Personal Blog

  • Personal Blog

    Why Counting Calories- Every Last One of Them- Matters SO MUCH For Weight Loss.

    Want to know why you are stuck at a weight loss plateau? Read on. I bet I know.

    Friends, this post might be a wake-up call to many of you. Why? Because– you’ ve heard me talk and read my words on CALORIC DEFICIT– and far too many people react to that and automatically say “OMG I’ve been dieting for YEARS– MY biggest problem is I probably don’t eat enough!!!”– YEA– I said that for years, claiming the whole “my cortisol must be high so I am retaining fat because I’m in ‘starvation mode'”– Yea NO. It was Jordan Syatt that snapped me out of that and continues to dispel silly myths like this on his YouTube channel and instagram etc. (Check out my 2-part interview with Jordan by CLICKING HERE.) But for those of you that may still be on the blaming-hypothyroidism for not being able to lose weight bandwagon or thinking that you are “probably not eating enough” or thinking that you are in “starvation mode and storing fat”- read on. 

    We know that in order to lose weight we must be in caloric deficit. The #1 mistake I see women make (I was one of them in the past) is NOT TRACKING THEIR EATS. So they WING IT. They go about their day and — granted- for each meal, they make the “best choice”- they get egg whites and hashbrowns for breakfast and have only a few bites of hashbrowns. They order a salad for lunch dressing on the side– and use only a bit of the dressing. They skip the donuts at the office when the co-worker brings them in. They have fish and veggies for dinner or if they are out, they’ll order a steak with plain baked potato and broccoli. 

    All good right? 

    Nothing bad about those choices. There’s also nothing “bad” if the same person above had a Lean Cuisine for lunch or a Slim-Fast for breakfast. There’s nothing bad if this person ordered a value meal from Burger King on the way to a meeting at lunch.

    Does THAT surprise you? We’ll go into the whole “why we need to stop labeling foods as good or bad” in a future post. 

    Today- let’s talk about what happens when you DON’T TRACK YOUR FOOD. Like — write down everything you eat each day– no matter what. Even if it’s not planned or if it’s a snack.  When you just wing it, here are the things that get missed a lot– and I mean OFTEN:

    1. That Starbucks latte you got on the way to a client meeting. (Grande Latte with 2% 190 calories)
    2. That banana you got with the Starbucks (it’s a banana! It’s healthy!!) 90 Calories.
    3. The fact that you forgot to ask for “no croutons” and “no cheese” on your salad so you didn’t save those 250 calories. 
    4. You ordered an Acai Bowl at lunch with friends (it’s healthy!! and it had a scoop of protein powder!) but didn’t notice that the full serving was 650 calories. 
    5. You ordered that steak at dinner with plain baked potato and broccoli but failed to notice that the steak was a 10oz Ribeye and was  closer to 650 calories than 275 calories in a 3-4oz serving. And your baked potato was HUGE and instead of being 100 calories was more like 450. 
    6. That pre-workout and post- workout drink you had added 150 calories.
    7. The post-workout protein bar on the way home from the gym was a big size and had 2 servings in the one container but you didn’t see that so you consumed 350 calories vs. 175. 
    8. You had a few handfuls of your man’s popcorn while watching Netflix- 150 calories.

    I could go on and on. The above might not all happen in one day- but let’s use ONE example and show how impactful missing calories can be each day. If you ONLY didn’t add in the pre and post workout, and then maybe a piece of fruit — that’s about 250 or so calories. A Day. That ends up being- say you only did that 5 days a week. That is still 1,250 calories a week, and 5K calories per month or about 1.5lbs of weight gain or non-weight loss. That’s 18lbs in a year. 

    Would you like to lose 20lbs this year? 

    EVERYTHING IS ABOUT NUMBERS people. If you work out regularly and eat healthy foods but don’t seem to ever lose weight and you aren’t tracking your foods, I DARE YOU to challenge yourself- do this for 2 weeks. See if you don’t surprise yourself. I bet you do. I bet you BLOW YOUR MIND — it did for me!

    Tell me — did reading this post make you go, OMG, I have probably been missing a LOT of calories. This could be that weight loss breakthrough you’ve been searching for and it’s FREE!! go for it!

     

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  • Personal Blog

    The Best Way to Buy The BEST Fitness Clothes Online. My WANTABLE Haul Will Have You SHOOK.

    Where to buy the most fierce fitness apparel online.

    If you work out a lot- like most of us– you spend a lot of time in fitness gear. In fact, now more than ever, we spend time OUTSIDE OF THE GYM in our workout-wear- so much so that they coined a term for it- “athleisure” apparel. Remember when we wore jeans and khakis in our down time– now it’s workout wear. Fitness apparel is a whole different ball game in so many ways. 

    First of all- it used to be, maybe 10 years ago- that if you wanted fitness apparel, you were pretty much stuck with some generic brands of tee-shirts and shorts and maybe SWEATPANTS at like a Wal-Mart or TJ MAXX, or you could really level up and order something from Nike or Reebok or Puma. Still- the stuff back then that they made for WOMEN was not anything you would get your strut on in. It was baggy, ill-fitting and usually came in 5 primary colors. 

    I specifically remember the days back when I first started getting into fitness- back when Taebo first came out and soon after was when I started doing The FIRM workouts. Let me share a few video clips from those days to show what was going on with fitness fashion- and this was in professionally produced videos– this gear even though we thought it was cool looking, wasn’t the stuff you’d see in stores, trust me. 

    Old School Taebo LIVE

    Do you see how no one in the above videos was really wearing workout gear- it was like ripped up tee shirts and shorts. That’s it. Eww. 

    The FIRM Workout Videos

    Legwarmers. Nude hose. High cut lycra. Lord. But I gotta tell you- these workouts were ahead of their time in that they used weights for women- way before it was mainstream. 

    Cher Fitness. Yes. It was a thing.

    Seriously- Cher is wearing black pantyhose in this video. And notice the big squishy socks = that was in big time back then but truthfully- that was it- everyone wore just all black. And I never saw anything like this workout gear in stores or online. I remember reading Muscle & Fitness back then and they’d have a random ad for some fitness gear and then you’d have to search high and wide and HOPE they had a website to order from. Life was tough back then but fast forward to today— we have hope. Fashion has taken over workout- wear. The first time I invested in high quality workout apparel– my world changed. Seriously. It’s just like upgrading to a top quality suit for work. The more expensive brands will fit you differently- better- and will LAST A LONG TIME. Same with fitness apparel. 

    INVEST IN YOUR FITNESS GEAR- and take care of it– and trust me– you’ll feel better and more confident during your training- and you’ll be motivated to keep going- so you look better and better and then you can buy more! 😉 See how that works??

    So– yes, I love me some Lululemon but you know what I don’t like? I don’t like that their colors are always “muted”. It’s like you never see BRIGHT COLORS. So when I first ordered from WANTABLE I was in love. Why? They send you a box of selected fitness gear based on your preferences – and as you’ll see in the video below- I got stuff I’ve never heard of! I discovered styles and brands I didn’t know existed and honestly– I’m obsessed. Check out my video haul below and (please note I actually recorded this initial video over a year ago but considering I’m back with WANTABLE and ordering more again — as well as getting some out-of-the-gym fashion (they do an excellent job with that too- I started buying expensive jeans because of them!! Oh my credit card!!)

    My WANTABLE Unboxing: Check it out.

    How YOU Can Get Started Expanding Your Fitness Wardrobe With Wantable!

    Ladies — you will be obsessed when you start down the WANTABLE road. And now you can get $25 OFF your first fitness edit— CLICK HERE to get started. And I want you to tag me on social media so I can see what you got!

    Seriously how cute is this?? And here’s another sample below. Check it. 

    Get yourself some new shoes to go with it!

    What do you think? Are you ready to level up your fitness wardrobe and stop wearing baggy tee shirts and sweats? You deserve to look as fierce as your body is getting. GO FOR IT AND sign up for a WANTABLE FITNESS EDIT NOW. I bet you’ll be tagging me telling me how obsessed you are! 

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    Note: this blog contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this post and support this channel at no cost to you. While this channel may earn minimal sums when a viewer uses the links provided, the view is in NO WAY obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support.

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  • Personal Blog

    What to do if you’ve “TRIED EVERYTHING AND CAN’T LOSE WEIGHT”.

    Are you stuck in a perpetual weight loss plateau?

    Some of the most common phrases I hear women say are, “I feel like I’ve been dieting FOREVER! Nothing works!” or “I have been working out and eating healthy foods for years and no matter how hard I try the scale won’t budge!” or “All I do is eat clean and work out but no matter what, I’m stuck and can’t lose weight”…which leads to other statements like “I must just have a slow metabolism” or “Well I’ve heard that once your hormones change after age 30/age 40/age 50/having a kid/losing a job/being stressed/insert life circumstance here, it’s virtually impossible to lose weight.”

    NOPE. 

    Let me be clear before we move on — I have said many of the above statements. For many years, I blamed my hypothyroidism or my insulin resistance for not being able to lose weight. But very recently I learned that one of the key components to weight loss– one that I’d been ignoring for years– was caloric deficit. You’ve heard me talk about this a lot on the blog. You can learn a ton in about this for yourself in my interview with Jordan Syatt. As I began to focus heavily on caloric deficit first and foremost- and stopped worrying about all the other stupid fitness myths and rules about food out there– I saw my body respond. 

    I started losing weight after a long time of not being able to. 

    GASP. 

    While that IS a very important point that may in and of itself be a gamechanger for you in your weight loss journey (just adding back in counting your calories religiously and focusing on that caloric deficit as defined for. YOUR body and YOUR goals)- – there is a more important practice that in my opinion is missing for pretty much every woman who uses those phrases I shared at the beginning of this post. 

    So what’s the missing link? Here’s the truth. Whenever I talk to a woman who is complaining with any of the previously mentioned phrases, I always find out the same thing. 

    They are winging it. Yup. Winging it in every way. 

    What do I mean by that? When I ask what they are doing to lose weight they’ll say “I eat healthy! I barely eat any carbs, I have maybe one drink a week and I work out every day!“. Now, you might read that and think — HELLO KELLY HOW IS THAT WINGING IT? Here’s the truth that many women don’t want to face. To lose weight after the age of, say 30– it’s going to require diligence and focus, and a PLAN that you TRACK along the way. It’s NOT ENOUGH to just “eat healthy”. Nope. It’s NOT ENOUGH to just add in working out every day (sounds harsh right? A lot of people think that if they just start working out they are set– and for sure, if you’ve never worked out and you suddenly add in 30 minutes of walking per day- you’ll lose some weight. But it’s not a sustainable plan for weight loss. Inevitably your body gets used to that activity and more importantly– if you aren’t controlling your FOOD intake, you can overcompensate for your workouts and potentially GAIN WEIGHT.) 

    Are you thinking I’m going to tell you that you have to add more work in- in addition to eating healthy and working out? Are you thinking holy cow I am already doing enough and now she wants me to do more??? 

    There is MORE to do but it’s not more restriction (necessarily) in your diet. There is MORE to do but it’s not hours more of working out. 

    The more is this. YOU NEED TO DO MORE PLANNING. You need to in some way – figure out your ultimate GOAL. (your goal weight or body fat percentage or clothing size etc.). Then, you need to REVERSE ENGINEER THE PLAN TO GET TO THAT GOAL. Lastly, you need to monitor your activity on the way- tweak as needed, and do the same thing until you reach your goal. 

    And if you DO THE ABOVE- you WILL reach your goal. If you keep being casual about your weight loss journey “I’ll JUST cut down on carbs” or “I’ll just start running again” or “I’ll just eat clean foods no packaged foods”– then you will get casual, random results. 

    If you want CRAZY AWESOME RESULTS- the kind where you feel amazing naked or in a bikini- that takes A PLAN. 

    I’ll use the story that’s been used time and again as an example– if you were invited to a friend’s house for dinner (pre-quarantine of course) and you had never been to their house– how would you get there? You’d probably pull up Google Maps or another Map app on your phone and it would tell you and your vehicle what to do along the way TO GET TO YOUR DESTINATION. Yet, why is it when we have a destination/goal we want to get to– we have no PLAN to get there? If we have no PLAN or way to measure progress – how do we know what is working and not working? 

    Here’s an example of what a PLAN is vs. winging it. If I am a female who weighs 150 pounds and my ideal weight is 125 pounds, I know I need to lose 25 pounds.  A plan: I know that it’s doable to lose 2lbs a week but that losing 1lb a week is more sustainable. And will require less of an intense diet. So I decide I’m going to aim for losing 1lb a week. And I should expect that if I stick with a diet, it will take me 25 weeks or approximately 5 months to reach my goal. So I should get a planner or a notebook to record my food and my workouts- personal preference if you want it all in one notebook or to use different things. I use a wall calendar to record my workouts and a notebook for my food. Now- there are myriad diet calculators we can use to figure out what should be our daily caloric intake for reasonable fat loss. I use Jordan Syatt’s model which has you take your goal weight and multiply that by 12 to get your caloric deficit baseline. Then what I’ve done (click here to listen to my DETAILED 3 part podcast on this topic) is taken that caloric deficit number and figured out by tweaking the numbers and incorporating calorie cycling and intermittent fasting/fast days– how to have my cake and eat it too. I have made my diet so that on Fridays I have a cheat day of 2500 calories– and every week I have alcohol and “cheat food”- I eat carbs and sweets but I just make sure I’m in my caloric deficit. I WRITE DOWN ALL MY FOOD- so even when I go out to eat and enjoy myself it’s all being accounted for. 

    Ladies, if you are just randomly choosing healthy foods and not tracking them and further- you don’t even KNOW what your caloric deficit number IS– and you think — because of all the fitness BS out there that you can “Just go keto” and not have to track calories or “just eat whole foods” and not have to track calories or ” just go Paleo” and not have to watch portions- you are woefully misinformed. If you don’t have your caloric deficit number defined, and you don’t have a PLAN to FOLLOW each week to get toward your goal– and you aren’t weighing and/or measuring yourself and/or taking the body fat measurements etc. — then you are WINGING IT. And — you can GAIN WEIGHT– eating all organic. You can GAIN WEIGHT eating paleo. You can GAIN WEIGHT eating tons of vegetables! NEWS FLASH; TO LOSE WEIGHT YOU GOTTA BE ON A PROGRAM. You gotta track it like it’s your money in a new hedge fund and you want to ensure there’s no hanky panky going on. 

    IF YOUR GOAL IS IMPORTANT TO YOU- understand these 2 most important things. CALORIC DEFICIT TRUMPS EVERYTHING ELSE when it comes to weight loss. And a PLAN based on your goal and using your CALORIC DEFICIT- is how you reach your goal. 

    So tell me — after reading this and thinking about what you’ve been doing the past few years– are you able to tell me if you’ve been in a caloric deficit for all the time you’ve been saying you’ve been trying to lose weight? Can you tell me how many workouts you actually did in January? 

    What gets scheduled gets done, they say. Well I say, what gets PLANNED OUT gets executed and accomplished. 

    So how bad do you want it? If you want it bad and need help, I would love to help you figure out your customized diet/caloric deficit plan that lets you have carbs and alcohol and sweets– while dieting and losing weight. I’m happy to make workout recommendations and you can join me in my next workout challenge group. Comment below or fill out the contact me form– we’ll set up a time to talk and I’ll share what options I have. Make this the time you FINALLY make this work for you. I’m seeing amazing results after a month of really taking it up a notch– let’s roll together shall we?? P.S. Another thing that’s helped me in a big way is cutting out snacking- CHECK OUT THIS POST to listen in and hear what I mean. I think you’ll dig it. You’ll also like this post: CLICK HERE for how not to gain weight during quarantine and CLICK HERE for detail on what I’ve been doing to gain muscle and lose fat during quarantine.

    My Favorite Go-To Products to Help With Weight Loss.

    Weighing your food is a gamechanger. Don’t GUESS when it comes to your protein or things like cheese, avocado, salad dressing, nut butters etc. This Eat Smart Scale is my favorite– I even pack it when I travel. Want to start making a hujazz salad bowl for one of your meals- GREAT IDEA — I am obsessed with this container to keep lettuce fresh and not moldy. 

    Here is a great planner you can use to track your workouts and measurements and your eats. CLICK HERE to buy. 

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    AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER


    Note: this blog contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this post and support this channel at no cost to you. While this channel may earn minimal sums when a viewer uses the links provided, the view is in NO WAY obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support.

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