A couple of weeks ago, I made a conscious effort to be more attentive to what I was eating. I didn’t eat when I wasn’t hungry, I didn’t eat as much as I could until I was so full I couldn’t eat, and I didn’t snack between meals.
As a result of my choices, my skin cleared up, I lost a bit of weight, and I felt like I had more energy than I usually did! I was stoked.
The first choice that I made that led to this was realizing that I wanted to change my dietary habits. Change will never be made if there isn’t a desire for it to happen. Once I knew what I wanted to do, I took steps to make sure that I could make it happen.
A couple of years ago, I had purchased a FitBit. I found it and started using it again, so that I could track things such as the calories that I burned, the steps that I took, and other health measures (sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, etc). I also logged the food that I ate, how much water I drank, and how much I exercised.
Now, since I’m a collegiate athlete, I am exposed to more workout opportunities than the normal college student. I have to lift weights twice a week and practice daily. Given this, I burned more calories and in turn could eat more. On days I didn’t work out, I would try to walk everywhere I could so that I could gain more steps and burn more calories.
I knew I had to balance how much I worked out and how many calories I ate. I had to make healthier choices about what I had for my meals. I ate smaller portions than what I used to, which was hard at first but then me and my stomach got used to it. Now, I’m able to eat smaller meals without even thinking about it.
Another thing that I did was to only drink water. I’ve never liked soda or carbonated drinks, so I had to stay away from drinks like LifeWater, Gatorade, and Arizona. While hard, I knew the final result would be worth it. I didn’t completely eradicate it from my diet, but I limited my intake of sugary drinks to one a week.
While I was doing this, the pounds I was trying to lose were slipping away and my skin was clearing up. Before I knew it, I had lost six pounds and my skin was almost completely blemish-free. As I’m writing this, I only have one blemish–which is really impressive for my skin.
Another thing I did for my skin was having a skin routine that I follow religiously. I use Rodan and Field’s Unblemish routine and it has been life-changing for me. While a bit expensive, I think it is worth every penny because my skin have been so much clearer as soon as I started using it.
As soon as I did all of these things, I lost weight, had clearer skin, had more energy, and felt better about myself. At the end of the day, there is nothing more important than self love.
Love,
Kaitlin
Kaitlin H Powell 