On average what do you spend on groceries?
On average we spend $150 every two weeks on food groceries for a family of five in Southern California. We primarily shop at Costco, Walmart, and occasionally go to Whole Foods and Trader Joes.
How tall are you?
5’2 3/4
On average how much weight did you lose a week?
That’s an impossible question to answer because weight fluctuates. But here is what my weight loss looked like over the first six months:
January 2017- 19lbs lost
February 2017- 7lbs lost
March 2017- 14lbs lost
April 2017- 12lbs lost
May 2017- 7lbs lost
June 2017- 6lbs lost
What lipstick do you wear?
Urban Decay Amulet
Is this safe while pregnant/breastfeeding?
Yes! Because I don’t restrict any major food groups eating clean is 100% safe during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. This is actually a better way to eat while you’re pregnant/breastfeeding!
Where is the nutritional information?
There are several reason why I do not list nutritional information. The main reason is because I spent years tracking calories, carbs, points, micros and macros and tracking, for me, never led to sustainable long term success. As soon as I stopped tracking the weight began to creep back on and who has time to count their food every day for the rest of their lives?
I had to retrain my brain and stop thinking about food as numbers and start thinking about it as fuel. I needed to stop obsessing over what I was or wasn’t allowed to eat and had to start paying attention to what my body was saying. This is also called intuitive eating.
I don’t list nutritional information because for me it was a stumbling block that had my mindset in “diet” mode instead of “this is just the way I eat” mode.
The second, probably more important reason, is because all ingredients have different nutritional information so I can list it but it will always vary depending on the ingredients you’re using. If you need to track nutritional information because you have a medical condition it’s best to calculate nutritional information yourself with your own ingredients because it can vary A LOT.
Do you workout?
I did not work out while I was losing weight. Thinking about managing a new diet and adding exercise completely overwhelmed me so for the first year, while I lost 125 pounds I only worked on our diet. I still had normal movement throughout the day; sweeping the floor, doing the laundry, chasing after the kiddos but I didn’t formally exercise.
Now that I’ve lost the weight being active excites me so I do go on small walks/runs now but it’s because I enjoy it not because I’m a slave to the gym. Weight loss happens in the kitchen!
How do I get started?
I have a post that I wrote about this, CLICK HERE.
What are the benefits of collagen peptides?
I talk about that, HERE.
Where can I find your Meal Plans?
My online meals plans were discontinued in early 2019. You can now find recipes on my website, in my first book Instant Loss Cookbook, and a whole new meal plan including meal planning tips and tricks here in my second cookbook Instant Loss Eat Real, Lose Weight.
Are your meals family friendly?
Yes. All of the meals are meals the whole family can enjoy. There are single servings for breakfast and lunch on certain days but all dinners serve 4-6 people.
What Instant Pot do you recommend?
I use the Duo 6-Quart 7-in-1 Instant Pot. It is the model that I test all of my recipes in and the one that I highly recommend. Click here to view the model I use on Amazon!
What Instant Pot accessories do you recommend?
CLICK HERE.
What is the MTHFR Gene Mutation and how does that effect weight loss?
I recently wrote a post about this, you can find it HERE.
What do your kids eat?
My kids eat the same exact food that I eat. I don’t make separate meals for everyone. Transitioning our lifestyle was difficult at first but now it’s just the way we live.
With JERF do you consume any bread, dairy, or lunch meat?
For the last two years I’ve been gluten free, but the first year of my journey I’d say I ate homemade bread about once a week. At the beginning of my journey I would use dairy in small amounts here and there as a condiment. It can be inflammatory and I had a sneaky suspicion that my dairy intake was contributing to my keratosis pillars and stomach pain. Well…. go figure I found out later that I am lactose intolerant. So after about two years I went 100% dairy free. Personally I do not typically eat lunch meat, but if I do I eat lunch meat that is real simple in ingredients. Lunch meat that is antibiotic free, pasture raised, free of hormones, and nitrate free. Nothing processed and pressed.
Do you have a cookbook?
Yes! I have two! The Instant Loss Cookbook and Instant Loss Eat Real, Lose Weight! They are both available wherever books are sold! Click here for more information!
Which of your two cookbooks do you recommend?
They’re both great! They both have 125 different recipes so I’ll always recommend both.
A few differences:
Instant Loss Cookbook focuses more on my personal story and using the Instant Pot with stove top and oven.
Instant Loss Eat Real, Lose Weight has more photos, it is almost 100 pages longer, and it really dives in deep to the reasons behind weight gain. The book provides insight on breaking unhealthy habits, and how you can make this into a lasting long term lifestyle change. There are recipes for the Instant Pot, Air-fryer, and oven/stove top in this book. Also this cookbook was originally titled to be a 30 minute cookbook but we changed it, so about 90% of the recipes cook up in 30 minutes of less!