How Perpetua lost 14 lbs

Hi, this is Nagina Abdullah, and I am here with a Spice Yourself Skinny graduate and fellow sister, Perpetua. Perpetua lost a lot of weight in Spice Yourself skinny. She lost 6.5 kilos, which is over 14 pounds. And she lost a tremendous amount of inches from her body. So she lost, let's see, four, four inches from her waist, and now she wears. She went from a small medium to an extra small in clothing. So, Perpetua, I want you to just say hello, and I want to know, before you join Spice Yourself Skinny, if you can tell us about how you were eating and what your life kind of in terms of your eating looked like then.

Okay? Hi, everyone. I'm Perpetua and I just finished Spices so Skinny not too long ago. My results have been sustained because it's become part of my lifestyle. So what I used to eat was a lot of pasta. I would have multiple desserts every night. And generally I'll eat everything apart from chicken's claws or dog meat, you know. So over the years, I've been eating healthier, incorporating much more vegetables into my meals. But I can tell you that my eating was either really hedonistic or to escape. So, you know, in Brighton, where I live, we have this palace where King George used to host 64 course meals. Okay. So I reckon in the past life, I must have been a regular attendee at those banquets. That's how greedy I would tell you I am.

So you loved food and you love food. You love it. That's who you are. Like, that was a big part of your life. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So what did you like? What was your method to cook and to kind of stay healthy during Spice Yourself Skinny when you have, you know, a busy life, I'm sure that's not the only thing you want to do is, like, cook. Like, tell me about your process of how you would get the recipes and kind of what you would do to prepare your foods.

Okay. So every Sunday in my head, it was always the day I'm going to prep for the week ahead. So, you know, I would download the recipes. I think they were normally available on Fridays. That Sunday would be the day I would do it. So download them. I would make my notes, highlight the stuff, you know, take about, like 20 minutes. And then I would write the stuff I wanted to buy on a post it note. And then off I go to shop. You know, I get everything in a big batch. And then it just became really simple and automatic. So after the first two weeks, it was really easy for me. To fill my basket with 90% healthy food. And in terms of the process, you know, I cook every day, so I don't mind. I actually quite like, it's quite mindful, a mindful process for me. But to make it really simple, I think what spices, sauce, kidney helped me was with was to have pre prepped meal components. So for example, you know, every week I still buy bunch of mint and cilantro. You know, I make them into my waters. I have mint tea. In fact, I'm drinking mint tea right now. You know, fresh mint is awesome. And also I always have like two boxes of salad in my fridge that can pre prepared. So one would be spinach and you know, mint and cilantro with you know, whatever spices I really like or what vinegars I feel like for that week or half a week. And I also have another box with carrot and beetroot, with plum vinegar, cumin and again, whatever spice I like, you know. So for me it was about buying a spice that I and actually, you know, reading and knowing its properties was, you know, gave it like this extra boost in my head for me. And of course like, you know, I also up level by buying some really interesting ingredients. Like for example, I would buy this really nice oil that's got basil and lemongrass infused into it. I would buy this gray salt with truffles in it. So you know, like when you have this tiny little treats that you know, I cost a bit more, you know, but come on, we spend a lot of money also. Nonsense. So no, I thought it didn't matter to me. So when we add all these components, it just made the whole process of spices so skinny, really easy and really pampering.

Yes. Oh my God, I love that. It's like that's so true. You're. I mean all of those ingredients sound amazing. It's like mint and cilantro and then that beautiful oil and using the spice and the herbs and you're. And you're making it flexible for what you like. Like even it doesn't have to follow exactly the min. It can, you can be creative with what you like. You know, just make it fun and make it pampering. Yeah, no, like make yourself feel good while you're doing it. So. Oh my gosh. So that is so good.

Okay.

And so would you. Did you find like, did you do any like, so you like kind of cooking for the day? Did you do anything ahead of time or chop anything or do anything or you were okay with doing things?

Okay. So for me like the vegetables I would prepare ahead of time, like, the salads or any vegetables I needed to roast. I might roast a big batch, like cinnamon okra. I would roast, like, enough for four days. Yeah, that was one of my favorite things. And then what else would I do? I would marinate my chicken or my beef maybe two days in advance. So, you know, I'm really bad with marinating stuff. So I know that's my bed, and it's kind of a mental block around marinating my meats. So that apart from that, like, in terms of vegetables, I would do that. All the spa water, I was really excited to do it every Sunday. So I'll just be doing it, chopping up all the different ingredients and just look at how beautiful the bottle was and smelling it. So that was a very therapeutic experience. And of course, you know, when you wake up in the morning and you pour that, you know, that really flavorsome, healthy water from that beautiful bottle, you know, you already know that you're waking up to a really nice day. No matter how you know what your life seems like, you know that you're treating yourself right. The first thing.

Yes. Oh, my gosh, I love that. Wow, that is so true. It's like you wake up to, like, a lemon or lime or cucumbers or mint in your water. And I mean, otherwise, I feel like drinking water. We almost feel like we're forcing ourselves to drink water. But beauty in it, it's like. And I was following it as well, and I felt the same way. I'm like, oh, God, this is so, so beautiful. You know, I love drinking lemon water or any of the other herbs and spices. Okay, so those are such great. That's so great to hear about how you went about preparing the recipes, doing some things ahead of time, but also kind of indulging in the ingredients and actually enjoying the cooking process and really, like, enjoying the drinking and eating, like, really using that, but using those great ingredients that feel good, you know, that are lighter. Okay, so what do you think is one tip that you could give others about cooking or preparing their food or shopping so that you are able. Something that helped you fit it in and kind of prioritize it. Because the thing is, you can give a list. Like, I could give you a list. I could give you things. But you have to kind of. It has to be a priority for you, and it has to be important for you to treat yourself well. But what is something that you feel like could make it easier, could make the process of cooking or grocery shopping that you found over Time can really simplify it.

Okay. So for me, what I did was I chose a few favorite recipes from each week's menus, and I would rotate them. So this means that I didn't have to buy all the meats or all the vegetables. I didn't have to prepare as many meals as there was on the grid because I didn't have all the time. So what I did was I would choose half of them. You know, the things that really caught out to me. And I would. I might swap the meats out or soak the vegetables. So meat with tofu, chicken with beef. You know, if they cook for beef and I felt like burgers, I might just do a burger instead. So, you know, the principle was there. Or, you know, I might just, you know, sort of like, you know, use the vegetables from one meal with the meat from another meal. So I'll just swap them out and combine them into different combinations. You know, maybe I'll just throw a little extra spice into it. And so, you know, this way, you know, I wasn't. I didn't feel as overwhelmed with the sheer number of things, because sometimes I remember the first time I saw the menu, I was like, wow, that's really awesome. But at the same time, like, would I have the time to prepare everything? So I thought, okay, I'm just going to choose 50 or 60% of that. I'm going to stick to that. And that really helped me because I felt like my cognitive load was lessened. And again, I would have no excuses. And also, it made shopping a lot easier for me.

Yes. Oh, that is so great. That is such a great tip. And I think that's so important to say, simplify as much as you need to. And there's recipes so that you can have something different all the time, but you don't have to. Sometimes losing weight, it's really. It's more practical to lose weight if you can cook less, but you can just mix and match throughout the week.

Yeah.

You know, make it as simple as possible. When you start making it really complicated, then you kind of just end up. It becomes hard to be consistent and to keep following it. So a very, very good strategy is exactly what you did. Perpetua, which is choo, a few meals and make those ones and you can repeat or you can throw in your own things that follow kind of the overall framework. And that absolutely works. You want to make it easy on yourself. You want to really enjoy the whole thing for the process and eating it. So. Yes. Oh, well, thank you. This was so helpful. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with others and your weight loss, your whole way of living. It is very inspirational just to hear how you have gone about everything and you used it to make your life better. Not just to lose weight, but like, to make yourself better and to be at a place where you're happy. So.

Yeah.

Yes. Okay. All right, well, thank you so much for being with us today.

You're welcome. And I really enjoyed this. And I would like to say that, you know, Spiceless Skinny has really helped me to change my life and the way I see myself, the way, I see, you know, my lifestyle and taking care of myself has helped me to work differently. My clients as well, because now I'm just like, you know, it's not enough to eat a vitamins or Ophir. You have to want to eat something because you want to love yourself.

Yes. Oh, that is so. That is so amazing. Oh, my gosh. All right, well, thank you so much.

Yeah.