 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 is Friday, so it is way in day. We're gonna talk about my week, the first week of the new year, the first week of my cut. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I uploaded my 2024 goals video on December 31st. I will link it down below so you can catch up and understand a little bit more of what my goals are moving into the new year. We're also going to talk about the Weight Watchers workshop topic, set some goals for next week and of course we'll talk about how the first week of my cut went with weight loss and how I'm feeling overall. So if you're excited, give this video a big thumbs up, subscribe if you're not, turn your bell on because I upload a weigh in every Friday and I do actually upload five videos every single week. Check out the description box down below where you will find nutrition coaching. I do offer personalized to you macros and calories. Highly recommend having these done. My clients are killing it with their weight loss and really excited for the new year. This is how you know what you should be eating to reach your goals. I also offer one-on-one coaching for accountability to ask questions or talk with me directly. I also have group coaching starting up here in a couple of days. So if you're interested, definitely take advantage of group coaching. I'll put all of the information for that down in the description box for you. Links to discounts to my favorite things and come join my Facebook group. It's free, it's supportive, and we would love to have you. So let's jump into my week, the Weight Watchers Workshop topic and my first weigh in of 2024. Friday, friends, happy New Year's. I hope you had an amazing, amazing New Year holiday. I was in bed by eight. I didn't even make it to the East Coast ball drop. I do not stay up that late. I also really wanted to start the new year off right by getting up early and hiking my favorite mountain in Tucson called Tumamoc. I used to hike this about once a week and it's been a while since I did it and I was so excited to start the new year off with an amazing beautiful sunrise on Tumamoc. So I was at Brighton early, took that hike and then even went and lifted weights a little bit later in the morning. So I had a really successful active New Year's day and that's partially why I was in bed by eight p.m. I mean, I'm in bed by eight p.m. most days but I really wanted to make sure I got a good amount of sleep because I knew that New Year's was going to be active and I wanted to start it off on the right foot. I'm also in the first full week of my cut. I do have a fitness coach which is helping, she is helping me with a workout routine as well as putting me into what is known as a cut. This is kind of a bodybuilding term but basically what it is, is putting me back into a calorie deficit to lean down as much as I can over the course of about eight to 12 weeks. We're starting with an eight week cut. We'll see how that goes. I may continue that into a 12 week cut but basically I'm reducing my caloric intake by mapping my protein, mapping my movement to see if I can lean down just a little bit more. Lose the last few pounds of potential body fat that I have. My goal for the cut is to lose about five pounds. We will see how that plays out and of course I'll share with you how the first week went when it came to the scale. I do talk a lot about my cut in my goals video. A lot of you commented on that video saying you would like a full video about my cut, kind of going into depth what that looks like and if it would be beneficial for you I will film that video for you as well but overall my week went really good. I have my activity a little bit which has been a lot. It's been a lot to try to incorporate more activity than I already do and this is my busy time of year between group coaching, one-on-one coaching, filming content. I also have the end of my macros 101 class and also my pay challenge group for New Year's on Facebook. It's been a lot but I'm really committed to this. I really wanna see what this body of mine can do over the course of the next eight weeks. Overall I'm feeling really good. Now I've had moments where I'm a little more hungry than normal during this cut because when we're in a calorie deficit we're typically a little bit more hungry but I've been really nourishing my body with a lot of whole real food and really focusing on getting in my protein, my fiber and healthy fat which is definitely helping to keep me fuller for longer. It really does make a difference what you eat. I know calories and calories out, it's how you lose weight. Overall if you're in a deficit you're going to lose weight but the foods that you're choosing can really play a big part in how you feel, your satiety and of course reaching your goals. So I'm feeling really good about how I've started out the new year and I'm really excited for 2024. I talked about this in my goals video that I just have a good feeling about this year and I'm really excited to see you guys reach your goals in the new year. I have one coaching client in particular who killed 2023. Following her personalized macros and calories she lost 70 pounds, 70 pounds in 2023 and she is moving into the new year on the right foot and she has some pretty exciting goals as well. I really love seeing my clients successful with personalized macros and calories. I highly recommend this if you haven't had years done invest a little bit in yourself and have them done. It really is a game changer for weight loss. So overall 2024 is going to be the year we reach our goals. Before I talk about my actual weigh-in the first weigh-in of the new year let's chat about this week's Weight Watchers workshop topic and that is how to set goals that work for you. This plays hand in hand with my goals video that just went up a few days ago. Before tackling a big goal, saying you're going to lose 100 pounds, saying you're going to work out seven days a week, saying you're going to drink a gallon of water every day, really focus on small goals and give yourself the star treatment. You may be wondering what is the star treatment? Star goals stand for specific, truly doable, active and relevant. Let's deep dive into that. The S which stands for be specific. Think about exactly what you want to do and how you plan to do it. For example, I want to make my lunches ahead of time so on Sundays I'll find recipes, make a list, shop and prep. The T stands for keep it truly doable. Is your goal realistic? How can you set yourself up for success? Because Sundays get busy I'll start first thing and lean on quick recipe. I'll start first thing and lean on quick recipes from the WW app and pre-prepped ingredients. The A stands for stay in active mode. Focus on what you'll do rather than what you want to stop doing. I'll set an alarm so I wake up on time and have my notebook, grocery bags, keys and purse ready the night before. And lastly, the R stands for make it relevant. Is your goal meaningful and something you really, truly want to do? Not one you think you should do. I love having lunches prepped. It keeps me in my points budget and frees up time and energy for other things. When I set my goals for 2024 I really leaned heavily on the star rule. Thinking about specific actionable truly doable goals that are realistic is really, really important. I also mentioned in my goals video how setting up small goals that lead to an end big goal is way more realistic and will keep you more motivated throughout the year to reach those goals. Rather than saying again you're gonna lose 100 pounds, how about setting five pound goal increments or decades saying you wanna get into certain weight decades throughout the year. Setting those small goals, those baby goals always lead to the end result which is that big goal. Less a bonus, setting manageable and achievable goals keeps you motivated, it keeps you excited to keep moving towards those goals. It builds your confidence and boosts your momentum to fuel your journey. Again, break it down into small goals. Use the star method to set your 2024 goals. Now, if you've already decided what your goals are going to be, take another look at them and make sure they fall into the star method. Are they goals that are achievable but challenging for you? And as always, let's share three fast facts from Weight Watchers. Number one, setting goals that leverage your natural strengths, preferences and tendencies increase your confidence. The more you feel you can accomplish something the more likely you are to actually do it. And creating goals around behaviors allows you to focus on the things you have immediate control over. It is so incredibly important to set goals that are actually realistic. I used to be in the mindset of setting these big, huge lofty goals and then midway through the year when I wasn't on track to reach those goals, I lost motivation and momentum. That is the exact opposite of what we want to do in this year. We want to have a big goal that's broken down into small baby steps that get us to that big goal. I promise you it's going to make a world of difference and you actually sticking with your 2024 goals. Speaking of goals, let us know down in the comments what are some of your goals for 2024? Now let's talk about my first weigh-in of the new year and my first weigh-in in my cut. Now, like I mentioned in my goals video, I'm not sure that I'm going to see a lot of weight loss in this cut because I don't have a lot of fat to lose. And like I said, a five pound weight loss would be amazing during the next eight to 12 weeks. What I'm really focused on is changes in my body, just leaning down so that I'm able to see my muscle a little bit more and really focus on continuing to build lean muscle because lean muscle burns calories at rest. I'm burning calories right now because I have lean muscle on my body. So just increasing my strength and leaning down with the side effect of potential weight loss is what I'm shooting for. I feel like I did really well my first week of my cut. It was a little challenging in the beginning to navigate how to structure my meals to reach my goals. But by Wednesday, Thursday, I was really in a good momentum when it comes to my cut. I've been focusing on getting in more water. I've been really relying on my supplements like my Motivate Creatine, my Motivate Recovery to really help boost the muscle building capabilities and help me recover a little bit quicker from my workouts because like I mentioned, I am moving my body a little bit more. So I tend to become a little bit more sore and inflamed which shows up as a weight gain on the scale which is exactly what happened this week. I had a massive weird spike in my weight this week and I attribute it specifically to the increase in activity and the changes of food because I'm eating a lot more whole real food that has a lot more vitamins, minerals, fiber. I think my body is having a hard time adjusting to that along with the increased activity. So I saw the scale spike up a couple of pounds this week just overnight, literally overnight and then that two pounds stayed with me most of the week and I was starting to wonder, is this cut really going to work for me or is it going to potentially cause me to see these weird fluctuations on the scale? Now on a side note, I know I didn't gain two pounds overnight. I know I didn't gain two pounds at all because I'm not in a calorie surplus. It's simply a fluctuation from who knows what in regards to this cut. I really was thinking throughout the week, what's different? What am I doing different? And there was a lot of things. I really couldn't pinpoint one thing that was potentially causing that weight gain on the scale, but by the time I weighed in today, I'm exactly the same. So that two pounds kind of dissipated over Thursday and into this morning, but I didn't see a loss in the first week of my cut, which is normal. You can't expect to see a weight loss every week even when you're specifically intentionally in a calorie deficit, you're not always going to see the scale move in the right direction or move at all. I am not mad about a maintain at all. Like I said, if I lose weight, fantastic. What I really want to focus on is body composition and just recomping my body. That's truly my ultimate goal. And honestly, I'm feeling better overall. I feel like my gut microbiome is a little bit better with whole real food. I feel definitely more satisfied throughout the day. I'm not as hungry. I'm not as crazy. I have more energy. I'm sleeping better and listen, if the scale doesn't move at all, I'm grateful for all of those non-scale related victories of this little mini cut. So I'm feeling really good about where I'm at. I'm feeling really good about how I started off the new year. I'm proud of myself for sticking with it and continuing to move my body even more than normal. And I'm actually kind of liking the extra movement. I know that this isn't sustainable for me forever. I simply cannot exercise this much forever, but I can certainly set it as a goal for the next eight to 12 weeks. So like I said, I'm ready to hit some goals in 2024. I'm so excited to see what you accomplished in 2024. Again, let us know down below what are some of your goals. Maybe you'll spark some interest in someone else to set a similar goal. And let us know too what your thoughts are on the STAR method for setting goals for 2024. And let me know how your new year's was. Let me know everything down below. And if you enjoyed today's video, don't forget to give it a big thumbs up. Again, subscribe, turn your bell on because I upload lots and I upload five videos every single week. And we do a weigh in every single Friday. I will have nutrition coaching down below for you, as well as links and discounts to my favorite things. And of course, come join our Facebook group. We'd love to have you. Happy new year, friend. Happy 2024. And I can't wait to spend the entire year with you reaching your goals.