#Thirsty30Body: Start Your Morning Eating Clean (Breakfast Smoothie Recipe)

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.

[Read Top 10 Most Popular Diets by RealBuzz]

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.

[Read 11 Different Ways to Start Clean Eating from Healthline]

What is a clean diet?

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.

#Thirsty30Body: My Bullet Journal Methods That Help Reach My Fitness and Nutrition Goals

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.

[Read: This Is How I Bullet Journal My Fitness and Nutrition Goals Everyday to Stay on Track by Popsugar]

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.

Download this printable chart of a 6-12 Week Workout Program, here.

Get Creative!

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.

[Read 21 Ways to Use Washie Tape by Journal with Purpose]

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.

#Thirsty30body: Start Before You’re Ready and Be Your Own Pest

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.

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.

“It takes 28 Days to Form A Habit.”

This quote written in my notebook is the starting point for where most of my healthy habits are formed. This idea stems from the 1960s Psychology Theory by Maxwell Maltz that it takes 30 days to form a habit. Maltz wrote the book Psycho-Cybernetics to prove the 30-day habit-breaking theory, and also “postulated that a person must have an accurate and positive view of his or her self before setting goals; otherwise, he or she will get stuck in a continuing pattern of limiting beliefs.” This same concept also highlighted as one of the four steps of getting started with #Thirsty30Body: Get in the mind frame to get healthy, not only to look good.

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.

Source: The Hearty Soul: Here’s How Much Water Your Body Needs to Lose Weight

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.

http://www.instagram.com/p/Bh2hGC4nie_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

You should try it!

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.