 Hey y'all, what's up? My name is Sonali, welcome to my channel if you are new. And if you are, hit that subscribe button. But if you are already subscribed and if you're gonna subscribe, then definitely hit those post notifications so you guys can get notified every time I post a video, which I feel like I'm getting on a good schedule of a Sunday and Wednesday post schedule. Let me know if you guys are down with that or would you prefer Monday and Wednesday? I feel like Sundays are a big YouTube day for me, so I just picked Sunday. I feel like I haven't vlogged in a while, so I wanted to pick up the camera and vlog and I got already, so I thought might as well. Today I'm also gonna be updating you guys on my health journey, but I'll do that a little bit later. I wanna get this video cranked out that I'm about to do. I've been meaning to do this for so long now and it's kind of like an at home photo shoot video for my YouTube channel. I have some really cool tools that I feel like not many people know about. So I'm very excited to share them with you guys and just share the process of how I take my photos. If you guys follow me on Instagram, you would know that I got the most beautiful florals this week and I am kind of basing my shoot around them. They're just so pretty and I wanna take some photos with them. This is what they look like and as you can tell, they're slowly like wilting and dying and I'm so sad because I really wish I could keep them forever. Obviously the next best thing is to take photos with them so that's what I'm gonna do today. It is currently 10 a.m. I got up pretty early to just get full glam for a full day of just like content. Actually later tonight, I think at three or something but I have to like leave by two, two 30. I'm gonna go photograph a bachelorette party in Dripping Springs so that will be fun. This morning at 9 a.m. my friend Sarah came over because there's like this launch with a brand happening I think in September or something. I was gonna blog it but obviously I wasn't allowed to show the pieces unfortunately but we just took like some mirror selfies for the brand so that they could use it like their campaign and stuff and what else? Oh, right now I'm randomly obsessed with the idea of redoing our patio and just making it a lot cuter. I know so many of you guys asked where that freaking wicker glider is on my patio. I guess I can show it to you guys. It's from Walmart but of course it's not online anymore. I cannot find it anywhere. It's so annoying. All right, so this is the patio now. Got my bike, the Yeti helmet, this mirror that I don't know why it's face that way and then I have this little area which is really nice to sit on and just like, you know, enjoy the warmth out here and then these two pieces are from Amazon and then like I said, this is from Walmart but I was thinking, I just had this idea. What if I sprayed like the wicker and this part maybe not that part but just like the wicker white but the thing that I've been obsessing over is having a concrete table. I've heard that you can like fake concrete that's what Sarah said but this would be my dream table for out there. This style is super in right now just like literally a hollow box. I think it's so cool. Obviously it's seven freaking hundred dollars so that's gonna be a no for me. I think Serena and Lily has similar bedside tables which I was obsessed with but obviously still really expensive but if I could just do like this and then have like a concrete top that would be so cool. I actually just texted Brian to see if it's like easy to make so we will see what he says. I really just wanna redo the patio because we re-signed on our way so we'll be here for at least another 11 months because I think it like got re-signed in June. Well actually, it's literally August. What the heck? So weird, so freaking weird. I'm gonna stop rambling for now. I'm gonna start my video that I was doing. Fun fact, my videos, my sit down videos, the like main channel videos. I don't really have a separate vlog channel or main channel. If you've been watching the YouTube videos for a while you know what I mean. I kind of created an outline of just like the points I always wanna hit so I'll always do it in Google Docs so I can access it from my iPhone, iPad, computer, whatever. So I have just some things like bulleted out and you would think this would make me like a little less stressed and like nowhere to start and like can get it done but I just feel like I've been putting off this video for so long. But the first step is to find some inspo. So I'm gonna go on Instagram and see what are some posts that I've saved in the past that I kinda wanna like recreate and I purposely wore this like purple shirt to like kinda go with the pastels of those flowers. So I think I'm gonna do the flower picture first. So I just set up the camera, got all my tools and I have this app that you can see yourself on the iPhone. So it's super helpful, especially like when I'm filming just to make sure that everything is not too bright, not too dark. My camera does a really good job of keeping everything in focus, like my face and stuff. So that's always nice. I'm currently filming the video. It's taking so long, I don't know why but now I think I'm gonna treat myself to a matcha. I haven't eaten anything and it's like almost one but it's perfect because I'm trying to do intermittent fasting and I had something late at night last night. So I'm gonna make some matcha. I am currently doing the keto diet but I'm doing like the more moderate route. So please don't hate on me. I know the soy milk that I use has some carbs. I'm just trying to like finish everything off before I buy like other milks. I don't really like almond milk though. So that's an issue but I think I do like oat milk which I think that's keto. I feel maybe it's not, I don't know. I need to research more. So Sarah told me that if you put your matcha powder in the fridge it lasts longer. So I did that. And I use this one that I got off of, I wanna say Amazon, maybe not, maybe Amazon Fresh but I feel like it's Amazon and I'll link it down below if I'm able to. It's the Rishi Sweet Matcha Japanese Green Tea Latte Mix and it is a powder. So that is perfect because I can just put it in my frother which I love to do. Usually I put heavy whipping cream first and then the matcha powder but I'm gonna try to mix the matcha with just some water and then put the heavy whipping cream like in, I don't know, now I'm confused because I do need the heavy whipping cream. So maybe I'll do the heavy whipping cream first. Heavy whipping cream is keto and I love to put this even in just like my coffee because it makes it so much thicker. I just poured ice in my large mason jar. This is my favorite freaking cup. You guys already know. And I have this little lid and then my glass straw, I don't know why I put it on. Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and put my soy milk in there. Basically I wanna get like a really cool photo of like the matcha at the top, you know? So let's see if this works. I just shot the clip for my video and I finally get to drink my matcha and it's so good. I finished my video just in time. Now I'm gonna go shoot a bachelorette party. I honestly don't know where this is from, but this is what I'm wearing. I feel like this is my go-to outfit when it comes to like a hot day and having to look nice. It is almost 6.30 and the bachelorette party was actually in Dripping Springs, which is about 30 minutes away from my house. And I actually was done with that about 5.30. I was like back in my area, but then I decided to go get some drone footage because I had my drone with me. And so I took drone footage for my where to live in awesome video, which should be up before this video, so I'll link that down below. But it's gonna be a really good video because I have so much Austin footage that I haven't really been able to use in a video because I'm just kind of starting to make more awesome videos. And honestly, let me know in the comments if you like them or not. I just felt like since my apartment tour video was kind of going viral, I guess, on YouTube, I mean, it was getting, let's see how many views it's at right now because it's probably, hopefully gonna be my most viewed video ever. That'd be super cool. It's on the way up, but not yet. It currently has 84,000 views and my videos usually don't even get 1,000, okay? So that's a big deal for me. And I feel like I'm getting a lot of new Austin followers. If you guys do live in Austin or like Texas in general, comment down below where you're from in Texas. Honestly, everyone comment where they're from. I'm really curious to see. So I'm just trying to make a lot of Austin videos from a perspective of someone who recently moved here. It was about, you know, a year ago or so. So I hope those videos help whoever is moving here because I know so many people are moving here like every single day. I just wanna keep making those videos but obviously I'm trying to like incorporate those videos and like my other videos so that if you don't really care about my Austin videos you don't have to watch them but you do have other content to watch throughout the week. So I am literally so dehydrated. I just feel like I need the electrolytes. Also, I heard that electrolytes are good for keto diets and so this is the Gatorade Zero. And it's perfect. Ryan actually bought these and I was like, wait, these are keto. After I started the keto diet, I was like, that's kind of perfect because he left and he left me so much Gatorade. I did a really stupid thing when I was leaving. I didn't put my AC back on because I've realized when I film the AC is so loud. I mean, it's like, it's going on right now. I don't know if it's like really loud or noticeable to you guys but I think for especially my main channel videos like the sit down ones or like whatever, the more highly produced videos I'm going to try to turn my AC off every time if I'm like, okay with it. And this morning, honestly, it was like fine but I literally got home and I felt it and I was like, oh shit. Like I did not turn the AC back on and it was like 81 when I walked through the doors and I was like, a stupid, stupid snobby but it's on once I'm cooled down and like calm and not hyped up. I don't know why I'm hyped up right now. I'm also really hungry so I'm going to have to eat soon. I will kind of catch you guys up on my health journey because that's what this video is about. And I'm sorry for making you guys wait but I did want to make it like more of a vlog because I don't know, I just like vlogging so hope you guys don't mind. I took a little break. I watched some YouTube videos on the TV and drank my Gatorade. But now I feel like I'm ready to talk about my health journey with you guys. If you guys have just started following me I started my health journey in July of 2019. So a year ago. And I guess you could like listen to all this in my first ever health journey video. It was kind of like talking about, you know how I felt before starting my journey and like why I was doing it. So that will be linked down below. But like I said, I was in a sorority and they did have a meal plan and I did not have any willpower. Like for some reason I would just get literally five churros if it was churro night because it was just like a buffet and you could literally get thirds if you wanted. And sometimes I would and it was really, really bad. And obviously they did have a salad bar but you know, if you have like really good food right next to the salad you're probably gonna go for the really good food. So I didn't really eat that great in college but then when I got out of college and got my own apartment I finally had a kitchen to myself and I've never had my own kitchen because well I did live off campus, freshman and sophomore year of college but like I said, I had a sorority meal plan literally four years of college so I didn't have a reason to cook really except for on the weekends which I always looked forward to eating out. So basically I feel like I gained a lot of weight from that meal plan. So once I got my own kitchen I was able to cook and I feel like definitely the portion sizes were better but not good enough for like you know, what I weigh and my height and everything because I'm pretty sure. I don't know if I would call myself petite. I always feel petite because Ryan is like six foot or six two or something like that. So I always feel petite but I am five foot three inches. I feel like me and Ryan would kind of go through like healthy phases where I would cook really healthy one week and then I would just eat out the next week and I feel like nothing was as bad as that sorority meal plan because like let me tell you all like, I don't know, I just could not control myself like I said. Beware if you are single and you want a boyfriend you will literally gain like 20 pounds being in our relationship. And I'm not blaming Ryan for this. It's literally just like one of our passions is food and we love trying new foods. We love just going to eat out and that experience of it. And I feel like I'll always love food. I've definitely heard of people saying portion control is like the biggest thing. And another big issue is that I will serve Ryan so much food because he's obviously bigger than me and then sometimes I would kind of serve myself the same amount and I'm not like his size. I know what I've done wrong in the past and I'm trying to do better for the future. Last July I started Orange Theory Fitness and I think my heaviest weight was like 175 and I know people don't really care about weight and people say like, oh, weight's just a number but I like to see the number because I have a goal and I wanna see myself like making progress if that makes sense because even if I take progress pictures I can't see like the immediate change, you know? And I know it's really bad that I like need that instant gratification but honestly it's just really helpful to see that progress. I ended up losing 10 to 15 pounds over a year and I think I probably would have lost more if I started to eat healthy but my mentality was that I was working out so I could eat anything that I wanted now and I just, I feel like if I could do it all over again I would definitely try to eat healthier because I probably would have seen really good results from it. The reason why I say 10 to 15 also is because I am fluctuating a lot. Yeah, I don't know why. Really quickly I wanted to show you guys a couple of photos from me in June 2019 when I just moved to Texas. And here are some photos of me in the past month. So since COVID, Orange Theory really hasn't been the same because I took two months of a break because obviously everything was shut down and then when they did open back up I actually did go a couple of times. I feel like maybe for two weeks so like probably six classes maybe five. And then I went back to Georgia and when I was in Georgia they started requiring everyone to wear masks while they worked out. And at first they were just requiring masks to just go in the lobby and get to your station and everything. So I decided to quit Orange Theory so I called them and the guy on the phone was a really good salesman. He was basically telling me that I had literally the lowest rate which I know my rate is super duper low. And I decided to pause my account. I have until September 2nd to decide if I wanna like keep going with Orange Theory or quit for good. So we will see how I feel but I feel like that two month break really just threw me off and I feel like I just didn't love it. I mean I still like it. I think it's a great thing to like especially like kickstart your health journey. I'm really glad I did it. Super glad I did it because now I feel like I can actually run and before that the thought of running I literally thought I would vomit. I also really liked the group setting because it motivated me to just push myself more because you would see like an older lady going so much faster than you and you'd be like, what the heck, I'm a healthy girl. I need to go faster and push myself and be at her level or higher. I'm also really, really stressed out because recruitment season is coming upon us and I'm actually helping some sororities with their recruitment videos. So I've been just filming all the freaking time and devoting like literally so many hours to that and I'm really excited for it because this is like what I wanted to get into. I really wanted to get into the Greek life seen here at UT. So I'm really thankful that that has happened but it just sucks because none of the girls are in town and obviously we can't have too many people in the same vicinity at once. So it's kind of just weird and hard and I feel really bad for them that they have to do virtual recruitment. So since I'm kind of stressed out with all of that I feel like I just don't have the time for like a scheduled workout because it makes me even more stressed that like two hours out of my day are being taken up by like working out. I don't know. Cause like even when I was in orange theory I would just like literally have so much stuff going through my mind that I felt like I needed to write down but I didn't have my phone to write it down and it would just like drive me insane. So I think maybe just like at a later time I could try it again and I feel like it could be better cause I really did like orange theory. So I highly recommend anyone try it out maybe like in a couple months when you know everything's back to normal. I mean like if you're cool with like working out with a mask on then go for it but me and Ryan actually signed up for lifetime fitness which we had all throughout like high school or middle school. I don't know. I think it was high school and we loved lifetime back in Roswell. So we signed up for that because that way I could just go whenever I had free time and I don't feel like I have to go to this one scheduled workout. I feel like once all of these recommend videos are done and you know sent in I could finally breathe and focus on myself and this health journey. My friend's birthday is coming up and we rented a house on Lake Travis. We're gonna do like a full boat day and everything. So I'm really excited about that. And that is my main motivation for losing weight right now and just getting on the healthy track again. So I decided to start the ketogenic diet basically a low carb diet. I know that there's like an unhealthy way and a healthy way to do it. So I'm trying my hardest to be healthy. I bought so much stuff. So I'm definitely going to be uploading a keto haul if you guys are interested in that. Comment down below if you guys are doing keto or if you have ever tried it and if you had good results from it because I actually tried it in college and I did it for like maybe two weeks. And I feel like I lost like a little under 10 pounds which was like actually crazy. And I know that this is like a fast diet and like you could definitely gain the weight back if you don't eat right after you stop the diet. And obviously that is the goal to try to eat healthier. I'm honestly just the type of person that if I don't quit cold turkey it's like so hard for me to get into something if that makes sense. So it's just nice to have these rules that you go by and it tells you exactly what you can and cannot eat. I started my keto diet on July 27th and I'm doing like the moderate route where you can have some kind of carbs. Obviously I'm gonna like search for like carbs I can eat but there are some carbs in like these little keto snacks. And honestly so many things that you don't think have carbs in it like healthy things do have carbs in it. So I just wanna be realistic and try to eat healthier but have some carbs and not be too strict with myself. So that is my update on my health journey. You can follow my Instagram to keep up with me about my stories. I'm gonna try to post keto snacks and some keto dinner recipes and just lunch and hopefully I'll like try to keep up with that but I've posted a couple things on my stories so far. So go and check that out if you guys aren't interested. Even if you're not doing keto it's always good to have some low carb meals. If you guys made it to the end of this video definitely hit that subscribe button and turn on your post notifications so you guys get notified of my videos because obviously I feel like the subscription box hates me like I don't know I feel like everyone has said that they just never see my videos and there's subscription boxes and I'm like what the heck? So turn on your post notifications and I will see y'all in my next video. Bye.