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Success Stories
See how these men and women changed their bodies and minds, plus discover their nutrition and exercise tips.
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Cheryl Rasmussen: A Positive Image
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No time, no time! How many of us eager to get in better shape point to a lack of time as the primary obstacle? We’re so busy and our lives are so full, squeezing in regular workouts can seem like an appealing but impossible dream. We watch as our bodies slump and sag, feeling too harried to do much about it. It’s true that many Americans are working harder than ever, but 34-year-old Cheryl Rasmussen proves that being busy doesn’t have to mean being out of shape—and that an improved fitness level can seem to create more time.
Cheryl wasn’t always a model of fitness. She struggled with her weight and body image for years, yo-yoing between diets ever since high school. Her frustration reached a climax last year, after she had her first baby. Cheryl gained 50 pounds with pregnancy, weighing in at 200 by the time she gave birth. Half a year later, she still carried those extra pounds. Despite having a new baby, she felt weighed down emotionally and physically. "I was depressed about the way my body looked and out of breath all the time," Cheryl says. "I had this negativity hanging over my head. I was still in maternity clothes five months after giving birth. I felt I should have been happier and that I was letting my family down. I needed to do something to be healthy and to be a positive image for my child and my husband."
The "something" turned out to be the 12-week fitness and nutrition program, the Body-for-LIFE Challenge. Cheryl remembered the Body-for-LIFE book her sister had given her during one of her earlier bouts with her weight. She found the book, opened it, and decided to start the Challenge the next day. Her sister entered the contest too, each acting as motivation and encouragement for the other.
That "now or never" feeling
As a new mother and a full-time employee at Sun Microsystems, Cheryl’s days were already packed. "Some people might say that when you have a baby at home, it’s not the opportune time to start a new regimen, but I had to do it then. There’s never a perfect time to start anything. There was no way to postpone it," she says.
Cheryl invested in dumbbells and began weight lifting at home three mornings a week and running or doing 30 minutes of Tae-Bo videos on alternate mornings. To fit in her workouts and not get derailed during the day, she decided to start her day at 5 a.m., before her baby awoke. She also began preparing simple meals to bring to work, enabling her to eat six small, healthy meals a day.
In the beginning, Cheryl worked out at home because she was too embarrassed to show her body—and fledgling fitness skills—at the gym. After about four weeks, she felt comfortable and confident enough to use the gym at work. She still woke up at 5 a.m., taking the hour-and-a-half commute to the office early to lift weights before her workday began.
After six weeks, other people started noticing a difference. "They’d say how great I looked and asked me what I was doing to lose the weight. That’s when I went shopping for new gym attire and actually bought shorts and short-sleeve shirts rather than continue wearing my oversize sweats," Cheryl says.
By September 2002, 12 weeks after starting her new routine, Cheryl was down to 145, her target weight (she’s 5 feet 8 ½ inches). She had lost 23 pounds and 18 total inches, cutting her body fat to 17 percent and dropping 8 dress sizes. She was thrilled about her success and full of energy. Little did she know that there was more good news to come.
Techniques of a winner
Sticking to a new challenging routine can be difficult, even for the very self-disciplined, because you’re battling years of entrenched habits. Like others who have made dramatic lifestyle transformations, Cheryl used a variety of motivational techniques to help her stay on track.
"The main thing was that I had to plan ahead. I couldn’t just do it day by day. I’d make a lot of recipes on the weekend to last me through the week. I had the portable ready-to-drink shakes and a blender in my office," Cheryl says. "I also told everybody that I was doing this Challenge to help keep me accountable. I told co-workers, family and friends."
She also relied on a "team" of staunch supporters. Her sister, who has also committed to working out and following the nutrition plan, was a great source of motivation and encouragement. She and Cheryl shared inspiration and recipes. Cheryl’s husband, Chris, picked up the slack in other areas. If the baby woke up while she was working out, Chris took care of him. He also assumed other baby-related tasks that Cheryl had previously handled. Cheryl says that for her, having that family support was crucial.
She found additional support and ideas from books and magazines, including Energy for Women and Muscle Media. She made copies of exercises and brought them to the gym to help her use proper form. She also studied the before and after pictures of other Challenge winners. "I knew that if these people could do it, normally people with busy lives, I could too. The short-term pain was going to lead to long-term gratification in my life."
She also used her own "before" picture to push herself forward. "Since I was so thoroughly disgusted with it, I posted it next to my bed. It was the last thing I looked at before going to bed and the first thing I looked at in the morning. That kept me on track because I didn’t want to look like that. I needed to have it visual, to have it out there in front of me."
Soon her own body started resembling the "after" pictures she had been viewing. Seeing her own success soon became the greatest motivation of all.
An outer and inner transformation
After 12 weeks, Cheryl had reached her initial goal. "I was thrilled that I had met my goal, and my energy level was amazing. I was feeling really, really great," she says. She took her "after" photos, sent them into the Body-for-LIFE contest, and continued with the workouts and nutrition. "I continued living that way. From the beginning, I knew this was a lifestyle change. I wasn’t looking for a quick fix," she says.
Then, several months later, Cheryl learned that she had won the Body-for-LIFE contest for her age range. Winning, for Cheryl, was the icing on the (fat-free) cake. "I was in shock. It was such a great accomplishment for me, and it was amazing that I was recognized for something I did for myself," she says.
Though she did it for herself, her accomplishment continues to benefit others. "People can see that I’m motivated, happy and super-energetic and also that I’m very consistent when I go to work out. About a dozen people I know have entered the Challenge. Inspiring others has been one of the greatest things about this."
Today, Cheryl continues to work out and eat six healthy meals a day. Now that fitness is an ingrained part of her life, she often uses the gym during her lunch hour, rather than waking up every day at 5 a.m. Since January 2003, she’s lost another 14 pounds. But her inner transformation is even more significant. "The most rewarding thing for me was that I could transform my body and also my mind and my spirit. If you set your goals high enough and really focus on them and accomplish them, it helps increase your confidence, which translates into other areas of your life. If you want something bad enough, you can get it. You just have to make sure that you believe in it."
Cheryl’s winning workout
Monday/Friday: Lower-body and abdominal weight training
Wednesday: Upper-body weight training
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: 20 to 30 minutes cardio first thing in the morning
Sunday: Rest
Start the next week with upper-body training on Monday
The repetitions are always the same with the exercise listed below,
12, 10, 8, 6 and 12. She increases the weights for each rep, immediately doing a different exercise for the same muscle group at a lower weight for the last rep of 12.
Lower-body exercises
Quadriceps:
Squats
Leg extensions
Hamstrings:
Lying leg curls
Dumbbell lunges
Calves:
Standing heel raises with dumbbells
1 leg heel raises/toes positioned in or out for emphasis on a different area of the calf
Abs:
Oblique floor crunches
Decline crunches
(As she became more advanced, she began holding weight plates to perform the ab exercises.)
Upper-body exercises
Chest:
Dumbbell bench presses
Dumbbell flyes
Back:
One-arm dumbbell rows
Wide-grip lat pulldowns
Shoulders:
Lateral raises
Seated dumbbell presses
Biceps:
Concentration curls
Hammer curls
Triceps:
Triceps kickbacks
Cable extensions
Cardio exercises
20 to 30 minutes running or Tae-bo kickboxing video
Cheryl’s nutrition plan
Has at least 10 glasses of water daily
7:00 a.m.:
Oatmeal with one scoop protein powder, topped with slivered almonds
10:00 a.m.:
Ready-to-drink shake or nutrition bar
1:00 p.m.:
Tuna fish mixed with 1 tablespoon fat-free mayonnaise or Dijon mustard and 1 teaspoon dill pickle relish on a bed of lettuce
Seedless red grapes
3:30 p.m.:
Low-fat cottage cheese with fat-free yogurt
6:00 p.m.:
Baked or grilled chicken breast marinated in sherry wine vinegar, lemon
juice, rosemary, onion powder and garlic powder
Steamed broccoli and sweet potato
9:00 p.m.:
Vanilla nutrition shake with frozen mixed berries
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