Top Tips to Become Fit Forever

Today we will discuss sustainable weight loss and self-acceptance with Kausar from Become Fit Forever, a platform by former dieters turned weight loss coaches focused on helping women lose weight without giving up their favorite foods. They delve into the importance of self-love, gratitude, and shifting from a diet-centric to a health-centric mindset. The conversation covers the failure of fad diets and the significance of habit creation, macro tracking, and overcoming societal pressures and shame associated with weight loss. Kausar shares three essential tips for creating personal and emotional wealth, emphasizing self-kindness, meal prioritization, and hydration. They also highlight the importance of proper education, support, a balanced approach to exercise, and how to effectively communicate one’s health journey needs to family and friends. The discussion also touches upon the harmful effects of high-intensity exercises on cortisol levels and the benefits of walking and strength training.

Connect with Kausar and Douky on their website and get your free Conquer Cravings Guide at https://bff.zone/

Transcript

Become Fit Forever: 0:00

Stop shaming yourself. It's not the end of the world and before you tap into weight loss, you need to really practice a little bit of Self love and self gratitude because that will really make it easier for you In this journey.

Magic Barclay: 0:55

Welcome back to A Magical Life. I'm your host, Magic Barclay. And today we have the team from Become Fit Forever. They are Kassar and Dookie. who are two former dieters turned weight loss coaches who are on a mission to help women like you and me lose weight sustainably without sacrificing your favorite foods. Back in 2015 they first met and were attempting to shed pregnancy weight together. and regain their confidence. They tried the 5am boot camp classes, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, even cutting out carbs, wine and parts of their cultural cuisine. None of it worked, of course. They hit rock bottom, deepened their frustrations and had damaged self esteem. Together, They dug into fitness and nutrition and became obsessed with finding a way to say buh bye to the extra pounds without doing the same to some of their favourite dishes. And they wanted to make sure their success would stick. They didn't want to be on the diet hamster wheel again. I know we can all relate to that. Through trial and error, they realized how important habit creation is to losing weight and keeping it off. To get good at anything and see results requires consistency, and that's why fad diets don't work. From there, they learned how to track macros so that they could still enjoy their favourite dishes without the gut wrenching guilt afterward. Welcome, Kassar. You're here for Become Fit Forever.

Become Fit Forever: 2:38

Hi, so excited to be here.

Magic Barclay: 2:41

I'm excited to have you there. I'm sure the listeners were listening to that intro, like nodding their head off just as I was, because we've all been there, haven't we?

Become Fit Forever: 2:52

Oh, yes, absolutely. I think you did a fantastic job with that intro. I'm co star, by the way, my partner couldn't make it, but I'm very excited to be in this podcast and help guide your audience, take away a few. tips to help them, you know, ditch the dieting like we did and how our clients are ditching their dieting and saying no more. I can eat what I like and I still can rock my body.

Magic Barclay: 3:20

Fantastic. Now, before we get into our standard three questions, we did just touch in our chat off air about certainly, you know, in the functional medicine model, we see this from the mainstream medicine and also in the mainstream fitness models, we see this projection of It's all your fault. If you're not losing weight, if you're not getting well, it's all your fault. It's something you're doing. Do you find that that is an issue that pops up and that's why we diet and restrict ourselves?

Become Fit Forever: 3:53

Yes. So you brought up a really good point about how the society perceives diet and weight loss and exercise, right? For so many years, especially in the 70s and the 80s, when the tiny waist became like a big thing. Since then. Everyone is just going after how they want to look right. and definitely the whole point of it's your fault and putting the shame on people causes them to actually suffer with a lot of eating disorders, which actually, you know, has them go after the quickest way the quickest diet to help them see results. But what ends up happening is that it backfires In a way that you know, it's it's not good. It's not good for your mindset. It's not good for your weight loss It's not good for your hormones So yeah, the whole Society telling you that you are not good enough or you're not doing the right thing is causing a lot of issues and we see it right now, like when I have talks with my clients, I get to hear them say, Oh, I keep on failing. I don't know what to do. I just can't get to have this body that I desire. And then what we do is we kind of shift that mindset towards. Okay, great. Yes, we are here. Let's think about how you can lead a healthy life at this age of 35 plus and help them kind of balance hormones. And yes, of course you can, you can look good, but in the meantime, fixing the mindset is such a key component.

Magic Barclay: 5:36

Exactly. And that leads us into our first question. What can your expertise do to accelerate health? Not just physical, but also emotional and spiritual health.

Become Fit Forever: 5:48

Yes. that's a great question. So what we do in our program and what I have done in my own journey is starting off with doing a little bit of inner work, starting a new diet is easy. You can literally put it on Google and you'll have over 5 million searches, for dieting. So finding the tools is easier, but getting to a mindset where you show love and appreciation to your body is going to be leading you towards the right direction. You can go and do macro tracking, for example, for six weeks, you might see a little bit of weight dropping, but if you You haven't really connected with your inner self. You haven't really loved your body for who she is and your purpose is just how I want to look and not, I want to be healthy. I want to balance my hormones. I want to be a good role model that really defeats the purpose and you can easily gain the weight back. Right? So what we do in our program, we kind of guide our clients on how to. Start loving this journey and even if they go out and eat something that was not part of the plan or They ate their kids leftovers I want you listeners out there to stop blaming yourself. Stop shaming yourself. It's not the end of the world and before you tap into weight loss, you need to really practice a little bit of Self love and self gratitude because that will really make it easier for you In this journey.

Magic Barclay: 7:25

And what a great segue to our second question that is, what are your top three tips to creating wealth? And many people think wealth is just financial, but it can also be your personal and emotional wealth. So what are your top three tips?

Become Fit Forever: 7:41

Yes, this is my favorite question. So my top three with I have top five, but I'll stick to three. The very first thing is, again, like I said before, you want to start off by a little bit of gratitude. For yourself and for your body. So if you have this negative mindset about yourself, your body, you look at yourself in the mirror, and you basically start hating yourself first thing in the morning, and then your body's working for you throughout the day. And then the next day, you repeat the same thing. How do you expect? It's like, Pretend you're talking to your best friend when you are in front of the mirror. How would you talk to your best friend? Would you tell her that she's fat? Is she ugly? Is she, she ate a glass of wine so she messed up her whole plan? You would not say that, but you would say to your best friend, Hey, you had a few extra glass of wine and that's okay. It's life. Let's get right back on track. So my first tip would be kind of work on your mindset and how your body image and how you see yourself. My second tip is prioritize yourself your meals. what I mean by that is that a lot of times if you are a woman entrepreneur, if you are a working mom or a working individual, you're constantly running after the daily to do's, right? We have a footlong to do list. Literally, I want you to pause and think about what is the most important asset in your life. And if your answer comes out to be money, if your answer is, you know, building a mansion or getting your kids to go to Harvard, I don't think that would be your answer. That your answer would be, you want to be healthy, you want to be, you know, happy, right? And health is happiness. So prioritize your meals. I don't want you skipping breakfast. Breakfast is a very important meal of the day. Make sure that in every meal you are eating at least 25 to 35 grams of protein because protein is a very important component. It actually helps you build muscle fibers. It also. digests really slowly. So you're full for a much longer period of time. So prioritize protein. My third tip. And this one is also very, very crucial. And I need you listeners to work on that like ASAP water. I think 80 percent of population right now is dehydrated. And it's really sad because I know people in my family are dehydrated right now as we speak. You need to take your weight, your body weight in pounds, divided by two. That's the amount of ounces you need to be drinking every single day. So if you weigh about 200 pounds, you should be drinking ounces of water per day. And you will see a dramatic difference just by doing these three things.

Magic Barclay: 10:34

Great. And you know what? In weight loss, many people kind of look at influencers or look at coaches and say, that's okay for them, but they've never been where I am. And so have you ever battled your weight? If so, what was the trigger to lose it? And what can you offer the listeners on this pathway of reducing the stress around their weight?

Become Fit Forever: 11:00

Oh, yeah, that's a great point. That's a wonderful point. So yes, we often look at ourself in a way that we feel bad, almost in a way that, oh, someone so is going to the gym and she's posting her videos just because she doesn't have three children. But, I was there too. At some point I would go on Instagram, I would be hating influencers and I would feel bad about myself. That didn't help the situation at all. what I would suggest is that you need to, like I said, again, going back to doing the inner work. Yes. People who are showing up for themselves, they are people who are prioritizing their health. and so for me, very first thing that I did when I was getting started in my fitness journey, I was a biochemist. I had a desk job. My lifestyle was very poor. I did not know, although I was a biochemist, had a science degree, I know nothing about nutrition. So I kept on gaining weight. And after my kids were born, I hit a rock bottom. I got really, really sick. and so that was a motivator for me to go back to school, change my careers. and learn about nutrition. And so that is what we focus on in our program is about learning nutrition, understanding what protein fat carbs are. And my method is never giving my clients a meal plan, but it's more of, Hey, I'm here as a cheerleader to teach you what food is. So you can succeed in the long. and so for our listeners today, I would love to offer them a free and carb craving, guide that's on our website. Uh, it's www. bff. zone. When you go there, you can download our guide. and in that guide, again, we've explained how to balance your blood sugar and how to basically curb those afternoon hungers.

Magic Barclay: 12:58

Fantastic. Now we've covered a fair bit in a very short time. And now I want to open the floor to you. What do you see With your clients is the biggest need in regards to weight loss. Like it is, is it education? Is it support? Is it, you know, everyday tips? What do you think is really missing that you fill the gap for?

Become Fit Forever: 13:25

so what I think right now in the society that we live in, what is missing is yes, the right kind of education and, you know, I know the movement behind body positivity, and I know things are changing on mass media, which, which is pleasant to see. But I feel like our mindsets have already been established from way back, right? Right. So what we need, I feel like in this day and age is yes, educating ourselves, understanding how our bodies work and, and establishing some love for yourself. Um, because if you're not coming from a place of love, you're not going to show up the way you want it to. And I'm sure a lot of ladies who are listening to it, you're probably thinking, I know a lot about nutrition. I actually had a call today and this person was like, I know a lot. I just don't know how to, so the other thing I would really love for our society to change is to just bring a little bit of health education into the school. So our next generation don't suffer like our previous generations did. And I think that's also happening. So that's, that's a great thing. So yeah, my, my suggestion is to educate yourself. Um, feel like you keep on falling off the wagon, hire a coach. Honestly, I invested. A lot of money in coaching and it was the best investment I've learned so much. Yes, I studied, but I also had a coach. So coaches have coaches and so is regular people. And it's really important to be held accountable because we have like a million things on our list.

Magic Barclay: 15:03

Very true. Everyone needs that support system. Now, what else do you think that we can share today with the listeners?

Become Fit Forever: 15:12

I would like to share, a little bit about exercise because every time I have a call with a client or potential client or someone who's interested in BFF, they always tell me, but I exercise every single day. Every time it comes up. So I feel like we've kind of connected the whole idea of weight loss to dieting. And then we connected that to exercise. And so these three things kind of like go together. Oh, I'm dieting. I'm exercising and I'm trying to, you know, I, I want you guys to think about exercise, a tool to balance. Your hormones to help you have a better mindset, uh, to lower your cortisol levels, which is the stress hormones. And also to just live a healthy life, to, to have, you know, healthy joints, to have healthy bones, to have healthy, like everything, right? So don't treat exercise as a tool to be quote unquote skinny, or pair it With your diet to become skinny. And then once the diet is done, you stop exercising. I want you guys to prioritize exercise, no matter what you're eating, because exercises really just has a lot of health benefits.

Magic Barclay: 16:30

Now, I'm pretty sure I could hear some of the listeners gasp as you mentioned the word exercise, because so many people think exercise means, you know, hammering it out at the gym, sweating till you, you know, just about want to vomit. And that's not particularly healthy. And I know I've spoken to the listeners before about your needs for certain exercise change as you age. You mentioned cortisol before. And, you know, I just want to get this message across to the listeners and get your opinion on it. Also, listeners, I've mentioned when you go to the gym and you do slog it out, you're actually signifying to your body that you may be in danger. And so, you know, when you increase the lactic acid and you get that feeling of, Absolute burning pain through your body. And then you get to that, I think I need to vomit point. Your body feels that you're unsafe. And so what it does is it releases extra cortisol and cortisol is catabolic as in it breaks things down, that being you, your body. So. You know, what sort of exercises don't raise the cortisol levels and what can you suggest to the listeners to keep that balance of the hormones?

Become Fit Forever: 17:54

Yeah, that's a wonderful question. And like you said, you nailed it down on that part about how. Certain exercises changes as you age, right? So I remember back in the days running was a thing, uh, people would run and sweat and sweat because they thought the only way to lose weight was through cardio. And like you just said, that can actually backfire, can raise your cortisol level. So first of all, if you are a beginner, I would say. Start off with things that you enjoy the most. It could be yoga. It could be just 30 minutes of walking. Honestly, walking is super underrated. Every human being needs to walk at least 30 minutes per day, like non negotiable. So start up there. Start off with a walk. If you can't walk, it's freezing. Go on a treadmill. Do a few jumping jacks and in your house. So start off with that light movement. And then once you are ready to hit that gym, my recommendation is to talk to a professional who knows about weight training. That is something that we encourage women over 35 to do is because, you know, it just helps burning fat, right? With cardio, you're just burning the blood sugar, right? Whatever you ate, you go and you burn that. But with weightlifting, what you're doing is you're really just going after those muscle fibers, you're crushing them in in the gym. And once once you get home, your body kind of spends A lot of your calorie money, all the calories that you eat throughout the day kind of spends that to replenish and fix those muscle fibers. So what happens is when you are lifting weights, it doesn't raise your cortisol levels, but instead it actually accelerates fat loss. As you're resting you can go back and go to sleep that night and you know your body's basically just burning fat So for women over 35, I recommend one day of maybe maybe a light cardio But the rest three to four days of strength training or HIIT training. HIIT training is like a combination between strength and cardio It's a good start But it could also be a little bit too much if you're taking like an f45 class. That's really high intensity You That will, you know, just, just kind of do a check in and see what feels good, but a good start is a walk, a light jog, a one day of cardio and, uh, three to four days of strength training.

Magic Barclay: 20:31

And don't forget ladies in menopause that you need to be exercising later in the day. So specifically resistance training later in the day, so that your hormones can balance and. You're doing all that repair work while you're sleeping, so you're not using up your estrogen and You know, imbalancing those hormones to do the repairs. Now, what else can we discuss with the listeners? I know we've touched on the, you know, the old model of it's all your fault. How do we talk to our families and our friends about, Hey, this is what I'm doing, and I kind of just don't want your opinion, I just need your support.

Become Fit Forever: 21:18

That's a very good point. so I know a lot of families are lucky enough to have that kind of open communication with their families and be able to say, Hey, I'm starting this thing. I would really love for you to support me. And in our culture, it's funny because parents would actually keep on pushing you to eat. And if you don't eat, it's a big problem. so it's a good idea to have that open communication. So, for example, if your husband really loves to eat ice cream at night, you can say, hey, you know, I'm starting To eat a bit healthier because I don't feel good. Is there any way you can support me here? Or if you want that ice cream, just eat in the living room while I'm, I don't know, in the office or something like that. So having that communication is so key. It's so key because we're, you know, it's human nature. If you see someone eating like something really yummy, you are going to want to go and sit with them and have a few bites. So it's always a good idea to make, I remember when I started my journey. I was very clear with my husband, like, Honey, I know you love eating out, I know you love your dessert with tea after dinner in front of the TV. I just can't be doing that, and I really need you to support me on that. And he was so supportive. You'll be shocked, like, your spouse or your parent, who's super unsupportive, and they keep on pushing you to eat more, if you tell them exactly what you're doing, they can turn around and be your biggest cheerleaders.

Magic Barclay: 22:47

Fantastic. This has been a really great chat and I really thank you for your time and I know the listeners will wanna get hold of you and chat further so they can find you on TikTok at Weight Loss with BFF and on Instagram weight Loss with bff. What can they expect to find on your socials?

Become Fit Forever: 23:14

Oh, there's a lot of, uh, fun stuff on our social media. on our Instagram actually, we talk a lot on our stories. We share a lot of lifestyle changes, how to change your mindset. So make sure that you guys are following us on Instagram because Coach Duke, he keeps. All, uh, besties updated. and same on our tick tock account. We're pretty active on both social media platforms.

Magic Barclay: 23:46

Terrific. Thank you so much for your time. I've really loved chatting with you.

Become Fit Forever: 23:52

Thank you. Me as well.

Magic Barclay: 23:54

And listeners, thank you for your time. And remember, this is your time. You are worth it. You are everything and you don't need to fit into someone else's ideal of your body, of your weight, of your lifestyle. And with that, go forth and create your magical life.