Burn the Fat Inner Circle member Paulette Carter was recently voted the winner of the best 49-day body transformation in the Burn the Fat Summer Challenge. Paulette burned off 20.4 pounds of fat in only 7 weeks and her waist measurement shrunk from 37 inches to 33 inches. Everyone who saw her pictures (see below) was amazed at the difference between day 1 (before) and day 49 (after). These are impressive numbers for anyone to achieve in such a short time… but the jaws really hit the floor when they found out these results were achieved by a mom of six! Read on and find out how she did it…

Tom:  Hi Paulette! Congratulations on your awesome 49 day body transformation. I posted your results on the Burn the Fat facebook page as well as the Burn The Fat inner circle and the most frequent words in the comments were, “Wow! Amazing, fabulous, motivating, awesome, inspiring and incredible!” Then someone wrote, “A woman who could change her body in that little time with SIX kids deserves a medal! Just finding the time it is a miracle! No excuses for me anymore!” That brings up my first question: How DID you find the time? How does training and proper nutrition fit into the life of a mom of six?
Paulette:  How does anyone fit it in? If it’s not kids, most people are busy with jobs or other life fillers. If proper nutrition including exercise is a priority, you’ll make time. I’m learning that you have to make it fit your lifestyle or you won’t do it. “Having kids” is an awfully convenient excuse for just about anything, but one day it dawned on me that I’m the mom. I’m the boss; the one in charge. I even set the schedule or lack of schedule in our home.
So, if I want to change something or accomplish something, there’s nothing to hold me back. As far as nutrition is concerned, my children are still young so basically, I even determine what we eat. I spend lots of cardio time planning my day, planning meals, etc. Time is at a premium and it really helps that my husband converted the garage to a gym so I don’t have to go far to work out and it’s never closed. I roll out of bed and exercise first thing in the morning.
In the past I’ve thought I could fit it in the day sometime, but that “sometime” never seemed to fall in my lap, so I’ve learned that if I don’t do it first thing, it won’t happen.
Tom:  How do you keep going when bad stuff happens to you? For example, a car slams into your car and next thing you know you can’t do your usual upper body workout because of the pain from the accident. Or one of your children gets ill. That’s plenty of reason for a lot of people to say, “I can’t finish this challenge – not now,” but you kept going. How did you do that?
Paulette:  Tom, you’re a big advocate of taking personal responsibility and not making excuses. There will always be things beyond your control, so you just have to be grateful for and not squander the opportunities that you can control. For example, I can definitely control what I do or don’t put in my mouth, or how fast or slowly I run up the hill.
Having said that, it would be a lot harder to “keep going” if I didn’t have such a supportive husband, family, and my new friends/fellow competitors in the Burn the Fat challenge. It’s been really inspiring to read about others who have met with equally if not greater obstacles and kept going.
I should mention that being in this challenge was my husband’s idea. He’s the one who came home one day and wanted to do it so I joined the challenge to support him. Maybe finishing the challenge is about wanting to help each other be their best and not just that I really want to go to Maui.
Tom:  Some people get intimidated with the amount of information in the Burn The Fat book because it’s truly a “bible of fat loss” – it was written to be a definitive guide with a lot of details. Even though you were a relative newcomer to our program, you picked it up super fast and went right to work. How did you absorb the information so quickly and put it to practice so fast? What’s your best advice for anyone looking to get a quick start even if they feel overwhelmed with information?
Paulette:  I’m glad you brought up thatBurn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM) book. I should talk to your marketing department about getting a job! I’ve become a huge fan of the whole Burn the Fat program and have even been accused of being a mini commercial, “Tom says… ,” “The BFFM book says…” I tell everyone that they need to get the book and read it. Yes, it’s packed with info, but instead of feeling overwhelmed, I seem to not be able to get enough of it.
A lot of the things in your program, I’ve heard before, but your BFFM book organizes the information so well and explains a lot of the logic and reasoning behind burning fat and gaining muscle. It makes sense. When I first started the challenge I didn’t even have an idea what a reasonable goal was for my level of out of shapeness.
I’d never been into training or dieting before, so I tried to think of something I could liken it to. I thought back to the last time I really challenged myself and felt somewhat successful was when I was in school. So I imagined that Tom was the teacher, the BFFM was the textbook, daily workouts were class time, menu planning and sticking to it were part of my homework, and the weekly weigh in was my test.
In school I would have never dreamed of telling a professor that the dog ate my homework or that I didn’t show up to class because I was too lazy to get out of bed, so I was not about to come up with some lame excuses for why I had to eat birthday cake or have cookies at the family reunion. I just figured that if I followed the book I could lose two pounds a week of fat like you said.
If anyone is feeling overwhelmed by all the information, I’ve been really impressed with how helpful the other members in the Burn the Fat Inner Circle discussion forums are with sharing their experiences, what’s worked for them etc. It’s really a great place to start and you also have articles and links posted to answer many questions. The Inner Circle web site is really a great resource and companion to the book.
Tom:  Could you give us a quick summary of your workout program and tell us what kind of training you think worked best for you to get so much fat loss so quickly?
Paulette:  My workouts have changed a bit for the last few weeks of the challenge, but I started out doing about 45 minutes of weights every morning and ended with 30 minutes of some sort of cardio. Mondays and Thursdays I’d work the lower body with exercises like: dead lifts, squats, lunges, and glute-ham raises. Tuesdays and Fridays I’d work upper body like pull ups, push ups, dips, and rows.
I superset all the exercises. I alternate high and low reps every other workout. Wednesdays I do an hour of interval training instead of weights, Saturdays I only do the cardio, and Sundays I take a break. Every workout is done first thing in the morning, in a fasted state.
I’m religious about journaling my workouts and try to beat my records each day, but the thing that I think has really made the biggest difference in dropping fat is cleaning up my eating, eating more frequently and only the right kinds of protein, carbs, and fat.
Tom:  You mentioned in your journal that you love to experiment with different healthy recipes as a way to help you avoid trying out “yummy looking cookie recipes.” (LOL over here). Do you have a favorite recipe that you ate during the first  49 days of the challenge that’s simple and easy, high in protein and Burn the Fat friendly you’d be willing to share with us?
Paulette:  My favorite recipe for the past 49 days has been my morning oatmeal. I make a mean bowl of oatmeal with goji berries, almond milk, and protein powder, nothing experimental there. In my former life a.k.a. life before the body transformation challenge, my favorite recipe blog site was www.ourbestbites.com.
These ladies also have a great new cook book that just came out a few months ago. Some of the recipes are healthy enough by themselves, but since the main objective of the website is not healthy cooking per se, I take a recipe and substitute out the not so healthy stuff and trade for healthier things and see how it turns out or if I can get my kids to eat it.
Of course some of the recipes can’t be altered like most of the dessert section is on hold until the end of the month, but if you want an excellent turkey burger, try their Mar-a-Lago turkey burger. http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/07/mar-a-lago-turkey-burgers/ I only made a couple of minor modifications like using coconut oil instead of canola, and a spicier raspberry chutney for their Majoy Grey’s chutney. Then I halved the chutney that the recipe calls for because with a spicier one, you only need half as much and you still get the flavor of it.
Tom:  Do you have any other final tips for women – especially moms – who would like to get their after-baby bodies back or simply reduce their body fat percentage?
Paulette:  Motivation that has worked for me has been getting a workout buddy; I have two friends that I workout with, and my husband. Someone’s got to open up the garage in the morning so we have to get up! Posting my fat picture and telling the world I was in a transformation contest has provided additional accountability – a lot of pressure. Well, basically you cover all those things in the BFFM book, so moms will do well to just read it and follow what it says.
Tom:  Ok, thanks a lot Paulette. We’ll be watching your continued progress checking in with you at the finish line of the summer Burn the Fat challenge so keep up the great work!
###
For more information on the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM) program visit the Burn the Fat home page at: http://www.BurnTheFatFeedTheMuscle.com
 

Subscribe to the Burn the Fat weekly newsletter and get my ebook, "The 20 Best Fat-Burning, Muscle-Building Recipes Of All Time" FREE!
Your email is safe with me!