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A Look Into Faster Way Strategies

June 30, 2021

 If you've watched any Amanda Tress Insta Stories, or followed their corporate page (Faster Way to Fat Loss) you've gotten a good glimpse into the program. 


She really shares it all, except the part that is personalized just for you. 


I thought that today we would dive into what the program entails. 


Nutrition


Honestly I would best characterize Faster Way as flexible Paleo, if you've wanting a label. The focus is whole food nutrition. 


Burger Bowl


Meaning simply, if it has a mother or grows from the ground it's fair game. 


From there it is suggested that you don't consume dairy or gluten, and avoid processed foods. 


I'll be honest, I limit these items and don't eliminate them entirely. I've done several rounds of Whole30 and have learned to pay attention to how something makes me feel. For instance, I can have some yogurt or cottage cheese, but whole milk is the devil to my stomach. Gluten free is really great for me, just because when I have full blown hotdog buns I can tell my stomach is a bit more bloated. 


But I don't eliminate them. I've worked to a point of food freedom through the Faster Way that if we go to a friend's house for dinner I will still eat. There was a time that I would either not really eat or would bring my own little Tupperware of "approved foods".  That's not the case anymore. With the encouragement of "memories over macros" and Amanda herself telling clients to enjoy their vacations and special memories it makes it a much more realistic program. 


After years of a 1,200 calorie restricted diet, I needed to mind shift to food freedom within your macros. I can have a treat on Leg Day. I am also no longer eating 1,200 calories a day, or counting calories. 


We also carb cycle, simply meaning your macro goals change throughout the week. It sounds hard to start but it gets easy fairly quick. Two low carb days and the rest regular macro. 


Intermittent Fasting 


Can I admit that this one terrified me. 


I said in my last post that I followed Keto before joining Faster Way. IF is big in the Keto crowd, but I never jumped on. It seemed too big of a mountain to climb. 


I'm on a 16:8 protocol for fasting. Meaning my eating window is from about 11-6. 


When I first started I only fasted until 9AM. The next day 9:30. I carried this on until one day it was lunch and I hadn't realized I hadn't grabbed breakfast. 


It took about a week before I made it into 16:8 fasting, but now it's second nature. 


Faster Way has a quiz you can take to find out what your fasting protocol would be. There are also tons of information on the website about the benefits to fasting. To name a few: improved sleep, more energy, quicker recovery, hormone level increase, better immune system. 


Workouts


This has by far been my favorite part of doing Faster Way in 2021. Back in 2018 when I began the pregnancy program all of the workouts were still just printed out. 




Now it's still offered in a printable, but they're also live in the app and on Facebook every day. Once you're in VIP you have access to the workout library and can, for instance, change up what workout you're doing on a HIIT day. Prefer Barre to Yoga, then pick what you love for your active recovery workout. 


Every week we have 2 HIIT workouts, 3 strength, 2 active recovery and quite often in VIP there is a monthly challenge and you have a quick 5-10 minute bonus round 3 days a week after your 30 minute workout. 


The Faster Way trainers are not just amazing because I am stronger than I've been in years, but for the first time since becoming pregnant with Harrison I can workout without pain. 


A little backstory, I fractured my wrist lifting weight while pregnant the first time. From there on I have struggled with being on my hands for planks and certain weight workouts. 


No with these ladies, they take such care to teach proper technique and train areas that are commonly ignored that I have not had my usual wrist workout pain since beginning in February of this year. 


Resources


If you want to read around a bit more, I advise it, then check out their blog. I can tell you I spent about a year mulling over their information before officially joining. 


>>Sign up for a membership here<<

Check out the Faster Way Shop here! 

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Why I Love Faster Way to Fat Loss

June 28, 2021

You might have seen me posting about Faster Way (FW for short) on Instagram lately. 

I dove head first back into the program back in February after a really tough year. 

Between our move and getting into an awful funk, I was at my wits end. Add a pandemic on top of that and my waistband was at its wits end too. School started back up in August and we were allowed to wear jeans every day... perfect. 

I had one pair that fit and were remotely work appropriate. 

After wearing that one pair of pants for an entire semester the dress code at work changed again and I needed to wear real teacher pants. Big bummer folks. 

I had nothing, literally nothing that fit me and allowed me to still breathe while teaching. 

May 2020 vs May 2021

But let me back track a bit... 

I started Faster Way back in 2018 when I was trying to get pregnant with Elliot. I had been on Keto with the promise that it would increase fertility and I was still trucking along, not pregnant. I honestly needed a more balanced approach to nutrition and workouts. Somehow Amanda Tress came across my Instagram and I was hooked. 

She showed results, a positive approach to health, and was pregnant while doing all of this (her third child at the time).  She kept touting progress over perfection, and I have come to know she means this whole heartedly. 

I started half for the need to get in better shape and give up the Keto, and half hoping I would get pregnant easily after balancing my macro intake and thus the old hormones. 

At the time I couldn't afford to join the new client round, but was hoping to be pregnant soon anyway, so I joined her pregnancy program. Turns out I was already pregnant when I joined. 

Pregnant & Faster Way


My long time blog friends might remember my pregnancy with Harrison. I gained 60lbs, was terribly sick, and had such at blood pressure at the end that I was induced out of fear of preeclampsia. 

Fast forward to my pregnancy with Elliot - and having started FW out of the gate. I still dealt with heartburn, but I don't think I threw up once. I gained 25lbs, my blood pressure was amazing, and my recovery (compared to how horrible it was with Harrison) was incredible. 

I craved fruit salad, versus the ice cream I was dying for with Harrison. I don't even recall the meat aversion I had with Harrison being terrible with Elliot. Granted those first weeks are awful, but I was so much healthier overall with Elliot's pregnancy. 

Postpartum & Beyond

I continued FW throughout my postpartum period and was in great shape, my milk supply was higher than ever, and I felt better with a newborn than I had the first time. 

Everything eventually fell by the wayside when we moved and the stress overtook me. 

But! When I had hit rock bottom when we returned to work, post lockdown, I knew what I had to do. I started trying to Faster Way on my own with what I had from the pregnancy program... but so many updates had been made to the program overall. 

Amanda and her team added video workouts, an amazing app, and weekly menus to the already community based vibe of the program.

So I bit the bullet and joined a New Client Round in Feb of this year (2021). 

My 6 Week Journey


During the course of my 6 weeks I initially struggled with how sore I was. I didn't realize at all that the workouts I was doing before had failed my so much so that getting back into the FW was going to kick my butt. 

I don't say this to deter you. I say this to show you that I started out with 2lb and 5lb weights and was dying! My muscles needed to get back to weightlifting. (heck in high school I could bench press near 90)

Being back in the program full speed, with the video workouts and meal plan, was incredible. Those two additions since 2018 made all the difference for me. The short/concise workouts with meal plans (that I pick and choose and add my own items from) helped me not only get in better shape and health, but it helped me when I was in a massive food rut and couldn't bother to come up with an idea for lunch. 

Anyone still reading? I know... this is long today. 

I ended the 6 week program with 11 inches lost overall, the majority from my midsection. 

I haven't measured again this summer, but at the end of May I was up to 14 inches overall. 

But Emily! What about weight? 


If I told you I haven't had some massive weight drop... would you believe me? 

I realize I'm not super overweight right now, I was holding fat instead of muscle and honestly it seems that the muscle built kind of replaced the fat weight on the scale. 

I started at 143 and as of last week weighed 137. 

Nothing big right? 

But my measurements say something different. My clothing says something different. Heck I've even had people notice. 

The scale is a liar. Ignore it. 

I've still got some progress to make, in June of 2019 I was at 130. It's not much, and it won't happen tomorrow... but it'll happen eventually. 

Especially with a program that encourages memories over macros. Progress over perfection. And non-scale victories. 

I'm not moving at the speed of sound with some program I can't maintain in the long run, I'm not making meals the family refuses to eat. Heck, I even kept our Chicken Nugget & French Fry Wednesday night meal on board and work my macros around it. It's not about deprivation, I eat more on Faster Way (calorie wise) than I ever ate before FW. I also give myself more grace and don't feel guilty about having fun. 

I'll wrap this up with an example - today is a low carb day. I'm not breaking my fast until lunch and I got in a HIIT workout first thing this morning. But we are headed with friends to Peach Park to eat lunch, play, and buy some fresh product... there might even be peach hand pies and ice cream involved. Instead of guilt and not eating like I would in the past - I'm going to enjoy lunch and then come home and cook my healthy dinner I planned before this adventure was on the books. 

You can still enjoy life and get your health in check at the same time friends. 


I'll drop a few more links for the curious - 

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