My Faster Way to Fat Loss Journey
One of the most common questions I receive on my Instagram is in regards to the nutrition and fitness program that I have been doing, so I thought that it might be helpful to write a full blog post to document my journey and provide more details about the program. Warning – this may be a little long!
About Me:
I have been a member at my gym for most of my adult life, and I have always been pretty disciplined about working out. Nutrition is another story. During my 20’s, I ate whatever I wanted without having to worry much about my weight, and I made really poor choices food-wise. Once I entered my 30’s, my body started to change (just as everyone said it would!), and I knew I needed to make some changes. I began to focus on my calorie intake, becoming a slave to tracking the amount of calories I was eating vs burning – calories in, calories out. I started attending intense group classes at my gym every day of the week where I would burn hundreds of calories and leave dripping wet with sweat, convinced I was either going to die or vomit :). When I first made these changes, I lost a few pounds so naturally I thought what I was doing was working; However, it wasn’t sustainable and I ultimately started going backwards. I was always hungry and craving all the wrong things, and I was consistently getting injured at the gym – over a three-year period, I had a foot injury, a knee injury, and a shoulder injury that was diagnosed as bursitis (a 35-year old with bursitis!?). While I did not weigh that much in terms of pounds, I had too much body fat and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to budge. I could not understand why I was not seeing changes in my body when I felt I was working so hard, and I had finally just convinced myself that it was a result of getting older, and this was my new reality.
In November 2017, I discovered the FASTer Way to Fat Loss through a fellow blogger (Beth at Seersucker and Saddles). She was so passionate about the program, and had an awesome success story that really inspired me. I read up on the program and was intrigued by the various tactics that were involved, so I signed up and started the Monday after Thanksgiving. I know the timing sounds crazy, but I was actually excited to approach the New Year with a head start! I will be totally honest with you, this program is NOT easy and it is very overwhelming in the beginning. During the prep week of my first round, I tried to talk myself into quitting so many times – I had already come up with excuses in my head to justify why I was going to quit. One thing you have to do at the start of the program is take “before” photos. I kept going back and looking at those photos, and I honestly didn’t even recognize myself. Those pictures are ultimately what inspired me to keep going and not give up. I knew that I was going to continue to look just like those photos until I finally made a change. This program is not a quick fix and to see results, you have to be committed and put in the work and effort. A positive and motivated mindset is KEY – you have to remember that you don’t see successes with anything in life without hard work (unless you’re just really, really lucky!).
About the Program:
In the FWTFL, we focus on several unique strategies to help accelerate fat loss – Intermittent Fasting, Macro Tracking, and Carb Cycling. We also tailor our workouts each day based on what our nutrition plan is for that day (for example, we only do cardio on low carb days and we focus on strength-training the rest of the time). The fasting sounds intimidating to most people, and I was intimidated by it initially, but it truly becomes a lifestyle – I love not having to think about what I’m going to eat for breakfast every day! We fast every day for 16 hours, and eat for 8 hours. For most people, that means really only skipping breakfast, and then breaking your fast at lunch time. During the 8-hour eating period, we focus on hitting our Macronutrient goals, which is basically ensuring you are eating the right amount of Protein, Fat and Carbs each day (you’ll figure out what your macro goals should be once you start the program). We do NOT focus on calories AT ALL. If you eat the right amount of macronutrients each day, you will naturally eat the amount of calories your body needs. In my case, I am eating way more calories than ever before – usually between 1700-1800 a day. It was very hard to adjust to consuming that much food each day, and it felt counterintuitive – how can eating so much actually make you lose weight/body fat?! Well trust me, IT WORKS!
Amanda Tress, the founder of the FWTFL is truly a rockstar and she is an AWESOME leader throughout the program. She will provide you with numerous tools and resources to help educate you and give you guidance throughout the entire round. Each round of the program is 6 weeks, with one full prep week in the beginning (so 7 weeks total including prep week). The program comes with an accountability group on Facebook, where you will be assigned coaches that are available to assist you with any questions or concerns that you may have. I had always thought accountability groups sounded silly and unnecessary, but boy I was wrong! One of the main reasons I have continued to stick with the program is because of the accountability and the FWTFL community – I love being a part of this group and I truly believe this program is going to become a household name across the country very soon! Amanda and her team are doing great things!
My Results:
Throughout the program, you will hear a lot that the number on the scale is irrelevant – we do not focus on how much we weigh or how many pounds we have lost because the main goal is to lose body fat and build lean muscle. BUT, I realize that is hard for a lot of folks to wrap their heads around, so I will tell you that after my first round of the program, I had lost about 8 lbs and 2% body fat. Because I had seen such positive results, I decided to sign up for a second round, and here I am seven months later in the middle of my SIXTH straight round (that’s how much I love this program, y’all!). Overall, I am down a total of about 10-12 lbs at this point and I know I have lost more body fat but I’m not sure of the exact amount. UPDATE: After a full year on the program, I had my body fat remeasured using calipers (we have to this annually through the wellness program at my work)…I ended up losing a total of 5% body fat! That is HUGE!!! Now my focus is on trying to become stronger and leaner!
Below are my progress photos that I shared a few weeks ago on my Instagram story – the first photo was taken at the start of my first round, and the last photo was taken at the end of my fifth round in June.
Side by Sides – Before & After Five Rounds of the FWTFL
This program really is a game changer. If you are stuck in a rut and know you need to make changes and are ready to put in the work to make it happen, then I highly encourage you to check out the Faster Way to Fat Loss. I can’t sing the praises of the program enough – I have learned so much over the last six months about nutrition and how the body works, but more importantly, I’ve become stronger and healthier, and feel more confident in my skin than I EVER have, and to me, that is priceless.
I hope that this post was helpful and gives you the push you might need to make a change! You can learn more and sign up for the next round here.
If you have any questions that I may not have answered, feel free to reach out and I will do my best to help. Also, I recently posted videos on IG TV on Instagram where I answered several questions – you can find them by clicking on the “IG TV” highlight on my Instagram Profile. I have also posted a ton of Insta Stories regarding foods that I eat, and all of that is saved to my story highlights on my Instagram Profile (Highlights include: Low Carb foods, Regular Macro day foods, FWTFL info, Fitness info, and Grocery hauls – lots of good resources to reference!)
Below are a few of the protein powders, collage peptides, BCAAs, etc that I use and love!
Thanks for stopping by!
