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Hi everyone, I’m Karin and I am trying the THE VENUS FACTOR program as a favor for Sarah, one of the editors of this website.
About me: I’m 28 years old and 167cm tall. I’ve been doing it for 10 weeks so far. I started at 73kg and am currently 61.5kg. I’ve always been relatively happy with my appearance, I’m no supermodel but it’s no big issue for me. I have always eaten a mixture of healthy and unhealthy foods without giving it too much thought. Recently though, I had wanted to try and make the most of my body and was willing to consider trying something new.
I think you have to be sufficiently willing, if you are going to use this (or any other) plan. Although it’s really cheap, it’s just money down the drain if you’re not going to try. I’m not great with willpower, but have been doing pretty well so far! I do think that actually purchasing something did focus me a little bit, despite the low cost. If a friend had given me the same advice I doubt I would have listened. I work in marketing and I guess it’s a bit like getting a consultant in, you pay more attention because they are providing a service.
I’ve often seen these programs advertised and wondered what you actually ‘get’.
- Recipes for the diet
- A meal schedule
- Exercise plan
- A consultation with virtual nutritionist
- Membership to the online community (a chat room and forum)
The food
I did a bit of Googling before starting and found that the diet is based around the “Leptin Diet” which is actually something that’s been around for a while. So nothing new, but pretty established as a good idea. I don’t really follow all of the science, but it has to do with manipulating the amounts of certain chemicals in the body in a way that facilitates the weight loss. I’ve seen some great results though, so I won’t lose sleep over how it actually happens 😉
So anyway, the food: sometimes there is a good breakfast like eggs and bacon, sometimes snacks and sometimes not. There are quite a few meals that are chicken or turkey salads, but there are good variants and I’m really happy eating most of it – almost like it wasn’t a diet.
It does ask that you stick to a meal timing schedule. I have probably stuck to this 90% of the time.
The exercises
Not much to say here really. Pretty standard stuff. I liked the fact that it didn’t focus on too much intense cardio though. I found the short sets of things like the list below,
- Squats
- Plank
- Dips
- Step up
If you can handle one minute on, one minute off – you’ll be fine 😀
The consultation
I’ve got no allergies or health problems so this was just a formality but it is a good step for the program to include. The questions they asked were sensible, and I feel like they would identify issues for others if they existed.
The community
For me this is the best bit by far. The recipe, diet plan and exercises are great and I’m sure it’s all very clever but they didn’t feel entirely new. However, the community is something I haven’t experienced online before, a really nice group of supportive people. I guess because you share a common goal it helps, but I’m just surprised at how many great people could end up in one place.
There is a mixture of people at the same stage as you, people further along and even some newbies who you can be supportive to. Also plenty of people who have completed the program stick around just for the moral support and friendship.
The community is so large that I even found people local to me who I’ve ended up becoming friends with in ‘real life’ too. Which is just perfect. The website talks about the community as the ‘added extra’ to the plan but to be honest I’d sign up just to join the community and get the program as an extra 🙂
So anyway, I’ve lost 11.5kg – the .5 really matters 😉
I’d recommend it for anyone who wants results but is also willing to stick to a plan. You might even make some good friends on the forums like I have.
Editors note: Thanks Karin, 11.5kg is quite an achievement Karin, you did a great job! If you want to try the program, click here for more information THE VENUS FACTOR – SET OF FOUR BOOKS AND TWO DVDS