Body transformations

February 14, 2011

The TLA is about training like an athlete for a set period of time with a defined purpose. This includes being more disciplined in your life than usual, challenging habits, monitoring progress, adding quality to your workouts and becoming nutritionally savvy. I did some research and checked out how a few of the hollywood stars prepare for roles, plus one celebrity chef. Judging by my research it seems the best way to reach your goal is to train like an athlete.

Anyway, you be the judge.

Jessica Biel

In order to build and maintain her lean, slender and toned body Jessica Biel combines various exercises into any given workout, constantly changing the exercises she does to keep her body guessing and building lean muscle to cope with the change in workload.

Jessica Biel’s favourite resistance exercises include:

  • Squats
  • Plyometric jumps
  • Walking lunges
  • Jumping lunges
  • Medicine ball throws
  • Chest flyes
  • Press ups
  • One leg stiff legged deadlifts

Nutrition

When getting ready for a movie Jessica Biel will eat 6 to 8 small meals a day to kick start her metabolism and provide the right fuel and energy for her workouts. The Jessica Biel diet will include a high level of quality protein – fish, chicken, some red meat – and a good source of complex carbohydrates, with most carbs eaten in the morning and straight after her workout. In the evening Jessica will reduce her carb intake to zero whilst still eating high protein meals (or substituting her protein meals for protein shakes)

Cameron Diaz

Workout

To tone her legs and wee bum Cameron Diaz concentrates on lunges and piles squats. Both exercise target the quads, hamstrings and glutes. Not only that but exercising the legs also allows Cameron to promote muscle grow and tone not just in her legs but also her upper body.

To tone her arms Cameron Diaz will do a number of exercises in any given workout, including:

  • Dips
  • Press ups
  • Curls
  • Punching
  • Pull ups / Pull downs
  • Medicine ball work
  • (Again, this sounds awfa familiar)

The Cameron Diaz fitness workout

Cameron Diaz performs cardiovascular anaerobic fitness workouts 2x times a week. Exercises  include treadmill running, cycling, cross trainer, boxing & martial arts.

Nutrition

Cameron Diaz eats plenty of protein (skinless chicken and fish)and not to many carbs – allowing her to burn body fat and build / maintain muscle tone. She also eats a hearty breakfast, giving her plenty of energy for the rest of the day.

“OMG this is like so TLA”

Halle Berry

Halle Berry’s body is an aesthetic mix of leanness, muscle tone, and feminine curves. Few people know she’s a diabetic, Through a healthy diet and regular exercise, Berry keeps the disease at bay.

Nutrition

Halle follows what is called the five factor diet of 5 small meals a day and one cheat meal weekly.

Workout

Halle’s program is designed by friend/associate Ramona Braganza and includes three 10-20 minute circuit training sessions. Each circuit includes three weight training exercises with high intensity drills such as skipping and boxing. Halle Berry’s session is a high intensive blast which rarely exceeds fifty minutes. She always has two days off when in training.

Helen Mirrin

How does 63 year old granny Helen Mirrin do it? Uh oh, here we go again. When preparing for a role her weapons are a consistent plan of a healthy diet, good sleeping habits, and exercise using resistance training.

Natalie Portman

To prepare for Black Swan Natalie had to take more severe measures to become a ballerina so she could be like our very own wee Stephana. Her program included a nutrition plan of reducing portion size (but still eating five or six meals per day to maintain muscle),swimming a mile a day, plus technique ballerina bar exercises (TLA Saturday) and a training program with emphasis on resistance training on the upper body.

Padma Lakshmi

Padma is dream girl potential. Ex wife of Salman Rushdie ( poor thing couldn’t handle the fatwa) and 38 year old celebrity chef. During her chef reality show which I watch religiously (interested in food you know) it’s common for Padma to put on 10 -15 lbs. Therefore to lose this weight she has to get disciplined for a set period of time.

Nutrition
Padma cuts out as much sugar and fat as possible in her nutrition plan and tries to only eat complex carbohydrates and lean protein. Her healthy weight loss diet plan involves eating fruits and veggies as well as drinking water.

Making water sexy
As she says, “Water is a great fat loss help! It fills you up. I always just keep a big bottle by me and that way I can monitor how much I drink, even at the design studio. We have a big pitcher of water that’s always filled and we put things in it like dried Jasmine flowers or orange blossom water just to make it feel a little special.”

Workout
Padma does boxing as fitness training exercise for weight loss because of its combined emphasis on both endurance and strength.

In addition, Padma recommends that you have to make sure you are undergoing a fitness exercise program for the RIGHT reasons. She emphasized that her fitness exercise expectations are reasonable “I can’t expect to look immediately the way I looked before. It is about feeling good about yourself and being healthy.” “I wake up at 6AM, have breakfast, then I go to the gym, lift weights for an hour. Then I walk home.”

So there you have it, girls. It’s not rocket science, but it is exercise science.
For body transformations, In a nutshell.

  • *Eat 5-6 small meals a day loaded with lean protein & nutrition dense complex carbs
  • *Lift weights*
  • *Include Body weight resistance exercises
  • *Interval Training, esp. boxing and fast intensive heart rate drills.
  • *Keep your workouts under 1 hour.
  • *Emphasize quality in your training sessions.
  • *Drink lots of water.
  • *Have discipline for a set period of time.
  • *Do a program for the right reasons.
  • *Most importantly, the TLA says, enjoy the experience. You are absolutely doing yourself the world of good.
  • Easy Peasy!