I needed to pick myself up for the Thirsty 30 Body Challenge. So I took to downloading The Outbreak Escape Virtual Run App by FIX Health as motivation to get active.
I’m falling behind on following through with my Thirsty 30 Body Challenge. I haven’t been doing HIIT Training or much of any exercise. So I can’t say I remained disciplined during the earlier months of 2021. I guess quarantine was getting a bit stale with the repetitive routines. So I needed something new to change the pace.
While we were in the midst of a lockdown in Maryland during the “5K Season,” opportunities were readily available. Like many of the art exhibitions that emerge around town during the pandemic, we are fortunate to have plenty of opportunities geared to physical fitness, as well. There are lots of outside meetups for yoga and virtual meetings making up for limited space or closed gyms. It’s easy finding something to remain physically active while social distancing.
In April, my sister came across a game called The Outbreak, a virtual run geared to promoting physical fitness through the use of one of the most popular horrid themes in video game history; escaping a zombie apocalypse.
The people at FIX Health appeal to people that are just like me. People that require a little more than the daily run around the track. Like when you can’t visit the gym or are tired of trying different YouTube Fitness Channels, FIX Health is there with an alternative.
FIX Health was founded on “the belief that all aspects of life are enhanced by a healthy lifestyle.” The company develops interactive games promoting health and daily activity in a fun, socially connected environment. TheOutbreak is one product by the company used in numerous workplaces promoting employee wellness and morale. “…its programs focus on daily movement and an incremental increase in active minutes overtime. Participants are chased by digital zombies in an app that features a storyline along with daily and weekly goals that require teamwork to complete.”
For a month as a new fitness routine to get into while still in a pandemic, I joined my sister in completing Escape Virtual Run hosted by FIX Health.
I downloaded Outbreak with major hopes of outrunning the virtual zombies in the allotted time. The game’s storyline begins with a mission to reach the safehouse which is 60 miles from the starting point. Each day, I logged my daily steps by syncing my fitness watch with the app. My progress is converted to miles and tracked using a map to showcase my distance from the flesh-eating zombie hoard. Zombies close in on my avatar on this escape mission. It’s my duty to continue out walking them using my real steps. It took me 24 days to reach the safehouse; only six days sooner. I am proud to say I completed the mission in less than 30 days.
Watch my review of The Outbreak: Zombie Escape Virtual Run
Join The OutBreak: Escape Virtual Run
If you’re interested in doing this virtual run, you’ll need to purchase your entry ticket before you can have full access to the app. You can sign up by visiting their website: www.outbreakchallenge.com.
Calorie counting is another weight loss method that helps keep the focus on Thirsty 30 Body. There are numerous apps that help make calorie counting easier, like My Fitness Pal and My Plate, that provide a digital space to log daily meals, exercise, and water intake. Today we’re focusing on Lose It. As mentioned before in “#Thirsty30Body: Essential Fitness Tools. Items You May Already Have Lying Around,” my preferred calorie tracker is the Lose It App. We’re reviewing how to log the food you love to eat (fast food) into Lose It.
Chipotle Mexican Grill added a new cilantro-lime cauliflower rice option to their menu at US and Canadian locations for a limited time. It’s an alternative to the white or brown rice choices, and also the latest plant-based option that is compliant with Keto, Whole30®, Paleo, Vegan, and Vegetarian diets. So now veggie lovers can make “veggier” burritos and burrito bowls. I thought this would be the best time to show how to log “fast food” on the calorie counter.
Eating healthier options is a top priority in #Thirsty30Body. This is why I’m not showing how to add a McDonald’s meal or any other fast food meal into the app. We’re sticking to choosing healthier choices by dining at restaurants that provide fresher options. Chipotle Mexican Grill has healthier foods to choose from and is easily searched within the app. So trying the cauliflower rice at Chipotle is in line with what we’re trying to do by choosing a healthier way of living for #Thirsty30Body.
How to Log Food in Lose It App:
Select the Meal You’re Logging
There are 4 to choose from; Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Snack. Each meal is broken down into a calorie budget of four different numbers that combine into the overall daily calorie budget. Add the food one by one using the search bar.
Search by Restaurant or Brand
This makes it so much easier to search for options rather than to search by name of food. This narrows down the search to only food relative to that restaurant or brand. Doing this will prevent generalized options from appearing in the search results and will help with retrieving a more accurate calorie count.
Logging the Correct Serving Size
Becoming familiar with the Nutritional Facts label is beneficial. This will tell us the exact amount of nutrients in what we eat. There are a lot of restaurants that provide the nutritional facts for food serviced on their websites. There are sometimes entire menus that list calories of a meal posted inside of a restaurant. When someone is aware of serving sizes, they’re aware of the proper portion sizes for a meal.
Take Note of Your Meal’s Calorie Intake
Being aware of each meal’s calorie total will help with planning the next meal. If you spend most of your calorie budget on breakfast, you’ll know that you have a limited amount of calories for the remainder of the day.
Watch how I log my Chipotle Burrito Bowl:
Can you name another restaurant with healthier options you can practice logging in to Lose It? Leave comments below.
Eating healthy is a huge part of losing weight. There are numerous diets people subscribe to hoping it’s the solution to their weight loss journey. I don’t subscribe to any diet but I do have a routine I follow for my breakfast smoothies each morning. This Thirsty 30 Body blog is how I start my mornings eating healthy. I’m sharing my recipe for my morning breakfast smoothie.
One of the most popular dietary fads today is the Keto Diet. Almost every recipe on my Pinterest timeline is geared to the keto diet. Nearly every recipe book I find in the bookstores is catered to keto followers. Nothing is wrong with this diet. In fact, many people show proof that it’s very effective. To me, it’s just another fad diet like intermediate fasting or Atkins diet. They’re temporary fixes for quick weight loss that people keep up for a time being but rarely subscribe for extended periods of time.
I’m not a member of diet fads. I don’t support what’ll be a temporary fix for everyday health. Such fads are meant to help your weight for the moment, like when we see someone prepping for their wedding day 2 weeks prior to their wedding date, or prom being a month away and needing to fit in that perfect dress. To have lifetime results, it’ll require lifestyle changes that surpass small dietary changes like keto or even Weight Watchers. These fads do not provide solutions for the long term. Making a dietary change like becoming vegetarian or vegan is considered to be a lifestyle change. It’ll require more preparation and time to make a healthy habit. The results are worth the switch because the benefits of these healthy diets can lead to a more prosperous and wealthy long living life.
How do I convince myself eating healthy is a priority over a quick solution?
If I’m going to change how I eat, it’ll be to help me, not hurt me. That’s the whole point of Thirsty 30 Body, I’m changing my lifestyle to implement healthier habits. Eating a diet that is natural and won’t require too much effort will be the best for me. So I approached eating healthier similar to my switch to natural hair. It was a clean one.
What I learned while taking care of my natural hair that I’ll carry with me in my quest for eating better is less is more. The least amount of products that I put in my hair the better my hair will look. Pure shea butter and olive oil do my hair justice. There really isn’t much required to keep my hair well. My hair growth is astounding. When approaching eating cleaner, I felt there would be a similar result for less. If I ate foods with little to no preservatives and added ingredients, my skin would glow and I’d appear more energetic. If I stick to clean eating, there wouldn’t be much I’d need to be healthy. I was correct. This is why I’m 30 lbs down. Alongside working out, I remember to keep my diet clean and as natural as possible. My skin is flawless and I created a healthy habit.
I eat a lot of Whole Foods and Whole Grains. I consume plenty of fruits and vegetables. I rarely eat processed food. I also cook for myself often, rarely going out to eat. My breakfast is usually a raw meal, meaning most times it’s not required for me to cook. I eat fruit and smoothie bowls for breakfast, salads or leftovers for lunch, and try to save warm and savory options for dinner. I repeat, repeat, and repeat this way of eating until it becomes a habit. I become a clean eater.
Starting Your Day with a Balanced Breakfast
Last year I shared a video to Instagram of my famous breakfast smoothie. I wanted to share my most important meal of the day to motivate others on how simple it is to get started.
Breakfast might not be your most important meal of the day. But starting on the right path at the beginning of the day, helps me stay on track for the rest of the day. I try not to go a day without eating breakfast. But missing out on lunch or dinner is okay as long as I still receive enough calories for the day.
Watch how I make my healthy smoothies for breakfast.
Bullet journals are not literal journals that house bullets.
In #Thirsty30Body: Essential Fitness Tools. Items You May Already Have Lying Around, I mentioned using a tracking system to help hold a person accountable for their weight-loss goals. Trackers, such as Lose It App or utilizing a fitness watch, are two major resources I use to stay accountable for reaching my Thirsty 30 Body. These trackers are easily accessible on my phone so that I mark my progress daily. I like having digital access most times, but I’ll always keep a special place in my heart for analog to-do lists and trackers. It’s just something about manually scratching something off my lists that makes the experience more personal and productive.
Bullet journaling is a method considered as an easy-to-use and basic way of tracking a weight-loss program. It can be achieved through using a simple calendar, planner, or notepad barely in use at home. Anyone with the time or simply the creative energy like me could turn a plain planner into their Thirsty Body Bible.
Filling the pages of a basic notebook is like filling a blank canvas. It’ll showcase all my habits of what makes me who I am. If done properly, I can look back in my notes from days, months, and even years ago and know why I react the way that I did in any situation. I attribute it to taking notes about my habits and activity.
Today I want to share a few Bullet Journal Tips that I utilize to help push me towards Thirsty 30…
Choosing the Best Journal
A medium 5×7 inch journal is the perfect size journal to use for bulleting your methods. This size is super small and easily accessible. I love small journals mostly because they fit into any bag that I carry. Large journals are okay, but I don’t carry them as often if my purses don’t allow the space. I need something small that I know will be able to have in front of me when I need to get it. I also like journals without lines because every so often I like sketching random things on the blank pages. The whiter the page, the more space I have for my imagination.
Use Visual Charts, Pictures, and Lists to Visually Track Progress
Using weekly task lists and graphs help provide a little order in areas of my life I need to have control over. I follow a daily to-do list. I even use tables and charts in my bullet journal to keep track of my bills and expenses. For Thirsty 30 Body, my bullet journals include Meal prep, workout routines, motivational quotes, recipes, and anything that I’ll create into a bulleted list goes into my book.
A common chart I use in my notebook is my 6 to 12-week workout program. I have a Life Planner by Erin Condren that I live by that houses these workout plans. The 6 to 12-week workout plan is a chart that I use whenever I’m ready to go on a workout sprint. I created it to breed commitment. I recognize when it’s needed to call out time to focus on my goal to get healthy. So to train my mind to commit to this goal, I follow through by staying consistent with completing this plan.
I’ll share a few Thirsty Body Bible Pages with you to help you commit to a plan.
Gel and scented pens, sticky notes, highlighters, stickers, and washi tape are all essential items to have whenever I’m meditating in my bullet journal. It makes the process exciting to get through when I’m creating and designing from my imagination. It’s similar to telling a visual story. Many of the elements I put on the pages were placed there to recall times when I filled the journal page. Each page is unique. I could never be confused about where I am in my progress because each page in the journal is of its own design. So getting creative is necessary for building a personality for the journey.
These are just three simple bullet journaling methods I use in my notebooks. There are many more that I have yet to explore. These three steps are good starter methods for analog tracking if digital isn’t working. They’re well worth the try if you’re looking for a better way of organizing your journey.
Do you know of any basic bullet journaling methods that should be added to this list? Leave them in the comments below.
Starting before I was Ready provoked my search for finding what’s necessary to get through my #Thirsty30Body journey. It was when I made the conscious choice to get fit and take the initiative, I learned how frequently I should think about my health, small tasks I could include throughout my day to motivate me to remain active, and the essential tools that will assist me on this quest. Today I’ll be sharing the essential tools I use for reaching thirsty 30.
Last year, I trained at Hero Fit with only my gym attire, which was an old work T-Shirt for Baltimore’s HFS Alternative Rock station, a pair of navy blue sweatpants, and a cheap pair of easy slip-on tennis from Wal-Mart. I quickly learned that that wasn’t enough gear for this journey after attending class for 2 weeks. I needed to invest in my health, fully. As mentioned before I started Thirsty 30 Body on a mission to strengthen my will-power muscle. So I thought of registering for Hero Fit as enrolling in an expedited college semester because the program was in total 12-weeks (if you didn’t meet the initial 6-week challenge to lose 20 lbs of 5 % fat.) I already bet money towards joining so I equated investing in fitness attire and equipment similar to preparing for college coursework, like buying the textbooks needed for class.
I’ll keep it simple. What was beneficial for me to have last August at the start of Thirsty 30 Body Challenge as tools for getting ahead were all of the following that still remains essential tools in mid-progress. These are items that anyone could have lying around and don’t require you to go out of your way to purchase.
Perfect Pair of Tennis Shoes (or prepare to be barefoot)
So this is a little embarrassing. My shoes completely came off in Bootcamp class while working out. It’s because of the cheap shoes I decided to workout in weren’t being my friend at the moment. A couple of mountain climbers into the routine, my shoes started sliding off my heels. I had to take my shoes completely off in front of a class of about 20 people to finish the routine. When two of those people walk up to me suggesting where to buy some good tennis, I sort of thought maybe my feet stank? Reality settled in that nobody wants to see the feet of a stranger even if they’re decked out with 90’s Nickelodeon cartoons. Tennis is the first essential tool to have towards Thirsty 30 Body.
I scrolled through the Nike online store in search of the perfect shoes for HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training), which was the majority of the workouts conducted in Bootcamp. Shoes suited for this kind of fitness training is what I felt best in investing. After I purchased tennis for HIIT, I also used them while participating in 5K walks such, as the Black Light Run, and even some free local Zumba classes hosted at a neighborhood elementary school. The shoes are good for most activities. Get a pair of great HIIT tennis and your feet will thank you. Maybe even your Bootcamp class, too.
A Sports Bra or Compression Shorts
People with extra cushion can attest to their bodies willingly flopping everywhere when they’re being active. So when working out during Bootcamp I spent 4 weeks struggling to breathe because my breasts kept hitting me in the face every time I did jumping jacks in Bootcamp class. Lawd, all my life…!
The other heavily blessed women in my Bootcamp class sympathized and pointed me in the direction to where I could purchase a sports bra suited for a woman of large breasts. Amazon was the spot. While I was at it, I made sure to get some yoga pants and compression shorts to hold the rest of my cushion together. These are all beneficial for anyone looking for that extra help during high-intensity workouts that sometimes makes us too jiggly for our liking. Compression attire is the next best essential equipment to have in your weight-loss journey.
Fitness Watch (Tracker)
Mi Band 4
Have you ever tried tracking your steps or your workout activity using a fitness watch or fitness tracker on your phone? It’s the perfect way to help form personal accountability and builds a view of individually-tailored goals. Almost all smartphones come equipped with fitness apps used for tracking physical activity, heart rate, and daily steps. I use the stats in fitness apps to give me a visual of my progress over time. It helps to keep track of the habits I already have and highlights things that need improvement.
Mi Band 4by Xiaomi Technology is the fitness tracking watch I use for monitoring my physical activity. The band cost me less than $50 and has a battery life that expands pass 15 days. That’s this watch’s valued features. The watch comes with a Mi Fit app for download to a smartphone that tracks all progress using your personal profile. You also learn your progress measured amongst thousands of other Mi Fit users, which is beneficial for the competitive folks. It doesn’t have the full functionality as many popular smartwatches, like FitBit or Apple Watch. I like that because I believe it limits the multiple notifications and distractions that could occur using either of those smartwatches. Mi Band and Mi Fit are simple and straightforward with keeping its fitness features catered as a priority. That’s perfect for me for keeping focused on my physical activity.
Google Fit is a great and free app to download if your phone doesn’t have a fitness tracker. I would say it has all the generic functions you’d want to use for starting off and very similar to Mi Fit in having the same exercise tracking features.
Lose It App
I’m an active user of the Lose It Calorie Tracking App community since my college days when I used to live off bags of popcorn from the University convenience store telling myself that eating fiber from the popcorn would give me the energy to get through mid-day lectures. In turn, eating popcorn just made a lot of noise during class.
Lose It is a calorie counting app with“the goal of helping members reach a healthy weight by providing them with the tools they need for success.” Users can set goals, track meals, learn about the foods they eat and reach their goals to set new ones to build towards a healthier lifestyle. I use it mainly for calorie tracking. It has definitely been a challenge to use the app. But after spending literally 8 years using Lose It, I can say I now have a habit of calorie counting that Lose it has contributed to making healthy eating a lot easier.
In the next coming weeks, I’ll share on Thirsty 30 Body series a more in-depth Lose it App walkthrough of how I use the Lose App as a tool for meal planning and calorie counting.
Excellent workout attire such as a good pair of training shoes and compression pants are essential for your training uniform. Fitness trackers and calorie counters are essentials for keeping all your logistics in order. These are 4 tools that’ll always be great items to have at all stages of your workout journey. They’re all affordable and readily accessible at any time in your process, too. So the pressure for getting them can be very low, but the benefits of having them still remain.
What other essential items do you think are good tools to have during your weight-loss journey? Feel free to leave your essentials in the comments below.
Procrastination is a bitch. That’s why when I catch myself doing it, I revert to remembering that procrastinating isn’t productive at all whenever I’m pursuing a new endeavor. No one has the perfect solution to battling it. Everyone has to deal with it eventually.
To keep me on my toes and away from procrastinating, I know I need to always push myself to start things before I think I’m ready and to never give up by becoming my own pest. These two things will also push you towards a pathway towards fighting through procrastination too. Starting now and just keep bugging yourself.
Start before you think you’re ready by 1st finding one healthy goal to pursue and just do it.
The 1st healthy goal I chose was figuring out how to incorporate a consistent workout routine into my weekly schedule. We should have a goal to be active daily. I am not that. So to start off simple, I needed to think of ways to fit working out within my schedule outside of my job. I wanted to complete this at least for a month. If I can say I incorporated a consistent workout routine in a month, I’d be proud to say I scratched it off my goals list.
In the early fall of 2019, Facebook decided to advertise a lot of fitness ads in my timeline, which became the path chosen for whipping myself into a routine. Hero Fit’s 12-week workout challenge was one of the many Bootcamp campaigns in Maryland at the time that had a very enticing program and incentive I opted not to turn down. The challenge granted me the opportunity to take a chance on a whim to bet on myself to meet a goal. If I could lose 20 lbs or 5 % body fat by the end of the 12-week challenge, I could win a trip for two to Las Vegas and $500. While losing weight was already on my mind, money and vacation became the objects of my desires. I contacted Hero Fit to inquire more about their fitness challenge, and next thing I knew, I was attending 30-minute boot camp classes 3 to 4 times a week as if I was registered for a class in community college.
I didn’t think about creating an immaculate workout plan. I knew the structure would come as I go. I just wanted to make getting moving part of my regular schedule as soon as I clock out of work. Bootcamp helped their participants in doing this by holding them accountable for checking in to every class using a login system only accessible in the class. The rule of the challenge was to log in at least 3 times a week.
In my next #Thirsty30Body blog, I’ll share with you the makeshift 6-week workout challenge I made at home using a grid book for tracking days that I workout.
#Thirsty30Body 6-Week Challenge
Make it a habit to become your own pest.
I love stationery! Notebooks, planners, and sticky notes are reminders, outside of my daily reminders app on my phone, which helps keep me focused on what needs to be done. My to-do lists are posted everywhere I frequently look so tasks can stay at the forefront of my mind to complete. This secretly annoys me deep within, but I know through lifelong habit, it works. I’m eternally grateful for this habit I’ve gained because I reap so many benefits staying up with note keeping. I’m my own pest when it comes to getting what I want to be done.
Whenever I want to start a healthy eating habit, I challenge myself with this 28 Day Rule. It’s my way of being a pest. I’ve done this with multiple challenges that I’ll later highlight in the #Thirsty30body blog series. For now, I’ll share an easy one that you can begin with on your healthy journey; forming the habit of drinking more water daily.
Drinking my daily average water intake is one of my easiest healthy habits developed over the course of #Thirsty30body, and all it took was reminding myself to carry my water bottle with me and to not purchase drinks while out, daily, for 28 days. I purchased a water bottle from Amazon and carried it with me like a purse every moment I could. My water bottle had time measurements labeled along its side to help me stay on track for where my level of hydration should be in my day. I don’t always follow the timestamps, but I’m reminded by just looking at my bottle that if I finish this bottle twice in one day, I’ve had all the water I need.
When you’ve got the hang of your new habit, set a new healthy goal to pursue. I find that when you set goals this way, tackling them one at a time and creating a routine, it becomes painless going for new healthy habits.
Start now! Don’t overthink your masterplan for how you’ll lose 30 pounds on the first day you choose commitment. Sometimes drafting an entire blueprint in one day can be overwhelming. Start off simple, like drinking water daily for 28 days, conquer it, then move on to your next healthy goal. One step at a time, you’ll devise a working healthy plan. The important part is getting started.
Do you have another healthy habit that you want to form during #Thirsty30body Challenge? Leave what great habits you think would be good starter goals in the comments below.
I did a poll via the Doc’s Castle Instagram and Facebook pages and found out 88% of followers would like me to share a few tips towards my #Thirsty30Body.
Eff the 12% of haters who said no. 😂 Agreeing to share what I know about becoming more fit will help me stay motivated to stay on track, as well. So boo to you and hooray to everyone else who’s helping me stay motivated. I will be posting blogs, videos, and tips regularly to Doc’s Castle in hopes that some of you will want to join in with me.
As I am entering into the second half of Thirsty 30 Body Challenge, I want to share four starting tips that I keep in mind as I prep for these next coming months. Here they go:
Get in the mind frame to get healthy, not only to look good.
When thinking of getting healthy, I frame my thoughts to focusing on what makes me feel good and what are good habits to have. I’m not the type to worry about having an hourglass figure or needing a big butt or chest because the attention it awards isn’t what I want. It’s already hard on women when we feel the pressures of wanting to feel attractive and there are thousands of images being pushed of models and celebrities half-naked in the mainstream media. Those pressures I’ve never embraced. It’s nice knowing that I look good. But I welcome compliments that uplift me and enjoy getting attention based upon my intellect for what I do. I want to keep it like that. So what makes this weight loss journey a “Thirsty” one?
“Thirsty” defined in the urban dictionary means:
An adjective used in describing a person deliberately fishing for compliments, attention, etc.
Too eager to get something (especially play)
Desperate
But I’m defining what “Thirsty” means for me in year 30. I’m encouraging healthy living and hopefully aspiring to be thirsty for a healthier lifestyle. So it begins with what it means to look and feel healthy. It’s not about the physique though I will reap those benefits. The #Thirsty30body is the perfect body for ME! Thirsting for wealthy health.
Spend time getting to know yourself.
Knowing how much I weigh, though it’s good to start with, wasn’t enough for me to get moving and actively exercising because, as I said in the intro to the #Thirsty30Body Blog Series, I never looked at myself to be “big.” My motivation sparked after hearing results from my doctor’s visit to my primary care provider. As preventive care, it’s important that I know everything inside of my body is copacetic because I have things to accomplish, goals to achieve, and a life to live with people that I love. So I like to get bloodwork and vitals taken annually. I do this to be aware of what’s happening in my body so that I can control what happens to and within me.
I like to live by this saying: No one should know you more than you know yourself mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. It just seems foolish to me to go an entire life doing what is told of you at all times. If you live your life questioning things, you learn new things about the world and yourself. I apply this to everything I do. It makes sense to do it while on this journey as well. So I say do more than weighing yourself on the scale. Really get to know your body past the numbers. Really get into the anatomy and understand what makes you feel good or bad.
Set your Goals and tracking system for accountability.
After getting my measurements, vitals, and all that is needed to understand my body, I went into the “Taylor University” mode, which is when I spend time meditating with my journal. Healthy living is better than simply losing weight because I prefer to not hear the same disappointing results again the following year. So I use my journal to make goals writing out everything about my body in its current state, and I keep track as often as I want of my progress.
There are multiple other ways that helped with tracking that don’t necessarily require you to drag around a notebook, like joining and participating in fitness groups and clubs online where people can help encourage you, taking and saving pictures whenever weight loss milestones are met, or simply regularly recording your weight loss in a monthly calendar. All these activities helped hold me accountable and motivated me in some way to stick to #Thirsty30Body.
Be kind and patient with yourself and keep pushing through it.
This is probably the most important tip I could give because at the end of the day, you are responsible for holding yourself accountable for getting healthy. People forget how hard they can be on themselves when critiquing their own work in whatever they do. They can start off strong, then fall off so fast because they didn’t pace themselves to be realistic in their journey. After that, they give up. Be kind to yourself and don’t get lost in disappointment if you haven’t quite met your goal. Be patient and allow a realistic timeframe to meet those goals. But also know when to pick yourself up to get the work done to achieve what you’ve started.
Something my mother would say whenever we’d talk about going through hard times is “There’s Always Tomorrow.” She’d say this whenever we’d hear crazy things happen like mass shootings or awful dealings that ended in demise or turmoil. Though resulting in thinking like this might be a little extreme for pursuing losing weight, it works perfectly for me. It won’t hurt me if I haven’t met a goal to lose 2 lbs in one week. I can dust myself off for the following week, and I’m not saying that without revisiting “Taylor University” to make changes to finally meet that goal at some point. I just keep pushing through it. Eventually, I’ll lose those two pounds. So be kind to your mind and body, and also remain determined.
What are somethings that you do to help prepare to lose weight? Leave your answers in the comments below. Also, subscribe to get updates to your email for the next #Thirsty30Body post via subscription form below.
My weight-loss journey started in 2018. Nothing to do with it being about losing weight because I never viewed myself to be “big.” I was going through a moment I was falling off of a path of knowing what I wanted to do in life. It’s the first time I would publicly admit I was going through a moment of depression. I had recently quit my job as a dental business assistant, was dumped by my boyfriend at the time, and unfortunately was getting physically sick very often. I wasn’t feeling like my usual self. My journey started as another escape route from my self induced coma of writer’s block from updating DCM, as well. I thought why not go to the gym because I’m not doing anything else but working just to get off work to lounge all day. After hitting the gym a few times, I notice I felt more energized. Then I connected losing weight to feeling better which was the little motivation I needed to get out of a bad mood.
In 2015, I took an interest in studying how to strengthen my “will-power” muscle as a way out of some “drama.” So much so, self-discipline was my focus word coming into 2015, before I started making vision boards. It was another dark period for me. But I considered it an era where I truly started to understand my place in Baltimore’s Arts and Underground Culture, as well. I started taking the same mini habits and principles I learned and valued about myself during that time as a blueprint for how to get back to my sane place in 2018.
By little habits, I mean, I used my knowledge of the small habits about myself I’ve jotting in my notebook to push me forward. I already knew so much about fitness and weight loss because I’m a daughter to a dietitian. Since elementary school, I’ve known the food guide pyramid from corner to corner. Ask any of my friends about the foods I like to eat when we’re dining out, and they’ll say I’m the only person they know who’d order a salad as an entre for a meal. In this new journey, I decided to focus on the little parables, habits, and principles I valued as a way to help me set and achieve goals towards losing weight.
Here’s five examples of what I mean by habits, sayings, and principles I jotted in my notebook:
If I carry a small notebook and flip through reading its pages often, it’ll inspire me to write and track new ideas in it often. (Using a notebook to keep recipe notes, nutritional tips, and shopping lists).
If something is constantly in your face, view it as a notification that needs to be swiped away. (This helped me with posting notes of weight-loss goals everywhere I looked often and taking them down whenever I completed them.)
“It takes 28 days to form a habit.” (Kept this in mind to help build my habits to eating new foods and drinking water daily.)
The rule of 3 and 5 when completing my To-Do lists. (I used this while following Meal plans and completing challenges.)
Making and completing mini-challenges are additional ways to developing steps for reaching your set goal. (Knowing this helped me to set squat challenges and not eating white carbs for a week challenges.)
I used simple ideas I always thought about as a foundation for building a productive lifestyle and as a way to form a healthy persona I wanted to meet.
I officially began pursuing what I now call the #Thirsty30Body challenge at the end of summer 2019 on a whim when I decided to join a 6-week fitness Boot camp named Hero Fit in Columbia, MD. I did it seeking to find another way to “self-discipline” and strengthen my will-power muscle because I reached another period in my life I believed I needed to regain focus. But this time I thought, “Hmm, what if I put a deadline on it?” That’s where 30 came into play.
Hero Fit reeled me in with their enticing incentive to reward anyone who met their challenge of either losing 20 lbs or 5 % body fat by 6-weeks. Winners could get $500 reward, have a trip for two to Las Vegas, and a 6-month membership for the fitness gym and resources. Hero Fit provided all their clients with an accountability coach and nutritionist to assist each member with carefully crafted fitness plans provided at the start of joining the 6-week challenge. People who join the boot camp gain friendships and plenty of useful information to aid in achieving a healthy lifestyle.
I didn’t win the Hero Fit challenge though I was short of the reward by only 3 lbs. I continued to take everything I did while enrolled in boot camp with me because what I found out was that my accountability coach and nutritionist knew as much as I did about my body. My meal plan and workout routine remained the same regardless of being enrolled there. It’s the accountability that gets me to where I needed to be and the best results.
Ding ding! It’s accountability and tracking that literally keeps me together in anything I choose to do. So I stuck to my notebook of simple notes and habits as a way to stay on track of my fitness goals. I believed in myself. I believed in my own accountability to reach my goal so much so that I betted on myself to do it without throwing money at things I wasn’t contributing to using on a regular basis, like my Planet Fitness Membership or subscribing to detox or fasting. All these things some people would think are absolutely necessary to lose weight. I canceled my subscriptions, memberships, and attention for everything I currently used for weight loss, and resorted to free resources and “habits” I knew I would actually enjoy doing to get me to my halfway mark of the #Thirsty30Body challenge.
At the start of the #Thirsty30Body Challenge, I weighed in on the scale at Hero Fit at 226 lbs. At the halfway point of July 1, 2020, I weighed in at 204 lbs. I lost a total of 22 lbs and I feel great! I’m not done. But definitely feel better. And weirdly so…this journey doesn’t feel hard at all because I’ve created new healthy habits that become normal daily actions. My body is starting to look like BAM and I like it.
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As I shared my pictures on my IG, people reached out for advice on how I stuck to losing weight. If you would like me to share some challenges I do to keep up with my #Thirsty30Body challenge, write “Do it” in the comments section below.
