Here is a picture of me on the day that I joined the gym on the left and a picture of me from this morning on the right.
I've never been really "big" per se, but I am definitely loving the results I'm seeing here! Now let me be clear, my results are not all attributed to doing Ripped in 30! The picture on the left is from October 31, 2012 and the right is from today, Feb 1, 2013. Clearly that is longer than 30 days. The first two months after I joined the gym, I was still eating relatively all that I wanted to eat. I was doing better with food choices, but I still enjoyed a cupcake here and there and I still drank alcohol whenever I pleased. I read food labels, but mainly the nutrition label and I would glance at the ingredients just to see how long the list was. After I started eating clean, I started to slim down!
My goal is to be fit and ripped...not skinny and there's a big dag gone difference between the two! As for right now, I appear to be much thinner, but I have a lot more work to go! I want to get stronger and I want to get leaner. The biggest "problem" area on my body has always been my stomach. I am truly trying to tone that up more and hopefully will see some abs shining through! Since it's only been a month of clean eating, I'm excited to see what I'll look like this summer!
10 things to know about me and my journey:
1. I'm doing this all the natural way....clean diet and exercise
2. I'm not taking any type of pills to achieve results. The only supplements I take are: protein shakes (mine just consist of protein powder and water), fish oil, and calcium with iron. I don't use the protein shakes as meal replacements.
3. I'm not on a diet. In the realms of clean eating, I eat what I want! This is a lifestyle change...diets usually last for a little bit of time then you're right back to your old eating habits. I used to have a huge sweet tooth, so I've been getting my sweet tooth satisfied through various foods that are considered "clean". Fruit has probably been my biggest form of satisfaction! I eat a piece of fruit with almost every meal.
4. I work out 6 days/week.
5. I'm not starving myself at all. In fact, I got so excited about buying food last month that I would have preferred to buy groceries over spending my money on anything else.
6. I eat 5-6 times/day. I also eat ever 2-3 hours. Before I started all of this, I called myself eating 5-6 times/day, but I found out that I was actually snacking pretty much all day! I was eating like every hour!
7. I drink a gallon of water every day! Staying hydrated is very important! When I first started, I had a hard time getting the whole thing down. Not that I didn't like water, but it was just difficult to drink a whole gallon. I started pacing myself too because getting up all night long to use the bathroom was annoying. Bed pan please!!!!
8. I stopped drinking alcohol! Yes...that's right...gone! I will admit that I did have a glass of red wine while out with friends. Basically if I do decide to drink, it'll probably just be red wine. The empty calories and the dehydration were counterproductive to achieving my goals.
9. I stopped eating fast food! The last time I had fast food was when I was in the airport flying home from Memphis (January 4th was the exact date). I always prepare food to take with me from now on because I have to be prepared or else I'll resort to eating fast food due to the fact that I'm starving and desperate. Again, counterproductive to my goals.
10. Progress is slow, but consistency wins all the time!!! If you're in the process of trying to reach your fitness goals, keep going, stay consistent, and progress will come!! Stay motivated and encouraged!!
Great tips! Looking forward to following your journey.
ReplyDeleteHey Girl! It's Jentae and I am so proud of you! I admire yu for being able to work out 6 days per week. With a child and a family, 3-4 days is the max I can realistically do......any suggestions for mommies with a limited amount of time to work out? How can we make the most of the little time we have to work out?
ReplyDeleteHey Jentae!!! Thanks for reading! And that's definitely a good question! Because I don't have children, my answer may not be the most feasible, but I will try my best. I believe you can achieve great results from working out 3-4 days/week. I do 6 because I love it and I have the time. Going for 6 days isn't necessarily to speed up the process or to get better results. No matter how many days you go or how much time you put in, what you're eating is the #1 most important factor in whether or not you will see results. Like I said in the post, before I started eating clean, I was going to the gym faithfully and was staying there for hours at a time. I also did not want to believe the whole 80/20 rule. I thought I could just stay at the gym for hours and get great results while eating whatever I wanted. This method has helped me to maintain and look the same, but I wanted to lose and change. As soon as I changed my diet, results started to show. I also suggest you lift weights!! A lot of women shy away from weights for fear of "bulking" up or looking "manly". Muscle BURNS fat even while you're not exercising. It also helps shape our bodies better. 5lbs of fat is like the size of 5 grapefruits compared to 5lbs of muscle is like the size of 5 clementines. Also check out my post called "Ain't Nobody Got Time for Fat". I talk about doing High Intensity Interval Training when you don't have a lot of time. This method gets your heart rate up and you burn calories long after you finish exercising. Workout DVDs are great too so you can workout at home while your daughter is napping or occupying herself with toys. I recommend any Jillian Michaels program/DVD and Bob Harper also has great workouts which are on sale on his website right now! I have also heard about a woman named Cathe Friedrich who has a killer HIIT DVD. Google her and you can order her DVDs off of Amazon or probably her website. It's probably cheaper on Amazon though. I've never done her DVD, but the trailer looks pretty awesome!
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