Since I’ve been working on building a fitness routine this month I thought it would be beneficial to talk to someone who’s already achieved a lot of her fitness goals and see how it’s done. So, I reached out to a friend from high school, Nancy Hafez. Nancy got into fitness after her freshman year of college and was able to lose 50 lbs in one year and over 7% body fat in just this past year. She has now graduated Rutgers with a degree in exercise science and is on her way to becoming a personal trainer and a certified nutritionist. Eventually, she hopes to become a physician’s assistant specializing in sports medicine.

ready achieved a lot of her fitness goals and see how it’s done. So, I reached out to a friend from high school, Nancy Hafez. Nancy got into fitness after her freshman year of college and was able to lose 50 lbs in one year and over 7% body fat in just this past year. She has now graduated Rutgers with a degree in exercise science and is on her way to becoming a personal trainer and a certified nutritionist. Eventually, she hopes to become a physician’s assistant specializing in sports medicine.

It was really awesome catching up with her and she is definitely a huge inspiration to me! You can read our full interview below and follow her on Instagram @nhafez24. She puts out great motivational content and really delicious looking protein-filled desserts!

Kiren: How did you get started getting into working out and fitness? What made you decide to start going to the gym?

Nancy: So, all my life I had the issue of someone always telling me that I was overweight. Family and other people. And it really got to me, but I didn’t really care about it until freshman year of college when I dormed and I gained 20 lbs. And it really showed. Before I was like “eh, I’m overweight, it’s nothing big” but then it really hit me. I think I hit almost 190 lbs and after that I was just like “ok, I should really see what’s going on.” Because I didn’t care at the time. I was just like, “food’s food, I like food, might as well eat.”

But then I went to the LA Fitness that I still go to and I finally got a membership there. And it came with a free personal training evaluation and the personal trainer that I had was really nice to me until it came to the nitty-gritty of my goals. And I was telling him that I had issues with cardio. My knees would start hurting whenever I did cardio. And he said, it’s probably because you’re holding up too much weight. And it took that to make me realize that maybe I do need to push myself a little more because if he didn’t even have faith in me to even do cardio, I was just like “come on”. And so that’s when I really started.

I started with a friend and she motivated me. We didn’t really know what we were doing at the time. We eventually parted ways but I kept trying to work out for I think about three months until I actually got into something that really helped me and I realized that it wasn’t that I should be focused on losing calories and doing some fad diet, it was more of, let me start getting into weight lifting and go from there.

So, I didn’t realize any differences in my body until I started lifting. And I would still do about 10 minutes of cardio every day just to get it in but the moment I started focusing on doing full-body workouts and then doing different body parts each day is when I started really noticing a difference and between that and changing my lifestyle, the way that I eat and getting into cooking and baking, that really helped.

K: How did you land on the weight lifting? When did it click for you?

N: It clicked for me when I realized that after trying for so many months and nothing was working. I was like, I’m here every single day trying to lose weight just like anyone else and it just wasn’t working for me. And it wasn’t until I started trying lifting.

I met some girls, two sisters, who said, “you’re always here, you should start working out with us!” so I was like “sure!” And they showed me how to use some of the machines and ever since I started working out with them I started seeing a difference. My body fat was going away, and I started seeing muscle. And once you start seeing it for yourself you’re like “oh wow this is actually something that’s working out for me” and you try to do more and more of it. So, they started it off for me and I made a lot of friends at the gym as time went by and they taught me a lot. Every time I was just taught something new, and it really helped me, so now I challenge myself. Once you get into it, you start wanting to challenge yourself.

K: I’m really interested in how people build their work out routines. I usually just find them on the internet because I don’t know how to make the splits or the breakdown, which exercises to do. Do you make your own workouts? And what did you do when you were starting out?

N: So, when I was starting out is a lot different than what I do now. When I was starting out, pretty much, whoever looked like they knew what they were doing, I just followed them and did what they were doing. And from there I picked and chose from each workout what I felt was actually helping me. And then there was one app, I think it was literally called workout. And it had the breakdown of which exercises to do to work different body parts and I used that.

And once I started getting into lifting more and I actually knew what I was doing and I was working on form and making sure my form was correct and going for heavier weights, that’s when I really ended up doing my own thing. And at that point I knew that if I’m trying to build muscle, I’m going to do more weight and less reps. If I’m trying to just maintain or work on toning my physique, I’ll do higher reps and less weight. So, I just kept adjusting things depending on what my goal was at the time. So, the moment I started losing all the weight is when I decided that now I start to pick and choose what I would do from there.

K: How long did it take you since you started weight lifting that you actually started seeing progress?

N: That’s the thing, people want quick fixes. I want to say that after two weeks I started to see a difference in how I felt. So, that was a huge reason that I kept going with working out. Because of how I felt when I did it. And then, I think it was a month when I started actually losing noticeable weight. So, it just took time. And I didn’t really look at a scale, I just used how I felt as a motivation for me. Because before that I used to always look at the scale, but I learned from that that the scale means nothing because you can have all muscle and still be considered overweight.

K: Yeah, I try to do that too. I try to just feel how my clothes are fitting and how I look in the mirror instead of weighing myself because I don’t think healthy.

N: And it’s not as accurate. That’s why I always suggest to people to check their body fat percentage. Because that’s another thing, when I first started they checked my body fat percentage and the trainer told me, “you’re hitting obese.” And that was quite life changing for me in a way because I didn’t expect that. I didn’t know I had that much fat to me, and now I use that as my judgement of how I’m doing.

K: Yeah! I saw that the other day, you posted on Instagram that even still you’re going down in body fat percentage.

N: Yeah that’s what I’ve been focused on. I’ve been working on doing that but I’m trying to maintain for now but it’s hard with Ramadan because I’m still trying to work out.

K: Yeah, how are you doing that? How’s that working for you?

N: So, I’ve been having trouble figuring out best times to work out because as part of being an exercise science major I took a lot of sports nutrition classes and I learned that it’s really important to eat prior to and after a workout and especially after a workout. So, for me I was trying to figure out when would be a good time to work out and I was hoping to do it after I eat but I eat around 8:30 and by the time I’m done it’s around 9:00 pm and after that I’m just tired and don’t feel like doing anything. So, I decided to do it an hour / an hour and a half before breaking fast. And then I just eat a lot when I get home. So, I think that’s why I lost a lot of body fat too because my body is already in fat burning mode.

K: And how important do you think food is and eating and nutrition with exercise and working out?

N: It’s everything. It’s literally everything. I tell people, you can lift all you want but if you’re diet isn’t good you’re not going to lose weight. And that showed on me too. Because after the first year, it’s been almost three years since I started lifting and working out. And after a year I hit a plateau. I got down to around 138/140lbs I would always fluctuate and then I got into power lifting and my appetite became really big. I think because it’s a lot of heavy weight and I realized that I gained weight and was staying at 150 lb. And I couldn’t figure out why. I was like “I’m pretty healthy.” I wasn’t too strict on my diet, but I was just stuck.

And then, all of a sudden once I switched up what I was eating and made sure I was in more a caloric deficit sometimes when I was trying to lose weight and I really realized my weight going down and my body fat percentage going down. It makes a huge difference. You are what you eat. That’s always something that I will live by, you are what you eat. If you don’t eat healthy, you won’t feel great, even the feeling. You’re not going to feel good after eating a piece of cake compared to…I don’t know, but that’s another thing. I make a lot of my own sweets now. When in doubt, if you really are into a certain meal, you can always just modify it and make it yourself and figure out a way to satisfy your craving. So, that’s when I realized that food was that important.

K: And I noticed you put a lot of protein in your food. How important do you think that protein is?

N: So, for me, I realized that I lost a lot more weight when I started increasing my protein intake and it had a lot to do with the fact that I was breaking down muscle when I was working out so making sure that I replenish was important. And especially recently after I’ve just finished taking a graduate class on sports nutrition and that professor broke everything down from carbs to minerals and she broke everything down when it came to exercise. And I realized that carbs are very important and proteins are second important. So, it’s carbs, protein and then fat you don’t really have to be on top of.

So, when it came to protein she pretty much justified what I was doing. She was saying that you should have one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight in a day. So, for instance, if you weigh 70 kg you should have at least 70+ grams of protein a day. So, she was saying that you should have around 20-30 grams before your workout by an hour or so and the same thing after your workout. And you can’t digest more than 30 grams at a time anyways.

That’s where with some people I’m like why are you putting two scoops of protein in your shakes when it’s not going to help you, you’re not going to absorb it. So, upping my protein intake really helped. It keeps you full.

Fiber was another thing that I worked with. I tried increasing the amount of complex carbs that I ate, the amount of fiber that I ate. Just because we don’t realize how much we’re lacking it which is why we end up overeating because we’re always feeling like we’re not satisfied or full.

K: So, would you say you just like looked for what worked and kept changing it a little bit and tweaking it until you got results?

N: Yep, that’s pretty much what happened. I’ve tried everything. I don’t know anything I haven’t tried. I’ve even gone vegetarian before, I’ve gone vegan before, I’ve done paleo. I did everything and realized that you don’t have to change everything you do. All it is, is eat healthy, carbs are your friends. A lot of people think carbs aren’t your friends but they really help you even with getting your workout in. Without carbs you’re not going to feel good.

And when it came to actually going to the gym and lifting first I had to get over the fact of thinking that the weight area was “for the big boys”. Once you get over that and you start making friends or even if you don’t make friends and you just realize that you belong here just as much as anyone else and just do whatever you’ve gotta do feel happy, that’s when you really realize that you just need to work on what works. If I feel good doing this, let me keep doing it, if I’m uncomfortable let me stop or let me break that comfort zone. That’s what I had to do with deadlifts. I hated deadlifts. But, it’s a really good compound movement so I pushed myself to do it at least once every two weeks. Even though I hate them, I know it’s good for me so I do it.

K: Is there something that helped you get over that embarrassment or anxiety of going into the weight section or feeling like you don’t belong? I feel like a lot of people are scared of that.

N: Yeah, I feel like that’s a big issue with a lot of people. They feel like they’re not at the place that everyone else is, they’re wondering “is anyone looking at me”. Especially with wearing the headscarf and everything. I felt like people were already looking at me no matter what. It would be 90° out and I was still wearing long sleeves and my headscarf at the gym. It took me a while, but if you go in with someone at first it makes it easier.

So, the fact that I had my friend and the girls I met and they came with me, every time I started doing it, it made it easier. So, by the time I started going by myself I was like “oh I know what I’m doing, let me just go do it”. And then you eventually just realize that everyone at the gym is there for the same reason, to stay fit. So you just get used to it and you realize if I’m trying to do the same thing that the person next to me is doing it shouldn’t matter. I shouldn’t feel embarrassed or scared. And if I do drop the weights, which I still do. I still drop weights all the time. I dropped maybe three or four plates on the squat rack the other day and it’s ok! Yeah everyone looks but who cares. So, it’s just about having fun with it. Don’t worry about what other people think and just have fun with it.

K: One thing that always helps me is, everyone is just focused on their own workout and themselves and how they look and nobody really is looking at you or cares what you’re doing.

N: Exactly, they’re just thinking about themselves the whole entire time, so why should you feel scared.

K: Yeah, so once I realized that and I just kept telling myself that I was like “yeah, no one is looking at me.”

N: Yeah that’s how I got through it too.

K: So, with cardio, you only do a few minutes of cardio? Or do you have a cardio day? When I used to work out a little bit more I would have one cardio day and then the other days I would do very little but I don’t know.

N: So, it depends. When I first started, I had goals in mind. I couldn’t run a mile. I had the biggest struggle in middle school and high school, I could never run a mile. I was always the kid who would try to get out of it. So, when I started working out I set a goal for everything. I would be like “I want to hit this amount of weight in this amount of time” and I just worked on it. So same came with cardio. I was like “I want to start trying to hit a mile within 10 minutes. And every day I would try to hit a mile. And then eventually I was able to do it without stopping. Then once I hit 10 minutes I was like, “ok, now let me try to do it in less time.”

Now I’m more of a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) person when it comes to cardio and I found that to be very beneficial to me and you lose more calories faster. And with time constraint and working and school and trying to make sure I get my lift in before I even do cardio, it made it easier. Because now I didn’t have to think about going and doing my cardio for 20 minutes; I could just go and do it in 10 minutes and be done.

So now I do a lot of jump roping, I do the stair master because it helps with building leg muscle. That was one thing I was really trying to work on. Also you sweat a lot, it’s very hard. And I got into sprints so instead of doing my mile runs I would do a minute off, a minute on. I usually do about a minute jogging and then I do a minute or 45 second sprints and I keep doing that. So, I just play around with it. Whatever I find fun I do because I hate cardio. That’s why I did jump roping too, because it’s fun. You can start learning tricks and you surprise yourself.

K: How do you make new goals and make sure you’re constantly challenging yourself and progressing? How do you notice when things get easy and how do you change it up?

N: It’s when I realize that I’m doing the exact same thing every single week. My professor said you should be changing it up every month at least. I never really did that before, but I just knew it when it came to how I felt. You want to hit that overload stage so if I notice that these weights are getting easy, once I hit about 12-15 reps easy, especially 15 I know that now it’s time to up my weight. So, I’ll try something different and up the weight. If I can do 10-12 then I’ll stick with that weight and try getting 12-15 with it. So, it’s just that constant reminder that if something is easy why am I doing it? If I want to see the results that I want I have to push myself. So, I know sometimes that people get scared. Because I used to get scared whenever it came to adding weight for any compound movement like squats or deadlifts, I would get so scared when it came to putting more weight on but you realize eventually that that’s what you need to actually do better?

K: What are your goals now? Do you have goals that you’re working on actively?

N: So, my goal recently was that I wanted abs. And it’s funny because my friends were like “it’s cause it’s about to be summer and the beach” and I was like “I cover up, no ones going to see that.” No one’s going to see them but me. But I really wanted abs. I just like to see that I can do something. Because when you’re told that you can’t do something, for instance when it came to that trainer, I like to prove people wrong.

So, I wanted to prove myself wrong. I wanted to prove to myself that I could get definition there because that’s what a lot of people have trouble with. So, I definitely was consistent with my diet. Once I started working out I’ve been eating healthy. So, I just stayed on top of it and I worked on doing more cardio. That’s when I started doing my 5:00 am cardio. I was like “you know what, I’m going to start doing two-a-days at the gym”. So, I went at five and then I went again after classes around 5:00 pm.

K: How do you get yourself up in the morning? What motivates you to get up at 5:00 am and do cardio?

N: Ok, so this is the thing. The first time I did it, my friend was doing it and he was like “come, try it”. So, I said, “ok I’ll try it.” And let me tell you— best feeling.

Once you feel like something is good for you and you liked it, it makes it so much easier. Literally the next couple of days getting up in the morning was easy because I felt to great throughout the day. So, I was like let me keep doing this, I’m having fun with this. So, I do 30 minutes of stair master or I do 30 minutes on the treadmill. Nothing too crazy or intense. But my body was in a fasted state still so that also really helped me lose fat. That’s the only time I would say I would rather be in a fasted state was when I was doing fasting cardio. Other than that you need food for lifting.

So that was my goal and I went from 21% body fat and then a couple of months ago, I was about 18.8% and I checked last week and I was at 14.8% body fat. And another thing that helped me get into body fat was that one of the trainers, told me “21%, that’s a lot”. Which, first of all, it’s not if you look at what it should be for females. But I guess that was his way of pushing me and saying that I should be better than that. So, I was like “I’ll prove you wrong!” and 18% became my goal. And once I hit 18% it became normal for me to focus on that and get that definition. And once you see it it’s just like “wow, I did this” and it makes you motivated to keep going.

K: Yeah, that’s cool. I feel like that I always struggle though because I’ll get that little bit of progress and then something will happen and I’ll get busy with school and I’ll quit or stop and I’ll have to start over.

N: That’s how I felt too with finals. But it depends, for me lifting became a stress reliever for me. It became something that I needed to feel better. So, whenever I was frustrated or sad or even happy, I found myself going to the gym to relieve those emotions. So, working out can mean something different to everyone. For me it was my stress reliever. It all comes down to emotions, if you feel good you’re going to be happy.

So yeah you get that motivation stop whenever you get busy, but you just have to remind yourself, what’s going to make me feel better, and in my case working out did make me feel better so that motivated me to keep going back and doing what I loved.

And sometimes I would feel like when I hit my goals I could do whatever I want and eat whatever I want, it shouldn’t matter. But you realize after doing that that you actually have to stay on top of it. Consistency is really key. I wouldn’t have lost 50 lbs after a year without that consistency of always being motivated. Or even finding people that will keep reminding you, “hey, did you go to the gym? How’s everything been?” I have people at the gym who will literally be like “I haven’t seen you all week!” And that reminds me, ok, I should be coming more often and having that environment really does help too.

K: Is there anything else you wanted to share about your own fitness journey or any tips?

N: I would definitely say to stay motivated, that’s definitely key. If you feel bored, try something different. With working out some people think that you have to do the same thing over and over again but you really don’t. There are so many things out there to do, even for cardio. I hate running, I don’t run by itself, I do something to make it fun. Find ways to make things fun. If you don’t like doing something you don’t have to do it, you can do whatever feels good. Same with legs. Some people hate squatting. You don’t have to squat! I got injured and I couldn’t squat but I was still doing legs. You can do whatever you want, just adjust it to who you are and what you like to do.

And if anyone ever needs nutrition tips or fitness tips, I’m always available. I love talking about this stuff, I could go on for hours.