Fitplan Trainer Melissa Alcantara, also known as Kim Kardashian’s personal trainer, has two golden nuggets of advice for you (among many others): eat carbs and stop lying to yourself.
“I eat bread, I eat rice. I’m Latina, I eat rice and bread every single day.”
We caught up with Mel on the set of her newest Fitplan, 10 Pack Hamstrings, just a few hours after she’d eaten toast, donuts and a cupcake. Though she admitted to feeling under the weather that day, she was all smiles and authentically living the “get shit done” lifestyle she portrays on Instagram.
“I’ve had better mornings. I’m a little sick, but you know, all in all things need to get done.”
Thousands of people are currently hitting the gym with Mel’s first Fitplan, Built Aesthetics. Coming off the heels of its success, Mel is launching 10 Pack Hamstrings and will be releasing a Mealplan later this year. We chatted about what we can expect from her new programs, why excuses are just lies you tell yourself, and how food is all mental.
If you follow Mel, you know she didn’t hold back, and that’s what we love about her.
Thousands of people are working out with Built Aesthetics. What’s different about 10 Pack Hamstrings?
10 Pack Hamstrings is more of a lower body focus. Especially if you’ve already done Built Aesthetics, this is the perfect Fitplan to do right after because you already have the form down pat, and you’ve already done all the upper body stuff.
At the end of the day, training your lower body automatically helps your upper body get into shape. I feel like a lot of people are lacking strong legs, glutes and hamstrings, and training those helps you burn more calories. It’s about really growing the bottom half of your body to help you get stronger on the top.
So you recommend doing Built Aesthetics before jumping into 10 Pack Hamstrings?
You can just go into this Fitplan, but I would say do Built Aesthetics first.
I don’t ever say anything is a “beginners” program or an “intermediate” program because it depends on how you approach the program.
I could be an astronaut but if I go into accounting, I still have to learn accounting from the beginning. Every program you do you go through a learning process and then you get into it. This program is for anybody, but if it were me I’d do Built Aesthetics first then go into 10 Pack Hamstrings with a really strong base.
Excuses are powerful. What’s your advice for taking away their power?
Knowing that that’s exactly what they are —excuses. Listen, there’s time for everything. If you have time to binge watch Netflix or go party with your friends you have time to work out. And it’s not about taking away from any of those things, but to create balance you have to first give some to get some.
In the beginning everything is about sacrifice and that’s the way you’re going to see it. So think about it, to get rid of excuses, you have to sacrifice at first. As you go along it’ll no longer be a sacrifice.
Don’t lie to me, don’t lie to yourself. Realize that you’re just making an excuse and say fuck that, I’m not going to do that, I’m doing this for myself and it’s going to become part of my life.
Everybody knows when they bullshit themselves. Look in the mirror and say that. Whatever you told yourself. ‘Oh yeah I had a salad’ or ‘I’ve been on this diet for two weeks.’ Say you didn’t have those three bags of M&Ms. Don’t give me that crap, be completely honest with yourself and go from there.
Speaking of M&Ms, can you tell us about your upcoming Meaplan?
My Mealplan is the way I eat every day. I eat bread, I eat rice. Yeah, I’m a Latina, I eat rice and bread every single day. It’s about everyday foods, everyday eating. It’s all the foods you like. Every culture has its thing and the things they like. For the most part everyone likes bread, fries, potatoes, so my thought was, how do I make those things healthy?
Be the first to know when Mel’s Mealplan launches!
It’s about making healthy food taste good so that your plan is sustainable because that’s what my eating and my workouts are about. If it’s not sustainable then you’re setting yourself up for failure. People say ‘yeah I’m gonna workout and eat bland chicken with rice and broccoli for the next three weeks” and you know what they do? They eat out and waste money.
Again, take a little time. I’m not going to lie to you and say it’s not going to be hard. No one wants to sacrifice in the beginning, but it turns into something easy.
I want people to know that it’s all mental. Everyone has their own mental thing with food and they have to get away from that.
Give your body enough time to get used to real, tasty foods, then you’re going to see so many changes in yourself and in your body and just the way that you see food for the rest of your life.
Should people pair your Mealplan with your Fitplans?
Yes! Pair my Mealplan with my Fitplans because that’s literally what I do! I inspire people and they see something in me that they like. They say I’m athletic, I’m strong, I’m muscular and I’m telling you, this exactly what I do.
There’s no secret pill, I’m not a superhero. This is it. So just follow it and that’s it. Have faith, have hope.
Want to try Mel’s 10 Pack Hamstrings or Built Aesthetics Fitplans? Start your free 7-day trial.
