We just completed a couple new 6-day express test groups, and I am constantly amazed at the motivation people get from the numbers.
It is enlightening to hear someone bragging about losing "ten pounds in 6 days", especially when they fully understand that often much of it is water weight. It's that sense of accomplishing something - anything - that matters. You know you're on the right track when you stick with something and see results, results in both the stats and the way your body feels.
With the rising rate of obesity in the country, finding
any traction on a solution that can affect real behavior change toward a healthier lifestyle is nothing short of a breakthrough. Society so easily embraces surgical and drug therapies for weight control. The science and medical industries are blindly entrusted with being the source of "new breakthroughs", and behavioral and psychological factors are largely dismissed.
But at Beachbody we're seeing proof that it's the other way around. When you succeed in the psychological battle, the physical benefits from healthy habits like eating and exercise follow. Not drug therapies. Not surgery. Not short term results
this way - with long term maintenance
that way.
Many of the people we interview have a lot of weight to lose. But with a dose of early success, they sound energetic, and for once engaged in taking care of themselves. But what is equally encouraging is they are also not fooling themselves. They know to lose more, they need to keep at it. They know they're not going to lose ten pounds every week. But they do see that to get results, they need to get toned and build metabolism-supporting muscle, and they need to continue to put the effort into meal planning to properly fuel the body. It's a snapshot of a healthy reality. Get a small taste of success, and the long term doesn't seem so difficult.
When we first launched the
6 day express concept under
Slim in 6, we took a lot of heat from people who felt it was a sell out. But if you ask anyone who struggles with weight, the big hurdle between getting started on a healthy program or not is skepticism that all the effort will really pay off. So the 6 Day Express was the perfect way to launch people into a change of habits, without all the confusion that waits for you at every turn, with almost every click of your mouse.
I mean, just look at all these different diets listed on "AOL's Diet A to Z": 3-Hour Diet, 6-Day Body Makeover, 8 Minutes in the Morning, Abs Diet, Atkins, Blood Type, Body for Life, Cabbage Soup, Jenny Craig, Curves Online, eDiets, Fat Flush, Fit-for-Life, French Women's Diet, Glycemic Index, Grapefruit, Bob Greene Chic, Hamptons, L.A. Shape, LA Weight Loss, Living Low Carb, Nutrisystem, Dean Ornish Moderation!, Dr. Phil, Perricone Promise, Picture Perfect, Pritikin, Scarsdale, Slim-Fast, Step Diet, Solution Low carb, South Beach, Sugar Busters, Suzanne Somers, Weight Watchers, and The Zone.
Are you kidding me? Which one is supposed to be the "right one"? Read that list and one thing is so perfectly clear: Success is just not about a new diet breakthrough. It's about having simple tools to do the one proven thing that will reverse years of body abuse, and staying motivated to stay with it. All you need is a plan to:
1. Space your meals so you eat every three hours or so.
2. Eat enough to preserve your metabolism, but not so much you store more than you burn
3. Choose foods more so you properly fuel your body more than just trying to please your tongue.
4. Exercise with enough intensity that you burn excess calories but maintain muscle mass
And you need to be consistent for enough time to make a difference. That's what we are trying to inspire people to do at Beachbody. In ten days with
Turbo Jam, Hollie Shillig lost 19 pounds. In 7 days with
Yoga Booty Ballet, Fay Greene lost 7 pounds. With
Kathy Smith's Project: YOU! Yuri Lowenthal lost 11 pounds in six days.
The short term results are impressive, but kind of meaningless from a health perspective until you look at how those express results foreshadow the overall success of using a healthy balanced program. Super model Kim Alexis lost 10 pounds in her first 6 days of Slim in 6, and a full 29 pounds by the time she completed the program! So many of the huge
weight loss success stories we receive from real customers demonstrate the value of these express programs to the overall results.
So my point here is, an express program is a tool, intended to be an incredibly meaningful motivator when you need a motivator. If you EVER find yourself in need of a boost to get on track, as little as 6 days of focus can get you going. It's not cheating if it is the springboard you need to remind yourself how good it feels when you don't feel bloated, when you feel more energetic, and when you can really see that YOU are in control of your body.
So when the string of big holiday dinners draw to a close, kick yourself back into gear with your own express program, and see how quickly your body - and mind - respond.
<<<< If you see this by your name when you workout in WOWY, you are not yet ready for primetime! We've got staff coming in late Saturday to clean up all the requests for photo uploads - so if your photo isn't uploaded yet, there's still time!
As of this entry over 160 people have set their WOWY workout schedule for Sunday Jan 1 at 1PM ET/10AM PT. That's when we'll be choosing one member to win the $1,000 cash prize - at 10AM - just for starting off the New Year the healthy, WOWY-way!
Tony went to work with the tooling folks and manufacturers, filed a patent application, and when they finally met his very narrow specifications, he had created the most heavy duty of all push-up stands in the land.
I could write volumes about the quality of the staff at Beachbody and Product Partners and I'd still never totally capture the enthusiasm, professionalism, and team culture that you can feel when you step through the door.
Last night was our annual holiday blow-out, which has come a long way since the very first dinner Jon Congdon, Rich Saitsky (our first VP of finance and operations) and I had at an Italian restaurant where we actually chose the wine off the menu based on how many airings of the Thin Thighs Guaranteed spot were playing that week on the Great American Country cable network.
It's a different story these days with a company of over 60 people celebrating our growth and the legions of satisfied successful customers.
Pictured here are a fraction of the people (and in some cases "their people") who make Beachbody work. There are a hundred others I wish I had photographed as the night turned into another showcase of dance moves and outtakes. (I'll consider posting the company video Robbie and Rick put together on this blog, once I clean it up a bit)
The bottom line is, there was a lot of love in the room, and a lot of relief that 2005, a transition year for the company, will soon give way to the promise of 2006. It's my job to make sure that this team has the resources and leadership to do what they do so well; Making Beachbody the leading innovator of in-home fitness programs and online support.
This is one of those posts that reads like a sales pitch. But, honestly, I am just so proud of this product, I am indulging myself.
It was another fun week, where we got to enjoy the people that make Beachbody a success of the most important kind. The stories which we heard from the Beachbody community over and over this week inspired us all, from Diva, Johana, Debbie, Brent, and the rest, and remind me to be grateful for how fun and important the work we do is.
Perfectly said Chris. This product has overcome the long odds of being a TV success over and over again. When we first launched Power 90, we were told it looked like too much work. When we took people to Hawaii to celebrate their results, we were told we could never get a second hit out of a show featuring real people instead of fitness models and celebs. And after we celebrated our one-millionth customer we were told it was time to retire the brand and move on. We'll see. I think this program is right on the mark, and will show us again that the Tony Horton Power 90 machine has a long way to go, and a lot more people it can help.
The short term results are impressive, but kind of meaningless from a health perspective until you look at how those express results foreshadow the overall success of using a healthy balanced program. Super model Kim Alexis lost 10 pounds in her first 6 days of Slim in 6, and a full 29 pounds by the time she completed the program! So many of the huge weight loss success stories we receive from real customers demonstrate the value of these express programs to the overall results.
