This week, my business partner Jeff is in town from Colorado (He keeps the Diet Solution Program running smoothly).

Jeff and I go way back to college. Yesterday, over lunch (grilled pecan crusted salmon over organic greens, just in case you were wondering) we were reminiscing about the good ol’ days. Jeff so painfully reminded me “How funny was it that my roommates and I used to call you Quadszilla?”. (Thanks Jeff. Just when I thought I had dealt with that in therapy.)

Let me explain.

My weight loss efforts began in college when I thought I was doing all the right things, exercising and eating healthy. Unfortunately for my 5 foot nothing frame, instead of getting lean and defined, I was actually starting to get bulky! Every woman’s fear of getting bigger when weight training was actually happening to me…so much so that my friends were calling me “Quadszilla” at the increasing size of my legs. AAAHHHH…This is just about the worst thing that can happen to any girl, especially in college, when all you want is to be the cute girl on campus (trust me, big quads on me was not cute).

What was I doing wrong?

1. The “diet” I was following was all wrong. After reading many so called health and fitness magazines, I started eating protein shakes, health bars, processed diet foods, and kept a low-fat diet….and guess what? I was getting LARGER!

2. I was also following the exercise programs in these magazines. They were filled with countless hours of cardio and worthless machine based exercises that were all wrong. Again, making me LARGER!

3. I was drinking Diet Coke and Diet Iced Tea as my drinks of choice. (I don’t need to repeat the larger thing again do I?).

What should I have done?

1. I should have followed a realistic nutrition plan filled with natural, un-processed foods such as organic eggs, natural meats, fruits and veggies and good healthy oils.

2. I should have followed an exercise program that consisted of circuit training, interval training and full body exercises that used bodyweight and dumbbells (most machines are so unnecessary).

3. I should have focused on drinking a lot more water and let go of the diet drinks. As I have said before, diet drinks make people fat! I know. I was one of them.

These lessons I learned the hard way. And it took me quite a while to figure it all out. But, thankfully, now, many years later, I’ve got this down to a science and I’m happy to share it with you.

Are you making any of these mistakes in your nutrition and exercise plan? Is it time to finally make a change?

And if I see you walking down the street, don’t you dare call me “Quadszilla”. Those days are over!

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com