THINGS I DID.

✔️ I built muscle to make losing fat easier.

✔️ I had planned phases for both nutrition & training.

✔️ I ate the amount of food I needed, including “non-clean” foods.

✔️ I completed my strength program each week which focussed on progressive overload. The same exercises.

✔️ Planned higher calorie days to suit my lifestyle, progress and enjoyment.

✔️ Documented the whole thing to know exactly what to do next time, looked at what worked, what didn’t & how much food I can get away with next time. I assessed my own data.

❌ THINGS I DIDNT DO: ❌

✖️ I didn’t do different workouts every week depending on how I felt. Changing it up to “motivate” myself wouldn’t get me in the condition I wanted so I chose to stick with the program set out for me. I personally think with life so busy, having my training constant, normal & going fairly unchanged is easier than it always changing and having to recover from new exercises all the time; changing it up also doesn’t build/preserve lean mass. So why would I make the journey harder for myself?

✖️ I didn’t just eat “healthy/clean” foods and hoped for the best. And I didn’t eat the same things every day. Variety & swapping food sources around is important; mentally & physically.

✖️ I didn’t stop recording when I ate ‘bad’ or wasn’t motivated. There is a lot of useful info to be taken from a ‘bad’ day.

✖️ I didn’t give a “fancy name” to what I did. I simply responded to situations & planned out my phases in a way I saw fit that suited me at the time, but always with the intention of moving closer to the main goal, not hindering my chance of success based on my own emotional responses. So with my IBS/stomach, sometimes my first meal would be at midday as the day prior my fibre intake was too high or perhaps I was stressed, bringing upon bloating. I wouldn’t go calling this fasting or #keto if I had a lower carb day because I wasn’t hungry. Just using common sense & an approach which kept me progressing in all areas.

✖️ Running/Sports. My goal was body composition focussed & to maintain my muscle & shape - this form of exercise does not contribute to this. If I wanted to increase my fitness, sure. Adding in a run would hinder my performance and recovery for my strength sessions. It’s actually quite hard to build muscle so I’d be cancelling out all my hard work in the gym & kitchen.

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I love being apart of the industry because I get to use my nerdy side, plan out someone’s program properly and watch them improve & go through the different phases.

But then the downside is having constant “noise” around.

It’s like trying to tell someone the car on gumtree for $50 is probably not an ideal buy, they’re better off spending $5k & getting much more out of their investment.

Challenges, strict diets & training every day does not create the results most people want and doesn’t improve health like it should. You may see loss on the scales but it’s not fat you’re losing.

And unfortunately it’s when you hit the 30s onwards when your belly fat is hard to lose that you will really struggle. You have to literally start from scratch regardless of your lengthy training & diet experience. ——————

I train people online & can keep you accountable if you can’t come into the studio! 💁🏻‍♀️

⤵️⤵️⤵️ ——————- Online & In-House Coaching Enquiries: ✉️ danniicrosspt@outlook.com 💻 www.danniicross.com 📸 IG @danniicrosspt 🇦🇺 Hallam, VIC Studio ——————

Dannii Cross. Body Transformation Specialist.