Hi, hello! My name is Stephanie and here are 3 simple lifestyle routines that helped me lose 25 pounds in 5 months. The key point here is to feel at ease while implementing any lifestyle change, especially in the early stages of living a healthier life.
Although simple, these routines were an intentional choice. Reflecting on habits that hurt my health, I had to accept responsibility for my daily choices and decisions. Now, to some, these three simple routines might just be common sense, but for me, it was something new and apparently exactly what I was missing in my daily life.
Disclaimer: This is for inspiration and entertainment purposes. I am a woman on the internet documenting her health and wellness journey. I do not claim guaranteed results for anyone else. Please consult your doctor or health care professional.
My daily routine before losing weight.
Kudos to me, for trying to implement healthy routines early on in my health & wellness journey.
Diagnosed with Lupus in 2018 and severely deficient in vitamin D, I hustled to learn and apply as many “healthy” changes I could afford at the time. To combat my deficiency, I supplemented with vitamin D and magnesium. (I recommend this YouTube video to learn more about taking vitamin D supplements.) Yoga has been a part of my routine to help with muscle pain and body aches from Lupus flare-ups. It was the dreaded stress I had trouble managing and I couldn’t understand why, so I quit my job.
A little extreme, I know. It is not something I recommend. My timing was horrible, in an economic point of view, but it was a risk I was willing and able to take at the time. While on paper my daily routines were healthy, I realize now, I was not living to my fullest potential. I needed to make more mindful changes.
In 2020 I consulted with an Ayurveda practitioner for the first time. This is when I began to look at my routines differently. Realizing my habits needed to change in my diet, sleep, exercise, and overall lifestyle. I took daily herbal teas, seasonal cleanses, and started another supplement called Triphala. I also started to buy more organic foods and less canned or boxed food, when possible.
Buying organic became more affordable than I originally thought. Tip, if you’re on a tight budget, start with buying organic spices for cooking. Sometimes, buying spices in bulk, or wholesale can save on money, but not always save on time or storage space. I love Aldis for their affordable organic food line.
Daily activity,
When it came to my daily activity, I didn’t change much in the beginning. As a yoga teacher, I taught weekly yoga, stretch, and meditation classes. Once in a while I went for walks, attempted to stick to daily stretching, and practiced sitting meditation to reduce stress.
The more I learn, the more I grow.
It is a good thing I like to learn, because the more I learn, the more I grow. My daily routines were helpful to reduce stress and manage my Lupus symptoms. Yet, it was still difficult to lose weight, even when I was trying. This was not my first time gaining and losing weight. This has been a life long journey. One thing about me is that if I want something enough, and I know it is possible, I will keep trying. Because something has to work… right?
Spoiler, something did work. More on that later.
While doing research and learning more about different lifestyle routines, I gave myself a few parameters.
1. Do routines sustainable for my lifestyle.
I’ve tried and failed many different diets, gyms, and exercise routines. Sometimes succeeding in losing weight, but always failing to keep the weight off long term. Honestly, I was getting tired of failing. I would blame my failures on either “life circumstances”, or my flare-ups, or I simply stopped enjoying what I was doing. Especially while restricting food, as in calorie intake. I hate feeling hungry.
Something else about me, is that I LOVE food. It brings me joy to see how food brings people together. I’m fascinated when the same foods can taste different depending who makes it. I love to experience different cultures through food. I just love it! Plus, I’m not a happy person when I am hungry. So this was important to me, which leads me to my next parameter.
2. Routine that is simple to do and easy to get back into after holidays, vacations, etc.
I wanted to feel at ease when giving myself grace during special occasions, holidays, and vacations. I did not want to feel restricted or feel dread to start all over again. Like how I feel when leaving the gym for a while and I have to go back.
I also wanted something so easy that I would virtually have no excuses. I like giving myself flexibility for life and spontaneity, but I also know I need some sort of accountability and routine. This was my attempt to meet myself in the middle. I am attempting to do what probably most people are already doing in their daily lives, keeping them at a “normal” weight.
Unfortunately, I did not have the privilege of experiencing a lifestyle like this growing up and I feel like there are many people on the same boat as me. Which motivates me even more to use my own life as an experiment and try to find simple lifestyle changes and routines to lose weight. This lifestyle should be accessible to anyone wanting to try to get healthy.
3. Keep an open mind and stay curious.
Finally, starting this journey with an open mind and on a clean slate was important to me. I couldn’t keep bringing up past experiences into my current one. My intention was to stay curious about my body and my results. It was important that I tracked my symptoms and results without bias or external influences. Regardless of the results, I wanted to give this lifestyle experiment of mine a fair shot.
Preparation
Now with all that said, see how I prepared myself before beginning the 3 simple lifestyle routine changes I did to lose 25lbs in 5 months, below.
- Make a plan.
I didn’t want to spend too much time on this step, but in order to not feel lost trying something new, I wanted to know: When and What I will eat each day?, What information/symptoms/reactions I want to track?, and What rules will I set for myself? - Get a journal.
Yes, I keep a journal. It is a very valuable resource. I track my daily physical and emotional symptoms, my flare-up days, my stressful days, my physically active days and my quality of sleep. I also tracked my menstrual and hormonal cycle (along with the moon cycle). This might not be relevant for everyone, but it was definitely insightful. - Fasting.
A gentle detox. I picked a date I wanted to start my new routines and did a fast the day before. Not eating any food for minimum of 18-hours, preferred 24-hours, and only drinking water.
Now I was ready to begin…
3 Simple routines to lose weight in months.
Let’s get into it. This is what I did to lose 25 pounds in 5 months…
1) Eat at the same time every day. (What I ate)
Choose the time of day that best fit your schedule. For me, I decided to eat at 10am, 2pm, and 6pm.
6PM – Dinner
I knew I wanted to eat an early dinner and have a longer fast throughout the night (about 16-hours). Through my past habits over the years, I’ve noticed that the later I ate the more stomach issues and energy fluctuations I would have for the next few days.
What I ate: Dinner usually varies. From salmon and rice, Shushi Bake, to MiMama noodle soup, Sancocho, or one of my approved restaurants mentioned later. Other times, I would have a slice of pizza and regret it afterwards…. Remember, it’s a journey and I am learning.
10AM – Breakfast
I enjoy slow mornings.
Waking up around 5am-6am, my slow morning routine usually consists of having a hot tea, doing yoga, meditation, journal, and maybe get some chores out of the way. This is also a really good time for me to get myself ready for the day before the chaos of everyone waking up.
With my enjoyable slow morning routine out of the way and the daily rush of chaos just beginning, I start to get hungry around 10am. Receiving a 16-hour fast from dinner to breakfast, I finally experienced waking up hungry.
Eating in the morning took some getting used to but I eventually got there by taking it one day at a time. Sometimes I would forget to eat, so I would intentionally wait until 2pm to eat my first meal. There were days when I still ate at 10am even when I wasn’t hungry, just to build on the habit. What helped me do this was to take a few bites of my breakfast and save the rest for lunch. This was great because it kept me consistent and less cooking for later. 😉
What I ate: I started off with either eating cinnamon stewed apples, my honey-nutty yogurt, oatmeal, or crema de maiz. Then, as time passed, I got hungrier in the morning, so I ate a more savory breakfast. This changed the game for me and I finally began to enjoy breakfast. My favorite quick and easy savory breakfast is rice, eggs, and kimchi. Sometimes adding avocado, or sausage, and/or seaweed wraps for those hungrier days.
2PM – Lunch
2pm became a very convenient time for me to eat lunch. It was just about 4 hours between breakfast and dinner and it was the time of day my energy level began to drop. This time frame proved helpful to me for days when I either skipped breakfast or when I wasn’t hungry enough to eat dinner. On days I was too busy and missed lunch, I felt okay because dinner was just around the corner, at 6PM.
What I ate: My go to lunch was tuna mixed with either avocado or with mayo, mustard, relish and hemp seeds with whole wheat crackers or in a lettuce wrap. Other days, it would be a mix of what I didn’t finish for breakfast or dinner. If I was still hungry, my go to snacks around this time were either fruit, nuts & seeds (almonds, cashews, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds), or my honey-nutty yogurt.
2) Cut out “added sugar” and fast food.
Doing this helped me lose my first 10lbs in the first month.
To be more specific, I stopped consuming “added” sugar, not natural sugar. Everyone should learn how to read nutrition labels because this skill helps with mindfulness and awareness of what is being putting into the body. It also helped me pick up on trends, habits, and correlations to any symptoms I would have after eating.
Now, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the American diet includes crazy amounts of added sugar in almost everything there is to eat. Even foods labeled “healthy” for some reason have added sugar. Even foods that already contain natural sugar still includes “added” sugar. Trying to find coconut water without “added” sugar has been a struggle to say the least. With that said, naturally I had to give up juices, soda, bread, even granola bars, and so much more. I did eat natural sugar products, such as fruits, honey, agave, and pure maple syrup.
In reality I never felt “hungry” or deprived of food while implementing this new lifestyle change. If anything, I began to feel excited to eat. I began to learn how to cook and my taste buds began to change. I felt less bloated, fatigued, and noticed less inflammation in my body. These were all symptoms I kept track of in my journal.
I hate to admit it,
Unfortunately, fast food was a part of my daily diet more than I would have liked. The convenience of it hooked me into its trap. It was a no brainer that it needed to stop, ASAP! It was probably the most obvious change to make but it was also the hardest habit to break early on in my journey.
Having a plan, such as this guide, really helped me stay on track. And to be completely honest, I still ate out, but sticking to approved restaurants that served whole food, such as Pollo Tropical, Chipotle, and local restaurants that cooked healthier culture food, such as Vietnamese food, to Korean food, Mexican and Caribbean food, just to name a few.
3) Turn daily chores into active and fun movement.
I don’t believe that becoming more active needs to be difficult, exhausting, or even expensive. Literally if you’re starting from zero, like me, then simple lifestyle changes can make a world of difference. I started with:
Switch sitting meditation into movement meditation.
Meditating has been a part of my routine for many years. Although, I’ve explored moving meditation here and there I never committed to it like I do now. Forms of moving meditation I practice is yoga, dance, walking, and the 5-Tibetan Rites. I make sure to do movement I already know how to do easily and mindfully. Using a timer helps, because I tend to lose track of time while meditating.
Mostly focusing on body and emotional awareness. – ie. How my body feels in the moment, and acknowledge any emotions that arise while practicing these movements. My intention is to have an open mind and receive insight on what my body is telling me.
Dance, through life! Dance doing laundry, cleaning, and cooking.
Growing up in the 90s – early 2000’s with Puerto Rican parents, a loud Spanish radio station blasting dance music in the morning was my alarm clock. Music played while waking up, while cooking, and while cleaning. I watched my parents learn to dance salsa in the middle of our tiny kitchen. Dance was a big part of my childhood, up to a point.
Then life gets so busy and we kind of forget or get too tired to keep dancing through life. In any case, my health and wellness journey reconnected me to my culture and my roots, so I started dancing again. Turning the chores I felt too tired to do, into moments to heal my inner-child, heal my body, and connect with my culture, my ancestors. I still dread doing chores, but my body gets into auto-pilot and within 30-minutes to an hour, I’m done with my chores and I am still dancing. I love it!
Transition hanging out with friends from being food related to being physical activities.
I personally enjoy spending quality time with my friends and family. Food usually brings people together, but now a days, it seems that food is such a personal and tailored preference. It can also get expensive going out all of the time.
Instead I began to suggest active outings, such as walks, hikes, yoga meet-ups, pool days, rock-climbing, gym days, or my favorite spa days. I received good feedback and support from my friends and family.
I will say, it can be a little tire-some to come up with new ideas all the time. Well, it’s nothing a little creativity can’t fix. My cheat code has been to do research on Pinterest and Groupon. I might not buy a Groupon or do exactly what I found on Pinterest, but it defiantly got my creativity flowing. The more I move my body, the more adventurous I became. It’s a great self-exploration exercise.
Rules I made for myself:
Although these methods are simple, it’s not to say that it did not come without its challenges and resistance. And so, I came up with these rules for myself…
- If I didn’t know what I wanted to eat, or if I couldn’t decide, then I would eat soup (not canned soup). This usually happened for dinner, because I didn’t pre-plan it ahead of time, or I would get too tired to cook or think of what to eat.
- Another rule was no snacking outside of time frames, unless it was yogurt, nuts, or fruit.
- Strict no added sugar and fast food for minimum of three months. This was to detox my system and give my body time to go through withdrawals without relapse. I needed to build up on my will-power.
- Also, I wouldn’t get upset or feel bad if I skipped a meal. Some days I ate 3 times, other days I would eat only once or twice. It was an adjustment for my body, so I gave it time. Within about two weeks, I got the hang of it and became more consistent. Now, my body reminds me when to eat and I know exactly what time it is. I love it!
The goal for me was to at least try to stick to the same time every day. Every day is always another opportunity to keep practicing. Some days were better than others, but as long as I stayed consistent doing something new, I knew I would see some results. Which I did!
My Results:
I’m not sure if you noticed, but I never had a set goal for the amount of weight I wanted to lose. All I wanted was to get healthy in a simple, easy, and feel good way. And I did it!
Here were my results:
- I had lost 10 pounds in the first month by eliminating added sugar and fast food.
- In the second month I lost a solid 5-7 pounds and began more physical activity.
This is where it got tricky… - At around month three I was only losing about 3-4 pounds. Still good progress, noticing a difference in how I was feeling and how my clothes fit.
- Month four, I lost a few more pounds and had way more energy to focus on simple, basic strength building exercises in my moving meditation/ yoga practice.
- By month five, I had lost a total of 25 pounds and people began to notice.
There is some merit to the saying that with consistency in 3 months you will notice a difference and in 5 months others will notice a difference in you. My 5 months mark came during the holiday season. Family and friends noticed a difference in my body and asked what I was doing and how much weight I lost.
As someone with a chronic illness, I’m not a fan of people commenting on my weight. I can understand that it is said with good intentions, but sometimes my weight gain or weight loss is not due to my effort, instead it’s due to having medical issues. This time around it was all my effort and I am proud of myself. I am most proud of how I was able to make this journey a simple and feel good process for myself.
Now, I can’t promise these methods will work for everyone.
Throughout the many years of trying and failing to lose weight, food and overall gut health is a contributing factor to my success. As I continue to learn and improve my habits and behaviors, I want to document my journey and hopefully help more people. Interested in learning more or do you want to know how my experiences can help guide you on your health journey, join the AmorZen Email Experience list and contact me directly.
Live A More Zen Life!
Stephanie
