Perpetua lost 14 lbs!

Hi, this is Nagina Abdullah, and I'm so excited to be here with one of my sisters from Spice Yourself Skinny. And I want to introduce Perpetua and have her say hello and tell you a little bit about her results that she got from the Spice Yourself Skinny eight week program. Hi, Perpetua.

Hi. Hi, everybody. My name is Perpetua and I joined Spice Yourself Skinny back in May or June. And I've had really wonderful results that make me feel so confident that I can live this life where I can be sustainably healthy. So essentially, I started off at 55.5 kilos, and right now I'm 49 kilos. And I've also been sneaking in chocolate in my meals throughout the course, so I can tell you that it works. I also lost about 4 inches from my waist, which I didn't think was possible. So I am really pleased about that.

Amazing. Oh, my gosh. That is so, so amazing.

Wow.

And your pictures from before and after are so amazing. And just to tell people, just because of the conversion, 6.5 kilos is a little bit over £14 in eight weeks. And so that's just incredible. And then that weight loss from your waist and everything. Wow. Wow. Okay. So, Perpetua, tell me, why did you decide to join Splice Yourself Skinn? Like so many programs out there, I know that you were very busy. What made you decide to join the program? What appealed to you?

Okay, I'll tell you the story about Epiphany later. But basically what happened was the next day, after my epiphany, one night I was reading your copy of masala body.com, because I love the way you write. Okay. And then I chanced upon spices of Skinny because I met you in New York and I thought, hey, here's this woman. She's Byron. She's got a successful career and business like business. She's got a beautiful family, and she's a testament to all how we can all all this weight. So, you know, when you talk about positive role model, I thought, yeah. So I basically click pay and the rest is history.

Oh, that is so sweet. Thank you. Oh, my gosh. Well, good. I'm so happy that we met and that you kind of got to see what life can be like, that when you lose weight, it can be happy. You can feel vibrant, you can feel alive even more. It's not like deprivational or anything like that. Yeah. So tell me about, like, the exact moment when you decided that you wanted to join the program.

Okay, so what happened was, you know, I Remember being in the bathroom at 2am and I was reluctantly looking at my reflection because at that point it was a really hard time for me. My life felt really unsafe at home. My dad partner was getting really abusive. He was doing a lot of cocaine and alcohol. And I had to sleep with my possessions hidden. So you can imagine how horrible that kind of life was. And you know, how I didn't really want to look at myself mirror. And then when I finally did, I told myself this. I'll be proud of you when you lose your weight, upskill your business, and make your mind up about this relationship. You know, the body positivity, movement, things that love your body. I think it's great. But for me, I was always a really skinny girl, despite loving my food. And I know that I crossed my line. You know, my body was the result of being neglectful and emotional eating. And at the same time, I knew my potential because, you know, I was always really skinny since I was a child. And I liked it, you know. So when I finally said those words out to myself in the mirror, it hit me just how tragic everything was. So I realized I actually, I done my best or more than my best, in spite of all the difficult times I've been through. So I told myself this. I love you. I'm gonna take care of you. And we want to start losing the blubber by your 30th birthday. So then, you know, the next day I was on masala body.com reading your stuff. And then, you know, so everything seems to come together in this sequence of events. And yeah, here I am today.

Oh my gosh, that's. Oh, my God, I love that how you looked at yourself and you. I love you and I'm going to take care of you. And that is just so, like, so meaningful because you do have to love yourself first. And you really are the person that's going to take care of yourself. You have to do that first before anything else will happen. And that's so powerful that you actually. And you took action on it. So definitely.

Yeah.

Yes. So one of the things perpetua that I thought was so great is that when we first started Spice Yourself Skinny, we have a Facebook group and we post, you know, we were posting some of the things we were making. And from week one, the first thing that you posted was that you made our dessert of the week, which was this spicy lava cake, this chocolate lava cake with spices in it, and you just made it. That was the first thing you made and you posted it. So that was so funny. So tell me a little bit about why you think spice yourself skinny helped you lose weight, and tell me if you think it's something you can continue to do.

So for me, spices of skinny was mindlessly easy to follow because there were systems put into place, you know, like pre prepping your food, making sure you buy your stuff, you know, so what happened was every week when I got my recipes, I would download them, I will highlight some stuff and then translate it into a post it note where I'll write down what I needed to buy. And, you know, so it was really simple to follow. It was like, you know, there's no question about whether to do it or not. They're just like, yep, do it, get ahead with it. And also in the group, I found that there was a lot of encouragement. You know, people were all on various different journeys of weight loss. And, you know, we were all really open about stories and, you know, you would talk about your experiences, you would show us the pictures that you're prepping for your dinner. So, you know, I just felt like it was just like community around it. So, you know, like, you know, it's one thing to, you know, read a book and do something on your own, but when you have a community behind you and you realize there's this collective buzz, there's this effervescent energy, I think it really energizes you.

So.

So for me, spices or skinny is really delicious and varied. The spa waters in the morning were a treat. I'm still doing that all the time. I love spices. And so, you know, for me, it was really wonderful fit. And I remember the foods I love the most are your cinnamon okra, your Thai chicken with citrus salad, and your paprika chicken, which I'm still making.

Oh, my God, that's so great.

Wow.

I'm so happy. So the Thai chicken. Yes. The cinnamon okra. Okay. Yes. Oh, my God, that's so great. So, and were the spices easy to use? Like, how did you feel about using the spices? Were you comfortable with it? Was it straightforward? Were you. Do you have a lot of questions or how did you. How are you able to do it?

For me, using spices was really easy because I cook a lot. Like, you know, it comes from my culture. And the last few years living away from home taught me how to, you know, go and do your curries, do your spices, try all sorts of different foods. So I think what was the biggest gain for me was actually, actually confidently knowing which spices to combine, you know, or, you know, putting spices into my desserts. Like, you know, I say somehow there's a blind spot, like I will go and buy chili chocolate, but I would never think of putting garam masala into my chocolate cupcakes. So, you know, that was, you know, that was a bit of a twist for me and I really enjoyed it. And also in terms of how easy it was. So like, you know, like the different herb combinations I remember, like you got rosemary and lemon together. You know, maybe I did that a bit in talent cooking, but I never really thought about doing it in my everyday life. So in a sense, you know, I learned combinations and flavor profiles that I now translate into my everyday cooking.

Yes. Oh my gosh. That's so, so great. That's so great. Ok, so I love how you also mentioned that like you got the grocery list every week and it was something that you were able to do easily. So tell me a little bit about how you fit in healthy eating and healthy cooking with spices. How did you do that with your life? Like when you're busy, you're starting, you're doing a business, you have so many things, how are you able to kind of fit this in and lose this weight?

Okay, so for me it was all about really careful planning and it didn't take a lot of time. Like I said, you know, download the recipes, highlight some stuff, make a bit of notes and translate everything to post it. Go out, buy your stuff, go home. And then, you know, and like, you know, I don't mind cooking every day, you know, just a bit of the prep stuff, you know, like cooking my meats fresh. That's like no problem for me. But I think one of my biggest gains was actually, you know, having pre prepped salads in the fridge. So for example, like even till today, what I always do is I always make sure that I have green salad with spinach and herbs and a few different spices that I mix depending on what I feel like. And I also have this thing where I put beetroot and carrot with cumin and plum wine vinegar, which, you know, which. Yeah. And I just mix it up and I just make sure I always have it in the fridge with me. So whenever I need to munch, I have something to munch on it.

Oh my God, that's so good. So it's like prepping, doing a few things ahead of time. It's not that it's time consuming, it's just that you do it now. You just, you just a little bit of thought in it. Okay, good, good, good. I'm sorry. No excuse. Sometimes you just need someone to tell you what to do and then you can do it. You know, it's like definitely. Okay, so tell me a little bit about what you can wear now that you could not wear before. And I'm so excited to show some of the pictures that you shared with me because I'm like so impressed and you look totally amazing, totally gorgeous. So tell me a little bit about like, what are the things you can wear now that you weren't wearing earlier this year?

Okay, so generally nowadays I wear crop tops. I buy my trousers in Xs size, which is a big deal right now for me. And I no longer dress thinking, what can I wear today to disguise my fat? So. But you know what's really, really wonderful for me was this thing. You know, when I was 22 years old, I had this vision of a tweed dress. It needed to be really simple, above the knee, but with this structural and slightly puffed sleeves. And I actually found that one day in a gorgeous blue gray shade. So I happily paid $90 for it. And back then at 22 years old, that was a big deal for me. So over the years I stopped being able to wear it. So in spite of losing quite a lot of weight on my emergency twice a year four hour body diets, which I loved, I never was able to wear that dress. So last night I remembered that dress and with a pounding heart I pulled up the zip and I can fit into it again. Yes.

Oh my gosh. Congratulations. That's huge from 22 and you haven't been able to wear even though you've gone through up and down weight loss, but now it's like something different happened that you really are able to wear it now.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh. Congratulations.

Wow.

That is a big, big deal. So you can wear a beautiful dress that you bought so many years ago. You wear crop tops and you didn't wear crop tops. Like that's not something that's normal to for you to wear.

Only when I lose weight, I wear crop tops. But even then I'll still feel a bit self conscious. But right now when I go on my crop tops, I feel great, you know, like I can sit down and not worry about fat spilling out because it's not spilling out anymore.

Oh my God, that is so good. That is so and so perpetu. Do you think this is something that you like and you've written some beautiful posts in the Facebook group about how, you know, you think of this as a new way of living, as a new lifestyle so is this something you feel like you can continue to do? Like do you think you can keep this weight off? I mean is it still, is it staying off? Is it hard to keep off or is it easy?

Definitely I think it's easy to keep off because I've been still following this program, all the basic principles. Essentially I still have my cheat days. But essentially I think this program has been really key in me properly practicing self love in my work. I help people to achieve and live more by beating themselves up less. But my own blind spot was why didn't I properly love my body besides appreciated during the good times when it was in good shape. So previously I would eat out of sheer hedonism, comfort binging or I might diet out of fear. So for the first time I actually found myself eating because I wanted to nourish my body out of love. And I find that spice or so skinny is actually extremely sustainable way of living and taking care of my body. Because you know, when you practice something for long enough, you know, in this case it was an eight week program, you know, it becomes a habit. So you know, I would say that it's had a knock on effect on other parts of my life. So I no longer think screw it if I happen to eat a cookie and then sabotage myself. And I'm this person who would eat like eight hot cross buns at a go just because you know, it starts with oh it's so good, it's hedonistic. Then it starts with, then it becomes sabotage and you know like, you know the human body just, or the human person just works in very strange ways. So I don't do that anymore because I find that I'm gentler myself. When I decide to, you know, eat a bit of a sweet treat, that's okay, you know, I don't know, eat the whole tub of ice cream anymore. I still have a really sweet tooth and yeah, so I can eat my, I can eat all the stuff in small amounts but without being crazy or getting overwhelmed by it. And also like, you know, I found that, you know, like when this whole self love thing, loving my body thing, you know, it's become a habit. So I started many new changes in my life as well. You know, I left my abusive ex, I started a new life. You know, I've been nurturing a gorgeous indoor garden upland, my business, I even bought myself my first desk for the life. And you know, I think this changes wouldn't have come about without actually nourishing myself and really loving and taking care of My body. So, you know, like, I would say that the biggest changes in my life is that, you know, I'm not ashamed of my story anymore. Like, you know, like, for example, you know, what happened to me or that I used to, you know, have this excess weight that I gained that I used to feel so horrible about myself about. It's no longer there. I can tell you that. Yeah, I've been one side of the story and I walk out the tunnel and I feel really good about it. Like, it's a sustained change that I can commit to.

Oh, my gosh, that is so beautiful. I just love hearing that. That's just so. I mean, it's so much more than just like watching your calories and eating less, you know, which is not even.

What we talk about.

It's actually about eating more, eating more of the right foods. But it really is about loving yourself, loving your body and giving yourself foods that you are excited by and taste good and that make you feel even better. And you just really adopted that perpetua. So that is amazing. And that's why I really think that, like, this can be like, I really. The yo yo does not have to happen. It's not. It doesn't have to be your lifestyle where you're yo yoing. You can actually be at a weight that you're happy with and, you know, and like, forgive yourself if there's some times where you do want to eat. Like, you should eat chocolate, you should eat cookies. And we actually had that in our plans every day because you should eat those things. But then you can also eat lots of other things too. And so one more question. So what do you think Surprised was the most surprising thing for you about spice yourself skinny, like, after going through it, what's kind of surprised you about it?

I think how easy it was to lose the weight because, you know, like, I reached a point where I thought that, hey, you know, I'm starting 30, my metabolism has slowed down. Maybe, you know, my life, my, like, metabolic karma is catching up with me for whole life of, you know, hedonistic eating or comfort eating. So, you know, like, so I kind of thought that, you know, as I read, you know, I watched a few of your videos. You talk about minty, you talk about using spices. And at first I was a bit worried because I have. I drink mint tea every day. I use cinnamon in my food. You know, I love my spices. So I thought, would I be able to lose my weight? But then I thought, you know, I'm going to commit to this you know, doing is believing, essentially. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to see what happens. And it actually became really simple. I didn't have to. Like I said, there was no yo, yo. I just, you know, drank my waters every morning, ate my eggs in the morning, and, you know, had basically a nourishing full day of food. I felt full and I felt really happy. And I just want to sleep feeling like I didn't have extra cravings or anything like that. So, you know, I guess, like, you know, I would have thought that a diet, you know, would require way more discipline than this one. Like, for example, like, I don't. I've not been on a lot of diets except a four hour body because it's extremely efficient. But then, like, you know, this one has helped me to lose weight while eating fruit, which I think is wonderful. Yeah. Yes.

Oh, my gosh. Well, thank you so much for sharing your experience. And you look amazing. You sound amazing. I mean, I can feel the energy from you and so that's so great. And I just love how you're still making some of your favorite meals. And make sure to keep making that chocolate cupcake too, because I know that one of the things that really you like. So you got to keep making that too, on your cheat day.

Definitely. Yeah.

Okay. Well, thank you so much, Perpetua.

You're welcome.