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Save Money While Eating Healthy

by Mike Mabrouk

This is going to be my blog where I tie some weight loss content along with personal finance. I am very excited to get into some personal finance/investing content since we all know having money is kinda cool. So, a major part of having money in general is well saving the money that you currently have. And what is even better than having money? I would say having money and being healthy too. Therefore, we can live long and enjoy our money.

You may be asking yourself, what is a good way to eat healthy and save money while at it. Well I’m glad you found this post because I want to provide some helpful tips to do so.

  1. Bulk Retail Stores. Yep. I am talking about you Costco and Sam’s Club. The savings are too good at these places when you buy in large quantities which is the key here. My grandparents used to buy their groceries daily and the whole time I was thinking jeez there has to be a more efficient way to both save your time and save some money. And that is bulking season. For groceries at least. These type of groceries stores allow you to pay cheaper per x amount than buying smaller individual boxes/packages since you are buying more at once aka buying bulk. Anything healthy oriented will be a heck a lot cheaper (average price per individual product) when buying a large quantity compared to an individual product. This is where I love to buy my oats, chicken, frozen vegetables, you name it.
  2. Cheap Substitutes. The alternative can be the right move especially for cost savings. Sometimes if you are looking for a source of vitamins or any form of healthy nutrition, you may not need to look further than the cheap alternative. An example of substituting I always do is my proteins with chicken and replacing them with eggs. A lot cheaper, still fills you up, and is healthy and a good source of protein. Little substitutes like these add up and you should definitely start coming up with ways to get the nutrition with an alternative.
  3. Meal Prepping. When you meal prep, you have the opportunity to utilize your shopping spree at once, plan a healthy meal, and save time from cooking every day. Meal prepping also forces you to consume that food since you already have it ready to go, and therefore it wouldn’t make sense to go out to eat or buy something else. Plus, you get to control what you are eating for the extended time which helps assist your diet.
  4. Buy a Blender. So full disclosure, I do not own a blender. However, I know many people that do and swear buy it. The perks of having a blender are you can make any smoothie/drink you want that can contain any amount nutrients you add to it. It allows for you to utilize whatever cheap ingredients you have and make a contraption delicious (or try to at least). Cheap ingredient + Cheap Ingredient + Cheap Ingredient = Somewhat not cheap tasting ingredient

Hope you enjoyed the quick read of some helpful tips I have for eating healthy while saving money. Please get a chance to like and follow as well as check out my other blog posts.

Thanks everyone,

Mike M.

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Psychological Goals for Weight Loss

by Mike Mabrouk

So, in my last blog post I provided a few helpful tips I have used to lose weight and continue to use. From being almost 300 lbs to now around 175 lbs, it can take a lot more than utilizing hidden tricks and secrets for many and that lot more ties into STATE OF MIND. What I consider to be state of mind is an individual’s overall grasp on how they can handle the challenge they are facing and how they WILL overcome that challenge. And let me tell you, its pretty important.

From my experience with losing weight, here are some goals to acknowledge to help in the weight loss journey from a psychological standpoint.

  1. Create small goals and keep track of them. It’s important to have small obtainable goals during the process that can be easily achievable. The little wins help motivate us to push forward since we have the mindset of if we can do that, why not go for more. It provides a check to the checklist of your weight loss objectives and shows that you are making progress even when goal number 2 comes into play.
  2. Get ready for setbacks. Oh, hey speaking of goal number 2, I don’t care who you are, you will experience setbacks in your weight loss journey which can be due to a variety of reasons including holidays, birthdays, weddings, new Popeyes chicken sandwiches etc. It is tough to maintain a healthy diet in the process as well as a good exercise routine. That is why it is important to understand that setbacks will happen, and you should not let them defeat you. This is where goal number 1 comes into play as well with having minor goals that are easily achievable and that show to yourself that progress is being made.
  3. Get ready for setbacks…again. Yeah, I just really want to emphasize to expect a lot of obstacles and setbacks but hey we are feeling good about our mini goals already achieved.
  4. Have a hidden driving factor. This goal may not be so obvious but yet is so obvious. There will be days where you ask yourself is this even worth it and what the heck am I even doing, but having a hidden driving force that provides you a strong reasoning to pursue the goal will make the whole process a lot easier. Maybe the hidden force is the half marathon you always wanted to run. Maybe it’s the certain outfit you used to fit in and now no chance. Maybe you want to catch the eyes of someone in particular. I don’t know what your hidden driving factor is, but create one and keep it to yourself too (hence the word hidden).
  5. Create a Visionary board. This has been very impactful to my young life thus far. Vision boards sound like a lot of bs blah blah mystery tools used for achieving goals but boy do they work. Don’t just ask me, I am sure you can find all over the internet how it has helped others. Visionary boards allow you to see the bigger picture and to have a point of reference right in front of you at all times. This could be a whiteboard with your target goal in writing or even a picture hanging up on the wall. The idea is that you will see it all the time and will not be able to get it out of your head. My recommendation is put one up where you spend your most time at to always have that goal right in front of you.

These are some goals that have helped me in my weight loss journey and with general goals in my life. Hope you have enjoyed this blog and please get a chance to like and follow. Now my visionary board is telling me to finish up my book so crap, I better go.

Thanks everyone,

Mike M.

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Quick Easy Hacks to Weight Loss

by Mike Mabrouk

Just another wanna be writing about how to lose weight blah blah blah…but this wanna be actually did lose weight and A LOT. I like to say right now on a good day I am 5′ 10. I used to weigh almost 300 lbs when I wasn’t even 5′ 8. And growing up as a kid, I have always struggled with my weight. Food was just darn good and readily available. Not wanting to move at all certainly helped too. Now I weight around 175 lbs and there are a few key attributes I like to say contributed to the weight loss journey that I always tell people. Some are obvious and some are not. They also are pretty simple and work if you aren’t fully dedicated to a workout regime like the Rock.

Here are some helpful tips that actually can be put into use:

  1. Avoid going out to each as much as possible. There’s a reason why restaurants and fast food options are now putting out their calorie labels on there food cuisines cause they are INSANE. Hidden calories one wouldn’t think of are used to make the food (example: extra delicious stick of butter) and they add up quickly. It’s hard to keep track of what you are putting in your body when going out to eat and Peer Pressure. Maybe not down a beer in 3 seconds peer pressure, but peers will invite you to go out to eat and order an appetizer of potato skins to share. Before you know it, your bill is pricey and your stomach is asking what the heck just went down. What I recommend doing to help lose weight is either to have a limit of how many times you will go out to eat, and/or order menu items that fit into your calorie count goals and always order the healthy options even if it costs a little extra more.
  2. Avoid Calorie Drinks and stick to water. Wow do calorie drinks add up. I mean think about it. For every beer you drink, it is around 150 calories per to be generous and you have 3 of those and that’s 450 calories right there. Yeah and that is one meal only. Imagine the orange juice for breakfast and the soda for lunch. Calorie drinks are an easy way to add up unnecessary calories. I found that losing weight was assisted strongly by drinking a lot of water mostly which can fill you up too (kinda sorta). But limiting calorie drinks allows for more calories to be put into food which is safe to say we all enjoy and love that idea of more food in our bellies.
  3. Avoid small samples of high calorie foods. This doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone, but I struggle with control when I eat something delicious. For Thanksgiving dinners and spinach dip, one bite and goodnight the bowl is mine. I recommend to limit the bad foods you eat as much as possible even as samples as it will leave the taste and craving in your mouth for more which becomes a much tougher challenge for you. And once you avoid those delicious foods that are extremely bad for you during long periods of time, you come to find that they don’t actually seem appetizing after a while. Kinda surprising but true.

Oh thank goodness, first real kinda sorta blog post is wrapped up. I need a beer now.

Just kidding. Hope you enjoyed though as I want to start creating more blog content on healthy habits as well as some personal financial planning and career goals advice. So I am supposed to end with some type of call to action but honestly not quite sure yet what to have…so stay tuned for my next post.

Thanks everyone,

Mike M

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Introducing Myself

by Mike Mabrouk

Well greetings everyone if you have made it thus far. My name is Mike and I want to start a lifestyle blog on tips and tricks to make your life a success with simple recommendations from my life experiences. The blog content will include everything from personal finance life hacks, healthy eating, everyday struggles, big life decisions and plenty more. My goal is to utilize my young life experience and help others along with recommending resources for everyone to succeed. These posts will be short and sweet to be easily consumable and to not take a whole lot of time out of your day.

Enjoy,

Mike M.