After going through a period where he’d stopped going to the gym and put on some weight, YouTuber and Marine veteran Armando Nava made some lifestyle changes, adopted a strict daily routine, and lost more than 30 pounds. In his latest video, Nava breaks down the things that helped him drop from 195 pounds to 162 pounds and get shredded again in 16 weeks.

One of the biggest obstacles to maintaining his personal fitness, he says, was breaking the longstanding habits that had become an entrenched part of his life. By the age of 21 he had developed a nicotine addiction, and would use cigarettes and chewing tobacco as a means of relieving stress. “I realized it was not good long-term, because my endurance suffered, I was out of breath a lot of the time, and I smelled really bad.”

At around the same time Nava was partying hard and eating a lot at weekends, and really feeling the aftereffects physically, so in addition to quitting smoking, he made the decision to cut out his alcohol intake and be a lot stricter about what he ate. “For me, personally, cheat meals destroy my progress,” he says. “I’ll have a cheat meal, and that one cheat meal will turn into a huge binge-fest. I can’t just eat one or two Oreos, I have to eat the whole box.”

In Nava’s experience, working on his own discipline by planning and tracking his meals has helped him to stay in his routine during his weight loss journey. “Prepare your meals the night before, and track everything you eat,” he advises. “And I mean everything; weigh it out and track it out… be mindful of all those extra little calories you’re eating.”

Nava also believes that steering clear of social media helped him massively in his goals, and points out that scrolling through endless feeds of thirst traps on Instagram can make you feel worse about where you are on your own journey. “You’re going to feel like crap if all you’re doing is scrolling and looking at other people’s lives,” he says. “Psychologically you’re going to bring yourself down, and that’s not what you want to do”

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