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Copyright © Burn the Fat Publishing, A Division of Fitness Renaissance, LLCAll rights reserved.

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Published by Tom Venuto and Burn The Fat Publishing in the United States of America.

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HEALTH AND MEDICAL DISCLAIMER:This e-book is for reference, entertainment, and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. The information contained herein is not intended to be used for diagnosing, treating, or preventing any disease or medical condition. Before making any changes in your diet, exercise program or lifestyle, you should consult with a physician. Use of any information in this e-book is at the sole risk of the reader. The author, writers, editors, and graphic designers shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any damage or injury alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by using the information contained in this e-book.

Tom Venuto and Burn The Fat Inner Circle Present…

Transformation ChampionsSuccess Secrets

Volume 4:Fit, Fierce, and Forty-Something

Featuring Stef O’Donnell, Runner Up and “Most Ripped” Woman,Burn the Fat Body Transformation Challenge, Season 4

This special report is one of many Burn The Fat Transformation Champion interviews featured inside the Burn The Fat Inner Circle: The Fitness Support Community for Motivation, Inspiration, and Transformation. To see more incredible transformations like this one, visit:

www.BurnTheFatInnerCircle.com

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WARNING: This e-book is protected by Federal copyright law. It is illegal to re-sell, auction, share, or give away this ebook.

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Transformation Champions Success Secrets, Vol. 4: Fit, Fierce, and Forty-Something

IntroductionIn Stefanie O’Donnell’s after pictures, she looks like a seasoned fitness competitor. You would swear it. In fact, in between all the applause and congratulations we heard in the Burn the Fat Inner Circle forums after her “Most Ripped Female” and “First Runner Up” finalist spot was announced, there were a few complaints mixed in, regarding this matter of “fitness pros being allowed to compete in the contest!”

“It’s obvious that this girl is a competitive physique athlete who was just in off season condition or a little bit off of her normal year-round level of conditioning,” said one private message we received. “I’m not saying she didn’t make an amazing transformation—she did—she looks incredible! It just doesn’t seem fair that a fitness pro can enter this contest, go from slightly out of shape off season condition right back to contest condition, and sweep a top placing with ease.”

Well, our misguided anonymous caller at least had one valid point: fitness pros who have competed for years—while they don’t achieve a top placing in any contest “with ease” (it takes months of hard work and dedication for anyone to peak)—they do have the advantage of knowledge and experience. We actually don’t allow professional bodybuilders, physique athletes, or fitness models to compete in our fitness challenge contest. The Burn the Fat challenge is mostly a “regular people” event, with only an odd amateur competitor showing up now and then.

Here’s the shocker: Stefanie is not a professional figure athlete or fitness model, and she’s never competed onstage before! At the time she entered the challenge, she was simply a 43-year-old girl who said she felt frumpy and embarrassed by her body, who became very passionate about fitness, and took on the challenge with seriousness and extraordinary effort.

The way we see it, that doesn’t make her achievement unfair to other competitors or unattainable by other women, it makes her a hero to “regular girls” everywhere.

Not only did Stefanie nab a spot among the top finalists, she also won the “Most Ripped Female” award! Naturally, not every woman wants to get ripped enough to look like a fitness model, but think about what this means to “regular women” of all ages—even into their 40s: If you do want to look like a fitness model or win awards in a fitness contest, you can do it! Just take some tips from Stefanie.

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If you’re a Burn the Fat Inner Circle member, we highly recommend logging on to the website at www.BurnTheFatInnerCircle.com and looking for Stef in the forums. We highly recommended reading her challenge-winning essay and studying her journal. What she recorded in there is the epitome of meticulousness and dedication. No stone was left unturned in her efforts.

Stefanie’s body today looks so uncannily like the “dream body” visualization photo she taped to her mirror for inspiration at the beginning, that is a story unto itself (read that part of the interview carefully). This has made a lot of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle readers go back and take the “mental training” element of the program a lot more seriously—especially visualization. (We told you so! Go back and read the chapter on goal setting and mental training in Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle!)

After she went from fitness model body in a vision to fitness model body in reality, her journal started filling up with members asking her the big question: “Stef… when are you getting on stage for fitness, figure or bikini competition?” Surprisingly to some people, Stef said that stepping on stage for competition was not one of her goals.

A career in fitness, however, is in her plans. Stef has her own fitness website, and she has already begun inspiring people all over the world by being a role model, sharing her best health and fitness tips, and sharing her transformation story. That’s exactly what she does here in this motivating champion’s interview.

Be sure to read every word of this interview. You’ll learn the truth about what it really takes to achieve an extraordinary body transformation, discover how you can get fit at any age and come away more inspired to reach your own goals than ever before.








Before and AfterStef O’Donnell, “Most Ripped” Woman and Runner Up of the Burn the Fat Body Transformation Challenge, Season 4

Day 1 Day 98







Transformation Champion InterviewTom Venuto: Hello, everyone. This is Tom Venuto here, from BurnTheFat.com and

BurnTheFatInnerCircle.com. On the line with me today we have a special guest Stef O’Donnell. Stef was not only a top finalist—the first runner-up—in our summer body transformation contest, she also won the “Most Ripped” award in the women’s category.

That means Stef knows a thing or two about getting really lean and how to knock off the last 10 pounds or so and how to get into peak condition. I’m going to be picking Stef’s brain today to find out how she got so lean. I’ve been really excited about this call for a while, and I’m glad we could finally connect, Stef. Thanks for taking the time, and welcome to the call.

Stef O’Donnell: Thank you. Hi, Tom, and everyone at Burn the Fat. It’s really an honor and a privilege to be on this call with you today.

Tom Venuto: I would say you’re a familiar face—or I guess I should say a familiar “body”—in the Burn the Fat Inner Circle and in the Burn the Fat world—because I’m sure almost all of our members have seen your amazing before and after pictures. Just in case anyone listening to this interview doesn’t know you yet, could you quickly introduce yourself? Tell us where you’re from, what you do, your age, and anything else you want to share about yourself.

Stef O’Donnell: Sure. I am from Upstate New York. I’m 43, actually 43-1/2 right now, and married to an awesome guy, Mark, and we have a very spoiled Siamese kitty named Skyler. You can meet both of them in my Inner Circle forum threads and on the new Burn the Fat Cat thread. As far as what I do, I have an online fitness blog/website and I write fitness articles and ebooks. I’ve actually been a member of the Burn the Fat Inner Circle for quite some time now. I attempted two challenges in the past, but I guess we’ll get into that later.

The reason I got started in fitness goes back to my freshman year in college when I saw a book with Gladys Portugues on the cover. She looked different and I was mesmerized by her look, her body and her overall shape. She didn’t have a skinny, Jane Fonda, aerobicized type of physique. Gladys’ shape, I realized, was created with muscle.

I’m a reformed pear-shape person but I didn’t want that shape. I wanted the V-taper and I said, “I have to figure out how to get that shape.” That’s when I came across your Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle book, Tom, and Burn the Fat Inner









Circle. From that point forward, it became my mission to transform the shape of my body through weightlifting.

Tom Venuto: I remember Gladys. I started reading Muscle and Fitness magazine in the 80s and into the mid-90s. I remember seeing Gladys all the time and she really did have a great shape. I want to come back to this and talk about how to visualize the body you want after seeing the picture of a body you admire on someone else. But first I want to cover a few other things.

You mentioned you’re 43-1/2. I think we might have to see some ID to confirm that age because that’s hard to believe. You’ve got a body that any 20-something would love to have; although around our Burn the Fat community and Inner Circle, great bodies after 40—or even 50—aren’t that out of the ordinary. We have had many contest finalists and we’ve even had overall winners in their 40s and 50s. In fact, I think 40-somethings have placed higher in our contests than any other age group.

But outside the Burn the Fat Inner Circle—out in the public—most people talk about being over 40 like it’s some kind of insurmountable obstacle to getting in shape. You hear all the time things like, “I’m 45, so it’s all over for me,” or “It’s going to be really hard… probably no use trying.”

Someone posted this question in your forum thread during the last challenge. He said, “Why do so many people over 40 just give up because they think they’re old?” That’s an interesting question. But I would rather know the answer to the opposite question. What kept you going, thinking young, and believing that you could do it after age 40?

Stef O’Donnell: Well, first of all, I don’t know who made up 40 as some kind of deadline. People are living longer these days and people are doing things later in life. They get married later. They have kids later. They start new jobs later.

Personally, I just think it’s a convenient excuse. People say they’re 40 and that’s their excuse for not going to the gym and for not working out. That doesn’t work for me. It literally never even crossed my mind that I was in my 40s when I thought about changing my body. Like I said, that’s society’s idea that people are over the hill when they hit 40. That belief doesn’t work for me. I choose not to accept those limitations. I actually think 40 is the new 30, if you work out and eat healthy.

Tom Venuto: Yeah. One of the big magazines had a cover story on “50 is the New 30.” I think we all have something to look forward to. For the record, I’m the same age as







you, and I agree with you completely. I think it’s pretty interesting that you said it might be just a convenient excuse. I think a lot of people are thinking that, but they won’t speak about it. I’m glad you actually said it.

The most recent Burn the Fat Challenge Contest results are posted on the Inner Circle website and they’re in the record books. You took the First Runner Up spot. You also won the “Most Ripped” award, and that one has become the most coveted award these days. You wouldn’t believe how much email I’ve started getting about it. People say, “I swear I’m going to win that award in the next contest, Tom.”

But I’ve got to tell you, you really deserved it. Your condition was amazing. A lot of the people, including the judges, said you looked like you could have walked right on stage at a figure competition with the shape you’re in. So, congratulations on winning these awards. How did you feel about your results from this last challenge?

Stef O’Donnell: First of all, thank you again for the awards. I really appreciate it. The challenge was a great opportunity, and I really appreciated everybody’s kind words and support. It has been great. I feel amazing. I think my results really mirrored my sacrifice and my dedication over the course of the challenge. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I decided to get it done. I was tired of going one step forward and one step back all the time. That’s what I was referring to earlier. The last few times I entered the challenge, I didn’t really give it a 100% commitment. I wasted a lot of time and energy. I probably wasted almost as much time and energy doing things halfway as I did just going for it.

My theory was, time passes whether you’re doing something good for yourself or not, so I just kept looking back and saying, “If only I’d stuck to the program a little bit more, I would have been there by now.” I repeated this cycle of thinking over and over again. I had reached rock bottom right before the challenge started. I was not happy. I felt life was too short not to love the body I was in. So that’s when I decided to do something about it. Actually, the challenge came along at the perfect time. It was just a matter of buckling down and getting it done so I could move on to other goals in my life. I couldn’t be happier with the results.

Tom Venuto: I know you did the transformation contest before, but you really did dial it in this time. You really genuinely impressed everybody. In fact, I think you know this already, but I received quite a few messages in my box, and I had read forum posts where people were swearing that you had to be a figure competitor or some kind of model or fitness professional, because that’s exactly what you







looked like. In your after photos, you looked like you could have walked right on that stage.

I’d like to ask you a couple of things about that. First, is it correct that you’ve never competed on stage in figure or fitness competitions prior to this? Second, I was wondering how long you’ve been working out? Is your serious interest in fitness something recent, or have you been doing it for years?

Stef O’Donnell: Well, first of all, I’m very flattered that people thought that, which is great, because that was my goal. I have never competed at all and have never been on stage. I just wanted to look like I could. So that’s great—I’m glad people thought that.

I don’t think fitness is something you just pick up and then finish. It’s a lifestyle and a continuing journey. But people have already asked me, “Are you done with your thing?” It’s funny, because I tell them, “It’s never over. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a journey.” Sometimes it’s more strict and more intense. But the lifestyle always includes the same ingredients of eating healthy, lifting weights, and doing cardio.

My interest in fitness has always been there. I just became more serious right before the challenge started because I had gotten tired of taking one step forward and two steps back. It always seemed like I had the diet right, or the workout right, or the motivation, but I never had all of it together. I never had the intense commitment that comes from setting goals and visualizing them. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle brought all the pieces of the puzzle together for me. The challenge was really a catalyst that helped me to commit one hundred percent to something so I could finally achieve my goals.

Tom Venuto: The next question a lot of us are curious to know the answer to is, do you have any plans to get on stage in some kind of figure or physique competition, or will you pursue some kind of career in fitness? I know it’s a lifestyle that’s going to keep going. Would you say your interest is more personal or recreational?

Stef O’Donnell: I never had the desire to compete on stage, so no; I really don’t have plans to compete. However, I am definitely pursuing a career in fitness, but more from the perspective of helping other people achieve their fitness dreams—especially women. My focus is more on women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond. I want them to know that they too can feel beautiful and healthy and strong and include fitness as a lifestyle.

Tom Venuto: A theme I’m seeing more of is people who don’t necessarily want to compete—at least the getting onstage type of competing—but they want to look like they







could. I find that interesting. And those people who look like they could compete often hear, “You’ve got to get up on that stage.” But for them, just looking like they can is the most satisfying thing. You said that was your goal and your motivation. And you definitely succeeded at that.

Okay, so let’s say someone wants to look as lean as you, or look like they’re ready for the stage or for a fitness-model shoot, even if they’re not a fitness model or competitor. How much effort does it take, not just in terms of nutrition, but how much psychological strength does it take to get that lean? What does it really take?

Stef O’Donnell: Well, this will probably be my longest and most drawn-out answer. Getting lean, and I mean ripped lean, is a whole new level—a whole new ballgame. It’s a lot harder to make changes once your body fat reaches lower levels. That means you have to have a whole other level of dedication.

You have to be willing to sacrifice instant gratification—things like drinking and partying and having all kinds of cheat days like barbecues and picnics. You have to be focused on the long-term satisfaction, because everybody around you, especially over the summer, is going to be doing all of those things. You really need to be able to reel yourself in.

It’s also important to burn your bridges and do things like give all of your so-called “fat clothes” to charity. One thing I did was I set up a photo shoot for the end of the challenge. My deposit was nonrefundable. In fact, I paid for the whole thing up front. That photo shoot was getting done, whether I looked good or not. So my only choice was to stick to the plan.

Another thing is making yourself accountable. Tell everyone you know that you’re doing this, so it becomes too embarrassing to back out. You have to make it impossible for yourself to quit.

For this level of leanness, there are several components to making your physique transformation a success. Obviously there’s the diet, nutrition, and exercise. But I think the one thing I did differently—this time—that made all the difference, was the psychological aspect. I really worked hard on my mental toughness, being able to ignore and conquer the obstacles that entered my path. You have to be prepared for those things.

I know you go into this a lot in Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, but you really do have to set goals. I think people probably ignore that chapter and skip forward so they can get to the “good stuff.” But you really have to sit down and do it. That’s







what I did differently this time. I sat down and wrote out my goals. I really did make a goal card, and I think it made all the difference. If your desire is to be successful, you cannot skip the goal setting.

The importance there too, is to figure out your emotional reasons why. You have to really figure out what’s driving you. Keep asking yourself, “Why? Why do you want to achieve this, and why is that important? Why?” Like a 2-year-old, just keep asking yourself, “Why? Why? Why?” until you get to the innermost motivation for yourself. Because when the going gets tough—which it will—you need to be able to refer back to your goals and to your emotional arsenal of reasons why you want to achieve this. That’s the most important part.

The diet and nutrition, of course, that’s key too. They say “you can’t out-train a bad diet.” Obviously, you need to be prepared. You have to have strategies in advance for how you’re going to handle every situation. With my husband’s job, we go out and attend a lot of social events. I would always look up the menu online before we went, to see what I could eat.

I know this may sound a little weird, but I carry a very large purse, and I had things in there like salad dressing, fat-free creamers and Truvia, so I could have all my own food, if I needed it. Have a plan in advance. You need to be able to have the mental strength to say no when faced with things like pizza, ice cream, and alcohol that aren’t part of your plan. Focus on the big picture and your ultimate goals.

In terms of physically, there were a lot of days when I didn’t feel like going to the gym and I didn’t feel like working out. You have to stop thinking about whether or not you want to do it. It’s more like the Nike commercial, you “just do it.” Don’t allow yourself to get emotionally involved. It doesn’t really matter how you feel, because you know you have to go. You have to pretend like you’re your own personal trainer and make yourself go.

I think some people try to set goals and try to follow the nutrition aspect of the fitness lifestyle, but they don’t really want to get into the workouts. But it takes a three-pronged approach—mental toughness, nutrition, and working out. You have to make it to the gym and your workouts have to be constructive. It’s simply not negotiable.

Tom Venuto: I’m glad you mentioned the psychological part. I’ve talked to national champion bodybuilders who said they think bodybuilding is 99% mental. People hear that and say, “What? This is the most physical sport you could ever participate in!” But







the truth is, every goal and every thought lead to the action you take and continue taking; so I appreciate you pointing that out.

Now, when I read your journal, it was clear you were absolutely meticulous in all those areas—your nutrition, your training, and your psychology. You left no stone unturned. You dotted every “I”, crossed every “T”, and had your training journals—your nutrition, what you ate—all posted in the forums. Your attention to detail was amazing.

I even read in your challenge essay that you felt your commitment level had to be a hundred percent on that. I was wondering, why did you take it so seriously and do everything so meticulously? Now that you have an opportunity to look back at the results, do you think it was necessary, and worth it, to be so disciplined and detailed and to go the extra mile on everything?

Stef O’Donnell: Yes. For me, personally, it was necessary. Maybe it wouldn’t be necessary for everybody to be quite that intense. But I had very extreme goals and a relatively short period of time to accomplish those goals. I had very little margin for error. In fact, I stuck to my plan so closely that I really only had a total of five cheat meals during the entire challenge. That’s a 98.9899% compliance rate, which is probably “a little” stricter than you need to be.

But like I said, I was way out of my comfort zone and had huge goals, so that’s what it took. So, yes, I really, really did have to give it one hundred percent. That was the thing I hadn’t done in the past and I was determined to make it work this time. It just had to be done. I had to give up things that I usually tried to sneak in. In the past, I tried to sneak in cheat days and cheat meals and a couple of drinks here and there. This time, I just decided to give those things up and to get it done properly. That’s what worked for me.

Tom Venuto: One of the trends in fitness I noticed these last few years is that some fitness professionals—who are very good at what they do and who mean well—are telling people to relax a little bit. They say things like “Hey, you’re going to become orthorexic. You’re taking it too seriously. Go ahead and have more cheat meals. You don’t have to eat so clean,” and so on.

But at the same time, I also noticed a trend among our winners, finalists and champions. The vast majority of them have higher than usual compliance. They understand what their margin for error is, they figure out what it takes for them, and then they do what’s necessary, instead of listening to someone else’s compliance rule. So I think you hit the nail on the head on that one.







I mentioned about how we keep journals. In the Burn the Fat Inner Circle, we host our transformation contest and hold it inside a support forum, BurntheFatInnerCircle.com, and everybody starts their own journal in the form of a forum thread. We ask everyone to post weekly progress reports. As they go along, people can choose how much and how often they want to write about their progress in their journals. I was wondering, how did these weekly progress reports and the journaling of all your training and nutrition impact your results? How did it help you? How important do you think it was?

Stef O’Donnell: The accountability from the journaling really can’t be understated. I mean, it was awesome. I didn’t want to be embarrassed later if my journal said something like, “large tub of popcorn with extra butter and a side of beer.” I knew I was going to write down every single thing I ate and didn’t want people to look back at it later and see that I was eating junk food. It would have been crazy to let that happen. Plus, I never would have gotten the results I got if I ate like that.

It was up to me to show progress each week when I posted my results, and getting the food right was how I did it. Even though there were some weeks when my scale weight didn’t go down, I still made progress in some area each week, whether it was body fat, the way I looked in the mirror, or the way my clothes fit.

It was nice to be able to have that accountability from others too. Everyone was posting in the forums and everyone was looking at each other’s journals saying things like, “Congratulations. I see you lost a 16th of an inch. Good job.”

I didn’t post all of my food journals because I didn’t want to overwhelm everyone. But I also had spreadsheets on my computer—from the beginning to the end of the challenge—where I plotted where I should be each week, in every measurement I was tracking. Each week, I charted my real results posted to judge my progress. That helped create a feedback loop that enabled me to make adjustments to my program based on weekly feedback. This was very important.

Tom Venuto: You did a great job with your journaling and tracking. I’ve always believed that simply measuring your results alone can increase your results. You mentioned people were dropping into your forum and making comments. We had thousands of people visiting the forums during the challenge. Did you find that the people in the forums were helpful for support or motivation?

Stef O’Donnell: Absolutely. I think everyone should be a member of the Burn the Fat Inner Circle for life because it’s important to have people around you who have goals in common with you. Everyone in Inner Circle was, and is, super supportive. It’s







great because we all face similar challenges and similar struggles and it’s nice to share what works and what doesn’t.

There’s always someone there who has done it, or who has experienced it; so you can see what they did—you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. And that’s great. You don’t feel like you’re doing it alone either. There were people who helped me when I hit plateaus. I felt like quitting a couple of times, toward the beginning, and they helped me out of my slump. It’s really important for your success to have that kind of connection and to surround yourself with other people who have similar goals.

Tom Venuto: What about the people in your offline life? Did you have people behind you one hundred percent? I know for some people, it’s the opposite. They have a lot of negative peer pressure to deal with. What was it like for you?

Stef O’Donnell: I’m really glad you asked me that, Tom. First, the positive. My husband Mark was awesome, of course. He was so proud of me and he did everything he could to support me. He works out a lot too, so we have that in common, which is wonderful. Living a fitness lifestyle together is really helpful. He understood that my moods and my ups and downs were directly related to my carb intake, and he forgave me for my outbursts, which I’m grateful for.

I had family and certain friends who were amazing. It was so nice and I was so grateful. They cooked me meals that fit in to my nutrition plan, so we’d all eat the same thing together at dinner. That was huge. People underestimate the value of that, but it was really great. We traveled a couple of times during the challenge and people took me to their gyms. Some people were awesome.

However, I think you need to be prepared for the opposite. Because when you have goals and you set out to change something in your life, friendships will be tested and friendships will change. People don’t like it when you have goals and you take action to reach those goals because they don’t want to be left behind, and they certainly don’t want you getting ahead of them. There will be jealousy, especially when other people start to notice and comment on what a great job you’re doing and how great you look. It’s going to cause problems.

This is something you have to take into account when you set out on this kind of mission, where you’re striving to achieve something big in fitness, or anywhere in life, really. You have to do what other people are unwilling to do, and that’s uncomfortable not only for you, but sometimes also for others. If you understand this and realize it’s your life you have to worry about, you’ll stop worrying about what other people think. They’re going to think you’re weird anyway, especially if







you’re carrying a cooler with you everywhere, and a gallon jug of water, and you’re eating food in the car. It’s a different lifestyle, but you have to do what’s right for you.

Tom Venuto: Very true. After our last contest, the topic of “Life After Contests” came up in articles and in the forum threads. Your essay mentioned you wanted lasting results, and you said earlier that this is a lifestyle for you. But we know that a lot of people who lose fat find that the biggest challenge is keeping it off. We know that even experienced fitness people have their challenges balancing the competition season with the rest of the year.

Bodybuilders and figure competitors have an off season and an on season. But, for the serious athlete, there’s never really an off season—you’re always training—so what I really mean is, there’s a non-contest season, and there’s a contest season. During the contest season, the competitor is aiming for peak condition, or a personal best. Then, after the contest, they don’t expect to maintain their one hundred percent peak, but they want to stay close to it. It’s like going from good shape, to great shape, and then going back to good shape, but they never get out of shape.

The problem for a lot of people is that when they do a contest or a challenge like this, they work so hard, so intensely, and with so much focus for a short-term goal (3–4 months)—similar to what you did for this contest, that when it’s over, they become concerned about whether they can keep it up. A lot of people worry about whether they’re going to keep the fat off. They wonder what’s going to happen when it’s over. “Am I going to be burned out and crash, and just stop training?” “Is there going to be rebound weight gain?” “Am I going to stay in good shape?” “How am I going to maintain this?” I hear concerns like these all the time. Did you worry about any of those post-contest concerns at all? What is your plan moving forward now that the contest is over?

Stef O’Donnell: During the challenge, I worked so hard on the mindset and the mental aspect of things, and I was really confident I’d made such huge strides mentally and emotionally, that I would just never be in that boat again. But I was a little unprepared for the huge void after the challenge was over. I don’t think I really knew how all-consuming the challenge had become for me.

I had a loose plan for life after the challenge. I started doing the TNB Workout. At first, I just upped my calories by 100 per day, but followed the same plan. I didn’t have the kind of plan I had for myself during the challenge, which was really an all-encompassing plan.







If I were to do things all over again, I think I would do a couple of things differently. I would probably take a significant break and allow myself to recover a little bit better, both mentally and physically. I’d probably take a week-long break. I only took two days off from the gym when the challenge was over, and I really think I should have taken a little longer.

I also have a real plan. It’s similar to the one I had during the challenge, with the spreadsheets and the goals, but it’s not as strict. If you’re able to relax and have faith in the plan, then I think you’ll worry a little less about rebounding. You’re not going to wake up one morning and be 20 pounds heavier than you were the day before. If you’re tracking and watching things on a weekly basis, there’s no need for that. Part of the plan is doing measurements weekly, just to make sure I’m staying on track. It’s a little more laid back and not as strict, but it’s definitely a solid plan with deadlines.

And very importantly, I think it’s essential for people to stay active in the forums, to continue those friendships, and to experience the camaraderie you get from like-minded people who are also following a fitness lifestyle. If you go back to your old habits—the habits that got you the physique you had in the past—then guess what path you’ll be on? You have to be careful not to go back down those same old roads again.

Tom Venuto: I agree about the forums. And I didn’t have to pay you to say that—thank you! (Laughs.) Why don’t we shift gears a little bit, because I’m curious about your training too. If I read your journal correctly, you followed a fairly traditional bodybuilding type of training program, even a body-parts routine. Is that right?

Stef O’Donnell: Yes.

Tom Venuto: Let me ask you about that kind of training. I’ve noticed a couple of things about training trends these days. We have our own little community where I spend most of my time, but I like to keep my eyes open and watch for trends in the whole fitness world. One of those new trends is that women are constantly being sold special training programs—just for women. It seems there’s an assumption being made that women have to train entirely different from men.

Another thing I noticed is that body-part and bodybuilding routines—except in the figure, physique, and bodybuilding competition world—are not being promoted as much these days as are things like circuit training and functional training and so on. But we can see the results in your pictures. Whatever you did, it worked. You got lean and muscular, but could you tell us, from a woman’s







perspective, what was your experience like, lifting weights and training with a bodybuilding-style workout?

Stef O’Donnell: Sure. I really like working out with weights, once again, referring back to Gladys Portugues’ shape, because I think that’s the only way you can truly reshape your body. As a reformed pear-shaped woman, I can say that I happily developed more of a V-taper over the years. Even over the summer, I made a lot of progress in my shoulder and arm development. So that training style does help; it changes your whole shape. In terms of the bodybuilding routine, I used the four-day split that you have in the original Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. Like I said, that worked really well for me during the challenge.

After the challenge, I scaled back a bit to the TNB Workout for a while. But it’s the progressive resistance that was very important with either routine. That’s what I used my workout journal for—not only for planning my workouts in advance, but tracking progression.

Like you mention in your book, progressive resistance or constantly challenging yourself with something new each time you go to the gym is important. By journaling it, I could look back at my previous workout and give myself a suggested starting point for the next workout, so I would always be lifting a little bit more, or doing a few more reps, or changing up an exercise, or maybe scaling back my rest periods, just so that I could keep making forward progress.

I really like working on the basics in weightlifting. I don’t think that women should train differently than men. I think we all want the same things, the V-taper, the teeny waist and the tight butt. I think both sexes can appreciate that. I recall one definition of insanity as “doing something over and over again and expecting a different result.” And then there’s my definition of insanity, and that’s “taking something that’s working great and changing it.” I think the bodybuilding training works, and works really well. So that’s what I stick with.

Tom Venuto: I think it works great for men and women too. I also think it’s really exciting to know, for someone who thinks their genetic shape is a pear shape, that they can completely reshape their body and get the small waist, the V-taper, the broad shoulders, and the cap on the shoulders with the proper weight training. Weight training really is the only way that’s going to happen. I think that’s really exciting.

Stef O’Donnell: It is.

Tom Venuto: I ask this almost every time I’m on the line with one of our female winners. I know I sound like a broken record, but I have to ask you this too. What would you say to







women who are afraid to lift weights because they either don’t want to, they don’t think it’s a womanly thing to do, or who think they don’t need to? Or, to the women who say—and this is a big one—“I’m going to get bulky,” or “I’m going to get too big.”

Stef O’Donnell: I love this question. I really want people to pay attention here. I have been lifting heavy weights for over 20 years, and I have actually been trying to get more muscle bulk, and it’s just not going to happen. Really, women, take it from me, you cannot get bulky from lifting weights. You can only get sexy. The other thing is, you’re not going to wake up one day and suddenly have muscle. It’s a very gradual process.

You know, the whole toning concept is great, but if you want to make real changes in your physique and you want that Rachel Mclish, and Cory Everson, and Gladys Portugues sexy, muscular body—real weight training is what it’s going to take. Not to mention, of course, as we get older too, we start losing muscle mass. That’s a dangerous situation when you consider bone density problems that get more common as you get older. That’s another reason why I lift weights.

Also, muscle is metabolically active. I want to be able to eat more, so that means I have to put more muscle on my body.

Tom Venuto: Lifting weights doesn’t make you bulky. It makes you sexy. I think that’s going to be quoted everywhere now. We’re going to attribute that to you.

Stef O’Donnell: Thank you.

Tom Venuto: Let’s talk about nutrition now. I gather you pretty much followed Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle to a tee. Basically, you ate like a bodybuilder or figure athlete. But everyone has to customize the plan to suit their own body. They tweak things along the way, like the amount of carbs, the foods they like to eat, the ones they don’t, the ones they can or can’t tolerate, and so on.

You also have to make frequent changes to break plateaus and keep the results coming. We know that nutrition is a lot of little things, and those little things, the sum of them, add up to big results. Everybody ƛs always looking for the one big thing. I’m curious, were there one or two big things you did in your nutrition and customizing your nutrition that made all the difference when you applied them?

Stef O’Donnell: I think there was. The thing I did differently this time was I switched to whole foods, which is what you recommended. I don’t think I really understood that before, what you meant about whole foods. Now I do. I know now that a bag of







microwave popcorn is not a whole food. I think a lot of people get stuck counting the calories but they don’t pay close enough attention to the source of those calories.

I switched to whole foods and also organic foods whenever possible. I ate foods like yams, potatoes, brown rice, chicken, egg whites and other foods like those. I think it made a difference getting rid of processed foods and things that are filled with chemicals, antibiotics and hormones. You don’t really want to put those things into your body. I think our society is programmed to eat manmade foods continuously. We don’t put enough whole, healthy, clean foods in our bodies. It does make a difference.

I started trying different things too. I got rid of wheat bread, and switched to Ezekiel Bread, which is not made from wheat. I got rid of regular milk, which is filled with hormones, and I started drinking almond milk, which is delicious. I really tried to limit sugar in my diet. I’m not a big artificial sweetener person, so I investigated Stevia, and I found that I really liked Truvia instead. There is also another one called Sweet Leaf. Both are really good and I use them in my coffee in the morning. I buy organic fat-free yogurt and try to buy as much free-range organic chicken breasts and meats as possible, and they’re actually a lot tastier. It’s funny, too, because I noticed how things like organic chicken breasts and eggs are smaller, which made me wonder if that’s because they’re not fed all of the growth hormones that make them big. But they taste very good, and at least you know you’re eating something healthy and a lot better for you. The meats even have less fat, which is crazy. I don’t know how that works, but they taste better.

In terms of making my food tastier? I made homemade salsa, probably about once a week, with all fresh ingredients. I use it on everything, from eggs to chicken. It was delicious. It really helped to spice up my diet a lot. I also used a lot of fresh lemons and limes. I squeezed them in my water, which made it tastier to drink. It was really delicious. And speaking of water, I drank at least a gallon of water a day. That might sound like a lot, but it really wasn’t for me. It helped keep me full too. I can’t say enough about drinking lots of water—it’s definitely vital.

I also switched from traditional coffee creamers, which are basically made of chemicals and sugar, to a half teaspoon of real half and half, and a pack of Truvia. It was satisfying and delicious and, once again, I was able to get rid of a bunch of sugar and chemicals. So that worked out.

Another huge thing I did was I started making my own salad dressing, using olive oil with lemon juice, Balsamic vinegar and spices. It was something I didn’t think I







would like, but I’m completely addicted to it now. It’s also really good and really good for you. So those were some of the big nutrition changes I made.

I played around with my macronutrient ratios a bit. I started with the 40/40/20 fat loss diet—40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat—and did that for a while. But once I started to get a little leaner, I went with carb cycling and kept my carbs pretty low on the three low-carb days; and I stayed really strict. Then, they jumped really high on the one high-cal, high-carb day. That was the only day that I didn’t carb taper. Usually on the lower calorie days, I would eat most of my starchy carbs in my first two meals of the day. After that, I would switch to fibrous carbs and portions.

If I wasn’t making progress, I either added a second cardio session to my day, or I dropped down 100 calories to see what would happen. That’s, once again, where having feedback comes into play. You just have to play around with things and see what’s working for you so you can make small adjustments along the way.

Tom Venuto: I think it’s great that you mentioned whole food as one of the big things in nutrition. I’m a big believer in real food myself, and in food quality. I think we see a lot of people zero in on one or the other in a fat loss program. It’s either quality or quantity. Some people are convinced that it doesn’t matter so much. They think you don’t have to eat so clean, you don’t have to eat organic, and you can have more cheat meals. All you have to do is eat the right amount of calories. I see that a lot.

And then on the other hand, I see some people, and in their program everything is organic. Everything is natural. There are no chemicals. It’s all high-quality food. But their mistake is when they think they can eat as much as they want just because they are eating healthy. I think it’s absolutely vital that you put both together—the right quantity of food and the right quality of food.

I wasn’t going to ask you this before, but speaking of food… you sent me an email the other day about some top-secret delicious recipes you have. Now I can’t let you off the hook without asking you to reveal at least one. It was a cottage cheese recipe that sounded amazing.

Stef O’Donnell: Yes. I had cottage cheese almost every night as my fifth meal, because it’s very low carb, high protein, and low fat. I got creative with it and I really started to look forward to it, which is weird, because I didn’t even like cottage cheese before the contest. Don’t get me wrong. I still don’t eat it plain.







One of my main cottage cheese recipes was I used Friendly’s Whipped Cottage Cheese. It’s got a little bit of a different consistency. It’s whipped, so it doesn’t have all those large curds. I would put a pack of Truvia in there and I would put half a teaspoon of vanilla and I would mix it up. Sometimes I’d put it in the freezer for a little while, and take it out after 15 minutes or so. It was delicious. It was so satisfying. It really felt like I was having a cheat meal. And it was high in protein. It was just right in line with the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle nutrition strategies. So that was one of my mainstays and a huge treat. And yes, I do have other recipes in my arsenal.

Tom Venuto: I think cottage cheese is great. I’ve noticed—and this goes back decades—but some bodybuilders, fitness athletes and figure competitors are afraid to eat dairy because they think it’s fattening. I think you just proved that this is absolutely not the case, because you ate it every single day. Dairy proteins, the whey and the casein, are really high-quality proteins. Like you said, you can use dairy in some great recipes. I think a lot of people avoid dairy on the really strict pre-competition diets. I’m glad to see that you included that and that you got such good results.

Before we go, I really want to get some details about one more thing. We covered the physical strategies a little bit, how you trained. We just talked about nutrition. I want to go back to get just a little more detail on the mental strategies you mentioned earlier.

You have got to be one of the most striking examples of the power of visualization—especially the use of visualization pictures—to the point that it’s almost uncanny. I would explain it myself, but I think I’m just going to turn it over to you and let you tell the whole story. Could you tell us what a visualization picture is? How did you use it during this last challenge? And what were the results—including your reaction when you looked at the pictures and the reaction from others when they saw them?

Stef O’Donnell: Yes. One of the things I skipped over in past challenges was making a goal card and having visualization pictures. One of the reasons I didn’t have a visualization picture before was because I didn’t know how to use Photoshop. But some wonderful people from the Inner Circle helped me Photoshop my head onto a photo of my favorite fitness-pro body, Monica Brant. I picked someone who I thought I would look like if I were a pro. It was awesome. I printed out the photos and taped them to my bathroom mirror. I would stand in front of the mirror and try to pose just like her in the pictures. It really helped burn that vision into my







head. It was almost like my body started morphing before my eyes to match those pictures. Like you said, it was really uncanny.

You can see the pictures in my forum thread. In one of them, you can see I have my visualization picture taped to my mirror and I’m posing in front of it. I added the pictures to my goal card too. I would pull the goal card out all the time and look at the photos. I constantly pictured myself in that pose. Then I would try to visualize a moving picture of myself posing as Monica Brant, but with my head on her body. I focused on it so much that the line between reality and what was in my head started to blur, but in a great kind of way. It clearly illustrates the power and influence your mind can have and how your body will follow what your mind tells it to do.

Tom Venuto: If anyone listening here hasn’t seen those pictures, they can go to the Burn the Fat Inner Circle and look up your forum thread. It really was amazing. You literally morphed exactly into your role model picture. Some people even said you actually looked better. Other people who posted said, “You know what? I’m using your body as my goal now. I’m putting my head on your body. You’re going to be my visualization picture.” That must have been really, really cool.

You used visualization pictures, and I’m sure you used other kinds of visualization and mental imagery. I’ve gathered that you’re very much into the psychology of body transformation in other ways too. You mentioned the goal cards and goal setting. You realized that there’s a real mental game to succeeding at this. Is there anything else on the mindset or mental training side of things that you found valuable?

Stef O’Donnell: I think the whole endeavor is a mental challenge and a mental game. Tom, you always reiterate how you have to go through and set your goals. You’re completely right. It’s very, very important. I did it exactly the way you lay it out in Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. I rewrote my goals out every morning. I reviewed them. I would say them out loud. I visualized my goal physique before going to sleep at night. Every morning when I woke up, I tried to make that the first thing I thought about. You have to keep your goal images in your face all the time. They have to be in front of you constantly. I had pictures all over the house, everywhere.

I listened to nothing but motivational CDs when I was driving in my car, including your teleseminar series, the “Holy Grail” audios, and I also listened to the Jim Katsoulis’ “Program Yourself Thin” audio classes. Constantly taking in all of these things makes a difference. It helps keep you focused and it helps keep your eyes







on the prize. That’s what you need when you hit obstacles. It’s easier to bring yourself back to what’s important and the mission at hand. So yes—the mental training is vital.

Tom Venuto: I agree. People can either watch TV or listen to the radio, or they can program and fill their minds with positive programming. You’re proof of the power of putting only the positive into your mind. There are so many other things I’d love to ask you, but we’re getting near the end of our time, so maybe we’ll invite you back again in the future. Before we wrap up for today, do you have any other tips or tricks or anything else you want to share with us?

Stef O’Donnell: A couple of things. Being committed is super important. Another thing is, everything counts. I weighed and I measured everything, and I counted every calorie and it made a big difference. If you don’t realize how many calories are in certain foods and you don’t weigh and measure your foods, you have no control at all over your body.

Also, be very careful of the activities you engage in daily, because these things become habits. It’s important to replace old habits with good habits. You might see yourself starting to have a glass of wine after dinner one night. Then, it turns into two nights, and then three. That’s something to nip in the bud, and either replace with a good habit or get rid of altogether. That one is especially important for life after the challenges, because that’s when you start letting your guard down more. Be vigilant.

One more is to “act as if.” Pretend like you’re already a fitness model. Walk around and act as if you already are, and eventually that’s what you’ll become.

Tom Venuto: Answering my own question from earlier, I would have to say that all of your attention to detail totally paid off. I’m actually really looking forward to hearing more from you. I know that you have a new website with a blog. It’s for anyone, but I think it’s especially for women who want to be hot over age 30, or over age 40 and beyond. Can you tell us about your site and give us the web address, so we can visit?

Stef O’Donnell: Definitely. Thanks, Tom. It’s called Cougar Fitness Blog and the link is www.CougarFitnessBlog.com. For Burn the Fat members, I have a booklet of all of my secret cottage cheese recipes that got me through the nighttime snacking phase. Just go to my site and click on the tab—Secret Dessert Recipes—it’s just for you guys.






http://www.CougarFitnessBlog.com


Tom Venuto: Awesome. I’m downloading that. Stef, this has been great—really informative and very motivating. I really appreciate you spending a full hour with us. Congratulations again on the great results. And thank you so much for spending your time with us today.

Stef O’Donnell: Thanks, again, Tom. I really appreciate the awards. I appreciate all the support. And thank you too, to you and your team, for sharing all your knowledge. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is a game-changer. You’ve seriously changed a lot of lives. I look forward to seeing everyone in the Inner Circle forums.

Tom Venuto: Thank you, Stef, and I want to thank everyone else who listened to this call. I hope you all found this as inspirational as I did.

We’re going to be back with more Burn the Fat Success Stories soon and we’ll soon be back with more Burn the Fat Challenge competitions too. I hope you’ll join us and enter the next one. Until then, train hard everyone, and expect success.







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