Hi Healthi family, Coach Brianna here!
Welcome to my first month in review. I have the honor of taking you behind the scenes of my restarted weight loss journey. In case you missed it, I shared a little bit about myself and my weight loss journey with Healthi, in THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO. I also shared that I’ll be giving you all a front row seat/ VIP pass to the inner-workings of how I intend to lose a little bit of weight!
For those of you that don’t know, I jumped back into weight loss mode after an 8 month hiatus doing hard work reverse dieting (increasing calories) and spending time in maintenance mode to allow my body some time off after a decade of essentially yo-yo dieting and not eating enough calories. The break was necessary, but now I’m back in action and bringing you along for the ride.
Technically, I didn’t start my diet until January 24th, which means most of the month was still spent in maintenance, but it’s worth recapping anyway.
My First Week:
I am following the calorie command plan with secondary metric (PRO feature) set to macros, because I’m tracking macros this time around. I am working with a nutrition coach, so my coach is the one who dictates all of my macros and calories. For the start of my fat loss phase (which is what macro coaches, myself included, call “weight loss mode”), my macros are as follows:
1850 calories
140g protein
75 fat
154 carbs
Yes, 1850 calories. Gone are the days of 1200 and 1300 calorie diets for me! I know it seems high, but my maintenance is around 2200 calories, so it’s still a deficit of about 350 calories a day, which is plenty.
note: I do NOT recommend taking these numbers and seeing if they will work for you. Macros are calculated based off of a lot of stats specific to me including my age, gender, height, weight, dieting history, activity level, and habits. What works for me will likely not be what works for you
Successes:
– I had more energy than I knew what to do with during my first week. I am sure some of this was simply due to the excitement that comes from starting something new, but I know part of it had to do with my intentional food choices and the fact I worked hard at getting my 10k steps a day. All of these things can play into feeling great, and I really did!
– I did lose 0.7 in week 1, which is incredible, but at the time of writing this my scale has fluctuated right back up to my starting weight, which is FINE. Weight fluctuates and that’s totally normal. I weigh myself every single day so there’s no need to worry about a specific weigh in day or anything of that nature. Instead, I get to watch the daily fluctuations happen. While this can be frustrating sometimes, ultimately it helps desensitize me from the scale. I learn the natural ebbs and flows of my body as well as things that might trigger a spike in the scale, which can be anything from PMS to lack of sleep. Knowledge is power.
– Another metric I use to measure success is measurements. On day 1 I took a complete set of measurements and I will be retaking them, along with photos every 2 weeks. I might have snuck in a check on my waist measurement, and at the end of week 1 I was down 0.75 inches, which means even if the scale is messing around, there has definitely been some success, which feels amazing. Pro tip: do NOT let the scale be your only metric for measuring success!!
Struggles:
– For many in a calorie deficit this won’t sound like a “woe is me” moment, but the entire first week I was NOT hungry. I was so focused on making sure I hit my protein that I stayed quite full all week long. As we discussed in our recent Healthi meeting, protein helps with feelings of satisfaction and fullness, so it makes sense that upping my protein consumption had this effect. This did prove to be a problem when I still had calories (and specific macros) to consume at the end of the day and I didn’t want them.
– Mental struggles with not having that big “first week on a diet” loss. You know what I’m talking about. We have been trained to expect that when we start a diet, especially after eating more food than normal, we will see a big loss at the end of week 1 as our body adjusts. While I KNEW this wouldn’t happen because my deficit is sustainable and not extreme, it was still a bit of a bummer to see. Diet mentality takes a lot of work to break, and while I’ve come really far, I still have plenty of work to do.
Shareables:
My first week’s meal plan kept it really simple with things I knew, like my favorite protein shakes (Fairlife nutrition shakes), egg scrambles, sandwiches, and my all time favorite meatloaf recipe.
This recipe is by The Skinnyish Dish and is titled “The Best Meatloaf.” I am here to tell you it really is. I have lost count how many times I’ve made this recipe, but it’s a crowd pleaser and a great way to have comfort food lightened up.
I prepare the meatloaf with roasted potatoes and a steamed or roasted vegetable and there’s enough food for my husband and I to eat it for 3-4 days. You can find the recipe HERE. Things are slow moving to start, I plan to continue to be consistent with my tracking, fitness, and other habits, because ultimately it isn’t about how much you lose in a week, but how many days you can say “I did my best today and met my goals.” If you have enough of those days, the results will come. Focus on today and your habits, my friends.
Until next time! Stay Healthi!
