What I Wish I Knew Before Losing 40 Lbs | Starting a weight loss journey

Hello, this is Nagina Abdullah, and welcome to my YouTube channel. Today I'm going to be talking to you about what I wish I knew before losing 40 pounds and starting my weight loss journey. Now, let me tell you. Before I lost 40 pounds, I had been dieting forever. I was always on a yo yo diet, meaning I was dieting, I was restricting, I was feeling like I was hungry. And I would lose weight, but I would put it right back on the moment. I would lose like £10. So I never could actually get traction and I never got to live in the body that I wanted until I started doing several things. And I'm going to tell you what I wish I knew to make it even easier. Okay, now let's get started with tip number one. And if this is something that you like to hear, please, you gotta like and you gotta subscribe, help me build up my channel. And these tips are in no order. So if you want to get all five of these amazing tips, listen all the way to the end and please comment below on what your favorite tip was. These are actually quite transformational. All right, let's get started. Now, I used to think that losing weight was restrictive. I used to, it was lonely, it felt isolating. I couldn't go out to eat, I couldn't have fun. And I always questioned if what I was doing was working okay. But it doesn't have to be like that. Here is what I wish I knew first. Now, first of all, I wish that I didn't try to skip breakfast. I always tried to eat less. And my overall findings from losing £40 was that eating less was keeping me stuck. And I actually needed to eat more, starting with my metabolism boosting breakfast. So instead of skipping breakfast or eating a piece of toast or a regular dan and yogurt or a banana on the way out the door, I wish that I known how important it was to have a metabolism boosting morning breakfast. Okay, now what this means is having protein more in your breakfast. So add at least 30 grams of protein in your morning morning breakfast. This is getting your metabolism boosted. It's keeping you full and satisfied. Because protein takes a long time to digest and you are actually going to start naturally making your muscles more toned so you burn more fat. Now, protein more is the number one thing that my clients say has helped them drop anywhere from 15 to 90 pounds is adding that protein in breakfast. Okay, now here are some ways to get 30 grams of protein. You could do two eggs, but let me tell you one, one egg is only 6 grams of protein. So if you're having two eggs that's only giving you 12 grams of protein, you are going to feel very hungry later on. Okay? And you're likely going to start craving carbs and sugar because you're not giving yourself that protein. All right, so have two eggs plus have a cup of egg whites. A cup of egg whites is 20 grams of lean protein. There's nothing else except for protein in there and some healthy calories that we need. So. So two eggs plus a cup of egg whites is going to give you over 30 grams of protein. If you want to put some onions, some mushrooms from bell peppers in those eggs, go ahead and do that. That's awesome. And if you feel like that's too much of a, of an omelette, too much of a big egg, then just cut it down, have one egg and a half a cup of egg whites. Just vary it, make it work for you, but make it better than you were doing it before. Now if you feel like this is too big, what you could do is you could do two eggs and then you could also do Greek yogurt. All right, now I Love the Oikos 20 Greek yogurt. It's 20 grams of protein. You have really delicious flavors. It's low sugar, so go ahead and try that. Now, another option to get that 30 grams of protein in your breakfast is to have a metabolism boosting morning protein smoothie. Okay. Now a metabolism boosting morning protein smoothie is non dairy milk. Then you're going to have a protein powder that is at least 25 to 30 grams of protein. I recommend egg white prote or I recommend pea protein because they don't bloat you as much as other protein powders do. And then you want to add about a half cup of strawberries or other berries, which are real low sugar. A cup of spinach, which is keeping you full with the fiber. You add in my secret ingredient, which is called flaxseed. You have two tablespoons of that, and that's giving you more fiber, some healthy fats. And then you can also add in six sprigs of mint, muddle it before you put it in there, and that just adds a nice flavor. And it also helps you curb sugar cravings by adding that mint in. Yes, this has been proven. This is amazing. Okay, so that is your morning metabolism boosting mint and berry smoothie. And I am linking a recipe down in the comments as well for you to grab that. Okay, don't skip breakfast. Have a metabolism boosting breakfast, meaning protein more in your breakfast. Okay. This is going to kick off the weight loss, and it kicked off mine once I started this more. Okay, now tip number two. All right? I thought that I was born with sugar cravings. I actually thought that it was just a genetic way that I was born because they were so strong my entire life. And I always crave chocolate. I always crave pastries. I love dessert. I loved breads, I loved butter. And I just had to force myself not to eat it. And it was really hard because I used to think about these sweets every time that I was on one of these yo yo diets that I had followed for my entire life. What I realized and what I wish I knew is that we're not born with sugar cravings. You can actually stop your sugar cravings, and this is how you do it. So sugar is a drug. When we give ourselves foods that have sugar, then it breaks down and causes us to want more sugar. Now, the thing about sugar and giving ourselves that is it's not just in sweets. Sugar is hiding in so many healthy foods. And I didn't realize this before, I thought that I was eating healthy foods that all those diets were teaching me about. But now what I found out is those foods that are considered healthy are actually breaking down to sugar, and we're creating more sugar cravings. So imagine if you're. If you're taking an addictive drug, you're going to want to have more of that addictive drug. If you're feeling. Feeding yourself that. So the key here is to become aware of where sugar is and where it's breaking down. And here's a few places that are healthy but that are actually not good for weight loss. Okay? So I want you to avoid these foods. And once I started taking these out, my weight just started dropping off even more. I started burning fat, like, all the time. Okay, so number one, protein bars are full of sugar. Avoid them as much as you can. If you want to get a protein bar, take a look at the back. Make sure it has a lot of fiber and the lowest sugar you can. You can find. There are a few good ones out there, but overall, it's better to get your protein from natural sources. Granola. Granola is packed with sugar. If you look at the carbs, if you look at the sugar, you're going to see how much it is. It's just breaking down and it's creating. What's happening when all of these foods are breaking down is that they're creating an insulin release, and that is bringing your Sugar down in your bloodstream, and it's storing it as fat. So it's really key for you to make sure that you're not having too much sugar. So we talked about protein bars, granola, granola bars, smoothies from smoothie shops. They are marketed as healthy, but they're actually filled with tons of sugar. And that's because there's not that much protein in them. And they're also a lot of fruit. Fruit is great if you have it in the right quantities and you also combine it with protein. And I'll talk more about that in tip number four. Okay, so these are some foods that are marketed as healthy, but I want you to avoid them. All right? Now, next tip is that this was a key thing thing for me that I wish I had known before I lost this 40 pounds, because I never knew this all of the other decades that I'd been trying to lose weight. All right? And this is that you can make your food taste amazing and be healthy by adding spices. All right? Now, spices are natural metabolism boosters. When you add spices to your coffee, to your tea, to your breakfast, on top of your vegetables, they actually activate more weight loss. All right? And so once I started adding a few spices into my day, and these were not spicy spices, they were just metabolism boosting spices, I started loving what I was eating. I realized that I was losing weight so quickly, and I started researching what was going on with these spices. And I found out there are so many benefits of the spices that we're eating. So let me tell you three amazing spices that are absolutely crucial for you to get into your diet. And these are super fun to start adding to. Okay? Number one is a super sweet spice. All right? This is the sweet spice is cinnamon. All right? So cinnamon has so many benefits to keeping our blood sugar even. So what that means is that you are not spiking your blood sugar, all right? You are not creating that fat storage, and it's giving you the taste of sugar. So I loved to add cinnamon into my coffee in the morning. And I pulled back on the Splenda, I pulled back on the French vanilla creamer that I loved because it was so, so sweet. I started replacing that with cinnamon. So I still got that sweetness, but then I wasn't activating my insulin, okay? I wasn't creating that release and creating that fat storage, which is also happening in our belly. So add cinnamon into your coffee in the morning or add it on top of your fruit. It's going to lower your blood sugar, it's going to help you reduce fat storage and activate fat, burning spice number two is turmeric. Turmeric is a beautiful golden yellow color and it is completely nice neutral in flavor. Now turmeric is something you can buy from the stores and so easy to add in. But a lot of people just don't know how to add it. Come from an Indian background and we use turmeric and all of our foods. So I naturally had always used it, but I just hadn't used it in the quantities I started using when I started seeing the results. The reason you want to use it, first of all is because it's anti inflammatory. It helps to reduce our puffiness in our our face. It helps to reduce the bloating from the belly fat in our bellies. And it also reduces joint pain that comes with aging. So adding turmeric along with a sprinkle of black pepper is really going to reduce your inflammation in your body. And the easiest way to use turmeric is to add it into your eggs in the morning. Add a half teaspoon into your eggs, it doesn't taste like anything and you get that anti inflammatory boost quickly. A third spice is this one is a spicy spice for those of you like me, that like spicy. And this is cayenne pepper. So cayenne pepper has the compound capsaicin in it, which is in all the spicy spices from jalapenos to paprika to those red chili flakes that you get at the pizza place. So if you sprinkle some cayenne pepper or the red chili flakes on your pizza, if you put it onto your vegetables, what's happening is that you are activating your metabolism and your body burning more calories than if you didn't add it. And you'll be able to tell because you'll be breathing harder. Sometimes you'll feel a little heat on your face. Okay, so these are the three spices that I want you to start adding into your day in any way that you can at least once a day. Cinnamon, turmeric and cayenne pepper or a form of capsation. And some of the other ones that I mentioned. All right, now let's go to tip number four that I wish that I knew. And this was that I used to used to only before losing this £40, I used to only focus on the calories I was eating. I would always be trying to reduce my calories. Now instead of reducing your calories is and when I started doing this, my fat melted away. I lost £40 in nine months. It was thrilling and exciting. And it's been over 13 years and that weight has stayed off. So this is sustainable. Sustainable, when you start looking at this, and that is to focus on balancing your blood sugar, which prevents fat storage. Because every time our blood sugar goes up, I mentioned before, our insulin is released, and that is taking that blood sugar level down because it's unhealthy. And we're storing that sugar as fat. And the way that you can feel that that's happening in your body, you feel really like you have a lot of energy, and then all of a sudden your energy drops, drops 30 minutes later. Well, that was a quick blood sugar spike. And that is not great for weight loss. In fact, that is the worst thing that you could be doing for weight loss. Okay? So instead of worrying about how many calories you're taking in, the way that you can balance your blood sugar is by pairing and combining your foods so that you are digesting foods more slowly. So every time you have a carb or a sugar, if you decide to have it, and this is how losing weight can be sustainable, is your can still have the foods you love will pair it with a protein. So, for example, if you are having an apple for a snack, apples are great, they're full of fiber, but they also have significant sugar. So pair it with 1 to 2 tablespoons of peanut butter or a handful of nuts. Peanut butter has healthy fat in them, or any other type of nut butter, and it's slowing the digestion of that sugar. So you're not getting that blood sugar spike. Okay. And you're actually eating the right amount of food for your body to actually fuel your metabolism increasing and thus your fat loss happening. You want to combine your carbs with fats or with proteins, and also you want to eat your protein or veggies before you eat your carbs. For example, if you are having pizza or if you are having spaghetti, make sure that you order a salad first. If you order a salad first, and better yet, if you have protein on that salad, like if it's a seafood salad, that's going to help your body just create a foundation of slower digestion. And so then when you add in those carbs from the pizza or the spaghetti or the pasta, those are quick burning carbs. They're going to elevate your blood sugar. When you add those in, you'll be adding it to a foundation of already slower digestion that's in your body. And then another natural effect is that you won't be as hungry to eat as much pizza or, or as much spaghetti and so you'll have less of it. And that's going to really reduce your blood sugar spikes even more. These are a couple tips to combine your carbs with fats or proteins and to also eat veggies or protein before you eat your carbs. And you are going to help your blood sugar stay even while still enjoying your favorite foods. And this was a game changer for me so that I could have pizza nights with my kids, so that I could enjoy pastas, so that I could enjoy some of my food favorite Indian foods which are fried breads. I would just make sure I was having protein and veggies first. Now tip number five, and this is my favorite one and it goes against every single diet plan out there, but it actually works and it will keep your stomach flat. And this is to eat more more of the right foods that boost your metabolisms instead of eating less. I always had thought that I have to curb my calories, I have to keep my calories low. But what I found later on when I actually lost the £40 in nine months and have now kept it off is that it's important to eat more of the right foods that are nutrient dense. And then you won't have those sugar cravings. You won't be feeling like you absolutely need one of those foods that is elevating your blood sugar. You have to get in front of it by eating more of the foods that are boosting your metabolism. And those are foods like protein, 30 grams of protein at breakfast and at every meal, vegetables which are full of fiber. Add some of those fat burning metabolism boosting spices on top of those vegetables. Roast them in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees to make them tasty and have natural sweetness. Okay. And then also have fat burning spices, the metabolism boosting fat burning spices that I shared three of them. And also eat healthy slimming carbs that are not quickly digesting. These are things like high fiber breads, high fiber types, starchy vegetables, beans, lentils, healthier grains like millet or quinoa. Having those as your carbs versus faster burning carbs that quickly digest and then you're hungry again. I hope that you enjoyed this. Now let me tell you what I have coming up for you. First of all, I have a five day metabolism boost that is starting so soon you can get your free spot in the comments below. I'm going to be teaching you the metabolism boosting morning routine. I'm also going to be teaching you the four part fat burning food framework and how to pair all your foods together. I'm also going to be sharing how to get off sugar without feeling tired or hungry. Now I'm also going to be adding in my sweet spice cheat sheet into the comments. So definitely go grab that. It's going to show you five ways to add the sweet spice into your day as well as a fat burning fire tea to have right before you go to sleep that is going to help you burn fat faster. Now definitely like or subscribe this. And also check out my video right here. It's my latest client testimonial. You are going to see some amazing results from sheila, who lost 20 pounds in her 60s. This is just mind blowing. You're going to hear how she felt before and how she feels now. Okay, I look forward to seeing you very soon on my next video. Bye.