My Weight loss Journey + CRUCIAL mindset shifts that kept my results | The journey back to myself🤍

Four years ago, I made a decision that changed my life. I committed to six months of showing up for the one person I had not been showing up for for years, myself. At the time, I didn't recognize the girl in the mirror. I felt disconnected and like a shell of a woman I knew I was capable of being. So I went on a six-month journey of creating new habits. I committed to being consistent to each task that I knew would help realign me emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Along that journey, I lost 40 pounds, but that's not what changed my life. What changed my life was becoming a woman I was proud of. One that I knew I could count on. Finding my way back to who I was at my core, and today I'm walking you through what my life actually looks like now as a single mom to four boys. What I eat, how I move, and the habits that help me not just change but maintain it over the last four years. Pretty much every morning since I started my journey four years ago, my six-month journey four years ago, I start my day with scriptures and journaling. This is like a treat for myself. I feel like I look forward to this and then ending my day with this more than anything else. I like to write out my intentions for the day. It just helps me not be lazy or when I know I'm going to be reporting back in my journal tonight, it just helps me, I don't know, just be smarter with my decisions throughout the day. So I like to start with my intentions for the day. Get some spiritual food in my body and this has just been, it's been so therapeutic for me too. I would say I was like the most consistent, like I sometimes would journal multiple times a day going through my divorce and I look back at that journal and it's been like scripture to myself because it's really helped me understand myself and why I do the things I do, why I make decisions I make. Journaling has been like the best thing for me. So if that's something you're not doing, I don't know, journaling has not always been the thing that I'd like to do and sometimes I'm like, I don't even know what I need to write, like what am I writing? If you're struggling with journaling, I would suggest getting one of those five minute journals. That's what I started with when I started my health journey was just one of those because it had prompts and that was really helpful for me. It also helped me focus on looking at the positive things that were going on in my life because especially when I started my journey, I was down bad. I did not like where I was in my life, pretty much in any part of it. So it helped me focus on the good and that's something that will, you know, it just helped me get out of a perpetual depression that felt like I could never get out of. So journaling is huge. I always feel so much better and I feel like I can start my day and like be productive once I get this done. Okay, so as far as my workouts go, I'm still just doing my workouts from home and I'm usually targeting specific muscle groups. These workouts only take about 20 minutes. I do have recordings in my download and I'll be explaining that here in just a minute. It is 12 50 and we're about to have breakfast. I know I'm not like a breakfast first thing in the person. If you are, that's fine and I think a lot of people are that way, but I personally get, I feel sick if I eat breakfast like first thing in the morning. I like to eat after I work out. It's usually when I like to eat. So before I get started, I want to talk about what I'm eating these days because I think this is a very common question I get. So when I documented my six month journey, I was doing macros. I was counting my macros and this is something I highly recommend if you are just starting or if you are trying to lose weight, you need to have some kind of meal plan. It doesn't need to be macros. That's what I did and I felt like that was the most flexible thing and I enjoyed that. But whatever plan you know you can stick to, that's what I recommend. So if you're someone that's like, I love keto or if I do keto, I can stick to that and that's what you should do. Whatever you know you can stick to long-term, that's what I recommend. As far as my eating goes, I would say I'm just intuitively eating and again, not something I recommend right out the gate but if you've been doing this for a long time, I have come to realize that my body tells me what I need. So if I'm low on protein, I can like literally feel my body asking me to feed it protein or veggies or carbs. I can literally tell when there's something that I'm lacking. Almost even like with my vitamins, I can tell the second I'm low on iron and I think it's just been because over the past couple years, I've really paid attention to that. That's kind of what I have been doing. I also know a general, like I have a general idea of what I, how much, how many calories I'm eating and how much protein I'm getting and if you are tracking, I would also have some kind of app that you use. There's like the My Fitness Pal. The one that I loved was Lose It. I haven't used it in quite some time but anyway, this morning, I'm kind of craving sweet and this isn't usually something I have for breakfast but I want, I'm craving like a smoothie. That's what I just keep like, that sounds so good to me right now so that's what I'm gonna make and I have some frozen fruit. Oh and I did get some fresh bananas. I just picked up some fresh bananas so that always helps things blend better so that's what we're gonna have for breakfast. So I'm gonna make that and then I feel like there's a couple things I want to share. Yeah, let's get started. I have a couple minutes before I need to get on a work call. There was a couple, a couple things I wanted to share with you guys before I get on with the rest of my day. This is so good by the way. This just tastes like a treat. It kind of is. I do have my entire journey documented like in a document that you can download. If you are someone who got it before, there are some updates that I've recently made. One of the updates is I have like follow along with you workouts. So they're like video recordings versus what I had in there before were like pictures. So I have like the full workout recorded. If you are someone who likes to work out from home and you want to follow along, those would be super helpful. And then I also added some really, really, really helpful journal prompts. Honestly, I think that these prompts, they're just really thought-provoking. They're gonna really help you understand yourself and why you make decisions you make. Just like why you are the way you are right now and help you unpack that and help you, you know, if there's anything that you need to fix, it's going to open your eyes to that. So there's tons of journal prompts that I've included in this new document. So essentially what's inside of this is there's recipes. I have all the recipes that I use during my journey, workouts. I also have like grocery items or like links to things, journal prompts, and then of course the whole six-month journey checklist. So every task for the day and then you just check it off every day for six months. So all of that is inside of this printable. I do want to say thank you in advance to anyone who downloads this. It's a couple dollars. You know, when I was thinking about like how to create this, I worked on it the whole six months I was doing my journey and then I've obviously added to it since. I wanted to keep it at a price like literally a couple dollars to where anyone who found this video and felt compelled to follow along. I wanted to make sure there was really valuable things in in the printable but also my whole goal is that you really use this and change your life because I can give you a roadmap and I can show you what I did but the only person who's going to change their life is you. You know, you're the one that's going to follow through and you are the one that's going to cross the things off every day. But I did want to say thank you in advance because it's just a couple dollars but that adds up and that is you're supporting me and my kids. So I just want to say thank you. You know, if you feel compelled to download it, I really hope that you let this transform your life and that you commit to yourself and you wake up in six months and you discover you are a completely different person. It's way past lunchtime but my lunchtime I'm feeling like a tuna fish sandwich. How gross is that? Like I think tuna fish, I mean I've heard that tuna is like the grossest fish that there is but it's the only fish that I'll eat. The smell of fish makes me want to actually die. The smell of tuna makes me want to actually die too but for some reason I like it. Something's wrong with me probably. Where's my tuna? Huh? Simon is something wrong with me? Of course not. Is this? This doesn't look right. So this is the gluten-free bread that I like. This is actually the only one I've tried so if you like know of any really good gluten-free breads, this one's fine. So what I'm going to do is I am going to toast this. The bread is pretty small. That's the only thing it's like. Let me show you guys. Like look how tiny those little pieces are but we're gonna toast these, make our sandwich. It's kind of loud out here. While I'm having my lunch I thought I would share what's going on with my whole gluten situation. So my sophomore year which was 22 years, 22-ish years ago, I got really sick for a whole month. I like missed school for a month and I was getting all these tests done and doctors like couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. So this one particular scan I ended up having to go get a scope where they put like a camera down your throat and I was diagnosed with celiac. So again you got to think back 20 plus years ago. This was not a common thing. I'd never heard of this. I didn't even know what like gluten was or like you have to be gluten-free now. I remember asking the doctor like well like what's gonna happen if I keep eating gluten and I specifically remember him saying you will be back in 20 years with health problems. Well fast forward 20 years because I've actually still been I've been eating gluten my whole life. Fast forward I have been getting like uncontrollable amounts of cankers in my mouth like where my entire mouth will break out with them like I'll get like 10 of them and they are massive like they're so painful and I was looking up what some of symptoms of that could be and it's like gluten could be a main problem. So I cut it out which I should have a long time ago. I cut it out and I've noticed that if I eat gluten I have a breakout and if I don't I don't have a besides that is I've been off gluten for the most part for about six months. I would tell you like my inflammation I didn't realize I've been so puffy and inflamed my whole life. A lot of people have been commenting like my face just looks like less puffy. I don't know not just that though like my stomach has always just felt bloated. I've always just felt bloat and I have not felt bloated one time since I've cut gluten out. So here's the thing obviously my body does not like it obviously you guys are probably like why the heck were you still eating gluten all this time. Me and my mom have this memory of going back to the doctor and the doctor being confused and being like wait I don't know if I diagnosed you with that. So we both have this memory of like we were we weren't sure. My dad was there too but my dad is no longer living so we can't like confirm it with him. I should just go get tested again to be honest because that's been my whole thing is I've for 20 years not been sure but with all of I've just had a lot of weird problems lately and so I was like well why not just try not having gluten and see what happens and I feel better. My body feels better without gluten. It's just a pain you guys. I love gluten. I love it so much. It's not the easiest thing to cut out of your diet. I don't know if you've ever tried. I've just been doing the whole gluten-free thing and it's been working well for me so yeah that's that's the story of like why I have been cutting gluten out. The lighting is whack so as I've been my walk today the sun is blinding I might need to while I've been on my walk I've just had a couple thoughts that I wanted to share with you. One of them being I just had a notification of my rings so some of you probably know this but for the past today is day 441 of me closing all my rings. The reason I even bring this up is because consistency used to be like the thing I was the worst at. You know if you were to ask me when I was 35 what do you think your problem is in life? I would say my inability to be consistent. I would say now it's the opposite so hold on that sunshine was killing me. Consistency is now like the one thing that I'm probably the best at. It just got me thinking how we get to decide who we are. You can wake up tomorrow and change your life. You can wake up tomorrow and decide that you are going to be somebody different and I think the coolest thing about life is we have full control over that. So if there's something that you wish that you could be better at or you're like this is like who I've always been and I can't be anything else. Yes you can. Yes you can. Trust me. Trust me. Coming from the girl who literally couldn't stick to something for more than three days. I just like to challenge myself so like the fact that I'm on day 441 not skipping one single day. Not one single day have I missed of closing my rings. I want to finish this thought and if I keep walking I'm going to hit some sunshine so hold on. Come here Ruby. We're going to chill here for one second. Something that I have been doing this wasn't like part of my six month journey but just something that I've been doing is I try to romanticize my life as often as I can. For example walks are something that I do every single day but lately I've been I've been like well where can I go on like prettier walks so I found a cool trail and I have to drive to it. It's a little bit of a distance. This was like one thing that I'm like well I'll just like enjoy my walk more if I like wander off and go somewhere different than like the the regular walk that I do every single day just like around my block. Another thing that I've been doing is I've always kind of not looked forward to making dinner. It's something that I have to do every night right. I got four kids but I was like how can I make this like more of an enjoyable time so I started just like blasting music. This is something I've been doing for a couple of years now but every time I make dinner my kids know when it's dinner time because they hear music in the kitchen and they know I'm just jamming out to music but it makes it more enjoyable and I take bubble baths every single night. I think that's more of like since I've been in this home because it has a gigantic like jacuzzi tub and I'm like I gotta take advantage while I'm renting this place but just little things that I can look forward to doing every day. The mundane tasks don't have to be so mundane. Again this has nothing to do with like the six month journey but it's just about loving your life and the simple moments and I think if we're not doing those like little things for ourselves why like why not every little thing in the day can be more enjoyable. Anytime I can like make myself a yummy drink or light a candle or listen to music just to make the moment a little more special I like to do that. So anyway those are some of my thoughts while I've been on my walk and yeah we're gonna finish this probably go make some dinner. Well just like that it's dinner time. This is something I usually like for lunch but we're gonna have it for dinner and all my kids want it tonight too. So it's a basically a chicken bowl. I don't know what I would even call this. It's got quinoa. It's like a salad but with quinoa and chicken and some veggies and some dressing and it's so freaking good. You guys are gonna love it. You're gonna love it. I've actually shared the recipe on Instagram. I'll post it right here. You guys can see it. First thing I'm gonna just grill up some chicken and that's and then we'll get started with the veggies after that. I don't know what's your budget and I'm like honestly I don't know nothing about mobile. Some sweet potatoes. Which one's Ezra's? Ezra's already eating his. Do you have avocado? That doesn't make you sick? No it doesn't make you sick. Not so good? Yeah. This is pretty typical but the twins are still off with friends. Let's move this Bubba. The twins are off with friends. Ezra's also doing homework so I'm just gonna wait for them to get back for theirs but these kids need to get in baths and gotta get ready for bed huh? I like to do this at nighttime. I like to like close out my evenings just reflecting on the day. In fact when I stick to this part of my day like when I do my journaling at nighttime I do find that I'm way more productive in my day. Like if I commit to this and I'm like okay tonight I'm going to basically report back on how I did I just find myself being way more productive in my day and not being so lazy. So anyway that's what I'm about to do right now. There's a couple things I wanted to kind of like close out the this video with and really talk about the transformation that has happened over the past yeah it's been four years since I've been on my health journey and it's quite unbelievable when I think back to the person that I was the day that I made a decision versus who I am today. So I want to just talk about that for a minute. It was Halloween 2022 and I'll never forget I stumbled across a post on Instagram it was just this little some words on a on like a picture and it said if you did this for six months like if you if you did these things on this checklist every day for six months you would not recognize yourself. That hit me with so much force. I knew I was meant to see that because I took a screenshot of it and I was like I'm doing that. Who I was on that day was a very sad version of myself like someone who had no self-respect no self-esteem. I was operating at probably 10% of who I actually was. I fell out of alignment in pretty much every area of my life and I knew I needed to change but sometimes that's the hardest place to be when like you know you need to change but you just like don't know how you're gonna do it. It felt almost too overwhelming because I wanted everything to be different. I wasn't happy with how anything in my life was going and even though I probably appeared on social media like everything was fine I was not fine. Anyway I remember making the decision like when I wake up tomorrow on November 1st this is who I'm gonna be. I'm gonna do these things on this checklist and there was a couple things that I changed some things that I added but I stuck with it. I got on Instagram and I was like hey everybody I'm doing this for six months. This is my checklist. I'm gonna do it every day for six months and many of you were around for the whole journey. I shared everything. I posted everything about the journey every single day till my six months was done and by the end of it I was unrecognizable. I was a completely different person and I had lost 40 pounds and here's the thing that was like a huge reason why I did it was I'm like I just want to like look better. I want to feel better and I felt like just by doing those two things by losing weight that I was going to you know the byproduct of that was going to be I'd probably feel better about myself and I probably would have self-esteem and blah blah blah but the interesting thing is I feel like truthfully the weight loss was like the bonus. What actually happened internally mentally spiritually all of the things um that was like the coolest part of my whole journey because I was internally changing. I started to realize I wasn't tolerating things I used to tolerate. I just had so much more self-respect and that was really the domino effect that set off the rest of the years that were to follow things that I had no idea that were coming down the pipeline. You know it's been over four years now and it's funny because when I think back to even like the person I was on the last day of six month journey I don't recognize her like who I am today completely different person and I think that's kind of the point. I don't think that we're supposed to stay the same. I think year after year after year you shouldn't recognize yourself. You should be growing. You should be evolving. Yeah so when I just think back to especially the person at the beginning but then even after the six months to now two very completely different people. I meant to share this a little bit earlier because this is actually something else that really shifted and changed everything. So I would say these are the two things that changed my entire life. It was discovering that post like that day. I want to say angels were helping me because when I think back to who I was on that day when I made that decision. When you are operating at such a low version of you it feels so overwhelming and daunting like I don't actually know how I pulled through and accomplished that because mentally I was not capable of doing something like this. So I know that I had extra help like angelic help during the whole journey to get me to where I needed to be but I also stumbled across this. It's like a week into my journey. I stumbled across this quote that said envision the highest version of yourself and start showing up as her and I lived by that quote. Every single decision I made my alarm would go off in the morning and I would want to hit snooze and I would just repeat it to myself like what would the highest version of me do right now? Like what decision would the highest version of me make right now? And I'm like gosh dang it she wouldn't snooze. She'd get up. She'd probably go work out right now and so I would make those decisions. When it came to making breakfast it's like okay what would the highest version of me make? Would she just like pour a bowl of cereal or would she like make a really good breakfast for herself? So those were the things I would continuously ask myself was just you know just keeping myself in check with that question and before I knew it it was just an automatic response. Like any question that came up any decision that came before me I was operating out of well what would the highest version of me do? I'm not saying that I'm perfect with that still to this day but that is something that I go back to anytime I'm struggling with anything or I need to make an important decision or really I mean the small decisions the day-to-day decisions because those are the things that impact your entire life right? The version of you you want to be. What decision is that person making because those are the decisions you need to make now to become the person that you want to be. I just want to end this with you you know like close your eyes and ask yourself that question. What does that version of you look like? Who is the highest version of you and what are the decisions that that person is making every day? You stumbled across this video. If this is the first video you've ever seen of mine I think that you were meant to see this. The day that changed my life it wasn't again I don't mean to repeat myself but it wasn't the day that I got all my results and I was like I stepped on the scale and I saw that number that I've been waiting to see. That was not the day that changed my life it was the day I made the decision and so if that's today for you today is the day that you are making that decision you're saying you know what no more I'm not operating at 10%. I'm not operating out of alignment with myself. I'm not living my life this way anymore. We get to make that decision and we get to be who we want to be. We get to become who we want to become and the only person standing in the way is us. Me. Yourself. I promise you if you stay consistent that's literally all you need. Make that decision today and in six months from right now you will not recognize yourself.