Intermittent fasting, less drinking and fitness changes.

After lots of questions and messages on this topic last night, I’m FINALLY sitting down and going over all my current health and fitness routines. We are going to get down and dirty with real talk in this post, so if you’re someone who’s easily offended by diet talk or going to message me telling me how I’m promoting negative body images, then just go ahead and stop here. I don’t want to be rail thin, I want to be toned. I don’t want to lose weight by not eating, I just want to get to a spot where my favorite jeans fit well and I’m energized. My goal weight is where I’ve been from high school on, with fluctuations in between, and it’s a comfortable spot where I can feel my best and still eat the chocolate cake, on occasion! I’m not going to share my goal weight because with my height, 5’7″, and build, my goal weight is MY body’s goal weight. Your body is yours and my weight would look entirely different on you.

Last year when I moved to DC I had just gone through the annoying and overbearing stress of a breakup, which had me at my lowest weight since middle school, legit middle school. I love my sporty figure and had totally lost it because of the stress. Breakup diets are real and hey you might as well get something out of it, but I knew I had become too skinny. I personally like when my face has a little weight and I love me a good butt.

Moving to DC, in September 2017, I was probably 6-7 pounds below my usual goal weight. I stayed in that general area until the holidays, because honestly, I have a huge sweet tooth and love my red wine. Also, last year was my first ever winter and I definitely found myself bored eating starting at 5:30 pm when the sun set. Fast forward to March, I started noticing that my jeans were a little snug and things started feeling overall tighter. I racked it all up to my body going back to my normal weight so I continued on my merry way, not changing a thing. Fast forward again to May, when the weather heated up and I was able to pull out my jean shorts, which were from the days of my normal/goal weight…. ughhh- they were tight. This is the point where I thought to weigh myself, that I may have gained more than planned. It’s fine…. I was a sobbing mess on the bathroom floor after the weight came up and I saw I was 11 pounds over my goal/normal weight, and 15-ish pounds from my weight when I moved to DC. Throughout that whole year I was consistently working out, 4-5 days a week, so I was more confused than anything. I’m 27 now and I wasn’t taking into account that my metabolism probably changed, so tequila shots, candy and guacamole weren’t processing through my system as easily anymore. Summer is the WORST time to make huge health changes, because, well, vacation… I was traveling tons from May- August, including a 2 week stint in Italy. Let’s just call the entire summer a wash. I didn’t really change much and my body stayed at the higher weight.

Cut to September when I finally settled back into a routine in DC. This is where I incorporated Intermittent Fasting and switched from Orange Theory to working out on my own. I love OT, don’t get me wrong, but I noticed it was bulking me up more than I liked and I wasn’t getting in as many ab workouts. Read below for current workout details.

*Let me emphasize the fact that I’m not trained in health or wellness and this is simply a lifestyle that has been working for me. Everyone’s different and some things that work for me may not work for you.*

Intermittent fasting:

I first noticed fitness bloggers talking about IF (intermittent fasting) and then I watched a story The Skinny Confidential posted, talking about how her makeup artist lost 25 pounds by making the change. From there I talked to friends in the fitness space, included my good friend Jordan who is a huge fitness inspiration, and they all agreed that I should give it a try.

My advice would be to start with 15 hours and work your way up to 16/17 hour fasts. The first few days your stomach will growl until lunch, but your body will get used to it, bit by bit. Drink tons of water and black coffee throughout the morning to get you through till lunch. I used to loathe black coffee, but now I get grossed out when coffees are too sweetened. You’ll get used to that too. If you don’t drink coffee you can do plain tea. No sweetener! The whole point is to refrain from all calories during your fasted hours.

I use the app Zero Fasting Tracker to keep time tabs on my fasts. Highly recommend using this!

My take on IF:

I usually eat from 12:30p- 8p, but fluctuate between 16-17 fasted hours a day. Sometimes I’ll stop eating at 7:30p, and then if I’m out with friends and eat later I hold off my lunch till 1/1:30p the following day.

Within the eating window I try to eat normally, I don’t overindulge by any means. Don’t think of this as a hall pass to go crazy with food. I usually break fast with an apple or go right to lunch. Here are some of the things I eat for lunch/dinner:

-7 chicken nuggets from Trader Joe’s with ketchup

-multigrain cereal with raisins and almond milk

-grilled chicken, arugula salad with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper

-ONE protein bar with fruit, the maple glazed doughnut flavor is BOMB!

-egg whites with butternut squash and ground turkey

-spaghetti squash with pasta sauce

-burrito bowl from Trader Joes

-ezekiel bread with sugar free jam or almond butter

If I get hungry between lunch and dinner I’ll snack on raisins (this is one I’m always eating), dark chocolate, bananas, apples, almond butter on dates or hard boiled eggs.

Fasted cardio:

The concept of fasted cardio in simple terms, is that your body burns body fat rather than the food you just put in it if you work out before eating for the day. This is a tough one in the beginning, but is actually far easier than you would imagine. I usually do this 2-3 times a week and hit the gym around 11/11:30a for a 25 min run or 20 min stair stepper routine. Don’t plan on lifting weights or anything too strenuous while fasting, although I’ve done Orange Theory fasted and it wasn’t too difficult.

Bye bye wine: 

For the last 3 weeks I’ve only let myself drink 1-2 nights a week. Prior to this change I was having 1-2 glasses of wine a day and then drinking harder on the weekends. I sound like a boozehound, but I promise it was more of a wine on the couch and social drinking thing. The first week of this sucked. I mostly missed my red wine at night while watching Bravo.

I found wine would help relax my mind after a hectic day so I went out looking for something that could take it’s place. This is when I was introduced to CBD gummies. Once again, this is not the place for judgement, I am being fully open and honest here with what I’ve been doing. Do tons of research before purchasing these and go to a trusted vendor. I bought my first batch from Sunday Scaries, not sponsored. I would take one/two of these at night and found myself feeling calmed before bed. As someone who’s never been into smoking weed, I was a little apprehensive at first, but if you research CBD there are tonsss of amazing articles out there on it’s benefits.

Now that I was calmer at night, I still found myself missing the act of sipping something on the couch, so I took up decaf tea. My personal favorite is the pomegranate white tea from Trader Joe’s, if you haven’t noticed already, I’m a huge TJ fan. Sometimes I’ll do hot water with lemon or sparkling water in a wine glass. I’m totally used to this switch now and honestly, the perk is I get tipsy faster on the weekends with my friends. Small wins. Oh and my waistline looks way better. That too. Tomato/ tomAhto.

Fitness:

From March- July I was doing Orange Theory 4-5 days a week. I definitely gained muscle and got rid of all my butt dimples… I said this was going to be real. I found my legs getting thicker than I liked and my shoulders became broader. Now, this was my body and others may have different experiences. If you aren’t into running on your own, I would recommend OT, because they do have a way of making cardio fun. I made the decision to stop OT and start workouts that would lean and tone, rather than bulk.

At the moment, I’m hitting the gym 4-5 days a week, obviously travel makes that a little more difficult, but on a bad week I still hit the gym 3 times minimum. I ALWAYS do cardio and get it out of the way first. I go between running for 25-30 minutes or 20 minutes on the stair stepper. After cardio, I focus on one body part per day. My ab routine is on IGTV, you can find the video by going to my Instagram @sweetteawithmadi and clicking the IGTV logo on my page. On the other days I’ll go to Instagram and save workout videos from my favorite IG fitness stars, one of my favorites is Alexia Clark. In November, when my travel schedule slows down I’m going go back to doing Bikini Body Guide, a workout program designed by Kayla Itsines. If you search BBG on the top of this page you’ll find all the posts I’ve done on my BBG experience. I’ve completed the BBG program 2 times now and have loved the results both times.

Where I’m at now:

I hate weighing myself!! I feel like the number can discourage me, so I usually wait and weigh myself after making a change for about 6 weeks. You have to give your body time to show results! I weighed myself last night and am down 5 pounds since beginning of September and have 5 more pounds to go before I’m back at my goal/normal weight. It’s been a process but I feel like I FINALLY found a routine that works for me and my lifestyle. I plan on continuing IF, drinking less and changing up/intensifying my workout plans. Hope this post helped and stay tuned on IGTV/ Youtube for more fitness and health videos.

Kisses and cheers,