Influencer Shannon Collins in Two-Piece Workout Gear Talks "Tracking Calories"

Shannon Collins, a popular nutrition coach and personal trainer, uses her social media platform to share wellness advice and personal insights. Recently, she opened up about her decision to stop tracking her calories, explaining in a post, “This may take some time to figure out. You may not be at this point yet.” Collins emphasized that while calorie tracking can be helpful for some, it’s not necessary forever. Her journey towards building sustainable habits didn’t happen overnight; it took time and effort to create a healthy lifestyle. Collins’ message to her followers is clear: prioritizing long-term habits over short-term fixes leads to lasting results, a philosophy she continues to promote through her work.

1. She Took Time

In her Instagram post, Collins talked about taking the time to build healthy habits in her life. “For me it did take a period of time tracking and weighing food to learn about what was in my food. I’ve carried that knowledge with me for years. It also may take some time for your new habits to become a lifestyle that you don’t even think about anymore. Like brushing your teeth. I also had to learn how to manage my stress and have better coping mechanisms. It all took time.”

2. She Does Cardio

Collins makes sure to do cardio workouts. She talked about the importance of this in the caption of this Instagram post. “I have a lot more endurance during my weight training. This was the main reason why I started this! I was tired of needing sometimes almost a 5 minute rest period to recover from my lower body training. I now am recovering so much quicker and easily in between sets. I also don’t feel totally exhausted after my lower body training anymore.”

3. She Lifts Weights

Collins likes to lift weights to stay in shape. She shared the importance of this in the caption of this Instagram post. “Remember just because you are lifting weights, doesn’t mean you are building new muscle. Have to be intentional with what you are doing. Let me take the guesswork out of it for you! Lifting weights should ALWAYS be a part of your routine, whether you are trying to lose fat or not. Muscle will only help you lose fat.”

4. She’s Comfortable With Her Body

Collins is comfortable with herself and her body. She talked about this in the caption of this Instagram post. “I’ll take my extra body fat and all the other amazing things it has brought to my life. It was a live and learn experience and thankful for me this was very short lived. It’s normal to have body fat. It’s not normal to walk around lean and shredded everyday for months or years. Don’t get it twisted!!”

5. She Loves Overnight Oats

Collins likes to eat overnight oats for breakfast. She shared her recipe in the caption of this Instagram post. “I’ve been eating eggs for my breakfast for YEARS and kinda got sick of them, so my latest kick is overnight oats!! The BASE of this recipe is almost 40g protein! The base recipe… -1/2 cup/40g Whole Grain Rolled Oats (Simple Truth Organic) -1 scoop/33g Peanut Butter Fudge Protein Powder @legion -1/4 cup/64g plain traditional Greek yogurt (The Greek Gods) -1/2 cup/120ml 2% Reduced Fat Ultra-Filtered Milk (Fairlife) -1/2 Tbsp/8g Black Chia Seeds (Simple Truth Organic).”

Kelsey Wells is exercising on vacation – in her workout gear. In a new social media post the fitness trainer shows off her amazing figure in a two-piece exercise set. “Do you exercise on vacation!? No shame, no judgment— just curious! It used to be unfathomable to be how anyone would want to exercise during a vacation— but after I redefined fitness for myself I entered a phase of it being I fathomable not to! Now I am much more chill about my vacay sessions, opting for active movement/activities in general (making memories with my boys!) and hitting a few simple sessions like this one. Remember all my programming is available in the @sweat app! I truly have created a suite of programming that allows me to meet you wherever YOU are on your journey,” she captioned the post.

1. A Balanced, Consistent Approach to Nutrition

Kelsey maintains a healthy diet. “I believe a holistic approach to nutrition is healthiest — this means focusing on balance, consistency, and including all types of food (and treats) in moderation,” she wrote in a blog. “One thing that I will never do is deprive myself of any of the food groups — including desserts! Food should never be a source of guilt, and I encourage you to adopt this philosophy and see how it changes your own relationship with food,” she continued. “If you are considering adjusting the way that you eat, I strongly encourage you to make small, sustainable changes. Remember, it’s what you do often that counts! A restrictive diet will NOT help you to reach your health and fitness goals, and can be mentally unhealthy, too. The most important thing is that you are kind to yourself and allow yourself to nourish your body in the way that best fits into your lifestyle.”

2. Lift Weights

Kelsey is big into weight lifting. “LIFTING WEIGHTS helps you build muscle, and the more muscle mass your body has, the higher your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Therefore the more calories your body is burning even at rest! This (accompanied with eating adequate protein) is how you (over time!!!) shift your body composition to that ‘lean muscle’ people talk about,” she writes in one of her Instagram post.

3. Protein Packed Salad

Kelsey likes eating salad. She recently shared her “CURRENT FAVE SALAD” in a post. “SPRING SALAD 🥗 I’ve had on repeat,” she added. It is made with baked chicken breast (“I bake a tray and it lasts a few days!” she says. “I like to season with garlic or season salt and olive oil.”), spring salad mix, Marcona almonds (“these are the BEST almonds hands down,” she adds.), avocado, parmesan and feta cheeses, homemade pickled red onion, and “any vinaigrette or dressing of your choice,” she says. “So filling and delicious and NUTRITIOUS.”

4. No Tracking

Last year, Kelsey made “TWO SIMPLY (yet incredibly difficult) CHANGES” to her diet that “drastically” improved her health. The first? “I stopped wearing my Apple Watch/stopped “tracking” my HR during workouts and length/intensity of my sessions,” she writes. The second? “I stopped counting/tracking ANYTHING I ate (before, even when I wasn’t counting macros, I would often track protein)” she added. “BOTH of these tools were very healthy and helpful for me!! For a very long time. Please understand that I AM NOT SAYING tracking is inherently unhealthy or bad to do— that’s absolutely not the case. But I started to feel familiar triggers creeping in, and I realized needed to take a break from both of these things (for my MENTAL wellbeing). Doing so has honestly been far more difficult to do than I thought, and also? FAR MORE FREEING than I ever imagined. Who knows when/if/how I will return to either of these tools in the future, but for now? I am enjoying movement more organically, and training more intuitively, than I have in a long time. I am yet again re-learning and re-affirming to myself that food is FUEL, and all the beautiful things about TRULY HEALTHY nutrition that I have learnt along my professional career and personal path. Always remember that we no longer can allow our efforts in eating or exercise to be a detriment to our MENTAL and emotional health. Be conscious of your mindset and utilize tools for your benefit— and don’t be afraid to make changes when you feel things start to change.”

5. Her Chair Chest and Triceps Workout

Here is Kelsey’s chair chest and triceps workout. “Perform 30-50 sec each exercise (depending on your current fitness level!) circuit style! 5 rounds, resting 1 minute between rounds,” she says.

• Tricep Dips
• Incline Pushups
• Tricep Circles

Kim French is revealing the workout behind her amazing glutes – in her workout gear. In a recent social media post the fitness influencer flaunts her famous behind in a two-piece exercise set during a sweat session at the gym. “Spicy glute focused leg day 🔥🌶That triset will make your buns NUMB 😵‍,” she writes in the caption of the series of Instagram clips. “Listen ladies, I cannot make you get up and get your workouts done every day, but I can help with exactly what to do to get the best possible results for your efforts!” What is the workout and how does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.

1. She Started by Cutting Calories and Running

Shutterstock

Three months after having her second child, Kim decided it was time to get back into shape. She was 182 pounds, 40 pounds heavier than her pre-pregnancy weight and she was regularly, “binge eating just to get through the sleepless nights,” she told Women’s Health. “So I decided to cut calories and start running, which I had never done before. With my new routine, I started to see changes on the scale, but I felt miserable. I didn’t enjoy running very much, and I was starving all the time on my 1,200-calorie-a-day diet—but I thought ramping up my cardio and lowering my calories was the only way to lose weight. Plus, it was technically working.”

2. Her Husband Introduced Her to Strength Training

“When I hit 140 pounds, I was back to my more ideal weight, but was completely unhappy with the way I looked. I had lost a lot of body fat, but I was still wobbly—I was, as some people call it, ‘skinny fat.’ My husband, who works out religiously, convinced me to go to the gym with him. I had never been to a gym before in my life, but I agreed to go and just test a few of the weight machines. I was so nervous. I felt very intimidated and thought everyone was going to be looking at me, judging me for not knowing what I was doing,” she continued. “But when I got in there, I realized that everyone was doing their own thing and didn’t really take much notice of me. I tried a few machines and, to my surprise, liked it. I liked feeling sore, I wanted to tone up and get stronger, and I liked lifting more than I liked doing cardio—so I signed up and soon started going to the gym on my own.”

3. LISS Workouts

“In the beginning, I was following up my weight training with an hour of cardio. I wasn’t that strong and didn’t know exactly what I was doing, so I would just do the exercises on low weight and practice my form. After learning more about technique, I started doing just 30 minutes of LISS (low-intensity steady state) cardio after lifting weights,” she continued. “I liked doing cardio after my weights so I could use up the energy from my pre-workout meal on lifting, and then burn off the rest during a cardio portion. I usually started with heavy compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, and hip thrusts, and then moved on to isolation exercises. I put a lot of focus and effort into my glutes, cranking out exercises like squats, deadlifts, glute bridges, hip thrusts, and using the hip-abduction machine. But I'd also deliberately mix up every single session to keep my muscles shocked and growing. After a few months of training I started to see noticeable differences in my muscles as they began to grow and tighten. My workouts now: Tuesday is legs/glutes, Wednesday is back/arms, Thursday is legs/glutes and Friday is shoulders. Sometimes this changes depending on my kids’ schedules, but that’s my usual routine.”

4. Amping Up Her Caloric Intake

She also started eating more. “One of the biggest factors contributing to my success was ditching my 1,200-calorie diet. It was a struggle to get my head around eating all those extra calories since I didn’t want to put weight back on, but I just had to trust the process and forget about the scales. I discovered that the more food I fed my body, the more the muscles would grow, so I kept upping my calorie and protein intake until I was consuming 2,000 calories per day—and this is when I started to see the real progress, especially in my glutes, the area I focused a lot of effort on,” she told Women’s Health. “One thing I wish I had known from the beginning is that weight lifting increases your metabolism, which burns body fat faster—I put myself through such a miserable time with undereating and doing hours of cardio and home HIIT workouts, when what I really needed to be doing was lifting.”

5. 2,000 Calories Per Day and Counting Macros

“Now, I still eat 2,000 calories per day over five smaller meals. I eat every three hours starting at 9 a.m. and make sure each meal contains a ton of protein, adding up to at least 150 grams a day to help my muscles repair and build. I track my macros to make sure I am getting the right amount of protein, but I am not too strict about it. If I am hungry and I want a snack, then I have one. I listen to what my body needs, and what it wants—there aren’t any foods I will never eat. On the weekends, I allow myself treats; if I want chocolate then I will eat it, but I just try not to binge, and instead indulge in moderation,” she says.

6. Her Glute Workout

“Are you ready to bake those cakes?” she asks in her recent post, revealing her go-to exercises for glutes:

• DB Deficit Static Lunges - 12 reps per leg x 3. “Adding the deficit creates more ROM,” she says.
• Barbell Sumo Deadlifts - 10 reps x 4
• Triset x 3

~ Banded DB Hip Thrusts x 10 reps

~ Banded DB 1/2 rep Hip Thrusts x 10 reps

~ Banded Abductions x 50 reps

• Smith Sumo Squats - 8 reps x 3
• Landmine Squat into RDL - 8 reps x 3. “Notice how I’m not fully extending up and keeping constant tension in my glutes,” she says.
• Single Leg Leg Press - 10 reps per leg x 2