 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. Today, I'm going to share with you how I lost over 100 pounds. As of today, I am down 112 pounds. And I wanna share with you some of my top tips on how I got here, how I lost 112 pounds and how I've been able to keep it off. So if you're excited, give this video a big, huge thumbs up. Make sure you're subscribed and your bell notification is turned on because I upload videos five days a week. I do a lot of tips and tricks, what I eat in a day, recipe videos, weigh-in videos, grocery hauls, a little bit of everything. So make sure you're subscribed and your bell notification is turned on. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching. I offer personalized to you macros and calories. This is really important to not only lose weight but maintain your weight. And if you need extra accountability or wanna talk with me directly, I have one-on-one coaching as well. Links, discounts to my favorite things, anything I share with you in today's video will also be down in that description box. And lastly, head on over, join my Facebook group. We would love to have you. So let's go ahead and jump into how I lost over 100 pounds. Losing weight is hard. As we know, losing weight is really, really hard. And when we get to maintenance, it's equally as hard. Some say even harder. There's a lot that I did over the course of the couple of years that it took me to lose over 100 pounds. And today I wanna share with you my top 10 tips for weight loss and what I did to see results. Not only have I lost over 100 pounds, I've been able to maintain everything that I've lost and I'm continuing to lose weight on a very regular basis. And part of why I started my YouTube channel in the first place, besides for accountability, was also to help others. So I know that these top 10 tips that worked for me can benefit and potentially work for you as well. So I'm really excited to share them with you. Let's start with tip number one. And this has been a big, big reason why I've been able to successfully lose weight. And that is that I have a focus on real whole food. 80 to 90% of my diet is real whole food. The other 10 to 20% is foods that I love, whether that be processed foods, junk food, sweet foods, no food is better good, but our body does better, our weight loss does better when we have a diet primarily focused on real whole food. And what I mean by real whole food is lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates. And what I mean by junk food or processed foods that other like 10 to 20% over here is things like chips, crackers, cookies, candy, things that are processed, things that have more than one single ingredient. The definition of a processed food is containing more than one single ingredient. So anything that has one ingredient is considered real whole food. I base my diet around single ingredient foods. I eat a lot of lean protein. I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and complex carbohydrates. Not only do I find that these foods keep me full and satisfied, I find that when focusing on real food, I have better weight loss results. I'm less hungry throughout the day and the weight seems to come off more consistently. Like I said, I still eat processed food. I still eat junk food every single day. I just focus on real whole food and this has been quite the game changer for me for weight loss. Tip number two and the other thing that I've done is made sure I was eating enough. When I strictly followed WW only in about 2019, the beginning of 2020, I found that I was always, always hungry. I was never satisfied. I was craving a lot of processed and unhealthy foods and I just felt like I never could get enough and that's when I started doing a little bit of digging and research into points versus calories. I actually have an entire playlist here on my channel of points versus calories. I'll link it down below for you but that's when I realized I wasn't eating enough. I was eating anywhere from 1,000 to 1,300 calories a day which was 500 to 700 calories a day less than I needed for weight loss. When we under eat on a regular basis consistently over time, our metabolism adapts. Our metabolism doesn't slow, our metabolism adapts and when it adapts, we see the scale come to a screeching halt. Our metabolism will adapt to the number of calories that we're feeding it and if we are not eating enough, it's going to adapt to that and it's going to hold onto everything that you feed it because it's primal instinct is survival and if you're not feeding your body enough calories, the right foods and enough food overall throughout the day, your weight loss is going to come to a plateau, a stall or really a screeching halt and really you may potentially even gain weight. That's what I was finding as my weight was doing a lot of this and that's when I decided to really focus on making sure that I was eating enough calories. Points aside, I didn't care and I still to this day don't care how many points I eat in a day as long as I'm eating enough calories to fuel my body and more importantly, fuel my metabolism and when I started eating more, more than I had ever eaten before, that's when my weight started to go in the right direction on the scale. Eat more to lose weight is a real thing. That's also why it is extremely important to know your personalized macros and calories. What should you be eating every day and comparing that to what you're eating on the WW program and how many points versus calories you're eating. It's really, really important. I can't stress this enough to eat enough when you're trying to lose weight and you may even think, wow, that's a lot of calories but that's the amount of calories that your body needs to lose weight. And like I said, the minute I ate more than I ever ate before, that's when the scale started to go in the right direction and that's why it's continued to go in the right direction. Tip number three is to drink your water. Now I know that everybody says drink your water, drink your water, drink your water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's actually extremely important for weight loss. Not only does it hydrate our body but water actually can have a positive effect on our metabolism. It can even boost your metabolism a small percentage and we know that the more calories we burn every day, the more likely we are to lose weight because the only way to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit. So by drinking our water, we're hydrating our body, we're flushing all of the toxins out of our body and we're increasing our metabolism which leads to weight loss. Now, if you're someone who struggles to get in your water, start small. Focus on 32 ounces of water every day and then increase to 64 ounces and then increase to a gallon of water and in no time I promise you you'll be drinking a gallon of water without even thinking about it. If you need to flavor your water with fruit, water enhancers, things like crystallite, meal, whatever you need to do to get in your water, do it so that you can get in your water because it's a huge, huge game changer with weight loss. I drink anywhere from half of a gallon to a gallon of water a day and I would say on average, my goal is a gallon of water every single day and when I gradually increased to a gallon, that's when I really started seeing the scale move in the right direction. And lastly, one benefit of water is it actually helps keep you full and I find that I'm less hungry and gravy throughout the day and remember if you're feeling hungry or snacky or gravy, drink some water first. Sometimes you're not hungry, you're just thirsty and that's the cue that your body needs to get rid of that sign of hunger. Tip number four is to move your body and what I mean by this is not going to the gym hours and hours every day or going to the gym five, six, seven times a week. What I mean by this is intentionally moving your body every single day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. When you're working, when you're on a Zoom call or on a phone call, stand up instead of sitting down. Every time you get to a commercial on the TV show that you're watching, get up and walk around until your show starts back up. Those are the little things that you can do every day that help increase your need, which is your non-exercise activity thermogenesis. And it is proven that these little movements throughout the day actually play a bigger part in weight loss than intentional exercise. So just focusing on moving more throughout the day can really help with weight loss. I just recently, recently as in a few weeks ago started in regular exercise and fitness routine. I lost over a hundred pounds before I really started to incorporate intentional exercise. Honestly, exercise is hard when you're overweight. It's hard to walk, to run, to lift weights, to go to the gym. It's harder to do day-to-day activities more or less intentional exercise. So I really focused on my diet first, which as we know, fitness starts in the gym, weight loss starts in the kitchen. So the foods that you're eating are far more important than exercise. And that's exactly what I did. I focused on my diet. I focused on eating the right foods. I focused on healing my relationship with food. And then once I got some weight off and it was a little bit easier to move my body, that's when I started an exercise routine. Now I did focus on moving my body every day while I lost a hundred pounds. I just wasn't going to the gym. You don't have to exercise to lose weight. Just focus on moving your body a little bit more every single day. Tip number five is a holy grail for me. And this is something that has really helped me on my weight loss journey. And that is planning, prepping and planning. If you follow me here on my channel, you know that I do a grocery haul every week. And part of that grocery haul is planning out my meals for the week. Now this is essential for grocery shopping because I have to know what foods to add to my grocery list. But having a plan in place for my meals is really, really beneficial. I know what I'm making for dinners throughout the week. Now I don't have to eat the meal that I have on my Tuesday list on Tuesday. I just know that I have everything on hand for a healthy meal at some point during the week. You also know that I do a meal prep every single Monday. I actually prep my breakfast, my lunch and a snack or a dessert for the week. This also really helps me stay on track and has been a big game changer for my overall weight loss. By knowing that I have a healthy breakfast, lunch and snack or dessert on hand, I always have something to reach for. I'm never in a position where I need to go to McDonald's for breakfast or Burger King for lunch or pick up a snack at a gas station. I always have something prepared, prepped and ready to go on hand. That way it's within my points, my calories, my macros and it's a healthy option that helps me reach my goals. Now if you're thinking, I don't want a meal prep, I don't want a meal prep every week, Jen, nor do I want to eat the same breakfast, lunch or snacks throughout the week. You don't have to do that. Just make sure that what's in your house is readily available, it's healthy, it's in your plan and it's going to help you reach your goals. Don't set yourself up for failure right out of the gate. Don't not plan ahead or prep anything and find yourself in a drive through on a regular basis because we know that we can't control the ingredients in fast food or restaurant food and we're much better off and our weight loss is much better off preparing more food at home. So make sure that your kitchen, your fridge, your freezer, your pantry are stocked with what you need to reach your goals. Like I said, this has been a holy grail for me and I attribute a lot of my weight loss success to planning and prepping. Number six is another huge one and that is consistency. This is absolutely essential to lose weight. You can't be on WW or in a calorie deficit for one week and then not the next week or maybe a couple days a week and then the other five days a week, you're off the rails doing whatever you want. Not being consistent with whatever weight loss plan, program, lifestyle, journey you're following is not going to help you reach your goals. Consistency is 100% absolutely key in losing weight. I have been consistent no matter what I'm doing. Whether I was just doing WW only, I was consistent. Whether I was focused on points versus calories, I was consistent. Whether I was focused on having real whole food in a clean diet, I was consistent. Now I have a mix of a little bit of everything. I do WW points, I watch my calories in macros and like I said, I focus on real food and I'm consistent and that is what has helped me lose over 100 pounds. I promise you, I promise you with everything that I can promise you with that if you're not consistent, you're not going to see results. Consistent in your food is the key to weight loss. Whatever foods you love, whatever plan you're following, even if you're not following a plan, whatever you're doing, just be consistent. Now this doesn't mean that you have to be perfect seven days a week. Maybe you decide to have a relaxed, happy, enjoyable meal once a week. That's completely okay. Just be consistent in that. Be consistent the other six days of the week and indulge that one meal per week if that's what works for you. Find what works for you and be consistent. I promise that's going to be a huge factor in success. Next is a question I get asked all the time, whether it's from a coaching client on YouTube and my Facebook group on Instagram is how do I stay motivated? I think being motivated, if there's such a thing as motivation is important for weight loss but I wouldn't necessarily say that I stay motivated. Motivation actually comes from seeing results. That's what keeps us motivated. So as I've continued to lose weight, that's where motivation comes from. So for me, staying motivated has been a key factor in losing weight, but motivation comes and goes. It's fleeting. Some days I'm more motivated than others. Some weeks, some months I'm more motivated than others. But I find for me that in order for me to stay motivated, I have to see results and in order for me to see results, I have to do all the other things that we've talked about so far in today's video. I have to eat the right foods. I have to drink my water. I have to be consistent. I have to track my food. Doing all of those things is what actually helps keep me motivated. And like I said, you're going to have moments, days, weeks, months where you're not motivated and that's okay. That's completely normal. But I can promise you one thing. If you focus on the tips that I mentioned in today's video, you're going to see results and that is what is going to drive motivation. Another motivation piece of advice that I want to give you is to find something tangible that you can touch for motivation. For me, that's clothing items. Whether it be a gold jacket or a gold pair of jeans, something that I can try on once a month or every couple months and see results in that piece of clothing, that really helps keep me motivated. Also, I find that jewelry like your wedding ring, if it's tight on your finger or it doesn't fit, trying that on regularly and seeing results that way is also huge motivation. Sometimes the scale's not our friend, so we have to find other things that keep us motivated, maybe taking your measurements. And again, trying on jewelry or a piece of clothing or something that you can feel and touch and visibly see results is going to be a huge, huge contributing factor to staying motivated. And again, don't be discouraged if sometimes you're motivated and sometimes you're not. It's completely normal. Just be consistent. Results will happen and motivation will surely follow. The next tip that I have for you is something that's pretty close to my heart, something that's really personal for me. And that tip is focusing on your relationship with food, better yet fixing, healing your relationship with food. This is something that I really, really struggled with when I was 100 pounds heavier. I wouldn't necessarily say that I was a binge eater. I've never been diagnosed as a binge eater, but I can eat a lot. I mean, I can out eat my husband any day of the week. I would find myself getting into this all or nothing mentality, which was really detrimental for not only my weight loss, but also for my mental and physical health. I would tell myself that I would buy a pack of Oreos at the grocery store, and then I would have one or two Oreos every day, all week, and this single pack of Oreos would last me the entire week. I would get home from the grocery store and I would have one or two Oreos, and then I would have one or two more. And then I would get into this mindset that if I just eat the whole pack of Oreos, they won't be in my house anymore, which means that tomorrow I can just get right back on track. And that is a cycle, a spiral, that really got out of control for me. I was finding that I was eating large amounts of food just to get them out of my house, but then I was bringing in those same foods or foods along those same lines that were triggering for me or foods that I would binge on all the time. So this cycle was just going round and round and round. And then I was classifying food as bad or good. I can't eat this because it's bad and I should eat this because it's good. No food is bad or good. And the only way to heal your relationship with food is to get out of these really detrimental cycles. I also had a cheat day once a week and I talked about this on my channel all the time. And let me tell you, on that cheat day I would eat all the things. And what was happening on this cheat day is I was undoing all of the calorie deficit that I was in all week long and my weight wasn't changing. In fact, my weight was going up and then going down. And I was gaining and losing the same five pounds for months and months and months on end because of my cheat day. And allowing myself to just binge and overeat one day a week wasn't doing me any favors. It was just undoing my calorie deficit for the week and I wasn't seeing the scale move. And I was frustrated because six days a week I was staying within my points, I was in my calories, I was eating the right foods and then that one day a week I was undoing everything. And it was contributing to my binge eating. It was contributing to my bad or good food. It was a cycle for me that was just spiraling out of control. So I knew that I had to make a change. I had to work on healing my relationship with food. I had to stop binge eating. I had to stop having a cheat day. I had to stop allowing these foods that I know are triggering for me to come into my house until my relationship with food was healed. So what I did is I started recognizing food as food. Food is fuel and I started looking at food as whether or not it would help me reach my goals. Was eating a whole pack of Oreos going to help me lose weight and reach my goals? No, so I don't need to eat a whole pack of Oreos. Was having a cheat day every week helping heal my relationship with food? No, was it helping me lose weight? Absolutely not. So I no longer have a cheat day. It's actually been well over a year, year and a half since I've had a cheat day. Now I just eat everything in moderation. I can buy a pack of Oreo cookies now and have one or two Oreo cookies. I can go out for dinner and eat half of my meal and take the other half home and still enjoy my favorite foods that I had on my cheat day, but just in moderation and in a proper portion size. By looking at food as fuel and really thinking about the foods that I'm eating and whether or not they're going to help me reach my goal has really drastically healed my relationship with food. I'm really proud to say that my relationship with food is the healthiest that it has ever been in my entire life. I have struggled with my weight my entire life. I have struggled with binging on foods and being a sugar monster my entire life. And now I don't have any of those tendencies. My relationship with food is the best it's ever been. And I attribute this to not only being self-aware enough to realize what triggers me what I need to stop doing but also remembering that food is fuel and that when I consume any type of food whether it's a healthy food or an unhealthy food I think about whether or not this is going to help get me to the goals that I have for myself. And remembering that I can eat cookies every day if I want it doesn't mean I need to eat a whole pack just one or two cookies is well within my points or calories is healthy and really has contributed to healing that relationship with food which has been huge for my weight loss. Number nine is huge. This is the number one thing that I focused on over the last year and a half where I've seen the biggest results on the scale and that is protein. Protein is key for weight loss for multiple reasons. Number one protein keeps you full and satisfied. So if you're building your meals around protein and all of your meals breakfast, lunch, dinner your snacks throughout the day if they're built around protein you're going to be far more satisfied and full from meal to meal or snack to snack. You're going to find that you're less craving for unhealthy foods because protein keeps you full. For me I have protein with every single meal and snack in fact I build every single meal and snack around protein first. Let's say that I'm craving pretzels for an afternoon snack. I'm not just going to eat pretzels because it's a simple carbohydrate my body is going to process those quickly and honestly I'm gonna be hungry 20 minutes later so I still allow myself to have pretzels I just pair it with some protein. Maybe I dip my pretzels in some peanut butter or maybe I have pretzels and a cheese stick. I make sure that all of my meals and snacks are focused around protein. Also protein is extremely important for weight loss because it boosts your metabolism out of all of the macronutrients. Protein, carbohydrates and fats protein takes your body the longest and is the hardest for your body to digest and process which means that your body burns more calories digesting and processing protein than any other macronutrients. The more calories we're burning throughout the day the more likely we're to be in a calorie deficit and the more likely we're to see the scale move in the right direction. And lastly and maybe even more importantly than the other two reasons why protein is so important for weight loss is it actually boosts your metabolism because it's harder for your body to digest it burns more energy, more calories in the process your metabolism is going like this with the more protein that you're eating. So not only are you full and satisfied you're burning more calories throughout the day and you're increasing your metabolism which are all three super important facets of weight loss. I have a protein goal every day that's individualized to me. This is another reason why I recommend personalized macros and calories so that I can give you the protein goal for you that you need to shoot for every day to see the most success on the scale. When I started focusing on protein when I had a protein goal that's when the scale just plummeted that's when I saw consistent weight loss every single week. I have lost more weight consistently than ever before by having a protein goal. It is so important. I mean, I truly can't stress enough why having a protein goal every day that's personalized to you is so important for weight loss. Honestly, I would say that this is the number one reason I've been able to lose and maintain over a hundred pound weight loss. And my final tip for you and tip number 10 is to give yourself grace. Weight loss is not a linear situation. It doesn't just go like this. Weight loss is a lot of this. Our hunger is a lot of this. Our motivation is a lot of this. We're human beings. We're gonna screw up. We're going to screw up. We're going to make mistakes. We're going to overeat. We're going to under eat. We're going to do everything wrong in our weight loss journey and that's okay. Losing weight isn't about what you do every day. It's about what you do over the long term. This kind of goes back to being consistent. It's what you consistently do that makes the biggest difference. It's not those little mistakes. It's not those moments of weakness. It's not the moments of overeating or under eating or under exercising or over exercising. None of that is what leads to overall success. It's what we're doing consistently. So when we make mistakes or when we screw up on our weight loss journey, we need to remember to give ourselves grace. It's okay to make mistakes. Just pick yourself back up with the next meal, the next day, and get back on track. One day, one week, even two weeks of screwing up isn't going to derail your overall weight loss. Don't beat yourself up. Don't talk negatively to yourself. Give yourself grace and just pick yourself back up, brush it off and get back on track. That's how I've lost over 100 pounds is to make mistakes, brush them off and get back on track. And let me tell you, I've made a lot of mistakes. I still make a lot of mistakes. I never, ever, ever have a perfect week, ever. There's always a day or two or maybe three that isn't perfect and that's okay. I allow myself some flexibility and I give myself some grace. I promise you, if you make it okay to make mistakes and to screw up, you're going to be much more successful in the long run. So those are the top 10 things that I've done to lose over 100 pounds. I wanna revisit really quickly tip number two, which was eating enough. I didn't mention this, but I do track my food. And that kind of goes hand in hand with eating enough is make sure that you're tracking your food. You won't know how much protein you're eating. You won't know that you're eating enough. You won't know that your points and calories are lining up unless you track your food. Whether that's in the WW app or a calorie counting app, I use the Lose It app. You can use my fitness pal, Spark People. There are so many free apps out there for you to use to track your food. Just make sure that you're consistently tracking. If you miss a day or you miss a meal, that's okay. Just do your best to consistently track your food to keep you on track and to make sure that you're reaching the goals that you need to lose your weight. 🎵 Head underwater, falling back into you 🎵 🎵 I thought we'd be smarter, I got nothing left to lose 🎵 🎵 You said you're full with me, no matter how far it goes 🎵 🎵 Now I'm deep and I'm done 🎵 Found these tips helpful. And I hope that some of my experiences and some of my mistakes and the things that I've done right and the things that I've done wrong, resonated with you and I promise you, if you focus on health and you focus on weight loss and you focus on moving your body, you too are going to see weight loss success. I promise you, it's all about calories and calories out, choosing the right food and being consistent. So let me know down in the comments which one of these 10 tips resonated with you the most or which one of these 10 things do you not do that you're gonna start implementing to see success? And I also hope that me losing over 110 pounds is motivation for you and that I'm helping you reach your goals as well because that's why I'm here. That's why I'm on YouTube. That's why I have a Facebook group. That's why I'm a weight loss and nutrition coach is because I wanna help you reach your goals as well. And I hope that you see that I'm just a normal person. I'm just like you and if I can do it, you can do it. I promise you can do it and I'm here with you every step of the way cheering you on. So if you enjoyed today's video and you found it helpful, don't forget to give it a big, huge thumbs up. Make sure you're subscribed and your bell notification is turned on because I upload videos five days a week and you never wanna miss out. Check out that description box down below for everything we talked about today and definitely check out nutrition coaching for those personalized macros and calories, your protein goal, so that I can help you reach your goals and have them be individualized to you. Links, discounts to my favorite healthy things. And lastly, follow me over on Instagram and Facebook in my Facebook group to keep up with me a little bit more day today. Thank you for watching friends and I appreciate your love and support and I hope today's video helps you out. See you in the next one. Bye.