Tag Archives: Orange County

Last week I completed my nine week Afterburn Nutritional Coaching at The 12 in Irvine. In spite of the fact that I spent the final weekend of my challenge on a girls weekend in Chicago – vacation binging – I am happy with the results.

After the weekend of indulging, I was a little nervous about my final weigh in. Luckily, I had done enough well over the nine-week period that I could overcome some deep dish pizzas, Chicago dogs, and cold beer. By the way, totally worth it.

At the conclusion of nine weeks of Afterburn Nutritional Counseling, I am happy to report that I have lost 10.8 pounds of fat. I am even more excited that I gained 1.1 pounds of muscle. Muscle gain is not easy for me to do at this advanced age. 😉

Reluctantly, I share a before and after photo. It’s okay, my kids don’t read this blog. Here is my mama-belly, before and after –

My weight is fairly evenly distributed, so it’s not a dramatic change in the photo. I did reduce my body fat percentage by 28%, from 24.7% to 17.7%, which is a pretty significant improvement. An improvement that allows me to fit into all my clothes again – no Spanx required.

Far more important than the reflection in the mirror or the number on the scale though, is how I feel – healthy, strong and happy. I celebrated a birthday during the nine-week program, and took time to reflect and appreciate this step I have taken to improve my long-term health and wellness.

There may not be anything I can do about the growing number of candles on my cake, the gray hairs on my head, or the wrinkles on my face, but what I can control is what I feed my body and how much I move. My goal for this life is to be healthy and strong enough to participate in the activities I enjoy – hiking, running, and generally just keeping up with my teenagers. I hope to enjoy these activities for many years to come. I want more moments like this – my sixteen mile hike to the top of Santiago Peak.

Thanks to the Afterburn Nutrition program, I achieved this goal, and am looking forward to tackling more in the future.

The Afterburn Nutrition program gets results. I’m not speaking just for me. I have seen it time and time again – for every client who truly commits to the program. These are some of the reasons why I believe it works so well:

Personalized nutritional counseling and education – The 12’s team of Certified Nutritionists customize the program for each and every client. Their extensive experience helping a broad range of men and women, means that they have the training and in-depth knowledge to help each individual client achieve his or her goals. They understand the connection between macronutrients and the human body, but that everyone is ultimately an experiment of one. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. It was very much customized to my body type, activity level and fitness goals. The 12’s Coaches also juggle work, family, and fitness themselves, and understand how to help clients achieve balance. Plus, they are a pretty photogenic group.

Daily food logging and accountability – The process of logging everything you eat and having that log reviewed by your coach provides immediate and sustained accountability. I can’t tell you how many times I thought “I really don’t want to log this food and I really, really don’t want my coach to see that I ate that.” Just that thought alone prevented me from eating (and drinking) things that would not have helped me achieve my goals.

Eating frequently and focusing on macronutrients – I detailed my diet extensively in this post, so I won’t get into many specifics, but eating frequently (5-6 meals per day), with  balanced macronutrients revs up your metabolism and staves off hunger. I never felt hungry on this plan. What was really exciting for me, is that I could actually feel my body becoming more efficient. I imagined it becoming a fat-burning machine, and in reality, it was.

Limiting alcohol – Right after “what are you eating?”, the biggest question people asked me during the nine weeks is “how are you doing without wine?” In truth, I didn’t have zero alcohol for the entire nine weeks of the program. I was very good for about six weeks, then reintroduced wine to my diet during the last few weeks. For me, this was more realistic. I know that I will not forgo wine forever, so learning how to balance it during the last few weeks was important for my long-term success.

A couple of notes on alcohol. First, if you want to achieve your best results, eliminating alcohol is key – not forever, but for some extended period of time. If you just do this one thing (and keep everything else constant), you will make improvements in your health. Second, when I eliminated alcohol entirely from my diet, my sleep improved dramatically. As a person who suffers from insomnia somewhat regularly, a good solid night of sleep is one of the most coveted things in my life. When I eliminated sugar, processed foods and alcohol from my diet, my sleep improved significantly. I have been sleeping well for nine weeks, and I can’t even tell you what a difference that makes in my life. It’s a nutritional challenge miracle!

Exercising regularly – While participating in the program, I exercised 4-5 days per week. I detailed more about my exercise regimen in this post. While regular exercise maximized my results, it was not significantly more what I was doing before I started the nine-week plan. Exercise keeps you healthy and strong (both physically and mentally) but if you are looking for fat loss, it really, really, really boils down to nutrition. I can not emphasize this point enough.

A coach in your corner – Having my coach, Cyrus Mokhtari, in my corner was invaluable. I learned so much about nutrition in our weekly meetings – about optimizing pre and post workout meals, balancing macros, best sources of proteins, fats and carbohydrates – the list goes on and on. What I loved most about working with Cyrus is that he is understanding and supportive. He cheered me on when I had success, and didn’t criticize or make me feel bad when I made mistakes. He is on his own journey to achieving his best version himself, so he understands the struggle. He can relate to his clients, and his clients to him. This made me feel like I was part of a team – working together to achieve maximum results.

With good nutrition, regular exercise, and great coaching, I am feeling better than ever heading into summer. Now, my goal is to not get too far off course by all the summer barbecues, vacations and parties – to find the balance between enjoyment of food and discipline in my nutrition. I know it will be an ongoing journey, but now that I’ve completed the Afterburn Nutrition program, I feel armed with the knowledge I need to make the right choices and maintain my results.

If you are interested in discussing how an individual nutrition program can help you achieve balance – physically, mentally and emotionally, I encourage you to contact Cyrus Mokhtari at The 12 for a free Afterburn Nutrition consultation. You have nothing to lose, and a better version of yourself to gain. Summer is a great time to start your own journey. And Cyrus is the guy to help you get there.

Thank you Cyrus, trainers Angela and Sofee, and all the good folks at The 12 for providing me with this opportunity, believing in me, and cheering me on along the way. I couldn’t have achieved the results without you.

Disclaimer: Although I am receiving some complimentary services from The 12, I am not being compensated in any way for participating in this process and documenting my results. All information shared in this blog (as always) is my unbiased, unsponsored opinion.

A couple of years ago, I participated in a 12-week challenge at The 12, an Orange County gym with locations in Irvine and Costa Mesa. As those of you who followed my journey know, I had a great experience and some incredible results.

Sadly, good changes don’t always stick, especially without continued effort. I did sustain my post-challenge results for a little over a year, but then, things started to slide. Although I am working out consistently, the weight is creeping back slowly and steadily. When the stress gets high, I too often turn to my comfort foods – generally bread, cheese and wine.

I realize more than ever that diet makes ALL the difference. And mine needs an adjustment. I want to change, but don’t want to it alone. The advice, guidance, moral support and accountability during the 12-week challenge is a big part of the reason I was successful.

I was lamenting my slide in results when Cyrus Mokhtari, a certified Afterburn Nutrition Coach at The 12, approached me after class and asked if I would be interested in participating in The 12’s new nutritional counseling – called Afterburn Nutrition. After a few days of can-I-do-this-again thoughts running through my head, and emails back and forth with Cyrus – basically me asking “Do I really, really have to give up wine for eight weeks?” Short answer to that – yes, I do. (Pray for me friends). In the end, I decided to go for it.

I’m excited about starting this program because I know how good my results were last time. I know there is a better version of myself in there, and she just needs a little coaching to get out.

The better version of me looked like this after photo from my 12-week-challenge a couple of years ago.

For me, nutrition and health isn’t about looks though. My before may be another person’s after. And my after, someone else’s before. All of our bodies are different. I just want to be the best version of me again because it FEELS good. The post-challenge version of me felt better than I ever have in my adult life – healthy, strong, and confident. I also slept like a baby and was full of energy to take on each day. That is the person I want back, regardless of what the scale says. (Though I will admit that ditching Spanx this summer would be a nice side benefit.)

So this time is going to be different…really. First, because now I have a clear vision of what type of results are attainable for me. I’m also wiser about what it takes to maintain those results. Second, the Afterburn Nutritional coaching is highly customized for each client’s body type, fitness level, and lifestyle, so my specific nutritional needs will be taken into account when creating my plan. The Afterburn Nutrition Coaching program can help me create a program I can stick to…for the long term.

I began my nine-week program this week. Like the 12-week challenge, the Afterburn Nutritional program starts with a ten-day cleanse. I wrote extensively about that cleanse here on my blog last time, so I’ll spare the long explanation here. Suffice it to say, forgoing caffeine, alcohol, processed sugar, salt, eggs, soy, beef, pork, foods with wheat or wheat flour or corn or cornflower, and any and all processed foods is no small challenge. I’m on day three now and definitely looking forward to day ten – bring back the coffee, that beautiful warm tasty beverage …

I’ll update again soon with my post-cleanse thoughts and results and the next steps in the Afterburn Nutritional program. I hope you will follow along with me on this new journey, learn about the Afterburn Nutrition program, and be inspired to make your own nutritional changes for better health.

Disclaimer: Although I am receiving some complimentary services from The 12, I am not being compensated in any way for participating in this process and documenting my results. All information shared in this blog (as always) is my unbiased, unsponsored opinion.