32: Lose Up To 4 Lbs This Week, In 5 Easy Steps

Feeling the pressure of summer approaching and dreading those shorts and sleeveless tops? You're not alone! This week, we're ditching the unrealistic "quick fixes" and diving into real-life strategies for busy, midlife moms who want to feel confident and strong.

I get it – you're juggling work, kids, and everything in between. That's why I'm sharing actionable tips that fit seamlessly into your already packed schedule. No crazy diets, no impossible routines, just smart and effective ways to feel your best before summer hits.

Today we'll cover:

• Smart Strategies for Busy Days: Learn simple hydration hacks, the power of mid-week meal planning (plus grab a free guide!), and how to use time blocking to prioritize your health.
• Family & Fitness Integration: Discover how to get your family involved in the kitchen to reduce stress and create quality time, and explore the convenience and benefits of at-home workouts.
• Confidence & Action: Get empowered to feel your best with realistic, sustainable strategies. We're focusing on feeling confident, not diet culture.

This episode is all about empowering you to take control of your health in a way that's sustainable and enjoyable. Let's make this summer your most confident one yet!

Connect & Share:

• Download the Perimenopause Weight Loss Guide for Moms (and your meal plan and grocery list is covered for next week!)
• Get started with at-home fitness here (the exact programs I used to lose 65 lbs in my late 40s. YOU can, too!). Use this link to get 1-year for only $130!
• For more resources and information visit Ashley online, or on Instagram @theashleymalik

Transcript

Welcome back to the Family Fork. I have such a fun and action-packed episode for you today. So if you're listening to this live, we are heading into spring. The weather is getting nicer. today, actually in Colorado, it snowed. But the last couple of days have been in the upper 70s. And you can just feel that warm weather coming in. 

So to me, that signals that summer is on its way. And while I really do love summer, I actually don't love wearing shorts. I really struggle. I don't know about you, but I struggle.

I don't know about you, but I really struggle to feel comfortable in shorts and some of the outfits that are popular in the summertime. I know for a lot of women that I work with, it's either shorts or those sleeveless tops because typically we either struggle with our arms or we struggle with our thighs and our hips. So as I've been feeling this warmer weather coming in, I'm realizing, okay, I'm gonna have to wear shorts and I don't wanna feel uncomfortable.

So as I've been feeling this warmer weather come in, I'm realizing, OK, I'm going to have to wear the shorts. And right now, I don't feel entirely confident with where my body is. So I would like to lose a couple of pounds before the summer so that I can feel really, really confident and good about wearing the shorts, the sleeveless tops, the sundresses.

Now, also around this time of year, you start seeing a lot of things on like Instagram and online where it says, you know, just do these 10 things and you'll lose weight or these five things are so easy to do for health and weight loss and to get ready for the summer. But in reality, I look at those and I'm like, no, no, that's not a realistic plan for a real life mom. You are busy working every day.

You may still be getting kids off to school in the morning, having after school or after work activities, things to do on the weekend. It really leaves very little time for getting healthy, getting strong and losing weight for the summer. So what I want to do today is I want to give you five tips, but these are like five tips from a real life mom, me, that will really help you to get into the groove quickly so that you can lose weight and get stronger before summer.

and just feel really confident in the shorts or the sleeveless top or the sundress.

All of the tips that I'm sharing with you today are designed to work into a busy mom's actual life around work, school activities, weekend activities, all the family stuff you have going on. These tips are going to get you where you want to be if your goal is to lose weight and get stronger before summer gets here.

As I often say here on the Family Fork, I am going to give you a lot of information and you're definitely going to want to take some notes, but you have to promise me that you are not going to just sit on your notes. You want to put this into action. It's just five things. So let's make a goal, okay? After you listen to this episode, within 24 hours, you are going to put these five things into place so that you get started.

Also, I wanna just add a quick side note here. I am not advocating that we lean into diet culture as we go into the summer. The goal here is really for you to lose a few pounds and get stronger so that you can feel confident and healthy. Honestly, the last thing you wanna do is hit summertime and not feel confident in the clothes that you're wearing or the shorts or the tank top.

because you're at a summer barbecue or you're at the amusement park or taking a vacation. I want you to feel confident in your own skin. And what you need is just this easy step.

I want you to feel confident in your own skin. And what you need is an easy set of steps to help you lose weight and get stronger just in time for summer. Okay, so let's jump right in to our list of five things for summer weight loss.

Number one, I need you to drink your water. I know that sounds so obvious, right? You're like, of course, Ashley, I already know I have to drink my water. But I really want you to understand what happens to your body when you are dehydrated. When you start to feel thirsty, your body is already dehydrated. You never want to let your body get to this place where you're like dying of thirst because that already means your body doesn't have enough water.

to keep running optimally and effectively. Being well hydrated helps to keep your body calm and it also reduces cravings. So if you feel a strong craving coming on, I want you to bring.

So if you feel a strong craving coming on, I want you to drink a big glass of water first before diving into any snacks or food.

What's also really interesting is that in perimenopause and menopause, we already know there's like a ton of symptoms that you're experiencing, right? You might struggle with fatigue or exhaustion. Maybe you have headaches. That's actually been an issue for me lately. Dizziness, brain fog, all of these things can be relieved a little bit by being fully hydrated. And when you are sufficiently and adequately hydrated, it can also

reduce the severity of your hot flashes and night sweats. So overall, you just need to make sure that you are drinking a lot of water. Now, I am not the type of person who can sit there and just sip on water all day. Nope, I'm this like really task oriented person. I just wanna get things done and check them off a list. And that actually includes drinking my water. So what I do is I drink eight ounces of water every hour on the hour.

And I usually stop that by around six o'clock at night, because otherwise I'd be up going to the bathroom all night long. But my smartwatch, I have an Apple watch, it alerts me at the top of every hour that I need to move my body a little bit. So when I feel that vibration on my wrist, I use that as a reminder to just drink my water.

You can set an alarm on your phone. You can set a reminder on your smartwatch or your computer, just somewhere to remind you to drink once an hour. And by drinking that eight ounces, you're just flooding your body with some great hydration. But you also then don't need to remember to like sip all day long, which if you're anything like me, it just gets forgotten.

So if you can do it once an hour, it's just done and taken care of. Okay, that one is pretty easy, right? Just drink your water.

Number two, I want you to start planning your meals for the following week on Thursday. So let's talk through this a little bit. This is actually something that I do with the members in my supper club. And they will tell you that by planning your meals on Thursday for the following week, you actually go into the weekend knowing exactly what your shopping list is, knowing exactly what meals you're going to make in the coming week.

There are two main reasons why this works so well. So first, on Thursday, if you are at the office, you can set a 30 minute meeting with yourself or even do this over your lunch hour. You can get your meals planned and your shopping list made and it is just done. You don't have to think about it anymore. But the other reason your Thursday planning session is super helpful is because I don't know about you, but

I am really busy on the weekends. We are so busy and out and about and doing things. Like this coming weekend, we have three birthday parties and I have a doctor's appointment.

So all of those things on top of my regular errands and chores for the weekend, I don't have time on Saturday or Sunday morning to just sit down and plan out a bunch of meals while Saraya's walking around.

all of those things on top of my regular errands and chores for the weekend, I don't have time on Saturday or Sunday morning to just sit down and plan out a bunch of meals, especially with Saraya running around or when the dog needs to be walked. But if I can get it done on Thursday, it's done. It's taken care of during the week and then...

Once I get into the weekend, when we are out at those birthday parties or say when you're running other errands or doing activities, you can just easily say, I already have my grocery list. I'm just going to swing into the grocery store or I'm going to stop into Costco because it's right here.

You know, we have reached the age of drop off at kids birthday parties. So I can drop Serea off and go to Costco while she's at the party, get my shopping done, and then it's done. It's all taken care of.

Now here's some really good news. I have made this incredibly easy for you. You ready? So if you check the show notes, there is a link to the perimenopause weight loss guide for moms. And in that guide, you get an entire meal plan for seven days, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and there's already a shopping list made for you.

So if you print that off, not only do you have your meals already planned for next week, but you have your shopping list. You just need to look through your pantry to see what you don't have or what else you need to add, and then you're good to go. And also in that guide, there is a page for you to print out and put on your refrigerator. So everyone in the family knows this is what you're having for meals next week. This is what you can expect. There won't be any big surprises.

So by having it done on Thursday, you print off the meal plan, you know what you're eating, everything is ready. Honestly, it takes like 10 minutes. If you're spending hours and hours looking on Pinterest for recipes and trying to put together a shopping list, just don't do that. Just don't. You can go grab the free guide in the show notes, just print that off, and you will literally be set up for all of next week. It's pretty great, right?

I also want to mention that guide comes with a private podcast. So I'm going to walk you through the whole guide during that week so you know exactly what to do. But you'll also get some extra tips on how to accomplish that meal plan for that week. I also give you a ton of inspiration and some things to think about so that it feels like that plan is just the easiest thing in the world to accomplish for that entire week.

And that meal plan, it was designed to help you lose one to four pounds in a week. So seriously, just go pick that up. The link is in the show notes for you. The Perimenopause Weight Loss Guide for Moms.

All right, now I mentioned that it's important to show your family what's coming up for your meals for the week. And you want to do this, nobody's surprised. Teenagers, I get it, they're still gonna complain no matter what you make, but at least everybody knows what's coming. So along with that, you are lurking, so along with that, if you're working to lose weight and cooking for your family,

Number three on our list is to get your family involved. If you have a couple of people in your home that eat dinner with you, I want to make sure that one of those

If you have a couple of people in your home that eat dinner with you, I want you to make sure that you're rotating and each person is helping you one night of the week to get dinner on the table, to do any sort of like prep work that's necessary, like chopping or peeling or dicing or slicing. And then they can help you with cooking and cleanup. You shouldn't have to do it all. If you are doing it all, you have to enlist the support of your family.

And each night it can be a different person. You just rotate through your family. Even the little ones can help. know, Serea is only six, but she's really great about helping me gather the ingredients. It's kind of like a treasure hunt. So if I tell her I need two onions or some potatoes or the ketchup, she knows where to find all of those things. She's got this step stool that she carries around the kitchen. So it's easy for her to help too.

What we're doing here is not necessarily putting our family to work, but we're building connection with our family over being able to create a meal together. You don't have to like necessarily talk about the meal that you're making. You can talk about how was your day or what went on in school or what happened at work today. And it also reduces a lot of stress that you might be feeling.

to be the one, like that single one to get dinner on and set the table and make sure that everybody has what they need. No, remove some of that stress and share the load with everyone in your family, everyone in your house. This is really gonna help you to stay healthy and happy. And it's going to help you feel less resentful over being the only one who has to be in the kitchen all the time.

So get your family involved with the prep, the cooking, the cleanup, setting the table. There is something that everybody can do to help. And if you rotate, you get to hang out with a different family member each night, and then they don't have to be required to help every single night.

All right. If you are really intentional about losing weight and gaining strength before summer gets here, before we have to wear the shorts and the tank tops, I want you to save time and I want you to start doing your workouts at home. I have long, long been a proponent of at home workouts because for such a long time I was a single mom and getting out to the gym, unless I did it sometime during the workday,

It was just really difficult when my son was young. Obviously, I couldn't leave him at home in the morning or at night, so I had to get really creative.

Working out at home became a really easy way for me to be consistent. And if you've heard my story before, you will know that I was able to lose 65 pounds by working out at home. I didn't go to a gym. I did it all at home. And sure, sometimes I would walk outside or run outside, but other than that, all of my activity, my weight loss has been achieved by working out at home.

The other reason I like this is because if you do have kids at home, it is a great way to get them involved. It's actually really fun for Saraya to come down in the morning when I'm working out and she can see her mom lifting really heavy dumbbells and enjoying my workout and actually having fun and feeling super proud. She gets to watch me do all of that.

And what a great way to encourage her to be excited about fitness and excited about getting strong and healthy.

It really helps our kids to understand that fitness and working out, it doesn't have to be a drag because I know sometimes we think like, I have to go work out. But in reality, if we can show our kids that, this is really fun, you can get up in the morning, get your workout done and it's done for the day, but you had fun doing it and you felt proud and accomplished, that is something that's really great to model for your kids.

So when you're working out at home, there is no excuse for not getting to the gym because as moms, we have a lot of reasons or excuses as to why it might be hard to get to the gym. Our kid is sick, we're running late in the morning, somebody needs a ride. There's always a reason why we might not get to the gym. But if you have planned workouts, like I use an online library of workouts. And so if you have these planned workouts and planned programs,

There's just no excuse not to get down to your basement or your living room and get your workout in.

It is truly saving you time. And the best benefit of all is that because you have run out of excuses or reasons to not work out, you will have a higher chance of reaching your weight loss goals. And that's what we're trying to do, right? So like I said, one of the best tools that I've ever used,

And that's what we're trying to do, right?

One of the best tools that I've ever used and that I still use to this day is this online library of workouts. So if I want heavy weightlifting, I have a program for that. If I want yoga, I have a program for that too. In the show notes, I'm sharing.

In the show notes, you'll find the link to the exact workouts that I use. And what is really awesome is that if you click through that link right now, you can get an entire year of workouts for only $130. What? That is such a huge savings over a gym membership. Like there's no way. Most gym memberships are 130 a month. So 130 for a year and you get an entire library of workouts.

with very well planned programs. And again, these are the exact programs I used to lose 65 pounds. I know they were.

So while you're in the show notes picking up your meal plan, I want you to click on that link and get started with your at-home workouts. I promise it will help you be consistent and will give you a much higher chance of actually achieving your goals.

All right, so far we have talked about things I know you can do. Drink your water, plan your meals on Thursday, download the meal plan and the show notes, and click that link to start working out at home. The last thing on the list is that I want you to start time blocking your day. It is really easy to say, know, tomorrow I'm going to work out after work. If you have not put that in your calendar,

The whole day will go by, something happens at work, you're running late, you have to pick up a kid from sports practice, and before you know it, you're going to bed and you never got your workout in. It's really important to put blocks of time into your day. the...

It is so important to put blocks of time into your day to get the things done that are going to help you move the needle on your summer health and weight loss. The things that I always have time blocked in my day are my morning workout, my dog walks, because there's two of those every day, and then the time that I cook and eat my meals.

It's not that any of these things are hard or take a ton of time, but collectively, you know, if you count it, you have two 30 minute walks for your dog, you work out for 30 minutes and it takes you 30 minutes to cook. That's two hours of your day right there. And if you don't plan for that time, I promise you're not going to be able to squeeze in a magical two hours into your day.

This was a really big challenge for me just recently. So we got a dog in.

This was a really big challenge for me just recently. So we got a dog about seven months ago. And of course I knew he would need to be walked. He was a puppy. So walking a couple of times a day is what I needed to do. So I was like, okay, I'll just kind of do it in between meetings and phone calls. But what I was finding is that I felt like I was losing a lot of my work day. And I was like, where is the time going?

So I did a time audit of my day and what I found is that my morning walk was taking a half an hour where I thought it was taking maybe 20 minutes, but my afternoon walk was taking closer to 45 minutes.

Then after that, my husband and I would often chat for a few minutes, and before I knew it, an hour of my day had gone by. So with the morning walk of 30 minutes and the afternoon walk of an hour, I really needed to make sure that I was accounting for those times in my day. So now, when I look at my Google Calendar, you can see very clearly what time I'm walking the dog. I don't plan meetings.

during that time unless I absolutely have to or phone calls or any of that kind of thing. Everything else can take place at another time.

Ahem.

the same thing goes for your workouts and cooking your meals. If you don't get home until 5 45 at night and you've got a hungry family and you don't have anything prepped for dinner, it is unlikely that you're going to get anything healthy on the table before 6 30 or seven o'clock. And by that time, it's already getting really late. Your evening is wearing on. Your day is just not going to end well.

So I want you to go to your calendar, whether you use a paper calendar or Google calendar, and I want you to put in those couple of things. I want you to put in your workout time, and I want you to stick to that workout time like it is a hair appointment or a dentist appointment. It's your time. So schedule your meetings around it, phone calls around it. Make sure that it's not in the middle of family activities or when you're supposed to be doing carpool or picking up kids from sports practice.

And then I want you to schedule in the time that it's going to take for you to cook your meal and eat your meal. Should be about an hour. If you are following the plan that I gave you in the show notes, remember, it's a really awesome meal plan. I want you to go get that. But if you're following that plan, you're not cooking for any longer than 30 minutes, three nights a week. And then maybe it takes you a half an hour to eat. So if you have all of those blocks set in your calendar,

you know that you can put all of the other things in when it's not time for working out, cooking or eating.

Then if you're like me, you have to walk the dog during the day, or if you have, of course, other things to do, make sure those are in your calendar and you stick to those appointments for yourself.

All right. I want you to feel like you can lose weight and get healthier between now and the start of summer so that you feel confident in your tank tops, your shorts and your sun dresses. I really want you to enjoy your barbecues and vacations and activities this summer and not constantly be thinking like, Oh, I feel heavy or sluggish. I want you to feel confident and proud in the clothes that you're wearing.

in activities that you're taking part in. So this is a really great and easy way to get started. Really, all of these things are easy to do. Drink your water, plan your meals on Thursday, go get that guide in the show notes, get your family to help with dinner, and then work out at home and get those.

Get your family to help with dinner. Just give them an assignment. Say your night is Monday and your night is Tuesday. Work out at home. Go start those workouts. Just grab that link in the show notes and start on those workouts this week. Then time block your day so that you are never blindsided and everything gets accomplished. You'll have time for all of the things that are going to move the needle. Often what happens is that we think about or we

plan the recipes or we plan what workout we're going to do or go shopping for workout clothes or a new water bottle, but we actually don't get into the action. So I want you to promise me that in 24 hours from now,

So I want you to promise me that within the next 24 hours, you will know when you're drinking water, you will have scheduled a meal planning session this coming Thursday, you will have assigned your family members what night they're helping in the kitchen, you will have started your at-home workouts, and you will have put all of this into your calendar, done all of the time blocking. And when that's done, I want you to message me on Instagram, @theashleymalik.

so we can celebrate the fact that you are kicking off this process to getting healthier and stronger for the summer.

Thank you so much for joining me today and please share this episode with two other moms that you know who could really use the steps that we talked about today.