 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 who has lost and maintained a 140 pound weight loss. It is Friday, so it is way in day, Weight Watchers Workshop topic day. We'll talk about my week and we're gonna talk about my cut because as of today, I have officially finished my eight week weight loss cut. So I'm going to share with you how much weight did I lose? What did I notice during my cut? The good, the bad, the ugly. And I'm going to insert some pictures here for you of starting my cut to now and you're going to be shocked at the difference, especially based on the amount of actual weight that I lost on the scale. So if you're excited, give this video a big huge thumbs up. Make sure you're subscribed. Your bell notification is turned on because I do a weigh-in every Friday and I actually upload five videos every single week. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching. Highly recommend those personalized macros and calories. That's what I followed to lose all of my 140 pounds as well as one-on-one coaching for questions, accountability, or to talk with me directly. Links and discounts to my favorite things as well as my free supportive Facebook group. We'd love to have you come join us are all down in that description box. So let's jump into my week, my weigh-in, my cut and the Weight Watchers Workshop topic. Happy Friday, friends. It is actually Thursday that I'm filming today's video because my friend Amy from New York is flying in tomorrow to spend the weekend with me. It was an impromptu trip. We're actually going to be filming a Q and A on our plastic surgery experience in Tijuana, Mexico. We are almost one year post-op. She had a 360 tummy tuck and fat transfer. I had a back lift and extended breast lift and implants. So if you have questions for us, leave them in the comments because we're going to be filming a Q and A video. Anything you wanna know about cosmetic surgery, Tijuana, our recovery experience anything at all, leave it down in the comments. But I am filming today's video a little bit early because I am planning on spending my entire weekend day in and day out with my friend Amy. We are hiking. We are going to enjoy yummy food. We are going to film videos. We're going to just have an amazing, amazing time. So again, make sure you follow me on Instagram and you're in my Facebook group because I'll be posting pictures and things there. I actually just got home from the gym. I'm finishing up my protein coffee for the morning. Took my morning vitamins and my morning supplements. But I wanted to save a couple of supplements to share with you in today's video because these are new to me. And I've been testing these out now for a couple of weeks. Actually, Troy and I have both been testing these out for a couple of weeks and we love them. I am beyond pleasantly surprised about these supplements. These are from the brand Carmen's Medicinals. One of these is a focus gummy and one of these is a CBD gummy. First, I want to talk about and take my focused gummy for the day. I have been loving these gummies. These actually provide focus and mental clarity and they contain amazing ingredients like lion's mane and cogna grape. Now, I had no idea what cogna grape was, but I've been loving it in this focus gummy. Your ultimate cognitive boost in a gummy form featuring the power of lion's mane and cogna grape extract. These clinically proven focus gummies are specifically formulated to enhance concentration, memory and learning capabilities. Lion's mane promotes brain health and neurogenesis while cogna grape, a potent antioxidant supports cognitive function and mental clarity. Perfect for anyone seeking a natural, tasty way to sharpen their mind and optimize their mental performance. These have changed my life. I have noticed an immediate difference with these within about a week of taking these. I noticed that my mental sharpness was there even through this entire sickness and I'm still a little bit sick. My brain health and cognitive function and clarity has been there, which I have not been able to say in the past. These taste absolutely delicious. They contain 30 gummies, 100 grams of mushroom extract and they are gluten free. So the serving size is only one gummy. And like I said, I've been taking these now for a couple of weeks and the incredible difference in my mental clarity. I can't even tell you enough how much I have loved these. I'm still convincing Troy to try these, but I have been loving them. So I'm going to take my focus gummy from Carmen Medicinals for the day. Definitely a good blackberry berry flavor. Absolutely tastes delicious and extremely effective. Next up, I got not one, but two bottles of their CBD gummies because Troy, as you know, has a lot of medical issues. He does take CBD pretty regularly and he enjoys it in a gummy form because it's a really easy way to get in CBD. And these are all natural, amazing, high quality CBD gummies. They also contain turmeric and ginger, which is great for inflammation. Both Troy and I suffer from inflammation and this has made a world of difference for us. This is a harmonious blend of wellness and vitality. These are 25 milligram broad spectrum CBD gummies infused with turmeric and ginger. Each gummy is carefully crafted to deliver a potent dose of CBD complimented by natural soothing properties of turmeric and the invigorating essence of ginger. Perfect if you're seeking a holistic approach to health. They offer a convenient and delicious way to support your daily wellness journey. Embrace a balanced, more vibrant you with every bite. You're going to get 30 CBD gummies. Again, they're 25 milligrams per gummy and these are also gluten-free. Serving size is one gummy and again, that's going to give you 25 milligrams of CBD. I started with one gummy since I've never taken a CBD product before and Troy actually started with two gummy and they don't have any THC in them. So they're not going to give you any unwanted side effects but you're going to get a big dose of CBD. All of Carmen's medicinal are made with high quality ingredients. No heavy metals, pesticides are solvent. All the ingredients are top notch. The gummies are made from organically grown hemp seed and CBD oil extracted with CO2. So like I said, if you're looking for a high quality gummy supplement, one that isn't loaded with added sugar and fillers, I can't recommend Carmen's medicinal enough. They also have oils and topicals, a wide range of high quality CBD products. Love the focus gummies, love the CBD gummies. Troy says these are the best that he has ever tried and I do love the fact that there is no THC. So if that's something that's of a concern to you, you don't have to worry about that but you're getting all of the benefits of the CBD and you're getting all of the amazing and I mean amazing focus benefits out of the focus gummy. I have an amazing, amazing discount for you from Carmen's medicinal. I will link it down below for you. Definitely check them out. Both Troy and I cannot recommend these enough. So now let's chat about my week, the final week of my cut. Technically my cut ends tomorrow, Friday, today's the last day of my eight week cut. So what I did, if you missed it, is I went into an eight week cutting period which basically means that I went into a calorie deficit to lean down. I don't have a lot of fat to lose if any fat to lose but I really wanted to focus on leaning down my body to see muscle growth. My goal is fitness and lean muscle, building and maintaining the lean muscle that I have and in order to see lean muscle, you have to be lean and so that was my goal was essentially to lean down a little bit. Whatever weight came off, whatever fat came off came off but my goal was to really lean down and change my body composition overall. Now I will tell you upfront, honest, full transparency, being in a cut is hard because you're in a pretty good calorie deficit. I found that I was definitely hungry which is to be expected in a calorie deficit and I missed having my treat meal every week. I missed indulging once a week in something that I was really craving so I'm really anxious to have that treat meal this weekend with my friend Amy and get back to being in essentially maintenance. We shouldn't be in weight loss mode year round. We should go through periods of calorie deficit to maintenance to even bulking up in calorie surplus if you're trying to build muscle. So because I was in an eight week cut or calorie deficit, I'm now going to transition back into essentially maintenance mode. Now for me, I often lose a little bit of weight during maintenance mode but my goal is to put those calories right back up to where they were to maintain my weight and I will do that for a set period of weeks, typically three to four months and then most likely I'll go back into a cut a little bit later this year. That is what is optimal for weight loss and keeping your metabolism healthy. As we cut calories and then go back to maintenance, it just continues to increase our metabolism so we can eat more in a cut and eat more to maintain our weight. I will also be honest that I'm glad that the cut is over and I'm ready to go back into maintenance but I definitely saw some results from the cut. Like I mentioned in the beginning, I'll insert some pictures for you but I wanna share with you my weigh-in for the week before I do that and before I talk about my weigh-in, let's chat about this week's Weight Watchers Workshop topic and that is how to hack your home officer car for success. Now if you are one of my coaching clients or you've ever had a conversation with me directly, you know that I always have a meat stick in my purse. I carry a healthy protein snack with me everywhere. I have a meat stick and a pack of nuts in my car. I typically have a protein bar in my purse too unless it's the dead of summer in Arizona. I typically have that in my purse as well. I always wanna have snacks on hand that have protein in them to help me stay on track. I also make sure that my refrigerator and my pantry and my freezer are full of the foods that I need to eat to reach my goals. It's really important to tweak your space and set yourself up for success. What you can do is create visual cues for what you want to do. Swap your countertop candy dish with a fruit bowl and then bring zero point foods to the front of your fridge. Help out the future you. Store your meal prep tools where they're easy to access and while cleaning up dinner, take out everything you need to make breakfast the next morning and designate rooms or places for healthy behaviors. Move screens out of the bedroom so you can focus on sleep, not TV or TikTok. Make your table the only place you eat when you're at home. And if you're like me and like most of us, we have some habits that we want to stop. How to do this is to disrupt your default. Store foods you tend to see then mindlessly eat and rarely use cabinets or at the back of your refrigerator. Move your alarm clock across the room to avoid snoozing through your morning workout. We need to set our space up for success but we also need to take the things that are hindering our weight loss out of our personal space. I am a big proponent of keeping fruit on the counter. I always have a fruit bowl on my kitchen counter and I'm a really big proponent of putting healthy foods in the front and those less healthy foods in the back. I do this in my pantry especially with snacky types of things. I put my healthy snacks in the front because that way when I open up the cabinet, that's the first thing that I see. Same with my refrigerator and my freezer. Now no food is off limits, no food is better good. Some foods are just healthier than others and those are the foods that we want to put in the forefront. Have you ever went about your day and then you suddenly see chips, candy, cookies in real life or on TV and you instantly crave them? That's absolutely normal. To see it eat it effect, it's a real thing. Research after research shows that our environment plays a big impact on our overall weight loss success. You can harness your power by making healthy choices more available and visible to you. Put all of those healthy cooking things in the front of your cabinets, your air fryer, your Instapot, your Crockpot. Put your sneakers by the door. Put your earbuds on your table so that you are constantly seeing those things which motivates you to eat healthy and move your body. Make sure you stay off your phone for the last little bit at night so you can sleep well. Sleep is so important to weight loss. Setting up our personal home office car environment for success is crucial to weight loss and it's crucial to help you stay on track. So I recommend taking some time to go through your environment, the places you spend the most time and set them up for success. Again, follow in my footsteps. Keep those healthy snacks in your car and your purse so you never have to visit a drive-thru or a gas station. You always have a protein packed option on hand. This has definitely been one of the main tools that I've utilized for my weight loss journey. Speaking of weight loss journey, let's talk about my final weigh-in for my eight week cut. Now, if you followed along, my cut has been successful in a lot of ways, not necessarily a scale, but the scale is just one measurement of success. And you know it's the least important measurement to me. I did have a one pound weight gain after a recent vacation. That one pound really hadn't went away. So as of last week's weigh-in, I have lost 0.4 pounds total on my cut. But don't fear, wait till you see the transformation in my body. This is why I say that the scale is the least important measurement of success. I had a great week this week. I'm still suffering from a cold. It's definitely gotten better. I'm blowing my nose still just a lot less, maybe 20 times a day instead of 100. And I'm still coughing up a lot of gunk. That's the part that I wish that would go away, but I'm definitely feeling overall better. So I've been able to get back to my normal workout routine. I've been really focused on filling the last week of my cut, staying in my calories, getting in my protein, drinking my water. And when I stepped on the scale today, I have lost 0.6 pounds. So that one pound gain is basically gone. I've lost 0.6 of it. And I have lost one pound total during my cut. Now I've also mentioned time and time again that I didn't expect to lose any weight on my cut because I don't really have any fat to lose. So the fact that I actually lost a pound is incredible. But what's even more incredible is my measurements and my photos. I'm so excited to share these with you guys because I feel like I preach over and over again about the scale and how it doesn't matter. And I know you listen and I know that you're trying to work on your relationship with the scale, but by seeing my measurements and my photos, this is really going to drive the point home that the scale does not matter. It measures mass. It doesn't measure your overall health, your body composition, how much lean muscle you have, how fit and healthy and happy and thin you are. It doesn't measure any of that. What does is measurements and picture. So at the start of my weight loss cut, I took three measurements and three measurements only. I measured my chest at the widest part. I measured my waist at the most narrow part and I measured my hips at the widest part. I'm going to go ahead and pop up here on the screen my starting measurements and the measurements that I took today. Look at the difference in inches lost. Look at what I lost inches wise and only one pound on the scale. So it just goes to show that the scale doesn't measure your overall success. The fact that my body composition has drastically changed that I'm losing inches means that I'm doing everything right and that is fat loss. I'm replacing a pound of fat in my body with a pound of muscle, which means the scale is not going to move at all. A pound's a pound, pound of muscle and a pound of fat way exactly the same. A pound of fat is this big, a pound of muscle is this big. So my inches are going to decrease as I replace the fat with the muscle, but the scale is not going to change. That's also very true in photos. So now I'm going to insert the photos that I took day one of my cut and the photos that I took this morning, the final day of my cut. You can absolutely see those inches lost. Again, this is a one pound different. Look how much smaller and more fit and toned my body is overall. Everything from my back to my waist to my buttocks. The muscles you can see in my shoulders and my delts as I extend my arms forward in the side photos. There are so many drastic differences and that's only one pound loss on the scale. One pound my friends, that means in my opinion that I slayed my cut. I replaced fat with muscle, which means the scale didn't move but my body composition drastically changed. I will tell you that I have put on tops and pants that I wore at the beginning of my cut that are now too loose on me. I actually put a sweatshirt in my donation bag that I wore the day I started my cut that now is just too big for me. And that's only one pound of weight loss. So I want to reiterate over and over again how important or not important the scale is and how important it is to see those changes in your body. If you haven't done measurements or photos, do it, take them at least once a month so that you can be motivated and see success in a measurement other than the stinking scale. Cut a huge success. I couldn't be happier. I couldn't be happier to go back into maintenance mode to get to eat a little bit more, to get my metabolism fired up even more. So the next time I go into a cut, I should be able to lean down even more. And the great news is, is even though I was in a calorie deficit and I'm just going to quickly transition into maintenance, I was in a healthy deficit. So I'm not going to see a weight gain just because I'm eating five, six, seven, 800 more calories every day in maintenance than I was in my cut. That's the great thing about taking periods of weight loss and periods of maintenance throughout the year on a health journey. So I'm excited to go back into maintenance. I'm thrilled with all of the changes of my cut. I mean, I'm actually really proud of myself that I did it. I slayed it, I nailed it, and I'm feeling amazing. And I'm ready to eat yummy food with Amy this weekend. Very much ready to eat yummy food with Amy this weekend. So now I want to hear from you guys. How was your week? How was your weigh in? Did you gain? Did you lose? Was it what you expected? And let me know your thoughts on the scale versus other measurements of success and give us your tips and tricks on how you set your environment up for your weight loss journey. And if you enjoyed the video, give it a thumbs up. Again, subscribe, turn your bell on so you never miss a future video. And don't forget, follow me on Instagram, join my Facebook group to see mine and Amy's adventures this weekend and leave any comments that you have for our cosmetic surgery Q&A down below for you. Thank you so much for watching friends. Happy Friday and I'll see you in tomorrow's grocery haul. Bye.