My Recent Health Journey/Weight Loss + Fitness Gift Guide

Somehow, we have made it to the end of the year and the holiday season…how is this possible?! Every year, I look forward to this time of year because it is my favorite. I love the parties, the times with family and friends, shopping for gifts, and all the decorations. With all of that inevitably comes lots of food and lots of drinking. I know for sure when I made Thanksgiving last week, I used more sticks of butter than I care to think about! This is the time of year that a lot of people tend to fall off their healthy habits, so I am here to tell you what has worked for me lately, plus share a fitness gift guide for everyone on your list who love to keep it tight and right, if ya know what I mean!

When it comes to health and fitness, I have a strategy to keep myself in check during this time of year so that I don’t go too over-board and have a much harder place to start my New Year’s resolutions come January 1st. I always try to do some sort of diet in October or early November to get myself healthy and hopefully lose a couple pounds before the holiday season hits. Before, I’ve just sort of halfway done this, without any clear rules or structure, and to be honest, I never really felt like I accomplished much by doing it this way. So this year, I decided to get serious and try a program that would provide me with some clear guidelines to get myself in shape. I decided to do a 30 day challenge with Arbonne, which was actually a pretty easy and painless program that was simple to follow.

In a nutshell, this plan consists of replacing two meals a day with protien shakes (made from plant based protein powder), and eating one healthy meal a day, along with plenty of water. Of course, I had to abstain from a good amount of foods/drinks. For 30 days, I cut out gluten, soy, dairy, processed sugar, caffeine, and alcohol. The last two were absolutely painful to cut out at times. I love my coffee, and I love my wine, so getting over the ritual of having a morning coffee or drinking wine when I went out was really tough. I will say that cutting caffeine got easier as I went along, especially because I got some “Fizz Sticks” which are on the plan and can give you a little boost of energy in your day as they are packed with vitamins and nutrients, but as B12. I honestly felt so much energy after a week of cutting out the wine and booze and all the other crappy things in my diet, that it seemed to make up for the lack of caffeine.

I will say, one thing I wish I could’ve done was hit the gym more while I was on this program. Unfortunately, my UCLA schedule does not allow me to work out as many days a week as I would like, but I still felt like I got great results even without a rigorous gym routine. One reason for that is that 80% of your weight is due to your DIET, and only 20% is due to exercise. No matter what you do in the gym, you really can’t out exercise a bad diet, so remember that!

Now, enough of all that, I’m sure you’re curious about my results! Here are my photos from before, and my measurements (in inches):

Weight: 145 lbs

Biceps: 10.25

Chest: 36.75

Waist: 27.75

Hips: 37

Thigh: 20

After:

Weight: 137

Biceps: 10

Chest: 35.5

Waist: 26.75

Hips: 34.75

Thigh: 18

I was really happy and surprised with my results! I feel like I’ve managed to not put too much of the weight back on, but Thanksgiving may have put a dent in my progress. I love that I have found a system that works for me that I can go back to from time to time when I need to refresh and restart my health routine. If you are thinking about getting yourself in shape really quick before Christmas, now would be a great time to start this plan, or it can always be something you make a commitment to start when the new year begins. Whatever you decide, check out my friend Jessie’s page to get some info on how you can get started on a healthier lifestyle for yourself!

And now, as promised, the fitness gift guide for everyone on your list who loves to get their sweat on. Happy shopping!

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