Iolee Shares Her Inspiring Transformation Story During a One-on-One Interview with V Shred & Sculpt Nation Co-Founder Vince Sant.

“Almost one year and minus 44 pounds later, I can say with confidence that this was one of the best decisions I’ve taken in recent years. I relearned everything I thought I knew about nutrition, got rid of excess fat, built muscles, and boy do I feel better than ever!”

V Shred Customer: Iolee Anagnostopoulou

We often write features on some of our most remarkable V Shred and Sculpt Nation transformations here on the blog. 

But today, we have something a little bit different to share.

One of our clients wrote a blog about her weight-loss struggles, years of failed diet attempts, and how she used V Shred to lose almost 50 pounds and  come out of rock bottom to be able to achieve greatness in ALL areas of her life!

Instead of writing her story in our words, we want you to hear this remarkable story in her own words. 

Iolee’s transformation isn’t JUST a new relationship with food and a fit body.

As you will read, she now has more self-esteem, higher self-worth, and even had the courage to get rid of toxicity in her life and follow her dreams!

She really is a new person … inside and out! 

Iolee, thank you for sharing your “Journey Of A Thousand Miles” blog with us. 

Your story of how you achieved greatness inspires us here at V Shred & Sculpt Nation, and we know your words are going to move and motivate so many others!

The Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With V Shred

By Iolee Anagnostopoulou

Although the year 2020 was admittedly hard for everybody, it marked a personal victory for me, one that I had been trying to achieve for as long as I can remember. 

I had been battling excess weight since my teenage years, constantly fluctuating between extreme dieting, endless hours at the gym, weight loss pills, anorexia, bulimia…you name it. After my countless outrageous and failed attempts to lose weight, I ended up doing more harm than good, and those pounds kept pilling back.   

But it’s in times of crisis when you seriously start to reevaluate many, if not all, aspects of your life. And in light of the Covid-19 pandemic the main aspect was, of course, health. 

Despite being young, I was feeling heavy, unhealthy, powerless, unhappy…I had hit rock bottom. 

When the first lockdown was announced in March, I thought it was now or never! Admitting to myself that I actually don’t know how to eat healthy or exercise properly, I decided that this time I’ll do it right – get professional advice and adopt an overall healthy lifestyle, not another temporary solution. 

I guess you can call it destiny when one day, as I was scrolling down my Facebook homepage, I heard  ‘Hey, if you’re trying to get in shape, stop scrolling for a second’! And I stopped. And there was Vince, talking about macros, body types, finding what works best for you…answers to my lifelong questions. I was hooked!  

I purchased the Toned In 90 Days program and the first month’s personalized meal plan for a great price. After completing them, I continued with Fat Loss Xtreme and subscribed for the monthly meal plans. 

Almost one year and minus 44 pounds later, I can say with confidence that this was one of the best decisions I’ve taken in recent years. I relearned everything I thought I knew about nutrition, got rid of excess fat, built muscles, and boy do I feel better than ever! My body has never been stronger and healthier. In fact, I haven’t gotten sick since last March. 

I even found the courage and confidence to quit my toxic job and pursue the writing career I always wanted – hence this piece from yours truly! Because you see, change is a powerful thing, and once you activate it, it tends to spread on all areas of your life, cleansing it from any unnecessary burden. After all, a healthy body needs to host a healthy mind. 

V Shred helped me not only lose weight, but also reach a higher level of physical and mental health. 

Weight loss might be a personal decision, but in order to walk the talk I needed professional guidance and support.

Here’s a few insights on how V Shred helped me reach my target.

Making it personal 

One of the first emails I received from the V Shred team was asking me to describe the reasons I want to do this. Mhm, you guessed it – self-motivation injection! I wrote my story in full honesty and sent it through. I didn’t really expect an answer – even though I got one – but the process of putting my feelings into words was surprisingly therapeutic. 

It helped me realize that this will only work if I do it for the right reasons. Instead of resenting my flaws and curves, I turned my focus on living better and improving what I’ve been blessed with. This process begins and ends with loving yourself and embracing your body.  

Committed coaches

The biggest factor of my weight loss success has been by far my amazing virtual V Shred coach, Ashley Lauren. I cannot praise enough her commitment, support and guidance throughout this journey. She’s always made sure to customize my meals according to my needs and preferences – especially in regard to that sweet tooth of mine! Because, let’s not fool ourselves – if you don’t enjoy your food, you won’t stick to any meal plan, and those cravings will sooner or later lead to a relapse. 

She’s always provided me with useful tips and advice, and answered my dozens of questions! The accountability factor along with the personalized approach were crucial for me to keep going. We made such a great team, that I now trust her blindly with every meal plan update! 

Going that extra mile made easy

I’ll admit it, I’m an overachiever. I never skipped a day of workouts (except on Christmas!) and I even added 30 minutes of jogging or 15 minutes of – what Vince swears by – HIIT (high-intensity interval training) on alternating mornings.

Following the concept ‘do the hard things first’, I started hitting the running trail right after waking up, and finishing up with my daily V Shred workout. When I felt like pushing myself a bit more, I was opting for Vince’s YouTube workouts or Blog exercise videos. 

This helped me set an active and productive morning routine, which continued throughout the day. After breakfast, I would open my email and watch Vince’s daily tutorial with a pen and paper for keeping notes, while marking the key takeaways on my fridge whiteboard. I certainly didn’t take the V Shred University section with a pinch of salt, because I knew that if I wanted long-lasting results, I had to change not only my eating and exercise habits, but my mindset and awareness too.

Food for thought

One of the things I learned thanks to V Shred is that food is not my enemy. Vince’s metaphor is as illustrative as it gets – imagine your body as a car, which needs clean fuel to operate on maximum levels. Simple as that, I changed my eating habits by changing my concept about food. I gained a whole new perspective on nutrition, and became more conscious about what I’m putting in my body. Within a few months, I also quit gluten, dairy, processed sugar, caffeine, soft drinks and cigarettes, and haven’t looked back since! 

Switching to carb cycling really helped boost my metabolism, and I didn’t have to starve to get slim. I was overweight with 2-3 crap meals per day, and I became fit by eating healthy 6 times a day – in fact, I struggled finishing my meals at the start!

Gradually, nasty symptoms I was experiencing for years started subsiding – heartburns, bloating, flaky nails, insomnia, brain fog etc. I wasn’t just healthier, I was a rebooted version of my former self!

Rome wasn’t built in a day 

Losing weight is a challenging and stressful process, both for the body and the mind. 

Leaving my comfort zone inevitably brought feelings of frustration, disappointment or disheartenment at times. At my coach’s advice, I started taking weekly pictures and measurements to track my progress, instead of stressing out about scale numbers. I reached my target weight in 3 months and perfected the results after a couple more. 

My body just needed time to update its settings and adjust to my new lifestyle, so I had to make this more about self-care, rather than self-battle.

And whenever the emotional load was too much, I could always turn to the V Shred Facebook community of strong and brave women going through the same struggles. 

So I did it! I started at 189lbs in March and I’m now 147lbs, a weight I’ve maintained for the past 4 months already!

But you know what? The fact that I feel healthier and more energetic than ever is much more thrilling than the beach body in the mirror. 

I still use V Shred and follow my monthly meal plans – they’re just so convenient and delicious! I have one satisfying cheat meal per week and always rest on Sundays. 

On a side note – brag alert! – I’m thrilled about meeting Vince for the first time next week, and sharing my experience with him. Proof of a company that actually cares about its customers’ feedback and is always looking for ways to improve – now just how refreshing is that?!

The journey of a thousand miles started with V Shred, but it hasn’t ended – and probably won’t anytime soon, as I’m loving my new way of life! 

V Shred provided me with the necessary tools to undertake this difficult journey, helped me discover a whole new me, and gave me the most priceless thing: the gift of health. 

CONCLUSION

Wow! What a powerful story!! We are so honored that you trusted us with your health and humbled that we could play a part in helping you overcome such immense life-long struggles!

If you want to hear more about Iolee’s V Shred Journey watch her sit down interview with Vince at the top of this page!

And if YOU are reading this with tears in your eyes, nodding your head and saying. “THIS IS ME! I CAN RELATE! I AM LIKE IOLEE!!” — We would love to help you take your first step so that you will also have a beautiful success story to share! You can reach our team by clicking HERE!