Luxe Woman's Travel Guide Tips From Nagina

Hey, everybody. I want to welcome you back to the Lux Woman's Travel Guide series. I'm so, so excited for today's guest. Her name is Nagina Abdullah, and she is the owner and founder of Masala Body. Welcome, Nagina. How are you?

I'm good. I'm so excited to be here. Nathalia.

Yeah, I'm so excited. So tell the audience a little bit about yourself, about Masala Body, how that came about. We're so eager to hear.

Absolutely. Okay. Well, I. So I. It relates to my business as well. It relates to kind of like my health and everything, but when I was growing up, I used to really struggle to maintain my weight and to maintain the body that I really wanted. And then when I got older, I moved to New York City so that I could start working there. It was my dream city. I moved there from California, which is also amazing, but I really wanted to be in New York. And so I moved all the way across the country to New York, started working in this incredibly demanding job. But it was my dream job. I was a management consultant at a top four firm in New York City, and I worked for Fortune 500 clients. I would be traveling almost every single week. I was jumping on planes, getting on trains, renting cars to get to my different clients. And as you can imagine, for somebody that had already been struggling with my weight for my entire life, to have this kind of lifestyle, it was thrilling in many ways. But it was also very hard for me to maintain my weight even more. And so I soon, a little bit after I started working at this job, I had just gotten married, and so I had my first child, and then I had my second child, and I put on weight that comes on with having kids. And so after my second child, I had 20 pounds extra that I needed to lose, and it wasn't budging. And so that is where I realized I was soon going to need to return to work. I was on a maternity leave. I was soon going to need to return to work, and I needed to find something that could keep me healthy while I was traveling and also while I just didn't have all the hours to exercise. And so I started researching lots of different ways to eat differently, and I did things different than what I had always done before. I started eating more protein more, eating less processed foods. I started adding more spices into my food to make it taste delicious. And I actually lost 10 pounds in one month. And then I went on to lose 40 pounds in nine months, and I went to 20 pounds below my pre pregnancy Weight. I finally got my dream body that I had always wanted. I got it after two kids, and I just never thought it would ever happen to me. And so everyone around me started asking me, nagina, what are you doing? How do you have kids? How do you look? Like, so, so much more amazing than you used to look. And I'm like, I never thought that my life would be even better. Like, I think I look better after kids and feel better. And so, so many people was overwhelming, asked me for my advice that I started my blog, masalabody.com and I started sharing my recipes. I started sharing my strategies for how I lost the weight while I was traveling, while I was living this demanding lifestyle with two kids, and people just really started resonating with it. And I started coaching women to lose weight because other professional, ambitious women needed just some guidance. And then I created an online program, which I now have, where I coach many women at once who are really busy, usually either traveling or have very ambitious careers, on how they can keep their weight down, how they can lose weight and manage their weight while living this busy life.

And I'm so glad you said that, because, yeah, we are really busy. I mean, it's like, sometimes, even for me, I feel like I don't even have time to really think about what I'm eating. I just kind of pick something on the go. But especially when traveling, like, that's the doozy. It's like, where do I eat? I want to eat the local foods and really submerge myself into the culture. But then is it something that's good for me? Like, am I going to bloat or, like, you know, go through all these other experiences? So any advice for women that are like, yes, I want to travel, but I don't want to have to worry about, like, packing and all that stuff. But I want to know what I can eat while I'm in that area.

Oh, my God, such good points that you have. I mean, I totally agree. It's like, when you're traveling, whether it's for work or whether it's for just personal, if you go to a new city and you, like, you go to this dinner place, you want to try the best thing out. You want to try that dessert that sounds amazing. You don't want to say, I can't do that, because it literally may be the only chance you ever have to do that. And so especially if, like, you're in another country or a really amazing, like, metropolitan city, you want to take advantage of it. And so it's balancing that with also maintaining your health and your energy as well. Because a lot of times, if we just totally let go every single night, it ends up making us feel lethargic and tired and it makes us lack energy. And that's really what we don't want when we're traveling. So I actually have four hacks that I wanted to share with you and for all the people that are watching. And these are really practical hacks that I have evolved over time and that work really well, but they're ways that you can enjoy yourself when you're traveling. So one of the things this is super practical is if you're at a restaurant and you really want to indulge or you want to try that thing, that is like the only thing, the only time you're going to get to try it is that night. What I recommend is balance your desire for indulgence with some. Some healthy elements. So what I like to do is order and indulge an appetizer. Like, I have a fried weakness, so I'll order like fried calamari or whatever it might be. I'll do it with the appetizer because that's a smaller portion. And then when I order my dinner, that's where I go for the healthy thing. I'll go for like a grilled fish with veggies on the side or like a nice salad. Or if you want to not, like, if you want to not be so healthy during your meal, just order like a healthy side or replace one of your sides with veggies. So it's really. You want to focus on keeping your unhealthy portions smaller and going bigger on the healthy. So you're not saying, no. You're not like, no, I'm not doing anything. I'm only having a salad tonight. You can have other things as well, but make them smaller portions. So that's one of the things. I just let myself do that, and then I feel good when I walk out because I was able to try what I wanted. But I also don't feel like I let myself down and I still have energy and I'm still working on maintaining my weight, which is important for me because otherwise I don't have all the time to exercise. So that's one of the tips in terms of going to a restaurant. Another tip that I like to use when I'm on a personal vacation, this is where I like to. What I do is I call it pack your day to eat less during travel. So I recommend eating two meals a day and Skipping one when you're like, say you're on a beach vacation or you're going to a city. Try to if you can. Unless you're like walking around all day and you need three meals. Sometimes if you're like at the beach, what you could do is you could either skip breakfast and then. Because when you go out to, you're eating out every single meal. A lot of the meals that you eat out at, they have really big portions. So if you can skip one meal, if you go a little over on the other ones, it's okay. Over the course of the day you still balance it out to what you would have eaten from for three meals if you were at home and like really watching what you were eating. So it's just hard to control the quantity of food being eaten when you're gone. And so you can usually get what you need in two meals a day. So you can either skip breakfast or. A lot of times what I like to do is I like to, I might have a breakfast and then I'll have like the terminology liner like lunch, dinner.

Okay. Yeah.

So that when it, when I go into the evening, I'm not feeling really heavy and like really bloated, but I'm feeling light because I had my bigger meal made around three or four o'.

Clock.

So I did a breakfast and then I did my bigger meal in the late afternoon, early evening. And then I have the whole evening to lighten up and not feel like really heavy before I'm going to sleep or before I'm going out that night. So two meals a day versus three, that really is like a way to lighten things up. The next one I have the third tip. This one is a really fun one. So this is around cocktails. So like if for those of us that like to have some cocktails when we drink, which I do because I'm on vacation or even if I'm away for business at dinner time, I want to have something to drink. You, you can have your cocktails. Have your cocktails. It's really. You don't want to travel and not have your cocktails if you like to, you know, so your cocktails are your drink. So I have a four part cocktail framework, which I say it helps you get or stay skinny when you're doing this, when you're following this cocktail framework. So what you start with is the first part of the framework is a light colored hard alcohol. And yes, hard alcohol. Because hard alcohol actually doesn't bloat you as much as like you can Have a wine or you could do a cocktail. But what you'll find that with light colored cocktails, you just don't want to have a dark colored cocktail. So a light one is like vodka, gin or tequila. And they have less sugar in them. So. So that's really the reason that you want to go for the light colored ones. They're also healthier, they have more antioxidants. Tequila is surprisingly one of the healthiest alcohols because it has natural agavens and lots of antioxidants in it. So it's actually a good go to when you're having a drink. Then you want to combine this with a club soda or a seltzer. And that's because it's zero sugar and zero calories. So zero sugar, zero calories. But you get a little fizz and you get some volume in your drink. So you're not drinking straight alcohol. And then you put a splash of juice. So the reason it's a splash of juice is because juice has more sugar in it. But if you have the club soda, you have more liquid and then you have a splash of juice for the flavor. So I like to do like pineapple juice, orange cranberry, even like mango or guava, depending on where you're at. You can mix some of those juices, but you just do a splash of juice and then top it with a lemon or a lime or if they have a mint or if they have some herb, that's even better. But it's basically light colored alcohol. Club soda, seltzer, a splash of juice and then top of the lemon or lime. So one of the drinks I like to order a lot that I find is a really good go to is called a gimlet. And this is vodka or gin with lime juice. And you could also have, you could add some club soda in there if you want to. And you could like. It actually has lime juice, so that's kind of your juice and it comes with a lime. So you could just order a vodka gimlet or a lot of times I'll say, can I get a Tito's vodka? Because I like Tito's. It's a nice. It blends really nicely. Can I get a Tito's vodka with club soda, A splash of pineapple with a lime on top. And that's like my go to drink. Yeah, when you're drinking that, when you're traveling, you don't have to feel too guilty about the calories and the sugar because it's all low sugar, you're still Getting your alcohol, but you're not like putting in all these simple syrups. All of this just liquids and juices and sodas. You're just keeping yourself together while you're having a good time drinking as well.

I love it. I love it. Thank you for sharing that because that is definitely getting dialed in my memory bank. Thank you.

Okay, awesome. Awesome. And then finally my final tip to just maintain yourself. I really call this Zero Gain Travel because I think that when you're may or may not be trying to lose weight and depending on who you are, you may not even be thinking of that. But if you are someone like me who has to really maintain and think about what they're eating to maintain themselves, I don't necessarily want to lose weight when I'm traveling, but I just don't want to gain weight. So I call it Zero Gain Travel. And so my fourth tip for Zero Gain Travel is to really upgrade your travel mindset and to swap food for fun. So what I mean by that is a lot of times we feel like having fun is let's go out to dinner or let's go out to this like amazing dinner place. And like, that's the highlight of the day or that's the highlight of the trip. But you could avoid, like, avoid looking at your meals as a source of fun, look at it as a fuel for your trip and instead think of activities and look at the activities you're doing and the people you're with as fun. So instead of basing your day around going to this restaurant, maybe you could base it around a hike that you're going on or like snorkeling, a snorkeling trip or just laying on the beach or some kind of activity based thing versus eating. And a lot of times, like, just because it's a social norm, eating is something we, we do and we meet to eat. We do all those things and it becomes like the central essential part of our days. But it doesn't have to be. There can be activities and like you're just eating because you need to eat to keep going. So it's kind of just changing your mindset.

Yeah, no, those are all incredible, like changes and tweaks that you can make. And I know I'm like reverse engineering, so I'm asking backwards, but I know a lot of women, like when I travel and my girlfriends travel the month at least before, we're like, oh my gosh, we need to eat a certain way, we need to work out, we need to do all this stuff to prep so, like, any advice for the prep before you even get there, in our bathing suits and feel powerful and all that good stuff and be ready for selfies and everything. So.

We'Re doing it for the gram.

So we needed that.

Totally. I totally. And I mean, I also. I mean, it's like once you have a healthy lifestyle, sometimes you can travel anytime and you feel fine with it. But there's always like that even no matter what, whether you have a healthy lifestyle all the time or whether you're just thinking, like, okay, I have this thing coming up and I need to, like, get in shape for it. So really, some things you can do. I mean, eating is 80% of, like, losing weight and just getting. Just getting more lean. So if you're going to focus on one thing, focus on your. On what you're eating versus only thinking that you need to go to the gym or only need to work out, like, stay lean in your eating, that's going to take you further. There's a couple things I like to do that are, like, little things that help me out right before a trip. So one of the things is I actually do this all the time, but is sprinkling cinnamon into your coffee in the morning. So when you sprinkle cinnamon into your coffee, or you could sprinkle cinnamon into your smoothie as well, what that does is it lowers your blood sugar and it helps you store less fat. And then naturally what happens is that you don't need as much sugar because cinnamon is so. But it doesn't spike your insulin like sugar does. So I will always sprinkle more cinnamon in my days, like before leading up to a trip. So that's one thing.

That's a good one.

Yeah. And it's also, like, enjoyable. It's tasty and it's so easy. Like, you just sprinkle cinnamon into your. Whatever you're drinking. So another thing is, I like to eat foods that lower my water retention. So because a lot of times, like when you're going on a trip, you can lose some weight, but, like, you're really just trying to, like, sculpt your body as quickly as you can before you leave. And a lot of the extra bloating and weight that we have, it's because of water that's sticking to our body. So the reason it's sticking to our body is because we can't. We could be eating higher sodium foods. And sodium causes more water retention. It causes more bloating. It's not even only by adding salt. It's like, if you're eating out, or if you're eating any kinds of processed snacks or any kinds of processed foods, there's more sodium in that. And so you want to really clean yourself of processed foods. Try not to eat like those granola bars or even those protein bars. Just try to eat like veggies and hummus for your snacks. But one of the tricks I like to do is there's two things I add right before I'm going to a trip. And it's seriously, it like helps all the water retention go out. Like, you'll notice it. One thing is that I add more asparagus into my diet because asparagus is a diuretic and it helps water release from your body. And the other thing is I add coriander, the spice coriander. You can buy ground coriander. And that also decreases water retention in your body. So what I do is I just sprinkle a little bit of salt because natural salt is okay, a little bit of salt. I sprinkle some coriander on my asparagus, I put it on a baking tray, and I bake it at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. And that's like my side to my meals the week leading up to my trip. And you will actually see this working because you'll have to go to the bathroom more right after you eat this, right after you have the coriander and or the asparagus, you'll have to go to the bathroom. So the thing is that this is definitely like these short term hacks. I mean, we want to do things of course, for the long term and there's lots of things. But even just adding, I actually have asparagus in my day every day because I'm always trying to keep my water retention low. But it's something you can just add in a little bit more. So adding cinnamon and then adding asparagus and coriander and bringing down processed foods is really key right before your trip.

I'm like, mind blown. Like, I need to get some coriander. I have natural salt is like pink Himalayan salt and things like that, right?

Yeah, yeah. Or any salt. I mean, when I say that. Yeah, I mean like just that you're adding to your own food. Because no matter, even if you add like a teaspoon or two teaspoons, it's not that much compared to what's in processed food. So if you're adding it yourself, it's totally fine.

I love it. Thank you for sharing all of this. I know even my girlfriends that are Listening in. I can already see it already. Now they're like, girl, I got the coriander. I got this, I got that. I'm ready to go. And I'm going to make sure that they do it whenever we go on trips. I don't even want to hear anything. You guys have everything. Nagina told us what we need to do, so you should be good.

Totally. And I actually bring, like, cinnamon. Like, really change. Like cinnamon. Jump started my 40 pound weight loss because I just started adding it into my coffee and I loved it so much that it naturally started bringing down my sugar. So I drink it all the time. I have it with my coffee all the time. But even when I go on vacation, like last year, I went to Paris over the summer and I knew I would be going to have espressos and croissants. I was like, I'm definitely doing that in Paris, but they don't. I kind of had a feeling they wouldn't have cinnamon there like they do in America. So I brought my own. I bought this thing from Amazon. It's like called a sun spice bullet. It's like a little, little container like this, and you put your own spices in it. And so I put my own cinnamon in there and I brought it with me and I literally used it like every single day. Cause I'm like, I'm keeping my blood sugar down while I'm on vacation. So I just put it in my purse and I just pulled it out at every place. And like, it wasn't even a big deal.

I love it. I love it.

It was fun. Yeah.

Now, Nagina, where is that one place? So I love to ask the women that are on this series, where is that one place that you remember that you've traveled to that's really just been like this aha moment where you felt. You really reconnected to yourself. You really felt like, life is good. Where was that one place for you?

Oh, my gosh. I love that question. So, my gosh, let me think about, like, where it. I think this summer I went to Hawaii. And there was one place I went to when I was in Hawaii and it was like off the beat. Well, it was kind of off the beaten path. It wasn't like where all the tourists were. There were a lot of people there. But it was this place where you went there and when you saw it, you were. You were just like blown away because it was like everything Hawaii was supposed to be and more. And it was. It was called this place is a volcano. And it had erupted and it had created this whole area where, where there was like coral reefs that came right up to the shore. And so I went snorkeling there. And you didn't even have to go on a boat and go snorkeling. You just literally got in the water and like five feet from the shore there was huge fish. And I went there with my kids and for the first time they went snorkeling. And it was just like such an inspiration. And I just felt so amazing that I could show them the adventure that I have in my life, which is I love traveling, I love seeing exotic things. And I was able to show them because this coral reef was right up to the shore. So we didn't have to like take a boat and do anything. Like very, very, like, time consuming. We were just able to just go out there and we were all snorkeling together and like pointing at fish under the water. And to me, I felt like this is who I am and now I'm able to share this with my, with the next generation and like with my kids, like, they see what I love doing because I always have had adventure in my life and it was just amazing to be able to do that together.

So I love it. That's beautiful. All right, so before we end, can you please tell the audience just a little bit about the free gift that you're offering, which is going to be incredible. So you guys are in luck for this as well as what are the fun projects you're working on? Like where can we find you? What are you working on? What do we need to look forward to?

Let us know. Okay. Oh my God. I'm so excited to share. I have such a special gift for all the people that are watching. This is something that I especially put together. I really thought it would help for women that like to travel and that also want to keep things simple and easy, but kind of luxurious and indulgent. So I have this is a special gift. It's going to be available@masalabody.com Luxravel so l u X E Travel. This is my sweet spice cheat sheet. It has the spice that's probably in your kitchen cabinet. It's nothing that is complicated. You most likely already have it. It helps to lower blood sugar and curb sugar cravings. And the cheat sheet includes three health benefits of using this spice, five ways to use it in your day, and also includes an easy recipe which is actually a belly busting tea that you drink at night that is sweet as well. So that is available@masalobody.com luxtravel Nice.

Well, ladies, Nagina is going to make sure you are looking snatched for your next trip. Definitely take advantage. You're gonna see the link below and then tell us about any products you're working on into 2019.

Oh, definitely. So I have a really amazing program that has really like so many women have gone through this. When I tell you the name, you'll kind of understand what it's about, but it's called Spice Yourself Skinny. And it's about, it's an eight week meal planning program where I give women exact foods to make or to bring with them. Or even I have travel hacks and eating out hacks and it's eight weeks of exact plans and exact steps on how to lose weight. And so these meals are so amazing. They're so tasty and delicious. You don't even feel like you are on a diet at all. It's not a diet, it's more like a lifestyle change. And I teach you how to add spices to your real whole foods that make it just like, just give it that punch so that every day you're looking forward to eating and it's more sustainable for you to lose it. So women have followed my program and first, sometimes people just want to follow because they like to cook, they want to learn new dishes, they want to spice up their life in terms of what they're eating. But a lot of women who followed it for weight loss, there's actually a woman who lost £100 following it. More commonly, women lose anywhere from women who followed it for weight loss, there's actually a woman who lost £100 following it. More commonly, women lose anywhere from 15 to £30 following it. And in the eight weeks they lose about £15 and they keep falling because the recipes are so good. So that's Spice Yourself Skinny. And I also have another online program called Tiny Changes Big Weight Loss, which is all about making small shifts to what you're doing and just changing what you're eating in general and then making these changes that are not such a big deal, but then having like massive weight loss that lasts for so long. So that's another of my programs. It has like trackers, food diaries, all of these tips about how to travel. Like I actually recorded myself when I was in Hawaii and when I was on the airplane and sharing all these tips of like, exactly what to do while you're traveling. Because it's all about like, how do you be a woman of today and lose weight when you're at home? But also, like, be realistic. We do things like we live. So how you keep it going when you're out and when you make small shifts like the ones I was sharing with you, it actually pays off big and it lasts. So it's a couple online programs that I have through my website.

I love it. And can they find you on social media? Because I know you're on Instagram, so where can they find you on Instagram? Facebook, where else can they find you?

So I'm. Yes, I'm on Instagram. Masala Body. I'm Assalabadi on Instagram and then on Facebook, my page is Masala Body by Nagina Abdullah. So those are the two places I'm at. The best place to get really a lot of, really a lot of, like, great recipes and great tips for me is to sign up for the Sweet Spice cheat sheet. And right after I send this cheat sheet, I'm going to also send my free recipe book, which is called 7 Spicy Recipes to Melt yout First 7 Lbs. And it has, like, seven really, really tasty, delicious recipes. So that's the best place. And then I'll send more emails out. I have, like, lots of great tips that I send out on a regular basis.

I love it. And ladies, I've checked out some of her recipes on her website. Like, Killer. Like, you need to take advantage of it. It's incredible. Thank you. I'm so thankful for you joining today. Thank you for sharing such great tips. Like, I already have some that I'm already making changes. Cocktails are one of them. So cheers to you. Thank you so, so much. And let's go ahead and let the audience know. We'll say bye to them. So bye, everybody. Thank you so much for listening in. Bye.

Bye. Thanks so much.

All right, thank you. By.