Hi there, I'm Alisa and welcome to Pursebuzz.com, so one of the biggest questions that I get asked is about maintaining your weight or keeping your weight down so today I'm gonna talk about 15 different things that you can do to really maintain your weight, to lose some weight, shed some weight, or really just change your lifestyle.
So let me start off with my experience and what I've learned throughout the years and so you can kind of understand where I'm coming from. So, about 12 years ago, I worked at an ice cream shop so if you guys know what it is, tell me in the comments, I said it in a video a long time ago so just for fun, see if you guys remember, and when I worked at this ice cream shop, it was right when I started college and so I gained a lot of weight. I think actually 20 pounds and this is over a nine-month period.
I went from 24-inch waist to 29 so it was a big difference in just a few months, so when I quit the ice cream store and I started working in cosmetics, I started to pick up and really just pay attention to my weight and just kinda see what works for me and so today I'm gonna talk about how I changed my lifestyle and how I eat. It's not gonna be necessarily like a nutritional video because I'm not a nutritionist but maybe along the line later down the road, I'll talk about that,
but today I'm just gonna talk about some tips and tricks and some little ways where you could just shed pounds without even really noticing. Today, I have my workout clothes on 'cause I wanted to show you some tips and tricks about your posture that can really shed some weight without really shedding any weight. So my first tip is to eat with smaller plate, so typically, you may eat with like a larger plate like this, so why not switch it up with something that's this size. As you can see, it's much smaller but you can fill up your plate and you'll eat less, but you'll mentally see that you're eating a whole entire plate, so that's tip number 1.
Tip number 2 is drink a glass of water before your meal so probably about 10 to 15 minutes, maybe even 20 minutes before your meal, drink a glass of water 'cause that will fill you up so that when you are eating, you'll eat a little bit slower and you'll probably eat just the right amount of food. Like I mentioned in my other video, there's times when your body can't tell between being hungry and being thirsty and so just drink some water and that'll help slow down your hunger and maybe it's just that you're being thirsty.
My next piece of advice is the 20-minute rule, so always eat up until 20 minutes and what usually happens is if you eat really fast, your brain and your stomach haven't caught up to one another and you end up eating a lot more than you really should, so if you have a whole meal, try to stretch it out for 20 minutes and if you're hungry after 20 minutes then you can eat a little bit more. I know that some of you guys say, "I don't have time for that," but this is just a tip and trick to help you out to make sure, you know, you're eating just enough food for your stomach.
A good way to slow down is to eat with like a smaller spoon or like some chopsticks or something 'cause that helps slow down your process, wait 'til 20 minutes, and then evaluate how hungry you are still. Maybe you're not hungry anymore. Another tip is when you're going to like a drive-thru, I recommend getting a kid's meal because a long time ago, before all the supersizing, kid's meals were actually full-size adult meals and then just as time progressed, they started supersizing large, extra large,
so, if you're wanting a little bit of fast food, go with kid-size meals, stretch it out for 20 minutes, and then go from there to see if you're still hungry or not. My next tip is something that I always do. I've been doing this for 12 years is the half diet and it's gone to the point where I just do an imaginary dotted line in my meal and I just stop at that point. So, say you have a burger, what you do is you cut it in half and you only eat half of the burger and maybe half the fries. Everything that's on there, eat half. Of course, if it's vegetables, I recommend eating that right away 'cause that's the best part,
but, again, if you're eating a burger, just eat half of it and then save the rest for tomorrow or later or if you don't like leftovers, maybe split it with somebody but that's a big help because you really don't need to eat these huge portions from, I don't know,[unk] or any of those places that serve a lot of food. So all this is really about disciplining yourself, you know, go in, when you go to a restaurant, you only eat half, like sometimes on Twitter, I'll show a meal and it looks really big but I only eat half of that. There's never been a time where I actually can finish it.
My brain just automatically tells me at the halfway point you're done and it's usually around 20 minutes or so, maybe 30. I eat really slow, I always have and that helps out a lot, too, because it gives you time for your brain and your stomach to catch up. Another tip is to eat small meals so in the morning, I recommend to eat your biggest meal 'cause that gives you a lot of time throughout the day to digest, but at night, eat a smaller meal. At lunchtime, eat a smaller meal, have some snacks, and that way, you're just full at all times during the day.
Also, big thing is don't confuse being hungry and being full and being stuffed. So, for me, I always eat until I'm not hungry anymore. I don't ever eat until I'm full 'cause usually that means I'm gonna go take a nap and it's a food coma so that's not always good but eat until your body's not hungry anymore. It's not craving any food, so that's a good way to stop. If you eat 'til you're stuffed and you can't move and you gotta unbutton your pants then you eat too much. Remember that losing weight is a gradual loss and it's a lifestyle. You have to change how you eat, what you eat,
and you can't do it overnight. There's like crash diets but you're gonna end up gaining, a lot of people I know end up gaining that much and twice as much sometimes so just be careful, you know, gradually change, integrate some of these tips and tricks into your diet and it'll really help out. I've personally been on ends of the spectrum. At one point in my life, in college, I was actually 93 pounds and I didn't even know it. I was just, you know, busy living life, working, school, and all that, and I saw a friend, my best friend, and of course she went to a different college,
but we got back together and she's like, "Oh, my God, Alisa, you're so skinny. What is going on?" And so I didn't even realize it until then and so that's when I started, alright, time to gain some weight, you know, and so I started eating a little bit more, I noticed that I did gain weight by just not doing the half diet so just remember that balance and not to be skinny and, you know, you don't really want to be-- you don't wanna be like a model thin, you wanna be thin enough where you're healthy and what you're comfortable with.
Just because somebody may look, you know, 140 pounds [unk] they can be way healthier than you so just gotta remember that it's something where you're comfortable and when you're healthy and if you wanna maintain that weight so these are really good tips and tricks on how to maintain your weight that you're at or it'll slowly shed pounds off because I gained like 20 pounds in one year and I shed that off in a year, too, so it's not something that just happens overnight
but I think if you do it the right way and the healthy way, you really get that good feeling inside. Like I said, I now eat half, like I just see that mental dotted line and I can't eat any more and another thing is that you should never deny yourself of something, like if you have a craving for like ice cream, you should have a little bite, a little bit here and there because you don't wanna later on just kinda-- it just builds up inside and then you're just gonna indulge on like an entire gallon of ice cream so buy those little Ben and Jerry cups and just have a few bites. I know it's gonna be really hard but you've gotta remember that you're doing this for yourself and for your health.
Alright, now on to kind of giving that illusion that you do lose a few pounds, so, the very first thing I recommend is a yoga ball just like this, and you sit on it. You know, I've got made fun of a couple months ago when I purchased it but what it does is it helps your posture so when you sit on it, it tends to get uncomfortable if you start to roll one way or the other so it really helps you balance and it helps your posture 'cause you gotta sit up straight in order to be comfortable on the yoga ball.
You can get this at, I don't know, at Target, you can get at a sporting goods store, there's all sorts of places where you can get a yoga ball. So, a great tip on how to make it look like you've lost some pounds is your posture so I know every-- I know everyone goes through this. I go through it. It's just more comfortable to stand like this, relaxed, shoulders kind of slouching in the front and let me stand to the side here and when you stand this way, your stomach automatically protrudes. You look a little shorter
and it's just not a good sight and it's actually not healthy so what you gotta do is remember to roll your shoulders back--it also lifts your boobs by the way--but you roll your shoulders back and your stomach automatically comes-- tucks inside and then you like more flat. As you can see, I don't have anything right here. It's nice and flat, all because I moved my shoulders back. It helps you stand tall and it helps look better in your clothes. Again, if you stand like this versus shoulders back.
I'm not sucking in my stomach either. What you wanna do sometimes when you remember is to hold your stomach as if you're doing a sit up, tone it up, tighten it up, and that will also help your posture as well. It makes you stand taller and it just really helps your posture and your appearance and you'll look a little taller, too. The last tip is to have a mental image that you have a string going from the top of your head all the way down to the top of your waist,
so you have this tight string, you'll walk that way and you'll automatically have nice straight shoulders, straight back and a flatter stomach and then, you know, if you stand like this, then your imaginary string is gonna get kind of-- it's not as taut anymore so you wanna remember, tight spring in the back and just automatically perk up. So those are my tips and tricks on how to maintain your weight. Remember that it's not about how much you weigh, it's about how you feel
and if you are healthy, so keep that in mind and remember that this is a lifestyle change, it's not something that happens overnight. If you have any questions, let me know. If you have any great tips and tricks, let me know in the comments and I'll see you guys next time. Thanks again for joining me at Pursebuzz.com.
