Today I present to you the winner of our first ever Best Body Ever Challenge! I’m going to keep what I have to say about Steph short and sweet. Steph is the perfect example of why I do what I do. She “gets” that this is a lifestyle, that this is freedom, and that you get out of DAMY Health exactly what you put in!

Steph followed our Bikini Body Program to the T. She listened to all my advice about the internal changes that need to take place before you see the external. Steph is an easy-to-love person. She is going to do anything she puts her mind to, there’s no doubt in my mind.

There is no better person to represent what DAMY Health is than Steph.

Steph – Today we celebrate you, the beautiful person that you are inside and out. Here’s to all your hard work, commitment, and internal journey. I’m so happy you stuck with it to be able to be in the place you are today. Congratulations and thank you for being an important part of the DAMY Health Community!

Steph’s Success Story“Physically, I can’t believe how I look! I’ve never looked like this before! I am stronger, leaner, and more toned than I have ever been in my whole life!”

Steph Before and After Bikini Body Program 2My goal for the BBEC (and Bikini Body Program) was to be lean, toned, and 125 pounds. More importantly, I wanted to stop judging myself and change the way I viewed my body. I wanted to feel grateful for the ability to get healthy and exercise. I wanted to stop avoiding places, people, and pictures. I wanted to wear shorts and buy a full bikini set for the first time in 13 years. I got within 1 pound of my goal and I am lean, toned, and stronger than I have ever been in my life. My attitude towards life has changed so much, and it has a lot to do with regaining control over things I thought I couldn’t. I haven’t bought shorts or a bikini yet… that will have to wait until closer to the summer! But I am so comfortable in my body, and the serenity that comes with that has altered my day to day in ways I hadn’t expected. I did it!!! And I still don’t believe my reflection!

My body has changed really dramatically in the past year, but it was this past 3 months where I saw a change in my body that I never thought I would see. My body is naturally curvier, and I thought that because of that, I could never be toned or have a tight stomach. I was wrong!

More so than my body, my confidence has changed. 4 weeks into DAMY, my fiancé told me that in the 5 years we had been together, I had never been sexier, and it didn’t have to do with my body but how I was carrying myself. I find I have so much more confidence in groups, I’m going out to see people a lot more than I have in the past, something I wasn’t expecting at all. I’m posing for pictures, and I never pose for pictures. I feel like a different person. I feel optimistic and happy and energetic. People are saying my eyes are shining more. I feel like I’ve woken up. I’m out of my slump. All that time I spent bashing myself, wearing the same thing every day because nothing else fit and hating myself for it, avoiding mirrors, avoiding people, has been replaced with this positive energy. You don’t realize how destructive you’re being to yourself, and how much time that takes out of your day, until get out of that state of mind. And you don’t realize how much that affects your relationships, your work, your family, and everything else outside of the thing your hating the most – your body. But people can feel that energy. That’s been what I’ve been enjoying the most. The confidence, the comfort in my own skin, and the joy that comes with having a healthy body and mind.

I feel amazing! Physically, I can’t believe how I look! I’ve never looked like this before! I am stronger, leaner, and more toned than I have ever been in my whole life. And I am inspired. I didn’t know I could look like, this, or feel as good as I do. It’s amazing what’s happened to me in 3 months. It makes me feel motivated. If I have this much control over something I thought I couldn’t control at all, what else am I capable of?

I’m going to go for some more definition. The fat is gone! I want to keep working on the muscles! I’ve graduated to the gym now (for the 3 months of DAMY, I did all the workouts at home). Home worked really well, but now I need some heavier weights. I’m going to continue on with the DAMY eating and kick up all the workouts with heavier reps and more HIIT.Steph Before and After Bikini Body Program 1

The reason why I signed up for DAMY was because the program was so different from all the things I’d tried in the past: I didn’t have to count calories (that was huge), I ate good food from good sources that I prepared myself, I had to stay accountable to someone with a name and a face (Amy), whereas with other programs it was different people each time, and I didn’t feel motivated by people who didn’t know me, I liked that DAMY was a smaller operation who put their heart and soul into the work, I liked that they were local (Canadian), I liked that I didn’t have to take special pills or eat things that were “diet” or filled with aspartame, and I liked that the whole program was laid out in a way that was so easy to follow. In fact, all you need to do is follow it exactly as it’s laid out and you will get results. Throughout all these different fitness and weight loss programs that I did, the one thing that they never taught me, the one thing that is so blaringly obvious to me now, is that so much depends on the food, the times you eat, and the portions. I had been killing myself with exercise and wondering why I wasn’t seeing results. As soon as I adjusted my food to the DAMY program, boom! And another huge thing was that Amy was there all the time for motivation, support, to tweak your program and eating so it fit you, and answer your questions. She’s so wonderful and positive, and you can’t help but be inspired by her. She’s one of those kinds of people you want to do well for, because her feedback makes you feel so good. You can tell that this is a real labour of love for her – she could charge so much more for the services she’s providing, and she could put a lot less time into it, but she doesn’t. Her clients are important to her, and she gives them everything. So I guess one of the most important things that sets DAMY apart from everyone else is they don’t have Amy!

I loved the recipes! The food was really good, and so filling. My fiancé ate most of what I was eating and really liked it, which made life so much easier because there wasn’t anything that I might crave in the house. I loved eating every 2-3 hours! I never felt hungry, and the food that I was eating was so nutritionally dense. I loved being free from counting calories, which is exactly what made this feel like it wasn’t a diet at all. It just felt like the right adjustments to my lifestyle. I loved that Amy posted on Facebook most days. Whether it was advice, recipes, or other members’ success, it was great to have that little reminder every day, and to see that she was with us. And it’s nice to be able to connect with other people on the same journey as you. When you’re feeling like you don’t want to go for that run, there are other people on Facebook who can motivate through words or pictures! I’m going back to the food, but I loved the snacks, too. There was sweet, if I craved it, or salty, and the cravings that I did have were usually satisfied by replacing certain foods that weren’t great with clean eating. I ate protein balls every day!

The Bikini Body Program has so many benefits – where to start?! Physically, I went down three sizes and the area where I’m seeing the most change is my stomach (but the area where everyone else is noticing is my legs. I used to have big legs, now they look leaner and more muscular). I lost a total of 7 pounds, which is amazing considering I’d plateaued at 133 for a couple months and for the life of me I couldn’t break through it. I’ve also had a lot more energy. I used to crash every day in the afternoon, and I was always tired. I couldn’t seem to sleep enough. Now I’m energetic all day. I’m also finding I’m able to concentrate a lot easier and I’m getting a lot more done at work. And the self-confidence, as I’ve described above, has literally been life changing. Having a good outlook on life can be a very powerful thing. To sum it up, I’m happier, leaner, more outgoing, confident, and I’ve thrown out the sweat pants I used to wear every day (even to work!).

For me it was a lot harder deciding to do something about my health, and actually getting started, than it was going through the process of getting healthier. For 5 years I’ve been telling myself that on Monday, I’ll start, in the New Year, I’ll start, on the first of the month, I’ll start, but I never did. I knew I was unhealthy, I knew that, given my family history, allowing myself to go down that road was dangerous, but it all seemed too big, and too hard, to control. But it’s not. That’s the funny, simple thing about it. Once you dedicate yourself to it, you’d be amazed what you can accomplish in 12 weeks. 12 weeks is nothing. You can do anything in that amount of time. Yes, it can be challenging to adjust your eating habits and form exercise habits, and yes, there are cravings and days where you feel tired and it’s easy to make excuses. But tell yourself you’re going to do it for 4 weeks, and look at your before and after pictures. I promise you, you’ll be astounded. And that will be the fuel for the next 8 weeks. You can change your body and your health, you can have the confidence and the body that you want. It’s all so possible, but you’ll never know it until you throw yourself into this, and then, suddenly, it’s so clear. You have control. And it’s such a freeing feeling. And you know what the best part is? Achieving your New Year’s Resolution early and going into 2012 feeling like this!!!!

– Steph
Steph Before and After Bikini Body Program 3

To read more about the Bikini Body Program click here.

 

Amy Layne is a Personal Trainer, Holistic Nutritionist and Lifestyle Expert at DAMY Health. She is the creator of the popular DAMY Method Program and world famous Bikini Body Program. To see Amy’s Before and After Photos and DAMY Member Success Stories Click Here.

Connect with Amy on Twitter @damyhealth and on Facebook.