 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 it is Friday, so it's wing and day. It is week two of my intentional cut. Now, if you missed what I'm doing, what is a cut? What are my plans? I do have a video all about that. I will link it down below for you. It's part of my 2024 goals video. So today I'm going to be sharing with you an update on my cut. We're gonna talk about this week's Weight Watchers Workshop topic. We're gonna talk about my week. We're gonna set some goals for next week and of course I'm going to share my weigh-in. 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 do upload five videos every single week. Check out the description box down below where I will link nutrition coaching. Highly, highly recommend personalized macros and calories. This is what I follow. It's how I've lost and maintained 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 are also down in that description box as well as my Facebook group. It's free, it's supportive. Come join us. We'd love to have you. So let's talk about my cut, my week, my weigh-in and the WW workshop topic. Happy Friday, friends. I hope you had an amazing, amazing, amazing week. I had a really, really good week. Week two of my intentional cut. Now I'm in a cut mode which basically means that I'm in a pretty mild deficit. Not a big deficit because I don't have a lot of weight to lose, if any weight to lose. Goal over the course of eight weeks or the next six weeks is to lean down as much as possible. Basically, rid any excess fat that I have and really focus on building that lean muscle. Lean muscle is essential to help maintain weight loss. It's essential for strength, for your cardiovascular endurance and it's really, really important, especially as we age. So that's my goal of my cut and I officially am finishing out week two. This week was really, really good. I actually upped my calories a little bit more, mainly focusing on getting in a little bit more protein. Protein is the building block of building lean muscle and maintaining lean muscle and really protein is the macro that you need to watch and eat enough of for weight loss. So I really tried to focus on making sure I hit my minimum, if not higher protein goal every single day. I also have been moving my body a little bit more than normal. I'm exercising seven days a week. Six of those are intentional exercise between boot camp, lifting weights and walking and then Sunday is actually my rest day but I take about a 45 minute walk on Sunday. So I kind of make it into an active rest day. One of the ways that we can burn calories and help us cut or lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit and that comes from burning calories through exercise. As well, of course, is fueling our body with good whole food, including lots of protein. Speaking of exercise and moving my body, tomorrow's a big day for me. I am going to hike Pocachu Peak with my boot camp group. If you remember, we did this back in July and unfortunately I was only able to go to about the halfway point because I was only a couple months out of my cosmetic surgery and I wasn't able to actually pull myself up, use my chest muscles. Well, now I can, now I can actually use my chest muscles so girl is going to the top this time and I'm really excited about it. A little nervous, a little nervous but really excited. It literally is essentially scaling the face of a mountain, pulling yourself up a rope and getting to the top of this mountain which is supposed to have one of the most amazing views in Arizona so I'm so excited about it and it's happening tomorrow. I purchased a backpack, I purchased a camelback backpack, I purchased some hiking boots. Last time I wore tennis shoes but Julia, who's my boot camp coach as well as my friend said get hiking boots because you need that ankle support. So I bought these Eddie Bauer hiking boots on Amazon for $40, $40. I also picked up a pair of gloves because again, pulling up a rope, it's kind of a metal cable rope. I didn't wanna do that bare-handed and that was another thing that was recommended. A backpack with a water bladder, hiking boots and gloves. I'll actually link everything I bought down below because I bought it all off of Amazon so I am ready and I'm prepped. I actually wore my hiking boots on my walk on Sunday to make sure that they didn't bother my feet. I certainly don't need to be getting a blister on this hike. This is about a four to five hour hike. So she's long, she's intense and it's just something I really wanna check off my bucket list. I'm really excited. So stay tuned because I'll be sharing pictures in my Facebook group and on Instagram so definitely make sure you follow me there. I got an all my exercise this week. I drank all my water. I did really good with my food this week. I'm actually really proud of myself especially considering that I've started my cycle. So that's fun before I hike a huge mountain tomorrow but typically I have a lot of food cravings and feeling of hunger leading up to my cycle. Now there was one day that I was really hungry like rapinously hungry all day I was a bottomless pit. I actually shared that on my Instagram that that day I was really hungry. So that day I actually fueled my body. I ate more at maintenance than I did in a deficit but that's what my body needed. I needed the extra calories as I was preparing for my cycle. Now that my cycle is here those cravings go away. That's typically what happens to me. It's always leading up to it that's a hot mess and then when it actually gets here as much as I hate it I'm definitely not as hungry and crazy as I was before. So that happened this week as well which again can typically lead to the scale not cooperating. I definitely wanna share my way in with you but before I do let's talk about this week's Weight Watchers Workshop topic because it is something that I've been heavily focused on in my cut and it is one of the things that's absolutely necessary to reach your weight loss goals and that is how to build a tracking routine. If you're not tracking your food how do you know what you're eating? How do you know how many calories, protein, fats, carbs, weight watcher points? How do you know if you're not tracking? It is a proven fact that people who track their food lose more weight and keep it off. So how do you get yourself into a routine? That's the hardest thing on a weight loss journey is getting into healthy routines whether it's food, exercise or tracking. Which tracking style makes it feel easier for you? We wanna take the road of easy. So tracking an entire day's food at once or as you go. Maybe saving often tracked foods and meals or tracking from scratch every time or tracking before or during or after you eat. What strategies have worked well for you? Taking pictures of meals to track later, tracking at certain times of the day, using the barcode scanner, using the quick add feature to guesstimate points or calories or other. Use your answers to determine how you'll create a tracking routine. I'll track meals and snacks as I go and I'll use the barcode scanner, save favorites and guesstimate points when needed. When is the best time for you to track? I'll set aside a few minutes after every meal. To get into tracking routine, this is really important. Now I'm gonna share with you what I do when I track my meals. I, 95% of the time, track as I go. So I'll prepare a meal, say breakfast. While I'm eating my breakfast or after I eat my breakfast, I'll quickly track my food. I'm really good at doing this for breakfast, my morning snack, lunch, my afternoon snack. Where I fall off is dinner. So I have made a commitment to myself, while I'm watching TV at night, while I'm winding down for the night, whether that's reading a book for you or watching TV or just zen out for a few minutes before you fall asleep, I always track the rest of my day. I make sure that before I go to bed, my entire day is tracked. That is what works for me, but honestly, truthfully, you have to find what works for you. Some people take photos and track later. A lot of my coaching clients track everything they know they're going to eat first thing in the morning. That way when the day gets busy, they don't have to stress out about tracking their food. You just have to find what works for you. And we're all different, right? Everybody is different. So every way of tracking is different as well. Tracking takes time and effort, but tracking is essential. Here's a couple more tips to get into tracking routine. Set guidelines and reminders. For example, if you track after every meal, open the app as soon as you clear your plate. For all at once trackers, set your phone's alarm for a time that works for you. Forget about perfection. Tracking consistently with fewer details is better than getting burned out, trying to log every single bite ingredient in exact portion. Losing weight is not an exact science. If you go to a local restaurant and it's not in your app, guesstimate. Find something similar. For example, you go to a local Mexican restaurant, it's not in your app. And let's say that you chose to have steak fajitas for dinner. Just find steak fajitas in your app, whether it's the Weight Watcher app, the Lose It app, my Fitness Pal Healthy, whatever you use, search steak fajitas. And what I always do is I scroll through, and if I see one that's 1,000 calories and I see one that's 400 calories, I find one that's in the middle. Maybe I track six or 700 calories. Guesstimate, do your best tracking something is better than nothing. And like I said, it's not an exact science. Don't get hung up in being a perfectionist when it comes to tracking. Just track something. And I wanna share with you, as always, three amazing fast facts from Weight Watchers. Number one, food tracking is one of the strongest predictors of weight loss. Number two, tracking works because it helps you be aware of your choices and any changes you want to make. And number three, research shows that tracking consistently is more important than tracking every detail perfectly. A lot of people have a perfectionist mindset during weight loss. They have to follow everything to a T and that's not realistic, nor is that sustainable forever. And remember, whatever you do to lose weight, you have to do it to maintain your weight loss. That's why tracking something is better than nothing and stop making it perfect. Just do your best to guesstimate. I promise you, it's not going to affect your weight loss journey. What will affect your weight loss journey is not tracking consistently. So I really like this topic and you know I'm a tracker, I've been a tracker. Do I wanna track my food forever? Absolutely not. That is not my lifelong goal, but while I'm losing weight and while I'm learning maintenance, tracking is essential. So speaking of tracking and tracking all my food, I've been diligent during my cut because I submit my food tracker to my weight loss, to my fitness coach every single week so that she can look over the foods that I'm eating. And again, it's ensuring that I'm in that deficit that I'm looking for for my cut. So I've been really good about tracking, again, moving my body, drinking my water. Being on my cycle, I was a little bit nervous of what the scale was going to say. My scale's been pretty consistent all week. It's been trending downward pretty much all week. I did have a weird spike up one day but I am pretty sure that was hormonal related. It was actually the day before I started my cycle but I'm really happy to announce that when I stepped on the scale this morning, this cut is working and I am down 0.8. That is almost a full pound. I am thrilled with that. I mentioned I didn't know if I would honestly lose any fat. I don't wanna say weight because I'm not, my goal isn't to lose weight. Weight is lean muscle, water and fat. I'm not about that life, I'm about fat. So my goal is to lose fat and I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to do that. And I'm down 0.8 and to be honest with you, if that's all I lose during my cut, I am thrilled with that because I will also tell you that I'm feeling really good. I feel like my body is leaning down. Although the scale isn't showing it, it doesn't matter because I'm replacing fat with lean muscle, right? That's my goal. So when we do that, lean muscle and fat weigh the same so the scale's not going to move but your body's going to change. And I'm noticing some really good changes. I'm noticing my clothes are fitting a little bit differently. Even clothes I bought a month or two ago are fitting more loose, a little bit better. I'm noticing that things are tightening up and toning up a little bit more which is exactly what my goal is. Tone up, tighten up, lean down. Let's be the leanest, strongest, healthiest, fittest version of ourself. That is my goal for 2024. You know that my word is elevate and my focus is food and fitness and this cut has really helped me with that focus. Speaking of cut, I have had a lot of you reach out to me whether it's comments on YouTube, my coaching clients, Instagram DMs, Facebook messages about my cut and wanting to know if this is something I can help you with. I will be putting out a video, not tomorrow but next Sunday all about my cut. I'm going to be offering a service for you to go into a cut if that's something that you're interested in. I'm actually really excited about this. This is something that I want to offer as a weight loss and nutrition coach. This is something that I have been able to put together to help you be successful losing weight in 2024. So stay tuned for next Sunday's video. You're not going to want to miss it. I have a great video coming your way tomorrow but my cut video and those new services will be out next Sunday. So make sure you're subscribed and your bells on. I want to hear from you. How was your week? Did you gain? Did you lose? Was it what you expected? How's your 2024 goals going so far? And let me know your tips and tricks on tracking for success. And if you enjoyed today's video don't forget to give it a thumbs up. Again, subscribe, turn your bell on. You're not going to want to miss 2024 content and of course check out that description box for nutrition coaching, links and discounts to my favorite things. And don't forget, come join my Facebook group. Follow me on Instagram. You'll see my little hike to Pikachu. You can keep up with me a little bit more day to day that way. And of course I'd love to have you on both platforms. Thank you so much for watching friends. Happy Friday, happy weekend and I'll see you in tomorrow's video. Bye.