LisaTcan: Yes, I did have 29% body fat at my current weight when I really let myself go about five years ago. I actually have less than 20% body fat now, it's about 17%. It took me about three years to go from 29% to about 23% because I took my time doing lots of different things. Then last summer, I got REAL serious about leaning out and it took about five solid months to go from 23% to 19%. I lost the other 2% from doing NROL4W. I will say that most of it was due to majorly cleaning up my diet. I started to see my abs around 21%, faint oblique lines. Hope that helps. It sounds like we are built the same. My waist was kind of thick with a small flat butt. I can totally relate.

Ok, that's good to know. I was surprised that it was so high at my weight.
I need to work on cleaning up my diet in addition to weight lifting.
Thanks for the info!

Well, I've decided to do all twelve workouts in stage 7 instead of 6. I hear they are absolutely brutual but I want to seriously challenge myself. Hopefully, I can do it. It would extend the program by two weeks but I'm determined to see it through to the bitter end, lol. Stage 6 is going good. I'm almost halfway through.

OK, I have my gym consultation today - hopefully I can start the program by Thursday/Friday.

I have a question - Do you all memorize the book before you go to the gym or do you bring the book with you? I was even thinking of photocopying the pages that I need.

Laura78 - I just memorize the workout for the day, I know stage one only has 5 exercises so it's pretty easy. You could bring the book/ a photocopy the first day of eat workout but after that I don't think you'll need too.

I usually quickly try out the new exercises at home before I go to the gym, but I still photocopy the new ones and bring those with me anyway. When I'm working hard, my brain tends to short-circuit!

(You'll definitely want to bring your work out log though, so you can write down the exercise, the weight and the # of reps.)

OK - thanks everyone! I went to the gym and got a trial membership and am going to give this a great effort for a month (and then hopefully beyond). I start officially on Wednesday.

I looked through the exercises and the one that makes me slightly nervous is the one where you go into a push-up position on a ball.

I have also decided to not look at the scale for a month because it is sooo triggery for me when I see the scale go up and so I'm going to spend a month focussing on my diet and workout and see how that goes.

I'm going to do 1600 cals on non-workout days ad 1800 on workout days - does that sound about right?

Laura78: As far as the calories, you'll have to wait a few weeks and see what happens. If you gain, cut back by 100 or so. If you lose, keep it the same. So much of this is trial-and-error, only you can really assess your progress properly. Additionally, you may have to tweak it here or there as you go along. Keeping a food diary helps me. Hope that helps. Good luck in advance too!

Only a few more workouts until I am finished with Phase 1! I need to start writing all of Phase 2 out in my little book that I take to the gym. I just write each exercise and the amount of reps I am supposed to do and leave room to record my weight. I like having the entire phase written out to see how much longer I have to go!

I'm anxious to see what my results are like with the "special workouts" at the end of phase 1!

LindsB: Good for you! I do the same thing. I always write the exercises up for the next stage like a week in advance, it helps a lot. Wait until you get further along and see how much stronger you get when some of the same exercises reappear. It's very motivating to have that self-check throughout the program.

I'm halfway through stage 6 and I'm conquering the pullovers!! I've managed to 8 out of 10 sets with 40#. I'm working my way up to all 10 sets at that weight. I can really tell that my upper body strength which was severely lacking back in stage 1, has come a very long way.

I contacted this guy that I've gotten to know from reading his fitness blog for the past year about constructing a kettlebell routine for me to do over the summer. I wanted to do the abs program immediately following this program but my schedule is chock-full until September. Anyway, he contacted me this morning to let me know he's almost done with the routine. I can't wait to see what he's come up with. I love kb's and look forward to working with them from May-September.

Fitmom- a kettlebell workout sounds awesome!

I am SO ready to be done with Phase 1! I am starting to dread certain exercises which tells me that it is time to switch it up! Thankfully I should be able to finish up next week!

I'm soooo sore from stage 6, you have no idea!!! It's kicking my behind, lol. All the other stages combined were not this taxing on my body IMO.

And slightly off-topic: I went to the department store today and bought some thong underwear. I never in a million years would've even thought to buy some prior to this program. Well, tried them on when I returned home and I look kind of okay, lol. My hubby's gonna be shocked because it's so not like me to wear stuff like that. We've been married 15 years and I've never worn revealing undergarments even when I was younger. Thank you New Rules!

Hello everyone, I have just finished reading the book and plan to start phase 1 on Monday. How did you ladies start with the pushups. I can only do like 3 maybe 4 normal pushups. Did you start with normal push ups or did you start with girl pushups? I have a ball here at home and have been practicing the prone jacknife so I think I can do that. ALso, any advice or fyi's???

Push ups are hard! You build up to them by doing them at an angle. I use the Smith machine in my gym: I set the bar around waist height, put my hands on the bar, and then jump my legs back. As you get stronger you can lower the height of the bar until you're strong enough to do them on the ground.

(A weight bench would also work, or even a wall, depending on your strength.)

Dietvet, TY, I will try that.