Cassey Ho's Blog, page 86

What does the average POPster look like? | 36 of 90

Hey guys!

I’m thinking up new YouTube videos ideas and I have something really interesting I want to do, but I need your help! I am trying to figure out what the average POPster looks like (trust me, you’ll want to be a part of this) but I need your help in order to this! If you have a moment to spare, could you fill out this survey?

All you have to do is anonymously tell me things like your face shape, body shape, eye color etc…it’s actually pretty fun! And won’t take too long. This for an upcoming YouTube video that you will DEFINITELY want to watch. Thank you so much for your help!

Yesterday’s Recap:

Yesterday was a LOOOOOONG day that ended LATE! There were dinner shows and dance parties, and me getting seduced by a coconut mousse. Let’s get started shall we? ;)

I started off with a 2 mile run to Pilates Reformer class. I did not feel as tired as I normally do after a run, so that is a good sign that my body is getting stronger! I felt really limber and agile during the exercises. I remember the first time I did this run + class combo, my form was getting wonky because I was already fatigued from the run. So,  I am very proud of myself!

When I got home, I made some cauliflower/egg/cheese latkes (fried it on the pan like a pancake) and topped them with bacon, avocado, and pico de gallo. SO GOOD. Sam liked it so much he said “that doesn’t even taste like a diet food.”

I think I may go back to lazy keto instead of strict keto. I really feel weird without fruits in my life. So, I had raspberries. They tasted like heaven.

Okay, that’s a fried dace. What’s that you ask? A fish in a can submerged in oil. Doesn’t sound appetizing, but it’s not bad! My parents used to buy this for me as a kid so I wanted to give it a try again, for nostalgia you know? Plus the carbs were low on it. I used to eat fried dace with rice. But this time, I had my fried dace with cauli rice and shishito peppers on the side. The verdict? Meh. The fish tasted better when I was a kid! I won’t be buying this anymore!

Oh yeah, and I ate 3 plates of this, not just one. I was hungry!

Afterwards, I had some seaweed crisps and dipped it in baba ganoush. I finished off the baba ganoush. It always feels good to empty the fridge of a container!

Sam and I were invited to a murder mystery show at the Houdini Estate in the Hollywood Hills. The invite said the dress code was “Gatsby and 1930s”. This was extremely confusing because The Great Gatsby was set in 1922 and the 30s is The Depression…sooooo I went for Hollywood vintage glam???

I tried so hard to get those Hollywood waves in my hair but totally failed. Oh well! At least my lipstick matched my dress! Oh and BTW Sam’s suit had ACTUAL coattails!

We started off the meal with spinach salad with goat cheese and pickled bell peppers.

The main course was chicken with zoodles. I skipped the potatoes.

For dessert, I was going to skip dessert. Buuutttttt, likkkeeeee, they had these vegan coconut mousse things that just looked SOOOOO GOOD. I have not slipped once during this 90 day journey thus far, but I decided that TONIGHT I was going to go for it cuz I WANTED TO.

When I dipped my spoon into the creaminess and tasted my first bite, I was in heaven. IT WAS SO GOOD. I had no idea how many carbs were in this thing (I mean in the “real world” you just don’t know but you gotta deal and make decisions) but it was worth it. In fact, beyond worth it because I had a second one :)

After the murder mystery dinner (which by the way stressed me out the whole time because I was so confused), we headed over to Lilly Singh’s A Little Late with Lilly celebration party!

It’s incredible that Lilly has her own talk show on network television! She’s such a hard worker and it’s truly paying off. Plus, to see a woman of color rise to her level of “legitness” from what started as internet fame – it’s so cool to see. I’m proud of her and so happy to call her a friend.

Here we are hanging on a hot pink couch that matched Lilly’s hot pink suit! It was nice to catch up with Kandee and Ro too.

Sam and I ended up getting home so late and then I just died. I’m a grandma these days. I need my sleep.

Oh which reminds me…you know how I haven’t been able to pinpoint where my bloat is coming from? Well, I’ve been talking to a few close fitness/nutrition friends and I think I might know what the culprit is.

Even though my eating did not change in week 5 at all, I started to get severely bloated. Food was the same. Workouts were the same. You know what wasn’t the same? My sleep. Beginning last Friday til like yesterday, I had been averaging 4-5 hours of sleep per night due to video editing and overall work overload. You know what that does? It puts stress on my body. Stress increases my level of cortisol. Increased levels of cortisol contribute directly to lower belly fat and water retention!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Okay so beginning tonight, I will be tracking my sleep hours in that box in the top right corner of my Fit Journal!

Oh my goodness. This has to be it!!!

For me to succeed on this 90 day journey I need to be as militant about my sleep as I am about my food and my workouts. I am going to aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night. If it means waking up later and working out later, so be it. I’m not going to sacrifice sleep just to fit in a morning workout. But – I love my morning workouts, so I will try my best to slide into bed by 10PM so I can be asleep by 10:30PM. My class is normally at 7:15AM, so that means if I set my alarm for 6:30AM, I should be getting 8 hours of sleep.

Right now it’s 11:30PM but it’s Friday, so I’m going to sleep in tomorrow and not shame myself for being “lazy”.

The post What does the average POPster look like? | 36 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.

Mark your calendars for October 1st. | 35 of 90

The most coveted item of the year is going to be released on October 1st. The Blogilates 2020 Fit Planner. And guys, I’m telling you, this is THE BEST – THE GREATEST – THE MOST BEAUTIFUL  planner we have EVER designed and that you will EVER see ANYWHERE.

I read every comment and every review (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and our team took action. (You can even watch this IGTV video we made responding to your comments!) We kept what you loved and we improved what you didn’t! One reoccurring piece of feedback was for us to find a way to prevent the bent cover edges caused by the shipping process. So guess what? This year…the planner has it’s own matching box! I’m a sucker for pretty boxes – I just can’t throw them away! So don’t throw yours away either. Once you open this box, you’re gonna feel like a million bucks. Trust me. There’s something special waiting for you in there.

So, mark your calendars for October 1st, 2019. This is THE product of the year. You will not want to miss out. It will launch promptly at 10AM PST on popflexactive.com.

Yesterday’s recap:

Before I went for my morning jog, I had some MCT Oil with BHB exogenous ketones! I’m not sure if I am getting the extra boost of energy the BHB’s promise. I wonder if it is because I’m not taking a full dose due to the fact that it is so sweet? Anyway, I didn’t feel as light and fast as the last time, but the run wasn’t bad! I finished my audiobook. Now I gotta find a new one. Any suggestions? I love historical drama – if there are royals in it or if it’s based on a true story…EVEN BETTER.

For lunch, Sam and I ordered Chipotle! This is the chicken salad with fajita veggies, lettuce, pico de gallo, and a huge dollop of guacamole! I omitted all the cheese and sour cream this time. I didn’t feel like I needed it, and the salad was splendid!

As an afternoon “snack” or mini meal rather, I peeled 2 hard boiled eggs and ate it with 2 slices of bacon and a side of butter lettuce. Also…I AM THE WORST at peeling eggs. I mean, look at that mutilated egg. Does anyone have suggestions? I tried watching a YouTube video, but still struggling over here!

For dinner, I brought out my egg thins and made 4 tacos! I put my shredded chicken with avocado and tomatoes as the filling. It tasted more like a “lunch” style meal, but still, it was amazing! I added sriracha on top.

As a “sorta side”, I had rosemary mushrooms with a little bit of koobideh and sriracha. SO GOOD. I love mushrooms so much. They are one of my most favorite foods!

Last night was rough with blogging. I got home late and still had not written anything yet. I ended up taking a “nap” around 10:30PM and then waking up at 1:30AM to finish my blog post. Wouldn’t recommend this but I ate my keto ice cream to help keep me awake. Lol. At least the blog post went up. I made the post public without anyone copy-editing it, and then when Sam checked it in the morning he was like…”ummm there were a lot of spelling errors.” Oh jeez. My brain does not function at that hour! Oh well, at least I have not missed a single day of blogging!!! And I am proud of that!

Who’s excited for the 2020 Fit Planner!??? Should I do an unboxing!!???

The post Mark your calendars for October 1st. | 35 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.

How to not let the scale control your happiness | 34 of 90

It’s interesting that as a women, we allow our weight to have so much power over us. Whereas most men don’t even make any sort of emotional connection with the scale. How did we even get that way???

I think it has everything to do with generations of our mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, and their mothers before them being told that the skinnier, the tinier, and the smaller they were, the better. The more delicate and the more beautiful you were, the more likely you were to attract a man and eventually get a husband to care for you. So, women’s ideal body types were really men’s ideal body types FOR women. Then the media solidified the idea that thinner was better by featuring women of only a certain body type on the covers of their magazines, therefore perpetuating the idea that thinner women were the most desirable women.

The fact that us women today are still so obsessed with slender frames and small waists shows us just how hard it is to shake off centuries worth of irrational thinking towards our self worth – based on our size!

Today, in the age of body positivity, so much work is already being done to reverse that way of thinking! Women have thrown out scales in protest! And you know what? I think that’s a great thing.

But what if you want to get fitter, get healthier, and embark on a journey that may require you to use some sort of measurement tool? Well first of all, if a scale really gives you PTSD, then try using your clothes or a measuring tape as a way seeing change! However, know this: IT IS POSSIBLE to have a non-toxic relationship with the scale – as impossible as that may sound right now. Trust me. I did it.

How to get over the fear of stepping on a scale!

#1. First, if you currently are in a place where stepping on the scale is CONTROLLING YOU (you’re happy when the number is lower and you’re depressed when the number is higher), I suggest you not step on the scale for a while in order to make your weight something that isn’t a big deal. Learn to be ok with not knowing how much you way! Instead focus on how you feel. This will train you to understand that how much you weigh has nothing to do with your awesomeness. I didn’t step on the scale for a few years. I def needed the space.

#2. When you feel like you are ready to step on the scale, ask yourself how this information will help you. If you don’t have a good reason, then you’re not ready. Your why for stepping on the scale should be because seeing this information – whether higher or lower than you want – is going to positively benefit you in some way.

#3. Realize that when you see this number, it is JUST a number. Just a data point. It doesn’t tell you how beautiful you are, how talented you are, how smart you are, what a good person you are, and it says NOTHING about your self worth. The scale is only a tool that tells you a number. That is all. The number is meaningless unless you choose to give it a meaning. So DO NOT let the scale have power over you! It’s just an object!

#4. Stepping on a scale, plunging into a cold pool, getting a shot at the doctor’s office…sometimes you just gotta close your eyes and just do it. Because usually, you end up realizing that it wasn’t that bad! So when you are ready, step on the scale, view the number, and try not to get emotional about it. If it’s lower than you thought and your goal is weight loss, then good – whatever you’re doing is working! If it’s higher than you thought – first, don’t panic! All it is is a temporary number that YOU have the power to change.

So yeah, that’s how I got over my fear of stepping on the scale. I decided not to view the scale as some scary thing that judged me. I made the decision to view it as a tool – that’s it. Seeing it as just that stripped it of it’s power. Power that it never had, but that I gave it.

Yesterday’s recap:

Fit Journal entry. This week my weight has gone up because of the bloat, but like I said above, weight is just a temporary number, so it doesn’t bother me. My journey is 90 days long so I have time to make adjustments. That’s the whole thing with this. You can’t do it quick. You need to give yourself time in order for your transformation to really hold strong.

In the morning, I took Drew’s advice and mixed some BHB’s (exogenous ketones) with MCT oil powder (helps to increase my fat intake) in water for a mini breakfast drink. He said that the taking the exogenous ketones would increase the ketone levels in my body, therefore magnifying whatever I am already doing while being on the keto diet.

FYI on ketones: Being on a keto diet means you’re restricting carbs and eating moderate amounts of protein. The goal is to get your liver to begin converting fat into ketones which are molecules that can be used as fuel when blood sugar is in short supply. When you use ketones for fuel instead of glucose for fuel, the benefits include appetite control, improved mental clarity, constant energy, and increased physical performance.

I don’t know if I really felt a difference in my workout, but it did taste pretty good! The strawberry lemonade BHB goes a long way. I originally had 1 scoop of the BHB with 1/2 a scoop of the MCT oil in a 20 oz water bottle but it was sooooo sweet! I had to mix it with like 60-70+ oz of water for my taste preference. I’m more of a “hint water” type of drinker, so maybe it’s just me! But in any case, it got me to drink more a ton of water pretty fast!

For lunch I ordered the keto bowl from Tocaya Organica. This is cauli rice with avo, chicken, bell peppers, brussel sprouts, and some cheese on top. I poured a ton of hot sauce on top!

As a late afternoon mini meal, I had 2 bacon slices with 2 eggs (sprinkled with Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel Seasoning), and butter lettuce.

For dinner, I made cauli rice and ate it with 2 bacon, some shishito peppers, and a mixture of shredded chicken with avo and tomatoes.

Then after dinner, I had a probiotic stick to help with my gut health.

This has been a tough week for my body, but hopefully with these supplements, something will help!

The post How to not let the scale control your happiness | 34 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.

To stop the bloat, eat more…SALT??? | Day 33 of 90

Today was a rest day – much needed. Last week I didn’t do one rest day at all and it backfired. It was the day I went super intense – ran 2.2 miles to the gym to do a full body 1 hour lifting class. And then it was that night that I started bloating hard…and the bloat is still here! So, today’s rest felt good. I got to sleep in a bit, which I needed after the long nights of editing my beauty standards video.

I also got to catch up on work (I feel like I am always catching up on work! Ugh!) and it felt nice to check some huge things off my to do list. I finally got around to finishing up a super detailed inspiration packet for our POPFLEX shoot next week and sent it off to our photographer and our makeup artists!

Since I love you so very much, I want to give you guys a teeny itty bitty sneak peek…ready? Shhh don’t show anyone!

Omg. How cool are these looks!???? Have you seen HBO’s Euphoria yet? It’s really intense, but a good show. And Zendaya is such a great actress. The looks above are inspired from the show!

I’ll let your imagination run wild from there. It’s been a while since we’ve released a collection but it’s coming guys! This Fall. Any guesses what the theme of the collection will be?! Take your guesses in the comments!

Yesterday’s Recap:

My Fit Journal entry with cute lil Sir looking at me as I blog! Oh BTW, I have a question for fellow dog mommas out there. Lately Sir has been scratching at my legs and barking in a very high pitched manner whenever I am at the computer and not paying attention to him. He only stops when I pet him or scratch his chin. As soon as I stop and look at my phone or the computer for 1 second, he starts scratching me again! When I put him on my lap or on the desk, he stops barking and scratching, but then he gets fidgety and starts typing on my keyboard with his paws! Anyone know how I should address this? I mean obviously he wants attention, but what can I do to keep Sir interested when I have to get some work done? I wish there was a doggy board game he could play or a doggy TV show he could watch! Sometimes I feel so bad that dogs have nothing to do but to wait for us humans to give them attention :( I wish I could pet him all day!!

Anyway, started off the day with an upper body weight lifting workout. Still bloated.

When I made it to work, I started munching on some chili roasted pistachios! This is the last of it. So sad! I think I’ll take a break for a bit so I don’t start hating them. Plus my friend Drew Manning of Fit2Fat2Fit and author of Complete Keto, says that I should try to cut back on nuts and dairy if I want to see better results, so I will slowly start doing that. I had a great phone call with him yesterday and he’s super stoked that I am doing keto. He gave me some tips on what to do about my bloat (eat more salt, who knew!) and he guided me on what supplements to take to balance my electrolytes and calm my gut.

Because of my bloat, I haven’t been wanting to eat any food from home – in case something was contaminated. So I ordered a salad with chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickled cabbage. I was LOVING it until…I bit into the pickled cabbage and realized that it has probably been marinated in sugar vinegar! Oh well. I kept eating it anyway. I’m not entirely sure I was keto yesterday but it was DELICIOUS! Oops! ;P

I topped my salad with some Tessamae’s dressing. Habanero Ranch is SO GOOD. This dressing is totally Whole30 approved and perfect for keto too. You can get it at Ralphs or Whole Foods.

Post lunch, Sam surprised me with my fave Keto smoothie from Lassens! OMG!!! In the morning I had quietly mentioned that I felt like I needed a smoothie today and guess what!??? Around 3pm Sam left the office and came back to hand deliver this to me!!! OMG he is the best!!!! I love him so much! Plus my body really needed it. YUMMMMMMM.

I got home so late yesterday so I didn’t wanna have a huge meal. I made myself 3 small egg thin quesadillas with pico de gallo. I also ate some lox on the side to increase my salt intake.

Let’s talk about this salt thing real quick because I was confused too. Like what? Eat more salt? Haven’t we been told our whole lives to decrease our sodium intake because it’s unhealthy?

Drew told me that when you eat low-carb or keto, you end up producing a lot less insulin than normal – which is partially the reason why you end up losing weight and feeling like you have good, steady energy. However, having stable insulin alerts your kidneys to start excreting sodium, along with any extra water you were utilizing for carbohydrate stores.

That is why bloating typically goes down pretty drastically in the first 1-2 weeks of being on keto. But that’s mostly water weight loss FYI. He said that if you aren’t actually replenishing all the sodium that your kidneys are pumping out, you can end up with dehydration, headaches and fatigue. OMG – I HAD THIS!!!! My 2nd or 3rd week into keto, my mouth started getting super dry no matter how clear my pee was! I had headaches for 3 days straight, and there was a day I was so tired I had to take an impromptu rest day. I had the keto flu.

After dinner, I tried one this advanced probiotic from Complete Wellness that Drew sent to me to help with my gut issues. Probiotics, aka good bacteria, is necessary for proper digestion. I am hoping that by taking this, I am lining my GI tract with the good bacteria to keep bad bacteria from taking over – which I think is why I am so gassy and uncomfortable right now!

The strawberry flavor tastes so good! It tastes like actual candy. It is such a treat to have while on keto, or even off keto honestly! I could literally eat these sticks all day. It reminds me of pixy stix. Remember those form Halloween? I just rip off the top edge and pour the sugary powder onto my tongue and let it dissolve. Literally so good.

I hope I can get this bloat under control.

Ok time to go to bed guys! I keep blogging so late. I am tired now.

The post To stop the bloat, eat more…SALT??? | Day 33 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.

To stop the bloat, eat more…SALT???| Day 33 of 90

Today was a rest day – much needed. Last week I didn’t do one rest day at all and it backfired. It was the day I went super intense – ran 2.2 miles to the gym to do a full body 1 hour lifting class. And then it was that night that I started bloating hard…and the bloat is still here! So, today’s rest felt good. I got to sleep in a bit, which I needed after the long nights of editing my beauty standards video.

I also got to catch up on work (I feel like I am always catching up on work! Ugh!) and it felt nice to check some huge things off my to do list. I finally got around to finishing up a super detailed inspiration packet for our POPFLEX shoot next week and sent it off to our photographer and our makeup artists!

Since I love you so very much, I want to give you guys a teeny itty bitty sneak peek…ready? Shhh don’t show anyone!

Omg. How cool are these looks!???? Have you seen HBO’s Euphoria yet? It’s really intense, but a good show. And Zendaya is such a great actress. The looks above are inspired from the show!

I’ll let your imagination run wild from there. It’s been a while since we’ve released a collection but it’s coming guys! This Fall. Any guesses what the theme of the collection will be?! Take your guesses in the comments!

Yesterday’s Recap:

My Fit Journal entry with cute lil Sir looking at me as I blog! Oh BTW, I have a question for fellow dog mommas out there. Lately Sir has been scratching at my legs and barking in a very high pitched manner whenever I am at the computer and not paying attention to him. He only stops when I pet him or scratch his chin. As soon as I stop and look at my phone or the computer for 1 second, he starts scratching me again! When I put him on my lap or on the desk, he stops barking and scratching, but then he gets fidgety and starts typing on my keyboard with his paws! Anyone know how I should address this? I mean obviously he wants attention, but what can I do to keep Sir interested when I have to get some work done? I wish there was a doggy board game he could play or a doggy TV show he could watch! Sometimes I feel so bad that dogs have nothing to do but to wait for us humans to give them attention :( I wish I could pet him all day!!

Anyway, started off the day with an upper body weight lifting workout. Still bloated.

When I made it to work, I started munching on some chili roasted pistachios! This is the last of it. So sad! I think I’ll take a break for a bit so I don’t start hating them. Plus my friend Drew Manning of Fit2Fat2Fit and author of Complete Keto, says that I should try to cut back on nuts and dairy if I want to see better results, so I will slowly start doing that. I had a great phone call with him yesterday and he’s super stoked that I am doing keto. He gave me some tips on what to do about my bloat (eat more salt, who knew!) and he guided me on what supplements to take to balance my electrolytes and calm my gut.

Because of my bloat, I haven’t been wanting to eat any food from home – in case something was contaminated. So I ordered a salad with chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickled cabbage. I was LOVING it until…I bit into the pickled cabbage and realized that it has probably been marinated in sugar vinegar! Oh well. I kept eating it anyway. I’m not entirely sure I was keto yesterday but it was DELICIOUS! Oops! ;P

I topped my salad with some Tessamae’s dressing. Habanero Ranch is SO GOOD. This dressing is totally Whole30 approved and perfect for keto too. You can get it at Ralphs or Whole Foods.

Post lunch, Sam surprised me with my fave Keto smoothie from Lassens! OMG!!! In the morning I had quietly mentioned that I felt like I needed a smoothie today and guess what!??? Around 3pm Sam left the office and came back to hand deliver this to me!!! OMG he is the best!!!! I love him so much! Plus my body really needed it. YUMMMMMMM.

I got home so late yesterday so I didn’t wanna have a huge meal. I made myself 3 small egg thin quesadillas with pico de gallo. I also ate some lox on the side to increase my salt intake.

Let’s talk about this salt thing real quick because I was confused too. Like what? Eat more salt? Haven’t we been told our whole lives to decrease our sodium intake because it’s unhealthy?

Drew told me that when you eat low-carb or keto, you end up producing a lot less insulin than normal – which is partially the reason why you end up losing weight and feeling like you have good, steady energy. However, having stable insulin alerts your kidneys to start excreting sodium, along with any extra water you were utilizing for carbohydrate stores.

That is why bloating typically goes down pretty drastically in the first 1-2 weeks of being on keto. But that’s mostly water weight loss FYI. He said that if you aren’t actually replenishing all the sodium that your kidneys are pumping out, you can end up with dehydration, headaches and fatigue. OMG – I HAD THIS!!!! My 2nd or 3rd week into keto, my mouth started getting super dry no matter how clear my pee was! I had headaches for 3 days straight, and there was a day I was so tired I had to take an impromptu rest day. I had the keto flu.

After dinner, I tried one this advanced probiotic from Complete Wellness that Drew sent to me to help with my gut issues. Probiotics, aka good bacteria, is necessary for proper digestion. I am hoping that by taking this, I am lining my GI tract with the good bacteria to keep bad bacteria from taking over – which I think is why I am so gassy and uncomfortable right now!

The strawberry flavor tastes so good! It tastes like actual candy. It is such a treat to have while on keto, or even off keto honestly! I could literally eat these sticks all day. It reminds me of pixy stix. Remember those form Halloween? I just rip off the top edge and pour the sugary powder onto my tongue and let it dissolve. Literally so good.

I hope I can get this bloat under control.

Ok time to go to bed guys! I keep blogging so late. I am tired now.

The post To stop the bloat, eat more…SALT???| Day 33 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.

Decoding the Instagram Beauty Standard | Day 32 of 90

Beauty standards, like fashion, change over time. In the days before we had social media, beauty habits were dictated by where you lived and your ethnicity. You were pretty much isolated. Your only influence could have been your mom, the town’s local hot girl, or her royal highness, the Queen.

But in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, magazines became a thing and women were exposed to a new form of being influenced. However, it wasn’t until the 40s and 50s that Hollywood stars began appearing in magazines and on TV. And it was in that moment that celebrities in traditional media began to dictate the ideal beauty standard.

Fast forward to 2019 and these days social media IS the media. And platforms like Instagram can tell us exactly who is the most followed and therefore the most influential at this very second. Naturally, these influencers have now become the new beauty standard. But what exactly is the new beauty standard? Like when people in the future look back at 2019, what will they say was the ideal body type?

Well, I decided to find out for myself! And I wanted to make it as scientific as one possibly can when looking at beauty standards. First, I made a list of the Top 100 female Instagram stars purely based on following. FYI the #1 spot currently goes to Ariana Grande at 164M followers, next is Selena Gomez at 156M followers and Kim Kardashian at 148M followers.

Then I came up with 22 attributes that each woman would be judged on. These included things like:

Hair color
Hair length
Neck length
Face shape
Body shape
Eye color
Clothing size
Flatness of stomach
Lip size
Eye size
Nose size
Skin color
Chest size
Prominence of butt
Age
Height…etc

I worked with a fellow researcher to get as accurate an answer as possible per attribute. Things like height were straightforward and easy to find online. (Thanks Google!) But other things like chest size and prominence of butt were more subjective, so we had to do our best by analyzing the influencer’s latest pictures on Instagram.

After a couple weeks of gathering data and categorizing data, I can tell you that there is most definitely a formula and a specific beauty standard that the 100 most followed women on Instagram adhere to. It’s fascinating but also, incredibly eerie in a time when you would think social media has evened the playing field for women of all body types, sizes, ethnicities and skin color.

So, are you ready to hear the results? Here’s the beauty breakdown of your top 100 most followed females on Instagram!

The most common age is 22 years old.

The most common height is 5’7”.

She has dark eyes. 75% of the Top 100 female Instagrammers have brown or black eyes.

She has big eyes. Only 15% of the Top 100 female Instagrammers have small eyes.

She has dark hair. 78% of the Top 100 female Instagrammers have black or brown hair. Only 20% are blonde and 2% are redheads.

Her hair length reaches mid back. Mid back is the most popular cut, coming in at 48% while the 2nd most popular hairstyle is shoulder length coming in at 30%.

She has a flat stomach, but she is not muscular. Only 9% of the top 100 female Instagrammers have abs with definition. 79% have plain flat abs with no definition. Only 11% have soft bellies or rounded bellies.

She does not have thin lips. Only 29% of the top 100 have thin lips. But in the top 10, thin lips drops to only 10%.

She is a light skinned Caucasian. Only 8% of the top 100 female Instagrammers are black.

She does not have a flat chest. 89% of the top 100 have a have boobs that are a B cup or higher.

She has a heart shaped face with a pointy chin. Heart shaped is the most popular, then oval, then square, then round.

She has a small nose. 93% of the top 100 have small noses.

She has an hourglass figure. The most popular body shape is hourglass followed by thin and straight aka rectangle.

She has a long neck. More than 72% have long, slender necks.

I think you can begin to see the ideal Instagram beauty standard in your head, right? But in case you’re having trouble visualizing, no worries, I’ve already done the work for you!

To take this whole project a step further, I decided it would be interesting to turn myself into a Top 100 female Instagrammer. But I needed a little help.

I picked a makeup tutorial on YouTube that had the craziest before and after thumbnail and pretty much just went for it. I used this video called “How to be a catfish in 2019…GLAM AF MAKEUP TUTORIAL” by Hannah Renée. This was the first time in my life that I have ever followed a makeup tutorial from start to finish, so I was kinda excited and kinda terrified.

For clothes, I went shopping at juniors fast fashion stores like Forever 21 and Love Culture and picked the most outrageous influencer-y looking things I could find – like lots of gold jewelry and these ridiculous (but I have to admit, kinda awesome) rhinestone sneakers!

After I put on my clothes and stuffed my Victoria’s Secret industrial strength pushup bra with chicken cutlets, I asked my Instagram husband (Sam) if he could shoot some photos of me looking like a typical influencer. This was actually really funny to do!! Then after 20 minutes of self-indulged posing, I picked the most influencer-y looking photos and sent them off to our resident artist Daniel and asked him to photoshop my features to match those of the top 100 female Instagrammers.

Are you ready to see what I’d look like if I were a top 100 female Instagrammer?

My face:

Below you can see from right to left, me with no makeup, me with Glam AF makeup, and me with Photoshop. You can see that my face is more heart shaped, my brows are cleaner, my eyes look more caucasian, my nose is smaller, my lips are bigger, and my boobs are bigger.

My butt:

As you can see, my boobs were pushed up and my butt got some major enhancement!

My body:

From right to left, me with no makeup, me with Glam AF makeup, and me with photoshop. Wider hips, bigger boobs, heart shaped face, bigger eyes, smaller nose, longer neck.

So why did I go through all the trouble doing this research? Well, I wanted to see how the beauty standards of today’s era have changed – if at all. I find it interesting that being blonde and blue eyed is no longer the desired beauty ideal according to Instagram. But I also find it interesting that in the era of the body positive revolution, only 5 out of the top 100 female Instagrammers were plus size. And in the top 10, ZERO were plus size.

It’s weird because Instagram is a place of free will. We choose to follow who we idolize. No media company or advertising agency is telling us who’s beautiful and who’s not, and yet we still are somehow adhering to the old beauty standards of idolizing light skinned, large chested women with big eyes, and small waists.

One could argue that many of the top 100 are females in the entertainment industry, so the beauty standards are actually dictated by men sitting in a conference room at some big record label or movie studio. But even so, the first two non actress, non singer, and non Kardashians to break into the top 100 is Hudabeauty at 39 million followers and Lele Pons at 36 Million followers. Both are light skinned, large chested women with big eyes and small waists.

Interesting right?

I wonder what the next beauty ideal will look like 10 years from now and 100 years from now. Leave a comment below and make your predictions!

Yesterday’s Recap:

My Fit Journal entry says that I am STILL BLOATED!!!! I called up my friend who has written books on Keto and he advised that I start taking probiotics and get this – eating more salt! He said it sounds counterintuitive but my electrolytes are probably off so I need to monitor my salt intake.

Yesterday I started off the morning with an 8am circuit training class with Sam, Jason, and Lucia! I am starting to get better at pull ups and faster rowing! WHOO!!!

When I went home, I had some raspberries. Look how beautiful they are.

Brunch consisted of 3 mini egg thin quesadillas with salsa plus a side of bacon with butter lettuce.

I was in major editing mode and needed a fun drink, so I made myself a matcha collagen drink with nut milk!

Since brekkie was on the smaller side, I made another meal! I made cauli rice with paleo sausage and butter lettuce with jalapeño sauce. Oh yes, and sriracha, DURR.

I was def in a snacky mood yesterday. I always am when I have to be on the computer so much! I had been editing the beauty standards video for a day and a half at this point, so I needed more brain fuel! I had seaweed crisps with baba ganoush and…

Keto ice cream!

For dinner, we ordered from a steakhouse and I had koobideh with mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, grilled broccoli and grilled squash. SO good!!!!

Okay off to drink some tea to calm my belly. No idea what is going on but it hurts still, and I am bloated still. SO WEIRD!!!! I’m currently reading through your suggestions on my last blog post – thank you for all of your help!

The post Decoding the Instagram Beauty Standard | Day 32 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.

SO BLOATED. WHAT HAPPENED!!?? | Day 31 of 90

Wow, yesterday’s post had me all fired up. I was FEELIN’ every word that I typed. And I am glad you felt it too.

Thank you for sharing your recovery stories with me. The more we share, the more we can help each other heal. Too often we end up living in these worlds where we judge one another without knowing anyone’s back story.

I found it SHOCKING that there are a good amount of you guys who are currently are dealing with toxicity in the body positivity community. I seriously thought I was the only one because of my public figure status. But apparently, it’s happening offline as much as it’s happening online. It’s sad because the body positive movement started out as such an incredible revolution to encourage women of all shapes and sizes to love their bodies. But now, it’s become something else.

I mean – I’ve been shamed for teaching exercise in general! Why? Because as they’ve tried to explain to me, exercising means you’re trying to change your body, and if you’re trying to change your body, you’re not being body positive.

Hmm ok. Let’s just FORGET about all the health benefits, mental benefits, and feelings of happiness and confidence that also come with exercise, shall we? *eye roll* I’m just gonna stop here because the argument is so ridiculous. I can’t.

Oh, also, before we get into yesterday’s food log, my body is doing something odd. Before I went to bed last night, my lower belly was EXTREMELY bloated. Like uncomfortably bloated. It was as if I had a ton of bread and junk food or something! Then when I woke up today and the belly bloat was still there – even after the bathroom! I don’t wanna say “I don’t know what I ate!” because I precisely do know what I ate. Lol. I keep a log each day. So as I describe the food I had yesterday, maybe you can help me figure out what happened.

Yesterday’s Recap:

I started off my morning with a 2.2 mi run to the gym, and then did a 1 hr weight lifting class. This is a lot more than I usually do. It was also quite hot and sunny outside. So maybe I got dehydrated and my body is holding onto water? I don’t know though. I bought a bottle of water at the gym and drank up immediately and drank a ton throughout the day. Though, I did notice that my pee was more yellow than normal.

Lunch was a plate of cauliflower rice, bacon, 2 soft boiled eggs (YUM!!!!), butter lettuce with jalapeño sauce, and a side of shishito peppers covered in furikake! Oh and sriracha of course. I don’t think this meal bloated me. This is pretty standard, and none of these foods have bloated me before.

Post lunch and before din, I made myself a matcha collagen almond milk drink! I added some coconut creamer for the first time. I’ve never had this before, but I found it at Whole Foods and it looked intriguing.

It was very creamy indeed! The coconut flavor is a bit strong for me, but you get used to it after a while! There’s 0 grams of carbs, so it’s good for that keto life!

Given that this was the only new thing I ate yesterday, could this be the cause of the bloat? The ingredients say locust bean gum and gellan gum which I’ve never paid attention to before. I just quickly looked it up and it doesn’t seem alarming though. Hmmm…

While blogging, I had the rest of the chili roasted pistachios! OMG SO SAD!!!! Might need to do a Costco run if I can finish this edit in time! Costco closes early on the weekends! Anyway, it cannot be the nuts. I’ve been having this for like 2 weeks straight.

Okay, raspberries. First of all, aren’t they gorgeous? Second of all, I only ate half this container. They’ve never bloated me before. But also, I haven’t had that much fruit in a while. It couldn’t be them, right?

For dinner, Sam and I both had zoodles! He even offered to pencil sharpener them in our zoodle pencil sharpener device! Haha. He did a fabulous job. I topped my zoodles with mushrooms, paleo sausage and Alfredo sauce.

I quickly sautéed the zoodles in a ghee though…it’s lactose free butter. I haven’t cooked with ghee for several months. Could it be that? Sam did tell me last night and this morning that he was super bloated too. Maybe it’s the ghee? Could it be? I don’t think it has ever bloated me before…

The only other thing both Sam and I ate similarly were the raspberries and paleo sausage.

Was up editing til 2am. I fell prey to my keto ice cream. Whatever, it was good :P

Oh and then after I had some baba ganoush and mini bell peppers.

Okay, so that is LITERALLY everything I ate yesterday. Do you think it’s the ghee? I mean, it has to be something BOTH Sam and I ate.

I’m going to avoid both the ghee and the coco creamer today and see if that helps…

BACK TO EDITING!!!! Will keep you posted on when it’s coming out today. I am taking a lot of time with this one because it’s a really important video.

BTW, as a recap, here are the clues so far:

Any idea what you think the video will be about?

The post SO BLOATED. WHAT HAPPENED!!?? | Day 31 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.

Just because I had an ED, doesn’t mean I’m damaged forever | Day 30 of 90

Hey guys!

First off, I want to say thank you, genuinely from the bottom of my heart, for all of the honest feedback and amazing advice you gave me on yesterday’s post. I truly was struggling with the whole comments situation and I think Sam needed a break from me complaining all day about every single thing every person said! I am not normally like that – but because I’ve been so transparent and so raw lately, every attack felt like a very personal one – even coming from strangers! I feel a lot better now. My strength is being restored. So seriously, thanks for that. You guys are such wonderful people.

Next, heavy topic.

One of the main concerns from people as I began my 90 day journey was that I was relapsing and falling into another ED. I want you to know that I completely understand this.

MY ORTHOREXIA

Beginning in 2012, I felt like I was imprisoned in “Food Jail” – a place where only healthy foods were allowed in my cell and everything else, like fries, pizza, sushi, burgers, and even fruits were outside the cell. Anytime I was able to sneak out of Food Jail, I felt like a thief. I felt like I had to eat as much junk food as I could in as little time as possible before anyone could catch me.

So, that’s why my binges were typically at night…with the lights off…me stuffing my body with boxes of sugary cereals and whatever else I could find in the pantry that was “off limits”. I didn’t want Sam to see me or hear me (I was so ashamed) so I did my best to quietly close crinkly chip bags and muffle any eating noises I was making. The weird thing was – the food I binged on never even tasted that good. I didn’t even like them. I just knew I couldn’t have them, so that made me want them more.

HOW I BEGAN HEALING

Eventually, I broke out of Food Jail and gained back my freedom. How? It took several years of healing.

I began allowing myself to eat whatever I wanted. I trained my mind to not feel guilty for eating something I once labeled as “bad”. I told myself that if I made the decision to eat something, I needed to OWN that decision, and I needed to ENJOY it – or else, why eat it at all? There’s no point in eating something delicious and then wasting that moment away with feelings of shame, guilt, and disgust.

At this time, I was allowing the scale to judge not just my weight, but also my self worth. Lower numbers used to make me happy while higher numbers made me cry. The power it had over me was too much. So I vowed to not step on the scale. This helped a lot at the time.

Healing meant finding the joy in food again, finding the joy in working out again, and giving my body more LOVE. I had made my body go through so much (rapid weight loss in 8 weeks for my bikini competition) that it was literally mad at me. I ended up with severe metabolic damage. My body no longer responded in logical ways to meal plans or workout programs – it was malfunctioning and needed time to rest and reset.

HEALING ON CAMERA

It wasn’t fun seeing my body balloon up while I was filming workout videos for you guys on YouTube. So many people were questioning why I was becoming fat and if my workout plans even worked. The judgement from the scale was gone, but the public judgement was harsher than ever. It was so hurtful. The comments people made about my body felt like knives cutting into my already low self esteem.

But that’s when I decided to turn the negativity into positivity. That’s when I came out with one of my most viral videos to date – “The ‘Perfect’ Body.”

Around the time that I released this video, the body positive revolution was just beginning, so once the media picked it up, all of a sudden my name became synonymous with body positivity. New fans joined the community and we all began healing together. Loving our bodies for what they could do, not what they looked like! It was amazing. It helped me heal. It also helped me heal to see all types of bodies being celebrated all over social media.

WHY MY PAST ED DOESN’T DEFINE ME

It’s been several years now since my orthorexia and since “The ‘Perfect’ Body” came out. And I want to tell you this – my body and my mind have healed, and the 90 day journey is proof of it.

The point of telling you all that is to let you know that just because I had an eating disorder, it doesn’t mean I am damaged forever.

Let that sink in.

Just because I had an eating disorder, it doesn’t mean that I can’t ever make healthy decisions again.

Just because you had an eating disorder, doesn’t mean that you can’t ever make healthy decisions again.

I think me going on this 90 day journey looked like a huge red flag to anyone who has ever been through an ED. I get it. Me tracking my food, tracking my weight, stepping on the scale, having a goal weight etc. For those of us who are in the healing phase – I 100% understand why you don’t want to see this. It’s triggering because you’re trying to do the opposite of what I am doing. Again, you’re in the HEALING phase and you SHOULD NOT be doing what I am doing. Your healing is what you need to focus on. Good on you for knowing that and unfollowing or unsubscribing for your mental wellness.

LOVING YOUR BODY WHILE IMPROVING YOURSELF IS POSSIBLE

Once you’re physically and mentally healed from whatever trauma you put your body through, you realize you don’t have to stay where you are forever right? Like yes girl, accept yourself but also accept that it’s okay to improve yourself too!

What bothers me most about all of the criticism against my 90 day journey is the assumption that I can’t make healthy decisions anymore, just because I had an ED. Isn’t that kind of condescending? When I hear that, I hear a little bit of concern and A LOT of “oh I bet she can’t do it right because she failed before.”

You know what? I am grateful for my ED.

I actually know so much more about my body than I did before all of that happened. If anyone can get through an eating disorder AND heal themselves, that is such a HUGE TRIUMPH!

So, why can’t I have another chance at getting in the best shape of my life in a happy and healthy way? It doesn’t mean I don’t love myself. It means I love myself SO MUCH that I’m willing to give myself another chance to reach the goals I deserve.

That’s right. I DESERVE to be the best version of myself.

And you do too.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t love yourself because you’re trying to improve yourself. That’s BS.

Yesterday’s Recap:

Here’s my day 29 Fit Journal entry! I started off the day with a full body sculpt weight lifting class at 7:15am.

Then I drove to Blogi HQ to take care of some business and munched on my chili roasted pistachios as I sipped my lemon water!

For lunch I had my fave from Tender Greens, the ahi tuna salad!

Post lunch as I was blogging, I had some more chili roasted pistachios. Again, a great writing snack :) I’m running low though. May need to stop by Costco soon!

After I finished blogging, my sis came by to pick me up to go stretch! I love sister stretch time! We actually invested in some yoga blocks and pillows so we can stretch with the same exercises at home too. This should help with our progress.

After stretching, I rushed home and whipped up this super quick 5 min dinner because Sam and I were late to game night with our friends! I made 2 bacon, egg, and cheese egg cups (pre-made from Costco) and then a side salad consisting of butter lettuce, cherry tomatoes, ground turkey and creamy jalapeño dressing.

At game night, I had some raspberries and sparkling water. When I got home, I ate some baba ganoush with baby bell peppers! It was like 11:30 pm but whatever! It was yum.

The post Just because I had an ED, doesn’t mean I’m damaged forever | Day 30 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.

Week 4 Weigh-In | Day 29 of 90

It’s that time again!

I literally cannot believe we are almost at my 1 month check-in which is scheduled for September 15. That is in 2 days. That’s going to be a whole measuring tape situation! I’ve never really measured myself for progress before (usually just weight and body fat %) so it will be interesting to see what the numbers look like. I don’t think I’ll be happy or sad if the numbers go up or down because I really do feel amazing right now. WOW. Just being able to say that tells me that my mental wellness and the love I have for my body has progressed so much from where I was post-bikini competition several years ago.

Before we get to the numbers, I’d like to share a non scale victory first!

My efficiency was at an all time high this morning! I woke up and went to my weight lifting class at 7:15am, then went home thinking I wouldn’t be able to shoot a video – but then ended up actually shooting the video because Sam and I fixed a technical issue together, then I drove to Blogi HQ to oversee our new contractors installing a new window. That all happened before 12pm!

WHOO!!!

Now, to the WEEK 4 WEIGH-IN!

Oh my goodness! This week’s hard work is paying off. I am 1.2 lbs down from last week. But the most exciting part is that I am 0.7% down for body fat and 0.1% UP for muscle mass! AHHH that is nuts! I honestly can’t believe my body is responding!

After years of metabolic damage due to a super restricted diet, nothing, and I mean NOTHING worked. Sometimes eating salad made me gain weight and sometimes eating pizza made me lose weight. Nothing made sense. My body was malfunctioning. So, I just had to give myself time to heal. I did that by allowing myself to eat whatever I wanted for a few years. Eventually, my body found it’s balance again.

That’s -5.6 lbs down from August 16 (29 days) or -7.4 lbs from the beginning (33 days)! The coolest part is that my muscle mass is steadily increasing as my body fat decreases. All those strength training and weight lifting exercises paired with the cardio is doing it’s job.

This progress is so motivating you guys. I love when you can see and FEEL your hard work…WORKING. My energy is higher, my mood is better, and overall I’m feeling so strong and confident. Even running is not so terrible right now! (Never thought I’d say that!) I mean I don’t love it, but it doesn’t scare me as much. I am so pleased that what I am experimenting with is harmonizing with my body.

EEEeeeeeEEEeeEeEeee!!!!

Yesterday’s recap:

I started off the day by taking a new class called “Trampoline Trim”. I am not like agile on the trampoline AT ALL (I look like a struggling oompa loompa) but the instructor made it fun and the moves def got my heart rate up!

I took class a little later than usual so by the time I got home (we work from home on Thursdays and Fridays), it was pretty much lunch time! I decided to make it a Taco Thursday for me and Sam!

This is what I used as my tortilla. These are egg thins and I got them from Costco. They def don’t taste like tortillas, in fact they don’t really taste like much, and when they say thin – they mean THIN. Like maybe 1/3 the thickness of a crepe? But – they make a wonderful sub for a tortilla! So even though I sounded like I was complaining, I wasn’t complaining :)

I ended up having twice as much as you see on this plate, and then some! The tacos are filled with butter lettuce, ground turkey, and homemade guacamole. On the side, I made shishito peppers with furikake. Guys, I legit love shishito peppers SO MUCH. They’re selling them at Trader Joe’s right now. GO BUY IT UP!!!

Closeup of my chunky guac.

As a post lunch drink, I mixed my matcha collagen with almond milk. So good. It truly feels like a treat! I sipped on this as I was writing a script for one of my upcoming non-workout videos.

When I write, I also like to snack, so HELLO chili roasted pistachios! We meet again! Hi George! No you can’t have some. But mummy will give you a cashew. (Side note: George gets more excited about nuts than he does about meat treats.)

For dinner, I had a weird combo of food that some of you may find unappetizing but I liked it :) That’s cauliflower rice topped with my homemade chunky guac, bacon, 2 soft boiled eggs, and a whole ton of sriracha! YUMMMMMM.

To end the night I made tea for both Sam and I. I decided to pull out our Mr. and Mrs. cups from the wedding! I can’t believe that on Oct 6th we will have been married for one entire year! We haven’t even gone on our honeymoon yet! But don’t worry – I think we will do it early next year. There’s just a lot of stuff we’re dealing with in regards to our businesses that would make me feel very uneasy if we left right now. So, better to stay put and leave when my mind isn’t going crazy.

Week 4 recap page in my Fit journal.

I want to specifically point out the thing that I need to stop. I need to stop letting the negative comments affect me so much. Like I wrote above in my journal, I am struggling with this.

I will give myself credit for not crying and not feeling bad about myself when I read the comments, but some of the stuff that is bring directed at me is bothering me A LOT. I don’t know if you’re sick of hearing about this but because my blog is my therapeutic practice, I need to honestly write how I feel, because a part of me feels unwell.

I grew up a people pleaser and someone who bends backwards for other people’s happiness, so I’m not good at NOT caring what other people say and think about me. Yes, I started this 90 day challenge saying I wouldn’t care – but of course I care. I am a caring person. I just…care too much. I honor feedback and I take criticisms to heart. That is how I improve in my daily work. But…these comments are just really getting to me. And I need to find a way to not let them. To be honest with you, I’m having a hard time doing that. Especially because I am being so open, so transparent, and so vulnerable – whenever someone tells me I’m doing a bad thing – it kinda feels, well, it feels like this:

Imagine putting on your best dress, your finest jewels, doing your makeup all pretty, then walking downstairs to surprise your boyfriend. Instead of telling you how lovely you look, he turns around, looks you up and down, and tells you that you look embarrassing and that you need to go back upstairs to change.

I don’t know what that feeling is, but that’s how I feel when I read some of these comments. I thought they would stop after a while, but they’re still coming. Something that I notice too is that the harshest comments are currently coming from YouTube. So far my Facebook comments and my Instagram comments grown to be more understanding. The blog comments from you guys are usually smart, positive and insightful. But I don’t know what it is with YouTube. Is it because I haven’t posted a video about my 90 day journey and people are just seeing my status updates and reading into the headlines without reading the blog post it links to? Maybe YouTube subscribers are used to watching, not reading, so they’re mad because I haven’t explained what all this is in a format of entertainment that they are used to?

If you could help me to better understand and to better communicate with the POPsters on YouTube – I’d love to hear your ideas. I hope when we revisit the recap page next week that I will be struggling less with this. But to be honest with you, the hardest part of my 90 day journey hasn’t been the food, the workouts, or even weighing myself…it’s been the comments.

The post Week 4 Weigh-In | Day 29 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.

How do you change your body’s set point? | Day 28 of 90

Before we get started on today’s topic of set points, Sir George would like to say hi.

Now, for the past few days my weight has not gone up or down. It is sitting steadily at 128.8 lbs. However, I’m not disappointed about this mini plateau – I’m actually THRILLED.

Why? Because I think my body is beginning to settle into it’s new set point!

What’s a set point? Pretty much your body’s set point is how much you would weigh if you didn’t care about how you looked in a swimsuit and you just walked around eating when you were hungry and stopping when you were full. You wouldn’t need to work out but you would need to be eating mostly real food. In theory, there would be a comfortable weight your body would land. (Keep in mind that not everyone will have the same set point because of things like genetics, physiology, and environment.)

So, can one’s set point be shifted? If someone’s set point can be shifted up, it is reasonable to believe that it can be shifted down too. The thing is – shifting down is a lot harder than shifting up for obvious reasons! But, nevertheless, it’s possible.

From what I am researching, to truly reset your set point, it’s important to not do it too quickly. Because if all of a sudden you began drastically decreasing your caloric intake, your body would interpret it as a traumatic event and will do everything it can to hold onto your energy stores (aka fat) as a survival tactic. Even if you’re not actually starving yourself, bodies naturally don’t like losing weight so it’ll fight back to hold onto everything.

According to The Nutrition Diva, slow and gradual weight loss is how you can avoid the metabolic backlash that rapid weight loss can trigger. (Yup, I’ve had that happen!) She suggests losing no more than 10% of your total weight at a time. My first recording in my Fit Journal was at 136 lbs 4 weeks ago, so this means losing 14 lbs should be pretty safe, which is around what my goal is. I am supposed to spend 2-3 months at the new lower weight in order for my new set point to solidify BEFORE losing more weight. This way I’m more likely to maintain my goal weight once I get there.

Good to know! So far, everything is going well, I am not hungry and I am not craving! This is important to note because whenever I was on a diet-diet, I’d get hangry and I’d snap at Sam. Poor Sam. Anyway, I’m feeling like the habits I am creating now are very sustainable so that’s super motivating.

Let’s talk food!

DAY 28 RECAP:

Yesterday I took a Ballet Sculpt class with a Blogifam member, Laurel! We thought it was going to be a ballet dance cardio class but it wasn’t! Oh well. I need to read the class descriptions on ClassPass more carefully! Either way, it was still fun to take do a lunch time workout!

After class, we headed back to the office and I made this incredible Caesar salad! I added avocado on top of the cherry tomatoes, bacon, chicken, cheese, and butter lettuce. SO SO good.

Post lunch snack – more chili roasted pistachios! I ended up having more than this. It’s hard to stop with nuts!

Water hack. To stay hydrated, I make my water taste interesting. I love lemon water but I don’t like cutting lemons and squeezing them into my bottles every morning because I don’t have time. These dehydrated lemon packets by TRUE Lemon are incredible! Try it!!

For dinner, I made a weird combo of stuff but IT WAS REALLY GOOD! That’s cauliflower rice, bacon, butter lettuce, and avocado with a whole ton of sriracha on top!

As a side snack, I dipped sweet baby bell peppers into baba ganoush! I bought some from Whole Foods. Much easier than making my own. By the way, I ended up throwing away ALL that baba ganoush because it tasted weird. SO SAD!!!!

Here’s the brand I bought. The ingredients looked whole, so I prayed it would taste good. Luckily it did! The only reason I say this is because I went to go buy some fresh baba ganoush at Persian grocery store and they didn’t have any nutrition labels. Anyway, I had thought all baba ganoushes were made the same until I tried it! It was tooooo good. I figured it might have had a lot of sugar in it. So now it’s just sitting at the back of our fridge!

For dessert, I had keto ice cream. Yes, I bought another one. It was too good NOT to have!

Ate it right out of the little tub. YUM!

Ok see you tomorrow for the week 4 weigh in!

 

The post How do you change your body’s set point? | Day 28 of 90 appeared first on Blogilates.