How I Diet to Lose Weight

The most important thing is to have the right mind set.  I stay focused on my goals and the end result.  Dieting is never fun, but seeing the results is a lot of fun!  When I want to eat something not included in my diet, I shift my thinking on why I’m making certain food choices and the results I want to see.

I believe in living a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy the majority of the time, with the occasional splurge. Everything in moderation. I could never give up pizza or chocolate forever. Living a healthy lifestyle I maintain my weight. But if I want to lose weight I have to go into diet mode. What I’m sharing today is specifically on what I do to lose weight.

Dieting to lose weight is very different than maintenance mode.  I like to focus on weight lose for 6-8 weeks then switch over to maintenance mode for a few weeks.  I go back and forth until I have reached my goal weight.  Taking the break from dieting and switching to maintenance mode helps me to stay on track and not feel too overwhelmed when I’m dieting.  I do think it’s important to stay focused and not cheat for a minimum of 6 weeks.  It takes my body 3-4 weeks to get into fat burning mode and about 6 weeks before I see any results that are noticeable. If I am able to continue with a diet and not switch over to maintenance I keep the momentum going!  I will reach your goals faster.

I focus on the foods I get to eat rather than the foods I’m not allowing myself to eat.  “I get to eat this delicious salad” rather than “I don’t get to eat pizza”.  I have found healthy snacks that fit into my diet and have them always available.  I love eating chips, so instead I found freeze dried okra.  It gives me that similar crunch while being healthy.  I often explored my grocery store for new foods and healthy options.

I have lost 20-30 pounds several times in my life (why I keep gaining it back is a whole other story!) and this is the only plan that works for me:

  • I set myself up for success! I look at my calendar and pick a day to start.  Giving myself enough time to put a plan together and mentally prepare.
  • Focus on eating protein with veggies and some fruit (I’m not much of a fruit person so I rarely eat it).  I eat a small amount of carbs (3-4 times a week), consisting of sweet potatoes or quinoa.
  • I cook all my own food.  I was ordering healthy take out and still not losing weight.  Once I started cooking everything from scratch I started to lose weight.
  • I try to do intermittent fasting on as many days of the week that I can.  But if I’m hungry early I do eat.  I don’t starve myself.  Drinking black coffee or a sparkling water can help to curb my appetite to push back eating an hour or 2.
  • I love to eat things like tacos, sandwiches, burgers, wraps, etc.  I substitute the bread for a lettuce wrap.  Small changes like this make a big difference. I was actually surprised that most of the time I prefer a lettuce wrap. I taste more of the food I’m eating rather than just bread.
  • Don’t eat after dinner
  • Eliminate sugar and dairy. There are so many great options to substitute dairy products. I like almond milk or oat milk.
  • I get 1 cheat meal per week.  I eat whatever I want and as much of it as I want. I typically have my cheat meal on Saturday for dinner. Some weeks I plan it out based on what I’m craving. This also gives me an opportunity to go out to eat and order whatever I want with zero guilt!
  • Drink tons of water (I drink a gallon a day) and limit alcohol. I don’t drink soda or any drinks that have calories or sugar. If I do drink alcohol it is a basic vodka, soda with fresh lemon.
  • Be active at least 3 times a week, the more the better.  I mix it up with gym, running, biking, rollerblading so I don’t get bored.

A typical day of meals:

Breakfast

-eggs with avocado, I’ll make turkey bacon if I have time

-smoked salmon with avocado

Lunch

(it’s usually leftovers from dinner or meal prep)

-salad with chicken, add any healthy toppings to mix up the flavor

-taco bowl with lettuce as the base

Snack

-protein shake, I make mine with frozen fruit, water and protein powder.  I also buy plant based protein drinks for something quick and it can travel.

-veggies with hummus

-nuts, trail mix, hard boiled egg, protein stick

Dinner

(I started cooking every night and not doing take out, this made a huge difference!) depending on how much time I have determines what I will cook.

-fish or chicken and veggies, add sweet potatoes or quoina to make it more filling

-I’ve been making a lot of bowls with lettuce or quinoa and/or sweet potatoes as the base.  I add anything I want: chicken, steak, peppers, broccoli, green beans, roasted kale, avocado, corn, beans, etc. I’ve been playing around and having fun with different flavors. If it’s healthy I’ll throw it all in a bowl and see how I like it. So far I haven’t had a bowl I don’t liked.

-grilled chicken with roasted sweet potatoes and veggies

-tacos, I make shredded chicken or ground turkey. I either do a lettuce wrap or a taco bowl with lettuce as the base. I add salsa, hot sauce, avocado, peppers, jalapeños, cilantro.

In years past I would eat the same thing every day and it was very boring. This year I have explored more food options and flavors. I like to mix it up and keep my meals interesting while still being healthy. I have researched recipes online, walked around my grocery store exploring healthy foods I have never tried. The more fun I can make it the better chance I have to stick to it!

OUTFIT DETAILS

Jacket: Adidas | Top: Zella | Leggings: Adidas | Shoes: Nike

TACO RECIPE

What makes the chicken so delicious is I cook it all day in my crockpot. It’s slow cooked so the chicken is tender and amazing with tons of flavor. It’s incredible!! I use this crockpot. This makes my life so easy with the kids busy schedule with sports and after school activities to have dinner ready. And I love knowing it’s healthy for all of us. I choose a lettuce wrap with healthy topping. My kids will do a tortilla with other toppings ;)

  • Chicken crockpot ingredients:
  • 1 jar of salsa, I choose mild so it’s not too spicy for my kids. I add hot sauce to my taco (I like spicy)
  • 2-3 pounds of chicken
  • Packet of taco seasoning
  • Diced red onion (I chop it up the night before and keep in my fridge for an easier and quicker morning)
  • One hour before the chicken is ready, take it out and shred it. Then put it back in the crockpot for the final hour. Use this shredding tool to make your life easier.

I showed my chicken crockpot recipe on my IG stories and saved it to my highlights. If you are a video person you can watch on my IG story highlights.

Add all the topping you want. I like salsa, hot sauce, avocado, peppers, jalapeños, cilantro. When I’m in maintenance mode and not in diet mode I will also add cheese, sour cream and crushed nacho cheese Doritos.

Healthy & Delicious Recipes I’ve Been Loving

At the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to start cooking more. I’ve never really been much of a cook. And when I do cook it’s so basic and boring I don’t enjoy it. In 2020 I got into a bad habit of ordering take-out for dinner almost every night. Although I was ordering “healthy” most nights, how healthy is it really? That’s the question I asked myself when I was killing it in the gym and still couldn’t loose weight.

I wanted to take control over all the food I’m eating, be more healthy and loose weight. In the last year and a half I’ve gained about 25 pounds. I can’t stand gaining weight and looking in the mirror and feeling like my body isn’t mine. I didn’t want to do some crazy crash diet. I want to create a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable.

For the last 7 weeks I have cooked healthy and delicious meals. Dinners that are full of flavor that I enjoy eating and look forward to! With the change in cooking my own healthy meals and working out, I have lost 8 pounds. More important than that, I feel so much healthier and stronger!

I want to share a couple of my favorite recipes that I have made. These are recipes that I have sent to my friends and have made multiple times because they are that good! They have tons of flavor, are not boring, and are great left over the next day. I will also share my tweaks and tips that I find helpful for each recipe. If I can make these meals, you can too!

Roasted Broccoli Quinoa Salad

I got this recipe off Eating Bird Food, you can see the entire recipe here. This recipe was a huge surprise to me how amazing it is! When I read the recipe nothing about it seemed like it was be so delicious. But the flavors are all so incredible I enjoy every bite and want to keep eating.

My changes: I always need a protein with every meal. The first time I made this bowl I added steak. The second time I made it I added chicken. Both are equally as delicious. The rest of the recipe I made as is. This recipe is what got me obsessed with roasting my vegetables, especially kale. I now roast kale almost every day and put it with everything. It’s great in a salad to add a crunch.

Avocado Shrimp Quinoa Bowl

This recipe comes from What’s Gaby Cooking. I have been following her on Instagram for years and have baked many of her yummy desserts and they are always so delicious!! (check out her chocolate chip banana bread and snickerdoodle cookies!) This is the first dinner recipe of hers that I have tried and it did not fail me. You can find the recipe here.

My changes: This is the first time I have made shrimp. All I can say is do not be intimidated. It was so simple! The same as grilling chicken. The recipe calls for 1/2 pound of shrimp. I made a whole pound and I was glad I did. The flavor on the shrimp is delicious, but everyone who ate it (except me) said it was a little too spicy. Unless you like very spicy food, I would cut back on the cayenne and chipotle pepper.

The homemade Pico de Gallo is very delicious, but also time consuming. If you are able to make it the day before or earlier in the day it will save a ton of time when cooking dinner. Or if you don’t want to do all that chopping and dicing you can buy one already made at the grocery store.

This dish is incredible left over. I stored all the ingredients separate from each other to keep them fresh. The bowl tasted the same the next day.

Lemon Herb Salmon

I got this recipe from YouTube channel More Seasoning. You can find the recipe here. He shows 3 different versions of how to make salmon, they all look amazing. I have only made the lemon herb salmon and it is delicious!

My changes: I made the salmon just like the recipe and I would not change anything about it. It was so delicious! I absolutely love the tip on how to wrap up each salmon filet individually in foil. It keeps the salmon so tender and there is no mess to clean up.

I made roasted green beans and kale to go with me. As my friend and I ate the salmon and veggies we couldn’t get over the flavor and how good it is! We kept saying it tastes way too good to be completely healthy. And, I made an extra salmon filet and ate it for lunch the next day. So happy I did!

Extra Cooking Tips that Have Helped Me

Make extra of every dinner. My days are very busy and I never want to spend time making lunch. Having healthy leftovers I can grab quickly keeps me on track to being healthy.

Always have cooked chicken in the fridge. I cook chicken 2-3 times a week for dinner. I lightly season it and cook about a pound extra. I cut it up the extra and keep it in my fridge. Chicken is so diverse, I can throw together a salad, mix it with salsa for tacos, etc.

Get a George Forman grill. I purchased one the beginning of January and I use it almost every night!! I purchased this one. It makes grilling soooo quick and easy! Then the grill plates remove and I put them in my dishwasher. I don’t know how I’ve lived without one.

Try new foods, new recipes, don’t be intimidated and have fun! I have began to enjoy cooking and I now look forward to it! I turn on music or my favorite tv show and zone out. It’s also a great time for my kids to come talk to me about their day. And there is great satisfaction in serving my family eating a delicious meal that I cooked!

How I Use My Waist Trainer & the Results I See

waist trainer

WAIST TRAINER | CAMO LEGGINGS

I’ve been using a waist trainer for about 2 years now.  I swear by it!  It really works!!  There are several different ways, or reasons, I like to wear it.

  • I wear it several hours a day a few days a week for “maintenance”.  It helps cinch in my waist, giving that hourglass look and make it flat.  I’m not always that consistent with this.  Some times I will forget and go weeks without wearing it.  I really notice a difference (in a negative way) that I’m not wearing it.  The more I wear it the more I notice an hourglass shape to my body and flatter tummy.   It also helps me throughout the day to not over eat and to only eat when I actually need to.
  • When I have a special event that evening, I wear it all day- like the minute I wake up I put it on and don’t take it off all day.  It eliminates all bloating and excess water weight in my mid section.  I can see a noticeable difference in the size of my waist line and the flatness of my tummy.
  • I wear it while I work out, especially when doing cardio.  I’ve only done this a few times.  This will make you sweat so much in your midsection and make your tummy very flat.  One time I lost 4 pounds doing the stair master and wearing my waist trainer.  Now this is just temporary water weight loss.  But my tummy was very flat that evening!
  • You can wear it under clothes for a cinched, curvy look.  I personally have never done this for a special event.  But I have friends that have and they love it.  They will wear it under a fitted dress to give them that curvy cinched flat midsection.
  • It gives me better posture.  While wearing this waist trainer it forces me to sit upright and stand straight.  It’s almost impossible to slump over my shoulders because it’s not comfortable.  I love wearing it while sitting at my desk working because I have to sit up straight with my shoulders back.  I notice at the end of the day I don’t have as much back and neck pain because I’ve been sitting with better posture all day.

Losing Holiday Weight : Small Changes that Make a BIG Difference!

tampa

JACKET: Nike | TANK: Topshop (best basic tank!) | LEGGINGS: Alo | SNEAKERS: Adidas | BAG: Givenchy, similar for Less | SUNGLASSES: Quay

I had a lot of fun over the holidays!  From Thanksgiving to after New Years Eve I didn’t work out one time, and I ate and drank everything I wanted to.  No joke, I did not hold back at all!!  If I wanted to eat Christmas cookies all day long I did.  If I wanted to eat a huge dinner and a bottle of wine at 11:00pm then have dessert after I did.  Let me just say, I enjoyed myself and I don’t regret it! :)

All that fun caught up to me and when I stepped on the scale on January 2nd and I had gained 9 pounds.  More importantly than the scale going up, I saw a noticeable difference when I looked in the mirror and my clothes didn’t fit the same (meaning I could barely button my jeans).  In additional to my body changes, I didn’t feel my best.  My head was cloudy, I was always tired, bloated, overall just yuck!

I used to love doing an intense diet or cleanse or detox to get immediate results and shock my body back into where it was.  As I get older that does not appeal to me.  I’d rather take it easy on my body and make a few small changes at a time that I can actually do and maintain, and not feel like garbage from it being so drastic.

Here are the few things I always start with that I can start seeing results within 2 weeks.  They are small adjustments that make a big change in my life.  So far, I have lost 5 of the 9 pounds.  Then after I have made these things my lifestyle I can build on them; tighten up my diet even more or add more to my work outs.

  1. Eat dinner at least 4 hours before bed and do not eat anything after dinner.  This makes a huge difference!  Late night snacking is the worst thing you can do.  It adds weight quickly and makes you bloated.  It can be hard the first couple of nights not eating after dinner, I usually go to bed hungry.  But my body adjusts after about 5 days and I don’t feel hungry any more at bed time.
  2. Do not eat candy or anything sugary all day long.  I have a major sweet tooth!  And when I let myself eat anything and everything I want, I snack on candy and cookies all day long.  When I say all day I really mean it.  Like breakfast, lunch, dinner, after dinner and snacks all day long.  This constant intake of sugar is so unhealthy.  Since I have such an intense sweet tooth I still allow myself to have something each day.  I have a small portion only once a day and I eat it in the morning or early afternoon.
  3. Move your body for at least 30 minutes, 3 times a week.  Ideally this would be going to the gym or some kind of work out.  If you have slacked at the gym or your work outs then get back to them!  But if you’re not a gym/work out person, trying to add that to your lifestyle may be something you can’t commit to long term.  Instead, do something you can stick with.  Make this a walk outside or doing something active with your kids, go on a bike ride.  Do anything that moves your body.
  4. Switch your alcohol drink to vodka or tequila.  Red wine, beer and dark liquors have a lot of sugar and/or carbs.  If you want to have an alcoholic drink, have vodka or tequila with as little sugar added to the drink as possible.  I loooooove red wine!  I used to drink it every night at the end of the day.  But I learned drinking red wine every night adds weight to my waistline.  I switched my drink to vodka, soda with lemon or lime (no sugar) and my waist stays slim.  I drink Tito’s vodka, its very clean and gluten free.
  5. Drink lots of water.  Lack of water or being dehydrated makes your body bloat and stay swollen.  The body thinks it’s going thru a drought and holds onto all the water it has.  Drinking a lot of water flushes out the body and helps with weight loss.  And the added bonus, drinking a lot of water hydrates the skin and gives you a healthy glow.
  6. Get 7-8 hours of sleep every night.  Getting adequate rest is everything!  Our bodies need enough sleep to reset and recharge.  I’m sure we have all seen the commercials about cortisol being flushed out of our system when we sleep.  And if we don’t get enough sleep the cortisol isn’t fully flushed out and it causes weight gain.  Well, it’s true!  Our bodies need sleep to reset our systems and wake up with energy.  That energy helps us make healthier food choices and get some exercise.
  7. Eat healthy during the week, splurge on the weekends.  Eating healthy makes me feel great, and the food tastes delicious.  But some times it feels like a job and I just want a piece of pizza or a burger and a milkshake.  This is why I allow myself to splurge and eat what I want on the weekends.  This mentally makes it easier to make healthy food choices during the week.  If I’m craving chocolate cake, I know I can have it this Saturday.  It makes it much easier to eat healthy now.  Plus, it’s all about balance.  I want to be able to enjoy my life and not feel like a slave to a diet.

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red sneakers

holiday weight loss

Full Body Workout Routine

full body workout routine

TANK: Carbon38 | SPORTS BRA: Victoria’s Secret | LEGGINGS: Lululemon (old style) | SHOES: Nike | WATER BOTTLE: Hydro Flask

My workout routine is one of the most requested posts ever!  Instead of sharing everything all at once (because that would be a bit overwhelming!), I am going to break it down into what I do on different days.  On a typical week I do 2 days of full body work outs, 2 leg days, and 1 arms/abs day.  Cardio gets thrown in on whatever day I have the most time.  2-3 days a week I will go on the stairmaster for 15-40 minutes (depends on how much time I have that day) at the end of my workout.

Leg day and arm/abs day to come soon! :)

If you are first starting a work out routine, I would do 2 full body work outs a week.  And include some abs on those days.  Once you’ve got that down, then you can add a leg day, then add an arm/abs day.  If you are beginning a new work out routine and need inspiration, check out my post on how to start a work out routine for success.

A full body work out is great!  It will hit every body part.  And if you move at a quick pace you will also get some cardio!

I have a list of work outs I do on my full body days.  Each time I go in I pick 5 or 6 of them to do. This keeps my work outs different each time I go in so I won’t get bored.  Even just changing up the order in which I do them can make it more interesting.

Full Body work outs:
*Pick 5 or 6 to do each day, change it up every time.
*Lower weight, higher reps.  Do 20-25 reps of each exercise, 2-3 sets.

-Squat with overhead press (I use free weights)
-Walking lunges with bicep curls
-Sumo squat with upright rows (I use a kettle bell)
-Squat with row (I do this on the cable machine)
-Jump squats (I do 25-30)
-Split squat jumps
-Lunge with shoulder press
-Leg press machine, then rows or lat pull down machine
-Forward jump squats

full body workout routine

full body workout routine

full body workout routine

full body workout routine

full body workout routine

full body workout routine

full body workout routine

full body workout routine