Keeping your model bod in tip-top shape can be an uphill climb but it’s part of the job. If you feel like you’ve hit a plateau working out, eating chicken and vegetables for days on end, or just generally want a new way to approach fitness so you look good in front of the camera, here’s a few hacks that can help.
Food Tracking Apps
A food tracking app can be a great way to get focused on what you’re consuming every day. You may be eating healthy, but you may not be eating balanced and that could be causing weight gain. Protein, carbs, and fats (macros) are good in moderation; it’s when you go overboard or don’t eat enough of one or the other that your body can start to pack on the pounds. However, without a tracker app, it can be difficult to know what percentage of macros you’re eating.
For example, we’re so conditioned to believe that carbs are bad for us that when I first started tracking, I discovered I was barely eating any. No wonder I had no energy! When I added more pastas, breads, and grains to my diet, I started to drop weight. Formerly, my meals consisted of a lot of protein, moderate fats and practically zero carbs. When I realized I had a carbohydrate deficit through the app, my weight balanced out.
MyFitnessPal is a great food tracker to try. The free version is all you need as it allows you to set your goal weight, has loads of foods in the database (and if they don’t have it, you can add it), and will add up your calories and macros for you. Their standard default macro diet is a good place to start – 50% carbs, 30% fats, 20% protein – but you can also manipulate these ratios if you prefer a different breakdown.
Fasting Apps
Logging your food in a tracking app make you crazy?
An awesome alternative is Fasting Apps.
Fasting has been proven to not only help you lose weight, but it has a ton of other benefits as well including boosting your immune system, reducing insulin resistance and oxidative stress, lowering cholesterol and more. There are loads of fasting apps out there but a great one is FastEasy. It’s just that. EASY.
With the app you can choose the type of fast that works for you – 16:8 (sixteen hours fasting, eight hours to eat), 5:2 (eat normal five days out of the week, fast a full 24 hours for two), eat stop eat (two non-consecutive days of fasting per week) and more. If you’ve never tried fasting, it’s pretty simple. At first you may feel hungry but once you get used to it, you may find you have more energy than you did prior to fasting.
With FastEasy you just log in when you start your fast and it shows you over the course of the day (or night whatever you choose) what mode your body is in in case you want to get excited when it moves into fat burning mode. The main bonus to having the app is that it keeps you accountable and has simple lessons on fasting and how to make the most of it.
Turmeric Shots & Supplements
This is a very easy hack and works great if you just hang in there and get used to the rather loathsome taste of turmeric, pepper, lemon, and coconut water.
Turmeric is well known for its ability to lower inflammation and studies have shown it also helps with weight loss. Skip the expensive supplements – you can easily make your own cheap, daily turmeric shots. I make a week’s worth and just keep it in the fridge. Every morning I suck up the bad taste and down one. I was recommended this recipe from a friend who had astounding results. I too had major benefits after only one month using it and have never looked back. If you find it doesn’t agree with you, of course stop, and as always check with your doctor before trying any of the above.
Happy hacking!
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Alyssa Collins hails from Minnesota, where snowy days were the perfect excuse to stay warm inside and write. Over the years, she turned that joy into a career and has authored numerous articles for various publications (under pen names). Email Alyssa via alyssa@ynot.com.
Photo credit: iStock.com/Prostock-Studio
