 Hi friends, welcome back to my channel and a very special welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen, I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and I'm on WW personal points. Happy Friday friends, I hope you had an absolutely amazing, amazing week. Today we're gonna talk about my week, set some goals for next week, the WW workshop topic and of course, I'll share this week's weigh-in. This is the first weigh-in for the month of July. So if you're excited, don't forget to give this video a big huge thumbs up. It really helps out my channel and lets me know to keep putting out these Friday weigh-in videos for you. Make sure you're subscribed and your bell notification is turned on because I upload five videos every week and Friday is always weigh-in day. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching where I offer personalized to you macros and calories, highly recommend and one-on-one coaching if you would like to chat with me directly. Links, discounts to my favorite things and lastly come on over, join our Facebook group. We would love to have you. So let's jump into my week, that's workshop topic and my weigh-in. Happy 4th of July weekend, how exciting is that that we are already into the 4th of July weekend. We are having my in-laws over on Sunday to celebrate the 4th. We're going to have a barbecue, maybe play some cornhole or horseshoes in our backyard. We just love spending time with our in-laws and I figured what better time than to celebrate the 4th of July holiday. Speaking of the 4th of July, let me know down in the comments, what are your plans? Are you planning on staying on track, tracking your food or having a more indulgent relaxed meal? Definitely let me know down in the comments. I know for me that I'm going to be mindful of what I'm eating at our barbecue but I'm also going to enjoy all the good barbecue 4th of July foods. In my opinion, during the holidays or special occasions everything in moderation is a really healthy approach to take. Before we dive into the WW workshop topic and my way in, I just wanted to share with you a little bit about my week ending out the month of June. I'm wrapping up week five of working with my fitness coach and my new fitness routine and I have to say that it has become a habit for me. It is something that I just do everyday without thinking about it. When I first hired my coach and first started this fitness routine it was something I mindfully had to think about and get up and get my workout clothes on and get out the door and now it's actually something that I look forward to that truly has become a habit for me. I find for me by getting in my exercise first thing in the morning not only does it set my day up for success but it also gets it out of the way and I have a less likely chance of making excuses to not do my workout as it gets later in the day. For me at the end of the day I'm tired and I just want to relax, hang out with my dogs, hang out with my husband, watch TV and just kind of zen out. The last thing I want to do is worry about getting in my exercise. So that's been a really helpful thing for me is to get it done first thing in the morning. In addition to that it also helps me stay on track during the day. I don't want to exercise, bust my butt, be all sweaty, tired and sore to overeat during the day. It just kind of sets me up to make better food choices. So in my opinion there's a lot of benefits of getting that exercise in first thing in the morning. This last week I really focused on my water and making sure that I was drinking at least a half a gallon of water and honestly I got in pretty close to a gallon every day. I also focused on eating more fruits and vegetables. That's where I can fall short a little bit. I'm so focused on protein that I kind of forget about fruits and vegetables. So this week I made sure that with every meal I was either having a fruit or a vegetable and one of my two to three snacks every day also had to include a fruit or a vegetable. And that was really helpful for keeping me full and satisfied. And I also feel like it's just delivering my body all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that it truly needs. And honestly I kind of rediscovered my love for fruits and vegetables. So moving forward I'm planning on doing this same process where I'm just mindful of incorporating more fruits and vegetables. And on the WW plan we actually earned points back for vegetables so it's a complete win-win. So for this next week I'm going to be doing a little bit more of the same continuing my fitness routine, drinking my water and having that heavy focus on getting in lots of fruits and vegetables. Speaking of foods and go-to foods I want to jump into this week's WW topic and that is how to pick your go-to foods. If you missed my video all about protein and the best ways to get in protein I'll go ahead and link that down below for you. Those are my go-to foods. Those are the foods that I reach for every single day. Those are the foods that I build my meals around and it's really important to find go-to foods for you that work for you and foods that you enjoy and foods that keep you on track. Right off the top of your head name one food that you reach for all the time. You can't live without it and it's an integral part of your weight loss journey. Congratulations, you just found your go-to food. We can't control every situation that we're in but we can have go-to foods like the one you just thought about that can be the basis and staples of our meals. We can have these go-to foods on hand so that we automatically make healthier choices. The technique from WW is a bit of a try this. Try this out to see if it's going to work for you. Number one, think about what makes something a go-to food for you. Your checklist should include some of these items. Is it personal points friendly? Is it macro calorie friendly if you're following macros and calories? Is it something you truly enjoy eating? Is it easy to find and to stock up on? Does it fit into your grocery budget? Does it align with your health conditions and or dietary needs? And anything else that's important to you when it comes to these go-to foods. Your go-to foods should check all of these boxes. Number two, now identify three to four foods that check any of these boxes. Maybe it's on your zero point foods list, your favorite protein or a quick cook option. Some of these can be eggs, grilled chicken, quick cook oats. Think about three or four foods that you really enjoy and foods that you tend to eat on a regular basis. Again, they may be your zero point foods on WW. They may be really high protein rich foods that help you reach your protein goal every day. And number three, how will you use these foods next time you find yourself in a sticky situation? Plan for a few hypotheticals so you'll be prepared for whatever comes your way. For example, I'll ask my friend if they're planning to serve maybe some grilled chicken at their barbecue next week. And if not, then I'll bring some to share with everyone. There's no shame in the game of bringing your own food to barbecues, family events, so that you have something that fits into your plan on hand. Not to mention, everyone else may enjoy your chicken or your fruits or the vegetables that you bring to the barbecue. Don't get me wrong, we should all experiment with new foods, but we should also have those go-to staples. The old reliable is really truly where it's at. We have those go-to recipes like the go-to chicken recipe or our favorite cracker or crunchy snack. Finding foods that you can reach for without a second thought that have a lot of good ingredients that help feel your body and foods that are within your plan are an absolute necessity for being successful. Kind of thinking about your go-to foods is like an emergency umbrella. That umbrella that's under the seat in your car just for emergencies. That's where your go-to foods should be. They should be foods that are always on hand, readily available, things that even end up in your purse that can get you out of emergency and sticky situations. I know for me, I always, always have a Nick Sticks which is a turkey meat stick in my purse. It doesn't require a refrigeration. It can sustain the really hot weather here in Arizona and it's an excellent filling snack that's a super good source of protein. As I mentioned before, I buy my Nick Sticks off of Amazon. I'll link them down below for you. But have foods on hand that help you stay on plan and get you out of these extreme situations. I really like this topic and I know for me, I have several go-to foods. Like I mentioned in that protein video, those are my go-to protein foods and there were a lot of them and all of those foods are in my house on a very, very regular basis. Planning and prepping and being prepared is my number one trick for you on how to reach your weight loss goals. Speaking of weight loss and weight loss goals, let's go ahead and jump into this week's This was another interesting week for me when it comes to weighing in. I don't know that I've shared with you guys but part of checking in with my fitness coach each week is sending her my food log, my activity log, pictures, as well as my weight log. So she wants me to weigh in every day so that we can see fluctuations and daily fluctuations with how much water I drink or what exercises I'm doing and my strength training or my muscle sore. She wants to see that fluctuation and this week was a really interesting one. From my weigh in this last Friday, starting on Saturday, I was actually up a few ounces in weight and that increase in weight lasted nearly the entire week. Once again, I was literally the exact same weight which was up a few ounces from last weigh in the majority of the week. Whether I did strength training, intense exercise, just took my walk, it didn't seem to matter. My weight basically stayed the same. So I kind of anticipated a maintenance for this week's weigh in and honestly, I wouldn't have been mad about that. I've been really successful with my weight loss. I've added a lot of extra exercise and strength training to my body and as the weeks continue, it gets harder and harder. My workouts get harder and harder and more intense. My muscles become more sore. So honestly, the changes that I'm seeing in my body alone are worth the weight remaining the same. In fact, I posted this picture in my Facebook group this last week showing what a one week difference in my body was when I checked in with my coach. She actually sent this picture to me and said, I can't believe the difference in one week and how your body looks. And this was not a lot of weight loss but the toning up and how my body is changing is just a reminder that the scale isn't everything. And sometimes that number on the scale doesn't agree with all the hard work we're putting in. But as this last week came to an end and right before I weighed in this morning, I actually had a loss on the scale of 0.6. Honestly, I thought I was going to maintain and I'd have been happy with that but I'm over the moon that I'm actually down an additional 0.6 pounds. I will go ahead and put here on the screen my total overall weight loss and it makes me excited to see what my weight's going to do this next week. Am I going to maintain my same weight again or am I luckily maybe going to get that little bit of a whoosh and have a little bit more weight come off this next week. We are increasing the amount of weight that I'm using in my exercises. We're increasing the reps. My cardio is staying the same so it's going to be quite interesting to see what happens next Friday for weigh-in. But like I said, it's just a reminder that the scale isn't everything. That the changes in your body, especially for me because that's really what I want to see is more important than the stupid number on the stupid scale. So now I want to hear from you guys. Let me know how your week was. Did you gain? Did you lose? Was it what you expected? What's your thoughts on having go-to foods? And in fact, let us know what some of your go-to foods are down in the comments that can help out the community on maybe trying out some different foods. I'd love hearing from you guys down in the comments. And of course, if you enjoyed another weigh-in, workshop topic recap and how my week was, give this video a huge thumbs up. It really truly helps out my channel and make sure you're subscribed and your bell is turned on because we do a weigh-in every Friday and I upload five videos a week. Make sure you're checking your notification bell because YouTube has so kindly been turning off people's notifications and a lot of you have reached out to me saying, oh my gosh, I'm not subscribed to anymore or my notifications are turned off. So double check your subscription status and your bell notifications. Down in that description box, you'll also find nutrition coaching, links and discounts to my favorite thing. Come on over, follow me on Instagram and join our Facebook group. We'd love to have you. Happy Friday, friends. Happy Fourth of July weekend and I'll see you all in tomorrow's grocery haul. Bye.