fatter!! I didn’t understand why? Had the scholars failed me? The authority on fitness, the American College of Sports Medicine, stated that five 60 min aerobic workouts and 2 strength training workouts a week would make me fit. I may have been fitter than most, but I was tired, constantly at the gym, constantly hungry, and noticeably fatter than I was 6 months earlier! On the nutrition side of things, the food pyramid was the only diet I was taught to promote. It is still the FDA’s chosen diet because of the government’s political interest in its success. I followed this high carbohydrate, low fat diet to a tee and I told my clients and others   to do the same. I didn’t think the experts on diet and exercise could be wrong and, that they were the reason I was getting bigger. However, I did know that what I was doing wasn’t working for my own struggle with my weight!

It was a constant struggle for me to find a way to look good. I worked out harder doing an hour of cardio 6 days a week and lifting 2-3 days a week and I still got bigger!!! I thought maybe I should stop lifting all together? Maybe I had too much muscle, and it was making me look fatter? I was hungry all the time and couldn’t control my carbohydrate cravings. I was banging my head against the wall!! No one could give me good advice. I heard so many trainers and magazine articles say, "don’t lift too much or you’ll get bulky.", "Do high reps of light weight and you’ll get a lean beautiful figure", "Do a lot of cardio at least an hour and if you can do it twice a day. Do 30 minutes in the morning before you eat and again after supper so you don't have anything left in your system before you go to sleep."; "Cut the fat in your diet. Eat low fat and plenty of carbohydrates for energy". I tried all their advice, along with many diets including Slim Fast, the Zone diet, the cabbage diet, the grapefruit diet, the all veggie and fruit diet, and Atkins diet, but they were all only a temporary 5 pound fix until my will power gave out. Anything that gave results I could hardly do for a week, much less the rest of my life!

Continue