 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. It is Friday. It is the weekend. It is a weigh-in day, WW workshop, topic recap day, and I'm going to share with you how my week was. So if you're excited for another weigh-in, give this video a big, huge thumbs up. Make sure you're subscribed and your bell notification is turned on because I upload a weigh-in video every Friday and I do five videos per week. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching. I offer personalized to you macros and calories. Highly, highly, highly recommend as well as one-on-one coaching if you would like to chat with me directly. Links, discounts to all of my favorite things and my Facebook group. Come on over, join that community we would love to have you. So let's jump into my week, my weigh-in and the WW workshop topic. I hope you had an absolutely a fan-tastic week. I hope you had an amazing 4th of July. I did go ahead and share some pictures on both my Instagram and my Facebook group of our 4th of July, including this picture right here of a side-by-side from 4th of July last year to 4th of July this year. And I have to say, I was shocked at the difference on how different I look. Everything about me from how small my hands are now to how small my body is now from the last 4th of July to this 4th of July. It was quite shocking and actually quite satisfying honestly. So my tip for you is to take a lot of pictures throughout your weight loss journey because that's how you're really going to see a visible difference when the scale isn't your friend. We're gonna dive into the scale a little bit more for this week's weigh-in but by taking pictures and visibly seeing the changes can be really beneficial on a weight loss journey. We had my in-laws over on Sunday for our little 4th of July barbecue and then on 4th of July, we actually went over to our next door neighbor's house for a few hours and had a barbecue with them. So it was a weekend packed with good 4th of July food and I will tell you that I feel like overall I did well. Now, did I eat all the good food for 4th of July? Absolutely, absolutely I did. I even talked about how everything in moderation is important during the holidays and I also shared on my Facebook group how when we went to our neighbors on 4th of July I brought a big huge bowl of fresh fruit and that way I knew that I had something healthy on hand, something that I could feel my plate with if there wasn't a lot of other healthy choices or choices that fit into what I wanted to eat on my weight loss plan at that little barbecue and it came in really handy. I had a plate of delicious food including half of my plate of my fresh fruit, some wings, some chips and queso, really enjoyed the holiday weekend, enjoyed the company, didn't focus so much on the food and just really tried to be in the moment and enjoyed the holiday with family and friends. It's important to me to not let food take over everything and not let food take over time with family and friends and holidays and I really feel good about how the 4th of July weekend went for me. Let me know down in the comments what you did for 4th of July and how did you do navigating through all the good barbecue food that happens for the holiday. Also this week I focused on getting in more vegetables like I talked about in last week's weigh-in, I made sure that at least two or three meals a day had vegetables and I feel like I nailed it. I really got back into my vegetable game this last week. I made a big salad when my in-laws came over and I put a big amount of salad on my plate to take up more of my plate than the potato salad and the baked beans were going to take up and just really heavily focused on getting in my veggies and it felt really good and I'm definitely going to focus on that again this week. I'm still working out daily, seven days a week, going to the gym three days a week, feeling really good about the changes that I'm seeing in my body that again have nothing to do with the scale. I feel like my body is toning up, leaning down. Whether or not the scale represents that or not, I can just feel it in my body and that's such a rewarding feeling from going and working out and sweating in the gym and making exercise a priority. Before I jump into this week's weigh-in and we have lots and lots to talk about, let's talk about this week's WW Workshop topic which is planning for a roadblock before it even happens. This topic is great for the 4th of July weekend. This topic is great for summer because we go to a lot of cookouts and barbecues and events during the summer and we worry about how the heck are we going to stay on track when we're invited to so many fun summer related events? You don't always have to stay on track. You don't always have to make healthy choices when you're at these events but if you can navigate those roadblocks that are going to come up before they come up, it can help you be a little bit more prepared when going into these festivities. There are five tips from WW on how to navigate roadblocks. Starting with tip number one, which is to roll camera. Pretend you're watching a typical day play out like a movie. What's going on? Who is there? How's it different from your usual routine? Rolling that camera, rolling that footage of your day can really help you navigate the difference between your everyday life and what happened when you're attending these events. Tip number two is to notice the hiccups along the way. List anything that might get in the way of healthy habits you rely on now, that you rely on from your day to day. Maybe your friend doesn't have a treadmill or you can't cook your favorite morning oatmeal in the hotel room. Think about things that may stand in your way before they actually happen. I know for me when I travel, I always find out is there a fridge in my hotel room? Is there a way to warm up or cook food? Am I going to have to rely on eating out? When I'm thinking about going to events, kind of like the 4th of July, get together at my neighbor's house, I thought about what food is going to be there? And I honestly had no idea what food was going to be there. I stopped that roadblock in place by making sure that I brought something that was healthy and on plan. Tip number three is to find realistic solutions. Think of things you can do to stay engaged with your journey. You could stream workouts in the WW app or you could try a recipe for no cook overnight oats. So kind of going back to the hotel room. If you don't have a way to cook your favorite oatmeal in the morning, you can make overnight oats the night before and throw them in the little refrigerator in your hotel room and still enjoy your favorite healthy breakfast. Maybe you're too busy to do your normal fitness routine or maybe there's not fitness equipment where you're going. You can always again stream workouts on the WW app and still get in your exercise. I know for me my go-to when I'm traveling or in a situation where I don't have fitness equipment is to go on a walk. Enjoy the scenery, get some vitamin D from the sun and just go on a long walk. Tip number four is to revise the script. Use your answers from step two and three to make an action plan for how you're going to support your goals. Be specific about what, where, how and when. I shared with you a few things that I do when I'm put in a situation where these roadblocks pop up, whether it be traveling or events or festivities. Think about what you can do to navigate that before it actually happens. Going back to the old saying fail to plan, plan to fail. Plan ahead a little bit. Think about things that may stand in your way before they actually stand in your way. And tip number five goes hand in hand with this and this is to think ahead. Fast forward to after the credits roll. When is the, when the day is over, how will you get back to your regular routine? Write down the first thing you'll do and when. There's nothing wrong with overindulging or splurging or eating a lot on a holiday or at an event or at a barbecue. There's nothing wrong with that, but the biggest thing that you have to do is just get back on track. The next day, get back on track. Write down the first thing you're going to do to set yourself up for success the next day. Let's go back to the whole oatmeal situation. Maybe what you're writing down is that you're having your favorite bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, which starts your day off on the right foot, gets you back into your normal routine and gets you back on track. Don't get me wrong, I love a good routine. I am very type A. I am very routine oriented, but sometimes life happens, festivities happen, holidays happen, and we can't stick to our normal routines as much as we want to. We have to make shifts and we have to navigate roadblocks that happen outside of our normal day today. We have to plan ahead the best that we can. We have to make the healthiest choices that we can, but we also have to enjoy our time with our friends and families. Holidays only come around once a year, so enjoy them. Don't focus so much on the food, but focus on the holiday, your friends and your family. I really like this topic because for me, it's not about depriving myself or stopping going to family events or stop celebrating holidays because the food that served doesn't fit into my day. It's about navigating those the best way that I can and really just focusing on the event my family and my friends and of course, enjoying all of that good holiday food. So now let's jump into my weigh-in. Post-4th of July weekend, week six of my fitness routine. Let me tell you, let me tell you, it's been a week when it comes to my weight loss journey. It's been an annoying, frustrating, maddening week with the scale like I shared with you guys last week. My weight has been interesting. It's been very interesting since implementing my fitness routine. I'm seeing a lot of this. I'm seeing a lot of this where my weight stays the same and then I'll go down a little bit, then I'll go back up a little bit and then it'll stay the same for days and days on end and this week, this week, this week. My scale was not my friend this week. My weight stayed the same to the ounce the entire week today included. So when I stepped on the scale today, I weighed exactly what I weighed last week, which means that technically this week wasn't maintained for me and I can't tell you the last time I maintained my weight. I mean for months and months and months on end, I have lost weight every single week. Now don't get me wrong. I would much rather maintain than gain of course, but it's interesting that I maintained this week because obviously I'm in a calorie deficit like I have been every other week. I'm still working out as I have been every other week and what's even more interesting is that my workouts, they didn't change from last week to this week, yet my weight maintained the same and honestly, full transparency, I was annoyed. I was frustrated. I was about ready to write my fitness coach and not very happy email because my weight did not change this week, but then I stopped yesterday, Thursday and reflected on my week and remembered that I did everything that I could. I did everything right this week. I worked out. I drank my water. I ate my vegetables. I was in a calorie deficit. I did everything that I had to do to see the scale move and it just didn't move. The scale for some reason this week just wanted to stay the same way as it was last week and there's nothing that I can do about that. I could get really mad and frustrated and go off the deep end and eat all the foods for the fourth of July weekend or I can just stay the course and know that next week, chances are at the scales going to move in the right direction again. There can be a lot of contributing factors as to why we maintain our weight or why we don't lose weight every day or every week that are out of our control. I could be extra sore or inflamed or retaining water from my workouts. I could have eaten different foods than I ate last week that just caused my body to kind of go whoa and maintain my weight but on the flip side of that, when I was getting ready to head out the door to do my grocery shopping and getting my purse out of our haul closet by our front door, that's where we keep all of our coats, our winter coats, our spring coats, our windbreakers, things like that because we don't need a lot of coats here in Arizona and when I opened the closet and reached for my purse, I saw a North Face jacket sitting in my closet that I have literally had for at least 10 years. When I was at my very lowest weight, I bought this size medium North Face jacket and it fit me great. I could zip it up, I had room, it was comfortable, I wore it all the time but for the last nine years, nine and a half years, that jacket has not fit me. At my highest weight, before starting my weight loss journey this time around, I couldn't even get the jacket on. I literally couldn't put it on, more or less even think about zipping it up, it just didn't fit me and I kept it over these last few years and I thought about decluttering it, getting rid of it, donating it several, several times especially when we made this move from Spokane to Arizona. I thought, you know what, this coat does not fit me and yeah, I tried it on. I tried it on before we moved and it didn't fit me. I could get the coat on but it was about this far from actually being able to even zip up or wrap all the way around me but I kept it. I kept it because I thought there's a possibility if I keep going the way I'm going that I'll actually be able to get this jacket on one day, that I will actually be able to wear it again and it was not an inexpensive jacket, it's a very comfortable, lightweight jacket, perfect for Arizona, so I kept it and since we moved here almost four months ago, it sat in my closet. So when I saw it, I thought, I'm gonna try this on. I'm gonna see if I've made any progress from Washington to now, when it was about here, a few inches from even being able to close and I tried it on and guess what? Guess what? Even though my weight hasn't drastically changed since I moved to Arizona, that jacket fits me. I can zip it. I can zip it. Now, is it tight? Absolutely. Is it uncomfortable? Absolutely. Would I ever wear it zipped up? No way but I can zip it. I can zip it. It now closes completely and I can zip it. So now it is my mission. It is my mission in life to get that jacket to fit comfortably like it did 10 years ago. So it's still in my closet and it was a huge NSV for me this week and it kept me motivated and excited even though the scale, the stupid scale wasn't moving. That alone was the highlight of my week, scale aside. It's just a reminder to focus on things that have nothing to do with the number on the scale because like me this week, you can do everything right and the scale doesn't move. Don't get discouraged. Stay the course, trust the process and keep going. I promise eventually it'll all work out and the scale will move and show your hard work paying off. So now I wanna hear from you guys. Let me know how your week was. Did you gain, did you lose? How was the scale for you? And also let me know your tips and tricks for encountering roadblocks and of course how your 4th of July holiday went. If you enjoyed today's video, don't forget to give it a thumbs up. Make sure your subscribe and your bell notification is turned on because we do a weigh-in every Friday and I do upload five videos a week. Make sure you check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching, links and discounts to my favorite things and come on over, join us on Facebook. We'd love to have you. Happy Friday and I'll see you in tomorrow's grocery haul. Bye.