Nutrition Overhaul Testimonials

My weight went from 208.6 to 196.4, a loss of about 13 pounds. My body fat went from 19.4% to 15.8%, a loss of 3.6%. I was very happy and amazed by my results. But that is just the numbers, I think what is more important is how I feel. Since starting the overhaul, I have been sleeping much better. It takes me about 5mins to fall asleep and I usually do not wake up in the middle of the night. If I do wake up, I fall back asleep right away. No more tossing and turning for me. I always feel like I got a good night’s sleep.

Having completely changed my eating habits, I feel like a new man. Prior to the challenge, I typically started my day with a donut and Coke, and ate fast food for lunch. Throughout and following the program, its Zone balanced meals, and I feel great. I have so much more energy at work. No more feeling like crap after my lunch. Though it wasn’t an easy change, I have no desire to go back. Prior to this challenge I was a big soda guy. That is no longer true. I now have a soda occasionally with a cheat meal.

Since making the change, I have broken many PR’s and I seem to recover much faster than before. I know that overall my form still needs to be improved, but I feel the combination of CrossFit and Zone has improved me greatly.

I feel the Overhaul has been a great benefit to me, and I plan to continue with the Zone. I’ve received many compliments on my progress from my friends, family and co-workers and it makes me feel great. Thank you for offering the program, it has been an eye opener and changed my life for the positive.

For our challenge, I didn’t set any number specific goals as far as pounds/percentage of fat lost. My goals were to stay in the zone for the full 6 weeks and with hard work fit into a pair of jeans I hadn’t worn in a couple of years (for fear of popping the button off and losing an eye).  It was relatively easy sticking with the program by having our 5 weekly cheat meals. It didn’t feel too overwhelming. I liked the score keeping aspect of the program to help reinforce planning meals and snacks.  Totally cliché, but “if you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail.”  The program helped me tremendously on making better food choices. When the meals are block balanced I definitely notice a difference in how I feel versus a cheat meal.  Also by having a 1 block snack before working out I felt like I had more fuel.

I can’t thank you, Travis and Aaron enough for putting this together and helping me get my nutrition right.

P.S. the jeans (and a bunch of other hadn’t been worn in awhile clothes) fit and were actually a little loose

I had lunch with Justin a couple weeks prior to the ZONE program kickoff. I asked him to explain this Zone thing to me, but prefaced it by saying that “I have no interest in changing my eating habits”. I was just curious. We’ll, my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to challenge myself to test the Nutirtion Overhaul thing out. I wanted to see if I could lean up a bit without working out more often. Conclusion…this shit works! I lost 4 lbs of fat in juts 6 weeks, I also lost 2 lbs of muscle indicating that my calories were too low. Since then I’ve stuck to the program but I’ve adjusted my protein and fat intake to gain that muscle back…plus some. What’s different for me now…I actually crave eating the good foods and balanced meals (I still crave ice cream too, so I’ve managed to work that in with cheat meals). What kept me honest and on track…the accountability system and support system Justin implemented, food preparation on Sundays, and cheat meals were key to successfully sticking to the program. It was also a big help that Paula did it with me.

It’s actually pretty simple… go to the seminar, listen intently to the coaches (they know their shit), and hold yourself accountable (Justin will be asking)! Good Luck!

I have lost an average of 1.5 lbs per week since starting the Zone. I now do a Zone’ish food plan & have really reduced or eliminated eating desserts, & pasta, bread, rice. I’m cognizant of my “cheat” meals & try to not go overboard.

My weight has been, and probably always will be my biggest personal struggle. Starting this Nutritional Overhaul Challenge was another step forward in trying to better my overall understanding and acceptance of what food I should be fueling my body with. The start date also came at the perfect time, as I used it as a means to prepare and train for my first CrossFit competition of the “Festivus Games.” With the understanding to consume 14 blocks of food per day, and setting my own goal of working out at Aquila 6 days a week with daily, minimum 20 minute long walks with my dogs, I managed to lose a total of 7.9# of fat…BUT…according to the body fat test…I also, sadly lost 5.9# of muscle. Some may be entirely defeated by this, but it’s a learning point for me.

My caloric intake of the blocks I consumed (that I followed to a T and chose not to partake in any cheat meals during the duration of the Challenge), proved to not be high enough for the amount of exercise I was doing. I have since started to include more calories in my blocked meals…and cheat meals are slowing making an appearance…and I’m also, sill maintaining my daily walks and 5-6 days a week at the gym. During the official Challenge, I never felt like my strength was decreasing…actually, I felt stronger. And now, post-Challenge, I feel like I am improving even more in certain a
reas of my strength.
I mean, if I was able to improve my Fight Gone Bad score 55 reps in 6 weeks time from the start to end of the Challenge, I’d have to say my strength and stamina has greatly improved! So…I guess I can take the body fat test results with a grain of salt and just focus on what works best for me, while still using the Zone as a means to a positive end of losing weight and gaining strength. Having our Facebook group and our coaches available to us every step of the way during this Challenge, was certainly helpful. A support system is always appreciated; whether it’s words of encouragement or sharing recipes or simply checking in with one another, I think it all proved helpful to those of us who stuck it out and saw the Challenge through to the end. Thank you! I look forward to joining in on round # 2!

I started the zone to lose weight, during the 6 week challenge I lost 6lbs. I was quite pleased that my performance at CF has improved at the same time.  While following the program closely those 6 weeks, I realized that the Zone makes me feel better and I think it is how my body wants me to eat (and drink!)  I’m sleeping better and have better energy during the day.  I discovered that I like eating small frequent meals every 3 hours instead of 3 “square” meals and smaller snacks between.  I am hungriest in the afternoon so I have a small 1st breakfast then a one-block s
nack then start eating two blocks at a time at noon.  I might have a 3-block snack at 3 or 4, then a 2-block dinner and a one-block glass of milk at bedtime.  (Yeah, I live wild like that.) While my particular meal plan probably doesn’t matter to other people, for me it reflects a mature self-awareness about what I need in food, not just what I like.  My relationship with food feels different.

I don’t really miss alcohol, but sometimes have some for social reasons.  I do still feel that a life without chocolate is not worth living, so I calculate a bit of dark in for carbs and fat, or just cheat with it.

So what I’m doing post-program is composing my meals in blocks–sometimes weighing & measuring, sometimes not, and not counting up an allotted number of blocks a day.  I haven’t lost more weight since the challenge ended, but I haven’t gained any back despite vacations.

Thanks for setting up the challenge and introducing me to the zone.  I had tried to grok it before from books and just couldn’t figure it out.

The overhaul was a new way of eating and cooking for me. Before the challenge, I had a lot of problems with heartburn/indigestion and eating in the Zone helped significantly with those problems. I also began to feel a lot better in general. I lost about 2% body fat during the 6 weeks! I could have been a lot more strict with my weekend eating and drinking (craft beer is a diet killer!) Overall, I am very happy that I participated in the nutrition challenge and I’m planning on sticking with the zone diet long term.

Thanks for setting up this challenge for us! I wouldn’t have overhauled my nutrition without the push from you guys!

One of the things I went into the program with was a goal that I would get in touch with what appropriate portions are for me because I knew I had gotten pretty far off the mark.  Zone was great for helping me reset my portion awareness.  I thought the measuring was going to be intense but it wasn’t that bad and it only took me about two weeks to be able to eyeball most portions. Figuring out that I do need to eat a snack before working out and what that snack is was also super helpful–it’s okay for you to say, “I told you so” here.  😉

The best part was having your support and the support of others in the group.  I really appreciated how accessible you were for questions and you were just awesome in terms of support and giving pushes where needed.  It was nice having a big group doing the program at the same time, sharing their experiences, pictures of their food, recipes and being able to discuss the process with others going through it.  It was a pretty fantastic group.  Would I do another Zone program with Aquila?  Absolutely!

I can say I had a positive experience with the zone, and that while I came to the weight loss program already fairly lean it has changed my eating habits for the better, especially my lunches which now include much more in the way of protein and vegetables. As a result I have less in the way of late afternoon energy crashes which is cool.

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