👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
Hi! My name is Francesca Guacci and I’m 25 years old. I was born in Padua (a city in the north of Italy) and I am currently living in a small village near it.
I have always loved both school and fitness (I practiced swimming, dancing and volleyball), but my family has always made me focus on books, so when I was 20 I went to Ca’ Foscari University (which is in Venice) to study German and Russian.
Unfortunately, at the end of that journey, I had some serious issues with a professor and I preferred to drop out of college. So I tried some “desk jobs” and some manual jobs, but they didn’t satisfy me.
I was very unhappy and I had some health problems too. I was in my early twenties and I needed and wanted to be happier and more confident so some years ago I started to go to the gym five to six times a week and I completely modified my diet.
My body and mind changed so much and I started to find my true self. I thought I could “use” my body image to promote myself on Instagram: in fact I’m now trying to grow my Instagram profile, because I noticed it can bring a lot of job opportunities.
I also love reading (I can’t live without books), going to clubs to dance with my friends, going to the beach to swim in the sea and to sunbathe, and travelling. I’d like to have more fit addicted friends, because here where I live most people love to eat and drink alcohol and they are so lazy.
I always need to find active and cheerful people: I feel empowered when I spend time with these kinds of human beings. In fact, I’m also dating a very fit and confident man. It is not a “standard relationship” and I want to see what it will become. He makes me feel myself so I’m grateful and happy to have him in my life.
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
I wake up more cheerful if it’s a training day.
“Joy is the essence of success” is my mantra. I need to feel joy if I want to succeed in something, and my workouts are part of my daily dose of happiness.
I wake up more cheerful if it’s a training day. I go to the gym fives times a week and in those days, I have two meals and 60/90 minutes of training.
I follow a specific program, which was created for me by my coach Mattia Lo Cascio. He completely changed my idea of fitness and my diet too as his program made me stronger and healthier. I always train with weights and my coach changes my schedule almost every month.
My favourite exercises are squats and deadlifts mostly because I love the shape of my booty and legs but I love to train the upper body too. I chose the McFits gyms for my workouts because they have modern gyms all over Europe so I can train almost everywhere (even on vacation).
I usually go to Padua and I train alone. I have many friends there but everyone has his/her own program so we just chat before or after our workouts.
I love the fact that I don’t have a “cardio time”: I don’t like tapis roulants and cyclettes, I think they are so boring. I only walk as much as I can and I go clubbing to dance all night, and these activities represent my “cardio regimen”.
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
At the moment, my life is not super busy, so I always have my gym time, and I have to say that I always feel the urge to go training. It happens everyday: I feel happy and I want to go to the gym, I feel sad and I want to go to the gym.
My workouts are my “anchor”, so I feel lazy only when I’m really really sick and weak. My physical and mental are so important to me, and I know that my healthy diet and my workouts are the key to maintaining a strong body and a strong mind, so I just go to the nearest McFit and enjoy my “playtime” with weights.
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
The gym made me clear my mind and think about what I truly want in my life.
I’m loving my fit program and I completely trust my coach, so I’m enjoying my gym journey and its benefits. He knows that I want to get the “fitness model” body shape and he is taking me there, step by step.
I wanna get that body shape because I want to be that kind of woman to finally feel healthy, happy and self confident, and also because a body like that can be useful for different job opportunities in the future.
I’m also saving money to buy a little house for me (maybe abroad, in a warm and sunny location). I don’t want to have children but I’d like to have a relationship with someone special (and maybe I found him, but we’ll see how it goes).
The gym made me clear my mind and think about what I truly want in my life. In fact, I wish I started lifting earlier, but at the same time I am grateful to enjoy this amazing lifestyle.
I would change only one thing about my fitness journey: I wish I knew my coach Mattia Lo Cascio earlier, because he would have made me avoid some silly “technique” mistakes that kept me thin with no muscles for months.
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
Avoiding injuries is one of my priorities because I can’t live without weights so I need to be healthy and strong all the time. I eat lots of protein sources, I sleep seven to eight hours per night and I follow my coach’s instructions when I train.
I am also very careful when I drive because car accidents can cause physical injuries and force you to stay home on the sofa for a while. Some months ago, I had a small car accident that caused me some leg pain for weeks.
On that occasion, my coach made me eat more red meat and vegetables, created a “special workout” for my sore legs, and made me take more supplements (vitamin C, vitamin D and omega 3). I recovered very well, so my weight’s schedule went back to normal and I was healthy and strong again.
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
I have always eaten healthy foods but in 2018 my coach made me discover the paleo diet. We track proteins, carbs and fats but the most important things are the sources of these macros.
I always eat lots of red and white meat, fish, eggs, nuts, olive oil, fruit and vegetables. Sometimes I also eat rice or potatoes but my favourite source of carbs is fruit (I’m in love with dates and peaches).
I don’t drink alcohol: only water and tea/coffee without sugar. I eat this way even on social occasions because this amazing diet makes me feel very strong and healthy.
I don’t have any food cravings for sugar or stuff like that so my friends and family can eat pizza or ice cream in front of me, and I don’t care at all.
I usually eat twice a day and I always take some supplements after each meal. My main supplements are vitamin C, vitamin D and omega 3. Sometimes I also use zinc and magnesium. I don’t have a favourite brand, so I buy my supplements online or at some stores near my place.
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
I started lifting because I had some health issues and also because I wanted to feel truly comfortable in my own skin. But I needed a lot of motivation, especially at the beginning so I read lots of books during the last years.
Books about fitness (especially the Project Invictus “series” like Project Exercise and Project Bodybuilding) but also books about food (like “Protein Power” by Michael R. Eades and Mary Dan Eades), mental health and mindfulness. These books and the motivational videos about fitness and bodybuilding on YouTube helped me stay focused on my new healthy journey.
Now I enjoy every workout and I only need my reggaeton music to “get high” during my training sessions. I follow some fit models on Instagram (like Emily Skye, Anllela Sagra and Lauren Drain) to see how they stay fit and beautiful and to learn something about their positive attitude.
But the best advice came from a friend of mine, who understood I was very anxious and impatient to see a perfect body in the mirror and told me “Francesca, keep your goal in mind but, for heaven’s sake, enjoy your journey! If you don’t have fun you’ll quit soon!”.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
Sports are a sort of “adult playtime” so I think everyone should choose his/her favourite sport and find time for it.
All of us need positive people with good pieces of advice but we can change our life only when we are ready to understand who we are and what we want. And we need to play, to have fun in our lives: that’s the only way to succeed in the fields we choose.
I think sports are fundamental in our routines because they make us stay in shape, they give us mental clarity, they are one of the best ways to relieve stress and anxiety, and they also make us meet new people (who can bring new life opportunities).
Sports are a sort of “adult playtime” so I think everyone should choose his/her favourite sport and find time for it. The benefits will arrive very soon.
People just need to be more consistent and self aware: most people just chat and use their phones while training, and don’t care about the exercises and the correct techniques. They just waste time and money, and that’s a pity, because a good daily workout and a healthy body can benefit our lives so much.
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
I am not a personal trainer so I don’t take on clients. I just love to lift and I do that to get the “fitness model” body shape.
However, I can just be a good “gym buddy” and I can motivate others to stay fit and healthy, because I really love this lifestyle and I think it is the best thing that ever happened to me.
People always ask me how I stay motivated, but I don’t have a “magic answer”: I just love to lift and I love my paleo diet, so I choose to live this way and I’m happy with that.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
I have an Instagram profile (@francy_fitaddict) and a Facebook profile (Francesca Guacci). I mostly use Instagram where I talk about my lifestyle and show my trainings, meals, and results.
