3volution 7itness 6 Week Challenge

I have never been overweight, but I fluctuated from chubby to normal throughout my entire life.  I guess I was considered chubby compared to my skinny family members who ate whatever they wanted, didn't work out and was still thinner than I was.  Anyways, fast forward to my early 30's.  I was living in Santa Monica and had successfully done a "Chub Club" at work where I was able to get down to a good, healthy weight.  After my mom got sick with pancreatic cancer, I got a job in DTLA and moved back home to spend as much time with her as I possibly could.

So I had gradually started to gain weight partly due to the stress of my mom being sick and partly because the SGV is filled with yummy carbs like noodles, rice and boba.  I was literally the heaviest I had been and felt really disgusted.  I had dieted on and off, doing low carb but I couldn't really stick to anything and made excuses.

Then I saw an add for a 6 week challenge on Facebook for a fitness studio in Rosemead called 3volution 7itness,  It was a "free" 6 week challenge if you were able to make your weight loss/body fat goal.  So I signed up for an informational meeting with the owner and it sounded like a great way to get healthy and in shape.  You follow their meal plan, post pics of your food to the FB group and work out 5 days a week.  It's a bootcamp style class every day, focusing on a different body part.   You put down a deposit, which you'd get back if you make your goal.

Before we started the program, the owner recommend sampling a few classes to get used to the style.  I went to a few classes after work and they kicked my butt! 

There were also morning classes, which I ended up opting to do because I like to get my workout done early and the classes weren't as crowded as the ones at night.  Plus the instructor, Manny kept workouts fresh and challenging, played great music and made me sore every day. 

Since I didn't have as much weight to lose, we decided to make my goal 5% body fat loss, which ended up being harder than I thought. 

I will say that the first week was tough - the workouts were good and I was able to keep up, but adjusting to the meal plan was hard.  It was a 1300 calories plan that included only good carbs like brown rice, oatmeal and sweet potato.  I also discovered that beans were considered a carb rather than a protein - blew my mind.  On day 3 I was starving, but after getting over that hump, my stomach got smaller and I got used to eating less.  

I did make some adjustments to this, but this was the gist of the diet. 

So I went grocery shopping to buy all my healthy foods like rice cakes, greek yogurt, peanut butter, lean meats and beans.  Here are some of my meals that I posted in the FB group.  

Typical breakfast includes turkey bacon, egg whites with veggies, yogurt and fruit, or a protein shake

Lunch with include some kind of salad or meat and brown rice combo. It was sometimes hard to have lunch with coworkers or friends, because we had to choose a place where I could get a healthy low carb option.  So things like the Tuesday Taco Truck or Ramen was out.  They'd eat their carbs and I'd have my salad. 

But there were times when friends ate healthy with me and we'd both get a salad:

Dinners were fun, I did a lot of those meal preps that had low carb options like Blue Apron, Hello Fresh and Gobble. 

The great part was seeing the results and shedding the pounds and body fat. It wasn't drastic, more of a slow and gradual transformation but satisfying none the least.  My clothes started getting loose and I felt better overall. 

I didn't technically meet my goal - lost 4.8% body fat and lost about 7.5 lbs but I was really happy with my results. The owner let me use my deposit towards a discounted membership and I decided to keep up the bootcamp classes.

I am currently doing another 8 week challenge to try and lose a few more pounds but overall maintain and focus on a long term healthy lifestyle. It's been great and I am really glad that I discovered this gym and its great workouts.  Just the kick in the pants I needed to and lose some of the weight I gained and get fit  💪💪💪💪

Master in Transformational Training AKA MITT

So, it's kind of a funny roundabout story on how I actually came to find MITT (Mastery in Transformational Training).  Two friends had mentioned the trainings to me over a year ago, but at the time I was too preoccupied with my mom and her being sick to even think about it.  Fast forward to May of this year, my mom had sadly lost her battle with pancreatic cancer and my sister's neighbor had come by to ask her how she was doing and to tell her about Landmark.  Landmark is actually quite similar to MITT.  My sister was not interested and then she asked about me...

Long story short, I got recruited to go to a Landmark preview event and although I liked it and found it to be useful, I remembered my friends doing MITT and decided to find out more about that program.  After talking to them, asking them questions, looking at both the Landmark and MITT websites, I decided to give MITT a try because it was supposed to be more experiential vs Landmark's more lecture base, plus it was $100 cheaper.

I signed up for the October "Basic" Course.  I was still very hesitant but figured that it couldn't hurt and if I didn't like it, it was a few days and a $500 investment. I also gave them my Google number instead of my actual cell, just in case. The Landmark people had called my house a few too many times... So I went to this reluctantly - it was after work from 7PM-12 midnight Wednesday through Friday, then full days Saturday and Sunday.  Overall I felt like it was an interesting and beneficial experience. I probably didn't fully let myself experience the whole thing, as I still had my hesitations.  Of course after you finish the Basic Course, they try and get you to sign up for the "Advance" course which was 5 full days for maybe like $799 at the time, but after checking the site, seems like its gone up to $1,195.  I probably wouldn't have paid that, but I did feel compelled to continue along this journey, so on the last day, I was suckered in to signing up for the next course. I promised myself that I definitely wouldn't do the next course, which was what they called "Leadership," which was like $1600.

They make this whole deal about finding a way to get the money and not letting that be your excuse, but we'll get to that later.

So during the Advanced Course, I did feel like I made a breakthrough.  We aren't supposed to share what we did, but I felt like I finally let myself feel some things about my mom's death and let myself get to know the people in my course on a different level.  I will say these courses are pretty emotionally and physically exhausting.  You are in a room full of people all day doing various activities and then you go to lunch with your group and you have to do more exercises while you eat.

So on the Sunday/last day of the Advanced course, they were pulling out all the stops and trying to sell.  They told us to not use money or the time commitment stop us.  And the time commitment was extensive - this time it was weekly meetings, 3 weekends, volunteering for events and a few I will admit, I gave in to the peer pressure.  They had everyone close their eyes and stand up if they were going to do leadership.  Of course everyone in my group stood up and I felt like I should to.  And you had to put a deposit down to save your spot.  I signed up for the Leadership program, not knowing where I'd get the money and full of doubts.

So they encourage you to invite friends and family to your "graduation" on the Sundays following the course.  I invited the two friends who did MITT, one who did just the Basic and one who did the Leadership. 

I went to the first few meetings for the Advanced course and we got put into groups the first meeting.  One of the guys who was pretty active in the first two courses was in my group.  They encouraged us to get to know each other and I reached out to him via text/cell phone.  He hadn't texted me back so I called him and his Uber driver had picked up.  He had apparently left his phone in this guy's car and asked if I could help track him down.  I called my LP leader and told her what happened.   Long story short, the guy had jumped off a building later that night and killed himself.  This was a sad and strange experience, I honestly didn't know him very well but had no idea he was suicidal.  The next weekly meeting they talked about it for about an hour and then kind of moved on. I honestly didn't know how I felt about it all but I decided that this wasn't for me.

I talked to a few people in the course who decided to quit.  One of the girls told me that she was able to get her deposit back and suggested I talked to the founder, so I did.  I called her and told her I felt uneasy and wasn't comfortable continuing in the course.  She was honestly a bit rude and told me that this stuff happens and we can't control it. In the end, she said she would give me my deposit back but really rubbed me the wrong way. 

So I did quit the program but of course got a bit of backlash.  My LP leader, as well as my Advanced leader reached out to me.  My LP leader was actually pretty pushy and told me that I couldn't just quit and I needed to talk to her on the phone. Again, another encounter that rubbed me the wrong way.

Overall I am glad that I tried this but I don't think I needed to do the Leadership Course.  I did keep in touch with people who stayed in the program and I heard both good and bad things. I do believe that this helps people who are dealing with issues and can help, but at the same time I feel like there needs to be extensive background checks if someone has psychological problems.  The exercises are pretty intense as well as the time commitment.   So I would say, if you feel like it would be beneficial, try to Basic course and go from there.  Don't be influenced by all the sales talk and try to judge for yourself if you want to continue.  It is a lot of money and time, so make sure its worth your while.