As a longtime health writer and editor, Tatiana Boncompagni was inundated with all things fitness: recipes for green smoothies and avocado toast, health crazes, the new It exercise classes.
But when it came to her own exercise and diet, the 39-year-old Upper East Side resident and mother of three found it difficult to cut through all the noise and find something that worked for her.
She worked out all the time, did juice cleanses, tried pilates, yoga, spinning and training, but nothing ever really changed on her 5-foot-5 frame.
“My arms were soft, my abs pooled in my lap and my backside was best left covered,” she tells The Post. “Yet I watched what I ate and worked out five or six times a week. I felt so frustrated.”
Then, while researching an article two years ago, she met Heather Marr, a personal trainer also known as the Model Trainer, who’s claimed to “train for aesthetics, not athletics.” Marr, who is based in New York, works with catwalkers such as Caroline Brasch Nielsen and Vita Sidorkina; her clients walk high-fashion and Victoria’s Secret runways. At one point, her waitlist became so long she had to close it.
At the time, Boncompagni had just run her first marathon — but instead of losing weight, she managed to gain 5 pounds.
“I was physically fit but unhappy with my body,” writes Boncompagni in the new e-book she collaborated on with Marr, “The Model Trainer Method: Real Bodies, Super Results” (Tone and Style LLC, out now). The book, which is available for purchase on Boncompagni’s Web site, ToneAndStyle.com, outlines specific recipes, meal plans and fitness routines.
Marr’s training takes a holistic approach, focusing not just on strength training but on a complete nutritional overhaul. If clients aren’t willing to take her food advice, she doesn’t take them on.
Within two weeks of working with Marr, Boncompagni noticed something — her waist. “I hadn’t had my waist since my 20s, before my children!” she says with a laugh. “Then I saw changes in my shoulders. Now I see it in my booty.”
“I want to be able to motivate women like me,” says Boncompagni, who says half the battle is pushing yourself to work out, even on the days you really don’t feel like it. “They might say, ‘If this woman who has three kids and is 39 can look that good, maybe I can, too.’ ”
The workout
The book contains a 28-day workout plan focusing on different muscles or muscle groups (such as back and chest, then biceps and triceps). The emphasis is on resistance training with weights, followed by one or two days of cardio and two rest days. None of the workouts should take more than an hour, and all of them begin with five to 10 minutes of cardio to warm up.
Each week, the schedule varies a bit in order to allow recovery time for different muscle groups. But the overall focus is on weight training, something Boncompagni had never really considered before she started working with Marr.
“There’s been the recent explosion of yoga, barre and spin, and they’re wonderful for you, but they’re primarily cardio-based. What’s been lacking is getting women [to do] strength training. It won’t make you big. Before I started training with Heather, I was nervous about it — that’s what had kept me away from it. But it didn’t make me bulky. Instead, my whole body was shrinking and tightening up.”
The diet
One of the first things Marr asks clients to do is keep a food diary. “It’s crucial, when shopping, to read the ingredient labels,” writes Marr, a former model herself.
The major diet change involves eating more lean protein — such as fish and extra-lean ground beef. One of the ways Boncompagni learned to embrace this was by trying new cooking methods — cooking meat wrapped in parchment paper, for example. “The meat stays tender and moist,” she says.
What the women refer to as “the Formula” consists of five small meals spaced throughout the day. “On the Formula, people can eat unlimited veggies. That’s with the caveat that they are what we call ‘model veggies’ — things like carrots, celery, cucumbers and leafy greens — versus ‘non-model veggies’ — peas, legumes, potatoes and sweet potatoes,” says Boncompagni.
The Formula is more of a lifestyle overhaul than a diet followed for a set amount of time; part of it is about learning to develop good judgment when eating. “I’ll have one to two treat meals a week — meals in restaurants or at a friend’s house that might include dessert and cocktails,” says Boncompagni. “You have to judge for yourself how often you can do that.”
Moves to try at home
SINGLE-LEG PISTOL SQUAT
1 Start in a seated position on a flat bench. Hold a dumbbell between hands at chest level, elbows bent. Lift left leg up a few inches from the ground.
2 Pushing through the right heel, stand up while breathing out, keeping the left leg off ground. Slowly lower back down to seated position, keeping the left leg lifted in the air. Do this on one leg for 10 reps, then switch legs. Do three sets.
REVERSE LUNGE
1 Start standing, with dumbbells in hands at your sides, arms extended.
2 Step backward with right foot and, breathing in, lower the right knee until it is nearly touching the ground. The working leg is the front leg (left leg). Pushing through the heel of your left foot, return to starting position while breathing out. Do this on one leg for 10 reps, then switch legs. Do three sets.
