Brianna’s Weight Loss Journey: March

Monday, Apr 18, 2022 | Coaches, Lifestyle

Happy Spring, Healthi Fam! I don’t know about you, but I am SO ready for the new season. Spring brings a sense of renewal and a fresh dose of optimism and energy after a long winter, and for me, that impacts my weight loss big time.

This past month has been an interesting one. Honestly, “interesting” is code for “difficult.” My body has not been entirely cooperative with weight loss compared to my efforts, but the mental “thick skin” I’m developing because of it is really valuable.

So what’s going on? I have two major shifts that I’m dealing with that you might not realize dramatically impact loss at the scale. First, I got a new APAP machine to treat my sleep apnea (which needed to happen years ago). In the long term this is going to be incredibly helpful for my sleep and my health, but in the short term, adjusting to sleeping with the machine on my face has had it’s ups and downs, resulting in a temporary lack of proper sleep. Sleep is an essential part of your health, but also your weight loss. Your body can’t do it’s job properly if you’re not taking your rest seriously, and the result can be gains (or lack of losses) on the scale. Totally normal, but really frustrating.

The second thing that can wreak havoc on your health and weight loss is gut health, and mine has not been stellar these last few weeks. The biggest problem is I don’t know WHY, but what I do know is that I’m actively taking steps to work with my body and fix the problem. Lighter foods, a new probiotic, being careful with caffeine, and adding digestive enzymes to my routine are all things I started implementing just in this last week. It’s too soon to say if it’s helping solve the problem, but overnight over a pound of bloat fell off of my body, which means something is working.

That being said, results this month are less exciting than normal. My scale weight nets out to the same as this time last month, which is a bummer, but obviously elements not entirely in my control are at play here. My measurements clock in at 1 inch less than last month., and that’s with my waist going UP due to bloating. While that isn’t a crazy life altering number, it tells me that fat loss is STILL happening, even if the scale remains stagnant.

It’s important to remember that fat loss and weight loss are not exactly the same thing, and your scale weight is just one metric of progress. It would be a disservice to yourself to not take measurements and photos into account when you’re doing a status check on your journey.

A few weeks ago my macros shifted again, so I now eat an average of 1750 calories, which is lower than my day 1 macros of 1850. My protein has also been dropped from 140g to 130. Thanks to my previously mention gut health problems, I was finding it very difficult to reach my protein goal. My coach graciously lowered the numbers for me so I didn’t have to feel bad about not reaching my numbers. While a 10g difference doesn’t seem like much, when you already eat 130g, those last 10 grams can feel really heavy sometimes.

What’s helped me:

Obviously, this month has been a bit of a struggle bus for me, so I’ve decided to focus on a few basics to help me stay in the right headspace and make sure I’m doing what I can for my body during this challenging time.

  1. Up my water intake. Proper fiber and water consumption helps with digestive health, so I want to make sure I’m doing the basics to keep my system rubbing smoothly
  2. Get 10k steps daily. This used to be so easy for me, but lately it’s been harder. Not only does keeping my step count high help with activity levels and weight loss, but it’s also good for your digestion.
  3. Less processed food. I’ve been catching myself opting for a lot of preservative filled bars, shakes, and prepared foods lately, which is fine on occasion, but for me it’s not ideal as a whole. I want to get back to more whole, home cooked foods at every meal.
  4. No coffee before food. Drinking caffeine on an empty stomach isn’t good for your hormones or for your gut, so I am actively working to delay coffee until after breakfast to see if that helps my gut issues.
  5. Sleep! Easier said than done at this point in time, but it needs to be my primary focus right now to help me get my body back on track.

Obviously, tracking my macros and being in my fat loss phase are things I’m focused on right now too, but it’s at the point now where all of that is on auto-pilot. I naturally track and weigh all of my food and work to hit my numbers, so I’ll be doing that on top of these other things.

Hopefully after a few weeks of working toward gut health and better sleep I will have a more exciting weight loss update for you, but for now, take care and be Healthi!