Life After I "Dew"

I've wanted to write this post for a while but, well, there's that thing called time and I can never get enough of it.  I often get asked a lot of questions regarding my weight loss journey.  What do I eat?  How often do I workout?  How do I find the time?  Do I meal plan?  And much more.  I try to answer everyone but in case I missed anyone I wanted to make a little cheat sheet of my favorite tools I used while losing weight.  This isn't anything that you probably haven't heard before and for some of you I'm sure I'm going to sound like a broken record but I love letting people in on what worked for me in hopes of helping them in their journey.


This is what worked for me. This is what I used to shed my baby weight once I had reached a standstill after about 5-6 months of no weight loss.  I know that everyone will not agree with everything I have to say, and that's OK!  I get a lot of questions about what I do/what I did to lose 70ish pounds and this is what I did/used.

Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor.  For, well, ever I have seen girls using these to track their heart rate/calories burned during their workouts.  I always thought they looked awesome and dreamed about how much that would help my weight loss journey but I never bit the bullet and bought one.  For Valentine's day, this year, Jimmy got me one {per my request, ahem} and I only wish I had had one sooner.  Until I had this I had been logging my exercise into MyFitnessPal and it was just an estimate.  It had obviously worked for me, in the past, and continues to work for a lot of people but I wanted a more accurate reading.  I also think that the Polar forced me to push myself a bit harder during my workouts.  I would see that calories burned screen and I'd think, "Oh come on {self}!!  You can do better than that!!!"  and so I work harder and burn more calories.  I've heard a lot of people say the same thing is true for them.  Now that I'm more into maintaining, toning, firming up, I don't wear it too much because I don't necessarily care about how many calories I burn.

MyFitnessPal.  After I had Kendall I was trying to lose weight and it was right after The New Year.  The Today Show was talking about the best apps of the year and MFP was one of them.  I had never counted calories a day in my life but this made it look simple and painless.  I downloaded it and never looked back!  It's so user friendly.  I rarely found something that was NOT in their database and it was usually something that was from a local restaurant.  Lots of Pinterest recipes are even in there!  MFP gives you back the calories that you burn during exercise as extra to eat so it takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. I kept my calorie goal around 1200-1350 when I was in losing mode but it will vary for each individual.

T25.  I cannot and will not say enough good things about this program.  It is the first at-home program that I've ever been able to stick with.  I've tried Jillian's 30 Day Shred, 6 Week 6 Pack, Bethenny's Skinnygirl Yoga, Core Secrets, Biggest Loser Yoga, and the list goes on.  I've never stuck with any of them.  I think the reason I was able to stick with T25 is because it comes with a calendar which shows you what you have to do each day.  So each day I'd see that and think, "Well I have to do Total Body Circuit today" like there was no way around it.  I also think the biggest selling point is that every day you do a different workout.  Your brain never gets bored because you don't do the same workout every day and your body never gets used to doing the same thing every day.  Starting T25 is what jump-started my fitness and really got my body to change.  I will forever stand behind this program.

Shakeology.  I have to admit, when I first started coaching and saw the price tag that came with Shakeology I was completely turned off.  It's true.  But at the end of each workout there is a "commercial" promoting it and every time I was like in a trance, "must try Shakeology" and the same is true of Jimmy. So we tried it and we were in love from day one.  My husband normally eats like he's never going to eat again on a typical work day.  The amount of food I pack for his lunch is out of control.  His first day drinking Shakeology he text me at noon and said he hadn't been hungry at his 9 o'clock break and was just eating for the first time since 6:15 when he had his Shakeolgoy.  That was HUGE for him.  For me I love that it curbed my sweet tooth.  I am the girl who has never uttered the words, "that's too rich" and would take a cupcake over a bag of chips any day.  Shakeolgoy kicks those cravings to the curb.  It also gives you energy, but in a good, non-shaky, no crashing kind of way.  Most people spend $4+ on Starbucks or lunch a day and if you break it down that's how much Shakeology costs per serving.  Plus, I don't know about you, but I don't get my recommended 5-9 servings of fruits and veggies in on a typical day but with Shakeology I do.  It's now clinically proven to help with weight loss so I feel 100% confident recommending it.

There are a few other dining out apps that I like to use but recently all of them have been crashing when I go to use them so I am hesitant to recommend one.  But I found them extremely helpful when we would go out to dinner, especially to a place where a salad seems like a good option but in reality you'd be better off ordering a burger.  Not that that happened to me.

And for my workout gear...I have to share because I get asked about my favorite places to get that stuff too.  I am cheap when it comes to clothes I'm just going to sweat in so I can't fathom paying the prices that I've seen at some stores {I'm looking at you Lululemon}.  I really like Old Navy's workout gear.  I have sports bras, compression capris, yoga pants, tanks, you name it and they are all really comfy and hold up well after washing a billion times.  I also got a few really cute, motivational tanks from Strong, Confident, YOU on Etsy.  I also swear by Brady Bands headbands.  I have one for every day of the year and there's a reason, THEY DON'T MOVE.  Like not even an inch.  I have done handstands, wore them to the beach, slept in them and they have stayed in place.  So go get yourself like 10.

OK, I think that covers all the bases.  What other questions do you have?  I'm here to help and I want to get everyone on track with their health and fitness goals so let me know what you want to know!