Skin In The Game: How Jeff Lost Over 30 Pounds In My Inner Circle

Losing 30 pounds is no easy feat. Perhaps you may be trying to lose a significant amount of weight but have struggled over and over in the past.

I’ve consistently written about the proper workout plans, how to lose fat, counting macros, how to determine your maintenance calories, bulking, even how to hire an online fitness coach.

I’ve also written about how to change and build the health habits that serve your fitness goals, to make your fitness goals much more accessible.

But just having this information is NOT enough.

There’s an old saying, ‘those who pay, pay attention,’ and today we have a story of that.

Everything below is written by one of my JCD FIT Inner Circle members, Jeff.

JC: You mentioned in our group that you’d bought LGN365 in the past, but didn’t do much with it until you joined the Inner Circle and made a decision to get into shape. What was the spark that spurred the change?

Jeff: I think there were a few reasons behind not doing much with the product in the past. My main reason being that I didn’t have enough of a reason to actually get in shape. I didn’t look bad but definitely didn’t look like how I wanted. Without a compelling goal to push myself towards in the first place, I think I was destined to fail.

I still worked out while I had LGN365, but it was pretty hit and miss. Sometimes 1 time/week, sometimes 3/week, but it wasn’t consistent enough. I’d typically get to week 3 and get discouraged because I didn’t see any progress, then I’d fall out of the habit for 2-3 weeks, get sick of not working out and start up again.

This was a pretty vicious cycle for the last 3 years.

The difference between this time and the other times I’ve tried to get in shape were, I believe:

• I had a compelling reason to get in shape
• the inner circle provided some accountability.

The compelling reason to get in shape came in November when I stepped on a scale and saw 235 pounds. My knees, hips, and lower back hurt constantly. I was always tired and something simple like walking up a flight of stairs would leave me breathing a little heavier than normal.

I didn’t like where I was at so I once again decided to start with the exercise again, but this time I told myself that I would make it to 4 weeks of working out consistently and eating better.

From there, the rest is history.

The inner circle helped with accountability tremendously. You have your public facebook group which may work fine for some folks. For myself, paying for the Inner Circle every month provides a little financial motivation to keep going as well.

In addition to the financial motivation, the people within the group are also great. Everyone in the group is very supportive and it’s motivating as well to see a trend of the same people within the group posting the check-ins day in and day out.

I like the honesty people have when they say they had a bit of an off day and ate an entire ice cream cake, but they’ll pick up where they left off tomorrow.

Then tomorrow comes, and you see they’ve crushed a workout and their nutrients are looking great.

JC: What do you think has been the biggest catalyst for you dropping 30 pounds?

Jeff: I have a few reasons this attempt at working out has been light years better than past attempts. First, I stuck to the plan when I wasn’t losing any weight and committed to the process. I honestly told myself “JC knows what the hell he’s talking about, and if he says to stick to it then that’s what I’m going to do.”

About 6 weeks in, I noticed the pounds dropping slowly, and the trend was pointing down in weight due to weight tracking with the happy scale weight. I think by tracking my weight every day (or almost every day), it took out the noise of the day to day fluctuations someone can have in their weight.

Here’s a screenshot from the group of Jeff’s progress:

At week 6 when I noticed the trend going down, I knew progress was being made and I just had to stick with it. I’ve also applied this to plateaus when my weight just doesn’t seem to want to budge for a week.

Keep hammering at the workouts, do the little things right and the success will come.

The other reason I think I’ve lost a significant amount of weight this time is I’m more comfortable with being hungry, and when I do eat I don’t gorge myself. If I’m hungry and I have a plan of when to eat, I do my best not deviate from it unless I’m going absolutely mental and need a small snack.

Furthermore, when I do eat, I’ve found there’s a big difference between eating until you’re not hungry anymore versus eating until your absolutely stuffed and feel like a bowling ball. In the past, if there was food in front of me I’d eat it all until it was done.

Didn’t matter if I wasn’t hungry anymore, I’d eat until I hit the completely stuffed feeling. I’ve found that’s made a huge difference as well.

JC: Since you’ve managed to make such great progress, what do you think others should know about losing weight and getting into shape?

Jeff: I’d say it’s really not that difficult and not to overthink it. When I say it’s not difficult I mean there’s no trial and error until you find the secret sauce of all the exact movements that will have the fat melting off you like an ice cream cone on a 100-degree day.

It’s really as easy as picking a plan and getting started. The secret is in not quitting. Pick a plan, get started and stick to it. Over the past 6 or 7 months, if I only worked out when I felt motivated and only ate well when I felt like it, I’d have lost maybe 5 pounds.

The number of days I drive to the gym after work, walk through the door and ask myself “what the f*ck am I doing here, I don’t really want to be here” honestly far outweighs the number of times I’m jazzed up to hit the gym.

The difference now is I force myself to go to the gym even though I don’t want to be there, and usually right after the first warm-up set that’s when I get into it and want to get after it.

Not every day is perfect though and there are times where I’ve almost finished a workout and I’m still hating every minute of it, but I can count on one hand the number of times that’s happened over the past 6 or 7 months. After the workout, 11 times out of 10 I’m happy I pushed through it and feel happy I accomplished something different.

The short version: The only secret is consistency, both in weight training and what you eat. 85% is better than 0% (which JC preaches repeatedly).

JC: What has been the key lesson (or lessons) you’ve gained from my work and/or the inner circle?

Jeff: For the Inner Circle:

Trust the process. If you’re forcing your body to move and lift more weight than it’s accustomed to, it’s going to change and adapt but it doesn’t happen overnight. If you’ve eaten shitty and did very little exercise for 10 years, can you realistically expect your body to change in 3 weeks?

That’s not meant to be discouraging, it’s just a reality. I ate like crap for 3 years and it took me almost 3 months before my weight really started to drop and about 5 months before the mirror looked different. Physically, I felt better, but the visuals weren’t there yet. They still aren’t where they want to be, but now it doesn’t look like I swallowed a basketball

Enjoy it and celebrate the progress, regardless of how small. Even if you’re only 2 weeks in and hating every minute of working out, if you find a certain lift is easier, or you think you can add more weight, then stop and give yourself a pat on the back because that means you’re making progress. Add enough of those small victories together, and next thing you know your pecs look bigger or biceps or more defined or you can lift 10 more pounds

Accountability is important, but don’t shout from the tree-tops you’ve done something before you’ve done it. There is a psychological tendency to not want to do something if you’ve said you’ve already done it. Post the accountability or what you did after you actually did it.

On the flip side to this, use accountability as a tool when you don’t want to do anything. Lean on that support from others

Jeff: My thoughts about JC:

JC is passionate about this stuff, and he really is interested in people’s well being (from my perspective). He won’t push fads or bulls*it on people that could be harmful or would be less than ideal

Most people just need to get started. I’m sure there’s a lot of scientific reasons to do certain lifts one way or do your workouts during a certain time of day etc., and you can drive yourself nuts getting things perfect.

Even if a plan is great, if it just sits there it’s useless. Also when you get started, things may not happen as easily as you thought. If you have a simple plan (like JC’s programming he provides in the inner circle), you remove a reason to change programs or be stagnant. “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”

Training Form is much more important than weight. Leave the ego at the door and do the movements properly. No one cares if you can bench 900 pounds but look stupid doing it

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Contrary to what Instagram, Facebook, and whatever other platforms tell you, no one is perfect. Just because you miss a day at the gym doesn’t mean you’re a failure of a human. Like JC says (I feel like I’m saying this a lot. Probably because he’s onto something), don’t miss 2 days in a row. My schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday. There’s been plenty of times I’ve missed the Thursday workout, and make up for it Friday. Again, you don’t need to be perfect. A missed day isn’t an excuse to blow off the rest of the week.

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Here’s a recent post with that ‘never miss two days in a row’ rule:

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You don’t need to eat like a saint 7 days a week. Eating less, and healthier food choices do get easier and become a habit. I used to go to Burger King and order a double whopper with cheese, onion rings, and a pop…then I’d add an original chicken sandwich and eat that. A few weeks ago at work, I decide I wanted a cheat day and ordered a double whopper with cheese and onion rings. I made it half-way through the burger and felt like I was going to puke. You body will adapt to the food, it’ll just be uncomfortable for a bit.

Jeff: Final thoughts:

I couldn’t be happier I stumbled across JC’s work 4 years ago. He’s a breath of fresh air in a hobby where most people are full of shit, have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about, are trying to get your money in their pocket, or a combination of all 3.

And while I don’t know his favourite colour (<-canadian spelling), I can tell he means well through his work. If you drink a grande latte from Starbucks every morning, you can afford to give JC’s program an honest couple months of effort.

If you give it an honest 85% and it still didn’t work, then you can go buy a 10-day 6 pack program.

I feel like I’ve rambled long enough but if I can leave one final comment, I honestly can’t stress enough you have to trust the process and put in the work. As good as JC’s stuff is, if you don’t remove your ass from the couch and do it, it won’t work.

Even if you force yourself from the couch and you’ve arrived at the gym, the workouts are going to suck. JC’s workouts still suck (and when I say suck, I mean they’re hard and I want to choke JC after them). You’re going to sweat, you’re going to hurt, you’re going to be exhausted, you most definitely will feel uncomfortable (if you’re not, why are you doing it?), and there’s a chance you’ll feel like you want to puke (I did for weeks).

You can go back to doing what you’ve always done, but we all know the definition of insanity. If you don’t, look it up. If you make it to the gym, put in the work, and eat reasonably well your body will adapt to the work (food and exercise) and things will get easier and you will see progress.

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Are you ready to get better results from your diet and training?

Do you want to have a guide, and feel like you’re not going it alone all the time?