Personal Blog

  • Personal Blog

    How to Eat For Maintenance and Building Muscle?

    eating to build muscle

    Hello friends!! You have no idea how happy I am to be typing this post! We moved my blog to a new server and the past 2-3 weeks, yes weeks, I could not post! But it’s all good now, these are things you have to do if you have big plans – and we have big plans for the blog this year and beyond! It’s been a tough start this year (that will be covered in another blog post– dealing with PTSD, a new puppy, getting COVID not once but 2x, having another bout of migraines come back — just like 6 months of speed months in the neighborhood of life!) but I am feeling GREAT about this Fall and Holiday season and 2023 and beyond! Like…SUPER EXCITED!! SO GET READY! I thought I’d use this first post to update you on where I’m at with my weight loss situation.

    What Happens When You Reach Your Goal Weight??

    Boy that was a sentence I never thought I’d type…but once I saw my goal weight of 138 and then- I even surpassed that and hit 135 and then 134~~~ GULP– I was somewhat in shock. I actually don’t even remember the exact date when I hit my goal weight– either way, it’s been a while since I was regularly weighing myself and worrying about LOSING weight. The truth was, I had gotten to the point where I didn’t really want to lose much more- my primary goal was to start working out again. You see– I’ve referenced this before in most of my posts about my keto journey, but during this transformation (and it was not my plan to do it that way by any. means) — I was not working out! I was dealing with migraines and migraine aftermath and so very intimidated to work out…..and I’d also gotten used to not working out. Amazing, coming from me, the workout fanatic right?? But– the one thing I did know was this: I DEFINITELY felt, when I was naked, staring at my body– I felt MUSHY. I felt “skinny fat”. I missed my muscle. I missed feeling ripped. Or at least more ripped. So– the past couple of months I found myself starting to think about working out and eating– and — getting confused. I had at that point been doing OMAD (one meal a day, it’s pretty much a variation of intermittent fasting where instead of what I was doing – 2 meals a day, lunch and dinner– you do ONE meal a day– dinner– but you eat all your calories in that dinner you aren’t supposed to diet and just eat like 500 calories for dinner or anything). Well…..I was finding myself having some issues with OMAD: at first I liked it but then I found I was not eating enough– and I KNEW that if I was going to start training/working out again- I could not NOT EAT ENOUGH and TRAIN HARD. I started to freak out and overanalyze. I’ve been here before. Y’all……ugh. This mind game stuff with dieting and losing weight no matter where you are….it’s rough. I decided to consult with my doctor. 

    What My Functional Medicine Doctor Told Me About Eating For Building Muscle and Maintenance.

    When I spoke with my doctor about where I was– she (I am paraphrasing) said I needed to be comfortable testing things out. She reinforced what we talked about last time, which is that I definitely should be incorporating some higher carb days and that we should NOT be 100% hard core keto all the time forever– that it’s not ideal for our mitochondria. She encouraged me to at least once a month have a good “cheat meal” (like get real cheat foods if you will) to let the body reset vs. just doing more rice and veggies. I’m like ok boss! No problem. Then she had said let’s add more carbs/calories. Well over the next month or so — I did. In the form of: acai bowls (edited to have far less honey than I used to make them with– now I make them with allulose and only 1 TBS honey) and I let myself have oatmeal with eggs and was a bit more liberal with my rice intake and was allowing myself some apples. I didn’t necessarily increase my calories/amount of food, but I was not recording every morsel of food in My Fitness Pal. Well– Steve and I then decide — because we are both committed to upping our game with working out/getting leaner/more buff etc. – to start weighing daily again and getting our diets back on track with more salads and more veggies etc. So we get a new scale (our last one wasn’t working well so we got an updated Greater Goods scale, I highly recommend them) and I finally step on after probably 6 months of not weighing myself and GULP– the scale says— 144!!!!! That’s 6lbs higher than my goal weight and 10lbs higher than my lowest weight I’d hit previously! I OF COURSE freaked out. Then I remembered what my doctor had said to me- she said “You have to be ready for the scale to show weight gain of 5-7lbs right away and remember this will be water weight, you have to be ready for that.”– and I also have been reading this in my research, that when you start eating more carbs, carbs will attract water to be retained into the body vs. when you are more strict keto, you don’t retain the water. (Think about a bikini competitor on stage, they have eaten no carbs or water prior to getting on stage so that their muscles pop just right, and when they go off stage and eat– they can literally gain 10lbs overnight). It was NOT easy to see that scale number– but I also had noticed for sure that 1) my boobs had definitely gotten bigger again and were filling up my 36D bras again– which I LIKE vs. 2) before- they were kind of shrinking and getting so much smaller I was concerned I’d be going down to a 36 C so I think a lot of my weight gain is there. 3) I took my measurements and most all are the same with the exception of a 1/2 inch gain on my hips. So– what am I doing now??

    What is my PLAN NOW?

    So here is the thing. I’m ready to be working out again and building muscle. At first when I got on the scale, I flipped out and the MENTAL SIDE OF IT derailed me. It made me solely focus on “I must go back to strict keto to get back to 134 at all costs”. But what is so magical about 134lbs?? Nothing. I’m more concerned with getting MUSCLE and not being mushy and I’m starting to follow some fabulously ripped 50+ women online who are like “you gotta eat to fuel your workouts” and “why let the number on the scale define you”– then just today I saw my friend Heidi Powell post what she eats in a day and it was 2400 calories. Here I am obsessing about staying at 1600. SILLY. Heidi is tiny and ripped and I’m trying to diet still. Time to change the mindset and that is what I am working on and will share with you all as I do it. Watch me. and learn. 😉 

    Lifting Heavy

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  • Personal Blog

    The Best Decision I Ever Made After Age 40

    The Life Changing Decision I Made After Turning 40

    The best decision I ever made after age 40 changed my entire life. Lord, I wish I would have had the self-awareness to see the NEED to make this change decades earlier, but that’s life. Better late than never right. The best decision I ever made after age 40 was so impactful, it’s a change I recommend to EVERY WOMAN I COACH because — I truly believe that the majority of women can benefit from doing the same. So what IS this best decision I ever made after age 40 anyway? It was the decision I made to STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK OF ME. To stop seeking everyone’s approval of my decisions, my actions, my behavior and my LIFE. Nothing has been more life changing than this practice- and it IS indeed a practice– you have to PRACTICE THIS approach, day in and day out- but it’s so worth reminding yourself to stay on track with. It will forever change your life for the better, trust me.

    I never heard the phrase “people pleaser” until my friend Amy recommended I read a book called What Color is Your Personality by Carol Ritberger. I strongly urge you to buy this book and read it. It opened my eyes and changed how I saw myself forever. 

    After understanding what a people pleaser was and realizing I had been one my entire adult life, that’s when I knew I had to let go of this person. Ironically, this was also just around the time that I was going through a major disruption in my business life…..things were crumbling down all around me as I discovered people and vendors who had worked for me had let me down and taken advantage of me and betrayed me in every way. 

    I hadn’t seen it. I didn’t choose to see it because I was too busy trying to keep everyone happy trying to be everyone’s best friend, trying to win everyone’s approval. I was not the boss and CEO I should have been and as such, I got walked all over by people who worked for me. I got taken advantage of by family members, by some crazy con-artists who weaseled their way into my company under the guise of “expert management consultants” (who were really broke compulsive liars who were known to do this to multiple companies across town), by vendors, you name it! When I think back on the decades of my adult life and how I lived as if I was an EMPLOYEE of other people as if I HAD TO DO WHAT THEY SAID, as if I had to take their constructive (unsolicited) advice and apply it (because if I didn’t, that would be horribly awfully rude right??)– I feel faint. 

    Here I was a grown woman living as if I could not speak with my own voice. Once I hired a business coach, she – in our first consultation session, said the best thing to me. She said, “Kelly I think it’s about time you start driving the bus in your life”. Incidentally– this is her published book and I cannot recommend it enough, she changed my life with her coaching, she is exceptional. CLICK HERE to buy on Amazon. (It’s called “Who’s Driving Your Bus?” LOL). 

    That moment, I can’t exactly recall when it was precisely, but when I started choosing to STOP CARING what other people think of me to stop asking for permission, to stop seeking approval, even from GOD FORBID, my parents, YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED– my relationships with a lot of people actually improved!! You think when you start to put your foot down and stand up for yourself and stop taking s**t that you’ll push everyone away but it’s not always the case— I found that in many cases there was a new found respect between the 2 parties. Now in many cases, I chose to end relationships that were toxic or not serving me – and that’s a good thing. Learn to be OK with that. It doesn’t make you a ‘BAD PERSON”– THAT will be a whole other blog post coming up to follow up on this one. For now, let’s start with you OWNING who you are, owning your decisions, not asking for advice on everything and not worrying about what your family or people on social media or people at church think about you. BE UNAPOLOGETICALLY YOU. Wear what you want. Don’t second guess it. Don’t ever ever ever think “maybe I shouldn’t…..”— who said you SHOULDN’T– ignore those thoughts. Embrace YOU because there is only one of you sister and she’s damn amazing. I want you to tell yourself that every damn day. Watch what happens. 

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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.

  • Health, Hormones, Personal Blog

    MY TOP 10 DAILY HABITS FOR WEIGHT LOSS

    What are my best daily habits for weight loss?

    Top 10 New Habits For Weight Loss

    Are you in the process of trying to lose weight? If you want to discover the best habits for weight loss, I’ve got you covered. In this post, I’m sharing my top 10 best daily habits for weight loss. Many of these habits for weight loss are NEW habits that I’ve incorporated over the past 11 months while losing 36 inches and 30lbs going keto. So, as you can imagine, these habits for weight loss that I’m recommending…well they work. Test them out yourself and see if these habits for weight loss work in your life as well. I believe they will. Remember, you are just ONE change away from a better tomorrow and an even better future. START NOW!

    My Top 10 New Daily Habits For Weight Loss

    These new habits for weight loss are in no particular order, but I’m going to start with one I do think is very important. 1) STOP OBSESSING over details that don’t matter. For years I like the woman in the photo above, obsessed over DUMB IRRELEVANT details….like “Does this extra tablespoon of almond milk in my coffee break my fast?”– doesn’t matter. Or “OMG my trainer said he thinks diet soda is bad…does that mean all this time I’ve been ruining my efforts because I’ve been drinking soda???”– stop worrying about EVERY DETAIL…..trust your instinct more. Common sense quite often is a far better gauge than all the conflicting information online trust me. I still recall how one time a follower recently on instagram started somewhat arguing with me about how bad green tea was for me because of flouride in it…..because HER nutritionist said she shouldn’t take it…so therefore it must be bad for everyone. Me, 2 years ago, would have freaked out and stopped drinking green tea. Not anymore. Don’t sweat the small stuff. The STRESS you give your brain far outweighs the actual damage from most things I have learned. 2) Supplements: I am now religious about taking my vitamins and supplements. You may want to watch this video where I talk about what supplements I take daily but I have learned over time that — supplements WORK – in a big way– if you take them regularly. They are worth the money if you can budget for it and they can change your health. Don’t be stupid and think everything is “snake oil”. Nothing is a miracle in a bottle but – supplements work. 3) Exogenous Ketones: I just recorded a video review on this today, will link it up tomorrow for you but taking exogenous ketones have CHANGED MY LIFE– they have improved my energy in an astonishing manner: previously I was having to take a nap every day at 2pm like clockwork. Not anymore. Further and more importantly- they curb my appetite and quash my cravings like you cannot imagine!! My whole eating style has changed because of them. You can order ketones from me directly and I PROMISE YOU–your health and weight loss and life will be forever changed. Happy to answer questions for you as well. 4) Going Keto: Without question, I recommend the keto lifestyle for women over 40 with any kind of hormonal issues/insulin resistance like me. It’s game changing. CLICK HERE to learn more. 5) BHRT/Hormone balance: If you are 40+ and not getting bloodwork done and getting your hormones balanced, you are fighting an uphill battle my friend. Get a functional medicine doctor and start with some comprehensive blood-work at Ulta Lab Tests. Happy to help you with some recommendations. 6) Water. I know this sounds soooo typical but –  I have been SO BAD about hydration and recently I ended up with a UTI. OMG who wants one of those!?! It made me see how bad I have been about hydration. Hydration is sooo key to everything…..I’m now more focused on it than ever……with my ketones + green tea plus plain water consumption. It’s a priority! 7) No Snacking: This is a weight loss gamechanger. Ever since adding in ketones….I don’t snack, or VERY RARELY. I eat 2 meals a day that’s it and it makes it easy to stay in a reasonable calorie window. 8)  Diversity in diet: I’m guilty in the past in a big way of having zero diversity in my diet- eating the same dang thing every day for lunch– you’ll see in my new keto cookbook a TON of diversity– I’ll be updating this one soon– and I am making diversity in my meals a primary focus– the more you can vary what you eat the better, just like varying your workouts– it does a body good and keeps your palate interested as well! I truly believe one of the #1 reasons people quit diets is because of lack of diversity in what they are eating. Get creative! 9) Eating out: when Steve and I eat out, we RARELY both will order a meal. We share meals all the time– it’s crazy how huge the portion sizes are– even the side orders! Start doing this– you’ll save money too! 10) Fasting/Intermittent Fasting: I do intermittent fasting daily and just started adding 1 -2 24 hour fasts into my week. Intermittent fasting plus keto is a dream weight loss combo and it’s what I recommend for all my clients who I coach– it works, every woman I have coached who uses it has lost 25LBS or more so far. Adding in a 24 hour fast is even more beneficial for resetting your body and helping encourage it to better lose fat in the future. 

    BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

    BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

    Did you enjoy this post? I hope it was helpful. I think you might find these posts below helpful as well. VIDEO: Why you aren’t losing weight on the Keto Diet: CLICK HERE.  VIDEO: Does Keto Work For Women Over 40? CLICK HERE. What Can I Eat On KETO? CLICK HERE. Download my FREE Keto Kwik Start Guide– CLICK HERE. And while you are here, check out my BRAND NEW KETO COOKBOOK filled with 50+ low-carb recipes that helped me lose 36 inches and 30lbs!! CLICK HERE to learn more and snag a copy for just $27!