Cutting/Leaning/Fat Loss OH MY! And Kickstarting My Healthy Lifestyle Journey.... Again

So a lot of you have asked me about:

Cutting / Leaning Out Stage

However, I feel these terms are more for bodybuilders or competitors. They usually follow bulks or off season with on season leaning out to get to very low body fat percentages for competitions! And they are veryyy strict with their diets and workout, which in my experience, when I did this, didn't turn out so well for me because I rebounded back to the beginning of my journey - same [if not more] weight, measurements, and body fat.

So instead I like to call it the

Fat Loss Stage

aka. the 

Healthy Lifestyle

I say the Healthy Lifestyle, because basically if you're living the healthy lifestyle:

Eating right, keeping consistent workouts, and being body, mind, and health conscious, 

you should be losing fat because you're not stuffing it with the usual processed nasty fatty foods!



Especially if you're in a calorie deficit, which with eating healthy isn't very hard because healthy food is so filling but most of the things are low calorie! And even if it isn't low calorie - it's NATURAL, and unprocessed, and a lot easier to digest than artificial man-made substances! Making it easier for the body to use as fuel and energy instead of store them as fat!

A FANTASTIC article I found on why you should NOTTTTTTT overdo it in the beginning to aid in your fat loss! Click HERE TO READ - READ ME NOWWW

So here I'll basically give you a run down of what I'll be doing to kick off my Healthy Lifestyle Attempt Number 129042857019850918235 :P and to MAINTAIN IT.
I'm upset at myself for slipping back so far...I no longer feel confident in myself, my outfits, my body, which is really sad, and you know I always promote self love! But it's difficult at times...
But no more feeling sorry for myself, NO MORE. Time to get back to kicking butt and taking my life back, and being HAPPY IN MY SKIN. Happy, confident Josie! I MISS HER! And NOW I'M GOING TO DO IT.

Key word from above: MAINTAIN

This is where I ALWAYS mess up - I found I kicked off my journey by being very very strict, but then once it came to the maintaining part, I let loose way to much and now look where I am!

So this time I am determined to get on track and stay on track, for LIFE.

This means no "dieting", no restricting, no depriving, no detoxes or 3 day juice cleanses, or anything of that sort that'll make me rebound and binge due to deprivation and the strictness of those "get slim quick" SCHEMES. Slow and steady WILL WIN THE LIFESTYLE RACE.

My workout sched:

Mon: Morning Pilates
Afternoon - legs

Tues: Morning power walk
Afternoon - back and bis + 15-20 mins cardio

Wed: Morning Pilates
Afternoon - chest/tris + HIIT :30/:45 x 12 followed by 10 minute cardio

Th: Morning pilates
Afternoon - glutes

Fri: REST

Sat: Shoulders/abs/calves & 20 min cardio

Sun: Total Body Pilates

I'm trying to incorporate more pilates to gain back the flexibility I had when I was on the dance team! And to make my core stronger :]
Also keeping up with the heavy weights, and NOT overdoing it with cardio, so that if I plateau, I can add little by little [READ THAT POST I MENTIONED AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS ARTICLE TO SEE WHY YOU SHOULD NOT ADD TOO MUCH CARDIO/KILLING YOURSELF IN THE GYM AT FIRST!]

Foods:

Here's a basic overview of what I'll be eating! Now every day may not be the same, but it's pretty much going to be set up like this:

M1: 1 egg, 3 egg white scrambled with unlimited veggies, side of oats
M2: fruit
M3: lean protein and unlimited veggies & nuts/seeds
M4: protein shake and sweet potato
M5: lean protein, veggies, and brown rice/quinoa
M6: optional - greek yogurt

Like I said, this is a veryyyy rough guideline, and my actual meals might vary here and there but this is what I'll be trying to follow.

I'll cook my food in Extra Virgin Olive Oil or coconut oil!
Some yummy snacks could be: veggies & peanut butter or hummus, almonds or other nuts and seeds, fruits, cottage cheese or greek yogurt, air popped popcorn

Now calorie count? No clue. Macro count? Also no clue. It's all just eating to fuel and build strength and lose fat! NOTHING CONTROLS ME. NO numbers, scales, measurements, calories, etc

THIS IS THE LIFESTYLE

Enjoyable, modifiable, maintainable, sane, doable, and liveable. THIS IS IT. And we can DO IT!

However for those of you that realllyyyyy want to get technical with leaning out, that will come from expending more calories than you take in, or take in less than you expend. Basically, you need to be in a calorie deficit. So either do it by eating less, or working out more!

But again to me, that's not enjoyable, SO I'm doing no counting. It may take slower, but this way I know I'll be able to stand it and keep it up in the long run!

<3<3