 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 today we are doing a Q&A. I asked on my Facebook group, here on YouTube and on Instagram for all of your questions about weight loss, life, marriage, fitness, food, anything went in the Q&A. Thank you so much to everybody who asked a question. And in today's Q&A, I am going to do bubble braids. I'll pop a picture in here of what bubble braids look like. A lot of you have been asking for a tutorial on how I do my bubble braids. I love them, they are fantastic for working out, keeps your hair out of your face and it's super cute. I also wear these out and about. So it's definitely a really versatile hairstyle and honestly it's really easy. So we're gonna put bubble braids in my hair for the day. I'm gonna answer all your questions. So if you're excited, give this video a big thumbs up. Subscribe if you're not, turn your bell on because I upload five videos every week. And Sunday we always do something kind of fun and different. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching. I do offer personalized to you macros and calories. Highly recommend, this is how I've lost and maintained my 140 pound weight loss as well as one-on-one coaching if you would like to chat with me directly. Links, discounts to my favorite things and my Facebook group, come join us there. We'd love to have you. So let's answer some juicy questions and do some bubble braids. So like I said, doing bubble braids is really, really, really easy. I find for me that if my hair is a little bit more dirty the bubble braids actually look a little bit better and stay in place a little bit better. So what you're going to need to do bubble braids is a comb because you are going to wanna part your hair down the middle, all the way down the back. So middle to the base of your neck and then you're also going to need some little tiny rubber bands. Now, I bought these off of Amazon a year ago, two years ago. These were really affordable. These are from the brand Bee Bee Poo. I don't know, I got them off Amazon. I'll link them down below. I think they were like $5 or $6 and there's 500 and you're going to need quite a few of these little rubber bands. So I'm going to start over on Facebook and kind of answer questions as I do my hair and then once we finish the bubble braids if I still have questions I haven't answered we'll wrap it fire through those. So the first question is how do you fight cravings? So I actually don't really fight my food cravings. If I have a food craving, I generally will give into that craving within reason. So I'm a big sweets eater. I tell you guys that a lot that I love sweets. So for me, that's what I crave typically is something sweet and it seems to be like after a meal that's when I want something sweet. I don't always give into my cravings but I do allow myself to eat the foods that I enjoy and the foods that I crave just in moderation. Sometimes if we have a really strong craving it's because we've restricted or eliminated that food so our body wants it even more. So my suggestion to you would be not to fight your craving just make sure that you're not overindulging and if you allow yourself to have your favorite things it'll be less likely that you'll overindulge when you do get to have them. Just a side note, if I'm looking over here it's because I have a mirror to help me put in my bubble braid. So the next question was how do you keep your marriage hot? I feel like I'm lacking in that aspect. Marriage is certainly not hot and on fire all the time. However, we work at our marriage every single day. Marriage is something you have to work at constantly. It's not always going to be perfect. There's going to be ups and downs. There's going to be really good times and really bad times but as long as both of you are just putting in the effort and making each other a priority that definitely helps keep your marriage alive. Troy and I always have a night, date, date every single week. We typically go out to dinner on Saturdays together. We also make time for each other a few times a week to watch TV shows together or eat dinner together at the table rather than one at the counter, one in the living room. We just try to make an effort to spend quality time together and that kind of keeps our marriage healthy. So the first bubble braid is going to be the very, very front portion of your hair. So I'm going to go ahead and section my hair grabbing this very, very front portion. That is where the first bubble braid is going to go. So I just hold my hair back like this and then put in the rubber band. So there is the first braid. I like to just pull the first one, especially a little bit tight. We'll go back in at the end and pull them apart and make them more in two bubbles. I know you count macros now. Do you indulge on the weekends and still be able to lose weight? If so, how do you do this? So I do not have a cheat day anymore. I haven't had a cheat day in, since I started counting macros almost two years ago. My thoughts on cheat days or overindulging on the weekends is if you have to do that, you're not on the right plan. For me, I eat the foods that I enjoy daily. So I don't have to overindulge on the weekend. If I want dessert, if I want cookies, if I want cake, I can have that whenever I want. I just work it into my day. And that's been one thing that's really helped heal my relationship with food. Speaking of relationship with food, I will have a video coming out on how I healed my relationship with food. So stay tuned. How do you get back on the wagon without feeling overwhelmed and wanting to binge as soon as you start? It's so hard. So we're going to fall off the wagon, if that's what you wanna call it, as human beings, we're not going to be perfect all the time. So I basically give myself some grace and I allow myself about an 80-20 approach to my weight loss. I've actually done this my entire weight loss journey. It's never been 100%. We're human beings. We're not perfect. We're never going to be 100%. So when I fall off the wagon, which I don't even consider it falling off the wagon, counting macros and calories for me is a lifestyle. So I really can't fall off the wagon, but if I over-indulge, all I do is just get back to normal as soon as I'm done, whether it's the next meal or the next day. And I no longer binge at all, and that was part of my healing relationship with food. So I'll talk more about that in the video. Just get back on track as soon as you can and just recommit yourself. Give yourself some grace. Don't beat yourself up, but get back on track. So you can see that I took the next section of my hair and I also took the first bubble braid that we made. And I'm going to put in another rubber band. And again, just pull that kind of tight. You want about an inch, inch and a half between the two bubble braids. Next question is, have you completely healed from your surgery? If you didn't know, I had cosmetic surgery about four months ago. And I would say that I'm pretty much healed. I still have some tightness in my back incision, which can take six months to a year to go away. And I still can't do certain chest or pec exercises, nor have my implants dropped into place yet. Actually, funny story. TMI, one of my breasts is quite a bit higher than the other, which is normal. I won't completely heal 100% from surgery for six months to a year. So now I'm going to go in and I'm going to grab the next section of hair. If I were to pull all of my hair back, that's where I want to be about the third bubble braid. I want just this section left so that I can make multiple bubble braids. So I'm going to pick up that last section of hair, make sure too that you've grabbed the hair from the back, that you're not leaving the back separate. You want to make sure that that's also pulled in. And then you're going to grab the other bubble braid. You always want to incorporate the braid that you did before into the next one and then go ahead and pop in your rubber band. And pull that a little bit tight. By the way, I am drinking my drag up pumpkin AF cold brew and my homemade pumpkin cold home. If you missed how to create this deliciousness at home, it was in my what I eat in a day video this last week. So I'll put that down below for you. How do you handle eating out or family visiting for long periods of time? I feel like I get off track every time this happens. So as you know, I travel a lot. We have friends in town a lot. I'm always going out with my boot camp girls. And what I want to really drive home about my relationship with food now and how I navigate my life, I am no longer on a diet. This is my lifestyle. And that means eating out and friends visiting and traveling. What I do is I do my best to make the healthiest choice but I still enjoy myself. I actually did an entire video on how I eat out and manage that. So I'll link that video down below for you. Just because I have friends in town or I'm traveling doesn't mean that I get to go off the rails. I still eat as normal. I just make the most mindful choices possible. And again, it's an 80-20 approach. 80% on whole real food, good healthy food, 20% fun food. So I really just lean into that 20% when friends are in town. Let's do one more before we do the next braid. How long did it take you on your journey to lose all of your weight? You look amazing and you are an inspiration to me. And did you ever reach any plateaus? And how, if so, how long were your plateaus and how did you get through them? So thank you very much. I very much appreciate that. I actually have been on a weight loss journey. I feel like all my life, but when I really buckled down and made myself a priority was January of 2022. That's when I started focusing on macros and calories, making sure I was eating enough calories, eating enough protein. And in that year of 2022, I lost 90 pounds. Since then, I've lost the remaining weight and been able to maintain that weight loss. I have never been in what's known as a plateau. So I think there's a big misconception of what a plateau is. Really quickly, I'm going to grab all the rest of my hair, all of it, including that last bubble braid. And I'm going to pop a rubber band in. So a plateau is when you stay exactly the same weight, no change, not even ounces, not even one ounce, two ounce, literally exactly the same weight for an extended period of time. So with my coaching clients, I don't consider them in a plateau until they've maintained the exact same weight for about a month. I personally have never been in a plateau. My weight has fluctuated in my entire weight loss journey, which is normal. My weight fluctuates every single day, but I've never been in an actual plateau. My recommendation to you is if you do get in a plateau, you need to change it up, change up your exercise, change up your food. Another really great way to break a plateau is to eat more. Having a high calorie day if you're in a plateau gives your body more food because you've been in a deficit. So if you feed your body more, oftentimes it will break that plateau and shed the weight. When did you start incorporating exercise into your weight loss journey? So I'm going to do my next bubble braid and answer this question. So what I'm going to do is again, about an inch, inch and a half down, I'm going to put another rubber band. So at my heaviest weight, I would exercise sometimes. I didn't have an actual set exercise routine. If you follow me for a while, you know when I lived in Washington, I was doing Jazzercise two to three times a week. It was very hard on me since I was so overweight that I needed several days to recover. So it was about two to three days a week. But I didn't really start getting into a set fitness routine until about the end of June of 2022. So I have lost well over 50 pounds, counting macros and calories. And I didn't start incorporating exercise until I healed, until I got my nutrition in check. Losing weight is 80 to 90% nutrition. You don't have to exercise to lose weight. I wanted to make sure that my food was intact. My nutrition was in order. My relationship with food was on its way to being healed before I added something else to the journey because we get overwhelmed if we try to do everything. So focus on food. When you have food under control, add in exercise. So for me, it was about six to seven months into the year. After you've done someone's macros, how long do they go by those numbers? So when I do macros and calories, after about 15 to 20 pounds lost, you want to have your macros and calories redone because it's going to change. As you lose weight, you're going to need different calories, different macros. Also, if you start exercising or drastically change your exercise, so for me, if I went from working out six days a week to two days a week or not at all, I would need to have my macros redone. I'm not as active. My body doesn't need as much fuel and food is fuel. So about 15 to 20 pounds, if you are over 100 pounds overweight, you can really go about 20 to 25 pounds. And on my website, you actually pay about $5 less to have your macros redone. So when you get to that stage, do macro recalculation, not personalized macros and calories. Let me add one more rubber band into this side and then I'll do the other side as I answer more question. This is a really, really good question. Have you lost any friends along the way with your weight loss journey? Before I answer that, let me show you how to get the bubbles. So what you're going to do is take each of the little sections and just kind of pull them and it's going to make them look like little bubbles. I mainly focus that on this part of my hair. I will go and pull this upper part as well, but this is where you're really going to see the look of the bubbles. So just go ahead and pull everything just a tiny bit to get this fun kind of bubbly look. So unfortunately, yeah, I definitely lost some friends because of my weight loss and even more than losing friends, my relationship with a lot of my friends really changed after I lost my weight. That's very common to happen. Relationships change with weight loss. Sometimes it's romantic relationships. Sometimes it's friendships, but it's very, very common to have relationships in your life change with weight loss. Sometimes friends and family can't handle the fact that you've been successful and that you've lost the weight. And I think a lot of those relationships may be marriage aside, but friendship and family relationships, that dynamic can change due to a little bit of jealousy or a little bit of envy that they haven't been as successful as you are. Honestly, it really bothered me in the beginning. I have quite a few friends that I don't really talk to anymore because we don't really have the same things in common. I don't wanna eat all the bad food. I don't wanna drink all the alcohol. I wanna work out. So I just unfortunately had to let that go and know that it was nothing that I personally did. And I just had to find a new community that just better aligned with who I am now. Now, granted, I'm the same person, but my lifestyle is very different and even my interests are very different. So for me, my boot camp group really aligns well with my health journey and my healthy lifestyle. So don't beat yourself up. It's going to happen. And unfortunately, that's just part of losing weight. We lose sometimes relationships along the way. How long have you and Troy been together? So Troy and I, we met in 2015 and we met online on match.com. You know, good old online dating is all the rage these days. So we met on match.com in 2015. We got married in 2017. So we're about to celebrate our six year anniversary. Did your new breast settle correctly and how are you liking your body after surgery? So I did talk a little bit about the fact that they have not settled completely yet. Again, that's six months to a year process, but I'm very happy with the results of my surgery. I had zero complications. If you wanna know what surgeries I had, I did an entire vlog of my surgery. I actually had surgery in Tijuana, Mexico. I will link that vlog down below for you, but I am beyond over the moon about my results and grateful that I had zero complications. It was actually a really good experience overall. And the last question in my Facebook group is I noticed you travel and do things with your friends. Do you and your husband ever go on vacations together or does his health make it so he can't travel? So I actually get this question a lot or actually what I think is even more funny is I'll get comments like if I post a picture on Facebook or in the Facebook group of Troy and I together, like we went to the movies recently and I posted a picture of Troy and I at the movies. People are like, oh, it's so nice to see you do something with your husband. Okay, you guys, you see very little of my life. You see a day of my life once a week. You don't see my day-to-day. Troy and I spend a lot of time together. Troy does not work. He actually retired when we moved to Arizona so we spend every day together. We are both very, very independent people. We have things that we like to do together and we have different interests as well. I love to travel and I have travel buddies. My best friend Rachel is one of the people I love to travel with. My friend Michelle and my friend Henry that I just recently went to Arizona with, they're my travel buddies, Amy who I had surgery with. Unfortunately, due to Troy's medical issues, it is hard for him to travel. It's hard for him to go on tours and go walk around and go sightsee. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that he actually just got his handicap permit because it's hard for him to walk through a parking lot. We went to Costco recently together to get new cell phones and he had to stop and sit down midway through our Costco trip. So based on his health, that's one reason why he doesn't go a lot. Number two is we have two dogs and we don't have anybody to watch them. When we lived in Washington, my mom watched them. We don't live in Washington anymore. So he stays home typically with the dogs and he likes to be at home. I'm a homebody but he's definitely a homebody. We do things locally together. We've got a few things coming up over the holiday season. We're going to a pumpkin glowy light exhibit in Tucson. We're going to see the clairvoyant in Tucson from America's Got Talent. So we have little date nights and things planned but traveling is more my thing than Troy's thing. Before I answer the next question, I wanted to show you that you can actually wear your bubble braids like this as well. You can just do this upper portion of your hair and leave your braid like this or make it all into bubble braids. So moving over to the questions on Instagram. The first question is, could you show more workouts in the gym? I find them very helpful. Yes, I can definitely do that. I actually posted a reel not too long ago showing some of the upper body workouts that I've done to build lean muscle and lose weight. Make sure you follow me on Instagram because I often post little videos on my stories when I'm at the gym and what workouts I'm doing and how much weight I'm using. But yes, I plan on incorporating workouts more in my videos. What's your favorite luxury makeup brand? Love you, girl. Love you too. Honestly, I don't do a lot of luxury makeup. I am very into what's called indie makeup or independently owned makeup. So not brands you can buy at Sephora and Ulta. These are brands or companies that are owned by a single person. Those are my jam, my favorite types of makeup and I don't buy a lot of luxury in general. I don't find that the quality's any better than drugstore. But if I had to choose a luxury brand that I enjoy, I would definitely say Charlotte Tilbury. There's quite a few of her products that I really like. And if you are a makeup lover like I am, I do have a beauty channel. So make sure you come on over and subscribe there. I'll put it in the description box. Your favorite foundation? So I actually don't have a favorite foundation but I have a favorite foundation type. So I have normal to dry skin. I don't really get oily. I don't really get oily in my T-zone. So for me, the kind of makeup or foundation complexion product that I like is very glowy. So I like any foundation that's dewy or glowy. I don't have a specific brand that I love. I kind of rotate through different foundations. I like to try drugstore. I like to try midrange. I like to try high-end. So I don't have a favorite brand but I do prefer glowy or dewy. How long did it take you to grasp the macros thing I am overwhelmed? That is very normal, right? It's like a new job. You have to learn your new job before you're comfortable and before you're proficient at it. And the same thing goes with counting macros and calories, right? You have to get used to it. It's going to take some time. I would say that on average, for me and my coaching clients that have transitioned from WW or not dieting at all or just different diets out there, it's taken a good month or so to really get comfortable with macros. Just take baby steps little by little. Focus on calories first. Then add in protein. Then look at your carbs and your fat. And I also do offer one-on-one coaching where you get to talk with me directly. And I highly recommend that if you feel overwhelmed or have a lot of questions because we can talk through everything in one to two sessions. So you can again purchase that on my website. So my little bubble braids are done. I always like to just spray my hair really quickly with some hairspray just to set everything in place. So now let's try to rapid fire through the rest of these questions. Do you change what you eat every week just for YouTube or because you get bored with the same meals? I don't do anything just for YouTube. I don't meal prep just for YouTube. I don't buy groceries just for YouTube. I don't eat certain things just for YouTube. I eat the things that I enjoy. And for me, when I meal prep something for breakfast or lunch every week, by the end of the week I'm ready for something new and I like to try out new recipes. I like to try out new ingredients. I love new food vines. So nothing I do is for YouTube. It's because those are the foods that I enjoy or the foods that I want to incorporate into my diet. Back then, did you ever feel like you wouldn't be where you are today with your weight loss goals? 100%. You guys, I've been dieting my entire life. When I was in junior high, I asked my mom to take me to Weight Watchers. I think I was maybe 12 years old. So I have been dieting my entire life. Truthfully, I never thought that I would ever get to where I felt like I was at a good weight for my body. And I never thought that I would really be able to do it as easily as I have with counting macros and calories. I don't wanna come off like it's been easy but it's been the easiest time I've had losing weight and keeping it off. Really keeping it off has been very, very simple because of my relationship with food and allowing myself to eat things that I enjoy and making sure I eat enough so my metabolism is revved up. So honestly, I never thought that I would get here and now that I'm here, I never wanna lose that. So that's why it's so important for me to continue with a healthy lifestyle. What does your husband do when you are traveling or hiking and does he travel also? So we kinda talked a little bit about this. He watches the dogs, he watches golf, he watches sports, he hangs out at home. I mean, that's what he enjoys. He certainly can't hike and we do plan to travel a little bit more together once we don't have dogs but right now that's just not an option for us and it's also going to hinge on Troy's health. His type of health issues will probably get worse as he gets older. So everything as far as us being able to travel is definitely still up in the air. So customizing meal plans, I cannot customize meal plans specifically. I am not a registered dietitian or a doctor and we can get in big trouble for customized meal plans. Now I do offer a meal plan every month in my Facebook group. It's $25 a month. You get 20 dinners for breakfast, for lunch, for snacks. I offer that. It's not customized however you can customize it. You can make any modification you need to make to any of my recipes but I can't customize a specific meal plan for you. That is something I would talk to your doctor about. Personality or looks. This is actually kind of a fun question. So I would say that initially I'm drawn to looks. Now our looks, everything, absolutely not. But looks are important. That's what's going to give you that immediate attraction to someone. But what's gonna keep you around is their personality and how they treat you. So I would say a little bit of both. Initially looks and then longevity wise, personality. How do you get out of life ruts? I feel like I'm taking a million steps backwards. Life's gonna happen. You're not always going to be motivated. You're not always going to be on your game. You're not always going to be feeling your best. But what I like to do whenever I'm feeling this way, you guys know we've been through a lot this year with Lola being diagnosed with cancer then losing our lab diesel and then Lola going through chemo, moving away from my family. We've been through a lot in the last couple of years and it's not all been easy. But what I like to do is focus on my why. What is my reason for wanting to lose weight? Why am I doing the things that I'm doing and really making yourself a priority even in the toughest times and when you don't feel like it is really going to help you be a little bit more successful. What's your greatest challenge regret in life? I don't really live with regrets. I don't, I mean, obviously there's things in my life that if I could go back, I would change but I don't really regret anything to be honest with you. I would say that weight loss related, what I regret or what I wish I could go back and change is never dieting and just counting calories and macros because I'd have been in my goal weight a long time ago and would have been a healthier version of myself a long time ago. What shifted you to start focusing on macros and calories? So the main thing was is when I was on WW and I've talked about this in several videos. I was always hungry. I was never satisfied and I wasn't getting anywhere. My weight was doing a lot of this or a lot of this and I was smart enough to know that I wasn't eating enough for someone who weighed 300 pounds. So I really started digging into how many calories should I be eating? What is a healthy, how to get a healthy relationship with food? Is Weight Watcher something I should be doing? Am I choosing the right foods? I was also in a binge and restrict cycle and I'm self aware enough to know that that's not healthy either. So I just started doing my research. I became really interested in nutrition in general took my nutrition coaching certification over three years ago and then really figured out that what seemed to be the most sustainable, easiest, easiest way to lose weight is to count macros and calories. And like I said, I started that in January of 2022 and here we are. What's your greatest success in life? I don't think I have just one. I would say that some of my greatest successes in life obviously has been my weight loss and how I've done it in a healthy, sustainable way. My marriage is a success for me. My career here on YouTube and nutrition coaching, all of those things are big successes for me. My fitness level, all of those things are big successes for me. I can't pick just one. I have several. Who do you follow for health tips and beauty tips? So like I've mentioned before, I don't really follow a lot of weight loss channels. Honestly, really truly the only weight loss channel I watch and I don't even watch it regularly is my friend Nikki with Nikki Gets Fit. I watch a lot of beauty YouTube. I have some favorites, Karen Harris makeup, Heather Austin, Angelica Nequist, Teresa is dead. I'll link some of my favorite beauty channels down below for you. I also watch a few blog channels. I really like Alexandria Rodriguez. So I'll put all of the channels that I really enjoy in the description box if you're interested in checking them out. Best part of living in Arizona. Oh goodness, I don't even know if I could pick just one. We love everything about Arizona but if I had to pick just one thing about living in Arizona that I love, it's sunny year round. I would say since we moved here almost two years ago, I could count on one hand how many gloomy days we've had. It's sunny here every day. Even if it's hot, not hot, winter, summer, spring and fall, it's sunny and I love that because it allows me to be outside as often as I want which definitely helps me be more active but I truly love everything about living in Arizona. It's been the best decision we've ever made. Do you have makeup tutorials? I just started following your beauty channel. So that's where you're going to find makeup tutorials is on my beauty channel. I do have a couple here on my main channel, on my weight loss channel that I did before I had a beauty channel but you guys, I do makeup tutorials all the time over on budget beauty. So again, that is linked down below for you. Where did you get your nutrition coaching certification from? So like I said, I've been a weight loss and nutrition coach for over three years and I obtained my certification through NASM, N-A-S-M. I think that that's the most affordable and comprehensive nutrition program. Keep in mind too, when you do become a nutrition coach, a personal trainer, a weight loss coach, a wellness coach, you do have to take a test and re-up your certification and pay for that every single year. But if you're interested in something like that, I would recommend NASM. Do you have any plans to add to your furry family? We don't. And the reason for that is not because we don't love dogs. I love dogs more than I love people. I just want to love other people's dogs once we don't have our dogs. And there's multiple reasons for that. Mainly because the loss of diesel, our lab back in March was one of the hardest things I've ever been through in my life. I still cry about it regularly. I kind of have PTSD from it. It was a very, very, very hard thing for me. Having Lola diagnosed with cancer, going through chemo with her, was very, very heart-wrenching and taxing on me emotionally. I just can't do it again. And knowing that I have to lose two more dogs is just, it's too much for me to handle. So that's one reason, that's the main reason. The second reason is, like I mentioned, Troy and I would like to travel eventually in the future together. And because we don't have anybody to watch our dogs, we do not board our dogs. They've never been created. If I had a dog sitter, I would need them to spend the night. My dogs have never been left overnight by themselves. It's just a lot. It's a lot to manage. And we would like to travel together eventually. So that's another reason why we won't be adding to our furry family. And like I said, I love, love, love dogs. It's just, it's a lot on my heart strings to lose dogs. And I just don't know that I want to have to go through that again. Can we have an update on your recovery of your surgeries? You look amazing. Thank you. So I did kind of give a little bit of an update. I'm doing really well. Kind of let you guys know that things are settling into place. I also got a question on, do I have any regrets about my surgery? 100% no. I knew when I lost the weight, I even told my husband before I started losing weight. Listen, when I lose all the weight, we're having some skin removal. I just didn't know what that would look like. I have no regrets. And really truly, along with counting macros and calories and losing all the weight, best decision I ever made. Why do you wear makeup to the gym or to work out? I don't see you wear it to boot camp. It always is funny to me that people care what makeup I wear when I wear makeup. But I'm gonna answer the question, but I just wanna remind you like I did in my We Need to Talk video, makeup is a way of self-expression. It's my face. I love makeup. I'll wear it whenever. I would like to wear makeup, but I do not wear makeup to work out very often. You are correct. I do not wear makeup to boot camp. I go to boot camp at five again. So I get up at four a.m. I barely brush my teeth, put the odor in on and get dressed to go to boot camp. However, however, there are often times when I go to the gym, especially on the weekend, my gym doesn't open till seven and I typically have coaching calls right after I finish my workout. So I have to essentially get ready before I go work out so that I'm put together and ready for coaching calls or maybe I have errands to run or maybe I'm going to lunch with friends. If I wear makeup to the gym, it's typically because I have something to do after the gym. And like I said, I don't wear makeup to the gym very often, but if I have things to do or places to go, I can choose to wear makeup to the gym if I would like. Lastly, moving over to the questions on YouTube. So we just have a few more to go through. What do you think you did to heal your mindset with food and weight fluctuations and how long did it take? So like I said, I want to do a whole video about my relationship with food, but I do want to address weight fluctuation. That was hard for me in the beginning. I really heavily relied on the scale and thought that that was what determined whether or not I was being successful. And as I went throughout my weight loss journey, especially as I started to lose weight and started to incorporate fitness and incorporated strength training, I started to realize that my weight on the scale wasn't really changing very much, but my body was drastically changing. I became okay with that. I became okay with losing inches, seeing results in pictures and in my clothing. I'll tell you guys, I can lose inches and not change on the scale at all. My weight stays exactly the same, but I'll lose three, four, five, six inches. That's body recomposition. And basically what I'm doing is replacing any fat I have with muscle, which is what we should all be shooting for. That should be all of our goals is to replace excess fat with lean muscle so we can burn calories, look cleaner and healthier. So that really is what started to heal my relationship with the scale. And then I started to realize that my weight would fluctuate a lot, especially based on the foods I was choosing, how much exercise I was doing. If it was hot outside and my body was retaining water, I started seeing fluctuations where I would gain three pounds overnight. And like I said, I'm smart enough to know that that's not humanly possible, especially in a calorie deficit, you didn't gain three pounds of fat overnight. It's a weight fluctuation. So I started weighing myself every day so I could see those weight fluctuations and be okay with them. And I tell you guys a lot, now I don't give two craps about the scale. I care more about how I feel and how healthy I am. I don't really care what my weight on the scale is. So it's just taking those baby steps to start to realize that the scale is only one piece of your measurement of your success and really honestly, the least important measurement of your success. How's your mom doing? Do you think that she'll relocate by you anytime soon? So my mom is doing really well and no, I don't see her relocating. I think if it came a point in her life where she could no longer live on her own or had to sell her house, maybe she would relocate here. But when we moved here, she basically said I plan on staying here as long as possible. I am an only child and my mom is not married. So if something were to happen to her health wise, she kind of wouldn't have much of a choice but to move to Arizona. But I can also say that she hasn't visited yet. And maybe when she visits that'll change things for her but she's doing well. She's managing with the loss of her dog as well. She's just trying to keep herself busy with all of her friends and she's happy where she is. Did you ever get your car repair issue breaks worked out? No, I have not. I'm trying to convince my husband to do it. I don't wanna go sit at BMW and go through the whole hassle. And honestly, unfortunately, I feel like it would be better if he took my car and I feel like he'd get further than me as a woman going into the car dealership. So it is still on my list to do. Living in Arizona for a bit now, do you go through moisturizer like crazy? I do. I go through a lot of moisturizer and a lot of sunscreen. I do have a few favorite face sunscreens. I'll link them for you guys as well as a few of my favorite moisturizers but I am very into skincare. I'm very into taking care of my skin. I'm going to be 48 in just a couple of months and taking care of my skin as I age becomes even more important to me. And where SPF you guys, whether it's sunny or not, wear SPF on your face every single day on your body, everywhere. I will link my favorites down below for you. Are there any healthy whole food cookbooks you might recommend? And are you planning on writing another cookbook soon? So I don't really use a lot of actual cookbooks. I get a lot of my recipes online. And at this point, I don't have the plans of writing another cookbook. However, I have plans for other things possibly coming down the pipeline. Are you considering another post or collaboration with Nikki gets fit? I would absolutely collab with Nikki again. I love Nikki. When I have a very similar philosophy on weight loss, I should reach out to Nikki and see if she wants to work on another video together. Hey, Nikki, if you're watching this video, DM me. Just curious, you still work as a realtor in Arizona? I do not. Actually, when I moved to Arizona, my intention was to get my real estate license. I've actually addressed this in previous Q&As as well. I actually went through the entire real estate course and then never took the test. At this point in my life, I am busy enough with my coaching and my YouTube channels that I just don't have time to be a realtor. And my desire to sell real estate just isn't there like it used to be. I definitely, my passion, my heart is nutrition coaching and weight loss coaching. So I've decided to focus my energy there. Did Lumen's recommendations to lose weight help you or do you find this information not helpful to lose? So Lumen is the device that you blow into that helps you with your metabolism and how your body reacts to food. I do still use my Lumen every single day. I get lots of questions on it. I'll put the link down below for the Lumen if you're interested. I don't follow a lot of the recommendations because I follow my personalized macros and calories. So as far as food goes, I don't reference Lumen's food recommendations for me even though they give them, they're generalized, they're more blanketed. I follow my macros and calories that I calculated for myself. And I would recommend that you have your macros and calories done and follow those rather than more of these generalized things, especially from Lumen. However, I do like to see how my body reacts to certain foods and I find that very helpful with weight loss. So those are all of the questions. We did some super fun bubble braids. Let me show you guys a little bit of a closeup of what those look like. They're just really fun. And like I said, it's a great way to keep your hair out of your face during a workout. I wear my hair and bubble braids several times a week. I actually really like it. I think it's cute. What I like to do sometimes is pop on some bigger fun earrings to kind of add a little pizzazz to the look. But I think bubble braids are definitely more fun than traditional braids. Not to mention I can't fringe braid my own hair. And I just think it's a little more fun than even throwing your hair up in a ponytail. So hopefully the tutorial on the bubble braids helped you guys out. I will link my little rubber bands down below for you. Again, I got them right off of Amazon. Rubber bands and a comb is really all that you need. I definitely plan on doing some more Q&A videos in the future. Maybe we'll do a Get Ready With Me or another type of hair tutorial. But again, thank you to everybody who asked questions. And of course, if you enjoyed the video, thumbs it up, subscribe, turn your bell on. Check out that description box. I'll link everything we talked about today as well as nutrition coaching and my Facebook group. And don't forget to come follow me over on Instagram. That's how you can keep up with me a little bit more day today. Thank you for watching you guys. I hope you have an amazing, amazing Sunday and I'll see you next time. Bye.