Success Stories Archives

The Cheena Bike Letter

From Superfan Cindy “Cheena Bike”:

Something amazing happened yesterday while I was riding my bike. One of my fellow cyclists/kick-ass chick AKA- Kristie Concepcion said to me: Hey, follow behind my wheel, come on! I said- Who me? Yeah right! I thought me? She’s an Ironman and she kicks ass. But anyhow, I did and was able to hang on for a good 5 miles with her!

3 months ago, I could of never done this! The point to this message is:

2 hrs before my cycling, I ate 2 hard boiled eggs and half a slice of a small avocado. Right before the ride I had my own homemade coconut oil/peanut butter ball thingies that I make for the week.

When I followed behind her, it was like something in my legs turned on, like turbo? And I was fine, no pain and I didn’t feel like I was going to bonk! I had this burst of energy!!! It was amazing Granted, this is not how I’ve been riding. I’ve been following your advice and I alternate between zones and I think that all this hard work was put to the test yesterday. So, It’s good to know that If I needed to go that fast my body could do it. WOW!!

I know you’re a pro! But this to me is a big deal and I see so much more potential in me with my biking and I LOVE IT!!!! Thank you, thank you! It’s like finally that light bulb turned on!!! I get criticize by family and friends who do not agree with my NSNG lifestyle…They tell me that I’m killing myself, but I’ve never as great as I do now!!! I must be doing something right! I just tend to be a little impatient and just want to shed all this weight off NOW! But I know how it works now all thanks to you.

Cindy

Another listener shares success story

by Vinnie Tortorich

Here at Vinnie’s Bar & Grill, we love to hear great news. Here is a copy of a letter we received from a podcast listener…

Dear Vinnie

I’ve managed to make it to 43 without ever feeling the need to send a ‘fanboy’ letter – here’s my first.

You’ve heard the story many times before. Athletic in college; played a lot of sports (rugby, soccer, boxed) and left university in 1991 at a rock solid 190 pounds. Within 3 years I was up to 250 and by mid 2010 I was up to 280. My blood pressure was high, I had aches and pains and I decided enough was enough. I joined a gym and over the next few months got a little fitter, dropped 30 pounds and counted the calories. Fast forward to late 2012 and whilst I was relatively fit I was back up to 280 pounds…….and then I stumbled across your podcast and saw the light.

Over the course of the last 4 months I’ve gone all-in, hardly touched any sugars or grains and am regularly seen eating lumps of cheese with a handful of nuts As a result I am 35 pounds lighter and rediscovering my athletic self. And I ain’t even on a diet!

I’m typing this message whilst sat at Austin airport waiting for a flight back to Europe (I’m a Brit who lives in Spain but who works for an Austin based company). I’ve been in town for the Houston to Austin MS150 event with a number of colleagues. I started slowly on both days but literally flew on the back nine both days and got hoarse from shouting ‘on your left’ I averaged 17 miles a hour over the event and my average heart rate was 137 so I wasn’t even killing myself. I’m sat here feeling as fresh as a daisy looking forward to more riding later this week.

So a massive THANK YOU to you sir.

By the way I’ve tried to throw a little coal on the fire by buying books on amazon via your site but the link just goes to amazon.com whereas I have an account with amazon.co.uk. But having said that when your book comes out I promise to buy a tonne direct (so you don’t need to give a cut to amazon) to distribute to friends and colleagues because people need to know about this shit.

Best wishes
Colin

PS. If you haven’t copyrighted ‘no sugars no grains’ you should immediately
PPS. Not sure how many listeners you have in Europe but if the numbers are good you should look to sign up wiggle as an affiliate. They are a massive on-line bike store and I think they’d help throw some coal on the fire.

Couple drops pounds together

by Vinnie Tortorich

Since we are in between podcasts, I wanted to share this success story I received from listeners Nate and Maya. Their progress really speaks for itself, so without further ado, I’ll turn it over to Nate…

Hi Vinnie,

Wanted to give you an update following our conversation. So quick recap: My girlfriend Maya and I, mostly vegan (though a little dairy here and there) we’re both 38, exercise regularly, eat pretty clean, but we got a little soft over the holidays. We got motivated to get whipped into shape for an upcoming work trip and to visit friends. I told my Maya all about your podcast and we decided to give the no grains no sugar a shot.

In just a few we were amazed. I seemed to go from 190 to 180 in no time. Normally this takes much longer or so it seems because I normally depriving myself via calorie deficit. It just melted off effortlessly this time and I didn’t necessarily change my workouts. So I’m a huge fan and I’m going to stick with it. I loved amping up the olives, avocados, pepitas, flax, and chia seeds almost with impunity! I did have some cheese for a treat a few times a week.

Maya was also impressed with how quick 15lbs was vaporized. She was immediately over the moon! She did plateau after this initial very easy loss as you’ve said. But, she was encouraged when I told her this was expected. So we tweaked a few things and dialed-back the fat…Just a little though. I think it was just a case of too much of a good thing for a minute there. It didn’t take much to resume the weight loss though. Plateau was a week, tops. Maya was back on track with a loss of about 1-2 lbs per week. I’m already at a 4-pack which usually takes me 6-8 weeks of disciplined calorie counting and religious cardio. And for the last 2 to become visible are usually the hardest (and hungriest) but it seems incredibly easy now! Honestly, it feels too easy.

So there you have it. We are off to an amazing start. We can also echo what everyone else is saying too: After not have having sugar\grains for a while- you can really feel it when you do. We just feel better without it altogether. This way of eating changed the way we’ll eat forever!

Thanks again for the tips and the amazing program! And also your interest in our progress and our health!

Salute!

Nate

What No Sugar/No Grains has done for Karen and her husband…

by Vinnie Tortorich

There’s a group on Facebook called Vinnie’s No Sugar/No Grains Ladies. Even though it’s a ladies group, they’ve invited me and several other men to join. The group shares all things no sugar/no grains that we talk about on the podcast, as well as helping each other out in staying on track to reach their goals. I usually make a daily trip to the group to see what’s going on. I saw this post today by Karen Kaufmann Whitlock. I thought it was pretty cool, so I’m sharing it with the rest of my audience. Enjoy…

So ladies (and sexy gents), I just hit the one month mark of NSNG! This is a long post so grab your bullet coffee and take a seat… After a month, I am feeling great and can’t believe how easy it really has been. As someone who used to eat desserts, fast food and other processed snacks every single day that is saying A LOT! Despite the crazy eating habits I exercise a lot so wouldn’t have said I needed to lose weight but definitely felt like I wasn’t as fit as I could have been. Like if you took a fit person and slathered them with a layer of buttercream frosting. Mmmm buttercream….I have crossed the finish lines of two iron distance races still feeling like I had work to do. If you can exercise 20 hours a week and still feel like you look doughy it is time to look at other aspects of your life. I knew I needed to clean up my nutrition. As they say, you can’t exercise away bad eating. I read a ton of blogs so I have read a little bit about most of the lifestyles out there from vegan to vegetarianism and fruititarianism. I knew I could not stick with any of that long term – too many rules, not enough variety or too much counting and calculating. NSNG seemed like the perfect fit. Very straightforward and easy to follow. I am not trying to go hard core ketosis even though I enjoy peeing on a stick and bragging about it as much as the rest of you. I simply cut out the sugars and the grains. After a month, I am down 5 pounds. I am basically at ironman weight right now without having to put in all the exercise. Pretty amazing considering I was not exercising even at normal “off season” volume last month so basically that loss is due to changing my eating habits.

My husband, Rick, has been on the plan about a week. He just came downstairs to tell me that he took his belt in a notch this morning. He is down 6 pounds. (We are hoping the lifestyle change will help control his slightly high blood pressure and high triglycerides without the need for meds– that is what convinced him to give it a try – he is still on the meds now but are anxious to see if the numbers change at his next appointment). It has been a little tougher for him as he is picky when it comes to veggies. Thankfully, he loves salads so we have been eating a lot of salads. I also made the tomato soup Mandy posted and loved that so he is branching out :)

When I jumped into this lifestyle last month, I decided I would do it in phases. I have a serious Diet Dr. Pepper addiction. I knew I couldn’t let sugar, grains and my diet cokes go all at once. That is a recipe for craziness. Month one was full on NSNG with a side order of diet cokes as usual. Today begins month two. As someone who was literally raised on Tab and Diet Shasta I am thinking this might be the harder habit to kick. We’ll call it giving up diet coke for Lent but am hoping it will extend past 40 days. Here we go – no sugar, no grains, no diet coke. Whew….