thehealthyarabgirl: beforeandafterfatlosspics:thehealthyarabgirlI started losing weight by countin
thehealthyarabgirl: beforeandafterfatlosspics: thehealthyarabgirlI started losing weight by counting calories. I wasn’t eating healthy food or even making an effort to do that. I just limited the amount of calories that was going into my body. That wasn’t the right way to do it, but that’s just the way I started. I got a myfitnesspal account and I was religious about counting everything that went into my body. That went on for about 3 months, and it really put into perspective for me just what I was eating. Before that I never paid attention to what was going into my body. After doing that for a few months my weight loss halted. I was disappointed but I wanted to push forward. So I decided to start exercising. But my problem was that I was too shy to work out in public. I was ashamed of how weak I was and how out of shape I felt. So the gym was out of question for me. So I found an alternative. Enter Jillian Michaels. I found the 30 day shred videos online and I just decided to do them cause what’s the worst that could happen?! I would go into my room, close the door and the curtains, and just throw myself into it. I remember the first day I didn’t even make it through the first 10 minutes without having to pause it and collapse. But by the time I made it to day 30 (which was really probably day 45), I had seen incredible results in my body and I was so much stronger already. So I did it again maybe 2 or 3 times. After that I came back to my home country and I went to get some blood tests done, and when I saw the dr he was so impressed (I had probably lost around 30lbs at that point). He lessened the dose of medication that I was on for my insulin resistance (did I mention I was 19 one 3 pills/day?) and he even told me that if I kept going until I reached my GW, my insulin resistance would be cured and I wouldn’t need to be on any medication any more. That was great news for me because I was terrified of getting diabetes which is common in my family. After being home for a couple of weeks and coming back to the U.S., both me and Michael started noticing how different everything tastes over here. Fruits and veggies had maybe 10% of the taste that we got used to in my country, and chicken and meat tasted like rubber. So we started looking into where our food was coming from. We read book after book and watched documentary after documentary. And what we found was shocking. Most of our food was fake! So we switched to organic and local foods. When I realized that knowledge is power, I got addicted to information. So I started reading about how the human body works and how food affects my body. And this is when the most important change happened. At this point I switched from everything white to everything brown and whole. Whole wheat bread, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, brown rice, brown pasta, brown whole wheat everything. Why was this so important? White bread has pretty much the same amount of calories that whole wheat bread does. The difference is in what happens when it goes in your body. When whole wheat goes in your body, it gets slowly digested and your body slowly absorbs all the nutrients and fiber that’s in it. When the whole wheat is processed into white bread for example all these nutrients and fiber are stripped from it so by the time you eat it, it’s already half digested. So insulin rush into the blood stream and starts storing fat. Another important thing I learned is that you need to give your body a couple of hours to digest what you eat before you start eating again. I’ve seen some people say they eat every 2 hours and I used to do that too. But if like I said before your body doesn’t have time to digest your food, then your blood is constantly being flooded by insulin and storing fat. If you space your meals like every 4 hours or so is better. Exercise is also an important part of my weight loss. I’m not the type of person that absolutely loves exercise and I don’t really like spending hours at the gym. I simply work out maybe 4 or 5 times/week about 30-45mins/day. I also always vary my work outs. I don’t do the same thing every day. Some days I go run at the park, some days I enjoy just being on the treadmill, some days I lift weight, and some days I do a class at the YMCA like zumba, kickboxing, or cycling. This is really the reason I don’t have stretch marks. WATER WATER WATER. ALL DAY. I’ve pretty much cut out anything that comes out of a box, can, or freezer bag. Also anything out of a factory or that takes less than a minute to cook. Anything that is not real food. My definition of real food is fruits, veggies, dairy, meats, poultry, and sea food. That^ being said, if I crave something that I don’t usually eat, I will get it, but I won’t keep it in my kitchen. I gave myself permission to eat whatever I want because the minute I tell myself that I can’t eat a specific type of food it will become the only thing I want, and then I’ll end up binging on everything, but nothing will satisfy my craving. I’m sure there’s more but these are the main points and everything I could think of right now. If you have any more questions please don’t hesitate in coming to me. Publicly or privately:) -Jasmine, thehealthyarabgirl Reblogging this for my new followers who are asking how I did it. This ^ is how I lost weight:) -- source link