Tag Archive for diet

10 Secrets to Fat Loss

Good morning! Or afternoon if you’re on the east coast!

I woke up today thinking it was Friday, so boo to that. I know some people are weird about the number 13, but I love it! I think I love it because most people hate it and are scared of it. I’m excited for tomorrow to see all of the people on Facebook that blame their spilled coffee, torn jeans, or broken phones on it being Friday the 13th. 😀DSC03929

10 Secrets to Fat Loss

One of the biggest questions I am asked (almost daily) is regarding fat loss. I thought I’d put together my best tips for fat loss.

1. Food. I know, I know. This isn’t what you wanted to hear, but I’m sure it’s not the first time you’ve heard it. We have all heard the phrase “you can’t out-train a bad diet”, and truer words were never spoken. If you want to lose fat, you have to have a good handle on what you’re eating. Tracking your food is the easiest way to do this (albeit not the only way). We often times don’t realize how many calories and macro-nutrients (proteins, carbs, fats) we are taking in until we actually take the time to track. If you like pen and paper, you can keep a food journal, but if you’re lazy like me, grab the MyFitnessPal app. It’s great for tracking and allows you to see how much of each macro-nutrient you’re taking in each day.

2. Strength Training. While nutrition is king, and the biggest part of the fat loss equation, strength training is a close 2nd. The more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you’ll burn at rest. Lifting weights will NOT make you huge. Eating huge portions of cookies, cakes, crackers, and just overindulging in general will make you huge. Hypothetically, let’s say you were to put on 5 pounds of muscle and with a healthy nutrition plan, you were able to lose 5 pounds of fat. (These do NOT go hand in hand by the way, they are completely separate systems and just because you gain muscle, it doesn’t mean you’ll lose fat). The scale would tell you that you weigh the same amount, but you would actually look smaller. Muscle is more dense than fat, so 5 pounds of fat will always look bigger than 5 pounds of muscle.

3. Moderation. I’m not going to tell you that you need to eat clean. I’m not going to tell you that you can’t eat cookies and cake and dessert. You CAN. I eat candy almost every day. I just don’t eat an entire BAG of candy every day. If you keep the things you like in your diet, and eat them in moderation, it is completely possible to lose fat while still enjoying your treats.

4. Consistency. This goes hand in hand with #3. Staying consistent with your food intake is by far the best advice I can give to anyone. If you overindulge one day, don’t sweat it. Don’t try to counteract it by not eating all day or doing hours of cardio the next day. It’s not going to be the game changer. You didn’t gain the weight in one day and you won’t lose it in one day either. With that said, practice consistency. If your goal is to eat 2000 calories per day, aim for that consistently and if you overindulge, go right back to it the next day. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

5. Identify your trigger foods. This might sound odd, but we all have trigger foods. If there are certain foods that you have a hard time just having 1 or 2 of, you have to address this. For me, I have a hard time with cookies. I can eat candy, cake, cupcakes, and ice cream in moderation with no problem. There is something about cookies that just makes me want more and more. (Probably because they are so damn delicious!) For this reason, if I’m going to have a cookie, I just buy a single pre-packaged cookie. I know if I bake 12 cookies, I’m going to either eat more than I want to or spend a lot of brain energy trying to stay away. It’s not worth it to me, so I figured out a way that works for me. I don’t buy packages of Oreos or Chips Ahoy. Instead, I will buy a single cookie (like at Starbucks or something), and enjoy that. Find what works for you.

6. Stop beating yourself up. This was probably the key to my recovery from my eating disorder. I used to try to be SO perfect with my eating that when I screwed up, I would just feel so guilty. I felt like a failure and that I should just get it out of my system so that i could be “perfect” tomorrow. Newsflash: That doesn’t work. When I started being comfortable with where I was and not beating myself up so badly for “screwing up”, I actually started eating better overall. Feeling guilt over eating something that isn’t considered “healthy” will not help you on your fat loss journey, and will more than likely hinder your fat loss.

7.  Eat fat. Yeah, you heard me. Fat is good. I think it’s becoming more known that fats are good for you, but the “low fat” craze is still stuck in some people’s minds. Not only does fat help your skin and hair look bombtastic, but it aids in fat loss. You can’t lose fat without fat. It also helps to keep you satisfied. It’s more calorie dense than protein or carbs (9 calories per gram), so you don’t want to go crazy with it, but adding in things like nuts, nut butters, avocados, and oils into your diet will likely keep you more satiated throughout the day. (And give you locks of a pony!!! ;-))

8. Stop doing so much cardio. Unless you love it, that is. I am not going to say that cardio is bad. It’s not bad. What’s bad is the idea that cardio is NECESSARY for fat loss and that if you don’t do x minutes/hours of cardio per day, you won’t lose fat. Cardio basically trains your body to be more efficient. This means that over time, you’ll use LESS calories to get through that 3 mile run. So what does that mean? It means in order to burn the same amount of calories that you burned when you first started running, is now going to require more effort: more time running, running on an incline, running faster, etc. If you like to run, by all means RUN. Personally,  I like to run every now and then. I like to hike. I do all of those things when I feel like it. But gone are the days of me doing 30-45 minutes of cardio EVERY DAY. I used to do that, and you know what happened when I stopped? I lost weight. Cliff notes of what I’m getting at here: Don’t think that doing hours of cardio is the key to your fat loss. The key is nutrition. Cardio’s affect on that is minimal and will likely cause you to be hungrier and eat more anyways.

9. Accountability. This is definitely huge. I know how to lose fat. Most people actually know at least something about how to lose fat. But it’s hard to do it on your own. I didn’t sign up to work with Sohee because I don’t know what I’m doing. I know what I’m doing and I have my OWN clients that I coach. But I wanted someone to hold me accountable and to take the guess work out for me. I didn’t want to be the person that I was negotiating with when it came to how I was feeling and the progress I’m making. Now, this doesn’t mean you need to sign up with a coach. Friends work pretty well too. Find a friend that will either a) jump on the bandwagon with you and go on a fat loss journey together or b) be supportive and help you when you need it. It makes all the difference in the world when you don’t feel like you’re going at it alone.

10. Plan. This is something that I still struggle with, but I luckily live and work very close to Whole Foods and the Co-Op where I can get fresh, healthy meals on the go. If you plan and prepare some food for the week (cook up some chicken or beef or whatever recipe you like) and keep it on hand, it helps you to not come home and devour whatever is in the cabinets just because you’re hungry. It minimizes the impulse eating and the eating because it was “all that was there”. Plan your day or even your week out so that you’re ready. With that said, don’t be afraid to stray from it either. I pack my food most days, but if I want a cookie or something, I work it into my plan and don’t feel bad about it.

Questions:

1. What has helped you the most when it comes to fat loss?2. What is your biggest struggle with fat loss?

Leave your responses in the comments.

 

12 Weeks…

LOL, I just re-read that title and realized that people might think I’m pregnant. I’M NOT.

Now, that we got that awkwardness out of the way….

Most people that know me well, know I’ve been through some ups and downs in my fitness journey. I went from competing in the NPC Bikini division, to spiraling into an eating disorder and gaining a bunch of weight, to finding my peace with food and leveling out at a healthy and good weight for myself. I’m not shredded, and I’m not even necessarily lean, but I’ve got definition, strength, and I’m happy with my body. I lost weight after recovering from my eating disorder and I’ve been able to maintain the same weight for about 2 years now without much thought or effort. I eat healthy foods 90% of the time, not caring much about how many grams of protein, carbs, or fat that I’m eating. I make sure to eat a well-rounded diet, I look good, and I’m happy.

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But I also know what I’m capable of and what I feel like on the inside. The person inside of me is a beast. If you’ve ever worked out with me, you get it. I work really hard in the gym and don’t ever give up. I’ve been working out consistently for 7.5 years with my longest break being maybe 3-4 days. In good times and bad, the gym has always been there for me. But you may not be able to tell that from the outside!

Now, I’m ready to step it up and show myself what I’m made of once again. I’ve harnessed the help of Sohee Walsh (if you don’t know who she is, you should find out because she’s awesome) to get me down to the lean machine I want to be. I want abs again and I’m ready to have them back.

Oh hello there.

I don’t miss the no boobs part!

I chose Sohee because she went down the exact same rabbit-hole that I did. She gets it.

Questions:

Could I do this on my own? Of course I could. But when you do something yourself, your own thoughts can persuade you into different directions. I know that I do better when I have someone else telling me what to do.

Am I going to do a crazy clean-eating diet that I did when I was getting ready to compete? No. I’m not. I’ll be counting macros (proteins, fats, carbs) and still allowing myself to eat what I want when it fits into my day and I’m craving them.

What will be the hardest part for me? Not eating as much fruit. I love my fruit. Seriously, it is my candy. I eat a rainbow of fruit every day. Fruit isn’t bad, but the amount of fruit I eat equates to lots of sugar and carbs. I’ll still be eating fruit, but not all-day-err-day like I do now. 🙂

So why am I telling the world this? Because as much as I HATE the thought of telling the world my goals and potentially failing and having the world laugh at me, I know that accountability is a real thing that works. Plus, doesn’t everybody like to watch someone else’s health and fitness journey? You’ve all been watching my journey in the gym for a while now, so it’s time to take the other side into play.

I’ll be sharing my successes, struggles, meals, and thoughts. I’ll be sharing my workouts and things I’m learning along the way. Sometimes, I might cry out for help when  I want to throw the towel in, but I’m going to do this for real. I’ve signed up for 12 weeks with Sohee, and I’m excited to see what my body is made of in those 12 weeks.

Thanks for following along on my journey and keeping me accountable….let’s go!!!

What’s a Pummelo?! + No Sugar Challenge Update: Day 14

Today is busy, busy, busy. Mondays always are, aren’t they? Let’s get right to it.

I was walking through the grocery store Saturday afternoon, and something caught my eye that I had never seen before. It was a pummelo. I’m guessing I’m about 1,000 years late to the party, but I had seriously never seen this before!!! And of course, I needed to get one and see what it was all about.

pummelo1It looks and feels like a grapefruit, but I’ll be honest, I had my doubts…..

pummelo2The closer I got, the more it did seem like a grapefruit. As I peeled it apart, I actually was thinking about how upset I’d be if it ended up tasting just like a grapefruit…

pummelo3The verdict? OMG, It’s delicious!!! Why did nobody ever tell me about these before? It tastes like a grapefruit without the bitterness. It also has a lemony taste to it as well. I’m officially in love and want to eat #allthepummelos. Thanks mom & dad for keeping me in the dark all these years. -_-

No Added Sugar/Fake Sugar Update: Day 14

Almost at the halfway point! I’d love to say it’s getting easier, but it seems much harder lately! Maybe it’s just because there is halloween candy and desserts everywhere I look, but I definitely eyed the shit out of these babies for an ungodly amount of time over the weekend.

cupcakesDon’t worry, I resisted. Not without shedding tears, though.

Feeling: I am hungry ALL the time, all day long. I eat and then I’m hungry again. And the cycle repeats. It’s kinda wild, actually. I think my metabolism is working much better without all the fake sugar I was consuming. I still feel clear-headed too!

Cravings: I don’t actually have any cravings, I just feel like I want a little something more. I for sure wouldn’t mind a donut right about now. 😀

Body: I’m feeling tighter and still, no bloating. It’s actually sad how much time I spent feeling bloated when I was taking in fake sugar and eating foods with added sugar. I truly think giving up the fake sugar has had the biggest impact, but taking both of those away has been truly wonderful in terms of how I feel.

Progress: I’m definitely seeing changes. They are small changes and hard to see on a daily basis, but looking over the past 2 weeks, it’s pretty obvious something is working!

progress13I think Charlie and I are actually going to extend the challenge a few days (we leave for AZ about 5 days after our original end date), so we (okay, really I made this decision) decided to just wait a few more days and then enjoy the holidays right! 😉

That’s all I’ve got today! Have a fabulous afternoon and I’ll see ya tomorrow!

Santa Monica Wellness Festival & SKYDIVING {VIDEO}

Good morning!

Hope your Tuesday is off to a good start. You guys saw a glimpse into my weekend….I think I’m still recovering!

It was such a blast surprising Charlie with his family coming to town. He had NO idea they were coming and I came up with a secret plan to get him to stay home from work that day. We had a ton of fun this weekend (if you missed it, you can see our photos here), and getting back into work-mode was tough!

20141019-201059-72659861.jpgSanta Monica Wellness Festival

In the midst of family fun, I was part of the workout demo crew for two different trainers competing in the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce ‘Got Trainer?’ competition this past Saturday! It took place at the Santa Monica Wellness Festival that had a TON of vendors offering all kinds of fitness/health related items & information. I walked around for a bit and even ended up doing a bunch of pushups because I lost a challenge at one of the booths.

At around 1:30pm, it came time for the Trainer Challenge. There were 8 personal trainers competing in the challenge, and I was part of the demo for 2 of them. The segments were 5 minutes each, and of course, the two trainers I was working with went back-to-back. I basically did plyometrics, boxing, and other various exercises for 10 minutes straight. Thank goodness for adrenaline!! We didn’t win, but was SO much fun…I think I belong on a stage…working out. Is there a job like that? If not, I might have to make one…

The Iron Fitness crew.

The Iron Fitness crew.

iFly Indoor Skydiving

Speaking of jobs, unbeknownst to me, Universal City Walk has had an iFly Indoor Skydiving facility that nobody bothered to tell me about. (how rude! you’ll see why this relates to jobs later..)

Charlie’s sister got tickets to go try it, and I decided I needed to do it with them. The verdict? SOOOOO MUCHHHHHH FUNNNNN!!!!!!!

20141019-201013-72613962.jpgHere’s video of my experience…..the ending might be the funniest thing you watch today.

HAHA! Walking through that was SO HARD for me. Once I started laughing at myself, I couldn’t stop and moving was out of the question. Clearly.

Apparently when you get a job with them, you “have” to learn how to do a bunch of tricks and do a certain # of training hours. I’m thinking a career change is in order. I can sky dive for a job?!?!

This was my first time doing any form of skydiving, and I’m definitely looking into doing the real thing now. I HIGHLY recommend doing this if you’re ever in the Los Angeles area (or anywhere else that offers this).

Anyways, it’s back to work for me. Later today, I’ll have a post up about the 30 day No Sugar Added Challenge I’m doing….details coming soon!

Question of the Day

Have you ever gone indoor OR real skydiving? Do you love it?!

A New Journey

I haven’t posted on this blog in quite some time. I’m almost positive I don’t have any readers anymore! But that’s okay, a lot has changed since I used this blog, but I think I’d like to bring it back….

At the time that this blog was a daily part of my life, I was single, competing in bikini competitions, living in Arizona and going to school. Now? I live in beautiful, sunny Santa Monica. I still work out daily, but don’t compete (and don’t do nearly as much work out volume as I used to). I’m not the petite thing I was back in 2009. I am a sound engineer and work out of a few different recording studios in Los Angeles and Hollywood. I still work part time at a gym doing operational duties. Life has definitely changed for me, but I’m happy and loving it.

Competing was fun for me, but it wasn’t good for my brain. It took me over two years to get my brain back to a semi-normal state, and I would say that I am about 75% of the way there now. It has been extremely tough, taken a lot out of me, and been a huge fight, but I finally feel almost  like a normal person again. I’ll go into some details some other time.

Anyways, for those of you that still have this blog in their news feeds, maybe you’ll stick around for some more. Since I gave up the dieting long, long ago, I am about 20 pounds heavier than I was when I was competing. Not terrible, but not where I’m totally comfortable either. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with my body. For the first time in 3 years, I am at peace with my body and embrace it. With that said, I’d like to find a place somewhere in between where I was and where I am. I have been able to maintain this weight within 5 pounds for the last year and a half. I finally feel ready to do it for all of the right reasons and not because I hate myself. Because yes, as soon as I gained 5 pounds post-competition, I hated myself. For 2-3 years I hated myself. Sad, really, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come along.

My workouts over the last year or so have been pretty random. I work out about 5-6 days per week, but I don’t have a strict regimen of lifting and cardio on the daily like I used to ( which was about an hour of lifting + an hour of intense cardio and sometimes a boxing class to boot). Some days will be a run by the beach, a tough bleacher/stair workout, some days will be lifting, some days will be just cardio at the gym, sometimes a combination. I try to go hiking with my boyfriend when I can as well. I still like to push myself, but I prefer the shorter workouts as opposed to the 2-3 hours I was putting in before.

I’d love for you all to follow along if you feel like it, but I really just want to document my journey again. It’s fun to look back and see what you’ve accomplished. Life is much, much busier these days, so it won’t be quite as easy to fit it all in, but if I’ve got time for Facebook and Twitter, I’ve got time for cooking, working out and prepping food too.

My goal is to drop about 15 pounds and get my abs back. I want to keep my bubble butt. 😉

Here’s my plan: After reading Janetha’s blog about Jamie Eason’s Live Fit plan, I’ve decided to give it a go. Never in my life have I followed a “plan”. Even when competing, I kind of just did my own thing. That’s just my personality, but I’m bored and want to spice it up and actually work on losing some extra weight I don’t want. Maintenance has been great as I’ve gotten back normal hunger cues and such, but I feel ready to push harder.

Help push me along or even better, join me and we can do it together! I’ll post daily details of what I’m doing and how I’m feeling.

Take care friends!

(Photo below of me at a studio in North Hollywood last month)

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Summer is upon us…

And it’s getting hot!! For all of you dealing with the crazy storms, my heart goes out to you! I am happy to not be dealing with that, but it is definitely getting hot here in AZ. The kind of hot where you walk outside in the morning hoping for a nice cool breeze with the sun beaming down, and instead you get hit in the face with a wall of HEAT. Imagine opening an oven, except the world is a really really big oven. Anyways, I’ll stop complaining now 😉

Workouts

This week’s workouts have been kicking my ass. First of all, my sleep pattern is really screwed up. Working sound gigs really takes the life out of me. It’s 14 hours of mostly pushing heavy gear around and in between sitting and waiting. The actual work time of sound checks and mixing is really short compared to the long day you have to put in. Again though, I’m not complaining because I LOVE working shows and it inspires me more and more each time. The moral of the story is that it makes me SO tired. In fact, after Saturday’s gig, I slept for 11 hours. And another 11 hours the night after that.

Monday: 45 minutes of incline walking + quick Leg workout (squats, quadruped hip extensions, SL deadlifts)

Tuesday: Heavy upper body workout + 20 minutes elliptical

Wednesday: 30 minutes incline walking + Conventional deads and burpees

As you can tell, I’ve been throwing some heavy lifting back in the mix. I took off some time from heavy lifting because I mostly just wasn’t into it, and I like to enjoy my workouts! Last Friday I decided to lift heavy and it made me miss it, so this week I brought it back a bit. I’m pretty sore, but my strength hasn’t gone anywhere which is refreshing. I have been doing plenty of body weight and high rep training, and I actually think my endurance has gone up a lot, which helps with the heavy lifting. I’ve always had a lot of endurance with weight lifting, but my upper body sometimes wants to crap out when the reps get high(lower body just goes forever haha) I noticed my upper body endurance has increased, so I’m pretty happy!

FOODS

I’ve been doing pretty well with keeping myself accountable and staying on track. A few mishaps here and there, but for the most part I’ve stayed pretty strong with it. It’s funny how much easier it is to stick to when you’re just ready to do it and how much of a struggle it can be when you just don’t care and want to eat like crap 😀 Don’t get me wrong, I still have a sweet tooth, but I’m managing it.

My latest obsession:

Broiled green beans with cracked pepper and sea salt, slightly burnt. (that part is an old favorite) but the NEW addiction is in the sugar-free ketchup. Yes, it’s artificial and I’m trying to eliminate most artificial things, but it is SO good. It made me realize that I actually don’t like french fries, I like ketchup. Since a green bean mimicks the texture of a french fry in some ways, it works  quite well. Try it!

What’s your latest food obsession?