My 10 Day Detox: 5 Things I Learned

In the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program we emphasize the importance of whole food nutrition and trying to be gluten and dairy free. The point is to stay away from processed foods as much as possible because a lot of those foods contain ingredients that are unhealthy. I do the best I can.

In an effort to clean up my food act, I joined the January 10 Day Detox with the FWTFL VIP community.  For 10 days I would be thinking about whole foods, clean foods, organic foods. The goal was to reset my body by giving it a break from foods that are known to have a heavier toxic load or prevent the natural detoxification process. Yes, even coaches needed a little motivation and support!

That meant giving up some of my favorite things like apple cinnamon rice cakes with peanut butter and jelly, eggs, cheese, meat and caffeine! My heart literally sank a little while I was reading the What to Eat (what to avoid) list. Instead of changing my mind (which honestly crossed my mind) I went into plan and prep mode -> with the help of mrC.

Here's How the 10 Day Detox Worked: 

Day 1: 24 hour water fast

We do these once a month in VIP, so this was pretty routine. We started our fasting clock at our last meal the night before and broke our fast at dinner the next day. mrC met me for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and I broke my fast with grilled salmon, mashed potatoes, veggies and a COKE ZERO! No guilt here. I'm all about what you can, when you can and progress not perfection.

Days 2-9: FWTFL food cycle and What to Eat list

Eating according to my regular food cycle was not as hard as I thought it would be without processed foods. Our two low carb days were the biggest challenge for me because so many of my go-to items were on the avoid list: eggs, peanuts, peanut butter, sliced turkey breast from the deli. Both days I failed to hit my macro goals, but I wasn't hungry. 

What I Learned:

1. New recipes to try with foods I already enjoy. I'm a creature of habit, so the detox helped me get a little more creative with my food choices. Although, I did eat the new things repeatedly! I made this sauce  (dairy free) for my shredded chicken and quinoa -> it was seriously SO GOOD!

Coconut chicken and quinoa

2. I managed to live without my go-to foods much better than I expected! I don't "need" the foods that were eliminated and hopefully will limit the amount I bring back to my menu. Day 6 was my one off day...I was under calories (again) and there were GF cheese crackers in the apartment. I caved and had a pretty big snack after dinner. But I didn't crash and burn. I was right back on track the next day!

3. Food prep is the key to success when doing a detox! Preparing large batches of chicken breast, quinoa, sweet potato chips, broccoli and stuffed peppers made it insanely easy to mix and match my meals. 

4. I like my caffeine. I tried to limited myself to one cup of coffee in the morning and 1 glass of Coke Zero. Some days this worked, some days it didn't. 

5. A detox is about more than what you eat. We examined all the ways that toxins can invade our lifestyle such as through cleaning products, makeup, toiletries and more. I've already purchased some BeautyCounter products, and I found deodorant and shampoo at the American store. 

I'm excited that I made it the whole ten days with only one big slip. I definitely felt more energized in the afternoons and many days I slept later than I have in years. My goal is to continue to limit the amount of processed foods we eat and keep looking at ways to lessen the toxins we bring into our lives.

PS - This detox was offered as part of the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® VIP membership and is one of the things that made me fall in love with the program before becoming a coach. We are given the chance to learn even more about healthy living to supplement what we learned in the six-week program and follow-up. The FASTer Way is about helping people THRIVE when creating a healthy lifestyle. To learn more about my next round, click here.

Have you ever done a whole foods detox?

Cape Cod Summer 2018 - Week 2

This post is loooong overdue! Between travel, becoming a FASTer Way to Fat Loss® coach and spraining my ankle, it got lost in the chaos. Anyway, because I love to look back at our time with the kids at the beach, I'm finally finishing the post!

The glorious weather continued to bless us all through our second week in North Falmouth. Vacations are always so relaxing, but also seem to fly by. I love the way we blend new adventures, down time and exercise, but my favorite thing is just seeing all of us together again!

Interval Training: 
I took full advantage of the cool mornings to do my workouts outside on the driveway. Even on vacation, it feels good to move my muscles and sweat a little. mrC joined me every day and by the time we finished, at least one kid would join us for a cool down walk.

Strength Training: 
I'm so glad that we had the Fit Simplify bands so we could keep up with our strength days. They seriously were so convenient! Side note: I did accidentally break the yellow band pictured below, but FS replaced it!

Wednesday evening we checked out Cape Cod Winery. This place was pretty amazing ---> beautiful outdoor space, live music and a great vibe from the owners. It's a work in progress and we plan to return again next year to see the updates.

On Thursday we continued our summer tradition of hanging out with Fancy Nancy's family. Her family is so cute and always feed us the best food! This year Dev got to join us.

Active Recovery:
We spent our final rest day on a bike ride to West Falmouth. We stopped in a local market for a beverage and sat on the front patio chatting and enjoying every single second we had left together.

Every year we have a great Cape Cod vacation and writing this very late post has me already looking forward to our next one!!

What is FASTer Way To FASTer Way to Fat Loss®? - Carb Cycling

This is my second post in the What is FASTer Way to Fat Loss®? series. Last time I discussed online bootcamps. Today I want to talk about one of strategies we practice.

FASTer Way to Fat Loss® - Carb Cycling

Carb cycling is when we alter our carb intake to prevent stalls in fat loss and keep our metabolism revved up.

We alter our carb intake by cycling low carb days and regular carb days. Low carb days mean we restrict our carb intake. Regular carb days are the days we get the recommended 50% of our diet from carbs.

The cycle encourages the body to burn fat instead of sugar but prevents your energy levels from dropping. Natural fat burning can occur on low carb days because the body is forced to reach into fat stores for energy. When carbs are reintroduced, the body refuels and rebuilds its energy stores. The carbs are then used to promote the growth of lean fat burning muscles.

Carb cycling works for everyone, but especially women and men who have been eating clean, eating healthy, but have hit a plateau. Cycling carbs gives all the benefits of a low carb diet without risking burn out or malfunctioning of our thyroid.

Carb cycling is a cutting edge strategy used in the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program. As a coach, I can teach you how to strategically pair your workouts to see the best results.

Learn more about my next round here.

Coming up, I will discuss the elements of intermittent fasting and how it used in the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program.

Proper Mindset to Get the Results You Want

When you join the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® program, I give you what you need to succeed, but here's what I can't give you:

Proper Mindset

This is the one thing that you must bring with you to the program if you want to reach and exceed your goals. Here's what it means:

1. You set goals - Taking the time to think about what you want to achieve that will help you see the results that you want has a big impact on your progress. Reflecting on those goals helps keep your head in the right place.

2. You celebrate biggest wins - It's not all about fat loss. It's also about having energy, sleeping better, improving overall health and wellness. Recognizing those non-scale victories keeps your focus in the right place.

3. You do YOU - Everyone has different goals, different objectives, different macros, different circumstances. A proper mindset means that you celebrate others, but you don't compare yourself to them. Your journey is unique and special.

4. You focus on PROGRESS, not perfection - We all want the big prize at the end of our hard work. The goal is important, but so are all the steps it takes to reach it. The practice (mistakes, missteps) is part of the process. Staying focused on the work and moving forward despite an off day is super important.

Living a healthy lifestyle is more than just about losing weight, losing fat. It's about losing the mindset that got you in an unhealthy place to begin with. When you have a positive mindset, you are ready to make the most of things as they are today. A proper mindset will see you achieve your goals!

The One Thing to Do If You Want to Lose Fat

Hey everyone! I am so excited to jump on here today and talk to you about nutrition and fitness and the one mistake that I see so many people making when they are trying to change their body composition and lose weight. I made this same mistake but now I know what to do and I want to share that information with YOU.

Thank you so much for reading! Today I am going to tell you what you need to do to start seeing progress whether you are trying to lose body fat and change your body composition or build muscle and see more definition. If you know someone else who is in this situation, please share this blog post with them right now because I want everyone to know the easy way to start seeing results.

So, if you are trying to lose fat and change your body composition, and feel like nothing you do is working, please keep reading.

This is what I see happening all around me…especially this time of year when everyone is thinking about resolutions. I see this time and time again. And trust me, I was the same way.

People want to lose weight (lose fat) and fit into their clothes again and feel better wearing their clothes. They are tired of feeling flabby and uncomfortable. They’re frustrated with belly fat that won’t go away. People want to look good and feel good. We all do!

The first thing they do is start working out…signing up for gym memberships, taking fitness classes three and four times a week. They start working out more and more and more. Some of these people even do two workouts in one day, or maybe three. They are 100% focused on burning as many calories as possible because they believe they need to burn more than they eat.

In addition to that, people start eating “healthy” – maybe they decide that skipping a meal and cutting back on calories is the answer. Some people will cut out carbs completely. These people will see results, at first, but then it gets harder and harder to live on cutting calories and eliminating an entire macronutrient. 

These people get tired of working out more and more and more and eating less and less and less. Eventually their fitness and “healthy” eating plan falls apart and they lose the progress that was made. Frankly, they are too tired to keep up that crazy plan.

If this is you or someone you know, then I have the answer for you.

You have to look at food first. If you want to change your body composition and lose fat, you have to look at what you are eating.

In the FASTer Way to Fat Loss® we do three things to make nutrition the focus:

1.     Focus on macros -> eating enough of the right foods -> Carbs, Fats, Proteins & enough calories!!

2.     We make whole foods our primary source - if it comes from the ground or a mother, eat it!

3.     We cycle our carbs - this gives us the benefits of low carb without completely eliminating a macronutrient!

If you are not tracking your food, then you really don’t KNOW what or how much you are eating.

When you start tracking your food, you will see exactly what you are eating and exactly how much you are eating. And you will probably learn that you are NOT eating enough and you are not eating the right foods. 

Even if you think you are, if you are not seeing the progress you want, you are not.

Grab your phones, download a food tracking app like MyFitnessPal and start tracking your food. And don’t set your calories at something crazy low like 1200. Anything under 1500 is probably under-eating for most of us.

But start logging your food, I’ve said this before and I will say it again, log all of your meals, your snacks, the ingredients in your recipes…log it all and track it all. Then see what your day looks like. If you are not eating 50% carbs, 30% healthy fats and 20% protein, then you need to change the way you eat to get the results that you want. 

It’s that simple. Eat the right amount of the right foods and your body will respond.

Without doing a single workout.

Focus on the food first!

I can walk you through this process when you join my next round of FASTer Way to Fat Loss®. We start prepping on DEC 31. 

Thanks for reading everyone. If you did, leave me a comment or hit that share button and let your family and friends know how to avoid making the one mistake that will keep them from getting the results they want.