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Hi friends, welcome to the first season of Invest Your Best with Ali Kay. Come and join me as I casually explore what it takes to live your best life mentally, physically and spiritually. By focusing on the things you can control your thinking and actions. Nothing is off the table as I discussed, share personal experiences, as well as interview guests that will give you insight and understanding what it takes to step into action and many different areas of your lives. We'll be covering areas such as Fitness, Health, motherhood and entrepreneurship.

Welcome to the Invest your best podcast, I am your host, Ali Kay. And this is our very first episode. Thank you so much for listening and joining me on this brand new adventure. So this episode, I'm going to talk more about my 70 pound weight loss journey. I lost 70 pounds in over a year. And I wanted to dig deep into the experience and really share what I took away from it,I'm going to give you a couple steps that you can apply to your everyday life. Even if you don't have weight loss to lose or weight to lose, you can still apply these steps into your everyday life just to achieve goals and to put your best foot forward. So just to give you some background on who I am, I am a 31 year old mother of two boys. I have a six and a half year old who is in first grade. And I have a two year old. I've been married for about eight years. And almost two years ago, I started my own home staging business. It has been a crazy ride. And amongst all this chaos, I managed to start a whole fitness and wellness journey. I like to call it a wellness journey rather than a weight loss journey because it honestly had to do a lot more with losing weight.

So just to give you some background, I gained a lot of weight during my second pregnancy. I'm 5’1. So I'm just a very naturally petite person. And I lived my ultimate life during pregnancy, I'm talking I ordered brownies to my front door at 10 o'clock at night and ate anything and everything. I just really indulged during that pregnancy. And as a result, it was a very unhealthy one. I had a C section I had gestational diabetes, and I had preeclampsia too. After I gave birth, I was 70 pounds overweight for my body type. And as I mentioned, I am naturally just a petite person. So all that extra body weight was so hard on my body. I just remember trying to run after my oldest son after I had my second son when he was a baby I was trying to catch my oldest son and I could barely even walk just that extra weight on my body was just so hard. And I kept gaining the weight. It got to a point after I had my second son that I was gaining weight and actually growing out of my maternity clothes, the maternity clothes that fit me during pregnancy were becoming way too small. And as a result, I started to purchase a whole new wardrobe. I think my biggest size I was a pant size 14. And my natural body is probably like a size four. So I had a lot of extra weight on my body. And I was just very unhealthy. On top of that I was becoming more and more unhappy. I think I was slowly getting into a slump because not only did I have all this extra body weight on me and I was dealing with all the things you deal with postpartum and nursing. I just mentally was not myself. I don't want to say I had postpartum depression. I just felt like my life was on hold. I think that's really the only way I can explain it. And what I mean by that is I was starting to ostracize myself. I just remember my son who was four, four and a half at the time came to me and he was so excited because he wanted to show me how he could dive into the community pool. We had a pool in our neighborhood that everyone would go to all the Families, all the kids, it was really fun. It was a great social environment. And my son wanted to show me these dives that he was doing. And I just remember looking at him and saying, No, I'm not going. And he was so disappointed. And I watched my husband walk out of the door with our baby, and my four and a half year old son without me to go to the pool. And I did not want to go because one, I was very subconscious about what I looked like, and my body. But two, I just honestly wasn't even motivated to go, like, I just honestly didn't want to go. And that was I think, like an aha moment where I could not keep living the way I was living. I also took on this self talk that I, I was very unkind to myself, I think if you've ever been mindful of what you're telling yourself and just kind of pause to hear what that inner dialogue was, or is in your mind, mine at the time was, look at you. What are you doing, you know, it was just very negative. And I was constantly putting myself down like, well, what are you doing with your life, but look at yourself?

Oh, you know, it was just that negative self talk, where I was so hard on myself. And again, that's that moment where I realized, one I needed to make a change. And that changed how to do with Yes, weight loss. But it also had to do with how I was treating myself. So that I really do think was an aha moment. And I'll always remember that day, as the day I honestly did a lot of self reflection, and realize that I needed to make a change, because if I didn't, the path I was going down was going to get darker and darker. And obviously, as a mother, with postpartum we deal with so much stuff. I mean, one, we're not sleeping too. You know, if you're nursing, that's a whole other thing. Some moms go back to work after six weeks, which is, you know, very, very hard and stressful. But there's a lot to deal with postpartum. And then on top of just being negative, and almost just against yourself, like you're not on the same team, as yourself, of what you're telling yourself is what I mean, you're not on the same side of yourself, like I was fighting with myself, in my mind, if that makes sense. And if you are not someone who's ever heard of self talk, what I mean by that is your inner dialogue that you're telling yourself, so if you just take a moment to drive in your car, and turn on the radio, and just listen to that dialogue you're having with yourself, just be mindful, like, What are you telling yourself? You can do it? Are you telling yourself, oh, you're going to be late, you did it again, you know, just be mindful of what that inner dialogue is. And that's what I mean by self talk. So that day was really, that I'm going to make a change moment. And I think it all happened all at once. So I realized that I was just not being kind and accepting of my current self. And I also needed to make a physical change, and really change my lifestyle. So I really, I feel like I stood in front of the mirror and talk out loud to myself that day. And I think I looked at myself, okay, this might sound crazy to some people, but this is true. I feel like I talked to myself out loud. And I was like, Ali, it's okay, your situations temporary, we can do this. And from there, I think my self talk really changed to Hey, it's okay, let's do it. You know, you got this. It's okay. You just had a baby, you know, it's hard right now, but we're gonna do it. And I feel like that's when I kind of just became one with myself to like, I was finally on the same side of myself, to really just love and accept myself, even though I was you know, overweight and not really happy and just struggling. You know, I, I pulled it together to really change that inner dialogue to more of a positive one rather than a negative one. So that's kind of the step number one is to really listen to your inner dialogue. What are you telling yourself? It all starts with what you tell yourself, if you tell yourself you can do it, you're going to believe that you can do it. If you tell yourself you're a failure, and you're not worth it. Guess what, that's what you're going to believe. So you have to really get one with yourself and get on that same side as yours. So, listen to your self talk and tell yourself that you can do it. Even if you're not at the phase that you want to be or you haven't gotten that job promotion, or whatever it is, love yourself and accept yourself.

So after I did that, I realized now I have so many pounds of weight to lose, I could barely walk, even putting tennis shoes on, my feet would swell and I live in Florida. So it is like 100 degrees out all year long with the humidity. So even just going outside, I would sweat and swell. So my very first step was to just start walking. And I put my son My baby in the stroller and I would walk for probably about like six minutes. I think that's probably the most I could do for a solid week or so. And each time I would gradually increase the time, and it got to a very steady 30 minutes. And those 30 minutes of walking with my son in the stroller was almost like therapy for me, especially as a mom, you know, when you stay home with your kids, it's like you have to fill that time with activities. So those 30 minutes of walking outside was something that I think my son looked forward to even though he was a baby, but he loved the stroller. And I looked forward to it too because it was a time that I could turn on some music kind of get in touch with my thoughts and just really get some fresh air and sunshine. One of my first steps was to move my body for 30 minutes a day and it became very consistent as time went on. I did order a peloton bike and no You do not need a peloton bike to lose weight I did make the decision to buy it and I will say it was very helpful because I did have so much extra weight on my body and I physically could not run at the time so cycling was a good way to you know get that heart rate up and it was very easy on the joints. So I do love my peloton bike I still love it to this day. I know a lot of people ask you know is the peloton bike worth it? I truly think if you make the commitment to use it, it is an investment into your health. I think you save time with traveling to cycling classes paying that monthly fee if your mom or single mom, you know you don't have to get a babysitter. I would do the Peloton bike when my son would take a nap or when he would go to bed at 11 o'clock at night or just you know, whenever I had that spare moment, and they have rides from honestly like 15 minutes to an hour or so. Any type of ride that you want to do there's definitely a class for it.

So yes, I do think the Peloton bike is a great investment, it definitely helped me get a great workout in especially with that extra weight on my body. But no, it is not necessary for your weight loss or wellness journey. I would also do like lunges and my family room. You know, sometimes I just like working out or going outside by myself or working out by myself just wasn't a reality. Nine out of 10 times it's not because I either had a baby in my arms or my four and a half year old wanting to play dinosaurs. So I would just make that commitment to move my body for 30 minutes a day. But maybe it was me like running around the living room and picking up the laundry and squatting with my baby in my arms and blaring music and dancing. But I would just make it a point to move my body for 30 minutes a day. As I lost the way I started to increase my intensity and walking and it became slow jogging which eventually led to running and more weight lifting I never followed have a very specific program. It was just like googling waited workouts on YouTube and whatever I could find. So my consistency for 30 minutes a day is something that I will continue to endorse for the rest of my life. And to this day, 30 minutes a movement a day is everything. And another thing is with working out I think a lot of people have this negativity towards it. Like they they view working out negatively, almost like it's like a punishment, you know, for their body or you know, people dread working out I think very early on. I had that mindset that I realized working out helps me feel good. And I became addicted to that feeling so early on. I got addicted to going outside walking with my son for 30 minutes because that was like our break and our escape for the day. I looked forward to it and even to this day, I look forward to working out 30 minutes a day because working out makes me feel so good. So really Changing that perspective into looking forward to a workout rather than dreading it as some type of punishment or something negative is very helpful too.

So, back to my steps, my very, very first step is to just start, if you need to lose weight, or you have this big goal of whatever it is, sometimes we try to plan for too long, or we look at the big picture, like I had 70 pounds to lose. And that in itself can be so overwhelming. But my number one step, my first step is to just start, it doesn't matter if you're overly prepared or not prepared, or you don't think you're good enough, or whatever it is, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you start. So my starting point was just those 30 minutes a day of movement. Step number two, is to take it day by day. Again, you know, if you have a big weight loss number, or if you're working for a big promotion, and you know, sometimes that end goal just seems so far out and so overwhelming. Take it day by day, what I do is the night before, I will write down my plan for the day. And I don't do a plan for a week, I just do it day by day, because sometimes I noticed even planning out my week can become overwhelming. And then in my mind, I know what's coming up on a Wednesday on a Monday and then I start dreading it or procrastinating it and it becomes overwhelming. And it's just too much. So take it day by day, I did not have this straight journey as far as losing weight. And what I mean by that is I had my good days, I had my bad days, sometimes I didn't really eat really well. Sometimes I would relapse, sometimes I had really great celebrations, you know, it was not the straight line. So as far as eating, you know, after I became consistent with the 30 minutes of movement a day, I realized that my portion sizes were out of this world. And like I mentioned before, I was still living this pregnancy lifestyle. So I was eating big steaks I was eating for pizza says, you know, if you are married, or you have a boyfriend, or whatever it is, you know that your significant other or even if you're friends with a guy or even if you are a guy listening you guys have it's so good, you guys can eat anything and everything. And you do not gain the weight. Men don't gain the weight the way women do. So my husband was you know, indulging just living his everyday life as I was but I was the one suffering from it. So I really recognized that my portion sizes were out of control. So I really started just cutting back and I didn't necessarily just cut out all the bad things in my life. I started just cutting back on my portion. So when we ordered pizza rather than eating for I started to ceding to every day I would also get a Starbucks drink with a lot of creamer and the vanilla syrup and all that. So I slowly started cutting that back out. Again, I didn't completely cut it out of my life. I just cut back on it. Once I managed cutting back on my portions and kind of cutting back on the bad stuff. I started eliminating things that I knew were bad for me. As I mentioned before the Starbucks I knew every day getting that you know, venti iced coffee drink was bad. So I started drinking an alternative. But cutting back on the cream in the sugar in my coffees.  started getting a smaller size, and I started replacing the cream with coconut milk. I love coconut milk. And then I cut out the sugar and then gradually I would just get like a splash of coconut milk and my iced coffee. And today I drink my coffee black. I love the taste of black coffee. And I know that sounds disgusting to some people. But my point is as I slowly cut back on the stuff that I knew was very bad for me, which is that creamer and that sugar. And then there was a day that I would get that drink and it became something to look forward to it became a treat, but it was not something I would drink, you know, seven days a week like I was doing and I actually save a lot of money now that I don't go to Starbucks a lot. But my point is, is I just slowly and steadily made changes in my diet. And again, it's more of a lifestyle change. And it's all about finding sustainability. I think so many people start off with great intentions for starting these great diets, you know, low carb diets or keto diets and all these great diets out there. And I think a lot of people will have great success the first week or the second week, and then they'll relapse. And then that's it. They're not doing the diet anymore. I think that's why diets don't last because they're not sustainable. So it's really finding that sustainability and that balance in your life. And another thing that I started to do was focus on Whole Foods. So I started focusing less on the processed food, less potato chips, less, you know, those salty snacks that my kids eat. And I started focusing really on Whole Foods, you know, veggies, fruit, protein, just those great food, you know, that has nutrients in it, I cannot cook, I am terrible in the kitchen. What worked for me is going back to planning my day the night before. So the night before and my bed, I would plan to work out I would schedule in a time that I could work out typically I would schedule it in the morning. But I would also time schedule in a backup time to work out just in case, I wasn't able to work out that time slot. So I would schedule in twos time slots for my 30 minute workout. And then I would just kind of schedule in what I had in mind for eating, whether it was leftover chicken, I would have that for lunch, I knew we had something in our refrigerator, that would be for dinner. If I was working for the day, I had a plan for lunch, whether it was packing it for the day, or knowing that I could go take out somewhere and get a salad. So I was just very mindful of the day of what I was going to eat. And that really work too. But again, I did not follow a specific diet. It was just really focusing on quality foods and really cutting back on the stuff that I knew was not healthy for me and just really finding that sustainability and balance. And to this day, I have my good days and I have my bad days, like this weekend was a bad weekend, I really indulge. But the key is to not let that throw you off track and you get off track for four weeks and then decide to make the lifestyle change again, the key is to just you know, tomorrow's a new day and keep pushing forward.

So really focusing on Whole Foods helped me cutting back on just the bad stuff that I knew I was still including in my eating habits. And having a daily plan as far as what I was going to eat really helped me. Another thing that really helped me was to make a plant based protein first thing in the morning after my workouts. I am someone that likes to get that 30 minutes of movement done in the morning, just because it really does affect my mind, it makes me feel good. It typically puts me in a good mood, I feel really motivated for the day. And I just have some of my best workouts in the morning rather than later in the evening. So I work out on an empty belly just because that's what works for me, I tend to get nauseous. But right after I'm done working out I make a plant based protein shake as my first meal of the day. And I am going to give you my favorite recipe because I drink this shake to this day and I'm still not sick of it because it tastes like dessert. So if you have a pen if you have a paper, or you can just remember this in your mind, you need to try it because it is so good. So what I do is I get a plant based protein shake and give me any brand. But the key is to be plant based on plants have a lot of protein in them. So it's a great source of protein. So two scoops of chocolate plant based protein, I do one tablespoon of almond powder or almond butter, I do one tablespoon of chia seeds. Chia seeds are also a great source of protein. And then i dash cinnamon in it and I put 1/3 banana in it. And then I put ice and the base is eight ounces of coconut milk. Sometimes I will do four ounces of water and the other four ounces will be my black coffee. But typically I do eight ounces of unsweetened coconut milk, I add ice I blend it in oh my gosh, that is so good. But really replacing my first meal of the day with a plant based protein shake really helped me to feel full. And then it also helped me to just kind of cut out on my cravings too because I I got my fix I got that chocolate fix first thing in the morning. So replacing my first meal of the day with a plant based protein shake. And another thing that really helped me is I do not eat big meals during the day. And I started this during my whole wellness journey. This was a big change that I made because I was eating such big portions. I constantly eat through the day, but I choose to eat five small meals throughout the day. So I don't really sit down and eat a big meal I just constantly eat throughout the day. I am eating it's just not those big meals and that helps your body to be able to break it down and use it for energy and fuel. It's harder for our bodies to break down you know those big meals. So another thing that helped me with the whole food department was is to stop eating at 7pm. Now I am someone that goes to bed at nine. So seven stopping at 7pm is very doable for me. I noticed that once I put my kids down at 7pm even though I'm not hungry, that's the time I always found myself in the pantry and eating snacks, I would, you know, go for the Cheez Its, I would go for the Doritos, you know, whatever I bought my kids, those were my snacks at 7pm. And it was more of like eating out of boredom and just habit. So cutting back after 7pm really, really helped. And now I drink a hot tea. So that's kind of replacing the behavior of just binge eating just to binge not because I'm hungry, I started replacing that bingeing behavior with hot tea, and I chug water at night, because I know I'm not hungry, I just, you know, I want to put reach for something and put it in my mouth while watching TV. You know, it's just that habit of eating at that time. So I cut that out. And that made a huge difference. So just to recap on the steps that I did, as far as changing what I ate, and that part of the wellness journey was one, I started to really focus on Whole Foods, too, I had a plan for what I would eat during the day. And that plan happened, you know, right before I went to bed for the following day. And that helps me cut back, you know, going to fast food for lunch or you know, really making impulse decisions, which lead to unhealthy food choices. So I always planned out my day, as far as what I was going to eat number three was replacing the first meal of my day with a plant based protein shake, I do it to this day, I love it. And number four was to stop eating at 7pm, you know, at least two or two to three hours before bedtime. And it's definitely doable. And I'm going to throw in another key that helps me even to this day, drink water throughout the day, I still have to make it a point to chug water throughout the day. But that helps so much too. So very important is to make slow and steady changes to your diet gradually cut out the bad stuff. That way you can live a sustainable life, lifestyle. And you don't necessarily relapse because you're not trying to do it overnight and setting yourself up for failure. You're gradually cutting back on stuff. And this way, it's all about sustaining that lifestyle and finding balance, y'all to this day, I indulge on the weekends. You know, I eat pizza and wine still. But now it's a treat. It's not every night I'm I'm eating and drinking those things. It's now something I can look forward to at the end of the week. And it's it's a treat. So make slow and steady changes to your diet so that you're living a balanced lifestyle. You never want to feel deprived. I think it's so important also to know throughout my entire journey, and I still say I'm on this journey is all about slow and steady changes. I know we live in this world where we want instant gratification. We want it now we want the results today, after doing one day of work. That's so unrealistic. And I know our society sells us this instant gratification like Hey, take these pills and lose the way or do this and you'll feel like this in two weeks. That's not the reality of it. And if it is, it's not sustainable, and it's not healthy. So my journey took over a year and a half to lose those 70 pounds. And after I lost the 70 pounds where I got to a normal body weight for my my body. I still needed to lift weights to tone and continue. And now I want to feel strong. So it's never really over. That's why just accepting and loving yourself at every phase of it. And really creating a new lifestyle that sustainable is the key. And to remind yourself that nothing happens over night, it is all about slow and steady changes. Okay, just to review some of the steps. my starting point in my whole fitness and wellness journey was really acknowledging and being aware of my inner self talk, my inner self talk was so negative. So it was really changing that inner self talk to a positive one and really loving and accepting myself and telling myself that I can do it, which ultimately led me to just start this wellness and fitness journey. It doesn't matter if you are prepared or not prepared or scared to start or whatever it is. The key is to start you have nothing to lose but everything to gain by starting. My other step was just to move your body 30 minutes a day and really change that perspective. associating it with something that is necessary to feel good. My 30 minutes a day really helps me feel good. I feel more patient with my kids. I feel more motivated, I feel more in touch with myself all things positive to this day, I've never regretted a workout. So really finding that consistency. And really giving that self care to yourself and allowing yourself 30 minutes a day and I promise you 30 minutes a day is so doable. It doesn't matter how busy you are, you can make 30 minutes a day a priority. But the key is you have to plan it, plan it the night before, I always say excuses are are a result of poor planning. So the night before schedule out your day, you know, plug in to 30 minute slots that you could potentially work in just in case you don't get to the first one you have a backup 30 minutes, but the key is to make that a priority for yourself for your mental and physical health. The next thing is to make slow and steady changes in your diet. Gradually cut back on the bad stuff. This way you're living a life that is sustainable, you're setting yourself up for success and you're creating balance in your life. Other things are just focused on Whole Foods. What helped me was to replace a shake, or my first meal of the day with a plant based shake. Other tips that worked for me was to stop eating at 7pm if you are someone that binges replaced that behavior with a new habit, like making a hot tea, and also chugging water throughout the day made such a difference to really help me figure out you know, was I just thirsty or was I hungry? So those are my tips and tricks that really worked for me and I hope you can take away and apply them to your life. Thank you so much for joining me on my first episode of investor best with Allie Kay. If you are not following me Come check me out on Instagram. My handle is  @Alexandrawille. I'm on tik tok. Again, my handle is @Alexandrawille. Thanks again for joining and catch us on the next episode.