If you don’t know my story already, you can read it here. Here’s the gist: I lost over 30 pounds, and I did it on an #inspiralized diet.

That’s right, I spiralized my way to the body I wanted!

In today’s blog post, I’m going to dive more into the diet aspect of my journey, less the exercise and fitness part of it. I’m going to share more about what I ate, how I used spiralizing to stay on track, and I’m also launching our new spiralized meal plans!

First off, let me preface with the 3 principles that guided me throughout this journey and still do to this day:

Make it a lifestyle, not a diet.

While I did have a weight loss goal date in mind (I originally wanted to lose weight for the photoshoot for my first cookbook, Inspiralized), I didn’t view that “goal date” as an “end date.” I viewed that as the jumpstart to a healthy lifestyle. Once I reached my “goal weight,” my focus shifted, I set new goals, and I just kept continuing my healthy lifestyle I had built while achieving that initial weight loss goal.

Since it’s a lifestyle, life happens. I follow a strict 80/20 rule, where I eat real, whole foods 80% of the time and let myself indulge 20% of the time. And I indulge, my friends – I’ve been known to crush a package of Pepperidge Farms Montauk cookies.

Take a week – 5.6 days is 80% of your week, so have a healthy Sunday through Friday and then Friday evening through Saturday evening, you can treat yourself, if you’re feeling the need for a treat! Wake up on Sunday and commit to getting back on track. If you know you have plans on a Wednesday and want to indulge, let yourself enjoy Wednesday, but then keep Friday low-key (skip the wine with dinner and say no to dessert.)

Recovery is key.

I can’t stress this one enough. If you are having a bad morning, afternoon, or you find yourself munching out in front of the TV at night, be mindful. Stop yourself – never, ever say, “Well, I’ve already messed up this day, so whatever I’m going to start fresh tomorrow.” When you come to and realize what you’re eating, stop yourself, ask yourself do you really want to feel bloated and unhappy in the morning. Most likely, you’ll say no.

I always recommend drinking tons of water for the rest of the day – even if that’s right before bed. This helps flush out your system and help your body start to detox. Even if you save yourself 1 slice of pizza, that’s a savings of around 300 calories! That’s a LOT. Over a week, that’s 2,100 calories, which is almost 2.5 pounds a month of extra weight gain! See where I’m going with this? You’re NEVER “too far gone”.

The next day, try to make it your healthiest day. Don’t starve yourself – just drink a lot of water and eat very clean. That following day, you’ll wake up, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your body recovers. Your body is designed to naturally detox – so let it!

Diet over exercise, every time

Once I stopped looking at exercise as a means to weight loss, I started losing weight.

Sure, if you want to see weight loss very quickly (which isn’t as maintainable long term), eat super clean and exercise for an hour a day, every day. Of course you’ll lose weight – and you’ll feel strong and amazing. However, that’s not maintainable for most of us – life happens, time gets away from us. All of a sudden, it’s 5pm on a Wednesday, you planned to workout, but your best friend just got a promotion and she wants to go out for drinks to celebrate. What now?

Well, first of all, let me tell you this: no flat tummy is going to make you happy like quality time spent with your best friend. So, spend time with your friend – live life! If you’re happy, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is easier, TRUST ME, I’VE BEEN THERE. I’ve been that terrible friend who cancels dinner because she doesn’t want to overeat.

How do you combat a missed workout? EAT HEALTHY. You can’t outrun a bad diet (you’ve heard that before, right?) However, you can make up for a missed workout with a healthy meal. Abs are made in the gym, but what’s the point of all that gym time, if you’re not revealing them in the kitchen?

What I’m trying to say is this: if you’re a busy person and can’t find the time to workout (I’ll let that excuse slide), don’t stress out. Don’t give up. Just eat healthy – simple as that. I used to guilt myself into going to the gym, because if I didn’t, I thought I wouldn’t see the weight loss progress I wanted. If I missed a workout, I’d eat poorly saying to myself, “I didn’t workout, so whatever!”

One day, during my weight loss journey, I couldn’t make a workout. So, I decided to eat a bit cleaner than usual – I skipped the 3pm snack, and I didn’t have dessert. I woke up the next day and saw that the scale was 0.5 pounds lighter. Ever since that day, I stopped beating myself up over missing workouts. I look at workouts as a means to get fit, feel good, tone, and have time for myself. I aim to workout 5 to 6 days a week, but if it’s 3 or 4, that’s okay – and I still maintain my healthy weight, because my diet steps up to the plate on those days.

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It’s all mental.

Like running, I find health eating to be a complete mental challenge. If someone gave you the following two options, what would you choose?

1. Eat clean: feel incredible, be confident, have energy, be happy.
2. Eat unhealthy: feel lethargic, lack confidence, be unhappy.

I think we’d all pick option 1, right? You control the actual motion of putting food in your mouth. You’re not a baby, no one’s force feeding you! Remember that – you actually decide the foods you put in your mouth. It’s honestly as simple as that. Choose to put healthy foods in your mouth and treat your body like a temple!

Now, I realize this is all easier said than done, because when we’re presented with a piping hot slice of pizza at 1am or chocolate frosted cake for someone’s birthday in the office, it seems impossible to resist. Remember this: while it may be mentally impossible to resist, you have your next line of defense, because it’s not physically impossible to resist. You control what you eat – so just say no thank you. Make all of these healthy choices throughout your day/week, and it’ll lead to weight loss.

This also helps me: if in the moment, you really NEED that treat, just take it, take a bite and then set your plate down. You’ll still enjoy the social element of being part of the office birthday cake or the drunken pizza, but you won’t overdo it. You can always have a bite and what you’ll realize is that a bite is all you ever really need, so take it and enjoy what really matters: hanging out with your coworker, bonding with your friends, whatever.

My final point is this: never, ever, in a million years, feel GUILTY for refusing an unhealthy food. Let your friends tease you all they want (although you should probably consider getting new friends if they are that insensitive!), but you’re the one who’s going to wake up the next day looking good, feeling good, and being well-fueled and nourished to conquer your day.

How I started – The First Steps

I’m always asked, “How did you start? What were the first steps you took?”

Literally, I just committed to making healthy choices at every turn. That’s called a lifestyle change, not a diet program. I didn’t create this elaborate plan. I just took every moment literally as a choice. A choice for instant gratification or a choice towards a healthier me.

Remember what I said about 80/20? I committed to that. I don’t eat anything processed 80% of the time – I eat real, whole foods.

It was in the afternoon when I committed (that’s when I found out my cookbook photoshoot date.) After work, I cooked one of my spiralized recipes for dinner and when my husband asked me if I wanted some ice cream for dessert, I said no. It was so hard to sit there on the couch while he ate that delicious, creamy gelato, but I did it. I made one decision that night and kept making healthy decisions. I didn’t workout in the beginning, because I didn’t want to be extra hungry from the workouts, so I focused on my diet. I lost almost 5 pounds (mostly water weight) in that first 7-10 days, which proved my point: it’s all diet, and all I have to do is make the right decision most times.

My tips for those moments at night when you get a hankering for a sweet snack: have something healthy (a piece of dark chocolate, a banana with some almond butter, etc.) My favorite way to combat these cravings is to make a peppermint tea with steamed almond milk – the almond milk is a bit sweet when steamed, and the peppermint tea cleanses the pallet, giving you a fresh sensation. Try it!

Meal Planning and Spiralizing

After that first week, I made a fitness plan for myself, and I started meal planning.

In my meal plans, I ate something spiralized for 100% of my dinners and about 75% of my lunches. For breakfast, it was usually a smoothie, granola, avocado toast, oatmeal, or something quick like banana and almond butter.

Spiralizing is great for weight loss for a few reasons, but most importantly, you don’t feel like you’re eating diet food while eating #inspiralized. Sometimes when I look at some of these diet plan meals, it’s like steamed chicken and broccoli every night. The key to being successful with a healthy lifestyle is making sure you’re not falling victim to boredom.

Some of my favorite spiralized recipes to eat were:

• Turkey meatballs with zucchini noodles
• Brussels Sprouts and Lentil Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl
• Bacon Shrimp Scampi with Zucchini Noodles
• Quinoa Beet Rice Salad
• Chopped Chicken Salad over Cucumber Noodles
• Chicken Cacciatore with Rutabaga Noodles from Inspiralize Everything
• Bell Pepper Fiesta Skillet
• Vegan Zucchini Noodle Ramen
• Chicken Turnip Noodle Soup
• One Pot Vegan Fajitas with Sweet Potato Rice
• Spiralized Fajita Bowls

Here’s an example of a typical weekday diet (you can also check out my What I Ate Today video series here):

Breakfast: Oatmeal with almond butter, mashed raspberries, and banana slices
Snack: Handful of raw mixed nuts and dried raisins (or chopped pitted dates)
Lunch: Pesto zucchini noodles with white beans and avocado
Snack: Kombucha or a green juice and rice cake with hummus or celery
Dinner: Turkey meatballs with sweet potato noodles and tomato-basil sauce
Dessert: Chocolate protein smoothie (banana, vegan chocolate protein powder, almond milk, blueberries, ice)

On days when I was on a recovery day and eating extra clean, I’d skip the dessert and the mid-afternoon snack.

Here’s an example of a typical fitness plan, now that I’m trying to tone and define, rather than lose weight:

Sunday: 45-minute spin class + 10 minutes of abs
Monday: 30 minute spin class + 15-30 minutes of lower body lifting and HIIT-style exercise
Tuesday: 4 mile run + 20 minutes of upper body lifting
Wednesday: 45-minute spin class + 10 minutes of abs
Thursday: 20 minute spin class + 30 minutes of lower body lifting and HIIT-style exercise
Friday: 45-minute spin class + 10 minutes of abs
Saturday: Rest day or a light workout

And that’s my story! Eating Inspiralized you’re always guaranteed to eat a lot of vegetables and you’ll never sacrifice flavor. You’ll eat real, whole ingredients, but feel like you’re at a restaurant eating a flavorful meal.

If I had to estimate my daily caloric intake in the beginning, it ranged from 1,200 calories a day to 1,600 calories a day, depending on how active I was. In three months, I lost about 25 to 30 pounds and now, I have maintained a 30-35 pound weight loss since.

If nothing else, just remember this…

… everyone has to start somewhere. This was me, on the left, on day one! The girl on the right is someone I never thought I could become, but I took every day by day and eventually, I achieved the body and lifestyle I dreamed of. You can too!

Buy the Inspiralizer

Inspiralized Meal plans

I challenge you to eat Inspiralized for a week and see how you feel! To launch the year, I’ve created weekly meal plans (Vegan and Gluten-Free) that will take the guesswork out of lunch and dinner for the week. I encourage you to follow along with me – these are the types of weekly meal plans I made for myself when I was trying to lose weight – they’re full of vegetables, lean proteins, and you’ll feel like you’re eating something completely different every day.

Join me and thousands of others over on the Inspiralized Facebook Community and motivate one another to keep on track of the meal plan – share images of your food, ask questions, troubleshoot recipes, and get excited about eating #inspiralized! Meaghan and I moderate this community, so you’ll see us check in everyday!

Click the below images to learn more about the meal plans and purchase:

The post Spiralizing for weight loss + Meal Plans appeared first on Inspiralized.

Since I’m frequently asked about my health journey and it’s been over a year since I shared an update (my last post about plateauing and contentment was in May 2015), I figured today would be a great day to check in with all of you and share more of my story.

Plus, I didn’t film a video in time for today’s post, so… this is Plan B!

If you missed my other posts about my health journey that started truly in 2014, you can read those posts here:

• My weight loss journey: losing 25 pounds and counting,
• Reaching my goal weight, and
• Finding my happiest self, plateauing and toning up.

I’ve enjoyed sharing about this journey – and I call it a journey, because it truly is a journey – because I’ve loved hearing your similar stories and hearing that my struggles and accomplishments have inspired you in some way. It has inspired me so much over these past couple of years, and I’m so thankful to have all of you as a community.

So, to quickly recap (for those of you who don’t have the time/want to read through my previous three posts). When I first started to watch my diet, it was in January 2014, when I was consistently tipping the scale in the 168 – 175 range. In June of 2014, I looked at myself and said, “You have a cookbook photoshoot coming up – it’s about time you took control of your lifestyle and committed to making it healthier and more sustainable. It’s time you practice what you preach and find that healthy stride.”

Through eating healthy, exercising (HIIT workouts were key!), and a positive mindset, I was able to drop 30 pounds to reach my then goal weight of 140 pounds. This goal weight of mine helped me realize that there are no “end goals,” only goals along the way, along the journey. I’ve had to re-train myself to accept that notion, since I used to be all about the “by this time, I’ll fit into this size” and “by my friend’s wedding, I’ll be this weight.” Once I was at a healthy weight, I started embracing these “goals along the way.”

This mindset is called a lifestyle. The eternal pursuit/embrace of your healthiest self.

My next “goal phase” was the wedding – I wanted to be toned for my wedding dress (hello FLOTUS biceps) and look good in my honeymoon bikinis. Normal stuff. And that was my last check-in: three weeks before my wedding, trying to incorporate more lifting and HIIT to keep toning up. I accomplished my goals and felt incredible during my wedding and honeymoon.

So what have I been up to in the past year and a half? What have I learned? What have my struggles been?

AH. Where do I begin?

A few months after getting married, I noticed my pants getting a little tighter and my face feeling fuller. It was the honeymoon phase – we were so happy to go out and celebrate being married! Unfortunately, that included a lot of indulging and I started getting uncomfortable when dressing to go out at night – I didn’t feel as sexy or good as I did the months prior leading up to my wedding. I hopped on the scale and realized that I had gained weight that put me back in the 150s, a place I vowed never to return to (unless pregnant or extremely jacked, haha!)

I was definitely dejected, but I vowed to get back on track, using the same principles I had used to get on track in the first place – eating cleanly. It’s mostly diet, anyway- you can’t outrun a bad diet, but you can make up for a missed workout by eating a bit more cleanly or consuming less.

This past year was spent finding my healthy stride: finding how many days I can go “off track” before my body changes too much to recover quickly, the foods that keep me sustained for a day, pre and post workout fuel, the times I need to eat throughout the day to keep from crashing and getting cravings, how to survive travel, and how to combat those late-night munchies (my biggest weakness).

I encourage everyone to figure out their “healthy stride” – at what pace of lifestyle are you able to maintain a healthy you?

Now this “healthy you” may not be the HEALTHIEST you, it is just a HEALTHY you. Sure, I could abstain from all alcohol, eat 100% clean, and workout 6 days a week, but I wouldn’t be a healthy me, because I would be unhappy – for me, too much restriction makes me anxious and it backfires: I binge, I get discouraged, and I’m not healthy. So, healthy Ali = balanced Ali.

For me, I realized that if I indulge on a Friday and Saturday, I have to pull the reigns back in on Sundays. So, if I want to have a Sunday funday, I will commit to keeping it low-key on Friday night, or I’ll make sure to keep extra active that week and commit to eating extra clean on Monday and Tuesday to balance out that extra day. This is called balance – you just need to listen to your body and find what works best for you. What I will say is that you can’t let go Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and expect to see changes in your body. You’ll be spending Monday and part of Tuesday recovering, that by the time Wednesday comes, you only have two days to work on your body – that’s not enough to see change.

I learned this from training for the half marathon that I ran this past Saturday (October 8th – you can see my full recap on inspiralizedali.com.) Lu and I ran it together and we didn’t drink or over-indulge on Friday nights for about two months, because we committed to waking up early and refreshed to run our long training runs. It definitely helped having Lu there with me, but I noticed within two weeks that my body was changing quicker than normally and that was because I was fitting in an extra day into my week of healthy eating.

A couple of weeks before the half marathon, I was feeling phenomenal – my clothes were fitting better than ever, my face shined a bit brighter, and my arms looked sleeker in my workout tanks. So, I decided to weigh myself – I was back down to 139, my wedding weight. I was shocked, because I wasn’t even trying to lose weight at the time!

How losing a few pounds during half marathon training has helped me accept my journey even more

Seeing that number on the scale got me excited about the journey for the first time in a long time. It made me believe in the “lifestyle” that much more. It reaffirmed my belief that there is no use in pursing a perfect body. Our bodies will change every single day and embracing that notion makes committing to a healthy lifestyle and maintaining a healthy weight so much easier – and enjoyable. Yes, enjoyable. It’s exciting to know that just within a couple of months, your body can change depending on how you want it to.

I think first, you need to find a weight at which you can sustain and feel healthy at. A weight that isn’t impossible to maintain but a weight that you’re not selling yourself short at. Sure, I could maintain 150 with ease, but I know that my body looks, feels, and performs better near 140-145. I have to put in a bit more effort, but it’s a weight that I can have a bad week (or two) with and not be back to square one. There’s some wiggle room – and I work hard to get that wiggle room!

From that number, you can enjoy the health journey – the ebbs and flows. While you maintain that general weight, your body changes in definition: sleeker, stronger, more flexible, etc. From this weight, you can set goals and have fun with your body – challenge your body to do things you never thought it could do (like running long distances!)

There will be times in my life when I’m fitter, stronger, sleeker, leaner, etc — and that’s okay, as long as I’m maintaining a body that I feel confident in, that’s all that matters.

The next chapter

The race was on Saturday. I’ve spent the past 8-10 weeks doing nothing but running. I’ve probably done a total of 5 strength workouts in these past two months. Compared to my body at this time last year, I’m definitely not toned. I don’t have much definition left in my shoulders, my arms feel softer, and my booty doesn’t look as round (actually, smaller and flatter). However, my legs are leaner and stronger – particularly my calves, they’ve never looked so good!

So, while I’m enjoying showing off my leaner legs, I’m not where I want to be with the rest of my body. And, to all of my points above, that’s okay. Life happens, circumstances change, and priorities change. What’s most important is to never get down on yourself – you should never hate your body, only look at it and say, “Come on, let’s do better!”

While my body got me across that 13.1 mile finish line, I’m ready for the next chapter in my fit journey. This time, it’s all about muscle definition and toning. I want to work really hard to have abs for the first time in my life. I need to make the abs in the gym so all of my hard work in the kitchen reveals them! I’m excited to start a training program towards that goal. I’m setting this goal just for the rest of the year – no end date, I just want to start the New Year in a stronger place!

I’ll be sharing my workouts over at inspiralizedali and @GetInspiralized, so if you’d like to watch my progress (and digressions!), you can follow me over there.

Your questions

I asked you all on Snapchat (username Inspiralized) to submit any questions you have about my healthy journey, so I’m answering them today! Thanks to everyone who asked a question. And for those of you who may have questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer as many as I can!

How do you find the motivation to workout after a long work day (aka sitting for 8 hours)?

If it’s been a super strenuous work day, usually, I skip the workout. Instead, I eat a light dinner and drink a lot of water (like, refill a water bottle at least four times that evening.) This keeps me hydrated, feeling light, and then, almost always, I wake up and workout early, before work. It’s all about waking up with intention and purpose – and when I’m hydrated and my body’s performing well, I’m more likely to jump out of bed (sugar and sodium comas are REAL.) The worst thing you can do is be hard on yourself for missing a workout and overeat or say “eff it” and fall off the wagon. And at the end of the day, if you’re working out at 6am instead of 6pm, it’s only a 12 hour difference, you’re still making the workout happen!

As for sitting for 8 hours straight, I’ve had those days and they stink, but here’s a trick: start the mental motivation at 4pm. Start stretching. Start listening to pump-up jams. Start thinking about your specific workout, think about what healthy meal you’re going to have for dinner afterwards. If all this doesn’t work, just resolve to get to the gym and at least walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes to get your muscles and blood flowing – and then start working in some uphill intervals. That’s better than nothing – and I guarantee you’ll end up working out harder once you’re there. I used to have the mentality “If I can’t go to the gym for 1 hour, what’s the point?” which is the total wrong attitude to have. Literally anything is better than nothing!

How do you motivate yourself to get up in the morning to workout?

A couple things! First, get out of the mindset of “I’ll wakeup at 6am and be out the door by 6:15am.” Your body needs to adjust, wake up, and get amped up! Give yourself at least 30 minutes. I set my coffee on auto-brew, so it goes off at 6:00am and by the time my real alarm goes off (6:15am), a cup of coffee is already brewed. I also leave my phone in the living room so that I have to get up and out of bed to grab it. Once I grab it, I go straight to the coffee machine, pour a cup of coffee, and drink it while I get into my gym clothes. By 6:30am, I’m fully awake, and I get to the gym and am back by 7:30am. I’m also extremely lucky, as there’s a gym in my apartment building, so it’s just a short elevator ride away.

Second, Recently, I’ve been thinking this when I wake up: I think about if I had a flight to make. One day, I had a 5am wakeup call for a flight and I popped right out of bed, started getting ready, and I didn’t waste a minute snoozing. On the car ride to the airport, I looked at Lu and said, “Why is it that I have no problem waking up for a flight but I can’t do it for the gym?” Then I realized: it’s all about urgency! How badly do you want to be in shape? How badly do you want to look and feel your best? If it’s that important to you, it’s urgent – so, get up! Literally force yourself to think about it that way. It’s all about the mindset!

I have a hard time with being in the grey, meaning I either eat super healthy for 4 or 5 days and then go nuts for 4 or 5 days. How do you balance it all out?

Well, first off, let me say: I’ve been there. That used to be me, all the time. Then, I decided to make healthy eating a priority and a lifestyle, and I haven’t looked back since. When committing to the lifestyle, I found certain “tricks” that work for me. I have a strict 3-day rule for myself, that I’ve found gives me lenience when I need it, but doesn’t sacrifice my overall fit goals. I don’t let myself fall off track for more than 3 days. For example, if I’m having a bad start to the week and don’t eat well Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, that next day (Wednesday), I commit to having 5 clean days. I never waver from this rule and it has helped me indulge when I need some comfort time, while maintaining my overall weight. I pull the 3-day card probably once a month and that’s it. It’s just a personal rule that I stick to, because I’ve found it works for me. Experiment and find what works for you.

I’m curious to know if you count macros as part of your ongoing health journey?

No, I don’t do any macro counting. None of it. The only time I think about macros/nutritional calculating, it’s for when I’m putting it together for this blog, because I know many of you use those metrics to help your goals. However, I do not. At all.

What do you do on days where you’re struggling to feel motivated?

I answered this question above (re: how do you stay motivated on a long 8-hour work day), but I wanted to add a little something else. Having my @GetInspiralized fitness account has helped me tremendously in my journey. When I’m not motivated to get to the gym, I look at some of my before and after photos or progress photos. Using myself as my own inspiration is more attainable and realistic than scrolling through a fitness star’s Instagram, because, hey, their entire existence is based on exercise and to look their best! I really recommend taking photos of yourself – and you don’t need to make your account public, just have it for yourself, as a way to catalog your journey. Trust me, it’s motivating, especially on those days that you don’t want to work out. Once you see progress, you don’t want to stop and it truly becomes a lifelong commitment!

Favorite healthy snacks and on-the-go breakfasts?

For on-the-go breakfasts, it’s usually a KIND breakfast bar (I’m obsessed with this flavor) with some fruit like an apple or a banana. My other go-to is packing a banana and a single serving pack of Justin’s Almond Butter – that’s actually what I had right before the half marathon, because I didn’t have time to make breakfast before the race – it was a pack and go situation. As for healthy snacks, I love turmeric lattes (really into this right now), lightly salted popcorn, rice cakes, fruit, roasted veggies (I meal prep roasted veggies so I have them on hand!), good ‘ole hummus and celery, my daily Kombucha (I love GT’s) 100 calorie packs of almonds (because I suck at portion control) or just leftovers – honestly, having healthy leftovers in the fridge is my favorite way to satisfy a craving, even if it’s a leftover spiralized dish – just a few forkfuls and I’m satisfied.

Wondering how or if you drink alcohol or limit yourself to certain days of the week only?

Yes, I drink alcohol. I love vodka and sugar-free grapefruit juice with club soda, and I love wine. I don’t drink that much beer unless I’m at a place where it’s kind of the point (like a German beer garden or a place where craft brews are the thing), because I don’t like the way it makes me feel anymore. But yes, I drink. I try consciously not to drink Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, but usually there’s some social event that’s happening and I’ll drink for the occasion, but I rarely have a drink just to have a drink (ie with dinner.) I try to keep my drinking down to the weekends only (and the occasional Wednesday or Thursday), but life does happen. For example, tonight I’m going out on a date with Lu, and there will definitely be wine had with dinner. If I had to guess the amount of drinks I have while out for a night, it varies, but when Lu and I go out, we always order a bottle of wine together, so. I don’t count alcohol into my overall healthy lifestyle, because it’s something I do socially — and to me, spending time with my friends and loved ones is more important than a waist size.

Curious how many hours a week you spend working out!

It definitely varies! For instance, when I was training for the half marathon, I was running for 45 minutes each day at the very least (some days were 1+ hours running.) However, when I’m not training for anything specific and it’s just day-to-day normal working out, I’d say I try to always do 45 minutes at the gym, 5 days a week. That’s my minimum, but I usually squeeze in a Saturday or Sunday workout, so it ends up being 6. So, 3-4 hours a week?

 Did you have to change your eating at all to train [for your half marathon]?

Aside from eating more carbs than normal on the night before a long run, not by much. I definitely made sure to have a fueling snack before a run, whether that was a banana with almond butter or a handful of nuts and raisins, which I wasn’t having before. But overall, nope!

What’s your go-to healthy dish when you’re in a rush?

For dinner? Probably spaghetti and meatballs, haha! I always have healthy vegetarian and turkey meatballs in the freezer, so I’ll pour some sauce (my favorite is Victoria Fine Foods – clean ingredient friendly) into a skillet with the meatballs and let them heat up while I spiralize and cook some veggies, like sweet potatoes or zucchini. Serve it up with some crusty whole grain bread and voila – dinner in 15 minutes! Otherwise, I usually have pre-cooked lentils and roasted veggies in the fridge (part of my meal prep), and I’ll heat them up while I fry up an egg and then I’ll just drop the veggies and lentils with the egg!

Now, what better time for those of you who are in a similar situation to recharge yourself and find that healthy stride? Join me! There’s nothing like a Wednesday to get you going!

The post My Health Journey: Checking In & Starting the Next Chapter appeared first on Inspiralized.

I’m so excited to announce this new series called #GetInspiralized.

With this new series, I’ll be interviewing different people and talking about how spiralizing has or can affect their lifestyles.

Before I get into it, yes, I have to admit, this was Lu’s idea. I can’t take the credit, so if you all enjoy this series, you know who to thank.

The idea is this: spiralizing has the ability to completely transform the way we perceive and eat vegetables. But it doesn’t stop there – spiralizing has the power to change someone’s lifestyle completely.

For example, it totally changed my life – I quit my job, started this blog and even lost 30 pounds.

There’s something magical about spiralizing. It gets people excited about cooking and being in the kitchen, because it’s actually fun and revolutionary. It bans veggie boredom and introduces people to a new way of thinking about a healthy lifestyle.

Sometimes, I think this blog is too “much ado about Ali.” I mean, I get it, it’s MY blog, but I want to include other types of people, in different stages of their lives with different challenges. After all, I am a little biased

My hope with this series is that I not only feature people who already spiralize but also feature those who don’t spiralize and show them how it can help them build a healthier diet!

So who’s first up? Let me first introduce my friend Edgar H, who will be kicking off this series. Edgar is a friend of mine through Lu. Edgar is one of Lu’s best friends – they went to college together at The University of Massachusetts – Amherst and then lived together in New York City, post-college. Edgar’s got one of the biggest hearts and I’ve always considered him like a brother. He’s got a wonderful, beautiful family and he treats his mother with extreme respect (a good sign for a man.)

He’s kind-hearted, smart, and has always been on top of trends. He’s composed and confident. He works in Sales & Marketing for a major media company based in NYC and is very successful and takes his work very seriously, but isn’t one of those workaholics, consumed by his career, which I respect. It’s all about that #balance. However, he does travel a lot and has mentioned that it can be tough to stay on track with a healthy diet, on account of airport food and client dinners and drinks.

If that wasn’t enough, Edgar’s also very, very handsome and stylish. Very GQ, if I may say so myself. Actually, his mother was born in Mexico, so he’s got that Latin vibe (like Lu!) He’s pretty much the ultimate package and as I teased on Instagram, nothing would make me happier than for him to find a lovely, healthy and confident woman who’s not only gorgeous on the outside, but on the inside.

Edgar’s a bachelor living in New York City, so he couldn’t offer more of a different perspective than me on living healthy and therefore a perfect fit for this series. Meet Edgar…

#GetInspiralized with Edgar H.

The successful bachelor living in New York City. A total swipe right.

The Basics

Name? 
Edgar H.

How old are you?
37 years young.

What do you do for a living?
I’m the SVP of Brand Partnerships for a media company. I run the sales organization to bring creative marketing ideas to Fortune 500 companies looking to tap into youth culture.

Where did you grow up?
Los Angeles and New Jersey.

Where do you live, currently?
Gramercy, New York.

Do you have a life motto? If so, what is it?
Keep Growing. I never want to stop growing, and learning.

What’s your favorite trait about yourself?
My ability to put myself in other people’s shoes, and see the world through their eyes. It helps give me different perspectives.

Cooking & Eating with Edgar Hernandez

Do you like to cook? If not, why not?
I like the idea of cooking, but don’t do it enough. I’m running around so much that I don’t get a chance to do it as often as I would like. I definitely love the ceremony of cooking though.

What do you make best/what’s your favorite recipe to make?
I’ve learned how to make my family’s salsa – which I can eat every day.

What’s the one kitchen tool in your kitchen that currently gets used the most?
My teapot.

The world is ending. What would be your last meal?
For sure my Mom’s Mexican food. She kills it with the rice, beans, and Mole. There’s no close second.

What food items are always in your fridge and/or pantry?
Right now I’m on an avocado kick where I cut them in half and add a little salt and hot sauce.

What’s a typical day of eating look like for you?
Currently I’m going with a quinoa bowl with eggs for breakfast, sushi/Little Beet/Quinoa Bowl/Salad for lunch, and dinner always changes.

Getting healthy with Edgar Hernandez

For you, what’s the hardest thing about keeping a consistent, healthy diet?
I do client entertaining a couple times a week and it’s hard not eat the bread basket.

What do you do to stay healthy and balanced?
I work out about 4-5 times a week, and recently started meditating, which is a great boost of energy and clarity. I also started a hiking and surf club with some friends.

What is your fitness regimen?
I run a lot – I’ve done a couple half marathons. I also have done Spartan races, which are really hard. I like to change it up every six months.

Getting Inspiralized with Edgar Hernandez

Do you spiralize?
Yes, I do spiralize. It’s made cooking easy for someone like me who is looking to eat well, but not looking to spend an hour cooking every night.

How did you learn about spiralizing?
I learned from you and Lu! You guys turned me on to it.

How has spiralizing impacted your diet?
It has helped me sneak in more vegetables.

How many times per week do you spiralize?
Right now, probably like once a month, if I’m not traveling too much.

What’s your favorite vegetable to spiralize?
I’m definitely going with zucchini every time.

What’s your favorite recipe/dish to make with the spiralizer?
I like zucchini with tomato sauce and some type of protein.

To you, what’s the best thing about spiralizing?
It’s super easy to use, quick, healthy, and that you’re behind it. [Ali: aww, shucks Edgar]

That’s it! Thank you so much to Edgar for being my first interviewee. I hope everyone enjoyed the first installment of this series! If you’d like to ask Edgar anything, learn more about him or you know, buy him a drink (ha!), e-mail me and I’ll put you in touch!

Sneak Peek: Next month’s #getinspiralized interview

Ben and Felicia, a young 20-something couple living in Jersey City. He wants pasta, she wants spiralized veggies. How does she deal? Find out next month!

The post Introducing the #GetInspiralized Series with Edgar appeared first on Inspiralized.

I’ve been meaning to post a weight loss journey update post, after posting about reaching my goal weight. A lot has changed since then – my goals, my mantra, my attitude, and my focus.

So today, I’m sharing with you what has happened since reaching my goal weight, in hopes that I’ll again inspire many of you who are on a similar journey.

Spoiler alert: there are some before/after bikini pictures!

As a refresher, in case you didn’t read my original post, I started off around 170 pounds. I was a yo-yo dieter for most of my life and ranged from 188 to 128. Actually, Women’s Health magazine featured my story, in case you want more details. I had set a goal weight of 140 pounds and I met that goal in January of this year.

And you can track my sweaty post-gym selfies on my @GetInspiralized Instagram, if you aren’t already.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE REACHING MY GOAL WEIGHT

If you asked me what I weighed now, I couldn’t tell you exactly – I’d probably guess between 140 and 145, and let me tell you why I somewhat ditched the scale.

After reaching my goal weight, I also fit comfortable into a size 4, size smalls and could re-wear a lot of my old clothing that I had tucked away deeply into my closet.

I treated myself to some new clothes, which awakened in me a new sense of style – I was proud to show off my body and my curves and I ditched the flowy tunics for slim fitting sweaters and t-shirts. I easily buttoned low-rise skinny jeans and wasn’t afraid to show off my arms in tank tops.

I found myself content. I went from a size 31/32 to a 26/27 and a size Large to a Small. That was a huge accomplishment and I decided that before I reset my goals, I’ll easy up on the intense workout schedule and build in more leniency in my diet.

Most importantly, I enjoyed going out and wearing my cute new outfits and instead of looking around the room and feeling out of shape and uncomfortable, I felt the exact opposite – I wanted to move about the room, go out more and see more people!

At my bachelorette party in May, I wore my bikini proudly and didn’t feel one bout of insecurity. In the bikini picture (eek!) below, the right shows me at my bachelorette and the left shows me in July 2013:

When I went to events, I wore loud dresses, because I was proud of my body and my physique and felt confident. There’s no greater feeling! Here’s a before and after from two separate weddings (before on the left at 163 pounds and after on the right, about 145):

My biggest piece of advice for anyone who is on a weight loss journey and wants it to last: enjoy your goal milestones. You deserve it! I’m not saying that for every pound you lose, you go out and eat a cake. I’m saying that if you set yourself a big goal and you reach it, give yourself a bit of a break and enjoy your new body.

It’s important to love our bodies at every stage of the game. Without self love, all we have is hatred, resentment and disappointment – which are not encouraging feelings when you’re trying to be the most confident and happiest version of yourself. When I think back on every time I housed a bag of Pepperidge Farms cookies, it was because I was stressed, unhappy or disappointed in myself.

So, self love = a better, happier, stronger, fitter and more positive you!

As a woman, I can’t recommend enough to incorporate strength training into your routine. Honestly, lifting weights has given me a newfound confidence and inner strength. I love seeing my muscles defining, it’s empowering and frankly, a more fun way to focus on incremental body change:

Now, what happened when I became a bit more lenient with my workouts/diet? I teetered between 140 and 145 from January to now.

That’s it. Five pounds.

Clearly, I had found my comfortable weight, the weight my body says, “Okay, we can do this.”

Then, I started plateauing. The dreaded plateau. Plateauing is when you reach a point where either the scale doesn’t move or you don’t see a visible change in your body. Plateauing can definitely be discouraging – you’re putting in hours a week at the gym, but the scale won’t budge or your arms don’t seem to be any more toned.

So, I took to Instagram. I started looking through older pictures when I was at my goal weight and pictures of my 145 self and realized: I was gaining muscle and toning up. That extra weight was from muscle! My shoulders were more defined, my arms were stronger and my booooty was lifting up!

I started amping up the weight lifting and training sessions. I started doing more Tone It Up workouts after my 30 minutes of cardio. I did abs, arms and more lower-body HIIT moves to rev my metabolism and get that change I wanted. I definitely started beating that plateau and seeing progress, like with my arms in this:

However, I was still yearning for a bigger change in the way my body looked and felt. In light of my impending wedding and honeymoon, I knew that I wanted to tone up.

I wanted strong legs, strong arms, a strong back and a higher metabolism. I wanted to have strong arms in my wedding dress and then rock that bikini on my honeymoon!

SETTING GOALS AND WHY THEY ARE ONLY TEMPORARY

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my body and mind are a work in progress. Although I reached my “goal weight,” I knew I had a lot of work to do before I reached my so-called “dream body.”

My goal weight was exactly that: a goal. It was a goal made at a certain time in my life when I needed a number on the scale to keep me motivated toward slimming down. I needed that number, I needed that reassurance that my body was indeed changing, no matter how minute. The scale was my friend, not my enemy – and we became closer, the harder I worked.

Something that’s important to keep in mind is that our bodies are different every single day. They react differently, they look differently, they perform differently and they feel differently.

So, even though I made a goal weight of 140 back in January of 2014 doesn’t mean that today, at 7:00am on May 28, 2015, I have that same goal. My body has changed, different milestones in my life have happened, and my goals are now a bit different.

ACCEPT YOURSELF AS A WORK IN PROGRESS

Don’t ever say “by this date, I will have my dream body.” Just forget it! Instead, say, “by this date, I will be a healthier version of myself by X, Y and Z.”

For example, “by July 1st, I will be a healthier version of myself by eating clean meals during the week and making it to the gym 5 days a week.”

Incremental changes are more powerful than that end goal – take it from someone who made it to their “goal” and was more moved by the smaller victories than the big one.

If you let yourself reach a certain goal, you’ll lack inspiration to push forward and keep being a better version of yourself. Every day, you should strive to be a better person – that doesn’t necessarily need to be about health, it can be about anything (work, family, relationships, etc).

Regardless, we’re all works in progress – embrace it!

RESETTING YOUR GOALS

My new goal is based on this point in my life: my wedding is in a little more than 3 weeks (23 days to be exact!)

Instead of saying, “OMG, I have to lose 5 more pounds before my wedding or I’ll dieeeeee!” I’m saying this:

My goal is to increase my workouts to 6 days a week (now I’m at about 4, maybe 5) and incorporate each of the following into every workout:

• At least 30 minutes of intense cardio or HIIT
• At least 30 minutes of lifting and toning exercises

So today, I start that goal – I have 23 days to reach this goal. Let’s see how my body can change in those 23 days! Follow along at @GetInspiralized, always.

I’m going to call it my “fit” journey instead of my “weight loss” journey.

I’ve realized that throughout starting Inspiralized and starting my own weight loss journey, something I’ve enjoyed most is inspiring others to reach their health goals. Every time I see a post on my Instagram that says, “I saw this picture and then I went to the gym!” I smile and feel a rush of happiness immediately. Maybe I was a health coach or a personal trainer in my previous life, because I really enjoy helping others feel great about themselves.

To be totally honest, sometimes, when I’m unmotivated to make a workout or eat healthy, I reread the comments from my weight loss journey blog posts and I see how I’ve encouraged others – this kicks my butt in gear! So, THANK YOU for helping me in my journey.

With this, I’m curious – would you like to see more of these updates? I’ve been fooling around with the idea of starting a small offset of this blog that would be dedicated to more health and fitness – from the perspective of someone who isn’t a certified fitness instructor.

SO, LET ME KNOW – IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT MY FIT JOURNEY? ASK IN THE COMMENTS AND I’LL DO MY BEST TO RESPOND!

The post WEIGHT LOSS UPDATE: PLATEAUING, CONTENTMENT AND TONING UP appeared first on Inspiralized.

I mentioned on my @GetInspiralized Instagram account the other week that today, I’d talk about my weight loss journey and give an update. If you haven’t read my original post, check that out here.

Unfortunately, I have to postpone this post for an even MORE exciting post a little later on. However, I wanted to share (because I just can’t keep it in!) that I finally reached my goal weight!

Starting at 168.5 at almost 5’8″, I wasn’t happy with my body. This morning, I woke up and weighed myself and to my happy surprise, I have finally reached my original goal weight of 140!

A photo posted by Ali Maffucci (@getinspiralized) on Jan 15, 2015 at 4:51am PST

That’s a total of 28.5 pounds lost since January 2014. Yes, since January 2014. As in, 12 months.

That just goes to show that a healthier you doesn’t take place as a diet. It takes place as a lifestyle. Sure, there were weeks that went by where I gained a couple pounds, or a weekend when I really got off track.

There were nights that I just had to eat a tub of almond butter. I’m human, I’m a woman, and I love food (clearly.) BUT, alongside those “weaker” moments, there were more “strong” moments where I worked my butt off at the gym, turned down the bread basket, chose fruit over chips as an after dinner snack and said no to that second piece of dark chocolate, even though I desperately “needed” it.

It’s tough. Losing weight is about balance – outweighing those “weak” moments with the “strong” ones. There are three major elements that have helped me reach this goal weight:

1) Turning my weight loss journey into a lifestyle and not saying “by this date I will be this weight.” Of course, I set goals, but when I didn’t reach them, they didn’t discourage me – they motivated me.

2) Finding my fitness stride, as in finding a fitness routine that I loved and made me look forward to working out, not dread it. Now, when I miss a spin class or a weights session, I don’t say to myself, “Ugh, I’m going to gain weight now,” I say, “Oh man, I really wanted to work out and get a good sweat on, oh well – tomorrow’s workout’s gonna be even better!”

3) Starting my mornings off with a green protein smoothie, using ALOHA’s new superfood protein powders.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, ALOHA protein powder products have been recalled. Please read about the recall here. I believe that ALOHA will do everything in their power to correct this unfortunate situation. We can only wish good health to anyone who might have been affected.

My morning smoothies aren’t just something I like to snap pictures of on Instagram, they’re an integral part of my mornings. They power me up with tastiness and protein so that I’m focused and clear through the morning, setting a productive pace for the rest of the day.

The reason I love ALOHA so much is because of their strict “free of anything artificial” policy – I feel safe using their protein powders every day in my smoothie. Aside from providing 18 grams of plant-based protein, they’re vegan, non-gmo, gluten-free, soy-free, totally organic and made with sustainable materials (like their packaging!).

Every time I share my green smoothie pics on Instagram, I always get asked, “What’s in it?!” Today, I’m sharing the recipe! Well, I use a Nutribullet (I can’t live without it – I even use it to make pasta sauces!)

MOVING FORWARD: NEW GOALS

Now that I’ve reached my goal weight, I’m going to be focused on maintaining and focusing on toning, which I’ve neglected a bit in the past couple of months. I want to start an ab challenge, do more squats and lunges and get those much-desired toned wedding arms!

Now, like I said, I’m going to be sharing a much more in-depth weight loss update post with before and after bikini pictures and answers to all of the following questions. Stay tuned for that, because I’m going to pour my heart out. Sorry for not having it for you today!

• What are your exercise routines?
• Did you drink wine?
• Can you share what you ate and your typical meal plans?
• I would find helpful your ideas for spiralized snacks – post workout or at night
• I would like to see something about what parts about your old life you found difficult to overcome! Like food cravings etc.
• I would love to read about how you maintained will power through your journey–any tips or tricks to overcome a temptations/cravings?
• I don’t cook – at all and it makes it hard. What should I start off with? What can I make that I can bring to lunch?
• Would love to know how you stayed motivated, what foods were difficult to stay away from and how you kept yourself from indulging in them?
• Can you mention how you handle nights out with friends, going out to dinner, etc? How do you resist healthy items on restaurant menus?
• Are there any prep ahead suggestions for those of us on the fly? Or super quick recipes?
• Morning routine! How you schedule your workouts especially in terms of meal/snack planning
• What would you say your average day is like in terms of eating? What do you eat?
• How many hours a week did you workout to get to your goal? What made a bigger difference, working out more or your change in diet?

Be sure to ask me anything you don’t see listed above and would like to know in that future post!

MY ALOHA GREEN PROTEIN SMOOTHIE

Actually, I usually just use 1/2 an ALOHA vanilla protein powder packet, since I often use the remainder later on during the day for a quick, powerful snack! Plus, protein powders can be pricey, so it’s a great way to make the packets last!

Serving: 16oz smoothie

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ice cubes
• 1/2 cup PACKED spinach (I usually eyeball it by using 1 large handful of spinach leaves)
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup frozen blueberries (I freeze fresh blueberries myself)
• 1/2 frozen large banana, sliced into chunks (I freeze fresh bananas myself)
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 1/2 packet Vanilla-flavored ALOHA protein powder
• 1/3 cup water or more, enough to reach your preferred consistency (I don’t like thick smoothies)

Directions Place all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth, about 30 seconds – 1 minute, depending on the power of the blender. Add more water, if needed, to reach your preferred consistency.

ALOHA GIVEAWAY

ALOHA is giving away one lucky Inspiralized reader a 7-day supply of their chocolate and green protein powders! Trust me, you’re going to want these: they’re delicious and clearly very helpful if you’re trying to lose or maintain your weight. Open to US addresses only, giveaway ends January 21, 2015 at 11:59pm EST. Good luck!

Disclaimer: Although this post was sponsored by ALOHA, all opinions are my own. I’d never endorse a product, person or brand that I didn’t believe in! 

UPDATE: Unfortunately, ALOHA protein powder products have been recalled. Please read about the recall here. I believe that ALOHA will do everything in their power to correct this unfortunate situation. We can only wish good health to anyone who might have been affected.

Would you like to add any other questions for me to address in this future post? Let me know in the comments! 

The post THOUGHTS ON FINALLY REACHING MY GOAL WEIGHT + ALOHA GIVEAWAY appeared first on Inspiralized.

You might want to bookmark this post, print it out, or save it for a weekend morning when you have time to waste. Or, grab a bowl of popcorn, lean back and get to scrollin’.

Why?

I’ve never been a short-winded person. I’m terrible at keeping this “short and sweet.” I love to talk, write and explain. And today, of all days, I’m especially verbose, because I’m pouring my heart out about my personal weight loss journey.

Journey? Yes, a journey, because it’s ever-evolving and it has taken me quite a while to get the point I am at today. I’m sharing my story in hopes that I’ll inspire others. After posting up my gym selfies on my Inspiralized and GetInspiralized Instagram, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my diet and exercise, so, I figured what better way than to share that on the blog? Besides, I don’t think IG can handle this many words – and it’s too tough to type this all out on an iPhone!

Hmm. Where to start? It was a cold and rainy— ha, just kidding! I’m going to start by talking about my general weight journey and then get into the nitty gritty of how I lost weight, how I stayed on track and what my goals are now.

If you want to skip the background story, scroll to the section on “Taking Control.”

Let me preface this entire post by saying that there is no printable on “how to lose weight.” Losing weight isn’t short term, it’s forever – it’s a lifestyle. Once you lose the weight, you have to maintain. I’m not going to say “do X, Y and Z, and you’ll be skinny!”

I’ve never believed in Britney Spear’s “Work Bitch” song more than now, after truly committing to losing weight. There are absolutely no short cuts. I work my butt off at every work out to the point where I’m dripping sweat everywhere AND I have to give up some of the yummier things in life, at least on a daily basis (as you’ll learn, I definitely indulge.)

Disclaimer: Of course, I’m not a certified nutritionist, I’m certainly not a doctor (I got a C in Chemistry) and I don’t have any training to offer medical advice. This post is intended to share my own personal journey and meant to inspire and incite motivation in others. Please consult your doctor before making any massive changes in your lifestyle.

BEFORE GETTING HEALTHY: YO-YO DIETING AND WEIGHT GAIN

Once I quit my corporate job on June 25, 2013 to pursue my dreams with Inspiralized, my life was turned upside down. No longer did I have a schedule where I had to be certain places at certain times. No longer did I have to eat at certain hours, around a work schedule. No longer was I walking a couple of miles to work and back every day. No longer was I making a steady income, so I couldn’t meet friends out as much as before. When I sat down at the coffee shop on June 26, 2013 and started Inspiralized.com (the day after I quit my job!), I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen with my life – there were a lot of things up in the air. My adrenaline was pumping and I was full steam ahead.

Unfortunately, I neglected my self in the process. While I was immensely proud about my blog, I wasn’t proud of my body. It was hard for me to get motivated to go to the gym, when I had sat down the whole day blogging or if I had stood up the whole day cooking. I told myself that it was more important to work on the blog than my body – that my body will always be there, but my blog only has one shot to be as successful as I want it to be.

Often times, since I was in my kitchen the whole day, I was haunted by the pantry. No one was around and no one could see what I was eating or doing. While I was eating healthy things, I wasn’t practicing portion control. I would snack all day long, housing peanut butter and banana sandwiches, bags of pistachios and tubs of hummus with pita. By the time Lu got home, I was so bloated and upset with myself, I had no motivation to go to the gym. Instead, again, I turned to food and would eat an entire bag of popcorn.

I would buy a size 6, hoping I’d fit into it if I “just eat healthy for two weeks, I’ll lose 15 pounds.” It was ludicrous. I was tipping the scale at 177 in November of 2013 and my uniform was Lululemon spandex and a baggy t-shirt. Even when I did go out, I had to wear spandex and chunky sweaters out, because that’s all I had, since I refused to buy the proper clothes for my heavy self. I went to the gym very sporadically and never consistently – I’d go for 4 days straight, then skip two weeks. I wanted a quick fix, like we all do.

[The above picture was taken at a 5k race that I could barely finish, in June 2013, probably around 167]

Prior to starting this journey, I had an unhealthy relationship with food. I let it control my life and I upset many friends. I would cancel plans if I had eaten poorly that day, because I didn’t want to show my bloated self to people. I would cancel plans if I had eaten healthy that day, because I didn’t want to “ruin” my “good day.” It was not only selfish, but it was foolish – there’s more to life than being skinny. Having said that, there’s a way you can have it all (my point is coming soon, I promise!)

TAKING CONTROL

The worst part about my struggles with my weight is that I was running a healthy food blog! I was telling my readers that eating Inspiralized was healthy (it is!) and it promotes weight loss (it does!) yet I wasn’t practicing what I was preaching – I was closet binge eating on top of eating these delicious Inspiralized meals. I was absolutely out of control, because I was in denial – “Oh, it’s tough working from home, I’m so busy with the blog I rather work on it than go to the gym.”

Then, 6 months into Inspiralized, in January 2014 hit, I wrote this post about going on a weight loss journey. I started the journey at 168.5 pounds. My goal? 135/140.

By June, I had lost about 12 pounds in 5 months, just by starting to exercise more frequently. I still wasn’t eating as healthy nor exercising as consistently as I could have been – there would be three days straight where I didn’t work out and housed a loaf of bread while sitting at my desk working. I actually wrote a post then about how I was living a healthier lifestyle, as I was – but I still wasn’t making the total change I needed to be at my healthiest.

I ended this part of my journey at about 156 pounds. I was feeling much better than where I had started at 168, but I still hadn’t hit my goal and I just wanted sustainable balance, and I wanted to feel comfortable with my body once and for all. It was the same yo-yo dieting I had done in previous years – nothing had truly changed. I could feel myself climbing back up to 168, some days waking up at 162 after a “bad” weekend.

Enter June 2014. I was starting to make arrangements for my cookbook photoshoot, where I personally would be photographed, in a kitchen, eating my healthy recipes. I had worked so hard on building Inspiralized and creating a community where people looked forward to my healthy, satisfyingly delicious recipes. I worked hours and hours, sacrificed so much to get to the point where I was living my dream, writing my own cookbook and had a professional photographer to photograph my recipes and me.

I wasn’t going to throw that all away for a bag of Stacy’s pita chips or a pint of Talenti. I wasn’t going to let my lazy, selfish behavior get in the way of my one shot at my dreams. How could I feel bloated and uncomfortable while photographing a cookbook that’s promoting healthy eating? It made absolutely no sense and I was ashamed that I had let myself get to this point. Luckily, I had all these healthy recipes at my fingertips – I just needed to stop all the other nonsense!

So, the cookbook shoot date was set for the last week of August, right before Labor Day. That gave me about 3 months to take control.

BUILDING A PLAN

Enter June 4, 2014. I opened up my Instagram account @GetInspiralized. I was nervous, embarrassed and afraid, but I knew I had to hold myself accountable. I told myself that I would take a workout selfie every time I worked out (very few times I forgot) and I would talk about what I did and how I felt. I would try to take similar poses, so I could visually see my progress, as I lost weight. I also told myself I’d periodically check in on the scale and take a picture.

So, I set a weight loss goal: I wanted to weigh 140/145 pounds. Maybe I’d lose weight beyond that, but I knew myself and the type of figure I wanted to maintain and 140/145 seemed like an attainable and healthy weight for my curvy, 5’8” frame. I figured I’d start there and reassess once I hit that goal, based on how I felt and how my clothes fit. Keep in mind I started at 168, so this would be a total of almost 30 pounds lost.

My plan?
– Start exercising consistently
– Take control of my eating

EXERCISE

Aside from that, I decided to take control of my workout behavior. I resolved to work out at least 5 days a week and be consistent. To me, 5 days in a row consistently seemed daunting, but after I posted up my first picture on @GetInspiralized, I knew there was no turning back – I was blessed with the chance to make something of Inspiralized, I wasn’t going to ruin it and I was going to enlist my loyal, supportive followers to inspire me and keep me accountable.

In this resolution, I knew I needed a workout plan that worked for me. I must have spent hours and hours researching workouts to build an Ali-friendly workout plan that I printed out and brought to the gym (and still bring to the gym!) I went to all of my favorite fitness magazines and blogs and most importantly, Tone It Up. Tone It Up’s videos and daily motivational e-mails and community kept me going – I never felt bored and if I did, I could always visit their YouTube or their blog and find a newly posted video to build into my workouts.

The key? Lifting weights. To be honest, I had never lifted weights before (I was always a cardio girl with maybe 10 minutes of lazy machine lifting.) I had never done squats or lunges – no body weight lifting. Just, cardio.

Once I started building weight lifting into my workouts (just 10-15 minutes at first), I almost immediately (as in, 3 days) saw a change in my body: I’d pass a window and see a little glimmer of a tricep muscle and I saw the tone in my calves. It was so motivating, that I WANTED to go to the gym, excited to see what my body could do next. I realized that all of these years, I had been dreading the gym because I thought that if I didn’t run a certain number of miles and spend a certain amount of minutes on cardio, I wouldn’t lose weight. Quite the contrary, I found out (and that’s my own ignorance about fitness, clearly!)

[Above picture taken on June 11, 2014, 1 week into my @GetInspiralized account]

I started making mini goals, such as “by next week, I’ll be able to do 30 squats in a row.” Keeping these mini goals pushed me to get to the gym every day to reach those goals. I wrote them all down and made sure to build in the proper exercises into my workouts to meet those goals. Also, I changed it up every single day. My cardio generally stayed the same, but I did a different weight lifting routine each day, to keep my body guessing and to keep my interest levels up.

Here’s a sample workout, which took me about 45 minutes – 1 hour at the gym, depending on how hard I pushed myself and if I added a few extras or stopped early for whatever reason:

30 minutes cardio
– usually running or intense HIIT training

Repeat 2-3 times
15 reps – squats with 15 pound dumbbells
30 seconds – jumping alternating lunges
20 reps – deadlifts with 20 pound deadlifts

Repeat 2-3 times
15 reps – bicep curls with 10-15 pound weights
15 reps – tricep dips
10 reps – pushups

Repeat 2-3 times
1 minute – treadmill lunges
45 seconds – plank
30 seconds – kettlebell swings

Repeat 2-3 times
15 reps – chest press with 10 pounds
15 reps – Russian situps with kettlebell
15 reps – shoulder press with 10 pounds

In the middle of June, this amazing woman from Under Armour noticed my fit journey and she kindly sent me some amazing workout gear to use while I worked towards my goals. Wearing their gear empowered me – I felt like an athlete, I looked like one and most importantly, I was excited to get to the gym and show off my cool outfits. I was also comfortable working out – their spandex are incredible and their ribbed tank tops (wearing one in the picture below) are amazingly flattering. I loved wearing these to the gym, showing off my arms that were slowly becoming stronger and stronger.

[Left – June 21, 2014 and Right – October 22, 2014]

Then, towards the end of June, my building’s gym got two Peloton bikes. For those of you who don’t know, Peloton is a company that sells spinning bikes but also has a NYC studio. On each bike, there’s this beautiful, high-def flat TV screen where you can live-stream classes from the NYC studio OR you can watch prerecorded classes.

I had always been a huge fan of Soul Cycle and spinning in general. On a blogger budget, though, it’s sometimes tough to make it to those classes, since they can run upwards of $40 all-in. I was so excited to see spin bikes in my gym, so I hopped on.

Immediately, I became hooked. This accelerated my weight loss, because I started spinning 4/5 of those workout days – each class burns about 600-700 calories! Also, I discovered Robin Arzon, who is an incredible inspiration – she quit her job as a successful corporate lawyer to pursue her dream of breaking limits in the fitness world. She’s also diabetic (like my mom!), Puerto Rican (like Lu!) and of course, she’s going for it (like me!) Check out her Instagram. Seriously, having her inspirational pictures pop up on my feed kept me going on days when I thought I couldn’t.

Once I’m at my goal (140 lbs!), I’m going to treat myself to a spin class in their NYC studio. One of Robin’s classes, of course.

EATING INSPIRALIZED

You can work out all you want, but if your diet isn’t there, you’re not going to see the results you want. You are what you eat. What you eat in private, you wear in public. These sayings are 100% true.

I knew I had to nourish myself in order to keep consistent with those 5 days of working out. In the past, as you read, I would workout and not eat enough, leading to binge eating and lack of motivation or energy for future workouts.

[Above picture was taken on August 6, 2014 to show the progress in my leg muscles]

I’m a little different, because I have to taste multiple things on the days that I cook for the blog. On those days, I’d try to eat one less snack during the day, to compensate for those extra calories.

So, I started eating Inspiralized, since that was what I knew best. I’d eat something spiralized for both lunch and dinner, since I knew I’d feel full, nourished and energized after those meals thanks to the fiber in the vegetables. For breakfast, I always had a protein green smoothie. For snacks, I alternated depending on what I had bought that week to keep me prepared. Instead of explaining, let me show you a sample meal plan on an average day:

Breakfast (8:30 – 10am)
– 2 cups of coffee with almond milk
– Green protein smoothie: almond milk, ice, water, ½ frozen banana, handful of frozen blueberries, about a cup of fresh spinach, 1 scoop of vanilla plant protein powder

Snack (11-11:30am)
– a piece of fruit (1 apple, 1 peach, etc)

Lunch (12:30-1pm)
– Collard green wrap with turkey, mustard, spiralized zucchini, carrots, cucumbers, onions, alfalfa sprouts OR a bowl of beet noodles with tomatoes, feta and chickpeas OR this detox recipe.

Snack (3pm)
– 100 calorie pack of pistachios or hummus and carrots or almonds and raisin mixture
– Coffee with almond milk

Pre workout snack (4:30/5pm)
– One of the following: Spoonful of almond butter (straight from the tub!) OR Slice of whole wheat bread with a mashed half banana OR Hard boiled egg OR ¼ cup of Greek yogurt with a couple tablespoons of granola

Dinner (7:30pm)
– Something Inspiralized! A favorite mid-week go to is my Bikini Bolognese which I usually eat alongside a piece of bread for dunking or some extra grated Parmesan cheese.
– Side or starter salad – simple with arugula and an olive oil/Dijon/lemon juice vinaigrette, maybe with some sliced red radishes

Dessert (8:30/9pm)
– A sizeable bowl of popcorn, a serving of dark chocolate covered pomegranates or a cup of frozen grapes

[Above picture is one of my collard green turkey and zucchini noodle lunch wraps]

Not mentioned above: LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of water. I have a reusable water bottle that I constantly fill throughout the day. I feel much more energized and even full when I drink water. It helps with digestion and makes your skin glow. It’s such an easy diet trick, don’t forget it.

That’s pretty much it! Simple, fresh, whole and of course, satisfying! The most important thing about this meal plan? Don’t stress if it’s 2pm and you’re absolutely ravenous – give yourself a snack that’s clean and whole. It’s better than ignoring your hunger and then bingeing on a bag of potato chips later. Truuust me, I’ve been there.

[Above picture was taken on October 10, 2014 showing off my guns that I’ve so-so proud of]

Oh and of course, all of this wouldn’t have been possible without meal planning. Every Sunday, I would decide not only what my blog post schedule was but also, what I was going to eat for dinners that week (which 95% of the time revolved around my blog post schedule – so I was eating what I was blogging, or, practicing what I was preaching!) I sat down on Sunday, made a detailed list, shopped and did any meal prep beforehand that I could – spiralizing all of my vegetables for the week and cooking meats or rinsing cans of beans, things like that. You can learn more about my meal planning tips in this post.

If you’d like more meal plan ideas, leave a note in the comments and if I get enough interest, I’ll build a real meal plan in a future post!

The recipes I most often made for dinner from the blog:

• Zucchini Spaghetti with Cauliflower and Prosciutto
• Beet Noodles with Pesto and Kale – usually added chicken or beans
• Zucchini Pasta Primavera
• Basil Pomodoro Zucchini Pasta with Chicken
• Foil-Pouch Chicken Sweet Potato Noodle Fajitas
• Bacon Shrimp Zucchini Noodle Scampi
• Zucchini Noodle Pad Thai
• Sesame Ginger Daikon Noodle Soup
• Garlic Ginger Zucchini Noodle Bowl with Salmon
• Scallion Egg Drop Zucchini Noodles
• Teriyaki Zucchini Fried Noodles with Shrimp
• Quinoa Beet Rice Salad with Feta
• Lemongrass Thai Zucchini Noodle Soup
• Apple Noodle and Tuna Salad with Pecans

MAINTAINING MY WEIGHT AND PUSHING FORWARD

All of the healthy eating and exercise paid off – I am at about 145 pounds (fluctuating up and down a couple pounds depending on the day) and I feel fan-freaking-tastic. I’m about a size 4/6 and 27/28 down from a 10/12 and 31/32 (which in reality, isn’t important, but sometimes it’s helpful to compare from your previous sizes to keep yourself on track.)

I’ve only got 5 pounds to lose and it’s definitely tough to keep motivated when it’s “only” 5 pounds. They always say this is the hardest! To be honest, I’m enjoying this stage in my weight loss and where I am and how my body moves. I feel so strong at the gym and I feel confident when I go out and dress up.

I’ve set a new goal today, which I hope you’ll help keep me accountable for on @GetInspiralized. The goal is to get down to 140 pounds by Thanksgiving! Now listen, these scale numbers are just to keep motivated and on track. It’s easier to track weight loss and toning up by numbers – I’m lifting 15 pound weights now instead of 10s and I’m down to 145 from 168.

This may seem cheesy, but, honestly, I could have never done it without all of my followers on Instagram. Every time I posted a photo, I’d see a drop in followers – maybe 10 people would stop following me. It would upset me and I thought, “Is it because I don’t have the right posting gym selfies, because I’m out of shape?” Then, I’d see my true followers (who I love to death) comment with things like “you go girl!” and “you’ve got this!”

Finally, when I really started to shed the weight off, the best part was seeing your comments like “Wow! You look amazing!” and “This is so inspiring, I want those arms!” When I wasn’t in the mood for the gym, I’d reread old comments on my photos and it would literally light a fire under my butt and I’d rush to the gym, determined to work hard and post up a new gym selfie, encouraging others to push through their limits.

It’s all about finding a system that works for you – don’t let someone tell you “oh, you shouldn’t weigh yourself!” If that’s what helps you keep fit, keep doing it!

My biggest piece of advice for people that want to lose weight and get fit? Find what works best for you and what’s manageable and DO IT. Make your own plan that is tailored to you. Would you dress the way someone else would want you to dress? No! Then why would you follow someone else’s workout plan? You are the one that is going to be doing it – not that other person!

Now, aside from that, here are the 3 key things I kept in mind while on this weight loss journey (that I started with @GetInspiralized on June 4, 2014):

1. Don’t let a “bad” day set you off track: I’ll be the first to admit, there are nights when I just give in to my cravings and eat a chocolate bar or two. Or, there are simply nights when I have that extra serving of popcorn. But what I do now, instead of what I used to do, is get over it. I drink loads of water, wake up and take command of that day and I do NOT let myself get off track that day. Then, you’ll wake up the following day and feel so much better that you’ll be encouraged to keep going. Don’t let the vicious cycle start. Take control.

2. Enjoy your life: As I said earlier, I used to let my weight loss goals rule my life – I wouldn’t go out with friends, afraid I’d drink and eat too many calories and “ruin” the day. How is spending time with those who make you happy “ruining” your day?! Once I stopped canceling plans with friends and started honoring my plans, I was immediately happier and when I was out, I told my friends about my goals (hey, let’s not get dessert, I’m really trying to lose weight.) My friends were so happy, because they too didn’t want to eat dessert but didn’t want to be “that friend.” It’s so silly, but communication is incredibly important – tell everyone around you your goals. You might inspire someone else to follow a healthier lifestyle! Also, the happier you are, the more you want to be social and therefore, feel good about yourself.

3. Be consistent: while you may not notice changes right away, all of a sudden, you’ll be down a size out of nowhere. From what? Consistency. There are no shortcuts: you need to eat healthy and exercise for the majority of the time. I follow a pretty solid 80/20 rule (80% healthy, 20% indulge.) Pretty much, I give myself the weekends to relax and I commit to pushing myself during the weekdays.

Truthfully, I think the reason why I feel “different” this time around is because I’m never hungry. In the past, I was never satisfied and had constant cravings. Eating salads for dinner and running miles on a treadmill will leave you feeling unfulfilled and lead to those binges.

[Above picture was from Lu and I’s engagement shoot, taken August 23 – I was about 150 here and clearly happy <3]

Most importantly, eating Inspiralized is essential in my fit journey. Without those Inspiralized dinners, I would have been left eating salads or boring plates of veggies and protein. Now, I look forward to a giant bowl of zucchini noodles (or whatever spiralized veggie it may be) for dinner and I don’t dread “having” to eat a quinoa salad.

I’m often eating less than 300 calories for dinner, but I get to have a dessert and not feel guilty – and I feel like I’m eating an indulgent plate of pasta, instead of something that tastes like a diet. I get to snack during the day and frontload my calories and then have that big satisfying dinner, without the high calorie count. I feel like I’m cheating, but my waistline knows I’m not!

I’m Inspiralized all over again.

[Above picture is my most recent weigh-in as of 10/22 when I wrote this post, on October 2 at 146!]

Thank you so much for being with me every step of the way. I hope this post inspires you to start your own journey. It’s a journey, it really is – there will be times when you feel discouraged. Just know that it’s not going to happen in 3 weeks. It’s taken me almost 4 months to get where I am, because I’ve fallen off the wagon here and there, but I’ve gotten immediately back up instead of giving up.

READER SUBMITTED QUESTIONS

I asked you on social media what you’d like to know about my weight loss journey. I tried to answer everything in my post, but here are some particular questions I wanted to explicitly answer:

“When is the best day to start a diet?”
June 4 was when I started mine. It was a Wednesday. Clearly, there’s no better time than the present! Don’t push it off – just stop what you’re doing, make a plan and go for it!

“What do you eat when dining out? Also, what about alcoholic drinks?”
I always check out the menu ahead of time and take the time to decide what’s the healthiest item on the menu and I resolve to order it. That way, if I have a couple glasses of wine and start feeling “loose,” I won’t need to make any game time decisions that might not be the best. Also, I never have the bread basket – I’d rather order an appetizer that’s healthier and have my calories that way and get some nutrients in while satisfying my hunger. If I’m out for a birthday and the table wants to order dessert, I’ll have a spoonful and stop myself. It’s a rule I made a while ago in this fit journey and it has worked very well. You’ll also see in this post I talk about communicating with my friends about my goals – I’ll let a friend know I’m trying to stay on track, so I won’t split the fried calamari if they order it – it’s tough to stand up for yourself, but you’ll often times find yourself inspiring others to skip it. As for the alcohol, I really only drink when I’m out and I don’t limit myself, since I’m usually out celebrating or hanging out with friends and that time is precious to me. I never drink during the week at home with dinner.

How did you get your boyfriend to eat healthy with you?
I’m a lucky girl – Lu used to live with a nutritionist who taught him to love healthy food. On nights when I don’t feel like cooking, Lu tells me which Inspiralized dish he wants, which helps when I’m just not in the mood to be creative. Also, Lu knows about my weight loss goals and he supports me when I tell him I don’t want to order that extra appetizer or cheese plate. Tell your partner how important it is to you and he/she will of course be there for you.

What change had the biggest impact on your weight loss?
Not letting a “bad” day ruin my chances to have a “good” week and keep on track and consistent with my goals. I talked about that in this post!

How did you plan for cravings?
Having healthy alternatives at my disposal! I always keep dark chocolate covered pomegranates in my cupboard and frozen green grapes – if I ever have a sweet tooth, I allow myself a serving and I keep it at a serving. Knowing that it’s there if I want it keeps me from rummaging through the pantry and eating everything or making a trip downstairs to grab that pint of Talenti.

[Left – January 2014, Right – September 30, 2014, wearing the same shirt in both pictures – with totally different bodies!]

What gets you off track and how do you deal with that?
Ahhhh. I’m actually healthy nearly 100% of the time when I’m not drinking alcohol. It’s my blog and I want to be completely authentic and honest in this post. When I go out and have a few glasses of wine, I lose most of my healthy judgment and I will come home and binge eat. I’m a big drunk binger! It started in college and never left me! Even if I have a glass of wine, I tend to indulge. Most recently, I’ve asked Lu to stop me or I’ll just tell myself I can eat as much fruit as I want – OR, I’ll fill up a water bottle and drink that, sometimes that works. I’m bad, but I just wake up the next day and resolve to having a healthy day and I forget about it. Life goes on!

How do you deal with plateauing?
I’ve been lucky enough that I haven’t really plateaued yet. Since I switch my workouts up constantly, I’m always finding new muscles popping up or I’m sore in different places. While the scale doesn’t budge, the inches change and I’m toning. Sometimes, if I really want to push myself, I’ll eat one less snack or skip dessert for a week to kickstart things, but generally, I keep things interesting and that helps with the plateau issue.

How do you stay motivated?
I look at “before” pictures of myself, read inspirational quotes, look at my favorite fitness Instagrams and make up a new workout that will fit my motivation and energy level. For instance, if I just can’t do cardio that day, I’ll do a 25 minute HIIT workout and then do some arms and abs for 10 or 15 minutes.

Please let me know if you have any questions! Leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them as they come in over the next few days. Thank you again for listening. Also, please let me know if you would like me to continue to track my healthy journey on this blog – I might start a Friday series if there’s enough interest!

GIVEAWAY

In support of my fit journey, Under Armour is giving away one lucky Inspiralized reader a Women’s StudioLux Duffle bag, valued at $134.99. Open to US addresses only, giveaway will end Thursday, October 30, 2014. Good luck and thanks to Under Armour for making me look good while I sweat!

The post MY WEIGHT LOSS STORY: HOW I USED THE SPIRALIZER TO GET HEALTHY AND LOSE 25 POUNDS appeared first on Inspiralized.