How to Lose 100 Pounds Without Drugs, Surgery, of the Dishonor of Aerobics

11/21/08 Posted in Kettlebell Crazy  |  0 Comments

At her heaviest, Tracy Reifkind weighed 250 pounds.

In the past, she’d sloughed off the weight with a combination of reduced calories, long walks, and bodybuilding-style workouts with free weights–which she’d always considered to be time-consuming and b-o-r-i-n-g!

But now, it was time for something completely different.  She was gonna lose that weight, and she was gonna KEEP it off!

Yeah, right.  Right?

Wrong!

In open defiance of the time-honored tradition of discarded New Year’s resolutions, Tracy actually kept her promise:  she got lean and mean and 100 pounds lighter, just two days shy of Thanksgiving of that year.  And she’s kept it off for four years now–even tossing out an additional twenty pounds of junk from her trunk, onto the scrap heap of discarded fat.

How’d she do it?

Well, for one thing, she cut her calories (Sorry!  But refer to Alwyn Cosgrove’s “Hierarchy of Fat Loss”:  Diet is Number One).  This meant no more eating out.  She prepared all the meals that she ate, so she could tell what went into them, how many calories, and its nutritional content.  She limited herself to 1,500 calories a day, and ideally ate nothing more after 6 p..m.  Once a week she allowed herself a cheat meal on Saturdays, but returned to low calories on Sunday–even a modified fruit fast if she’d overdone it the evening before.

As for the exercise portion, you’ve probably already guessed it was kettlebells.  It certainly didn’t hurt that her husband, Mark, had just started up his Girya Kettlebell Training business (would that we all had a close relative in “the business” who could give us access to free instruction).  But Tracy was insistent on having it her way–”You make me work too hard!”  she’d say to him.  She just wanted to get those furschlugginer workouts out of the way as soon as possible–though she couldn’t help but notice how quickly a few swings with a little 26-pounder could get her heart rate going in so little time.  This was different!  she thought.

But okay:  twenty minutes, twice a week, that’s it, no more, she’d say.  And to get ‘em all done in that time period, she would often do them in combination’s:  swings, snatches, cleans and presses–perhaps a squat as well–in one set, mixing it all up together in a very intense, complex, twice-weekly session.  (In fact, she was working harder than she would have had she allowed Mark to train her!).  As a result, after only 12 weeks, once again, none of her clothes fit her anymore–except that this time, it was her clothes that were too big for her!  So it was time to go shopping.

In the fitting room, staring at herself in the mirror, Tracy experienced what is called the “What the Heck Effect”, as in “What the Heck!  Where did this muscle come from?”  She had lots more tone and definition than she thought she’d have from just swinging that little kettlebell around–and this, without doing the classic isolation stuff she’d known in her bodybuilding days.

Hate workouts?  Want to get ‘em out of the way and get on with your life?  Then drop that burger and swing some iron:  this kettlebell is for you! 

[You can see Tracy's before and after pictures on her website:  tracyrif.blogspot.com]