Every year, I would start panicking about my summer body and how I needed to get more in shape. Most of the time, that’s all it was: panic. I never truly did anything that significantly impacted by body up until last year. Since I moved home to France, I have lost over 10kg, dropped two dress sizes, and have had to drop belt sizes twice as well. My whole wardrobe needed to be changed as everything was too big AND I continue to lose weight! The best part? How GREAT I feel in my skin now. I wouldn’t say that I was unhappy before because I wasn’t, however howI feel now? It’s night and day. So, here is how I got summer body ready!
A couple things…
- These photos are not edited. There may be a couple color altering filters on some, but I don’t edit my body or face.
- The older photos won’t be the same quality as my newer content for the simple fact that I wasn’t influencing or blogging at the time.
- I never considered myself overweight, nor do I claim that I was. However, I knew that I needed to lose weight in order to feel and look better both outside and inside. 🙂
- Every body is beautiful and we are all different & unique!
Summer Body Fails
Before we get into what worked for me, you need to understand what I tried in the past that didn’t work. By the time I moved to France, I was steadily hovering around 70kg and I was usually a size 8 or 10. Dieting was something I tried and failed many times because I don’t believe in depriving my body. I know I’ll break the diet eventually and gain the weight back. I tried juicing, protein shakes, and Herbalife… All of which I hated. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to have liquid meals! As for excercising, I did Anytime Fitness, Beachbody, Lifetime Fitness, Planet Fitness, and Orangetheory. I even trained for and completed a 5K.
When it came to the gym, I’d always start off strong and go around five times a week. After a month or two, I’d start to fall behind. I just wasn’t getting the results I was looking for. In general, my body burns the most calories with HIIT training (high intensity interval training) and I found that Orangetheory was the best for that. However, it still didn’t get me summer body ready and it was very expensive. I won’t say that I didn’t see any changes, but it just wasn’t enough for me and I’d get discouraged. I never spent the money for a personal trainer either as they’re quite expensive in the US and to be honest, I didn’t want a strict diet to accompany my torturous excercise.
Intermittent Fasting
What actually got me summer body ready? Intermittent fasting. I give most of the credit to this amazing discovery. A week after I moved to France, I decided I wanted to try this out. So, what is intermittent fasting? It’s not a diet, fad, or a workout routine. It’s a simple change of eating pattern. Instead of eating at all hours of the day, I have a set eight hour window where I eat (there are other eating pattern options). For the other 16 hours, I fast. During that time, I’ll drink water, black coffee, plain tea, and of course, sleep. This forces your body to start burning your stored fat cells because it doesn’t have any of the day’s calories left to burn instead.
I started with 12:30-8:30 and did that for about 10 months, but I’ve now pushed it back to 1:30-9:30 as I tend to eat later in the evenings. I’ve never really eaten breakfast, so this was an easy transition. It’s a bit hard at first because your stomach starts to growl, especially when you smell something tasty, but you get used to it. You also burn the most fat during the last couple of fasting hours which keeps you motivated to stay on track.
I stick to this 85-90% of the time now. When I started, I rarely cheated unless it was to shock my body so it didn’t get used the eating pattern. When I can eat, I don’t deprive myself and I CERTAINLY don’t fast during that time; if I’m hungry for a snack, I shall eat said snack. Within a month or two of this, I noticed some of my looser clothes were just too big while tighter clothes started to fit me better.
Vegetarianism
The second reason for my weight loss and summer body is due to my turning vegetarian. Now, I’m not saying you need to give up meat in order to be beach body ready! It’s a personal choice and a very life changing one at that. I’m not here to tell you to turn into a vegetarian because of x, y, and z. However, I’d be lying if I said this didn’t help me. I didn’t turn vegetarian until about six months ago, and at that point, I already had lost the bulk of my weight. This change just helped me loose additional fat in my stomach area and stay slim. It’s no secret that meat can cause bloating and additional problems, and I saw very quick results when I hopped on the veggie train.
Fun fact about the Gucci belt below. I bought it last summer because my old Gucci belt was too big a couple months into intermittent fasting. Well…. This new one? It’s also too big. I’m now on the last hole and I need to take it into a store to get another hole punched in. I went from 90cm, to 85cm, and next time I buy a belt? It’ll be 80cm! If you’re interested in the Gucci belts, check out my blog post about them here.
Some people believe in periodic vegetarian/vegan cleanses, so you can always look into that if you’re interested in the benefits without committing to a drastic life change. In terms of health, being vegetarian has me looking at ingredients a lot more and it’s opened my eyes to all of the garbage that gets put into food. I’m cooking a lot more than my pre-veggie days and I’m more careful with what I put in my body. This is because I have to worry about getting the right kind of nutrients. I highly recommend doing this regardless if you’re veggie or not. A healthy body is a beautiful one. 🙂
Boxing
This one is a more recent change. Yes, I lost around 10kg and while that is absolutely amazing, intermittent fasting and being vegaratian won’t give me summer body muscles and make me toned. My arms were the biggest reason why I decided to look into a sport. After doing the gym thing time and time again, I realized that it wasn’t the right path for me. I truly hate it and get burned out from it. When I was younger, I did Taekwondo and Kung Fu. Not only did I love that, but I was very good at it and did competitions. I’ve always been a fan of ‘more aggressive’ sports, so I decided to pursue boxing and boy oh boy am I glad I did.
It’s been almost two months now that I’ve been taking weekly, hour long classes and I’m already seeing results. Not only are my arms gaining muscle, but my whole body is starting to get more lean. But the best part? I love it. I actually look forward to my private classes with my coach and I get so excited when I nail a new series of moves. The fact that it’s helping my body out is just a plus at this point. My advice? Ignore (with good reason) what everyone says you should do. I listened for five years and only when I stopped and listened to myself did I discover that the answer was in front of me all along. I just needed to pursue what I was good at and knew I loved. It’s so much easier to loose weight when you’re doing something you enjoy.
Final Thoughts
As a little recap… A year ago, I moved to a country with some of the best food in the world. We eat baguettes daily, pastries are everywhere, croissants are in our blood, cheese is an obsession, and we drink a ridiculous amount of calorie-filled wine. With that being said, I have lost 10kg, two dress sizes, and I’m in the best shape of my life. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This was EXACTLY what I did for years. Only when I changed my approach did I get results.
For you, a personal trainer who feeds you chicken and white rice may work! For others, it may be the group classes and a point system for food. And for me? The biggest help was a simple change of eating pattern, vegetables, and hitting things. 🙂 The great thing about intermittent fasting? It’s free. No gym membership, expensive protein shakes, or private courses. If you’re open to trying this out, I highly recommend it and I hope that you see success as well. And if you don’t? That’s okay, too! We are all unique and what works for one of us may not work for the other, so don’t get discouraged! Finally, make sure to always do your own research. I am in no way, shape, or form an expert in any of this. I’m just sharing what worked for me in hopes to help and entertain you. 🙂
Tell me, have you heard of intermittent fasting before or is this news to you? Also, check out my Spring Summer 2021 Fashion Trends post so that you’re not only summer body ready, but you’re also on point with the trends.
Subscribe
Make sure to subscribe in order to get a weekly email reminding you of my new blog post. 🙂 I appreciate you!
XO, Tess