Men’s 5-Week Transformation Winner Loses 25 Pounds

Body Transformation Contest: Charles Hiller Jr.Last week I interviewed Mary Pipken, the women’s TT transformation contest winner who lost an inspiring 4 pounds and 5 inches around her waist in just 5 weeks.

Today, I thought I’d introduce the men’s winner, Charles Hiller Jr. In the same amount of time, Charles dropped an incredible 25 pounds and 3.9 inches of fat! So let’s see if we can glean some useful fat loss tips from the man whose “quality of life has greatly improved”.

**********************

CB: Tell us a bit about your background…what types of lifestyle did you have prior to Turbulence Training?

CH: For the most part I was sedentary. Worked an average of 50- 60 hours a week, and was going to school about 10 hours a week. I work as an Instrument and Controls tech. for a generic pharmaceutical company, and spent most of my day at a desk reviewing paper work or writing new procedures. I would be out on the floor maybe about 2 hours a day. My commute was anywhere from 1-2 hours a day, so I really was not that active.

I use to play Judo 2-3 times a week and that was my main form of exercise. About 2 years ago, I had some chest pain, that ended up being stressed related, and my doctor had told me he did not want me to do anything more than brisk walking till I was under 300 pounds, at the time I was around 340.

CB: What was “the last straw” that made you decided to take control with Turbulence Training?

CH: There were many straws it is hard for me to pick just one….

…missing the Judo mat was one, since I stopped playing I had creeped up to around 370 in about a year and felt horrible, had no energy, and was losing self confidence.

I have small children that I have every other weekend, and it got to the point that I could not do anything with them anymore. Carrying them on my shoulders or taking a hike in the woods became a CHORE, it was not fair to them to be couch potatoes, because their father, the guy that is suppose to set the example, couldn’t get off the couch or was afraid to leave the air conditioning.

Having to pay more for clothes and not being able to purchase them in regular stores was a major thing too.

Mostly, was the self image I had in the mirror, I would look at myself and literally feel like I would have to puke. Every time I heard someone laugh I would just assume I was being made fun of. People would tell me your not fat your just a big guy, and I would want to just scream at them to stop lying to me. I ruined many a relationship because of this self image.

CB: What kind of nutrition changes did you make that seemed to have the most impact on your transformation? How big of an impact was Isabel’s Diet Solution Program?

CH: The first thing I did was to immediately STOP EATING all packaged and processed foods.

I was originally following Precision Nutrition by John Berdari, and after about two weeks into the program I came across Isabel’s system from a link on one of your blogs, and gave it try. I ran the program by my A&P instructor, who has a great background, acupuncturist, cscs, and chek practioner, who happened to know Isabel, and I immediately changed programs.

I was never really a very picky eater so I was open to change; my thing was always QUICK and EASY. I never thought I had the time to prepare meals.

So after reading The Diet Solution, I made an INSTANT SWITCH to Organic fruits and vegetables, free range meats and eggs, and raw dairy products. It took about 2 weeks to find local suppliers that I that I felt that I could trust, but it was well worth the effort. I am probably compliant with the organic life style 80% of the time.

I still have yet to find a sweetener that I like more than the Sugar in the Raw, that I am using. So I cut my coffee intake down from about 3 pots a day to 2 cups, so I use 2 packets of that a day.

Isabel’s system was like a super detox for me, so many things CHANGED for me in a short time: energy levels, mood stability, and a general sense of balance.

I also started to use Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat program…

…at first I fasted once a week, now I am fasting every 4th day, this was a lot easier than I thought it would be, the greatest benefit that I got from that was, now I know when I am hungry or eating for some other reason, it really helped me get IN TUNE with my body and its wants and needs.

CB: What nutrition advice do you have for TT readers that are “beginners” to good nutrition? Did you make a lot of changes at once or did you start with small changes?

CH: My advice is to read everything with an open mind and check the research.

There are so many systems out there, you need to find one that will MAKE SENSE to you and will be something that you feel you can change for the LONG HAUL, not just a quick fix….

…I am the king of quick fixes and they never last long. For me I eased into the systems over a couple of weeks, but I am an all or nothing type of person, I have problems with middle ground lol. I found the programs that I ended up using to be simple, easy, and just common sense.

I am constantly sending people to the different web sites to check them out. I was also fearful of the elevated cost of ORGANIC and FREE RANGE foods, but I soon realized that the benefits where well worth it, but also since I was not buying the processed packaged items anymore, I was eating about the same but my grocery bill was lower each week.

CB: How did you deal with the binge eating that was a problem in the past?

CH: In all honesty, I learned when my body needed fuel, or something else that was not true hunger. I learned how to read what was going on inside of me, and react to it appropriately. Also, I noticed once I started to eat cleanly, the urges for binge eating all but DISSIPATED.

I had a day where I forgot my meals at home and instead of going to the grocery store across the street and getting some fruit or nuts to hold me over till I got home I allowed myself to go out with my co-workers to the Chinese buffet for lunch, from the word go it seemed I forgot everything that I had been doing and within hours my body knew what I did to it, and all the bad habits came running back….

…I felt bloated and sluggish and noticed a change in my mental clarity; I was shocked at how fast my body reacted to the crap I had shoveled into it. It took me a good 2-3 weeks to get back to a compliance level that I was happy with.

I have also adopted a different way of looking at food too, now when I want to eat something that I know is not the best choice for me, instead of the “it’s not too bad for me” argument, I ask myself “how good is this for me?”. This thought pattern seems to put things in perspective.

I also don’t hold myself to eating at a certain time of day, I eat when I am about a 7 on a 1-10 hunger scale, and I eat about a 1/3 of what I’m use to eating, then I wait 15 minutes and I will have another 1 or 2 mouthfuls and that usually satisfies me.

I also slowed down my eating; I would “wolf” down my meals in under 5 minutes, I had always been a very quick eater. Now it may take me about 10 minutes to eat a meal, and I try to enjoy the taste and texture of everything I eat.

I have really CHANGED my relationship with food.

****************************

Join us tomorrow where we finish the second part of Charles Hiller Jr’s transformation interview and learn what other effective fat loss tips he has to share.

For more inspiring body transformation success stories, check out www.TransformationContest.com.