(smooth jazz music) - Hi everyone! It's your girl Jenn and
today I am finally filming the how I lost weight video. If I'm gonna be completely honest, I kinda put this video off
because I know diet and nutrition can be a very controversial topic online. First off, I'm not a dietician,
I'm not a nutritionist, I just literally used these tips that I'm about to share
with you and I lost weight. I can't guarantee that
it's gonna work for you because everyone's body is unique and some bodies just react differently. All I know is that these tips
have helped me lose weight and that's all I can claim. So now that's out of the way, let me just give you
some stats about my bod. Last year in 2016, I was
the heaviest I ever was, I was 120 pounds and for my
frame, that really showed. And now today in 2017, I
am a 100 to a 105 pounds. This took a full year to lose the weight so please do not expect
this to happen overnight. It is a gradual process. The only advice I can give
you is to start today. Start on your next meal
and don't look back. So I'm gonna rundown the 10 tips that have contributed to my weight loss. A lot of it is common sense but sometimes you just
need a little refresher. My first tip is to find healthy foods that you actually love eating. It's not realistic to have a salad for every single meal for
the rest of your life. It's just unattainable. Go out there and go on a food tour, find the healthy foods that you just freakin' love
eating and create a list. So throughout the years, I've learned that I love broccoli, green
beans, mushrooms, tofu, I can eat so much of that
and never get sick of it. Don't force yourself to
eat that dry kale salad if you don't like dry kale. And I don't go out of my way to eat healthy foods that I don't like. For example, I don't like
cucumbers, I don't like tomatoes, and I don't force myself to eat it just because it's healthy. I just avoid them and
eat other healthy foods and it's really worked out well for me so go out there, create
a list, and stick to it. The second tip is very important, it is to have no distractions
while you're eating. I know it's like second
nature at this point to get your hot pile of food,
turn on the TV or laptop and just tune out and eat. Your brain takes around 20
minutes to realize that it's full and when you're not paying
attention to your body, you don't know when that time comes. And I've noticed that
whenever I watch something and I'm eating, I tend to
eat even more and even faster and a lot of the times,
I'm finished with my food but the show's still going so I'll go back and get seconds just so I can
like, let the good times roll. But if you wanna lose
weight, it's easier to know what your body is saying to
you when everything is off. I always try and stop
eating right when I get to the sweet spot and
that is the spot where I'm not hungry anymore but
I'm not like, completely full. It's that really nice in between and I feel like the
Japanese have a word for it but I don't know, that's
where I try and stop eating and that's really helped
me maintain my figure and it's tricky, believe me. It's really hard to get that spot because it's so tempting to just eat until your stomach's like, "Oh god, No!" like, that's where I used to love being. It's been easier to maintain my weight because I'm not
overindulging and overeating. This next tip is something
that I've using since college and it's to have smaller plates and bowls. So if you look in our shelves you'll notice that we have two sizes, we've got a normal big one for Ben, and we've got a smaller one for me. We've nicknamed it the baby plate because it's just little. And yeah, when I have a bigger plate I tend to want to over-portion myself. I wanna cram and fill the plate so with the smaller
plate, I can still cram all the food in but it's actually the perfect portion for me. Tip number four is to get a water bottle. I feel like drinking water is one of the most common diet
tips but it's so true. When you are hydrated,
you're not really that hungry and for me, I love having my sippy cup because this makes me drink so much water throughout the day. And it's the CamelBak specifically, I love the like, the bite valve and I love how you have
to like suck the water in. I go through maybe three or
four bottles of this a day and so I make sure that I'm very hydrated. Whenever you have a craving, chances are you're just dehydrated or you're bored and so whenever when I have
like, a hankering for some chips or like any sort of snack or something, I will chug half a bottle of this and I'll wait 15 minutes
and if I'm still hungry then I'll go have a snack but most of the time, after I drink it, I'm completely fine and I
can wait 'til my next meal. I also should mention that
I don't drink any juices, I don't drink any soda or like milk. I only stick to water,
unsweetened tea, black coffee and like, soda water,
that's pretty much it. My favorite is La Croix,
it is so delicious, it has zero calories and it just gives you that carbonated kick
if you are missing it. My fifth tip is to never skip any meals especially breakfast. I feel like I have kind
of programmed my body to just wake up hungry so I
always, always have breakfast. There's a reason why it's called the most important meal of the day. It's because it kicks off your metabolism. And I've noticed that
when I skip my breakfast, by the next meal, I am so hungry I end up making really
stupid food decisions so I'll just end up overeating or I'll order something
like, really gnarly like nachos or something. It's easier to make mindful food choices when your body is not starving. Personally, I only eat three meals a day. I know some people like to have four to five smaller meals a day but for me, it's just too much effort to think of that many meals to eat so I like to keep it simple,
breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For my breakfast, that's
when I have most of my carbs, I'll have beans on toast
or like an egg wrap. For lunch, I can treat myself of a sandwich, a burger, whatever, But for dinner, that's when
I'm kind of the most strict. When I was at like, my most
motivated to lose weight, for dinner I would never have
any refined carbohydrates so I wouldn't have any pasta, I wouldn't have big fried rice dishes, I would probably stick to veggies, and a protein and that's it for dinner. And then for breakfast,
I'll have my carbs. This next tip is something
that I really struggled with when I first moved back to LA in 2015. I was eating out at
restaurants all the time and I was ordering Postmates all the time. When you go to restaurants,
even if you order the healthy dish, you don't actually know what the restaurants put into it. Sure, there's a list of ingredients but you don't know how
much butter they put, you don't know how much
oil they put or msg, the restaurant's objective
is to make the food taste as good as possible
and keep you coming back and it's a business so it makes sense so that's why it's just easier
to just cook your own meal. You know exactly what you put in it and I know it's like easy to say like, "oh, I'm not a
good cook, I can't cook" but you just need to cook three recipes. Learn how to make three healthy recipes and then you can build from there. It's impossible to just
completely avoid restaurants for the rest of your life,
it's not gonna happen so when I do eat out, I
like to have a balance. So I have this rule called The 2 Rule. So I either pick an appetizer, an entree or an entree and dessert. I'll never get all three, or if I do get all three,
it's like a special occasion but yeah, you don't need all three, you don't need an appetizer,
entree, and dessert that's just a full package. You just need two. Tip number seven is to
reduce your alcohol intake. When I was at my heaviest,
I was probably drinking may two or three times a week
and it definitely showed. There's a lot of empty calories in alcohol and the problem with me was I
would always have drunchies. When I would come home drunk, I would just open up my cupboard, make a snack, throw it in the microwave and I would just eat all of
it to soak up the alcohol and then go to sleep. But I mean I don't even know
if that's scientifically proven but basically, I would eat all that shit and I would wake up the
next morning, hungover and I would always order a burrito. Yeah, it was like a vicious cycle. Obviously, I still drink. I like to go out and have a good time but I only drink once a week now. If I'm gonna drink more than once a week, then I'll only have one drink, that's it. And every time I go out,
I only have a vodka soda with fresh lime, that is my
favorite drink of choice. But then I call it the Skinny Minnie because it only has the
calories of the vodka and I think a shot of vodka is what, like a hundred calories, and that's it! This next tip is about snacking. I don't keep any snacks
that tempt me in my house because I'm the type of person where if I have Hot Cheeto Fries or just any form of Hot
Cheetos, I have to eat the bag. It's kinda like, calling my
name as I'm just in the house. So I just like to cut the temptation and not have any of it in my house. If I really, really want them, then I'll have to get off
my ass and go by them. But if they're not in the house, then I'm not thinking about it. So I know I've been blabbing
a lot about food and diet so I'm gonna talk about the next obvious thing which is exercise. I like to exercise around
three to five times a week and when I was training super hard, I was going five times a week and that in combination with
all the tips that I said made me really shredded. For the first two months, a lot of that weight came
off because of those. I know the ratio is something
like 80% diet and 20% fitness but when you put the exercise in, that 20% goes a long way and when you are just
combining both those forces, a lot of it just melts off. So it's really important
to find a form of exercise that you hate the least. So whether it is kickboxing,
palates, swimming, running, whatever, for
me, it is to train alone. I love going to the gym
by myself, it's become my own little sanctuary. Each of my workouts are
around 50 minutes long. I am obsessed with this
app called Seconds. I have talked about it
in a previous video. It's basically like my
little personal trainer. So I like to start off
with 20 minutes of cardio. I'll use my high-intensity
interval training workout so I'll be on the
StairMaster for five minutes just walking normally, and then I'll run on the StairMaster for 30 seconds, and then I'll walk again
for a minute and 30 seconds, and then I'll run again for 30 seconds. And I'll do this six times
and then I'll cool off with five minutes of
walking on the StairMaster. And by the end of this, I am
literally drenched in sweat and now I'm ready for
my strength training. For my 30 minutes of strength training I won't get too into it but
I basically have created a bunch of playlists that work different parts of my body out. So I have three full body workouts, I have one for the waist, one for the abs and arms, it all depends. I feel like I'm just
gonna do a separate video on that workout because
if I incorporate that into this video, I feel
like it'd be way too long. So be prepared for my
workout video in the future. These days, I only workout
three times a week. It's because I'm not
trying to lose any weight, I'm only trying to maintain
the body I have right now. I'm really happy with my weight and I'm not trying to change anything. I've noticed that since I've been doing the strength training and the weights, it's been easier to just
keep my body the way it is. My last tip is to find motivation that really resonates with you. Back in the day, I feel like a lot of my weight loss inspiration
was quite superficial. It was just about like, "I
wanna be skinny for my birthday" or "I wanna be skinny for Coachella." Once I've found a deeper reason
of why I wanted to be fit, it just propelled me to stay in shape. The reason why I exercise
and I tried my best to stay in shape is for my mental health. I've noticed that back in the day, when I wasn't working out consistently, I had a lot more breakdowns,
I had a lot of meltdowns and I was just very sensitive to stress. Now that I workout three
to five times a week, I don't really have that
issue that much anymore. I'm not perfect but I am so much better than how I was last year. Some days, I just wake
up and I am just bummed but before, I would just kind of be bummed and just let it be like a sad day. Now, if I'm feeling sad
or if I'm feeling anxious or stressed, I hit the gym
because 95% of the time, I come back after a
workout and I feel better. Ben is the most important
person in my life and he lives with me and I
hated being the Debbie Downer. Ben is generally a super positive person and having a bad attitude
is just so contagious and I hated bringing him down and so I knew that this is something that I really needed to work on and exercise has helped me so much. So find a reason that
really sticks with you whether it's because
you wanna be stronger, you want to be able to lift something, whether you wanna run a marathon, or you wanna have inner with yourself, once you find a deeper goal,
it's easier to stick with it. Alright guys, those are my top
10 tips on how I lost weight. Honestly, the first month
is the hardest, I swear, but once you pass that hurdle, it's all downhill from there. And then once you start
seeing physical changes in your body, and once like
pants start to feel loose, then it becomes even easier. If you'd like to leave any diet
tips in comments down below or words of encouragement,
I'd love to hear them. I just want this to be
like a positive place for people to talk about
fitness and nutrition. If there's something that
you don't agree with me, it would be awesome if you just said it in a constructive way as opposed to a way of just attacking me. My point is not to shame
people into losing weight. It's just for the people
that need that extra kick to wanna live a healthier lifestyle. So I hope you guys enjoy
the rest of your day. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye! (smooth jazz music)
