Featured Fitale – Sinaya Cotlong

Please introduce yourself to our readers (i.e. your name, occupation, hobbies, etc.).

My name is Sinaya and I work full-time as a manger in the vocational rehabilitation field. I love spending time with my boyfriend, being around family and friends, and finding new brunch spots. Breakfast is my favorite meal.

What sparked your weight-loss transformation journey?

I was referred to a nutritionist to try and naturally lower my high cholesterol so I started by changing my eating habits. But I was also unhappy with myself; I was moody all the time and lacked energy, so I started working out and the journey began.

What was your beginning and current weight or measurements?

At only 5’3” I was 286 pounds at my heaviest. I currently weigh 172.

How long did it take for your weight-loss transformation from beginning to end?

I started my journey in October 2017. It took me about 1 year and 2 months to lose 100 pounds. The journey is never ending and I’m still going. When I hit one goal, I set another one.

Which physical activities did you participate in during your journey?

I started with doing Tae Bo 3 times a week for the first month, and then started going to the gym. I currently workout 5 days/week and do a combination of HIIT, LISS, and strength training.

How did your eating habits change?

I’ve made a lot of changes along the way. Mainly staying away from processed foods and sugar. For the first 80 or so pounds of weight loss I was mostly eating lean meat, veggies, and complex carbs. I decided to become pescatarian in September 2018, so I currently eat seafood, egg whites, vegetables, fruit, complex carbs, and protein shakes.

I decided to try out the pescatarian lifestyle to see how it will affect my cholesterol. I don’t follow a specific diet, and never did on this journey; however, I did do intermittent fasting for majority of the weight loss, which helped teach me discipline with food and eating habits.

What do you typically eat for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner?

Right now I have an online coach so I’m on a strict meal plan. This is what I’m doing at the moment:

Breakfast is either a protein shake with nuts on the side, or egg whites with spinach and sometimes guacamole or avocado, or egg whites and veggies.

Lunch is either fish or shrimp most times, with veggies and sometimes beans or hummus.

Dinner is usually the same as lunch or a protein shake.

Snacks I go for include fruit (I stick to berries, grapes, and melons), popcorn, string cheese, almond butter, and brown rice cakes.

What is your favorite fitness activity?

I love strength training. I’ll choose strength training over cardio any day, but cardio is important too so I have to make myself do it. My favorite cardio machine is the Stair Master. I also like HIIT workouts because it burns a lot of calories in a short amount of time.

My current coach sends me workout plans every week. When I’m not working with a coach I use an app called Aaptiv, it have great workouts for all levels.

What do you do now to maintain your physique?

I’ve continued to workout and change my eating habits as I see fit and in consultation with my nutritionist, and currently with my online coach. I like to work with online coaches because I always learn something new and it pushes me to try out new exercises.

Switching up the workout routine regularly helps keep me from getting bored.

How did you develop and sustain the willpower to avoid the bad stuff (i.e. junk food, bad drinks, lack of activity, etc.)?

I’m not always successful at avoiding the bad stuff because I’m human, but taking a lot of pictures a long the way has really helped me stay disciplined. I put together a lot of before and after photos to remind myself of how far I’ve come.

When I look at the before pictures I always tell myself I don’t want to be that girl ever again because she wasn’t happy and lacked confidence.

What advice do you have for someone looking to get started with their fitness journey but not sure where to begin?

If you can, see a nutritionist or dietician. Or get a personal trainer or coach. I know it can get expensive, but there are a lot of great online coaching programs at a much more affordable price.

Or look up bootcamps or gyms on Groupon; the Tae Bo class that got me started was through Groupon. If it’s absolutely not an option you can start at home.

YouTube has a lot of great free workouts; check out Fitness Blender and Popsugar Fitness. Also, fad diets are not where it’s at. You don’t need to completely cut out carbs or any other food group.

Instead focus on eating unprocessed/whole foods and focus on portion control. Water Water Water!

What do you think is the biggest misconception about this journey?

That people who share their stories publicly lost the weight without any bumps in the road.  There will be plateaus, your weight will go up and down, life happens and you may binge, you may go on vacation and eat way more than you should have of all the wrong things (like I just did lol).

But it is not the end of the world. You have to be disciplined enough to get back on track because motivation fades.

Do you have any fitness inspirations? Who are they?

I follow so many people on Instagram but my favorites are @isfrannyfityet and @getfitwithjessica. These are the two main ladies who inspired me from day 1.

How can readers learn more about your transformation and journey online (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)?

Follow my journey on Instagram @@healthwithnaya