Pursuit of Wellness - My Fitness Journey: Things I Wish I Knew

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Ep. #21 Today we’re talking about MY FITNESS STORY. If you didn’t know, I lost 90 lbs in 2017. I’ve already done an episode on the emotional/mental transformation story, which was essentially the entire reason I got into fitness. But I haven’t done a breakdown of the actual changes I made, tools I used, workouts I did, food I ate, etc. In this episode I break down my fitness tips in eight chapters (chapters and titles are in the show notes!) I hope you enjoy! This episode is sponsored by Nike.   Chapter one: Find your why (4:13 min) Chapter two: Baby steps (8:50 min) Chapter three: Environment (12:15 min) Chapter four: Food (14:48 min) Chapter five: Fitness VS health (24:13 min) Chapter six: Exercise (27:32 min) Chapter seven: Supplements (35:14 min) Chapter eight: Make it easy (38:28 min) Chapter nine: Clap for yourself (41:11 min)   For Mari’s Instagram click here!   To shop Bloom Nutrition Greens click here!  To download Mari’s workout plan & recipes click here!    Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.     So head over to www.Nike.com today to discover all the ways that Nike helps you feel your all.   Produced By Dear Media  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Hi guys, it's Mari and you're listening to The Pursuit of Wellness. What's up, pal community and welcome back to another solo episode. You guys really seem to enjoy these. Feels like a little heart to heart chat where we can get personal and dive deeper into topics that maybe I wouldn't if I had a guest in front of me. Today we are talking about my fitness story. If you didn't know, I lost 90 pounds back in 2017. I've already done an episode about the emotional mental transformation story, which was the essentially the entire reason I ever got into fitness. But I haven't done a breakdown of the actual changes I made, the tools I used,

the workouts I did, the food I ate, the mindset I had, etc. I'm also beyond excited to announce that this episode is sponsored by Nike. Wow, never thought I'd be able to say something like that. I've been wearing Nike since the start of my fitness journey. I would wear the Metcons for weightlifting. By the way, Metcons are incredible. They have a flat bottom, great for leg day. I'd wear Air Force Ones for my street style looks. I still wear them. They're Greg's favorite shoes. To the best shorts and sports bras for my workouts. Nike is an iconic brand. I'm so honored to be working with them, especially on this episode. If you told me back then that I'd be working with Nike one day, I would not have believed you. So thank you guys

so much for sponsoring this episode. Now, before I break this down, I want to mention that my focus from the start was not just about weight loss. As I mentioned, it was very much mental for me, but I was all about also gaining muscle. I wanted sculpted arms, toned legs. I wanted abs. I wanted to be strong inside and out. So I'm excited to talk about everything with this goal in mind. I wasn't just about losing fat. I wanted to be a fit, athletic human. To give some context, I began my journey at 245 pounds, close to 250. I'm 5'10", so I had gained weight pretty much all over my body. I'm not someone who holds weight in one area, so I was pretty evenly dispersed, if you want to say that.

So if you look at my before and after photo, which many people have seen, if not, go on my Instagram. But it doesn't really look like I was as heavy as I was because everything was sort of like spread out. But if you met me in person and you knew me, it was a vast difference to how I usually looked. My diet was very poor. I started the day with a venti iced coffee with milk and sugar. Not that there's anything horrifically wrong with that, but for me,

it was really bad for my mental health. Plus I was starting the day with a huge spike of sugar. And then I'd have one or two muffins, depending on how hungry I was, usually like a pumpkin or a blueberry. And then for lunch, maybe I'd have like a food truck or fast food like chicken and rice or Chinese food, pasta or pizza for dinner. I'd often have dessert. And then I was consuming alcohol on a regular basis in excess. I was essentially using food as a method for self soothing the emotional pain I was in. So my life was essentially about escaping at the time. And I don't want to go too far into that. If you want to hear more about the emotional side of everything, go back to my first ever solo about my transformation story. In terms of exercise, I was essentially doing none at this point, other than taking my dog Lulu out in the morning,

which generally meant I was standing still watching her play fetch. I'd been to a gym maybe three times in my life while at college because my friends were into working out. I had no idea what I was doing. I knew nothing about weightlifting. So now you kind of have a sense for where I was physically before finding fitness. And I want to talk about some of the initial steps I took when I decided I wanted a healthier lifestyle. So as I break this down, I'm going to pretend that it's a book. I want to keep it a bit organized. So we're going to go by chapter here because I don't want to miss anything. And some of these are more tangible tool-based and some of them are more mindset-based. So I think they definitely

go hand in hand. So I'm going to start with chapter one, which is called find your why. I want to start here because it's something that remained a top priority throughout my entire fitness journey and remains a priority to this day. I think it's a huge reason why I was able to keep the weight off and why I was successful in my fitness journey and honestly why I've been successful in my business journey as well. You need to find a bigger why than simply making physical changes. Why do you want to change your life? Why is it important for you to get healthier? Who are you doing it for?

What is the end goal here? Oftentimes, I think our purpose can be found in our pain. I know for me personally, that's very much where I found my why. And I think the first step to finding your why is taking ownership for where you are in your life. This is kind of harsh advice, but I'm going to tell you because it changed my life. It's your fault. Wherever you're at in your life right now, it's your fault. I was very much someone who was in a victim mentality. I had every reason to blame other people. I blamed family members. I blamed a situation I was in. I blamed friends. There's a number of things you could blame your situation on. It's my family's fault because of X, Y, and Z. I didn't

get enough of this. I didn't get enough of that. It is your fault. It's time to take responsibility for where you are in your life because you're the only one who's going to get yourself out. So take a look at your life and take the finger away from the other people you're blaming and put it on yourself. Maybe it is someone's fault. Then what? I think there's so many people listening to this who genuinely have a reason to not do something. Maybe it is someone's fault. And what? Are you going to let them stop you living your full potential? Putting blame on someone else takes energy away from the ultimate goal. I love this quote from Alex Hermosi. There's somebody who's had it worse and who has done it better. I think so many of us have been through traumas, big or small. And there's people listening who have every right to blame someone else.

For me, my mental health had deteriorated over many years. I was diagnosed with BPD. It was running my life. I could have pointed the finger at BPD. I had a lot of unresolved emotional trauma. I think when I stopped and finally took responsibility for the fact that I didn't have a degree, that I'd gained 60 plus pounds, that BPD was running my life, that I had all this trauma, that I was gained 60 plus pounds, that BPD was running my life, that I had all this trauma, that I was avoiding pain. When I finally looked myself in the mirror and said, oh, this is my fault, I was able to find my why. I knew I wasn't living my full potential. And I think this has kind of been my motivator throughout everything and kind of still is. I know that I had way more

to give. At that point, I was really functioning at like a zero. And I knew that I had things to share, things to accomplish, dreams. I knew I had more to give. I wanted to be a strong individual, able to cope with stress and the emotional turmoil of the world. Up until this point, as I mentioned, I had been self-soothing with food, finding, you know, alcohol, partying, things that numbed the pain. I wanted to be able to face the pain head on. I also wanted to be a better partner, a better friend, a better family member. And if you go back to my first transformation story, you'll hear more about that. But all of these larger reasons will keep you

going far longer than any physical goals. Although you can have those two, I would like to say. I don't believe in the fact that we are not allowed to say, I would love to have abs. I would love to be able to see more definition in my shoulders. I'd love to have abs. I would love to be able to see more definition in my shoulders. I'd love to have bigger glutes. I think all those reasons are okay too. I hate the idea that people believe it's toxic to have a physical goal. I don't believe that. I just think that the bigger reasons and the inner more emotional reasons are going to keep you going in the long run. And also the ownership part is key here. So chapter one, find your why. Chapter two, baby steps. I get asked a lot, what was the moment you decided to lose 90 pounds? I didn't decide to lose 90 pounds. All I decided was that I wanted to get some control back and shift the life path I was on from a dangerous direction that was headed nowhere to a more positive one.

So I approached my journey in a manageable way. I said to myself, what's the easiest first step I can take? For me, that was an extra walk a day with Lulu at a faster pace. Okay, so instead of going to the field and playing fetch and standing still and then getting back in the car and going home, I'm going to take her to the woods and walk around this loop that I enjoy and go a bit faster than I'm comfortable with. Second step. Okay, maybe I can get rid of the two muffins. And honestly, that sounds easy now saying it, but at the time I was very much reliant on the way I was eating. So I switched it out for something that was going to keep me full. It wasn't like a smaller amount of food. In fact, I was probably

consuming the same amount of calories, if not more. I was having like a big bowl of oatmeal and eggs. I just changed the nutritional value. So small steps. Another small step I took, I started consuming different content. Instead of watching, I don't know, like people who were drinking or whatever it may be, I started watching healthier, more educational content. And I'll talk more about that in a bit. Baby steps, I think, are crucial. I think so many people go,

I want to change my life. I want to get shredded. I want to lose X amount of weight. I want to completely change my schedule. I'm going to wake up at 5.30. I think if you approach it in that way, you are far more likely to fail quickly and let yourself down. I think if you start with small, approachable goals, you're going to build the confidence you need to get to the larger goal later on. If I went into this journey knowing I'd be losing 90 pounds, I likely would have been too intimidated to even start. My goal was never to lose that much weight. It was just to gain control. So for example, if you want to go to the gym one day, first step, put your sneakers on, make it to the door. Fantastic, you're closer to the goal.

The next day, make it down one block. The following day, maybe you make it down the street. The next day, maybe you walk for half a mile. Keep chipping away and showing up and it will get easier and easier. It's about progress, not perfection. That's key. And if you do mess up one day, it's about preventing the spiral and the thought that you have failed and you need to give up the whole journey and everything's trash now because you messed up once. It's about getting back on the horse directly the next day. And I still use that, honestly, because if I do,

you know, if I drink too much or if I have a hangover, it's so tempting to be like, well, I just mess everything up. Forget, you know, forget all the hard things I usually do. But it's about how quickly can you get back into the routine. Chapter three, environment. I like this quote, you are the sum of the people who you surround yourself with. So I've said this before, but I absolutely cut people out of my life at this point. I'm not necessarily proud of the way that I went about it. I think if I did it now, I would have had a mature conversation and explained, you know, I'm not the person that I was. I'm not partying

anymore. I'm not drinking alcohol and blacking out and eating pizza at two in the morning. I'm really focused on myself. However, I didn't go about it in that way. I pretty much just stopped talking to people, if I'm being honest. But it was one of the best things I could have done because the people I was hanging out with before my fitness journey knew of me as the party girl, and they were party people. So I felt like I was continuously letting them down by saying no and it was creating like this friction in trying to improve my life. Anyone that cares about you is going to want the best for you. So if people are holding you back from living your full potential they shouldn't be in your life. I think this also applies to the content you consume. Do what you can to control who you're around, what you listen to,

what you watch, etc. So if you're consuming content that, you know, is about partying, is about getting drunk, is about being, you know, hungover, unfollow the unhealthy accounts. Maybe it's not a good time for you to be following people who love getting drunk and don't value their health. I'm not telling you that you should go follow fitness accounts or bikini accounts that make you feel bad about yourself. I personally loved finding educational pages. So nowadays you have people like Andrew Huberman, Dr. Mindy Pelz, Glucose Goddess, Ben Greenfield, people who can really teach you about why you're doing the things you're doing. These people will advance your knowledge and overall health.

And I do want to recognize there's only so much you can control in your life. For example, you know, I was living with my dad on my fitness journey, and he wasn't necessarily concerned about his health in the same way I was. He's an avid wine drinker. He eats a lot of cheese and he was offering me wine every day. And it was, you know, a little bit challenging to be in that environment, but I couldn't control that at the time. So I controlled what I could. I controlled the content I consumed, the friends I was with. And I recommend you guys do the same. Okay. Chapter four, food. This is a big one. Nut nutrition was a huge part of my journey a lot of people kind of say like if you had to pick one would it be exercise or nutrition not that I think it has

to be a choice but I would pick nutrition every time I think nutrition is far more important than exercise at the beginning right away when I began listening to podcasts and watching YouTube and educating myself I drifted towards the nutrition content and I think educating yourself on nutrition at the beginning is really crucial I as you guys heard before I had a really really awful diet before starting I had no idea what macros were what fats what carbs were. I didn't even really know what had protein. I didn't really know how many calories I was consuming or why that mattered. I didn't even really understand the impact that food can have on you and your mental health. I was starting from scratch. So the only knowledge I really had was based on what Greg ate as a bodybuilder. So for those of you who don't know, Greg is my husband and he was my boyfriend at the time. And he's been bodybuilding since middle school.

So I could see that he was, you know, eating kind of large quantities of interesting foods. But I didn't, you know, have any sense of that for myself. So I would say if you're beginning a fitness journey, the first step when it comes to food is knowing what you are currently consuming on an average day of eating. For me back then, the best way of doing that was MyFitnessPal. I'm sure there are way better tracking apps you can use nowadays. I'm just a dinosaur. But I went ahead and downloaded MyFitnessPal and tracked every single thing I was eating,

even before I was eating super healthy. So we need to know how many calories you're consuming on an average day in order to have an understanding of where we can go. So let's say you're eating 2,500 calories. In order to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit. That means you need to be eating less calories than what you're currently eating. Because let's say you're gaining weight or even staying the same way at 2,500. In order to lose weight, you need to be in a deficit. By no means do you need to chop in half that amount of calories. I think a lot of people will go, okay, great, I'll eat 1500. No. All you need to start with is simply like 100 calories less. So let's start with 2400 rather than 2500. That can simply be removing a soda or a banana from your day. It doesn't have to be an

entire meal, right? And the reason you want to do that is when it comes to a calorie deficit, you want to chip away as slowly as possible. Our bodies love to adapt. So you want to leave room to continue making changes. I hope that makes sense. So if you were to chop the calories in half, your body would adapt to that very quickly and you'd be eating small amounts and have little room to chip away at that. You need to be making progress. So again, chip away as slowly as you can. Start removing things where you can, but the better option is to change the things you're eating so that you're getting the most out of what you can. So instead of having, I don't know, a Starbucks Frappuccino that is 800 calories in a

drink, let's shift that to a meal because a meal is going to keep you full for longer. It's going to make you feel better and keep you going. So in an 800 calorie allotment, instead of having tons of sugar and whatever else is in that drink, you know, fake ingredients and things that aren't going to make your body feel good, make you feel awful, more likely, you can have a plate that has a ton of protein, some healthy fats, some clean carbs, and that's going to energize you for your workout for your day and put you in a better spot mentally. And you're also probably not going to eat as much in your entire day because you're not going to spike cravings with the sugar. So that was a fast learning lesson that

I made that the type and quality of food I was eating was having a huge impact. And that's where we get into macros. By tracking our average day of food, we can see how much protein, carbs and fats we're getting in a day. And I could see that I was getting very little protein. There's no protein in pumpkin muffins. There's none in iced coffees, not much in food truck food. And then in a pasta dinner, we're not getting no protein. So if you've been listening to my podcast episodes, you will know how important protein is for overall health, but also for lean

muscle mass. So if you're losing weight and you want to maintain some good muscle mass, you need to be getting in enough protein. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns just to exist. This is kind of an interesting concept that Greg taught me at the beginning, but it's true. The more muscle mass just sitting here, or if you're in your car right now, the more muscle you have, the more calories your body requires just to exist. So in turn, more muscle means it's easier to lose fat. So I'm not telling you guys you need to become bodybuilders here. I think a lot of women have this like adverse reaction to muscle building because they don't want to look masculine. It takes years and years and years and time and effort and food to gain big muscle. I think women

would be shocked at how much more feminine they would look if they did focus on muscle. And that's just my opinion. Obviously, you can disagree, but it is healthier in general to have more muscle, especially as you get older as well. So there is a recommended amount of protein by the like American whatever association of food. I don't know what it's called, which is lower than this. But I recommend eating and other athletes recommend eating 0.75 to one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. And a lot of people make this mistake where they think it's a pound per, like how much you weigh in general. It's per pound of lean body mass. And the way you can figure that out is, I believe by doing a BMI calculation or doing a Dexter scan, I kind of just estimated. So let's say I was back then, you know, 200 pounds. I'd probably

try to eat close to 180 pounds or sorry, 180 grams of protein. I would say try to get between 20 and 30 grams of protein in a meal. So protein is a key part to this and a key part to my whole journey. I also focused on getting a decent amount of healthy fats in. That was more for my brain health. And for me personally, I found that a higher fat diet actually helped with cravings because at the beginning, when you're so used to eating like fast food and things that taste super delicious because they're full of fake flavors, it is difficult, more difficult to switch to a healthier diet. Now that I've been doing it for years and years, I genuinely prefer clean food and I'm not gassing. That's true. So for me personally, I ate less carbs than average and found myself feeling better eating a higher fat diet.

I did go fully keto for a bit. And while I don't think keto is a sustainable diet, I do think it's a good tool for me, especially with BPD and weight loss. It definitely helped me in that area and it helped me just stay full and my energy even for the whole day. So I wasn't having these crashes and insane hunger cravings because I was satiated. So I was having like a lot of poke, steak, red meat, salad dressing, avocado, olive oil, nuts, things like that. So one thing I also want to emphasize here is whatever makes you feel your best. I really do believe in bio-individuality and everyone is so, so different. So, you know, for Greg, he loves carbs. He felt amazing eating oatmeal, chicken and rice, potatoes. And now, by the way, I do eat carbs. I do really enjoy potatoes and things like that. But at the time,

keto was a good tool for me. So again, whatever makes you feel your best, as long as you're in that calorie deficit and you're getting enough protein in, choose what works best for you. It's about what makes you feel your best. And then this one's a bit cliche, but drink enough water. At the time, I was drinking a gallon a day. I kind of set myself this challenge. I would bring a gallon jug everywhere I went and I'd get through it in a day. I do believe it helps you feel satiated and hydrated and it just makes everything in your body work better. So get enough water in. Oh, just a little protein quote that I wanted to add. In one study, a modest increase in protein from 15% to 18% of calories reduced the amount of fat people regained after weight loss by 50%.

So protein's really freaking important, guys. I'm going to stop talking about it now. Chapter five, fitness versus health. This sounds contradictory, but I believe there is a big difference between fitness and health. And I kind of learned this along the way. It's possible to have a six pack and be super unhealthy on the inside. When I entered the health space, specifically the bodybuilding niche, there was sort of this like if it fits your macros culture. So as I just explained, if you're in a calorie deficit and you're eating enough protein and your macros look good you can kind of eat technically anything that fit within those macros and that's where people come in with like various unhealthy fake foods that kind of fit the macros but have bad ingredients and let

me just say I think having grace and flexibility with yourself is important, but living off of egg whites and rice crispy treats and protein muffins and protein shakes for every meal isn't healthy. Sure, someone who eats that way can look fit. So, you know, I love bodybuilding and it's what got me into this space. But professional bodybuilders don't necessarily eat the most healthful diets, right? Their goal is to achieve a peak physical composition. And they're, you know, props to them, what they do is really, really hard. But I know a lot of bodybuilders who have poor gut health, or they have hormone issues later on. I personally wanted to be healthy as well as being fit. And I've definitely embraced this

concept more and more as I've been on my health journey, because when I first learned, oh, I can just eat a protein bar and have a shake and, you know, eat these things that will fit my macros, but won't necessarily make me feel good. I definitely fell down that trap for a little bit because it is tempting. And I still see on TikTok these girls eating the Rice Krispie treats and the protein this and the protein that. I think there's space in your day for things like that. But if your entire diet is based on that, because you just want to look good, you're going to have repercussions down the line. I think to me, health is about longevity and quality of life. It's about feeling your best and having

the energy you need to live your best life and giving your body the nutrients it needs to perform optimally, especially if you're weight lifting. So I became super passionate about, you know, using food as medicine. Things like olive oil, salmon, avocados, sweet potato, leafy greens, pumpkin seeds. Foods can have healing properties. Nutrients can help. You know, they're kind of like medicine, especially for someone with mental health issues or whatever it may be. I think after years of treating my body so badly, I became

really passionate about giving it things that made it feel really good. So I just wanted to touch on that because I do think that can be confusing if you are new to the fitness space. And again, like hitting your protein macros is difficult. If you can have a protein bar or a protein shake and hit the goals at the end of the day and have a little treat, I think that's completely fine. I still do that today. But I just think relying on those things for an entire day is where things get tricky. Okay, chapter six, exercise. Okay, we're getting into the tools, guys. The first thing I'd like to say in this chapter is it's time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

If you could tell from my description of my life prior, I pretty much made everything in my life comfortable for me. Everything had to taste good. Everything had to feel good. I wasn't pushing my body. I really didn't know what uncomfortable felt like other than the inner like trauma I was always running away from. Right. So to be physically uncomfortable was something that I wasn't used to. And yeah, back then, even just doing a few reps was difficult for me. You know, doing an RDL or a squat was like, took everything out of me. And I think one of the first lessons I had to learn in my fitness journey was getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I think that's a lesson that will help you

throughout your journey, but also in life in general. I could go on such a tangent about fitness and life, but I think the discipline you learn through a fitness journey will carry through to your business, your career, anything hard that you encounter. I love this quote. Again, I think it's by Alex Amozy. It's, this is what hard feels like. So I think everyone can acknowledge when going into a fitness journey, you know, it's going to be hard, right? And I think every time you hit that wall where it's like, oh, no, I've got five more reps. I've got another set or, you know, I've got 30 more minutes here at the gym. I'm only a quarter away from my workout. That's what hard feels like.

And there's a reason you're doing something hard right now. You're showing yourself that you can do it. By getting through this one workout, you're going to have the confidence to show up again tomorrow. And then by doing that workout, you'll have even more confidence to show up the next day. And next thing you know, you've been working out for a year straight and you've lost 90 pounds. That's how you build up evidence to show yourself you can do hard things. So I don't know why, but I love that quote. I think this is what hard feels like. You're already, and if this helps you, if you have a competitive mindset, you're already outdoing everyone else by doing this hard thing, because most people give up after the one hard thing that they try. Oh,

it's too hard. I'm going home. You're not doing this because it's easy, right? So this is what hard feels like. But again, like hard is hard is different for everyone. So what's hard for me now isn't what was hard for me back then. What was hard for me back then was even just moving more in my day. So the first step for me in terms of exercise was just getting in more movement. I think people underestimate how powerful steps are. So simply by getting your step count up, you are expending so much more energy. Right now, I try to get around 8,000 to 10,000 on a really good day. But back then, again, it was just an extra walk with Lulu. And when you're at the beginning of your journey,

you are actually most susceptible to the most progress. So if you are walking into a gym for the first time, you're going to see the most gains, the most progress. I think people are like, oh, when am I going to see results? It's way harder for me to see progress now after years of lifting than it was the first time I got in there. You're going to see progress quite quickly because if you've never picked up a weight or you've never really pushed your body to that extent, you will see progress quickly. So when it came to the gym, which I know it can be difficult to get

in the gym to begin with, let me talk about that because getting in the gym, it can be super intimidating. So how can I start weightlifting? Number one, watch content. There is free content out there on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. Learn exercises before you go. Practice them at home. You know, watch the form, study it, take notes, whatever you need to do. So you feel confident before you go in. And I'd also say have a plan before you go. So I would write in my notes the workout I wanted to do. And I had a split. So a split is basically categorizing the muscles you're going to work on in a week. So let's say Monday is glute and hamstring. Tuesday is back and shoulders. Wednesday is quad and calf. Thursday maybe is chest and arms. So establish a split that you

want to work on, especially if you're weightlifting, and then have a plan before you go. There's so many resources out there now. What I did was, you know, for those OGs listening, I took my plan and turned it into a PDF guide, which I sold for five bucks. Now it's called the Slay app. So if you want to check out my workout plans, that's what my app is called. And it's new workouts every day based on muscle group

with video exercises. So you can really see like how the form is, what you should be doing, and it lists the amount of reps and sets you should be doing, et cetera. But you can also just go online and find, what you should be doing, and it lists the amount of reps and sets you should be doing, etc. But you can also just go online and find, you know, on YouTube, whatever it may be. Highly recommend going in with a plan so you're not, you know, flustered and trying to think of something in the moment. I also say when I first started at the gym and I was worried about people looking at me and doing something wrong, I would wear a hat and big headphones like I am right now, because

it's going to help you zone into what you're doing. It's kind of like putting blinders on, like a horse will wear blinders so they're not looking to the side of them. Focus on you, blast your favorite music, and also just know no one's looking at you. And if they are, whatever. You have every right to be there. Everyone's there just bettering themselves. You are already winning by showing up and being there. And you're already on the right path. So just know that. Or you can obviously work out at home to begin with, with just dumbbells.

During COVID, I worked out for months with just dumbbells at home. And I saw way more progress than I ever expected. So yeah. And again, go in deciding what you want to train. Is it upper body? Is it lower body? Is it shoulders, back, whatever it may be. So weightlifting has become way more popular now, but back in the day, I was one of the only people at the gym or sorry, one of the only women at the gym, hip thrusting, squatting, overhead pressing. There was a couple others, but it wasn't what it is now and I think most people

know this but again I lost almost all my weight just by weightlifting I really wasn't doing much cardio at all other than my walks you can lose a significant amount of weight weightlifting picking up heavy weights and putting them down and doing it over and over again especially when you're not fit is is really difficult. And I think the best part about it is you're reshaping your entire body composition. You're not just losing fat. You are reshaping your whole body. So highly recommend weightlifting. But if it's not for you, it's not for you. Pick something that is fun for you and you feel like you can keep progressing. Another thing I think that's key with weightlifting is to track progress. So keep track of the amount of weight you're doing. So if you're hip thrusting,

I don't know, a 25 pound plate at the beginning, keep doing that 15 reps. Okay, try a 35. Maybe you're doing that for 10 reps. Try a 45, maybe five reps and just try to keep upping that weight and increasing the reps and keep track of that because I think strength tracking is also really motivating when you're on a fitness journey and that's the best part about weight lifting is there's no ceiling you can just keep getting better and better chapter seven supplements so first of all supplements are not the be-all end-all of a weight loss journey and I like to say that right now, even though I have a supplement company, I do believe that you could lose weight without them. However, I personally found that there were certain supplements along the way that made it easier and more enjoyable. So I wanted to put this chapter in there, especially at the beginning. I think there

are certain things that can become a part of your routine that motivate you and keep the energy high and also help you maybe swap out some of the foods you were eating before. And then I'm also going to touch on vitamins that I still take today that I think are really great for inner health. Of course, before Bloom, I would take other brands, but none of them were perfect or had the best ingredients, which is why I made Bloom later on to create formulas that I loved. But one of the products that I found that I was taking at the beginning and then later made with Bloom was pre-workout. I think it's fantastic to find a pre-workout that tastes really good, gets you energized and hyped up and becomes kind of a ritual. It made going to

the gym easier for me. Now it's like, I don't even think twice about going to the gym. But back then when it was difficult to get out of the door, pre-workout really, really helped. Back then it was obviously like C4 and all these things pumped with like caffeine and stuff, which is why I made Bloom because I wanted a more focused, like lighter energy that tasted amazing and had good ingredients. But back then I would kind of take, you know, what they had. Greens, obviously get all your nutrients in one scoop. And again, back to the health and fitness conversation, gut health and good digestion are only going to help you on your weight loss journey. So green is super important. Obviously, it's our best selling product with Bloom now, because I think people have realized how crucial gut health is. And back then there were greens on

the market, but they all tasted like trash. Protein. As we spoke about, you need to be getting in a lot of protein. I found this particularly difficult to hit every day because it is like a lot of meat and you're just, you know, trying to get creative with how many eggs can I eat? So I do think having a shake a day or like a bar is really, really helpful. So yeah, a protein supplement I do think is good, whether it's plant-based or whey isolate is the highest, the best quality of whey you can get. So either of those two. And then in terms of vitamins, some go-tos for me, fish oil. That was something I've been taking for a long time. Really great for anxiety, depression,

great for inflammation. I think everyone should be taking fish oil, vitamin D. Most people are deficient in vitamin D, but you can also overdose on it, so be careful. Not overdose, but it becomes toxic if you take too much of it. Magnesium, I think is really having a moment right now, but it's a fantastic supplement for sleep. And you can also take a Neuromag, which is great for focus. Inositol, really great for sleep as well. I also love L-theanine as like a calming agent. Everyone should take a good probiotic or greens, which have prebiotics and probiotics in them. Vitamin C. And in general, I would just say get tested. Get tested for the nutrient levels you have. Get tested for hormone levels so you know what to supplement with. Chapter eight, make it easy.

As I mentioned before, a fitness journey is not going to be easy. Let's just acknowledge that right now. But there are things you can do to make it easier for yourself and make it more likely for yourself to succeed. You are more likely to deviate from the plan if it's challenging for you. So schedule. When is it the easiest and most likely time for you to get to the gym? Is it the morning? Is it the nighttime? For me, it has always been the morning. If I leave too much time for myself to think about it or question it, and then if I wait till nighttime, I have no energy.

For me, it's always been first thing. When is your energy the highest? So try to think about that. And just because your favorite influencer wakes up at 530 in the morning and goes right away doesn't mean that is the best option for you. What is the most likely plan for you to get yourself to the gym? Other ways you can make it easy. Have your supplements sitting out on the counter waiting for you so you don't even have to think about it. Meal prep as much as you can. I personally like prepping all the hard things like sweet potatoes are super annoying to cook. They take like 45 minutes. Cook those in advance.

Cook your carrots, maybe even chicken. I used to cook in bulk. I would do sheet pans in the oven and just have it all ready to go. And you can make a variety of meals out of those ingredients. Make sure you eat before leaving the house. Keep yourself satiated with high quality nutrients and healthy fats. So I would never really let myself like go somewhere hungry. Of course, like if you're in a dire circumstance, you can definitely find healthy options while you're out. But general rule of thumb, things are not going to be healthy while you're out. You can control what you're making if you're at home and you're on a weight loss journey and you do need to be a bit stricter with yourself. So keep that in mind and make sure you have something to eat before you go or you bring something with

you. So I used to bring my Tupperware with me on long drives when I worked at Orange Theory Fitness or I was driving back to Philadelphia for school. I would bring my meals in the car and have them super accessible. Also plan ahead with healthy snacks. I am like the queen of traveling with a lunchbox. On a domestic flight, you can bring a lot of food. I bring like a salad. You can bring protein bars. You can bring fruit. Can you bring fruit? I actually think you can bring fruit. There's certain limits on things you can do. You can't bring like liquid dressing. So like put the dressing on before you leave, things like that. But yeah, I've had really bad luck with finding healthy stuff in airports. So I always travel with a lunchbox. People make

fun of me, but I'm healthier for it and I'm not hungry on the plane and I feel good. So highly recommend that. Plan ahead with healthy snacks. Chapter nine, clap for yourself. So this has been a big one for me throughout the journey because I think a big realization I had was that no one cared as much as I did. You kind of expect like, oh, everyone's going to notice or everyone's going to finally see my potential or they're going to hype me up. Maybe, but probably not. Probably not. I'm going to tell you right now, even your family, no one's going to care as much as you do. I would actually say that when you start improving your life and becoming the best version of you, there's a high likelihood that you'll make people around you uncomfortable. Anyone who knows that they're not living to their full potential

are going to be uncomfortable by your success and therefore not support you. And I would just, I know this is a bit brutally honest right now, but just know that going into this, you're going to have to learn how to self-validate and celebrate your own wins. The example I always give is that I was working out at Planet Fitness for a year at the beginning and I lost like 70 pounds while at that gym. And on the last day that I was there before I cancelled my membership, the guy at the front desk said, oh, did you lose some weight? You look different. And I was like, oh, wow, I literally lost 70 pounds and he's just noticed. So I think that's a great example because it feels like such, it feels like your whole world is like revolving around this like goal that you have and no one

else really notices it. And it's okay. It's okay to be misunderstood. It's okay to be questioned. It's okay to have people not support you. This is a moment really to learn how to be your best self, like hype woman. This is your moment to celebrate you. So I celebrated the small stuff. Like let's say I lost a pound in a week or I lifted a heavier weight or something like that. Greg and I would always go out for, I call them treat meals rather than cheap meals, but I would have these weekly treat meals that I would look forward to. We go out for dinner, you know, have a bit more like loose routine on the weekend. And honestly, like I know I'm probably going to get shit for this, but people are all about like self-care nowadays and having the pizza and taking the bath and whatever throughout the week.

I didn't do that. I had a treat meal a week, which I really enjoyed and planned fun activities on the weekend. And then I worked my ass off during the week. People might give me shit for that, but that's what it takes. If you're on a journey to changing your life and I was really at rock bottom and I needed to do something about it, it wasn't the time to have nightly pizzas and baths and self-care. Self-care to me is doing the hard stuff and showing up when you don't want to and keeping your own promises. To me, self-care is this. And I'm so grateful I did this. And I've carried a lot of this with me over the years. And now I'm able to have a little bit more flexibility in my routine. But still, this is the core of my work ethic. This taught me everything that I know.

So celebrating that extra rep, seeing that bicep, losing weight, you need to hype yourself up and also maybe find an online community who's excited about the same thing and people who are on a mission to improving themselves as well. So yeah, that is the conclusion of our book here. That is the conclusion of the tools I used on my fitness journey. And I know you guys have a lot of questions when it comes to my fitness journey. Okay, so that concludes our chapters in this book of how I lost 90 pounds. I hope that was helpful for you guys. And I know, so I did a Q&A on Instagram and you had a lot of questions.

So I'm just going to go on there right now and answer a couple. And I would love to know what you guys want to talk about next. And if I didn't answer anything or I missed something, please let me know because I would love to do another Q&A episode or my next solo and discuss anything that I may have missed for you guys. So I'm going to hop in here on Instagram and just pull up some questions. Okay. How to stay consistent when you're not seeing results?

Thank you, Carlyly for asking that question yeah you're gonna hit a point where you don't see the results I think you maybe have to look for a different measure of progress if that makes sense so let's say you didn't lose weight for a couple of weeks which might happen you will hit a plateau and you might have to switch things up. Look for, okay, well, how am I feeling mentally? Or how are my relationships doing? Or how much weight am I lifting right now? I think looking for different measurements of success and also trusting the process. Like that was something that was big for me. Even if I didn't see results for a couple of weeks, I knew I was on a path to something. If you show up every day and you work your butt off,

you will be rewarded in the end. So I hope that helped. How did you become so disciplined? From Pier Arena. Thank you for that question. How did I become so disciplined? I think, again, the baby steps, showing up every single day, chipping away at the larger goal, moving in the right direction, and acknowledging that, okay, that walk today was a win. Or the fact that I cooked a meal instead of going out, that was a win. Slowly but surely building up the evidence that you're able to do hard things. How to get back on track

after a few weeks of indulging. First of all, drink a ton of water because that's going to help your body flush through everything and get back to a good state. But then also, I think having a hard reality check with yourself and looking in the mirror and saying, okay, do I feel good living this way? Is my body feeling good? Am I living to my full potential? Taking ownership and taking action. Take a first step to getting back on track, whatever that means for you. Having a plan and executing. How did you balance sticking to your plan while maintaining a social life, i.e. dinners with friends. That's from Yesi. So I won't lie to you guys. I didn't have much of a social life back then. As I said,

I cut out a lot of my friends. I think reframing what you do with your friends, either communicating with them and saying, hey, I'm on this journey right now. So instead of going out to dinner, I would love if we could go get coffee and go on a walk. Or I would love if we did this workout class together. Or I would love if we could go to Erewhon or, you know, reframe the way that you socialize or find new friends. I know that sounds harsh, but the second you start treating yourself differently, other people will gravitate towards you that have a similar mindset. So I think opening up the options for yourself. I mean, the way I like to socialize now is by going on a walk or grabbing a matcha or whatever it may be. I don't go out for dinners

that frequently because I love cooking at home, first of all. But I think reframing the way you socialize and being okay with communicating your new goals with your friends. Lexi said, do you ever crave fast food or just indulge in restaurants? Loving the podcast, by the way. Thank you, Lexi. So yeah, I have foods that I absolutely love. We just recently went to Paris and I had croissant and pastries and crepes and wine. I definitely have things that I absolutely love. I'm not a big fast food gal. I think, again, once you get used to eating whole foods, you don't crave things like that anymore. Like, I really don't like fried things. But of course, I have cravings and I allow myself to eat them when

appropriate and necessary. And I want to, for example, on this trip, I really wanted to indulge. But I also care so much now. I have so much self-love for my body and myself that let's say I did have a pastry and wine. The rest of the day, maybe I'm more concerned about getting my nutrients in. Like maybe I'm having a salad for lunch instead and some eggs and something healthier for breakfast because I know I want to have that indulgence at some point in the day. So it's really about like, I hate the word balance. I don't think it's really about like, I hate the word balance.

I don't think it's like a thing. But like, if you think of things in that way, you can just because you have one indulgence in the day doesn't mean the entire day needs to be an indulgence. Did you experience any setbacks, big or small? And how did you overcome them to your goal? Thank you, EMW for that question. Yeah, so I had a pretty major hip injury at the beginning of my weight loss journey because I was squatting like 245 plates for some reason. I was doing six plates on the leg press. I was really strong at the beginning of my journey. My legs have always been pretty strong, but I was getting into heavy squats before I had really like built up my other stabilizing muscles. So

all the weight was going on my hip area and I had an impingement, which is like a nerve pinch in your hip. It's really painful. And I ended up getting PT for it and doing like electroacupuncture. And it actually like really taught me a lot about avoiding injury and why it can be so detrimental in a journey. Obviously, we want to do everything we can to avoid injury. So taking care of my body, you know, from a diet perspective, from a warm-up perspective to, you know, not pushing the weights too, too much. So yeah, that was something to overcome. I wasn't able to squat for a while, but it was the thing that actually taught me how to hip thrust. So I'm actually grateful that that happened.

I'll answer one more question. How did you balance being disciplined but not feeling too restricted and leading to binge? Great question. You know, I feel grateful that I never really struggled with binge eating disorder to a great degree. However, I do think I've always emphasized healthy fats and keeping myself nourished and full. I know I'm all about the healthy fats, but guys, I think so many women skip that part. Like they don't, you know, incorporate avocados or salmon or, you know, olives or oil, whatever it may be, healthy oils. Those things are definitely going to keep you full for longer. And I think if you're eating things that are nutrient dense, you're not going to have the same cravings. But you know, every now and again, I definitely like indulged too much or whatever it may be. And I think it's

just about having grace and forgiving yourself and getting back to the track you were on previously. But I'd say the biggest thing is never under eating to the point where you feel like you need to overeat. Okay, guys, I really hope you enjoyed that episode about my fitness journey. Please let me know what you learned from it or if there was anything I missed and you'd like me to discuss in a future episode. If you liked it, please, please, please leave a review and don't forget to subscribe and follow. It would mean the absolute world to me and helps me continue to grow the show and bring you guys great episodes. And I will see you guys next Monday bye thank you for listening to today's episode go comment on my last Instagram

at Mari Llewellyn with the guest you want to see next I'll be picking one person from the comments to send our bloom greens to make sure you hit follow so you never miss my weekly episodes if you enjoyed the conversation be sure to share and leave a review. See you next week. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.