Community: The Missing Component To Your Health

Bringing People Together With Fitness

Are you struggling to stay motivated and accountable in achieving your goals? 

It's time to consider finding an accountability partner and a community where you can share your overall wellness journey - like the FASTer Way family!

Having the tools of support in your fitness, whether that's through a partner, a friend, or an entire group of other like-minded individuals, can provide numerous benefits for both your mental and physical health, let alone the overall success of your wellness journey. 

Want to know how?

Keep reading to find out and learn why having accountability and community can give you the wellness results you’ve been looking for!

What Is An Accountability Partner?

An accountability partner can be anyone who is committed to helping you achieve your goals, whether that's a friend, family member, or a professional coach - like  a FASTer Way Certified Coach -  to supercharge your fitness! 

Whomever you choose, be sure they’re someone who is reliable, supportive, and shares similar values and goals. If you don't have someone in your personal network who can serve as an accountability partner, our uplifting community is here for you to connect with like-minded individuals who are also looking for support and accountability.

To take accountability to the next level, make sure you include a qualified coach in your fitness journey, like a FASTer Way Certified Coach!

The Benefits of Community And Accountability

Is finding the drive and motivation to workout or eat better the number one thing holding you back? Are you ready to remove that obstacle?

Having someone to hold you accountable can provide the support you need to both get on track and stay on track when it comes to achieving your wellness goals. These individuals are the ones that help guide you and encourage you to make the daily choices that align with your health journey and overall best interests. Studies show that accountability can actually increase your chances of success by up to 95%!

Having an accountability buddy or a supportive community to share your wellness journey with can provide a sense of belonging and connection, which is essential for maintaining positive mental health - remember, wellness goes beyond how much fat is or isn’t on your body. Feeling like you are a part of something bigger than yourself can give you a sense of purpose and meaning, leading to increased feelings of happiness and wellbeing. The happier you are the more likely you’ll feel motivated enough to actively participate in your own health and fitness needs.

Community can also provide opportunities for personal growth and development. Being around like-minded individuals who share similar goals and values can provide inspiration and encouragement to achieve your own goals and aspirations - burn fat and build lean muscle TOGETHER, there’s no need to go it alone!

Find Your Accountability With The FASTer Way Community!

Whether you're looking to improve your fitness, nutrition, or overall wellbeing, having an accountability partner and being a part of a supportive community can make all the difference in the world.

So don't hesitate to reach out, find the support you need to thrive at FASTer Way!

We provide you all the tools you could need, guaranteeing you RESULTS with guided 30-minute workouts, whole food based meal plans, a personal Certified Coach to customize your journey, and more.

Join the FASTer Way family today by signing up for our next round, NOW, before slots run out! 

Remember, the journey towards wellness is always better when you have someone to share it with.

Unlock True Wellness with the FASTer Way + Functional Medicine

If you’re frustrated with your health or fitness—or you’ve been told you just have to live with your symptoms—there is hope! When you combine functional medicine with the FASTer Way to Fat Loss, you’ll get to the root of the issue and solve it in a way that heals your body and eases your mind.

Amanda Tress, founder and CEO of the FASTer Way, and Alex De Oliveira A.R.N.P. were invited to chat with Carmen Brown of OFF-AIR with Carmen about finding better health with functional medicine and the FASTer Way.

Listen to the full episode here:

What is the FASTer Way to Fat Loss?

The FASTer Way to Fat Loss is a holistic approach to healthy living. It focuses on science-backed strategies including:

• Intermittent fasting

• Carb cycling

• Macronutrient tracking

• Whole food nutrition

• Quick & effective workouts that pair with the food log

While it may sound like a lot of strategies, it’s actually a very simple lifestyle—and all clients learn under the guidance of a certified coach. Someone who is on your side, available to answer your questions, and supports you daily!

The REAL Problem

Many people, women especially, will visit a conventional doctor because they can’t lose weight even though they exercise regularly and eat well. Rather than getting the answers they need, they hear comments like:

“This is normal during/after menopause.”

“It’s normal to gain weight at your age.”

“You’re not exercising enough.”

“You need to change your habits.”

“You need to eat healthier.”

Friend, we are here to say it’s NOT your fault.

We know these doctors mean well, but countless people leave these appointments discouraged and defeated, thinking there’s nothing they can do or they just aren’t trying hard enough.

There’s a Better Way

Carmen Brown of “OFF-AIR with Carmen” was one of these women, discouraged with her health. She couldn’t lose weight and she was always tired. After meeting with Amanda Tress and making significant positive changes through the FASTer Way program, she knew something was still off. At Amanda’s urging, she scheduled an appointment with functional medicine hormone specialist Alex De Oliveira at Young Foundational Health. 

After working with Alex, while maintaining the FASTer Way lifestyle, Carmen couldn’t believe the difference in her energy levels nor her weight loss. In fact, Carmen was so blown away by her test results that she asked Alex to share them on the podcast! Listen to the full episode to hear the incredible changes she saw in less than a year.

The Problem with Standard Medicine

Standard medicine doesn’t offer prevention outside a few basic tests. This is a lost opportunity to detect imbalances, precursors to disease (such as type 2 diabetes), and inflammation in the body. Issues that are preventable but have a significant impact on health (and weight) when undetected and untreated.

We can change the current narrative, and through the FASTer Way to Fat Loss and functional medicine. We are doing that one client at a time!

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Listen to the full interview above to hear more about these golden nuggets of wisdom:

• It’s not so much what you should take, it’s how you should live your life.

• It’s never too late to start. What matters is that you start now.

• Type 2 Diabetes is 100% reversible.

• Elevated insulin could be due to low thyroid, menopause, or even prescription medication (seizure, depression, anxiety, etc.) 

• You can fix insulin resistance through exercise, whole-food nutrition, and intermittent fasting.

• The gut needs to rest.

• Excess weight is a symptom of what’s happening in your body.

• Your bloodwork will tell you everything you need to know.

Thanks to Carmen for hosting Amanda and Alex to spread the word about the path to wellness!

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LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FASTER WAY TO FAT LOSS

• What Is Intermittent Fasting?

• 3 Ways People Get Intermittent Fasting Wrong (and why you shouldn't try it on your own)

• What is Carb Cycling?

• FASTer Way Time-Saving Hacks

• How Do Our Live At-Home Workouts Actually Work?

Why Community Matters

More and more, we’re recognizing that communities are powerful places that help people feel a sense of belonging, provide support, and even help us reach our goals more successfully. If you’ve wondered why community matters, the research is in—it’s better for everyone!

Jim Rohn famously said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

What does that have to do with your wellness goals? Well, as it turns out, quite a lot.

Community isn’t often a major consideration of people looking to achieve certain goals, whether it be health, business, educational, or financial aspirations. That would be a mistake though, as we see more and more evidence that a strong community is a contributing factor to our success.

As humans, we need to belong to something bigger than ourselves. This belonging gives us connection, helps us form relationships, and often provides a greater sense of purpose. Communities offer support, encouragement, resources, and keep us more engaged.

Is it any wonder then, that when we join a community of supportive, like-minded people who are working toward the same goals we are, that we are much more likely to succeed over the long term?

We spoke with Mike Ritter on the FASTer Way Podcast, and he confirmed our thoughts. Community—and the lack thereof—has had a major impact on his health journey. Mike started out as an athlete with a consistent and disciplined schedule, but when he lost that community and structure and was inserted into a new environment, his friends changed, his habits changed, and he gained about 60 pounds.

This is a common problem for both men and women, but men are often slower to connect with a new community. Mike has worked with a lot of male clients in his practice as a certified personal trainer, and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, and a fitness coach. He’s observed that men are reluctant to connect because they tend to adopt the “hero mentality.” They don’t want to appear vulnerable and weak, which really results in feeling isolated.

The answer is seeking out a community that will support you, encourage you, and stick with you for the long term. That’s exactly why we created the FASTer Way VIP Membership communities for men and women. It’s a safe place to ask questions, celebrate wins, seek encouragement, and stay accountable.

Living without community is a dark place for many people, and as Mike told us in his interview, “Whatever you hide in the dark grows and controls you. Whatever you shine the light… loses its power. It loses power mostly when you shine the light on it with a group of people.”

We couldn’t agree more!

The FASTer Way for Busy Women

We hear it all the time from women just like you—there simply isn’t time (or energy!) to kickstart a healthy new routine with everything you have to do every day. Even that easy quick-fix diet you keep hearing about from your co-workers? Forget about it! 

Listen, we get it. Most days we’d all rather catch up on sleep or even scroll our InstaFeed, am I right?! It’s easy to make excuses because we’re constantly working, running from one sporting event to the other, helping with homework, deciding dinner plans, trying to balance a social life, etc. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, stay-at-home mom, nurse, or any other profession, we know that there are plenty of messy bun and leggings days—where the last thing we think about is exercising or making a healthy meal. Because really, who has time to prep 6 meals a day? Or do cardio every day? 

But what about that friend-of-a-friend who travels, runs marathons, has a clean house, and still makes time for friends? Well, I think we all know this isn’t everyday reality. But more than that, we also know is that when you prioritize your health, even for just 30 minutes a day, your mind, body, and soul will repay you.

What we often fail to realize is that if we were to put our health at the forefront, we would actually have the energy to plan that family 5K, engage in the HIIT workout, fold the clothes we’ve hit wrinkle release on twice, or prep those healthy meals on our Pinterest boards. Exercising boosts our energy levels, especially when we are consuming the right foods.  

And if you already have a goal but are unsure where to start, let’s chat. First and foremost, you’ll want to focus on nutrition. Contrary to what people have been told in the past, you can't out-train a bad diet—no matter how many hours you spend in the gym.

So start small.

Up your water intake and ease into better nutrition. Create a grocery list ahead of time and stick to mostly whole foods. It’s easiest to shop the perimeter of the grocery store, where you’ll notice they stock mostly fresh produce as well as meat. Not only will this make your wallet happy, but it will also shorten your time strolling the aisles of the store (and if you have young kids, this is life-saving advice!). 

OUR LITTLE SECRET: FASTer Way clients are provided with simple, weekly meal plans that include a shopping list! Win!

Eat the right foods at the right time.

Switching to less processed food with a focus on whole-food nutrition (and balanced macros) is huge, but in the FASTer Way to Fat Loss we also pay attention to when we eat by practicing Intermittent Fasting. This is an excellent strategy to jumpstart your metabolism and start burning fat!  Not only that, we teach our clients carb cycling so they can burn more fat without a restrictive low-carb lifestyle. 

We practice a 16/8 Intermittent Fasting protocol, meaning we fast for 16 hours (mostly when we sleep) and consume all of our food within an eight-hour window. Feel free to ease into it with a 12-hour eating window, then get down to 10, and eventually work toward that eight-hour window.

OUR LITTLE SECRET: Intermittent Fasting is a huge time saver because it’s one less meal to cook (and clean up), especially at the beginning of the day when you already have a million things to do. Less “on your plate” equals less morning stress and more time to do what really matters!

Spend less time in the gym.

Seriously! When implementing simple strategies, you can teach your body to be a pro fat burner even after you are done working out! Say what?! HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) workouts take less than 30 minutes and when paired with a strategic eating schedule, you’ll not only have more energy, but you’ll be sweating as if you had worked out for two hours! This technique requires you to give your all through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods. This strategy is proven to burn more fat in a shortened time period because it keeps your heart rate up. 

OUR LITTLE SECRET: We provide our clients with HIIT workouts (that you can do in the comfort of your own home!) PLUS a full digital studio of other modalities including strength, barre, yoga, and even low-impact workouts! 

But don’t worry, we don’t want you spending seven days a week doing these workouts. In fact, we think even six is too many! Because we also think it’s important to… 

Prioritize rest!

Diet culture will tell you to spend countless hours at the gym and drastically cut your calories. But eating enough and getting rest is much more beneficial for long-term success! Consistently undereating will increase your body’s cortisol, which can actually make you gain weight. Additionally, adequate sleep has been linked to weight loss and improved brain function. Eat plenty of whole foods and prioritize sleep—your body will thank you!

Despite how impossible it may feel in the beginning, there's always time for a healthy lifestyle.

We live by these rules, and you’ll soon notice that what makes the FASTer Way a game changer is we aren’t guessing and hoping you’ll see results, our program is backed by science and we have thousands of client wins that back it up. 

“I was always looking for the next best ‘diet’ and consistently failed. The FASTer Way came to me by word of mouth, and I fully had the expectation that this was going to be another ‘diet’ that I was going to fail again. But, ‘you never know until you try,’ right? So I tried.

Was I perfect? Absolutely not!

Did I give up? No!!

The motto “Progress, NOT Perfection” and giving myself grace changed my mindset. The accountability, the coach, the fact that I can choose the right foods at the right times for the right reason made me feel in control. Getting to know the science behind why this works was powerful and the reason it was different this time, the reason this time I DIDN’T fail.”

-Julie*

*Results may vary from person to person.

When you stick to these simple (but effective!) time-saving tips, you’ll have no choice but to lose your excuses and really start to focus on your health. Who knows, maybe you’ll even write down a new goal, start planning that overdue getaway with your spouse, or strategize your next career move. You are gonna look and feel great with your new added confidence boost!

Joining the FASTer Way can help skyrocket those results as we’ll teach you a more in-depth look at mindset, time management, and nutrition strategies plus a solid workout plan that you can do anywhere. You can have it all.

Let’s set some goals that you can’t wait to reach!