Life Update: How I lost weight, intermittent fasting, food swaps & more

Hi guys! I’ve had a lot of questions about what I have been doing to stay in shape/be healthy during quarantine. This year that I realized that I needed to get more serious about my health/relationship with food. With gyms closing, I felt that I really 'had to get my shit together'. Earlier in the year, when speaking to my aunt she recommended intermittent fasting and the book, Delay Don't Deny: Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle. While I did not read the book, I did listen to the podcasts. Each podcast features someone who has had a breakthrough in their lifestyle/relationship with food through intermittent fasting. I decided to start doing intermittent fasting, it is something that has worked really well for me. I started in March and I am still keeping up with it. 

Outfit linked here

Intermittent Fasting 

Let's simplify this:

What is intermittent fasting? It’s a fasting period followed by a period of eating. The most common type is a 16 hour fast and a 8 hour eating window. For example, I break fast at 11am and I don’t eat after 7pm. That gives me 16 hours in between of fasting, which has helped me loose weight.

Are their specific hours? No! You can do any type of window, I did 12:00 - 8:00pm for a period of time. 

Do you still eat breakfast? I do! I love breakfast food personally more than dinner, so I  still enjoy breakfast. Some people don't eat until 1 pm so their first meal is lunch and they stop at 9pm.

How does it work? By giving yourself a smaller window, you are decreasing the amount of time for calorie intake. It helps you boost metabolism while you're eating fewer calories.

Do you count calories? Not exactly! After counting in the beginning, through time you’ll know your portions should be.  I eat breakfast, lunch, and a light dinner. I aim for around 1400 calories a day. I'm not too strict on myself now that I have reached my goal weight, but in the beginning I was watching my calories!

Will I gain weight if I stop? We gain weight by eating more calories than we burn in a day. If you are eating more than you're burning, yes you can gain weight. It's a possibility, but with self control and mindfulness it won’t be a problem. I haven’t stopped because I.F currently works for me.

Food Swaps:

Anyone who knows me knows I have a sweet tooth and I love a good cup of coffee! Sweets is definitely something I was never willing to give up, but I know I had to 'cut back' in some ways to maintain results. I didn’t want to feel like I was punishing myself or giving something up that I loved, I've created some swaps that helped me maintain this lifestyle. 

Coffee:

When I was going into the office, I used to start my day with vanilla iced latte. Almond milk, some vanilla syrup & espresso. Now, I have cut it to just black coffee every morning. On the weekends, I like to treat myself and go to a coffee shop and try a new drink! It’s something to look forward too. If I feel for a sugary coffee, I’ll wait until after 11am when my eating window starts. 

Breakfast: 

Before I.F: 2 pieces of toast with 1 avocado, 1 egg and cheese. Now, It is 1 piece of ezekiel bread with 1/2 avocado, 1 egg and some cheese. 

After I.F: Ezekiel bread because I love to have avocado toast, and it is a better bread option because it is sprouted and low carb. I do not feel guilty eating this at all and it's only 70 calories. Also, everything is good in moderation. A full avocado is a lot of healthy fats, and then I would not be able to eat any nuts/cheeses for the day. Half allows me to have a good amount of healthy fat but not over do it.

I still enjoy the same breakfast I love, just in different portions.

4 Lifestyle Changes

Hi everyone! It's been a minute since I wrote any lifestyle content. I've truly been re-evaluating my spending, eating, and health habits since the holidays. I knew I wanted to make some changes but I did not want to introduce them in January. I wanted to adapt them before hand so I could get used to them and keep myself accountable always, and not just as a new year resolution.

• I introduced My Fitness Pal in the first week of December. I stepped on the scale after Thanksgiving and I was like yeah... I don't want to gain any more weight this holiday season. I started tracking what I was eating just through the app. Just by logging my food, I was able to loose 5 pounds. That may not seem like a lot to the average person, but to me it was a big deal! I'm continuing to track what I eat daily, and it's paying off.  My Fitness Pal is an APP you can download. It's so easy! You can even scan labels on there and it will add the item to what you ate that day. It's super self explanatory as well.

• I started carrying around a water bottle. This is going to seem like such a Diva move, but I never want to carry a water bottle that's not cute LOL. I  just can't carry something bulky and ugly around all day. I recently picked up this ELLO water bottle and I've been drinking water daily ever since. It comes in rose gold and matte black, I loved both options but I went with rose gold because it's brighter. Carrying a water bottle has helped me drink more water, which in turn I think is really helping my health.  

• I'm starting to acquire a regular gym schedule. I say starting because I don't have it set in stone yet on what days I do what exercise, but never the less I am going. I am making it apart of my daily routine more than I ever have. One thing that has really helped me is packing my gym bag the night before and leaving it by my purse. That way in the morning, I can't make an excuse that I'm not prepared or ready to go after work. With that being said, there are days I should work out and I don't, and that's ok. We are all human and sometimes need a break. I am trying to go three days a week and eventually four, but until I get three down I am going to keep myself accountable to this realistic goal.

• STOP SPENDING MONEY. Within the year, I have really cut my coffee consumption. I rarely go to Starbucks or Dunkin, for the most part, I drink my morning coffee at home. My one weak spot for spending money is....shopping. Who would have guessed, right? Now that the holidays are over, I'm done spending money. Realistically, there is nothing I need to purchase that I do not already own. For the month of January, I am REALLY trying to limit my spending. The problem is, I do not allocate a certain amount of money a month to clothes. When I see something I want, I buy it. However, my one rule for January and the coming months, is to only buy things I truly NEED. I am not going to buy a new mascara unless I run out of one. I am not going to buy a new chunky sweater, because I have ten already. The one thing I am looking forward to purchasing is a new perfume. I ran out of three bottles, so I'm on the hunt for a new one! 

I started thinking of all the things I wanted to accomplish for January in December. And then I thought to myself, why wait til January to go to the gym when you can go now? Why wait til January to track your food consumption when you can start now? If you want something to happen, or want to do something, GO for it! Don't let a new year or a new month or a new week or another Monday for the changes you want to make. 

Hope you all enjoy this and in some way it inspires you to accomplish and changes the things you want to improve on! 

Xoxo,

How I lost 6 pounds in 3 weeks! 21 DAY FIX Review

Hey guys!
This post is long long long, overdue! I started this diet back in June and it helped me learn a lot about myself. My main reason for doing this 'fad' diet was not to loose a crazy amount of weight, but to teach myself how to portion and what kind of foods I should be consuming. In three weeks, I was able to loose 6.4 pounds, which was amazing for me! I hit a plateau and I needed a change and 21 day fix provided that for me.


So...you are probably thinking, what is 21 day fix?


It is basically a portion control program that gives you containers. The containers are for vegetables, fruits, proteins, carbs,  healthy fats, seeds and dressings. If it fits in the container, you can eat it. Based on your calorie intake, you are allowed to have a certain number of those containers per day. For example, my calorie intake was 1350-1400 calories a day. I was allowed 2 vegetable containers (green), 2 fruit (purple), 4 protein (red), 2 carb (yellow),  1 healthy fat (blue), 1 seeds, nuts or dressing (orange). You are also allowed two tablespoons of things like peanut butter, nut butter, olive oil, etc.