I struggled with my weight for several years where I would try all kinds of fad diets — low carb, diet pills, starvation, wallowing in self pity, drowning my sorrows in a Pabst Blue Ribbon & a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream. Ah yes, I’ve been through it all it would seem. I had tried everything….. except eating healthy and working out. What a wonderful concept!
In this video I share my top 5 tips to fight back against weight gain.
If you’re not so much into video I’ll go ahead and go through each of my 5 tips here.
1. Track Your Macros
I think this is the most important part of losing weight. NUTRITION. I cannot stress it enough how important it is to not just eat healthy but to also be eating in the proper portions of macro nutrients AKA Carbs, Proteins + Fats.
Maybe you’ve heard of people tracking their macros or following an If It Fits Your Macros diet. It’s pretty hard to miss since it seems everyone on Instagram is eating complete garbage food and hashtagging the photo of them with a deep fried chili corn dog in one hand and an ice cream sundae in the other. Disclaimer, I’m not a fan of this kind of dieting except for the exception of a special occasion like when R Kelly is in town and you have to buy a meal like the one described above after the concert because you drank too much. JK…. sort of.
I’ve found in the past that tracking my macros and still eating clean whole foods helped me to get in the best shape of my life! And best of all it happened FAST!
How can you track your macros?
I like to use iifym.com to find the right macro count for me based off of my goals at the time. You’ll see once you get through the form there how it asks for your particular goals. Once you finish the form it will pop out 3 sets of numbers for you, one for each macro nutrient.
Tips for filling out the form.
- Use the total body weight formula unless you know your current body fat percentage.
- Slightly underestimate how active you are and how often you exercise. This will ensure your macro count will give you faster results. (You can always change them in the future if you feel too hungry or you aren’t getting the results you’d like.)
- Once you submit the first form it will ask what diet options you’d like to select. Just go with the pre-selected IIFYM (Recommended) option.
For example for me based on my height, weight, activity level and current goals my macro count was | 31% Protein 103 Grams | 27% Fat 40 Grams | 42% Carbs 139 Grams + my suggested calories is suggested at 1326.
Next you’ll want to go to your smart phone and download MyFitnessPal if you don’t already have it. As of the time of this writing MyFitnessPal reigns king of all food trackers. If you find a better one I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. After you create your account from the home page click on More then select Goals. If you look down the list a bit you’ll see an option for Calorie & Macronutrient Goals. Click on that.
Now you should be at a screen where you’ll see total calories & percentages for each macro nutrient. First add in the calories suggested from iifym.com. Then select the closest percentage possible based on the IIFYM macro percentages you just calculated. The numbers aren’t going to be totally exact but they will be close.
Use these numbers as a baseline for you. Track your all of your food in the MyFitnessPal app. If you aren’t seeing the changes you want to see in 2 weeks then you’ll know your calorie count is too high and you’ll want to drop by 100 calories and proceed from there.
Again, this was amazing for me when I was tracking my food consistently. I was seeing a lot of muscle definition and fat loss.
2. Drink Black Coffee
I love those uppers man. Caffeine is my homie for life! I love the feeling of being on point mentally and physically and I also love the ritual of a warm cup of coffee in the mornings. I look forward to creeping out of bed in the wee hours of the morning. Quietly boiling the water to put in the french press. Listening to the sounds of the cold morning while I wait for the coffee to steep. Pouring it into my favorite mug and then immediately crawling right back under the goose down covers to immerse myself in a good book. (I have a list of my favorite books here.)
HOWEVER…. I didn’t always love the taste of black coffee. In fact for years I couldn’t even fathom why my mom and dad could so merrily drink down that bitter black water. Yuck! I loved my fancy, non-dairy, chemical shit storm (<– yes thats the technical term for it), white chocolate peppermint coconut vanilla girl scout cookie magic creamer. *sighs* Those were the days. If I wasn’t drinking my non-dairy creamer I was spending a small fortune on drinks from Starbucks.
Guess what… not only was I broke but I was also over weight. Funny how I used to tell people that coffee was actually making me more tired but I found that when I cut out the crap and the sweeteners (much to my dismay at the time) I was finally able to lose a few lbs and had more money to spend on important things, like LuluLemon.
Now, I’m not saying that drinking your coffee black is going to the be the end all be all answer to weight loss for you BUT I do know it will help immensely (no sugar crashes and less toxins = more energy for your Core De Force workouts! #winningatlife).
Ease into it if you have to. Try switching first to unsweetened vanilla almond or coconut milk. Then to really make the shift try drinking cold press coffee or iced coffee. It takes a lot of the bitterness out. Just give it a try! You might be surprised.
I am currently drinking Kimera Koffee. My boyfriend discovered it from a fitness podcast he listens to like it’s his religion who just recently started endorsing Kimera. The guys on the podcast do not currently endorse any other products, with the exception of their own product. Why do we all love it so much? It has nootropics in it which is just a fancy word for cognitive enhancers which is another fancy term for feeling like you’ve just taken the “Limitless” pill from Bradley Cooper. Yeah…. its good shit.
I like them so much I reached out to them to see if I would get you guys a discount on it. Just go to kimerakoffee.com and use the code “samantha” for 10% off your first order. Trust me, you will NOT be disappointed.
3. Drink More Water
Easy to do. Easy not to do. Just do it. Aim to drink half of your body weight in ounces each day. So if you weigh 140 lbs you’ll want to chug down about 70 ounces of H2O. Kapeesh?
4. Core De Force
As of the time of this post I am in the midst of the Core De Force, MMA fighting style workout program from Beachbody. There’s been programs I’ve comitted to from Beachbody that I didn’t really enjoy in all honesty. However, this program, I would have to say, is destined to be one of my all time favorites!
What is Core De Force?
Core De Force is an MMA fighting style workout that teaches you various forms of martial arts. It’s a SERIOUS workout and I feel like a total badass throwing around kicks and punches like I’m in my own video game.
The workouts are anywere from 5 minutes to 47 minutes long and are focused on toning your core. I am only 18 days in and I can literally feel my core tightening up like I’m wearing a corset. It’s pretty incredible! I’ll be sharing my Core De Force results photos in an upcoming blog post.
You can purchase Core De Force here. I also offer a 28 Day Workout Warrior Challenge to help you stay totally accountable throughout the program and get amazing results. With the challenge you’ll not only get the full workout program, superfoods shake and digital access to dozens of other workout programs, but you’ll also get a daily video from me along with access to my exclusive group in the MyChallengeTracker app where you can track your daily workouts. If you’re interested just reach out to me. I would love to have you be a part of the challenge!
5. Meal Prep
Lastly a critical part of eating right and tracking macros is Meal Prep! It will make your life so much easier to have your meals planned and prepped without you having to think about what to eat for your next meal.
What I like to do is to simply add in the meals I would ideally like to eat in a day into MyFitnessPal. Then I adjust the amounts of food to reflect the macros suggested to my by iifym.com. Once I have a few days planned and I have my portions dialed in to stay in my macro range I will grocery shop and meal prep. This makes tracking my macros that much easier and keeps me on track.
I like to use these meal prep containers when I do food prep.
Meal Prep Containers 3 Compartment
Meal Prep Containers 2 Compartment
I hope this video and article helps you to fight back against weight gain. If you ever need help or have questions feel free to comment below or reach out to me.
