FRENCH WELLNESS: 10 TIPS FROM INGRID OF THE METHOD

ingrid the method fitness french tips by the skinny confidentialINGRID IS BACK!

If you don’t follow Ingrid, you have to because she is FAB. If you remember correctly, I stalked her on Instagram for years & then we finally met in Morocco. You can read about that whole dance here. When we finally met in Morocco, we connected instantly.

Ingrid, Gil ( her husband ), Michael & I met in this tiny, hip joint in Morocco. It’s Leonardo DiCaprio’s favorite restaurant so we felt very glamorous. Ingrid recommended we order white wine because “it’s a skinny drink- easy to sip, not easy to chug like rosé, so you don’t get too buzzed.” Then she ordered apps for the table- veggies with a small side of pasta because she’s all about balance.

Anyway, I invited her back on The Skinny Confidential for a few reasons: 1.) I think she provides a lot of value- she is always sharing ( not hiding!!! ) her tips, tricks, & secrets. 2.) Most importantly: the French way is JUST different- there’s something effortless & chic about how they eat, drink, & workout- and I want in on it. If I want in on it, I’m sure a bunch of you guys do too.

SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, WELCOME BACK INGRID TO THE BLOG:

Ingrid is the founder and creator of THE METHOD®. More than a workout, it’s a lifestyle based on the principles that THE MIND controls THE BODY. Strength, health & well-being start in your POWERHOUSE – THE METHOD® builds your core as your foundation with a cognitive brain to body technique called CONTROLOGY™ Integration. This innovative system induces seamless advanced execution of elaborate, complex, uniquely modified movements, and a different approach to weight-loss and weight-management, departing from the word DIET and focusing on managing! Cortisol (stress hormone) levels, negotiating with the right hormones and taking control of your weight and health is at its root, rather than relying on food restrictions or jumping on diet or cleanse band-wagons. Ingrid got this figured out all the way from Monaco, and if following her hacks can get you to live the stress-free dolce vita she has in France, then listen up:

10 HACKS & TIPS to YOUR BODY

1 – Always workout on an empty stomach

This allows you to tap into your reserves rather than burning what you just ate. Being on an empty stomach also keeps your energy level high and prevents that morning fogginess. My athletes ( and I work with a few professional athletes ) for the most part, enjoy working out on an empty stomach at least an hour or two before training.

If you’re working out on an empty stomach, your muscles rely on stored glycogen or reservoirs of fat. Besides, by training on an empty stomach or after a light meal, it means that your body is not preoccupied with digesting huge amounts of food, but instead is able to deliver large amounts of oxygen to your muscles and potentially burn more fat!

2 – Pre-workout with COFFEE

What I usually do ( and I got this tip from one of my famous, pro tennis players ) is fuel up with coffee. Coffee gets a bad rep, but for people like me that really need to be performing during workouts ( especially because I line them up with clients every day ) coffee enhances your athletic performance:

a- Coffee is an effective pre-workout drink

b- Coffee boosts metabolism. It contains caffeine, a stimulant shown to enhance our metabolic rate.

c- Coffee enhances athletic performance.

d- Coffee gives better concentration during workouts.

e- Coffee reduces muscle pain.

I added my own little twist to make it even more of an effective pre-workout drink by adding INULIN powder to it. It’s natural FIBER, so it fills me up and keeps me satiated for hours during workouts, and helps keep my cortisol level down by relaxing my digestive system even though I feel full.

3 – Use a trainer whose body shape you admire

Never ever train with a trainer whose body shape you don’t like. Chances are if he or she has big bulky muscles, this is what he/she knows how to build on others, and will only give you the wrong nutritional advice along with the wrong sets of exercises. If you want long lean muscles, your trainer has to have them too. You shouldn’t work with someone who doesn’t practice the same as what they preach.

4 – Skip the weights

If you are trying to lose weight or you are trying to lean out, don’t do weights at the gym. This will not lengthen your muscles into long graceful curves. You certainly need to firm up and get strong, but you don’t need to take on INCHES of muscle and lose your feminine curves. Instead, use resistance bands and weights no more than 4lbs.

5 – Don’t eat fiber to squash carbs

Everyone has been so flooded with information about the goodness of fiber and how it flushes carbs out of your system ( which is true by the way ), but operate with caution here. Eating GG crackers isn’t a license to eat excess protein. I’ve been eating GG crackers for a long time, but when I started recommending it to clients, I realized many of them were hitting a plateau in their weight-loss journey.

I realized that advising eating 8 GG crackers per day meant topping your GGs with proteins x 8 because not too many of us like their GGs without a topping. Adding that to 3 regular meals per day causes excess protein intake. We are already protein-likers, we like our protein, and often we don’t associate it with carbs, but a deficiency or excess in protein will cause your metabolism to go out of wack. With GGs, you heard that the gram Amount of Fiber can be deducted from the gram amount of carbs = total carbs eaten. Automatically, the majority of us will think it is a license to eat more carbs, and I’ve seen this behavior of entitlement cause the plateau in weight-loss with so many of my clients and followers.

I myself realized eating too much fiber to flush the carbs out of my body got my digestive system to work overtime, which is stressful for the metabolism and ultimately raises cortisol levels to unhealthy highs that also cause weight-gain or plateauing.

6 – DON’T use protein powder EVER, unless you have a nutritional deficiency

Let’s say as a vegetarian you don’t get much protein from your food because you don’t eat meat or poultry and even then you can still rely on protein rich real food like eggs, dairy, and legumes. Protein powder is not for regular people, it was originally used for meal replacements like slim fast and for body builders to build bigger muscles.

Short of having such deficiency, having protein powder while eating normal protein portions of  chicken, meat, fish or our 2-3 egg omelette will bring you into excess protein intake which will affect your hormones, and either cause weight gain or hitting a plateau in your WEIGHT-LOSS process. You are not a professional athlete working out 6 hours a day, you don’t need protein powder to build muscles. You need to work out and work out smart.

7 – STOP JUMPING on diet trends

In the majority of cases, weight gain is not due to eating huge quantities of food, eating too many carbs or too many calories, it’s due to wrong diets for your hormonal profile. DIETS aren’t one size fits all. Yes you need fiber in your daily nutrition, yes you need to be mindful of your carbs and your sugar intake, but for many of us, even eating “the right way” sometimes just doesn’t work as we wish. That’s because we have to approach this from a hormonal stand point.

The promise of a high fiber diet for example, ( which is one I swear by ) didn’t work for all my clients. Some experienced more bloating, water retention and overall only lost weight the first month in. There are so many factors to think about when it comes to hormones and dieting, the first one being your cortisol level ( which is your STRESS HORMONE ): triggering a high cortisol level can be caused by very straining workouts, difficult digestion, or stressing out in traffic jams. All this to say, if your cortisol level is constantly skyrocketing, your GHRELIN hormone rises ( hunger hormone ) and makes you crave high-carb foods. Refusing to satisfy the GHRELIN hormone will eventually get your insulin level to rise on its own and BAM: weight gain ensues while you actually didn’t even give in to the craving.

YOU need to stop jumping on all these diet bandwagons and simply find a balanced-nutritional habit that will negotiate kindly with your hormones and with your cortisol level.

Getting on diets is stressful, being worried about whether you will be able to eat what the diet prescribes when you go out will raise your cortisol level and the vicious circle starts again. Diets are not sustainable.

8 – Don’t juice

Just don’t do it- the nutrients are stripped out of your veggies and fruits. The satiation signals only last a few hours at best. You need to chew to feel satisfied and to feel at peace. If you are juicing you are again sending signals of dissatisfaction to your hormones, which will eventually make you more irritable, make your mind more clouded and raise cortisol levels up, leading again to weight-gain. Juicing is not a sustainable solution. You might lose some weight first but the deficiencies it causes will cause weight-gain the minute you get back to real food.

9 – STOP doing CARDIO!

You aren’t sculpting your body lean, you aren’t building muscles and you certainly aren’t burning fat this way. This is such a myth. Cardio and especially sprints & intervals bring your cortisol levels to the roof.

Wait!!! I thought cardio burns more calories. Not necessarily. In fact, when we do too much cardio for our bodies or do the same cardio most days, we burn less calories. When you’re body gets stressed from repetitive movement, it fights with all its might to hold on to what you got and a shift in your metabolism also can happen. It burns fuel less efficiently.

In addition, when we do the same 30-60 minute StairMaster or Elliptical routine most days, your body goes into “auto-pilot” mode—lacking variety and intensity. Lastly, when we do too much intensity, your body goes into “I am running from a bear at all times” mode ( i.e. stress )—leading back to point 1 ( elevated cortisol )—which works against you. Geez! It is a fine line.

Those two conditions in your muscle fibers are the reason you may gain some weight. Your body responds to the micro tears and inflammation in two ways that cause temporary water weight gain…. You will also most likely experience delayed onset muscle soreness in the 24 to 36 hours after exercising.

So instead, rely on high density resistance and strength training. Think power Pilates (something SIMILAR to THE METHOD® ) is great because those programs include cardio sculpt sets. And while the word cardio is in it, because you are not using intervals or spinning ranges of motion, your cortisol level rises only to a healthy level necessary to weight loss.

10 – Intermittent fasting

Cut off dinner time at 8:30 pm to the next day at 1pm. Why? Because 3 to 4 meals a day is a lot of stress on your digestive system. Even if you are a fiber freak, and actually especially if you are a fiber freak.

All the digestive efforts we put our bodies thru elevates cortisol levels and leads to weight gain. I find that intermittent fasting works great as a way to rest your body and get hormones in check. Now, I am also very careful to advise this because many “all or nothing” kind of personalities are assholes about it and push their fasting limits longer in an effort to be “EXTRA EXTRA” and end up fainting and being unhealthy.

I. F. is not a calorie cutting system, it is a resting system meant to cause less stress to the body. You aren’t supposed to run yourself dry and exhausted on it; on the contrary. So by being “extra” you are just being an asshole! Don’t be one of those! INTERMITTENT FASTING must be done intelligently for the benefits to kick in:

Start your day with coffee and inulin powder ( its natural fiber powder made out of chickoree or artichoke root), and cashew or almond milk ( no sugar added of course ). If you like your coffee sweet add SUKRIN GOLD ( I hate Truvia or Stevia so Sukrin is great ), and drink it in calm and quiet to keep your cortisol low. Go workout and elect a smart workout as discussed here above.

The INULIN will provide you with all the benefits of FIBER without the digesting process of eating GG crackers or all bran cereals. Fiber is indigestible and makes you feel satiated for hours.

Once lunch time comes, don’t let the “entitlement to eat” feeling take over. It’s not because you fasted that you can eat a cow- eat what you would normally eat, had you had breakfast. You will not be more hungry. You will find yourself calmer, and having more clarity, you will feel less bloat, less water retention and will definitely feel and see the benefits of your workouts much faster and better.

My insta is @ingriddelamarekenny. And of course more info is available about THE METHOD® & you can find more about me on themethodmc.com.

THANK YOU INGRID for coming on the The Skinny Confidential. Hope you guys loved her tips! – lauryn x

+ another post on Ingrid here.

++ more health & wellness tips here.

INGRID’S FRENCH ESSENTIALS


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52 replies to “FRENCH WELLNESS: 10 TIPS FROM INGRID OF THE METHOD”

  1. People are so negative! Yes, these tips might not work for everyone hence why you don’t have to take the tips. I started following Ingrid and have used some of her tips and they have helped me but everyone has different body types so it might not work for you. Thanks for sharing these tips Lauryn and Ingrid!

  2. ALL LOVE to you both, Lauryn and Ingrid! Lauryn, I appreciate that you share so many different viewpoints on your blog and your podcast – many of which are for me and some which are not. I enjoy reading/hearing them all though. Thanks for always doing you and being kind enough to share with us all! <3

  3. Hey Lauryn- I love your blog but I would suggest having your voice in some of these takeover articles. Would like to hear what you think about these tips…I’m just not so sure about some of them (based on my own thoughts and what TSC stands for).

    1. I 100% agree with this! Was just going to comment the same thing because I don’t agree with some of the tips and was wondering if you do as well. It’s fun to hear about the French way though!

  4. I follow Ingrid on Instagram and think she’s great! Her advice is very informative and she lives a very healthy lifestyle. Things, people and workouts evolve and she is a great example of that!

  5. TSC is a place to share all different perspectives & opinions. Take what you like, leave what you don’t. It’s a resource of information & I like sharing different opinions with the community. Thanks for reading! – Lauryn

  6. I agree. Personally, I wonder if her unusual ideas and facade are just here to shock, get attention, any attention, because I just don’t understand how anyone can accept her as an expert.

  7. I personally have seen a difference in my body using some of Ingrid’s tips.
    Doing weights and sprints put my body into weight storing mode. As soon as I cut it out and used body weight and resistance bands- I dropped all my unwanted weight and wasn’t constantly STARVING anymore. I think Ingrid has great tips and I am so glad Lauryn had her on the blog!

  8. I usually love Lauryn’s content, but this one missed the mark for me. Oh well. Thought I was the only one who didn’t love this article. Eek.

  9. It’s called the supermodel diet. If you want to be really lean, then you need to limit your protein and weight-training. Protein has a lot of calories and weight training using heavy weights will add inches. It always has for me. I do a lot of cardio but for most people cardio is useless unless you are doing it to create a calorie deficit in which case you need a lot of it on a consistent basis for a long time in order to burn any fat. 3500 calories burned = one pound of fat. The most important thing for weight loss is diet. What matters is 80% food, and exercise only accounts for about 20% of your results. If you want to be lean, you need mostly a plant based diet that is high in fiber and watch your calorie intake. Fruits and vegetables and GG crackers don’t have a lot of calories. Everything listed here in this blog post is bang on.

  10. Horrid advice from a puffer face looking creature.

    This is a joke post, Loren!

    Very weird since your trainer runs a lot, used weights, uses protein powder and all that.

  11. Intermittent fasting is very bad for women. You should read the reasearch about it.

    Please advise what this woman’s health and fitness education is. Anyone can be an “expert” these days without any training or certification. The Instagram culture favours these types ?

  12. A really interesting list. I think bodyweight is a great way to lose weight and tone. I think whenever we read lists like this everyone has to understand what works for one person might not necessarily work for another. Obviously, medical and professional advice should always take priority.

  13. Skip the weights? Really? I thought this myth had been debunked already. Apparently not. Weights will NOT make you bulky! There’s no such thing as “toning” with bands, and you definitely can’t lengthen your muscles. Your muscles’ length is determined by your DNA. Muscle is attached to your bones .. what would happen if your muscles got longer? Would you grow a few inches? Nope.
    What you can change is how big they are and how much fat surrounds the muscle. You build muscle and you lose fat, and the most effective way to build muscle is with weights! .. Definitely with more than 4lbs. That’s the most ridiculous thing Ive ever heard. Sorry. I just had to get that out there. Because I just cannot believe that people still preach this.
    But, I’m not saying what people should or shouldn’t do. Everybody is different and likes different things, and that’s okay. I just hate when this stuff is being preached as facts.

  14. Awesome tips, just stumbled on your blog while trying to search to some weight loss tips. Great to read some info on intermittent fasting too.

    Love, Jessica

  15. Wow! I was mindblown about the coffee pre workout. I always thought caffeine isn’t good for the body. I am so excited to try this and enjoy its benefits. Will browse for more wellness tips here. 🙂

  16. This is very informative post from Ingrid, her tips are must follow to maintain good fitness and as-usual your blog rocks.

  17. I agree. Personally, I wonder if her unusual ideas and facade are just here to shock, get attention, any attention, because I just don’t understand how anyone can accept her as an expert.

  18. Thanks for sharing, Lauryn! Love seeing this post especially after hearing Ingrid on your podcast. She is so real & genuine. Also glad you are so open-minded toward sharing various perspectives and ideas despite rude comments you might get. I admire what you’re doing & so does the rest of your community!

  19. Thanks for sharing, Lauryn! Love seeing this post especially after hearing Ingrid on your podcast. She is so real & genuine. Also glad you are so open-minded toward sharing various perspectives and ideas despite rude comments you might get. I admire what you’re doing & so does the rest of your community!

  20. Thank you Lauryn for this post. Very helpful tips given by her. I never knew that Coffee has such great benefits. Does tea also has any affect on the workouts ? I am more of a tea person so just curious.

  21. Fashion and Style has no bounds. That’s what I say an i have experienced in my life. Being a fashion model and into the modelling industry since last 4 years. I have got to know that this is something beyond limits.

  22. I work in radio at 345 in the morning and fasted workouts aren’t possible. Is there any way around this? It has worked great for me in the past but just isn’t an option anymore!

  23. Great post! Thank you for the insightful article. I would like to add a little bit more information that among so many lifestyles based on diets and fashion habits, there is ‘Noom’, a unique course that uses psychological behavior and small short-term goals to help lose weight and not regain it in the future.