Episode #350: Reframing Your Nutrition in a Positive Light

Hey there, ladies, how are you? I hope you’re doing well. I hope you’re having a great day, great month so far. And I just want you to feel like we’re just chatting today again together. I know a lot of you actually are working out during this, I was gonna say get together, have a cup of coffee, because that’s how I feel when I record these podcasts a lot. Or when I read your emails from your feedback or your comments, thank you so much when you rate and review the podcast, and I do I just feel like we’re chatting. And I have recently been transcribing the podcasts over on healthy Catholic moms.com. Just putting them under podcast for those looking for kind of timestamps or transcription, and I will read it. Like, why was I telling them about that, because I really do get lost in this and just, you know, think of it like we’re chatting with each other. So I hope you feel like that as well. And like you were talking with a friend about health and fitness. Because sometimes we just need to talk it out. And hopefully you obviously glean some new information or new thoughts from these episodes as well. It’s always my goal for you. But I do like to keep it pretty chill. As I sit here in my bike shorts. It’s just recording. Alright, so today we’re talking about looking for the positives. I absolutely above all want you to look at health and fitness in a positive light, like what this does for your body, what you get to do, we, you know, our whole lives change when we look at things through a lens of, we get to not we have to. And I personally like there’s so many ways I need to work on this in my own life. And that’s something I’ve just been trying to think of trying to apply that I just have to rise again and try to do every single day because I fall and fail at it a million times. But you know, that’ll cross my mind with some things like no, I get to drive my kids in the car today, I get to make my family dinner, I get to exercise today. And what we’re going to talk about today is how you can look at specifically your nutrition in this way, but also your overall health and fitness. And I think that a lot of us have been programmed or trained by like good food and bad food ideas that I can’t eat this off limits. Maybe it’s from programs we did before maybe it’s just from like reading the headlines like up carbs or out don’t eat carbs, low carbs a way to go, oh, fats are out don’t eat fat, like everything low fat, you know. So it’s, a lot of times things are just already presented to us in a negative way. And we’re thinking more like fear based more stay away from that. And this I was thinking about this because I was actually having a chat with the cashier at $1 tree recently. And we were talking about it all started because the girl in front of me that the cashier was checking out, you know, the customer in front of me who turned out to be a trainer, very funny, very interrupt, like the whole thing was just a debacle. It was funny to witness because this first little 18 year old, you know, goes checks out and she’s got like three cases of energy drinks. And it starts out with the cashier saying like, wow, you know, this is a lot energy drinks. And then the girl being like, Well, I’m a trainer and like I just need a lot of energy and laser talking about working out and whatever. And the cashier was asking her opinion and then it was taking a long time. Obviously they’re having a conversation and she hadn’t started scanning my stuff yet but this other girl was done. And the cashier was like I’m sorry and I was like no I actually am really interested in this I’m a trainer also so like by all means continue not trying to get involved in their conversation just letting them you know know that I thumbs up did and I was ready to stay in there for another hour if that’s what it took truly, I’m not being facetious like, I love that stuff and like that’s awesome. So anyways, I get up there and is my turn the cashiers like so. Like what would you say for blah blah blah like how would I you know lose weight, I tend to yo yo diet, whatever. So we start chatting and what we were talking about because like in our very brief interaction she was mentioning that she struggles with yo yo dieting and with emotional eating and particular social half success lose like 10 pounds gain it right back. Emotional Eating is a big thing. Like what can she do? And I said I was like Firstly, I would suggest so any of you who are kind of on the newer side like and we were having this conversation this is probably exactly obviously gonna listen to you and see what your top concerns and issues are. Obviously there’s also the kind of thing I do all the time and coaching calls because it should be tailored to you but she mentioned those specifically but pretty much everybody I encouraged to do just one thing at a time. So I said that I said hey, like listen, start with one thing at a time. If you’re right now she was saying like she drinks a lot of coke every day like Coca Cola and I said you know if you start cutting back on the pop, and then because that’s what we have a conversation head started with the other trainer. So I just picked it up there, where I was like, you know, if you that’s true, if you start cutting back on the, on the pop, you might see results right away, you know, swap it out with different things like sparkling water this that like maybe to kind of ease the transition, but you know, that’s a great place to start. But then after a week or two when you’re feeling you know, better off that like that kind of more habit, then, like, are you working out at all because if you’re not right now, like start going for walks like you know, just a thing at a time was kind of where I started. Then I said, because you mentioned like emotional eating or whatnot. You know, I would encourage you to try to look at things in a more positive light. And I gave her I talked about these two books all the time on this podcast, but Max Luke veers genius foods, and Kelly love X body love, I mentioned to her and she actually wrote them down. She like, printed out a little bit extra receipt paper to jot them down. And I said, I think it’s really helpful to look at, because I could just tell in this, like, couple minute interactions that she like her posture, the way she talked about it was like defeated by the idea that she’s gone at this a bunch of times, you know, not been able to keep it off, then gets frustrated and just eats whatever she wants. So I said I was like, I think that it’s really helpful to take in and have positive influences that are teaching us how to look at food and nourishment for our body as that as fuel as nourishing, and, you know, not looking at food as this, like, super restrictive, oppressive, like we have to be so oppressed by food and like everything’s off limits, super restricted, or, you know, we’re just doomed to be unhealthy and overweight and whatnot. And that’s just not the case. So to try to look at more the positives. So it kind of went I just made a little list after that thinking like, Alright, I think we need to chat about this, you know, on the podcast, too. So number one, these are no particular I just jotted down some thoughts. Number one is to step away from the off limits list in general and think more of foods, as sometimes foods and always foods. So I had a client too, for a really long time, we were doing nutrition together, and I would look at her food logs each week, and we would check in via email and whatnot. And this was really big for her because someone she had worked with previously literally gave her a list of like off limits food, and quote unquote bad food and whatnot, I think a lot of us go into again, whatever kind of trying to eat healthily, or turn over a new leaf or just pursue a healthy lifestyle with these ideas with these things that then really kind of mess us up. But like, I can never have that and and some of us who have more rebellious natures, we want to rebel against even ourselves and be like, No, I am going to have that you know. So I there is like, it’s absolutely true that there are some foods that are just not very nutrient dense and are not you know, very nutritious in general, you know, highly processed foods, fast foods, etc. But, you know, you don’t have to call anything a bad food or an Off Limits food, I do promote 8020 80% Hoping foods 20% treats, if you want to have a Big Mac, once a year, have a Big Mac once a year, like that is not what I’m going to use my 20% on. But you know, I am going to use it on like an ice cream sundae or something like that, that is still processed and whatnot. So, you know, this is a little bit of a personality thing where some people do better with knowing it can be in the rotation versus totally off limits, but I do find the calling foods better off them it’s usually just makes us want them it makes it desirable. Right like if you it’s back to the Garden of Eden, you know, you can eat root of any tree except that one well guess what makes you want that one. So if you think like I just can’t eat this, maybe you’ll do better to think like that’s a sometimes food. Okay, that’s a sometimes food. Alright, next tip is focus on what you should be eating to look at things in a more positive light. So some things that you know, I have if you’re gonna chase, the green is group, a monthly checklist of our workouts and at the bottom, it has a little part that says daily tasks. All three of these are on there. These are things you should be focusing on, that are worth your time and attention and should be done daily. And the number one is three to five servings of vegetables, especially dark leafy greens. Number two is 100 plus grams of protein 100 to your ideal body weight and protein. Number three is getting in at 200 ounces of water. That already gives you three pretty big things to focus in on to focus on each day. And I really do I mean, hopefully the My goal for you is you get to a place of auto piloting this and automating this, but I still have to think about it. Sometimes we’re like, oh man, like before we can think actually today’s a great example. I’m recording this podcast right now it is three o’clock on the.is 259. So it’s three o’clock. I usually do have a morning coffee and then an afternoon. However, I’ve not made my afternoon cup yet, but I just refilled my water. So that means I’m only 40 ounces in for the day is that it’s now not in a terrible spot, I still have like, you know, four or five more hours of drinking water. Try not to drink that much close to bedtime, obviously, pregnant person over here. So like to help myself out. But so I’m like about halfway, but I should probably drink more water before I have coffee. See how it naturally starts like weeding things out. If we think about what can I eat right now. And I think Oh, I haven’t had any vegetables yet today. Like I guess I have some carrots and salsa or whatever. Before I go on to the next food. I’m low on protein, I’ll grab this, you know, roll of deli meat because it’s higher in protein like these, this leads to actually the next tip, which is when you are eating whole clean foods. And prioritizing those couple things I mentioned and even plus more, it naturally starts filtering out the not as great highly processed foods. So when you’re actively shooting and aiming for getting in more of these always foods are these really good for you foods, it actually just filters out this sometimes foods because there have been plenty of days where I have done that little it takes doing that little check during the day. And so if you’re not used to it, visual reminders are great. But to think like, oh, shoot, I want to have that cookie, but I haven’t even had like I’ve barely had 20 grams of protein today. Go better eat this. And then I’ll have that later. Or like even if you have the cookie, then you’re like, well, then later I have to get my Protein and Greens and it’s just you you don’t have as much room for indulging and over indulging in that sometimes foods and the not so great foods because you’re too focused on getting the good stuff in. It’s just totally different. It’s a different, like we’re flipping the way we look at things as what can I get in versus I can’t do that. It’s kind of like this is not the same thing. And I’m not trying to make this a theological issue. But say, you know, we look at the 10 commandments, or God’s laws is super oppressive, and you’re like, Oh, they’re like, they’re so difficult to keep or so oppressive again, or like restrictive, like, Oh, God just doesn’t want me to have any fun. Well, actually, if we flip, like, you know, all that thou shalt nots, which obviously are all for our good into so that we can live in freedom and all of that we’re not going to go down that whole rabbit hole right now. But, you know, it’s obviously we want to get to a point of loving his commandments. And you know, Lord, teach me to run the ways of your commands and you will enlarge my heart like we will be that some something according to Brittany, because I never know the citation. But that isn’t one of that’s one of my favorite times, I just don’t know 101 20 Something like that. Um, you know, if we’re focusing instead on what we can do, like if we woke up every day thinking like, how many works in mercy Can I get in today? Not in a list checking way, not in a fair, cynical way. But just thinking like, how many good deeds can I do today, we’re going to naturally weed out some of our nasty habits, like, you’re not going to have time to binge watch three hours of Netflix and be slothful, when you’re doing all this other stuff. You know, when you’re trying to pursue other good beautiful things, silly example, but it kind of popped in my head, so I figured I’d share it, maybe that strikes a chord with somebody. Alright, so I mentioned those kind of three pillars of the vegetables, the protein and the water, I would start with those, okay, plan your dinners, and then plan your other meals to make sure you’re hitting those targets. I usually encourage dinners first because usually that’s the hardest thing to come up with breakfast and lunch, we can usually kind of do on the fly. But dinners take a little bit usually more of a step of making sure we have the right meat defrosted or the right you know combinations of things that we wanted to put together for a recipe or whatever. But look at those pillars and getting those in first. Now. Like I said, when you’re eating clean foods, it kind of naturally crowds out the not so great for you foods. What it also does when you start especially if you’re newer to eating whole clean foods, you’re gonna notice you actually get full and your cravings change. Like a lot of beautiful things happen once you start taking action that actually make it easier for you to continue doing it. It’s very hard I’m being 100% Here it’s very hard to go from eating a very high processed food diet to eating a healthier diet. Like just overnight like that first day is very difficult to make yourself choose the better quality foods. But once you do, your body literally starts helping you out and changing with it. Your cravings will change you’ll feel more energy like it makes it easier to continue because you start getting little wins before you you know see any fat loss before the scale changes. You’re going to feel these quick wins, that’s going to help you to stay on this path and to keep this going. Now, in general, when we’re talking about either having a really negative view, like the Galle, the dogs were sorted out with, like, Oh, it’s just so hard because I can’t eat this, or I’d want to eat this or I just wanted to, like not worry about any of this, versus looking at things in a positive way of like, I have to eat my protein today, I got to get my vegetables in, like, what can we get in? What can we add? How can we enjoy our vegetables, do these things, you know, you’re gonna get the same result, which is, hopefully in both ways, like your diet just here meaning your nutrition, your your nutritional intake, it’s going to shift from fast food from lots of junk food, whatever, to more whole clean foods with a side of indulgences. What I encourage that 8020 eating, it’s going to make that shift on its own. Rather than you waking up thinking, I just really want McDonald’s but I can’t have it. You know, instead, if you woke up craving a McDonald’s milkshake, which they’re really good. I’ve not had one in a while, but I do like McDonald’s milkshakes. Instead of like, thinking that punishing yourself like I really want my dogs but I can’t have it like it’s not allowed. It’s not it’s bad food, whatever. Instead of you think I really am craving McDonald’s milkshake. But I’ve got to get to all this stuff first, like maybe I’ll get one later. Sometimes that happens to me, that’s a random craving that I cited. But sometimes they’ll think that with honestly, it is ice cream a lot. Maybe not a McDonald’s milkshake, but just regular ice cream, like I’m gonna text them and ask him to grab a pint of whatever on the way home today. Sometimes that thought will pop into my head. And then usually if I wait it out, and I start my healthy stuff instead, like, oh, well, I’ll just start my day, because it’s actually 7am Brittany, whatever time it is. And I eat lunch, I have my protein and my vegetables and whatever. I honestly usually either don’t think about it again, or by the time I do, I’m like, I don’t really need that right now. We’re like, I’ve had a really good day, I don’t want to wreck it like it’s once we start taking in quality foods and nutrition and moving our bodies and placing all these things together. Usually we do kind of come to the like, it’s not really worth it. But we came to that on our own, because of coming at it from a positive way rather than feeling like a press right off the gate. I hope that makes sense. I hope that’s helpful. And I hope this encourages you to try to just it’s it’s such a small tweak, but it makes such a big difference. Like it’s the difference between doing this cheerfully and living healthfully. Because we know it’s good for us. And we want to feel great versus like working out and eating healthy because we don’t want to be fat. Like you might get the same results both ways. You might get that lean toned physique, and whatnot, but your attitude and your demeanor, and everything around it is different, and it’s going to feel different to you. So I hope this encourages you, that is always my goal. And I actually have a checklist for this too, that I’ll share with you that you can use to kind of get the ball rolling it should be. I’m recording this before I put it up there. So in case in the event that I forget, you can email me at Brittany healthy Catholic moms.com. But if I did my due diligence here, it should be on my web page, healthy Catholic moms.com right on the homepage. And you can grab a little freebie that goes along with this and helping us look at things positively rather than negatively. Alright, next episode we are going to talk about problem solving obstacles to our health and fitness. So looking at what is in the way and getting rid of them, it’s going to be good what I’m gonna go through some common ones and how we can work through that. All right, I will talk to you that Until then have a great rest of your day.

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