What I Eat To Lose Weight?

What’s up, beautiful people? It is your home girl, Ms. Shameless, all up in your building. And this video is all about what I eat to lose weight. I cannot afford to eat whatever I want anymore. Since I turned 30, life and body has changed. I went to the gym for the first time since high school, and I threw out my knee. I had to go to physical therapy for several months on and off again, because I didn’t have the physical strength to support my aging kneecap. When 30 hits, your body does some is, okay? This is just like a disclaimer. It does go through and change.

So I could no longer do the whole lifestyle of eating whatever I want and not working out, because that was me up until 30. So I learned a lot, and it made me realize, Maya, you have this one body. Treat it right, and it will give back to you. Hats what kind of put me on the path of fitness two years ago, and now that I’m doing it for a healthy lifestyle, now I kind of want to push it, set a new goal for myself, and that new goal is to get abs. And to be quite frank, unless you are genetically born with it, which I’m not --I wasn’t born with abs. I’m doing a lot of work just to get something. It takes discipline both in the gym and in the kitchen. And I learned a whole lot about what I eat. Meals! What exactly do I eat, Maya? In the morning, I love oatmeal. I love oatmeal. It’s my comfort food. I eat the quick steel-cut oatmeal. This is from Trader Joes. Its eight minutes. I used to eat the quicker oats, the big oats, and I feel a little bit more bloated with that.

This is hearty. It responds well to my body. So steel-cut oats. I like to throw in a few blueberries in there and a dash of honey, just a dash, and then some cinnamon. Also, I’m not a vegan by any means, but I am mindful of how much meat I consume, so when it comes to eggs, I sometimes I have a moment where I’m like, I feel like eating eggs. So I’ll eat between two and three eggs, and that can be hard-boiled, or that can be over medium. I love my eggs over medium. But that is my carbs and my protein that I have in the morning. Sometimes I’ll also opt for a smoothie bowl. I’ll do that with my eggs: a smoothie bowl, half a banana, some blueberries, some of my favorite protein powder. The toppings, I like to go ham on the toppings, whether its shredded coconuts, chia seeds and little slices of almonds. Not too much. Not too much.

You know what’s another thing I used to go ham on? I used to eat way too many cashews. Cashews to the point where, what is life? I had no idea I was only supposed to eat like 11 cashews or 11 almonds in one sitting. I would eat the whole bag. Nuts has a lot of fat. I did not know that. But I learned that through My Fitness Pal. And for a snack, I do like my protein shake, and I bring it in an easy-to-go shake container. I’ll make a chia seed pudding. I’ll put it in a to-go container with some milk, a little dash of vanilla, some cinnamon, and clearly you can tell I have a sweet tooth.

And Ill let that sit overnight, or if I forgot to do this the night before, I do it just before I leave for work, and I bring it with me, and the seeds just need a few hours to soften. And then I toss in some berries and some non-sweetened shredded coconut. Ill also have a rice cake with peanut butter and some little banana slices on the top. So good. For lunch, I’ll have a hearty lunch. So that’s my cucumbers, my chickpeas that I soaked and boiled overnight, red peppers, some sesame seeds just to make it look fabulous, you know what I’m saying? When I’m cooking, I like to cook with spray oil, whether its coconut oil or olive oil. It’s so simple to just spray it, and I get a nice coating, and I don’t overdo it when I hand-pour it from the bottle.

And I love doing that with my tofu, some soy sauce, some seasonings. Get it all crispy and then toss it in with the rest of my vegetables. And then I’ll either make my salad dressing with sesame oil and balsamic vinegar and shake it up and pour it, or I’ll use my favorite, favorite, favorite -its anything that’s sesame-ginger. I love sesame seed oil, and I love ginger. So I’ll measure it, one tablespoon. And that’s it. Maybe I’ll even throw in some quinoa and some rice to add in some carbs in there. And then for dinner Ill either do a stir-fry, which is really quick and easy. Ill switch it up sometimes. Instead of stir-fry, I’ll have a salmon, and I love - oh, God. I love salmon. I love fish. And that’s super quick and easy to cook on the stove. I cook it through for about a few minutes. But I like to season it with salt, pepper and some seasoning that I get from the store. I’ll put a little thing of butter on top or some oil, just to give it that flavor so it doesn’t dry out. And that’s my dinner.

So My Fitness Pal helped me to understand food and calories and nutrition facts. I would never look on the side of anything to read anything, besides ingredients, because I’m allergic to stuff. But I would never read a nutrition fact, okay? Eighty calories? Eh, what? That meant nothing to me. Now, with My Fitness Pal, I would scan the items that I would eat, and it would tally up for me how much protein I would eat in a day, how much fat, how many calories, and it would log all my food items and how much calories Id have in every meal.

Now, what I used to do thinking it would get me snatched, was not eat properly. I would eat something heavy in the morning and then go throughout the day like, oh, I’m so hungry, and then have a crazy, big-ass lunch and then an even bigger dinner, and then Id pass out. What I learned is, starving your body also doesn’t lead to results, because at least for me, what happened was, I would get skinny here, then I’d have this little pot belly where my fat was just being stored, because it’s like, you’re in starvation mode. Let’s keep all the fat and hoard it and save it for a rainy day. So that was a huge discovery that I learned. Info box -- I have friends that are nutritionists, Thalita and Edwina [ph.], and they can create programs for you and help you on your path. For me, I think it really is important to understand what food is and what it does for your body.

This app really helps me understand, okay, Maya, so for breakfast, where is your protein at? Where are your carbs at? Where are your sugars at? And it helps me understand food a lot better. The other tip I learned was portions. I used to eat way too much, to the point where I was swoll and tired and had the it is and would pass out on my couch. I’ve since learned that I can eat smaller portions and more frequent portions throughout the day. So instead of eating like three cave-man meals, I would have a decent-sized breakfast, a lunch and dinner, and snacks in between. So my body constantly has fuel to burn throughout the day. That was key for me to learn. Learning carbs. Now, everyone was saying, Maya, if you want abs, cut the carbs and the sugar. And I did that. I did that for a month before Trinidad, when I was winding up my waist side, and basically to get to this point, and I was just like, you know what, I can’t live that life anymore. I don’t like it.

So now for me, I have my carbs in the morning, because the carbs fuel my energy throughout the day. I work out. I’m very active when I’m not sitting at my desk. When I’m running out doing errands throughout the day, I’m going to burn those carbs. And in the evening, I like to eat my proteins. So whether that’s tofu, which I do have for lunch, or even salmon -- I do eat seafood occasionally in the evenings, and that helps, especially because I work out so much. I’m like, where’s my protein at? And I used to eat lots of fruits throughout the day -apples, bananas, mangoes, anything. Now, that’s okay, but again, if you’re trying to reach a goal that doesn’t come naturally to you with genetics, you got to tweak and see what works and what your body responds to. Well, I realized, girl, you got to stop eating so much fruits, because fruits do have sugar. Yes, its healthy sugar, and yes, fruits are healthy for you, but if I want a certain aesthetic goal, I need to be aware of how much. In my smoothies, I used to put a whole banana and five dates.

When I measured how much sugar was in that in My Fitness Pal, I was like, girl, you better stop it. So now I have half a banana with a quarter-cup of blueberries. I love Garden of Life protein, their raw protein. Its vegan, dairy-free, soy-free. I really love this stuff. It tastes the best from all the stuff I’ve tried. Not sponsored, but open to sponsorship, Garden of Life. And then I put some toppings on it like I did in my previous video over here. But sugar. Too much sugar is no Bueno. Too much carbs are no Bueno. And more specifically, refined. Anything that’s manufactured, artificial, whether its Sour Patch Kids, which I love, Oreos, cookies, juices.

Oh my gosh, juices. Juice is a culprit. Chips. I eat a lot of chips. But those are okay in small portions, and just be mindful of them, because I never used to pay attention. I would just eat everything. If I am trying to lose weight, I need to get into a calorie deficit, which means I burn more calories than I consume. My problem is, I didn’t understand that concept. So you can eat that cake, Maya, but know that that is 200 calories extra that you have to burn, and if you don’t, that’s fine. You just gonna gain a little weight. So if I consume 1900 calories a day, I need to burn 1900 calories or more. I have to burn more to be in a deficit to lose fat and to look different. The goal is to be in a deficit by the end of the week. So those are some tips that I’ve learned on how to lose weight. And I’m telling you, this Before photo that I took two years ago and this After photo is a result of being mindful of what I eat, healthier portions, more conscious portions, and working out. I work out between five and seven days a week. Now, this is just an intro video on what I eat. This is not a conversation or an educational video on that, but I do highly recommend this book in the info below. It’s called The Renaissance Woman. But it’s the working out and the eating combined that will get you the results that you want. And it becomes a lifestyle. Changing your lifestyle is hard. So don’t be hard on yourself. Just take it one step at a time. So that’s what I eat to stay snatched. I would love to know what you guys eat. If you have any tips on what you’ve discovered through your fitness journey, let me know in the comments below. Make sure you watch the previous video, how to Work Out and Get Those Summer Abs. And that’s just specific on this area and this region. Compound that with cardio, and you good to go. That’s it for me, guys. If you like this video, make sure you go ahead and thumbs-up.