Up your calories for a hotter body!

WRITTEN BY VICTORINE KULIER

Madalin doubled her calorie intake, eats a high-carb diet and is fitter and leaner than ever before. In this interview she tells us how her love for pasta and bread doesn’t stop her from having a rocking body. 

We’ve all been there: stress at school or work is constantly interfering with our five-course gourmet meal plan and we end up munching on Ramen Noodles for lunch and sneaking in that midnight snack after a long day – every day. And of course, there’s the occasional glass of wine that is not so occasional anymore. After all, liquid calories aren’t calories, right? Right?

Day by day, the weight creeps up and we’re wondering if our roommate is secretly shrinking all our clothes in the laundry. What a clumsy guy. So maybe right about now, you decided it’s time for a change and start cutting calories, drastically. But surprisingly, your energy goes floating, your cravings are getting worse and the weight isn’t really budging either. The solution? We won’t give it to you. But Madalin Frodsham will. Our dedicated Instagram blogger tells us all about her daily life with fitness, food and how upping her daily calories actually helped her become leaner. Sit back and enjoy!

P R O F I L E

Name: Madalin Frodsham

Profession: Digital Marketer

Residence: Perth, Western Australia

Age: 27 years old

Actual Weight: 52kg

Height: 161cm

• Hey Madalin! You’re an inspiration and role model to so many girls out there who are looking to feel good about themselves and their bodies. When and how did you start your journey to a healthy lifestyle?

Growing up, I had always been active and fit and loved playing basketball with school friends (though I wasn’t very good, you won’t see me shooting threes anytime soon!). But when I finished high school I started drinking and eating bad food, and just generally not looking after myself. I was always slim but I has started to gain weight since high school and I was feeling kind of down with how I was looking. The problem was that I was not very motivated to lose weight. I loved food (and still do!) and struggled to reconcile putting a stop to gnocchi and chocolate eclairs. Hot bod VS gnocchi? Gnocchi always wins.

But then as the new year started to approach (2015-2016) I thought it might be fun to just challenge myself and see what I could achieve. I had been saying I would get fit for so long that I figured if I had actually spent the time I did whining and moaning about my body and used that time to actually work out, I probably wouldn’t be winging and moaning anymore! So, with that decided, I downloaded a fitness-app and started working out on exactly January 11th 2016. I made a note of it because I celebrate it with myself every month!

• A lot of people equal weight loss with eating little calories. Can you tell us how your body changed (for the better) when you started upping your calorie intake?

As mentioned before, I love food, and I didn’t think you could have your cake and literally eat it too! So for the first half of 2016, I was very disciplined on myself and restricted my food intake. I only ate what I considered to be “healthy” options, such as salad, meat and shakes. Mostly, a lot of salad just jazzed up. I thought carbs were bad and avoided them at all costs (sorry Nonna’s gnocchi). I was actually eating only 800 – 1000 calories a day, which is pretty tiny when you consider I was working out between 5-6 times a week. I had started to notice that my progress was plateauing and I was getting really sick of only eating salad. It just wasn’t sustainable.

I hit up a strength coach and he set out a meal plan for me and encouraged me to count my macros. He also upped my calories to 1,600 a day and then 1,800 a day. At first, I really struggled to eat so much, I just couldn’t fit it in and had to force feed myself. I was also scared of losing all my progress, but I trusted him and I had great results. My energy and stamina increased, I was able to lift heavier weights, I enjoyed more diverse foods and didn’t feel restricted when it came to enjoying myself with friends and family. Nonna’s gnocchi was back on the menu!

• What does your diet look like? Tell us about a “typical” day in your life and what you would eat.

I eat a high carb low fat diet, so lots of wholegrain carbohydrates, fresh vegetables and lean protein. A typical food day for me will look like:

Breakfast: Protein shake – Women’s Best whey protein powder, oats, frozen banana, coffee and water

Snack: Oat and apple muffin

Lunch: Pesto shredded chicken gnocchi

Snack: Protein bar

Dinner: Sweet potato and zucchini fritters with a big salad and light sour cream

Snack: Light Greek yogurt, honey and berries

• What’s your favorite healthy meal and what’s your favorite cheat meal?

My favorite meal is probably over baked salmon and sweet potato fries, with lemon and aioli. Delicious! I don’t like to use the word cheat meal as that implies that food is “good” or “bad” I like to say “treat meal” instead. My favorite treat meal is apple strudel warmed up with vanilla ice cream. Or chocolate self-saucing pudding. Or jam donuts. Haha.

• We love how you inspire your followers. But what happens if you’re lacking inspiration yourself? Who do you go to for support?

I definitely need inspiration some days, and I find inspiration from all over! I’m constantly inspired by the women I’ve met and connected with on Instagram. When I see them finishing their workouts for the day I know I better move my butt too!

• What helped you to get into fitness?

I downloaded a fitness-app which really gave me the push I needed to just begin. Once I had started, it wasn’t that hard, I just had to keep going!

• What’s your favorite workout?

I’ve recently started using some of the machines in my home gym and love working out my back. I never gave a second thought for how my back looked and now I love having a strong and defined back.

• How would you tell someone with little knowledge of food or fitness to go about getting started?

I would say the best way to get into it is to do some research regarding the different programs out there and decide what you like. Hate cardio? Don’t force yourself to do cardio. If you think you’ll enjoy lifting weights there’s plenty of great courses out there that you you can download and do at the gym. Do the workouts which you’ll look forward to because otherwise you’ll be much more tempted to give up. Food is pretty basic, eat clean and healthy and just avoid anything refined or processed. Once you’re confident with your routine you can look into being more sophisticated with your fitness and food regime.

• How do you stay fit when you don’t have a lot of time to exercise?

You don’t need much time to exercise, only an hour 5 times a week. That’s 5 hours a week out of 168 hours, surely you can commit to that?

• What do you do to relax?

I love being in the sun, I’m like a lizard, I’ll move to sit in whatever patch of sun I can find! It makes me feel so relaxed and content. I like to sit by the pool with a good book and unwind.

• Have you ever had a setback and just wanted to stop? How do you get out of a funk like that?

I’m lucky with the job that I do, I travel quite a lot. I find it difficult sticking to a workout routine when I’m away as well as eating healthy. When I was in the US earlier this year for 5 weeks I ate healthy and kept working out because it was such a long time. But when I went to Italy and France for 2 weeks, I went bananas and skipped all my workouts and ate so much gelato, croissants and cheese. I feel that part of the experience about travelling is from food and I didn’t want to miss out on that. It was difficult getting back into my regular routine (no more chocolate croissants to start my morning!). I just persisted when I got home and reminded myself of why I began. I am never too hard on myself, if I fall off the wagon I just jump back on again.

• What’s your favorite quote?

I used to hate motivational quotes as I thought they were so lame. I still think they are kinda lame, but when you start working out it’s funny how so many fitness and motivational quotes really resonate with you. My favourite is “A year from now, you’ll wish you started today”. So true, right?

• Do you have any goals you’re working towards right now?

I’d like to be able to 3 chin-ups, 10 push-ups and 1 pull-up by the end of the year. You don’t have to run a marathon, you can build up to small goals every day. I was so proud when I managed to do 3 push-ups. This took me 6 months. It might seem small to other people, but it doesn’t take away the pride I feel in my achievements.