I’m Ibtissam, I’m a French makeup artist based in Paris and I’m 24 years old. I started getting fatter and fatter over the course of a few years, first you indulge once a week and before you know it, it’s every day.
Details make everything and one cake here, one pack of candy there (why stop at just one, right ?) makes its mark on your body pretty soon. And then I got into makeup school, one of the roughest patches of my life, and the two bands I have tattooed on my leg have a meaning related to that moment in my life. 6 hard months in my life that turned into a year when I tried to find jobs and my boyfriend was the only one paying for everything at home. I hate being dependent and that was hard as I’m both a makeup addict and a food addict, so I was spending a lot of money that wasn’t even mine, couldn’t control myself and that was just a vicious circle.
So when I started out caring for myself, I did the Insanity workout by the trainer Shaun T for one month and a half and was eating 5 to 6 meals a day, that was just unbearable. Then I went to just four, three big meals with a snack. It was hard because Insanity is very intense and I had to wake up two hours before the workout to take a light meal because I believed I needed to, and then one after, and pack all that into my morning before 9.20 am, before I had to go to work. Boy, that was exhaustive.
I decided to make a change for my health primarily based on looks, I have to admit. I was feeling fat, I was feeling sluggish and undesirable all the time and that led me to have less self-confidence. Also, my boyfriend was trying to eat as clean as possible but with me around, that was no possibility, I was always dragging him down, eating crisps, cakes, and pastries all the time. And then I made a new male friend and one day, I saw his abs. And I had never seen anyone’s abs before except on the Internet, all over Instagram, and I didn’t think that could exist. That in itself motivated me to pick up sports and try to get the same thing. One cool thing about myself is that I’m always wondering “Why not me ?” and that helps me in finding solutions in a lot of areas.
I added fasting into my life about three months ago, maybe, following my boyfriend who started with intermittent fasting in 16:8. I thought that was way too hard for me and soon came to the 23:1 pattern that I judged way easier. My goals with fasting were to stop cooking as much because I hate spending time in the kitchen and always have, also to become leaner because I wanted my body fat to drop.
One of my main goals in life is to have abs, and as a woman, that’s just one of the hardest things to do. So there, and the last thing was to become healthier and more free from food. You have to understand I think about food all the time, recipes, things I’m craving, and I wanted to see if I could curb myself, especially free myself from refined sugars.
Top 3 recommendations are :
– STAY BUSY when you start your first days! Now I’m into Extended Fasting and that’s very hard to keep up when you’re starting on your first day off, for instance. I try to start on the afternoon of my very last off day of the week or during the day I’m working. When you’re 6 days into water fast and aren’t working, then it’s easier to keep the fast up.
– DRINKKKKK ! I currently drink around 4 liters of water a day, I do spend my life in the restroom (although the body gets used to it) but water will help you with hunger pangs and it replaces water that you would have absorbed if you’d been eating.
– DON’T SAY YOU’RE INTERMITTENT FASTING TO EVERY SOUL ALIVE : people still believe you need to eat at least 3 meals a day to be healthy and when I tell them I’m intermittent fasting, they think it’s “very bad for your health” even though I’ve made my research thoroughly and still continue to read about it. If you tell people, one-tenth might be interested, the nine others will try to discourage you. When you’re beginning, you’re often unsure of all the good procedures, don’t undermine the power of other people’s opinions, they might make you stop altogether. Keep it up ♥
What motivates me to continue with this lifestyle is first, seeing the results it brings. I can see my stomach getting tighter and tighter, my face thinner too. But also, I’ve been raised in a household where refined sugar is EVERYWHERE.
We love ourselves some chocolate, yogurts, brioche, all kinds of things. There was very rarely fresh vegetables and fruit at my home when I was growing up and this was a whole lifestyle change when I started eating them on a daily basis. I can remember all kinds of brand products that I have eaten but I don’t remember a lot of dishes with whole veggies. The second thing that motivates me is pushing the boundaries.
Now when I’m not OMAD-ing, I’m doing Extended Water fasting and to this date, the longest fast I’ve done was 4 days and 5 hours (completed two days ago). I want to push my limits. I want to see how it goes and conquer this unknown world that makes people wonder how we Intermittent and Extended fasters do that and how we’re not dieting after skipping three meals.
My best piece of advice if you’re starting out: Don’t be afraid. Being afraid of being hungry has stopped me before but once you know that the hunger pangs go as they come, you’re set. You can definitely sleep on an empty stomach. JUST DIVE IN!
Facebook : Azami MUA
Website : www.itsazami.com
Instagram Fitness: @azami.fitnessfood,
OMAD and Travel : @iseerealthings