Six-pack abs, tight butts, lean health: these are the images promoted by fitness industry advertising. But have you ever considered what it would take to reach such idealized “looks?” What additional activities might need to be undertaken, what could change, what sacrifices have to be made?

No doubt about it – trying to lose fat and improve health involves real trade-offs. Let’s discuss them so that we can determine how best to achieve our desired body and health outcomes while living our daily lives as desired.

Looking for an audio version instead? Download the audio recording here… We also created an infographic as a visual guide – take a look! A Tale of Two Clients Not long ago, one of our highly successful clients, Bill, came to us with a question.

Now that he had shed thirty pounds (reducin his body fat from 22% to 15%), he could quickly run up stairs and transport heavy bags of garden soil without becoming winded.

He could truly enjoy weekend bike rides with friends. And he could wear clothes he once fit into but had given up as hopeless.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Bill insisted, “I am content with how I look and feel.

He only wanted six-pack abs.

“Oh no,” he thought to himself, “it doesn’t have to look like that,” but close.

Bill was confident that with just a bit of extra work and patience, his abdominals would start showing and his physique would become “complete.”

Anika had an alternative viewpoint.

She wanted to shed a few pounds, improve her health and become fitter.

She felt as if in order to achieve that goal, she’d need to give up everything, become a “health nut”, and implement radical lifestyle changes.

Changes that included 6 AM bootcamps, kale shakes, lemon juice cleanses, and 1000 situps a day forever…