ChaLEAN Extreme Before and After

I've been working out since 1996. I originally lost my weight in high school, 1987, but didn't go about it the right way since the information was not readily available back then about fitness and exercise and nutrition, so I was left with a lot of loose skin around my hips and thighs. As I'm getting older, it's become harder and harder to stay in the shape that I want to be in. I'm a former cardio addict who has found when you get in your late 30s, cardio alone isn't gonna cut it anymore. I was thin but lacking the definition in my lower body that I wanted. So I added strength training to my regimen a few years ago and every DVD I bought and every women's fitness article I read focused on light weights and heavy reps. I didn't wanna bulk up like a body builder, just wanted my legs to show that I work out as hard as I do!

After a few years of killing myself with lighter weights, heavy fast reps that used momentum, I was completely frustrated because I was getting NOWHERE! I also had been pretty sickly the past couple of years, getting sick once per month and exhausted all the time even though I ate relatively well and continued to work out. Some days I was working out 2 hrs per day!!

Add to it that I cracked my rib in December 2011 from one of my monthly sinus infections that had a nagging tickle cough that didn't stop for THREE straight days so I couldn't work out at all through the month of January and modified cardio only 3 days per week in February. I came across ChaLEAN Extreme and Shakeology through a Facebook friend and figured maybe for the first time in my life I would actually follow an entire FITNESS PROGRAM rather than individual DVDs where I chose what I wanted to do and left the rest behind. ChaLEAN Extreme focuses on slow, heavy reps with failure between 8 and 12 reps, depending on the phase. I followed the ENTIRE program, including pushups, which I used to hate and am growing to like, and loosely following the nutrition guide by adapting the general ideas into my own life.

My starting weight was 137 (I'm 5'7") and my ending weight is around the same at 136. My goal was NOT to lose weight but to replace my body fat with muscle and rev my metabolism by adding muscle. I'm turning 40 in a few weeks and am preparing for the slowing metabolism and impending muscle loss that comes with aging. I have more energy, my IBS symptoms are MARKEDLY improved and I haven't gotten sinus infection since March, about a month after starting Shakeology and right around the time I started ChaLEAN. I feel better, I look better and am hopefully ready to start P90X next week!

Here's some pics of my progress...proof that Muscle really does Burn Fat!!