Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Weight loss, Edit! To those who asked what I changed, here it is 🙂

Consistency is key!! Almost four year difference between the photos. After lots of crash diets, insane workout routines, binging etc.. I finally found the lifestyle change that I needed and feel better than ever!


- Diet 

I cut out sugary drinks like store bought smoothies, juices, sodas, etc.
LOTS OF WATER (can’t emphasize enough)
Limited my fast food intake
Ate more greens (I found that I love leafy greens and sprouts!)

I found out my maintenance calories (google TDEE calculator).
I began to eat 200-300 calories under my maintenance level, this led me to lose about .5 lbs a week
I also use MyFitnessPal to get an idea of how many calories I’m eating in a day, but I don’t obsess over it. If I eat 2200 calories a day, I just make sure I don’t do that every day.
(My weight loss cals are about 1300cals a day, maintenance is around 1500-1700)
I also try to eat 1g of protein per pound of my body weight, because I am trying to build muscle as well.

Also. CARBS ARE NOT THE ENEMY. Neither is fat!! Guys, if I want bread, pizza, candy, anything, I’ll eat it! I just won’t binge or go crazy, but don’t restrict yourself of foods you love completely. It’s not sustainable!!

If I craved a certain food I would let myself eat it! I found that if I cut foods out completely I would just binge.
I ate a few pieces of dark chocolate every day (I still do). I realized that it significantly reduced my cravings for sweets

I start my days with a whole food meal (typically I eat 2 egg whites, turkey bacon, and English muffin with avocado).
If I started my days with fast food or other really greasy foods I would just eat other “junk” through the day. So try to eat “healthier” options when you can!

(I could go on for days about my diet but that’s the short story!)

- Exercise

I got a Fitbit and made sure to walk at least 10k steps a day (it’s actually easier than you think)
I would take stairs instead of elevator, park further away at stores, just force myself to walk more
I do weight lifting 4x a week, and steady state cardio for 30 minutes 3x a week.
LET YOURSELF REST!! You don’t need to kill yourself in the gym every day of the week, let your body recover!

I stopped weighing myself after I lost my initial ten pounds, then I only took progress photos once a week, and took body measurements. I found that I started an unhealthy obsession with the scale and it was actually slowing my progress down because I would focus on the numbers like crazy (I mean weigh myself like 3-4 times a day)

I’m probably forgetting some things but I hope this helps, and most importantly - love yourself!! You only have one body and I am trying to take care of mine as best as I can, and I couldn’t be happier now!

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