 Ugh, I really don't want to film this video. My friends, welcome back to my channel and welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen. I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and I'm on the WW or the Weight Watchers Blue Plan. Today I'm answering questions that I don't want to answer. These are questions that I get pretty often. I'm also going to be addressing some of the not so nice comments that I've received over my couple year stint here on YouTube. I feel like it's time to address some of these comments but also to answer some of the questions that I truly avoid. So if you're excited for today's video, give it a big huge thumbs up. And if you're new or you haven't yet subscribed, of course I'd love to have you here. Hit the subscribe button and click the bell next to it so you don't miss a single video. Make sure you're checking out the description box down below for nutrition coaching. I do offer personalized to you macros and calories as well as one-on-one coaching if you want to chat with me directly. Links, discounts to all my favorite things and my Facebook group are also down in that description box. Head on over and join us there. We would love to have you. So let's get into the video. I'm absolutely dreading. You know that I keep it positive on my channel. I avoid drama at all costs and that is partially why I haven't answered these questions in the past or I haven't engaged with these comments on my videos. But because I get these similar questions quite often and because I feel like I need to clarify a few things and or explain a few things, it was time to film this video. I've been on YouTube for a couple of years now and there are some common questions I get and there are also some common, not so nice comments that I get on my video. So before I change my mind about even filming today's video, let's go ahead and start answering some of the questions and comments that I've received. One of the common comments that I get on a lot of my videos is why do you blink so much or I can't watch your video because all you do is blink. I always thought blinking was natural as a human being and maybe I do blink a lot but I do suffer from what is called dry eye. I actually put drops in my eyes every single morning. It's something that I've suffered with for a long time. I recently was just officially diagnosed with dry eye when I went to the doctor about a year ago to get glasses because I'm getting older and my sight isn't what it used to be and when I was there, I mentioned to him that especially this eye waters a lot and what could that possibly be from? And I was diagnosed with dry eye. So when I'm staring into a ring light or staring into a camera talking to you guys because I'm focused intently on that small space it can make me blink a little bit more. My eyes dry out, sometimes my eyes even water where I have to dab that watering out of my eye while I'm filming my video. It's just not something you guys see because it's edited out. So I'm sorry if I blink. I'm sorry if I blink excessively but on the flip side of that I don't think that me blinking should deter you from taking in the content that I'm sharing but of course it's entirely up to you what videos you watch or don't watch but the reason that I may blink a little more than others is because I do suffer from dry eye. Another question slash comment that I get a lot is why do you track WW points and calories? Why can't you just pick one and stick with it? Now I feel like I've addressed this or answered this over the course of my points versus calories video series. I will link that playlist down below for you if you haven't seen it or maybe you haven't seen all of the videos because I feel like I answer this question in those videos. So I have been on WW since starting my channel actually prior to starting my channel but what I was finding following strictly WW is that I was hungry all the time I would lose weight and then I would not plateau necessarily but I would stop losing weight and then I would be doing this cycle of gaining and losing the same pound or two and when I decided that I was going to look into the calories that I was eating on WW with my points not weeklies included I found that I was severely under eating every single day. There wasn't a single day that I was reaching the calories that I should be eating to keep my metabolism going and also to fuel my body and keep me from being as hungry as I was. I never felt satisfied. I never felt full. I was always thinking about my next meal planning my next meal and when I discovered that I wasn't eating enough that's when I decided that I wanted to go ahead and double track both my WW points and also my calories and the reason that I continue to do both is because I like the structure of WW. I like that it guides me towards making healthier choices that things like fruits, vegetables, lean meats are lower or zero points so I tend to gravitate towards those items which are healthy options. So I like that aspect of WW. I like the community of WW but I also like to track calories because it's freeing. I truly can eat whatever I want and as long as I'm within my calorie deficit I'm going to lose weight. So I find that with tracking calories I don't think about food as often. I'm not planning my next meal it's not constantly on my mind and I'm making sure that I'm eating enough to fuel my body but still lose weight and like I always say I want to eat as much as I can and still lose weight so I choose to do both the WW program and track calories. Now just because I choose to do that doesn't mean that you have to do that. Maybe you just want to do WW or maybe you just want to track calories and just because someone else is doing the program and working the program the way that they are doesn't mean that you have to work the program that way. We all can choose what works for us, what program, which tracking device works for us and we can all do pretty much what we want to do when it comes to our weight loss journey. So another question that I get hand in hand with that question is will you ever quit WW and just track calories? Now I've mentioned this or alluded to this in previous videos but the answer to this question is yes that's definitely a possibility. If I was going to quit tracking WW points all that I would go to is calories. I don't believe in eliminating or restricting food groups. There really isn't another diet or eating plan out there that I would gravitate towards. If it wasn't WW it would definitely be tracking calories. Now is this something that's a possibility in the future? Sure, of course it is because I enjoy the freedom of calories. I enjoy really truly being able to eat whatever I want to eat. Now I know that WW says eat whatever you want and still lose weight but the reality is is that on WW some of the eat whatever you want foods are way too high in points that we avoid them. We eliminate them, we restrict them and I don't want to do that. I don't want to have to label food as bad or good. I want to be able to eat what my body craves. I want to be able to indulge here and there and if I feel like having a donut on a Saturday morning I wanna be able to have a donut on a Saturday morning and not have it use up half or more of my daily points. So yes, it is a possibility that calorie tracking may be my go-to in the future. So the next question is not only a question I've gotten but also comments that have alluded to this specific issue or question in the past and that is what are my thoughts about WW YouTubers? The other people on YouTube that promote WW or weight loss content. Do I feel that it's a caddy community or do I feel that it's an inclusive community? In my juicy Q and A, one of the questions was why do other WW YouTubers not like you? And I address that question in detail in that juicy Q and A. I'll link that down below for you if you haven't seen it. So I don't really want to get into that but I am going to answer this question which is not a comfortable question for me. What do I think of other WW YouTubers? To be completely 100% honest and transparent with you there are very few WW content creators that I engage with or that I watch. Those reasons is truly I'm just too busy to watch all of the WW YouTubers out there. Some of them choose to eat foods that I don't eat so their content really doesn't appeal to me. Some of them I just don't mesh with style wise or content creating wise and others of them honestly are just not people that I choose to engage with, socialize with or people that I want to in a nutshell give my view to. Because I'm so limited and I have to be selective on what types of YouTube content that I watch. I love beauty YouTube so I watch a lot of beauty YouTube and that just doesn't leave a lot of time for WW related content. And like I said, there's just certain creators out there that I just don't mesh with and that I don't want to spend my time watching their videos. Common sense will tell you that we live in a virtual world when it comes to YouTube. Most of the content creators that are in the WW community I've never met. Most of them I've never spoken to on the phone. I very rarely text any other YouTubers. There are a few that I communicate with so I can't say that I don't like them because I don't truly know them. It's just that maybe our styles of content just don't match up. The next question that I've seen a lot is why don't you show your entire body? And I always giggle at this question because if you follow me on YouTube at all you know that I do share my full body on a pretty regular basis. I often use before and after pictures in the thumbnail of what I eat in a day. If you're in my Facebook group I have shown my body so many times just because I don't show my full body in the videos that I film because most of my videos are sit down videos or vlog style videos. I'm the one with the camera in my hand so it's really hard for me to show my full body. I can set my camera up on a tripod and step back 10,000 feet and show my whole body but that just doesn't go with the content that I create. So I'm very mindful to make sure that I'm taking pictures of outfits. I'm taking pictures in the mirrors when I'm working out. I do my best to be mindful of showing my whole body. Am I embarrassed about my body? Absolutely not. Do I enjoy sharing my progress with you in the full body side by side pictures? Absolutely. So while I answered this question I did pop in a few of the before and after pictures that I've shared not only in my Facebook group but on my thumbnails in YouTube. So I do show my whole body. I show it quite often in photos. Again, I'm the one with the camera so it's a little bit harder to show it when I'm the only one at home filming a sit down video. So the next one is a comment that I've seen on a couple of my videos when I'm talking about being a weight loss and nutrition coach. So if you didn't know, almost a year ago I was certified through NASA, the National Association of Sports Medicine to be a weight loss and nutrition coach. It's a certification program that I took and I passed a test and I received my certificate. So I am certified to be a weight loss and nutrition coach. So one of the comments that I've seen is how can you be overweight and be a weight loss coach? And my short and sweet answer to that is who better to be a weight loss coach than someone who's struggled with their weight and has successfully lost 67 pounds. Am I a fitness model or a fitness competitor? Am I covered in muscles and strutting around in a bikini every day? No, but because I have a history of gaining and losing weight, being overweight, being obese, taking weight off in a healthy, sustainable way, I feel like I'm probably more qualified to be a weight loss and nutrition coach than someone who's never struggled with their weight. The next question is why do we never see your husband in your videos and is that because he doesn't support you? People are so quick to judge and make assumptions. My husband chooses not to be in my videos because he's not somebody who enjoys being on camera and that's completely okay. This isn't Jen in Troy's WW journey, this is Jen's WW journey. And if my husband chooses to make cameo appearances every once in a while in my videos, then that's his choice and I'm going to respect that. And it's not that he doesn't support me, it's just merely that he just isn't someone that wants to be in front of a camera. He's not on a weight loss journey. The topics that I talk about completely disinterest him, but he still supports me and he's here if I have questions and he takes my thumbnail pictures every week of my grocery haul. And you do see him pop up here and there in vlogs, but that's his personal choice and as his wife, I respect that. Next is a comment that I see often. It's been a while I have to say since I've seen this comment, but back in 2019 when I didn't lose a lot of weight that year on WW because I just wasn't committed to the program. So back in 2019, when I wasn't losing a lot of weight, I would get the comments like, oh, why aren't you losing weight on WW? And sometimes I would address those comments and sometimes I wouldn't, but as I entered into 2020 and through currently 2021, it's August of 2021 that I'm filming this video. Now I don't get the comment of why aren't you losing weight on WW. Now I get why haven't you lost more weight on WW? And the short and simple answer to that question is, I'm completely okay with how much weight I've lost on WW over the course of the last two and a half years. I've lost 67 pounds. Also when we lose weight quickly, we're not really losing fat. We're losing a lot of our lean muscle and that's something that I prefer to keep on my body. So losing weight slower not only is sustainable, I'm more likely to keep it off. I'm keeping my lean muscle and I'm enjoying my life. I'm living my life. I'm getting to go out to dinner. I'm enjoying a slice of cake at a birthday party and not feeling guilty about it. It's perception on why aren't you losing more weight? You're losing weight too slow. For me and for my weight loss journey, which is really only my concern, I'm losing weight at the rate that I'm comfortable with, that I'm happy with and I'm still living my best life. Now the next question goes hand in hand with the previous question and that is why don't you share your weight? So about sharing my actual weight. To me, this is personal. If you know someone in real life who's on a weight loss journey, how likely are you to go up to them and ask them their weight? Just because we choose to put our journey on YouTube doesn't mean that we're real people with real lives and some of the information, personal information about ourselves is personal and I choose not to share my weight because that's personal to me. I'm happy to share my weight loss, my weight gain, but I'm choosing not to share my actual number on the scale because truthfully, the only person's business that that is is mine. So the next question or comment that I get a lot and not only have I gotten this from my viewers but I've also heard this being said by other creators and that is why do you promote products on your YouTube channel? So I think there's a big misconception on promotion of products and I think that misconception is that people think that we're selling things and that's not the case. First of all, if we receive any commission or kickback from a product that we promote, we're certainly not getting rich off of that. It's not paying our mortgage. It's not making us be able to be full-time YouTubers. It's very, very small. The commission or kickback received on products that we promote and the truth of the matter is is that a lot of the products that we share on our channel, we don't even receive commission. It's not an affiliate link and we don't receive a kickback for me the reason that I share so many new products that I find that I've discovered that I love whether or not I receive a commission on those products is completely irrelevant. It's because I wanna share things that I love that work for me that help me on my weight loss journey with you guys. I wanna share products that maybe you would never have heard of if it wasn't for me sharing them on YouTube. That's why I share so many products. I've also gotten questions or heard comments. Why do you have so many links and discount codes in your description box? Again, because I wanna share products with you guys that I love and if I can reach out to the company and get you guys a discount code for a product, then of course I'm going to do that. I want to be able to not only share new products with you but also give you a discount if you want to try those products out. And again, remember when we do affiliated links or sponsored content, we're not getting rich off of that. They're not paying us hundreds and thousands of dollars to promote these products and I know for me and I can't speak for other creators out there but my intention is to strictly share them with you, get you a discount code if I can get you a discount code. And on the flip side, I have learned about so many great products from other creators that share them on their channel. So that is why I promote and share product on my channel. And going hand in hand with why do you promote products? I've seen this comment twice and I know that's not a lot but this comment kind of rubbed me the wrong way because again, I think there's a misconception and that is if I see that it's a sponsored video or up in the little corner it says includes paid promotion, I immediately thumbs down your video and don't watch it because I don't think you should get paid to promote products. Again, we're not getting rich off of paid sponsorships and paid promotions and let's be completely honest. Content on YouTube for you, for the viewer is completely free. Content for the creator takes a lot of time, takes a lot of money, we have to buy cameras and tripods and ring lights, we have to research content, we have to create scripts, we have to create thumbnails, we have to film, we have to edit. It takes a lot of time and in my opinion there's absolutely no reason why a content creator shouldn't get paid for the content that they create. A lot of content creators, this is their full-time job so I don't know about you but I'm certainly not going to go to work every day if I'm not getting paid for it. I think paid sponsorships and paid promotions are great for content creators. It's a great way for us to get paid for the content that we put out that is free for our viewers to watch. The only way that we get paid from YouTube is by the ads that are placed in our videos, by the views that we get on our videos. It has nothing to do with how many subscribers we have. It's all about the view and how long you're watching, the video, how many ads you're watching, that's how we get paid. So in the event that we're offered a paid sponsorship, an affiliate link, or a paid promotion for a product that we love, I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all. And it's no skin off your nose because you can purchase that product most likely with a discount code and it saves you money and you're not paying any more than you would if it wasn't a paid sponsorship or paid promotion. And on the subject of giving videos a thumbs down, it's engagement on our channel. So whether you're giving us a thumbs up or a thumbs down, YouTube sees that as engagement and it's actually a good thing. So thumbs downs to me don't bother me because it's all engagement and it's all beneficial in the end for my channel. So the next question is, again, kind of a personal question and that is, why don't you have any kids? So I don't have kids because again, it's a personal choice. Now when I was younger and I was married the first time, if you didn't know, Troy is not my first husband. I married pretty young. My first husband and I did discuss having children but at that time we just weren't in a financial position or really a place in our life that we thought that bringing kids in was a good decision. Everybody I've dated since then has had children and when I met Troy, we were just at an age and a place in our life that children just didn't really fit in. Now don't get me wrong, I love kids, other people's kids that I can send home but for me, I have chosen not to have children and now I'm at an age obviously where children isn't really an option. So I'm happy with my decision and like I said, I do love kids, other people's kids. And the last question, I actually get this a lot and this is a positive question so I feel good ending on a positive note and that question is how do you get paid from YouTube and how can we help you as your viewer? So like I mentioned when I discussed paid sponsorships and affiliate links, we get paid from YouTube based on the number of views of our videos and also the ads that we put into our videos. We do not get paid just to have a YouTube channel. We don't get paid based on subscribers. Actually subscribers are completely irrelevant. So the only way that a YouTuber gets paid other than sponsorships or affiliated links is by views. So by you watching my videos, that really, really helps me so I appreciate all of the views but even more than that is watching the video until the end because our watch time as it's called in YouTube makes a big difference. So if our videos eight minutes long and people are checking out at the one or two minute mark that can be a detriment for our channel. So the longer you watch the video, preferably until the end the better that is for our channel. And then when it comes to the ads that are placed in the video I know for me that I try not to go crazy with the ad. I'll usually only put in one or two ads unless it's a really long video then I may throw in an additional one but by watching the ad completely through that's going to be the biggest way for you to help out. So if it's a skip ad instead of skipping just watching it completely through can make a big difference for us because again, we're paid on the ads placed in our videos our watch time and how many views our videos get. So thank you so much to you guys who are asking how you can help me it really, really makes a big difference because like I said, we put a lot of time and effort into our videos and into our channel and being as that's the only way that we get paid the more help we can get from our viewers the better. So again, thank you so much for thinking of me and wanting to help me make my channel and my financial situation with YouTube the best that it can be, I made it. I can't believe I made it through all of the questions, comments that I never wanted to address. So if you have any other questions for me make sure you leave them down in the comments and again, I hope this answers maybe some of the questions that you've thought about asking and haven't asked or maybe some of these questions or comments came directly from you. So if you enjoyed this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up it means a lot to me and of course it's engagement so it helps out my channel and if you're new and you haven't yet subscribed of course I'd love to have you here hit the subscribe button and ring the bell next to it so you don't miss a single video. Thank you guys again, so much for your questions your comments, whether they're positive or negative thank you so much for engaging and asking your questions and again, I hope this really helps you out and don't forget to check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching links and discounts to my favorite things and of course head on over join us on Facebook we'd love to have you. Thank you again for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Bye friends.