 Hi friends, welcome back to my channel and a special welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen. I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and it is a Friday, so it is a weigh-in day. We're gonna talk about this week's Weight Watcher's Workshop topic. We're going to set some goals for next week and I'm going to share with you how my week went with my friend Amy in town for the weekend and what the scale said this week. So if you're excited, give this video a big thumbs up. Subscribe, turn your bell on because I do a weigh-in every Friday and I actually upload five videos every single week. Don't forget to check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching. I do offer personalized macros and calories. This is what I follow to lose and maintain a 140 pound weight loss, as well as one-on-one coaching for questions, accountability, or to talk with me directly. Links and discounts to my favorite things and my free Facebook group, come join us. We'd love to have you are all down in that description box. So let's talk about my week, my weigh-in and the Weight Watchers Workshop topic. Happy Friday, friends. I hope you had an amazing week. It is officially March and I am so happy about it. I'm kind of ready for February to be moving on down the line. Not that it was a bad month, but I'm just kind of over it. I'm ready for March because it gives me the feelings that spring is in the air and I'm here for. You're seeing this video on the first day of March so it's a new month, new month, new you, new goals. Let's kill the month of March on our weight loss and health journey. I'm so excited to share with you my goals moving into March. If you follow me and you've been watching my weigh-ins weekly, you know that I just finished up an eight week cut just about a week ago and now I'm essentially in maintenance mode. I'm eating pretty close to my maintenance calories. Some day I'm in a very, very mild deficit but I'm eating pretty close to the calories that my body needs for maintenance. Like I always say, you don't wanna be in a constant state of weight loss. You don't wanna be in a cut or a calorie deficit all of the time. You need to have cycles of maintenance and deficit and right now we're in maintenance. I had such a fantastic weekend. My friend Amy from New York, this is the same Amy that I had cosmetic surgery with back in May. We did film a Q&A when she was here about our cosmetic surgery. It's actually coming out not this Sunday but the following Sunday. So make sure you're subscribed in your bells on so you don't miss it. We filmed it together. It was so much fun. We answered all of your questions, both Amy and myself. So she kind of flew in on a whim. Her boyfriend is currently working at the airport as a fun job. He has a full-time job but he loves the airport. Has always wanted to work at the airport and because he works for Delta, they get Delta flying perk. So Amy decided to fly in kind of on a whim. She gave me about four days notice. She flew in on Thursday and left on Sunday and we had an amazing weekend. We had so much fun together. We did so much. I can't believe everything we shoved into a weekend. I will go ahead and pop up some pictures here for you. But we went to boot camp together Friday morning which was incredible. We went to the Arizona Desert Museum. I've actually never been and it was so much fun. We saw javelinas, tarantulas. They have a little aquarium there, a cactus garden. It was amazing and the weather was perfection. We were in the mid-70s to low 80s every single day. It was sunny and absolutely beautiful. We finished out Friday playing miniature golf with Troy which was really, really fun. We went out to dinner as well. It was just a great first day together. And then Saturday morning we got up bright and early and we took about a three hour hike to Tonk Verde Falls. I hiked that a little while ago. I didn't actually go all the way into the falls last time and Amy and I went about halfway to the falls. We weren't sure really exactly what route to take. There's no defined trail so it's kind of a choose your own adventure. It was interesting because we were constantly going through water, water up to our knees and then scaling rocks. Our footing was a little bit slippery and like I said, it took us about three hours and we decided to go ahead and do about a halfway run to the falls and then we hiked into an overlook of the falls as well and then down to this other area where there's a nude beach. There was nobody on the beach. Both of them I've been there. There's been nobody on the beach. So that's a good thing. But we did hike down there and just spent three hours just exploring how beautiful Arizona is. We stopped at Dirty Doe which is kind of like crumble cookie but in my opinion, better. If you have a Dirty Doe, check them out. I think the cookies were better than crumble. Troy also thought the cookies were better than crumble. About the same price, but just a little bit better quality. They were absolutely delicious. We had pizza for dinner and then Amy and I actually went to Sabino Canyon. I've also never been there. I've heard all about it. It has amazing hiking which you can bet I'll be back to do some hiking but we took this little bus tour. It was about an hour long. It took us all the way up the canyon and we wore these little earbuds and it told us a little bit about the canyon in the environment and talked about the hike. Actually picked up a brochure while I was there which goes over all of the different hikes. So my first hike is about eight miles that I wanna take and again, that's the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. If you visit Arizona or in the Arizona area, beautiful. I actually told Troy that I would like to take him on the tour. He couldn't do any of the hikes but we could take the tour together and maybe have lunch over there. So we plan on doing that but definitely recommend Sabino Canyon and stay tuned because I'll be doing some hiking there. Lots of hiking. It's about an hour away as well as Tom Friday Falls. They're both about an hour away from me. And then Sunday morning, we got up and hiked Tumamoc. You know I hiked Tumamoc all the time. Amy killed it. We got to the top about five minutes slower than I do on my own and when I do it on my own, I am hustling to the top and this was Amy's first time and she did so well. We were there for the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful. We had breakfast at Snooze Eatery which is one of my favorite breakfast places in Tucson because the bacon is literally the best bacon I've had in my entire life and then we took Amy to the airport and we meaning me, Palmer, Lula and Amy all went to the airport. For some reason the dogs, they ran out in the garage and they wouldn't come in. So I'm like, they want to come to the airport. So we all piled in the car and took Amy to the airport. It was truly an amazing weekend. I never tracked my food once. I ate whatever I wanted. I had dessert every day. We actually had Mexican pastries. We had donuts and we had dirty dough cookie. We went to my favorite coffee shop Black Rock and had coffee. We just had a great weekend. Lots of good food, lots of movement. We exercised and moved our body every single day. We watched TV a little bit at night with Troy. We actually spent quite a bit of time with Troy. He went to dinner with us both Saturday, Friday and Saturday and he played mini golf with us Friday. Of course he won. I did get a hole in one. So I was really proud of myself and even though I got a hole in one, I still lost. But it's fine, it's fine. It was fun. It's not a competition. It was really, really fun. But of course Troy beat us because he's the avid golfer and Amy and I are not avid golfers but Amy actually beat me as well. And it was just such a soul fulfilling weekend. I just needed to spend time with one of my best friends and we just had an amazing, amazing time. So if you're watching Amy, I love you. Thank you so much for coming to visit and I can't wait to see you again. And like I said, stay tuned for mine and Amy's Q&A video coming out not this Sunday, but next. Once Amy left, I meal prepped Sunday afternoon, got right back on track, didn't skip a beat with my workouts. I actually got an even more movement than normal because I was so active over the weekend with Amy. I did boot camp on Monday, Wednesday, and this morning I went to the gym. My friend Melissa and I actually hiked at Madeira Canyon on Thursday. That was amazing. It's another area I haven't been to. This is why being out in nature more is one of my 2024 goals because I live in such a beautiful area with incredible hiking and I haven't hardly seen any of it. Sabino Canyon, Madeira Canyon. I plan on doing tons of hiking especially before summer. This is the time where we hike as Arizonians before it gets super hot and then we hike a lot in the fall and winter as well. So I'm taking full advantage of the amazing weather that we're having. And so Melissa and I took a hike. I just feel really good this week. It's been nice to be able to eat a little bit more to get about 500 more calories every single day has been great. A lot of the hunger that I experienced on my cut is gone and there are days that I don't even get in all my calories because I'm full and satisfied. I'm still choosing high protein foods. I'm still focusing on whole real foods. Just everything is going really, really well. I'm excited to share this week's weigh-in with you but before I do, let's talk about this week's Weight Watchers Workshop topic and I will tell you right now this is one of my favorite things to talk about and that is how to stay inspired no matter what the scale says. Now you know that I preach up and down about the scale and how it doesn't matter. It is one very, very, very small piece of your overall weight loss and health journey success. It is not something to focus on. There are so many other things to focus on and Weight Watchers is reiterating that this week and it makes me so happy. One thing I love and actually I love this more than the scale. I loved this more than the scale while I was trying to lose weight. I love this more than the scale now and that is those NSVs or non-scale victories. Progress isn't related to a number on the scale and helps us see the bigger picture to stay inspired. That's the definition of a non-scale victory. So here's some things you can try. Write down three things that have changed for you in the past month, not the number on the scale. So three things that have actually changed in a positive way for you this month that have nothing to do with the scale. If you're struggling to come up with three things, ask yourself, how would I measure progress if the scale didn't exist? If you threw away your scale, how would you measure your progress? Consider things like healthy habits like starting a wake-up and walk-up routine. Yes, moments, maybe noticing you aren't so wiped out after work. Changes to your health and new to you experiences, trying the strength training class or learning to cook both count. Now that you've thought of a few things and maybe you have a little list started, what do these things really mean? Recognize the impact of each one. Maybe cooking more means you enjoy healthier, fresher meals or your walking routine helps you stress less. Zoom out to see the big picture. How do you feel reflecting on and celebrating these types of wins? How is it different from when you focus only on the scale? And like I said, the scale is such a small piece of your weight loss success. It measures mass. It doesn't know what the mass is made up of. This is why I chose about a year ago, maybe not quite a year ago, but pretty close to a year ago to share my weight because you see me and you guys are always saying, oh, you're so fit, you're so healthy, you're so skinny, you're at such a great weight. And I weigh way more than you may think because the scale only measures mass. And when your mass is made up of lean muscle, the scale measures that as fat. And my weight stays between about 185 and 190 pounds. I'm five foot eight. Just on a side note, that is about 20 to 25 pounds more than the BMI chart says I should weigh on the high end, which means I'm considered overweight on the BMI chart. And guess what? I don't care. I don't care what the BMI chart says. I don't care what the scale says. I care how I feel in my body. That number on the scale means nothing. When we die, what we weigh isn't on our headstone. It's all of the other important things that are on our headstone. I mean, sure it feels amazing to see a lower number on the scale each week, but it shouldn't be what drives your weight loss. Good, bad or ugly, it shouldn't be the driving force to how your day is or to how your week is. And remember, you can do everything right and that scale cannot move. And you have no control over it. Did you know you have zero control over the scale? You have zero control over what your body does day to day, week to week, month to month. You just have to be consistent in doing what you know is right. And eventually I promise you the scale will catch up. Just don't let it be your ride or die. Don't let it influence your day, your week or your month. Really reflect on those NSVs, those non-scale victories. Think about those things far more than you think about the scale. Take measurements, take pictures. Those are going to show you progress when the scale doesn't. Let me know down, let us know down below what is something you do non-scale related that actually drives your motivation and makes you feel successful even when the scale isn't moving? Because remember, you can't control the scale unfortunately. I really, really, really, really love this topic. I love it and I talk about it all the time. I talk about it with my coaching clients. I talk about it on my nutrition channel. I talk about it here on my weight loss channel all the time. The scale is only a small piece of your success. Don't forget that. Speaking of the scale and speaking of small piece of success, let's talk about this week's weigh-in. Like I said, I have been more active this week than I've been in a very long time. I have been pushing it pedal to the metal when it comes to movement this week. And with that comes some soreness. I've been pretty sore, especially my legs, just from all the hiking and just using different muscles than I normally use at boot camp and walking in at the gym when I'm taking these hikes. Like I said, scaling rocks and climbing up a big, huge hill that's literally this. It's 800 feet of elevation gain and just a little over a mile. So it's quite the elevation gain. And with soreness, our muscles come inflamed and retain water, which can show up as a weight gain on the scale. So my weight was a little weird this week. There were some times that my weight was pretty steady. It would go up. It would come back to steady. It would go down. It was all over the place. And that's strictly because weight fluctuations are totally normal. And based on workouts, foods that you're eating, did you drink enough water? Did you have more carbohydrates? All of those things can affect the scale. So with all of that movement all over the place, when I actually stepped on the scale this morning, I'm up 0.2. I'm still pretty sore. I did a 5K this morning with my boot camp group and I did all my workouts this week as well. Again, took that hike yesterday. So I'm not surprised that the scale's up a little bit and 0.2 to me is nothing. I consider that a maintenance. I absolutely consider that a maintenance, especially because I enjoyed all the good food this weekend. I moved my body more than normal. I'm a little bit more sore than normal. I'm also just a day or two out from my monthly cycle. I'm gonna take 0.2 as a huge win and I'm looking at all of the non-scale victories this week, all the hikes that I took that I could have never done a year or two ago. Getting to enjoy my favorite foods and not gaining weight and not feeling guilty about it. Putting on this shirt today, that every time I wear it is looser and looser on me, almost to the point that I shouldn't even be wearing this shirt anymore and my weight doesn't really change. Those are all non-scale victories. Those are things that matter way more than the scale. So I couldn't be more happy with a little bit of a gain this week and we'll see if it comes off next week. If it doesn't, it doesn't, but I'm gonna focus on all the things not relating to the scale and all those non-scale victories and that's what truly matters on a weight loss and a health journey. So now I wanna hear from you guys. Let me know down below, how was your week? Did you gain? Did you lose? Let me know everything and also let me know what is your favorite non-scale victory and how do you deal with the scale? Does it affect you and what are some of your tips and tricks to change your thinking around the scale? And again, if you enjoyed today's video, don't forget to give it a thumbs up. Subscribe so you don't miss my name is Q&A and all of the other videos that I upload every week. Stop by that description box for nutrition coaching, links and discounts to my favorite things and come follow me on Instagram, join my Facebook group, they're free and we'd love to have you. Happy Friday friends, happy weekend and I will see you in tomorrow's grocery haul.