Category Archives: Diet
Why do weekends sabotage our progress?
It’s Friday and many of us have been dedicated to our healthy lifestyle all week – we’ve eaten well, worked out, and taken care of ourselves.
Yet for some reason the second Friday evening hits, it’s like our healthy habits never existed.
For many of us, weekends seem to completely sabotage all the progress we make during the week.
WHY!?!
What is it about the weekends that makes us lose all control?
Is it because we are home and have easy access to food? Is it because we want to go out and party? Is it because we spend time with friends? Is it the way we unwind and de-stress? Is it because we are sometimes bored and there is food right there? Is it because we mindlessly eat when we watch TV?
Maybe even all of the above?
Whatever the reason, if we want results, we can’t go completely crazy every single weekend.
So how do we help ourselves stay on track during the weekend?
Here’s what I’ve found helps people stay committed to their healthy lifestyle even on the weekends:
- Be active! When we sit around the house, we look for things to fill the time….Like eating anything we have in our cabinets. Yup…We tend to eat out of boredom, especially if it is easily accessible. If we stay active and entertained, for one, food won’t just be right there and two, we won’t be as tempted to eat. Activity keeps us motivated and from eating out of boredom!
- All social engagements don’t have to revolve around food and if they do, PLAN. Over the weekend, we tend to get together with friends and family. And too many get-togethers revolve around food. Try doing something active instead. Go bowling or on a hike. HOWEVER, there will be parties that you can’t avoid that are centered around food. PLAN for those and decide to either use them as a cheat or stay on track. If you plan ahead, you won’t let one party derail all your hard work and send you on a downward spiral the rest of the weekend!
- Clean out your cabinets. If you find you eat badly when you have bad food around, it may be best to clean out your cabinets and not keep the foods that tempt you in the house. When you get bored, you won’t have anything to reach to and you may find you look for something to DO instead. It will also keep you from mindlessly eating as you watch TV. Sometime the best way to stop yourself from doing something, is to not even give yourself the option to do it.
- Make some healthy snacks. Kale chips, carrot chips, apple and almond butter….Make a healthy snack to munch on as you hang around the house. It will satisfy you without derailing your progress. Plus, it may just cure your boredom to experiment with some healthy snack recipes…And…gasp…cooking may actually be fun! (It could also be a fun FAMILY activity!)
- Be moderate in your alcohol consumption unless you plan to cheat. We tend to make bad eating decisions when we’ve consumed too much alcohol. And some alcoholic beverages also contain a ton of calories themselves. So a great way to stay on track is to be moderate in your alcohol consumption unless you are consciously indulging. While the weekends should be a time to relax and enjoy, it doesn’t mean we have to binge!
- Be prepared and keep yourself motivated! All week long, we do things to motivate ourselves and prepare ourselves. We prep meals. We write out workouts. We cruise the web for motivation. Why not spend an hour or two on the weekends doing the same thing? Many people take the weekends off from working out. Instead maybe take a weekday off and save a workout for the weekends to keep you motivated. Doing a workout on the weekend may make you less likely to cheat because you are reminded of what you are working for and just even spent time working toward it! Just remember to remind yourself of your goals even on the weekends.
I would just like to note that a planned cheat day isn’t sabotaging your weekend EVEN if it means you lose a little ground on your goal. For many, cheat days are a chance to recharge and can actually help keep you on track.
That being said….If cheat days lead to a downward spiral, you may want to avoid them on the weekends until healthy habits are created.
Don’t let this weekend sabotage your progress! Stay on track using these tips.
What else helps you stay on track over the weekend?
Chicken “Nachos” – Create Your Own Healthy Recipes
I mentioned about a week ago that while getting into a routine is key, making your healthy new lifestyle FUN and interesting is also super important to creating new habits.
And one of the best ways to keep your new lifestyle FUN and INTERESTING and make healthy habits stick is to make them your own – to mold them to fit you and your specific needs and goals.
Find workouts that you ENJOY. Don’t force yourself to do something that a friend said worked. Find something you will stick with in the long run that combines something fun with something that is good for you.
Same goes for recipes. Yes, the more you can eat only whole natural foods, the better off you will be. But that doesn’t mean you have to eat simply baked chicken and broccoli every night.
AND it also doesn’t mean you can never have those foods you love.
While I’m not a huge fan of “Paleo” baked goods, I am a huge fan of making TRULY HEALTHY variations of the foods we love to indulge in.
I love taking recipes I used to love and tweaking them to be healthier. It is creative and fun and it makes you feel like you aren’t being deprived of the foods you loved!
Plus it is just so exciting when that new recipe tastes freaking amazing!
Anyway, I was super pumped when I got texted this delicious picture of Mini Pepper Chicken Nachos by Jodie last night.
She first made the shredded chicken for the recipe in the crockpot, which was great because she also had leftover chicken for later this week!
Jodie’s Crockpot Shredded Chicken
Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts
1-2 cups Chicken Broth (depending on size of chicken breasts)
Cumin and chili powder to taste
Add all ingredients to a crockpot. Cook on high for about 4 hours until you can pull the chicken apart with a fork.
She then took that shredded chicken and made Mini Pepper Shredded Chicken Nachos:
Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 green onions, sliced with white and green parts separated
1.5 cups of shredded chicken
1 tsp chili powder
1 cup salsa (all natural or even homemade please!)
1 pound mini bell peppers (can also slice up regular bell peppers a bit smaller)
1.5 cups shredded cheese (grass-fed is best!)
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1/2 large tomato, diced
1/4 cup cilantro
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Heat the oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and the white parts of the green onions and cook and stir 1 minute.
Mix in shredded chicken and chili powder. Toss until all ingredients are well coated with chili powder and chicken is warm, about 1-2 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in salsa. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Slice the ends off each mini bell pepper and slice in half lengthwise. Remove seeds and ribs and press each half open so the peppers are as flat as possible. Arrange close together in a single layer on a large baking sheet.
Spoon chicken mixture evenly over pepper halves. Top with black olives and cheese mixture.
Bake nachos for 10 minutes, or until cheese has melted. Remove from oven, top with tomatoes, cilantro, and remaining green onions.
Top with a little sour cream or guacamole if you want!
Enjoy! (Makes about four servings.)
What are your favorite healthy variations of recipes you used to love?
I know one of my favorite recipes is our healthy variation of the Shepherd’s pie!
Healthy Eating – Keep it interesting
While keeping it simple is key to sticking with a diet and creating healthy habits, keeping things interesting is key to healthy eating longevity.
If you get bored, you are going to give up or give in to temptation.
So while I like to get the same basic groceries week in and week out and I like to make the same basic recipes over and over again, I DO make sure to change things up.
And one of my favorite ways to change thing up is by using new tools!
I love getting a food processor or blender, or pressure cooker…And learning how to use a new tool and create even more delicious meals. (I also love getting new tools so Ryan can create even more delicious meals while I chatter away to him and simply enjoy.)
For our wedding, we asked for a couple of different things….
- A cast iron stove-top reversible grill/griddle
- Pressure cooker
- Yonanas
Today we used the grill/griddle to make some delicious burgers. It’s crazy how burgers can taste so different just by changing the way you cook them!
I can’t wait to try the pressure cooker and yonanas this weekend!
While I’m not a fan of paleo baked goods or any of that crap, I am in favor of truly healthy SIMPLE treats…like frozen fruit that is made into a frozen yogurt like substance.
So now my question to all of you on this wonderful Friday is…Do you own any of the tools I listed above? And if so, what are your favorite recipes to make using them!?! Or do you have other tools that you love to use?
Stay tuned for some cool new recipes!!! YUM!
Wedding Week Part 3 – How to eat clean on vacation
In my opinion, vacation is a time to forget that the word “diet” even exists and to eat anything and everything that looks good. (NOTE: I’m talking about VACATION not simply travel…aka traveling for work every week)
I will eat extra clean before and after vacation just because I want to completely relax and indulge in whatever I want the entire time I’m on vacation.
HOWEVER, there will be times when you want to FEEL and LOOK a certain way so eating whatever won’t really be something you want to do….Like the days right before you are going to get married. Or if you go on a vacation before a competition…
So then the questions arise, “How do you eat well when you can’t cook, can’t necessarily pick where and when you eat and when you still want to completely relax on your vacation and not have to stress?…And how do you continue your diet while still enjoying and not being harassed by friends and family about sticking with your diet?”
You know…The answer really is simple yet most people completely bypass it…PLAN AHEAD!
When I go on vacation, I plan ahead even if it is simply looking for fun things to do and horribly delicious bad for me food.
We plan ahead so we know what our options are and we can make sure we make the most out of our vacation.
So if you plan ahead to make sure the vacation is fun, why wouldn’t you plan ahead to make sure you make your vacation relaxing while sticking with your healthy eating plan?
Before my wedding, I didn’t want to eat a whole bunch of bad food. I wasn’t necessarily worried about how I looked. I was actually more worried about feeling crappy after eating food my body wasn’t used to.
And the last thing I wanted to feel was sick and crappy on my wedding day!
I had to enjoy some delicious cupcakes..I just made sure to use a little portion control so my tummy didn’t hurt!
Therefore before we even left, I considered what I was going to do.
I looked at restaurant options. I thought about eating schedule. Heck, I even chose to simply explain why I was going to eat a certain way.
And guess what?
I EASILY ate well the entire time and felt GREAT at the wedding!
Here is my guide to help you plan ahead so you can eat the way you want on vacation if you choose not to indulge (which also is more than OK when on vacation). These guidelines below are great if you travel a lot for work and want to eat well! And the best part is…THEY AREN’T REALLY VERY CHALLENGING TO FOLLOW!
- Know your schedule. When will you be able to eat? If it isn’t going to be your normal schedule, how are you going to handle it? If you don’t normally eat breakfast, but have to go out with people, are you going to be ok with just a cup of coffee so you can stick with your normal fast? Or will you maybe eat something small and healthy? Prepare yourself and decide how you will handle situations ahead of time. It always makes you feel less awkward when your mind is already made up!
- Check out meal options. What restaurant options are there? Find some options and check out the menus. Go in prepared with the healthy options you can eat. The more prepared you are the less tempted you will be to cheat.
- Don’t be afraid to bring your own snacks or cook. Vacations don’t mean you always have to eat out! I’ve brought my own snacks or even chosen to stay with friends or at places where I can cook. Heck if you are staying with friends, I doubt they will turn down a home-cooked meal (especially if you also do the dishes afterwards!).
- Use portion control. I don’t necessarily say “use portion control.” I believe in eating when you are hungry and eating till you are full. I believe that if you eat CLEAN, you don’t really have to count calories. HOWEVER, there are times when you are on vacation that you want to indulge while not destroying your diet or feeling like crap. Using some self-control and really watching your portion (aka one cookie) can allow you to indulge while not upsetting the tummy too much.
- Stay hydrated and watch the alcohol! Often when we are dehydrated we feel hungry even when we aren’t! And when we are on vacation we tend to also be drinking a lot of non-hydrating drinks (I think I made that word up!). To make sure we feel good and avoid overeating, make sure to drink plenty of water! Also, make wise alcohol choices. If you are trying to be healthy, I suggest avoiding fancy mixed drinks in favor of simple beverages. Or just make sure to have ONE fancy drink. Alcoholic beverages tend to have a lot of calories especially if they are fancier, fun drinks. Alcohol also tends to lower our inhibitions and make us crave bad food. Drinking in moderation (or maybe even not at all if you don’t really miss it) can help you stay on track!
How do you stay on track during vacation? Or are you generally like me and use vacation as a time to completely indulge?
And after the wedding…My usual indulging…Heck, when a menu has “fried chicken pot pie nuggets” you HAVE to try them!
Reaching Your Goals: Consistency Creates Habits
I often talk about being patient with yourself and not expecting perfection. I often talk about not worrying if life occasionally gets in the way and you “slip up.” I often talk about how you need to indulge and recharge every once in a while.
But there is also a flip side to all that.
While achieving your goals isn’t about being perfect day in and day out, you do have to be CONSISTENT.
The more consistently you work toward your goals day in and day out, the quicker you are going to reach them.
Often clients will get frustrated when they feel like they’ve been “good” yet they aren’t seeing great results.
Most of the time when they break things down though, they realize that “yes…they have been good, but not good for a long enough stretch in a row.”
Not “good” consistently.
I’ve often mentioned the 80/20 rule…80 percent of the time you do the things you should while 20 percent of the time you indulge in those not so healthy treats.
Eighty percent of the time is pretty darn consistent. Honestly, it’s more consistent than most people are . Twenty percent adds up very quickly.
80/20 doesn’t mean you can be good one week and then the next week slip back into old habits. It doesn’t mean you can be basically good during the week and then do whatever you please on the weekend. It doesn’t mean you can just excuse every little slip up!
80/20 really means consistently doing the right thing. It means creating habits that lead to change. And habits honestly take about 21 days to create.
That means for 21 days you have to follow the lifestyle that you truly want if you want it to create results and ingrain habits. It means you have to be consistent to adhering to the lifestyle you want.
I mentioned a bit ago that there are points where you will find you NEED to adhere more strictly to a diet and exercise program. That you shouldn’t feel like you are restricting yourself all of the time, but that there are times where it is ok to be super clean.
And one of those times is when you are trying to ingrain the habits.
I tell clients all the time that the hardest part is reaching their goal, not maintaining it.
Because once the habits are truly instilled, you won’t have to think twice about living the lifestyle you want. You won’t constantly be draining your self-control tank to eat clean and workout consistently.
So I would like to present a challenge….
Set aside 3 weeks right now. Don’t wait for the New Year to lose weight or have to worry about dieting over the holidays.
Take three weeks right now and be consistent in your healthy lifestyle. Take 3 weeks to do the right thing day in and day out.
Be strict for three weeks, ingrain those habits and realize just how much easier it is to get results when you are CONSISTENT!
Dedicating 21 days is really all it takes. Just three weeks to make a HUGE change.
Start next year off right….Create those habits NOW!
What do you eat?
I get asked often what I eat.
And it’s funny sometimes the assumptions people make.
They totally assume I eat whatever way the last read, or heard, was healthy. If they heard about Paleo and their friends have been getting results on that, I must eat some form of that.
If they lost weight on a lower fat diet, they may assume I do that.
They will asked me detailed questions about some of the most random, and in my opinion, unimportant dieting details ever!
When really my diet is nothing fancy.
I keep things simple. The simpler I keep things, the easier it is to create habits that last.
So here are MY SECRETS to a successful diet:
1. Prepare your grocery list before you go to the store. This prevents you from buying random crap or forgetting an ingredient you need for a meal. (I find that often people use the fact that they don’t have all the ingredients to make a meal as an excuse to go out and eat badly.)
2. Use the same basic grocery list every week. Keep things simple. Don’t reinvent your list every week and try to make new and fresh things all the time. Stick with the same basics and vary your diet every once in a while. It may sound boring, but it really isn’t and it makes things EASY, which is key to creating lasting habits.
3. FInd a few staples to keep around in case you need a QUICK and easy meal. For us, staples are things like tomato sauce and tamari. If I have either of those two things around with a protein, I know I can easily make a meal. Tomato sauce can be used for chilis or meatzas or even fake pastas with meat sauces. Tamari can be used to make an easy stir fry or fried rice with whatever meat and veggies you have!
4. Keep your meals centered around protein and veggies. I always make protein the center of my meal with veggies as a side. I don’t worry about having a certain amount of side dishes or even about the exact macronutrient break down. I focus on meat and veggies, knowing that focusing on those things will get me the nutritional profile I want. Then after that I worry about condiments and or other little additives to make the meal taste delicious. (And of course if it is a carb day, I’ll focus on healthy carbs).
5. Get high quality ingredients. Basically what this means to me is “READ THE INGREDIENT LABEL!” People buy the cheapest ingredients or fall for labels such as “healthy,” “gluten-free,” “low-fat,” “organic.” Those labels don’t equal healthy! There are tons of organic creams out there that have a ton of crap in them! And gluten-free foods can be highly processed! Don’t fall for sales labels. Read the ingredients and get quality stuff. I 100% believe that the quality of your ingredients affects not only your health, but also your fitness goals, be they weight loss or strength gains.
6. Avoid vegetable oils and gluten. Honestly, if you avoid these two things, I think you are on the road to a long, healthy life. While yes, I do try to eat grass-fed beef and organic, locally grown produce, I don’t even think that is near as important to your health as simply avoiding the two things above (although I do like supporting good farming practices to help encourage their spread and growth). So if you ask me what the most important component of a healthy diet is, other than listening to your body, I would say it is this – avoid vegetable oils and gluten! Aka avoid inflammation causing foods!
7. Listen to your body. I wrote a whole post on this recently, but it is probably the most important rule I follow and governs ever other tip listed here. I listen to what my body needs/wants. If I worked out more, I give my body more calories and more carbs. If I wasn’t very active, I will eat fewer carbs and calories. I respond to what my body needs. And yes, if my mind needs the break, I will even indulge in a cheat meal or two!
8. Know what restaurants around you have HEALTHY options. While eating in is ALWAYS better, it is good to know what restaurants around your home and work DO have quick and healthy options in case you need to eat out or your routine is really thrown off and eating home cooked food isn’t an option. Plus, I find by just having the option to eat out if you really want/need to, makes you even less likely to want to cheat on your diet.
9. Don’t be afraid to adjust. My diet is continually evolving. I’ve gone through periods of complete low carb. And periods of carb cycling. I’ve gone through periods of fasting and periods of eating 6 small meals a day. And as I settle more and more on things that work, the changes have become smaller…But my diet is still always changing. There are periods of time where I go super strict and then there are periods of time when I indulge in dark chocolate every single night and use a little extra cheese. I’m not afraid to make slight variations because I have a consistent base. I’m not afraid to LISTEN TO MY BODY and adjust instead of forcing my body to follow a set plan that may not be working. If you are flexible and listen, you are going to be more consistent than if you force yourself into a pattern that doesn’t really work (because you won’t be able to force yourself to do something for very long if it doesn’t seem to flow with what your body needs!)
10. Don’t be afraid to eat. This rule has numerous meanings. I think all too often people become afraid to eat bad foods. They eat clean for fear that one cheat treat will completely derail their process. There are also those people who watch all the documentaries and become afraid to eat anything that isn’t extremely naturally raised….like conventionally raised beef. But you can’t be afraid to eat! You’ve got to enjoy life and you’ve got to buy what you can. While yes, I do love buying grass-fed beef because the omega ratio is better and it is NATURALLY RAISED, conventional beef isn’t the worst thing out there! For one, it is still better prepping your food at home than buying pre-made crap. And two, conventional beef can be made healthier by simply cooking it in a good, healthy fat like pasture butter or coconut oil. So don’t think you can’t eat well just because you can’t get grass-fed beef or buy all the super expensive local and organic ingredients (although farmer’s markets are good if you are on a budget). Also, you can’t starve yourself to lose weight. More isn’t always more as we’ve discussed numerous times. Dieting is a balance. Everything in moderation! Just focus on eating whole, natural foods.
If you notice, none of these are things you haven’t heard before. Heck, they are things I’ve even stated numerous times before!
And none of them are exact magic foods you need to eat. There is no secret superfood for weight loss. Leaner meats, fattier meats…They can all be a part of a healthy, clean diet. It’s finding out what YOUR BODY NEEDS.
Honestly, if you take away only two things from this post, I hope they are, KEEP IT SIMPLE and LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.
Fitting Your Macros – QUALITY MATTERS
Often when I start someone on the road to a healthy diet, I give them macronutrient guidelines. Like keep your protein, carbs and fat at so and so a level.
I usually also discuss with them carb cycling and that they want to try to make the mainstays of their diet protein and vegetables.
I then let them go on their way.
I don’t want to create too many rules or develop too many restrictive guidelines because that just leads to people giving up (aka cheating and then not recording what they eat).
So I give them these very basic guidelines (hit these macronutrient intake numbers and focus on eating whole natural foods) and send them on their way for the first few weeks.
What I find most interesting is what many people have been coming back with…And not only what they come back with but also their surprise and frustration at WHY they aren’t losing weight.
It is very interesting to see that most people ignore the WHOLE NATURAL FOODS part and get super caught up in simply hitting the numbers.
Actually they use the numbers as an excuse to eat bad…”Well I’m still under calories for the day so I can have these Oreos.” Or “I’m under my carbs for the day so this burrito with this huge flour tortilla is fine.”
UHM…NO.
I know If It Fits Your Macros has become a very popular diet program, and while I think it is a great program with a ton of benefits, I do believe that QUALITY MATTERS when it comes to food.
If you ask a person right now if carbs from these two things are equal, they will say no. Yet then why do so many people excuse their crappy carbs because their calorie intake is low or their macronutrient numbers are good? QUALITY MATTERS!
I mean carbs from fruit and carbs from a flour tortilla might all add up under your macronutrients as CARBS, but their nutritional breakdown is far from the same.
Even ground beef has a very different nutritional breakdown if it is Grass-fed or grain-fed.
I mean just think about GMO vs. non-GMO corn! One is way better for you than the other!
And I firmly believe that the more chemicals, the more processed CRAP we put in our bodies, the less efficiently they run.
So while macros create great guidelines, and I firmly believe in keeping your daily basic intake of carbs to under 150 grams (and even under 100 grams if you are really trying to lose weight), I do believe that not all carbs are created equal. Not all fat, all protein is created equal.
As I’m saying this, I know many of you are also shaking your heads in agreement. You know there are bad fats. You know that sugars are bad for you.
Yet you are the ones that eat prepackaged burger patties or only eat pre-made meals from the grocery store and expect great results just because you are fitting your macros!
All those ingredients that you can’t pronounce on those labels are BAD FOR YOU! That prepackaged salad with that prepackaged balsamic and the ingredients to preserve it isn’t going to be the same as a homemade salad.
Yes it might be BETTER than going out and getting a burger and fries made in vegetable oil, but that doesn’t mean it’s GOOD.
Better doesn’t equal good. Yes, better is better, but just being better isn’t always enough.
It is like saying, “Well I did half my homework due for class today. That is better than last time when I only did a quarter of my homework for class.”
Yea doing half is BETTER but it still isn’t good! It still isn’t going to get you that great grade!
Anyway…That is my rant.
All of this, diet and exercise and reaching your fitness goals, all comes down to one thing – Whether or not we make excuses for ourselves.
I mean come on…We all KNOW basically what we have to do to lose weight and be healthy. We all KNOW we should eat whole natural foods.
Yet we all find ways to make excuses for why we can’t do that. Or why what we are doing should work even though we are skipping the most basic principle to healthy living.
We all make excuses for ourselves and it has got to stop if we want results.
QUALITY MATTERS.
Heck be it quality of food or quality of exercise, QUALITY MATTERS if we want to be healthy.
So stop making excuses. Stop making things more difficult on yourself.
If you want results, QUALITY MATTERS!
Healthy Deviled Eggs Recipe
I LOVE deviled eggs.
They always seem like such a treat to me even though they are pretty easy to make and can easily be made to fit in your healthy diet.
They can be an appetizer for a party if you don’t want to cheat on your diet or just a fun little side dish for your lunch or dinner. (Shoot you can even save leftovers and eat them for a breakfast!!)
I also find it can help people starting out on a new diet to occasionally be able to indulge in healthy variations of the “treat” or “party foods” they used to love!
Buffalo Blue Cheese Deviled Eggs
Sorry not the best photo…And if Ryan and I weren’t just chowing down alone we probably would have made them look prettier!
Ingredients:
7 eggs
1/2-1 tbsp Frank’s Hot Sauce (or other hot sauce)
1 oz blue cheese
1/2 tbsp cream
1 tsp dill
Place eggs in cold water in a pot (to make them easier to peel, put vinegar and salt in the water). Heat the pot on high heat until the water boils. Leave the eggs boiling for about 8 minutes.
Remove from heat and place eggs in cold water.
Once cool, peel the eggs and cut in half.
Scoop out yolks and add to a food processor with cream, cheese, dill, and hot sauce. You can add each ingredient to taste. Blend until smooth.
Place mixture back in eggs and serve!
You can also make jalapeno bacon deviled eggs this way as well! That is one of our other favorites!
What are some other “traditional” party foods or “treat” foods that you love that you’ve made healthy variations of?
The Importance of Progress
I want all my clients to see progress immediately.
Confused as to why I have a picture of a turtle on a skateboard? Read on! 😛
But sometimes change is slow to happen. If you slowly make changes to your diet or slowly build your exercise program, results aren’t going to happen immediately.
And while I think that slow steady changes can be best when trying to create new habits, there are times when I recommend clients take an all or nothing approach.
Not seeing the results you want can be frustrating. It can make you feel down. It can make you want to give up.
It can completely derail the healthy lifestyle habits you are trying to instill because you believe they aren’t working.
Forward progress is motivating. Results create excitement and build momentum. They make you even more dedicated to what you are doing because you know it is working.
Progress builds confidence.
So sometimes it is worth suffering through a few really strict weeks or even months to build that forward momentum – to create great progress.
While I’m a huge proponent of slow steady changes, of making realistic changes that you know you can maintain, I do think there are times where you might just have to suck it up and do something that is more intense, more strict, than you would like to maintain. Sometimes there are periods where you have to do something slightly more drastic, slightly unsustainable to get the ball rolling and the momentum moving in the right direction.
This conversation actually came up when I was actually talking to a client yesterday who was frustrated by her very slow progress.
I told her the truth – Her diet wasn’t strict enough and her workouts simply weren’t yet consistent enough to see the drastic changes she wanted as quickly as she wanted them. Her expectations weren’t unrealistic. They were just unrealistic if she made the changes as slowly and inconsistently as she was making them.
I told her she needed to start eating cleaner, cutting her carbs and really focusing her diet on meat, vegetables and fruits.
She then told me that a diet like that simply wasn’t sustainable in the long run for her.
And then I told her something I don’t say very often, “Well it doesn’t need to be!”
She gave me a surprised look because it definitely wasn’t the answer she was expecting.
Sometimes you need to take it back to basics and just cut out everything but the cleanest of clean.
I told her that for the next few months she should focus on just meat, veggies and fruits. If she does that, she will start to see way more progress over the next few weeks.
I told her that once she really got the ball rolling, that forward momentum would start to build on itself and help her keep moving in the right direction.
And as she builds momentum and really gets things rolling then we can slowly start adding back in the foods she enjoys until we’ve created a sustainable diet that doesn’t leave her feeling super deprived.
Because deprivation can derail your diet. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
HOWEVER, if you only deprive yourself for a very short amount of time with a clear end date in mind, it is easier to push through those feelings. It is easier to push through when you know there is a light at the end of the tunnel – when you know this isn’t meant to be the diet you follow for the rest of your life.
And the progress you will see if you choose to buckle down for a few months or a few weeks, will be a huge motivator.
In my opinion it is well worth the few weeks of deprivation to get the momentum rolling in the right direction.
While slow steady changes are great, while I definitely feel like in many cases the tortoise wins out over the hare, if occasionally the tortoise could move just a little bit faster, I don’t think she’d turn down the opportunity.
Stricter periods in your diet and exercise program can help you see results quicker and can reinforce your dedication to your healthy lifestyle.
You aren’t going on a crash diet and expecting it to be the program you follow for the rest of your life. You are just choosing to be a bit stricter for a few weeks to get the momentum going or even just simply to get over a plateau.
You are creating progress with the intention of then slowly developing habits and changes that you can maintain.
You are simply being a tortoise that stumbled on a skateboard and could roll awhile downhill before returning to its steady climb up and over the next hill!
And another one!?! At least you get why I put a turtle on a skateboard now!
Meal Prep – The Key To A Healthy Diet
Being successful when creating a healthy lifestyle change is about more than KNOWING the right foods to eat, the right things to do.
It is about DOING the right things.
And DOING is definitely not near as easy as KNOWING.
The question then arises of HOW to make the lifestyle change and how to get it to stick. How do you eat healthy food when you hate cooking? How do you force yourself to eat the right thing when you get home exhausted and have to cook?
What is the KEY to making a healthy diet stick?
If I could tell you one tip to make following a healthy diet easier, I would say it was all about…
MEAL PREP!
If you want to succeed at creating a healthy lifestyle change, you need to plan ahead. And meal prep is all about planning ahead.
It is about preparing food so that you make it easier for yourself to make the healthy choice day in and day out.
Meal prep is about more than making healthy meals. It is even about more than prepping meals for the week.
It is about preparing yourself for success when it comes to eating healthily even when you are stressed and exhausted.
Prepping for the week like this might be the way to make adhering to a healthy diet easier, especially at the beginning! Thanks Starla for a great meal prep photo.
Meal Prep Keys To Success:
- Choose recipes that use the same basic ingredient and then make a grocery list based on these recipes. Choosing recipes that use the same basic ingredients will make your grocery shops easier. It will also ensure that you almost always have what you need to cook healthy meals on hand.
- Prepare a grocery list before you go to the store off of the recipes you plan to use. That way you won’t forget anything and you won’t have any excuse not to cook. It will also make it easier to avoid buying those tempting foods. It is easier to make excuses if you don’t have your plan of attack written down.
- Choose recipes that make leftovers! Leftovers are key. A big complaint about switching to a healthy lifestyle is the fact that people have to cook all the time….And they are too tired. Too exhausted…Don’t have enough time to do that. But if you choose recipes that make leftovers, you don’t need to cook every day. You can actually just take an hour or two on your day off and prep food for the entire week. You can make food for easy lunches. For quick dinners when you get home stressed.
- Keep It Simple! Don’t add in too much variety. Use the same basic recipes over and over. It may sound boring, but sometimes, at the beginning especially, we have to keep things simple so we don’t have to think too much about the change. We only have so much self-control. We can’t use too much of it thinking about our diet if we want to be able to maintain our heathy lifestyle over the long run.
- Get the proper tools. Sometimes you have to spend money to make things simple – aka sometimes you have to spend some money to get the proper cooking tools to make things easier. A crockpot, a blender…both are worth the money because they allow you to make meals with less hassle. Smoothies are a great quick meal. And if you have a crockpot, you can simply throw in some ingredients and then come home from work with a fully cooked meal. These tools are worth the cost because they make life easier. And if something is EASY, you are way more likely to continue doing it!
Eating well doesn’t have to be difficult. You just need to plan ahead. Proper meal prep is the key to making a healthy lifestyle stick because it makes things easier and gives you less room to make excuses!
How do you prep meals for the week? What are your favorite healthy recipes? Do you use a crockpot or just make tons of leftovers?
Man Bicep 