We recently surprised the First Place winner of the Make Life Better Transformation Contest for the fourth quarter of 2011 when we stopped by, unannounced, to let him know he had won.

Vic eventually consulted the powers that be (his wife) and they decided to go to the Bahamas. They’ll be staying at Atlantis Resort and be experiencing extravagant cuisine, snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, and much more.

Unicity International is excited for Vic, his accomplishments, and his upcoming trip. We’re also excited to officially announce the three winners of this quarter’s contest. Click on each person’s name to read their success story.

The winners are:

First Place—Vic Neumann

Second Place—Gail Ogden

Third Place—Hal Tueller

Congratulations to all the winners and to everyone who has participated in the Make Life Better Transformation!

I’m writing this with mixed emotions. I have been truly blessed to have had Unicity in my life, but that didn’t make it any less difficult when my Transformation came to a close.

I am, of course, so happy with the results I have had with Bios Life Slim and the Make Life Better Transformation.

Because of the teachings of nutrition and commitment, and my coach’s kind words of encouragement always in my heart, I will continue on my journey to ideal health and weight management. There is no going back to the life that once was full of encumbrances and limitations! My coach was always there for me with answers to my questions and always had the right thing to say at the right time!

It’s difficult to be brief when sharing my thoughts about the Transformation experience. I can tell you one of the greatest rewards has been that my own success has made those around me want to try Bios Life Slim. I want to continue inspiring others to use Bios Life Slim and make their life better!

Personally, the Transformation has given me a life without limitations. Those 13 weeks were full of surprises and brought a new meaning to being “comfortable in my own skin.”

Whether it was the elated feeling of being able to ice skate easily again or the unbelievable feeling of going through my closet each week and slipping into new sizes, the results I was seeing were overwhelming. The most surprising thing to me was I was able to get my hunger under control; hunger became a thing of the past and many times I had to ask myself: “Did I forget something? Did I cheat?”

The truth was, Bios Life Slim was working! My body had indeed become a fat-burning machine.

Those memorable moments of being told I was melting away by my husband John, or my 15-year-old old son not recognizing me on the street, will never be forgotten!

Thank you Unicity and the Make Life Better Transformation for making my life better!

Gail O. | Ontario

I recognize I am not your typical Transformation participant, as I was already in fairly good shape when we began. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement—as performance standards and measurements are frequently relative, not absolute. My personal goals had more to do with cardiovascular fitness, and I was very happy with how I was able to increase my lean muscle mass while decreasing my body fat.

My softball performance was also important to me. Only 11 games into our 32-game winter season, I had already hit 2 home runs. The last time I hit 2 home runs in a full season was probably 3 or 4 years ago. Quite honestly, most players would tell you, pound for pound, I am about the strongest hitter in the league. Of late, I have been hitting the ball as hard as at any point in my life!

When it comes to my workout, depending on how my shoulder feels I can do between 7 and 10 reps of chest presses with 85-pound dumbbells. I don’t do too much barbell benching any more, but I was able to do 2 reps at 225 pounds recently without too much difficulty. I can do multiple sets of 10 or more (again depending on my shoulder) of wide grip pull ups with full extension.

I mention this to give you some idea of the level at which I challenge myself in an effort to manage the aging process. If the measure of the benefit of products can be shown in the results, then I am a walking testimonial to the quality of Unicity products; in other words, I am a product of the products.

One of the major changes I have implemented is the incorporation of a spin class into my weekly workout schedule. I can tell you it has improved my cardiovascular fitness, as I am not nearly as physically stressed chasing down balls in the outfield and running (and pinch-running) on the bases. I am someone who is in touch with my body and I am very aware of my improvement in that regard.

I still have my sweet tooth, but it is markedly easier to satisfy (as long as I get my chocolate in there in some way, shape, or form) as I have made a major reduction in my consumption of chocolate milk and cookies. I am confident I will be able to maintain the gains I made in Transformation and I still have new goals, which I will work diligently to achieve.

In conclusion, I want to thank my Success Coach for his input, guidance, and general oversight of my Transformation. But at the end of the day, nothing happens for me unless I make it happen. Being able to share my ups and downs, successes, frustrations and even disappointments through the Make Life Better Transformation has certainly inspired me to be more responsible in pursuit of my goals and has been an important and invaluable component of my successful Transformation.

Here are some numbers to back up my success:

• I started this journey at 60.7 years old.
• After 13 weeks, my lean muscle mass had increased from 132.35 pounds to 135.29 pounds—representing a gain in muscle of 2.9 pounds.
• My body fat began at 11.28 pounds and ended at 9.59 pounds, representing a fat loss of 1.7 pounds.
• My overall weight increased from 150.4 pounds to 151.7 pounds, for a net weight gain of 1.3 pounds.
• My cholesterol dropped from 183 to 164, reflecting a 10.4% drop.
• My HDL declined from 63 to 55, representing a 12.7% drop.
• My LDL declined from 108 to 100, representing a 7.4% drop.
• My triglycerides did show an improvement from 58 (which was my historical low) to 45, reflecting a decline of 22.4%.
• My Hemoglobin A1C dropped from 5.2 to 5.1, reflecting a decline of 0.1 point and 1.9%.

Neal K. | Florida

I completed the Make Life Better Transformation on January 2nd, and my results have been spectacular. Over the past 13 weeks I’ve lost 35 pounds, all while also dropping my cholesterol, blood sugar, and liver triglyceride numbers significantly. And what I’ve learned has quite probably saved my life.

The old me used to not think twice about binging out on fast food; we’re talking two or three hamburgers, a chicken sandwich, two tacos, a large milkshake, and an apple pie (or two), all in one sitting. That would be a pretty regular weekend ritual when settling in to watch a movie.

Looking back on it with what I know now, if I hadn’t undergone this Transformation experience—which changed my eating philosophy and transformed my body—a heart attack could very well have been in store for me somewhere down the road.

What really impressed me (and the people around me who’ve watched my transformation) is that I’ve been able to lose the 35 pounds without having to starve myself or miss out on the important celebrations and life moments. Four days after I started (on October 3rd) my wife and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary with a weekend getaway to a resort in Palm Desert; three weeks later, we had her big birthday party; eight days after that, I had my birthday dinner; a week after that, we had another large anniversary dinner for my parents 51st wedding anniversary; Thanksgiving week and then several family friends’ birthday dinners throughout December immediately followed; then, of course, there was our Christmas Eve dinner party, a big Christmas Day dinner party, and the traditional New Year’s Eve dinner and party.

In every one of these cases I celebrated in style with great food and drink, yet I continued to lose weight week in and week out—throughout the entire course of the program.

Equally as awesome as the weight loss has been the improvement in my cardiovascular health. Previous to starting this program I was never into running, jogging, or any other type of cardio exercise; now I find it has become something I actually love to do. I’ll be doing it for the rest of my life. I went from never doing any cardio at all to going for 20+ mile bike rides, running on the beach, hitting the elliptical/treadmill for 50 to 60 minute high intensity sessions—and now I look forward to these activities as part of a daily ritual which I can’t imagine ever giving up.

Until you experience something like this program, you don’t really know and can’t experience the difference between being optimally fit and just settling for the status quo. I deluded myself into thinking I was healthy enough (even though I wasn’t) until I actually took a look at my first before pictures and I started applying the principles in the program. You run around wearing shirts untucked so you don’t have to admit your stomach sticks out over your belt line, you keep your suit jackets buttoned up for the same reason, and you basically lie to yourself or use softeners like “I’m not that bad!”

I’ve learned so much over the past 13 weeks—information I’ll be using for the rest of my life—and I honestly believe I now have the tools and the knowledge going forward to maintain my fitness at an optimum level. Not only that, but to also help others achieve this level as well.

Some of the principles of the program which have been key to my success are:

• The Online Tracking System: I had always heard the saying that activity which is tracked and measured improves exponentially over activity which is not measured; and that activity which is tracked/measured and “reported back” to someone improves even more. What tracking my food intake, exercise, supplements, water, and sleep did was retrain my way of thinking about what I’m putting in my body, as well as the amount of exercise and sleep I’m getting. This change of thinking comes into play when shopping at the market, eating out at restaurants, and exercising. You have a more clear picture of what your are doing (or not doing) which you can use as a guide to see where you might be off track, or what could be improved.
• The 4-4-12 rule, learning about the glycemic index of foods, and the Net Carb philosophy—coupled with the Slim multiplier effect—has allowed me to learn how I can eat excellently while still maintaining steady weight/fat loss over the 13 weeks of the program. I even coined the phrase, “I’m eating like a King & losing weight like a starving Super Model!”
• The coaching and support teams—which add accountability and increase the level of responsibility to your commitment to stay on track—are a huge help to achieving your weight loss goals.
• The HIIT Cardio & Core workouts, which almost killed me in the beginning (which was my fault for thinking I was studly enough to jump right into the intermediate levels), but which dramatically increased my bodies ability to burn fat, increased my endurance levels and lowered my blood pressure and pulse significantly
• The Community Support Page: One of the greatest things was to be able to read about and be inspired by the others going through the same program with me. Often times I would be logging in my meals late at night and I would check the community page and read about someone; that would get me so fired up I’d jump up, put on my tennis shoes and go for a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood at 10:00 or 11:00 at night!

Thanks for a truly life-changing experience. You really have Made My Life Better!

Vic N. | California

Wow!

What an adventure this last thirteen weeks has been for me. When I first started on the Make Life Better Transformation, I was hesitant—especially when I learned that I couldn’t have my Pepsi.

What?! I thought I would DIE!

But who was I kidding? Of course I can’t drink soda loaded with sugar every day and expect to get anywhere.

Well, I made it. And I even lost more than 20 pounds! I don’t think I would have been able to do it without my wonderful coach, Jessica. Knowing I would have to answer to her every week about what I was eating, and if I was exercising or not, definitely made it easier. I didn’t feel right about cheating here or there, and I definitely didn’t want to lie about it. I seriously believe having a coach for this program is a must!

My major goal was to feel better about myself in a bathing suit so that I wouldn’t feel so self-conscious when I take my kids swimming. I don’t feel like I’m all the way there yet, but I plan on continuing this journey.

I am happy to say I feel so much better about myself. When my daughters make comments like, “Holy cow mom! You’re skinny!” I get really excited and motivated to keep going. It’s worth not having that Pepsi or candy bar when you get comments like that from your family and friends. I definitely don’t want to go back to those rolls on my body!

I am overall VERY satisfied with this program! I loved learning about the different nutritional information. Now when I go grocery shopping, I’m a lot more conscientious about what I buy for myself and my family. I have made some new long-term and short-term goals for myself and my family as well. I don’t feel like I would ever have made it to this point without the help from Jessica and Unicity International.

Thanks for changing my life!

~Christine P. | Utah