Difficult But Not Impossible

By Sharon Jane Akinyemi

Joel  happens to be my colleague and today I got a mail from him. It was his newsletter in which he promised to give me three of his BEST rapid fat-loss insider secrets, showing me exactly how I can balance my body’s more important fat-burning hormones with simple (yet highly effective) dietary strategies that I can begin using today to help my clients  accelerate fat loss and get a flat belly, fast…

But before we examine those powerful fat-burning tips and tricks, I’m going to share a story with you that’s pretty embarrassing… you’ll see why in just a moment, so keep reading…

Joel has these to say……

In fact, there’s one part of the story that I almost permanently edited out of this email because it really is that embarrassing…but I chose to leave it in so you can truly understand this one fundamental truth:

You see, while I’ve been fortunate enough to have my work positively affect millions upon millions of men and women via countless newsstand magazines, television shows, and news outlets for more than a decade, I wasn’t always the “diet guru” I’m known as today. In fact, if you were to come across me in my college days—a period of time in which most people are sporting the best bodies of their life—you wouldn’t have a clue that I even worked out.

Sadly, I was working out…to the tune of two draining hours a day…and on top of that I was doing everything I thought I should do to “eat right” in an attempt to change my body. But as you may have also experienced at one time or another, or perhaps you’re dealing with it right now, despite all my hard work I wasn’t getting anywhere.

My body was still as pudgy as ever, my gut still hung over my belt buckle, and I was still struggling to get the attention from the opposite sex I was so desperately hoping to receive. In all honesty, my struggle with my weight was affecting all aspects of my life: my happiness, my dating and social life, my job… all the way down to my confidence and even my perception of how others viewed me.

And perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this whole time period was that no matter how much I starved myself or how long I worked out every day, my fat stores just wouldn’t budge.

Have you ever felt like being “lean” and having a desirable body just wasn’t possible for you? That no matter what you did or how hard you tried, that you’d still never succeed? I have, and I can tell you firsthand it’s not a fun feeling.

And if any of my personal experiences sound familiar to you, let me assure you…it’s not your fault.

You see, the unfortunate reality is that our bodies are naturally programmed (with good reason) to make weight loss painstakingly difficult.

Fortunately, there is a solution, which I’ll be sharing with you in just a minute… and I can honestly say that the catalyst for my “discovering” this solution were the events that played out on one sunny Saturday afternoon in Tulsa, Oklahoma…summer of 2000.

Although it was over 10 years ago now, I can still remember that day like it was yesterday. It was hot…really hot… and a bunch of guys from my dorm building were out on the campus’ basketball courts playing ball, so I decided to join.

I also knew that one girl in particular from my history class… a girl that I had my eye on since the beginning of the year was also there with a few of her friends. Her name was Becca… and man, she was gorgeous…

And sure, with my weight issues and resulting low self-esteem, I always assumed that Becca was more than just a little out of my league, but having played basketball practically my whole life (and actually being pretty good at it)… I thought maybe…just maybe… today would be the day I got her attention.

Well, I was definitely right, but definitely not in the way I had hoped…not in the least.

You see, having a belly and being rather self-conscious about it, I naturally wore baggier clothes to hide the bulge I was fruitlessly working so hard to get rid of. So when the guys told me I was going in on the “skins” team, I think I about half had a heart attack.

The truth is, if there was one thing I wanted more than anything else at that point in my life, it was to be able to take my shirt off in a situation like that and be proud of my body… I mean, it’s everything I was working so hard for… the long hours in the gym, the skipping meals, the dry chicken breasts and bland vegetables… it was all in “hopes” that one day I’d have the body, the confidence, and the life that came along with achieving that dream body.

Instead, that day was far from a dream for me…in fact, as you’ll quickly see it was just a few short moments later when that day transformed in to a total nightmare.

You see, just as I took my shirt off, I heard a female voice whisper something to the girl standing next to her that sounded more like a scream by the time it hit my ear…

“Eww, keep your shirt on…nobody wants to see that.”

And it was Becca.

I was devastated. The girl I was hoping to impress just publicly exposed the epitome of my self-consciousness… everything I was working toward and hoping for came crumbling down in an instant.

In fact, I was so mortified that just a few minutes in to the game I faked an ankle sprain just so I could get the heck out of there! Talk about embarrassing!

When I got back to my dorm room I don’t think I could have felt any worse. Disappointment, frustration, guilt, self-pity… I had officially hit rock bottom.

And perhaps you can relate to some of those things…perhaps you’re feeling some of those same emotions right now when you think about your own weight, how it’s affecting your life and relationships, and all the things you’ve tried that have failed to make a difference for you.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “What’s wrong with me?… Why is it that no matter how hard I try, I still can’t seem to drop the weight that I so desperately want gone?”

Listen: I was there. I lived it for many, many years…and believe me, some of those same questions ran through my head on an almost daily basis…

…until that one day.

You see, while that summer day in 2000 was truly one of the lowest days of my life, I can honestly look back and tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, it was that day that caused my entire life to change.

Truth is, as I sat there on my dorm room bed, embarrassed, discouraged and distraught, I still knew deep down inside that I couldn’t give up.

And it was at that moment, that low, rock-bottom moment, that I made a vow to myself… a commitment that I was going to read every last weight loss research paper, academic journal, and book that I could get my hands on until I found out why, despite all my efforts, I just couldn’t get rid of my troublesome body fat…and better yet, I wasn’t going to stop until I found the solution that would help me overcome my struggles and finally achieve the “dream” body that I desired, and deserved.

And that’s exactly what I did.

You see, it wasn’t even six months later that I was able to radically change my body and win one of the world’s largest body transformation contests, Body-for-Life, held by fitness legend Bill Phillips.

And over the last 10 years, I’ve been able to help literally millions of people world-wide just like you finally end the weight loss struggle and achieve their best bodies through my best-selling books and articles… but it never would have happened without first failing miserably and hitting rock bottom on that summer Oklahoma day.

But, what were those three things that I discovered after spending weeks searching through countless journals and research papers back in 2000 that allowed me to radically change my body in record time and trade in my embarrassing body for one that I could be proud of?

Hmmmmmm! That was Joel’s story.

Well, that’s exactly what I  will show you next week, so you can benefit in the same way I did.

Send relevant questions to me at [email protected]  or send me a personal message at www.facebook.com/BodyConfidenceFitnessClub