Motivation Monday: BFL Grand Champion 2008

I love Body-for-Life and would recommend it to anyone. Go ahead and buy the book to see what I mean or check out the website, www.bodyforlife.com.

Every year Body-For-Life has a competition that anyone can enter. It is free to enter and there are amazing prizes to be won. You just have to fill our some paperwork, take before and after pictures and work your butt off for 12 weeks. The prizes for the 2009 competition are:

Two Grand Master Champions 1 Male / 1 Female Each Grand Master Champion will receive: $25,000 cash Body-for-LIFE Champion leather jacket ($1,500 value) Reimbursement of all EAS products purchased during the Challenge Free home gym, courtesy of PowerBlocks™

Six Category Champions will receive: $10,000 cash Body-for-LIFE Champion leather jacket ($1,500 value) Reimbursement of all EAS products purchased during the Challenge Free home gym, courtesy of PowerBlocks™

For more information about the Body-for-Life competition, click here.

One of the grand master champions of 2008 was Emily Alvers:

Here is her essay as found on the Body-for-Life website:
"I was living life as your average middle school teacher the year my life seemed to come crashing down. My mother and step-father both passed away from cancer just 6 short months apart. I was devastated. 5 years prior I had lost my father to cancer as well. I felt too young and unequipped to deal with this sudden reality. I was desperately alone and confused.

As a way to escape and cope with my grief, I turned to food. I was addicted to the feelings of comfort that sugary foods gave me temporarily. I’d binge on ice cream, cookies and anything sweet I could get my hands on. Countless nights I went to sleep feeling guilty for what I’d eaten and work up each morning just as miserable. I felt powerless over my self-destructive behavior and was trapped in this viscous cycle. I was gaining weight steadily, had no energy and was extremely depressed.

While sorting through my mother’s things one day I found the book, Body-for-LIFE. It sparked my interest, and I read it cover to cover. For the first time in a long time I became hopeful that I didn’t have to settle with living this way! I realized that I needed to stop making excuses and feeling sorry for myself. My sadness and self pity quickly turned into motivation and confidence that I could change! I just knew that this was the answer to finally finding a balance in my life. I wrote down my goals and told everyone I knew about them. I was ecstatic to be starting this exciting new chapter in my life!

I committed to follow the program just as it was outlined in the book. After only 1 week on Body-for-LIFE, I was in utter disbelief at how much better I felt. My mood and energy levels skyrocketed. My cravings for sugar and the guilt I had felt for so long disappeared altogether. I was waking up ready to conquer the world each and every day! As the weeks passed, my body grew much stronger and the fat just seemed to melt away at an alarming rate. Before I knew it, 12 weeks passed and I had lost 21 lbs. and 9.4% body fat! I went from wearing a size 8 down to a size 0! My blood pressure and resting heart rate fell into the athlete range!

I am physically stronger now than I’ve ever been in my life, but more importantly I am someone I can be proud of, someone who will be a good role model to my own kids one day, and someone who is already inspiring others who have struggled to change their lives. Since starting Body-for-LIFE, I’ve also earned my personal training certification. I am living proof that big changes can be achieved in a very short time. Not only do I have the tools now to help and inspire others to live a healthy lifestyle, but I also have the free advertising to go along with it! Body-for-LIFE has helped me realize my own potential beyond what I ever could have imagined!"

She lost 21 lbs of scale weight and decreased her body fat percentage 9% in just 12 weeks! What an inspiration.