Sammi’s Core Four

Many of you know that for the past seven weeks, I have been working tirelessly to committing to getting healthier.  The reason why I have undergone such a huge project is that I want it SO badly and I have been wanting it for the LONGEST time and I got to the point where I was so sick of screwing up and starting over again that my mentor blatantly said: “So, Don’t.” “My reaction was “But… What?” and I realized, in that moment, if I wanted something so badly that I would do anything in my power to do it so I started #sammishowsup with a more in-depth project of #commitment.

As sort of a 7-week “update”, I wanted to come on here and share with you the things that I have been doing that WORK:

1. Eat fewer calories than you burn.

SO many people do not know this but this is the KEY to weight loss. NOTHING ELSE. All of the programs, shakes, and such can aid you to get fewer calories but it doesn’t matter whether or not you have a cupcake or a bag of carrots but if they are both 100 calories, they still count. There are many times where we think we may be in a calorie deficit when actually we are not, so what can we do to know?

Measure everything out.  When I meal prep every Sunday (post coming soon), I always have measuring cups handy for everything I am putting in those containers, and I often will add it into a recipe on MyFitnessPal which is an app that allows you to track calories and exercise and water intake all in one!

Track all your calories. There are so many calories that go unnoticed like the olive oil that goes in the pan, or the handful of Cheez-Its that you have as you leave the house, it ALL counts. Even if you do want to track every single calorie, you simply just have to keep a food diary and write down EVERY SINGLE THING that you eat and over time, you will become more conscious of what you are eating and will be able to stop the little snacking that occasionally happen during the day.   

2. Drink half your body weight in ounces.

Really simple yet so hard.  There is no need to convert any pounds to ounces or such but what you have to do is say you weigh 100 pounds you should drink at least 50 ounces of water. You may be thinking, “Sammi, that is SO much water.” and I know it is but water is SOOO good for you.  

First, you will avoid dehydration, flush out all of the yucky stuff that is in your system, you can dress it up with herbs or fruits and vegetables, it could prevent headaches and cramps, and you gain a new best friend; the bathroom.

Unfortunately, you will have to take many more trips to the bathroom and truthfully it will become your new best friend.  It will suck to have to get up from your desk in every class period or have to interrupt a meeting to have to pee but I swear it’s all worth it.  

3. Move your body for 30 minutes every single day.

I cannot say the benefits of just moving.  I LOVE to sweat. I never thought I would say that in my entire life, in fact, I had a genuine fear of sweating but now I love to sweat.  Like I sometimes will stay on the treadmill or the elliptical for longer if I hadn’t broken a sweat yet.

Also, it benefits your mental health as well.  Moving your body triggers endorphins which are, what I like to call, joy hormones and they truly put you in a better mood.  If you are stressed, anxious, or even super happy, just walking a few laps around your school or office building can help immensely.

What I like to do because I am in love with weight training is I will hang with the weights for 25 minutes, on both upper body and lower body days and then I will either do 1 mile on the treadmill or 20 mins on the elliptical.  Lately, it’s only been ten minutes on the elliptical because my knee has been really out of whack lately but that just means that I will do more sets of my weight routine.

4. Get 7-8 hours of sleep.

Okay, so I used to think that sleep was not important and it literally was the last thing on my priority list and then I experienced what I like to call my “mid-life crisis”.  It happened in week 3 and I had been waking up at 3:30 every single morning and one day, everything got so crazy with sleep deprivation and all of the things that I had to do and I literally just felt like I had no more time in my day. Even when I would preach that you need to make more time in your day for the things that you want to do, I had already made all of the time for all of the things that I had planned to do and I still had SO many more things to do.  So I decided to knock my alarm down and sleep more and guess what? I got more done.

So I made it a conscious effort to wake up at 4:30 and get into bed at 8:00-8:30 in order to get that 8 hours of sleep.  And my mind has never been more clear each day when I wake, I have never had so much energy (without drinking Iced Tea for 30 days), and I just feel rested.

My tip would be that you have to be aware of your routines and how you settle down and how you get up which could make a monumental difference. If you need an example of a morning routine, check out the first episode of the Fashion Your Passion Podcast all about morning routines and getting up early.