Meet Iris. She is a 33-year-old research scientist, and was one of our clients who made the short list for client of the year in 2017. Today, we’ll be giving you the “all access”, behind-the-scenes look at the personal habits, exercise routines, and nutrition programs that got her the honour of a nomination as client of the year.

Why did she hire us? A few reasons:

  • She is only in her early 30s, but feeling aches and pains that she felt she shouldn’t be

  • She got tired easily throughout the day

  • She had headaches and migraines, for which she needed to take 2-3 painkillers for

  • She wanted to lose about 15 pounds

And over her time with us, she managed to:

  • Lose the weight that she wanted, so her clothes felt better on her

  • Improve her sleep, so she stopped getting tired so easily throughout the day, and was more productive at work

  • Decrease her use of painkillers for the headaches/migraines from 2-3 times per month, to now, less than once per month

  • Completely eliminate her lower back pain

How did we manage to get such good results with her? That’s exactly what we’ll cover in this article. But remember – everything we did was personalized to Iris. It may or may not work for you. But if you do want something that’s made specifically for you, feel free to fill out this questionnaire to see if you qualify to work with us.

And if you want to hear Iris tell her own story, check out this video:

The Initial Assessment

Iris heard me speak at her company, and decided to come in for an initial assessment. The initial assessment is where we gather information that allows us to personalize our approach to the client, rather than giving generic, one-size-fits-all programs.

Here’s what I learned about Iris during our assessment:

Iris wanted to lose about 15 pounds, and get more toned. Why? What was her motivation?

  • She didn’t like the way her clothes fit her

  • Her lower back was hurting when she would sit for long periods of time. It would also sometimes act up when she was trying to get to sleep, and would prevent her from getting to sleep.

  • She had low energy throughout the day

  • She was getting bad headaches/migraines 2-3 times per month, and had to take painkillers for them

And she was already “kinda sorta” exercising. She was taking 1 yoga class per week, and on occasion, would go run on the treadmill for an hour, once or twice per week.

That’s all well and good, but it wasn’t getting her to her goals.

Also, on her nutritional assessment questionnaire, the areas that appeared the highest, symptomatically were the adrenals, with a score of 19/78.

Her 3 highest areas in body fat were her stomach (36 mm), love handles (31 mm), and her thighs (also 31 mm).

So she bought our biggest package, we set her up with our trainer Daniel, and they went to work.

Her Exercise Program

Most people come to us with pre-existing muscular imbalances. And Iris was no different. So the first program that Daniel put Iris on involved a lot of one-sided exercises.

Some examples of the exercises used were lunges, one-arm rows, single leg glute bridges, and others.

The benefit of using one-sided exercises is that you can do more sets for one side of the body (the weaker side), until the weak side catches up with the strong side. After all, the biggest risk for injury isn’t tightness or weakness. The biggest risk for injury is asymmetry.

Some asymmetry is inherent, because most of us have a dominant side. But when this asymmetry gets to be too significant, injuries creep up.

In addition to these exercises, some targeted core exercises were involved. Daniel had Iris doing Pallof presses and planks.

In my article on core strength myths, I explained that the core isn’t really meant to generate force. Rather, it’s meant to transmit force. And if the core is weak, the lower back may be taking the load that other core muscles should be doing.

After Iris’s first program, once her body was more balanced from side to side, Daniel changed her program to look more like traditional strength training. He included exercises like trap bar deadlifts, seated rows, incline pushups, and others. Most of those were done for 4 sets of 10 reps.

And her improvements in strength were quite impressive, too.

When she just started this program, she could do trap bar deadlifts with 73 pounds. Now, she can do them with 123 pounds. Her seated rows went from 40 pounds, up to 60 pounds. And her lunges went from no weight, up to 20 pounds.

Her Nutrition

Exercise alone is great, but combine it with nutrition, and now, you have a more complete program. So of course, Daniel addressed Iris’s nutrition, as well.

And for the most part, it’s nothing fancy. The very basics will work for over 95% of people. The basics are: each meal should contain some source of protein (meat, fish or seafood), lots of non-starchy vegetables (spinach, broccoli, peppers, etc.), and a bit of starch (rice, potatoes, quinoa, etc.), depending on different factors.

The challenge in most people is implementation. Knowing what to eat isn’t the problem for the most part. Actually doing it is the problem for most people.

So Daniel, having a special certification called “Precision Nutrition” used a step-by-step approach to get Iris to incorporate new habits in a way that is as minimally intrusive to her lifestyle as possible.

All he asked her to do at first is just add more protein. And that’s it. Don’t change anything else. Don’t change your snacking, don’t change the other components of the meal, etc. Why not? For a few reasons:

  1. Of the 3 macronutrients (carbs, protein and fats), protein is the most filling. So adding protein will make her decrease her intake of other things, without making her focus on taking away other things.

  2. Adding things to your diet is easier than removing things from your diet. But if you add enough good stuff, it “pushes” the “bad” stuff out. Psychologically, this is easier.

  3. It’s much easier to focus on one new habit, than 2 or 3 new habits.

And of course, there were some slip-ups along the way, when Iris didn’t get her protein requirements, but over time, it became more and more habitual to get the protein, than to not get it.

Once eating enough protein was natural, Daniel focused on the next habit: increase your veggies. And the same approach was repeated: focus on that one new habit, and nothing else, until that’s second nature.

And then add a third habit: sleep more.

So by taking these baby steps, yes, progress was slower than it would have been if he gave her a crash diet, but our clients are in it for the long haul. They want lifestyle changes. Not a diet to be followed for 3 weeks, and then dropped. By taking baby steps, yes, progress will be slower, but it will also be more sustainable.

We also had to consider this little thing called “real life.” In real life, people go out, and don’t have full control over they eat. So another habit that Daniel had Iris focus on is when going out, order non-fried items, and ask for the dressing on the side. Dressing is often the most calorically dense item of the meal (for example, ranch dressing, or caesar dressing have a lot of calories – often more than what they’re being poured on). And if you leave it to the kitchen to put it on your meal, they’ll put a lot. But if you ask for it on the side, and use it to your own taste, chances are you’ll consume hundreds of calories fewer than if it just came in your meal.

Does Iris’s nutrition seem very simple and basic? Maybe so. But again, 95% of the population does not need anything fancy. The magic, in this case, lies not in what she’s eating, but the method Daniel used to change long-standing habits, and make new, healthier habits second-nature.

The Results

As you know, we meticulously measure all of our clients. And Iris was no different… at first (I’ll explain what I mean in a sec).

From when she started working with us (November 2016), to about July 2017, here were her biggest changes in terms of numbers:

  • As mentioned earlier, she had decent improvements in her strength. Her deadlifts went from 73 pounds, up to 123 pounds (an indicator of lower body strength, and grip strength)

  • Her weight dropped from 152.5, down to 140.5

  • Her belly fat dropped from 36 mm, to 26 mm

  • “Love handle” fat dropped from 31 mm to 24 mm

  • Her symptom score in the adrenal section went form 19/78, down to 8/78

  • Her symptom score in the thyroid section went from 12/48, down to 1/48

…and then we stopped measuring. Why? Because at that point, Iris’s focus shifted from external (“I want to exercise to look better and lose weight, and decrease back pain, etc.”) to internal (“I feel good when I exercise”). Which is one of the biggest accomplishments a personal trainer can have: get a client to the point where they actually like exercise for its own sake, even if they came from a background of “I hate exercise.”

Getting a nice body transformation is cool, and is certainly an accomplishment. But what happens a year after the person “transformed”? Do they go back to the way they were before? However, instill a sense of enjoyment in exercise, and that’s a gift that lasts for a lifetime.

So you see all these numbers above, and think to yourself “I’m not a fitness professional… these numbers are meaningless to me.” Fair enough. Let’s translate those number to how Iris’s life is different now, that her fitness is much better:

  • The fact that she lost body fat means she fits into her clothes a lot better

  • Remember those headaches/migraines that she used to have 2-3 times per month? Now, they happen less than once per month.

  • That lower back pain that she had before – hasn’t felt anything in her back in over 4 months

  • Those low energy levels that were making her sluggish and decreasing her productivity at work – no longer there. Now, she has steady energy throughout the day.

  • And to top it all off – now, when she goes on vacation, she comes back without gaining weight. A true testament to the fact that her new eating habits are now a lifestyle – not just a diet.

And that’s the reason why Iris is one of our most accomplished clients of 2017. If you’d like to get results like Iris, feel free to fill out this questionnaire to see if you qualify to work with us.