Catherine gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last year and was determined to get her pre-baby body back.

See for yourself what she did in only 4 weeks!

WOW! Not bad for a month. Imagine how many mums (and even non mums) would love a flat stomach again in only 1 month? Well Catherine did it and nailed it.

She looks amazing and I asked her to share some of her secrets.

DPM: What was the biggest thing holding you back from transforming your body previously?

CM: I think the biggest thing holding me back was that I’d become so comfortable in my everyday routine that it seemed like too much of a mountain to climb to do things differently – cooking differently, doing more exercise and not having the foods I was so used to just seemed like such hard work.

In other words, it was easier to just do what I’d always done.

DPM: What was the easiest thing to change?

CM: Despite thinking that changing my eating habits would be almost impossible, I found that was one of the easiest things for me to change. I never felt hungry and was actually eating more often than I normally would, but the right stuff rather than a bit of chocolate or a piece of bread here and there.

I think cutting out most of my normal intake of gluten had a big impact on my body as I lost around 2.5kg in the first week. Dan’s quick healthy meals recipe book was great and I still cook from it regularly.

DPM: What was the hardest thing to change?

CM: One of the biggest challenges I faced was fitting in my exercise around my 9 month old daughter. There were plenty of times when I’d plan to exercise after she’d gone to bed, and then when she did all I felt like doing was crashing out on the sofa to watch tv and snooze.

I’d really have to force myself to stick with the training but I always felt better for it at the end of the day.

DPM: What is the best tip you can give to other DPM’ers who want to do what you’ve achieved so far?

CM: The best tip I have is not to think about it too much and just do it. The thought of doing something like this is far more daunting than the reality.

And that’s why the results speak for themselves. Well done Catherine – you followed the game plan and look what happened.

Who else wants to transform their body in only 4 weeks? Leave a comment and i’ll let you know about the latest 4 week Express Transformation Contest details.

Let’s go through them one by one.

1) Never, Ever Say Die Attitude

The one thing you really need is the attitude and belief that YOU CAN ACTUALLY SUCCEED. I put it in bold capitals because too many people talk themselves out of achieving success before they even start.

You need to have this attitude that you can achieve your end goal no matter how out of reach it may seem at the moment.

2) Belief In Themselves When No One Else Did

You need to be like this even if your best friend or your partner don’t think you can achieve your goal. It ties in with the never say die attitude from earlier.

3) Don’t Listen To Critics

Once again, even if the whole world is at you and trying to sabotage your thoughts you need to remain strong and believe that you can achieve anything that your mind can conceive.

If Richard Branson had’ve listened to his critics when he founded Virgin he’d be a broke nobody now.

4) Take Each Week As It Comes

While you may have the seemingly impossible task of losing XX amount of kgs it is essential to never got ahead of yourselve.

Sure, you may need to loose 20kg but is that going to happen this week? Of course not.

Celebrate your small victories, like when your jeans feel a little looser and take it week by week. Each week gets better and better

5) An Unshaking Belief That You Actually Deserve Success

One thing you definitely do not want is a negative mindset. Always back yourself.

Just remember that you can actually feel great and believe it or not you actually DESERVE to!

Do you really, truly believe that you can achieve the body that you deserve. I believe you can but do you? Look deep inside and get all the negative thoughts out of your head once and for all.

6) Focusing On Doing The Little Things Right

This means planning your meals and alocating your cheat meals quota without overdoing it.

This means planning your training sessions for the week and crossing them off when you do them.

Iron out your problems as you go and change something if it is not working.

Have you done that?

Remember if you do what you’ve always done you get what you’ve always got.

7) The Motivation To Keep Digging Deeper & Striving To Be Better

You need to constantly pump up your own tyres each week. Pat yourself on the back when you do the right thing. Dust yourself off when you slip up.

I know that you can dust yourself off after a slip up and not let it ruin the rest of your progress.

Just remember that the sky is never the limit.

However, I do train a few blokes – the ones that get it.

I find that most guys have a “I know what to do” approach. So they head off to the gym, copy the next guy and generally get nowhere.

The ones that get it are the ones I enjoy training with. Like Soren.

Here’s another great success story (still in progress) that resulted from my 4 week Express Transformation Contest in January.

So I got Soren on the DPM Performance hotseat to share some of his tricks to success.

DPM: What was the biggest thing holding you back from transforming your body?

SJ: Not realising how big a part diet plays in losing weight

DPM: What was the easiest thing to change?

SJ: Doing the additional training

DPM: What was the hardest thing to change?

SJ: Giving up all the good stuff (burgers, beers etc) NOTE: Soren didn’t give up the grog or the bad food totally – we just reigned to a much lesser frequency!

DPM: What is the best tip you can give to other DPM’ers who want to do what you’ve achieved so far?

SJ: You cannot train away a bad diet. Get on the 3 day detox diet and cut out (down) cheat meals and it just happens

So there you go – even the blokes get amazing results in only 4 weeks on the Team DPM game plan. So like Soren said – get on the 3 Day Detox diet if you haven’t already and do it once a week for 4 weeks. You WON’T be disappointed!

It’s only $27 and you can get your copy by clicking on the image below.

The choice is yours…

If you missed it you can read more here. But in a nutshell Adam was going from a fat journo to training full time like an elite MMA fighter – to compete in his first ever fight.

So seeing as we’re only 2 weeks out now from Adams fight I thought i’d give you an update on his progress.

I don’t have to say much to be honest.

Look at his first video when he announced the project below:

Now look at his latest video posted after week 16 of training:

Amazing the difference in only 16 weeks isn’t it?

Just looking at Adams face you can see the difference. Then you’ll also realise he’s dropped something like 20kg which makes this a phenomenal transformation no matter what happens in the ring (or octagong or whatever they call it in MMA).

If you have nothing else on TV on Saturday 24 March you could do a lot worse than head on down to see Adams fight and throw your support behind the former big unit.

I will be there and I hope to see you there too!

Go champ – nail it. For more info check out The Fight Project’s blog and you can find the link for tickets there too.

One word says it all – AMAZING!

So I wanted to ask Melinda a few questions on how she has been SO successful to help others, like yourself, who want to do exactly the same thing.

You’ll realise when reading this how you can actually adapt this to your normal life without having to live the life of a nun and never have any enjoyment.

You may even find yourself nodding your head at what you can implement straight away.

DPM: What was the biggest thing holding you back from transforming your body?

MF: There were a few reasons but one of the main things was excuses, excuses of when to start and I always found an excuse why I couldn’t start today.

And I would say to myself, I can’t start today because I have a luncheon or I can’t start this week because I have a party on so I might as well start next week’ and before you knew it next week never seems to come and weeks and months of excuses past you by and then suddenly you get on the scales and you are a kilo or two heavier than before.

When Daniel started the first 8 week challenge (In July 2011) I thought its time to get serious and there was no more excuses and I said to myself:

this is when I am going to start and if I had something important to attend I did but I knew that I had 6 more days in that week that I could make a difference in changing to a healthier life style.

DPM: What was the easiest thing to change?

MF: I found the easiest thing to do was to follow Daniels food and exercise plan. He gives you the 3 day detox as well as a weekly food list and recipes plus an exercise plan either with him or at home.

To my surprise once I got through the first week it was pretty simple and easy to follow and was a no brainer. Everything is set out for you for that week it was too easy.

DPM: What was the hardest thing to change?

MF: The hardiest thing was giving up my old bad habits, the glass of wine, soft drinks, cappuccinos, dips and crackers, pizza nights and so on.

The way I overcame that was by taking it day by day. I did not set big goals for the week or months ahead as I knew I might not be able to commit to it if I set the bar too high.

So each morning I would wake up and I would set them for the day and once I got through that day it seemed to become easier over the coming weeks to break those old bad habits.

Don’t get me wrong you don’t need to give up everything you love. You just need to take on board that you only need them in moderation and not on a daily basis’s as I was doing.

DPM: What is the best tip you can give to other DPM’ers who want to do what you’ve achieved so far?

MF: The first thing you need to do is stop getting on those scales or measuring yourself. Do the measurement in the beginning and if you are eating well and exercising there is no reason why you wouldn’t lose weight.

I believe when weighing yourself continuously it can have a negative effect on your emotions which could put you on a high and also bring you down on low just like a roller coaster.

So ditch the scale for a while. If you do fall off the wagon don’t be so hard on yourself and get back on track straight away.

Keeping a food diary is also important as you can keep track of everything you have consumed. This will allow you to see if you are on track or if you need to make adjustments to improve your eating habits.

Keep active and if you are like me and work in an office don’t sit in front of your computer at lunch time. Get out and go for a walk or a run even if it’s for 15mins a day or get together with your work mates and do some type of exercise.

Exercising regularly is important as well as eating well. If you don’t feel like turning up to Daniel’s training, force yourself and after you have been you will be thankful that you did.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. It takes time and determination and by making those small changes in your life style, you will achieve your goals.

Stay positive even when times are tough and in the end results will speak for its self.

That my friends is without doubt the best steps to follow in a success plan from someone who has actually done it themselves.

Rather than me telling you day in and day out what to do I think it is so valuable to hear from what others have done – learn from Melinda’s success and you can be just as happy with your new body too!

Well done Melinda – you’re a true DPM superstar and thanks for inspiring others by sharing your story!

Now most of you reading this probably couldn’t care two hoots about the NBA and some overpaid basketballers. Right?

Anyway this story is worth paying attention to.

2 weeks ago nobody had heard of Jeremy Lin outside of his family and friends.

Now pretty much the whole world – or those who have a passing interest in basketball could tell you his story.

A former college player from the basketball hotbed (NOT) of Harvard that no one wanted after he graduated. He bounced around trying out for 2 teams and didn’t really make the cut.

In fact he only got his chance 2 weeks ago with the New York Knicks because of injuries to their key players. So basically he was last man standing.

Fast forward 2 weeks and he has become a sensation. In fact he has taken the world by storm. Call it Linsanity, Lintastic, Linning, Linazing = whatever you want. He has the perfect name for a pun.

But he had one thing: the never say die attitude that he would make it.

As you can see in the video below in just the space of 2 weeks he went 7-0 in a team that struggled to win. He hit the game winning 3 point shot with .8 seconds left on the clock. He top scored and dominated against bigger names.

Jeremy Lin didn’t quit. He was hungry.

Aussies love an underdog and that makes this story even more exciting.

Yes they may have had their first loss on the weekend with Lin at the helm but he now has a Nike shoe deal and a guaranteed contract for the rest of the season.

He gave hope that just because something isn’t handed to you on a platter you can still achieve it.

He proved that if you actually get off your arse and have a dig what can happen – anything!

Fair play to you Jeremy Lin.

Love your work!

And of course, who could be a better poster boy for motivation and inspiration than “The Boss”, Lance Armstrong.

One of the biggest highlights of my bucket list that I’ve crossed off was seeing the great man ride in action twice at the Tour Down Under in 2009 and 2010.

This video is supershort – only 1 min – but it has a great message from Lance.

Check it out

Sound familiar? Setting a goal, writing it down, otherwise it won’t come true.

It can be said time and time again.

So once more.

1) Identify your goals.

2) Set your deadlines.

3) Start taking action!

I’ve done this with my goals for the year and also for the smaller ones that I set for each new month. It gives me something to work towards in the short term as well as the bigger picture.

I suggest it’s worth your while to do the same too.

Game on for 2K12 if you haven’t kicked your butt into gear already.

The real issue is not whether we have them, or how many of them we have, the real issue is how we deal with them.

Do we just throw in the towel and say “stuff it I didn’t want to wear that size 10 dress anyway” (even though you know you’re lying to yourself)…

OR

Do we say that’s cool. Where did I go wrong? Where could I have done better? What could be done different next time?

You see the real action takers realise that there will be slip ups and set backs.

This video will show you the best ways that you can overcome those set backs so they don’t dominate your thinking and send you off in a downward spiral.

Onwards and upwards from here team DPM!

I dug deep into the video vault to find this one as this message is perfect for those people now (who after my last post on why New Years Resolutions suck should now have their focus on measurable goals instead of some random resolutions).

Check this out and let me know what you think.

As you can see I am sick of people making excuses.

It’s always too hot or too cold. Too wet or too humid. Too much on (but still watch 3 hours of some mind-numbing tv show) or just can’t be bothered.

I’ve heard all the excuses.

Take action with your fat loss goals and you will achieve them!

Let’s get together on this one and work together!

Now it may seem like i’m going to rain on your parade and all the positivity that is around at the start of a new year when I make the statement in the title of this post “Why New Years Resolutions Don’t Work” but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

You see I want to actually help you make 2012 YOUR YEAR.

I want you to wipe the slate clean on all the previous years mistakes.

That was the trial run for this year.

For the new year.

And after you watch this short video you’ll understand why I think New Years Resolutions are a load of rubbish.

So what do you think? Am I on the right track? Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments section below.

And there will be more short and sharp videos like this featured more often – where I give you a short 60 sec tip or insight into helping make 2012 the year you finally DO get back in your skinny jeans.

It’s show time!