How I lost 10+ Pounds 💪 8 Week Fitness Challenge - Nutrition, Supplements, Workouts & more!

it is impossible to outwork out a bad diet I really really feel like we don't need to choose between yummy food that's really bad for us or bland food that's really healthy you already know how to lose weight so the real question is what's holding you back hi everyone if you're new here I'm Pokey and if you're not then welcome back so excited to share with you guys my fitness health weight loss journey I lost about 15 lb I used to be like over 135 lb and now I'm back to my pre-pandemic weight which is around like 120 122 something like that I did an 8-week fitness challenge with like a legit trainer when I say legit I mean he trains the likes of Javier Chicharito Hernandez I hope I said that right he's a soccer player he trains Khloe Kim like an Olympian snowboarder really legit athletes and he trained my little gamer body so I'm so excited to share with you guys all the tips and tricks that I learned during my journey and hopefully it helps some of you guys if you're on a similar one I'm going to break this up into different sections so you can skip around as you want but if there's one section I highly highly recommend watching it is for sure the nutrition one part number one exercise this might surprise some of you guys to hear but I only went to the gym three times a week sometimes even two cuz I was kind of injured for a couple weeks so I had to only go twice a week and granted my sessions were with a trainer so they were really efficient however it was just nice to see like you don't need to go to the gym every day to see some sort of weight loss or progress I also asked my trainer because I wanted to share this with you guys whether he thought that it was better to start off with cardio or weight training if someone's goal is to lose weight cuz you always hear like just do cardio to lose fat strength training to build muscle but he actually told me that he recommend strength training when someone is just starting their Journey because you should kind of view yourself or your body as like a machine and when you do strength training you are basically improving the condition of the machine so you're able to do harder work outs longer workouts run further walk further you can do so much more when your body is stronger and you can do more calorically burning intensive workouts that way basically he explained to me that starting off with weight training and some cardio as well is just like setting up a good foundation for any sort of form of exercise you want to do in the future before I get into the actual workouts I very quickly want to mention steps because that was something that my trainer put a really really big emphasis on and over the last year I've been able to work my way up from doing like 6,000 steps to being able to do 10,000 in a day relatively easily and the way that I do this have so many tips for starters make it fun for yourself like listen to a podcast walk to get a latte or a snack walk to the mall sometimes I'll go on a walk and like call a friend I think it's so important to make whatever form of movement or exercise that you implement into your life enjoyable making it enjoyable is what makes it sustainable that's what's going to make you want to keep doing it as opposed to doing it for 2 weeks and the giving up ooh another thing I would do is I broke my steps up throughout the day like nowadays if I know oh today I want to get 10,000 steps when I wake up I head right outside even if you're just walking down the street and back for like 10 20 minutes you already have like two 3,000 steps already done just like that and I'm kind of sleepy when I do that so it's like I'm not even recognizing that I'm getting some form of movement and exercise in I'm dead ass tricking myself but it works really well basically my schedule is like Monday work with my trainer Tuesday 10,000 steps Wednesday trainer Thursday steps Friday trainer Saturday usually steps Sunday rest but frankly like sometimes I need a rest day on a different day of the week if my schedule is different or whatever happens ultimately I just try to do some form of movement at least every 2 days and I try really hard not to get mad at myself for missing a day or being really tired one day I think it's also really important to listen to your body usually it is giving you very clear signals when it's tired when it needs rest or when it's just not feeling its best but generally speaking I will say this is like one of the biggest takeaways from this whole journey for me steps are so op like just getting some walking in throughout the day it's good for weight loss it's good for digestion like walking after a meal it's good for mood stabilization it's just so op please go on more walks they're easy peasy and you'll really really feel the difference that it makes in your life as for the workouts we did my trainer always tried to be like really well-round rounded workouts meaning he would want me to hinge squat Push Pull work the frontal plane of my body and the posterior playing he always made circuits that involved lots of different muscle groups and even like rotational exercises which I am actually really grateful for now because I feel like it improved the overall condition of my body and if I want to work on like specific muscles now and Target those I can however I basically also learned that sometimes if you just go to the gym and you're only working out like one part of your body every every single time it can lead to imbalances in your body which can then lead to injury so make sure to try to be very well-rounded with your exercises I want to end this section off just by saying please please please make sure not to stress yourself out too much when it comes to exercising because when your stress levels and your cortisol levels go up it becomes so much harder to lose any sort of weight whatsoever and it becomes really counterproductive to building good and healthy habits so listen to your body try so many different types of exercise or movement that you might enjoy even if that's tennis or rock climbing whatever it is there's so many ways to move your body you just have to figure out what works for you you know it's a really nice benefit to adding in healthy habits into your lifestyle feeling better on your clothes speaking of clothes a word from our sponsor thank you to thread up for sponsoring this video thread up is a website where you can Thrift unique clothing from your favorite brands for up to 90% off here's my little spring haul from thread up starting off with the outfit I'm wearing in the video which is a top and bottom from Tiger Mist a brand that I love they were originally each $48 but I got them for $12.99 and $13.99 next up this beautiful brown dress and pointed toe heel the dress was the perfect length and combination of flattering without clinging too much to your body it was reflective and I just know I'll be able to get so much wear out of it also I've been looking for a pointed toe heel that is n stiletto for such a long time I wanted something comfortable so the heel on these is perfect lastly I got these jeans from Zara and paired it with a simple tank top I love this combination because I feel like it's Timeless so easy and it'll never go out of style the jeans look amazing from the front but unfortunately they were a bit big around the waist but it's no issue because thread up accepts returns shop my pics with my link below and use code Poké main for an extra 35% off your first order it's like you're buying something that's 50% off and then you get another 35% off like it might as well be free at this point number two nutrition this one in my opinion is the most important one diet nutrition is number one when it comes to weight loss and there are three things that I feel helped me so much that I implemented and that are now almost just like routine habits that are always in the back of my mind number one the 8020 rule this basically tries to give you a rule of thumb of try to make 80% of your diet unprocessed foods and 20% you could treat yourself a little but this is so helpful for me to just generally learn like what foods are processed what are Whole Foods what kind of recipes and things can I make at home with Whole Foods that I love and that taste good I think a lot of people would be shocked to know that a lot of the dishes that you love you can totally make in an unprocessed and therefore healthy manner I really really feel like we don't need to choose between yummy food that's really bad for us or bland food that's really healthy you can have things that are nutritious and delicious and feel ful filled and not have a shitty time losing weight basically two minimize glucose spikes so you know when you eat like a really sugary snack or a really really heavy meal and then a little while later you feel kind of an energy crash well that's basically because your blood sugar levels Rose and then they crashed and that leads to hunger cravings because you're thinking oh I don't have much energy like I need to go eat something so I can have more energy but really it's just the way that you're body is reacting to what you ate earlier it's not necessarily an indication of hunger it also leads to like unstable moods like you can just feel bad unstable energy levels all of that so it's really interesting for me to learn how different foods and how the way that I eat foods can impact like the way that I feel afterwards for example eating your veggies and your proteins first and then your carbs last or putting ACV in water before having a meal these little tips and tricks can actually help you feel better and Fuller after you eat avoid hunger cravings I feel like this is actually like huge for my journey cuz now when I eat I'm being so mindful of these things I highly recommend checking out glucose goddess on Instagram I learned so much from her little infographics and I feel like I just can't do the topic Justice cuz I'm I'm not a scientist and in this short period of time but becoming more knowledgeable about these spikes has helped me a ton learning about this was actually one of the reasons that I don't really love calorie counting or the idea of like just calories in versus calories out I do think it's important to learn like generally speaking how many calories are in certain things so you're aware of that when you're eating however I feel like that way of looking at Food completely discounts like the nutritional value of the food how is the food going to make you feel a 400 calorie cookie is going to take me like 2 seconds to eat okay it's not going to be filling I'm going to feel an energy crash like 30 minutes later but you can have like a 400 calorie meal that's going to make you feel great for like 6 hours that's why I don't love just the idea of calorie counting there's so much more when it comes to food and it's important in my opinion for everybody to become more knowledgeable on these things number three extending your fasting period so you know how when we sleep for like 8 hours technically we're fasting cuz we're not drinking or eating we pass the [ __ ] out well actually there is so much research that shows that fasting is actually really really good for our health and I'm not here to promote like intermittent fasting where you you don't eat for 16 hours and you have like 6 or 8 hours to eat no no all I'm saying is to be mindful of when you start your first meal and when you have your last meal for example for me when I wake up I don't think like I need to eat food right now instead I'll usually go for a walk I'll do whatever and as soon as I'm hungry I'll go make myself breakfast and I try not to have dinner too late either at 7:00 or before 7: because I noticed actually like the later it gets the naughtier the food gets let's be honest especially if you're ordering like only the bad places are open really late so I try to eat a little bit early and I also found that this helps so much with my sleep like I sleep way better when I have a meal at 7:00 p.m. and then go to bed at like 11:00 versus eating at 10:00 and going to bed at 11: so it's kind of about like these holistic enar lifestyle changes that add up and over time you see some palms shed and just in general you feel better however I do want to add fasting is not starving I would never promote the idea of starving even if you're trying to lose weight please don't force yourself to eat like 800 1200 calories you need an adequate amount of food per day you can adjust your caloric intake by like 100 or 200 calories and still see a difference honestly if you change any more than that it's going to affect your health in some other way whether it's like lack of energy or not sleeping well food is fuel and you need to eat enough every day but that you can make positive change changes in how you eat oh I also have a video on what I eat in a day but I do feel like it maybe need some updating but if you're curious you can check that out part PR supplements resources just a bunch of things that might help you on your journey for starters supplements I personally don't like to recommend supplements to people because I feel like everybody should get their blood work done and see what you're deficient in there's no reason for you to take supplements for vitamins that you don't actually need however there are two things that most people deficient in which is vitamin D and magnesium so I do recommend those two vitamin D try to take a supplement that also has vitamin K in it because it helps with absorption and magnesium please only take this at night because actually magnesium makes you sleepy but that's good cuz it helps you sleep better I really love this powder it's called like magnesium it's like a little pink powder you make a cute drink out of it really helps you sleep better magnesium helps like calm your muscles which is really important for Recovery I want to quickly mention sleep is so important for recovery not sleeping enough is a really really easy way to eat all of your progress out the window so make sure you have good sleep hygiene there's so many things you can look up online to figure out how to build a good routine for you but that is such an important factor of any health journey I also love and recommend L glutamine it's just this like white powder that you can put in water helps with digestion especially with people who feel like they have gut issues or bloat a lot I have this every now and then I like it I recommend it so many positive reviews online and little to no downsides and last lastly berberine I've been taking berberine for maybe almost 3 months it helps with stabilizing your blood sugar levels and is also just good for General weight loss Health but don't expect to take this little pill and like shed 10 lbs that's not how it works but it does help and I do recommend it and here are a bunch of resources that I personally use that helped me learn so much and just navigate life exercise Nutrition a lot better and with a lot more knowledge number one Andrew huberman I have such a like platonic crush on that man my level of admiration for him through the roof highly recommend his podcast if you're not really into podcasts just watch the weight loss episode you will take away so much information from that so so so helpful and in general he puts out just so much free health education out into the world really really love his content to obviously my trainer Roy I'm pretty sure he has workouts online you can follow his Instagram and my friend Ally she posts tons of healthy recipes and really just shows you like you can eat delicious nutritious things that are lower on calorie not processed and actually good for you and I don't remember her name but there's this lady on Instagram that does really yummy like healthy snacks and meals I'll put her here as well this last part is just advice no one will tell you slash mindset because let's be for real you already know how to lose weight you know that it comes down to exercise and eat and clean you didn't need me to tell you that so the real question is what's holding you back I don't want to to personally attack anyone it takes a lot of self-reflection and honesty and work to figure out what that is and I hope that me sharing what was holding me back might help you realize your hurdles so for me personally it came down to two things one my priorities between streaming gaming social media all these things that are inherently so addictive it was really hard for me to at any given moment prioritize exercising or going to the gym or making myself a good clean meal as opposed to doing any of the other things that I could possibly be doing at any given moment that's why doing the 8we fitness challenge was really really helpful for me because I was able to say like for this period of time health is my number one my exercise sessions became non-negotiables as they should be although I know it's not easy for everybody to be able to do that and a privilege for me to even have been able to dedicate that time of my life I still think it's good to be self-aware of these things like if this period of your life is just too busy and you maybe can't dedicate the time that you want to your health being aware of that at least allows you to instead think oh let me Implement smaller habits that I can do let me put them in my schedule and just be more realistic with what's going on in your life and two this isn't easy to admit but I realized like I'm kind of an emotional eater [Music] mhm when something really stressful or bad happens to me my thought process is oh my God I just had a terrible day I deserve a yummy meal and you know what like that's valid but but what if terrible things happen to you every day are you just going to binge eat every day it's not sustainable right and so I had to recognize this thought pattern and I had to obviously develop better coping mechanisms think of other things and other ways that I can Garner comfort that don't have to be food and lastly I had to kind of take myself out of these constantly stressful situations and make better decisions that didn't make me want to eat for comfort as opposed to eating because I'm hungry or because I need to O I feel so vulnerable I hope that sharing those things helps you guys just think about your life holistically because one of the biggest things I learned is frankly Health weight all of these things it's not just about okay how many times can I go to the gym it's not just that it's your sleep it's your hormones it's your stress levels it's putting yourself in a place mentally and physically in regards to your habits to make better decisions all right that's all thank you so much for listening I hope this helps someone and I really really hope that no one is stressed about losing weight I know it's such a difficult and sensitive topic so I hope that I can also encourage you guys to please take care of your bodies from a loving perspective as opposed to going at it from a hateful one because I feel like hate is like this fuel that burns really quickly and emits all this yucky gas whereas love is like a beautiful renewable energy that you know there's no downsides to using it or making more of it I'm sorry sorry I could not think of a better analogy than that but I hope you kind of get what I mean I wish you all the best of luck I'll see you in the next one take care bye