This vegan mom of 2 lost 10 inches in Spice Yourself Skinny 21-day Jumpstart. Hear why it works

Hi, this is Negeena Abdullah and I am here with Lauren, who was part of the Spice Yourself Skinny Jumpstart program. Lauren, I would love for you to say hi, let us know how much weight you lost and any other changes in your body since taking the 21 day or in the 21 day jumpstart.

Hi, everyone. I am Lauren. Over the 21 day jumpstart, I was able to lose a little bit over 6 pounds and about 10 inches all over my body. I had meals for my family of four and everybody was full and loving them, and it was really delicious.

Oh, my gosh. Amazing. Amazing. Now tell me, just for fun, just to start off, what is your favorite Spice Yourself Skinny spice? And tell me how you use it, how you and your family use it.

My favorite spice, which was new to my cooking, was turmeric. I had never used it before or really understood the flavor, but now I use it on almost everything. I use it in the morning for like, avocado toast, or I use it to marinate chicken or tofu for dinner. So it really has become kind of an all around spice that I use every day.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay.

Well, thanks for sharing that. That definitely sounds delicious. So I would love to hear about the fact that you are vegan and, and you were able to lose over six pounds in just 21 days. Can you just talk to me a little bit about how did Spice Yourself Skinny help you in terms of losing the weight and kind of eating the right food also, given that you're a vegan?

Well, I think the Spice Yourself Skinny really lends itself well to vegetarian or the vegan diet. And some people are a bit intimidated because a lot of options are high in carbs. There's a lot of grains, but there's also a ton of vegetables. And I think the best part was making what seems like something like tofu that can be extremely bland by itself. It really takes well with any spice and any combination. And so having that preparation up front and then making the substitutes to make it vegan from whatever the Spice Yourself Skinny recipes were really was a great guide. Also, the portions, I think that was probably the biggest piece is when you're a vegan, a lot of people say you can just eat as much as you want because everything is vegetables and grains. But that's not the case. You really have to be careful about your portions. And it really is plenty to be full. And once you're aware of that and start reading those signs in your body, it's. It comes off just as Easily as any other diet.

Oh, I love that. So you were definitely able to use the recipes, the foods, all of that, and continue to follow your vegan diet and still lose it, lose the weight and feel like you're not deprived, right?

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Oh, good, good, good. Okay, so tell me, what was the moment that you decided to join Spice Yourself Skinny Jumpstart? Why did you decide to join this versus the eight week program or versus any other weight loss program?

So I have been receiving the emails and kind of following Spice Yourself guinea for a while and there was a few offerings that I didn't go through with. But I think it just had to be the right time for me. And the jump start was kind of just the right price point and the right amount of commitment that I was willing to put in up front. It was, you know, as far as pricing, it wasn't too expensive, it was definitely doable. And I felt like it was a long enough time that I'd be able to see if I could get results from it following the recipes and following the plan. And once I did, I felt like I was just 100% in and really followed it to a T. Oh, awesome.

I know. And you said it's like you just needed to jumpstart, right? You just needed to get started on something.

Yeah, I just needed like the motivation to say, like, this is the day I'm going to start. This is how I'm going to do it. You know, the follow up emails kept me on track. And the guide as far as prep and the shopping list, it was all spelled out really easily. It was kind of hard to fall off of it. And you know, as a working mom, I think that the easier it is, the better it is for me to follow it. And once I was committed, I'm, you know, I'm usually pretty good about sticking to stuff like that.

Awesome, awesome. So you're a mom of two, so a four year old and a two and a half year old. Right. And then you have your husband, so it's four of you, then you're working every day. So what are some things that Spice Yourself Skinny Jumpstart did for you that made you able to like get it together every day? Like, what are some of the specifics? I know we talked about the prep sheet and things like that. Maybe you could walk us through kind of how you use the tools in Spice Yourself Skinny Jumpstart.

So I think the prep sheet was really the best tool for me, the prep sheet and the shopping list. So I was able to go through what I had each week, know exactly what I needed to buy, and that I was going to use all of it, which is always a big deal. I hate when produce and other food goes bad in the fridge. It drives me crazy. But the prep sheet really broke it down day by day. It was a big prep on Sunday, and as long as I carved the timeout, it was also kind of relaxing to just kind of stand and chop and marinate, and then everything was set for the week. You had breakfast all ready to go. You had lunches. I really enjoyed the different waters in the morning. That was kind of a nice change. It was something I had never done before. And following that prep guide made it easy for me to make some separate meals because my husband and my kids are not vegan, and I am so having the ability to plan out a meal with chicken or fish alongside a meal with mushrooms or tofu or tempeh was nice to have that planned out. Rather than making one meal and scrounging to put the other one together, which is normally what I would do, I would make their meal and then kind of piece mine together from what I could eat out of that, and it just wasn't satisfying. So this was way more fun that we were all eating the same thing and that everything was prepared. And I ended up using less time to prepare it because I had already done all the prep.

Oh. Oh, my gosh. Okay. So did you. Would you make it, like. So you would make. It would be kind of the same marinade, and you would make the same marinade for chicken or fish, and then that same marinade would go for tofu or tempeh. Is that how you would.

Is that how you would do it?

Yes.

So I would follow it as if I was making the meal that was set out of the meal for myself. I would just make basically two different versions of it, and then there's always a vegetable element. So I would cook the vegetables all together and then the two separate proteins and then put the meals together accordingly. So it made it. It made it really simple. I didn't have to think of two different meals.

Yeah, yeah, totally. Okay. So it's like you make. All the sides are the same. Everything's the same. It's just the proteins are different, but they're marinated. So you don't have to, like, do two separate things. So. Yes, that makes such a difference. Especially, like, so many families have. I mean, there's one person that does one thing. There's one person that does one thing, and you have to accommodate everyone. But it's like you want to keep it easy. So if that's possible, like anything's possible. So. So tell me, what are, like, how do you feel differently now losing the six pounds? What are some things you can. Are there things you can wear differently or do differently than you could before?

Yeah, I mean, I think that six pounds, when you say it, it doesn't sound like a lot, but on your body, six pounds is a lot. And you know, I have. My youngest child is two and a half, and I've had trouble kind of losing that last 10 to 15 pounds since I had him. So being able to finally get almost back into all of my clothes prior to having a kid is a really big deal. Or the clothes that do fit me, fitting me a little bit more comfortably and not, you know, wavering back and forth on what I'm going to wear. And, you know, I go to work really early at 6:30 in the morning, so I'm getting dressed in the dark most of the time. And if I don't have something that I know I'm comfortable and I can't go back to my closet 10 times. So being able to put everything on and know that it's going to fit fine, you know, it doesn't matter. It actually makes my morning so much easier.

Oh, my gosh. I know what you mean. Otherwise, it's like you try on one thing, you don't have time, and you literally can't even see what else is there. But if it doesn't fit, you know, it doesn't fit you. And then it just would take extra, extra time to go in there and like grow up in the dark for something else when it doesn't fit. Yes. Yeah, yeah. And it really is like that extra 10 or 15 pounds after having a baby that it's like sometimes it seems like it doesn't budge, like it's not going anywhere. But once you take a few steps towards getting that off, it's like £6. It really is a lot. Like, you can see, you can see the difference. You can feel it. It lightens you up a lot. So, I mean, it's 10 inches that you lost, so that kind of tells it even better. So. Amazing. Amazing. Okay, so one final question I want to ask you. What surprised you about Spice Yourself Skinny Jumpstart? What was something you kind of didn't expect or something that surprised you as you were doing it?

I was surprised at how many different meals I could accomplish in a week with less work. You know, all of the different flavors, all the different spices, and all of the meals were so unique and flavorful and different from anything else that I had made. It seemed to me before that when I would try out new recipes, I would say, okay, one a week is all I can really wrap my head around. But I was surprised at how easy it was when you're just using spices to incorporate that many more flavors into your meals all week long.

Oh, yes, yes. Because it's like if you just sprinkle a few different spices, you get a completely different flavor. It almost seems like a different dish. It's like if you're using ginger and garlic and turmeric in one dish, but you use the same food, but you just switch up the spices, maybe you have, like, cumin and coriander and garlic in another. It's totally different dishes, but it's the same. Like, it didn't take that much extra time. So. That is a great point. I'm so glad. I mean, easy is key to losing weight. As a mom, especially a mom who's, you know, a mom who's busy, who's working, it's like, you got it. You have to keep it easy, and these are the little tricks that help it help that help that happen. So thank you so much, Lauren, for sharing your story. This is so interesting to hear, and congratulations on losing that weight, losing those inches, and just being able to, like, easily get dressed in the morning. Sounds amazing.

No, thank you. And thank you. And I appreciate you having me on. This is really fun.