9 changes I made to lose 18 lbs _ my weight loss journey

I had been trying to lose weight for so long and I felt like I would lose a few pounds and then just gain them back .

And I was stuck in this vicious cycle .

And I never thought that I would be sitting here making this video where I could actually talk about my results beyond like two or £3 .

So I'm very happy to be sitting here today and I want to give you some insight into both the mental and emotional changes that I made as well as kind of the physical practical things I did like how I ate and how I trained in order to see my results within the past five months , I've lost eight pounds .

So before I jump into the actual changes , I'm going to talk you through my starting point and how I got to where I was because I think it's helpful for understanding why these changes were working for me the way that they did .

And I'm sorry if this comes out a little bit chaotic , I sort of planned this out , but I also kind of just want this to come out naturally so it might come out a little chaotic bear with me most of my life , I've been a dancer .

I grew up dancing in a studio and then on my high school team , you know , it doesn't really matter .

You just need to know that I danced a lot and that my family pretty healthy .

So I was pretty lean most of my life till college .

The classic freshman 15 hit me .

Then I did lose the freshman 15 when I was a junior and I did that just by tracking my calories and then starting to work out more outside of dance .

So I was like running and just doing strength training and stuff , but it didn't last honestly , very long .

Like I was slowly starting to gain the weight back .

And that is because I became very emotionally tied to food without realizing it .

I would use food to kind of just like , numb my emotions and not have to feel anything or I would use food when I was bored or when I didn't want to be productive .

Like , there were a lot of things that I would use food for that were unhealthy .

I certainly do think that every once in a while it's ok to have some ice cream or have whatever as a treat if you're not feeling so great , but it shouldn't be what you're always gravitating towards even for like the smallest of problems , which I was .

But if you looked at me , you would think I was a pretty healthy person because I exercised a lot .

I had muscle and that would like , trick people into thinking I was healthier than I was even my doctor .

He kind of noticed that I had gained quite a bit of weight within a year and he mentioned it , but he didn't ask me anything about food .

He really was just asking how active I was .

And of course , when he heard me say , like I go to spin class like five days a week and I go to the gym and I teach dance .

He didn't care anymore , which that is kind of concerning .

That's a whole another topic about America's health care system and how we're not paying attention to the right things in most cases .

But I digress .

Yeah , I was never extremely overweight .

I think I was just at the peak end of the range for my like healthy BM .

I , but I just knew that I could do better for myself .

I started to not feel like I was me anymore because a lot of my clothes weren't fitting .

I didn't want to be a social , I would make youtube videos or make content for social media and just look at myself and feel like I was trapped in another person's body or like I was in there and I needed to break out which is really dramatic , but it was really affecting me and like , OK youtube social media .

That's how I make a lot of my income and I was starting to not post as much because I didn't like the way that I looked .

So it was causing lots of problems in my life though .

It seems silly .

And then that brings me to January of this year , 2023 when I decided I wanted to audition for an NFL cheer team because it is , you know , it's show business .

They have a specific look they're going for and it tends to be the leaner woman or man , nobody's going to say that out .

Right .

That's the look that they're pretty much always going for .

I didn't want my body to be the reason why I got cut from a team that is something I can control .

So I felt like it was really important for me to focus on it .

I knew that I could do it without being too extreme because I had four or five months until auditions .

I never had a specific scale number in mind .

I kind of thought I would just try and lose maybe about a pound a week and then stop when I reached a point where I felt good because also I have built quite a bit of muscle over the past year or two and I wasn't even sure what number was realistic with the amount of muscle that I have .

So now we can get into the things I actually did to accomplish my goal .

Number one , it's a little bit .

It's more on the mental , emotional side .

But I think it was the most important thing for me .

And that is I stopped telling myself the story that I couldn't do it or that I would never lose the weight .

Because if you are subconsciously thinking that then every time you have to make a hard decision , like choosing the healthier option or going to your workout when you really don't feel like it .

If you have that story in your mind , then you're going to let the excuses start creeping up and it's going to be really easy to just give up at any point .

The stories that we tell ourselves that are in our subconscious are so important to any of the daily actions that we're taking and to your daily habit .

So any time that I had to make a hard decision , like to go on a walk when I didn't really want to , I would remember I can do this .

I'm capable of it .

Lots of people in this world have been able to lose weight and so can I ?

But that's number one , number two is similar and it goes back to what I was talking about with emotional eating .

It's that I stopped using food as a crutch .

I stopped eating food when I wasn't hungry and I stopped overeating to deal with my emotions .

And there is one book that I particularly would recommend , even if you just read a few chapters of it .

I think there's so much wisdom in it and it's called Breaking Free from emotional eating .

One thing I'll say is it is kind of an anti diet book .

So she does talk about not restricting and that's kind of her philosophy .

I didn't do that .

I did track my calories .

So I was restricting my intake .

But what it really helps me recognize is how many moments I was reaching for food when I didn't really need to eat it .

Like I wasn't actually hungry .

I think one of the chapters is titled Something Like Being Hungry is like being in love .

If you don't know , you probably aren't .

And that's so true .

Like talks about how , how hunger is a physical thing , how you really need to kind of sit with yourself before you go and reach for food and decide if you are going to eat because you're actually hungry or if you're doing it to cope with something else .

And what you'll find if you are an emotional eater is you're gonna have to figure out a way to deal with those emotions .

You're gonna have to actually feel them , which is hard .

I go to therapy .

So that helps .

Sometimes I would go on a walk just with no music to just kind of feel what I'm feeling , process my emotions , whatever .

I also love journaling every day .

I've already been doing this in the morning , but sometimes I would just like do a little journaling in the afternoon .

If something was bothering me , sometimes I would eat to procrastinate and not be productive .

I do work from home .

So I'm constantly having access to my kitchen and sometimes that's not the best thing .

So just to avoid the temptation , sometimes I would just go sit at a coffee shop and do my work .

Instead , the take home message is that you need to be more present with your emotions and your feelings and just stop letting food be your comfort thing or the way that you dissociate from the world .

I mean , I love dissociating , but it's not the healthiest thing all the time .

But talking about eating kind of leads me to number three , which is having good eating hygiene .

I this is a weird term .

I don't mean hygiene like making sure you're washing your fruits and vegetables , but I'm thinking more of how people talk about sleep hygiene .

So with eating hygiene , this is also talked about in the book quite a bit and the author of the book has a few of these guidelines for eating .

I follow a couple of them and I've been following a couple of them that I think are the most important , at least in my life .

And the first one is to always eat , sitting down .

So sit at the table on a plate , preferably using utensils if it's something that needs utensils .

And I know it seems silly , but I feel like a majority of the extra eating I was doing was just coming from that kind of grazing in the kitchen , like going , seeing what's in the pantry , standing there eating it , eating things just straight from the fridge .

But if you force yourself to sit down and take that thing and put it on a plate , you're either going to look at it and be like , wait , am I sure that I really want to eat this right now or you're going to sit and really enjoy it .

It's gonna make you be more in touch with how much you're actually eating .

Hello , friends , welcome to Fit Tuber .

In this video , I'm going to share a muscle building diet plan for students who are living in hostel or PG .

Now , I have been living away from my home for over 11 years now .

And in these 11 years , I've lived in various hostels and PGS .

So I assure that all the meals that we are going to discuss today are very much practical in hostile and PG life .

Moreover , I completely understand that in student life , we do not have a lot of money to spend on diet , taking this into consideration this diet plan is very low in budget yet it is perfect for muscle building .

I'll share with you the cost breakup of each meal .

And at the end of this video , we will calculate the monthly budget .

So without any further delay , let's get started .

The first meal of the day is breakfast .

Now , when I was in hostel for breakfast , we used to get a purile Perran doas and all that oily stuff .

That , that's something you can do every once in a while .

But you'd be shocked at how much less you're eating if you sit there and you are present with your food , if you're chewing and swallowing and not just inhaling like most of us do .

And I honestly , I think that for a lot of people just doing those two things sitting down and then not eating , distracted will help you lose at least a little bit of weight because you , you've probably been out of touch with your actual hunger cues and , and making a small shift like this could help a lot .

So number four , another one of the more practical changes , this is known by most people , but you need to be in a calorie deficit in order to lose weight or you're taking in fewer calories than your body needs to just be at maintenance weight .

So you could do this by eating fewer calories or by moving your body more and expending your energy more .

Or you can do a combination of both , which is what I did .

So to track my calories , I use this app called Carbon .

And there are plenty of other apps to track .

Like I know my fitness pal is a really popular one .

So it is a heavy well balanced and a perfect meal for muscle building .

This meal will cost you about 30 to ₹35 .

It is a great start for the day .

Let me show you its cost breakdown , its macro breakdown and then we'll come to the next meal .

The next meal of the day is snack .

Now this is that point of time when you are busy attending classes and you would want to have something which is very easy to carry .

So I would suggest you to have 100 g of bona chana along with one handful of unsalted roasted peanuts .

These are two things which are very easily available in Indian markets together , they form a great combination of complex carbohydrates , protein and healthy fats .

The next meal of the day is pre workout meal .

Now , for pre workout meal , we need a lot of carbohydrate so that we stay energized throughout the workout and also a little bit of protein .

So I'll give you three options .

You take your pick first is what I used to do when I was in hostel .

I used to take a handful of black chana and soak it overnight .

The next day they are ready to eat though .

They are not very tasty , but they serve as a great pre workout .

Second option could be 100 g of Boan .

It is very tasty and again , it is perfect for pre workout meal .

Third option is banana peanut butter sandwich .

Take two slices of whole wheat bread , spread one tablespoon of peanut butter and one banana into it .

Even though I'm not a big fan of whole wheat bread .

But considering the lack of options in hostel , it is fine .

So the next meal of the day is very important , which is post workout meal .

Post workout meal is one of the most important meal of the day .

I would suggest you to have six egg whites along with two bananas , egg whites because it is a fast digesting lean source of protein and bananas help replenish the glycogen and prevent muscle soreness .

Now , if you can afford , you can replace egg whites with protein .

In that case , you can have one scoop of wave protein in water along with two bananas , we protein is one of the fastest digesting proteins .

It is safe and it is also a great option for vegetarians .

Overall .

If you want great results , make sure you provide your body with proper nutrition , post workout for dinner .

When we go to the mess , we see that the food options on the table are similar to the way they were in lunch .

So again , the trick is to choose the best and leave the rest for protein .

So friends , I hope you found this video helpful .

Well , if you did , please do give it a thumbs up and also please do remember to subscribe to my channel .

My name is I thank you so much for watching .

So for me , it's like a fun little experiment or project to try and like make the perfect protein pancake cake or whatever .

But you know , you do , you , I did eat out every once in a while .

We'll talk about that in a second .

You know what ?

Let's talk about it right now because it's my next tip is about socializing strategically .

That sounds like I'm trying to tell you how to network , but it's more about how to go about having a social life while on a cut .

Uh because I think this is , is where a lot of people fall off is when they go out in social settings , you're around your friends , your family who might be eating other things that aren't things that you should be eating to achieve your goals or they might want you to go do unhealthy things .

They might want you to go drink and stay up till 3 a.m. The thing is I did not want to just become a hermit who was at home , eating at home all the time .

I still wanted to see my friends still wanted to participate in social things .

So I just had to become a little bit more disciplined with my food choices while I was out and with the activities , I was partaking .

So I still went to restaurants .

I would just try and stick to what I mentioned earlier .

The protein and plants framework , whatever I wasn't drinking alcohol .

That can be a really tricky one , I think for some people because you definitely will get pressured to drink .

You just got to smile and say I'm good .

That was one of the really annoying things .

To be honest , people might look at you weird .

They might judge you for picking the healthier things , but that's their own insecurity .

Maybe they know deep down they should be doing the same thing and now that you're doing it , it makes them kind of mad as far as activities go .

I did try and convince a lot of my friends to do healthier things with me such as go on a walk at the park or go take a workout class and then we can get like healthy little brunch afterwards and you know how it goes , you have some friends who will be ok with that and some friends who won't and maybe you just need to spend less time with the friends that don't want to do the healthy things , at least for a little while until you're done with your cut .

Ok .

But speaking of walking , walking is an important thing .

Um , I definitely use walking to increase my energy expenditure and , you know , be able to burn more calories .

First thing I did was I got a dog , I'm not telling you to go get a dog , but I just happened to get a dog around this time and I would be taking him out on walks every single morning .

I still do this .

We walk about a mile every day .

So I upped my steps a little bit there .

But then I also got a walking pad , which if you're not familiar is basically a treadmill that you can put on your desk , not on your desk under your desk or wherever .

I work a 9 to 5 job at my desk .

I'm a remote worker basically just in my office most of the day .

This really helped me increase my activity because I could walk probably two hours and not even really notice that I'm walking at like 2.5 hours is when I start to feel fatigued and I might start getting distracted by trying to do two things at once .

But overall I've never really had any issues walking while I work .

I know some people think it sounds like it's really hard or like they might fall or whatever .

Once I started doing that , I was like , easily hitting 20,000 steps a day .

Whereas before I could probably barely make 10,000 .

So that helped a lot , a lot , a lot .

My actual gym workouts didn't really change during this time period .

And I was also still dancing .

But so in the gym , I do kind of like functional strength training four days a week , not always four days , sometimes more , sometimes less .

Sometimes I do yoga as well , but I was still making sure to continue to do resistance training so that I could keep all my muscle .

And I am really happy with how my muscles have been retained through all of this process .

I was getting worried that I would just like become a little stick figure , you know , then I added higher intensity cardio closer to my audition date .

I actually used to be really into cardio like I did spin classes on the regular , but I canceled my membership because I wasn't loving it as much anymore .

And then I just wasn't really doing any cardio for a while .

But in the past month or so , I added in running and I've really enjoyed that .

I've seen some really cool changes in my body and I feel really athletic when I'm running consistently .

Only problem right now is I live in Texas and it's extremely hot .

So it's hard to find the right time to be able to run outside but I only run like two or three miles and I do that maybe 2 to 3 times a week .

And I have noticed a big shift in the way that my body feels and looks , you don't technically have to do cardio to lose weight , but it is really good for you .

Like , it's good for your heart and your overall body .

So I still think it's good for anyone to do .

However , you don't have to choose running , choose whatever activity you enjoy .

Maybe it's a sport , maybe it's swimming , maybe it's dancing .

I don't know .

But that was kind of my fitness routine .

And for all of this , I was still strength training a lot .

And that's why I'm saying like I was able to build muscle because I was just doing strength workouts , progressive overload .

I mean , I could talk about that in another video too .

I will say one other thing side note told you this was going to be chaotic is um with my genetics , I've always been able to build muscle pretty easily .

At least like it shows through my body can change relatively quickly .

So like when I said , I started running more , I really did notice a pretty drastic difference in the way my body started looking and I think it's because I , I shocked it and it was doing something new , but also just because that's my genetics .

So you got to keep that in mind too .

Like what works for one person is not gonna work for everyone .

And I know you know that because you're a smart person , you are , no one told you that today you're smart .

OK ?

We're nearing the end .

Ok ?

And these are kind of quick .

So number eight is that I started watching my consumption of media , social media things in my environment because your diet is more than just the food you consume .

And the drinks that you drink .

Your diet includes the things consuming through social media with your eyeballs on advertisements on TV , or the people that you're talking to .

And you know , if you're following a bunch of food accounts on Instagram and then you open Instagram , you look at the stuff it's going to make you want to eat it .

So maybe mute those accounts for a little while or just don't be on Instagram as much , maybe try and switch up your feeds and start following people that do things that are more in line with what you want .

So go follow me on Instagram and tiktok .

I'll try and give you healthy motivation .

But yeah , following creators and watching things being around people who are doing things that are in line with your values and your goals .

I think that's really helpful .

Number nine , final change I made is I kept reminding myself that this is not going to last forever and that I have a long life ahead of me where I won't always be in a calorie deficit that I'm not going to be like missing out on all these foods and all these experiences because this is just a little blip of time .

It's a little cut .

I'm not going to be in a diet my entire life .

And so I just need to make some of these difficult choices now so that I can feel healthier and happier in the long run .

Sometimes I would want to give in and just eat everything in front of me .

But I would remember that , that momentary happiness that I might get from doing that would be nothing in comparison to achieving my ultimate goal of losing weight and then making it as an NFL cheerleader .

You , you really never regret the healthy choices , but you do regret the bad ones that in the moment feel so good and it just sucks that life works like that .

You know , because the little things that feel good , they do be feeling really good .

I always would tell myself too that I was basically rewiring my brain because , you know , when you build habits , you're like building new neural connections or I don't know what the term is .

I'm gonna look it up and probably put it here .

But I would just tell myself that like every time I make a good decision and I have my discipline , it's going to be easier to do that next time .

But if I give in right now , I'm not making any progress and the time is going to pass anyway , you might as well do things that are going to make you better as a person .

However , take all that a grain of salt because I'm not saying that you should constantly deprive yourself of stuff .

There are ways to fit in having yummy foods and sometimes missing a workout and still reaching your goals .

But you have to understand that there's a level of discipline that you need to have if you really want to see results .

So that's it .

Those are the nine changes I made .

Hopefully you took away something from it .

I'll try and link in the description most of the things that I've mentioned here today .

But if you have questions or you want me to make a specific type of video following up on this , please do let me know the comments and if you enjoyed this video , give it a thumbs up , subscribe for new videos for me every single week because I'm back baby .

I'm back on youtube for real because I feel great and I feel like youtube needs me , but you can see more regular updates for me on Instagram and tiktok .

My account is Danced with Kayleen on both platforms .

Good luck on your weight loss journey .

If you are on one or embarking on one .

Now , I believe in you .

You just have to believe in yourself now and just take the actions and do it .

But you can do it .

Ok .

All right .

Bye .