The diet culture in this country is a little crazy. I have been a victim of the harsh judgements of other people since I was rather young.
It’s not fun to not feel beautiful, or sexy or attractive. It can do a lot to really damage your self image. When I was in high school I was practically addicted to hydroxy-cut, the idea that you could just take a pill to lose weight was probably the most beautiful idea.
After my son was born I decided to get serious about losing that pregnancy weight. Little did I know that going on an elimination diet, would not only help me slim down but actually change the way my body functioned!
On my journey I discovered a sensitivity to whey and casein which are the proteins in milk. Cutting out dairy my skin was clear for the first time since adolescence. Re- introducing foods slowly really helped me pinpoint problems in my diet, that kept me constantly bloated and uncomfortable.
With this information in hand I set out to write a book. A little about my journey but mostly about how I structured the diet that changed my body!
I’m not going to feed you a bunch of bologna about how much weight you can lose. I wrote this to help give you the tools to listen to your body. People talk about intuitive eating as if it’s as simple as making that proclamation out loud. It’s not. Especially if there are foods in your diet, that you eat constantly and you don’t realize it’s causing a problem because the symptoms are always present. In my opinion, In order to intuitively eat you need to know what your body feels like when it has no symptoms at all.
So my book the Inspyre Diet can be found here on Amazon!!
I would love it! If you would give it a read and reach out to me about how the diet made you feel! You are my favorite people so you heard it here first! I hope it helps!
Not a gin drinker? I don’t blame you, not many people are these days.
If you ask me, gin is the most underrated liquor of 2021. When you think “girls night out” or “TGIF” gin is probably not the first thing that comes to mind.
This is the drink that I use to convert my friends to bf in drinkers. It’s a variant on the Corpse Reviver part 2!
This recipe does involve one specialty item. You need an atomizer, which is just a fancy name for a spray bottle, for the absenth.
The Corpse Reviver is in the sour family, so if you don’t like lemon it may not be the drink for you. Yet if you love sours you will adore this one.
If you can get your hands on Empress gin, it makes this into a very pretty pink drink which is elegant on top of delicious!
Feeling extra special? Rim the OUTSIDE of the glass with sugar, you want to make sure it’s on the outside of the glass. You don’t want the sugar to fall in and change your drink.
Bring the Corpse to Lyfe
1.5oz Gin
1.5oz Fresh squeezed Lemon juice
1.5oz Triplesec
0.5oz Dry Vermouth
Few sprays of absenth
First take your chilled glass and rim the outside, or half the outside with sugar.
Pour the gin, lemon, triplesec, and vermouth in a shaker over ice. Shake for about 33 times or until it feels like your fingers will freeze off. Whatever comes first.
Before pouring into your chilled glass, use the atomizer to spray the inside of the glass 3-5 times depending on your preference for absenth.
Garnish with a lemon peel twist for ultimate class.
Take photos and tag me on Instagram! @lyfeoflaci and use #thankginitsfriday I would love to see how your beautiful cocktails turn out!
Are you burnt out? Feel like you just couldn’t add anything more? Feeling pressured from debt? Coffee dependent? Need a side hustle or a full time hustle to break out of the monotony of life?
I felt that way too almost all the time. Being a full time student, Covid pushed my son out of school and into home schooling, my husband joined the army so I was left to run the house myself. I wasn’t working because of home schooling and covid. I was floundering. Luckily enough I was able to go in on a significant investment with some friends and we build a cabin to put on airbnb for some passive income. I also decided it was time to start a social media management business so I could get some work done from home. I have a few proven side hustles I’ll post in a separate article.
My point being that I am not a person that can just rest on my laurels. and in order to balance everything going on in life, I have to start with an efficient morning! And I am going to share my tips here with you!
1. Getting Enough Sleep
This is probably the most important thing. And I’m not saying that you need to go to bed at 5pm. I am not the best sleeper, and a night owl. If I get too much sleep I am essentially non-functional the next day, where as my husband is non functional if he gets less than 8hours. Everyone is a little different when it comes to their optimal amount of sleep. Paying attention to how your body feels when you wake up will help you determine your optimal sleep time.
2.Wake up early
This might seem like a no brainer. But “early” is also something that has various meanings to people. When I say “early” I mean wake up 2-3 hours before you have to leave the house. If you have a 7-3:30 job that means getting up at 5 or even 4 am. Which can sounds unreasonable, but if you want to get up at 5 and your sleep time is 8 hours that means bed by 8:30, and hopefully asleep by 9. If you are like me, a 6 hour sleep time means bed by 10:30 asleep by 11. Having those 2-3 hours is so essential in the morning. You have time to adequately wake up, and plan your action steps for the day. Eat your breakfast (if you do that), write in your vision journal, and really think about your goals, workout meditate or stretch, and most importantly get ready for the day ahead without being in a rush. Rushing makes you forget things, like your goals for success.
3. Set a bedtime Alarm
Getting into good habits can be hard. Anyone who has ever been on a diet can attest to this. It’s easy to say “I’m going to get up 2 hours early” go to bed at your normal bedtime then I’m the morning hit snooze 3x and get up 30 minutes before work and still be in the same vicious cycle. But if you are going to wake up two hours earlier you have to adjust your circadian rhythm. Messing with your circadian rhythm can put your body into “fight or flight” mode and cause anxiety. Once you determine your optimal sleep time, decide what time you want to wake up and use your sleep time to calculate when you need to be asleep. Then set your bedtime alarm for 30 minutes before that. As a rule, for that 30 minutes before you need to actually be asleep, don’t look at a screen. The blue light can make it difficult to fall asleep. Read, meditate, listen to music. If your phone has a sleep feature then use it.
Implementing these three strategies can have you on your way to being a bonafide hustler! How you start your day is a direct reflection of how the rest of your day will go. If you wake up rested, plan your day, plan your action steps, and start with momentum you will be able to jump into a successful day!
Sometimes women are held to crazy unreal standards. There is so much happening in the world it can be difficult to decide what you should wear. How do you decide what your style is?
My favorite way to find cute fashion these days is by following snappy dressing women on Instagram. So here I have compiled my favorite fashion influencers based on what style categories they fall in!
Gem is classy and sassy all rolled into 1
First up is gemstafford! She has this sexy edgy vibe, lots of leather lots of lace. She gives great makeup, skin and all around beauty advice. Not to mention some of the sassiest outfits on Instagram. She posts regularly and is always a gift to my feed.
Everything you need in one place
Sophie is all about bright colors, wigs, styling tips for short hair, and even festival fashion. Her bright colors could liven up anyone’s day. She has a cheerful energy and sometimes slips in beautiful pictures of her home or her adorable husband. It’s hard not to love seeing her many styles!
So spooky
If you like your fashion a little spookier look no further! Spooky lil peach is an amazing makeup artist. Her artwork is unreal, but on top of her outstanding eye makeup she has a very cute dark style. She makes goth look fashionable and sexy.
Can you say vintage?
Last but definitely not least is Miss Elle. Elle does so much research and finds these beautiful vintage dresses. Probably my favorite of all the fashion influencers because no matter how hard I try I can’t replicate any of her style. Sometimes people just find the looks they were meant to live in, and she belongs in every beautiful dress she posts on her Instagram.
From festivals to sexy bar glam to classy vintage dresses these ladies encompass all my random fashion yearnings. And if you ask me they are the best women to look to for fashion on Instagram!
It’s no secret, in the past I treated online dating like a competitive sport. Being a single mom that decided to go back to college at 25 with a bunch of 18 year olds, my dating pool was relatively slim. There was the occasional shining star in my classes that would be my age, but unfortunately i learned my lesson abut dating classmates.
Pro-Tip: Dont date colleagues. Especially if you are sereal dating. You will likely end things with them making classes/work or your daily life ucomfortable… DONT DO IT.
Stick to online dating. Which brings me to my top tips for being sucessful at online dating.
1. Its a Numbers Game
I have a lot of friends who frequently give up very quickly with online dating because they aren’t getting matches. Or because the matches that they get aren’t valuable. And I ask all of them the same thing, “How many swipes do you do in a day?” And they usually give me a number between 1-10. This simply isn’t enough. If you actually want to meet someone, or go on dates, swipe until the app runs out of options for you. Often I wold keep my acceptable distance low, swipe through all the eligible dudes in a 5 mile radius then increase incrementally. But the point is, I would spend at least 30 minutes a night swiping through pictures, and evaluating my options.
2. Don’t be too Picky
For initial swipes i would try to mot be overly picky. I set a top 3 criteria. First i would see if their picture caught my attention. Usually their eyes, or if the picture was funny. Because, let’s be honest ladies a sense of humor is very sexy. If the picture caught my attention, then i would read his profile. I had a personal set of standards when it comes to guys i would swipe. Like not swiping on guys that had nothing written in their profile. This was a hard fast rule. Even though I wasn’t looking for anything serious I still needed to have an intellectual connection with guys I was talking to. Then it was the education section, which could be overlooked if their description was witty enough. So the first swipe wouldn’t be too critical. I also wouldn’t send a message immediately on a match. I would wait until i ran out of swipe-able material then go through and be more picky about who I sent messages to.
3. Curate the Best Profile
I wrote a whole blog post about making the perfect profile here
But basically, make sure you curate your pictures based on your goals for tinder. Be it adventure, sex, friendship, dating, casual fun. Also pay attention to what is in someone’s profile. If they say they are looking for fun and you are looking for something more serious… don’t kid yourself. Or be open to what their goals are. Don’t try to change people.
4. Be Aggressive
Be aggressive, be-e aggressive! If someone’s profile really speaks to you, send them a message first. And try to come up with something clever. My favorite intro is if they have a joke in their profile, i send a message that either responds to or teases them about the joke in their profile. This shows not only that you are going to go after what you want, but you are interested enough in who they are to read their profile and understand it! You cant leave it up to the other person. if you are serious about meeting people you have to reach out!
5. Be Consistent
This is probably the most important thing. You need to do this AT THE VERY LEAST once per week. If not every evening. When I was at my most active and going on 3 dates per week I would spend 30 minutes every night swiping. But be consistent. Implement the strategies I have list above as often as possible.
I hope these strategies work for you! Share your best and worst dating app experiences with me!
Let me preface this by saying… I love Tinder. I love online dating in general, but of the dating apps Tinder is by far my favorite. I have many long lasting relationships because of Tinder. Epic fail stories, and really great friends. I have gone on more Tinder dates, then dates from casually meeting people in real life. I am now married, because as I was going to sign up for the Facebook dating app I found my now husbands profile in the “people you may know” section on Facebook. We had gone to high school together, although we didn’t know each other then. I also have a few friends that are now married to people they met on bumble and Tinder. So let me be the first to tell you that ANYTHING is possible with online dating.
Now I realize that marriage may not be the goal for joining Tinder. It is a great way to casually dip your toes in the water after a divorce, or honestly if you are just bored.
Both of those were my situation when I set out on my last Tinder mission. I had just left my son’s father after a close to 7 year relationship, was a single mom of a 1 year old little boy. And because my ex was a pathological narcissist I didn’t really have any friends. Living back in my mothers house was driving me crazy. I had a part time job and was a full time college student with a sporadic schedule. Thankfully my mother agreed to watch my kiddo after 8pm any night. Children are easy to watch when they are sleeping but still, this gave me time and freedom to do all the things.
Having grown up as a millennial I was not a stranger to online dating. Once when Plenty of Fish had first launched, I was around 19, I went on a different date every night for 30 days. Too bad blogging wasn’t as accessible back then. It would have made a great story. But it gave me the confidence to go online feeling safe meeting people.
As a side note, if you are nervous meeting people online it is a great idea to give a friend of yours their information. When I used Tinder on vacation in Las Vegas, and sometimes at home I would have the guy send me a picture of his ID and I would send it to a friend of mine, as well as where we were meeting, what time, and a projected time of return so she could check on me. Never do something that you are not comfortable with. But if you want to start the online dating adventure, having someone know exactly where you are and who you are with is very important.
Step 1: What are you looking for?
This is probably the most important step, because it will define the content on your profile. So what do you want? An exclusive covid bang? An extra man in the rotation? Someone to snuggle and watch movies with? Someone with whom you can have valuable conversations? Dates that could lead to more? Monogamy? Marriage? What is your goal here on tinder? This is going to heavily outline the things I tell you to put into your profile. And the most fun thing, is that no matter what your goals are you could get completely crushed, or be pleasantly surprised. Thats the game. As long as you know that it can be a lot of fun.
Step 2: Choose your photos.
Choosing photos is definitely the next most important step… Let’s face facts, men are visual creatures. But as I said, what you are looking for dictates what you put into your content. If you are looking for something on the casual side, I would put up some very sexy photos… Maybe not directly lingerie, you want to leave something to be desired. This is key, because desire implies its something you do not already have. SO you want to post pictures of yourself that make you feel confident and sexy. Because the way you perceive yourself is how the right person will perceive you. I was always looking for something in between random hook ups and actually dating, so I put a combination of pictures in which I feel sexy and those in which I feel fun, mixed in with some of my son and I. Because I wanted to project the fact that I have a sense of adventure. Its also important to have photos that aren’t just selfies… Selfies are ok, but you need some full body pics in there as well. I also have a photo of myself covered in fake blood, its like my disclaimer that I am super weird. I also always choose the “smart photo” option, this tests all your photos for the best results and will most often show the photo with the best rating. I also max out the number of photos that I can post. As I mentioned before men are visual creatures, there is a high likelihood that they will only look at your pictures and swipe based on how those pictures speak to them.
Step 3: About Me!
This is the section where you outline your goals from step 1… Honestly I changed my about me every 2 weeks or with the evolution of my goals. The last one I used was a list of Nos. As stated above, the likelihood that a dude looks at your about me before he swipes are slim. However, he will probably look here for a good way to introduce himself in a way that will get your attention. Girls looking for something casual, depending on the level of casual a list of personal rules, or boundaries are all thats needed in this section to get your point across. Girls looking for things more involved, being just slightly vulnerable… No I don’t like that… Self aware is much better. Like “hey, I hate choosing where to go for dinner, but I will gladly tell you if the restaurant you picked is wrong. Don’t @ me”. This is a fact about 90% of girls that annoys TF out of guys. But admitting it in a funny way is quirky and appealing. I usually admit in my bio that I am not “normal” or I refer to myself as “crazy” but not in a negative self talk sort of way. In a way that is meant to ward off the faint of heart. And I think a very big detail in this is DON’T LIE!!! If you are looking for someone to spend serious time with don’t say that you are outdoorsy if you don’t like hiking and camping… If you like staying home and binge watching Netflix with your partner then say that! If sex isn’t the most important thing to you, guess what?!! Some men are demi-sexual too! If you need someone that plans everything so you don’t have to then say it! It’s 2021 ladies… it’s time for emotional transparency. And if you are self aware of what you want, you will find men that are also. Crazy right? If you lie, and play stupid games? Then you will attract Fuck Boys.
Step 4: The Job Title
This can be a tricky one. If you have a bomb ass job and you are proud of it then go for it sister. You’ll need a dude that is comfortable with a powerful women. If you are not so proud of your job? then this is not a requirement for your profile. Dudes can be insecure, so if they know you are a professional ball buster they can sometimes have a hard time seeing the softer side of you. However, if they are a well paid professional they also don’t want to feel as if they are being taken for a ride. I have a friend that is a Pharmacist, and he leaves his job off his profile. But when his job is on his profile he gets way more matches… So, try it both ways, see how your odds are. but also, just because his job isn’t listed doesn’t mean he is a deadbeat. keep that in mind!
Step 5: Other Miscellaneous Information…
Passions is something new, but I highly recommend giving it a try. Because this is honestly Tinder trying to help people match better. Schooling, if you aren’t going to put your job title I would at least put in your level of schooling. From personal experience I cant have a connection with someone that isn’t on my intellectual level, so if I don’t see some kind of advanced degree I often skip over them… It’s harsh but I know myself and my standards. Your city is helpful to find people close to you… I always list my age, because I think that is a silly thing to hide, and if I had a great connection with someone then found out he was the same age as my brother, it might weird me out. As I said before. TOTAL TRANSPARENCY IS KEY!
Step 6: Have FUN
And thats an order!! Lets face it, no matter what you are looking for on Tinder, if you aren’t enjoying yourself then it just isn’t worth it. Go on dates, laugh, be vulnerable, get your heart broken, meet cool people… As a friendly hint, if a guy instantly asks you for your snapchat you will likely never meet in person… I’m not sure why… but I have like 30 snapchat friends from Tinder that I’ve never met. But they are great late night drunk conversations. All relationships have their purpose. I will soon be posting a fun post about increasing your likelihood of finding what you want on Tinder so keep your eyes open! Leave me comments, share Tinder stories with me. My social Media dm’s are always open and I would love to hear from you… Thanks!!
I am a mom. And I love my son more than anything in this world. I love spending time with him. I however, am not a teacher. Due to covid I decided I didn’t want to risk my child or my family by sending my son to school. it is my belief that you cant keep children from touching each other, especially at 5, they want to touch and experience each other and their teachers. So school from home was our best option.
Teachers are working so hard, I have several friends that are teachers and work at schools and could feel their stress and anxiety about this school year. I never blinked about having the ability to help my son complete his kindergarten classes online.
His teacher is a rock star! She made a classroom that was interactive and is very spirited and attentive with all the students in his class. But, in an online platform they only get a short amount of time to interact with their teachers. Not to mention I am also a full time student, and often my zoom classes overlap with his zoom classes.
I also have a very spirited child that challenges me often, so when I am trying to get him to complete things his teacher has assigned there are lots of arguments and tears on both sides.
Teaching is not something I have ever wanted from my life, I am a person with very little patience, especially because I know my sons potential and I can tell when he isn’t applying himself, or is putting on a show. But when he is with people other than me he acts like a perfect angel. I am sure this is an experience a lot of parents deal with.
I decided to do what I could to make our lives a little easier. I dropped two of my classes so I could help my son get through his. And even with this sacrifice it was difficult to get us through to the Winter break.
Moral of the story… Teachers are the true heroes in this pandemic. Most of them were not given an option to work from home. Regardless of their fear or preferences they are at the mercy of their school districts. This is a serious problem for some of them, since some districts wanted to pretend that the pandemic didn’t exist.
This semester has been one of the most difficult that I have been through since starting college. And I just wanted to give a huge kudos for those teachers out-there working 80 hours a week and agonizing over the success of their students. You are the best! And if you aren’t a teacher, make sure you congratulate a teacher on being a hero this year.
This cider recipe is one that came to me intuitively! I had no idea how to make apple cider, but one day when I was pregnant I decided I was going to make some! I don’t know why I didn’t think to look up a recipe, now I’m glad I didn’t. I just stopped by the store, bought an apple of every variety to bring home 6 apples total!
It’s the variety of apples that gives this cider the amazing depth of flavor!! Any apple varieties work!
What You’ll Need:
6 apples(best if you get as much variety)
2 Cinnamon sticks
1tsp allspice
1tsp nutmeg
2 stars of anise
1. Start by coring and quartering the apples and throwing them in a large sauce pan. Fill the pan with water so the water covers the apples by 1 inch. Apples float so you will need to push them down for this measurement.
2. Put the spices into the pot and turn on medium high heat. The mixture will need to boil for 2 hours.
3. Mash the apples into the mixture, turn heat to low and simmer for an additional hour.
4. Strain out apple skins through a cheese cloth. This is a very concentrated apple cider, you can add water to dilute or add alcohol to make into a cocktail!!
What a nightmare!!! For many women this could be the WORST thing to happen. But for women engaged to men that want to be soldiers this is sometimes the reality.
My husband and I were recently engaged to be married, then he received news that would change the course of our life together. A rare coveted position was available in a unit he wanted to be in. The catch being that he would be leaving for basic training in 2 short weeks. Anyone that knows even a little about the military knows benefits and pay are better for soldiers. The army knows that married soldiers get in less trouble and perform better. Not to mention if your soon to be spouse is injured at basic and you two aren’t married, well you aren’t even on the list of people to be notified.
So my husband and I decided we would take a little trip to the courthouse and sign some papers, so myself and our son would be taken care of in his absence. This reality was simply unacceptable to my best friend, my mother, and a number of our mutual friends. So after a short discussion we decided to have a small get together IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC.
With 2 weeks to plan I knew there were a lot of things I’d need to throw out the window. Having tailored dresses and suits, OUT. A coveted venue, OUT, which was fine because I wanted to get married in the woods anyway but that’s not what we did. So I picked the things most important to me and made those the centerpiece.
I also must mention that it never would have come together without the help of several amazing friends. But let’s start with the list!
1. Who: like I said all this occurred in the middle of a flipping pandemic. We did reach out to local authorities and the public health department and were laughed at when we said we wanted 25 people at the wedding. That 25 tried several times to spiral out of control. But we managed to keep a lid on it, disappointing family members and friends alike. But when you are rushing something like this, the less moving pieces you have to deal with the better.
2. Where: so our original plan was to reserve a pavilion at a park. Which in a time crunch is a GREAT IDEA. But Covid, and it was taking the health department a while to get back to us. When a generous friend offered their farm as a venue. This took 4 people with elbow grease and time to get the space to be exactly what I wanted. But for an October wedding, being surrounded by the fall harvest and being in a black dress this was literally perfect.
3.What: even though this wedding was a shotgun I wanted to get as much continuity as I could. I picked fall harvest colors. Black, white, purple and orange. This was actually a theme discussed with my hubby on our third date! We both loved the idea of a non traditional wedding with myself in a black dress and him in a white tux. As we’ve gotten to know each other not only has he but his whole friend group warmed up to the idea of my being a witch and would expect nothing less than a witchy wedding.
4. Decorations: this one was a little more difficult. I wanted as little plastic as humanly possible. I have a bleeding heart for the environment. So I wanted to incorporate as many natural things as I could. I also literally HATE cut flowers. So my friend from the farm was able to find a place that would sell us 40 pumpkins and I was SOLD. This was probably the priciest purchase for our wedding. It would have been easy to get seasonal decorations from the dollar store, I just didn’t want to throw things away, and my guests would get to take home pumpkins of all colors and shapes. I did end up getting plastic table cloths, and a few skeins of burlap for other decorations.
5. Food: this was easy. We had 25 people and with the invitation I sent a request that we not get presents ( moving around with the military with too much sentimental shit is not my style) instead I had friends bring individually wrapped food items! This for pandemic sake had people sharing less utensils and saved us from spending cash on the food. It’s also helpful to know, we’d lived together for some time and there was very little we needed in terms of traditional wedding gifts. So our friends putting their love into food was gift enough.
6. Music: this is also a category that I had a ton of help with. My best friends father is a musician, so I had access to local musicians who came to play during cocktails and dinner. And left their sound system so I could play my carefully curated wedding playlist when it was time to party.
7. Alcohol: Costco… that it all 😂 we provided beer wine and champagne for the astonishing price of $175 for 25 people… worth it.
8. Cake: so on my food list one of my friends volunteered to make cupcakes… uh done. I did however purchase a turtle cake from a local bakery for $40. No decorations just a delicious cake.
9. The dress: this category took a lot of Compromise. I wanted a black classy ball gown. Difficult to come by on short notice. So I ordered my top 3 favorites on amazon prime and returned the ones that didn’t make the cut. Same with my head piece. Thank you amazon.
10. The Tux: kohl’s has a great men’s formal wear section. We got my mans white and black 2 toned tux for a whopping $40.
11. Odds and ends. This event occurring during a pandemic we decided to offer as party gifts special face masks! My mother in law is a wonderful seamstress and made 30 masks for our guests to choose from. And gift bags from my mother with a small token from my son, my man and myself with a beautiful poem explaining the gifts.
12. Our Minister: as anyone who has ever watched TV should know it’s very easy to get ordained. My best friend did so, so that she may share with us on our special day. We did a Celtic hand fasting including my son and blessings from the elements.
All in all our ceremony was beautiful. And i couldn’t have asked for more.
Let me start by saying Yuck… nobody likes losing weight. Yet we hear about it allllll the time. Friends on your Instagram and Facebook probably post pictures of their ocean physique and what an easy commitment it was to get there! Right?
Take it from somebody that has tried it, IT WORKS. I have tried so many different types of diets and programs, and sold products. And I can’t lie, they freaking work. They offer great community support, camaraderie and competition (if you are into that) a group of people with similar goals, and business partners who are ambitious and want you to succeed.
My biggest issue with these products, is they can be wildly expensive… and I know, I’ve sold it, and we all dish out the same slogan “but can you put a price on your health?” And while I agree with the sentiment, I think we can do better.
I understand it’s an industry, and like any industry they want to make money. But I think I can do you one better. If I was gonna make a “diet program” these are the things I would put in it…
1. In the Am a Probiotic Now, I have my favorites. But the most essential thing about finding a probiotic that is best fit for you is finding one that has AT LEAST 1 billion live cultures in it. This is subjective, me personally I don’t feel a difference in my body with anything less than 1 billion. But I am allergic to milk and so I miss out on a lot of products that have natural probiotics. I also look for ones with a shelf stable formula. Because me, I know that if I have to keep it in the fridge I forget to take it. Let’s talk about the benefits, your belly has an ecosystem. Both beneficial and harmful bacteria live in there!! Sometimes due to the high sugar, high protein and low fiber diets we eat our biome can be thrown off balance. By adding probiotics, we are introducing those healthy bacteria can out compete the bad bacteria and make our belly biome a happier place. Let’s also talk about feminine flora. Yes I’m talking about the vagina. There is bacteria in our vaginal canal that keeps yeast are bay!! And there are probiotics that are beneficial to both your feminine flora and your belly!!! I don’t like these as much, they seem to throw off my feminine flora more than help it. This isn’t always the case, I know several women that these help significantly.
2. Fiber This is the perfect pairing for the probiotic supplement. Because the healthy bacteria that live in your gut feed on fiber. The fiber helps keep them healthy. And healthy gut bacteria create a thick layer of mucus in your intestines, sexy I know! But this thick layer of mucus helps control food sensitivities, and helps prevent inflammation. Which let’s face it, if you are really struggling to lose that last 5lbs on your belly? It’s most likely due to inflammation and how your body reacts to certain foods. I’ll talk about food allergies and sensitivity in another post.
3. Water I know you know how important water is. But do you really get enough of it? Push the tips on your fingers into your arm, hold for 3 seconds and release, if your fingerprints are left for 3 seconds or longer you are likely dehydrated. I’m not saying that you are dying. What I am saying is our bodies are 75% water. So if you are taking in enough water your body won’t hold onto water like it’s living through a drought. Most diet plans, if not all, will have you take your weight/2 and that’s how many Oz of water you should be drinking. Normally if I am on a serious goal to get to my bikini size( which I do every year, I should probably not go overboard on Halloween candy-Christmas food, but my family COOKS and it’s sweater season so who really cares?) I will take my weight and drink that many Oz of water. Somewhere between these metrics is probably fine. I weigh around 135(I am short) when I am done hibernating. So that’s right around a gallon a day! If you weigh more than half your weight is probably accurate. This is up to discretion of course. But let me tell you why, when you are dehydrated your body will make you feel hungry, it knows you respond to that feeling. And it can absorb water from your food. A great way to start working water in more is that every time you are craving a “snack” and no I’m not talking about Dave in accounting, when you want a snack slam a glass of water and see if you are still hungry.
4. Herbal Cleanse There are a couple ways to go about this. You can find an herbal cleanse supplement, basically you want to find things that will make you poop. Smooth move tea is even acceptable. Don’t spend a ridiculous amount of money on a “Tea tox” they are a hoax. Anything that promotes good movement, should be taken in the evening. And by morning you should be good to go, if not right before bed.
5. Exercise I know, I know. We all really wish we could drop all the weight with diet alone. And that’s not totally inaccurate. You can drasticallychange your body by changing what you put into it. But if you are like me, and you want that definition, you are going to need to work out. If not you can skip this section! HIIT is a miracle, not sure how well you know me. But I am a full time mom, wrapping up my degree, homeschool my kiddo, coach soccer, and have a vivacious social life. I don’t have time to hit the gym and generally my free time exists after my son goes to sleep. So for 20 minutes, yeah you saw that 20 minutes I give a HIIT work out every ounce of my effort. For those that don’t know HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training, so you rotate between intervals of very intense work and rest. You can literally YouTube any HIIT workout. I might be releasing some soon!
6. The Diet. Ok so the moment you have been waiting for!!! The diet!!! This is the part that really sucks. As someone who knows how real food sensitivities are I think it’s important to take the first 21 days to really reset your system. Normally I would say paleo is the way to go, but I also know that nightshades are a serious source on inflammation. So something more along the lines of an autoimmune paleo diet. The first 21 days are going to be hard. Dropping the foods you use for comfort. And I know I freakin know you can find “compliant” recipes on Pinterest that look and almost taste just like the bad foods you are trying to learn to live without for the next 21 days. This isn’t doing you any favors. Maybe one day a week. But the whole point would be to eliminate foods that might be causing inflammation. Then after 21 days adding in one category at a time and really listening to your body and seeing how it responds. Then conforming to an 80/20 diet. Which means 80% of the time you eat really healthy and 20% can be whatever. Let me give you an example:
If you eat 5 times per day (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner) 7 days per week, 1 snack per day can be something bad. Or 3 meals in the week. But you can’t go overboard. A piece of pizza, an ice cream cone, a bag of popcorn or you can save up all your cheat meals for a cheat day… I really don’t like cheat days because I feel like people gorge themselves and while it mentally makes you feel better it can seriously hinder your progress. So I wouldn’t suggest that… but again this diet doesn’t exist yet!
*Bonus* Community The final aspect that I think is so important is community. Facebook groups and other forums to help you talk about how you are feeling, how hard the recipes are, sharing new ones.
These are the things that I think would make a successful diet. And methods I have used to lose weight myself. Feel free to message me and talk about it!
Lyfe of Laci 