Episode 92: Transform Your Body & Habits in Just 12 Weeks—Join Our Spring Reset Challenge!

In this episode Jo and Lauren share their firsthand experience with a 12-week fitness and nutrition challenge—what worked, what surprised them, and why the biggest transformations aren’t just about the scale. They break down the structure of their plan, including strategic nutrition, weightlifting, cardio routines, and the game-changing accountability of weekly coaching check-ins.

But here’s the real takeaway: lasting change doesn’t happen overnight—it happens when you commit to a structured plan and show up for yourself. That’s why they’re launching the Spring Reset Challenge, starting April 1st! This 12-week program is designed to help you build muscle, burn fat, and finally reset your habits for good. Expect custom workout plans, personalized nutrition guidance, expert coaching, and—because a little motivation never hurts—a cash prize for the biggest transformation.

If you’ve been feeling stuck, struggling with consistency, or just need a solid plan to follow, this is your chance to get real results. Tune in and find out how you can join the challenge!  

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Transcript

0:43

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30 podcast and you've got Lauren and Joe here today and We're going to talk to you about a 12 week fitness and nutrition challenge that we are currently doing, not quite over yet and so we're excited to share how it's gone what you can get out of a 12 week challenge or, why it's good to do one and then we have some exciting news at the end we are going to be launching our own challenge that will kick off on April 1st. So we'll tell you all about that at the end of the podcast. But 1st, we'll go through how. The challenge that we're currently doing has gone believe it or not coaches are not perfect. So, we'll give you a review of what went well, and what didn't and then the results that we've gotten from doing the challenge. Lauren, you want to give a quick overview of what the challenge we've been doing has involved and we did this just we did this with A trainer that I work with her little boutique gym was running the challenge. So that's who we're doing it with. But yeah, Lauren, do you want to give a quick overview of what our challenge involved? Sure. So I guess I should start by saying the, I guess the coach or the trainer that we're using. He typically does train competitors. So our plan looked a lot like what a competitor's plan would look like. Meaning someone who competes on stage for their physique. When I say that, for those of you who don't know but I can give you an overview of, Yeah. Specifically what it looks like. So I'll just go through nutrition and the workouts and kind of the accountability piece. So the nutrition it's very structured. It is 5 to 6 depending on if you, if it's a workout day or not, 5 to 6 small meals everything is clean, whole foods. It's not extreme in terms of it being limited food or not a lot of food, but it is very specific and it's very prescribed. And what every meal looks like really is a protein source, a fat source and a carb source. And again, very clean. So a lot of the meals look like, chicken with a potato and green beans. It's very, And with, and it hits very specific in terms of like how much you eat in terms of balances, how you measure it just to make sure that it's very that you're staying, it's that the adherence is like they're so that's the nutrition piece the workouts. So it's really a weightlifting plan and cardio. And actually my, and Joe's workouts are a little different because I wanted to work out five days a week, lift five days a week. She wanted to look four days a week. But it is very structured in terms of what body parts you're working. There's, there's splits it's progressive overload. So you are doing four sets of something and you're going up in weight and down in reps every time. And you are taking rests in between those. So that is one thing that was a little bit different for me is I. Was doing like more of a superset workout. And this workout really made me rest more in between. And I actually do think it helped in muscle building a little bit. And then the other piece is cardio. So for our cardio, it's a prescribed amount of minutes of cardio after you lift. And then another session or two of cardio. And I will say the cardio has progressively gone up every week that we've been doing it. Whereas the weight lifting plan really has looked the same and then the accountability piece, we do weekly check ins all online or all virtual. So we send our weight and progress photos weekly to our coach for any plan adjustments. So yes, we are doing progress photos on a weekly basis. And the way that Joe and I do them, we try to wear the same thing, like we both have a swimsuit that we wear, we take the same poses, we pose in the same place to make sure that we're seeing the changes in our body from week to week. That's an overview of the plan. Okay, so probably what everyone wants to know is, Lauren, what results have you seen? Have you lost 30 pounds in the last, I guess we're in what, week 10, 9 or 10 of this? I think we're in week 9. Okay. We're like in the middle of week 9. Yeah, we have three more weeks. Okay, so what results have you seen? We're starting week 9, have you lost 30 pounds? No, I have not lost 30 pounds. Unfortunately, I've not even lost 10 or five. So I actually lost. a little bit right away, just because a pound right away, just because you're, cleaning your diet up so much. And a lot of it was probably just water weight. But then pretty much ever since I've only probably not probably I'm only net down a pound. The scale has fluctuated up and down, but net to date, I like from where I started, it's. a total of two pounds. So one pound when I started and then this other pound that's been fluctuating. But I will say if you look at my pictures, It does not look that way. It is pretty like, especially I would say around, it was hard to tell week to week until I started to notice like around weeks three to five in the pictures. And like my week five picture was a lot different than my week zero picture. But no it's, I've tightened up a ton. I definitely, so I did not do a body scan or anything like that before. So I don't know if I've, actually lost, I don't know the numbers, but there's no way that I have not lost fat or that would not show up on some kind of body scan. Just because, my body looks noticeably different. My clothes are fitting noticeably differently. Even people around me are like noticing. They're like, oh my god, what are you doing? You lost weight. I'm like, actually, I didn't lose weight. I'm just lifting in a different way and eating really clean. I have not lost a gazillion pounds, but I definitely have seen great results. Okay. Yeah. So my results similar this, I do these things and like probably all of you listening think, oh, I'm going to lose. 20 pounds in the first three weeks old thought patterns die hard. So like you, the scale really has barely moved. I probably down three or four pounds total on the scale, but I have had some pretty major body composition changes. So in the first month, so I do get, I have been getting in body scans just once a month. So I got one at the beginning of this. I've got a second one. And then I'm due to get my next one probably this weekend. So just from my first body scan, so I'd only been doing it about four weeks. I gained three pounds of muscle, which is crazy because I've been at this for a long time. I'm pretty conditioned. So for me to gain three pounds of muscle in a month is That's huge. I was, I knew that I was getting stronger for sure, but I was like, it was just crazy that I had gained that much muscle in a month. And then I lost 3 pounds of fat. So that explains like, why the scale really didn't move at all. And so I'm not, again, I haven't gotten the next body scan, but I would guess. A similar trend, and then I know that I have just gotten noticeably leaner in my waist and my back and way more definition in my shoulders and arms. We always joke about, having getting Rebecca arms from Ted lasso. So I would say mine are starting to look like that noticeably different. And then the other crazy thing, which goes along with gaining the muscle my strength has probably almost doubled in all of my lifts. And definitely like hitting PRs and every one of my lifts. That's fun. So I didn't get the result. I'm not getting the results. I thought I would get, but I'm very pleased with the results. I am getting and, gaining muscle is so hard. And so I think that's pretty amazing. So wasn't expecting it, but those are the gains that I've had. Okay. Yeah. What have you loved about the challenge? What stood out to you, Lauren? I just love eating the same thing every day. No I really. Okay. So let's back up. So this challenge was brought to me by Joe on a Friday night randomly saying, wouldn't it be so great to do this challenge? And I said, no, I don't really want to do this. I challenge all I don't want to think about this. No but I, was like, okay, I'll do it. And I will say I'm so happy. I did it because. It was very structured and at, I just need, I need that in order to really make any noticeable change, like on my body. So I loved how structured it was. I, is it fun eating the same ish foods constantly? No, but like it really, you know what you're eating, you're not second guessing anything. Same thing with the workouts. They're very structured. Someone's telling me exactly what to do. Same with the cardio. It's just nice being told what to do and not thinking about it. And just taking a step back and trusting the process. So I have loved that about the challenge that I really leaned into it. And it's just just how structured it is. Cause I just, I don't think at this point I could have done anything like this any other way. But just like taking the thought out of it has been really great. Yeah, I would say same. Initially, the food felt really boring. But I have just loved the simplicity of there's no decision fatigue. I know exactly what I'm going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mine I have been able to, we have some optionality in terms of two choices of, different meats for lunch and same for dinner. And so I have just found creative marinades and stuff and different ways to cook my chicken. different ways to prep vegetables. It's become second nature at this point. And just what my family eats, my family is even eating this food. And I think Of course, they've all lost more weight than I have boys. That's how it always goes. But I've also really enjoyed weightlifting program. They gave me it's making me train muscle groups that I sometimes skip. I don't usually spend a lot of time. Doing biceps, but I have a bicep tricep super set at the end of my upper body workouts and sure. That's why my arms are looking so ripped right now. So I don't know. I just have, it's just been a different workout that I've done in a long time and it's just fun to switch it up and do different exercises. It's not totally different, but just different enough that it's been a nice change of pace. And then also, Also more fun when you see that you are just getting stronger as you go through the challenge and then, but, for me, I would say the biggest one has just been rebuilding some discipline and habits and I will say I'm going to feel and look my best heading into spring break. I'm going to Mexico for a week. So always fun to not dread getting into the swimsuit on one of those trips. So that those are. That's what I've loved about it. I have also, I have not found it stressful really at all. Compared to other like getting ready for a show or something. So that's been really nice. Like I haven't felt like pressure. I've been able to pretty much work everything in like at first when this is just, this might just be me or everyone like, but when I first got the new nutrition plan, it was a little anxiety provoking, but then honestly. When I sat and looked at it and did just did it for a week. It just became very easy. I've liked that. I've gotten results. I've really followed it, but it has been not like that pressure stressful feeling of. Having to get certain results every week, because you have a 13 week or 16 week runway to get into a microscopic bikini. I have enjoyed that. Okay. Any lessons learned? What has been your biggest takeaway from this Lauren? So I think honestly, it was the cardio aspect of this. So I'm sure if you guys know us, like we are. We would, we've always said we use cardio very strategically and we don't want anybody coming to us doing a million hours of cardio and that's still very true. But I will say that I've changed my view a little bit on that. No, like we all really need some cardio in our lives, like every week. And also the way they have us doing it is just like right after you, you lift. And I think that has. honestly really helped with fat loss. I just think there's something about it. And then the other cardio thing that was big to me that I just never, I don't, I've always been a very hit cardio person. If I'm not doing hit and I'm not getting my heart rate up to 160 and I'm not sweating like a ton, then it's not doing anything. But they actually have us doing I guess it's like zone two, but it's between one we keep our heart rate between one 20 and one 40 and I think that also has been a game changer in the fat loss because that, if you do read about it, that is like the sweet spot for fat loss and I think keeping that under control and doing it. And you can also do it longer, right? If your heart rate's not going between 100 and 160, you're not going to get as fatigued. So the cardio piece has probably been the biggest lesson I've learned. And my biggest takeaway from this, I'm going to do cardio differently. Also I think I, I am really bad still like at. Spacing my meals out and by doing, these like five to six small meals a day, I remembered how good it feels to not feel hunger or not feel bloated or like that over. And just keeping your mood also stable and your energy stable. So that's like another, not like it's a lesson that I didn't know, but it's definitely something that I'm like, Oh yeah, that's why you do it that way because it makes you feel a lot better. Yeah. Yeah, and that's I always love every coach I've ever worked with. I've always learned something from them. So that was like, another reason I wanted to do. The challenge is just every coach does things a little bit differently. Every coach has different tools and their toolbox. And so I just love learning from different coaches. So I think so 1 thing that this challenge had me do that no coaches had me do before is I got a very specific post snack after I lifted. So it was. Yeah. Some protein and carbs and. I have to tell you, I think that was the biggest game changer when it, when I first saw it in the plan, I was like, what I'm supposed to have I wasn't sure how I would fit it in because I left late afternoon. So I'm like, okay, so I'm going to eat a snack and then go eat dinner. But I did and I just. The main thing I noticed is that I really have not been sore, which again is crazy to me that I gained so much muscle, but really have not been sore, usually when you lift that hard, you can't like, walk up and down the stairs, but I haven't had any of that. My soreness has been really mitigated. And I think it's because of that post. That snack after, I'm gonna call it like that, post that recovery snack. Yeah. But also just, I think I have learned a lot or paid more attention to meal timing for performance. So I know even if I'm not hungry, if I make sure to eat all the food in my plan, like my lifts go a lot better and then I'm not, I can recover from my workouts and. Basically, life so much easier when there's, there is something to timing your nutrition not for weight loss, I would say, but just more for like energy management. So I felt really good throughout this. I haven't been overly hungry. I haven't been exhausted. So that's been really nice. At 1st, I think we both had this. It felt like this. We felt like we were eating just it was like, oh, God, time to eat again. And it was, it's like a lot of whole foods. So you can that feels like eating a lot of food, but I've really realized my body really needed all of it to progress. So overall, I would just say, I don't think I'm eating more calories, but it feels like I'm definitely eating more whole foods and more probably getting in more vegetables and fruits and. I would not say more protein, but just protein timed a little bit differently. And so overall I've had really good sleep again, my recovery, I've not been sore. And then, had some real muscle gains. So that's what I've liked about it. Okay. Were you perfect during this challenge? Lauren, did you do every aspect of it? A hundred percent? No. So I will say that for the first probably solidly five weeks, I, did it perfectly. So the other thing that I left out when I was talking about the program or like the nutrition piece of it was is we do get one cheat meal a week. And so that actually really helps break up kind of the fatigue of eating the same thing and kind of gives you something to look forward to. So that really helped. And I also think it does give your body a little boost or something. But for the first five weeks, I only, had my cheat meal once a week. I literally got all of the cardio in all of the workouts in. And then I had to travel for work and then started to go off of it. Not great. I still was like, I was probably following like more of I was probably getting the same macros, but obviously I was traveling. So it was like, I was at a restaurant and I was like, okay, give me a chicken breast and whatever vegetables you have. So it wasn't, perfect all the time. But still was getting my workouts in. And then I went to Mexico last week and totally went off of it. that's just, li enjoy vacations. And a little bit hard to get the last couple of days s Again, like it was, it's a lot easier for me to keep the workouts consistent than the food. And so I was still really consistent with the workouts. But today I'm fully back on it. So that's the plan for the next, till it's over. I think we probably had a similar experience. Yeah, I was really dialed in the first 4 weeks, I would say, but then I think this is just like a fact of life veered in about 4 weeks. And I don't know why February was just a weird month for me. I had some travel, we were snowed in. I think we're going to get be snowed in later this week as we record this, but lots of snow days, which I don't know why that. Yeah. Should affect anything, but it does. So I was not 100%, but I would say pretty close. So I think I have lifted. I've missed only 2 lifting sessions. I have not done all of my cardio, but I have done more than I would have not on the plan. And I would say I stuck to the nutrition about 80 percent of the time. The 20 percent being like, when we were on trips. Or like maybe the snow days prevented me from getting to the store to get like eggs or something, but I've always come back to the plan and I would say having a set plan makes it so easy to get back on track when life inevitably veers in. So I haven't had much guilt. I think knowing me and my perfectionist ways, I. I am someone like, if I'm not doing it perfectly, I just throw the whole baby out with the bathwater. So I have not done that. And I'm very proud of myself. And I would say I have not done that because of the check ins and I have some external accountability. I did miss taking pictures 1 week. But I took them the next week and yeah, so external accountability is a huge benefit of doing a challenge. I would say. Okay, so on to our exciting announcement. So we are going to be doing our own or hosting our own challenge called the spring reset. So this will also be a 12 week nutrition and fitness challenge that we will kick off on April 1st and it will help you get your habits cleaned up and feeling the best for summer. So what you will get with this challenge is also a custom workout plan. So your workout plan will like. Have everything you need to do in a particular week, so it will cover weightlifting what cardio you need to do, and it will be designed to build muscle and burn fat. You will get a nutrition plan. It will have more optionality than Lauren and I had with our plan, but you it's not a macro tracking challenge, so you will have, I would call it like meal formulas for each meal that you can pick like from a. Okay. Type of protein and a carbon, but very structured and mostly comprised of whole unprocessed foods. So I would say your initial nutrition plan, I would think of it like fueling for performance like Lauren and I did with this challenge. And if you want to experience what your body does, like on whole unprocessed foods, this would be a good way to try it, but not overly restrictive from a calorie standpoint. You will get accountability and coaching, so we will also have weekly check ins. You will also get coaching calls and other educational resources. We did not have that with the challenge that we did, but we will baby step you through it and have coaching calls where we will tell you, like, how to implement this. And if you have questions about lifting or. Recipe, ideas for getting the nutrition figured out, we will have coaching resources for you and then there will be a cash prize for the winner. I want to emphasize that this is not a weight loss challenge. So it's not like a biggest loser thing. And whoever loses the most pounds on the scale is going to win. The winner will be determined by who experiences the biggest transformation. And Lauren and I will determine that based on the weekly check ins. And what we're going to be looking for is who experienced the big. Experiences is the biggest change that could be in body composition that could be in strength that could be just in habit and lifestyle change. And again, how we will measure that is by your check in. So you do have to participate in the check ins. If you want to be considered for the cash prize, but there will be a cash prize. The amount will basically be based on how many people participate in the challenge. Part of the enrollment fee for the. The challenge will go towards a pot for a cash prize. So the more that participate in the challenge, the bigger that cash prize will be. Lauren, do you want to talk about who this would be for like the ideal candidate for this challenge? Yes. So this would be for someone who truly wants to get stronger and build muscle improve your body composition. See more physical changes or changes like in pictures, I would say, tone up because a lot of this, what we're doing, it's going to boost your metabolism because we are giving you these really protein filled diets with whole foods and then obviously the weight lifting component of it. So definitely someone who wants to really, focus on weightlifting and focus on muscle building. If you need structure and accountability. This is for you for sure without crash dieting, something that you can maybe have accountability and actually sustain. And I think this is also great if you were a beginner and like tracking macros or not knowing where to start weightlifting wise or cardio wise or. Just not knowing what to do if you're a beginner. I think this is really good or it's just really good if you need a reset just a total reset on your habits or just a total reset on, getting, just cleaning out your body really. Like I, like Joe and I are not beginners, but I think we both would say this was just a great reset. So I think, I think this is it'd be really good for, previous clients or past clients that kind of want to come back and start a new. that would be like a really good candidate. Who this is not for, if you want some quick fix where the scale is going to go down, five pounds a week, this is not for you. This is not going to happen. Because, as we talked about, you are building muscle and losing fat at the same time, you might not see a big movement on the scale. So if you're going to get very frustrated by. maybe not having a weight loss over the 12 weeks or, if you're looking for, the number to drop, this might not be for you. And also this is a challenge and it is a challenge in terms of we're challenging you and you should challenge yourself. It's going to require effort and consistency. It's not going to be easy. You're going to, you're going to be out of your comfort zone. You might feel like this is too much lifting or this is too much cardio or this is like too strict or it's going to feel like a challenge. It's going to feel hard. And then also you really do need access to a gym or you have a very elaborate home gym if you're going to work out at home. You're going to, you're going to need, you're going to need workout equipment. So you're not going to be able to do this if it's just, you want to do this with bands and five pound dumbbells it's just not going to work. So I think that's the ideal candidate. Someone who just wants to like build muscles, see how their body responds to something like this. Who's curious. And. Isn't really looking for some miracle. Yeah. And I think if you are someone who has only tried to lose weight by crash dieting, this might be a really good thing to try. Again, we're going to be like, you'll be fueling for performance, which is a lot different from just. Perch calorie restriction and also your workouts are really going to be optimized for changing your body composition and getting stronger and toning up. And so it could just be a new approach that give you a new approach to how maybe get ready for swimsuit season. I think. It would be ideal for someone like that. Okay, who this is not for. You covered that Lauren. I also want to say if you have just recently had a very major medical diagnosis, like. You have a broken limb. You have recently been diagnosed with cancer, you're actively undergoing like chemotherapy treatment, or you just have some major illness that this would not be the time to start a challenge, or I would say any challenge like, you really need to focus on your health. And I think not that there would be anything wrong with the nutrition or some of the workouts, it's just going to be really hard to push yourself if you have any of those conditions going on. Just wanted to be very transparent about that. So you might be wondering how this differs from our regular coaching program, like our one on one, what we call our metabolic makeover program. So number one and so listen up if you were a past client or you're like, oh, I don't, some of the aspects of their program don't sound that interesting to me. Number one, there's not going to be any macro tracking, so you're just going to get very structured nutrition guidance and honestly, that has been nice. I will enjoy going back to macro tracking because it has a lot of flexibility, but sometimes it's nice to not just to not have to track everything. And, just if if you hit your marks and you follow the meal plan, you're good for the day. And honestly, sometimes not even knowing how much protein you're eating or that kind of thing is can be really, green but so no macro tracking, you're just going to get very structured nutrition guidance that you're going to follow really less personalization in the challenge, meaning, you're going to follow a very set. Challenge plan, there will be some customization based on different things that you tell us when you fill out. Sort of the form that we'll have you fill out. But in our one on one coaching program, like we really say we meet you where you're at. And so if you come to us and say I can only work out one day a week and I only have bands, then we will create that program for you. This does not going to work like that. If you go back to your coach or you come to us and say I really don't like doing, like Bulgarian split squats on my lower body day. And I just don't like those. We're not going to change your entire plan. Again, this is to challenge you and get you out of your comfort zone. Now, if you have an injury or something, we may change something for you, but less, less flexible than our normal workout plan. It's really just to get you out of your comfort zone and challenge you. And then I would say it's probably going to be more intense than. When clients come to us, we again, we really try to meet them where they are and not institute a bunch of big changes at once so that people can just start stacking habits. This will be more intense. Again, it is a challenge. So I would expect more cardio than we usually give in our plans. And again, more structured nutrition and probably push you harder in your weightlifting sessions. So that's how it difference from differs from our personalized coaching. If that is still available, if you want to do that, and you're not interested in the challenge, but I just wanted to explain the difference. If you are ready to commit and see some real results for summer, please join us for our spring reset challenge. Again, it will kick off April 1st. There will be a link in the show notes to learn more about the challenge and also to sign up. And so there will be limited spots in the challenge. We can only handle so many clients. So if you know that you want to do this, go ahead and reserve your spot. And then we will get you going on April 1st, anything else to tell our listeners, Lauren about this. I would just reiterate what the difference is think of this as truly a challenge, whereas when we are coaching, in the normal course, it's really coaching for lifestyle. And we aren't going to say that the challenge is going to be applicable to your lifestyle as a whole. So that really to me, that's the big difference is. When we are coaching someone, we really are coaching for sustainability and how you live this as a lifestyle, we aren't expecting this challenge, all of the aspects of this challenge to be a lifestyle. Think about it. You can think about it like that, too. But no, it is a great program to do right before summer for sure. Yeah. Yeah, like I said, link will be in the show notes. If you want to learn more and sign up, if you have questions, feel free to schedule a call with us and we can answer any questions you have. But otherwise have a great week and we will catch you next time. Thanks. Bye. Bye.