Interview with Kelly Adair | Sound Authors Radio

December 21, 2008

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. Today is September 5th and my next guest on the show is on the front cover of Champions Body for Life: The official guide for the body for life challenge. Welcome to the show Kelly Adair.

Kelly Adair: Hey thank you I’m so glad to be here. Actually that’s my daughter on the main cover and I’m the little picture down below.

Dr. Kent: All right, which one is you?

Kelly Adair: The big picture is my daughter and Mark Unger and then I’m in the little picture down below.

Dr. Kent: So you went through the whole challenge with your daughter then?

Kelly Adair: Yes I did. I was actually in the form of a coach, I did my transformation way back in 1998 and so this time around I was there to support her and coach her. So I kind of felt like I was doing it all over again.

Dr. Kent: So what does this mean, the champion’s body for life?

Kelly Adair: Champions body for life is actually the update of the original Body for Life book that came out in 1999 as New York Times Bestseller and its basically Dr. Kent a 12-week transformation program to teach healthy eating, weight training, fundamental exercises and cardiovascular work. I think what I had always done wrong as a woman in my younger years was I would only work one aspect of that. I would either just diet really hard and deprive myself of a lot of calories or I would do excessive amounts of cardiovascular work and I would do one thing and I usually did it at an extreme level and so my program is a balanced approach to giving your body, your mind to be at the healthiest level and better than you’ve ever probably felt.

For me it was for a long time forever so when you work all three components by eating healthy, eating the right foods, learning how to weight train and work the right muscles and then cardiovascular because what I found was my body just and this is not just me this is thousands of people. Basically the body just goes and does what it’s supposed to do and starts ridding the body of fat and you start feeling stronger, gaining more energy, more confidence and you just feel better about yourself than you probably have for a long time.

Dr. Kent: So the original book, the New York Times Bestseller, how did you end up picking that up? How did that become part of you?

Kelly Adair: Actually I did my transformation in 1998 and then the book came out in 1999 and what Bud Phillips did was he took those of us that worked the fundamentals of this program. He just kind of encapsulated it and shared our stories and the techniques that worked for people when you take a balanced approach and he put it in the body for life book. Its very successful, its based on science, its not far fetched, its not outrageous, its not extreme and I think what I love about the Body for Life book is it helps to teach people how to obtain this level of fitness without turning their life upside down and living in the gym or doing this crazy diet.

It’s all very easy and geared towards people who live in the real world who have children and full time jobs think that in order to get healthy you have to spend all this time in the gym or you have to eat like a bird. It’s just not that way at all.

Dr. Kent: How did you do it? How did you go through the program?

Kelly Adair: I joined a gym, which I had never been in a gym before and I was scared to death. I just started eating small, balanced meals six times a day; you’re eating all the time, which is another misconception people have. They think well how can you lose weight if you’re eating six times a day? Well when you’re on portion control and balance, so I started eating clean and eating frequently and then I went into the gym and learned how to do some fundamental weight training exercises.

All the pictures are in the book, and I do 20 minutes of cardio three days week so I had never done anything like this before. when I did my transformation I was 36 years old and I dropped 40 pounds and I cut my body fat in half and gained muscle. I couldn’t believe it, it’s like I can’t believe what I did and it wasn’t that hard to do. It takes consistency, you have to be consistent but it’s not that hard to do and it’s not as hard as what people make it out to be.

Dr. Kent: So we’ve got all these things in popular culture, one year we’ve got the low carb diet and then suddenly krispy cream does poorly because people were big into donuts and then all of a sudden they were carbs. Every year there’s these changing times, changing weight plans. The South Beach diets and that, Weight Watchers has always stayed around. What makes Body for Life different?

Kelly Adair: You make a great point Dr. Kent. Every decade it seems like they’re saying oh you should do this and not that or you should eat this and not that and it’s so confusing. As I said before the population are trying to do the right thing, we’re being told one thing and then changing but Body for Life, why I like it so much is you’re eating real food, you’re eating healthy food and it’s just the consistency. Anything that’s radical and what I always ask people when they say oh I’m doing this diet or that diet, my question to them is always can you eat that way for the rest of your life?

If they honestly answer the question like well, no I cant live without this the rest of my life and what Body for Life is; it doesn’t remove any food from us. The thing that we’re trying to remove are the obstacles that are saboteurs like the krispy cream donuts but you can get those things on one day, that’s what we call a free day so you do get those things in as a treat one day a week. The rest of the week it’s just eating real, normal foods but the right portions, the right quantity, and the right foods.

Like quality protein like lean chicken and fish and lean red meat, baked potatoes and not just decorating our food on the plate with all the sauces and spreads. I don’t care if you’re smearing it, pouring it or spreading it, you’re probably sabotaging a really good meal. We’re just cleaning up the dinner plate a little bit and by doing that the body loves you and the body will begin to drop that body fat. I had been carrying it around for so many years.

Dr. Kent: Since 1998 you’ve been on this plan. Have you ever found it challenging?

Kelly Adair: You know what? To me it’s easier because it’s such a way of life for me now. Before I started Body for Life I used to live on pizza, snickers bars, and M&Ms. To me, those were the three food groups that I needed to survive and be happy and you just change your attitude and your mindset on food and I see food as strictly a fuel. A fuel for my body, and I have treats you know don’t think I eat perfect all the time because I certainly don’t. 80% of the time throughout the last ten years of my life in attaining this I eat pretty darn good most of the time.

Again I try not to do anything extreme because extreme is something that you can’t maintain. I’ve proved that with Body for Life there is sustainability with it unless you change your mind. You start getting the fat out of your system, the bad stuff out of your kitchen and start eating clean for the most part, you feel better. I used to get sugar headaches all the time because I ate so many carbs and so much sugar. When you get used to being headache free and fatigue free and you get used to having the energy and the confidence you just want to sustain that. I’m 46 years old now and I want to continue to have energy and feel great and be able to do all the stuff that I do.

So much of that is dependent on what you put in your body in the form of fuel. So it’s not hard, I have found that it’s not difficult to maintain. Like I said I have treats every now and then, I’m not so stressed that I don’t have some fun stuff in my life every now and then but for the most part I go back to eating clean.

Dr. Kent: How did you get your daughter involved in this?

Kelly Adair: Well she got involved because she was struggling. She has started college and we’ve all heard of this. I put on the freshman 15 when I was in college and it was weighing very heavily on her and she was as she called herself, the fat girl in her group. She just got tired of it one day and she knew I had been involved with this but she’s watched me do this for ten years and she finally just reached a point where she surrendered I guess, and she said mom help me. I said oh my gosh, I would love to help you.

We started her in college, she was living in the dorms and we bought her all her stuff to prepare every meal in her dorm room. I taught her how to do the exercises and she reached a point Dr. Kent where it was too painful for her to have to go pick out another formal dress that she didn’t like or didn’t fit her right. Then the “pain” that she knew she’d have to go through to get her body in shape and feel better about herself. As a team we just worked together and I supported her. She did all the work; I did nothing for her, I was just there to support her, that’s all I did.

Dr. Kent: So how difficult was it? You talk about she was expecting pain. How difficult is it really?

Kelly Adair: Well when I say pain I mean you know everybody, even whether you’re a college student, a working mom or dad, everyone has demanding schedules and responsibilities and the pain to me is how do you find time to do this? How do you make time? This is something that most people put down at the bottom of their list and I think its something that needs to be at the top of everyone’s list. To take care of themselves and to get healthy, to feel good and have energy for your kids; wherever you are in your life.

When I say pain that’s what I mean. How do work this into your lifestyle? And I think that everybody, if you want something bad enough, if you want it bad enough you will find holes in your lifestyle, holes in your schedule where you can spend 20 minutes doing cardiovascular work. Because that’s all we do is 20 minutes and I told her, lets look at your schedule and we actually looked at her class schedule and said okay, you’ve got an hour here. This is a perfect time for you to delve into your stairwell in your dormitory and walk the stairs for 20 minutes.

That’s all you need to do but you have to make it a priority if you really want this. I did impress on her that I can’t do it but if you want it bad enough we will carve out the minimal amount of time that it takes to do that in your life. This is not hours and hours in the gym, this is minimal, this is 20 minutes of cardio three days a week and 40-45 minutes doing some weight training three times a week. You’re looking at less than four hours a week.

Dr. Kent: So here’s a question for you. Most folks think well, I have to get a personal trainer and a membership to the gym. What exactly do you recommend for folks? What is the plan?

Kelly Adair: I have several thoughts on this. When I did this in 98 Dr. Kent, it changed my life. I wanted to change my career so I am a personal trainer now and this is what I’m doing full time and I’ve been doing for ten years is helping people do this. On that note I will say I did my transformation completely by myself. I did not have a personal trainer but I did join a gym. What I love about the new Champion for Life book is in the book it shows pictures on how to do each exercise in your home with very minimal equipment.

I can help someone transform their body in their basement with a ball and a few sets of weights. Believe it or not it can be done. So there’s no excuse, I mean yeah you’ll have to go out and spend $30 on a stability ball and hit some garage sales and get some dumbbells but I’m telling you do not overlook and a lot of people do it. Overlook that weight training part and it’s so critical. Working your muscles is so important in increasing your metabolism and to help accelerate that fat loss.

So it can be done at home, it can be done without a personal trainer. I’ve seen too many people do it at home with those circumstances. They’ve got kids, I have one gal that I know who does it at home, she’s an executive. She gets home at 9:30 goes into her library and does her workout at 9:30 at night so again it really comes down to how bad do you want to feel good? If you want it that bad you find the time, you carve the time out and you find the equipment that you need to get it done.

Dr. Kent: It’s been a real honor speaking with Kelly Adair. The book is called Champions Body for Life: The official guide for the body for life challenge and of course this is the follow-up to the Body for Life bestseller of I guess ten years ago now. It’s been a real honor speaking with Kelly and we wish you all the best and I hope you can continue to change people’s lives with this.

Kelly Adair: Thank you so much, I appreciate your time very much. I wish everybody good luck.

Dr. Kent: My next guest on the show is a musician. Jesse Harper from Old School Freight Train. I’m going to play one of their songs here and we’re going to get him on the line and chat with him about that song and about their album. This song is called Seems Like Its Over from Old School Freight Train.

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