My Top Tips to Help You Lose Weight

 


     I've lost 20 lbs. since the beginning of the year. In 3 months I went from 148 lbs. to 125 lbs.
While I didn't necessarily lose a huge amount of weight, I definitely learned a lot. I lost weight successfully, easily and all in a healthy way. So I wanted to share what I did and give some tips to anyone who might need some help getting started.

     First off, I did not go on a weird or crazy diet. Don't do that. Diets do not work or at least they won't keep you small long term. Don't just cut calories and or carbs. This is an okay option for some people but I would suggest talking to your doctor to make sure that is a right diet decision for you. You need carbs for energy.Without proper energy you won't be able to push yourself during your day and especially during workouts. For you to be successful you have to be willing to change your mind set, learn about nutrition and health and change your lifestyle.

1. Keep track of what you are eating
Measure out correct portions, only cook what you should eat. If you make extra you are more likely to eat more than you should. Also keep track of your calories. You can use the app My Fitness Pal. It tracks your calorie intake and portions. It uses your weight, height and gender to calculate how much you should be eating to maintain or lose weight.

2. Eat Healthy

     A lot of people make them mistake of just counting their calories and eating less. You also have to adjust what you are eating. Eating 1200 calories in potato chips and a cheeseburger won't cut it. You will lose weight but it's less likely to stick and you will eventually binge, plateau or gain it all back and more. You have to create healthy habits so when you reach your goal you can continue to live healthy and maintain your new body. You can start by checking out my grocery list here.

3. Drink water
No soda, juice, sugar drinks and fatty sugary coffee. ONLY water and tea. regular coffee is fine. Just watch your sugar intake and no creamer or milk; almond milk or a soy creamer are good substitutes. Drink at least 64 oz. of water a day!

4. Exercise
While weight loss is hugely based on diet, you have to workout to make sure you are burning enough calories and building nice muscle so you don't just look "skinny" and flabby but toned. Girls tend to worry about lifting heavy, don't! You won't look like a man, promise. The more muscle you have vs. fat the slimmer you will look and the more fat you will burn in general when not doing anything.

5. Chose a plan to follow
Especially for someone just starting, it is a lot easier to have a set plan to follow. You can do a beach body program such as P90X which I really liked! I did this while losing weight. You can go to blogilates.com for free workout calendars and videos. Bodybuilding.com also has great programs to chose from based on your fitness goals.

6. Get rid of unhealthy foods in your house
Your family and or housemates need to be on board. You can't have junk food and tempting items in the kitchen. Toss it!
Feel free to leave questions and comments below :) Follow my blog and my google+.
Check out my youtube videos here. Thanks so much, Ashley

Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of the body.

June's Fitness and Food Challenge

    New section in the blog, YAY! I am starting up monthly challenges for anyone to participate in with me. So even though we are a week into June, I have decided to go ahead and post my challenge.

For the next three weeks I am going to only drink water. Anyone can join me in this at any time even if June is almost over when you are reading this. The only exceptions to this are milk and tea. Milk is fine if it is almond or soy milk. I like it in my protein shakes or with cereal. Tea is fine but only if it is unsweetened.
July's challenges will be posted the last week of June, so look out for it!

Leave me a comment below and let me know if you're in!
You can find all the challenges here

New Fitness goals: Muscle is sexy ;)

   

     I have gotten down to 125.2 lbs. I fluctuate up to 128 depending on what I eat and what not. I now feel like I reached my weight loss goal. Now I am setting new goals. With about, if not over 20 lbs. lost I feel like I need to step up my workouts so that I can build muscle. When I was in The Dominican Republic I wasn't able to eat as clean and as healthy. I didn't have the same options and a lot of times not so healthy food was convenient. I've been back in the states for about a month and have had difficulty drawing that same strict line I had before. I am more lenient than I want to be. I am going grocery shopping tomorrow and once again cutting out the foods I should not be eating. The one thing I need to remember with this lifestyle is that even when I reach a goal, I'm not done. This is an everyday thing and my goals are always changing and challenging me to go further. I am now setting new goals for me to gain more muscle. Right now I am setting a goal to tighten up my body and just gain as much muscle as I can in this next month. For July 4th, Camron and I will be going to his family reunion and so I am setting that as a marker to see just how hard I can push myself and how much of a change I can make in my body in just a month.
Wish me luck :)

Ashley