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0:00 So 6 months ago, I started a weight loss journey. Just 6 weeks in, I had lost 20 lbs. And by week 12, I was down 38 lbs. And now, 6 months later, I'm still maintaining the weight and the lifestyle. How? by following a simple science-backed daily routine that helped me go from being obese and feeling exhausted all the time to now feeling energized, healthier, and most importantly in control of my health. By the end of this video, you will know exactly what my daily routine was and why it works when everything else fails. If you're new here, hi, my name is Janette. Welcome to my channel. So on January 1st this year, 2025, I weighed
0:47 214 lbs. This was the highest I've ever weighed in my life. Now, just to give you some context on why I started this weight loss journey in the first place, I grew up in a congalles household where rice, bread, fufu, plantain, cassava, and other starchy carbs were their foundation of every meal. Though my primary care never checked my insulin level, I had all the classic symptoms. constant fatigue, difficulty losing weight, bloating, mental fog, mood swings, difficulty sleeping, cravings of sugar and carbs. I had swelling everywhere, my face, my feet. I was getting short of breath just by chasing my 2-year-old daughter around, and just feeling awful overall. And to make the matters worse, my primary care provider
1:34 officially classified me as obese. I struggled for years. I tried keto. I tried different fasting methods. I tried becoming a vegan ones and even tried expensive weight loss medications. Nothing I tried worked long term. As soon as I stopped the dieting and the medications, the weight came right back until January when I decided to stop relying on medications and fat diets and just work with my body, listen to it, and give it what it actually needs. something good, something sustainable, and something that I could turn into a lifestyle. Today, I am 176 lbs. My energy is through the roof. I'm sleeping better. I have less bloating. I can fit
2:19 in clothes that I haven't worn in years. And overall, I feel great. And of course, people keep asking me what I'm doing differently. Before we continue, I would like to mention that if you are managing chronic illness, please check with your primary care provider before making any dietary changes. Also, any video that I post on my channel is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to be taken as a medical advice. Now, my routine is built on three simple but powerful foundations. These are intermittent fasting, low carb eating, and whole foods. Low carb and intermittent fasting have been studied for years. And they've been shown to help with weight loss, obesity, insulin
3:05 resistance, and even reverse early signs of type 2 diabetes, and other chronic illnesses. Why? Because they help lower your insulin levels, reduce inflammation in the body, and allow your body to start burning fat instead of storing it. But the third piece that most people don't talk about is whole foods. Eating whole foods is just as important in this journey and it's something that often gets overlooked. You may be confused on what is considered whole foods. So let me just say it in a simple way. Whole foods are foods that are in their natural state or closest to it as possible. They are not highly processed. They don't come with a long list of ingredients that you can't even
3:51 pronounce, and they are packed with nutrients that your body actually needs. So, my daily routine starts the night before. 8:00 p.m. is my eating cutoff. Sometimes on weekends, I eat a little bit later between 8 and 9, but typically after 9:00, I stop eating. This was the hardest part for me because in my culture and in my family in general, we eat late. We also like to snack especially at night. Growing up and even as an adult, we always have bees, chapati, rice cakes, bread, and there are filled with carbohydrates. They're actually made with only carbs. And then there is that delicious evening tea with
4:38 milk and sugar. The delight. We love us some milk, tea, and sugar. But here's the problem with this kind of eating though. Your insulin level stays elevated all night. Your body can't go through the recovery that it needs to go through with high insulin levels. Your sleep suffers and you wake up feeling hungry and angry. And on top of that, you have to deal with cravings of carbs and sugar. You know that sweet tooth that you have. Yeah, that's part of that. So, for me, dinner is usually between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Again, sometimes 9, but 8. After 8:00 p.m., I usually just drink water. If I'm craving tea, I usually have unsweetened tea with
5:24 no milk, just water and a tea bag. My teas are often flavored, so I use ginger, chamomile, peppermint, and sometimes the African tea masala, which is a mixture of different flavors. After my meal, I usually take a walk. I have a 2-year-old, so I use this opportunity to take her to the park, and we usually walk there. Our closest park is about 15 minutes walk. When I get home, I prep my meals for the next day. You've heard that failing to plan is planning to fail. Meal prepping is one of the most important habits that you can develop when you're going through this through a journey like this. I cannot stress this enough. You have to meal prep. Failure
6:10 to meal prep is what leads to eating whatever we like whenever we want the next day because you don't wait until you're hungry to start thinking about what you're going to eat. Because guess where you're going to end up? Probably a McDonald's or Burger King or Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, whatever your favorite food is. So, plan your meals the night before. That's what I do before I go to bed. Even if I don't make my meal, I at least have a mental picture of what we're going to eat tomorrow. When the meal prepping is said and done, I usually do something relaxing. Listening to music, watching nature or rain videos that relaxes me, have a conversation with my husband, read a book, pray, just something relaxing. This signals my body that sleeping time is coming. My bedtime
6:55 is usually between 10 and 11 and I usually wake up around 67. Anyway, I try to get 6 to 8 hours of sleep. A lot of times I'm able to get seven. I strive for eight, but a lot of times I get seven and that's enough for me. I don't always get the 8 hours of sleep, but since I changed the way I eat and my activity levels and everything that I've talked about so far, I'm sleeping better. the quality of the sleep that I'm getting is so much better. So 7 hours is good for me. So in the morning, now let me be completely transparent about what I actually do versus what I recommend you doing, especially if you are a beginner. So my current routine is I have a cup of coffee with a very small
7:42 amount of cream. Sometimes I have a second cup in the afternoon, but typically I don't eat anything until dinner time. I've mentioned this in my previous videos, but I eat one meal a day, and usually that is dinner. Now, I've worked up to eating just one meal a day. It's something that I've been doing for years, probably more than 10 years. It's not something that I just started in January. That's important to know. Anyway, one meal a day works amazingly for me and I believe it played a major part in my weight loss transformation. But what I want you to start with, especially if you've never done intermittent fasting before, is start with a 12 to 16 hours of fasting. So,
8:29 most people who are beginning to do this can handle going from 8:00 p.m. to eating their first meal around noon. If noon is too late for you, do 10:00 a.m. During your fasting hours, stick to water, tea with no sugar or milk, or you can add a splash of cream. Although, you have to keep in mind that if you're doing strict fasting, one teaspoon of heavy cream is 50 calories. There is mixed research out there about whether or not the 50 calories can actually break a fast. Depending on the rate of your metabolism, it can or may not. It's hard to tell without testing. So again,
9:16 do what works for you. So coffee, try to drink it black. Tea, no sugar, and water. Here's what to avoid during your fasting hours. Anything with sugar, milk if you can handle it, juices, smoothies, and of course, food. Any food. If you are following the beginner's approach, break your fast between 10:00 a.m. and noon. And it's very important that you break your fast with protein and healthy fats. Do not introduce carbohydrates yet. You can do something like plain Greek yogurt with nuts, eggs with sauté spinach, grilled chicken on a salad, green leafy salad with balsamic
10:02 vinegarette or just regular vinegar or lime juice. You can have salmon with cucumber salad. You can have steamed vegetables with fish, chicken or steak. Again, you can mix and match. The most important thing is that you're eating protein and healthy fats only. If you are a snacker, between your lunch and dinner, you can do plain Greek yogurt. You can have celery sticks with ranch. You can't go wrong with steamed vegetables for snack. You can have a boiled egg. You can have berries, blueberries, blackberries. Now, these do have sugar. They have carbs. However, they have low glycemic index, meaning
10:49 one, they are healthy carbs, whole carbs, and two, the amount of carbs in berries is very small and will likely not affect your progress. Vegetables like celery and cucumbers make delicious snacks. You can dip them in ranch or a low-fat, low calorie dressing. a piece of cheese, a piece of avocado. So, around dinner time is when I get to eat. And this is usually the only meal that I have. And here's usually what I have on my plate. So, I keep it very simple. I usually have protein and vegetable and water to drink. My go-to
11:34 proteins are seafood, so salmon, shrimp, lobster, red fish, blackfish, tuna, very rarely. I eat all seafoods. For meats, I usually do chicken. We do lamb, beef, goat meat, and sometimes turkey. Very, very rarely, we'll do like pork chops. for my vegetables which I use as my base. In our household, vegetables have replaced starchy carbs like pasta, rice, fufu. So for vegetable bases, I use cauliflower rice, cabbage, spinach, broccoli, asparagus, collard greens, and salads. Many of you have been asking if
12:20 we do legumes like lentil or beans. Yes, I would say like for instance, whenever I make a burrito bowl, I would make beans and eat very little of it. Also, sometimes I would add a very small piece of potato to my plate. And again, remember this is low carb. So, here are actual meals that I make regularly. Grilled salmon over cauliflower rice or
13:07 grilled salmon with sauté spinach. Another one of my favorite lamb chops. Again, low carb burrito bowl. So, a burrito bowl minus rice and tortilla. So when I'm cooking, I usually cook with regular, you know, seasonings and veggies like onions, bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, celery, etc. So just to recap, I eat one meal a day. I focus on low carb. Most of the carbohydrates that I get, I get from vegetables. I stay away from processed foods as much as I can. In the last month or so, I've started to incorporate complex
13:54 carbohydrates slowly into my diet because I'm in the maintenance phase. I'm not looking to lose any more weight. If it happens, great. If not, I'm happy with where I am today. Eating low carb and intermittent fasting allows you to eat food that makes you feel good, that nourish your body without spiking your insulin levels. I know so many people are worried about, you know, I've heard things about, oh, don't you lose hair or did you feel tired? No, you don't. But low carb and intermittent fasting works. Our body can survive with no carbs or very little carb. It's just that we've been eating these foods for so long, like the high amount of carbs, for so
14:40 long that we've made it the norm. But our body does not require eating carbohydrates every single day. You can either skip them a few times a week, eat very little of them, or eliminate them for periods of time. You don't have to eliminate them forever. So, this is why this approach works and why I'm using it and recommended to my patients. When you extend your fasting window, your insulin levels drop significantly. Low insulin means your body can finally access and burn fat for energy. If you are a beginner, doing a 16-hour fast from 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m. the following day,
15:26 you are giving your body a 16-hour break from processing foods. And during this time, your pancreas gets a break from constantly making insulin. For those who do one meal a day, like I've been doing, you're giving your body even more time to heal and reset. When you focus on protein, healthy fats, and vegetables while minimizing carbohydrates, you avoid the constant insulin spikes that keep you storing fats and craving more food. The key is progression. Start low, go slow. Start with the shortest fast. If all you can do is 12 hours, great. If you can do
16:12 16 hours, even better. If you can do it like me, one meal a day with like a cup of coffee in between, that's fine, too. Whatever you can handle. If you can take away just one thing from this video, let it be this. Start with the 8:00 p.m. eating cutoff. Don't try to change everything at once. Just stop eating after 8:00 p.m. for one week and see how you feel. I know what you're thinking. But I get hungry, but I don't have energy without breakfast. I can't give up carbs. I can't give up rice or bread or pasta. Cake is my favorite food. I can't give up soda. Guess what? I've been there. Your body will adjust. Your
16:59 body will adjust in three to five days. Sometimes a little bit longer depending on how consistent you are, but most people see some kind of improvement after a week. Here's what you can expect in the first week. Better sleep, less bloating, and more stable energy. By week two, your cravings will start to decrease. By week four, you should start seeing your scale moving. Patience and consistency are key. So if you are a busy parent, if you are tired of your clothes not fitting, if you are worried about developing insulin resistance or diabetes, or if you're just tired of being tired, this routine is for you. This routine is designed for real life, not a perfect
17:46 life. So we do what we can in the most natural way possible. In the next video, I'm going to share the specific foods that were sabotaging my progress. Even the ones that I thought were healthy. Some of these might surprise you, actually, especially if you're an African like me and think certain traditional foods are automatically healthy for you. If this routine sounds doable for you, let me know in the comments. Also, let me know if you don't think it's going to work for you. Let me know the reason. I would love to hear from you. If you've done this routine before or have been on a similar path, let me know in the comments. Seriously, the comment section is for support, for knowledge and information. If you found this video helpful, please like it,
18:32 leave a comment down below, and subscribe to my channel for more content like this. As always, thank you for being here. Thank you for watching this video till the end. I will see you in my next one. Ciao.
