Me, Myself & I

Greetings! My name is Serena and I am a 30 year old African-American female from outside of Boston, MA. I guess you could say that I’m a true “Bostonian” because I never left the state, haha. All my close family and friends still live here so why leave? (smiles). I still live at home (though hoping to move out very soon with my boyfriend) with my 2 parents and 3 pets (1 cat and 2 birds). I have a younger sister who lives not too far away as well. I LOVE to travel and try to go anywhere I possibly can without putting myself too much in debt – especially when it’s really cold here, I absolutely love to go to the Caribbean. I’ve been to Hawaii which is definitely paradise as lot of people say. If it wasn’t my job or money on the line, then I wouldn’t mind living over there for quite some time. I also enjoy photography, taking care of children/nannying and spending time with friends. I consider myself to be a “busy-body” and always on the go.

 A famous quote that I’ve found inspiring to me for a while now is from Ella Fitzgerald, who was famously known as the Queen of Jazz – “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” I find this to be true to me in my everyday life because yes, you just do the best that you can and try to get ahead – without getting yourself in trouble. Stay true to yourself and stay focused, whether it’s with your job, family, friends, whomever. I try to be a hard-working and dedicated, compassionate person helping those in need and I do believe in karma – “what goes around, comes around” – and “do unto others as you want others to do unto you.” It’s true!

My approach to living a healthy life is to eat and drink right, have fun but do it all in moderation. My priorities today are to make sure I get all the “rainbow” colors in my diet – red would be an apple, orange would be an orange, yellow would be a zucchini, green would be broccoli, etc. I try as best as possible to intake all my fruits and vegetables and cut down on the pork/beef products. As a child, I used to have a lot of processed foods like fast food from McDonalds, Lunchables, bologna or ham and cheese sandwiches which of course are not the healthiest choices. For dinner however, my grandmother or parents would typically cook fairly healthy meals of baked chicken with veggies and the occasional starch. I do remember however, having quite a bit of Hamburger Helper which is definitely not a healthy item by any means. So I definitely try to make a change of this in my regular routine now, by eating just chicken, turkey or fish. Occasionally I may have the red meat like steak or pork chops but not on a regular basis. Plus they’re very heavy and sometimes cannot digest properly.

The healthy choices I make in my regular routine are again, obtaining the right fruits and vegetables daily, and having some sort of protein. I take my vitamins regularly as well – in particular the Women’s 1 A Day gummi-vites. I’m a true meat eater and probably could not go a day without eating some type of meat. Usually if I do however, it is typically chicken – just because it’s the easiest and cheapest to cook/obtain. I will usually start with one egg or a Slim Fast or Special K protein shake for breakfast. If I do not want eggs and what something else and still lighter, I may have a string cheese with the shake or a bowl of cereal – which that can add fiber to the diet, too. What can make things harder is that where I work, I’m around a lot of CARB places that have breads and pastas and when you smell the aroma while walking down the street, it’s definitely not easy to pass up. On top of leftover sandwiches and snacks that may be leftover from a client meeting. Who wouldn’t want a yummy egg, bacon and cheese breakfast sandwich to start the day off? Occasionally I may eat one here and there, just not make a habit out of doing it. I’m a huge breakfast person in general, I could eat it any time of the day. Ideally I wouldn’t mind having a stack of pancakes with homefries, bacon and eggs but I know that it’s not good for you. I try to make sure to have perhaps one day a week to splurge and then the rest stick to a regular routine diet. I ensure that I work out at the gym 1-3 times/week, which can make me feel good afterwards. Trust me, I’ll still get the occasional lazy days especially after a long day at work and I may not want to work out, but as long as I don’t overeat and can make up for it the next day, I don’t feel as bad.

I try to balance my goals of eating healthier but also not restricting yourself to not having a day or two to splurge.  I feel that if you deprive yourself too much, then once you do have that moment to go crazy then you can gain a lot of weight and it can make you feel bad about yourself. What I make sure I do is work out regularly whether going to the gym or for walks during lunch breaks and eating/drinking healthier. As opposed to having a soda, have water or seltzer water and instead of juice, just fill it partly with juice, partly with water. We do have a water filtration cooler system at my job, so it definitely keeps me in check to ensure I drink plenty of water throughout the day. On average I may drink about 4-5 full glasses of water a day in my Nalgene bottle. These little things can make all the difference. I know doing this is important to me because you’re not going to be a “spring chicken” forever, and if you do not have the genetics where you can eat anything and everything you want without it going anywhere, you just HAVE to take care of yourself and watch what you eat. The older you get, the harder it’s going to be to lose weight. The metabolism slows down and it’s just not as easy and good for your health overall.

I feel like I’ve been successful in obtaining my goals mostly when I’ve weighed myself on the scale and I see that I’ve lost a few pounds. Of course if I do not feel so good and perhaps guilty after pigging out on a large coffee and donut from Dunkin Donuts, then you probably will see a different number on the scale. I do not feel good when say I’ve gained little weight and I thought I may have lost and put a lot of time and effort into losing. I try to figure out what I could’ve done better and just learn from it and move on – taking it as an experience. Also what helps is creating a food/drink daily log when writing down things that I’ve had throughout the day. This includes cutting sweets and alcohol – which is not easy, but again in moderation is key and not having a lot of it – and also a big difference is the timing on when to have your last meal. Do not partake in the midnight cravings; I typically will stop eating after 8:00PM. Some days are tougher than others and you may still be hungry and on days that I do that, I’ll try to just resort to an apple or yogurt….eating something light can make all the difference and in turn makes me feel accomplished for the day.